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.

Colette Pastille Dress: Half way there.

I am so behind with the sew along but I will be catching up real soon!

I have spent the evening finishing off my muslin and I must say I am glad I did as I have had to make a few adjustments.

I have had to take length off the front and back bodice as I obviously have a very short body myself! But I also have very small shoulders so I will have to take some bulk from the shoulders too.

I have also decided lower the neckline on the final garment as high necklines do nothing for me and I have spent too much time procrastinating over pleating the fabric down to the hemline as I feel it will look much better (plus I'm such a shorty I need to loose a fair few inches off the skirt length). My pattern has been adjusted accordingly I am ready to go!!!!

Roll on my little ones bed time so I can get going of the final garment tomorrow. Here is the unaltered muslin and despite my attempt to re-pad Deirdre she is still not the same as me fitting wise.

I hope everyone has a fab weekend. :o) x

Spoilt with goodies!

Well I am still working on my Pastille muslin but I had to share these goodies I got :)

I think my beginners arsenal of equipment and info is near enough complete.

I know I can sometimes bog myself down with too much information but in an attempt to not be so distracted by the internet I have purchased some good old fashion books.

I seem to do a lot of alterations on patterns and am hoping to be doing some self drafting in the near future so I was told a French Curve/ Curve Ruler/ Dressmakers Curve was an absolute must! I got this one from Minerva via their eBay shop. It has a square ruler incorporated. Slits and spacings for button holes as well as markings for seam allowances. Changing necklines and armholes will be so much easier now!

            This book will probably be like my bible! I have the  
            strangest body shape and find that patterns just
            do not fit first time. I am so glad I got this as there
            is so much information here and so many alterations
            I doubt I will have to spend hours researching on the
            world wide web for a long long time :)

I can imagine there are some people out there cringing at my choice of book however this encompasses everything I could foresee me using for the time being. I am self taught and again this is a bid to not get distracted when I get stuck.















I can honestly say that I never thought dressmaking would be as complicated or expensive as it has been but I am thoroughly enjoying it and now I have no excuse. So I am off to clear my table and get on with finishing my Pastille muslin.

Has the weekend gone already?

Well I had quite a productive weekend. I re-padded Deirdre but despite have the same measurements clothes fit her differently from me but at least its close enough.

Her before and after shots, she now has a defined bust and waist. I have taken some off the hips too.

I also made my Colette Meringue skirt smaller and repositioned the zip.

Please excuse the over exposure. As you can see the zip is now nicely positioned and runs smoothly into the seam and on the whole is about a size smaller all over.

And on a rare occasion here is me wearing it!

I am one of these people that hates having my photo taken and certainly dislike looking at them afterwards!















And there it is the weekend has gone already!

Colette: Meringue Finished

Well I have finally finished the Meringue skirt (behind schedule I know but I am getting there) and I have to say despite adjusting the muslin and the pattern it has still turned out a tad too big. I made a slight balls up on the zip and need to practice the scallops but once I have taken it in more at the waist it will be wearable :)

I have posted my pics here, comments and tips are more than welcome.

Here we have the finished garment, not to bad to be honest for someone of my level.

I had huge issues with the scallops so I followed a tutorial on perfect scallops by Pattern Scissors Cloth adding interface to make the material easier to work with and voila.









I double topstitched the scallops too.













As you can see I made a complete mess of this, the zip was place too low, the seam did not quite meet with the zip and I accidently managed to put the seam ripper through the material when unstitching the zip the first time round!

Despite precise marking, checking and pinning of the darts one of them runs off slightly to the side but this is not too much of a problem and doesn't notice too much.

The back darts came out fine!

Once I have reduced the waist in size I will post a picture of me actually wearing the skirt.

Now onto the next project and I'd best knuckle down and get it done :)

Colette: Meringue

Well I made up a muslin for the meringue skirt and will have to make a few adjustments :( Its way to long for my 5'3 frame and possible a bit to A line compared to the picture in the book. Back to the drawing board. I am happy with the waist which is a first for me! All that needs to be altered is the length and take out some of the volume on the thighs possibly?

I will adapt the pattern tomorrow, rip some seams and have another go. Quite looking forward to wearing the finished skirt already!

Pattern Tracing

Pattern tracing such a lovely job! I decided to go with the Simplicity 2406 for my purple bi-stretch.

This has taken me ages. Here are some of the pieces for my dress I have done today. With the kitten trying to climb up my pattern :( and my daughter wanting to colour it in it was a hard task!

I will admit on my first top I done a 5 minute tracing job (really didn't get the importance of an accurate pattern). It was awful and led to an ill fitting top which required a lot of adjusting so this attempt I took my time and done it properly. I did cut corners and used baking parchment as I have no dressmaking paper left.

I have heard of some people fusing their patterns to interfacing but as I've got and intend to buy multi-size, I am going to try and keep the originals as they are so I can make different sizes if needed. 

I will pin to my practice fabric tomorrow and hope it goes well :) xxx