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

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!

A Quick Little Dress??

I thought I would take a day out from the Sew Colette to knock up a quick dress that I had already made. I knew the stretch jersey knit (purchased for £3.95p/m from Ashley Brook Fabrics in Romford) would not be suitable for any of the Colette projects so I thought I would make the Simplicity 2406 seen as though I already had the pattern traced and cut.

It needs another wash or two for the interfacing to de-bulk (my own fault as I think I used heavyweight instead of my lightweight one I used last time.

Not really the best figure hugging dress for me but comfy and wearable for school runs and house days especially with the pockets sewn into the seams. :)

Again excuse the picture I really do not photograph well.

I used view C on the pattern but wore this today with my own belt rather than the intended sash. I will admit I had some trouble with the sleeves, even though I used the same pattern as size as last time they just would not go right so I unpicked them and done them again :o)

I finished the facing with bias tape for a smart finish and was pleased with my gathering this time round.

I used bias tape again to fish the arms as was not keen on using elastic again. This gave the sleeves a really nice finish.

I run out of bias tape so just machines a basic hem which hangs quite nicely.

Sew Colette: Pastille Finished Finally.

Ok So I have now finally finished my Pastille Dress and it is well and truly wearable (just need to wait for some warmer weather)

I am off to do the school run now but I will post a pic to twitter and Flicker later of me wearing the dress once I set my camera up and find where I put my tripod.

So here is the final dress. Due to the disasters I had I have had to make a few alterations.
1. I added an extra pleat to the bottom of the skirt for personal preference.
2. I had to cover the neckline with a peter pan collar and I used Suzannah's tutorial to do this.
3. I removed the cap sleeves and converted them to basic short sleeves.

Now onwards to the truffle dress :) x

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

Colette Sew Along: Pastille Prep

So I have been a good girl and although I am way way way behind I have spent today tracing and cutting and preparing my muslin!

I am off to bed now but will finish marking up my fabric tomorrow and hopefully start sewing the muslin tomorrow night!

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!

My First Finished Dress :)

Ok so it has taken me a while but I have been working on a practice run for my dress using the pattern from Simplicity 2406 and I must say it has been a challenge, with lots of unstitching and re-stitching. I am finding the patterns a little hard to follow and I know that I have jumped in the deep end considering this is only the third item I have ever sewn But here it is.

Please excuse my daughters wonderful wall drawing in the background. :)

This does look so much nicer on as my dress form is very old and has a deformed butt as you can see in the picture below!!

                                                      This is the back note you can see the dodgy buttock :)                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                       

I even managed the in seam pockets too :)

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