If I carry on this way, I'm in serious danger of becoming a one trick pony!

I've done it again, it's another Peplum! It's also not the first of the week as I have another on the way!!! If I'm not careful I certainly will end up a one trick pony. But I so lurrrrve the Peplum. I have such a boy figure that it helps me fake a shape and it also hides my tummy a little, so it just perfect for me. 

I've been lusting over this pattern for a while now, it's Simplicity 1590, which is a vintage Peplum blouse. Simplicity are currently selling their patterns at half price, so this was the ideal time for me to get my hands on it. Call me a cheapskate, but I hate paying full price for patterns these days, unless they are really special.

"You will sit down"

Unfortunately I managed to mess up a little on the measurements whilst I was making this blouse as I have made it a tiny bit snug around the waist. (D'oh) There's not much ease left so you can see it pulling a little. Yup, that's what you make toiles for! 

But that's not really much of a concern for me as I'd made it out of some cheap broderie anglais that I bought from Boyes, so even if I hadn't ever worn it ever again it wouldn't have been so much of a loss.

A close up, as you can't see the detail in the photos.

I was thinking this morning as I put it on that I hated it. I thought this will be the first and last time I ever wear it ever. But looking at the pictures, maybe it's not so bad after all? In fact maybe it's even a little bit cute? All in all it took 5 hours to make, I couldn't believe how quickly it came together. OK, so 5 hours isn't so speedy, but I like to take my time! 

This is definitely a blouse that I will make again, but next time a few adjustments need to be made. This time I traced a 10 and graded out to a 12 at the waist, but next time I think I will trace a 10 and grade down to half way between a 12 and a 14 at the waist. I can see it in all kinds of fabrics, but mostly I have my eye on Moda's 'April showers' collection for the next one!

My first Re-fashion!

I'm really excited to tell you that I have completed my first re-fashion! This is something that I have never delved in to, I'm really not sure why as it's a brilliant way of recycling, so this is the first of many.

This all started when I put my name down for the 'Name Tag Swap' that Rachel from House of Pinheiro is organising on her blog. Basically you have to create a name tag for your new buddy and they have to make one for you. Name tags must be received by 9th May and Rachel has very kindly pinned some for inspiration here.

My buddy is the amazing Andrea from Little did you know. I've had an extremely thorough stalk read through her blog to get some ideas for the name tag. Andrea's main interest is in re-fashioning clothes, something that I had never really considered trying. So I thought what better way to get to know someone than to walk a mile in their shoes?!!

I don't currently have any clothes that I could re-fashion. Mainly because I often donate them to charity. Now, in my little town, there are only 3 charity shops to choose from. I spent a Saturday afternoon looking in them and not one thing jumped out at me as something that I'd like to re-fashion. How the heck does Andrea find all of these gems?? 

I gave up. I went to Tesco's for some tights and I came out with this as well:

Slightly hideous, it was a size 18 shapeless 3/4 sleeve t-shirt. I think I saw the sale rack and out of desperation grabbed it because it was only a fiver. Looking at this picture it really is even more hideous than I remember! 

As soon as I got it home I knew exactly what it would become. I bet you can't guess!! :-P

I did cheat a little. OK a lot. First of all I un-picked the side seams and removed the sleeves. I then took out my traced pattern pieces from my favourite Peplum (yep I'm soooo predictable) pattern, Vogue 8815, and placed them over the t-shirt like so: 

 

I wanted to keep the neckline as I liked the pink piping and it sat fine on my neck. So I folded the t-shirt and placed the paper pattern to match with the fold and shoulder seams.

Yep, I thought I was pretty darn clever for doing that!

Unfortunately, the peplum pattern pieces were a little too big and I didn't quite have enough fabric left to make them. So, what I did was make them a little bit shorter. The T-shirt also came with a folded piece of fabric as the hem, I detached it carefully and used it to add length to the peplum.

Folded fabric hem

All in all I think it took me about 4 hours to make. Most of the time was spent un-picking the seams of the original t-shirt. I could have cut them off, but then I wouldn't have quite had enough fabric, which you can see on the picture at the top of the page showing where the front bodice pattern piece ends.

Unfortunately I did not pattern match the fabric. There wasn't enough, if there had been enough though I would not have been able to keep the neckline, because like a lot of RTW clothes the manufacturer hadn't matched the pattern between the front and back either!

What a silly pose to show off my lack of pattern matching!!

I love my new top, it fits so much nicer than any RTW top I could buy and for a fiver it was an absolute bargain. I also have a new appreciation of re-fashioning. It's a very painstaking process and I have absolutely no idea how Andrea has the patience to do it so often. But regardless, it's very rewarding and I will definitely be trying it again soon, once I have actually made Andrea's Name tag that is!

Catch up: Joel Dewberry's Meadow Spirit Skirt and Colette's Zinnia

Good Morning! I had a pretty intense weekend sewing (and watching BSG) and didn't actually get round to getting pictures of my new makes. Plus le Baz went out for drinks with his friends at Lunchtime on Saturday and didn't come home until 2 am Sunday morning!! He was a little tipsy and then spent most of Sunday feeling rather sorry for himself. He must have had a great night!!

I mentioned previously that I had gotten my Joel Dewberry skirt out of the UFO box and completed it. Yay for me! The pattern that I used was Joel Dewberry Eclectic modern, Meadow Spirit skirt in Joel's Modern Meadow fabric. Ya I know, not very imaginative considering this is the fabric they used on the envelope. You can also see that I did not add the pleats to the bottom, this just added far to much length for my liking.

I should have really switched that TV off...

This skirt was a bit of a nightmare for me last year. I tweaked and tweaked and couldn't get it to fit. Thus, in an angry rage, the UFO box was born. Back when I started this skirt I hadn't actually had much experience of fit. I'd pick a size off the envelope that looked like my size and hope for the best. I'm a little bit more savvy than that now, or at least I hope I am!

The problem that I had was around the back of the waistband. It was almost as though it was designed for someone was a big juicy butt as I had two baggy bum shaped bumps sticking out. When I returned to the skirt I realised that was down to my lack of hips and all round boy shaped figure. I pinched the fabric round my hips and as if by magic the weird bumps disappeared.

I'm so pleased with the results, however, it's not summer here yet. It's still pouring with rain on a daily basis, so I was a little premature in the making of this one, but I can definitely see me pulling this back out when the rain dries up.

The next make was another Colette Zinnia skirt. You may remember that I made one as a gift for my bestie at Christmas. I liked the pattern so much that I just had to make one for myself. 

Well why not?

The fabric that I used was Moda's Bluebird Park. Unfortunately, you can't really see the detail of the design on the fabric but it kinda looks like a yellow chambray. 

I'm not sure it's possible to have awful fit issues with this pattern as the only measurement you need is your waist. So it's just a case of measuring the waistband in the correct place.

I don't think that this was a particularly good fabric to make the skirt out of. It was a bit of a pain to hem and to me it doesn't look very sharp. It's also a little see through so I'd definitely wear it out with a slip.

Besides all this I think it's a wonderful skirt. Again, it's not really the weather for it yet, but just you wait until it is!

Where has the last week gone?!

Time is just flying over here, so I must be having fun!

The weekend seems like a long time ago now, distant memories of a shooting weekend up in sunny Warcop...

OK, I'm lying. It was actually snowing. At 0800 we were stood outside of the Armory collecting our weapons, gazing at the sky thinking 'I must be crazy'! For those of you who've never been out shooting in the snow, I'll tell you this - it's pretty darn chilly.  Fortunately for us that's where the snow finished for the weekend. I got a little wet, but nothing too bad, but it was definitely chilly. Not only was I wearing waterproof trousers, but also my scarf and gloves. 

Armed with several cups of hot tea I ventured out for the shoot. I was feeling pretty darn confident. A couple of practice shots at the targets and we come to the main shoot. I'm loving it - Ye haw! So I'm about to do this shoot where we stand a few paces back, watch for the target popping up, then have to run to the firing point, throw ourselves on the floor 'belt buckles down' and then fire 5 shots at the target. So I throw myself down for the first shot and clumsily the iron sight hits me right in the shooting eye with the recoil from my first shot. [Swear word] then my eye decides to to leak and I can see nothing! I came out of that with 15 rounds still in my magazine out of 65, but only 1 point worse off than my neighbour who had fired all of his rounds - bonus! But I was still shit. Never mind, I had a great time.

Sunday I got to take part in Clay pigeon shooting. This was by far the best activity of the weekend, but also my worst ha ha! I had 14 cartridges and I hit zero clay pigeons boooooooo... [sad face]. Still had an awesome time and I'm looking forward to more shooting later on in the year.

So I haven't actually done an awful lot of sewing. I've managed to fix a UFO that I started back in July last year. I'm particularly proud of this because I'd been having really awful fit issues and had ended up sacking it off to try something else. That's my Joel Dewberry Meadow Spirit skirt which I originally posted about here. Back then I had little experience of fitting garments, I just picked the nearest size and hoped for the best. So I've finally completed this skirt, but I'm yet to take some pictures for my blog, so I'll probably post that this weekend.

I've also started to make myself a Colette Zinnia skirt. I previously made one for my best friend for Christmas and I've been dying to make myself one ever since. You can find that here. I'm still on with this, doing a little bit here and a little bit there. 

On top of all of this, and possibly for the last few weeks I've had a go at quilting. A friend of mine bought a quilt from the States for her baby to be from Etsy and it took something like 6 months to come. It was such an anti-climax as she's not so fond of it and it cost a fortune. When I saw it myself, apart from the designer fabric that had been used I couldn't see why it took so long to arrive or why it cost so much. So, I thought why not have a go myself?

Unfortunately, I've had a few motivational issues with it and I'd run out of materials to finish it off. But this is how I started:

To save time, I very lazily bought a couple of charm packs from eBay. (I won these at like 99p each woop woop!) I then stitched them together in rows and then stitched the rows together, pressing the seams out as I went.  That is the picture that you can see above. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

At this point I should probably mention that I have absolutely no experience in this area, I've not even made a coaster! So I think I've done it a little wrong! So what I did next is sew the batting to the piece of fabric I was using for the underside (An old white Egyptian cotton sheet that I'd cut down). I've since found out that this is not exactly how it should be done! Finished article to be finished soon.

Elisalex the second

I've definitely caught the bug! By Hand London's Elisalex bodice is just amazeballs. So I had to make it again and this fabric was exactly what I'd had in mind for the pattern. Unfortunately it didn't arrive in time so I made my Joel Dewberry version first.

This fabric is some vintage upholstery - Savannah a screen print by Osprey on cotton satin. I totally fell in love with the mahooosive flower print. The moment my little eyes landed on the listing in eBay I knew it would be mine. 

This time, I still managed to chicken out of making the dress with the intended tulip skirt! Barry said I should make it as an A-Line as he's not fond of the tulip shape. So I did and I must admit I quite like it with an A-Line skirt. I used New Look pattern A6053 for the skirt. Yup I feel like such a cheat, I really should be drafting my own skirts by now, especially one as simple as this!

 

OUI! It's another Peplum!

I've done it again, I think I'm a little bit obsessed with Peplums at the moment! But I have to say, although I love all my Peplums equally, this one is definitely my favourite.

I used Vogue pattern V8815 and I actually started it well over a week ago. I remember it quite clearly because Barry had gone for a day session in Newcastle for a leaving do. (The guy wasn't even leaving he's just moving to another team a few pods up, but that clearly gives an excellent excuse for a piss up!) 

So, as I was home alone, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to move the dining table in front of the TV so that I could set up all of my sewing whilst watching BSG: Blood and chrome that I'd recorded off the telly a couple of weeks before!

What a mess!! But whilst the cat's away...

The pattern is wonderfully thought up and so easy. It went together like a dream, however, surprisingly enough it came with no facing pieces. But that's no big deal, it gave me the perfect opportunity to draft my own! After tracing out the main pattern pieces, making adjustments for my size, I then took another piece of tissue, placed it over my pattern pieces and created what I now think is the best facing ever! It's sort of a semi-lining that goes all the way round the neck line and around the arm holes. It works an absolute treat, that design with what I now know is called 'under stitching', prevents that horrible flappy facing problem.

No flappy facing for me.

You could use bias binding around the neckline, but I like the clean lines that I've produced without it.

The fabric that I used is a quilting cotton in Glimma by Lotta Jansdotta, which I got on sale at Guthrie and Ghani. For the bow at the back I used some ribbon from Boyes. You can't beat good old Boyes for little bits like that, especially when you make a last minute decision.

This fabric probably wasn't the best choice for this top. There was very little hope of me pattern matching with all the wave lines. I'd match it in one place but the then rest is out, so I just had to roll with it. This is exactly the fabric that I had in mind for this pattern, so the lines had to lie where they have.

I wore this top on Friday for Barry's birthday dinner, however we got very (very very very) tipsy and no photo's were taken of the top. So, as I'd washed and ironed it again over the weekend I thought I'd wear it to work today, which gave us an excellent opportunity to get pictures.

Overall I totally love this top, it's the right shape with the right pattern and it fits beautifully. (Or at least I think it does!!) I'm definitely going to make more. 

The Elisalex project

It has been an eventful and busy week since I last posted. We now have a beautiful baby niece so we popped round to see the happy couple and our teeny tiny little Ivy. She's just amazing! Then we spent the weekend trying to complete the kitchen, but actually spent more time talking about it and buying the materials than actually finishing it. But it looks somewhere on the way now....

So, I haven't had much time for sewing and the time that I had, I spent making Elisalex muslins. Because everyone loves a frustrating project that never seems to want to fit! No, of course they don't. I almost gave up. In the end I managed to get there and now I'm so pleased. 

This is my happy face!

The first muslin that I made I cut a straight 10. This was a terrible fit, even worse than the cheapest RTW dress that I own. It was super tight around the waist and super baggy everywhere else. The neckline gaped, the back gaped and the bust was a little baggy. This is so odd because I've only just slimmed down to a size 10 and I even put on 5 pounds over Christmas that I'm very slowly shifting. So I pinned it up and re-drafted the bodice pieces. From my new measurements I graded it from a size 8 in the shoulders to a 10 in the bust and a 12 at the waist. I created another Muslin. This attempt was much better, but it still didn't fit well. I had to take more from the shoulders, which I just removed from the front and back center pattern pieces. I also had to remove a little off the shoulder pieces as there was way too much ease, giving me loads of crumply fabric around my armpits, but at the same time I had to add to the rest of the sleeves as they were so tight around my arms that it was pulling at the top of the bodice.

Fed up with all of the adjustments I decided to go ahead and cut my fabric. I knew what adjustments were needed and was pretty certain that this would achieve the required fit. 

This fabric I've had in my stash for at least 6 months. It's part of Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow collection. I love it so much that I didn't want to use it! Unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice, I think this possibly might have something to do with the Burgers that I grilled last night, they left a sort of haze through the kitchen and sitting room and I think that's why we couldn't get any decent pictures of the fabric. I could have sacked it off and done it today, but I wore the dress yesterday and there's nothing like seeing a dress on an actual person.

As you can see, I didn't go with the original skirt in the pattern. The fabric just wouldn't have been stiff enough. So, instead, I opted for a skirt that I've already used from New Look Pattern 6824. The pattern calls for pleats, but I decided to go with gathers and I think it works quite well. I do like big skirts, I was considering using the skirt pattern from Butterick 9269, but I wanted an every day dress and I feel like the bigger the skirt the more of a special occasion it should be worn at. Plus they carry so much more bulk round the waist that I feel it necessary to wear a belt over it and I don't want to have to. Sometimes it's nice to be free of belts!

I'm very pleased now with the fit, and despite having to re-draft the bodice, I will definitely be making this dress again. 

Silly selfie time!