Halloween LBD - A Ghoulish Georgia dress

Happy Halloween! and hello on my most favourite of all the holidays. I absolutely love how year on year the UK seems to get more and more into Halloween and we are seeing so much more participation. We have a long way to go to complete with the likes of the US but I like the way this is heading. I'm even happier to be bringing you a halloween themed post.

I have been a bit slack this year and haven't managed to make the kids costumes, mostly because he wanted to be batman, and sadly I had to work on the day we could have gone to a toddler party. I also haven't managed to get out anywhere in fancy dress myself because, well, its a Wednesday BOO! 

Little black skirt and exposed zip

I'm on a bit of a quest to find a really good little skirt pattern so that I can brave cutting up some really special fabric I have, you will have to watch this space to see if I ever actually do it but for now here is my latest mock up. The great bonus of mocking up a load of black skirts is I am filling my wardrobe with some lovely basics.

Sew Over It: Ultimate Pencil Skirt

Hi there, you know I've been putting off making a pencil skirt for such a long time, but I have no idea why. I think its got a lot to do with a skirt I tried to make when I first started sewing from a free pattern which just didn't really turn out that well. Thankfully though I have finally gotten over that hump and I bought the Sew Over It Ultimate Pencil Skirt pattern. I've bought a few fabrics from SOI before, but never sewn one of their patterns.

There are a huge number of pencil skirt patterns in the market but I have heard good reviews about this one in terms of fit from social media and a quick hunt of instagram showed up some really lovely examples. It seemed like a good fit to try out SOI with this pattern. The style and fit of this skirt are just spot on for the way I like to dress at the minute, especially for work.

Lately I have been reaching to my wardrobe for a black skirt in this morning, but the truth of the matter is I actually only have 1 which fits me. So to rectify this I am on a promise to myself to make myself some more black skirts. I have some gorgeous metallic fabric earmarked for this project but I wanted to toile it first so I ordered some plain black cotton sateen from Sew Essential. This fabric is perfect for this skirt because it has a good amount of stretch in it. It meant that even if I cut the pattern ever so slightly on the small side I knew there would be some give in it. Its a lovely quality fabric and I'm glad I bought a few meters. I can definitely see me using the rest for some other projects.

I had absolutely no problem with sewing this up. The fabric was so easy to work with and the pattern was perfectly straightforward. I really don't know why I put this off for so long, and the results speak for themselves, I mean look at how sleek it is. I had no issues with fit and it fit me straight from the packet, which barely ever happens, though I think the stretch sateen might have something to do with that. All in all it only took me a few hours to complete this the first time so I will definitely be making more. I don't know if its just me but I did find the instructions a little simplistic, I had to google the SOI blog for the kick pleat instructions, but that might just be the nature of the drawing inside rather than the instructions themselves.

To Sum it up:
Pattern: Sew Over it Ultimate Pencil Skirt
Fabric: Stretch cotton sateen in black purchased from Sew Essential
Extras: a 12" invisible zipper
Modifications: I took about 6" off the total length in the end as I prefer my skirts to sit just over the knee than below but I am quiet short.
Fit: Like a glove!
Difficulty: Pretty easy

So I love this skirt, I mean its sexy no?! I will definitely make another, and I want to have a go at lining it next time as this one doesn't do to well with tights. I mentioned earlier about it being a toile, I actually don't think this skirt is right for the fabric I had in mind but I have made a couple of alternations to the pattern to change it up a bit and will do another toile shortly to see how that goes on... watch this space.

Have you sewn up this pattern, or are you putting off a project because of something that went wrong in the past? Let me know about it, I would love even more to hear about your post drama successes x

A well adjusted Megan dress

As I write this I'm actually sitting in our kitchen at work wearing my Megan dress and proudly saying 'thank you, I made it'. Don't you just love that feeling! 

Making Megan has been a little bit of a fitting journey for me, with two toiles, so she has taken a little longer than the other projects. Seeing the fit at the end totally makes it worth it though, no more ill fitting store bought dresses. She is made from some cotton sateen that I have had in my stash for a little while. I really like sateen, it's a bit heavier than some other cottons but has a nice little bit of stretch in which makes fitting a little more forgiving, I wasn't really too sure if I was going to like either the fabric or the style of dress when making this, but do you know what it's not all that bad. It's definitely wearable, and whilst I don't love it in a way that makes me want to wear it every day I certainly don't hate it. I think the only thing for me is that the neck is too high for my body type, and a bit formal looking for my style ,but it's definitely fine for the office. 

In terms of fitting I made made the following alterations. I did a full bust adjustment, adding about 3inch in total and elongated the front and back bodice by 2 inches. My main reason for this is when you have a slightly larger bust you don't really want a dart tuck just under your bust area. I find it can make it look a bit like your boobs are hanging low which is definitely not a good look! I think I did a pretty good job of making the dress flatter that area in the end. I also moved the bust darts, though looking at them they still look like they could do with some adjusting. The final alteration was to take 2 inch off the skirt to accommodate the fact I made the bodice longer. I normally do this at the end before sewing the hem and think I will in future as I only just got away with it being decent!! The only thing I would try and do better would be the neckline. It doesn't sit quiet flat, I think I should probably pay more attention to the shoulders next time. 

This section had us putting in a neck facing and fitting a sleeve. I am very proud to say that this was my first attempt at fitting a sleeve and I'm really pleased with them. There is  some puckering showing but given that you are asked to gather the sleeve I think this is how they are supposed to be. I've had a look at other versions of the dress and they look to have some gather in too. Yay! Go me. It wasn't anywhere near as frightening as I thought! 

So all in all that went pretty well :) a nice introduction back into full dressmaking and pattern adjustments. Now just to work on improving my skills and trying to get them perfected. It would be nice to learn the types of adjustments needed to standard patterns for my body shape but that will come in time. My sister has very kindly offered to help me draft up a body block at some point so I can start making patterns from it. So that will be a fun new skill to try and learn.

Next up Clemence which is a gathered skirt and I think (hope) this is going to be something I can make that feels a bit more like my personal style. Lets see how we get on.

I found time to make a whole dress!

 

Woo Hoo! I got my sew on! So, as I wrote about in the last couple of posts, I decided to bite the bullet and instead of waiting for all the maternity weight to drop off I jumped in and made a dress which fits my current size. Why did I do it? simply put its because the weight is not shifting as fast as I would like and I'm fed up of having nothing to wear that I fit into! Too small for maternity and too big for my regular wardrobe. I wanted something a bit nicer to wear that wasn't a pair of leggings and an oversized cardi for a change.

As part of my recent fabric splurge I bought this very cheap striped cotton sateen from ebay (it was like £3.50 a meter or something stupid) so thought sod it, at that price it doesn't matter if I don't get that much wear out of it. 

The dress is a hack of the top part of Cynthia Rowley 1873 (which was free from a magazine) and the skirt from the belladone dress by Deer and Doe. I didn't like the skirt that was part of the Cynthia Rowley pattern but because of the stripes I needed something with a pleat rather than a circle skirt to keep them straight. The belladone skirt pattern worked perfectly. I had to do a bit of playing with the darts and pleats to get them to sit in line with the bodice but I'm really pleased with how they came out. It also includes a cheeky pocket which I love (even if it does accentuate the hip).

I REALLY tried with this dress to get the stripes to match across all pieces, which I wasn't far off, but I could hear May Martin in my head the whole time I was doing this telling me that it's a shame that they are slightly off. The perfectionist in me really wanted to pull the thing apart and re-sew the seam a fraction of an inch to get them perfect. Thankfully the realist in me took over and made me realise that it had already taken me three weeks to do about four hours of sewing so it just wasn't a sensible idea. I think for the meantime I just have to accept that having something wearable is the end goal, not something which is a thing of perfection. Also, sleepless nights are not very conducive to perfect sewing!  

 

I have learnt a bit about fitting to my new post pregnancy shape as well. Needless to say, my bust has grown, and so has my waist. So taking these measurements (and the finished bust size on the pattern) I cut out my new size, which graded from a 12 in the bust to a 14 in the waist (this scares my pre-size 6 waisted self) and stitched it up without any bust adjustment as it didn't imply I needed any with this new bigger size. Well, turns out, just because my bust and waist are bigger, it doesn't mean my back has grown, turns out my back and shoulders are pretty much the same as they were before. Next time I need to do a bust adjustment and grade from a smaller size in the back and shoulders to a bigger size at the bottom. The result of this is that the neck and shoulder lines are a bit baggy, but that's nothing a good cardigan (which I never don't wear anyway) won't hide. Thankfully the bust darts are sitting ok on this.

So despite the things that bug me about this dress, there are a few things I am really proud of. Firstly, I did my first bit of topstitching to make the facing stay to the inside. That stuff actually works! Who knew, and it was very neat. I am really pleased with the movement of the pleats and darts to get them to line up, the side seams aren't perfect, but they are pretty darn close, and finally, the pockets. I love that these babies are done with a different fabric, it just takes away from the dominant stripe a bit. You can probably guess I did this on purpose because the thought of trying to match the stripe across the pocket as well just made my brain hurt, but I do like the outcome. The fabric was some of the free polka dot cotton which came free with the first issue of the new Simply Sewing Mag. Thankfully I still have enough left to make the headband pattern from the insert.

 

So in the end I have made myself a cute little dress which I can wear out and about, despite a few flaws and problems along the way. I hope you like it and can forgive me my little sewing faux pahs, at the end of the day, I have decided I don't care ;) 

Superman washbag and some selfish sewing

It feels like an age since I wrote a blog post, I think because I have been pretty good for a change at blogging in advance, where as this one is coming straight at you from my lap! 

So this week one of the projects on my sewing list was to make Master Fox a washing bag. Until I had a child I never even contemplated how much washing a baby creates! Our machine has been going non stop ever since his arrival. Because of the amount of clothes he goes through it felt like a sensible idea to make a washing bag which we can keep in his room to quickly dump everything into to make doing the washing with one hand a little easier! It's a very simple rectangular bag which includes a drawstring channel, a drawstring (of course) and a fabric loop to hang it up by.

Of course to make this I use a bit of the leftover superman fabric in a bit of a stash busting effort. I think there might be a slight chance we overdid the use of the superman fabric in his room! What do you think? Mr Fox would disagree though, apparently you can never get enough superman, at at least it all matches though right? Functionally the washing bag is working a treat, though the drawstring is a little thick making it a little hard to pull on. I will probably thin it out at some point but for now it serves it's purpose beautifully. 

So, what else have I been up too? Well despite me saying that I wasn't going to sew for myself until I had lost a bit of the baby weight I decided I'm also fed up of not actually fitting in any of my clothes and not having anything nice or flattering to wear (hello leggings and oversized cardigans). So I have started to make up a dress in some of the cheaper cotton sateen fabric which I got off eBay. This stuff was less than £5 per meter so one dress is not going to break the bank, and I can always repurpose the zip etc when I have finished. 

I will of course give you more details on this dress once I have it finished, though with only an odd hour here and there to spend it might take me a little while. I am really enjoying getting back on the horse and doing some selfish garment sewing. I was however a little shocked when I saw the size I needed to cut out to get this to fit! 

Finally, just because it's really cute, I did a print of Master Fox's tiny little feet! I used a non toxic ink pad, as paint can be a little too thick for something so delicate. It worked really well and I have this cute little print of his cute little toes to remember when he was so small. I would definitely say this is worth a go as a really cheap moments of your little ones.