Ozzy Blackbeard

Handkerchief hem dress

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 17:04:00 +0000

This dress is not so much inspired by, but totally copied off Janene from Ooobop. And if you don't follow Janene, then I urge you to, because she is amazing!

I instantly loved this fabulous dress that she made a few months ago, and what's even better is that Janene has given all the details on how she drafted the skirt in the blog post, so all I had to do was follow along. Thank you!!

My bodice is self-drafted (as is Janene's), but any fitted bodice with a waist seam would work. I stumbled across a Vogue Sandra Rhodes pattern that is very similar - it's V1547, but it's out of print.

I added pockets to mine. To do this I marked the pocket top down from the point where the skirt waist meets the bodice side seam.

The corners on the hems are mitered, and I am extraordinarily pleased with them. I used this tutorial from By Hand London.

All my supplies came from Sew N Sew in Belfast. The fabric is some purple poly-something I bought a few years ago now, and I bought the ribbon trim and zip just before I made the dress.

I love how the zip turned out! I sewed it as an exposed zip, then sewed the ribbon trim down both sides and across the bottom.

Even though I have been wearing this with some of my about 500 (maybe I don't have that many!!) Tilly And The Buttons Agnes tops underneath, the top of the metal zip is a bit cold, so I hand-sewed some more ribbon to the back of the zip to made a zip guard.

I flipping love this dress, and it's been getting plenty of wear with my black tights and boots.

Happy sewing,

Lynne

Sew Over It 1960s Coat

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 19:43:00 +0000

This is the Sew Over It 1960s coat, and I have loved this coat since it was first advertised as a class at Sew Over It; but as I am on a different land mass, I had to impatiently wait for it be released as a pattern to buy.

I even had the fabric for it, which is some herringbone tweed from Tinsmiths. I got it at least two or three years ago so, unsurprisingly, they don't have it any more. The lining fabric was either from Sew N Sew or The Spinning Wheel in Belfast.

I made a size 8, but being me, I made some changes:

I shortened the length by about 3 inches.
The sleeves are a one piece sleeve, so I mashed the sleeve head with the sleeves from a Le-roy Weldon's pattern that I made here. These sleeves have darts to shape the elbow, which I love, and I gathered the sleeve head using the bias strip method.
The coat is an A-Line shape, and I wanted it be be a bit more fitted, so I took the centre back seam in a bit at the waist.

All the love for this Dior dart!

Fabric covered button

Elbow darts from the Le-Roy Weldon's pattern

There are separate interfacing pieces for the back and front, and also for the hems. I added a bit more using the Craftsy "Essential Guide to Tailoring: Structure and Shape" class (I have raved about this class many times!).

The instructions are brilliant, especially the bit on sewing the collar. One thing to watch for is the 1cm seam allowance on the neckline, collar and centre front.

I made bound buttonholes and fabric covered buttons, and left off the button and buttonhole at the top because I wanted it to look like the coat in this Le-roy Weldons pattern below. This was a single-sized pattern I bought on ebay, but it was too big for me. I loved the View B green coat, so that's what I've based this coat on, including the top-stitching on the lapel.

Also I added some bias tape in between the facing and the lining. This was a lot easier to do than I thought, and I love how it looks. The attaching the facing to the lining seam is also a 1cm seam allowance.

I'm not going to waffle too much about this, as I've said plenty about the coats I've made in previous posts, but I love this coat!

Happy sewing,

Lynne

Autumn in a dress

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 19:38:00 +0000

I've made two versions of this dress (so far), and it's based on the Cotton and Chalk Rosie dress pattern, which I got free with Simply Sewing magazine a few years ago.

I really liked View A (View B is sleeveless), and you can see from the line drawing below that it has a centre front seam (the buttons on the blue dress are not functioning), and the bust is shaped with gathers at the shoulder and under the bust. On the pattern envelope the neckline looks like it's slightly curved, similar to a sweetheart neckline, but it is a V neckline on the line drawing. The midriff yoke is only on the front, the back is shaped with darts, and it closes with a centre back zip.

I wanted to change a few details, so drafted the bodice from my block. I added a functioning button placket at the centre front, did a slightly curved sweetheart neckline, and extended the midriff yoke across the back. For the skirt I used the pieces from the pattern, which are rectangles gathered at the waist, and added pockets.

Below is the second one I made, and the amazing fabric is a viscose I bought from lovely Andrea at Pink Door. There are no words to describe how much I love this dress, and it has already got lots of wear. The sleeves on this one are the same as the sleeves on my Halloween dress.

My first version was made with some Lady McElroy polyester crepe, the print is called Chaffinch Bough. On this one I gathered the sleeves with elastic like the sleeves on the pattern. And I've been wearing this one a lot too.

I can't find the original pattern to buy on-line other than on ebay (that could be my poor googling), but here are a few patterns I found that are similar.

McCall's 7974

Vogue 9076

Vogue 8577

I've made two self-drafted dresses based on Vogue 8577, but more of that in another post.

Happy sewing,

Lynne

Halloween Dress

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sat, 31 Oct 2020 09:06:00 +0000

This is, without doubt, the most bonkers thing I've ever made; which makes it seem quite apt right now!

It was inspired by my love of Halloween and this fabulous dress that Rachel Maksy made recently. I have only recently discovered her youtube channel, and I just love it. The inspiration for the bodice came from these beautiful vintage Thea Porter dresses,

I ADORE this black dress, and would love to try and re-create it. Those sleeves!!

and these much loved dresses from Coco Fennell.

1. 2. 3. 4.

The whole dress is self-drafted, and I have been wanting to try and re-create that bodice for quite some time. It was difficult to work out how it was constructed, and I'm glad I tried it out on this and not some expensive fabric. The tricky bit was attaching the trim, and I'm not going to attempt to explain what I did, other than to say that I totally over-engineered it and learnt from my mistakes!

The trim I used was polyester bias tape, and I think it would be better with cotton lawn or polycotton bias tape, as they are lighter weight. Also, next time I would attach the bias tape before sewing any of the seams together, even though it would take some precise measuring from the cut edge. I am keen to try this again as a "proper" dress, so will report back.

I love this style of bodice with the midriff yoke, and have made some other styles of this, which I will be sharing.

My fabric is some orange cotton, and some black and silver mesh with spider webs on it - both were from ebay. Originally I was going to use one layer of mesh, but it looked a bit puny so I used two layers.

This is one layer of mesh

The orange underskirt is a quarter circle, which I haven't tried before, and I love it. The bottom layer is one rectangular fabric width of mesh gathered at the waist (and when I say gathered, I mean randomly pinned and basted...). The top layer of mesh is two rectangles seamed at the centre front, and gathered as above.

For the bodice I cut two layers of mesh, then basted it to the orange cotton, and treated it as one piece of fabric.

I flipping love these sleeves, and you will be seeing more of them. I slashed and spread my sleeve block to create gathers at the sleeve head and a wide sleeve. Then the hem is gathered into a little cuff.

I love the madness of this dress, and it pleased me to make it, and isn't that what it's all about?!

Happy Halloween,

Lynne

VW Jacket - McCalls 7513

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 17:22:00 +0000

I made this jacket during the summer, which is when I took these photos (hence the sandals), it's definitely woolly tights weather now.

This fabulous Vivienne Westwood Anglomania jacket was the inspiration.

The pattern I used is McCall's M7513, which my lovely friend Suzie from Threadquarters gave to me.

I used View C, but as you can see I changed it a bit...

I omitted the centre back seam as it's a straight line, and I didn't want to have to match that on the tartan fabric.

The peplum is a full circle and when I toiled it, it was too flouncy. So I drafted a half circle peplum, and that was too flouncy too; so I ended up with a quarter circle peplum. Also, I also shortened it a bit.

I completely re-drafted the neckline and collar, and used the wonderful Craftsy "Patternmaking And Design: Collars And Closures" class.

I drafted some pockets in the front peplum which took three toiles, and then it I changed it again and couldn't be bothered to do a forth toile - but it worked! Also, a big thank you Diane from Dream Cut Sew, who has written two posts about her fabulous VW inspired jacket, and had some photos of the pocket flaps. Here's a link, her jacket is amazing and the posts are a mine of information. I totally copied the pocket flaps, but put the pleat on the other side. Kind of wish I'd done the front peplum facing the same as Diane too - oh well...

The lining on the pattern was of the "cut the main jacket pieces out again" variety, which I'm not on board with. So I re-drafted the lining using this excellent tutorial from Grainline Design. I've used this tutorial many times, and it's brilliant.

My fabric is some poly tartan that I think was the last piece of fabric I bought in The Spinning Wheel in Belfast before it closed (sob!!). I interfaced everything with some lightweight woven interfacing from Tailormouse, and it's helped to give the jacket a bit of body. Wish I'd interfaced the collar a bit better though.

All the interfacing was drafted using the Modern Tailoring section from the Craftsy "Essential Guide To Tailoring: Structure And Shape" class. (I have nothing to do with Craftsy, and bought both classes I've mentioned; they are just really good classes!)

The lining fabric is some green polyester, which was also given to me by Suzie, and I think it looks fabulous with the tartan. The buttons were salvaged from an beloved winter coat from Next that went to the recycling years ago as it was threadbare. The top two buttonholes are bound buttonholes, and the bottom one is in the seam between the bodice and peplum.

I want to talk about the pattern matching for a minute. I like to match tartan, because it looks really well when it's done; don't like having to actually do it so much though! So everything was cut out on a single layer.

For the collar, I couldn't work out how to match it and had originally cut it with the green lines going horizontally across the jacket, but my sister and I decided that it didn't look right.

So I re-cut it with the green going vertically across the jacket. I picked the yellow line as the centre back of the collar because it was easy to see, then lined up the dark part of the tartan in the centre of the collar. The fact that it matches so well at the front is a total fluke!!!

The polyester fabric isn't my favourite thing, but I was willing to sacrifice it to give this jacket a go. I would love to try it in wool, as the polyester is a little stiff and I had to add some horse hair braid to the hem to give it some shape. It would be interesting to see how the hem looked in wool, and I was thinking it could be pad-stitched to add some shape.

But all that said, I flipping love this jacket and it turned out exactly like it looked in my head!

I also made this dress, but that's for another post.

Happy sewing!

Lynne

Charity Shop Skirt

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:22:00 +0000

I didn't make this skirt, my sister found it in a charity shop a couple of weeks' ago, and we were beside ourselves when we saw it.

The reason for this was because we recently came across this photo of our Aunty Ethel (who was really our great aunty), she was wearing a skirt made from the same fabric and we both loved it.

We had to look hard, but it's definately not the same skirt. Aunty E's has different pockets and, if you look closely, there are buttons down the front.

The lady in the shop said it had been in the shop for ages, and had even been in the window display for a while, but nobody wanted it. Clearly it was just waiting for my sister to turn up, so she brought it home, and it is in very good condition given that it is probably from the late 1950s or 1960s.

There was one little hole at the front which I darned, and you can see it below between Tokyo and San Francisco. The tops of both pockets had holes, so I darned them too. To do this, I put a little piece of black fabric underneath, and then a little bit of interfacing behind that. Then I zig zag stitched on my machine over the top, and cut away the extra black fabric and interfacing from behind.

A few bits of the hem had come down, so I hand-sewed them. The photo below is a piece of the inside of the hem before I fixed it. You can see that the hem has been double folded, but I love that the raw edge has been pressed under and sewn down too.

It was a bit grubby, so my sister hand washed it and rinsed and spun it in the washing machine, and it came out lovely!

The top of the skirt is gathered, and the waistband was absolutely tiny (24 inches!), so I unpicked it in order to put a new waistband on. I was pretty fascinated with doing this and took some photos, as I thought others would be interested too.

Above is starting to unpick the waistband, and below is one of the two hanging loops (which I put back in again).

We thought it was hand made, but then I discovered the remains of this label beside the zip.

The gathers were basted before they were attached to the waistband, and I loved that, but it had to be unpicked too.

I found three notches clipped into the top edge. There's one at the centre front, and the other two are where the hanging loops are attached.

The waistband is one piece, folded over at the top. I was planning on putting a black cotton waistband on, but when I unpicked it, I discovered another layer of waistband underneath! There was no interfacing on it, so this must be how the waistband was stabilised.

Once all that was done, I gave it a good press, and used the notches to divide the skirt top edge into four equal parts in order to make the new gathers even. The skirt is made from one piece of fabric, the only vertical seam is the centre back, so there are no side seams.

Here it is laid out on the floor before I gathered it, the fabric measures about 235cm/92" wide.

I was able to piece the two waistband pieces (joining at the centre front) to make a waistband that was long enough, and interfaced the whole thing. Then I sewed the waistband on and a buttonhole and button.

And since I really didn't want to throw away the rest of the fabric from the waistband, I made a key fob with it using Sian from Kittenish Behaviour's great tutorial.

Here are some photos after I was finished. I absolutely love the zip - that's a good, proper zip! The original button was white, but I found this pink one in my Granny's button tin.

The pockets are gorgeous. They are all cut in one piece, and some thought was clearly put in to cutting it out.

But the star of the show is the print. Here are some details because it's brilliant, and I really should have taken these before I gathered the top!

And here it is once I was finished - all ready for my sister to wear.

Happy sewing!

Lynne

Honey Bop Cardigan

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 08:34:00 +0000

Oh my goodness, I'm so pleased with this!!

It's the Poison Grrls Honey Bop cardigan, I started knitting this last summer, and finished it a few weeks ago. I shall explain why it took so long in a minute.

The cardigan is knit from the top down - you start with the back shoulders and work down to the under arm, then pick up the stitches for the front shoulders again working to the under arm. It's then joined, and you work the body to the ribbing and cast off. Next is the button bands, and then you pick up the stitches at the armholes for the sleeves and work them.

My yarn is Cascade 220 4 ply, and the colour is 8393 Navy. I'm not the fasted knitter, and it took me a while (and a few goes at the shoulders) to do the body. By the time I got to the knit one purl one ribbing, it was winter, and it was just impossible to see the stitches in the dark yarn, so it got set aside.

But it turned out that lockdown and more daylight in the evening was a great motivator, and I got the ribbing and button bands done.

The sleeve heads were a bit tricky, and it took a few goes to get the first one started, but once I got it, the second one was easy. That said, the instructions are very good, it was me that took a while to get my head around them!

I'm absolutely delighted with how it turned out, I don't have any navy buttons for it yet, but I can get them at some point. I also have this yarn in a gold/orange shade which is 9622 Amber Glow, so I need to decide what to knit with it.

Lynne

Deer and Doe Magnolia

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Wed, 20 May 2020 18:53:00 +0000

This is sort of a half-and-half dress. I had fully intended to use the Deer and Doe Magnolia pattern as is, because their patterns are a good fit, but in the end I didn't.

I used the skirt for view A (but sewed up the split), and was going to use the bodice for view B but make it sleeveless. In the end I drafted the bodice from my block, and was able to re-jig the bodice from my Frocktails dress, so it was pretty quick to do.

Me, being me, ended up making a few changes. I put a zip in the centre back, because I find side seam zips a bit of a faff to sew.

And I also faced the inside of the waistband, and used facing instead of bias tape to face the neckline.

The fabric is some cheap and cheerful viscose from Sew N Sew in Belfast that I bought last year. I bought either 3 or 4 metres (can't remember which), but didn't realise that it was 45 inches wide, so went back and bought another 2 metres. I used all of the first cut, and a bit of the second, and have enought left for a top.

It was pretty shifty fabric to work with, and I really should have stablised it with spray starch. Also, the print is a bit patchy in places, but I think the busy-ness hides it.

I love this dress, it will be great for swishing around in the summer, and it goes well with my Yaz jacket.

Hope everybody is keeping well,

Lynne

Sewaholic Gabriola Skirt

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Mon, 04 May 2020 17:32:00 +0000

I have a skirt that's very similar to this one, it's denim and it was from Tescos, but I bought it on ebay. I must have that skirt about 10 years, and I absolutely love it. It gets worn every summer, and it's always missed when it's in the washing.

So you'd think I'd have made my own version a bit sooner! But better late than never, and this one is fabulous. It's the Sewaholic Gabriola skirt; the back of the pattern is dated 2014, and my sister bought me it not long after it was published.

(I also made this top, which is a Charm Patterns Rita Blouse made from some Liberty Carline linen left over from this skirt, but back to the Gabriola.)

My fabric is a linen (or possibly linen mix), I recall buying it, and that it was beautifully enabled by Rachel from Stitched Up!, I can't remember where it was from.

The size I made was based on the finished garment measurements on the back of the pattern. Annnnd I ended up taking it in by 8cm at the side seams, grrr... If you too have this pattern lurking in your stash, then I would suggest measuring the waistband before tracing/cutting the rest of the pattern. Guess which pattern piece I looked at last...

And talking of the waistband, you'll notice that I didn't use it. It's a rectangle waistband, and I'm not a fan, so I drafted a facing instead. To do this I pinned the top yoke to it's corresponding yoke, then traced over it and made the facing 3" deep plus seam allowance. The photos below are of the front pieces, but it was the same process for the back. The front facing is shorter at the centre front because I cut it on the fold, the back facing is the same length as the pattern pieces.

I also shortened the main skirt pieces by 5 1/2" along the length/shorten line.

I would recommend marking the yoke pieces as it's pretty easy to get them confused, and I used coloured glass headed pins to colour-code each piece.

Blue for the back

Red for the front (as there's no colour that starts with an F, I use red as it's the second letter of front)

Red for the right hand side

Yellow (or lemon if you will) for the left hand side.

You sort of have to use your imagination with this, but it works for me.

Right back

Left back

Left front

Right front

The yoke pieces are cut on a horizonal grain, and I love how it gives the yoke a slightly different tone. Also, I think all the yoke pieces are ripe for top-stitching, and I might do this when I can get some more thread.

In conclusion, I flipping love this skirt, and now feel the need for one in red. If anybody wants me, I shall be swishing about and pretending I'm Stevie Nicks!

Happy sewing,

Lynne

Deer and Doe Pavot Denim Jacket

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 08:02:00 +0000

Hope everybody is doing ok in these crazy times, and that sewing is keeping you occupied. Making this little jacket has been a very welcome distraction for me.

I also made this skirt, but it will get it's own post

The first thing to talk about is the jacket's inspiration, which was a jacket that Yaz wore in the latest series of Doctor Who. There was an episode towards the end of the series (which seems like a hundred years ago now!) that was set in the early 1800s, and was about Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein. It was a sort of haunted house episode and was very dark and creepy, also there was a Cyberman, and they're flipping scary!

Everybody was wearing early 1800s clothes (think the outfits from a Jane Austen drama), and Yaz (who is one of the companions) was wearing an empire line dress and a Spencer jacket, and I absolutely loved it. I got these photos below from the @bbcdoctorwho Instagram.

Source

Unfortunately the ribbon from her bonnet is getting in the way (!), but you can see the puff on the sleeve heads, the Peter Pan collar (love these!) and the trim on the collar and hem. The photo below better shows the sleeve head and the shaping at the bust, which is either double darts or pleats. I also love the print/embroidery on her dress.


Source

I initially thought Yaz's velvet jacket was made from denim and thought this was a brilliant idea, as it reminded me of Biba from the late 1960s/early 1970s, especially with the maxi dress. So, in an effort to take my mind off the scary Cyberman as I was going to bed, I was desperately trying to think about how to make my own version.

Which leads me on to the pattern which is the Deer and Doe Pavot coat, and I've made it before here and here. This was one of their first patterns, and unfortunately it has been discontinued, which is a shame because it's lovely.

Source

I made the bodice as it is on the pattern, and just left off the skirt. Which leads me onto the fabric. Both the denim and the cotton lawn that I used inside are from lovely Becs at Oh Sew!. The cotton lawn isn't available now, but the denim is (here's a link), and this denim is amazing! I've made a Tilly And The Buttons Ness skirt in the black, and have the khaki to make jeans with.

I used the cotton lawn to make 10 metres of bias tape to edge the raw edges of the seams, and this was even more tedious than it sounds.

"Me Made" label from Kylie And The Machine

I also used the cotton lawn for the inside of the waistband, and to make little inside pockets. The pockets aren't very big, but will be handy to put my keys into.

"Contains Cat Hair" label from Pink Coat Club

Sonic Screwdriver from the Tenth Doctor

The trim is from ebay, which is all hand-sewn on, and the buttons are also from ebay. I like the style of the buttons, but the colour isn't right - they're too light. But they'll do until I can get something else.

Waistband

Cuff

I love how this jacket turned out especially the puffy sleeve heads, as I wasn't sure it would work in denim; and I fully intend to make the Deer and Doe Magnolia Dress (bodice B, skirt A) to wear with it. (Spoiler: it's already cut out...)

Happy sewing,

Lynne

Belfast (Virtual) Frocktails Dress

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 12:49:00 +0000

The first Belfast Frocktails (which was sold out!) was supposed to be tonight, but it has been postponed for obvious reasons. It has been organised by the fabulous Claire and Laura from The Dab Hand, and ably assisted by some lovely local sewing chums.

But never let it be said that we sewists aren't an adaptable bunch, because then they organised virtual frocktails on Instagram and it's really taken off, with sewists from all over the world taking part. It's all happening today, and just search for the hashtag #virtualfrocktails on Instagram to join in.

Obviously I had to make a new frock; it took me a while to decide what I wanted to make, and my first choice was to use some stash fabric that I was nearly going to sell. The fabric is some gorgeous Liberty silk georgette that I bought about 3 1/2 years ago. I got 2 metres on sale for £33, and had absolutely no idea what to do with it. Turns out everything has a purpose in the end!

Next was to decide on a style, and after lots of trawling and saving things on Pinterest, I settled on trying to recreate this gorgeous Trashy Diva dress. I would have loved to be able to do the sleeves, but didn't have enough fabric and couldn't get any more.

Source

As the silk is so lightweight, I knew it would need lined. I originally thought of white cotton lawn, but the white looked awful underneath the silk. So tried some primrose yellow viscose voile (I had loads of this that I got ages ago from The Textile Centre). The yellow didn't really work under the silk either, so then I thought of dying the voile. I used Dylon dye and the colour was Forest Green. This worked like a charm, and I'm delighted with how it turned out.

This is the silk by itself.

This is the yellow viscose.

The silk over the yellow viscose - not loving it.

The viscose once I'd dyed it - much better!

And the silk on top of the dyed viscose.

For the pattern, I hacked my self-drafted pattern from my Christmas dress. It has gathers at the shoulders and under the bust, and a yoke at the waist.

Gathers on shoulder seam.

The skirt is my self-drafted A-Line skirt, and I added 12" into the back and front, then gathered it. The details are a bit lost in the busy print, so here's my toile made from a duvet cover from the charity shop, and hopefully you can see a bit more detail in it.

The bodice is underlined in the voile, and the lining on the skirt is free hanging from the silk over skirt. All the seams are French seamed, which took ages but looks great!

This will be me all night when we can have Frocktails!!

Hopefully Frocktails will now go ahead in September, but until then I hope everybody stays safe, and keeps on sewing!

Lynne

Sew Over It Georgie Dress - without a bodice lining

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 10:57:00 +0000

This is the Sew Over It Georgie Dress (which I keep wanting to call Georgia), and I do love a knit fabric pattern; they are so much quicker to make than wovens, and this was sewn in a few hours.

I made a size 10 of Version 1 with the 3/4 circle skirt, and being me, I made some changes. The sleeves and skirt were shorted, and I added pockets to the side seams, but the biggest change was to not add the bodice lining.

I did this for two reasons: 1 - my fabric is fairly thick, and I didn't want to add extra bulk, and 2 - I didn't have any suitable lining fabric.

So here is how I did it. I basted the pleats on the right bodice front as on the instructions, and then joined both bodice fronts to the bodice back at the shoulders. Then I got some 1/4" clear elastic and Wonder Clipped (cos that's a verb) it to the wrong side of the neckline of the bodice the whole way around.

The elastic isn't stretched, just as it is from the packet.

Then I attached it with the overlocker using the setting for sewing knit fabric. I didn't stretch it out as I sewed, just held it in place at the edge of the fabric.

And this is what it looks like when it's done.

Next, I pressed the edge over from the right side by 1cm, which is the seam allowance and again Wonder Clipped it in place.

And then I sewed it in place from the right side using a twin needle. This is what it looks like from the right side,

and this is what it looks like from the wrong side.

I layed the right hand side of the bodice over the left hand side, and then basted the overlap edges within the seam allowance.

And finally pinned and sewed the front and back side seams together.

And that was it! The rest was contructed as on the instructions, and I finished the hems by overlocking and twin needling them.

My fabric is from The Textile Centre ages ago, and I used about 1.5 metres. I love this dress, and the only change that I'll make to the next one is to lengthen the bodice by about an inch, as this bodice is a little bit short.

Have a great weekend,

Lynne

Tilly And The Buttons Mathilde Blouse - Make Nine 2019 #9

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 19:31:00 +0000

There's nothing like leaving something to the last minute, and that's exactly what happened with this! It's Tilly And The Buttons Mathilde Blouse, and it's my final make for Make Nine 2019.

I didn't think I was going to finish 2019 Make Nine because I simply couldn't decide what to make with this fabric. But then I was reading this post on the Tilly And The Buttons Blog on Christmas Eve, it mentioned the Mathilde Blouse, and inspiration struck.

I was nearly finished my Rosa dress, and this got started on 27th December, so no pressure... I technically finished it on 29th December, but read on for the drama!

First though, here are the deets - the fabric is some green silk I got on ebay a few years ago, and I stablised it with spray starch. Everything is French seamed, including the armholes, which I hadn't done before.

The pleats were a bit tricky in the silk, but I took my time, and they turned out ok.

The buttons are some wooden buttons that my sister bought me.

By the way, my skirt is the Tilly And The Buttons Ness skirt. I made it a few months ago using some denim from Oh Sew! and I absolutely love it and have been wearing it a lot.

I was very pleased with how my blouse turned out; all I had to do was wash out the spray starch, and that's when disaster struck! Normally I would use Dreft handwashing powder, but the last time it ran out I couldn't get it, and got Daz handwashing powder instead. I put some powder in a basin with some hot water, put in my blouse, and when I took it out this happened.

This is on the right back,

this is on one sleeve,

and this on the front - you can see the stitching from one pleat on the left. As you can see, some of the dye has bleached on various parts of my blouse. There where other spots as well, but I didn't photograph them.

I think that maybe some of the powder hadn't dissolved properly, and to say I was furious didn't even skim the surface! So the blouse got set aside for about a week while I decided what to do, and thank you to everybody on Instagram who suggested solutions, hand washing liquids and who offered sympathy.

Here's what I ended up doing - my machine has loads of embroidery stitches, and after testing on some scraps, I settled on a leaf design. To stablise it, I cut a piece of interfacing and hand-basted it to the back of the fabric with two layers of silk on top, which you can see in the photo below.

This is on the yoke at the front neckline

The bleached bits aren't obvious in this photo, but they absolutely were in real life!

I sewed the embroidery stitch from the right side. This is how it looks from the wrong side.

I then cut down the interfacing and silk patches with embroidery scissors.

And this is how it turned out.

This is the front left shoulder

Centre front

Upper right back

Button placket

This is the back of the left sleeve, but there is also one bit on the right sleeve

It took ages, but I like how it looks, and it's definately saved my blouse! The Daz powder went in the bin and I got some handwash liquid.

Has anybody else ever had a disaster like this?

Lynne

Tilly And The Buttons Rosa Dress - Make Nine 2019 #8

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 19:19:00 +0000

This is number eight on my 2019 Make Nine, and I finished it on Boxing Day (number nine is also done, but there was drama - it's for another post). Anyway, this is the Tilly And The Buttons Rosa Dress, which is a pattern I've have for a few years now but never made.

I ended up drafting the pattern myself because I knew I'd have too many fitting issues, but I've kept to the orginal pattern as much as possible.

I made two changes, the first to the back yoke which I cut straight instead of a V shape.

The second was to the sleeves. I used my self-drafted three-quarter length sleeves with button cuffs, but instead of using a bias cut strip of fabric to face the placket, I used the placket facing from the Rosa pattern long sleeve and cuff.

I haven't seen this type of placket facing before and thought it was a great idea, so I drafted the pattern piece, and then followed the pattern instructions to sew it.

Another thing I love is the the button placket. I'd normally cut a placket as one with the garment front, interface it and then press it under; but this placket is cut separately. In one of the examples on the pattern, the placket and inside collar stand are cut from another fabric, and it looks lovely.

The pattern instructions were great for the faux flat-felled seams and also the top stitching, and I love how they turned out. For the top stitching I used my 1/4" foot, and, as you can see in the photo below, it has a little guide on the right which I lined up with the seam. I was then able to move the needle to the width I wanted, and used the guide to keep the stitching line straight.

And finally, I absolutely love this chambray fabric. It's from lovely Becs at Oh Sew! and it's called Planets Chambray. And I've just noticed that she lists the Rosa dress as pattern idea for it. Great minds think alike!

Lynne

Lady McElroy Vincent Sketch Christmas dress

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 10:02:00 +0000

This is an unusal make for me in that from idea to finish was a week and three days: normally a project rattles around my head for ages before I make it.

Here's what happened - I was idly browsing Instagram on Friday 6th December (probably in work...) when I saw the dress below on the Coco Fennell feed. I love a look at their website, their dresses are beautiful, there's loads of inspiration and this one is a corker!

Source

I thought it would be lovely with the shirring on the cuffs from this dress, which is also from Coco Fennell.

Then later on that evening, I was browsing Instagram again, and lovely local sewist Becs from Oh Sew! had posted about some new fabrics in her shop. Amongst them was this gorgeous Lady McElroy viscose called Vincent Sketch, and I couldn't order it fast enough!!

I got 2.5 metres, and it's even more beautiful in real life. It's a medium weight viscose, and isn't as shifty as some, so was easy to cut out and work with. I couldn't decide between green or brown for the bias tape trim, and ended up going with green. This is 19mm wide poly/satin bias tape from ebay.

The pattern is all self-drafted, and I drafted and toiled it while I was waiting for the fabric to be delivered. For the bodice front, I rotated the waist dart into the shoulder dart, and then cut out the yoke at the level of the under bust. The dart was then rotated back to the under bust, and was then sewn as a gather.

For the neckline I didn't do the split, but sort of wish I had even done a little split. I used the bias tape as facing by sewing the right side of the tape to the wrong side of the bodice and flipping it over to the front. Then it was top-stitched down. With hindsight, this wasn't one of my better ideas. I'd have been better off doing a separate facing, and then top-stitching the bias tape to the whole thing, but it's grand!

For the bodice back I drew in the yoke, and closed up the dart across it; then sewed the remaining dart on the upper back. Also, I used a dress zip as I thought an invisible zip would be tricky with the bias tape.

The yoke is trimed with bias tape under the bust and above the waist. The skirt is a half circle, and it's trimed with the bias tape above the hem.

The sleeves are my favourite bit, and they turned out how they looked in my head. They are bishops sleeves with a gather at the sleeve head and shirring at the cuffs. I drafted them from a pattern drafting book called "Metric Pattern Cutting For Women's Wear" by Winifred Aldrich.

I marked 7 cm below the elbow on my sleeve block then slashed and spread the sleeve head as above, and added 6 cm in. Then I slashed and spread the bottom of the sleeve as below, and made it 60 cm wide including the seam allowance.

Here's what the pattern piece looks like.

The cuffs are gathered with shirring, which was very easy to do after watching this great video from The Stitch Sisters, and I love how they turned out.

I'm loving my dress, which I wore on Christmas Day,and I hope Santa was good to everybody.

Have a great weekend,

Lynne

Self-drafted tartan dress

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 19:49:00 +0000

This dress had been rattling around my head for a while;

and it was inspired by this dress I saw on Pinterest.

Source

I love the Peter Pan collar, the princess seams going up to the shoulders, and the three-quarter length cuffed sleeves.

My fabric is some tartan viscose from the lovely Claire and Laura at The Dab Hand, but I got the end of the roll. It was a bit shifty, so I stablised it with some spray starch.

Cutting out was a bit of a nightmare as I wanted to match up the lines on the tartan, so I cut it out on a single layer. I have another tartan dress that I want to make, so I'll try and take some photos when I'm cutting it out.

Pockets!!

As the fabric wrinkles a bit, I underlined the bodice with some viscose voile I got ages ago from The Textile Centre.

The pattern is self-drafted, and I think the princess seams to the shoulders work well with the tartan.

The sleeves are a shorter version of the sleeves on this self-drafted shirt, and the cuffs are ordinary cuffs instead of the French cuffs on the shirt. I cut the cuffs on the bias because trying to match the lines was making my head hurt...

The skirt is a gathered rectangles with side seam pockets, but I managed to mess it up when I sewed the right back skirt upside down, and had to unpick it!

Also, the tartan doesn't match completely at the bodice centre back, but I can live with it because the waist and neckline seams lined up perfectly, and I won't see it when I'm wearing it!

Have a great week!

Lynne

McCall's M7938 / M7989 - Yaya Han Coat, View A

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 18:38:00 +0000

If you follow me on Instagram, then you will have been spammed by loads progress photos

of this coat. It was an epic make, I have a lot to say about it and there are loads of photos.

The pattern is McCall's M7938, which is a Yaya Han costume pattern, but I laugh in the face of costume and will be wearing this all winter! Also, I have to thank Sian from Kittenish Behaviour for tipping me off about this pattern.

There are two views, and the photo below is View B from the pattern envelope. This is on M7938, which is sizes 6 - 22.

This photo is View A, and this from McCall's M7989 which is sizes 18W - 32W.

Here are the line drawings from both patterns.

Fabric and Interfacing

Before I get into the gory details, here are the fabrics and interfacings I used. The main fabric is 100% wool from My Fabrics. It's called Fulled Loden, and the colour is auburgine. The lining is also from My Fabrics, and is called Diamonds Jacquard Lining Fabric.

The interfacing is all from Tailor Mouse. I used Medium Weight Woven Canvas Fusible for the coat fronts, under collar and hems. I used Lightweight Woven Fusible Cotton for the front and back facings, upper collar, pocket flaps and martingale. The buttons are from Totally Buttons.

I bought all of these (and the pattern) myself, and just wanted to link them in case anybody is interested.

Mods

As it is me, obviously there are some modifications...

Firstly, I shortened the body by 4.5 cm. To work this out, I already knew the length of the back neck to waist on the other coats I've made, so shortened the back to that length. Then I shortened the other bodice pieces to match. I also lengthened the skirt by 1 inch.

The collar stand extends past the end of the collar on one side, and you can see this in the line drawing above. I made it on my toile, but didn't think it really worked with the lapels on View A, so I didn't put it on my coat. I also didn't do the cuffs on View A as I didn't love them on my toile.

On the line drawing you can also see that the shoulder seam is dropped down onto the bodice back. I didn't love this either, as I thought it would make it difficult to stablise the shoulder seam, so I moved it up to the shoulder.

The biggest modification I made was to the the skirt. There isn't a side seam on the skirt, instead it attaches to the skirt back piece, then goes right around as one piece and joins the coat front. Below is the coat front, skirt and skirt back as on the pattern.

As you can see, this isn't far off a full circle skirt. I made it as is on my toile, and as much as I absolutely loved it, I didn't think it was for me. I'm pretty small, and felt that it would swamp me a bit. Also, I thought that it would be quite heavy in the wool fabric.

So I drafted a quarter circle skirt, and you can see this with the coat front and skirt back below. This is what I've used on my coat.

I cut out one quarter circle skirt and sewed it to my toile, and here are a few photos below.

The original skirt pattern is on the side without a sleeve, and you can see how fabulous it is! It looks amazing in the lighter weight fabrics used on the pattern envelope photos. My quarter circle skirt is on the side with the sleeve.

Skirt as on the pattern above, and quarter circle skirt below.

I also made a lot of alterations to the insides.

Interfacing

As on some of my other coates, I drafted the interfacing pieces using some of the classes on Bluprint - I've bought these classes myself, and am mentioning them in case they are helpful.

I drafted back, side back and side front stays from a class called "Classic Tailoring: The Blazer". In the photo below, the pieces at the top are the back, side back and side front pieces; and the pieces at the bottom are the corresponding stay pieces.

And here are the stays attached to the bodice pieces, I used a medium weight cotton for this, and I have stablised the shoulder seams with twill tape.

I drafted the interfacing for the coat fronts from a class called "Essential Guide To Tailoring - Structure And Shape". On the left in the below photo is the coat front. On the right are the interfacing pieces for the front and lapel, and in the centre the pieces for the front shoulder.

Below is the interfacing pieces attached to the coat fronts.

You can see the shoulder support attached, the taped roll line and taped edges.

Lining and Facings

The lining on the pattern is the same as the bodice pieces, so I re-drafted it using the brilliant tutorial on the Grainline Studios blog.

The pattern doesn't have a face neck facing, and the front facing is the same as the coat front, which I thought might be a bit bulky in my heavy fabric. Below left is the re-drafted front facing, centre is the coat front, upper left is the back neck facing and lower left is the coat back.

Below is the re-drafted lining pieces.

Here's the coat inside out, so you can see the lining and facings.

And I've added a pleat to the centre back of the lining to give the lining a bit more movement when the coat is being put on/taken off.

Construction

Buttonholes

There are three functioning buttonholes on this coat, and I made them as bound buttonholes.

Front

Back

The buttonholes on the lapels are machined decorative buttonholes and I haven't cut them open, just sewed the buttons on.

Coat Skirt and Pockets

I felt that the skirt waist needed stablised to help support the weight of the fabric. I found some Christian Dior ribbon when I was looking for something else, (I completely forgot I had it and think it was on some perfume I got last Christmas), and had to use it. The bodice waist is stablised with seam binding.

The pockets are attached at the top of the big skirt pieces, and there is a pocket flap on the right side. It wasn't the easiest thing to sew, but I got there in the end. Here's what it looks like from the inside.

Here's the pocket flap once it's finished, I used the lining fabric on the underneath of the flap to reduce bulk.

Collar and Facing

Because I had added a back neck facing, I ended up doing my own thing with attaching the collar. Here's what it looks like. The "Me Made" label is from Kylie And The Machine, and the "Contains Cat Hair" label is from Pink Coat Club.

I forgot to take any photos of sewing the collar pieces together, but below is the under collar attached to the coat.

And below is the upper collar attached to the facing.

Again, I forgot to take any photos of attaching the coat and facings together, but here's what it looked like once it was done.

The front and back seams within the collar still needed attached, and I'm now hoping that all of this is going to make sense! I wanted to attach together the two seams between the collar and stands, and also attach the seams between the facing and the coat back together.

This is the collar to stand seams being sewn together,

and this is the facing to coat back being sewn together. I used a herringbone stitch for this, and I really hope that all makes sense!

Sleeves

Next were the sleeves, and I used my tried and tested bias strip method. Here is a great tutorial video from Gretchen Hirsch. You cut a 2" wide strip of the main fabric on the bias, and cut it about 18" long.

Pin the centre to the top of the sleeve head, where the mark is to join the shoulder seam.

Sew it using a 1/2 inch seam allowance and 5.0 stitch length. As you sew, you stretch out the bias strip - which is very hard to photograph with one hand!

And this magically gathers up the sleevehead as in the photo below! It then gets pressed over the end of a sleeve board.

Pin and sew the sleeve in as normal, and it looks like the photo below. I'm holding one long edge of the bias strip, the edge in the middle is the other long edge, and the wavy edge is the sleeve head.

Next, I pinned the two long edges of the bias strip together and hand sewed them to the sleeve head.

This helps to pad out the top of the sleeve head, so it looks like this. And after that I added the shoulder pads.

Also, I drafted a Martingale for the back, because it turns out I love the look of them. I say drafted - it's a rectangle 2" deep, and the length of the back waist seam plus about 5 cm then add a seam allowance. I interfaced it, and the back is the lining fabric.

After that, everything is fairly straight-forward. I hemmed the sleeves and coat, sewed together the lining, and attached it to the coat. Then the lining got hemmed separately to the coat, and attached at the seam joins using thread chains. I find this works better on a wide hem, rather than attaching it directly to the coat hem.

Phew!! That is a lot of waffling, and if you made this far - well done! Here are lots of photos of the finished coat.

I think it goes without saying that I love this coat, and thank you for reading!

Lynne

Charm Patterns Rita Blouse - Make Nine #7

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 17:59:00 +0000

This is number seven in my Make Nine, and is my third Charm Patterns Rita Blouse - I've also hacked it into two dresses.

My fabric is some silk I got on ebay, and I extended the sleeves to below the elbow as on the hacked dress I made here.

It's French seamed through, and the only other change I made was to use bias tape to face the neckline and sleeves (the instructions want you to press and turn the edge to use as the elastic channel).

I also did a rolled hem on my overlocker, which was really easy when I bothered to read the instructions in my overlocker manual!

And then, as I had some Liberty Carline linen left over from this skirt, I made another one! I'm wearing both with my Jeanius jeans.

I think it's safe to say that I love this pattern, and I'm fairly sure I'll make it again.

Have a great week,

Lynne

Self-drafted blouse and Vogue V9090 skirt (View A)

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sun, 29 Sep 2019 13:30:00 +0000

I appear to have made another outfit! Again, this is a self-drafted blouse and the skirt is Vogue V9090 which came with Love Sewing Magazine a few months ago.

Let's start with the blouse.

It's the same pattern as my Hawthorn inspired blouse here, but I sewed single darts at the waist instead of the double darts on the Hawthorn blouse. I took out the V at the centre front of the neckline, and made a Peter Pan collar that meets at the centre front.

Finally, I created a yoke at the front shoulder and rotated the bust dart into gathers at the seam that joins the yoke. Before I rotated the bust dart, I ruled a parallel line 3" down from the shoulder seam, and this became the yoke. Then I ruled a line through the centre of the waist and bust darts, and extended the bust dart legs to the point where the lines met (which is a little circle in the photo below).

I ruled a line from the centre of the seam that will attach to the yoke to the little circle, then cut along it and one of the dart legs. The bust dart then gets closed, which moves it to the yoke seam. Hopefully you can see in the photo below where I've closed the bust dart, and then inserted some paper in the gap in the yoke seam. This seem then gets gathered and sewn to the yoke. Hope that make sense!

The sleeves are the same as on my Evelyn dress here, and that post includes a little How-To on how I drafted them.

The fabric is some orangey/red cotton Swiss Dot that I got from Sew Over It earlier this year. I've just had a look on their website, and sadly it doesn't seem to be available any more.

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This skirt is a Vogue "Very Easy" pattern, and it certainly is! There are three views, and the only difference is the length. I made the shortest one (View A), which is knee length on me.

My fabric is the gorgeous Liberty Carline, and this one is linen. I got it half price on the Liberty website in June, and sadly it doesn't seem to be available anymore either.

I bought 2 metres, but managed to cut this out of 1 metre by cutting the fronts, back and waistband from the Carline linen (you can see this in the photo below), and the waistband facing and pockets from some white cotton lawn. This linen is quite light-weight, so I underlined it with the cotton lawn.

I pretty much followed the instructions (which is very usual for me!) and I sewed a centred zip, which I hadn't done for forever. After sewing this I remembered why, because it was bit of a faff, but it turned out ok. Although I ended up taking the zip out to take the skirt in at bit at the centre back, because I forgot to take into account the massive amount of ease in Vogue patterns. Grrrr...

I love how these two fabrics go together, and I have enough of the linen to make another blouse which (Spoiler!) has already been made into a top. Also, the skirt has pockets...

Have a great weekend,

Lynne

Jeanius Jeans - Make Nine #6

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 19:49:00 +0000

Spoiler: These are one of the best things I've ever made!! Unfortunately you'll just have to take my word for that, as they've proved pretty impossible to photograph because they are so dark. They are also number 6 in my Make Nine.

These are the Bluprint Jeanius jeans, which is a class that shows you how to take a pattern from a pair of jeans that fit well, and then sew them up.

I have made the Closet Case Ginger Jeans before, but they were a bit big at the bum, and I had bought this class ages ago when Bluprint was still Craftsy. Not going to lie, I was pretty daunted by it, and that was after my real-life sewing pal Ruth had assured me that she'd had great success with it.

So I put it on my Make Nine to make myself do it, as I have four pieces of denim suitable for jeans. Also, time was pressing, because my original jeans are showing signs of age, and I kind of need jeans to wear!

I have exactly two pairs of jeans that I like that fit me well, and they are both exactly the same. They are low-rise super skinny jeans from New Look (UK high street shop - nothing to do with New Look patterns). I've had these jeans about six years, and one knee is out in one pair.

To make the pattern, first of all you thread-trace all the seams and details on the jeans with a different coloured thread, I used orange silk thread.

Orange thread-tracing on the front pocket, side seam and zip fly.

Orange thread-tracing on back pocket, yoke and centre back seam.

Lengthwise and crosswise grainlines on front.

Lengthwise and crosswise grainline on back.

The jeans then get laid out flat, and you pin some silk organza to them. You then trace over the thread with a pencil to get the seam lines of the jeans. The back leg is draped over a sleeve board to work the whole way around it.

The class is taught by Kenneth D King (who is now one of my favourite human beings), and he says that tracing the seams this way (rather than taking the jeans apart) means that the seams don't get distorted, so you get a more accurate pattern. Also, this technique is transferable to any other garment.

Once everything is tranferred onto the silk organza, you then trace it onto pattern paper, true it up and add a seam allowance. The class then shows you how to draft the front pockets, and pieces for the zip fly.

I used a combination of the Ginger jeans instructions and the instructions on the Jeanius class. But I used the Jeanius fly instructions as the Ginger fly is a different shape, and this is the easiest and best fly zip I've ever sewn.

The Jeanius class uses a rectangle waistband, but I wanted a contoured waistband as that's what my original jeans have, and it made sense for low-rise jeans. So I used the low-rise waistband pattern piece from the Ginger Jeans, and it worked perfectly!

My fabric is 11oz Indigo stretch denim from Guthrie and Ghani, and I can't get over how well they fit. I'm delighted with them! I will definitely be making these again, but want to wear this pair for a bit to see how they settle in.

Have a great weekend,

Lynne

Sew Over It (Maxi) Eve Dress - 2019 Make Nine #5

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 18:53:00 +0000

This is my third Sew Over It Eve dress (one and two), and probably won't be my last because I blinking love this pattern.

I was inspired to make it maxi length after seeing a gorgeous maxi version ages ago on Instagram. I just extended the length of the skirt pieces, but had to fold the side edges in a bit to fit on the fabric.

I also raised the underarm by 1 inch, and faced the armholes with black bias tape.

The fabric is some viscose bought last year from The Textile Centre. I ordered 3 metres, but they sent me 3.5 metres with a note to say that the extra half metre was because there was a slight flaw on the print. After much searching I found it, and it was only in one place and extended 8cm in from the edge. I love The Textile Centre!

A lot of petite folks say they can't wear maxis; I say nonsense!! I loves me a maxi dress, and this one is number 5 of my Make Nine. And if you follow me on Instagram, you'll know I've been making jeans, which is also part of my Make Nine, and they are a triumph as my sister would say! But they are for another post.

And this is possibly the shortest post I've ever written! Have a great weekend,

Lynne

Self-drafted Hawthorn inspired blouse and hacked Megan Nielsen Wattle Skirt

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 16:22:00 +0000

I appear to have made a matching outfit, which is very pleasing, so I'll start with the blouse.

This was inspired by the lovely neckline and collar on the Colette Patterns Hawthorn dress. I used my block to draft the blouse, then got out the Hawthorn pattern pieces to copy for the collar and neckline. Unfortunately all the details are lost in this busy print!

The blouse is shaped with bust and waist darts, and I thought I'd try splitting the waist darts into two darts for a different look. It worked really well (even if it was double the darts to sew!). Below is a photo the back of my toile, which is a bit easier to see. You can see the double dart on the left, and the single dart on the right.

The fabric is some left-over cotton lawn that's been in my stash for years. I had 89 cm in length and it was 54" wide, and I was very pleased with my Olympic Standard pattern tetrising to be able to get it cut out - being small sometimes has it's advantages! I was even able to make some bias tape from the area between the two armholes, and used this to face the armholes.

I love how this turned out, and will be making it again.

The skirt is my very hacked version of Megan Nielsen's Wattle Skirt. This pattern passed me by when it was released, but then I saw this version by Katie from Katie Makes A Dress and was sold (and if you don't follow Katie's blog, you absolutely should - she's amazing).

This pattern has four very different versions which I love, it's always great to get so many options on a pattern. All four views have a rectangle waistband, so the seam where the waistband meets the skirt sits at the natural waist. The skirt closes with a clever overlap on the top of the left pocket, so it doesn't have a zip.

Katie made View D, and as she pointed out, rectangle waistbands don't really work on small, curvy folk. So I thought "I know, I'll change this to a contoured waistband. How hard can it be??!!". The Too Long, Didn't Read is - very, and don't do it...

I'll try and explain what I did. I didn't use the waistband pieces at all, and the top of my skirt is the top of the skirt pieces on the pattern. I marked in the seam allowance at the waist, then marked down 1 3/4" for the waist band. Then I traced out new skirt and pocket pieces, and sewed it up.

It all went well until I realised that I hadn't allowed for the loss of the top of the pocket opening; luckily I have small hands, and the pockets are usable! It this point the skirt sat for about three weeks considering it's behaviour. Then I plucked up the courage to draft the waistband, and I really can't explain how I did this, but I cut it out and hoped for the best. And it totally worked!!!

The fabric is Robert Kaufmann Essex linen which is 55% lined and 45% cotton, and the colour is called Kelly. I ended up sort of using the closures from Views A and B, because I couldn't be bothered to make the ties for View D, and my lovely button came from my Granny's button box.

So success was clutched from the jaws of disaster with the skirt, and I'm loving my outfit!

Happy sewing,

Lynne

A tale of two shirtdresses

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 09:08:00 +0000

I seem to be all about the shirtdresses at the minute, and have made three in a row. The first was the Sew Over It Penny dress here, these are the next two.

Both are self-drafted, and the first is made from this gorgeous Hill-Berg Fabrics poppy print quilting cotton. This came from the @dressmakersanonymousbelfast fabric swap earlier this year.

I am especially pleased with my Olympic standard pattern tetrising on this, because the fabric is 2 metres long and about 45 inches wide. Sometimes being small has it's benefits!

The bodice has princess seams, as I'm finding these are a better fit for my full bust; the collar is a two piece shirt collar, and the skirt is gathered rectangles. Also, it has pockets.

Here's my top tip on gathering cotton fabric - don't use cotton thread! I'd put the stitch length to 5.0mm and turned the thread tension to zero, and the thread refused to gather up. So I ended up unpicking it and using silk thread, which worked perfectly.

The black buttons came from a big bag I bought on ebay, and I flipping love this dress!

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The second dress is also self-drafted. The bodice is the same as the dress above, but it has a convertible collar and placket facing.

The skirt is a self-drafted half-circle skirt, and I used the same drafting method as on my Penny Dress.

This dress is all about the fabric, and isn't it amazing?! I got it from Oh! Sew, which is a gorgeous new fabric shop that opened in Northern Ireland after Easter. Fabric shops are pretty thin on the ground in NI, so I was understandably excited about this and had to go on the day it opened, which is when I bought this cotton poplin. And if you happen to find yourself in this part of the planet, then I can recommend a visit!

Accidental print matching on the collar :)

My long-suffering sister (who doesn't sew) got trailed along with me to the shop, and she doodled this little inspiration picture when we got some lunch in the cafe next door. As she said to me "I'll draw them, you make them!". I also flipping love this dress too!

Have a great weekend,

Lynne

Sew Over It Penny Dress

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 19:13:00 +0000

I've made three shirtdresses recently, but the other two are for another post. This one is the Sew Over It Penny dress. I liked the look of the looser fit on this dress (the waist is gathered with an elastic channel), and it's a bit different from the other shirtdresses that I've made before.

I couldn't decide between a size 8 and size 10, so went with the size 10 to allow for a bit of room in the bust. Also, and brace yourself (!!), I didn't make a toile. Annnnnd, the bodice was too big. So I took it in by 1/2" on each side seam, and took a generous inch off the grow on sleeves.

The instructions for the placket had me scratching my head, but then I found this great post from the Sew Over It blog, which explained it perfectly.

I love this yoke detail on the shoulders.

On the other hand, the bodice length was perfect on me, as I've seen a few people saying it was a bit short. I also changed the full circle skirt to a half circle skirt. This was because I felt the full circle would be too much fabric on my small frame, and also, much less fabric to hem.

I drafted the half circle skirt using the instructions in a book called Freehand Fashion by Chinelo Bally (who, you may remember, was on The Great British Sewing Bee and was a-maz-ing).

I measured the waist seam on the front and back of the bodice, including the seam allowances - this gives half the measurement for the front and back waist. For the bodice front, I measured to the centre of the finished button placket.

In interests of full disclosure - I am absolutely useless at maths; so if I can do this, then so can anybody. Here's what I did:

My front measurement was 25.75 cm, and the back was 27 cm.

Multiply the measurement by 4, then divide by 3.14. So my sums were -

Back

27cm x 4 = 108 cm

108cm divided by 3.14 = 34.39. Round this down to 34 cm

Front

25.75 cm x 4 = 103 cm

103 cm divided by 3.14 = 32.8. Round this down to 32.5 cm.

If you're making a size 10, then these numbers will work.

Then you get a bit of paper which has all the sides longer than the calculated measurements, I used some drawing paper from Ikea that comes on a roll. One corner needs to be a right angle, so I used my pattern drafting ruler to make sure it was. Fold the paper so the two sides of the right angle meet each other, like if you were making a paper plane.

I'm over-complicating! Look at the two photos below, the first is folded, the second is unfold.

Then get a ruler, and measure from the point of the page (where the pen is pointing to in the photo below) along boths edges with the calculated measurements and mark it. I think there's a fancy mathematical term for this - I have no clue what it is! In the photo below I measuring 34 cm for the back.

Then use the ruler to measure from the point of the page along the width of the page. These are the two lines marked in black (ignore the pencil line with the Xs through it!). This will be the waist line for the back and front, and will be the same as your calculated measurement.

In the above photo you can see two lines marked 27cm Back and 25.75 Front, because both can be done on the same bit of paper!

Trace the waist line onto some pattern paper, then extend the side edges down to the skirt length including waist seam allowance and hem, and measure down along the waist line for the skirt hem. One edge will be the centre front/back, and the other the side seam, and the pieces get cut out on the fold.

Alternatively, you can use one of those tracing wheel thingies to go over the waistlines onto the folded page below, then fold it out and mark the entire waist as in the below photo. Extend the side edges and waist to hem for the skirt length, and the pieces can be cut out on a single layer.

This includes the seam allowances, so you don't even need to add them on afterwards! Hurray!! (Geez, that was long more long-winded than I expected - hope it makes sense!).

Because I have a separate skirt front and back, I have side seams; and than means I have pockets...

The fabric is some red gingham from ebay. It looks a bit like seer sucker, and I thought it was cotton, but I think there's a bit of poly in it.

This isn't my favourite of my three shirtdresses, but it's growing on me and it's great for the lovely weather we're having this week, which is about flipping time!

Have a great weekend,

Lynne

Deer and Doe Luzerne Coat - 2019 Make Nine #4

noreply@blogger.com (Lynne) — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 08:33:00 +0000

This is the Deer and Doe Luzerne Coat and is number 4 of my 2019 Make Nine.

It's described as:

"Close-fitting, unlined, double-breasted trench coat with princess seams. Pleats at front and back, diagonal welt pockets, and two-piece sleeves"

I made a size 38 for the bodice and sleeves, and graded out to as size 40 at the waist. I shortened the sleeves (and need to turn them up a bit more!), but didn't shorten the bodice (which is, frankly, astonishing), and lengthened the skirt. I wanted something that would cover the skirt of my dresses, and as I have the PDF pattern, used the skirt length on the size 52 which is the largest size.

I didn't make the belt, because it would have got lost in no time; and didn't add the back tab because I didn't have enough buttons for it. Also, I thought it would be a bit uncomfortable to sit in with a button digging into my back.

I also didn't make the bound buttonholes as on the pattern, and just machined buttonholes.

The pattern has the following pieces to be interfaced:

Two of the four front bodice pieces - Piece 1
One of the two back yoke pieces - Piece 3
One of the two collar and collar stand pieces - Pieces 13 and 12

But I also interfaced:

Both skirt front facings - Piece 11
Both pocket welts - Piece 9
Both sleeve tabs - Piece 16

This was because I just felt that these pieces would require a bit more stability.

My fabric is some polyester crepe from The Textile Centre. I had 3 metres of this, and the pattern calls for 3.6 metres, but with some pattern tetris I had fabric to spare. My buttons were harvested from my first Pavot Coat, and the bias binding for the seams is from ebay. The innards photos below aren't brilliant, but it gives an idea of how the binding is used.

My dress is a Sew Over It Vintage Shirt Dress

As with all Deer and Doe patterns, the instructions are brief, but easy to follow and understand.

There were a few mistakes along the way (my fault - not the pattern), I won't bore you with them, but I feel that if you don't make a mistake on a coat, you're not doing it right!

I love this coat, and it's perfect for this time of year because we've had a lot of rain in Belfast lately, which is very unamusing!

Have a great weekend,

Lynne