Ah, go on, one last Christmas make!

It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m on my own at home, and not knowing what to do with myself (all presents wrapped and handed over, all food shopping done), I picked up the Purple Velvet Shannon that’s been on my WIP pile for aaaages. This one is at least a year old, because I started it with the intention of it being a possible Christmas dress last year.

This is one of my hacked Simple Sew Shannon Collection dresses. I used a gorgeous stretch velvet that I’d originally bought for dance costume making purposes. I used my sleeve extension pattern piece, which I trialled with my Massive Roses dress, to make the otherwise sleeveless Shannon winter-wearable. I cut it long and quite straight to make it a more elegant line. I originally cut it out and sewed it together during OWOP 2019, as I was on a Shannon with sleeves bender! And then I didn’t get around to doing the hemming. I wanted to hem it with a nice satin bias binding, and I’d got as far as sewing that on, and pinning it in place. All it needed was the hemming. But as I’d missed my Christmas deadline, I sort of forgot about it. Then Covid happened, and my sewjo took a nosedive. I didn’t feel any urge to do anything for months, so this dress sat in the WIP pile. When I occasionally summoned up the courage to look at the pile, it would look back at me, accusingly! “It’s just hemming,” it would say, “you can do that while you’re watching the telly. It won’t take you more than one evening”.

So one evening back in November, I took it out and did that hemming. “Yippee!” I thought, “I’ve got a nice party dress, for all those parties I’m not going to”. Then I tried it on and decided it wasn’t working at all. Firstly the bias binding was making the hem bell out a bit, which was not a look I wanted. It worked fine for the neckline and sleeve hems, but not at the bottom. Secondly, it just didn’t look right long. I took various pictures of me wearing the dress with the hem hoiked up to different levels. From a well-below-the-knee level, I decided it needed to go to mini length.

I decided no 5 was the right length, no 6 is a smidge too far!

And back onto the pile it went…

This afternoon, I decided it could still be a Christmas Dress, so I pulled it out again, and cut a chunk off the bottom. I used a fairly deep herringbone stitch for the hemming. The velvet is quite bouncy, so I thought it would help to keep the hem flat. It would also allow for the stretchiness of the fabric. It takes longer than a basic hemming stitch, but I didn’t have anything else to do particularly.

And all for the sake of this blog, I’ve I’ve even bothered to slap a bit of makeup on, and wear a bra (it’s been a jimjams kind of a day till now), so that you can see the nice dress all finished off…

Unfinished Object now definitely finished – ka-ching!

When the partying starts up again, I’ll be ready!

 

Winter Sewjo, a very rare visitor

Well it’s been so long since I’ve posted, I hardly remember how… Let’s see if I can write a bit about sewing.

I’ve mentioned several times on this blog, that my sewjo takes a nosedive during the autumn and winter, that I’m at my most creative in the spring & summer. But 2020 has proved to be a complete reversaroo on that. Spring & Summer, when we were on lockdown and things were all weird and scary, provided me with zero inspiration to make anything at all. I didn’t even make any facemasks until September.

But with the autumn drawing in, I was trying to choose what Simple Sew Pattern to make for their blog and I found myself thinking quite enthusiastically about cosiness, snuggliness and warmth, so I plumped for their Classic Sweatshirt Pattern.

Simple Sew Classic Sweatshirt Pattern

I had a few ideas of what I could do with it. I could have made it as a straight sweatshirt, but all the other bloggers who had used this pattern before me had kept to the pattern as it stands, so I wanted to tinker about with it, to show it could be used in a different way. The easiest hack was to lengthen it to dress dimensions, so that’s what I did. If you want all the details of how I made this, you can visit my Simple Sew Blog post. 

I was using some fabric I bought a couple of years ago from Sewisfaction.  The plain fabric is a ponte di roma, and the range is called Beatrice, so I felt it would be rude not to buy some. The photo doesn’t show how gloriously teal coloured it is, a proper greeny bluey teal. At the same time, I bought a stripey jersey from them, which was a perfect colour match (sorry I can’t find it on their website now, as I say, it was about two years ago that I bought it, they probably don’t keep it in their regular stock). At the time I bought both fabrics I had a very clear vision in my head of a dress with the main body in the plain and sleeves in the stripes. I thought then I could use the Tilly & the Buttons Coco (I’ve had the pattern for years, and still haven’t quite got around to using it). But once I had decided to make a sweatshirt dress, I knew it was time to bust out this fabric combo. And I’m thrilled at how it worked out.

This is exactly what I imagined it would look like

I only had a smidge over 1m of the plain, so I decided to use the stripy jersey for all of the bands, at the cuff, neck and hem. And although the fabric stretchiness was more in the width, rather than the length, and would therefore favour making the bands stripe horizontally, I made a policy decision that the cuffs needed to stripe vertically. They’re slightly less stretchy that way, but I like the way they look.

I’m pleased to report I used the largest pattern size, adding 1 cm to the bust width, and shortening the sleeves by 6cm, but otherwise without any need for grading or adjusting. It was a doddle. As usual, the hard work goes into all the preparatory checking of measurements, tweaking of pattern pieces, cutting out and marking up. The actual sewing flew by. I did everything on my sewing machine, rather than hauling out my overlocker, because I was being lazy. But it goes to show you don’t need a fancy overlocker to make this. 

Winter warmth!

So hooray for the Winter Sewjo! I’m already thinking about other ways I can use this sweatshirt pattern in other cosy, snuggly makes (possibly converting it to a cardigan or maybe a hoody!), so watch this space…

MMM Driveby

Hooray! Despite the weirdness of lockdown and the coronapocalypse, we still have Me Made May to look forward to!

This will be my 7th MMM, and I’m still loving it! Thank you Zoe for keeping it going through these strange times. I’ll be working from home throughout May (it seems unlikely that we’ll be back to “normal” just yet), and that involves a lot of sitting on the floor, because I’ve got no work desk! So I *will* be rocking the yoga pants & leggings for the foreseeable. What I need to do for MMM is make sure they are banging not boring.

So my pledge is:

I Béa of http://www.beassewingadventures.wordpress.com (@missbeacurtis on Instagram) pledge to wear Me Made clothing every day. This will include any garment made, mended, embellished or upcycled by me. I’m also going to use this as an opportunity to embed good lockdown habits, by photo-documenting my Me Made outfits during my daily walks (to make sure that I do actually go out more, yay for Internet Accountability).

I will also be taking part in the Simple Sew MMM Instagram Takeover, when us Simple Sew Bloggers get a day (or maybe even two) to run the Simple Sew feed.

Flamingos

Flamingos!

I’m delighted that I can post about this dress, now that it has gone live on the Simple Sew Blog. You can read there about how I hacked the Stylish Shell Top pattern into the perfect summer dress – cool and pretty.

I’m particularly pleased that this fabric didn’t drop into Stash, and I was able to use its flamingo fabulousness within a few weeks of purchase. I’m not really one for novelty prints, but this one called out to me from the moment I saw it. Maybe it’s because, even with the flamingos, there’s a lot of floral in there too.

Summer pretties!

I’m currently in full holiday sewing flow. I’ve finished another dress, and need to get it photographed. I’ve got no iron here, though. Of course – who needs to be ironing on their hols? So it may be a bit wrinkly when you get to see it…

And I’m in the process finishing off a couple of Project Pants knickers that didn’t quite make it into Me-Made May. They got sewn together, but lacked elastic.

As for the maroon poppies dress from my previous post, I’m still thinking about it.

Summer Teasers

I finally got around to making something that wasn’t knickers! Unfortunately I can’t really show much of any of these makes, the first one, because it was a skirt for my sister and I totally forgot to take in progress photos, the second one because I’m really not sure about whether I like it or not, and finally because the third one is a Simple Sew Blog make, and I’m waiting for it to get posted. But I can tease both of my own garments!

Firstly, the skirt for my sister. She basically gave me a sarong thing that she liked, and asked me to make a wrap skirt out of it. With the elephants at the front.

Loved those elephants

It was a challenging project, partly because I was totally self-drafting, based on measurements only, partly because she lives 50 miles away from me, and we didn’t have many opportunities for fitting, partly because the elephants were in the middle of the fabric, whereas they needed to be at the outer sides of the skirt, partly because the edges with the square motifs were just too small to get a skirt back out of in one go, so I had to piece two half-backs together. I foolishly failed to take In Progress photos, otherwise you could see what a stunning job I did of pattern matching that back. It truly is a thing of beauty! Anyway, she was very happy with the finished skirt, and all was well, but I think that’s the last bit of selfless sewing I’m going to do, because it’s all too stressful!

Anyway, onto my own makes… I’m still all about the dresses, and I need a few more that are comfortable for the summer, but still office-friendly – no spaghetti straps, hemline approximately in the knee area, that sort of thing.

For my first one, I was inspired by this gloriously garish Flamingo fabric, that I bought at the London Stitchers Meetup, when they did a Walthamstow Shopping trip last month. I was all set to stick to my fabric diet, but these birds were impossible to resist. I surprised myself, because I’m not normally a novelty print kind of a gal, but I think it found its way into my heart more because it’s basically a floral.

It’s so much brighter in real life!

I didn’t want this resting in my stash for long, so it came out when I was contemplating my Simple Sew Blog make. Here’s the neckline of it…

Hands up, I could have placed those flamingos better.

I totally love this dress. It’s very me!

Having got started on the Simple Sew Flamingo dress, I decided it was time to finish a nearly two year old Work In Progress.

I bought this fabric on holiday and immediately cut it into a ThriftyStitcher Shell Top Lengthened Into A Dress. I sewed the facings together, and then lost all impetus to do any more. It was sat in my pile of things I should be getting on with, making me feel guilty every time I glanced in that direction. When I pulled the bag out, the fabric was all scrunched up, and looked like rags. So I had to iron it, just to see what the pieces even looked like (Can I just mention, the *only* ironing I do is when I’m sewing!). It didn’t take long to sew together, I really don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner.

Not quite right

But when I tried it on, I just didn’t like it. So for now it’s sitting on the Naughty Step, while I contemplate what to do about it. It might be that simply lengthening it without putting in any shaping wasn’t the right treatment, and I need to add darts or a waist tie, to make it work. Or if that doesn’t work, then I may cut it short to make back into a top. Or maybe I need to tweak the neckline somehow. I just don’t know. I’m going to be taking it on holiday to see if I can work something out with it, because I hate to waste a project.

So there we go. It’s a case of Watch This Space…

A roundup of unblogged things

I’ve been such a bad blogger! Sometimes it’s been the case that I wrote about a Simple Sew make, and never got around to adding more details here, but mostly it’s been just not getting around to it…

So here’s a quick round up of all the things I made this year that didn’t get a full airing here.

It all started quite early on with a test-run Moneta dress. Everyone’s always raved about this pattern, and I’d had it for a couple of years, without getting around to making it. So when I signed myself up for a “Dress In a Day” workshop with Sheona of Sewisfaction, as a way of firing up my sewjo, this is what I plumped for. I used a ponte that I got from the Textile Centre in Walthamstow. I’d bought it because I could not resist the magnificently massive red floral pattern.

Look upon the massiveness of this floral – isn’t it brilliant?!

As it was my first Moneta, it’s basically my wearable toile. I do love this dress – it always gets compliments. However, on future makes, I think I’m going to be raising the back neckline, because it’s a bit draughty, and I’ll take the bodice & sleeves in a centimetre or so on each side, as I think it could use being a tad more fitted. And I’ll lengthen the sleeves to be more sure of elbow coverage if I’m going with the longer sleeves.

The Black & White Floral Trapeze dress:

This was a hack of the Simple Sew Stylish Shell Top, where I took the side line out on a tangent,  from under the armscye. Full details and photos are available on the Simple Sew Blog, where I showed all the hacking details. It was such a lovely cool, unclingy, airy dress to wear in the heat of the Summer of 2018!

It was so cool for the hot summer we had last year!

The OWOP Batwings:

I took part in One Week, One Pattern last year. I committed to wear the Simple Sew Batwing dress for the week, which was a bit brave, given I only had two of them at the time of pledging! I was seeing it as a way of galvanising me into making a couple more. Again the full details, including the hacks I used, are all on the Simple Sew Blog. I ended up making three new Batwings, a top and two dresses.

The Aqua Floral top

The Pink Poinsettia Dress

The Black & White Floral Batwing dress

I particularly liked the neckline treatment for the Pink Poinsettia dress, and I am still totally in love with the cowl of the b/w dress.

I’m not quite finished with this pattern, as I think I could possibly manage another couple of tops. Or more dresses. It’s a lovely quick make, in a flattering style, so what’s not to like?

 

Another Simple Sew Stylish Shell Top, plus a skirt

My post has gone live on the Simple Sew Blog now, so I can share these two makes:

Way too hot for these!

The top is another iteration of the Simple Sew Stylish Shell Top, made with a beautiful minty green chambray from Doughty’s Online (supplied by them specifically for the blog – Thank you so much!). I hacked a stand-up collar onto it. Go to the blog to see how.

The skirt is another of my self drafted straight skirts, which I narrowed to pencil proportions! I used a scuba fabric from Fabricland UK, which doesn’t seem to be available on their website now. I’ve still got a load of it left, which I don’t really know what to do with, to be honest. I love the print, and I wondered if I could make a matchy matchy  jacket with what’s left. But the fabric is really hot to wear, so I’m not convinced it would be a good idea!

Both these makes were conceived before the heatwave, and I have to say, I don’t have a lot of use for either of them right now – I think they’ll be much more welcome in the autumn.

I made a thing!

Time to get rid of all this tumbleweed! I made a thing:

Tada!

but it’s a Simple Sew Blog make, so all the juicy details are over there. Who knows? Now that I’ve actually posted something, I might add some extra information here in a few days.

There’s all the Me Made May information to process, too… I’d better get writing!

Return of the Sewjo!

There’s nothing like a blogging deadline to motivate a person! After promising to get this sewn up for AGES, I got given a deadline, so I just had to get on with it. And what do you know, after the doldrums of the Winter, I’m feeling all enthused again…

The Simple Sew Blog has been featuring the delights of the Stylish Shell Top, and different bloggers have been showing how versatile it is. This is my contribution.

A Shell Top, with Sleeves!

It’s been great to be sewing again!

My Holiday Shannon Collection

I went a bit bonkers on the Simple Sew Shannon collection for my summer holiday wardrobe. It was just perfect for what I wanted, namely some quick and easy lightweight throw-on tops and dresses. It really was a no-brainer.

I was shopping my stash and since I seem to have developed a craving for more blue in my wardrobe this year, I wanted to use the remainder of the royal blue jersey I’d got from FC Fabric Studio (and used for this skirt). However before proceeding with the dress, I wanted to try it out with the t-shirt version first and hopefully have a wearable toile for the hols. The blue grey jersey I had bought at the same time as the royal blue had the same amount of stretch and it tied in perfectly with my holiday wardrobe plans so I went ahead with the that first.

I made the t-shirt using the largest size and trusted that the elastane in the Jersey would be sufficiently forgiving. And yippee – it was! I also lengthened it by about 5 inches or so.

I did change the order of construction so that I could insert the bands at the neckline and sleeves in the flat. My post on the Simple Sew Blog sets this out more fully. I really wanted to make sure the bands were sufficiently stretched so that they wouldn’t gape, and I feel I have more control over this when I’m inserting them flat. I left the hemming to be done on holiday and moved swiftly on to the dress.

Here’s the t-shirt in its holiday environment, once I’d herringboned the hem to keep it good and stretchy.

Goes brilliantly with the Paisley Leftovers skirt

And also the Grey Birds skirt

Having worked on the T-shirt as a toile, I knew exactly what I was doing and I was able to make the dress up quickly. I lowered the front neckline so that it would be more sun-dress-y, and used the same construction as I’d done for the top.

The main feature was the Lace border at the bottom. I’d had this lace in my stash for a while, having bought it at Tiger (because it was so cheap it was rude not to). I hadn’t had any ideas about how to use it until now. Once I put these two stash items together it really was a match made in Heaven. The colours popped like popcorn! I really love it! I’ll be wearing this dress for the rest of the summer (whether or not there’s any more actual summer in England!).

Here’s the dress, though you’ve seen it before…

This is my sister’s house

Whoops! This is the messy view!

 

I’m a firm believer in making the patterns that work for you, *really* work for you, so I made one more Shannon dress using this denim/lace patchwork print jersey from my costume-making stash. I originally bought this at Fabricland, a few years ago and I wasn’t sure about the elastane content but it seemed close enough to what I’d been working with, though its a bit thinner.

I altered the armscye to make it sleeveless and the neckline to be slightly more boaty, sewed it up and again left the hemming as a holiday sewing project.

Here’s the denim and lace Shannon dress, or as I’m now thinking of it, the Hillbilly Dress in its first incarnation.

Not quite right

 

 

However, I wasn’t 100% happy with how I’d shaped the shoulder and the armscye, there was too much fabric in front of my armpit. I thought it needed re-cutting and re-banding, to bring the curve in more. I figured I’d do something about it when I got back home. But I wanted to be able to wear it in France – after all that was the whole point of this dress, its raison d’etre, if you will. So I needed a quick hand-sewable fix. I gathered the shoulder seams to narrow them, making sure I didn’t catch the neck or sleeve bands, and hey presto! Fixed!

 

I’ll be honest, I should perhaps have considered pattern placement more thoroughly. While it was laid out flat it seemed OK, but this jersey is very stretchy, so this dress is not quite as flattering as I could wish for, but I’m happy enough to to wear it for holidays. I won’t be wearing this one to work like the lace dress, though. 

I’ve got one more Shannon dress planned for when I get home*. Although technically not a holiday dress, it will be from fabric bought on holiday so it will still be part of the collection!

* Because I’m posting this on rather dodgy data roaming direct from my holidays. The time it’s taken to upload these photos, you wouldn’t believe!