School Skirt No.1

This year I entered sixth form, and the school uniform requirements have changed. From years 7 to 11 (aged 11-15) English schools typically wear a uniform. Mine consisted of a green blazer, green and white stripey blouse (fondly nicknamed the “toothpaste” blouse ) and a green pleated skirt. It was not pretty. But for the next two years of sixth form the dress code is extended to “work wear” which basically means that you need to wear skirt suits and trouser suits with a top of your choice. No dresses allowed  So, I decided that there would be no point in buying any of this stuff (except blazers, I’m not quite at that level of expertise yet) so most of my sixth form clothing has been me-made. This is the first skirt.

I feel like a can’t really call this skirt a pencil skirt because it doesn’t go in enough at the legs so I think I’ll call it a straight skirt instead. This was my first attempt at lining a skirt and it went fairly well. I only attached it at the waistband and the zip as I was afraid that if I hemmed it to the outer material it would affect the drape. I wish I had interfaced the waistband as I can now see why you’d want to because it just isn’t stiff enough. I didn’t sew the zip in high enough so had a little gap between the end of the zip and the waistband so instead of unpicking the zip I cut out a patch of the same fabric and sewed one side to the left hand side and sewed a popper to the other. It worked but it definitely wasn’t the correct way to do it.

 The pattern I used was New Look 6335. It was an unlined pattern, but I just cut the same pieces as I did for the outside, excluding the waistband. I ended up cutting so much off the length that the split went entirely which does make it more difficult to run to the bus stop in the mornings. NB: Next time, please put one in! The only adjustment I made was to shave a couple of inches off each side to fit my baby hips.

As you can see in the pic above, I had a few issues with darts. Typically, a week later we did darts in textiles and so now I know exactly what to do. Funnily enough, the teacher pointed out this skirt as an example of darts. I should probably have let her know that I made it. The table below is one I made as part of my coursework and I thought that it might be useful for some people.

This pic just shows off the lining underneath. I was rushing so both the lining and the exterior fabric were hemmed by the machine. The issue I’m having is that the lining is so slippery that it twists the skirt around as I walk. Maybe this is because It just isn’t tight enough?

Yay, you can’t really see the zip in the back! Instead of the button and buttonhole required by the pattern I used a popper. I tried to make a buttonhole. It was perfect on the practice time, the moment I put the real thing through the machine I get nothing. And I didn’t change anything! Argh it’s so frustrating. But a popper will do for now, until I figure out how to do them.

Please excuse the hole in my tights. This was after a long day of school. On fridays, sixth formers at my school get to go home one hour early. Because of buses that was impossible so we had a lovely trip to costa instead. En route I conned one of my new school friends Ainjiel-Shaolee Clark into taking these beautiful photos for me. Thank you Ainjiel!
‘Til next time,
Lauren x

Floral Shift Dress

This dress has been brilliant to wear this summer (or for the hot days we’ve had this summer) as it’s so light  and loose, but still has shape to it. It has been worn many many times and is just generally amazing. And I have no idea why I can’t stand upright like a normal person. Sorry for the creases, it was in my bag all day as I was going over to a friends to take advantage of his fancy camera (again) and it’s made of linen. The neck, armholes, and hem were all slip-stitched in on the ferry to France.

I used the vintage Simplicity 5421 teen pattern which was age 14. At the age 0f 16 my bust is 3 inches smaller than that of a girl aged 14 so this dress required A LOT of alteration in that department. Actually it required a lot of alteration in every department. I took about 3 inches out of the centre front and a fair bit out of the side seams and out of the princess seams as well. I did make a mock up but have mysteriously lost the centre front which is the piece that I altered the most, so I if I make it again I’m going to have to refit it all again. Sigh.

Image found here: http://vintagepatterns.wikia.com/wiki/Simplicity_5421_B

When it was all altered it did fit really well, but was just loose enough to keep cool during the hot weather. I probably should mention that it was originally about 3 inches longer than this so I’m paying my dues for not pre washing it beforehand. The fabric by the way was gifted to me by one of my friends mums with about 3 other bin bags full of fabric! The zipper was originally hand sewn in but it wasn’t strong enough so I lapped it on the machine as well to make it as secure as possible.

That’s all I can think of to say about this dress at the moment so bye for now!
Thanks for reading!
Lauren x

The Golden Dress

This was one of the times that you go to a fabric market stall with a list of fabric that is needed and you come away with something completely different. What can I say, this print was just too good to walk past.

The fabric is quite a thick knit that cost four pounds per metre and one metre was all that I could afford to get which rules out any full skirts (sad face). I browsed through Wendy Mullins Sew You Home Stretch ( I can hear you all sighing and thinking “oh no not this book again”) and found a fairly fitted dress which consisted of two bodice pieces (front and back), two skirt pieces (front and back) and some sleeves which I missed out in favour of being able to fit a tank top out of the fabric as well. The design in the book had a contrasting bodice to the skirt but I just ignored that bit.

I learnt that if you zigzag too close to the edge the fabric goes all weird so you have to have quite a big seam allowance. I think I ended up slipstitching the neck line. I had to take it in quite a bit at the hips and the waist to make it fit properly even though I cut out the smallest size which was an extra small. Next time I’ll lengthen the bodice quite a bit because the seam is really high above my natural waistline but isn’t high enough to be empire line.

 I commandeered my friends into directing and taking the photos. I’m going to say that some of the trampoline shots were more successful than others. It was great fun though.I’ll just leave you with one of the outtakes which I realise isn’t an outtake any more because it’s in the post but oh well.

INCOMING!
Thanks to Connor for the use of his trampoline and for taking brilliant (if slightly scary photos) and Meghan for instructing me how to jump elegantly on a trampoline without legs spread right open.

As always, thanks for  reading!
Lauren x

Sixth Form Top

I MANAGED TO GET THE PICTURES TO BE BIG!!!! YAAAY!!!!

So this is a top that I made for sixth form, which I start on Friday. I had a few issues with this top, mainly because I thought it was a knit when it really was a cotton. I figured it out when it started to fray…  The fact that I thought it was a knit meant that there was an unnecessary amount of zigzagging going on plus the using a pattern designed for knits. I was really worried about the sleeves being really tight because there’s no stretch, so phew. You can see me testing this below.

 It’s a tad short but that isn’t a problem as all of my high skirts are high waisted anyway. I thought very carefully about the pattern placement for this top because there was an interesting border parallel to the selvage which meant that I couldn’t use it as a hem so I used it for the sleeves instead.

 I used the same pattern that I did for my  from Sew You Home Stretch by Wendy Mullin which had an elasticated waist which I ignored. I just used the pattern for the sleeves which are gathered with elastic at the bottom.

 I’m obviously not wearing the skirt for sixth form, however that was the only black skirt available as I still need to hem the pencil skirt that will be worn in its place.
That’s it for now, thanks for reading, and again, BIG PICTURES! Oh and thanks to Connor who took the photos with his lovely camera and for the use of his garden.
Lauren x

Floral Shorts

It’s boiling here in the UK so I decided that I was in need of some nice floral shorts. These are high-waisted because I have a very long torso, and the high waist breaks it up a bit.
This is my second attempt at bottoms. The first was a pair of trousers which I approached with trepidation as I have heard about all the issues that you can face with the crotch length etc. However these fitted fairly well with just a few alterations. The second time round with these shorts only took a couple of hours in total as they are quite simple to put together when you know what goes where.

The pattern I used was a vintage Simplicity 9944 released in 1981 which was inherited from someone or other. They are high waisted with a back zipper, which relieved me from figuring out how to do a fly front zipper.
It is a size 12 but the muslin was fairly easy to fit as it just needed tapering in at the hips and the waist.
To make the trouser pattern into a shorts pattern I just cut off 5cm after I wanted the shorts to finish.

 The fabric was a fairly light weight cotton which was a bargain at £2 a metre. The shorts only used up 1m so I still have 3m left to figure out what to do with. There have been several ideas, but none have come to fruit just yet. It is going to be a dress, but any more I can not tell you.

The only issues I had with these was the hem as I tucked it underneath there was excess fabric so there was a bit of tuckage in various places, but no one will notice…I hope…
All in all I’m really pleased with these shorts. They have already become a summer wardrobe staple.
Oh and I’m going on a Symphony Orchestra tour tomorrow so i wont be posting for a week or so.






Thanks so much for reading!
Lauren x