Red Wool Blazer for "If the Shoe Fits" Project Sewn Challenge Week 3

 I've been looking for a cropped blazer to wear with all of my highwaisted stuff FOREVER. But they don't seem to exist any more so I adapted Deer and Does Pavot jacket pattern that I received for my birthday, my first indie pattern people! It is by no means perfect. The hem doesn't look even, the collar doesn't end at the right place and the buttonholes look disgusting. But I learnt how to do tons of new things. I've never bagged a jacket before, i've never made covered buttons before and I've never managed buttonholes that just work before now! So at least I've achieved something.

 I made the jacket cropped by just ignoring the skirt and waistband pattern pieces. In my muslin it was far too short, especially with the fact that I'd cut off the waistband and that I have a really long waist so I lengthened all the pattern pieces by 10cm which was perfect. My mock up didn't fit that well around the bust (whats new) and I stupidly discounted it for wearing ease. Now I wish I'd fit it properly.

Even though the pattern is unlined I didn't want to go to all the trouble of making a blazer without making it pretty inside. It was half guesswork and half looking at the pictures from these french instructions. Bagging a lining is like magic, it all works out, but ask me to explain how and I don't have a clue.

 I should probably talk about the shoes now. I NEVER wear high heels, for a number of reasons. a) I feel too young for heels. When I wear heels it's kinda like I'm playing dress up. b) I walk like a drunkard in theme even though I've never had a drop in my life (true story, alcohol smells DISGUSTING) and c) When/where would I wear them? School is a no-no. Parties are non-existent.

 But anyway, because I didn't own any shoes suitable for this challenge I asked Meghan who is the owner of many a wonderful pair of shoes if she had some I could borrow. These are perfect. I loved the red and navy colour scheme, which worked with the fabrics in my stash. Turns out grass is not the greatest texture to be walking on in stilettos. I guess you can see that I'm kinda a novice at this balancing thing, but I do feel kinda sassy in them when I'm stationary ;)

So in conclusion. This blazer was a great learning curve for me but lots of things let it down for me, mainly the fit, but hopefully I will get some wear out of it. The dotty dress was blogged about here. 

Thanks very much for reading, and voting for me in the last round!
And thanks very much to Meghan for letting me borrow her shoes and inspiring me to make this blazer in the first place!
Also thanks to Edward who took the photos in return for a marshmallow and chocolate sauce pancake which was a pretty good deal.
Lauren xx

Dotty Woven Strips Dress (for Project Sewn Make It Pink week)

Hello! This dress took a while, in fact I'm pretty sure I've never spent so long making anything, ever! The bodice was inspired by a woven strips sample that we did in our textiles lesson. When I saw that the 2nd round of Project Sewn is based on the colour pink, I thought oh, but I don't wear a lot of pink. This is true, I have next to none of it in my wardrobe. In my experience people either prefer pink or purple. I'm definitely a purple girl, but hey, I didn't want to miss out, so I did half pink and half white. However, I am slightly concerned about having a white skirt, being a dirt magnet and all... 

As usual, this project started off being nothing like what it finished as. In this instance I knew I wanted to use the woven strips technique (because it looks pretty cool) and it was going to be the front and back panels of a pencil skirt, the side panels being a contrasting white. I used 1m of pink polka dots and 1m of cotton jersey which when all stripped up and woven together only gave me a piece of fabric 50cm long, which is just a tad too short for a pencil skirt.

Back to the drawing board, I decided it would be suitable for a bodice. This bodice had to have darts in because no way was I going to match princess seams with these checks. (spoiler alert: i ended up matching up princess seams anyway). The darts weren't working out, I tried draping a darted bodice, instructions from a draping book that I recieved for my birthday (thanks Aunty Maureen and Uncle Mike!) but it didn't quite work out, and this was saturday. I didn't have time to mess around fixing it. I then turned to the darted bodices of the commercial patterns that I own. Long story short: when it says size 6 on the envelope IT'S LYING. Plus, I'm not keen on darts in bodices. I can never get rid of the pointy effect. So, in the end I just decided to use Very Easy Very Vogue 8651, cutting it off at the waist.

I then had to cut fairly big chunks out of the centre front and sides but it's Saturday lunch time and I have a muslin that fits! Yay! I then marked 5/8s from where I'd pinned it and then unpicked all of the seams (apart from the centre front) I then stitched the centre back pieces together so that was less pattern matching to worry about. This meant that I'd put my zip on the side seam instead of the back. The neckline then had to be lowered so I could get it over my head (this was post-picture) I then cut it out of my woven strips fabric but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to pattern match curved seams. Is it even possible?! Anyway, In the end I just decided to do what I could and its not the best but hey-ho.

After cutting out the bodice pieces from my "woven strips fabric" I decided to underline it with some white cotton from an old sheet because it was a bit gappy. The issue that I then came across was how thick all of the layers are! If you think about it, each strip was ironed under 1cm and there are 2 strips on each square of the fabric. Add in this extra cotton layer and it was properly thick, impossible to pin! The neckline and the armholes were a bit of the issue and are not perfect. I used bias binding to finish the neckline, and this was okay as I only slipstitched it to the cotton underlining. The arm holes I just clipped the curves and turned over once. Not the prettiest but it worked.

One thing I should have done was sewn each strip down to make the fabric stable instead of just zigzaging the edges of each bodice piece because the strips keep folding over to the wrong side. I can always slip stitch them down when I have some spare time. For the skirt, I just cut out a circle skirt and attached it to the bodice. Ta-da and I'm done. Finally.

All in all, I really enjoyed this project, and thank you Project Sewn for helping me dream it up!

Thank you very much to Alex for gifting me the spotty fabric as my birthday present, this wouldn't have happened without you!

Thanks very much to Edward, my younger brother for taking the photos! He hasn't demanded any payment for them yet (which is good because I've run out of haribo!)

Thanks very much for reading!

Lauren xx

Bridget Bardot Inspired Floral Trousers

When I learnt that the first week of Project Sewn's theme was fashion icons, I asked Dad for a list of names (turns out he is surprisingly knowledgeable about this sort of thing) and he obliged. I then turned to pinterest and looked at pics of all of the people whose names had been given to me. The lady who's style I liked the best was Bridget Bardot. I loved her dotty trousers and gingham skirt (both found on my pinterest sewing inspiration board) but I decided to make my own version of her floral trousers.

Image found here: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/293578469431417853/

The pattern I used was Style 1836, which came in a size 6 so I thought this would be the most likely of my trouser patterns to fit me. I was wrong.

This was what my mock-up looked like. Wasn't really going for the clown look. Oh and I do apologise for the state of my room. What can I say, I just get so absorbed in all the sewing side of things, tidiness is much further down the priority list) And by the way, sewing fly front zips is such a doddle now! I get really scared of trying something new, but I just need to go for it.

Luckily the crotch parts seemed okay, so I pinned a huge chunk out of the side seams.

This I was happy with, so I unpicked the left hand side of the mock-up and cut out my fabric using that as my pattern piece.

The floral fabric is a cotton poplin that I picked out from the Remnant House. I love wearing the trousers with an over-sized jumper and my brown boots. They go really well over tights at the moment, but will also work without for spring and summer. Apologies for the whole sun situation that I'm having there.

All in all I love these trousers to bits and have worn them a countless number of times already. These are one of those pieces that just make me feel confidant to strut down the street in, wearing them makes me feel good and instantly lifts my mood. This is what I sew for.

Thanks very much for reading!
Lauren xx

Woven Plantain T-Shirt

Well, the day of the competition closing was drawing closer and closer, and I didn't have time to order fabric online. So to the charity shops I went, and this is what I found, a size 26 tunic in a really pretty fabric. (To put that into context I'm a size 6/8) The skirt was gathered with only side seams so there was plenty of fabric for a T-Shirt. I thought it was perfect so I paid 3.99 for it and went home and cut it out. Then I went, hang on idiot, this fabric isn't jersey, it's viscose. I felt pretty stupid right then. BUT, it worked out okay, so it's all good! And by the way, trying to open up the ironing board silently at 11.30pm when the family is asleep (i should have been too) was an incredibly difficult feat.

The pattern that I used, was of course the free Plantain T-Shirt from Deer and Doe. I left the ruffle on for the bottom of the t-shirt pieces  and the rest of the ruffle I improvised some sleeves with. Surprisingly, these worked out okay!

I am really happy with this make. I love the fabric, and I love the little ruffle cap sleeves and  hem. Thankfully they already had a rolled hem so that shortened the time this make took considerably! Hopefully I have a shot in the Plantain competition!

Right, got to dash, past my bed time!
Thanks very much for reading, and to Catherine who was an angel taking the photos in the rain today and getting freezing hands!
Lauren xx

Gold Colour Block Maxi

 An old friend of my mothers came over for lunch and I showed her my blog and everything and was moaning about the lack of need for maxi dresses. Her response to that was to invite my family to a black tie dinner, and this was the dress that I made for that occasion. I started with a tee-shirt block from Wendy Mullins' Sew U Home Stretch which I've used before for my dotty knit dress and floral tank.

 The key features are the colour-blocked sweetheart neckline, elastic waist and side split. The fabrics are black jersey (2.50pm) and gold/black printed jersey (6.50pm). Seeing as I only used half a metre of the black jersey this dress only cost me around 8.50 in total, including elastic.

Please don't notice the fact that I used bias binding as a ribbon because I have no idea where I put my actual black ribbon!

So, getting on to how I made it! 

Trace your existing pattern piece onto a new piece of paper (I use greaseproof/baking paper) and draw where you want your sweetheart neckline to be. Bear in mind that both the back and the front pieces are cut on the fold.

Add seam allowance to where you have just cut on each piece. I masking taped some more greaseproof paper underneath so I could do this. Then make a mock up to see if it looks like the way you want it. 

I then put my pattern piece to my mannequin and drew a line across where the armpit started. This I then drew onto the back piece so the colour blocking would be level all of the way round. Then I cut where the line was and added seam allowances, as I did with the front piece. Now the bodice is ready to be cut out of the main fabric!

I put the back yoke on top of the lower back piece right sides together and sewed across the top. This seam was then opened, and the seam allowance topstitched down. I repeated this with the front pieces.

The skirt was 2 rectangles the same width as the bottom of the bodice pieces. Make sure this measurement is bigger than your hip measurement. The side seams were sewn together and the bodice was put inside the skirt so the right sides of the skirt and the bodices touched. The waist seam was sewn and I then stretched a piece of elastic the size of my waist around the waist seam and sewed that down. 

I then tried it on and realised that a split was needed for any moveability so I unpicked the bottom half of one of the side seams. I then made bias binding from a strip on the bias. This strip was folded in half, stitched right sides together to the neckline and armholes and pressed upwards so that the seam was hidden inside. This could also be top-stitched. Just sewn the hem and you're done!

I layered the dress over a black long sleeved tee so that's why the armholes and the neckline look a bit funny!

Ok, so maybe I unpicked a bit more than half of the side seam...

Hopefully that all makes sense! 

Thanks so much for reading!

Lauren xx