Mad Men Challenge number 3 - my plans

After much debate, here is the beauty I am planning to recreate for this year's Mad Men Challenge organised by Julia Bobbin.

I was planning to us the Anna bodice with a midriff panel and a gathered or pleated skirt, until I saw this beauty that Anne from Mercury Handmade was selling:

It's Simplicity 4766, a beauty from 1954.  Just look at that gorgeous neckline and those gigantic pockets?  The red one is a dead ringer for Betty's dress - she even looks a bit like Betty!  She certainly has the same feeling of ennui (and the possibility of a cigarette in hand).  No dickey or jumper underneath for her.

I'll be leaving off the pockets (but will definitely make one with pockets in the future - I think they use about a metre of fabric on their own!).

I have been scouting for fabric for ages before finally settling on this:

It's by Moda from the Vintage Modern Range by Bonnie & Camille.

Although it's not an exact match for the rose print, it was surprisingly hard to find something closer and I liked that this had the lighter pink flowers as well as the red.  I think it will give more of the impression of the original than some of the modern digital rose prints I found.

And it's number 1 of the 5 I have pledged to make for the Vintage Pattern Pledge!  Result!

Are you entering this time?  What are you making?

The winner of the Simplicity Sewing Book is....

Ruth Procter!  Drop me an email Ruth and I'll get your book in the post.

Thanks to everyone who entered - sorry I don't have copies for everyone!

Giveaway - Win the Simplicity sewing book!

Those lovely people at Simplicity have a new book out and they have given me a copy to give away to one of my readers!

It's called Simply The Best Sewing Book and it's an update of Simplicity's original book published 20 years ago.  They have updated it to include timesaving tips and up-to-date info on newer sewing machines.

It is spiral bound with a hard cover so that it stays looking nice on the outside but lies flat so you can refer to it easily when sewing.

The fitting section

It covers tools and equipment, fitting (with a focus on tissue fitting but it also covers muslin making), using patterns, cutting and marking, the basics of sewing and how to work with more difficult fabrics.  At the back there are a few basic patterns to get you started.

Love the retro style illustrations

Before I was sent this, I was told it would be great for anyone who has recently started sewing, but having seen it, I think it's the kind of thing that would be useful to more experienced sewists as well. There are some great tips on overlockers which I have found really useful and are not normally covered in "Learn To Sew" books.

Sewing a flatlock seam

The section covering working with difficult fabrics has great tips on how to cut, mark, press and sew fabrics like velvet or lace:

Sewing with velvet

Matching patterns on lace

 The glossary of sewing terms is excellent and there's a really good index to help you find the things you need (and who doesn't need reminding of how to set in a zip from time to time!)

Hand sewing tips

Leave a comment below if you would like to win this book.  It's relatively heavy so only open to people in the UK - sorry!  I am planning a giveaway of my own soon which will be open internationally for everyone!  Please leave me an email so I can contact you if you win.  I'll pick a winner at random from all comments received by 12 noon (GMT) on Friday 7th March.

If you like (but not essential to enter) tell me what your top sewing tip is!

Mine is that you can shorten fabric on the bias by pulling it on either side of the presser foot as you sew.  It's a great way to ease in sleeves without puckers.

Edited to add - if you don't win, you can buy the book from Simplicity directly here!

Giveaway is now closed.  Winner to be announced shortly.

The Bowling dress

After I did my Simplicity giveaway earlier in the year, they kindly let me choose a pattern to keep for myself and I went for Simplicity 1882.  I've seen some great versions, especially Karen's, but the version I loved was Virginia's from A Sewing Life.

I had an idea for a diner waitress style dress in aqua with black trim, but was thwarted by non-availability of aqua cotton sateen.  By the time I got to this one, autumn was approaching, the time for wearing aqua was running out and I spotted this teal sateen in my local Fabricland.  I paired it with a black sateen from Ebay.

This was my first Amazing Fit pattern and I really liked the system!  It comes with bodice pieces in A-D cup sizes, as well as slim, average and curvy fit skirts. So the first step is to get busy with a tape measure to take the difference between your high bust and full and waist and hips to decide on the pattern pieces to use.  Of course if your fabric has a little stretch (as mine did) it's quite forgiving!

Normally I do a 1" FBA on big 4 patterns, so I went for the C cup bodice and the average fit skirt (based on measurements as above).

Rather than doing a muslin, the pattern has large seam allowances for fitting, so it has you baste all the pieces together wrong sides together and try it on so that you can adjust the seams.  I did find the unpicking of the basting slightly annoying as the sateen showed every pull and needle hole - probably didn't help that this pattern had a separate 3 panelled front midriff and princess seamed bodice so lots of unpicking!  But still, no muslin!

I added the optional homemade piping (if you haven't made piping and like the look you really must try it - I love the effect and it is very easy to do with no special equipment needed) between the upper bodice and midriff pieces and at the waist.  It frames the nicely shaped midriff panel so well!  I also went for the contrast collar and bow (I was debating not adding the bow but if you saw the finish on the centre front V you would know why I did - not my best work!)

I had no real issues with it - these patterns would be great for fitting newbies as the instructions for fitting are very good.  Also the different sized pattern pieces make it easier to get closer to the right fit from the beginning.

I did deviate from the instructions with the invisible zip.  As I have had issues inserting these over piped seams in the past, I went for a hand picked normal zip instead.  I think I'm going to do this a lot more often in future.  As hand sewing goes, a hand picked zip goes in so quickly and easily (certainly compred to unpicking and redoing several times!), looks great and gives you so much more control of the final outcome than a slippy zipper foot that persists in sewing over the teeth and jamming the zip!


I also hand catch-stitched the hem, just because I preferred the look of it on such smooth fabric.

I wore this bowling with the Spoolettes - you'll have seen pictures on Clare, Sally, Janene, Nicole, Kathryn and Emmie's blogs to name but a few!  I did wish I had made a name badge but I totally ran out of time.

The last dress of summer

I love this fabric! I fell in love with it in Goldhawk Road at the Epic Blogger Meet up in April. Of course I have no idea of the name of the shop but it sells a lot of Liberty fabric, as well as precut packages of lawn in 3 metre cuts. The quality is lovely - the selvage confirms it is Freedom Fabrics.  I think it was £20 for 3 metres.

I was concerned I might need to line this as the fabric is so lightweight but it's really opaque. Perfect summer dress material! It's very smooth and silky - lovely to wear.

I finally used my Simplicity 2444 pattern which I got free in Sew magazine earlier this year. It took this long to get to the front of the sewing queue! And haven't other bloggers made some gorgeous versions of this pattern? Roisin has to be the 2444 queen - 7 versions (love her latest Passage over Piedmont version)! Rehanon used the bodice to great effect on her Simplex. Char from TRexes and Tiaras has made about 8! It's a popular pattern!

I love the double diagonal waist darts on this pattern. Would be great to make it in a less busy fabric so you can see them better. I was worried about doing an FBA with no bust dart but I rotated one dart up to the bust, made the adjustment and rotated it back again. Worked like  charm - thanks Twitter (as usual).

I did my usual length adjustments - 2.5" on the bodice and 2" on the skirt.  All the seams were finished on my overlocker, making it pretty speedy to put together. I was tempted to skip the facings in favour of bias tape, but Roisin advised against it. As she is the queen I went with her advice! The armhole facings are just strips of fabric anyway so probably easier to use those than to make bias!

Not sure why (and it's not hugely obvious in the pics) but I have a bit of gaping at the front neckline. Any ideas what might be causing it?  Looking at the pics I could probably stand to have a bit taken out at the waist too.

Pictures were taken in Henley - on - Thames after a full day of wear (hence the creases). But the backdrop is too pretty to pass up for want of an iron! And as it feels like summer is over now, this is definitely the last summer dress I'll be blogging for a while! 

I'm planning autumn sewing now and will be posting my plans shortly. Have you seen the Fall Essentials Sew Along that Sarah at Rhinestones and Telephones is hosting? It's a great idea so I am going to be working along with that. First stop -  wintery Anna dress! And the By Hand London ladies are hosting a sewalong too. I do love a good sewalong!

Simplicity Giveaway - the winners!

Thanks for all the entries to the Simplicity patterns giveaway!  I'm glad you all liked the ones I chose!

There were 12 entries for the lovely 1882:

...and the winner is:

Katja from GJeometry!

There were 7 entries for 1606:

and the winner is:

Debbie Brooker!

Congratulations ladies!  Can't wait to see your versions!  Can you drop me an email to the address in the sidebar above and I'll arrange to post your patterns?

Thanks very much to everyone that entered - I wish I had a prize for all of you.  And thanks to Simplicity for so generously giving away their patterns to us.



Simplicity giveaway - I made a mistake on the sizes!

I am a fool!

The Simplicity 1882:

 is actually a size 6-14.

The Simplicity 1606:

is a size 14-22.

Sorry!  If this changes the one you would like to win, please comment again on the original post!

Giveaway: Those lovely people at Simplicity...

I'm sure you will have seen on several blogs that you follow that the lovely Simplicity people are working with bloggers to give away some of their patterns.

Some people are blessed with the ability just to see the style lines of a pattern and see beyond sometimes dodgy envelope artwork/ fabric choice.  I am unfortunately not one of them!  I think this is why I sew a lot of indie patterns - I see lovely versions on bloggers with fabrics and styling I prefer.  So great initiative from Simplicity to get more involved with the community!

If you haven't done so already, tweet @SewSimplicity with your blog address to get involved with some of their plans!

Anyway, on to the giveaway!

We were asked to choose a pattern for ourselves and 2 to give away to our readers.

This was my pattern:

Source:  Pattern Review

The fabric choice on this is actually pretty cute!  I have loved this pattern since I saw Karen's gorgeous versions in teal and purple tulip print.  No idea which I like better - I can't decide!  I googled for some more pictures and came up with the wondrousness that is A Sewing Life's fabulous turquoise version. Great inspiration and a new blog to follow!  As the Spoolettes (Clare, Nicole, Sally, Roisin, Fiona, Alison and Rehanon) are planning a bowling trip to a gorgeous restored 1950s bowling alley, this version could have that perfect combo of bowling shirt/ diner waitress for me! Love the colour and the piping!

The other pattern was this:

Source:  Pattern Review

This was actually sent to me by mistake instead of 1609 (the shift dress Gertie has been obsessed with recently).  But it's a prime example of looking past the somewhat bridesmaidy fabric on the envelope to the line drawing:

Source:  Pattern Review

Leaving off the bow it's a cute princess seamed summer dress with the option to have a lace overlay - I'm seeing a fancy version of this similar to Zilredloh's fabulous Macaron.  Or a vintage style halter dress?

I have one copy of each pattern to give away - Simplicity 1882 in size 6-14 (edited to correct the sizes - see this post) and Simplicity 1608 in size 16-24 (Edited to correct the sizes as before).  Let me know in the comments below which one you'd like (and if you like, tell me what version and fabric).  It would be cool if you followed my blog, but you don't have to!  I'll choose a winner at random on 1st August.  Happy to post worldwide.

And hopefully the good hair/ good weather/ non-stroppy child stars will align so that I can get some pics of my lovely just-finished Simplicity 2444 to show you!