Bettine wearable toile: AKA the Robin Hood dress

Sorry to start with such a posey photo but its quiet flattering so I'm rolling with it! This is my first version of Tilly and the Buttons Bettine Dress which I made as a wearable toile (something you are getting used to seeing me doing here!). Its actually a pretty good version and my god this dress is easy to wear! Its made from some green viscose that again I just bought off eBay.

I have been wanting to make a green dress for ages as green really suits my colouring but is not a colour I would normally be drawn to when clothes shopping. I really like this shade of green, its a sort of emerald colour and it goes really well with the pink (that pink belt is an awesome pairing though I'm not sure everyone would agree). However the first time I tried this on after making it Mr Fox turned round to me and said 'Oh hello Robin Hood, you look like your getting ready to star in a panto'! I don't really think that was a compliment but do you know what I know exactly what he means, it pretty much summed up what I was thinking as without the belt it does look a bit like that.

But anyway lets not let that deter from this actually being a dress I really quiet like. This is an amazing pattern, really simple, easy to follow (as always from Tilly) and really quick to make. I made it much harder by using french seams rather than the overlocker (something I probably wont bother with next time) but it still came together really fast. Tilly has said on a number of occasions this is the most comfortable dress you can wear and she is not joking! You just slip it over your head and head out the door. The top is drapey giving lots of room for movement, the elastic belt helps flatter your waist and the fitted skirt makes a lovely shape around your bottom half. I sewed a straight size 3 because there is lots of room in the top for me to not need a FBA.The sleeves are perhaps a little tighter than they should be and its a little snug in the seat but I don't think I will bother making any adjustments for the next version. Its summer after all I'll just finally try and get round to loosing that 3lb i've been meaning to get off for the last 2 months (as much as you can 'mean' to loose weight whilst eating chocolate!).

As mentioned above the fabric is a lovely drapey viscose. I chose viscose as the fabric I have for my proper version is a polyester crepe so I needed something which had a lovely drape and viscose does that. It does however have a tendency to fray so I used lovely french seams throughout. The other issue with viscose is it has a tendency to stretch when you sew it. I didn't use interfacing on the facing piece as suggested because I wanted to keep the bouncy nature of the fabric so I self faced it with another piece of viscose. This did mean my inside facing is not as neat as I would have liked but it was a lesson for making up my crepe version.

The other odd thing I thought about this dress as soon as I put it on was 'do you know what this dress really needs? Pockets'. I can totally see why the pattern comes with a pocket variation I would love to just sink my hands into a lovely deep pair of pockets on the front so I definitely need to plan making one of these vertions. I have some lovely Atelier Brunette fabric which I think would suit this pattern very well. I think this dress is something which definitely benefits from a print fabric.

So on that final note I am giving some serious thought into adding some kind of embellishment to this dress, its something I don't normally do (hand sewing urgh!) but I am not really sure what or where to start? So if you have any ideas of how I could embellish this dress to make it a bit less plain then PLEASE leave me a comment. I am possibly thinking of a sort of black floral trim around the neck with maybe some pink sequins/beads hand sewn on?

Too much pink? Cotton lawn Margot PJ's

It seems like every sewing book has a pattern for a pair of simple PJs but anyone actually ever make these? Well I did! Check these babies out. Actually, after doing a quick search on Pinterest it turns out a lot of you do enjoy making a comfy pair of pyjama bottoms and your all very good at it. For me they have always just been a bit uninspiring, if I am going to put the time and effort into some sewing I want to make sure everyone gets to see how amazing it is. Having said that though, having a little boy, being up at all hours, and lazy half asleep mornings I have found a new love for PJs so maybe I should start thinking about making a few more of these.

As I mentioned in my last post, whilst sewing my way through Tilly's Love at first stitch I want to try experimenting with new fabrics and techniques to make sure I get something new out of these makes. For the PJs I chose to use a cotton lawn. Two reasons; firstly I don't really have any warm weather night wear and secondly the last time I tried to use a cotton lawn it all got chewed up, I got very annoyed and the project basically just got thrown out in a sorry mess! This time I have decided it's time to wrangle that beast and I've taken on board Tilly's tips on using a finer sewing machine needle and this seems to have made a huge difference. It actually stitched up perfectly fine this time. What was I getting so stressed about? Hoorah. The only downside of these bottoms is that the lawn is pretty see through and so my pants are very visible through them (hence the reason you are not getting a shot of these from behind!). Definitely just something for slouching about in when only the husband and baby are going to be around. 

Great Tip: if you are making something like this with long straight lines a spotty print is amazing, it's so easy to line up and cut along the dots.

The pattern as usual was a doddle to follow and really clear with instructions and images. This section had us learning how too choose fabric, lay out the pattern and mark the instructions. The notches on the pattern were brilliant and lined up perfectly for me which is always a big help. The only issue I had was sewing the waistband. I could not get it to sit flat no matter how I folded or pinned it and so it's quiet puckered and generally not very well done. I'm assuming this was just one of those off sewing days we all have but I couldn't get rid of the ease. Though I figured the whole waistband gathers when you tie it so who's going to care? The other thing is I cut these in my actual size despite having a huge preference for baggy loungewear. I always buy a size bigger when buying pyjamas, why on earth didn't I do the same to this when I was cutting out the pattern? 

The next pattern in the book is the Delphine A line skirt, I'm excited to get on to some actual clothing makes. I'm a much bigger fan of the patterns further on in this book and the temptation to skip is huuuuge! But nope, on track one at a time, I might surprise myself with one of these patterns or learn something amazing, who knows! 

Have you ever made a pair of PJs? How did it go? and particularly, what fabric did you use? Tell me tell me!

Love at first stitch Brigitte scarf

My sister very kindly bought me a copy of Tilly Walnes love at first stitch book for my birthday. I have had a look at this book before and have been following Tilly since the very first sewing bee but haven't actually gotten round to getting a copy of the book yet so this was a brilliant present (I haven't put it down in the last week and made 3 fabric orders within 2 days of getting it!). The book starts off with the basics but does contain some lovely skirt and dress patterns which I like the look of and wouldn't mind trying and I'm actually quiet keen to try a blouse pattern seeing as I've never tried sewing tops before. What I actually really like about this book is the way the projects are laid out to gradually ease a new seamstress into home sewing. So each project gives you new tips and techniques to try. A good few of these I will have done before but I really like the idea of starting at the beginning of the book and working through the projects one by one to perfect my technique and hopefully pick up a few tricks and new skills along the way. It is also my intention to either try a new fabric type or alteration (or both) with each project (collars/plackets/piping etc) so I can hopefully expand my sewing repertoire. 

The first pattern in the book is the Brigitte scarf which is a long thin head scarf tied in a knot/bow around your head. Not a complicated make in the slightest but as I said above I'm going to start at the beginning, follow the instructions from the beginning and concentrate on making it well and as instructed. I chose to use a skull print polycotton which I had in my stash for this scarf. The fabric was sadly not wide enough for the pattern piece so I cut two lengths of the fabric and sewed them together on the bias in the same way as you would if you were making bias binging and then cut to size. 

The pattern was very easy as expected but I did pick up a little trick to pull out your corners with a pin from the outside, normally I would do this by shoving a knitting needle from the inside so hey, I did learn something new :). The nice thing about this project was it was super fast so I get to move onto the next one really quickly! 

Now my chances of actually wearing this type of head scarf are slim to none, despite quiet liking the print. However the good thing about having to cut two lengths was I was left with a piece which is just long enough to fit round my tiny head so I made a wired headband following the same instructions but adding a piece of wire inside and tacking it in place. I'm not going to do a guide for this, the Internet is littered with them so if you want one just go do a quick search. I do much prefer this and might actually get a bit of wear out of this one in the summer months. 

So what's next? I am going to cheat a little and not make the other scarf pattern in the book as I won't wear that either so next it's on to a pair of pj bottoms which is something I have never done before. I plan on using a cotton lawn as I have a lot of winter pjs already. This will be interesting as the last time I used a lawn it went horribly wrong and ended up in the bin! Here's hoping I can get a few more tips and make it go right this time.

I'm still a little anxious about starting to sew for myself again as I am still a lot bigger than I would like to be at this time post pregnancy. However I start back at work in a week or so, have no clothes that fit me and am really missing doing it, so what the heck. Whats the worst that can happen?