Thurlow pattern giveaway

You'll be delighted to hear that giant leaps forward have been made on the Sewlution trousers front. Well, I've decided on the pattern (Colette Juniper) and bought the fabric (red gabardine), so by the end of the week I should be well on my way. I'm currently in deep discussion with myself over whether to make a muslin or not. Don't worry, I'm sure the 'why change the habits of a lifetime?' argument will wear me down before long.

Anyway, having decided on the Juniper pattern, I realised that the other trouser contender - the Sewaholic Thurlow - really isn't for me. I bought it in a frenzy after seeing Lauren's gorgeous denim pair, but I know I'll never use it. So you all know what this means don't you? GIVEAWAY!!!!!

If you fancy holding this wonderful pattern in your hot little paw, then all you have to do is leave a comment on this post.  The giveaway is open worldwide and closes at midnight GMT on Sunday 31st March 2013. Please make sure you leave your email address if it's not linked to your blogger profile so I can contact you if you're a winner. Good luck everybody. x

Desert Island Sewing

I say, what inclement weather we're having in the UK at the moment. Snowy, freezing and just plain horrible. So it's a gigantic stroke of luck that today of all days, Scruffy Badger has unleashed her fifth sewing castaway onto her Desert Island - ME!!!! If you fancy escaping the UK snow for a bit of tropical sunshine - and discovering what my favourite sewing patterns are whilst you're at it - then hop on over to her blog and read all about it here.  Thank you Winnie, it was an absolute pleasure to be involved in such a great series.

And whilst I have your attention, if you need a new blog reader once Google Reader is no more, you can follow my blog on Bloglovin' here. I confess to being a complete Luddite when it comes to all things technical, but Bloglovin' tells me I also have to 'claim my blog' via a blog post like this:

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/2050751/?claim=tweknbgxww3">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

I haven't a clue what this means, but I'm claiming it anyway!  

Have a wonderful weekend everybody. x  

Finished: Sew for Victory dress

Ta-da. Here's my Sew for Victory dress (Du Barry 5384), all finished and looking rather spiffing. 

Apologies for the foliage, by the time I realised it was in all the photos the sunlight had disappeared...

The process of sewing this dress was pretty uneventful (in a good way) and it all came together easily enough. My only whinge was with the silk cotton I used to underline it. One of the reasons I always veer towards silk cotton for lining or underlining is because it's so easy to work with - I knew this fabric was an impostor straight away as it didn't behave itself at all when I was cutting it out. In its favour though, it's silky to the touch and slinky against the skin and it looks fine on the finished dress. The underlining, plus the addition of a ginormous central back zip means the dress slips on and off wonderfully easily.  

Talking of zips, I tried my very first hand-picked zip on this dress and am delighted with the result. I really didn't trust the badly behaved silk cotton to play fair with a zipper foot - I just knew there would be bunching and unpicking and swearing and screaming to contend with further down the line. So I hand-picked the zip, using Tasia's excellent tutorial and it worked like a dream. It did take a good hour to sew it in by hand, but it was 22 inches long, so that's not surprising. The accuracy and neatness on the other hand, are way better than my usual efforts so it's definitely an hour well spent.

For fabric, I used a charcoal grey lawn-like cotton from Walthamstow market, which, considering the quality, was an absolute bargain at £2 a metre. Yes, I know I wear a lot of grey but I do love it as a colour and I have grey eyes so I'm allowed to! I had to include a pop of colour somewhere though, so I finished the sleeve hem and neck with red polka dot bias binding. I'd have liked to have added it to the hem as well but ended up simply machining a narrow, overlooked hem instead. The pattern allows for a two inch hem, but with the gored skirt, this just looked ridiculously bunched up.  

The fit is lovely, comfortable yet flattering - I think it's all in the panels which cleverly define the waist. I'm in love with this dress, I think it gives me a sexy shape, yet is elegant at the same time, which is what drew me to 1940's styles in the first place. My husband even made a rare, unsolicited comment, saying it was his favourite of all the dresses I'd made. It may not sound like much, but believe me, coming from him, that's praise of the highest calibre.

Thank you Rochelle of Lucky Lucille, for organising such a fun and interesting sew along. Rochelle's knowledge of the 1940's is astounding - I learnt so much during this challenge and loved every minute of it. It hasn't finished yet though, don't forget to check out Lucky Lucille on March 31st for a victory parade of awesome 1940's lovelies. I, for one, cannot WAIT!

It's a shame really, I'm all dolled up with nowhere to go. I'd give anything to roll up to a swing dance right this minute. I'd be wearing the perfect dress anyway. x

Sew for Victory progress

There's a rare sighting on my blog today - an actual muslin. I can only bear to make them about once a year, so consider yourself lucky Sew for Victory dress. 

Even though some of the sewing is a bit slapdash, the muslin is very close to being the fit I was after. It's a tiny bit tight on me, but a perfect fit on Angie (my dummy) and she's about a 90% accurate clone of my body. My bust isn't quite the same as the dummy's, and my back, although as narrow as Angie's, is a bit more flabby fleshy. I decided I just needed an inch adding across the bodice section. 

Once this is divided across all the seam allowances, we're actually talking teeny, tiny amounts, so I'm just going to decrease the bodice seam allowances by an eighth of an inch each. This is what I ended up doing with my Oolong dress after I cut the pattern a size too small by mistake (doh!) and it worked fine. I've also taken two inches off the length.

The only other change I'm making to the dress is to put a long 22" zip down the centre back piece instead of having a side zip. This is partly because of my loathing of side zips, but also for a more practical reason. It's actually a lot easier getting the bloody thing on and off with a long centre zip. In my experience I've found that with a fitted side-zipped dress or top, if you have any kind of bust then it's really difficult to get the dress over your boobs without fear of ripping it. As the fabric I'm using is pretty thin, I didn't want to take any chances, so a seam allowance was added to the back piece to allow for a zip.

As of today, my fashion fabric pieces are all cut out and underlined with silk cotton, just waiting to be sewn together.  You never know, this time next week, I could be in possession of a darling Du Barry dress!  Wish me luck. x

Butterick 9206 bow blouse

I've wanted to sew a bow-necked blouse for a while, but I knew I'd need to find exactly the right pattern. In my opinion, you need to tread carefully, otherwise you'll be sliding head first into Austin Powers territory... 

Yeah baby!

Of all the many bow blouse patterns out there, the one that took my fancy was vintage Butterick 9206 from the late 1950's, with its lovely kimono sleeves. After I admired Kerry's 'Nice Surprise' blouse made from the same pattern (even though she'd put it on her fail list), she very generously offered to let me borrow and trace it. Thanks so much Kerry - sewing blogger to the rescue yet again. 

The only slight obstacle in my master plan was that her pattern was for a 38 inch bust and my usual vintage size is a 36 or 34. For the first time ever, I decided to grade it down - properly. You know, with a pencil and ruler and tracing paper and everything. If you ever need to grade a pattern up or down in size, then Casey's series of tutorials are wonderful. And - I have actual personal experience here - totally idiot proof. Rather cautiously, I graded down to a 36 inch bust as I figured it would be easy to take in the side seams. My reasoning was that if I graded it down too far to a 34 and it was too small, I'd be in trouble. It probably took me about an hour to grade the pattern pieces down and re-cut them out and the maths bit was easy, it didn't hurt one bit! The fit across the shoulders was fine, but I did need to take the side seams in a lot. With hindsight, I should have graded down to a 34 inch bust. Ho hum. The only other change I made was to extend the back darts up another 1.5 inches to allow for my narrow back.

Tiny, drapey gingham, almost impossible to photograph without it looking all swirly

I went for view D, which is more of a tie-neck than a bow-neck, and used my Margaret Howell posh drapey gingham. As the gingham print really is tiny, I didn't even attempt to match up the checks. 

Verdict? Well, I don't love it outright, but I do like it. The fabric is soft and comfortable to wear and drapes beautifully, but I think it's almost too drapey - the blouse is just very floppy. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, it looks nice tucked in and I can see it pairing well with wide legged trousers or even shorts in the summer for a bit of a nautical look. I've now decided that the next time I make a bow-necked blouse I'd like to make one that screams PUSSY BOW and really makes a statement. This blouse is neat and chic but is definitely something Miss Brahms would wear. Next time I want to channel my inner Mrs Slocombe. x

Sew for Victory

Thank you all so much for your feedback on my trousering dilemma. Having prevaricated for long enough, I've decided to to go with the Juniper pattern, but will narrow the width of the legs. Now that I've decided on the pattern, I feel like I can relax a little,  although I would like to wear them during the summer months so I can't rest on my laurels for too long. Let's move swiftly on to my current challenge instead - Sew for Victory - over at Lucky Lucille. 

It didn't take me long to decide to jump aboard this challenge - of all vintage eras, it's the 1940's that really make my heart skip a beat. It's my favourite style decade, mainly because of the dressmaking details: the knee-length gored skirts, the fitted waists, the abundance of shirt dresses, the interesting collars and the pretty sleeves. I also love the fabrics - feed sack, tiny flowers, cherries (!), gingham, polka dots - I'm practically weeping with joy writing this! 

My own track record of sewing from the 1940's however is pretty rubbish: two pairs of Simplicity 3688 repro trousers, here and here, and the Colette Oolong dress which is 1940's inspired.

I've never actually sewn anything using an authentic 1940's pattern before. This challenge will give me a chance to remedy the situation and hopefully learn an awful lot in the process.

My 1940's pattern of choice is Du Barry 5384, which has a really interestingly shaped central panel extending all the way to the hemline. I pinned it to my Pinterest board a few weeks ago, but I never realistically thought I'd ever have a chance of finding the pattern. You can imagine my screams when I put in a search on Etsy and found one for sale at an affordable price and in a size that would probably fit me…!

It's very similar in style to the Colette Oolong, but with a few crucial differences. The Oolong is cut entirely on the bias, which, I'll be frank, is pretty traumatic in all kinds of different ways. The one advantage of it being bias cut is that there's no need for a zip. My Du Barry pattern includes one of my most hated sewing features - a side zip. I loathe them so much I've decided to put in a longer, central zip down the back of the dress instead. In a rare move, I'll also be making a muslin as I'm not 100% convinced a 1940's size 34 will be big enough, especially the bust section. I'll keep you updated on that one. 

Now onto fabric - I learnt my lesson with last year's Mad Men Challenge. I used a synthetic fabric which on the plus side was the right colour and turned into a lovely fitted dress that Joan herself would have been proud to wear. But on the downside, the fabric was so bleugh that I've never worn it, it just feels like dinner lady smock fabric, maybe it is for all I know?  This time, I just happen to have the perfect fabric in my stash, a charcoal grey polka dot cotton I picked up at Walthamstow market at the last meet-up. It was very inexpensive, but I was really impressed by its lovely drape and quality. I sincerely hope it turns out to be a bargain of the century and not a near relative of a dishcloth after one wash.  As it's so drapey and lawn-like, I'm going to underline it with either cotton muslin or silk cotton, I haven't quite decided which yet.

I'll be cracking on with my practise muslin this week and will post pictures soon, I promise. In the meantime, here's a puzzle I'm hoping one of you vintage pattern experts out there can solve. The image of my pattern on my Pinterest board featured a grey dress on the left and a yellow dress on the right. 

Yet the pattern I purchased - the exact same pattern - features a green dress on the left and a red one on the right. What's going on there then? 

Did pattern companies in the 1940's print multiple versions with different colour palettes? Or maybe a different coloured front cover for different sizes? I did think it might simply be a case of one cover having faded, but the difference in colours is just too dramatic. I'm now really curious to find out why the patterns were printed in this way. If anybody out there can shed any light on this little puzzle, please let me know, it would make me so happy! x  

Kelly skirt: hit or miss?

Do you ever see a garment on a sewing blog and have a burning desire to make an exact copy IMMEDIATELY? You do? Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only border-line stalker out there then ... I had my most recent moment after seeing Roobeedoo's denim Kelly skirt by Megan Nielsen. It was, in a word, perfect: the cute buttoned front, the high waistband and the fact that it was denim. Denim! You all know how much I love a neat denim skirt - I knew I had to have one the same. I sheepishly contacted Roobeedoo at this point, letting her know my Single White Female intentions. Being the fine, generous woman she is, she graciously gave me her blessing to blatantly rip her skirt off, along with some construction tips and advice on lining! You gotta love Roobeedoo!

I used the same Japanese denim from Our Patterned Hand as Roobeedoo, but when push came to shove, I just couldn't be arsed to add a lining. My denim Ginger isn't lined and it's never given me any trouble, so I winged it. I used a light blue thread for the top stitching and buttonholes and vintage glass buttons. 

Top tip: be very careful not to drop glass buttons on the floor, remember, they're made of glass so can break. Ask me how I know....! Size-wise I made a small and it fits well, I didn't make any alterations, apart from hemming it half an inch longer than it says on the pattern. Let me state for the record that the Kelly skirt is a VERY easy skirt to make, two front pocketed pieces, a back piece, some pleats and a waistband. Hoorah. Yes, there are seven buttonholes but that's still five fewer than the other main player in the button front skirt world - the Colette Beignet. I've made the Beignet twice (here and here) and although I love it to death, it does probably take about three times longer to make than the Kelly skirt.

So, I've made a carbon copy of Roobeedoo's skirt, same pattern, same fabric, a good fit, easy to sew. Surely I should be skipping around with glee, punching the air at this point? Well, not really. It wasn't the love at first sight I was expecting - just because a garment looks wonderful on one sewist, it doesn't necessarily follow that it will be a perfect match on you. On the surface, it includes all the features I like: A-line shape, nice buttoned front, high waist, but I don't really wear skirts with pleats, just as I don't wear gathered skirts, I'm not used to having so much volume around my waist. And I think that's what I need to get past with this skirt, it's a different shape than I'm used to, that's all. I think it's quite healthy to be dragged out of my sewing comfort zone now and again, so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. 

It's looking promising so far - the more I wear it, the more I like it. Even with a high waist, it's super comfortable and I like the fab, roomy pockets. We'll have to wait and see - darling Kelly skirt, don't take it personally, it's not you, it's me! x