Laura: Recycled Checked skirt

Apologies for the lack of photos in this blog post, I seem to get too carried away with sewing and forget the take photos and take notes on what i’m doing so this is going to be a very short post..

I’ve had this checked dress for a fair few years now which I picked up at a £10 per kilo fair which was held at Leeds University. 

It has never fit me and it never will, I just bought it because I liked the colours, thinking and hoping one day I might recycle it and make something new from it.  

Well that day had arrived.... this dress is a size 10 and i’m a size 14 so a lot of work has to be done if I was going to make it fit.  

Firstly I unpicked every single piece, pressed them laid them out on the floor.

I got my 2 block skirt pattern (which I used for my 30 minute skirt)

I started laying pieces on the pattern. A bit of trimming of fabric and we were set to start sewing, it didn’t take long to get all the panels together.  

I dug out a silver zip (which was meant to replace one on some old jeans) I think it gives the skirt a grungy rock look; I just need a black leather jacket!  Some very quick and impatient hemming as I wanted to get it finished and there we have it another skirt whipped up.

The final skirt

Laura: 30 Minute Skirt

The trick to a quick sewing project is

• A easy sewing fabric for example; black jersey stretch  
•  A very basic pattern
• An overlocker.

This skirt I whipped up was made from some black jersey, it’s unbelievably soft and so easy to sew to say it’s a stretch fabric. 

The simple pattern was a close fitting 2 piece dress block, which I just used the skirt part. I cut the front panel on the fold to save fabric space as I only had ½ metre.

I used my over locker to sew the skirt panels together. TIP: I find that with stretch fabric the over locker stops the fabric from shifting during sewing plus the zigzag stitches of an over locker does not restrict the fabric from stretching when it’s being worn.

I finished the skirts waist and hem with long zigzag stitches. TIP: this allows the skirt to still stretch which means there was no need to put in any fastenings making this a quick sewing project.

The final skirt styled with a floral top and a shiny black skinny belt.  So there we go the quickest skirt I have ever made, I think I will definitely be making this again I have some navy blue jersey that has been sat in my fabric box for years now.

Jo: Weeks 1-3

The challenge started 3 weeks ago now and inbetween a very busy life style of student nursing and shift work as a health care assistant I have revisted my past life as a fashion student, and what a joy its been.

Week One
Off fabric shopping in my home city of Birmingham feeling happy, warm and fuzzy inside when stepping foot inside my favourite fabric store for the fist time in 2 years. Barrys Fabric Superstore (http://www.barrysfabrics.co.uk) and it did not disappoint. I gathered some lovely summer fabrics for around £3.25 per metre. And got back home to hunt out my pattern master and my bible, otherwise called Metric Pattern Cutting Book.



For the first patterns I created, I went for very simple designs to get me started. And it was ready to cut out. This was always the scariest part at uni, if you cut it wrong you'll never make it right.

Cut out and sewn together and my first weeks 2 garments were complete in just a day.  A cute summer dress with lace trim with a draw string waist band (for my fat days!) and a comfy kimono style top. Also you will notice a lot of my clothing will have lower sloping backs as I can not stand my bum being on show, stomach yes bum no!

Week 2
I’m still on annual leave from my nursing degree so I’m very busy redecorating the flat I’m about to move into with the fiancé and working shifts as a care assistant in hospitals, so week 2 didn't involve much other then the bane of my life, changing the thread on my overlocker! Now if you haven't come across overlockers before they are fantastic they cut and sew at the same time and neatly finish off the edge of a fabric. Now we were all trained to sew on industrial sewing machines and overlockers that could probably kill you if they wanted, so domestic machines to us are like cuddly fluffy kittens that like to scratch every now and then.

Re-threading an overlocker is like single handedly winning The Crystal Maze without the encouragement of team mates telling you what to do. And it’s always more fun when you have lost the manual and haven't done it for 2 years.

This took me about an hour of starring at it before I finally remembered a little trick. I then ended up in the pub drinking wine! Ill sew next week, need a break after that!

Week 3
Back to sewing, getting more confident I’m going to tackle a proper summer dress with a zip and everything! Exciting stuff! So pattern created all cut out and ready to sew, I ended up with this beautiful floral dress. Which I’m very sad to say was far too big for me because I made the mistake of measuring myself whilst wearing a onesie. Silly silly Jo. But if fits my mother perfectky and even made a few pennies out of it.

I had about 1/2 a metre left from this fabric which was one of my favourite so snapped up a cheeky cropped t-shirt.

I was on a roll that day and couldn't be bothered with patterns and just wanted simple but effective tops so I made this very comfy kimono which I plan to make more of as it took me 10 minutes.

After that I then finally got round to hemming a top I made 2 years ago with a hand embroidered bug.

Bridie, Lu and Jo: The Challenge Does Vintage

So myself and my fellow challengers have always loved a bit of vintage retail therapy. To the point where at Uni most of our spare cash went on vintage clothes and alcohol, for some reason that topped buying food. When your a student you think you can quiet happily live of supper noodles (or in my case microwavable mash and gravy). Needless to say we've all grown up a bit and don't spend quiet as much on vintage clothes any more especially not now with the challenge. Despite this we do still love a vintage fair and when I heard a new fair was coming to town I got very excited. The fair is called Britain Does Vintage http://www.britaindoesvintage.co.uk/
I told the girls and they were just as excited as I was. Laura couldn't get time off work but Lu and Jo were defiantly up for coming to visit and spend the day looking for some vintage treasures. Even though we cant buy any clothes through out the challenge there is so much more you can find at a good vintage fair. Fabric, patterns, buttons, trims we were on the hunt for it all.
When Saturday finally rolled around (I'd been counting down the days till I saw the girls again like it was Christmas) and the girls finally arrived. I knew they'd be late, Jo time is an hour behind the rest of us! After a quick brew and a catch up we headed to the fair which was being held at the Drill Hall in Lincoln. I'd never been before so had no clue what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised. The fair was held in a lovely hall with a stage at the end although it's not the biggest fair we'd been to it was a much nicer atmosphere! There was live music being played by a very talented trumpet player. All the stalls were nicely set out and there was more then enough room to get round with out it feeling empty.
The first stall we came to was run by a shop called the Frockery. Which was filled with beautiful vintage fabrics so we knew straight away we were on to a winner. All three of us picked up some beautiful fabric. Myself and Lu found some stunning French fabric previously curtains and Jo found a huge pink and black checked scarf.
https://www.facebook.com/TheFrockery

We found a couple of stalls with boxes filled with vintage sewing patterns. Normally vintage patterns can be so expensive but I picked up a stunning 1950s blouse pattern for £3 and a 1970 dress pattern for £2 bargin! After we'd had our first look round we headed up to the vintage tea room for a break and a cup of tea.

Tea was served in a beautiful teapot and we had Bakewell tart with it which was the best I've ever had which is huge complement coming from me as I can't usually stand almonds!

While we had our tea we had a look at all the lovely things we'd bought. This is Lu with the gorgeous pair of French curtains she picked up from the Frockery stall.  

This is Jo with this lovely scarf which she is going to turn into a dress she's a clever lady, and this amazing vintage comic she got for her fella.

This is me with the stunning French fabric I found which I probably shouldn't of bought but got a serious case of fabric lust and couldn't resist.  





These are the patterns I got and the comics I picked up for a £1 each which are going to look great on little mans wall when he's a little older. I'm loving Lu's attempt at a photo bomb in this photo!

After our tea we headed back round the fair to check out some more stalls and listed to the music being played.

There were so many lovely stalls with really friendly owners who were very happy to talk to us and seemed very interested in our challenge.

This stall was called H.E.R Vintage and was full of beautiful clothes which we took a lot of inspiration from and choca block full of stunning accessories. Which were all beautifully arranged! They have a website with much better pictures of the things they offer as well fair dates they will be attending. Well worth a look!  http://her-vintage.com/index.php#2

Opposite was a stall called Nowhere Near New full of the most amazing accessories! Fell in love with this hat below (I do love a hat) I wish I could pull it off but don't think it's the kind of hat that you could get away with wearing round the supermarket. Who am I kidding it would look fabulous! The lady who owns the stall was lovely and we found out was a fellow sewer, and makes most of her clothes herself.

The stall in the picture below was run by a lovely lady called Kimberley (this is her friend in the picture) who not only had some lovely vintage clothes but also makes vintage plate cake stands, button jewellery and fabric hearts. She also told us she runs her own beauty salon called Glamour Junkies. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Glamour-Junkies-Addicted-to-Glamour Very talented lady!



Just before we were about to leave we came a cross a hidden gem of a stall filled with vintage haberdashery. To me this is like letting a kid loose in a sweet shop. The stall was called The House That Buttons Built, brilliant name! As well the beautiful haberdashery (I bought some vintage lace trimming and a cute applique motif) there was a table surrounded buy children making pretty things out of buttons. They looked like they were having a lot of fun! Their Facebook page is full of lovely handmade creations made out of buttons and other haberdashery. 

https://www.facebook.com/TheHousethatButtonsBuilt 



All three of us have been to many vintage fairs over the years and most are pretty much the same as the other. Quiet often I've spent hours looking round them and not come away with anything. It's especially hard to find good vintage fabric and haberdashery. We all agreed this fair felt different, it's not as big as other fairs but we came away with so much more! We found so many bargins and hidden treasures. All the stall holders and helpers were very friendly and welcoming. They seemed more then happy to have a chat with us.

All in all a brilliant day out for vintage lovers and cant wait for them to come back!





Bridie: The First of Many Dresses

So I asked my friends if they would do this challenge with me half thinking they would be to busy to be able to do it. Which I would of completely understood, sewing your own clothes does take time and for a lot of people there aren't enough hours in the day to do the things we all have to do (usually the boring things we all hate doing!) let alone take time out to sit at a sewing machine for hours to make a dress. To my surprise and delight they were all really up for it and got the ball rolling straight away. We hadn't even got to our official start date and Laura and Lu had already whipped up two stunning dresses!
It's taken me a little longer to make my first dress, although I did start when the girls did, I have a beautiful six month old boy who takes up the majority of my time so I have to fit sewing in around him. Not the most easiest thing I've discovered! Although luckily for me my hubby (not official but as good as) has taken some holidays off work so as well as being able to spend time with him I've also been able to get on Fred (my sewing machine don't get any ideas).
I thought for my first garment of the challenge I should brush up on my pattern cutting skills, god knows its been a while since I did any. So using our bible also known as Winifred Aldrich's pattern cutting book I set to making a block. It took me a few times to read through and jog my memory but eventually it came back to me. For the most part.

 

 

 

Once I had my block I did a few quick sketches of some dress ideas. Nothing like my days back at uni where we would have to thirty variations of a design and more often then not go with your original design. I wanted something simple summery and with a vintage vibe. Which I think I achieved.

 

I had already picked out a fabric I wanted to use a beautiful vintage piece I inherited from my grandma. 



 

When it came to cutting out my pattern pieces I felt very nervous there's something about cutting out vintage fabric that makes the whole thing a lot more nerve wracking. Which might be why I made a silly mistake for some reason I thought creating a curved waistband was the way to go about things instead of making a straight one. Which I realised was wrong but not till after I'd cut out my fabric and started pinning it.



Eventually after correcting my mistakes I finally got to get back on this lovely lady. This is Fred which is short for Freda she was my grandmas pride and joy and I now look after her because my grandma is no longer with us. I think she would have liked our challenge!

So once I started sewing things went quiet smoothly and all the skills I'd learnt years before started coming back with some help from some good books!

 

 

I was particularly pleased with my under stitching I think its the neatest it has ever been. My zips however need considerable work. I've always hated putting zips in. There's a lot to be said for buttons! 

 The finished dress. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out seen as though it's the first thing I've made in years .

 

This is a very pale looking me trying it on for the first time my self portrait skills are a lot to be desired!



 

Finally this is me with my legs out for the first time this year. They most defiantly need to see the sun more! It was a lovely day and myself, my partner and my little man took a walk into town. It was a nice feeling knowing I'd made my dress myself and no one else had one like it! 

 



 

Hope you enjoyed this post, many more to come this challenge is going for a whole year so we have plenty of sewing to do!

Bridie x