Purple Culotte Playsuit

I'm a huge advocate of dresses. They are my favourite thing to wear. However, most of my social gatherings are spent on the floor playing monopoly and I tend to have issues keeping everything covered. This is where the miracle of culottes come in. Now I've made this playsuit, I'm not sure I'll be making a full skirt any time soon! 

I drafted the culottes from Helen Joseph Armstrongs book on patternmaking. It was really interesting to learn that you use A-Line skirts as a base for culottes as opposed to the trouser block. Weird, huh! For the top half I used the T-Shirt block from Sew U Home Stretch by Wendy Mullin. To make the culottes suitable to wear as a playsuit I lowered the crotch by 1/2 inch. I also slashed and spread my culottes at the top so they'd match up with the waist circumference of the bodice part. I then stretched elastic the size of my waist into the waist seam to bring it in at that point. Before the elastic went in, the whole ensemble just looked wrong.

For the neckline and the arm holes I cut strips of fabric 1 1/2 inches wide and not as long as the actual neckline and the arm holes, folded them in half width ways, overlocked right sides together and pressed upwards a la Lady Skater which worked a treat.

What makes this playsuit so comfortable is the knit fabric it's made from. I think it's a single jersey of some kind, a remnant inherited from my Grandmas stash. I think I got the whole playsuit out of 1m or so. What's interesting about it is that there's a plain side and a sparkly side. After a heated debate with myself I went for the plain side because I want to wear it as much as possible and I just wouldn't wear it so much if it was sparkly. 

The culottes were originally about 5 inches longer but it just looked wrong so I chopped it off. Perhaps if I made them fuller they would look more like a skirt and then they'd look okay longer. Something to try for next time, because of course there is going to be a next time.

And now I've said everything that I have to say about this playsuit and  I'm going to bombard you with the pictures Emma, Darren and I took last night and had so much fun while doing so. 

My grapes, please?

I bet you can't see me behind this tree...

3, 2, 1...

BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Piggy-back proof? Check.

Hear me ROOOOOOAAAARRRRR!

Run Forest, ruuuuuuuunnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me and the photographers :)

Okay, that's it! Thanks so much for reading and to Darren and Emma for taking such brilliant photos!

Lauren xx

Lace Bomber Jacket

 Here is my lace bomber jacket as promised! Although, I think the bomber jacket look would have been a lot more successful if I'd used navy ribbing for the hem band and cuffs. I do like it how it is though. I used the same pattern that I did for my black hoodie which is based off the baseball tee pattern in Wendy Mullins book Sew U Home Stretch, omitting the hood.

 To make the hoodie cropped I folded the hem band to the width it'd be when attached, put it where the waist was marked on the front and back patterns and drew a line where it ended. I completely misjudged this, making it far too short so had to make the hem band wider than it was supposed to be. I also took it in a fair bit at the back because it was pretty baggy back there.

 And a close up of the lace which I am just so in love with. I ended up using around a metre of lace and a metre of navy ponte so I have loads left, so a lace lady skater has been planned for when it gets colder. All the seams were sewn with my overlocker making for a very neat finish inside. I hand picked the zip and slip-stitched the hem to make sure that they were just right.

I love how versatile this little jacket is. My favourite outfit combo is probably with the deck chair dress.

That's pretty much all I have to say about this little number! It's back to school tomorrow so less sewing time for me :( I did manage to do a whole load of it this week though which was good.

Thanks so much for reading and to Ed for taking half of the photos and to Iona to taking the other half!

I hope the week ahead of you is a good one!

Lauren xx

Deck Chair Dress

Hi everyone, I hope you're having a good weekend so far! As my exams are now finished and I don't have to go back to school yet, I've been able to have a load of quality time with my sewing machine which has been fabulous. This dress was on my capsule wardrobe list which I though i'd better make a start on seeing as August is only a few months away. The fabric was bought at Leicester market for 3 pounds a metre. This dress used pretty much the whole of the 2 metres. In total including the bias binding I used to hem it and the invisible zip the dress cost around 9 pounds which isn't half bad really. The bodice is fully lined with an ever so soft white cotton that was in my stash courtesy of my Grandma. 

For the bodice I used my bodice sloper but played around a bit with dart manipulation. The pattern on the left is my sloper with the normal dart placement and the pattern on the right shows where the dart ended up to give the V shape on the bodice. I did this for the back as well.

Fitwise my sloper is getting there. I'm happier with the bust dart placement now, it was far too high before. The armholes are a bit tight so I'll take more off the pattern piece at the armhole curve. The skirt is basically a huge gathered trapezium. It hangs beautifully when the wind isn't pushing it around.

Now, stripe-matching-wise there were some good seams and there were some not so good seams. Funnily, although I'm doing the "check out my stripe matching skills pointing thing" I'm doing it to the seam that isn't quite perfect as opposed to the seam on the other side of the bodice where the stripe matching actually is perfect. Oh well. The stripes were actually running vertically along the selvedge and as I much prefer horizontal stripes I just cut everything on the cross grain instead which seemed to work okay.

Here's a gander at the lined bodice. The white is a bit see-through but that's alright, it does it's job of enclosing all the seams so it's fine.

This picture would be be twirling to show you the fullness of the skirt. However my sense of direction isn't at it's best while twirling so I'm twirling steadily out of frame. Whoops!

Next up I'm working on my lace bomber jacket and here's a sneaky peek at the fabrics I'm using. Isn't the lace just droolworthy?!?!

That's all for now folks! I'm off to enjoy my week of lie-ins and sewing.

Thanks so much for reading and to Dad for taking the photos!

Lauren xx

Strapless Maxi

 Hi! Today I have to share with you my latest project, a floral strapless maxi dress. This dress wasn't made for any particular purpose, but just because I wanted to. My exams are all done, I've sewn a lot of cake and now it's time for some frosting. This dress has undergone a great many transformations from my original design which was inspired by this picture found on pinterest. However when I adapted my sloper to fit with this design it just didn't work with my body shape. My shoulders are too rounded for the straps to sit properly. Then there was plan B which involved cutting off straps and making it a halterneck bodice instead. This didn't work out because there was far too much gape-age exactly where there shouldn't be so I abandoned that and went onto plan C, which is the dress you see before you.

The bodice I used was this one from Lekala from which I cut off the straps. The skirt is a full gathered one from style 1004 which I also used for last years prom dress. I'm really happy with the fit which is pretty much spot on. 

Because the dress is strapless I added boning to all of the bodice seams apart from the centre back where the zip went. This was done by sewing it directly into the pressed open seams on the lining which I used calico for to give it some sturdiness because the crepe is very slippery and lightweight. Sorry I can't get the rotation how it's supposed to be but you get the idea. 

I'm really pleased with the construction of the dress. Every piece was overlocked first because the crepe frayed like crazy and all of the bodice seams are hidden by the lining. My hair by the way, I curled with straws last night. It works surprisingly well! The flower crown I made with fake flowers for prom last year.

When I tried on the strapless bodice muslin I was concerned about how flat I looked in my already not-very-endowed chest. After reassurances from friends I realised that I need to stop trying to make my body fit the worlds beauty standards. So what if this dress doesn't make my chest look big? I still like how it looks, and that's all that matters. 

The dress in total used 5 metres of fabric, making it my most expensive garment to date, totaling at 25 pounds. The fabric I found here, even though it's polyester the print was just too gorgeous to say no to. The colours are just amazing.

I really love how my hair looks fake bobbed in this photo. Will bear that in mind later for future reference.

I love how the dress looks like a jumpsuit here. 

Above all, I just love how HAPPY this dress makes me. And thats what clothes are for. Yes they are also to make sure that you don't go to prison for indecent public exposure, but for me they are more than that. They give me the confidance to be the best version of me that I can be. 

Thanks so much for reading!

Lauren xx

Holiday Capsule Wardrobe Planning

This summer my family and I are going on a holiday of a lifetime to Australia for 3 weeks: 4 days in Singapore, a week in Perth, a week in Sydney and the rest at the Great Barrier Reef. This adds up to 21 days of travelling. When I travel, instead of picking up fridge magnets and key rings as souvenirs I pick up fabric, and I have been assured that Singapore at least is a treasure trove for fabric. I was slightly concerned about fitting all of my new fabric in my suitcase to take home with me so my plan is to take a practically empty suitcase to fill up as we go from place to place.

 This called for a capsule wardrobe. My challenge is to wear a different outfit for each of the 21 days from 13 pieces of clothing. This will be made more difficult by Singapore's summer weather and Australia's winter weather. The reason I'm planning so far ahead is because I actually only possess 2 of the 13 pieces of clothing. If it makes it slightly better I do own the fabric for 5 of the 11 remaining pieces. Plus I own all of the patterns apart from 1 so that isn't too bad.

Whilst planning and preparing my capsule wardrobe I focused on a specific colour palette. White and navy are my neutrals. Olive is my nearly neutral and purple and other blues are my accent colours. 

Outerwear (row 1)
For my outerwear I've chosen to make a navy lace bomber jacket (underlined with a ponte knit). For this I'm going to use the hoodie pattern from Sew U Home Stretch without the hood.
I already own an olive jacket but because it's supposed to be a mens jacket it has no waist definition so I do want to sew bias binding around where my natural waistline hits so I can thread cord through it.
 The last item of outerwear is going to be a purple Victoria blazer which is the item that I need to buy the pattern for. I'm planning to make this out of purple ponte for comforts sake and to minimise wrinkles from being in a suitcase.

Tops (row 2)
I chose to use shirts instead of t-shirts because I feel more together in them and also because I can tuck them into skirts and knot them on top of dresses making them super versatile. I already have a refashioned white shirt and am planning to make the navy one using the archer pattern using a navy bed-sheet I found in the charity shop for 2.50. I'm also planning to make a bustier using an amazing navy and green floral fabric found in the charity shop for 3.99 for 2 metres. Obviously I couldn't let that one go. I'm also planning to make matching shorts to go with it so it can be a super cute playsuit.

Bottoms (row 3)
I'm planning to make 2 basic half circle skirts in ponte knit which will be super comfy and easy to travel in. Highwaisted jeans are also on the cards as I love wearing jeans, but only high-waisted ones work on my and I don't currently own any! I have some size 18 jeans from the charity shop which cost 3.50 and I'm going to cut a new pair out of.

Dresses (row 4)
The first dress will be a classic fit and flare dress using my sloper and I'm really looking forward to doing some interesting dart manipulation with the stripes on the bodice. The navy dress is gathered into a yoke with an A line silhouette. I've been really wanting these looser dresses for hot days so this should be perfect. The purple dress is the same kinda thing apart from the angled yoke and the cross over straps. I'm planning to use this awesome purple tie-dye fabric that I inherited from my Grandma. Both dresses I'm planning to draft using my sloper as a base.

I did some basic drawings on photoshop all drawn to fit a croquis so could create outfits by making the things I wanted visible and the things I didn't want visible could be made invisible. To see how useful certain items would be I created every outfit possible with them. The items that could only be worn with a few items were nixed. I'm so sad that the wide legged polka dot linen trousers didn't make it. They were going to be SO GOOD. Maybe when I've finished making all of this lot...

Here's an example of the outfits I made to go with the white shirt.

That's all my thoughts on capsule wardrobes so far. Expect to see some of these items cropping up in the near future!
Thanks so much for reading!
Lauren xx