Black floral Nicola shirt dress

~ Rhiannon ~ 4 Comments

IMG_4542 I have a search. A search for the perfect shirt dress. As an item of clothing I blooming love them but as a thing to make I’d felt pretty daunted by it as a possibility.

I’m going to say right now that this dress is not the perfect shirt dress. In fact, this dress very nearly got consigned to the WIP pile for all eternity and even once complete it very nearly caused a meltdown and immediate binning.

But more of that when we get there, for now….

What is it?

A black floral shirt dress with V-shape neckline and full length sleeves

Is it blue?

No (note to self: this is becoming a bit of a trend at the moment. Must buy more blue fabric)

What’s the fabric?

A super soft cotton (polyester? rayon? I have no idea) that’s black with white and red flowers (best description I can think of for them)

What’s the pattern?

The Nicola Dress from Sewaholic

Where’s the fabric from?

I got it at the Birmingham Rag Market during SewBrum for the princely price of £1 per metre!

1-IMG_4078What was good about making this?

I got to try out a new skill with this dress; making sleeve plackets! I realised I hadn’t quite read the instructions correctly about half way through, but I was pretty please when I did it, as evidenced by my immediate wearing of said sleeve…

IMG_4536What was bad about making this?

Where to start? With the collar piece that I cut to the wrong size because the schematic diagram for the layout wasn’t particularly clear? The confusion around finishing the facing? It doesn’t help that I got so far with making it and then ran out of time before Christmas, so left it unhemmed and unbuttonholed (?) for about a month. By which time I was fed up of it and bored, a feeling repeated when I hand sewed on the buttons (whodathunk a shirt dress would have lots of buttons….).

The absolute moment of (near) tears though was when, having finished it, I tried it on with the belt that comes with the dress. It looked hideous. A moment of learning the hard way that I do not suit a loose bodice or fussy waistlines with extra fabric. I looked – and felt – like a giant sack of potatoes.

BUT ALL IS NOT LOST.

For then I remembered my old friend the cinch belt and lo, with a bit of a nip in and reallocation of fabric folds, the dress was completely redeemed. And now I love it. So much so that I’ve worn it a couple of times already in the fortnight since making.

Would you make it again?

Nope. This dress is not the dream shirt dress that I was hoping for and, whilst I’m pleased with the finished product, I think that I wouldn’t make it again. I have however found out about the fabled McCalls 6696 shirt dress that seems to be getting a lot of positive press in the blogsphere, so have bought a copy and plan on making that after my current (nearly finished) project.

The great shirt dress search continues…

x

Super shiny Peter Pan Moneta dress

~ Rhiannon ~ Leave a comment

Sparkly moneta

It’s taken a while. but finally, with this post, I’m up to date on my pre-Christmas sewing, and it will come as no surprise that when I decided I wanted to sew a dress for New Year’s Eve I decided to combine two of my favourite things; shiny things and swooshy dresses!

What is it?
A Moneta jersey dress with three quarter sleeves and the peter pan collar hack

Is it blue?
No

What’s the pattern?
Moneta by Colette (definitely becoming a favourite, especially now I’ve got a peter pan hack!)

Where’s the fabric from?
One of the shops in Walthamstow. The man who sold it to me was a fabulous geezer and as I said in the Astoria post, everything in there was £5 a metre or less!

What was good about making this?

As ever with Moneta, it came together quickly and easily, and it was good to try out a collar hack. I was still pleased with the gold topstitching I trialled on the Astoria, but, most importantly I got to use my overlocker!

IMG_4312What was bad about making this?

Having to wait so long to use the overlocker. Seriously, it arrived here mid December, but due to Christmas rules, I wasn’t allowed to get it out of the box until I came back from my parents’ house. Pretty testing times. I mean, look how excited I was when it arrived:

IMG_3983Would you make it again?

I have a feeling that yes, this won’t be the last time a Moneta appears on this blog!

One final photo for you all; I got the boy to take a couple to try and get the dress in its best light, but my absolute favourite photo (bar the one of the two of us being silly) was the out take!

IMG_4399

x

Shiny Astoria jumper

~ Rhiannon ~ Leave a comment

Sparkly astoriaPart of the shopping trip to London included the super exciting purchase of some very sparkly fabric to make a dress out of for New Year’s Eve. In my panic of shopping I ended up buying a good half metre (and then some) more than I actually needed. Combined with knowing that I wanted to make an Astoria out of some very lovely teal sweatshirt material I got as a bolt end from Guthrie & Ghani, it seemed like the perfect time to test out the Astoria pattern and a couple of embellishment ideas I had in mind at the same time!

What is it?
A cropped sweater made in a super shiny black and gold jersey with gold topstitching at the collar and cuffs

Is it blue?

No

What’s the fabric?

Black and gold jersey material

What’s the pattern?

Astoria by Seamwork

Where’s the fabric from?

Another Walthamstow find, this one was from a shop that (surprise!) I can’t remember the name of. It had loads of rolls lined up and they were all under £5 a metre (indeed, this stuff was maybe £3 a metre?)

What was good about making this?

It was so fast! I think it took maybe an hour to get from cutting out to trying it on. I shouldn’t have been surprised given Seamwork pride themselves on patterns that take three hours or less, but it was nice to find out it was true!  It was also good fun to test out using gold thread for topstitching (especially as it worked!)

What was bad about making this?

Nothing. Actually, the amount of waste paper produced when printing out the PDF. Though I’m not sure what could have been done about that?

Would you make it again?

Yes, I just need to get round to prewashing that fabric!

x

ps. Apologies for the awful train selfie of this one. I’ve worn it loads since making it, but somehow never managed to get a decent picture!

Sparkly mermaid skirt

~ Rhiannon ~ Leave a comment

Sparkly mermaid skirt

Remember that time I went to London and got enabled into buying several metres of sequin fabric?

I knew at the time that I wanted to make it into a super sparkly skirt for my work Christmas do, and so it was that one evening in November, having used the super handy By Hand London circle skirt calculator, I found myself on my hands and knees in the dining room, preparing for the flood of sequin babies that even now we’re sweeping up…

1-IMG_3886

What is it?

A teal green sequin circle skirt, which Elle has christened a mermaid skirt (and who am I to argue?)

Is it blue?

No, although pretty close on the colour wheel

What’s the fabric?

SEQUINS!

IMG_3912

What’s the pattern?

A simple full circle skirt

Where’s the fabric from?

One of the first bricks and mortar shops you come to in Walthamstow Market, although I can’t remember what it’s called…

What was good about making this?

The shininess and testing out the swooshiness once it was sewn up (although I’ve no GIF for you this time as my trusty assistant was visiting friends)

What was bad about making this?

I read Lauren’s incredibly helpful blog about sewing with sequins. And promptly forgot everything I read, apart from the bit about using a teeny needle. So whilst I didn’t suffer a broken needle at any point, I did have to endure a LOT of snapping threads. Cue frustrated face.

Would you make it again?

I would make a circle skirt again; I like that it’s swooshy and big without being quite so gathered. I would sew with sequins again too, as now I’ve done it once, it can only get better. Would I make a sequin circle skirt though? I’m not so sure (but I don’t think that’s a bad thing)

x

 

 

Time marches on…

~ Rhiannon ~ Leave a comment
Watch and case © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

My word. How time has marched on since I last put up a blog post! Quite a bit has happened over the last month and a half, not least the passing of 2015 into 2016. I’ll be putting up some more blog posts over the next few days / weeks to rectify my silence, but in the meantime, here’s what I’ve been up to since last we met:

  • I went sewing crazy through most of December, making a circle skirt, a cropped jumper, a jersey dress and the best part of a shirt dress
  • Father Christmas / My awesome mum bought me an overlocker (which, coincidentally, was used to make the jersey dress, but more of that soon)
  • During the Christmas break I rediscovered my love of knitting, not least because it was a very useful way to pass the time on the drive down to Dartmoor for New Year’s Eve (I wasn’t driving…). I’ve now got the bulk of a jumper back on the needles, with plans to redesign the jumper front when I get there. When I share the original and the redesign, the redesign won’t be a surprise!
  • I made a couple of resolutions for 2016. Unsurprisingly, two of them are sewing related. They are:
    • By the end of 2016 have a week’s worth of every day me-made clothes that I actually wear
    • Make a pair of jeans (argh!)

The week’s worth of clothes is an interesting one; I’ve already made quite a few pieces, but, like most new sewists, I’ve got the combined bugs of only-makes-dresses-and-skirts and overwhelmed-by-choice-so-buys-bold-patterns. I love wearing dresses and I also love patterned clothes. However, if I actually sit and think about what I wear most days, particularly in the winter, I should really add more plains/simple prints into the mix, and not just plain dresses, but a good, solid, jersey top pattern that I can remake and wear with skirts and trousers. That’s not to say I will stop making patterned clothing (I already have 3m of unicorn print fabric washed and waiting to be turned into a Sewaholic Cambie dress…) but I’ll be trying to offset my sewing of dresses that fall into the “super special” category with at least the odd “wear it everyday” item.

So there we have it; 48 days in a nutshell. How about you, what have you been up to in that time? Have you made any resolutions for the year ahead?

x

All because the lady loves….

~ Rhiannon ~ 3 Comments

Cadbury Moneta

I’ll be upfront. I’m not about to hand over a box of Milk Tray to every reader. However, don’t you agree that my new dress is very Cadbury purple? Particularly as, for reasons beyond my ken, the camera appears to have over exposed in the background.

I digress…

What is it?

A lovely swingy swooshy jersey dress

Is it blue?

No, Cadbury purple (which I guess could be argued at blue if you get that far round the spectrum?)

What’s the fabric?

Purple jersey that I picked up during SewBrum

What’s the pattern?

Moneta by Colette, using the 3/4 sleeves option

Where’s the fabric from?

The infamous Rag Market in Birmingham

What was good about making this?

How quickly it came together! I sat down at 3pm on Saturday and by 5:30pm I had a dress that was ready to wear out to dinner with friends (if we ignore the fact that I was lazy and didn’t hem the skirt until the Sunday….).

What was bad about making this?

Although I’ve made the Moneta before, this is the first time I’ve done it on my own machine and also the first time I’ve sewn jersey on my machine. It was fine for the most, but there were a couple of ‘oh yes, that’s how you do it’ with the shirred waistband as well as a ‘why won’t you work?!’ when using the twin needles on the hem (along with a note to self to read the instruction manual before doing twin needle sewing again….)

Would you make it again?

Yup, I’ve already got the fabric to make it up for my dress for New Year’s Eve. I think that next time I’ll add the collar back in as I’ve realised I really like the collar, although I might use one of the add-on hacks you get when buying the pattern (let’s not kid ourselves, it’s going to be the Peter Pan collar because I’m a sucker for a PPC).

So yes, all in all a delightful quick project, which was especially welcome as it feels like a long time since I’ve actually made anything! Now I just need to tackle a slightly longer-than-I-have-time-for list of things to complete before Christmas…. Wish me luck!

x

 

Enabling and enablers

~ Rhiannon ~ Leave a comment

A stash of sewists

It might be time for me to admit I have a fabric buying problem as, as if buying a load of fabric and swiping winning a load in the stash swap at SewBrum, last weekend I found myself on a train to London at an ungodly hour* to meet up with some really rather lovely sewists and explore Walthamstow Market.

This week’s stash of sewists [and if that’s not the collective noun, it should be!] were all members of a group on the wonderful forum The Foldline. The group is united not just by our love of sewing but also by our age; we’re all 20-something sewers *cough* just in my case *cough*.

When I finally got to London, the first thing that threw me was the wind. Literally. It was raining when I got out of the station to meet the others, so I put up my brolly. This turned out to be a bad ideas I turned the corner towards the meeting place, got grabbed by a HUGE gust of wind and thought I was going to be knocked sideways.

Once I’d recovered I finally got to meet the lovely ladies who’d also made the journey; Dinushi, Jenny, Lucy and Laura (who also organised the day), as well as Laura’s fiancé who bravely came along in the face of the stash.

We headed off down to Walthamstow market, and there was no stopping us. We went into pretty much every store, stopping at every stall in the market en route. There was a lot of umming and ahhing and, a lot of enabling. All it took was for one of us to go ‘but will I really use it?’ for the rest to say ‘ ah but you could maybe use it for this’ and come up with a load of reasons for them to buy the fabric. Enablers.

It worked….

IMG_3713The lipsticks will be a blouse, the strawberries (hiding just out of shot…) will be a summer a dress, the hearts will be a dungaree dress, the shiny gold jersey is for my new year’s eve dress and the green sequins are for a Christmas party skirt.

The sequins are pure enabler; I spent all day debating them and they spent all day convincing me that I did want them. I’m not sure why I was surprised to be honest. I mean look at them . They’re SEQUINS! And there were little sequin babies when I moved the fabric for cutting, which definitely didn’t make me go ‘awww’…

After all that shopping, we were pretty weighed down and starving so stopped for a bit of lunch and a natter before heading off into the sunset. And speaking of the sunset, the sun finally came out. Once we were finished…

sunskyThanks again to Laura for getting us all organised and to all of the sewists for putting up with my sequin indecision. It was a great day and I can’t wait for our next meet up (although I think I might need to do some sewing first to reduce down my now ridiculously massive stash!)

x

*seriously, if you think I complained about having to leave home at 9:30 for SewBrum, on Saturday I left home at 8. With a hangover. Not fun.

SewBrum

~ Rhiannon ~ 3 Comments

<Warning! This post might get long. Go fetch a cuppa (or gin…) first>

On Saturday I found myself leaving home far earlier than I usually would* and heading into town for my first ever sewing meet up. I had no idea how many people would be there or what to expect so it was with some trepidation that I climbed the steps up the museum and into the Edwardian Tea Room.

What I saw when I got there can only be described as overwhelming:

Edwardian Tea RoomWith the exception of pictures, I don’t think I’d ever seen so many sewists all together and in one room. This picture captures maybe half of the people who were there? It was pretty crazy.

From the tea rooms we headed down to the Rag Market for a fabric spree. Despite Birmingham being my home turf, this was the first time in a very long time that I’d gone into the market. In my head it’s a bustling, busy place with too many options, leaving me to normally run away to a bricks and mortar shop instead.

On Saturday though, armed with a very specific list of fabric I needed, I embraced the hustle and bustle and left no stall unturned. The market did not disappoint with three projects sorted for less than £20!

Bought fabricThe purple is destined to be a long sleeved Moneta, the floral is for a Sewaholic shirt dress and the black is for a first mock up of the super secret project.

We headed from the rag market out to Moseley for lunch at the Farmers’ Market. With the sun shining, it was a lovely day for it, and whilst I went to the samosa man, I think the falafel man couldn’t believe his eyes at the number of sewists queueing up for one of his delicious looking wraps

The final stop of the day was Guthrie and Ghani, and if I’d thought that the tea rooms was busy, G&G was busier! I was talking to Lauren at one point and she said by her reckoning there were over 70 people there!

It was a great opportunity to chat some more with the lovely people there, cross my fingers really hard during the raffle (no, I didn’t win the overlocker :'( ) and enjoy the lovely coffee and cakes. The best bit though? STASH SWAP!

I had no idea what to expect from the stash swap, but my word it definitely didn’t disappoint. I came away with…

Swap fabric…3m of floral fabric that will become a shift dress of sorts, green gingham that I’m hoping will make a shirt dress (need to measure it first!), loads and loads of white broderie that I plan to dye blue (surprise surprise)…

patterm swap

…a Simple Sew halterneck pattern, another cape pattern with matching skirt and, amazingly, an UNUSED Colette Dahlia pattern. The generosity of people clearing their stashes is amazing, I was bowled over by what was on offer!

Speaking of generosity, the lovely Caroline of CJ Made gave me a piece of the gorgeous Girl Charlee jersey she won in the raffle.

girl charleeIsn’t it gorgeous? I’m hoping I can just squeeze enough out of it for a shift dress

PLUS look at the merit badge I got in the swap!

Badge swapSo the one on the left is the one that was made for me by the lovely Claire of Sew, incidentally. Isn’t it incredible?! My return offering felt a bit paltry in comparison to her amazing work but I think it was well received 🙂

(I made Claire a fountain of knowledge because she is one of the nicest, knowledgeable sewists I’ve met, always quick and happy to give answers or point people in the right direction)

And after all that I went to a party in the evening. As promised in my last post, here’s a picture of the Poison Ivy costume in all it’s glory. I was pretty pleased with, but I didn’t half feel silly roaming the streets of Moseley on my way there….

Poison Ivy costume

Phew! All that’s left for me to say is a MASSIVE thank you to Charlotte of English Girl at Home for organising Saturday’s event. I had an  amazing time and it was fab to meet so many other like minded sewists. Absolute blast of a day.

Roll on Sew Brum 2016!

x

*I left home at 9:30. Make of that what you will

Speedy spooky sewing

~ Rhiannon ~ 2 Comments

1-green dress 1Ok, so I’ll be honest, I don’t really know what counts as spooky sewing, however this definitely counts as speedy sewing; in under three hours this morning/afternoon I managed to sew up a whole dress!

What is it?

A green shift dress that forms the basis for my Halloween costume next week; I’m going to go as Poison Ivy although I’m going for more of a 50s theme Ivy and a bit less flesh-revealing than the traditional comic book character…. I’ll be cutting a load of ivy down from out garden to wrap around myself and into my hair and making my eyes all green and sparkly to complete the look.

Is it blue?

Nope, green. How many ivy plants have you seen that are blue?

What’s the fabric?

Really nasty cheap polycotton that I bought for a previous costume

What’s the pattern?

The pattern is one I drafted myself in a copy-your-clothes class. The original dress is one of my favourite ever RTW items. What you can’t see in this photo (not least because I haven’t sewn them on yet…) is that there’s a false opening on the back held together by buttons. The only difference I made was to the skirt which is a bit tighter than the original, not least due to the limited amount of fabric I had!

Where’s the fabric from?

I think it was from Fancy Silk?

What was good about making this?

I was really pleased with a couple of things with this. The first was how quickly it came together. I didn’t have any bias binding but managed to figure out a bodge for hemming the neckline which I was chuffed with.

green dress 2Basically, I sewed baste stitches at the 5/8  seam, then used these to help me turn the hem, cutting notches as necessary on any curved lines. I then pressed it all and resewed at 3/8. I was also pleased with the gathers connecting the skirt to the bodice, especially as the back pieces don’t connect so I had to make sure they lined up as neatly as possible without actually joining them (that doesn’t make sense but would if you saw the back)

What was bad about making this?

Despite being a copy of a dress I already have, I don’t like the way the armholes sit when the dress is on, nor do I like where the bust darts are. It also seems tighter than expected, which is a bit of a worry.

Ultimately, although it’s a bit rough around the edges, I’m pleased with the speed that this came together. Besides which, once I’ve dressed it up with ivy and the like (and I’ll share pictures next week after the party) all the bodges and rough bits will be hidden and no-one will know!

How about you? Are you making a costume for the spookiest night of the year (possibly)?

Plotting and planning

~ Rhiannon ~ Leave a comment

This weekend has been one of plotting and planning for my next couple of projects. So, in a cryptic, not so cryptic way, here’s what I’ve been up to…

1) Green thread

3-threadMANY moons ago I measured up my sofa to make a new sofa cover and bought a load of fabric to make the sofa cover. This is what I looked like when I’d just bought all the fabric. To give you an idea of how long ago it was, this wasn’t taken in our old flat, it was taken in my old flat (i.e. over two years ago….).
sofa whoopsAnd since then it’s just sat in a bag. However, yesterday I finally bought some thread that matches the fabric. So maybe, just maybe there’ll be a sofa cover somewhere in the future

2) Orla

1-orlaI fell in love with Orla pretty much as soon as Tilly published it, and I’m pretty convinced it’s going to be perfect for some gorgeous Nani Iro double guaze I picked up in Japan over the summer. In a strange move for me, I’m going to make a muslin this time around.as I’m terrified about cutting into the fabric and want to make sure I have it absolutely right before I make the first scary cut.

3) Super secret secretness

blurryI had a planning brunch about this today. All I can say about this is it’s very secret, I’m excited about making it, and think it will be pretty darned amazing if I manage to pull it off!

4) Toiletry bags

2-filled toiletry bagsSo these are a bit different. A local group has been collecting a whole heap of items to send to those needing aid in Calais, Kos, Lesbos and Syria. Rather than just send the toiletries in huge boxes, they decided to make them into individual packs, each in a reusable drawstring bag containing a message of hope and peace. I volunteered to help make some of the bags, so this afternoon went along to take those I’d made so far and sew up another batch of 14 over the course of a couple of hours. Whilst we were sewing, other people were filling those bags already made and it was amazing at the end of the session to see just how generous people had been with their time and their resources (253 are being sent off this week!).

If you’re in the Birmingham area and would like to help, this is the group I’m helping with: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Kingsheathcollects/
Rosie (who is co-ordinating the work) may be able to help you find a collection nearer to you if you aren’t able to make it to the Kings Heath area

If you’re in the wider world and would like to help, I’d recommend using facebook as a way to find a grassroots collection near you, or alternatively take a look at the website of any of the many charities and organisations working in these areas, including the UN Refugee Agency, Save the Children and Oxfam