Summer Essentials Sew Along (SESA) 2012

 

1 MONTH: In the month of June, sew one fabulous garment that you plan on strutting all summer.

1 GARMENT: Your choice!

1 GREAT LIST: http://www.flickr.com/groups/sssa/

1 FABULOUS PRIZE: 2.5 YARDS OF SUMMERY COOL SEERSUCKER & you could also win an indie sewing pattern of your choice from Ali!

For more details, to join in and to grab the badge please head over to the gorgeous girlies that are hosting the sew along: Sarah of Rhinestones & Telephones, Ali of The Wardrobe Reimagined and Alessa of Farbenfreude.

 

I am definitely taking part in this. I have been debating all day about what to make.

 

I have decided to go with Simplicity 2446. I know it doesn't look very summery but year after year I look for light summer blazers and never find any. I have a few modifications in mind to make it more summery (colour, material, 3/4 length gathered arms, different collar) so in theory it will be lovely, light and summery.

 

I have some black (I know I know stupid colour but I cant help it) cotton sheeting for the muslin as this will be my first jacket attempted so I am anticipating many muslins so I went for the cheapest material to hack into . I am off now to find my pattern and work out what size to trace. Happy days. xx

Jubilee Joy

I know this post is a bit late but here is the dress I made for Louise to wear over the Jubilee holiday. She was ecstatic when she had her picture taken with the queen bless her.

    

Hope everyone is having a great week. xxx

So little to do but even less time? How’d that one work out!

Well I seem to have so little time to blog, tweet and facebook at the moment yet I don’t seem to be getting a whole load of stuff done if that makes sense! Although I have been making the most of the weather whilst its been sunny but the good old UK as usual has given into rain this weekend.

I had some left over material from my Simplicity 2883 dress that was purchased at Lili Fabric's & thought well the sun is due and apart from my Colette Meringue I actually have no skirts but I also have no skirt patterns so I thought it cant be that hard to make a skirt with no pattern can it??….. Did I mention I’m really not keen on working with this material!

Anyway….I sat there with the lump of material I had and started to pleat it hand basting as well as pinning it as I went. I then remembered the material is lovely and stretchy but once sewn and be tricky to manoeuvre (but this is probably but my lack of experience talking). I decided rather than winding myself up and spending hours researching the net to just bang in a zip and button on the already pre planned elastic waistband (big smiles when I thought of this as I am yet to make any type of waistband lol).

Here is what I ended up with.
       
The pleats came out all the same size. I was happy with the elastic waist & I even put in an invisible zip and button.

I wore it for my mums birthday visit but it made me feel a bit old and frumpy (still trying to find “my” style):


So I decided despite being constantly told wear waist clinchers, hide your hips, cover your upper arms and so on and so forth…… to do this (please excuse the blurred photo I really need to get a wireless remote all this running backwards and forward on self timer is not doing it for me or my pictures lol)!


From the side empire line clothes tend to have the “is she pregnant or just a bit overweight” effect on me but straight on I find them quite flattering and I think this style of dress (if it was a dress lol)  is “in” at the moment. I can change up the top using different colours and styles and pair with belts worn under the bust (sounds silly I know but I’ve done it twice and it looked surprisingly good)!

I have already worn this out a few time and got a couple of compliments so I am more than pleased.

Trio of dresses done for my troublesome Princess :)

Well 3 out of 4 aint bad!

A long while ago Louise picked out her own pattern and Fabric from Ashley Brooks and I have only just got around to sewing them (bad mummy). 

       

Nice and simple pattern, great for the summer. These are the three fabrics Louise picked, I had the pink ditsy print in my bag from a previous visit. The muslin was nice and easy to put together. The first dress (pink ditsy with trim) I left out the buttons due to my fear of button holes….Not a good move!!!

          

So here we have my first ever attempt at button holes. My machine has a 3 step button hole setting but the sides come out different so I had to redo one side on a smaller stich size to make them look the same.  Second time round I got better but not paying attention too my measuring I made the top ones bigger (whoops). The gathering was nice and simple, used 2 basting stiches and pulled. I was also very impressed with the neatness of the neck and arm lines when lining is used.

     

All straight seams were French seams I am so impressed as its the first time I have done “real” ones :) I also used a long strip of fabric as bias type binding to hide the join at the waistband and stop it irritating Louise's skin. She is a happy bunny.

 

Its reportedly going to hit 28 degrees tomorrow here in the UK so she might just get a chance to wear them out! Now onto my dresses *big grin*

Yay Yay Yay Jersey Dress Finished

**DISCLAIMER** The following pictures were taken with the aid of my 4yr old daughter so please excuse the poor focus in some and I also HATE having my picture taken :o)

 

This dress has been in my to do pile since I brought the fabric back in February and I am so please its finished.

The fabric itself is a very very stretchy jersey fabric. I had to use a pattern specifically for knits/jerseys as I have never sewn with it before and was unsure. I did run into a few problems but needless to say it turned out ok in the end.

I used Project Runway 2883 and after reading the reviews and doing a bit of research I decided to modify the pattern by adding 2.5 inches to the bodice and shortening the skirt so the gathering was on my waist not under my bust (it really would have looked like a maternity dress on me).

   I paid less than £1.60 for this little beauty on eBay!

My biggest problem was gathering the fabric. I don't have a gathering foot yet so I done it using two lines of long stitching. This part was fine but trying to stitch the gathers in place was near on impossible for me and bloody well frustrating. I ended up going round the skirt/bodice join and tried to manually gather as i stitched which got most of the gathering secured. Then I tried the dress on and realised that the stitching would not hold with the stretch of the fabric…I wanted to cry by this point!

so I decided to use elastic….

I dont know what made me think of it but I thought it would be more secure, give the waist line more definition and help with the gathering issue. It did thankfully (I would not have want to unpick all that zigzag stitching lol)

  This is the view from the front so I was relatively pleased with the outcome.

The seams were nice and easy. I just used a basic fold over hem on the neck, arms  and hem  being careful not to stretch the material and the great thing is you can hardly see the stitching.

Below is the front and back as the dress is un-accessorised.

 

And me being silly because my four yr old was getting the hump with pressing the shutter button lol!

Presenting my first Burda (SS 2012–425)

Well I never! This was a first for me despite I having brought all issues of Burda Style since January I have yet to use the patterns. This is top 425 from the Burda Plus magazine, Spring/Summer 2012.

            

I love the fact its asymmetric with different length sleeves and the collar is unusual. The only thing I am upset with is that the fabric I used (a fantastic silky feel bi-stretch from Ashley Brook Fabrics) did not drape as well as I expected. Next time I will use a much thinner and a better draping fabric. My bad.

The biggest thing that scares me about the Burda patterns that come with the magazines is purely this:

            

It is the reason I am yet to use any of their patterns. It was hard but I managed to fins all the lines and pieces, I will admit there were a few minor errors but hey-ho. I did make a quick muslin just to check the sizing and to see if it suited me.

What I am most please with is the fact I was so very good on this project and made sure I finished off all the seams. I don’t have a over-locker and I really did want to try French seams (but thought I should leave that to a pattern I am more confident with) so I finished all the seams as I went with fake French seams:

    

I have to admit I am pleased with how my techniques are coming along and how much more professional this garment looks compared to my last. I cant wait to get started on my next project.

This is also the first time I have used Live Writer to compose my blog and am finding it very good and easy to use especially with the layout of pictures.

She loves it. Now she cant wait for the others!

You will have to excuse my daughter. Although she was a willing model she would not stretch to having her hair brushed!

She is very impressed with the muslin and is now getting impatient to wait for her others to be done in the fabric she picked!

Even Louise said "Mum its too long" I will have to do some serious length adjustment on the pattern :)

It seems louise has a smaller back like me, I am not sure if I will use buttons as this slips on and off her fairly easily. I may be lazy and sew a center back seam instead (fear of button holes......I know!!)????

It passed the jump and twist test too! She is one happy (but slightly impatient) bunny :)

Its been so long!

It really has. I had a bit of a slump whilst trying to do my Truffle dress as it needs so many alterations (guess you cant slim into a "commercial" body shape) but I have now moved that to my to do pile for the time being.

So I decided seen as though the summer seems to be on the way here and I desperately short of tops I will make some starting with the highly acclaimed Sorbetto Top by Colette which can be downloaded here.

Now this has been out for nearly a year and there are some really wonderful versions and great variations on the Colette flickr group. I thought it would be a dream to sew and a great addition to my wardrobe.

Learning from the truffle dress I thought I would make up a quick muslin just to be sure of the sizing.

:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(

Loose neck, roomy shoulders and very gaping armholes was the results of the first muslin, so I done some research, found this and thought aha job done.

 This is after the gaping armhole fix and I moved the dart as it was too high (and is now too low). It still gapes and I am at a loss.

My bust measure 41 at the widest so as per the pattern sizing I cut a 14. I have read somewhere to cut the upper bust/chest measurement which is 39 (and typically its halfway between a 10 and 12). So I am thinking I may do that and try a split and spread FBA (if I can understand how to do it).

Ladies any help or tips would be greatly appreciated on this one. I am going to recut and have another go at a smaller size. Fingers crossed :)