Frock wearing dilemma

This dress was one of the first things I made on my dressmaking course and was very easy to make.  I like it because it’s such a traditional shaped dress, or maybe that should be frock?  

The thing is, I've never worn it as I’m not sure which occasion it fits.  If I still worked, then problem solved, I could swan around the office like Joan Holloway (I wish) - but those days are gone. I was thinking of adding a little cardigan and wearing it in the daytime if I suddenly decide to have a ‘smart’ day. In which case, I'd probably need to shorten it so it's more knee length.  I just can’t decide.

The fabric is from the V & A and was one of several Liberty print quilting cottons that were produced to coincide with this summer’s quilt exhibition.  I love the tiny seedhead pattern, but am not 100% sure about the colour, it’s a reddy, orangey, coral in real life, which isn’t top of my list but I couldn’t resist the pattern.  I bought the fabric before I actually went to the exhibition and was completely over excited to find these matching covered buttons in the shop afterwards.  

Just noticed I need to twirl the bottom two buttons round so they're all facing the same way!

I’ve suddenly made a decision whilst writing this post, I’m going to wear it to dinner at a friend’s house this weekend.  If it looks old fashioned, who cares?  It’s a proper frock and a lady should wear a proper frock to dinner.  x

Pattern win!

Remember this fantastic giveaway on Debi’s blog?  Well guess what? I WON A PATTERN!!!!!  It’s the beautiful 1930’s tennis(!) or otherwise dress. 

My prize!!!

I can’t tell you how delighted I am, thank you Debi!  Inspired by Debi’s blog, I actually bought my first two vintage patterns last week on eBay. I was about to bid on a third, which was for a shirt dress very like the one on the 30's pattern, but decided to wait and see if I won.  How spooky is that? It was obviously destined to be mine. I'm planning on making the blue one that the lady in the sun-visor is wearing. 

These are the other two patterns coming to live with me:

1950's wrap top with improbably tiny waist

1960's checked dress

I’ll probably start with the wrap top first because I’m lazy, and it only appears to have three pattern pieces -  a beginner’s got to start somewhere!

Miracle pattern - only three pieces

I think I’ll make it in plain red (like the lady on the cover). The other pattern is enticing me to sew view C.  I’ve got an urge to sew something in gingham so this may be the dress to experiment on.

These three can join my backlog of patterns waiting to be sewn (more on that in the next post). x

Farewell fabric

Today I used the last bits of two of my favourite fabrics, always a sad occasion! I got them in the sale at Saints and Pinners back in the summer but only managed to acquire one FQ of the Lizzy House ugly duckling fabric and two FQ's of the flowery turquoise Erin McMorris fabric.  I don't think the fabrics are available any more, which is a bit sad as they're both so lovely. I've been getting them out of my stash on a regular basis ever since, just to play with them, but with craft fairs looming decided to turn them into crafty things.  

Because the ugly duckling is so elusive, the most obvious option was a cushion:

Whereas the turquoise flowers are so retro and bright and lovely, they could be turned into almost anything.  So in their new life, they're now... 

mobile phone holders...

 little purses...

Small purse lined with dark pink polka dots

... and lavender bags.  I don't have any pics of the lavender bags because they all sold out at the last craft fair before I could photograph them.  So far, out of three FQ's, I've managed to make a cushion, two small purses, four mobile phone holders and six lavender bags. Hope they all go to good homes.

Cloth Magazine

Hoorah, I’m a winner!  Well, not exactly a winner, but I got something lovely for free which is the same difference.  My prize was a back issue of the long since sold out issue two of Cloth Magazine which one of the staff offered to subscribers on Facebook.  The lucky recipient was me! As if things couldn’t get any better, the issue I received was a special vintage issue (yes!)

I subscribed to Cloth Magazine after reading about it on the Saints and Pinners Blog and became an instant fan. I really like the whole tone of the magazine - it has some unusual and very stylish projects  (both clothes and crafty items), all of which seem to be relatively straight forward to make. 

The magazine’s got a bit more of a fashion emphasis than other sewing mags too and often features ingenious ways of refashioning old frumpy clothes into new ones. The only downer is that it’s only published quarterly so you have to be patient between sewing fixes. 

Vintage Patterns

Debi from My Happy Sewing Place is running a fab giveaway at the moment.  Her blog is all about vintage fashion (particularly the 1940's), check out some of her gorgeous clothes. She's giving away one pattern for each decade from the 1930's to the 1960's.  All you have to do to enter is be a follower of her blog and leave a comment on it by Wednesday 13th October.  I'd love to start sewing from vintage patterns but find them a bit brusque and scary looking (I like lots of fool proof instructions personally).  One of the patterns in her giveaway looks very tempting though:  

It's for a set of collars from the 1950's (1950 to be exact).  Sounds like the perfect introduction to sewing from vintage patterns.  I've also got my eye on this beauty from the 1930's:  

The blue dress on the right is my fave, I'm not exactly a tennis playing girl so would have limited use for a combined shorts/dress combo!  If I don't win, then I've decided to make my first foray into vintage patterns by tracking one down.  I'll chart my progress right here..

I need to get sewing!

Last Saturday saw the first of my pre - xmas Craft Fairs.  I've only ever been to one craft fair (outside on a windy May day, with all the joys of putting up a gazebo, never again) and my son's summer fair at school so it was a bit of an experiment.  This one was run by Ealing Mums in Business and the two women who organised it - Erin and Shelley - did an amazing job.  Not only was it packed to the rafters, but they seemed to have got the demographics just right for potential buyers of my lovely fabric bags and accessories! Almost everyone seemed to be carrying Cath Kidston shopping bags and whipping out Orla Kiely purses. Consequently I was thrilled to actually sell quite a lot of my things - yay.  

My best sellers were lavender bags

       

       

and these retro owl cushions

Anybody who grew up in the 70's immediately wanted one of these!

Although it was fab to sell so much, it got me worrying that I need to make more stock for the other fairs to avoid the horror of running out of stock on the day, or even worse, having a fair to go to and nothing to sell!  I've got six weeks until the next one so I think I'll be spending a lot of time sewing.  I got started yesterday on this fabric bundle:

The Woo Woo bundle!

It's the Little Birds Woo Woo bundle (love the name) by Valori Wells from a great new online fabric shop I've just discovered called Backstitch.  It's amazing what you can squeeze out of three fat quarters.  

Small purses, just need to add snaps and they're done.

I made six small purses and cut out the fabric for four large purses but then realised the birds were all facing the wrong way (doh).  So I chopped them up and will turn them into lavender bags instead.  I've still got quite a bit left so it was a really good purchase.  Will keep you updated on my other makes..

Socialite Dress

I've been wanting to make this Anna Maria Horner 'Socialite Dress' pattern for a while but wasn't sure the style would suit me - it's quite a loose fit and being on the curvy side, clothes that are too loose often make me look, shall we say, pregnant!  Then I saw a few lovely versions made up with belts - genius!  Not little fabric scrappy belts but big, substantial thick ones that nip you right in at the waist, which for me, changed the whole look of the dress.  

The pattern and fabric both came from M is for Make, one of my favourite fabric and pattern sites.  It's run by the lovely Kate who has given me TONS of great advice and help ever since I started sewing.  She also stocks gorgeous, unusual fabrics and patterns.  I used one of Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley fabrics which are all beautiful.  It took me a long time to decide which one to use but the colour finally swung it (I like grey).

So here it is…..

I'm glad I went with the grey as I can actually wear the dress in the Autumn layered with a cardigan and boots (as I did today).  

As this was the first pattern I've attempted without the help of my sewing tutor, I read the pattern all the way through about four times (seriously, I'm so sad!), just so I knew exactly what I'd be doing and I really think this helped.  Size-wise, I went with a medium which was perfect (I'm a 10/12).  Once everything was cut out it probably took two afternoons to sew, one uninterrupted and blissful, one with the kids whining down my ear the whole time so not quite so enjoyable.  It's a great pattern for a reasonably confident beginner to attempt as it has no zips, buttons or fastenings of any kind - hence the V-neck and loose fit in order to get it over your head.  The language is friendly and it explains every single stage, even down to back stitching at the beginning and end of each seam, which could be quite annoying for a more experienced sewer, but for me was fine.  The gathering at the front and back took the longest, but this was because I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing!  It came out OK though.  

A slightly better view of the gathers

I'll probably make another one for wearing in the spring/summer, in which case I'll make it longer (there's an option on the pattern to do this).  With tights, it's fine, but I'm not displaying my knees!