Sewvember!

Hello! How quickly did November whizz by? I hope it treated you well. I'm currently really enjoying every day life, which is always nice, and I'm loving the approach of the festive season. I am also wishing (as I do every year) that I had starting making my Christmas gifts earlier. Ah well, I think it's still do-able!

Anyway, Sewvember! I decided to join in this year, posting a sewing photo a day from the prompts Bimble + Pimble provided, and it was a lot of fun! It also led me to discover lots of new blogs to follow, and provided lots of inspiration. Search #bpsewvember on Instagram if you're ready to fall down the rabbit hole of sewing photo goodness!

Here is my Sewvember round up.

Day 1: Three Facts

1.  My mum taught me to sew as a child, mostly as she was making our many dance costumes!

2. I hate throwing anything away.

3. I'm a compulsive list maker. I also keep notes of everything I sew with any alterations I made in my little sewing book.

Day 2: Like A Boss

Unusual for me but at the moment I'm using up fabric scraps like a boss making quilt blocks. This is going to be a lovely snuggly lap quilt for the living room.

Day 3: Inside

Inside my Blue Dress (which was my practice wedding dress) is a corselet which helps keep the structure, keep stress off the lace sleeves and keep a lovely line. It was really fun to sew, too.

Day 4: Inspiration

My main source of inspiration is the internet. Blogs, tutorials, and course, Pinterest. There's a lot of tartan on my sewing inspiration board at the moment. Plans are a-forming!

Day 5: Work in Progress

A block from the scrappy quilt I'm making bit by bit by bit.

Day 6: Slow or Fast

I favour slow prep, fast stitching! This was on Sunday - pinning all my quilt blocks together in one go before sewing them together. I actually don't mind slow sewing, I find it relaxing and would rather not rush!

Day 7: Stash

I don't think mine is too bad! I'm solidly using up my fabric stash, and this is my pattern box. Think I may need another box soon!

Day 8: Why Sew?

I'm a creative soul. I sew because I find great joy in making beautiful and/or useful things. I also love clothes and having the ability to sew well fitting, well made clothes in my style to my spec is wonderful and very freeing.

Day 9: Game Changer

My little bobbin box (£1.50 from Muji!) and my made over Ikea thread drawers. Such small things but they give me joy every time I go to get thread.

Day 10: View

This beautiful wall hanging that was a gift from my darling friend Carly. It hangs behind my sewing machine in my little sewing corner. I love it.

Day 11: Tools

Not glamorous or beautiful but these are my favourite sewing tools! Especially the heat reflecting board cover. It reeeeally works. Now I'm one of those people who talks about their ironing board cover. Yep. Ok, off now....

Day 12: Community

Blogs blogs blogs!

Day 13: Style

Classic shapes, jewel colours and fun prints!

Day 13: Help

When I need sewing help I usually consult this book. I wish so much I could ask my mum instead, she would know the answer!

Day 15: Heirloom

My Nanna's button tin, which I inherited along with loads of vintage buttons inside it. I need to make more projects that need buttons!

Day 16: UFO (Unfinished Object)

I can't believe I still haven't finished this Liberty silk dressing gown! It was supposed to be finished for my wedding 5 months ago and uses my wedding dress lace as a trim on the cuffs. It will be so lovely when it's done and it's not even that far from complete. Need to finish it soon. I made matching dressing gowns as thank you gifts for my two lovely bridesmaids (I got those finished on time!) but ran out of time to finish mine. But I will now!

Day 17: Print or Plain?

Print print print! 

Day 18: Dream Project

If money, time and practicality were no issue, I'd love to make something with lots of layers of tulle and intricate beading like one of these beautiful Ellie Saab dresses.

Day 19: Workhorse

My stylish 90s overlocker. It did a decade of work for my mum before it was passed down to me and is still going like a good 'un. I rely on it for beautifully finished seams and it never lets me down.

Day 20: Tried and True

The B4443 bodice pattern has worked hard for me! It has been a sun dress, strapless, V neck, halter neck and even the under bodice of my wedding dress.

Day 21: Best Part

For me the best part is seeing it all start to come together. This picture was taken when I had finished draping my wedding dress bodice, sewn it up and then tacked it onto the skirt. The relied and joy were palpable. It all worked!!!

Day 22: From the Vault

This picture is from 2009. A dressing gown I made that ended up being mostly a dressing room dressing gown and though it was't perfect in any way, it served me well!

Day 23: Sewing Essentials

Mine are tea and an old movie musical! Today I've got a lovely cup of Lady Grey and 42nd Street. All my jobs for today are done. I can do an hour or two of sewing!

Day 24: Skill Up

I really need to learn how to use this little guy (a blind hem foot). I usually hem by hand but this would speed things up soooooo much. I've tried a few times and always get the fabric folds wrong when attempting to blind hem by machine. Tips appreciated!!!

Day 25: Oh No!

When you put in an invisible zip and the waist seam really REALLY doesn't match up...

Day 26: Best Make

It HAS to be my wedding dress! The hem is still only tacked in this still from my trying-on video so technically it's not quite finished here, but even so, you can see how much I loved it. I really enjoyed sewing it, making it exactly as I wanted and the finished dress was so perfect for me. It was also so special to make the most important promises of my life in a dress I'd made with my own two hands. Such a special dress.

Day 27: Detail

Button loops on my wedding dress (obviously before the buttons were sewn on and before the lace overlay was added).

Day 28: Sewing Space

This corner of our living room has become my sewing space. I admit to being envious of those with dedicated sewing rooms, but this works well for me! Grateful to have this space to sew!

Day 29: Confession

I have a dedicated thread bin but I mostly just stuff thread offcuts into the top drawer of my sewing cabinet.

Day 30: Up Next

Next up is a tartan Emery dress that I didn't get round to making last year! 

Thank you Bimble + Pimble for hosting Sewvember, it's been fun to play along!

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 ****