All posts filed under: Sewing Challenges

The Mary Quant Style Dress

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Wonky pockets! No one noticed them when I posted a Reel on my insta. I think they were distracted by my groovy moves! If you’re not an insta fan and not sure what a Reel is I’ve attached a link to the bottom of this post. This dress incorporates a couple of challenges: The #frugalfrock21 organised by Sam at Frugalisma, and Ruan at the Yorkshire Sew Girl and #so50patternmixing organised by @sewover50 The idea behind frugal frocks is to make a dress using a free pattern and to use fabric from your stash to create Frugal Frock! As soon as I saw Alice & Co pattern for the Mary Quant style dress I was sold! HERE’s the link if you fancy downloading this free pattern. The dress is designed for a woven fabric, but my initial thought was to use this pattern to make a dress for golf, so I sized down and made it up in lycra. Most patterns given finished garment measurements which is really useful if you are changing from a woven …

The Dress of Many Colours – Just Call Me Joseph

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  When I started browsing the likes of Harrods, Harvey Nics and other designer stores looking for inspiration for my Designin December make, little did I thing than I’d end up upcycling 29 of my husbands ties! I came across this skirt in Harvey Nics selling for a whopping £850!!  It obviously wasn’t made from ties, but the diagonal striped and pleated  fabric gave that appearance.   Unfortunately my husband’s tie collection is quite a bit more conservative than the colours in the skirt, but after a little persuasion he parted with around half of his tie collection. I butted the ties against each other and auditioned a few stitches to see which would sew the ties together the best: Number 22 in the photo below was the stitch of choice: First off I sewed the ties together in groups of 5, and the first ones that were sewn together I trimmed the top off – big mistake! If you plan on sewing ties together don’t chop anything off until you’re ready for fitting, or …

Keeping It Cosy

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I don’t always take part in a lot of challenges, but there’s a few that’s caught my attention in 2017. The January ‘Keep It Cosy” #dressmakingbloggerchallenge is the first one I’ve managed to complete! I’ve had 1.5m of this ridiculously thick sweater knit for about 2 years. I bought if from Fabworks for £10 a metre with no project in mind. the squishiness just drew me in and I just had to buy it!  I has a thick slightly felted feel so it, and has 4 way ‘give’ rather than a proper stretch stretch. I wasn’t sure if it had been pre washed so I did the sniff test.  It smelt ok so I’m thinking I must have done.  I’ll wash it cold when it’s made up just in case it hasn’t been washed. It’s been in and out of the stash box for ages, and when i saw the challenge was to make something to keep you warm I knew it was coming out for good this time! The pattern choice was a no …