All posts filed under: Dresses

Inspiration from People Watching – #pictureheavypost!

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One of the pitfalls I find of making my own clothes is feeling a bit ‘our of it’ when it comes to knowing what’s in fashion. Though I don’t see me self as a style guru, I still like to have a look around to see what colours and styles on on the high street and copy some looks that I think would flatter me.  If I’m not careful I could end up looking like an 80’s throwback! So when I went to the Ladies Day at York races yesterday my eyes were out on stalks!  Such amazing colours, styles and hats.  There was even a catwalk should you fancy your chances at winning the best dressed! If you’re attending a big event soon you might want to see just what’s out there, so I’ve taken lots of pics to share with you.             I           Well,  I’ve come to the conclusion that at a big ‘do” like the races, anything goes!  It doesn’t matter if your spotty and …

Vogue 9082 – Muslin 1, 2 & 3! Oh, and lining it too!

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I thought I’d share with you the fitting dilemmas of my most recent make – the Vogue 9082, view C.  And also how I omitted the facing and fully lined this special dress when I joined in the BIG Vintage Sewalong. As I eventually intend to make all three views, I traced all views in one big sitting to get it out of the way! Whilst some sewers find the tracing process rather tedious I love it!  Before tracing off I read the instructions all the way through, again.   I say again as I’ve usually already read them as soon as I’ve brought a pattern home, or received it in the post. By reading the instructions and then tracing the individual pieces you can learnt so much about the construction process before you even begin to piece the garment together.   Or you notice things which you’ve not come across before. Such as this piece here….. This is the under collar of the jacket, and it is marked ‘stretch’ along the top piece.  Not sure what that means but …

The Big Vintage Sewalong – Vogue 9082

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There’s nothing quite like a challenge to get the sewing and blogging juices flowing.  More so when it’s raising money for a very worthy charity. This year  for the BIG Vintage Sewalong there’s 20 patterns from Retro Butterick, McCall’s and Vogue to choose from. A donation from every sale will be made to The Eve Appeal – a charity rising awareness and funding research in the 5 gynaecological cancers.   Last year over £8000 was raised for the same charity through sales of the Walkaway Dress! I drooled over almost every pattern, but my final choice was influenced by an invititaiton to my niece’s wedding in September.   As I usually have to make 2 or 3 muslins I wanted this dress to be something special, rather than something to be just worn once then stuck at the back of the wardrobe. I love the tea dress look and the nipped waist, but short of wearing a ridiulously tight corset a nipped in waist is out of the question. Vogue 9082 grabbed me the most, and …

Vogue 8805

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“Why oh why did I leave it so long!!??” We’ve all said it. More than once. But we never learn. It’s not that often is it that we unearth a UFO, finish it and aren’t please.  I mean, if it was that bad in the first place it would’ve ended up in the bin not chucked in the corner. So a while ago I borrowed V8805 of my real life sewing buddy Jeanie. Jeanie’s the one who got me going again, so to speak.  She’s made umpteen versions of these. For my first I used up some left over denim.  The dark blue was from my GBSB capri pants and the raspberry was from my Mexican dress and also a peg bag.   You might even recognise pinky red denim from other blogs – I’ve seen Jeans on The Prolific Project Starters blog and also a cute little dress only a couple of weeks ago on Making and Markings blog.  (I’ve just looked and Minerva still have it in stock).  In fact it was Camilla’s recent post that reminded …

A Competition Ladies!!! 

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I’ve just stumbled across a competition whilst making tea.  Well, I should’ve been  making the tea but like most of you I am easily distracted, I’m still at the deciding stage!  CroftMill are running a competition for those of us who are making a party or posh frock! Click here to find out more! And what’s even better is it doesn’t matter whether or not you bought the fabric from them!  SEWCHET……you need to enter your posh frock! I bet it looks amazing!  I think I might enter my Colette Wren!   More good news!! Hubby just rung to say he’s on his way home, I’ve suggested going to the local……2 meals for a tenner! Off we go…..!  See ya & good luck 🍀🍀🍀 PS they’ve not asked me to spread the word and I won’t be a judge or anything, I’m just sharing the sewing love! ❤️

My Colette Wren – The Nitty Gritty

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I had a vision! + = POSH FROCK Here’s how it happened! After taking my measurements I opted to trace off size large.  I didn’t notice the chart for the finished measurements.  If I had I would probably have saved myself some time.  The pattern has negative ease and my fabric (being a ponte knit) wasn’t quite as stretchy as suggested. The left photo shows my first muslin in a large.  I recut it in a XL and lengthened the pattern pieces by 4cm (on the shorten/lengthen lines). A lesson to all – Trace your pieces!  I’d have been snookered if I’d have cut into my PDF pattern and would have had to print and stick it all together again! The lower back bodice picture above is the first muslin.  As you can see its tight and also there is excess fabric in the lower back.  I lengthened the bottom by 4cm and then did a 5cm sway back adjustment – following this tutorial. I ended up with a very odd shaped piece but it …

The Colette Wren at The Yorkshire White Rose Awards

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On Monday we attended the White Rose Awards at the Leeds Arena.  It is the largest celebration of tourism excellence in the UK.  The dress code was black tie.  I didn’t need any more encouragement than that to fire up my creative juices and make a new frock! I’ve already written a post about my first and second muslin of the new Wren dress pattern from Colette.  I had 5m of this sparkly silvery ponte knit from Minerva.  I originally bought 2m to make my sister a coco for her birthday but then couldn’t resist and had to buy some more for me. I intend to write a full post later about the nitty gritty of the other changes I wanted and also needed to make to the pattern so it would be perfect for my chosen fabric and the occasion! This post is all about the finished dress and the awards ceremony. All dressed up and somewhere to go!!  Hubby scrubs up well too, don’t you think?! Wahay! Look at that thigh high spit! …

When One Thing Leads To Another – The Colette Wren Part 1

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My big sister (older by 10 days short of a year) celebrated her birthday at the end of October.  Two years ago I made her a leather bag and last year I made her a Coco.  This year she said she would like another Coco and chose this sparkly ponte knit from Minerva: It does change colour a little bit depending on the light but this gives a fair idea of the fabric.  It took a bit of tweaking before I was happy with this photo. So onwards and upwards.  I completed her Coco in about 1 1/2 hours (I’ve made a few so can almost do them with my eyes shut, they seem to be our family uniform!). It was just as well that I got a photo of her new Coco on Gertrude as these were the best of the photo shoot in the pub: Anyway, she loved it! I loved it! I wanted to keep it!  But instead I ordered another 5 metres of this gorgeous fabric just for me!  I was thinking …

Lekala 8000 – A Tale Of Two Frocks

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Well it’s one frock really, but due to it being far too tight and having giant ric-rac on the hem it was in need of attention before I could wear it publicly. Remember the Mexican party we went to? It was over the back holiday weekend in August which now seems ages ago.  I needed a Mexican outfit.  After much deliberation and with a hangover I began cutting out the Lekala #8000 – a free pattern that is made to measure my size (or yours)!  It was 4pm and we were going out at 7:30pm so I didn’t have time for fitting issues! I decided to use the raspberry stretch denim in my stash.  As you can see from the photo below it came very close to being another pair of culottes!  And it’s also what I used in my last post to make the personalised peg bag. The dress went together really easily.  I had it finished before 7pm but I did cut a few corners. I added a big red flower from my trip to …

Georgia, you were only supposed to be a muslin!

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For TMS’s first weekly challenge of #IMP15 I decided to make The Geogia Dress from BHL. It called for a fabric with a little stretch to help with the close fit.   As I’m trying to sew more quality than quantity I knew I needed to make a muslin. I traced the size 14 (U.S. Size – I like being 2 sizes smaller so sticking with it!!), then rummaged in my stash. I couldn’t find anything suitable, so delved into my ‘clothes to be refashioned’ box. I found a pair of my hubbies old jeans, and then after further searching in another box I found a gorgeous piece of Egyptian cotton. The latter had been chopped off my mum in laws duvet cover when she wanted it making smaller. Neither had any stretch but it would give me an idea of the fit and also enable me to check out the construction. The dress went together really well.  I didn’t take any pix when making it up as I only ‘threw’ it together to get the fit right. …