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?

Easter madness...or how I sewed my way through the first week of the school holidays.

I have been procrastinating.

When I procrastinate, I sew.

I'm not even going to talk about what I should've been doing, but I will talk about the sewing.

This week I made
4 dresses and finished off one jacket.

Dress number 1 - I made a dress from my own self drafted Vivienne Westwood inspired pattern. I used a floral scuba fabric and virtually sewed it all on the overlocker. I do still need to do the hem. pictures to follow when it's finally finished.

Late Feb my hubby bought me Gertie's latest dress pattern - all the way from America. I planned, plotted and decided which fabrics from my stash would make the best dresses.

Dress number 2 - Butterick B6453 view B for my daughter. I had just over 1m left of this fab shot fabric that my sister bought for me at Christmas and that I used to make this dress in January.

I made her bodice in size 8 and skirt graded to 12 at the hip. I did make the mistake of taking the side seams in before adding the facings which meant the top is a little tighter than I would like it to be.

Dress number 3 - The same view for myself - using up some cotton from my stash. There was barely a metre of this and so i had the sew the facings in a different fabric. I cut a size 10 bodice and graded the skirt out to a 14 at the hip.

When I made my muslin the 10 bodice seemed really snug at the waist so I added a couple of mm at the side seams. I wish I hadn't as in both dresses I made I ended up taking the sides in a bit and they could still be a bit tighter. I did pinch out excess at the armscye and under the bust to improve shaping. I ended up having to increase the curve in the front armcye for comfort and also pinched out about 5mm under the bust on the princess seams to help the shaping.

I made fixed straps, as I don't really see the need for sliders on a dress. I know I won't use them. I also sewed the vent at the back like the one from Gertie's pencil skirt from her first book. I also used an invisible zipper as I had one the right size and colour in my stash.

Dress number 4 - Butterick B6453 view A. I sewed this up in a very light weight cotton I picked up in a market in China last summer. It's my last decent sized piece of fabric in my stash. As the fabric was so light I used cotton muslin fabric to underline the bodice pieces. I was going to add it to the skirt too, but thought it would add too much weight and I didn't want to add any strain to the waist seams.

The same adjutsments were made to the bodice as for dress 3. I didn't cut the skirt pieces from the pattern. I just used the full width of the the fabric for the front and the same for the back, adding a CB seam. I also omitted the pockets due to the lightweight nature of the fabric.

I sewed the lapped zip, following Gertie's instructions on the sew along. The finish was great, but I feel like it sticks out a little. I need to work on getting it to sit a little more flush to the dress. Maybe my interfacing was too firm!

I wore this dress today with a petticoat, tights and my favourite black shoes. paired with my red cardy. It was a bit to cold to wear on it's own as it was only about 7 degrees this morning! It will be a fab dress in the hotter days of summer and I'm sure I'll wear it loads on holiday.

The final make of this week was a refashioned wool jacket. Motorbike style, made from a long purple wool coat. I'd been working on this for some time as a gift for my friend Alli. It was her birthday this week, so I had to get it finished. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos so Alli said she'd take some and let me have them later.

Next up - repairs to the curtains. the dog has managed to catch and undo the hem - they are currently in the wash, then will be stitched again.

After that - My Hubby's suit jacket muslin. I've made myslef a jacket, but I'm not too hot on the tailoring techniques I need to use - Back to Gertie's first book! I also need to get on with my next piece of art - experiemental work at the moment.