Thanks Mum

For this lot!

(And the upbringing etc too, of course).

Which is the result of a recent raid on her box of patterns, just sitting there unused since somewhere in the mid-1980s. It was a bit of a trip down memory lane - I remembered several of the children's patterns from clothes she made for us, as well as a few of the women's ones that she made for herself. Mostly, though, it was just rather amusing to see how dated the designs are. If I was an American I would no doubt call them vintage - but I'm a Brit with frugal tendencies, and I just gawped open-mouthed at how shockingly cheap they were compared to today (yes yes I do know about inflation, but still).

Despite the ageing process, and due in no small part to the abovementioned frugal tendencies, I decided that quite a few of these clothes are still make-able.

First the adult ones, for me. (I left behind a man's suit pattern - G just about puts up with all the sewing so far, but I doubt very much that he's ever going to wear homemade clothes to the office. Even if I tell him that tecnically it's "bespoke").

This one was a find - I had been looking for a dress pattern with a curved/shaped bodice just like it:

This next one is basically the same shape as a much-loved but much-outgrown dress that I cut up to make a skirt for L. Serendipitously, however, it's a size or two bigger (none of the patterns are multi-sized). So when I feel ready to tackle collars, I'll have a go at replacing it.

This I mostly just love for the shape of the trousers, which I am unlikely to ever make. Might have a go at the skirt though. And what about those red shoes?! Such fabulous styling.

Now on to the kids' stuff. It's a fab little collection:

L immediately pulled this one out and has made it very clear that she wants the long version:

She's a tall age 4 so I'd best get cracking! Not sure I can bring myself to go floor length though - but would that be better or worse than the tantrum when she realises she's not going to get it? Hmm.

Then, if L will still concede to wear things I make her when she's 10, I quite like the cap sleeved model of this dress:

I'm not sure I'll ever make any of these next ones, but I just really like the sailor tops with elastic around the bottom. Some possible boy options there too, with the shorts/trousers.

I wonder how he cut his knee? Plus, I had that haircut too!

This one on the left is sized 12 months and might well get used to make first-birthday bloomer suits for various babies next summer. I'm thinking the robe on the right will make an appearance for L next Christmas (it's for age 6).

For now though, the one that really grabbed my attention was this:

More specifically, this:

Hand-embroidered options also available:

Um, no thanks. And I won't be patchworking any fabric either, tempting though that particular 'serving suggestion' is.

No, I used denim:

It has a zip, and a snap fastener instead of a hook and eye (because I hate them):

I also used snaps instead of buttons on the front, because I didn't want to risk messing up a finished garment with a bodged button hole.

Just for the novelty, I finished the seams with bias tape. Looks nice, wasn't much more fiddly than the other options, but did add a little bulk (this only really mattered though because the hem is massive - almost double the depth you see on the finished skirt, to allow for letting down later). All told, I'm neutral - might do it again, might not.

And this time I remembered my label.

No, I didn't change the thread. I couldn't be bothered. 

Dress success

This post is a while overdue, because I finished this project several weeks ago. And for once, I've been happily wearing it ever since! That never happens! Here I am posing in my father in law's luscious garden:

I'm particularly pleased because - third time lucky - I finally adapted this pattern in a way that works. It's a variation on the Anda dress, which I stumbled on over a year ago while looking for free/very cheap patterns to download off the interweb. It's extremely easy and only has two pattern pieces, but the concept is deceptively straightforward - although it's loose fitting, the fit still matters. And on my first two versions of this, it really really hung wrong.

This picture was an attempt to show the back view, for the sole reason that I adjusted not only for a full bust but also for a small back (like that would actually have been visible in a photo...). Tada! It works! Commercial dress/top patterns suddenly get a lot less daunting! It seems have finally figured out my fit problems with all clothes ever!

Here is a blurred photo of it hanging up - you can still see the overall structure of the thing:

I added the pockets for some visual interest in all that grey, because I didn't want to include the drawstring from the pattern or have to wear a belt with it. The shape of them comes from the pattern for L's ikea dress - I just sized them up on a photocopier.

I find it interesting how the positioning of the pockets just sort of evens out my top-heavy figure. It's an optical illusion but it works: I got them in the wrong place the first time round and it didn't 'balance' at all (fortunately, I love a good opportunity to spend some quality time with my seam ripper).

All said and done, I really LOVE this dress. It's comfy (and particularly forgving around the post-childbearing waist and hips), it's versatile, and oh my aren't big pockets useful! I doubt I'll be making tons of them, as there's too many other things eagerly awaiting my attention. But I'm very glad I've got the adapted pattern just waiting there for next time and some slightly more interesting fabric than the cheap, plain grey cotton.

Finally, dress success! I really can't wear this one enough.

P.S. Nice post-holiday tan, no?

Mini maxi

Ahhh... long floaty colourful comfy halter neck maxi dresses...



Photos from: Austique, Debenhams, Farfetch, French Connection, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Net à Porter, Oasis



... just perfect for wafting around in fragrantly all summer....

... what's that? My ample bosoms would be uncontrollable in such an outfit? And I'm too short for the length?

<Sigh>

'Tis a terrible shame that my post-child figure no longer slips (or even squeezes) into my old favourite flattering bright lightweight summer dress ...

But wait ...

.... I have an idea ...

If I can't float around in an easy, long halterneck myself ...

... I know someone who can:

Shirt dress for L

Ah the joy of ticking the first thing off a list!  Just one evening of fiddling with bias tape, and I successfully finished transforming an old shirt of G's into a dress for L. 

Less successful were attempts to get her to stand still and be phtographed in it.

The Mother Of All Spring Cleaning Lists

What's the best thing when you have too little time for all the things you want to do? A Great Big List, of course! I love lists - organisational, motivational little things of beauty. This one is a spring clean of all the stuff that's been plotting itself To Do in my head for the last few weeks, and oooh it feels good to have written it all down.

So let's share the love. First of all, clothes.

1) Anda dresses: one dark blue, with in-seam pockets and a big wide band of funky leafy material at the hem, and the other one in grey, maybe with gathered pockets (and maybe like these?) on the front. I might finish this one off with some contrasting bias tape (would pale yellow work?). This is such an easy pattern that this time I will be trying to draw it a bit less bulky from the waist down.





The Hawaiian-style leaves just shouted summer at me







Not sure about the colours to be honest 





2) Then another dress, made by lengthening the lower half of this two-piece bodice pattern. The fabric I have in mind for this was cheap and lovely but is only 90cm wide, so we’ll see whether I need to cut the pattern into more than two bits to make it work.

3) Then I want to turn my red jersey dress (last summer’s first make, fact fans!), which has managed to get stains all over the top half, into an a-line market skirt like this one. And while I’m on the subject of red jersey, I’ll finish the t-shirt below and adjust the sleeves beyond all recognition (all that fabric flapping around my sausage-like upper arms! No!).




Note to self:
accentuating biceps that flab
Is. Not. A. Good. Idea.

 
4) Also on the top half we have a nice green jumper which was a bit crap and hung funny and will become a cardigan or shrug. But which? A shrug would be easier (see here) but I have never yet been known to wear one, and just because I don’t know where to put the buttons yet doesn’t mean they’re an entirely bad idea. I've already done the cutting, in attempt to move this off the To Do list and into my wardrobe again.

5) I will finish making a dress for L out of one of G’s old shirts, following Martha’s instructions. If this is a hit I’ll do more later in the summer, as we seem to have old shirts aplenty.





Cuteness!





6) And because the half-made shirt dress is short enough to look like more of a tunic, some laid back ¾ length shorts or summery trousers to go under it wouldn’t go amiss (think I'll adapt this a bit). And while I’m making them, T should definitely get some too – the poor boy doesn’t have any  homemade clothes so far.

7) But girly stuff is so nice to do that I would really like there to be another sundress for L, using the ikea dress McCalls pattern or this MADE tutorial…. Or one of each, if by some miracle I have time.

PHEW!

In the non-clothing category, for the moment there’s only:

7) these baby booties, the first pair of which will be needed somewhere in May (the others can wait till September). In fact I’d love to do these as part of a package together with:
8) a bib, and
9) one of these hats.

Apart from all that, I have a secondary list brewing in my head under the heading “late summer holiday stuff”. This includes ridiculous camping accessories like bunting and dresses made of towelling for beach or poolside ease. I like this list mainly because it assumes that will have completed the above-mentioned by the early summer…




Many works in progress

  And then I’m looking forward to the children’s bedrooms and the hall/stairwell being renovated and needing decoration. Fabulous practical ideas don’t get much better than this, this and this, do they?

All in all, I think I won’t mention yet the little germ of a Christmas crafting list that planted itself yesterday afternoon.

Dress!

So this one was a bit of a project. Of course it took much longer than I expected - partly because of all this fiddling with the pattern, and partly because I suddenly got fed up and it sat waiting to be zipped and hemmed for quite a while.

But then I realised I had a dress-requiring occasion coming up and no dress for it. A burst of activity later and this was finished:

       

Thanks G for the nice dark blurred photos.

Things I like about this dress: the fabric, which is a lovely lightweight purple wool that I found reduced from €34 a metre to €10. I wanted to make a dress with it because I knew it would hang beautifully, and it does. Also, the whole thing is rather well finished, if I do say so myself. This is all down to well-judged use of the possibilities offered by the fab new machine. By well judged I mean, not like last time when I experimented excessively on a skirt with overlocking stitches and it was a terrible a mess. Just because one has a new thing does not mean it should be used indiscriminately. However, an invisible zipper foot is a fabulous and appropriate thing to use when sewing in an invisible zip. And a blind hemming foot produces a beautiful invisibly-stitched hem as long as you have enough hem allowance to fold it all up properly (yes, I am good at making mistakes just so I can learn from them next time).

Things I do not like about this dress: the fabric, which is wool and despite being lightweight is in fact too warm for the spring weather that has just arrived as if to torment me on finally finishing something I have been planning to make as a staple part of my winter work wardrobe since, yes, finding the stuff at a much reduced price in September. But it will still do for next year so I will get over it. The other thing is that having put a lot of effort into adjusting the bodice (see fiddling with pattern), I ran out of patience and didn't test run the skirt. As a result the dress is a bit too loose at the back - it could have done with taking in a couple of centimetres at about waist level, in the centre back seam. But no way am I going to unstitch it all to do that now. It's got room for manouevre.

And despite the minor drawbacks, it's getting plenty of use. I am in fact rather proud of my first proper project - from puzzling over how, where and why to adjust the pattern, all the way to wearing the finished thing.

I don't know whether it's good or bad (when will I find the time??) but it's re-fuelled my obsession with making dresses, which is where my sewing mania got started last year. Bring on the summery stuff next!

Trials and errors

My rediscovered love of sewing over the last year or so owes a lot to the allure of making my own clothes.  I've been growing out of the high street (literally and figuratively), and passing my time stitching things that fit well seems like a total win-win situation. The flaw in this plan is that although I know how to sew, I have more or less no idea about fitting and adjusting patterns.

Thus, I requested and received this book for Christmas. A revelation! It is possible to make dresses for people who have both small shoulders and large boobs! All you need to do is understand and follow the instructions...

So if I'm going to learn this thing, I'll be thorough. Oh yes. I will adjust the pattern and make a 'draft' dress out of calico first before unleashing my newly-acquired expertise on the expensive stuff.  In fact, I'm so thorough, I'll do this THREE TIMES! Because I actually prefer to learn by visualising my mistakes in 3D!

It all started well with L helping to make a nice colourful line of pins:

Imperfectly modified bodice #1: 'x' marks the, err, bust point.

Um, actually, no it doesn't. And the dart I added is pointing at the opposite armpit. And the calico practice dress is a bit spooky and unpleasant. Does it help I wonder that I picked a pattern which doesn't include useful information like ease and the finished dimensions?

I have no pictures of adjusted bodice #2 because it was 11pm on Sunday and I was pissed off. But I was so pleased with neat, tidy, accurate #3 that I can't resist showing it off (apart from forgetting to merge/cut the lines properly at the side of the dart, don't look at that bit).

 

The bodice result is more or less perfect (on me if not the dummy). However the skirt hangs like a sack.

By now though I am so fed up with trial and error that I have cut out the real thing and just done the skirt part the same but smaller. Let's hope this wasn't a(nother) monumental mistake.

Photos of the finished dress will follow, once I have it looking as fabulous as intended.