Almost Perfect

An African wax print pencil skirt - yes please!

I bought this length of wax print from Abakhan in Liverpool last August. It was a pre-cut piece and was not very wide or long. I knew that I wanted a pencil skirt in this print, but as with all my makes it sat washed but uncut for months. I finally got around to cutting it out at our monthly Crafternoon back in December and it sat in one of my project boxes until March, when I finally made it up.

I used the pencil skirt from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. I made the size 6 without alterations. This is my go to pencil skirt pattern. When I started sewing back in 2011 I was an avid reader of Gertie's blog and bought the book as soon as it was released. I've made a few things from the book and do keep revisiting it - so it was well worth buying and is a great resource, especially when teamed with Vintage Casual. I also have the Ultimate dress book, but use that a little less. At one time I was very into vintage styling, but I think my style has changed. I love the full skirts, but don't always find these styles practical for day to day living. Anyway I digress, back to the pattern.

This pencil skirt is long. It sits mid calf and looks best worn with a pair of heels. It has 8 darts. Four in the front and four at the back. For me, the back darts are essential to help fit a small waist and large booty. However, I used to find I needed the front darts, but they seem to add extra fullness that I don't need. I have a fairly flat abdomen and need less shaping here. I think I might have to alter the depth of the front darts or even omit them altogether in future versions. The waist band is fitted and sits at the natural waist, which can give a really nipped in look. There is a kick pleat/ vent at the back, which is necessary so you can walk in it. The skirt is closed with a lapped zipper and a button.

This is a quick sew, especially with the waxed print. It's sturdy enough not to need interfacing and still keep it's shape. It presses well and the darts went in beautifully. due to the nature of the fabric, it is less prone to fraying so I simply used my pinking shears on all seam and hem allowances, pressing them open. I did line this, as there is a high probability that I will wear this with tights in cooler weather and unlined skirts and tights just don't mix! I used what I had in my stash, which was a plain black synthetic lining, left over from another project.

As ever, with a fitted pattern I basted the side seams togther before stitching to check fit. I ended taking a little from the hip area and pegging the skirt towards the hem to give a better shape.

So why is almost perfect and not actually perfect? Take a look...

...yup, pattern matching is just not happening - nope, never gonna work. Actually I didn't even try. There was too little fabric to allow me to get a good match so I just went with it. No matchy match here, and do you know what - I actually don't care. I'll wear it. I love it and if the pattern matching police want to call me out, well let them! Gonna throw my hands in the air 'cause I just dont care.

via GIPHY

So I'm interested, what have you sewn, that you know isn't perfect but you just dont care?

Last Minute Alice

The exam season is drawing to a close and it's almost the end of the university year. My eldest son will be back home on Monday after completing his first year at Leeds University. My daughter takes her last GCSE on Friday the 14th of June and my younger son will also finish his last A level exam on the same day. My husband has had all his grades back for his university course at Durham and he is happy with them. For all we thought that early June would be fairly quiet it's actually turned out to be quite a busy month, with lots of traveling around the country and some key events.

The 7th of June was John's college party. It's the end of term and his final year, so the last opportunity to see many of those he's been studying with. The end of year parties are quite legendary and always have a theme. Last year it was Children's TV and we went a Florence and Zebedee from the magic roundabout.

Florence and Zebedee

The year before was 80's themed and we went as music icons, Souxsie Sioux and Morrissey.

Channelling the 80's

So when we heard the theme for this year we were truly excited - Alice in Wonderland. I had borrowed my Queen of hearts costume from panto from a couple of years ago and we had the materials to make John a Mock Turtle costume. However we found out that it was to be more a tea party and less fancy dress, so my costume would have been way over the top!

A bit too much?

Last minute my husband decided that a dress with Alice on rather than going as a character might be more in keeping with the evening, so off to The Sewing Machine Guy I went and picked up just over 1m of this Kokka printed fabric.

I knew I had just enough to make the pencil skirt version of Butterick B6453 as long as I used another fabric for the facings. I already had a long invisible zip in my stash.

It took just over 1 1/2 hrs to cut and assemble the dress. I did end up taking in the side seams on the skirt and the princess seams on the bodice, just under the bust. As I'd made all other necessary alterations on prior makes this was super easy to complete. My Irregular choice shoes were the perfect match, I also made a pocket square for my husband to wear with his suit - there wasn't enough for a tie.

I'm glad I went for the simpler option as we got a bust tyre on the way home and it was pouring with rain. The wheel wrench was not very strong and wouldn't shift the wheel nuts. We were rescued by a friend who came out with a better quality piece of kit and we were back on our way within 10 minutes of him arriving.

I finally got to wear my Queen of Hearts costume while fundraising for Morpeth Pantomime Society on Sunday at Morpeth Fair day. Can you spot me?

My Wedding Dress...

...25 years on.

I always planned to wear my wedding dress for our 25th anniversary. But I knew I couldn't wear it in it's original form, so it was time for a refashion. The original dress was made by Laura Ashley and is a printed cotton. I really loved it and it seemed a shame for it to be hidden away in a box going yellow.

The plan was to shorten the skirt and change up the sleeve to something more contemporary. I have always been able to fit into my dress and this seemed like an easy refashion. However, after soaking and washing my dress at quite a high temperature to get rid of the yellowing stains, it had shrunk a bit and although I could still get it on. It would not have been comfortable to wear.

So a bigger refashion was needed. I have always loved fitted bodices and full skirts of the 1950's and wanted to keep the scooped neckline of the original dress. I also loved the back of the Gertie Sultry sheath dress. So after carefully taking the skirt apart, I used the B6453 princess seamed bodice and extended the bodice to include the shoulders and have the same scoop neckline. I overlaid the sultry sheath bodice back and found it matched almost exactly with the B6453.
I self lined the bodice and then added a knee length box pleated skirt to finish off the dress. The zip is a lapped zipper.

On our anniversary I styled my dress with a black net underskirt, black and white spotty kitten heel shoes and a beaded balck and white collar necklace. The evening was warm do I didn't need a coat, just a purple shawl to complement what my hubby was wearing.

We enjoyed a beautiful meal at the House of Tides in Newcastle.

I love my refashioned dress, but i'm not sure I have much call for a white dress, so I'm considering dying it. Some experiments are needed to see how the dye reacts to the printed cotton.

How to sew a Gertie dress from less than 1m of fabric

Over the summer I have been sewing with small pieces of fabric. Most less than 1m. I had this lovely black jacquard fabric, but there was less than 90cm of 150cm wide.

My original plan was for some capri pants, but there wasn't quite enough for that.

So I opted for the  B6453 Gertie princess seamed sundress. I thought it would make a chic LBD. Due to the amount of fabric, the skirt is much shorter than I'd wear and I decided I'd make this for my daughter (for reference she's a UK size 10 in RTW).

I cut the skirt pieces out on the fold, using the pencil skirt version as a guide and extended the sides to form a subtle A-line shape - I think this looks really cute.

The rest of the pieces I cut from a single layer and used all but the tiniest of scraps. I did manage to cut all the pieces including the facings. I chose to make fixed straps rather than adjustable as they used a bit less fabric and I didn't have any suitable sliders and rings.

The front bodice went together well. As usual when sewing princess seams I sew a line of stay stitching 1mm inside the seam line. This helps keep the concave and convex curves accurately placed when pinning and stitching the curves.

I stitched the skirt pieces to the bodice fronts and backs before joining at the side seams. And that's where I went wrong.

Not paying attention - I joined the bodice backs the wrong way around - so the side seams are at the CB. I was really wondering why the side seams didn't match when I was sewing them - it didn't click until I'd sewn them together. I'm hoping I can get away with this as I really can't be bothered to take it all apart and re-sew...

Do you ever just leave something even though you know you should correct it? No? - Me Neither

My OCD got the better of me! I took it apart and re-sewed. Can you see the difference in the shape of the back?

Once the dress was sewed in the correct way I fitted it to my daughter. I ended up taking a little from each side seam from the rib to the hip line - otherwise, the fit was fine. I didn't want to overfit as last time I made her this dress I made it a bit snug and she didn't get much wear out of it.

Key advice for sewing with small amounts of fabric. 
1. Check the yardage. I place the pattern pieces on the fabric before cutting out to check I have enough room. I usually find I can manage on way less than the pattern envelope suggests.
2. Cut out from a single layer. It takes more time but is much more fabric efficient - remember to flip the pattern pieces once you have cut one side so that you get the opposite piece.
3. If necessary us an alternative fabric for the facings. I've made this dress before and used a contrast facing as I didn't have quite enough of the shell fabric. understitch well and it shouldn't be an issue.
4. Check the pattern/ nap of the fabric. If you have a directional print or nap, cut all pieces in the same orientation. I will occasionally cut facings upside down or on the cross-grain (depending on the fabric).
5. Make a muslin/ use a TNT pattern. You need to know that the pattern will fit as there's no opportunity for cutting extra pieces.
6. Try not to make silly errors (unlike me) as its disheartening when you have to unpick loads of sewing!!!!

Who Said Pigs Cant Fly?

Don't you just love this fabric? I saw this just before Christmas when I was at the Sewing Machine Guy's shop in Ellington. I didn't buy any then, but my hubby bought 3m for me as a Christmas pressent. They are out of stock at the moment, but more is on order I believe.

I knew I wanted an everyday dress and a style that would show off the fabric and not interupt the design.

I used the basic bodice from Gertie's Ultimate dress book, but rotated the bust darts into the waist darts. I transfered the neckline from the princess seamed bodice and added the short sleeves - these I widened to allow a bit more movement as they were a bit tight on the toile I made. The Skirt is simple gathered rectangle but IT HAS POCKETS - !!!!!!!

The dress is unlined, and has a bodice facing. - seams are overlocked.  The seams are hand stitched.
The fabric is a good weight cotton and works well with tights and a cardy in cooler weather, but will be perfect for the summer too. I can see me getting a lot of wear out of this.

check out my pattern matching.

I made most of this dress just after Christmas. I had pressed and pinned the hems before my op, so sitting and hand stitching them when I came out of hospital was quite theraputic.

Do you have a favourite novelty print garment? I think I'm rapidly going off florals and prefer other prints.

Sultry stash buster

Happy New Year! I've finally been able to make the most of sewing time over the holidays. I've completed one project start to finish and completed another, not to mention the work on my costume for the upcoming pantomime that I'm in at the end of January.

So for my complete make! - Another party dress - as if I need any more - this one was a stash buster and used some fabric that has been in the stash for at least 4 years just waiting for me to decide what to do with it.

The Fabric is a stunning shocking pink and gold Chinese brocade that my hubby brought back from China a few years ago. It was a narrow piece about 1m wide, but about 2.5m long. I overlocked the ends and washed it, which softened the fabric a bit. I knew it was going to fray like mad so sewing had to be planned to handle it as little as possible. It was also very synthetic, which meant careful pressing was in order. Once washed and dried, the bodice pieces were cut out and neck and armholes stay stitched twice to help protect against fraying. The sides were overlocked. The skirt was cut in one piece in the cross grain - I say cut, it was just the width of the fabric. I kept the seam at centre back and used pleats to shape the fabric to match the bodice. with this sort of fabric the least you cut it the more likely it is to stay together. All pressing was done with a cool iron and a scrap of tana lawn as a press cloth - which worked beautifully.

On to the pattern - the bodice is from the sultry sheath dress from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. I made a muslin in size 6 to check the fit. The fit was ok, but I do wish I'd have pinched out a bit at the neckline to make it hug a bit better. I lowered the armholes by 1cm and the back by about 3 cm, just for personal preference.

The bodice has 4 waist darts on the front and two on the back, plus bust darts, this gives a good amount of shaping. I did not use the pencil skirt from the book, although I do love the pencil skirt I knew that the fabric needed special care and I wanted to keep construction as simple as possible. the skirt is a simple rectangle using the remaining fabric and pleated at the front and the back to match the darts. It's not particularly full, but the structure of the fabric gives some nice shaping.

As the fabric is scratchy I decided to fully line the dress. I used a purple fabric with a soft handle for the skirt, but I didn't have enough for the bodice so I used some tana lawn which was left over from my last project. The lawn is lovely and cool and perfect to line the dress. The bodice seams are fully enclosed, which should also help with reduction of fraying. the skirt seams are all overlocked and the hem makes use of the selvedge edge and was hand stitched.

This dress was ready for NYE, but we ended up staying home, so it got it's first outing at the Church meal yesterday. My hubby also wore the shirt I made him for Christmas - more on that another time.

Vintage Casual my way

Gertie Trousers. I've had the cigarette trousers from Gertie Sews VinatgeCasual on my radar to sew for some time. I traced the pattern ages ago but lost confidence after trying another pants pattern and having to start from scratch to get anything even close to wearable.
However, some super stretchy woven cotton made it way into my stash (birthday pressie from my mum). I decided to take another look at the pattern and thought I'd give it a go.
The pattern was remarkably close to my own draft - just a bit narrower on the hips, and since making jeans from my pattern in the summer I needed to reduce the width here anyway. However, I didn't want trousers with a back zip - it's just not me.

Changes to the pattern:-
I kept the silhouette the same but used the waistband facing as a template for the waistband.
The back waistband was kept the same, but as the front waistband is usually cut on the fold I added seam allowances and extra to account for the fly front. I also added 1.5cm seam allowance to the bottom edge of the facing pieces.
The front, back and pocket pieces were adapted by tracing the facing pieces and then adding 1.5 seam allowances to the top edge.
The fly front was added and I used the Ginger Jeans sew along method for sewing this. I'd found it really helpful when making my jeans in the summer.

All my changes meant that the pattern finished at the same point on the waist, but the design lines were altered a little. I should have made the pockets deeper really, but I think they'll be ok for this fabric.
The stretch in the fabric meant that these are super comfy and have a good recovery, they looked good all day when wearing them.

I would highly recommend using fabric with a good amount of stretch. It aids comfort and can help with minor fitting issues. I would lengthen these just a bit as I had to sew really tiny hems.

A great basic pattern and plenty of options for customising the design lines of this style.

Tilly & Gertie

Just before my summer holidays I made the Cleo pinafore dress by Tilly and the Buttons but had to order buckles as the ones I could get in the local shops were too big.

It's a perfect dress to wear in the autumn and winter as you can layer it, and on those last few summer days, a t-shirt looks brilliant.

I made this with charcoal denim which has a little bit of stretch. I had just about 1m left after making my first ever pair of jeans. I bought the fabric at B&M in Leeds at the Sew up North event back in June. I had the buttons in my stash.

I'd made a wearable muslin of this dress back in January in a thick green cord - but it's not really my type of fabric or colour. I graded up a size at the hip but found my first version tricky to get on due to the small waist. I'd decided that a zip or fastening at the side seam was needed. I drafted a button fly and used some of my jeans buttons. It makes getting this dress on so much easier.

I've also been working on a dress from Gertie's Ultimate Dress Book. I'm making the surplice dress with sleeves. I haven't decided which skirt pattern to use yet as I'm just at the muslin stage. (not great photos I'm afraid)

I'm so glad I made a muslin as there are a number of changes I need to make.

The armscye is tiny and needs lowering by about 1.5cm. The sleeve is also minute and I could see it would be an issue once I'd set it in. I had to cut it so I could move my arm.
The back is pretty much ok.

I need to widen the shoulders just a touch - I'm finding I have to do this a lot; especially with Gertie's patterns.
I need to lengthen the midriff pieces by about 1 inch at the front, grading to nothing at the back - that accounts for my swayback.

There are then a couple of adjustments to the bodice front. Pinching out along the neckline and removing some fullness - nothing too major. Then it will be on with muslin no.2.

Maxi Halter Hack

Since getting into sewing 6 years ago I have always been inspired by Gertie and her love of fabrics and pattern adaptations. When I saw this fabric I originally thought it might make a Gertie style Tiki dress. but the fabric lacked the body needed for such a dress. I had bought this fab fabric from B&M fabrics in Leeds. I visited the shop as part of the #sewupnorth event. Once I had realised it would not make a tiki dress I had several other ideas for this fabric. I was going to make a version of my Alexandra dress, but wanted a maxi length and knew there would not be enough to add the ruffles and a long skirt. Then I was going to make the surplice dress from Gertie's Ultimate dress book but again that design requires fabric with more body.

In the end I decided to adapt a basic bodice as I wanted to get the most out of the drape of this fabric.
I took the basic bodice from the Ultimate dress book and cut away most of the shoulder area and closed the bust and waist darts, rotating the fullness to the front neck edge.

I drafted a collar piece. this started as a straight piece, but then I took out wedges along the top to give a curved finish, making sure I marked the shoulder line.

I sewed the back darts as normal and the shortened shoulder seams then gathered the front neckline into the collar. The armholes are finished with a bias facing.

The skirt is essentially the Pencil Skirt from Gertie's new book for better sewing. I used my usual size 6, but had to take in quite a bit at the waist to fit the top. In fact due to the drapey nature of the fabric and lack of lining I ended up taking almost an inch from the side seams of the bodice as the gaped quite a bit.

I added a concealed zip, which finished mid back and two buttons on the collar. A walking slit allows ease of movement. I think this just might get a lot of wear on my holidays.