The Dotty Knit Dress

This dress was obviously from the title my first time working with knits. Having read all of the advice given by other bloggers it went very smoothly. It did help that the pattern I was making the dress from was quite straightforward to put together.
It’s one of my favourite projects so far and I always get compliments when I wear it, which is lovely.















The pattern I used was from Sew U Home Stretch by Wendy Mullin which I picked up for a bargain at The Works. As well as including several patterns and instructions on how to adapt them it gives information on how to deal with knits. I adapted the “What A Waist” t-shirt pattern which is the line drawing to your left by just lengthening and straightening out the hem to make it a dress. I think this would not have worked so well if I did not have teeny hips.

 The fabric I found at the market in Lincoln for £5.99 per metre, which was how much I used for this dress.
Construction-wise, it was fairly easy, however this was the first time that I had done sleeves. It turns out that finding the middle of the sleeve head and pinning it right sides together to the shoulder seam and pinning downwards from there does not count as “setting in a sleeve”. It didn’t seem to particularly affect the fit of the dress as I can easily put my hands in the air without any discomfort but next time I will do it properly…

My only query is that how are you supposed to press the seams? Or are you just not supposed to press the seams open? As I don’t have an overlocker I used zigzag for the whole thing which worked fine.
All in all It’s a lovely smart dress which would have been lovely for sixth form. However no dresses are allowed, sad face, so I guess I’d better start making skirts and tops ready for next year sometime soon.





That’s it for now, thanks for reading!
Lauren x

The Dorothy Dress

I’M BACK FROM ITALY. And I haven’t tanned one little bit in the 42 degree weather. Anyway; this is definitely the favourite thing I’ve made so far. It’s called the Dorothy Dress because that’s what you automatically think of when you see a blue and white checked dress, but apart from the fabric, it really isn’t related to the wizard of oz atall. The dress really was last minute project. It was laid out on a bench outside the McDonalds service station on the way to Italy while I evened out my hem with my embroidery scissors. I managed to hem it and attach all the hooks and eyes on the coach.The photo was taken in Vicenza, Italy which has the most amazing walls to photograph against.

I used a vintage Style pattern no. 3595 for the bodice and a gathered skirt that a made years ago for a dress that was never completed.
The fabric was actually from an old duvet cover of mine when I was little, with a stripe of embroidered hearts at the top end of it. I really wanted to incorporate this into the bodice but I had to go against the grainline that was suggested. Fortunately this didn’t seem to make much difference.

The curtains in my room at the time were made of the same fabric and a now in my sewing room. Looking at them I had a flash of inspiration and realised that the curtain tie would make a fantastic belt. Fingers crossed mum won’t notice that it’s missing… The belt was simply attached using 3 hooks and eyes.

The only zip that I had in my stash at the last minute was a yellow one. I think I partially succeeded at hiding it. I now realise that the hook and eye need to be further from the edges to pull the back together as where they are at the moment does nothing whatsoever.

All in all, it’s a lovely summer dress and I will be wearing it loads and loads and loads.












Thanks so much for reading!
Lauren x

Floral Peplum Top

This top was made from a Prima peplum dress pattern shown here. As I had little fabric and needed to make some tops for sixth form next year I thought that I could just chop off the skirt portion.

So the top was finished, the zip sewn in really prettily and I try to get it over my head. Here the issues started. You see, I forgot to take into account the fact that my head is larger than the circumference of the peplum. I only figured this out after forcing it over my head and accidentally tearing out the beautifully sewn in zip.

Then I thought about hoody zips, and thought that that could work so I went and bought one, and it did work. Hooray! So now I have a pretty top to wear for sixth form, probably not with a skirt as short as that though… To the left you can see me trying and failing to look studious with a photo album that I hoped looked vaguely like a text book.






Thanks so much for reading,
Lauren x

My Prom dress!

 

Sorry about the long time no see! Even though exams finished a couple of weeks ago I have been chock a block with work experience and other commitments, but now I am FREE. For now anyway, which means I have plenty of sewing time. I haven’t stopped sewing by any means, it’s just finding time to take pictures but I am determined to succeed.
Anyway, now onto all the important stuff. It was my year 11 prom on wednesday, and of course I had to make my dress which has been in progress for the last couple of months, right up until an hour before I left. It was squeezed from 3 metres of dusky pink satin along with a clutch to go with the outfit. More about that in another post.

The dress consisted of a fitted bodice and gathered skirt, with a lace covered collar and waistband/belt. I felt that the collar didn’t quite work, and that the dress was better off without it so that idea was binned.

I ended up wearing the flower crown that I made and curling my hair with straws inspired by the video from cute girls hairstyles.
















The waistband/belt was attached by 3 rows of hooks and eyes. The bow at the back was a last minute adjustment.
I used an invisible zip, but as it was white it went completely against the point of an invisible zip so I handpicked it to make it as less visible as possible.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the end product and I got lots of compliments throughout the evening. I think I did achieve the simple, classic look I was going for so that’s good.






Sorry about the ridiculously small photos. I’m trying to figure out how to make them bigger without them getting all pixalated Please bear with me.
Thanks for reading,
Lauren x

A Swing Dress

This was my first attempt at drafting and i made possibly the worst fabric choice in the world: Chiffon. The whole process wasn’t helped by the fact that the dress was cut on the bias so it expanded. I must have ended up hemming it about 4 times, and it was still uneven with the underlining, so much so that it now has a balloon effect. It’s safe to say that the only time I will ever wear this dress will be to a fancy dress party as a fairy. Plus, it’s a bit tight for me so my friend Lauren modeled it instead.

It’s basically a long circle skirt, with the part above the waist measurement being another circle forming the neck band. In the end it turned out not to be so long, because I’d chopped off so much of the hem, trying to get it all to be the same length.





In hindsight, it really would have been a good idea to do a little research on chiffon, but at least i’ll never make the same mistakes again.
On a positive note, it really is very flowy… And it doesn’t look as puffy as I thought it did. Win.