Little Lady in Red

I have to admit I do love it when my little girl, who is 4.5 years old, loves the things I make her. When she was 3 I made her two dungaree dresses with the Two Stitches Freddie pattern. She wore and wore and wore them, even past the point they really were too small, but she didn't want to give them up. I told her I'd make her a bigger one, and she requested a red one. I had this cut out for a loooong time waiting to sew it up, and I'm so pleased I finally have.

The two smaller dresses which are now outgrown

Red all over

The Freddie dungaree pattern is excellent. I really love all the design details and all that topstitching. With an edgestitch foot it was really stress-free and so much fun. This red cotton was left over from another project, as was the beautiful Liberty lawn I used for the lining. I've been saving it for something special, and I only just had enough so this was the perfect use for it. I was in favour of contrast buttons but little Miss chose more red (of course). 

Sewing this gave me a lot of pleasure, but I get even more happiness seeing her play in it. By the end of the first wear it had yoghurt down the front, playdoh on the skirt and pockets full of stones, as it should. Bless her, she cried when I said we had to put it in the wash. If that's not a good review, I don't know what is! 

Make Nine

I’ve decided to join in Make Nine this year. I love setting goals, and I love a good list. Make Nine is all about setting a goal of 9 specific things you’d like to make over the course of a year. I feel like 9 is an achievable amount and also I love seeing everyone else’s sewing plans so I thought I’d post mine. 

So, these are the patterns I’m planning to sew up this year: 

1. Ogden Cami by True Bias

2. Looper quilt by Miss Make

3. Plantain tee by Deer and Doe

4. Blackwood cardigan by Helen’s Closet. A style I wear a lot. I should make this before winter is through!

5. Ness skirt by Tilly and the Buttons

6. Another Pippi pinafore by Jennifer Lauren Handmade. This is the only one of my Make Nine that I’ve made before and it’s one of my favourite things to wear.

7. Ultimate trousers by Sew Over It. I’ve made Colette Clovers before but the waistband annoyed me so I’d like to try a different pattern in the same silhouette. I love this type of trouser for spring summer. 

8. Kielo wrap dress by Named Clothing. Not my usual style but I think I’d like it on.

9. Ginger jeans by Closet Core patterns. Gulp. Will be a big project but I want my perfectly fitting jeans, man! 

Let’s do this!

Return of the Blog

Well. Since my last post on this blog there have been two years, one house move, one baby and of course a Pandemic and all of the chaos that brought with it! So quite a lot has happened, life has moved on but I have, of course, still been sewing.

My sewing space (and dining room) in our new house

Sewing during Lockdown with my newborn in his sling. That sling saved my sanity!

Instagram has really been my social space for all things sewing related, and I've enjoyed posting my projects there. I have, though, begun to really miss having the space to write a little more about each project, and found myself wanting to blog again. 

I do still enjoy reading sewing blogs. I often search for pattern hacks, adjustments or reviews when I'm planning a new make, and the detail that bloggers have gone into about how they did fitting adjustments has been invaluable to me. I also do find it easier to search for specific adjustments. For example, I googled "raise shoulder seams T shirt sewing blog" when I made a Plantain tee and realised I would need to raise the shoulder seams. I was worried about how this would affect the neck band and wanted to find out what other sewers had done. If no one had written about their makes, I would have been none the wiser!

So, I just wanted to mark my return to blogging, I suppose. At the moment I'm feeling really inspired, I'm charging through my sewing list and enjoying every minute. I feel so much more like me when I'm being creative. It helps that we have finally got to a place where we can put both kids to bed, say goodnight, shut their doors and they go to sleep all by themselves. Typing that out makes me nervous in case I jinx it! It really has been life changing for me. I used to spend half an hour laid in the dark in my littlest's room waiting for him to go to sleep, then stumble down stairs all bleary eyed and not have the energy to do anything. Now I can come down at 7pm and crack straight on with some sewing. It feels so good to get some me time back. 

I have a few past projects to blog, including a BIG, complex one which definitely needed a blog post. I've also got some new things to share. It's good to be back!

PS If you want to follow me on Instagram, find me here!

Christmas Stocking

Come with me on a journey through time and space… next stop is Christmas 2017. 

I’m all over the place with my blogging, I know. What does chronology matter when it’s just for fun?! 

Here’s my baby’s Christmas stocking which I made for her very first Christmas. It’s massive.

I was making my template, which consisted of me trying to draw an aesthetically pleasing stocking on some newspaper which could definitely accommodate little gifts. My lovely friends were on hand to offer advice, and when I asked them if they thought it was big enough they both said no, so I made it a smidgen bigger and then added my seam allowance. Yes I am blaming them! 

“You’ve got to fill that now” said various helpful people once the enormous stocking was complete. Having used it though for the little one’s first AND second Christmases, I actually don’t think it is too big at all. 

The mistletoe fabric is leftover from my Christmas dress a few years ago, the white lining was in my stash along with the red felt and ric rac. The red fabric for my appliqué “H” was part of a quilting charm pack I was given as a gift a few years ago, and the ribbon was from the stash too. I padded the whole thing with a layer of quilt wadding (left over from previous quilting projects), and I am really glad I did, it gives it some substance. 

There we have it! A beautiful Christmas stocking in red and green. Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas everyone!

Dress to Skirt Refashion

I have hung onto a bunch of too-small dresses for a long time, waiting to see whether I would fit back into them. But, now I am ready to accept that I have grown, and I really doubt that these smaller dresses will fit me again any time soon. My bigger bust seems like it’s here to stay! 

I eventually realised how silly it was to hoard a selection of too-small dresses whilst also complaining to myself that I a) don’t have anything to wear and b) don’t have money to spend on sewing supplies. So I went through the little stash and gave a few away to my sister, a couple to the charity shop and chose a few to refashion. 

The original Emery dress (click for blog post)

The new skirt

This one was my first Emery dress (I pleated the skirt rather than gathered). I would have loved to have kept it as a dress, I do think this fabric looks much better on a dress than a skirt, but there just wasn’t enough fabric to play with across the full bust. There was also a bit of damage next to the zip on the skirt part. It was a low quality concealed zip, and with the stress of the bulk at the waist seam, the fabric next to the zip had torn a bit. To cover it and prevent any more damage, in my skirt refashion i interfaced the tear and then used an exposed zip from my stash. I’m not all that sure I like the style clash with an exposed zip and a very floral flouncy skirt, but maybe it will grow on me. 

The waistband is thinner than I originally intended, through stupidity alone. I used the waistband from the Pippi Pinafore since it’s perfect, but forgot it is a lined waistband rather than a fold over one. But 

I actually really like the skinny waistband, and it will probably be much more practical. The deep waistband on my Flamingo skirt always gets bunched up when I wear it, which annoys the life out of me, so I’m hoping this will prevent such problems with this skirt. 

I added a popper to the waistband. I was going to put a button on, but the waistband was just too bulky to sew a neat button hole. 

Thanks to Me Made May, I now love pairing a Sorbetto top with a full skirt - who knew?! I’m really happy to discover this, especially since my white Sorbetto is a bit short to wear with jeans, but it’s very soft and impeccably sewn (if I do say so myself), so I’m chuffed to bits that it will be back in regular rotation! 

All we need now is some more sunshine please! 

PS if you'd like to see my Me Made May outfits please see my instagram (although I am planning to do a mega round-up at the end of the month).

Ravel or Debussy dress - a Pippi Pinafore

Another blue thing! I'm clearly loving blue at the moment.

Ravel or Debussy dress (Jennifer Lauren Handmade Pippi pinafore pattern)

You know how sometimes an idea for a project lodges itself in your mind and just will not leave? This was one of those.

I've loved the idea of Pippi pinafore shape since I saw Roisin's beautiful versions. I do love the idea of pinafores in general but was worried that a Cleo-esque shape would be too sack like for my taste, and I would miss the definition of a proper waist and bust darts. Anyway I started lurking the pippipinafore hashtag on Instagram and saw some absolute blinders on there. Then I remembered this royal blue cotton drill I've had in my stash for a few years. It seemed too perfect an idea to put aside so I broke my spending rules and bought the pattern. No regrets!

I had a bit of a problem with the PDF pattern. This one is designed so that the printing goes right to the edge on two sides, but my printer somehow chopped a little bit off these edges. While it is nice to not have to lop the border off two sides of each page before taping together, I think I'd rather have the border on all four sides to avoid this type of problem. Anyway I don't know what but something went awry and a bit was missed off one side of each page. I didn't want to print it all again, so I just guessed / measured between sizes or notches to know how far away to tape each piece from its neighbour. I crossed my fingers and hoped I wouldn't encounter any problems because of my guesswork, but happily it was all fine.

I really, really enjoyed sewing this. I took my time over it and honestly enjoyed every minute (apart from when my machine jammed sewing one of the strap button holes. I wasn't very zen at that moment). I don't often have call to practise my topstitching but loved doing so on this dress.

Fit wise it feels great, but since looking at these pictures I feel I need to do a bit of work on the bib and straps. The bib gapes a bit at the centre front, and I think the issue is that my shoulders/traps pull the straps towards centre when I'm moving around, which distorts the bib a bit. It may also just be a bit big so I'll start by sizing down in the bib next time. I may also need to shorten the straps, and perhaps move their placement on the back further apart?

The fit of the skirt is fab and I love love love the pockets and pleats, and how the button band, facings and waistband fit together. I gave it a really little 1/2inch hem, as I didn't want to lose too much length, but actually I think I could've gone a bit shorter.

I was so happy when I found that I had enough of this elephant / woolly mammoth cotton lawn left over from this Sorbetto top to line this beauty with. I love a happy lining, and the light weight lawn is a perfect partner for the heavier cotton drill.

The buttons are another joy. What is it about buttons? They bring me a lot of happiness. These are from an old RTW pair of shorts that I loved to death, and of course then harvested the awesome nautical metal buttons. There they sat in my button tin until the Pippi pinafore came along to give them life once more.

So I am loving this dress, it's easy to wear and will pair with so many of my existing tops. The only slightly annoying thing is that it appears this fabric creases easily (in these photos I had only been wearing the dress for about an hour and hadn't even sat down in it). Plus it's another cat-hair attracting fabric, so I will always be creased and furry! Hey, there are worse things to be!!!

Also I finally got my hair cut! It's been over a year! It had got to the point where I was willing to hack it off myself, so I'm glad I managed to make it to the hairdressers at last. I'm still not used to it but I think I like it!

The Newspaper Picnic dress - a Tilly & the Buttons Joni

The Newspaper Picnic dress (Tilly & the Buttons Joni pattern)

For my birthday I was rather excited to receive Tilly and the Buttons' "Stretch" book from my lovely best friend who knows me well. I’ve been admiring the patterns in this book for a while and immediately knew I would make the Joni dress first. 

The fabric here is from Fabricland, which I used some birthday money to buy. I have to say, I’m not entirely convinced about my fabric choice. It looks a bit.... worky? Serious? Basically if I worked in an office it’d be just the thing. But I don’t, and so I’m trying to convince myself it looks ok with sandals and a messy bun here. 

Let’s be honest, it’s comfy and it’ll get worn a lot, especially on cool spring days, in autumn and in winter with navy tights and brown boots. So maybe it’s just not a natural choice for a summer dress. 

The fabric is lovely, it’s a really nice weight with lots of stretch and good recovery. As usual I have some left so I will be making the little one something from the scraps, plus maybe my first foray into knicker making! I’ve downloaded the Megan Neilsen Acacia pattern and am looking forward to having a go. 

Back to this dress, and just to add my thoughts on the pattern. I graded between bust and waist, and ended up sewing the side seams at 1 inch instead of 5/8 once it became apparent that it was too big (should have sized down!), but apart from that no adjustments. I should have raised the shoulder seams (a common adjustment for me so not sure why I didn’t think to do it), as all the extra fabric there makes it look a bit like I’ve got shoulder pads in. Maybe that adds to the workwear feel of it?! After wearing it for a day I actually feel it’s too big all over, so if I do make the pattern again I will go 1 or even 2 sizes down. 

The twist front is actually not complicated at all to sew, but I have to say I’m not 100% happy with how it sits. I was always fiddling with it to try and get the twist to look nice, and stop the ends of the neckline binding showing. One of them is poking out in the photo above. It's bugging me even just looking at it in pictrue form! I’m contemplating putting a few hand stitches in to keep the twist in place. It’s quite low cut which is fine but again it makes me wish I’d cut the size smaller so the neckline sat closer to my chest. 

I’m not overly sure I like the lines of this dress on me, but it’s comfy and swishy and actually did a really good job of keeping me cool on a super hot Easter Sunday. We went for a lovely walk in the woods (perfect for taking blog photos!) and had a picnic. We forgot our picnic blanket and the grass under the trees was all dewy, so we had to sit on bits of the newspaper. It was wonderful and just such a happy family day. This dress will certainly always remind me of it and how content we all felt as a family.

So all in all I’m feeling lukewarm about this make. It was a very quick, satisfying sew though, and I think it will grow on me! While I’m not immediately keen to make millions of Joni’s, I do think a black one would be useful, and maybe also a really fun print - palm leaves comes to mind - with shorter sleeves for summer. 

Next up on the sewing list is a Pippi Pinafore which is making good progress, about 20 refashions which are in various states of progress, aforementioned knickers; then jersey dresses, a pinafore and a sun hat for the little one. Plus I have just started formulating plans to make my first pair of jeans. Springtime certainly ignites the urge to sew in me! I just need more hours than are in the day to get through it all!