Black Knit Pinafore

 Hello! I was digging around in my UFOs (unfinished objects) box the other day trying for something I could quickly finish to wear to London the next day (because you have to look your best when going to London) and this only required the sleeves edges and the hem to be finished. That's manageable I thought. It wasn't, I wore my Plaid Pinafore Dress instead which has become a firm favourite,  but I finished it later on because it's a great winter staple to go over shirts and the like.

Argghhh necklace why can't you stay central!

The pattern I used was from Sew U Home Stretch by Wendy Mullin which I use as a base for all of my knit projects. The line drawing below is the original pattern which I extended to make into a dress which only works because I have no hips (well noticeable ones anyway) This is the same pattern that I used for my dotty knit dress. but this time I omitted the sleeves.

It's funny because I started the construction of this waaay back in march, april time when I'd only been learning to sew for a couple of months. When I looked at it when finishing it off there was so much that I'd do differently, which just goes to show how far my sewing skills have come.

 The fabric is actually a double knit which came in a tube which was new to me, but fine to work with. The neckline is finished with turned over elastic and the hem and armholes were just turned over and slipstitched.

Oh necklace, what have I ever done to you? And by the way, this is my "ooh something interesting seems to be going on over there" face. In case you were wondering.

All in all I like this dress, but I'm not sure whether the proportions are wrong, because I have a long body. Would lowering the neckline help that? Not sure. It might just look better if I remove the elastic and then cut and sew a shift dress out of it instead. Hmm.
Anyway, thanks so much for reading! I'm just waiting for pics of a couple of halloween costumes I've made this year so stay tuned!
Lauren x

A DIY Dinosaur/ Dragon Costume

This is the first of two costumes I have been commissioned to make for Halloween this year! I asked Jake (my commisioner) to find me a onesie to save time and then I got cracking. I think it would work equally well with an old T-Shirt and jeans if you can't find a onesie. The onesie wasn't cut into once during this process so if you get bored of being a Dinosaur you can just unpick the slipstitching. Carry on for the full "how-to"!

What you will need:

• Fabric. I used two contrasting colours of velvet because I didn't have enough of the green for the tail as well. I did have to be extra careful when cutting out because of the nap. Fleece would work just as well.
• Interfacing. I think I used around 1 metre for an adult sized costume. This stabilized the velvet and made it stiffer so the spikes stood on their own.
• Stuffing, enough to fill the tail.
• Onesie (I bought one to save time but feel free to make one if you have a pattern lying around)
• Paper scissors for cutting out the interfacing because I didn't want the glue on it to mess up my fabric scissors
• Fabric scissors for cutting out the velvet.
• Triangle templates for the tail and the spikes. Don't forget to add seam allowances.

1. Cut out triangles

You will need 4 triangles for each spike
- 2 velvet
- 2 interfacing
6 triangles are needed for the tail
- 3 velvet
- 3 interfacing
 (I tried four triangles for the tail, but ended up unpicking one of them because 3 looked a lot better)
I cut out 54 triangles in total!

On your left are the interfacing triangles that I cut out for the spikes and on the right is my template for the tail triangles.

2) Sew the Triangles Together

You should have from the top facing you, interfacing, wrong side velvet, right side velvet, interfacing for the green triangles. Another way to look at is putting the velvet triangles right sides together and then putting an interfacing triangle on either side. Making sense?
When all of the little bundles are all pinned and ready sew 2 sides of them (leaving the other so you can turn them the right side out) and clip near the point, so you do get a point when you turn them right side out.

For the tail triangles you want to sew both sides of the middle triangle right sides together to the other 2 triangles so you end up with a very wide triangle (see pic above).

3. The Tail

Pin and stitch the spikes facing inwards down the raw edge of the 3 triangles so they stay put. When that's done put right sides together and stitch down the side. Turn out the right way.

Stuff the tail until full. Do a running stitch around the edge of the opening and pull to gather. This gets rid of the raw edges. Pin the tail to the onesie (I placed mine just above the beginning of the trouser seam).

4. Attach the Spikes

Measure and chalk a line down the middle of the back of the onesie. Fold the raw edges of the green triangle inwards so you have a clean edge. Pin to secure. Place on line drawn and pin down like you did with the tail. Repeat with all of the other triangles/spikes. Stitch on when happy that they are all where you want them to be.

AND YOU'RE FINISHED!!!!!

I think the only thing I would change about this costume is the colour of the tail as it stands out a bit too much. It would have looked better if it was green, like the spikes.

Thanks so much to Jake for the idea, the commision and the modeling!

Thanks so much to you dear reader, for reading!
Lauren x

School skirt No.2

This is a very simple 8 gored skirt, fastened with a zip and some poppers to fasten the waistband. As per usual such a simple project took loads more time than it should have done. This was going be my "full" skirt but it didn't end up as full as I wanted it to be so next time I'll enlarge the sides of the pattern pieces or I'll just do a full circle skirt.

The fabric was a mistake. 1.99 polycotton which fluff sticks to like nobody's business! Never again! Nightmare to cut out!

I finished the hem with white bias binding as I had no black in my stash and being 16 and living in the country I just can't pop out and get some. It's okay, nobody can see it anyway. I recently found out that you are supposed to lift the bias a couple of cm's above the hem and then slip stitch it so I'll do that next time.

Please forgive me for the zip not being central, the skirt just needs twizzle-ing round a bit. The zip was a nightmare as it just kept bubbling which I think was due to one side being longer than the other, but it's all sorted now. I did want to go for an exposed look.

All in all this skirt does it's job well. It works nicely with blazers and is perfect for school wear. It's a pity the fabric was such a let down, but hey, we all learn from our mistakes right?

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Lauren x

Pinafore Dress

  Lately I've been seeing a lot of pinafore dresses around and I liked the look of them so much that I put one on my list to make, but the plan was to make one out of corduroy. I decided a couple of months ago that I'm not a fan of plaid, but now I feel that I've come round to it. I do love the colours of this one.

Mum kindly donated to me a load of flannelette that she originally bought for some cosy pjs years and years ago but decided that in reality it was never going to be used. Originally I wanted to make a shift dress with it, which seems perfect for winter with all of the shirts that I can layer under it, but mum suggested a pinafore dress. It seemed like an alright idea so I went with it, and now I just love it!

I used a basic circle skirt pattern for the base, and added a square for the front, shoulder straps and butttons and tada! Actually it turned out to be a lot longer process than it sounds. I had many issues with buttonholes, so in the end had to resort to using snaps and just sewing the buttons on time. These issues involved the unpicking of buttonholes, which I sincerely hope that you will never have to do. It was painful. If you're really looking for traces of them you will find them but they don't really stand out.

I did originally have the straps crossed a lot lower down, then when trying on I couldn't actually get it on, so it had to be unpicked and resewn higher up. Now though, I realise that I could have just put a popper on that as well.

 Look how well it matches!!! Was totally planned...

 My friend Meghan, whom I shall call the Director of this rather fabulous photoshoot (you can thank her for all of the poses) lent me her rather voluminous petticoat to show the pinafore to its maximum potentional. It has built in knickers in it! Genius for someone like me, that seems to accidentally flash the world far too often. I tried to swish away home in it, but unfortunately she caught me in the act and I had to return it to its rightful owner :(

That's about all I have to say so I thought I'd leave some of the out-takes for you to enjoy.
Tons of thanks to Connor for taking the photos and Meghan for telling me where to put my arms.
Thanks for reading!
Lauren x

Floral Top

This is yet another top that I made for my sixth form wardrobe. The fabric was originally a skirt but it seemed to me that it would be a lot more wearable as a top, so a top it has become. For such a simple garment, I had to do far too much unpicking. I started off using a pattern, but it was rubbish as the armholes and neck were far too tight, in fact I couldn't even get it over my head. So, I unpicked the armholes and re-sewed them. 

Because this top was originally a skirt, the only way I could fit the pattern piece in was to have a seam in the back which was fine. I first wanted to unpick the first 8 inches or so from the seam and put a zip in. However, the zip I had in mind was metal, and so I felt that it was too heavy and would ruin the drape of the garment, so I still unpicked the 8 inches but just put a popper at the top. And there's me showing you what its like when I undo the popper. You also get a nice view of the bias binding.

I whipped up a bow belt to go with the outfit at lunch, an hour before these photos were taken. Lunch time now seems to be my hand sewing time. This belt was very similar to the one I made for my prom dress. It was made from the waistband of the skirt so it was already handily interfaced and fastened at the front with poppers.

That's everything so thank you for reading!

Oh and thanks again to Ainjiel for the photos!

Lauren x