Topstitching help please

I mentioned on the post about my Peggy skirt that I had some issues with the topstitching.

It looks ok from the right side (bar a few skipped stitches on the sections where there are a lot of layers):

But pretty awful from the wrong side as you can see below:

Believe it or not, this is a distinct improvement on how it looked originally. 

Based on advice from Twitter and Instagram, I switched from a denim needle to a topstitching one and used normal thread in the bobbin with topstitching thread on top only. I fiddled with the tension on the top thread.

These lessened the problem considerably but it's still not great.  My machine didn't seem to have any issues with sewing the layers with normal thread, just with topstitching thread.

The only thing I could find online was that Gutermann topstitching thread (which I used) is apparently much thicker than other brands.

Can anyone shed any light on my problem? Any great topstitching tips to share? Have you found that the brand of thread made a difference? All suggestions gratefully received as I want to make jeans at some point and that's a lot of topstitching!  

Spring Sewing Swap

I was so excited to participate in the Spring Sewing Swap this year organised by the lovely Kerry from Kestrel Makes.  It's one of the things I really loved when I first got into the world of sewing blogs.

I was paired up with Emma Jayne from Clipped Curves.  if you don't already follow her blog, you should as she makes excellently fitted garments (check her sailor trousers!) with a nautical flair.  Basically I want to be her when I grow up!

She also lives quite close to me so we are hoping for a meet up for coffee and sewing chat some time soon!

Here's the lovely bundle she sent me:

Navy twill
a lightweight bird print cotton
navy twill tape
cute stripy buttons

plus this excellent vintage A-line skirt/ culottes pattern (with pockets!  I love pockets!)

Hop over to Emma Jayne's blog to see what was in the parcel I sent her (being much more organised than me, she has already blogged about it here!).

Thanks for organising Kerry - roll on next year!

Fella, this is a line i ain't biting. That's a bona fide offer. Well, with a little moonlight and roses...

So you know what this post is going to be about! Unless you have been living under a rock (or at least not keeping up with your sewing blog reading) you'll have heard about Sew Dolly Clackett organised by the fabulous Sarah from Rhinestones and Telephones. Sarah  had the great idea to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of the very lovely Roisin and Nic by making dresses in the style of Roisin herself. And let me tell you, that girl not only has great style and a presumably immense wardrobe/shoe storage area, she always gets a perfect fit and finish on her dresses. I've never seen her in one that looked less than perfect!

Anyway, enough gushing. What's the craic with this dress?

This is my second attempt at Christine Haynes Emery dress.  The first one was a total fitting fail that I blogged about here. So for this I went back to the drawing board, retraced the bodice and made another toile. I got some really helpful comments on my post before which helped improve this one. I lengthened the bodice by 2" and moved the darts down by 1". I did my usual 1/2" FBA.  One area that was a big problem in the previous version was the shoulder width. Based on measuring the previous one, I did a broad shoulder adjustment of 1" and a 5/8" square shoulder adjustment (which I often do).

I'm pleased with the fit. An extra 1" in bodice length wouldn't go amiss but it's pretty good as is!

I used the skirt (extra 2" length) and sleeve (widened by 1" to take account of shoulder adjustment and because it was a touch tight) that I had used before.

I am quite annoyed with the pics though - they were taken in a hurry before work this morning and the dress looks seriously wrinkly which it doesn't in real life.  Damn.

Now for the fabric. This was the hardest choice! How can you narrow down all the possibilities? Roisin says this is why she makes so many dresses! I wanted to reflect her style but also make something wearable for me, and much as I love her pin up girl dresses, they just aren't me! An idea had been brewing in my brain since I remembered asking roisin on twitter to recommend some fabric for a dress. She picked one of the prints from the Michael Miller Ahoy Matey collection for me, I think this one. So the nautical idea was there and a sale on nautical prints at fabric.com sealed the deal!

This is another Michael Miller fabric called My Favourite Ship from the Out To Sea collection.  N absolutely loves it. Of course my dress needs a name, so I asked her and she has called it the Neverland Pirates dress (from the cartoon series Jake and the Neverland Pirates).

I finished this dress with moments to spare due to a nasty 24 hour bug I had over the Easter weekend (that's prime sewing time dammit!). The hem was done at 10pm the night before and I did consider machining down the lining by stitching in the ditch at the waistline.  But then I thought WWRD (What Would Roisin Do?), stuck on an episode of Elementary and hand sewed it down.

Roisin and Nic are such a lovely couple and I'm proud to count them as friends. Wishing them all the best in their future married life together! And I can't wait to see the wedding dress roisin is making!

The Minerva Crafts Meet-Up!

Have you heard about the fantastic event happening at the Minerva Craft Centre on Saturday 14th July?

Vicki and the Minerva team were voted Best Sewing Blog in the Sew Magazine awards and to celebrate have organised a great day of events, tutorials and talks from some of our favourite bloggers and pattern designers. 

You can meet me and lots of the other members of the Minerva Blogger Network including Clare, Amy, Marie, Nicole, Emmie, Kathryn and Katie, and I know some other great bloggers are planning to go including Claire, Alison and Sally.  And the lovely Velosewer a.k.a. Maria is coming all the way from Aus!

Come along, it's going to be so much fun!

Highlights are:

Karen from Did You make That doing a speech and Q&A
Claire-Louise from Thrifty Stitcher and Sewing Bee doing a workshop
Mystery contestants from the Sewing Bee (they have naughtily included a picture of Patrick, but I don't think he's stopping by unfortunately!)
A Day in the Life of the By Hand London girls
Lots of craft demonstrations and workshops

And of course there is the lure of the fantastic centre itself, which looks to be an Aladdin's cave of fabric and other craft supplies (I fully intend to come home with a few more hobbies and my bodyweight in fabric!).

All the details are here.

Minerva have helpfully suggested things for non-crafty partners/ friends to do in the area while you craft and chat to your heart's content!  You can find it here.

I hope you can make it - let me know if you are planning to come along!

Sew Blue February

A blogger's godsend - a vintage car!

If you are on Twitter you will know that there are monthly sewalongs and every other month is a colour theme.  I made this dress for Red October, skipped Green December (my colour palettes will show that I never wear green!) and here's Blue February (oops, bit late in posting).  This was a total no brainer - another look at my colour palettes will show that I wear blue a lot.

I was a little tight for time this month as I was finishing hubby's jacket and making a dress for N but luckily my planned garments already included a couple of blue items (no surprise there!).

Both fabrics were bought extremely cheaply from Norman Lyons, a fabric shop that doesn't look like a fabric shop not far from my work in Central London.  I think both were £2 a metre!

I am always in need of more long sleeved T-shirts so the striped jersey was destined to be another Renfrew.  I have made this pattern before (here and here) and apart from a bit of lengthening it fits great out of the packet.  I made the round neck variation again.  Given that the stripe is so dominant I made my first real attempt at stripe matching, using this tip from Lauren at Rosie Wednesday to line up the underarm points on the same stripe.  I think it worked pretty well on the side seams and underarms but maybe I should have paid more attention on the sleeves.  Or is it not possible to match across a sleeve head?

Matchy matchy!

 I lined up the cuffs and waistband on the same stripe so they are consistent and cut the neckband on the broad navy stripe.  Not perfect but I'm pretty chuffed with it.  Should perhaps have used my walking foot to make sure the fabric didn't shift but I'm still getting used to having one!

The second garment is a Megan Nielsen Kelly skirt.  Again a pattern I have used before (here and an unblogged version) but this one is a bit different in that I omitted the button closure on the front.  This is really simple to do.

Instead of the buttons you'll need a zip and a side closure (I used leftover buttons from my Blackberry dress but you could use a skirt hook instead).  I used an 7" zip from my stash but to be honest it could be longer, so 9" might work better!

 - Cut the back and waistband as per the pattern.  Instead of cutting 2 fronts, line up the fold of the fabric with the placket fold line market on the pattern and cut in one single piece.
- Mark the pleats and staystitch them as normal.
- Mark the length of the zip on the left side seam and sew it up to this point and the right side seam as normal.
- Sew in the zip with your preferred method.  I sewed it by machine.
- Attach the waistband with the front edge overhanging the zip edge by 5/8".  The back edge will stick out further past the back zip edge but don't worry -  this is where you will put the closure/ buttons.
- Finish attaching and top stitching the waistband and hem as per the pattern instructions.
- Make the buttonholes in the front waistband and sew buttons to back waistband (or attach your closure) and you are done!

These are 2 bargain items - £7.50 in total for fabric and stashed buttons and zip.  I had both patterns already.  Love it when sewing actually saves you money for a change!  And it matches my square necked Alma perfectly!

The next stop on the Vintage Pattern Pyramid is...

by the power of the random number,

one of the lovely Spoolettes Nicole Needles!

Congrualtions Nicole!  Can't wait to see what pattern you pick.

Drop me a line and I'll arrange to get the patterns to you.

Sorry to everyone who entered but didn't win this time.  Follow Nicole's blog to get another chance to win when she holds her giveaway.

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?

The Original Pattern Pyramid comes to town!

I was lucky enough to be the next stop on the Pattern Pyramid!  This is the original one started by Karen from Did You Make That when she was generously gifted a trove of vintage patterns from one of her blog readers.

You can read the original post here.

I got these patterns when Marie from A Stitching Odyssey hosted it recently and it's a great stash!

There are vintage dresses galore:

Vintage separates:

A host of 1970s goodness:

Some 1980s and modern patterns:

We get to choose a pattern to keep.  I chose this gorgeous 1950s pattern which Marie added.  I fell in love with the neckline, and although I might have to do a bit of grading down, it'll be worth it!

Damn you Blogger for the sideways pic!

In return we have to add a pattern.  As there was a bit of a shortage of mid-sized patterns in there, I added these 3 from my stash:

If you would like to be the next stop for the Pattern Pyramid and have the chance to choose one of these for yourself, here are the rules:

• Any blogger with an active blog can enter.  You can live anywhere - these patterns are pretty well-travelled!
• You can keep one pattern for yourself, and then you have to host your own giveaway!  You must be happy to post internationally if you win.
• Most bloggers have added more patterns to the mix to keep it fresh (but it's not essential)

Want to be part of it?

Comment below by 12th March (midnight GMT), I'll draw a winner by random number and the patterns could be winging their way to you!

Meet FiFi!

 

 If you follow me on Twitter (@jolittletime) you'll probably know that I bought a new sewing machine!  I inherited some money recently and decided that rather than be sensible and save it, the person who left it to me would much rather I spent it on something I'll love!

I went into my local sewing machine shop (we are lucky enough to have 2), primarily to look at Berninas (cos we all want a Bernina, right?).  The extremely helpful and knowledgable sales person talked to me about what I wanted and planned to use it for and recommended a Pfaff if I didn't have my heart set on a Bernina.

She is a Pfaff person and thought the Ambition 1.5 had all the features I was looking for:

- a drop in bobbin I could see (running out of bobbin thread half way down a long and fiddly seam is the worst)
- option to finish with needle up (to avoid the top thread whipping away out of the needle on the next seam) or down for pivoting
- pretty 1 step buttonholes
- good length of warranty
- speed control on the foot pedal (I have a heavy foot on the pedal!)
- good lighting (my dining room doesn't have the best task lighting)
- adjustable presser foot pressure

It has all of these and more!  Specs can be found here.

It has 195 stitches - I'm sure I'll never use most of them but N LOVES them!

The drop in bobbin is easy to thread and to see when it is running out, but it also has a "bobbin empty" warning that appears on the touchscreen quite a way before the thread runs out.

As it has a touchscreen, the front is very clean with only essential buttons:

The buttons you can see are the needle up/ needle down toggle, permanent reverse, the speed slider, start/ stop button and automatic tie off.

It also has a built in walking foot called IDT (Integrated Dual Feed) which you can pull down from behind the shank and engage with just about any foot or stitch.

Much as I liked it, I decided not to rush into a big purchase.  I came home, canvassed options/ experiences on Twitter (thanks to all who shared!), checked out online reviews and booked a trial for the following Saturday.  I tried it out and loved it.  I also tried the Bernina at the same price point (the 350 I think?) and the one above (the 380 - about £300 more expensive) and to be honest, the stitch quality on the Pfaff was on a par with the more expensive Bernina!  I was sold and brought her home that day.

Things I love already:

- she goes through anything - 8 layers of folded thick denim as easily as a single layer of chiffon

- the stitching is gorgeous!

- the bobbin empty warning

- the low noise compared to my Brother

- the speed control - it feels like I have so much more control

- the automative tie off - I had no idea i needed it til I had it but it is so neat compared to my previous reverse stitching!

- those automatic buttonholes - love love love!

Oh and really stupid thing I love:

Bobbin and foot storage! So neat and tidy!

 On the suggestion of the lovely Vicki Kate, I have called her Fifi (much to the disappointment of N who wanted to call her Vanilla - who knows the workings of a 5 year old's mind?)

I think the moral of the story is - make use of your local sewing machine shop if you are lucky enough to have one.  They can really help.  Mine also offers free follow-up sewing lessons if you need them.

The Vintage Pattern Pledge

Do you have a lot of vintage patterns that you haven't sewn up?  But they are so tempting and so pretty right?  But then they get bumped for a new indie pattern all the coolkids are sewing up.

This is exactly what I am like and Marie from A Stitching Odyssey feels the same!

She has started the Vintage Pattern Pledge here and I am joining in!

During 2014, I, Joanne, will sew up at least five garments from vintage patterns.

I haven't gone for 5 patterns as I am not sure if that will work for me - if i find ones that work well, I may make more than one version!  But I'll probably choose at least 5 patterns to give myself a choice.

I'll be posting over the next few days with the patterns I am planning to use.  And if you are up for this challenge, stay tuned for the Pattern Pyramid and you can grab yourself a choice of more vintage patterns!

Are you in?   

Gasp! I made socks!

I know some knitters knit socks almost exclusively and I never expected to be one of them, but with pair 1 in the bag I can see how they become addictive. They are a great portable project.

I was looking for a knitting project for over Christmas (knitting in front of the TV when you have visitors is a bit more companionable than sewing on a noisy machine in another room!). By coincidence Kristen from K-line was running a knit along on her blog to knit a pair of socks in a week using a pattern she devised and made available for free.

I looked for a yarn without too high wool content due to itchiness issues.  After much debate on Twitter I went with Opal Rainforest which is super wash with nylon to make it hard wearing.  The colours are beautiful and I love the striping effect.

For some reason Blogger wants you to see this pic this way around.  Thanks Blogger!

 I ordered a few colours to get the hang of socks (and in case my first pair came out unwearable!). The colours I chose were Tom the Bard,  Lea the Drummer and Rudi the Saxophonist (odd names as apparently they are names after endangered rainforest species). After deciding to give the first pair to my mum she chose Tom the Bard which is a mix of greens, blues and turquoises.  I used Addi Lace needles as Kristen recommended and really liked them - the join between needle and cable (which is my pet hate with circulars) is so smooth and never catches.  As I'm a tight knitter, I went up a needle size to 2.5mm which worked fine.  To widen it a little round the leg as my mum hates tight socks, I added 8 additional stitches to get an extra 1".  I knitted the rest as per the pattern, adding a couple of extra decrease rows to lose the extra stitches during the toe shaping.

The pattern is really easy to follow with charts to keep count of the number of repeats you've done. Kristen uses magic loop on circulars as I did but she shows how to use the pattern on dpns too.

The only issue I had was in doing the Kitchener stitch for the toe. Sock 1 was terrible (unpicked and redone several times in different methods until I gave in and just sewed it up) but I found a clear tutorial for sock 2 and it worked really well. You can find it here.  Here's a pic of the good one - you're not getting a pic of the bad one!

So there are at least 2 more pairs in my future (and N wants a purple pair - I am hopeful I can get a small size pair out of the wool I have left after knitting a adult pair so I'll be trying a pair for her in this colour first.). 

Have a look at Kristen's tutorials and pattern if you'd like to give it a go. Did you knit along? Have you made socks before?

My top 5 inspirations from 2013

And we're in the home stretch of Top 5s!  Just this and 2014 goals to go!

Inspirations is a toughie!  When I first bought a cheap sewing machine, my plan was to do machine embroidery and maybe make a few bits and pieces for N.  I had no plans to start sewing garments for myself.  However stumbling on the world of sewing blogs changed that!  I realised that you didn't have to have been sewing since you were a child to be able to make beautiful, great fitting clothes.

I've picked a few areas where I feel really inspired, by bloggers and others.

1) Pattern designers

By that I don't mean established pattern companies like Colette or Sewaholic.  But some of my favourite bloggers have released their own patterns this year, both free and paid for.  I can't get my head around the process of doing this and how complicated it must be, but how cool to see people making, wearing and loving something you have designed!

Source: House of Pinheiro

 Rachel's Brasilia dress

Melissa's workout/ running gear

Erin's Presidio handbag

The lovely Katie from What Katie Sews also mentioned recently she was working on releasing a pattern she had designed - can't wait to see!

2) Refashioning

Source: Charity Shop Chic

When I arrived at the epic blogger meet up back in April, I almost squealed to see a dress I recognised and loved that I had just been reading about - Sally's fabulous Mad Men shirt dress!  And no post about refashioning would be complete without a mention for this talented lady.  She totally inspires me to have a go at refashioning.  I just need to find some time for scouring charity shops - I'm sure I don't have her vision of what the most unpromising items could become!

3) Sewcial media

 Some bloggers have such a skill for bringing people together.  From the top 5 posts you are reading now, started by Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow, to the blogger meet ups and swaps organised by Rachel, Claire, Marie & Kat and many many more, and the Spoolettes spearheaded by Clare, sewing people love to get together and chat together!  Especially if there is fabric shopping involved.  Or drinking.  Or both!

Whether it is online or in real life, a lot of people spend a lot of time and effort coming up with great ideas to spread the sewing love and that is pretty inspiring.  A few mentions (I couldn't possibly cover everyone so please don't be offended if I have missed you off!):

the aforementioned Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow

Rachel from House of Pinheiro

Claire from Sew Incidentally

Marie from A Stitching Odyssey

Kat from A Krafty Kat

Kerry from Kestrel Makes

Joost from Make my Pattern and creator of the Sewcialist logo and Firehose

Leila from Three Dresses Project

Lady Katza from Peanut Butter Macrame

Heather from Handmade by Heather B

Katie from KatieKadiddlehopper

StephC from 3 Hours past and Cake Patterns

Clare from Sew Dixie Lou

Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons

4) Beautiful photography

I've seen some recent blog posts talking about sewing blogs turning into fashion blogs and being all about photography and less about sewing. These are not the blogs I read. I want to read about sewing but I don't see why you can't have clear pics and great interesting photography. OK, so all we really need is daylight and non blurry photos but it's hopefully more interesting when I manage to get pics somewhere other than my back garden being photobombed by a 5 year old and a grumpy cat! 

I know I appreciate it when bloggers work hard with pics (as long as i can see the clothes obviously!).

Some honourable mentions:

Rachel from House of Pinheiro (is there anything this girl can't do?)

Lizzy from Sew Busy Lizzy

Sally from Charity Shop Chic

Carolyn from Handmade by Carolyn

Janene from Ooobop

Clare from Sew Dixie Lou

Rochelle from Lucky Lucille

I still have work to do on my blog pics - the winter is hard when you can't incorporate an outdoor photo shoot into a family weekend! I'll never be able to take hundreds of pics to choose from (the 5 year old wouldn't stand for it!) but the ladies above and others inspire me to get better!

5) Dyeing fabric

I used to do a lot of fabric dying, tie dye etc as a student and thought those days were past! But I've become inspired to pick it up again for a few reasons.

Source: Jigidi.com

On holiday in the summer we visited a beautiful shop where the owner created lovely batik scarves and sarongs. I wanted to buy fabric but at upwards of £40 a metre it wasn't going to happen. I really want to try making my own. Imagine the great border prints you could make?  I'd also like to try shibori and other natural dyes like Sally and screen printing like Carolyn.  Sadly these are summer projects unless i want dripping fabric everywhere so I'll need to wait a bit.  

So that's it - my inspirations! 

Only goals to go - just need to work out what they are!

Reflections on 2013

Happy New Year to you all!

I am really enjoying all of these top 5 posts but you guys are blogging too much!  My reader is overflowing!  I think I am all caught up now though, and seeing some great top 5s that have really made me think (and actually possibly re-evaluate a few items on my lists).

1) A pat on the back

Gratuitous pugs!

I think I did really well this year.  My sewing came on leaps and bounds.  I can now put on a Me Made garment most days with little effort, and I buy very little RTW any more (except for jeans - more to come on that!).  I worked hard on fitting and it really paid off - with a little help from my friends - which leads me on nicely to:

2) Sewing people really are the nicest people you could meet/ chat to

2013 was a tough year for me personally.  I lost a close family member and another was diagnosed with a serious illness (which is likely to make 2014 another difficult one).  But I really think sewing, sewcial media, bloggers and sewing friends helped me through it (without wishing to take away any credit from family and non-sewing friends of course!).  Sometimes it's just great to have an escape from reality and chat to other people who are as excited about the latest indie pattern release or fabric sale as me!

I joined Twitter (@jolittletime if you tweet too!) after resisting for a long time and found a fantastic sewing community on there.

I went to the epic blogger meet up and met some fabulous people and starting following lots of new blogs.

I started meeting the Spoolettes as regularly as I can (given family commitments that's not as often as I would like!).  What a great group of ladies that are excellent fun to spend time with, whether drinking, dancing, bowling or fabric shopping!

3) I sewed (mainly) for the life I have

Particpating in Me Made May showed me that my wardrobe needed plain separates and knits and I focused on sewing those.  I know a lot of people don't like to sew basics, but there's only so many party dresses and summer frocks my lifestyle calls for, especially in a country when the sun shines for about a month of the year.  I love (and wear) dresses quite a lot, but I'm likely to grab a comfy knit one to throw on for work and I have sewn a lot of those this year!  But we all need a bit of frosting from time to time - however I want to make what I wear most often.  I also sewed much more with plains (and I'm including spots and stripes in plains - they are practically neutrals) which I have enjoyed more than I expected.  It's good to be able to see nice design lines and focus on the fit rather than hiding behind a print as I did when I started (all those lovely printed cottons...)

4) I really need to conquer trousers

I wear jeans and trousers a lot, especially in winter and it's a huge gap in my me-made wardrobe.  As mentioned in my Hits & Misses post I traced Colette patterns Juniper in my usual size following Sunni's trouser sewalong, added extra seam allowances, thread traced every seam, and threw the muslin in the sewing box to think about what it had done when it didn't remotely fit. It hasn't come back out yet but it will this year! I also want some me made jeans.

5) Sewing with a plan works well for me

I'm quite a planner by nature, but I do have a tendency to get distracted by newer shinier things (squirrel!) like new pattern releases, sewalongs, sewing challenges, competitions etc.  I have made a conscious effort only to take part in these if I would have done it anyway!  If I have bought a new Cake pattern and there's a sewalong, then I will plan to join.  If the Sewcialists are doing Red October, I will join in as I love red.  Green December not so much.  I didn't love the Laurel pattern and realistically I don't think the shape will work for my shape, so I was proud of resisting the competition.

The sewalong that worked really well for me was the Fall Essentials sewalong.  I planned out the garments I wanted to make within a colour palette I love and so I could make sure I had all the notions, zips, thread, buttons etc that normally hold me up on finishing a project.  I mainly sew in the evenings so rushing to the shop for more thread isn't going to happen!  I made so many more projects in that 2 month period than I ever expected so a big thumbs up for planning sewing!

Inspirations and goals posts coming up soon!

Minerva Blogger Network - The Blue Christmas dress (with extra construction pics)

For my make this month I wanted something festive and chose this beautiful Prada (eek!) crepe.   I chose the fabric first and set out to find a pattern that would work and make the most of the gorgeous drape.  Retro Butterick 5707 fit the bill, with its cowl neckline.

The fabric has a shiny satin side and a matt crepey side.  I had intended to use both sides in the dress with the shiny side for the cowl, but loved the matt teal side so much that I only used the shiny side for the belt!

As I was too scared to cut into such lovely fabric without one, I made a toile of the bodice.  I lengthened the bodice by 3” (which I think may have been too much) and graded out from a 14 bodice to a 16 for waist and skirt. I did my usual ½” FBA.  The skirt is super long in the pattern – I’m 5’9” and it came to mid calf.  I had intended to use the long skirt as per the pattern but it didn’t look right, so I ended up cutting 3” off to make it knee length.

I bound all the seams with rayon seam binding as I wanted to treat such special fabric well!   After discussion with the lovely Tania, I ordered some Hug Snug seam binding from Ebay in the US.  It finishes the seams beautifully but adds no bulk at all.  It's great stuff - somewhere in the UK must stock it so if anyone finds a UK retailer please let me know!  However my application of it leaves a bit to be desired (hence why there are no close up pics in this post!)

After a total fail on inserting the zip by machine, I did a hand-picked zip.  I also sewed the sleeve hems and skirt hem by hand to avoid having stitching showing on the right side.

I made a self fabric belt using the shiny side of the fabric and a silver buckle from Minerva.  I love the belt (although it needs a press stud to keep it closed due to the slippiness of the satin – I didn’t think that one through well!  But it looks good!)

I’m a bit disappointed that the neckline isn’t as drapey as I expected – I think it would have been perfect in this fabric. It definitely seems like a more modern shape rather than a proper cowl.  I was envisaging a Mad Men style cocktail dress, but the end result seems to have lost a lot of the vintage feel.  I think I left a bit too much ease in the bodice, but it will definitely be better for eating a nice big Christmas dinner! But I think the end result is much more wearable than the full-on vintage style in the pattern would have been.

I do love the dress.  It’s very comfortable and doesn’t cling to tights due to the satin inside, so no slip needed.  I would say I can’t wait for Christmas to come so I can wear it, but I have far too much to do before then!  Still at least I know what I’m wearing!

If you like my Blue Christmas dress, you can make your own with the Minerva kit, which contains the Butterick 5707 pattern, 2 metres of the teal crepe and the silver belt buckle I used.

And for extra points if you got this far, how about some awkward pics of the "pretend to put the baubles on the  Christmas tree" variety?