This is what happens when…..

In the middle of tracing my 11 piece pattern (biggest one by far....very nervous) for SESA 2012 and the doorbell goes. I answer the door, pay for my takeaway and come back into the front room to see this.

   

My daughters bloody cat had obviously decided to skid across my table and tissue paper pattern :( :( One day I will catch her and string her up! Bit of sticky tape and all is ok but I like my patterns to stay like new.

Note to self.... Take cat with me to the door next time!

 

Finally finished the tracing & cutting….now onto the fabric….Gulp!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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.

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!

Over and Out or Cut and Hem???

Firstly I would like to say I promise I am working on my Meringue skirt :)

However my new toy has arrived:

I will be honest and say as a beginner I am reluctant to purchase an overlocker (and am shocked at the price of them) so I had a look at some alternatives. There are a few 'cheap' portable overlockers but they didn't come to highly recommended but my Mum managed to find this on eBay.

I thought I would give it a go as I have material that is fraying quicker than I can make the skirt!

She was a little tricky to get on the first time and god help me when I loose my threads...very little room underneath when fully raised.

This is the finished result of my practice. Not bad for an attachment costing less than £20. I know they are not perfect but at least I can finish my seams with the knowledge they wont be unravelling beneath me!

I tried a few different tensions to see what was best this is the back view I think (got them a bit mixed up as you do)!







Right back off to finish my skirt :) xx

Meringue

Well I decided to make a muslin for this project as being only my second clothing item. I was really good today and copied my pattern, cut the fabric but I have to be up super early to take my daughter to the cinema so I will have to put it all together tomorrow :( I am hoping there will not be too many adjustments to be made!

All done nice and neatly.

Ready to go when I get back from the cinema.

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

Shopping Trip

Well I spent all of yesterday on the internet researching projects for a beginner. I have bided on one too many patterns from the delightful eBay website and and downloaded numerous amount of free patterns from Burda Style's website so thought I was ready to go.

A trip to my local fabric shops showed me I was far from ready to go. I had no idea of what material I wanted or how much! The good thing was they sell second hand patterns (all unused but with no envelopes) so I purchased a few along with a guesstimate of 3 yards in a cheap black cotton fabric to play with.

I then had to hit HobbyCraft to get chalk, tape measure, seam ripper....had the idea that may come in handy and of course being a woman I spent far too much on things I probably didn't need *does little excited dance and massive smile*

When I got back I managed to print off the pattern covers and all the guide info and shoved them into some envelopes to keep them in one place.

Surely I must be ready to make clothes now? :)