A Liebster Award!

What a lovely surprise it was earlier today when Shauni from The Magnificent Thread nominated me for a Liebster Award! How lovely to hear that people do like reading my blog!

The award is given by bloggers to other bloggers, and is a great way to share blog appreciation and also discover new blogs along the way. Plus then there's the "pay it forward" element, meaning we get to nominate other blogs we love. Thank you so much to Shauni for nominating me! I love reading Shauni's blog too so I was thrilled she chose me as one of her Liebster nominees!

As part of receiving the Liebster Award, I have to share 11 facts about myself. Which is harder than it sounds. Anyway, I'm not sure how interesting they are but here they are!

1. I'm a Yorkshire lass born and bred, and very proud of my roots. I now live in South East London and love love love it!

2. My Grandad was a tailor, but sadly he died when I was quite young so I never got to share my passion for sewing with him. My mum told me of how he made her unpick a checked coat she was making when she was a teenager because the checks didn't match across the seams - I bet I would have loved sewing with Grandad! Sounds like he kept mum on the straight and narrow.

3. I am a hoarder. I can find a potential use for anything, and a reason to keep anything at all. I live in a tiny flat and am really, really trying to only keep things that are truly going to be useful (or are beautiful or sentimental).

4. My first interaction with my now husband was chucking a rubber at him. We were sitting the entrance exam for the music college we ended up meeting at (we passed the exam it seems) and he whispered "Has anybody got a rubber?". I am SUCH a goody-goody and refused to talk in the exam, so just chucked my rubber his way, and was very annoyed when it rolled under the piano and I never got it back. Grr. About 18 months later, we met through a friend at college, and didn't realise that we'd almost kind of met in the exam until years later. That was over 12 years ago! Now he's my husband and he still hasn't replaced that bloody rubber.

5. I'm an actor and singer. I trained at the Guildford School of Acting and have done a mixed bag of acting work since graduating in 2009. Mostly musical theatre, a play or two and a tiny bit of TV (anybody see Bloody Tales on National Geographic back in 2013? No? Never mind...)

6. I'm also in a band! The Pink Champagne Sisters, a close harmony swing trio with an awesome four piece band. I've got to say, the band has really saved my sanity as I battle on in the hugely competitive and unpredictable world of acting. I'm so proud of what we've achieved with the band, and the fact that we've created it and we are in control of it is really empowering. And I flipping LOVE performing with the band, they're also some of my favourite people in the world.

Snap of one of my favourite Pink Champagne Sisters costumes

7. I have a serious phobia of birds and moths and butterflies. Basically anything that flaps.

8. I absolutely love tea and absolutely hate coffee. Yuk.

9. I love to read! I'm currently reading All The Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld, and am really enjoying it. It's beautifully written and paints such a clear picture of the world of the central character. I look forward to my commuting time when I do most of my reading!

10. I'm a little bit obsessed with lettering, script and type. I've been learning calligraphy - it's harder than it looks but I'm loving learning how to do it. It's so satisfying and therapeutic.

11. Until very recently I thought the word "werewolf" was pronounced "weer-wolf". Weirdo.


Onto my nominations!

I would like to nominate Betty Stitchup, one of my absolute favourite blogs. I love the things Coo sews, she has awesome vintage style.

Also the Gingerthread Girl, who makes really lovely clothes and always inspires me with her beautiful top-notch photographs!


Have a gander at their blogs, if you're anything like me I'm sure you'll love what you find there. If my nominees choose to accept, they need to share 11 facts about themselves, and pass on the Liebster love by nominating some of their favourite blogs (some state that it must be blogs with under 200 followers. I didn't worry too much about that, though).


Right, I think I'll get back to watching the gymnastics and sewing. I've been working on my second quilt, and have half of my required blocks all sewn up. I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to finish it, we'll see!

Made Up dress: striped Simplicity 1873

Black and white and read all over dress

I finished my Made Up pledge! Only a month late.... Oops!

Let's gloss over that lateness (and the two weeks it has been waiting to be blogged). I'm thrilled to have supported Made Up and The National Literacy Trust, such a great charity. Plus Karen's call to arms spurred me on to FINALLY make this dress which has been planned for about a year. I'm so glad I've finally made it.

As I mentioned before, I'm having a big old clear out at the moment, which has led to me enforcing a fabric buying ban on myself until I've used up all the lengths I have (I have a plan for most pieces) and I have to say I've actually enjoyed being restricted in this way. That sounds a bit odd, doesn't it, but I've enjoyed it because it has seen me complete projects that have been planned for ages. Somehow it's easier to get around to them without the distraction of new stuff! Plus, you know, there's the money saving aspect too. I am a bit skint at the moment, and it feels great to still be able to satisfy my sewing craving with minimal (new) expense!  

Back to this particular dress...

The pattern is Simplicity 1873 by Cynthia Rowley  which I got free with Sew magazine about an age ago. I've been stalking lots of lovely versions of this dress online, and decided I really wanted to try the little pleated puff sleeves and the skirt pleats which have many a good review online. So I made view A, and after a quick toile made the following adjustments:

- raised the bust darts 1". It's slightly too much, need to lower slightly for the next version. Also need to extend the waist darts on bodice front slightly. 

- lowered the neckline by 1 and a half inches the whole way round. I liked the high neckline in theory, and love it on other people, but it didn't look right on me for some reason. I much prefer this lower neckline but could probably have gone somewhere in the middle. 

- took a wedge out of centre front neckline to fix gaping 

- added back neckline darts for the same reason 

- lengthened the bodice slightly

I went with the longer skirt length option, because the short one is super short. I don't mind short skirts but I'm not that into short AND full. This silhouette works much better for me. 

The fabric was bought ages and ages ago from Regency Rags on eBay. It was really reasonably priced, so I can't complain there, and is of lovely quality. I made a neckline facing rather than a lining for the bodice of this dress, as I wanted to take advantage of the 3% stretch in this fabric (a cotton/Lycra mix). The weight of the fabric is really nice and not only is it opaque enough to wear unlined, it also holds the pleats and skirt shape really well, so I'm chuffed with that. I stabilised the waist seam with twill tape so it didn't stretch out too much. 

I made my first ever hem facing for this dress too. For some reason I couldn't get the thought of a nice, deep hem out of my head for this dress, but I didn't want to lose the length that I already was quite happy with, so I made a hem facing and I blooming love it. It may just become my new favourite hemming method.

My lovely hem facing. And yes, I pattern matched the facing too. Too far?

Stripe matching. It's a bit of a pain, it definitely takes a while and on this dress caused me to unpick and redo a few seams with gritted teeth, BUT it was totally worth the extra time at each stage. I loathe cutting out, and it took such a long time hunched over my fabric on the living room floor to get the placement and stripe matching just right before cutting out that I seriously doubted my sanity in choosing a pattern with 5 skirt pieces for this bold, stripey fabric. I matched the stripes across all the skirt seams, and the bodice side seams and the centre back. Unfortunately this means I couldn't have my nice black stripe all the way round the waist seam (on the bottom of the bodice and the top of the skirt) that I wanted, but matching the stripes along the length of the skirt seams was much more important to me, and actually I like the kind of cascading effect this gives the stripes across the skirt pleats. It took a lot of deciding which way to have the stripes running on the sleeves and I think in the end I chose right. 

Stripe matching across one of the skirt seams

I made a big error with the zip. The pattern calls for an invisible zip and that would definitely have been the best option here. But I didn't have one "in stock", and dammit, I wanted to finish my dress. So I used the ordinary black zip I had, and decided to put it in lapped so as to cause minimal disturbance to my lovely stripes continuing over the centre back. It has worked, but my stitching on the zip is not the neatest in the entire world and it does bother me a bit that this is the only truly "homemade" looking part on the dress (in my opinion. You might think the whole dress looks a dog and screams home made!). It's not quite bad enough for me to want to take the entire zip out and redo it but I may redo the offending bit of stitching. If I've got the patience.

Anyway I really, really like my new dress. I feel a bit like I should be carrying a swag bag and walking on my tiptoes in it but that's all part of the fun.

Aren't the little pleated puff sleeves fun?

Trying to show you the pleated sleeve properly!

The day I finished it I wore it to the theatre to see Pure Imagination (a celebration of the music of Leslie Bricusse) and loooooooved wearing it. I can never wait long to wear a new hand sewn dress!

Instagram snap before I headed out to the theatre. Worn with Hell Bunny cardigan

I like this pattern, especially the skirt pleats, and I did love working with cotton sateen. No sewing has happened since I finished this a few weeks ago (boo) but I'm about to do some cutting out now so that's all good! I'm throwing all my sewing plans out of the window, since I quite fancy making another quilt. 

Hope you're all having a lovely Sunday! x

Flora / Vincent dress

the Vincent dress (BHL Flora pattern)

Hey! How are YOU? I have finally made a Flora! It's taken me a while, and it made me break my no-more-new-pattern-buying ban when By Hand London announced they were moving to PDF format only. I snapped up a paper copy quick sharp!

This fabric was also an unscheduled lunch break purchase months ago. When I finally came to using it, I couldn't decide between making a Flora or a full-skirted off-the-shoulder dress. You can see I chose Flora, but I do have LOADS of this fabric left, and I'm planning a pair of Colette Clovers or similar cropped trousers with the leftovers! 

The fabric does have 3% stretch, and is a lovely weight. The stretch didn't cause me any bother, I lined it in a non stretch cotton to keep it in check and added interfacing along the invisible zip opening, and all was fine!

I love the silhouette from the back!

My measurements matched up really well with the finished measurements for a size 16, so I went for it with no toile. Silly me!!!! I had to take the side seams in 3/8" on each side, and the fit around the bust and particularly under the bust isn't spot on (yet). I also feel the waistline is wanting to ride up at the front, although I'm not sure if that's just an optical illusion cause of the hi lo hem!! Anyway, I am going to properly work on the fit of this pattern before I make another. I need to go down a size and do an FBA I think. 

HOWEVER my quick fix of taking it in at the side seams saved this dress and I actually really like it.

I've gotta be honest, I wasn't sure whether I'd like the high tank bodice on my body. I thought it might make me look bigger or saggier in the boobs. But I don't think it does. I feel pretty fab in it actually! 

Similarly, wasn't sure of the hi lo hem before I made this, but I bloody love it on the finished dress! Whoop! 

Can you tell I like this dress?

Not much else to note, except I had to shorten the tab straps by quite a bit (this is pretty standard for me). And I really like the slightly unusual bodice construction, it's very neat and tidy. 

In other news, I've had a sewing blog for over a year and a half and I have never done a spinning picture to show off a full skirt. I know. I thought perhaps I'd get my blog taken off of me or something if I continued to defy the rules of full skirt photography so I did me some twirly shots, which was a great idea, mainly because it resulted in gems such as this picture:

The height of glamour. 

I had a laugh taking these and even more of a laugh sifting out the hilarious "oh God, no one's eyes can ever see that" pictures. 

Right, I'm off. I was hoping to make the Made Up Initiative deadline and have a lovely stripey Simplicity 1873 to show you very soon, as per my pledge. I'm still toiling (having learned my lesson!). I'm hoping the dress is going to be a good one, although I've come to terms with the fact that I probably won't get it finished in time for the deadline. It doesn't matter, at least I have supported a fantastic cause, that's what's important. Also in the pipeline (currently just an idea) is a coat! So I've got lots to be getting on with. Plus all my teaching jobs start back this week so I have much less self indulgent Marie time! Better get sewing and planning!

Ta ra xx

Making my Wedding Dress: Reflections and Useful Resources

I know you've all probably heard enough of me jabbering on about making my wedding dress by now, but it is my biggest, most challenging, proudest make to date, and I just have a lot to say about it.

REFLECTIONS

Making my wedding dress was much more emotional than I thought it would be. I became so invested in it, that when it began to take shape I was very emotional. It also helped me feel closer to my mum while I was sewing it. She died 8 years ago, and was a wonderful seamstress. I couldn't help but imagine us making it together if she were still with us.

I put in so many hours I almost can't quite work out how I fitted them in.

I grew to appreciate - and even enjoy! - slow sewing. I'm not super fast at the best of times, but I must say I really enjoyed a long, involved project where I took my time.

I really enjoyed learning a little bit about couture techniques.

It has given me a huge sewing confidence boost! I'm so proud of what I've achieved with this dress.

I love learning new things.

Enjoying slow sewing: pile of thread-traced corselet pieces

USEFUL RESOURCES

Couture Techniques by Claire B Shaeffer
Threads Party Dresses magazine


Here are a few links I've found useful when making my dress:

Edelwiess Patterns - Petticoat tutorial
This is the tutorial I used to make my petticoat, only I doubled up on the bottom two layers.

Stitch 'n' Smile - Waist stay tutorial
This wasn't the method I used but is another great alternative

Frabjous Couture  - Bound Slit tutorial
Almost the same as the method I used

**** Click here to see an index of all my "Making my Wedding Dress" posts ****

Making my Wedding Dress Part 6: Repairs

I tore my wedding dress. It was late on in the evening, well into the reception. I just reached across a table for my drink, felt my dress catch on my niece's pushchair handle and heard a sickening rrrrrrrip.

My heart sank. The rational part of me sad "Oh, well, you've worn it all day, and it can't be helped now." but the irrational part of me wailed "My dress! How could I have ripped it?!"

I quickly put it out of my mind and got on with celebrating, but after returning from our honeymoon, I decided to try and fix the rip before taking my dress to be cleaned.

I actually found a few other little holes while I was at it, and repaired those too! I cut around appropriate lace motifs from offcuts and appliqued them over the holes by hand. I'm so pleased with the result!

The main rip, centre front of skirt

Lace motif pinned on, ready to applique 

All fixed. The repaired part is in the centre. It does break up the regular spacing of the lace motif, but otherwise I don't think you'd notice it

Another little hole I found. I sewed a little lace flower over this one.

Little hole along hairline sleeve head seam repaired with appliqué lace flower.

The lesson shall be: don't despair if you tear some lace. Try and mend it!

**** Click here to see an index of all other "Making my Wedding Dress" posts ****

Making my Wedding Dress Part 5: Fabric Shopping & Work Begins

I didn't change much in terms of construction between my practice dress (The Blue Dress) and my wedding dress.

The fabric, though, deserves to be talked about.

I shopped AROUND for my fabric. The trouble was, I had a very specific idea of exactly the type of lace I wanted. I was also very concerned that it was the right shade. I'm so pale that a lot of "ivory" fabrics are pretty much the same as my skin tone! So I needed white or pale ivory.

I also spent more than I originally planned to. The cheaper laces just weren't doing it for me, and try as I might I couldn't find any mid-priced lace that ticked all my boxes. If I'd been after corded lace it would have been no problem - there seemed to be loads of that about at reasonable prices!

In March, after a lot of internet research, I hit up Soho with one of my bridesmaids, and tried all the fabric shops there, dodging the showers as we went. We finally struck gold in the wonderful Broadwick Silks. They had an amazing selection of absolutely beautiful (and eye-wateringly expensive) luxury fabrics. But what made the whole experience so much easier, more fun and more special was the lovely assistant, Kelsey, who helped me. She went out of her way to find any and every lace that matched my description, even schlepping out in the rain twice to their sister shop to bring back more options.

Kelsey stood me in front of their mirror and "dressed" me in a base layer of duchess silk satin, then draped each lace in turn over that so we could get an idea of what it would look like. My lovely bridesmaid was great and took loads of photos for me! We were there HOURS, tried every lace they had and eventually found The One. Heart-stoppingly beautiful lace. Lace handmade in France, with a gorgeous scalloped edge, lace that was super soft and very delicate. And very expensive. I shall use every last scrap!!!!

I took the plunge and bought that lace, but I couldn't afford the lovely duchess satin Kelsey had draped over me. Especially when I had seen duchess silk satin on Goldhawk Road for half the price! I headed straight there, to UK Textiles, and got my duchess satin for £35/m from the lovely chap there.

It was a bit more difficult to find the right colour silk charmeuse for the waist sash, button loops and covered buttons. I needed a pale ivory but it seemed really difficult to find. Eventually I found a good coordinating colour in Goldbrick Fabrics, and headed home feeling absolutely worn out!!

I carefully planned my cutting layout, especially on the lace. I wanted the sleeves and the back neckline to mirror each other (symmetrical lace motifs), and managed this with careful layout thinking. I do have quite big offcuts so I'm planning some more lace makes to use up the leftovers!

Here are some shots of the finished dress, and a few photos to highlight construction. These were taken in the early evening, and the light did a bizarre thing to the colours, making my satin and lace look positively cream. In reality it's a pale ivory.

There were a few things I did differently on my wedding dress to my Blue Dress.

Instead of adding an extra front-shoulder piece in to finish the neckline, I brought the back pieces over the shoulder to join to the front neckline with a hairline appliqué seam. It worked so much better and made more design sense.

I have LOADS of shots like this through the entire process of me using photos to help me with fitting and lace placement 

This time I did appliqué seams by hand on the bodice side seams, and I just love how invisible they are. This is me trying to "show my workings" before I pinned and stitched them.

The seam line is marked with thread tracing and the lace motifs either side of the seam line overlap and are appliquéd by hand for an invisible seam.

I added a lining underneath the petticoat to stop scratchiness! I'm going to have to go back and add one to the Blue Dress now as it is a bit scratchy to sit in. The Wedding Dress was a dream though. also because of scratchiness, I finished the edges of my Wedding Dress petticoat with ribbon.

The layers! Here you can see the lace hem (still only tacked), the duchess satin hemmed with horsehair braid, the ribbon-bound edges of the petticoat and the lining I added. I just overlocked the lining hem, as it wouldn't be seen and I did NOT want to hand-hem a third circle skirt for one dress, wedding dress or not!

TIP: to stop the corselet hooks and eyes from catching on the lace of the outer dress while working on it, I covered the hooks with washi tape!

Each lace I used throughout this project (toile lace, blue lace, pricey French lace) has behaved differently, which is why I'm really glad I draped my bodice. The luxurious and very soft and supple French lace is much more malleable than the others were, allowing me to stretch and shape it over the bust and round the arms more easily, making for a better looking and comfier garment in the end.

Because my Wedding Dress lace is quite an open design, I had to be really careful when sewing it that it didn't get all ruched up in the open parts. Over open parts of the lace I sewed over a scrap of Swedish Tracing Paper to stabilise it, ripping it away afterwards. It really worked and gave me lovely flat seams with no bother.


As I got further into my dress-making journey, I got more and more excited. Here is the moment when I tried on the almost-completed dress (the hem is still just tacked here), and danced around in it for ten minutes like an excitable child!

Argh! So proud!

**** Click here to see an index of all other "Making my Wedding Dress" posts ****

Meadow print sundress & de-stashing plans

I interrupt my wedding dress posts to bring you an "ordinary" make.

As usually happens, my newest make has become my favourite item of clothing. I'm loving wearing it!

The Meadow dress: B4443

This summer I have come to realise that until now I had never made a true sundress, and the few shop-bought ones I've had for years are getting pretty worn out. I decided it was time to change that, as well as use some fabric that has been lying dormant for, erm, the past year. And lovely fabric it is too! It's Dewy Meadow, from the Arcadia collection by Cloud9. I love the quality of it, not to mention the gorgeous print.

I made this dress in spits and spurts over a week where I had some time on my hands, but no spare cash. What I DID have of course was fabric and my sewing machine, so I spent some happy hours making this dress.

Originally it was supposed to be a bit of a copy of those loverly Bernie Dexter sundresses (I have multiple versions pinned on my Sewing Inspiration board), with thin tie-straps. Perhaps I didn't make my straps thin enough, but when I pinned my tie straps onto the bodice, and tied them up, it gave the dress more than a hint of the childish about it. And it would be a nightmare to wear under a cardigan. Since, you know, this is Britain, I thought it would be silly to make a sundress that looks weird with a cardigan over it. So I switched the straps to ordinary straight ones, and made sure they were over where my bra straps landed.

Straps ALMOST properly hidden. Darn straps.

The pattern I used is my beloved and much used B4443. I love a princess-seamed bodice, and the half circle skirt is perfect for a sundress.

I machined a tiny hem on this after overlocking the raw edge, as I liked the longer length, and on a quick, casual sundress I'm really not fussed about a "proper" hem (I usually like a nice hand sewn hem).

Here's a snap of it's first outing, about a month ago when my friend Emma came to London to visit. Whenever she's down we walk around the Tate Modern, eat cake, and have deep life talks that feel a bit like therapy. My dress enjoyed it's little jaunt that day, and has enjoyed many jaunts since.

I even had enough fabric left over to whip up two cushion covers for the living room! I love the happy print. If I'm sat on the sofa wearing my Meadow Dress though I do blend into my surroundings a little bit!

Well, folks, I must be off. I'm having a MAJOR declutter at the moment, which is hard for me, a self-confessed hoarder. But I've had enough of being hemmed in by STUFF. I need to reclaim some space. So far I have purged clothes, shoes, paper crafting supplies, even books! Next on my list is to tackle my fabric stash. My problem is I cannot bear to get rid of useful fabric. I have loads of scraps saved to make a quilt, and lots in the "refashion" pile that I fear I will never get around to. I have resolved to:
1. Be ruthless and get rid of anything I think will just languish there for eons
2. Make things with my stashed fabrics before I buy ANY MORE
3. When it comes to scraps: use it or lose it. MAKE that quilt, Ree, don't just plan to. Make bibs or kid's clothes from bigger scraps. Make more cushion covers if need be.
4. Sell, donate or give away anything I won't use. I need the space more than I need redundant fabric!

Wish me luck!

**** I'll be back tomorrow with the next part of my "Making My Wedding Dress" series ****