FO: A BHL wedding outfit, part one - Anna dress

Earlier this summer, Husband and I were invited to a wedding.

The happy couple in the rain!

The groom was one of Husband's many cousins, the second eldest of a family of four boys. I first met these boys when they were teenagers and younger and have seen them grow up into lovely young men.

the brothers in age order!

I wanted to make something for the wedding and had an idea to make a long version of the By Hand London Anna dress. I have made the short version some time ago.  I found the fabric at one Geoff Rosenberg's fabric sales at Trumpington Village hall, Cambridge, for the princely sum of £6 a metre. I think I got 3 metres and it was 160cm wide.  It was a lot of fabric to lay out, and I had great fun trying to work out which way up the motif should go.

I decided to make the V neck bodice this time around, and was very sensible - I made a toile of the bodice before cutting into the fabric.  I only needed to alter the length of the bust pleats - which I had to do on my previous version. I also decided to have a split in one side. I hand stitched the seam allowances of the split - the stitches disappeared into the fabric pattern really easily.  I realised quite early on that I would have to line the dress and because of the side split decided to do a half lining ie to the top of the split.
 

When I tried the dress on I noticed that neckline was gaping quite a bit. I am sure the neck had stretched out as the fabric was pretty tricky to handle. I don't think the instructions say to stay stitch the neck, but if I were to make this style again I would definitely stay stitch here. I solved the issue by using some clear elastic thread in the seam allowance between the main body and the lining. I pulled it in slightly, just tight enough to stop the gaping, but not so much that it looked gathered.

I tried to get one of my girls to take photos before the event, but for some reason they were all of of focus - although this is another fabric pattern that looks out of focus anyway!

I haven't much else to say about the dress. It is an easy sew and easy to wear, I certainly felt pretty glam wearing it!

Walking from the church to the reception

With the groom's mother (in pink) and her best friend

FO: Not Quite Finished Polka Dot Skirt

I have a denim skirt that I really like.  I bought it from one of the many charity shops in my local town about 8 years ago, may be more, and it was originally from Monsoon. I got it fo £4 - bargin! Because I have had it for so long it is looking a little the worse for wear.

The last project I did at my pattern cutting class was to make a pattern of this skirt so that I could make a copy. My teacher had me find the middle of my skirt, draw a straight line to act as the central line/grainline and then do lots of measuring.  I measured the distance from each pleat to the line and  the depth of each pleat for the top and the bottom of the skirt. I added seam allowances and a hem and did a 'rub-off' copy of the waistband.

It sounds quite quick, but it took foreveerrrhhh and the old adage of measure twice cut once is oh so true.  I found that I am pretty incapable of measuring things accurately the first time round. To make sure the pattern would work I pleated the pattern up as if it were the skirt and thought it would do.

The fabric the I wanted to use was the off cut from my polka dot Anna dress. I knew that there wasn't quite enough fabric to get the right length so I used some linen from my stash to add a band of solid colour  at the bottom and waistband. (I made a skirt from the same linen 11 years ago - I am pretty sure it was upholstery linen from Ikea. It will fade over time because the old skirt was a completely different colour from the original by the time I chucked it out last year. Any hints on how to make it colour fast are welcome).

The first time I wore my Anna dress, one of my girls pointed out that it was see through, just as I was leaving the house to go to a meet-up, so by the time I made this I knew I was going to need to line it.

To make the lining pattern, I folded out some of the pleats and then drew around the resulting shape adding on seam allowances.

As you can see I had already put on the waistband at this point, and (in the second photo below) had to reduce the height of the waistband. Because I hadn't folded out all the pleats I roughly pleated the lining to fit.

Before I reduced the height of the waist band, there was a moment where I thought the skirt was going to be a disaster. I had tried it on and the fit was terrible - it was really uncomfortable and the waistband was digging into my ribs. I put it to one side whilst I worked out what to do. I was vastly over thinking the problem and ended up just halving the waistband height.

Once I had fixed the waist band, I hemmed the skirt. I wanted quite a wide band at the bottom of the skirt so did a 2cm hem, but when I tried on the skirt and started to take photos of it I felt that maybe it would look a little less frumpy/mumsy if it were a little shorter.  I then turned it up probably another 2 cms and pinned it, then took some more photos.   I did this at the end of May hence the slight vagueness.

back view - longer length

front view - shorter length

 I was undecided and so it is currently unfinished, awaiting a decision on the length. 

side view plus pleats

Pleat detail

Meanwhile I have been sewing lots of tops for the summer.... post/s to come. You can see one in these photos.

I think overall it has worked out ok. It doesn't fit as well as it could, it is still a bit tight and the waist is still a bit high but I think that could be easy fixed in a future version. I really just wanted to see if I could make a pattern from a piece of clothing without taking the orginal apart, and I can, kinda...

twirls nicely though!

FO: Polka dot Anna

photo from BHL

I have been eyeing up the Anna dress from the By Hand London ladies for sometime, and finally gave in when I visited Backstitch on their opening weekend.

I wasn't sure what fabric I would use, but I had been looking at a lot of polka dot things recently and in the interest of trying to use up some stash fabric, decide to go for a navy polka dot cotton that I have had for some time. In fact, I bought it as part of a kit in 2011, as it was the only way to get hold an out of print pattern that I wanted. It is not really the best fabric for this dress as it has no give at all and as a consequence the front skirt seams and bust darts are fractionally out. But it will do and I am very pleased with the result.

I made the 'midi' version with the boat neck. It was a pretty easy sew, which I did in small increments. The instructions were easy to follow and I also looked at the online sew-a-long posts the BHL ladies have done.  I did a couple of extra steps, the first was to understitch the neck facings. I have had trouble with facings not staying put in the past and I know a few other people have had problems with the facings on the Anna. To further secure the facings, for step two, I very carefully stitched in the ditch of the shoulder seams - no flapping facings for me!

spot the stitch in the ditch

The most interesting thing about this pattern for me is the way the bust is dealt with - instead of darts there are two sets of pleats that 'open[ing] up almost flower-like to accommodate your boobies!’ (straight from the instructions!). It is an interesting way to create shape in the bust area and very flattering too.  I had to shorten the pleats by nearly 1.5cm so that they had the desired effect.

Several people have had problems with the back neckline gaping, so I was prepared for a slight problem here - I basted the zip, tried it on, then ended up having a marginally (3mm) wider seam allowance at the top of the zip on each side. I could probably have made the seam allowance even wider by about 2 mm but it seems ok at the moment.  If you have a big problem with gaping, GingerMakes has  done a tutorial on how she took out the excess in the back of her dress.

The skirt has seven panels that all look very similar, so it is advisable to label them all so you get them sewn together in the right order. I tend to do this anyway, it just something I have always done. I usually pin little labels to the right side of the fabric of each piece which also helps to make sure I don't sew a piece the wrong way out!

Here is a little shot of the insides - very neat if I say so myself

I was hoping to wear this at Easter lunch, but even though it was surpisingly mild today, it definately wasn't warm enough to wear a summer dress! The photos here are, sadly, mostly out of focus, but I wanted to get this up pretty swiftly. And no need to ajust your screens, my legs really are that white.

I wanted to get this up in time for the 'Sew Dolly Clackett' competiton held by Sarah of Rhinestones & Telephones. Roisin of 'It can't be from Dolly Clackett, she gave me an Easter egg!' is getting married soon and the lovely sewing world have planned (with Nic, her partner) to send her off into wedded bliss with a homage to her amazing collection of handmade dresses. I greatly admire many of the dresses that Roisin has made, and one of her favourite dresses has been the BHL Anna - so I hope mine is the perfect contribution!