Vintage summer

Hello and happy Easter/Spring/something! It's been a while since I posted as I've been off enjoying some well deserved sunshine after a manic month or so of work. Today I have a very summery dress to show you. 

Last year I bought this 1976 Style pattern and used it to make a halter top as I didn't feel like a dress like this would be useful in the British climate, however when my lovely boyfriend booked us a holiday in Caribbean (!!!) I suddenly had an excuse for a dress like this.

The halter top didn't really get worn as the bodice was too loose and I was worried about potential flashing!  However at least making that version meant that I knew what alterations I needed to make for my holiday dress.  I shaved off a good 6cm around the bust, grading out to the pattern sizing at the waist. I also added some length to the bodice. 

On the same thrifting trip as I found the sheets for my Vintage Shirt Dress, I found this duvet cover for £2.99.  The second I saw it, I thought it would be great for a 'floating around in the sun' type dress.  Match made in heaven for my vintage halter dress, no? I lined it with some white cotton that I had in my stash.

Turns out this is the perfect floating around in the sun dress. However when I was actually in the sun I was having too much fun to get decent pictures so you're going to have to put up with shots of the dress modelled by my mannequin Rosie. 

Not only is this a sunny weather win, it's my first make for my vintage pattern pledge! I love the 70s and have quite a few 70s patterns that I want to make up. However, apparently they were very into the midi skirt in the 70s but I am not! I much prefer my skirts firmly above the knee or floor length, so I chopped a good 10cm off the bottom of this (although some of this excess length was caused by my lengthening the bodice). 

The pattern suggests a hook and eye closure for the halter but I wanted something a bit more secure and decorative and so used this cute button from my stash. Actually to be extra safe I'm going to add an extra hidden button to the halter as it did slip a little while wearing it.

Sunny selfie!

It's become quite hard to believe that this time last week I was floating around in the 30 degree sunshine.  The U.K. Weather is turning it in to a distant memory, which is problematic as my brain is firmly in the summer sewing camp so there may be some weather inappropriate wear in future posts! 

One UFO down

It's UFO (unfinished object) month over on the monthly stitch where I am an irregular contributor,and it was a good excuse to challenge myself to return to some of the UFOs that I had knocking around my sewing room.  

The items that mainly end up as my UFOs tend to be things that I think for one reason or another are not going to work out.  The first one of these that I decided to tackle was a Sew Over It, Ultimate shift dress that I had cut out in October/November last year (at the same time as my top version) and had just never sewn together.  This was partly because, while I love the print, the top has some fit issues which means that it's not that comfortable to wear and I had a sneaking suspicion was sure that a shift dress with no waist shaping would not work for my shape. However in my gung-ho way I had cut it out of a fabulous silk crepe that I was determined I should not waste, so it was time to get to work.

Ta da! From UFO to FO!

I figured that some of the restriction I experience in the arms/upper back with my Ultimate top might be helped if I used a 1cm seam allowance instead of 1.5cm.  This worked well but I was still left with a sack effect round the middle.  Gillian's made a few lovely shift dresses where she's used her Alma pattern to create some darts for the back. I didn't have the alma pattern so I returned to my sixties shift dress (which I must return to, the darts may be more work but realistically create a better shift shape for someone with my proportions) and pinched the back darts from it.  I considered adding some darts to the front but decided that since I'm unlikely to wear the dress without a belt and adding them had the potential to go wrong and spoil the line of my dress, I wouldn't bother.

I got the silk crepe from fabricsforsale. I'd ordered 2m for some other purpose but they didn't have enough to complete my order, so I took the 1.3m they had left as it sounded lovely and put it aside for 'some other purpose'. Turns out this was it.  The ultimate dress is really thrifty on the fabric front, I got a dress with 3/4  length sleeves out of 1.3m. I did cut the facings out of a different fabric but I'm not sure now if I did that because I ran out of fabric or if I just fancied the idea of Liberty insides! I finished the back with a ribbon loop and a lovely ceramic button that I found in the Ulster Museum shop, last time I was back in Belfast.

Im now pleased with this finished dress and it will be perfect to wear to several of the 30th birthday/weddings/hen dos (yes I've hit that life stage) I have to attend in the next few months and the silk crepe feels wonderful to wear.  However, I think the top of the dress is still on the blousier side than I would like.  Clearly some more fit work has to happen before I make another version of this dress.

While the idea of a simple to sew, simple to throw on dress appeals to my lazy side I think I may have to accept that in order to pull off the shift dress, I need darts and shaping and to sew a little bit more than the few seams in this dress.  How about you, how do you make shift dresses work for your shape?

Opal cardigan review

I was really excited when I got selected as a reviewer for Paprika Paterrns latest pattern; the Opal cardigan.  Having recently made the Jade skirt I was impressed with their PDFs and instructions and excited to try the latest offering.  I made a couple of design alterations to my cardigan. These were partly due to the fabric I chose to use and partly because I wanted a bit of waist definition.

Actually despite having just mentioned making a change to create waist definition I like this photo without the belt-as the pattern intended-maybe that will teach me to meddle!

The fabric I used was this one from girlcharleeuk. I had originally ordered it for a different project but when it arrived I felt it was a bit fine and drapey for that purpose but as it was lovely and soft I did want to wrap myself up in it so it became my Opal cardigan. However as it is so fine, it was a nightmare to sew! I constructed most of the cardigan using my overlocker which slightly felt like I was using a sledge hammer to crack a nut, this fabric feels like it should be sewn up by fairies with tiny delicate stitches. The overlocker did the job though. My sewing machine could not cope with this fabric at all. It just looked like a mess when I tried to do almost anything, although the hem was done on the sewing machine and I managed not to mangle the fabric. One of the pitfalls of having such a basic machine is that it really struggles to cope with any complicated fabrics or stitches. For this reason I decided to ditch the pockets too. Actually with hindsight this was probably a good thing as the fabric is so drapey that I don't think they would have stood up as pockets very well.

So now let's chat about the pattern.  Having now made two of the Paprika patterns I am happy to sign up as a fan.  They're just so well drafted and I find the instructions great and full of specific and helpful details.  With the Jade skirt I appreciated the interfacing pieces and with this one it was a few lines on sewing up areas that will get strain such as the top of the pockets and shoulders.  Lisa suggests using clear elastic or a piece of jersey cut on the grain.  I had never seen this second method recommended before and decided to give it a go and it was great.  I think it particularly helped with my super fine fabric.

I decided that since my fabric was going to be draping over every lump and bump anyway, I would add some belt loops and a belt to allow me to close the cardigan (I prefer to do this when I'm cold) and also to create some waist definition.  I was super easy to do this.  I just created 2 little tubes for the loops and a bigger, longer tube for the belt.  Before I sewed the side seams I just draped the cardigan over my mannequin and marked the waist point and pinned the loops to it and then just sewed up the side seams as instructed.  One thing I would say about this pattern is that the arm come up very long.  This is fine if like me you have super long monkey arms and like having your sleeves come down over your hands but something to bear in mind if you're not.  The dopey photo below was the only one where you could see the length of the sleeves with my fingers peeping out.

While the fabric I picked really wasn't that appropriate, I still see myself getting some wear out of this version.  I'm also seriously drooling over a couple of the versions I've seen so far, like Lisa's long version and Charlotte's woven version.  A coatigan like one of these may pop up in my future.  How about you, are you tempted by this pattern?

For any of my US readers, as part of the Opal launch, Gorgeous Fabrics are offering 20% off all their full price sweater knits with the code PAPRIKA20 until the 15th March. 

I am on serious count down to my Friday night glass of wine.  Happy weekend all!  Hope you all have fun wine or non-wine related weekends planned.

Let's talk vintage

I was really excited when Marie and Kerry announced the third Vintage Pattern Pledge.  I loved the 

idea behind this challenge, which Marie set up to challenge herself to use some of the vintage patterns that she was accumulating faster than she could sew.  As I am in a similar position, I also feel it's a good idea to challenge myself.  I've taken part in the vintage pattern pledge for the last two years although the first year I spectacularly failed to meet my pledge.  Last year I did manage it.  I have been thinking hard about what I should pledge.  We all put pressures on ourselves and so in my deliberations my internal monologue was telling me that I should 'pledge more, pledge bigger' however, I also know that the next year is going to be busy and stressful and I don't need to put extra stress on myself.  So for that reason I'm going to make the exact same pledge that I made last year, which is: to make five vintage patterns from my stash in the next year.  This is the the initial pile I have plans for but I guess we'll see how many come to fruition.

Now on a vintage note (which I know doesn't count as part of the pledge) I have a Sew Over It Vintage Shirt Dress to show you.  It's also a refashion which makes me a little bit happy.  

I was lucky enough to receive the Shirt Dress pattern from my aunt for Christmas and when I spotted this sheet and pillowcase set in a charity shop, I knew it was the perfect match.  I found it in the British Heart Foundation shop in Gillingham and at £1.95 for 2 sheets and 2 pillowcases it was a serious bargain lot of fabric.  Also I really loved the lily print.

This became:

I made up the dress in size 12 grading 14 at the hips. Usually with Sew Over It patterns I have to do a broad back adjustment but I'd read a few reviews of this pattern which mentioned that it comes up pretty loose so I risked it and didn't make any adjustments. I found that it really was too loose round the waist so I took it in by a couple of cm and I could probably do with making a size smaller on top as I do feel it's a little large, especially when I have my hands on my hips like this:

I slightly goofed one of the buttonholes-the one at the waist-it's a bit too small which is a pain a as its a struggle to open and fasten this crucial button and due to its placement I can't avoid undoing it when putting dress on. Oops!  It's not a massive problem but it is a touch frustrating.  The buttons are some silvery vintage ones I had in my stash.

Overall I have a lovely new dress I'm excited to wear. It had its first outing to a Vintage fair at Alexandra Palace but it was so cold and seriously windy so taking outdoor photos was a challenge. Luckily Ally Pally has a great entrance with a domed glass ceiling which meant that we could take photos in the warm. However, my photographer was much more interested in going to look at antiques than she was in taking photos of me/the dress.  Although she did get this one with good skirt action.

How about you?  Have you decided on your vintage pledge yet?  Made the Vintage shirt dress pattern?

Where I manage to make my life more complicated

So today I'm going to tell a story of how I took a well explained, relatively simple pattern and manage to make a series of ridiculous errors! However, fortunately it has a happy ending. 

I had been coveting the Paprika patterns Jade skirt pretty much since its release. I'm not sure why it kept getting pushed down my 'to buy' list, especially as I had the fabric I wanted to make it up in in my stash-a ponte that I bought from minervacrafts a couple of years ago. 

I love the way the stripes go crazy directions with the pleats!

To make allowances for a lack of stretch in my fabric I cut a 5 on the waist grading to a 6 at the hips. This was an error on multiple fronts, as my measurements meant that I should have made a 4 at the waist, grading to a 5/6 at the hips. Firstly, I really should have checked the fabric recommendations in relation to stretch, the stretch needed for the skirt is not that great!   Secondly I really need to get my head around the idea that there is a significant difference between my waist and hips, and cut out accordingly.

This was my first time making a paprika patterns pattern and I found the instructions really clear and I loved some of the user friendly details of the pattern such as the tiny pattern pieces for interfacing-not strictly necessary but super user friendly.  With this pattern there is also the added bonus of technique tutorials and videos on the paprika patterns website. So far so good, however then I started making errors.  I followed the video to create the pleats which made it really straight forward but somehow I kept managing to drop them out as soon as I started stitching.  I must have repeated this step about 5 times, I cannot tell you how frustrated I was!  I got there in the end though thankfully.

I love the exposed zipper detail and I don't why it looks like there is a pucker at the bottom but I can assure you that there isn't.  Having spent some time working on my exposed zippers for my last pair of Ultimate trousers I decided not to look at the paprika patterns tutorial which was a shame because   their tutorial ensures that the exposed zipper looks as good on the inside as its enveloped between the lining and outer shell.  My freestyle method left an unclean finish on the inside which is sad as the rest of the construction leaves a lovely neat finish on the inside.

Despite all my self criticism, I now have a new skirt that I love.  The pleats are a very cute detail and the skirt is a really wearable addition to my wardrobe.  I'm also really glad that I've found a new pattern and pattern company that I got good results with.  

2015 Retrospective

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a lovely festive period. I had a very manic Christmas and New Year although it was lovely to catch up with lots of family.  However, the return to reality has been tough which is why I'm slacking behind on this retrospective.  I hope you aren't completely over seeing them yet!

2015 was fairly awful for me personally but I did have some highlights; I moved in with my lovely boyfriend and am grateful, as ever for the support and laughs provided by my wonderful friends and family.

Despite everything that happened personally last year, I did manage a fairly respectable sewing output.  I made 5 skirts, 2 pairs of trousers, 1 jumpsuit, 14 tops/jumpers, 5 dresses and 1 bag.  Actually what's even more impressive is that among these completed makes there were fairly few fails, I like to think this is because I'm getting better at fit and choosing fabrics (however, it's also partly because I didn't finish many things that were not working out!)

My hits of 2015 were:

1. My pleather circle skirt. I think this is probably my favourite make of this year and I get compliments on it ever time I wear it which never hurts!

2. My Ultimate Trousers with the ankle zips.  I feel like these are a really good make and I love the zip detail which drove me crazy when I was making it but I now feel was totally worth it.

3. Discovering the Dolores batwing pattern.  I have plans for many more of these, it's so easy to knock up, doesn't eat much fabric and its super flattering.

 4. I love this pencil skirt and wore it loads.  The pattern needs some further tweaking to get it right but my first version is a win for the fabric and sex appeal of the classic pencil skirt.  2016 should definitely see another Mathilde in my life too.

5. My 1980s top.  This was one of my makes for my Vintage Pattern Pledge.  I made two versions of this pattern and got so much wear out of this one in particular.

Also this year I really upped my game with knitting, although most have been gifts for other people which didn't make it to the blog.  However, I now feel confident to attempt lots of new garments and patterns, although my output is pretty slow.  I would like to make some more knitted items for me this year.

My goals for this year were:
to refashion more
to make a pair of trousers
to focus on separates
to be involved in more sewing challenges
and an extra one which was added in later which was to stash bust.
I've been pretty successful at all of these, although I haven't done as many refashions as I would have liked and the stash busting went really well until about September when I fell off the wagon.  My focus on separates has led to success in my quest to have some everyday wearable outfits which pleases me as it means that I can wear me-made most days. This year I participated in a number of sewing challenges which were definitely some of my highlights this year; I achieved my Vintage Pattern Pledge of 4 garments, participated in me-made-may and took part in the sew independent sew indie month. Win!

Most of my fails didn't make it to the blog as I tended to chuck my fails in the corner in a huff rather than take pictures of them for the blog.  For the most part these were dresses, which I tended to attempt to make for events but didn't leave myself enough time to fit properly.  However, of the makes that made it to the blog, there were a couple of fails.

 My Bronte top.  I just can't get over the poor fit and it makes me cross, I picked a really poor fabric which didn't help.  The ladies in the facebook stashbusting sewalong group were super helpful with ideas about the fit but I couldn't face another bad top so haven't tried another one.

My halter top refashion.  I love the idea of this and in the photos it looks so great (I think) but it's too loose at the upper back and I didn't want to risk flashing everyone so it didn't really get worn.

Generally I feel like I'm really improving my skills but still have a long way to go and to be honest I'm enjoying just being on this journey and learning along the way at my own pace. This year my goals are:
1. To focus a bit more on detail.  Both in terms of designing a garment but also in relation to techniques.  I think I want to start getting more stuff right than just to get it done.

 2. To take part in sewing challenges again this year, they were some of my highlights of 2015 and I'd like for them to be an equally great part of 2016.

3. Make (finish) more dresses.  While I'm very happy that I've made everyday separates, I'm sad that I don't have more pretty dresses. So this year I want to make some dresses. I really lack 'special' handmade outfits, this year I'd like to be able to wear something handmade to one of the occasions I'll attend this year. I just need to ensure I leave myself  enough time.

Phew that felt like an epic post!  Happy 2016 all and I look forward to our sewing adventures this year.

...And another top

Hi all.  It's been a little while.  What with work and uni stuff and all the upcoming Christmas pressures it's been a bit hectic in my world.  And while I haven't been finding much time to sew, I have been knitting up a storm which sadly I can't show off yet as the finished items are mainly Christmas gifts.  Anyway today I do have a finished item to show you, it's another top!  Having realised earlier in the year that I really needed to make some tops as there was a real gap in my wardrobe, I think I've become fixated on making tops now.  This one is another Angelica top from the little black dress book, I love my first one despite some of the fit issues and wanted another one. 

I got the fabric from the man outside Sainbury's in Walthamstow.  It's a lovely soft viscose and I love the geometric, animal print and at £2 a metre I couldn't really resist.  One slight shame is that there are some flaws in it which I didn't notice until I'd sewn up the top, they're not super noticeable but it does detract slightly from the awesomeness of the top in my head.  I've got most of the fit issues sorted.  I took loads off the side seams and waist but I don't think I've taken quite enough off at the hips as the excess fabric there feels a bit disproportionate-next time!

I wore it a few weeks ago on a trip to the Bath Christmas market when it was significantly colder than it is right now (what's going on with the weather?) and I refused to take my coat off for most of the day so we only got a couple of indoor photos of the top.  I really recommend the Bath Christmas market though, its prettier and full of a lot less trash than lots of these markets are.  I managed to get quite a few lovely gifts for people while I was there.  I realise that with less than a week to go this information is really only helpful for people local to Bath but for the rest of you, I recommend it for next year.  I bought some of these chocolate tools (how cool are they) and these ceramics (I wanted to buy all the ceramics but my sister talked me out of it-my bank balance thanks her!)

Anyway that's me signing off for Christmas folks.  Hope you all have lovely festive periods, whatever you're up to.  Merry Christmas!