Finished Pendrell blouse

I finished my third sewalong today with the completion of the Pendrell blouse – yes!  This was a great sewalong, run by Tasia at Sewaholic: fast paced, good, clear photos and tutorials and lots of great advice.  There’s also a Sewtionary on Tasia’s blog where she unravels the mysteries of various tricky sewing techniques by means of step-by-step tutorials.  It’s really useful stuff, if like me, you get a blank head full of cotton wool every single time a pattern calls for under stitching a facing to a neckline. I don’t know what’s wrong with me  - I’ve done it countless times but still there’s an absolute vacuum in my brain every time it comes up!  

And so, on to the Pendrell … a little peach of a pattern, well designed and clear and a pleasure to follow and use (in the same way the Collette Patterns are).  This would be a perfect first project for a beginner as it’s easy to sew together and there are no closures (zips, buttons etc), just a neckline bound with stretchy bias binding. It’s a loose, drapey fit but is given shape by the cunning use of princess seams right down the front and back of the blouse.  I chose view B, but omitted the seam ruffle as too many ruffles make me feel like Dog Toby from Punch and Judy.  As I’ve mentioned before, Sewaholic patterns are designed for the pear-shaped figure.  I’m curvy, but not pear-shaped so I sewed a bigger size than usual to accommodate by bust and waist and decreased the hip on the pattern to bring it more in proportion.  I still had to take in the side seams at the bust and waist quite a bit, so I think for my next version I’ll try the next size down.

The fabric was one of the Innocent Crush voiles from Anna Maria Horner.  There was a lot of excitement from other bloggers over the summer about them and I can totally see what all the fuss was about. Ooh, what a lovely, buttery (Anna Maria Horner's word, not mine) feel this fabric has, and it’s so drapey.  Because the Pendrell is cut quite long, it’s perfect for tucking in.  

Ooh, lovely trousers, where did you get them?...

As an experiment, I thought I’d try on my Sencha blouse and tuck it into my new 1940’s strides as the Pendrell looked so flattering. Crikey, what a difference in the feel and look of the fabric.  In my naivety as a rookie seamstress, I used a medium weight quilting cotton for the Sencha.  Having now sewn with voile, the quilting cotton feels like it’s been in a bath of starch for a week.  It's so stiff, what was I thinking?!  I still like it and will wear it again, but I’m afraid it will be forever afflicted with bad, stiff fabric syndrome.

Sencha blouse, now suffering from bad fabric syndrome

This is a great, versatile blouse which I'm sure I'll wear a lot over the coming months.  As well as teaming with my fine slacks, it also looks good untucked with jeans.

Casual, jeans wearing girl

I've already planned my next version....

So, I’m now in the unusual position of only participating in one sewalong - Casey’s Swing Dress.  I’m planning to sew up my muslin tomorrow, but her post on how to sew up the complicated, gathered shoulder seam look terrifying, so maybe it’s a good thing I’ve only got that to concentrate on!  

It hasn’t all been dressmaking though; I’ve got some exciting craft news which I’ll let you know about in the next post.  Have a good Thursday everybody. x  

Sewalong progress and recent finds

A quick update on my sewalongs …  

My Pendrell blouse is half sewn and believe it or not, I'm actually sewing along at the same pace as everybody else!  Tasia's posts are great and I'm really enjoying the whole process. I've already got fabric and ideas for version two once this one's finished.  My second Pendrell blouse will be made from this fabric...

I picked it up at a vintage fair I went to in Hammersmith a few weeks ago.  The fair itself was great, but I was shocked at how expensive vintage clothes have become.  Some of them were undeniably exquisite and probably deserving of their hefty price tags, but some were really not that special and needed mending to boot.  It made me want to weep when I remembered the 1950's sun dresses I used to pick up at jumble sales in the late 1980's for (I kid you not) 10p.  10p!!!!!  The tragedy is I don't even know where they all disappeared to. Ahh well.  Anyway, along with this nice drapey, flowery, checky fabric I came out with a vintage belt…

some 1930's buttons....

and a posh lady's brooch which I may team with my swing dress (see below)

Not a bad haul.  Back to the Pendrell blouse.  I was going to add a bow to the neck of my first/current one based on Andrea's beautiful version.  Once I cut the fabric out though I realised the print is just too big and a tiny bow would probably get lost.  The tiny blue flowered print would be perfect though.

  

Now for progress on Casey's Swing Dress sewalong ...  I've cut out my muslin after making adjustments to the bodice length and the amount of ease in the sleeves, but I'm waiting for Casey's post on sewing gathered shoulders before I jump in.  I've decided to go for wool crepe for this dress, I found 3m in a tiny little fabric shop really close to my home that I'd barely even noticed before.  It was bizarre, the shop suddenly appeared in front of me one day, Mr Benn style.  Inside it was FULL of dressmaking fabrics!!!!  To say I was over excited is perhaps an understatement.  After playing with virtually the entire contents of the shop (and almost forgetting to collect my kids from school) I came out with this lovely red wool crepe.  

Although crepe is top of the list for fabric suggestions on the pattern, I've been procrastinating as I'm not sure about the texture.  It's very strange and looks more like something you'd use to exfoliate your face with.  The ladies in the Mr Benn shop soon convinced me otherwise though, and having draped it every which way over my dress form I now really like it, it's super drapey.  I think it will look fab as a 40's-style swing dress, and if it looks professional enough I may even wear the dress to my brother's wedding in July.

I know Marie and Lauren are both using crepe for their Swing dresses, would love to know what everybody else is using.  x