Reasons for radio silence...

My beloved laptop was officially declared dead as a dodo on Sunday, which is one of the reasons I've been a bit quiet recently.  I'm writing this at the library, but being a technical idiot, I'm afraid these few paragraphs are the best I can offer when it comes to blog posting skills outside the home.  Even though I've got tons of things to share with you (new fabric purchases for starters) and show off about (recently finished sailor trousers), I'll be taking a short break from blogging until my new computer is delivered and installed.  This also coincides with my having to undergo a minor op next week (nothing serious, honest!)

I'll be back once we're both (the computer and I) back up and running.  Don't go away though, once I'm back I'll be celebrating my one year blog anniversary with the best giveaway ever. Looking forward to catching up with you all then.  Have a lovely weekend. Jane x

Autumnal Traveler Dress

I’m back at the sewing machine and loving every minute of it!  So here’s the first of my autumn makes: the Lisette Traveler Dress, view A.  

I used my 1930’s-look floral charity shop fabric and was very sceptical as to how it would turn out.  Having now strutted around in it for a day, I’m finally getting used to it, but more on that later…. 

The Lisette 2246 Traveler Dress pattern is a lovely, lovely pattern to sew. It’s brilliantly drafted and the instructions are a delight – clear, simple and workable.  I can see what other bloggers are talking about when they wax lyrical about Lisette patterns - I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

Having heard that these patterns run quite large, I cut a size 12, even though my measurements actually belong in the size 14 column.  I also decided to try the Miss Petite option on the pattern, which basically takes in a one inch tuck right across the pattern pieces, shortening the bodice length as well as the actual finished dress length.  This was a good move as the final fit of the dress is just what I wanted – fitted but casual.  I did a tissue fitting on my dummy and the only bit that slightly worried me was the bust.  In the end it just about fits across the bust but it’s a close call.  I could probably have done with an extra inch or two in that area but it doesn’t gape open so I can live with that. Sewing it together was a dream, there wasn’t one bit that didn’t make absolute sense and I even learnt a new skill - how to make shaped pockets.

Pockets!!

The vintage fabric is great to sew with – it barely frayed at all. It has quite a weight to it - almost like a quilting cotton – not drapey at all, but that actually works well with the style of this dress. I finished the dress off with cream vintage buttons from my stash (the red ones I originally chose became completely lost in the busy floral of the fabric).

It works well with a belt too

So back to the fabric …. it’s not so much the floral overload that the jury’s out about (I love floral prints, especially 1930’s inspired ones, and have sewn a lot with them), it’s more the colours.  Those of you who have followed my blog for a while know I’m not exactly known for my adventurous colour selection.  In fact if I was told I was only allowed to make clothes using navy, blue/green, grey and red fabric forever, it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.  This fabric has colours that don’t ever appear on my radar: pink, purple and, wait for it, orange.  All warm hues when my personal colour palette is cold, cold, cold.  Despite all this, I’m still drawn to the fabric and the style of the dress is very me, so I know I’ll wear it a lot this autumn.  Now I just need to buy co-ordinating tights in every hue …. x

Chic on a Shoestring

Helloo!!  I’m now back from my fabulous holiday, where I spent a relaxing week making sandcastles and not much else, pure bliss.  Now we're back though, I'm literally counting the hours until my two go back to school so I can get cracking with some sewing.  In the interim I’ve been catching up on my sewing book reading.  I’m a tad impulsive with sewing books and tend to order them in a mad frenzy; some of the time I’m disappointed, but I struck lucky with my latest purchase….

Chic on a Shoestring is the sort of book you can sit down with, cup of tea in hand and be inspired to want to try every single project in it.  The book is exactly what the title suggests.  Written by ex-milliner and vintage lover Mary Jane Baxter, it shows how you can give your existing clothes and accessories a vintage-style look with bits of haberdashery from your stash.  There are also tons of ideas for refashioning existing pieces. My favourites are the simple scarf turned into a halter neck top…

and the glamour-puss turban made from an old T-shirt, both just gorgeous.

I’ve mentioned before on this blog how little vision I have when it comes to refashioning clothes, so this is the perfect book for me.  If you like vintage style or you simply want to breath new life into frumpy old clothes, then this book will almost certainly have a stylish solution.  Bored with your old cardigan?  Just change the buttons for vintage ones.  Easy peasy.

I’ve already completed my first project: a retro headband:

Once the pieces were cut out, it probably took about 15 minutes to sew together and although I think it would look better with a vintage buckle (which sadly I didn’t have knocking around) I’m pleased with how wearable it is.

I might add a buckle when I find one, to give this headband more of a retro look

Chic on a Shoestring is a lovely book.  Well written with clear instructions and packed full of beautiful, easy-to-make projects, it's definitely one for the sewing room bookshelf.  Happy Monday everybody. x

Autumn Sewing Plans

Thank you all for your encouraging comments on my last post.  It’s good to know it’s not just me that gets excited by a fast bit of sewing trickery! And hello to everybody who’s hopped over to read my blog for the first time – nice to meet you!

With one more week of the summer holidays left, I’ve been thinking about autumn sewing a lot recently.  I’ve got a busy couple of months ahead.  I’m selling my wares at two craft fairs and have a large order of wash bags to fulfil!  Although pre-Christmas is probably the most lucrative time to sell, I’m trying to be realistic about how much time I’ll have to make stock AND make myself some autumn clothes.  Consequently, my autumn sewing list has had to be realistic too.  I’m keeping it simple and trying to use up as much of my fabric stash as I can….

Autumn shirt dress

I’ve only ever read good things from other sewing bloggers about Lisette patterns and view A of this shirt dress is definitely the one with my name on it.  I’m taking a bit of a gamble and using my 1930’s look flowered charity shop fabric.  

It could be a floral overload and some of the colours aren't really me (purple and orange?!) but I'll give it a go….

Sailor trousers

I desperately need another pair of trousers as my 1940’s wide legged ones are starting to get a bit bobbly with overuse.  As soon as I saw this Flickr picture of Christi’s I knew I had to have a pair.  I’m using Simplicity 2654, which looks a bit frumpy, but I’m hoping that once I’ve shamelessly copied Christi and added buttons it will have more of a retro look. 

Fabric-wise I’m going to use a blue/black twill (or is that drill? I’m not sure) which I bought because of its lovely drape.  When I washed it recently though, it came out of the machine practically dry – just like a football kit – which makes me think there’s more than a little polyester in the mix!  Hopefully they won’t look too shiny.  And before you pull me up on it, I'm not making another pair of navy trousers, blue/black is a different colour entirely.…

Grey wool jacket

I’m going to use my charity shop grey wool for my first attempt at a jacket, matched with a lovely teal coloured lining fabric.  

I’ll probably only get round to making the muslin this side of Christmas but that’s fine.

I’m planning to make a plain collared jacket with princess seams using a pattern from this Built by Wendy book.  I've been so impressed with this book and hopefully it will be a good starting point for a jacket rookie like myself.  It goes through each step in a really thorough way: from tracing your initial pattern to sewing each seam and adding the lining.  There’s also a troubleshooting section for fitting which will be useful.

On the reserve list is a black Beignet and a cord Ginger skirt but they can also wait until the other side of Christmas.  It's now official, I'm getting an overlocker for Christmas (hoorah, hoorah, hoorah!!!) so there’s a whole different list of knit and stretch projects lined up for after I’ve worked out how to use it (gulp).

I’ve had the most lovely, chilled out summer with my boys, but after the initial wrench of them going back to school, I’ll be very pleased to get back to my machine!  Have a good week. x

The Sorbetto/Ginger Dress

I had one final holiday sewing project to complete before getting carried away with autumn sewing and my requirements were pretty clear:

• a light dress/cover up to wear over my swimsuit
• simple and quick to make
• an inexpensive make as I’d only be wearing it for one week this year

Hhhmm, what could I make?  In my head I’d been thinking of my red gingham cover up dress from 1974.  

My bikini wearing days are well and truly over, but I wanted to make something that would remind me of that happy holiday.  What pattern(s) could possibly fulfil this tough list of requirements?  Enter the Sorbetto/Ginger dress.  Or should that be the Sorbinger?  Or the Gingetto?…..

Anyway, I’d seen versions of the Colette Patterns Sorbetto as a dress before, and was quite taken with the idea.  Sarah’s shift version was a great inspiration, but I wanted mine to have more shape to the skirt section, so I simply used my Ginger skirt pattern for the skirt part.  It’s basically a Sorbetto top and Ginger skirt merged together.  It was a very satisfying make: all the top edges are neatly bias bound and the sides and shoulders have French seams so everything is super neat.  

The fabric was two metres of a textured, very lightweight gingham which I managed to buy on a recent clandestine visit to the Goldhawk Road (I was supposed to be sorting out a day trip for my children).  At £2.50 a metre I was happy to muck around with two different patterns and not be gutted if it all went horribly wrong.

Like my Sorbetto top before it, this dress looks more flattering on me when it’s nipped in at the waist, as the boxiness of the design simply doesn’t suit my shape.  Hence the belt…

Once I’d cut out the pattern pieces, I managed to whip it together in the time it took my husband to bath the kids.  I had to sew on the bias binding at a later date, but I'd estimate the total time to complete the project, including drafting and cutting out, to be about two hours. I'm not kidding myself - I know it's a very plain, simple make - but that's exactly what I wanted.  Now, all I need is a co-ordinating polka dot bucket and I’m ready for my hols…. x

Fabric Giveaway Winner!!

I'm very excited to announce the result of my charity shop fabric giveaway today

The winner is......Debi from My Happy Sewing Place!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wahay, I'm so thrilled. There's obviously some strange blogosphere luck running between the two of us, because I've won a vintage pattern from Debi on not one but two giveaway occasions!!  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it was her comment number.  It sounds like she has some fab plans for the fabric and I wouldn't expect anything less from such a talented gal!  Congratulations Debi, please e-mail me your address and I'll get the fabric over to you.

Thank you to everybody who entered, I loved reading your ideas for what you'd make with the fabric.  Thank you also for your fabulous usage ideas for my cocktail hour fabric. They were so inventive, I felt like a bit of a dummy saying "uh maybe cushions?" after you all jumped in with such great suggestions.  I'll be going through a few of them in more detail in a later post.  Happy Monday everybody. x

Charity Shop Fabric

I've never had much luck with charity shops in my area: they don't seem to have any decent fabric (or any fabric at all come to think of it), just lots of Primark cast offs and other tat.  But miraculously my luck changed recently, and for the princely sum of £5 I managed to find this lovely lot in one fell swoop:

First up is 3.5m of a medium weight cotton (it's not very wide, only just under 90cm). The lines of the flowers are chocolate brown and the green is more minty coloured than the photo suggests.  I can’t imagine what I’d make with it, and the colours aren’t really me... but I just couldn't leave it all alone in the charity shop.  So if anybody likes the look of it, leave me a comment by the end of the day on Sunday 14th August telling me what you'd make with it and I’ll happily send it to you.  If more than one of you wants it, I’ll just draw names out of a hat.

I can definitely see a use for this one though:

Isn’t it fab? It’s like a cross between a Liberty print and a 1930’s feedsack print. In fact, it reminds me of this repro feedsack print from Fabric Rehab …

There’s about 3m of this one too so I think I’m going to make a long sleeved Autumn blouse with it.

Finally there was this cheeky little print depicting cocktail hour essentials (including ice cubes) ….

Sadly, there was only about half a metre of it, so not enough to make a garment, not even a Sorbetto.  I was pondering a little half apron, but it’s a silky kind of fabric so probably not best suited to having greasy fingers wiped on it.  Hhmm, not sure, maybe a couple of cushions?  If anybody else has any bright ideas I'd love to hear them.

Because I’m an optimistic kind of gal, I returned to the scene of the crime a week later and struck lucky again!!  I found 3m of this beautiful grey wool fabric for £3.  

I’m planning on making my first jacket in Autumn (more on that in a future post) and this will be absolutely perfect for a first attempt.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed it turns out wearable, but if not, then I’ve only spent £3 trying.  Good things come to those who wait…