Top 5 Hits 2015

Lauren Digby December 30, 2015

It's this time of year again! Top 5 is the brainchild of Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow and it's purpose is a look back at our sewing achievements this year. I'm going to start with what I consider my best makes of 2015 to be. Apologies in advance as I could only narrow it down to 9. I'm so proud of all of these makes.

I'm going from the start of the year chronologically. Watch how much my face changes pre-op and post-op! This 'Joseph Skirt' was a fairly simple make. It's just a basic skirt, but I am pretty proud of the construction in this make. It was lined, and I really made an effort with stripe matching etc. It's been worn many many times this year, probably because as it has every colour in it, it goes with everything! It was a little big to start with, but that actually turned out pretty well because I like to wear it in winter with fairly thick jumpers which you need a bit more ease for.

As with last year, the rest of my favourite makes are from May onwards. My 'Leavers Ball Dress' was an obvious contender. I definitely 'skilled up' for this make. The bodice was the first thing I've draped and I really love the design. There was so much thinking and planning involved working out how I wanted to stripes to look on the bodice, whether I wanted pleats in the skirt to match with the bodice etc. It was probably the most time I'd ever spent on a personal project with draping the bodice and making all of the flowers which is an achievement in itself. It's not perfect, and I wish the finishing on the inside was better but I love the finished garment and can't wait to wear it again.

Next up is another garment made from silk! (What can I say, I've really spoiled myself this year). I had to include my 'Culotte Jumpsuit' because it makes me feel so damn fabulous when I wear it. Enough said.

'My First Quilt' had to make it here because I'd never made anything like it before on that kind of scale. It was really nice to pop upstairs and join a couple of squares together in between revision. It made my uni room look instantly like home. I loved that I could put a penguin, dinosaur, moose and elephant in each corner. It's definitely not perfect, but I love it to bits.

Next up is my 'Whose line is it anyway' top. I love the design of this top, I love the fabric, I love the fit. I just love everything about this top. Because I live in England and it's definitely a top for summer it didn't get a lot of wear, but I'm holding out for a heatwave next year.

I added my 'Sashiko Francoise' to the list because I think it's the biggest transformation I've accomplished from raw materials to a garment. A tablecloth was dyed blue, hours were spent stitching a design onto the fabric, then the whole sewing process of cutting, fitting and sewing together started. There were a lot of processes involved in the make and I love how it turned out.

And now we've come to the 3rd and final silk garment of this roundup. In this 'Silk dress with tuck details' I especially love how luxurious it is. I've worn it to a special occasion and for standard days at uni. I want to get as much wear out of this dress as possible because I love the design, fabric and fit of it. It makes me happy to wear and so why shouldn't I wear it as much as possible.

My second pair of Ginger Jeans are my last hit of the year. Now I'm not in a suit 5 days a week my lifestyle has become a lot more casual and these jeans suit it perfectly. They aren't perfect but I'm getting there!

My 'hits' for this year have been a nice mix of vintage patterns, indie patterns and self drafted patterns which I think is great. I've definitely tried to make an effort with finishing the insides in a nicer way this year and on the whole I think I've achieved that. I'm still not 100% done figuring out my personal style, but all of the above photos are very me, which is a good start!

Thanks for reading,

Lauren xx

Boxing day dress

Lauren Digby December 26, 2015

Hello all! Today we went to the beach for a boxing day walk and I thought it would provide the perfect background for this dress. I started it at 11.58am to be ready to wear at 2.30pm for Star Wars on Tuesday and I did make it out of the door, albeit with a pinked hem. We went to a 'Kinema in the woods' which I thought would be a great backdrop for the dress, forgetting that it would be almost pitch black when we got there. But it's okay, because this dress got its moment on the beach today!

With all the TV I've been watching there's a lot of advert time to do some hand sewing in, so the hem got stitched up Thursday night and it was ready for photos! I used my bodice block with a little extra at the side seams as a result of all the baking I've been doing at uni and paired it with a quarter circle skirt.

I was in the mood for an A-line skirt and a quarter circle skirt seemed to be the simplest way to draft one. I love the drape of the skirt (which is a little obstructed by the wind here) and I'm glad that I didn't draft an A line skirt in the traditional sense. The fabric is a lovely brushed cotton which I believe cost £8 per metre from Goldhawk Road. Add £1 for an invisible zip and you have a £9 dress.

There is a slight V neckline in the back for the simple reason that my zip wasn't long enough. I love a bit of a V back though, so it's not a problem. The neckline and armholes are finished with bias binding which as usual is slip-stitched into place. I find that these days I want my makes to be one step above ready to wear and hand sewing is often one of the ways to achieve that finish.

I hope that everybody is having a lovely holiday with plenty good food and sewing time.

Thanks for reading and to Edward for lugging his camera bag around the beach!
Lauren xx

Loungewear: Drapey top and sweatpants

Lauren Digby December 16, 2015

Hello all! When I was choosing my Minerva projects I was thinking about the holes in my wardrobe and I realised that I lacked loungewear for after uni and the weekends when I'm just chilling in halls. So, I found this grey knit fabric for some Hudson pants and picked out a floral jersey for a loose t-shirt.

The top was copied from a RTW top I've owned for years and really needs replacing now It's really simple with 2 seams and dolman sleeves which makes it really quick to sew up. Or rather it would have been really simple to sew up without all of the adjustments I had to make.

It ended up being a tad too tight pretty much everywhere for some reason, so I had to unpick all of the seams and sew them at a smaller seam allowance. I also added some triangular gussets to the side seams to give me more room in the hips. After those adjustments I'm really happy with it. The jersey fabric is really soft which makes for a really comfortable top that you don't really realise that you're wearing.

I used hemming tape for the first time for the hem and the sleeve hems and it's amazing! I've come to the point where I like all of my garments to have a hem but hems can go very wrong in jersey. This tape stabilizes it and makes it look a lot more polished.

For the sweatpants I went up 2 sizes as I wasn't convinced that they would be stretchy enough in my regular size and thank goodness I did because this size is perfect for this fabric. 1 side is softer than the other so I made sure that the softer side was next to my skin for maximum comfort. I've been wearing this outfit all day and I am so so comfy! I think both the top and the bottoms will get to the top of the most worn list very quickly.

Thanks for reading, to Ed for taking photos and to Minerva Crafts for supplying all of the materials in this kit!

Lauren xx

Stripey knit dress

Lauren Digby December 1, 2015

Hello all! I liked my knit dress from a couple of weeks ago so much that I decided to make another, with a few modifications.

I'm quite particular about striped fabric and for me the perfect stripe is the thinner white stripe widely spaced on a navy background. I've been looking for this kind of stripe for a while and was so excited to find it at Guthrie and Ghani during the Birmingham meet up. It's also available online here.

I was expecting it be a fairly quick make because I'd already blended together the 3 patterns to make my last knit dress. (Zeena sleeves, RTW top and pencil skirt pattern) but I forgot how long stripe matching takes!

Sewing the stripes was a little hard because the stripes of the fabric are raised, and you have to allow for that when pinning. I found that by pinning them a little out of sync they would match up as they went through the sewing machine. Other than the stripe matching it was a really quick sew as there was only 2 side seams, the neckband and turning up the edges of the hem and the sleeves.

I really love the simplicity of this dress. It can be paired with so many things! The knit fabric makes it really comfortable to wear which is ultimately what I look for in all of my clothes. If I find some more knit fabric, there will be another in my future!

Thanks for reading and to Edward for taking pics!
Lauren xx

Freehand Fashion: Asymmetrical peplum jacket

Lauren Digby November 16, 2015

Hello all! I'm really excited to be part of the blog tour for Chinelo's new book: Freehand Fashion. It's primary purpose is to show sewers how to draft things straight onto fabric without using a pattern. It was a very interesting technique for me to try and to compare to the flat pattern drafting and draping on the stand that I've learnt at uni in the last month or so.

Basic sewing techniques feature at the beginning, followed by a handy measurements table that you can write your measurements into. I found the diagrams really useful to show me where each measurement should be measured from which made them as accurate as possible. I recommend double checking them, because if they aren't accurate your finished garment will not fit as well.

There are 15 projects in the book of various difficulties using either the bodice block, dress block, flare block or sleeve block as a base. I chose to make the asymmetrical peplum jacket as I was in the market for a new coat as it's getting colder. Fabric needs are noted separately for each pattern piece which makes it a bit of a faff to work out how much you need in total. Although if you were planning colour-blocking it's really useful. I guessed 2.5m and I used about 1m less than that, though I did reduce the flare in the peplum.

And here is my finished jacket! It is somewhat inspired by Diors famous 'new look' although I couldn't quite achieve the corseted silhouette which makes his design look so sharp. I purposefully took out most of the flare, making it 1/4 circle instead of the full circle, my reasoning being that it would be more wearable with fuller skirts. I kept it symmetical but now I look at the pictures, I think it would look really good if it was asymmetrical. I do think it needed a little more fullness for it to sit better around the hips.

The instructions for the jacket tell you which steps of the bodice block are relevant for this project. The sleeve block and the flare block were also used. I did all the drafting on paper so if there were any adjustments needed they would be easier to apply to the outer fabric (I used the lining as a mock up). I did have to recut the sleeves because I got the measurements completely wrong.

Fitting wise, there is some excess fabric at the back armhole and the shoulders are too wide but I'm really pleased with the fit of the front bodice especially. Although more ease would need to be added if I wanted to wear more than one layer under it.

I love the massive collar,, although it would be interesting to see whether it would behave differently if cut on the bias.

Finishing wise the jacket is fully lined in a contrasting black lining. I lugged my sewing machine home for the weekend (I had to go back to get my braces tightened, joy of joys) and only realised when I got there that the cable was sitting on my desk in my uni room! So I had to construct the outer of my jacket using the overlocker and sew the hem and armholes by hand because I then ran out of overlocker thread. I used poppers to fasten the jacket for a more streamlined look. There is a running stitch down each side of the lining which it needed to keep it from peeking out.

All in all, it was really interesting to try a new way of drafting patterns. It's definitely quicker to do than the flat pattern drafting method I've been taught. I think it may be more straightforward to follow if you have no drafting experience because I kept second guessing the instructions, and actually if you just follow them, surprise surprise, it works!