Half hand sewn, half machine sewn I made these for the little man to wear for our week long English summer! They were finished a day later than expected as he refused to take them off after he tried them on to check the length for hemming - best compliment!

Pattern: Little gentleman pants (or trousers to us English folk) from Peek a boo pattern shop shortened to knee length.
Fabric: another 0.5m of the honeymoon check
​Time in stash: 5.5 years

 Pattern: Raw edge sun hat from Sewing for Boys (But without the raw edges - I just don't like them!)
Fabric: About 1/4m check cotton, bought in St Lucia on my honeymoon
​Time in stash: 5.5 years

And oops - I added to the stash. But isn't it cute!:D

So this is the corner of my living room. I just put up the shelves so things are not as bad as they were but yeah, I have too much fabric. I've tried a couple of times to just have a clear out and get rid of stuff but everytime I do that I think of all the things I could make with that fabric, and how useful it would be and it ends up staying.

​So there's only one option - I'm going to have to sew it all up and not buy any more - one project at a time!

​Project one
​​Pyjamas for the boy :)
​I finished this in 3 days - 3 days! I am super amazed by this. Raffie was fascinated by the whole process and let me sew while he was there, happy to sit on my lap and 'help' or on the floor next to e making art work out of my button collection.
​I will be tackling more quick and easy projects, especially ones for Rafie as he was so excited to wear them (even before hemming and waistbands!)

Pattern: The PajamaRama, free download from Shwin & Shwin
Fabric: Brushed cotton, 1.5m (I love this pattern, it's so Canadian!)
​Time in stash: 4 months

I'm a terrible blogger! This was finished months ago but I never updated, and now I can't remember what I wanted to share about the process. I really enjoyed the collaborative process - there was a frustrating stage as I tried to understand what my customer wanted for the hood lining, but I figured it out in the end :)
​I LOVE this coat, and so did my customer!
"The coat is absolutely beautiful ! I love all the details on it, the pockets, the buttons, the color of the fabric and the hood lining and how the coat fit, it fit just perfect. I love how the sleeves fit at my wrist and how the bustle falls over my skirt. I wore the coat today, however the weather was still a little to warm for it, and I got so many compliments of my friends and family. They all think the coat looks amazing.
I am so happy with my coat, it is my favorite of my wardrobe."

Lining partly assembled - I'm liking the shape that the quilted satin gives!
​And on to the real fabric! Because I need to match the patterns across seam lines I've cut my muslin apart right along the stitching lines. First I lay everything out and figure out the best placement of the checks to get things as lined up as possible - when a curved edge is meeting a straight edge it's not going to be possible to match things perfectly but it's still gotta look good!

I drew around the pattern with chalk, then flipped it over and drew the other side. Then because I'd cut all the seam allowances off I had to draw them back on again before cutting out. Because this layer is going over a padded lining I cut a larger than usual allowance so I can adjust if required.

And then I thread traced the chalk outline with basting thread - this is an important step because the chalk will rub off with handling, and it also allows us to see the stitching lines from both sides.

And I tacked the back seam - it looks yummy!

I'm really pleased with how this pattern turned out - everything fit together first time and the sizing is spot on - in fact, I added extra seam allowance when I cut it out and made it up a little larger than drafted so I'd have room to take it in, and I think I should have gone with making it up exactly as drafted. Never mind, I can readjust :)
​The bad news is that when I tried to put it on my adjustable dressform her bottom fell off! So here it is on a slightly too big non-adjustable dressform.
​Next step: drafting the collar and a second draft of the hood.

I got my first custom order on etsy, and it's an exciting one! A grey with yellow check wool full length coat, custom drafted from a pattern in Frances Grimbles Bustle fashions 1885-1887. The lining will be black quilted satin, and there will be 35 buttons down the front. The hood is removable and lined in grey satin.

​PS. my toddler has removed several keys from my laptop so please excuse any missing letters - I can spell, honest!

And because my sewing goal is to do things more like the Victorians, and to do that I need to see how they did it, I p[aid a visit to extantgowns.com. This is a fantastic site which gathers pictures of original garments from auction sites and private collections, and quite a few of them have internal shots as well.  Everything is very neat and - well, modern looking on the insides, very different to the insides of bodices I've seen from the same period. There's even a coat with a quilted satin lining, just like the one I'll be making.

Ok, think back... waaaay back to when I announce my plans to make a replica of my great grandmothers dress. Well, I never got to the actual making stage, but when I was checking my blogs this morning I was very excited to see this post. Doesn't that arrangement of pleats look just like the ones on Florence's dress? The fit is a lot looser, and there are buttons down the front, but the year is exactly right. If/when I eventually do this project, I'll be spending a lot of time studying the merry dressmaker's post as it's so much easier to figure out the construction with multiple pictures of a light blue dress than with one black and white photo of a dark colored dress!

So I've not been updating here but I've actually done a HUGE amount of sewing - in fact, I've made more than 50 items, and I know that because I've made them for my new business, Angel Child Clothing. I'm making vintage inspired childrens clothes, and hoping to build a business which will give me the opportunity to do some real designing. I've started a blog for the business, www.angelchildclothing.co.uk, and will keep my childrens sewing on that blog.
I've also been setting ​up an etsy shop for my historical clothing, and actually managed to sell a couple of things :D You can see my shop at www.etsy.com/shop/faraboverubiesuk I'm planning to sew some items specifically for the shop, so you can expect some blog entries about that :)