Adventures in Block Printing!

Hello all! I have a really fun project to share with you today. I’ve been wanting to have a go at block printing for a while, so I requested some block printing inks from my wonderful boyfriend as my anniversary present and my trusty Mum pulled out some rollers and assorted printing stuff out of the garage and I was all set to go!

The whole process started with trawling through Pinterest and deciding what I liked. I was very determined about printing something that I would wear. I ordered some ‘soft carve’ and had a lot of fun carving various shapes out, but in the end I kept it simple and only used 3. I spent a day printing everything and anything onto a sheet, but it just didn’t make me happy, so the next day I started again, this time focusing on 3 floral shapes. I changed my smooth roller to a foam one, put more ink on and tried to keep from mixing colours too much. It turns out mixing your own colours can be quite the learning curve!

For my second attempt I cut out my pattern pieces out of the old sheet that I was using as a base for my printing, with a fairly big seam allowance. This meant that I could centre my printing around these areas, instead of spending unnecessary hours printing a whole sheet. It also meant that I could hopefully avoid flower boob. I stuck with the 3 primary colours that I had and when I was done I looked at it, and it just didn’t fill me with the pride and joy that I wanted to feel when looking at it. My friend MK and I had an emergency conference call about how to rescue it and it was decided that purely the use of the 3 primary colours made it fairly child like. Primary school like, if you will. Also, there was too much white space.

So after adding in a few more colours and filling up the space, this is what it looked like! I was much much happier with it.

The pattern I drafted was inspired by this dress on pinterest. I loved the gathers going into the ties around the neck, so I used that as the main feature for my design. I used my bodice sloper as a base, rotating out the waist and side seam darts into the shoulder. This fullness is then gathered up when it’s tied around my neck. The skirt I used my skirt block for, slashing and spreading for the desired amount of fullness. When cutting out, I cut the skirt on a grainline halfway between the bias and the straight grain for a slightly drapier effect.

I reckon that it took less time for me to sew together than it took for me to print it! The bodice is fully lined and bagged through the neckline and the lining is handsewn down at the waist seam. It is a very strange looking bodice shape. It reminds me of some rabbit books from my childhood?

I ended up narrowing the ties a bit, and also taking in the skirt at the waist because I was an idiot and forgot to check that the skirt and bodice waists actually measured the same. It was my first time putting in an invisible zip in ages, but it went fairly smoothly.

I’m so pleased with the bodice fit. No gaping in sight! My only fit niggle is that I wish I’d cut the back in two pieces so I could have taken it in at the CB. I cut it on the fold so the print wouldn’t be disrupted, but I could have easily sewn the backs together and printed on them then, so would probably do that next time.

All in all, it’s a very happy dress, and that’s exactly what I set out to achieve. Now the big question is, what am I going to print next?!

Thanks for reading!

Lauren xx

Linen Buttondown Skirt

Hello all!

I really don’t have that many skirts in my wardrobe and this was part of my effort to remedy that. I bought the Apparel Arts Building Patterns book a few months ago (which is a pattern drafting book) and I’ve been making my way through drafting all of the different blocks. This project was the push I needed to draft the skirt block from this book.

The pattern itself took no time to draft at all. It’s so nice to be able to use your measurements right from the start and know that it’s already going to fit better than a standard sized pattern. I extended the CF slightly to allow for the buttons and then it was time for cutting out!

Fabric-wise I wanted to use leftover scraps of this blue linen, and I only just managed to eke the pattern pieces out by reducing the seam allowances from 1.5cm to 1cm. The sewing process went super quickly up until my housemate MK asked about pockets and I realised that it really needed them to make the skirt less boring. So then I went back to my linen, cut some pockets out, bagged them out with a nice floral lining, unpicked my side seams, topstitched them on and sewed my side seams back up. Voila, a much more interesting skirt.

The buttons are repurposed from another dress that I never wore. The bottom button is missing due to a piggyback scenario on the walk in which these photos were taken. I really think the pockets and the buttons make this skirt!

I do want to analyse these wrinkles from the back of the skirt and work out which issue they are indicating.

All in all, its a really solid summer skirt and has fit seamlessly into my wardrobe! I’m currently imaging a longer version with flowing side slits…

Thanks so much for reading!

Lauren xx

Stripy Linen Summer Dress

Hello all!

I made this dress all the way back in May out of a beautiful striped linen that I bought on holiday in New York last year. This was very high-stakes fabric and I really really wanted to make something out of it that I would love and wear for a very long time, which I think I’ve just about managed to do!

I’ve been wanting to make my own version of a dress that Chriselle wore in 2016 and I thought that this stripy linen would pair perfectly with the sleek design to create the perfect simple and sophisticated summer dress. I adapted my bodice block and added my skirt block as it was, just extending the length to mid calf. The bodice of my curtain dress is actually an updated version of this pattern. The longest part of the process was the cutting out! I wanted to make sure that the stripes matched up at the waist seam and at the side seams of the skirt.

My big mistake during the cutting out process was that I cut both the skirt front and back pieces on the fold, meaning that the zip would have to be in the side seam. This was an issue because my bodice goes past the side seam, in an effort to control gaping and to limit any boob exposure. To counter this I attached the bodice to the skirt up until the zip, and then an inch or so of the bodice is left free, which poppers to the skirt.

It’s strange how my scrubs sewing affected my personal sewing because I used the exact same method for my side slits! I made the hem quite deep to add weight to it so that it would hang more nicely. The bodice is finished with a facing (I used a scrap of white linen) and everything else was overlocked. There are 6 darts in total on the bodice, and I’m so pleased with how invisible they are!

It took a bit of fitting to get the bodice to be wearable, and it could do with a tad more now really. I lowered the neckline 3cm, took 6cm total from the neckline width using a 2 darts and took 10cm from the side seams of the skirt to make it slightly more fitted. I think the neckline could definitely do with more being taken out of it, and the side of the bodice is still gapier than I would like. I tried to combat the side gaping by adding siilicone backed elastic to each side of the bodice but I think I need to stretch it slightly more for it to work.

All in all, I love this dress. It really is the perfect holiday dress and I am so excited to eventually wear it in the sun and by the sea at some exotic location. When I finished the dress I was slightly concerned about giving off a Joseph in the nativity wearing his mum’s tea towel vibe, but I think I’ve just about managed to escape it! I’d love to make a more glamorous silk version in the future.

Thanks so much for reading!

Lauren xx

Floral Gilbert Top

Hello all!

Today I have to show you my version of the newly released Helen’s Closet Patterns Gilbert top , for which I was part of the Quality Assurance team for last month! I made View A out of a floral cotton lawn remnant which was left over from a dress that I made for a show last year. I always tie up the fronts of my shirts, so it’s great that that detail is incorporated into the pattern!

It was so nice to follow pattern instructions for once, instead of making it all up as I go along! Helen’s instructions were super easy to follow and it was great just relax and enjoy the sewing process. It’s a fairly simple top to make, but with enough details in it that you really feel like you’ve achieved something when you’ve got a finished top sitting in front of you.

I’ve found myself reaching for it on the super sunny days where I just want something light and breezy to throw on, and the fact that it goes perfectly with my new shorts just seals the deal! I was a bit worried that my fabric choice was a bit vintage-y for me but I actually love this outfit and feel really fresh wearing it.

In terms of changes that i’d make next time, I’d potentially shorten the sleeves and the body slightly. At the moment the ties rests nicely on my waist point and the side seams rest on my hip, so I would potentially shorten it so the side seam hem hits closer to my waist proportion wise. Or I can just tie it as tight as I feel that day as demonstrated below, tucking the ties up.

Thank you so much for reading and to Helen for having me as part of the QA team!

Lauren xx

Silk Backless Playsuit Refashion

Hello all!

Todays one is a fun one. When Portia announced that #refashioners2020 was all about using what you have, I had a good rummage in my ‘to refashion’ box and dug out the remains of my Summer Ball Dress, sewn in 2016. (Click here to read the rather entertaining blog post I wrote about it at the time). To make things a little harder, a few years ago I decided to cut up said Summer Ball Dress and make it into something inspired by this dress. Unfortunately my version turned out rather buttock skimming and so was deemed innapropriate to wear around the house in. Then last summer I wanted to make some light silky shorts to wear to the beach, so I took my tent dress and cut some shorts out of it. So, what was I working with at this point? A pair of green shorts, the 2 triangles I used as the bodice pieces for my ball dress and the remnants of the tent dress.

This was the action plan: Use the shorts as they were. Draft a bodice pattern with gathered underbust bits and a shaped midriff panel for the front, and just 2 narrow side back pieces attached to a shirred back panel attached to the shorts. I actually ended up designing it to be backless because I didn’t have a zip, but I did have some shirring elastic!

This ended up being what I’d call a ‘dirty’ make. It wasn’t about nicely finished insides, it was about being creative and making an idea a reality. (Think the refashioning round of the sewing bee). As a result, the insides are horrendous but I had a lot of fun troubleshooting as I went along putting it together. I managed to get my bodice front pieces out of the triangles as I’d hoped. The sleeves I had to piece several times, but I didn’t mind because it’s all in the spirit of refashioning.

Sewing it all together went fairly smoothly. I played around with the bodice gathers a bit, and if I were to make this again I’d look at leaving the CF a bit clearer and focusing the gathers more under each breast.

I’m having a bit of a moment with backless things at the minute and so I’m completely in love with the deep rectangular cut out. It sat absolutely fine before I sewed the sleeves in but unfortunately the weight of the sleeves pull the shoulders down, hence the annoying but really very necessary back ties. You can see some of the sleeve piecing if you look very hard at the photo below.

It was so nice that the shorts were already hemmed so all the handfinishing that I had to do was to slipstitch the neckline binding down!

I’ve not really got much more about this make to say really. I had a lot of fun putting it together, and it’s so comfy and breezy to wear in this heat!

Thank you for reading!

Lauren xx