Emergency holiday sewing

Well what's a sewist/dressmaking/sewer (*delete as applicable) supposed to do when they book a holiday except sew some new clothes!?

I originally had a list of 4 or 5 things to make but when I found out we were expecting I was put off by the idea of making something I wouldn't fit into very soon.

Plus with exam marking and sewing a baby dress for a present I didn't have much free time.

Two days before we went away I was frantically cutting and sewing and managed to make the True Bias Southport dress and the Merchant and Mills saltmarsh skirt from their new workbook.

I've been wanting to sew the Southport dress since it was released but the first version got canned after buying rayon fabric and not stabilising it when cutting which led to some very wonky cutting. A shame because the fabric was gorgeous! 

The second version was made from this rayon from eBay. I didn't have any trouble sewing it up, I anticipated the bias binding armholes to be a pain but with a bit of pressing they went in fine. I omitted the button band and cut a size 4 grading to a 6 to accommodate bump, I think the bodice is a little big though and could've stayed at my usual 2. 

One problem I did have was trying to match the bodice and the skirt together and ended up with an 8 inch gap between the waistband casing and the skirt! I had to try and gather the spare fabric in the skirt so that I could sew the two together but I have no idea where I went wrong. I used ribbon from my stash as the waistband drawstring.

Next up was the Saltmarsh skirt from the new Merchant and Mills workbook, the fabric is from John Lewis bought when we went away to Edinburgh in Easter.

I originally tried to make the skirt with no pattern, just a straight dirndl with an elastic casing waistband but it looked so homemade I knew I wouldn't wear it. It was the first thing I'd tried to sew since being pregnant and the first trimester tiredness is no joke.. I couldn't visualise how to sew the bloody thing together! Following someone else's instructions and a pattern turned out to be much better.

All in all the the skirt was very easy to sew, I used the ribbon M&M had tied some fabric together for me from a delivery as the drawstring and used my over locker for the sides. I loved how the waistband came together.

We went to Kos, in Greece, and had a fantastic time! I thoroughly needed a rest, we've had a stressful few weeks and a break was sorely needed. A bonus was just how beautiful it is over there as you can see in some of these pictures.

Maternity Moneta

I've never needed to Moneta until I saw Rachel's in stripey jersey, I'm a total sucker for stripes and knew I needed to shamelessly copy hers!

I probably wouldn't have ended up making one had I had not found the softest squishiest jersey in Simply Solids. I might go buy the rest because it's the perfect stripe fabric.

Anyway all was going swimmingly sewing the Moneta, I sewed the whole thing on my overlocker, pockets and all, and twin needled all the hems. I was starting to think it was the most professional dress I'd ever made. 

Then came the skirt. Now if you've never made a Moneta before you gather the skirt using elastic by cutting the elastic to the length of the bodice and stretching it. In THEORY this is supposed to gather the skirt nice and evenly. It doesn't. There was bad swearing. There was ripping out. There were tantrums. 

I sewed the effing thing twice and I still couldn't get it to gather evenly. Eventually I gathered the bodice using the embroidery thread method and then overlocked the elastic and the bodice and skirt at the same time. My sewing machine hated sewing the elastic but my overlocker didn't even notice it was there.

There was some searching of the Internet during this skirt fiasco, and it seems most people don't sew the skirt the way that Colette suggest. Now this really pissed me off, this is supposed to be a beginner pattern. Now had I picked this up and sewed it as my first jersey dress pattern I would've possibly given sewing jersey up forever which is a shame because I looooove jersey, especially dem stripes. Anyway, I digress, the point is, there are easier ways to do what Colette suggest without having to 

lose your sanity along the way. Theres too many factors that can go wrong using the elastic to gather the skirt; the machine, the tension, type of elastic etc. I may being a little dramatic but it's put me off Colette a little. I sewed the Marianne dress which is also jersey and a beginner pattern with elastic in the shoulders with no problems!

Anyway, rant over, I love my dress. I sized up to accommodate my (newly) massive bust and expanding waistline but it still came out bigger than I was expecting, the fabric is quite heavy which pulls the bodice down. Don't worry if you think you won't fit into your usual size, there's a bit of negative ease here. I love the oversized look so this will be perfect after my pregnancy.

In order to make it maternity friendly, I shortened the bodice by 3 stripes (technical term) and lengthened the front of the skirt by about a a few stripes and graded the sides up to match the back. Unfortunately the fabric isn't on grain and therefore the stripes aren't parallel to the selvedge which means the stripe at the bodice seam is wonky. I can really notice it but it doesn't look too bad in the pictures. I can always resew the bodice slightly to match it if it really bothers me. Once my pregnancy is over I just need to shorten the front skirt as its a little too long at the moment. 

Overall I love my new dress despite the difficulty I had, it's like wearing secret pyjamas! Which is never a bad thing. I can see me living in this dress for quite some time. Oh and in case you're wondering we went to Bolton abbey in North Yorkshire for a walk and a picnic, I do love our little adventures!

Emery dress x Merchant and Mills

I've had the Emery dress pattern for a while and had planned to make a plaid version inspired by the TV show Outlander which is set in 1700s Scotland, however once I received this Merchant & Mills "Jones town" linen I knew this was the right fabric. I am completely obsessed with both the TV show and the book and I am currently making a cowl also inspired by the show.
Most of the time I buy fabric and patterns together, for what I imagine in my head, but my heart skipped a beat and I had to have this fabric! It's a gorgeous soft blue linen that holds a crease so beautifully but does not seem to crease much on it's own.

The dress jumped to the front of my sewing queue, but I just could not decide on sleeves/no-sleeves. I cut the long sleeves out and then left them to one side to debate.
Halfway through sewing the lining I realised the way I was sewing it would leave the armholes raw instead of enclosed and so I had to include the sleeves too.

I had a little trouble sewing the lining, I'm not very good at envisaging things inside out/right sides together and so was sewing blind at points, not quite realising how it was going to fit together. I had a quick google and found Christine Haynes sew-a-long which made it a lot easier to understand! I lined my Lilou dress but as that one is sleeveless the method is slightly different and instead of pulling through a shoulder you just pull through the bottom of the lining. It makes for a beautiful finish around the zip as well.

 Does anyone else find setting sleeves in a bit like doing liquid eyeliner? It either goes right first attempt or you're arsing around for ages trying to get it right. A bit like zips that way. One sleeve went in and I missed the outside of the dress so the lining and the sleeve had been sewn but not the dress itself! Then I kept catching bits of the sleeve that weren't supposed to be sewn. All in all I must've sewn it 4 times... the right sleeve went in with absolutely no bother!

I sewed a straight size 4, grading to a 6 for the skirt (I wanted a fuller skirt) and left off the waist darts as I wanted it to be a looser fit. I definitely achieved that but not as much as I would've liked. I love really exaggerated silhouettes like Cabbages and Roses do.

I tend to sew in a couple of hour chunks but I felt like I was sewing this dress for an eternity! It took me a week to finish and that was whilst being off work. By the time I was sewing the sleeves I hated this dress. Having said that, after wearing it all day I am starting to like it more.

Having said that, this is the best dress I've ever made in terms of construction, all the seams are zig-zagged (hot damn I need an overlocker) and the insides are just a beautiful on the outside. The only flaw is the fact that I lined the top of the zipper tape instead of the top of the zipper tab and therefore there's a slight gap at the top of the dress. I'm going to hand sew a hook and eye to fix it. Check out that not quite invisible zip! I first tried to sew in a zip after having a drink...that ended with a wonky zip and a broken needle. Don't drink and sew people!

I have to say this is definitely not going to be my last Emery dress!

Aaaaand one more awkward photo for good luck! Me and Gary headed out for a walk, I was bribed by having some semi decent photos taken for my blog, but I kept cracking up laughing at how ridiculous I must look. I have to say they are an improvement on the rubbish photos done in our house!

Planning

We see a lot of the end product in the sewing world but you don't see much of the planning stages.

Do sewists buy a pattern and shop their stash or the other way round?

I tend to only buy fabric as and when I need it, I get inspiration from everywhere, clothes shops, Instagram, other sewcialists. Usually I look for a specific pattern for the garment I have in mind and then buy the fabric (see here for a list of online resources.

Rarely do I buy fabric and then try and fit a pattern to it, although my Miette skirt fabric was originally going to be a Clemence skirt, not much of an adjustment though.

When I was younger I used to love drawing, specifically I would draw young women in Victorian clothing. I love that fairy tale feeling of long flowing locks and skirt, the romantic swish of linen and cotton. Aah I miss summer and wearing floaty, delicately patterned fabrics.

Anyway, back to the planning stages, I originated planning garments by writing lists. I'm a really visual person and I like to be able to imagine how the dress will look so I bought a moleskine and drew out my outfits. I liked this for a short time but I used it to write lists for crochet and knitting and the book got messy.

I originally saw the fashionary sketchbook on Lauren's blog and immediately lusted after it. It has the faint dot outlines of a woman in a walking pose which you then draw over and fill in the outfits.

I managed to get the last one in Paperchase and immediately drew 3 Marianne dresses. Told you I loved that pattern! 

Now I have some work outfits planned and even the beginnings of A/W 2015 all drawn up! I love this sketchbook because it allows you to be fairly neat and it looks professional. I would like to use more colour in future but I really do not need another time consuming hobby!

How do you plan what you're going to sew/make?

P.S. I keep seeing the use of the word "sewjo" and it's probably the worst word ever invented. I cringe irrationally every time I see it!