Sew Dolly Clackett - Are you in?

As I'm sure everyone has heard by now, the latest fun sewalong in town is Sew Dolly Clackett, organised by the lovely Sarah in honour of the impending nuptuals of Roisin and her partner Nic.

I have had the pleasure of meeting them both, and they are one of the nicest couples you could ever hope to meet, as evidenced by the amount of love floating around the blogosphere for them.

The challenge as outlined here is to make up a Dolly Clackett style dress before 23rd April and post it to the Flickr group.  Roisin herself will judge and award a range of fab prizes, from vouchers for fabric to patterns.

I've been thinking about the patterns I could use.  I've made up Simplicity 2444 and By Hand London Anna before, and have plans for Christine Haynes Emery and Gather's Mortmain.  If I can get a good fit on the Emery I will probably use that as it's a great blank canvas for the key thing which is the fabric!

Roisin is known for her fabulous novelty prints - it wouldn't be a true Dolly Clackett dress without at least a polka dot!  I'm looking for something that fits my wardrobe (no way to I have time to sew up things I don't wear!) and I'm not sure I can pull off pin-up girls or cowgirls on a daily basis.  Nautical? Paris-themed? Maybe!

In an attempt to actually narrow down all the fabulous prints available I have started a Pinterest board here.

These are the front runners at the moment but I'll probably change my mind a million times before I decide!

Makeower Washday in Blue (Source Rainbow Silks)

Henley Studio Birds on Clouds (Source Hawthorn Threads)

Hmm, clearly there's a cloud thing going on in my head!  Other possibles are retro geometric prints like these 2 - both from the Art Galley Carnaby Street collection, both from Hawthorn Threads.  Perhaps less Dolly Clackett but more me?

Carnaby St 60s Waves in Midnight

Carnaby Street Retro Pop in Mint

Are you joining in?  Have you picked your fabric/ pattern?  Let me know in the comments!  Any favourite prints I should look at?

Plantain challenge!

I recently found a fabric shop (worrying close to work as far as my bank balance is concerned) with loads of fabric on sale for either £1 or £2 a metre.

I picked up loads of knits as my wardrobe is lacking in me-made long sleeved tees, with the plan to try out the Grainline Hemlock and see if i liked the looser silhouette.  And then Deer and Doe brought out the Plaintain tee which is another free download.

It's a loose-ish fitting casual tee with long and short sleeved options, elbow patches and a scoop neck.  And there's a competition!

The fabric I chose for was a navy and white striped heavyish weight knit with an interesting ribbed texture on the (plain navy) reverse side.  I wanted to play with the reverse side with some accents, so I drew a line on the pattern piece parallel to the shoulder seams, finishing at the front armhole notch.  On the back I went straight across to the lower back notch.  Of course you need to add seam allowances onto these so you can sew them together!  I cut the neckband and elbow patches as normal but used the reverse side.  At the last minute, I decided to add bands of navy around the cuffs.  I used the same method as the Renfrew cuffs with a folded band which also saved on hemming time!  The hem is twin-needled.

I sewed the whole thing on my overlocker, just using my sewing machine for topstitching.  I doubted my ability to get the neckband on correctly with the overlocker but it worked really well and was so fast!

Once I was almost finished I tried it on and felt the loose fit around the waist and hips wasn't especially right for me, so I took a wedge out at each side seam from waist to hip - it ended up being about 3" taken out at the hemline.  Apart from this, I sewed up a straight size 40.  I don't normally wear tunic length tops so I decided not to add to the length as I usually would to make things fit. 

The pattern lends itself really well to customisation -  Anna from Paunnet has made a really cute dress version, so I'm hoping to see some lovely versions popping up on the blogosphere this week.  Have you seen Rachel's deer and doe elbow patches?  Amazing!

Are you entering the competiion?  Link me up to your version if so - I'd love to see!