Heather: January Sewing Roundup

January has been a busy month busting the winter blues at the sewing machine! The recent cold snap has motivated me to fill some gaps in my wardrobe, and I've also been trying to be a bit more adventurous with the patterns I choose, rather than just sticking with the same classic styles. 

 

Here are some of my favourite makes this month:

Winter Woollies

Made from some gorgeous sparkly crochet knit gifted by Mum at Christmas, I made this up into a matching hat, scarf and jumper, and even made a nude coloured jersey cami to go underneath. The pattern is a Burda jumper which is almost identical to the popular Linden sweatshirt that everyone seemed to be making over Christmas! 

 

 

Cosy Nightshirt

Over on the Dressmaking Blogger Network we've set a little "just for fun" challenge for January which was to make something cosy. 

 

I decided to make a cosy night shirt and you can read the full blog post here.

 

Cleo

The first of my "not my normal style" makes this month was my Tilly and the Buttons Cleo pinafore, which came about as a result of trying to find something to make with a piece of old corduroy. 

 

The keen eyed amongst you will see that this is not a corduroy dress, and you can read the full Cleo story here.

Nancy Dress

Nancy is the latest offering from Sew Over It and one that I really wouldn't have picked any other day of the week. Perhaps it was just the novelty of making something so totally different that appealed to me! 

 

Read all about Nancy here.

Sewing Scuba

My final make to share with you this month is a fab floral spring dress made from stretchy scuba from SewEssential. This was a bit of a tricky make and you can read all about how I tackled the challenge here.

 

Next month's challenge

Now is as good a time as any to let you know about the February Dressmaking Blogger Challenge which is...

"Sewn with Love"

 

We want to see your gifts for others, or something for yourself that's a real treat. 

Share your makes online using #dressmakingbloggerchallenge 

Happy Sewing everyone! See you next month. If you're getting withdrawal symptoms you can find me online at 

Dresstoration Blog

Instagram

Dressmaking Blogger Network

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Links

Fabric Corner and Craftea Sewing Bee Shop

Tilly and the Buttons Cleo Dress

Sew Over It Nancy Dress

Sew Essential

Heather: The night before Christmas...

... I wasn't sewing (!), having finished my dress with loads of time to spare (around lunch time on Christmas Eve). I’d been planning my dress for quite a while this year, but with so many lovely gifts on the making list I wasn’t convinced I’d actually get the time to finish it.

Last year some time a friend of mine had a big destash and gave me three sackfuls of beautiful fabric, which included some stunning Chinese style silk brocade. It sat undisturbed in my stash until I picked up an edition of Love Sewing magazine in Autumn 2016 with the Lily dress on the cover. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be especially interested in a Chinese style dress, but the opportunity was too good to miss with such a perfect fabric option in my stash. I chose option D for the collar and wavy edge detail at the neckline, with the short sleeves from option B/C.

Upon inspection, what looks to be a very technical pattern is actually quite straightforward: simple front and back skirt and back bodice panels, with just the shoulder detail adding a little more of a challenge. I knew the bodice would need some alteration to achieve a good fit, so I started by cutting out the skirt panels and getting those out of the way. I then used my trusty pattern block to check the bodice fit. Now, normally I find that Simple Sew patterns are generously fitted and I tend to need to take 1/2″ out of the back length and grade the width from an 8 bust to a 12 waist. The measurements on the back of the pattern also indicated this would be the case. I was surprised, then, that after comparing to my pattern block, I found myself needing a 12 bodice graded only slightly to a 10 under the arms, and then out to a 14 waist! This pattern is a completely different fit to other garments in the range and just goes to show the need to measure twice on every pattern! 

Those of you who are avid Sewing Bee fans will remember a challenge in the middle of the series where the contestants were tasked with making a Cheongsam Chinese-style top, which had many similar features to my garment. You may also remember that many of the sewists struggled with the relentless fray in the fabric (seriously, I’ve never seen anything like it!) and how easily it could pull out of shape, even with careful sewing. For this reason I stabilised each of the seams on the shoulder detail with interfacing before stitching, clipping and grading the seams and turning through.

Bodice complete, I gathered the skirt (not recommended in this fabric!) and attached it to the bodice.

And I hated it! Granted, in this (poor quality) picture the seams haven’t been pressed open and it’s not hanging straight on the mannequin, but it just didn’t look right. I felt the full skirt gave me a bit more room for the Christmas Turkey than I possibly needed and I knew I just wouldn’t wear it. 

After 24 hours of consideration and a quick walk around the shops for inspiration, I spent the evening of the 23rd removing and recutting the skirt panels using the skirt section from Threadcount 1613, which I used in my previous post for the Velvet Burnout dress. The straight skirt sits so much better than the a-line one, and is much more in-keeping with the Chinese style. 

I finished off the dress with some traditional frog fasteners, purchased from a fair trade supplier in Hong Kong via Etsy.

So here I am wearing my dress on Christmas Day!

After a whole day of wearing it I was being driven totally mad by the sleeves and I will definitely be taking them off and recutting them an inch winder across the arm. I’d probably also widen the shoulder width if I made it again, and whilst I much preferred the straight skirt, I definitely should have allowed more room for turkey! But I got lots of lovely compliments on the day and it definitely did the job of being a “wow” Christmas Day dress.

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Me and my “little” Bro continuing the lifelong tradition of a picture in front of the tree on Christmas Day.