Paisley Zeena Dress

Hi everyone! Today I have to show you my first post-op make. For those of you who don't know, I had my upper and lower jaw broken in surgery 2 and a half weeks ago to correct my overbite. The swelling has gone down a fair bit, but there is still a way to go. It's weird to look at these pictures, because I haven't quite come to terms with my new face and smile yet but I have to remind myself that it's not about my face, it's about the dress!

So, this is my version of By Hand London's latest pattern; the Zeena dress. I thought the pattern would be great with several of the fabrics in my stash but it turned out that I didn't have enough of any of the fabrics to make the dress. The only thing to do was to buy some new fabric! I was looking for viscose for the drapyness and found this paisley beauty on ebay. 2m of it promptly ended up in my basket.

My overlocker had decided to give up on keeping the thread in any fabric it stitched through so it was out of action. That meant that I had to find other ways of finishing the seams. I was originally going to do french seams for everything, but after french seaming the bodice to the skirt the pleats were all out of sync which just wouldn't do. Instead I sewed the seam right sides together as normal, lining up the pleats properly that time. Then I trimmed the seam allowance of the skirt piece, folding the bodice seam allowance on top over it and slipstitching. I think the weight of the zip is dragging the waistline down in the center so maybe next time I should add a waist stay?

After playing around with finding enough fabric for the pocket pieces, I got carried away with french seaming the side seam, completely forgetting about the pockets existence. I'd already unpicked one french seam, and I decided to sacrifice the pockets rather than unpicking another. 

 The center back seam allowances were pressed open, the raw edges tucked under and slipstitched for a clean finish. For the hem I tried something new. I machined a line of stitching 1cm from the edge and ironed it so the line was visible from the wrong side of the dress. That made it super easy to turn the raw edge under and slipstitch. There was a lot of slipstitching in this project.

The neckline was far too low for me so I remedied that by cutting quite a wide bias strip from the scraps to make a neckband, which was sewn right sides together. I folded the raw edge under about 0.5cm and ironed. That edge was then slipstitched to the wrong side of the dress to create a neckband. Ideally I should have inserted the zip before the neckband for a cleaner finish but I was in a hurry to see whether it would work or not!

After sewing the invisible zip in as I usually do I was disappointed with how visible it was. So, I thought I'd try sewing it again, trying to get closer to the teeth. Having 2 lines of stitching made all the difference. I've lost a bit of weight from having a liquid diet (4 weeks to go!) so I made a tie belt to cinch it in a bit.

I cut the skirt to the longest length, but removed 2 inches which ended up being used for the tie belt. I love the pleats, and I think it would be interesting to make the dress in a slightly heavier fabric and see how it sits.

That's all for now! Thanks very much for reading and to Dad for taking photos!

Lauren xx

Border Print Holly Dress

 Hello all! Today I have to show you the summer dress of summer dresses: my border print Holly dress. I don't wear a lot of green, but I've been consciously trying to change that. When I saw this fabric in one of the department stores in Hamburg in the Easter holidays, 2m for £10 I had to snap it up.

I knew that it had to be a dress with a full, gathered skirt to fully show off the border print but I had a couple of different options for the bodice. I ended up choosing the cowl neck bodice from the By Hand London Holly jumpsuit pattern. It was a good choice, because I think it goes so well with a gathered skirt! 

The skirt is cut on the cross-grain so I could display the border print properly. The border print was on both sides of the fabric so I just cut straight down the middle. The skirt is longer than I usually go for, but it's a very elegant length. I like it.

 The bodice was slightly sheer, so I decided to line it with a white cotton. As to not disrupt the cowl, I pleated the cowl as marked in the front bodice in the fashion fabric, and then cut around that for the lining piece, so it lies flat. The back pieces are exactly the same as the fashion fabric. Using the darker part of the fabric for the straps was a good plan. I love the contrast.

 I didn't make a mock up, and the sides ended up being taken in quite a bit, but other than that I'm quite happy with the fit. The top of the bodice gapes a bit, so next time I'd probably place the strap slightly towards the centre on each side. I do really like this dress, and it's a shame that the weather hasn't been nicer so I could wear it more.

Thanks so much for reading and to Ed for taking the pictures!

Lauren xx

Emerald Swimsuit

Hi Everyone! When choosing the fabric for my August Minerva make I thought that I'd hope the best for the weather and brave some foreign waters with swimsuit making. This was such a fun project to figure out. I'd forgotten how much I love drafting patterns. I decided to self draft the bikini top, because I couldn't find any patterns with the design that I wanted. Although, please note that all of the following steps were completely improvised, and are by no means the 'proper' way of doing things. The fact that the lycra has so much stretch means that fitting is a tad easier! The lycra has a matte and shiny side, and I used the matte. 

 As I don't have a swimsuit block, I thought the quickest way to get one was to use one of my existing swimming costumes as a base. So, I folded the swimming costume at the centre front and pinned it to the pattern paper. I pinned exactly on the lines of the side seam so I could join the dots when the cozzie was unpinned. Then I had a basic template to adapt. I then drew the style lines that I wanted; a V neck and a separate bust section, ending up with 2 pattern pieces.

However, there was still a bit to do with the pattern, because I wanted some gathering detail at the bust, so I slashed and spread the cup pattern piece for some extra fullness. Then I checked that the pattern piece covered the cups included in the kit. They were more solid than I was expecting them to be, but they do offer a lot of security. After that I added seam allowance, grainlines etc. and cut them out of my emerald lycra! Below is what the 3 front bodice pieces looked like when cut out.

Then it was time to sew them together! I was really impressed with the quality of the clear elastic, as previous experience with different brands weren't so positive. I first gathered the cups with my serger, but then decided that it would actually be more sensible to do that with the elastic, so I did that instead. I also used the elastic to stabilise the V-neck. When the front was sewn together, I folded that in half. pinned it to the fabric and cut out the back that way. The back was sewn at the side seams to the front and straps of a random length were cut and sewn on to be trimmed down later.

I then cut out all of the bodice bodices again, to serve as a lining. When I had 2 identical tops I pinned them right sides together and sewed all around the top of the back, the armholes, the straps and the front so that all of the inside seams would be hidden. Then I turned everything out the right way, and put the cups between the 2 layers. The hem was overlocked with elastic to stabilize it and turned over and top-stitched. Oh, and all around the top of the swimsuit was also top-stitched. Then the top was done!

For the bottoms I originally tried Ooh Lulu's free pattern for July; the Hilda bike shorts. They were a complete palava to sew, and in the end I decided that they didn't work for me. So then I tried So Zo's free pants pattern which had a really easy to follow tutorial. I did lengthen them so they would hit higher up the waist for a more vintage vibe. I accidentally printed them not-to-scale but I hoped that would work in my favour as I'm normally a size 6 anyway. It did at the waist, but I needed some extra fabric at the leg holes. Remembering Kitschy Coo's barrie briefs I decided that binding was the way to go. It worked, and is barely noticeable!

The bottoms ended up looking quite good, but they are so uncomfortable to wear! Maybe there isn't enough coverage? But I am really pleased with how the top turned out, although I do wish that I had gotten a sharper point at the V-neck. Unfortunately I won't be able to wear my new swimsuit for a while because I had a jaw operation last week on my lower and upper jaw, so am currently recovering from that!

That's all for now folks! Thanks for reading, to Minerva Crafts for the fantastic kit and Edward for taking photos!

Lauren xx

Tie dye turia dungarees

Hello all! I've been in a bit of a sewing rut lately. I'm on my summer holidays with tons and tons of spare time, but I haven't been able to get motivated enough to sew. I'm sure that after my operation that it will be all I want to do! However, it turns out that all I need is to force myself to get started on something and then my mojo is back. I cut these Turia's out on Saturday, sewed them up on Sunday and wore them on Monday! 

 I wear my floral Turia's all the time so I knew that it was about time to make another pair. I was planning to make a Zeena dress with this amazing tie dye fabric but there wasn't enough, so it went back into the cubby hole. I inherited the fabric from my Grandma  and it was originally a table cloth or sheet of some sort because all of the edges were finished. I used the finished edge for the top of the bib to save on fabric, and I had just enough to squeeze all the pattern pieces out.

 

The day when I leave for uni is fast approaching and I've realized that the clothes I wear everyday will be scrutinized by professionals, which has been a nudge to make everything as neat and tidy and proffessional looking as possible! The instructions call for flat-felled seams but I haven't had very good experiences with them in the past. Instead I did french seams for joining the bib and the inside of each leg seam. They were then top-stitched to look like  flat-felled seams. This worked really well, and I'd definitely use this method again. 

If I was going to all of the effort with french seams, I wanted the rest of the insides to be as nicely finished as possible too. Rather than change my overlocker to white I opted to do A LOT of handsewing, which probably took double the time it would have to rethread it. Oh well, they do look fab on the inside now. The sides of the bib were turned under twice and top stitched.

For the pockets, I trimmed away the seam allowance of the underlayer and folded the outer layer under, which was slip-stitched to give a clean finish. The pocket on the left was slipstitched all the way around to the trouser piece. The right hand pocket was left loose, and instead was just secured at the bottom left hand corner to keep it in place. It seemed a shame to have really nicely finished inner seams, but badly finished outer seams so I did a handstitched flat-fell seam for those.

 The curved seams at the back were turned under twice and slipstitched but I still did the top stitching, to fit in with 'the dungaree look'.

 I changed the pockets so they were front hip pockets instead of patch pockets, using the curve of the patch pocket piece as a guide. I think I prefer these to the patch pocket look. The straps are safety pinned on at the moment, until I can get hold of a silver dungaree clasp. I'm so happy with these dungarees! They are great for the slightly chillier summer weather as they still look summery but cover more skin,

 Thanks for reading and to Ed for taking pictures!
Lauren xx

Crop top and holly trousers combo

Hello! For this months Minerva make, I wanted to go a little bit out of my comfort zone and try something new. So, I had a crack at one of By Hand London's patterns, the Holly jumpsuit, using variation 3 for some wide legged trousers.

To complete the outfit, I made a little crop top to go with the trousers, using my bodice block and a gorgeous floral printed stretch cotton. To make it a tad more interesting I changed the neckline to a square in the front and back. The great thing is that for a crop top, you only need 1/2 a meter of fabric.

As it's a summer top I didn't want to add another layer for a lining, so I made some bias binding out of the scraps to finish the armholes and the neckline. That was handstitched into place to give a clean finish on the outside. I gave it a fairly deep hem so it would sit nicely.

And guys, these trousers are seriously awesome. I thought a linen and cotton blend would be a good choice for summer trousers, because it's really very light and airy. We learnt in textiles class that linen is thermo-regulating, meaning that it's good in hot environments. It is more expensive than cotton, but it's more environmentally friendly with little irrigation and energy to process the fibre. Linen is also the strongest of all the vegetable fibres, which in theory increases its lifespan so it doesn't need to be replaced as quickly, This linen is a fantastic shade of loganberry purple and drapes beautifully. I could see light through it when it was on the drying rack, but it seems to be fine when on my body! 

The trousers do obviously crease the minute you step out the door, but I do like the lived in look that linen has. The knees do bag out a bit throughout the day. The trousers themselves were very easy to put together, and were done in no time at all! I used a contrasting invisible zipper in the side seam for fun.  I'm so happy with the finished outfit, and I think the 2 fabrics co-ordinate really well together. I felt very suave swanning around wearing this in Winchester with Grandpa on Wednesday. Both pieces will be great for mixing and matching with other pieces in my wardrobe as well.

Thanks so much for reading, to Minerva Crafts for the fabulous fabrics and to Ed for taking pictures!
Lauren xx