Bow backed Nettie

Hi all, I hope you've had a lovely weekend.  We've had, what I suspect, is the last of the summer sunshine which has made everything very cheery and I've been able to relax and enjoy catching up with some friends.  At the risk of becoming a Closet case files fan girl, I've got another Closet case files pattern to show you today; a Nettie dress.  I love my previous Nettie dress and bought this fabric to make another, months ago.  I found it on the Birmingham rag market, on a trip with my boyfriends family.  They were very long suffering as we did a tour of the market and Barry's. I got the stripey jersey for my boat necked lady skater on that trip too.

This time I wanted to make a Nettie hack that I had spotted on Tilly and the buttons a while ago, the bow back was really calling to me.  I used the tutorial that Tilly had posted but obviously used the dress version of the Nettie pattern.

The bow is not lopsided but it's surprisingly difficult to photograph a back!

The guy who sold me the fabric claimed it was a cotton jersey but I'm not sure I believe him as it doesn't feel like any cotton jersey I've ever seen.  Although I haven't been bothered to do a burn test to find out, I think I'm dressed in 100% poly ponte!  This fabric has very little stretch which means my new Nettie is definitely not a dress to wear on a body-conscious day.

I got my boyfriend to take some pictures of me in this on a lovely walk around Morden Hall Park.  It was such a perfect autumnal day and we got some lovely pictures.

Also some daft photos where we established that I am  not suited to being a model, you should have heard me whinging about the sun in my eyes and uncomfortable lumpy bits of the tree poking into me.  Clearly I am not prepared to suffer for my art.  

I wanted to enter this dress for the 'dressed to the nines' category over on sew independent so we also took some photos once I was ready for an evening out.

Belt from New Look and sparkly shoes from Dorothy Perkins.

If any of you reading are following the Sew Independent 2015 contest could I make a polite request for your vote!  Have a lovely week all and happy sewing.

A day out with Nettie

When the Nettie dress and bodysuit pattern was released I really loved it however, I was on a pattern diet and resisted buying it.  I'm always on a pattern diet, like most diets it usually fails, however, this time I didn't need to buy it.  I won it as a prize in the repurpose, reuse, refashion challenge!  Winning a prize itself was very exciting but winning a pattern I'd been lusting after was even more amazing.

I made a muslin of this back in November, in a gorgeous deep red. the remnants of which made the ruffle for my refashioned skirt. It was a 'wearable muslin', in that I wore it as part of a fancy dress costume for a 7 deadly sins party, and then never again!

I seem to remember there being more to this costume but by this stage it was probably fairly late and several glasses of wine down. Also it's now months on so my memory isn't as reliable as it might be.  I was meant to be wrath.  I really recommend 7 deadly sins as a theme, it was a lot of fun and people came in some really epic costumes!

However, I made my Nettie muslin up in a very non-stretchy ponte so it was much too tight, and made me look like all my body fat was trying to escape, not a good look.  So this time I used a slightly stretchier knit (although still a fairly stable ponte) and went up a size.

I'm happy enough with the result and I love the colour but a stretchier knit would be a lot more forgiving, I guess I should really pay a bit more attention to the recommended fabric guidelines!  However, I do really like the shape of this dress and am sure that I will make more.  Also I love sewing with knits, they're so fast.  I'm all about the instant gratification at the moment!  I've just purchased the Sew over it cowl neck dress so watch this space for some more instant gratification knit dresses!

I wore my lovely blue Nettie on a day out to Highgate with my mother and sister.

Highgate cemetery has lots of famous people (and non famous people) buried there, including Karl Marx.

 To be honest I'm not sure Karl would approve of the frivolity of this photo, I'm not sure useless, pretty dresses had a place in his manifesto!  By the way, we have not had a heatwave in London, these photos were totally staged, I had my coat firmly on for the rest of the day.  Although it's nice to have sun even if it isn't warm yet.

 I really love old English cemeterys and this one is really beautiful.  It's a non-religiously affiliated graveyard and there are a mix of graves from all religions and non-religions which I find really lovely as it feels really inclusive and it is great to see what people of different backgrounds do to remember their dead.

Anyone else a massive fan of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?  

As well as a visit to the cemetery, we also had lunch and hit the charity shops.  While I wouldn't say that the Highgate charity shops are the cheapest, they have some real quality stuff, I got some great finds:

This has been on my amazon wish list for a while but at £25 I was holding off on buying it.  I got this in the Oxfam bookshop for £15.  While this isn't super cheap, it's still a saving on £10 on the original.   I have just checked and actually this is currently selling on Amazon for £20.40, however, a) i've still saved money and b) my money has gone to a really good cause.  I might do a snapshot or review of this at some point in the future.

I got this lovely fitted Hawes and Curtis cotton shirt.  You should have heard the comments from my family in relation to this shirt, they are not fans of crazy florals. However, I don't care, I'm a bit excited about this very floral shirt and it will definitely fit into my wardrobe.  This was £8.00 from the Cancer research shop.

More florals!  This is an amazing boat necked jumper.  It's made from silk and cashmere which I'm very excited about.  It's lovely and soft and I think it's going to be super warm.  I'm not a fan of the bow, however that will be a super easy job to unpick, maybe my task for in front of the Great British Sewing Bee this week.  This was £14.99 from the Oxfam shop.

This photo is very rubbish I'm afraid!  This is actually a really cute olive cardigan, from White Stuff, which also came from the Oxfam store for £8.99.

All in all a lovely day out, with photo posing, fun company, some charity support and wardrobe renewal, what more could you ask from a Sunday really?