Sunday, January 18, 2015

Marianne dress

I absolutely love A line dresses with collars. Especially A line dresses with collars in striped nautical fabric! Can I get a Whut Whut!?
So when Christine Haynes released the Marianne dress pattern I snapped it up and even got delivery all the way from America just so I wouldn't have to print, stick and cut it up. 


I first made view A in my nautical fabric but I messed up the neck binding and fell out of love with the dress. The binding wasn't even terrible but I wasn't happy with it - that's how far I've come since starting dressmaking! But that's another post. 

Anyway I left it a week, ordered some plain interlock fabric and plotted and planned. I made view B this time with the contrasting yoke and a white collar. 
I cut a size 2 graded to a 6 and all the way to 18 for the length. If I hadn't have lengthened it so much I think it would've been scarily near tunic length instead of dress length. I must have long arms and legs in comparison to everyone else. I also lengthened the sleeves by 2 inches and they just about fall at the right length.

I love this dress! It took 4 hours to cut and sew together one Sunday afternoon. It was my first time sewing with knits (apart from my failed first attempt) and found it surprisingly easy. 


I'm already planning a white striped interlock version and a tunic top too. You know you love a pattern when you're already planning different versions before finishing the one you're sewing! 

Sunday, January 11, 2015

English paper piecing

I made this quilt for my Gran as a Christmas present. I was finishing the binding on Christmas morning and didn't manage to take any photos before I gifted it. 


The photo above is my attempts at hand quilting, which was a disastrous attempt. I couldn't get my stitches to look nice on both sides. 


Instead I machine quilted a few of the hexie flowers. I didn't do them all do to time. The fabric wasn't stretched properly on the top and bottom and I was left with a little excess fabric on top. 


Teeny tiny hand stitches. 


And the front






As you can see I drank a lot of hot chocolate whilst making this quilt!
I started in July 2014 just after we got back from holiday. I'd been itching to start a project when I got back and something this time consuming was perfect. 

All the fabric was from the homemakery except for the blue dot which I had in my stash. 
I used a pink Tilda stripe for the backing and the blue dot for the binding. 


Recently, my gran gave me the quilt back. This obviously upset me at first but she explained she wanted our baby to have it. She figured it would save me making another but I'm still going to make a triangle quilt for bubba!



I finally got to take some finished pictures! Ideally the binding needs redoing as my stitches were rushed to say the least. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it held up over the last 6 months and can't wait to see baby using it!

2.0.1.4


Well, I know I'm a bit (!) late in posting the 2014 review but I had such a busy Christmas!
My family came over from Canada and I don't think I had a minute to myself. It was wonderful to be surrounded by my family though, I do miss them lots.

I didn't make as much as I would've liked over the year but I really got into dressmaking.
I made a total of 10 dresses:

From left to right, a wool Lilou, blackwatch Eva dress, Merchant and Mills dress shirt, Stylish Dress book E, two basic dress from the Sewing Bee book, another M&M dress shirt, a Betty dress with a long skirt and the Cath Kidston basic dress from the GBSB.

I also made a Cambie dress from Cabbages and Roses fabric for my sister-in-law's wedding.

Out of all the dresses I made the Lilou and the blue dress shirt get the most wear. The sewing fails have to be the CK birds dress due to the terrible fit (the fabric bunches at the back) and the Betty dress as I dislike how the skirt hangs.

I also made an English paper piecing blanket from Tilda fabric for my gran.


And a homespun blanket for my mum and dad which was very well received. Sorry for the mid-make photograph, both blankets got finished very late and I did not get chance to take any proper pictures.


I also made my mum a Maggie Rabbit for her birthday (shown here with no nose or any clothes on!).

A baby blanket for my friend's baby

Above, I learned to knit!! But haven't actually made any thing yet...
And below, a glasses case for my gran's birthday:

Above a tea cosy for a friend's birthday and below a kindle case for my Gt Auntie's birthday


I haven't been as busy as I thought last year but I certainly made more than I remembered!

After trying my hand at sewing, crochet and knitting, sewing is definitely more my bag.
I absolutely love dressmaking and have many ideas for future makes floating around.
I'm desperate to get hold of one of those fashion books that you can draw the dresses onto the models so my ideas look a little neater.

I'm currently in the middle of making a Marianne dress and next up is a Staple dress for a class I'm teaching in February! Exciting stuff.

I hope you all had a happy new year

Amy