Thumbs down for scuba stripes

This dress was never meant to be. I know exactly what I like garment-wise, and a dress made from striped scuba fabric with a pleated skirt has never been on my sewing wish list. Yet here it is. All because I saw a dress on Instagram, became a tiny bit obsessed with it and couldn't rest until I'd made one for myself. The making of it was relatively easy and straight forward. Whether or not I actually like the finished dress is another matter...

The original inspiration dress in question was this lovely Emery dress by Caz.

Hers was made from a striped ponte from Minerva that was no longer in stock. What was in stock (but not at the moment) was a similar looking striped scuba knit on sale at £7.99 a metre, so I bagged two metres to experiment with.

One of the things I liked about Caz's dress was the way the bodice and skirt stripes ran in different directions. The stripes on my scuba aren't as uniform as the stripes on Caz's ponte - there are several different sections of broad, medium and narrow stripes - so I knew there'd be a bit of head scratching to get them in the exact position I wanted. I ended up with the medium stripes across the main section of the bodice and narrower stripes at the top section. Much to my delight, I then jammily managed to continue the narrow striped section down the side of the sleeves (more or less). The skirt is a mixture of everything, but it can get away with it because of the vertical stripes.

Matching arm stripes (sort of!)

Pattern-wise I used the bodice from the Lady Skater dress as it's drafted for knits and fits me well, and the pleated skirt from the Mortmain dress. The only change I made was to shorten the bodice slightly - the original length ended up too far down from my natural waist and was causing a bit of rippling. It would probably have gone unnoticed in a solid coloured fabric, but the giant stripes really emphasised it. The whole dress was sewn on my overlocker, apart from the sleeve hems which I finished with a straight stretch stitch. The neckline is finished with a plain white neckband. The skirt hem has been left unfinished as I just preferred the look of it.

One giant gamble I took when making this dress was to cut it out without allowing for a zip. The Lady Skater pattern doesn't have a zip anyway as it's designed for knits and I simply removed the zip seam allowance from the skirt pieces  Because the scuba has a good amount of stretch to it, I can get the dress on without one, so the gamble paid off, yay!

There are lots and lots of positives about this dress, along with one big, giant negative - I don't think it's very 'me'. Maybe it's a stripe too far (can there be such a thing?!) and I don't really wear this shape of dress any more. Also, despite being easy to sew with and magically stretchy, I've come to the conclusion (a bit late in the day, admittedly) that I don't particularly like scuba as a fabric. The texture always feels a bit cheap and nylon-y to me and I couldn't wait to get the dress off after taking these photos!

I debated whether to even post this dress on my blog, but I think it's always good to see dressmaking fails as well as wins. I don't regret making it and it was a lovely, stress-free dress to sew. Sometimes it's good to sew something just to get it out of your system! x

   

Lemon print skirt

I've had this gorgeous Dolce and Gabbana-style cotton (from Pigeon Wishes but no longer in stock) squirrelled away for over a year and have really taken my time deciding what to use it for. I already have a lemon print dress, which I wear quite a lot and is wildly popular with members of the public (I'm complimented on it virtually every time I wear it, which is lovely!) Because of this I figured separates would get a bit more wear than another dress, so decided to make a statement skirt. 

The pattern is the skirt section of the Mortmain dress by Gather, which is the same pattern I used for my first lemon dress. I think a large, bold print like this works particularly well with box pleats. Handily for me, Gather Kits have a blog post on how to make a Mortmain skirt from the dress pattern pieces, which is totally fool proof. The only thing I did differently was to swap the exposed zip for an invisible one. As you can probably see from the photos, I deliberately made the waistband more of a relaxed fit. I decided I'd rather forego the very neat, nipped in look of a perfectly fitted waistband for the comfort factor and ability to eat my dinner without feeling like I'm about to explode.

The skirt is fully lined with Venezia lining fabric which was a perfect colour match to the navy background. It was given to me as a gift from Jo Sews ages ago and is the loveliest lining fabric I've ever sewn with. I'm truly lamenting the fact that it doesn't seem to be available in the UK* (Jo lives in Brussels). Lining the skirt gives it a really nice weight and a bit of structure which I think is good with a pleated skirt. *EDIT: Hoorah, I've now discovered that Venezia lining IS available in the UK from here (Stone Fabrics) in tons of colours. Thank you so much to the readers who pointed this out.

As the print on this skirt is full on lemony, I made a new plain top specifically to wear with it. New Look 6217 is the pattern that keeps on giving and yet again it didn't fail me. I think this is now my sixth version of this top - I've given up blogging about them as I don't want to bore you all to death! You only need half a metre of 150cm wide fabric to make it and I used luxury crepe from Sew Over It which has a lovely drape. 

I really like the whole outfit, which works just as easily for daytime as it does for evening. I was actually wearing flip flops and heels to demonstrate this in the photos below, but my son didn't think to include my feet when he was taking them!

Daytime 

Evening

The skirt (and top) gets its first outing tomorrow at a party...I'll report back! x

Badger and Earl Sewathon

This was me exactly a week ago - sewing, sewing, sewing all day long with Rachel from House of Pinheiro, Alex from Sewrendipity and Elisalex from By Hand London. Ah I love my life! We were the guests of Badger and Earl - my fave West London sewing and craft cafe - and were taking part in their first ever Sewathon! Each of us was asked to choose fabric and a pattern from the shop then given the challenge of sewing it up in a day. Challenge accepted!

Ready for the off - must remember not to stand next to Rachel in future!

What a fab day we had! We were given as much tea and cake as we wanted, then left to sew dresses and indulge in sewing talk all day, bliss! It was also a really nice change to be sewing somewhere new and to be with doing it with other stitchers. I sometimes forget that the actual art of sewing is a very solitary activity! 

I'm not very good at sewing against the clock (which is why you'll never see me on the Sewing Bee) so I chose a pattern I knew well - the Mortmain dress by Gather. I've made it twice before (here and here) and have also taught it as a class at Badger and Earl, so I knew exactly what I was doing! I just finished it by the end of the day. If I'd been on my own it would have only taken me a couple of hours, but I was in a room with some world famous chatterboxes so I didn't stand a chance!

Sewing the hem...

Almost there, just the armholes to finish

And here's the dress once I got it home and gave it a press. The neckline is finished with a facing but I finished the armholes with contrast navy bias binding (that was Rachel's idea!)

I also pleated the skirt from the right side for a softer look.

Yes, it's totally inappropriate for winter but I think it will be a perfect dress for the warmer months. I like how it looks like a separate top and skirt as well as a dress! As my flesh is currently a fetching shade of winter blue, I thought I'd spare you a shot of me wearing it. But here we are with our finished dresses, all looking mighty pleased with ourselves. 

Rachel made a Deer and Doe Bruyere Shirt, lengthened into a dress with some beautiful printed canvas. Alex made a very cool Tilly and the Buttons Bettine dress with some blue linen. She used the scraps from my polka dot skirt for her pockets and sleeve cuffs! Elisalex had to leave early, so sadly wasn't there for the final dress parade. They'll be blogging about their own particular Sewathon makes soon though, so keep an eye out.

Thank you so much to Charlotte and Sophie of Badger and Earl for hosting. And to my sewing partners in crime Rachel, Alex and Elisalex for making it such a fun day. Let's hope it's the first of many more Sewathons to come! x 

Mortmain fest

For the past two Sundays I've been teaching a Mortmain dress class at Badger and Earl. The Mortmain pattern is a simple shape (fitted bodice, waistband and skirt), with a few interesting techniques to get your teeth into (box pleats on the skirt and an exposed zip). This was the first adult class I've taught and I have to say, it was an absolute pleasure. 

The four women who took the course (Joanne, Nicky, Jo and Julia) were all very enthusiastic about the pattern and it was great to chat about sewing with such a lovely bunch. Week one was taken up with sizing, cutting out the pattern and fabric and sewing up the bodice and skirt. Week two involved all the fiddly bits - waistbands, facings and inserting the exposed zip. 

Time ran away with us, but by the end of the day on Sunday, they'd just about managed to finish their dresses (bar hemming and a couple of rogue exposed zip seams). The best thing for me was seeing what a great fit they all achieved. I can't take any credit for this alas, as it was purely down to the fab pattern - it seemed to fit all four of them straight out of the packet! It's very well drafted and the instructions are clear and straight forward - it made my job a lot easier!

Joanne's exposed zip which worked perfectly with her fabric choice

The four fabrics they chose all had a bit of a vintage vibe going on, which worked well with the retro style of the pattern. Behold their beautiful Mortmains - they're all so pretty! 

And here I am trying to muscle in and steal some of their well earned glory! 

Thank you Joanne, Nicky, Jo and Julia for making it such a wonderful experience. Details of future Badger and Earl courses can be found here. x

Come sew with me!

I'm delighted (and a tiny bit scared!) to announce that I'll be teaching a Mortmain dressmaking class at Badger & Earl in Chiswick. Yayyyyy! The class will run on two consecutive Sundays in March (15th and 22nd), where I'll guide you through each step of sewing up the sleeveless version of this lovely, vintage-inspired dress. Further class details and booking information can be found here. 

I recently taught a one day PJ bottoms class at Badger & Earl for 12 year old girls, which was so much fun. Now I get to do it again, with one of my favourite patterns! I've made the Mortmain dress twice now, once for myself (my lemon dress) and once as a sample for the class. For those who were interested in the fabric I used for the sample, it's Poppin Poppies in clover, which is part of the Avant Garden range by Momo. The Village Haberdashery still have it in stock here.  

Lemon dress

Sample dress 

The Mortmain dress is a classic shape with a fitted, darted bodice, separate waistband and box pleated skirt. It also features an exposed zip to the back. Some of the techniques involved are a little involved, so I'd say the class is suitable for an ambitious beginner. If you already have a couple of simple dressmaking projects under your belt and are looking to expand your skills, then this could be the perfect class for you. 

Here I am proudly showing off the dress at Badger and Earl!  Wish me luck! x

My legs aren't really that short - it's the camera angle!

Sewing by the rules

For the past week I've been making another Mortmain dress by Gather Kits. This time round though, it's not for me - it's a sample for Badger and Earl, to publicise a future Mortmain dressmaking class. My brief was to sew it up exactly as instructed in the pattern, but once I was making it, I realised it differed quite a lot from the first version I made, back in the summer.

The Mortmain dress

I'd always thought I was quite an obedient type when it came to following pattern instructions, but in reality, that's not the case. Here's what I did differently the first time round, when left to my own devices:

1) Box pleats sewn the reverse to what was instructed in the pattern i.e. pleating from the right side of the fabric rather than the wrong side. To be fair, this is suggested in the pattern as an alternative so I wasn't being a complete rebel!

This is how I made the pleats originally….

….and this is the sample showing what they should look like. It's actually quite a subtle difference

2) Invisible zip used instead of the exposed metal zip which is a feature of the pattern. I'm still on the fence about exposed zips, especially in such a feminine dress. Personally, I think they work better on more robust looking garments. Still, I learnt a new skill whilst making the sample (how to insert an exposed zip), which I'm pleased about, and I think the zip does look good, I'm just not sure if it's for me!

3) Armholes finished with bias binding instead of the self fabric facings in the pattern. I realise that armhole facings need to have a bit of width to them to sit nicely, but I still prefer the neater, trimmer finish when using bias binding. The compromise is that bias binding doesn't give you the seamless finish you get with facings (unless, of course, you catchstitch it down by hand, which has never worked successfully for me).

Admittedly, you do get a lovely clean finish on the armholes with a facing

I also added interfacing to the waistband pieces and underlined the entire dress, but that was more down to fabric choice than me being a maverick! They're not big changes by any means, but I'm surprised there were so many of them - in my head, I thought I'd sewn up the dress more or less exactly as the pattern dictated (minus the zip). I didn't think I was such a madam with my sewing!  

When I first started sewing I slavishly followed sewing patterns exactly as written, terrified of deviating in case it all went horribly wrong. Over time, I've learnt that if a design detail doesn't rock your boat or you know of an easier/neater/faster way of getting the same result, then it's a no brainer to make a few changes to the pattern. Plus, I'm all for putting your own stamp on things! The obvious exception to this is pattern testing, where the whole point of the exercise is that you follow directions exactly to check they make sense.

I suppose the more confident you become with your own changes, the more you're inclined to start pattern hacking left, right and centre. Using the bodice from one pattern, the skirt from another and even the sleeves from a third can produce wonderful results! 

I'd be interested to know where you stand on this. Do you obediently sew by the rules and never deviate? Or do you slash, hack and mix up your patterns to your heart's content?!  x 

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 

Lemon dress - with a nod to Kate Spade

As soon as spring was sprung this year, I started prowling Pinterest looking for sewing inspiration. The one look that really got to me was the Kate Spade Capri collection. You can read my post about it here, but the dress I fell so hard for was this lemon print sundress. Isn't it darling?!

Kate Spade lemon dress

All I needed to recreate it was some lemon print fabric - easier said than done. A reader alerted me to this beautiful fabric on Spoonflower which I promptly set me heart on. I asked my girlfriends for contributions towards it for my birthday (the cheapest option is $17.50 a metre) and was all set to buy it. Then on my actual birthday itself, Winnie sent me a link on Twitter to some lemon print cotton lawn that had just been added to the Abakhan site. At a far more reasonable £4.99 a metre, a switch of loyalties was a no brainer and I ordered some faster than the speed of light. It sold out on Abakhan within the hour -  the power of sewing bloggers on Twitter eh?! They also stock the same fabric in a red or a blue colour way, which you can see here - although I'm not sure what the fruits are supposed to be…. giant blueberries?…. melons?!  The 'lemons' are quite a bit bigger in real life than I was expecting, but I've decided I like that - it gives the fabric more of a retro feel.

Handmade Jane lemon dress

The Kate Spade dress appears to have a separate waistband and full skirt, so I knew exactly which pattern I'd be using to recreate it - the Mortmain dress by Gather. The neck on the Mortmain is a bit lower than the inspiration dress, but that suited me fine as I prefer a lower neckline anyway. The girls at Gather very kindly sent me the pattern to try out a few months ago, so I'm glad I waited to find the right fabric before doing it justice! The skill level of the Mortmain is classed as Ambitious Beginners which I think is about right - it's a simple dress to put together with some interesting features (such as box pleats and an exposed zip) to stretch your skills. The packaging is beautiful and the pattern comes with a comprehensive instruction booklet and a roomy pattern envelope to keep everything in, which gets a big tick in my book.

I think they're lemons!

Fabric recommendations are for medium weight cottons, which is probably to give the pleats some structure. The cotton lawn I used is pretty lightweight so I underlined it with white silk cotton to give it some heft, but also to make it less opaque and to boost the colours a little (read more on this here).  Even underlined, the fabric is still very fine, so I used a smaller needle in my machine and extra fine Entomology Pins, which I highly recommend. No interfacing is used in the pattern, but after reading Mary from Idle Fancy's review, I added some to the waistband, which was a very smart move - thanks Mary!  I used the pattern facing for the neckline, but disregarded facings for the armholes and used plain white bias binding instead, which gives a lovely neat finish.  I also disregarded the exposed zip and used an invisible one - nothing wrong with the instructions, I just don't particularly like exposed zips.

I didn't need to make too many changes to the pattern to get it to fit the way I wanted it to. The shape of the sleeveless bodice is already really flattering, which is helped by the thoughtful placement of the armholes. The pattern piece comes with two cutting lines: one for the sleeveless version and one for sleeves. This is a tiny little detail but makes such a difference to the shape of the finished bodice. Because the bodice is quite fitted, I thought I'd have to do a FBA (full bust adjustment), but to my delight, it fitted straight out of the packet. As Roobeedoo notes in her review, the bodice is 'surprisingly busty', so bear this in mind if you're thinking of making the dress. It worked for me as my bust is slightly larger than average in proportion to the rest of me, but this won't be the case with everyone. For reference, I made a size 12. One other thing to note about the bodice is that the bust dart placement is quite high. This won't apply to everyone, but I thought it was worth noting as I never usually have to move bust darts, but did have to for this dress. 

The skirt features all round box pleats, which I pondered over for a while, trying to decide whether to include them or not. I always think I don't like pleats that much, but the two handmade garments with pleats that I own (my Kelly Skirt and Simplicity Sundress) are amongst my most worn items! In the end, I constructed the pleats exactly as instructed on the pattern, but pinned from the right side of the fabric rather than the wrong side. This resulted in a softer look which I prefer. If you need a bit of guidance, there's a great tutorial all about box pleats on the Gather website here.

The only thing I think the pattern lacks (apart from instructions to interface the waistband) is an internal waistband piece or facing. The waistband seams are pressed neatly inwards at the top and bottom edges, so they don't show through on the right side, but I do think a waistband facing would have given the inner waistband a neater, finished look.

Inside waistband close-up - could have been neater

I ran out of steam at the end of making this dress but I really would like to find the time to add this detail as I think it makes a big difference. I'll definitely include it on my next version.  Overall I really enjoyed working with this pattern and I love how similar the final dress is to the Kate Spade version.

Lemon dress joy

Now let's address the rather large elephant in the room - the colour…. Flicking back through the Handmade Wardrobe section on my blog, everything I've made this year has been a variant of red, white or blue. Every single piece blends into the next, which is totally on purpose and works well for me, but where does this dress fit in?? It's YELLOW!!! Well, there's some green and white in there, but it's mostly yellow!! I love yellow (as evidenced here), but it's not an easy colour to wear, especially with my colouring. You know what though? It doesn't matter - I saw a dress with lemons on it and fell in love with it. I wanted one for myself so I made one. That's all there is to it! This dress makes me so happy and I'm just thankful that I have the skills to turn my occasional bonkers plans into reality! Have a good week. x

I love, love, love this dress!  He's more impressed than he looks too!

The Mortmain pattern was given to me free of charge for review. All views my own.