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

Summer Holidays

The start of the summer holidays saw the birth of another dress, this one made from Cabbages & Roses new penny blue fabric that I won from eBay.

I also made a linen bag for our holidays;

We've just come back from Zante in Greece and we had the most wonderful time, it was the perfect mix of relaxation and adventure. 

I would definitely recommend Greece as a holiday spot, and I can't wait to go back!

We were only away for a week but I had crafts on the brain and so when we got back I immediately started on an English paper piecing project I couldn't stop thinking about. Using Tilda fabric and templates from The Homemakery I started a blanket for Christmas.

It's so relaxing and I absolutely love it! I'm going to find giving this blanket away very difficult!

If you're on Instagram check out #craftyaugust it's the first photo a day I've taken part in and it's all craft related, there's still time to catch up!

There's two weeks left of the summer holidays and I hope to spend it by carrying on with my Hexie blanket, a couple more dress ideas and finally learning how to knit (it's proving to be difficult but not as hard as I found crochet!).

Sewing projects I'd love to tackle

I've been sewing clothes for 7 months now and although my skills have improved somewhat there are still some projects that I would like to make but I feel are way above my skill level. Although I'm saving them for another day.

Hacking jacket

I'm on the lookout for the perfect tweed jacket and this pattern would be perfect.
Maybe in something like this Harris tweed.

One of my planned autumn projects (that is if I'm not too exhausted from teaching) is a pair of trousers.

I'm thinking a nice slim fit made out of a soft grey fabric like this one from Merchant & Mills


To add to my work wardrobe I'd love to make a pussybow blouse from Colette, perhaps in a nice cotton lawn like this.

Way above my skill level, and something I can only dream one day of making (perhaps with a more advanced sewing machine) is a pair of jeans. I find getting jeans to fit notoriously difficult and we seamstresses know what it means when you buy something that doesn't fit/isn't exactly what you want.

Perhaps these simple jeans from Dragonfly fabrics would be perfect

Last but not least is this circle dress from Cabbages and Roses

I'd like to make something similar to this dress but I don't like to make exact copies, to make this it would need a franken-pattern of Tessuti's Lily linen dress and Sewoverit's Betty dress circle skirt. This is a fabric muncher so something relatively cheap would have to do. Perhaps a nice soft grey gingham.

I recently hit 2000 page views according to Blogger, and I can't say how much it means to me that people actually read my blog! Please note the name change to whatamymade.blogspot.com.

What do you want to make?
Amy x