2014 - A Year in Sewing

Happy New Year! I'm rather pleased with my sewing output for 2014, there were a few stumbling blocks along the way (more on that later…), but by and large it was a great sewing year. My favourite make of the year has got to be my Dotted Chambray Bow Blouse.

You all know I love bow blouses, I love Mrs Slocombe, I love polka dots and I love chambray, so the amalgamation of all these things almost finished me off. It's not just my favourite make of the year, it's my favourite make OF ALL TIME! I always receive compliments when I wear it too, the bow seems to be particularly impressive for some reason! Coming in at a close equal second are two dresses I made in the summer: my Kate Spade-inspired Lemon dress….

and my Anna 6696.

They were both inspired by pictures I found on Pinterest (see here and here) and I feel ridiculously pleased that I was able to use the original inspiration pictures to make dresses that were very individual to me. They both fit really well, and although they're quite different in design, I feel they're a good indicator of my style. Plus the lemon dress is yellow - one of the few rogue pieces to step out of line from my strict red, white and blue colour dictatorship this year! 

The most useful item I sewed this year was my raincoat. I won't lie, it did give me grief during the making of it, but that was all forgotten as soon as I donned my vision in navy blue waterproof loveliness! This year I also discovered the joy of sewing my own basic items of clothing (mostly Bronte T shirts and Mabel skirts). As wonderful and useful as they are, I find them deeply boring to blog about, so if any further versions pop up, I'll just mention them in passing!

As mentioned earlier, I did have a couple of misses this year: despite my best intentions, the Cressida skirt I pattern tested for Jennifer Lauren Vintage just didn't work. My first Afternoon blouse has also been shown the door, purely down to the fact that it doesn't fit. It's a real shame as I love the red shirting fabric I made it from, but there's no getting away from the fact that I cut a size too small. That'll teach me eh! And finally, the darts on my vintage red dress defeated me in the end and it's now languishing, dart-less with side seams ripped open in frustration. Maybe I'll come back to it, if I can ever be arsed. 

I think this year was the year I finally learnt to say no to every single sewing challenge I heard about. It's still a bit of a struggle as my natural inclination is to immediately scream "me too, ME TOO" but life's just too short. I did participate in the Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge run by Marie at A Stitching Odyssey but deliberately set myself a low target (to sew up three vintage patterns in 2014). The other reason I didn't commit to everything under the sun was because I found myself hosting a sewing challenge of my own - the return of One Week, One Pattern 2014!

Although it was a lot of work, I really did enjoy organising and participating in OWOP and was overwhelmed by how many people joined in and embraced the challenge themselves - thank you so much everyone! I loved giving my beloved 1950's Simplicity pattern its place in the spotlight for a week, if anything, it's made me even fonder of the pattern than I was before!

As for my sewing plans for 2015, I'm really keen to use the skills I learnt during my pattern cutting weekend to create a well fitting bodice. This kind of thing doesn't come naturally to me, but I would like to get my dart positioning right and conquer the bloody things once and for all. With this in mind, I've got plans to make a simple, collarless coat in the early part of the year. I do have a pattern in mind but I may have a go at self drafting (ahem!) I think it will probably end up as a combination of the two. Other than that I'm going to just sew where the mood takes me,  Exciting!

My favourite picture of the year: with Rachel and Winnie at Goldhawk Road

I've had so much pleasure from sewing this year and met up with some amazingly talented and generous people (both old and new). All I want for next year is more of the same! Thank you again for your support and friendship this year and Happy Sewing, wherever you are! x 

Delphine with roses

I told you it wouldn't be long in the making didn't I?! This version of the Delphine skirt from Love at First Stitch was even easier to make than my first, largely because I cut out the correct size this time! I made a straight size 3, with a ½" seam allowance at the waist instead of ⅝" and that was it! The fit's really good.

One thing I didn't mention in my first Delphine post was that I initially lengthened the skirt by two inches as it looked a bit short. Of course when I tried it on, it looked all wrong so I lopped two inches off the bottom, taking it back to its original length. My measuring must have been off however, (or maybe the size 4 is slightly longer?), because I didn't alter the original length at all on this version and it's turned out shorter. So just for reference, the red denim version is probably just under one inch longer than the original pattern length.

As per my last version, I added a standard dress zip rather than an invisible one, which will hopefully be more hard wearing. The waistband facing is made from the red shirting left over from my Afternoon Blouse, which is a lovely bright contrast against the Liberty Carline twill.

Yes, you read that correctly, Liberty Carline twill!! My favourite Liberty floral design - in TWILL! I didn't even know Liberty twill existed until last year when I made my blue rose shirt dress. Reader Nathalie contacted me after seeing the post to say she had a metre of Carline twill going spare. It was left over from a project she'd finished and did I want it? YES!!!!! I screeched. That's one of the best things about having a blog - the friendships you make online. I've never met Nathalie - she doesn't even have a blog -  but we've been emailing sporadically for a couple of years now thanks to our similar tastes in fabric! I'm so pleased that her leftover metre of Liberty twill has been turned into such a beaut of a skirt.

The Carline print is very busy, so I think it looks best teamed with a plain top half. The top I'm wearing isn't a particularly great match, but all my red tops were in the wash and it's the only plain cream top I own. Hmm, this might be just the kick up the arse I need to make a few neutral, short sleeved tops for summer. On the subject of summer dressmaking, I've almost finished two projects - my denim sailor shorts (talked about here) and a lemon print dress (inspiration here).  They're both pretty awesome so it will be a big punch up to decide which one features on the blog first.

And one final piece of news.… the winner of the Dragonfly Fabrics giveaway is Frankie Carson from KnitWitsOwls! Hoorah!! I'll be in touch soon to organise your prize Frankie. Thank you to everybody else who entered the giveaway. Have a great week! x

Liberty Afternoon blouse

Here's my beautiful Liberty fabric from Sewbox, swiftly transformed into an Afternoon Blouse. If I calculated the total amount of time it took to make it, the result would easily fit into an afternoon. In reality however, it took a couple of weeks as my boys have been on school holidays. I managed to fit in the odd twenty minutes here and there, in between herding them around museums and plying them with Easter eggs. It's really not my favourite way to sew, but beggars can't be choosers and I do have a goy-jus blouse to show for it, so all is well.

After my worries about the Simple Sew pattern (which incidentally has now gone to a much better home than I could give it), I decided I wanted to make something with minimal angst, that fitted well and could showcase the lovely floral print. With this in mind, choosing to make a second version of the Afternoon Blouse was a no brainer (my first version is here.) This time, I actually managed to cut out the correct size (8 everywhere, grading out to a 12 at the bust) and the fit is much more comfortable. I could still probably have done with a teeny weeny FBA - maybe one day I'll learn eh?! Nothing else out of the ordinary to report, except that I chose to make the rounded decorative neckline, just because. I still found it a bit of a fiddle attaching and pressing the facing but the end result is fine. The point at which the necklines cross did tend to gape a bit when worn, so I just topstitched that bit into submission.

As I suspected, the busy floral print completely camouflages the decorative neckline (you can just see it in the photo above, but that's probably because of the top stitching). That's just an observation though, not a criticism - the Liberty lawn fabric I used was perfect for this pattern. It barely frays and is crisp enough to press the facing to the inside of the blouse without any fights breaking out. In fact, I didn't even bother understitching it because it just stayed exactly where I wanted it to. I'm not the only one who thinks this way either. Just this morning I spotted Karen from Did You Make That?'s lovely Liberty version. And I promise we didn't confer beforehand, it's just sewing serendipity!

If you feel the need to add a classy little number to your wardrobe but only have a few hours sewing time to spare (an afternoon, for instance), then this could be the pattern for you. My thanks to Susan at Sewbox for generously allowing me to try out the Liberty fabric.