ooops

In playing around just before posting my last post, I seem to have inadvertently clicked on 'apply to blog' instead of the 'lets have a look' button.

So the blog looks a bit different! Not too much though. I have been thinking about making it look a bit more spiffy and colourful recently. I quite like how this looks so I may leave it, but if I have second thoughts I will be asking techie guru Husband if he can help me sort it out. And no, I don't think I have a backup of the original template.

Moral of story - don't try and be clever when really tired.

FO: Granny Lola gets tough...

... ish.

you lookin' at me???

I used this fabric which, as I said previously, I wasn't 100% sure about:

Husband wasn't sure either, he admitted the other day, and was pretty impressed with how it turned out:

Here are a few shots of different angles:

I really like all the seaming - now that it fits better! I mentioned that I had taken in the prince seams at the front and back - I think I must have taken out at least 8-10 centimetres in the bodice.  The skirt seams I took in about a 1.5cm tapering out to nothing just above the hem band. Next time I should probably make at least one if not two sizes smaller and baste it together to check the fit unlike this time where I had to unpick all my overlocking - not something to be recommended! A few days after I did my unpicking, Winnie posted a handy hint for unpicking overlocking stitching - which would have been very useful!

Here I am trying out different poses and a couple of different jackets:

 

I can't quite get the hang of cropping my pictures so they are all the same size, nor can I stand in the right spot to get both head and feet in the photo, but they will do! The light is generally better here than anywhere else in the house that I have tried.

I have had this finished for a couple of weeks and have worn it four or five times already. It usually takes me a little while to work things into my wardrobe, but not this one! It got the thumbs up from the family (even from Husband who had witnessed the frump disaster) and got several compliments when I wore it for a girls night out recently, which is pleasing.

Lastly here is silly one - Monday morning bopping 

Squares before my eyes

Not long before Christmas I bought this lovely wool blend jersey from Geoff Rosenberg at Trumpingon village hall:

I don't often buy without a plan, but this was lovely and I knew I would be annoyed if I didn't get it.  I got it home and draped it around my dress form for ideas.

There is enough to make a simple dress along the lines of the beige dress I finished the other week. Or another Lady Skater dress with a slightly slimmer skirt. I love the idea of dresses, they seem very practical, just one thing to put on and you're done. However, apart from the beige dress, I don't often wear the dresses I have. I like to be warm, so I would have to layer up with something underneath if I didn't want to put something over the top.

Another thought was to make a biggish drapey top, possibly using the Burda Young pattern that I used for one of my magpie tops. A top would get a lot of wear, but the fabric doesn't actually go with much in my wardrobe so I would pretty much only wear it with skinny jeans (which I appear to be living in at the moment.

Or, a nice warm cowl necked Renfrew - nice and simple and I have made it a few times before. Too many ideas. What to do, what to do?

Then...

I went shopping with a friend of mine.We went into Cos where I saw this dress:

Image from Cos website.

and I tried it on:

My friend tried to persuade me to buy it, but the fit was a bit off - bit big on the shoulders, the sleeves are a strange length and the waist gathering was a bit high on me.

I love the way the pattern goes up the bodice and down the skirt and I am now trying to work out how I can do something similar to this, with my material.

I would really like to get the squares in the pattern going up the bodice and down the skirt like the Cos dress, but am quite concerned that this might reduce the amount of fabric I would have to work with. To do that would I have to cut fabric at the straight edge of the squares to the left of the top photo, cut the grey strip from the straight edge of the squares to the right of the photo, then spin the right hand side of the fabric round so that the two straight edges meet? Or cut a bodice one way up and a skirt the other way up? I think if I made a dress I might have to line it as the fabric is quite fine.

I could be over thinking this.

I am using this post to try to solidify my ideas for this fabric, but I can't decide and can only see problems at the moment - living up to my self-proclaimed title of Queen of Procrastination!

Having recently spoken to the friend I went shopping with and discussed the merits of dresses versus tops and what would be most likely to be worn, I am veering towards a top. Which makes most of the above unnecessary any way!

Work in progress

I am currently working on a Victory Patterns Lola dress, which is taking longer that it should. 

image from Victory Patterns

I am using the fabric below, which I have mixed feelings about. I got it from one of my pattern cutting ladies, and it could easily be described as 'granny fabric'. Alternativley, it could be an 'interestingly textured' fabric:

I made up the pattern in a size 8 going on the measurements of the finished garment on the pattern. What I should have done, which I have been doing quite a bit recently, was to baste it all together to check the fit first. I don't know why I didn't, but what I ended up with was definitely a 'granny' look garment, complete with saggy baggy bust area! It was so bad I didn't even take any pictures. The potential of the design was there, but the finished item was not very flattering.

I have taken it apart and taken it in considerably on the princess seams in both the front and back.This meant I needed a little alteration on the skirt seams so that they will match up with the bodice when I sew it back together.

I am optimistic for the finished dress now, but it may take a while to finish. My over-locker is playing up and may need a service.  I cleaned out a small quantity of fluff the other other day, which I do reasonably regularly and now there seems to something wrong with the needle plate and or the stitch width finger. Something shifts whilst I sew and ends up obstructing the needle. I have broken 1 needle and bent another in the last week after 3 years of not breaking any. Sigh.

FO: 'self drafted' beige jersey dress...

I got some material a couple of weeks ago from one of the ladies at my pattern cutting class. As they or their friends go through their fabric stashes, or indeed go through the stashes of friends who have died (they are mostly, considerably older than me), material is often brought to class and sold off cheaply to raise money for various charities.

The material I picked was a beige (or for Eldest - Oatmeal*) thick cotton tube knit which felt quite warm. I thought it would be ideal for a top or dress so snapped it up for about £2 . Unfortunately it absolutely stank of mothballs, so much so that it transferred the smell to everything I washed it with. Sigh. I Google-ed how to get rid of the smell and ended up up soaking it vinegar twice and leaving it to air dry between each soak. This seemed to work, although there is still a faint whiff when I iron with steam.

* Eldest was looking through a clothing catalogue yesterday and was appalled to see an reasonably nice top described as 'Oatmeal'. 'Why would anyone want to say they were wearing something that looked like porridge' was the teenage cry. I like porridge but agree with her when it comes to describing clothes!

Anyway. On to the dress. I wanted a warm jumper/sweater dress. I thought I would use my dress block from my class, but decided I didn't want or need darts in it. I found a stretchy dress/tunic in my wardrobe that I like the fit of and drew around it. I was a bit crazy and pinned the body shape directly on to the fabric, cut it out and then drew round it on paper. The sleeve was a bit tricky as it had gathers in the sleeve head, which I ended up taking out. I basted the whole thing together by hand, including one sleeve with gathers and one without. I pinned any changes, re basted, then put changes onto the paper pattern.

had to draw sleeve out first

I had visions of quite a long slinky dress to be worn with boots and a dangly necklace. However, my basted dress showed me that that much beige was not going to be flattering!

lots of beige

Given that this was an experiment, in a not very appealing colour, I am extraordinarily pleased with the result! Looking at the photos, I think I need to shave a little off one of the side seams, but apart from that it is great. Husband says it is 'one of the best things I have made recently'. I have worn it here with leggings and boots, but imagine it would look just as good over my jeans.

hmmm, is this thing working?

There was much discussion in the morning, on my belt placement. I have, for years, worn my belt slung low across my hips. My girls felt that it would look better higher up on my waist. In the interest of science I have taken pictures of the belt in both positions:

on the hips

on the waist

On this evidence I am inclined to agree with them. This belt is a bit wide, but I couldn't find the one I wanted to wear. Here are more photos, just because I like them and you can see how changeable the weather was:

Other ways to be creative

When I first stated this blog, way back when we were living in New Zealand, I used to include the odd bit of non-sewing. I thought That I might start doing that again as and when the mood takes me. 

Husband has been bitten by the breadmaking bug.  He was gifted a copy of the Dan Leopard book 'Short and Sweet' recently. So far he has made two or three different types of white bread and some bagels, all of which have been very tasty. He made some wheaten bread the other day -Youngest declared that she loved it, so a second batch was made today:

I have been making marmalade today. The house is very steamy and smells wonderful:

I was hoping to get it done before the girls get home from school, but I forget (every year!) how much faff is involved. I can add my sugar when I've collected Youngest and do the bottling whilst cooking dinner. Not ideal, but it will be worth it for a bit of sunshine on my toast in the morning!

Queen of Procrastination

I am the Queen of Procrastination at the moment.  I have lots of lovely fabric, most of it bought with a plan in mind. The trouble is I really like the original plan, then think up new plans (usually plural) and end up being so paralyzed by indecision that I don't do anything.


Some of my fabric:
 
a very soft corduroy bought from the local market for £3.00 a metre:

Wool jersey bought from Geoff Rosenberg at Trumpington village hall:

patterned silk from the remnant bin at John Lewis:

Teal wool blend bought from Geoff Rosenberg just because I liked it. The current plan is a Sewaholic Minoru, or a skirt from my pattern cutting class:

middle fabric (need to do something with the other two as well)

Teal linen/cotton blend, bought in New Zealand 4 years ago bought to make a Hot Pattern shirt dress that I muslined and lost heart with. Could also be a Simplicity 2451 with lots left over:

Very drapey jersey, again from Geoff Rosenberg, bought to recreate a Boden Tunic that has been worn to death (could also be wrap dress or renfrew/burda raglan:

Corduroy bought in Goldhawk Road 18months ago to make a Beignet:

top fabric (bottom one already used)

Knobbly blue/grey fabric from one of the ladies at my pattern cutting class - for a sloppy top/Laurel style dress (from my dress block):

Numerous jerseys for renfrews, burda raglan tops and other t-shirt type tops:

Linen for summer skirts or trousers:

Quite large ponti remnants from other makes:

Am I the only one this happens to?! Maybe I will continue the procrastination by rearranging fabric by type, rather than colour...