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

So here it is competed - my first attempt at a tailored jacket. I can see a few faults (I always see the faults in whatever I make!) but its totally wearable, so I'm really pleased about that. The picture below gives you an idea of the hand sewing and inner structure that's gone into this project - there's A LOT of it which is why I'm so glad this practise project turned out good enough to wear.
The fabric is corduroy from my stash (yay!) and I had nothing but tiny scraps left by the time I'd cut it out - in fact I had to cut the peplum pieces from the lining instead of the main fabric, but this may have been a good thing as the fabric is quite thick. I love the colour, but its taking me a while to get used to wearing it - its bright!
Next project is the prince charlie jacket for J, fingers crossed I can improve my techniques so that even I don't see the mistakes!

Its always exciting to learn something new, and something I've never tried before is making a tailored jacket. Me being me, I didn't want to follow the ready to wear methods given in most pattern directions - nope, what I wanted to do was a fully hand tailored jacket with pad stitched canvas interlining, a proper roll on the collar etc etc.
My ultimate aim is a Prince Charlie Jacket for my husband to wear with a kilt to formal events, but that involves expensive wool fabric, so I wanted to make something for myself first to try out the techniques.

The pattern I chose was Vogue 8701 - isn't it hideous?! I honestly don't know what they were thinking when they decided that a bold green check was the best way to show off this design.
Anyway, it wasn't the pattern company's picture that made me pick this one, it was this version reviewed here
I love the shape, especially with the bottom front curved instead of pointed.

My references for this project were 'Tailoring' from the Singer Reference library and 'The Victorian Tailor'  by Jason Maclochlainn. I also attended a day class at the Barry Rogers School of Sewing, but unfortunately I can't give it a recommendation - it was useful to see the stitches and techniques in person, but all 3 students in the class finished 2 hours early - while I understand that people will progress at radically different speeds depending on experience, it was very disappointing that the tutor didn't have anything else to show us to fill the rest of the time we'd paid for - setting is a sleeve would've been good.

Long (very long!) time no post. I've been moving house (with a 6 week stay at my parents house followed by a month with no internet) and its taken me a while to get back on here. But I'm back and I've made a lot of things, so there should be a few posts in the coming weeks.
First up is another version of Butterick 5559. The first version I made is so comfortable and easy to wear I decided I wanted another one.
This version is in a black flocked lace style print which I love. The fabric is a bit thicker and less stretchy than the ponte roma I used before, so I decided to add a zip at the side seam so that I could make it nice and fitted at the waist. I also ended up taking a 1/4 inch seam allowance at the side seams instead of 5/8th as I needed a little more wiggle room - I'm not sure if this is due to the fabric having less stretch or to me expanding slightly since I made the last version.
This dresses has prompted a few comments, I think due to the wow factor of the fabric - people assume its a lace and a lining treated as one, but actually its just one fabric and was super easy to sew :)

Long time no post! (I'll tell you a little about why in my next post) Anyway, this is my update on what I did over the easter weekend - all written at the time but I had one picture I needed to take and just didn't have the motivation until now!

First and most significant, I finished my quilt! Phew! After breezing through the assembly of the patchwork, it all slowed down to a crawl when it came to quilting the layers together. My attempt at machine quilting was a disaster, there was just too much fabric to get it under the arm of the machine and still be able to control. Rather than mess up something that was turning out rather gorgeous, I decided to hand quilt it :) many hours in front of the TV later, here it is!
I'm super pleased with it :) there's a couple of creases in the backing, but no one's going to see that but me :) next time, I'll be taping the backing flat to the table or floor before putting the wadding and top on - didn't know that trick for this one and getting all 3 flat and lined up was a nightmare!

Project number 2 was a remake of the red wool lekala dress :) the original accidently went in the machine at the wrong temperature, and shrank too much for me to wear it :( it will be going to the charity shop for the benefit of someone slimer who wears their skirts shorter!
The new version is the same fabric, but prewashed on 40 so its much thicker and slightly felted. It's lost the slinkiness, which I'm two ways about- the fineness was beautiful, but it did mean that it clung to bits of me that I don't think are beautiful (tummy!) Overall I'm glad I did it as I've ended up with a more wearable, washable dress!

Project 3 was a super quick and easy slip - thin black satin sewn into a tube with an elastic waist band. Hopefully this will prevent some of the static cling I've had going on with a couple of my dresses :)

This  was my first experiment with lekala patterns. The patterns are custom drafted to your measurements, and come as a pdf file which you then print out and stick  together. They are very cheap and very stylish, and offer plenty of style with  sleeves and sensible necklines. I bought mine from the etsy store HERE, and  there are even more styles available through the main store HERE.
  
  So, here's the shot of what the patterns supposed to look like - my version turned  out exactly as I pictured it! I'm always a bit nervous of buying patterns based  on a drawing rather than a photo, but this one came through. I didn't make any fitting adjustments at all, just added 2" to the hem and brought the neckline in  by 1". The fabric I used is a stretch merino wool I got as an ebay bargain - its very thin and drapey so I thought this was the perfect pattern. I used just  under 2m, which means I have 3m left for another dress.
   
Bad  points: The pattern directions are minimal and not well written (I believe they are translated from russian), and there aren't really any balance marks, which  makes it hard to tell which edge of the back skirt pieces the CB and which is  the side seam. Similarly with the back waist pieces, and which way up to put the front waist piece which has a slight curve. There's no direction on finishing  the neckline, so I drafted facings by tracing a 6cm strip around the neck edges  of the front and back pieces. Fortunately I'm familiar enough with patterns that I can make an educated guess on these things, and it all turned out fine.

For a while now I've been terribly frustrated with my wardrobe. This is partly due to gaining abit of weight since my marriage, partly due to things getting old and tatty and partly due to the sheer boredom of wearing the same styles 6 days a week and rarely having anything new. Every morning I'd look for something to wear and end up feeling like a scruff!

I've been meaning for a long time to sew some things for myself, and been so bogged down in sewing for others I've not had the time. But now I'm free! Its given me lots of time to plan exactly what I'm going to make, in order to make sure the finished products are things I'm actually going to feel good about wearing!

1. Choose things that complement my figure - I'm more of an hour glass now, so i need things that skim my curves rather than hiding them or hugging them.

2. Think about colours - everything I've made for me recently has been blue! While I like blue, I'm not obsessed by it, so I'm trying to avoid making anything blue for the next few items, till my wardrobe's a bit more balanced!

3. Sew outfits! One of the biggest problems I have with my wardrobe is that while I have some nice things, when I put them on I don't feel good. I think this is due to not having 'outfits' - the right top and bottom (or dress), jacket or cardigan (its cold where I work!), shoes, belt, jewlery etc! So I'm assigning things to outfits - my plan is to photograph things as outfits and list the elements, so when I'm half asleep and have 10 minutes to get out the door i can grab everything off the list and know that I'll have that 'got it together' look I'm longing for.

4. Make things that fit, and which work with the LDS definition of modest clothing.

So, with all that in mind, i present Butterick 5559! I chose this pattern because I thought the shape of the dress and the angled tucks would work well for my figure, and because the elbow length sleeves and thick ponte roma fabric would keep me warm without the need for a cardigan on top. I went for the dark purple fabric which turned out to be a pretty good match for my purple heels (which I never wear because they don't match anything else), so thats great!

In order to make sure I ended up with something that fit this time, I prewashed the fabric (I never used to do this until I made this dress and it shrank about 6" in length after a couple of washes). I checked the finished measurements on the pattern and discovered that (even thoguht the pattern for a knit) it allowed for 2" of ease, so I went down 1 size from the reccommended. I also made a mock up of the top, and discovered that the fit was good but the neckline was a little too wide for modesty. To solve this, I added 2.5" at the shoulder seam and drew a smooth curve down to meet the original neckline. If you do this, don't forget to adjust the neck facing edge too (I did!) I made the skirt 3.5" longer to hit me just above the knee - I'm about 5'6" tall.

I'm really pleased with this dress - I feel great wearing it! Then extra time making pattern adjustments and toile's goes gainst my instinct to do things quickly, but there's no doubt that I'm, much happier with the end result - in fact, if i'd made this with no adjustment I would probably have had to give it away due to modesty issues.

So in my last post I shared some of my dressing gown inspiration. After some searching on the internet I found this blog post
which gave me the clues I needed to draft the pattern. I started with my basic bodice and skirt blocks.

For the back bodice, I ignored the shoulder darts (as a lower armhole is appropriate for a dressing gown anyway) and kept the waist darts as they are.
For the front bodice, I pivoted both the darts to the side just under the armhole, and drew a straight line from the neckline at the shoulder to 10 cm across from the centre at the waistline.
For the skirt, I pivoted out the darts to create an A-line skirt shape, then added the 10cm band at the centre front.

The gown was assembled using french seams, and binding used to finish the armhole. I added a wide bias strip around the front edges of the gown to finish the edges.

For the sleeves, I wanted something that would echo the bishop style of the Lucile robe shown in the previous post. I refered to the instructions for a bishop sleeve given in 'Metric Pattern cutting' by Winifred Aldritch. These basically consist of slashing the sleeve from wrist to shoulder and spreading the pieces out, adding more material to the back of the sleeve than to front. You then add a little bit of length (to allow the fabric to drape down), and when assembling the sleeve you gather the long wrist edge into a fitted cuff. I.m pretty pleased with the result, although if I made it again I think I'd add another inch or maybe 2 to the length of the sleeve, and I think it need to droop down just a little more. I may have to experiment with this, as I suspect the stiffness of the fabric also has an impact on how much 'poof' you get.

I decided to use some stash fabric for this project, and ended up choosing some dusky pink polyester satin. This was a mixed success - the colour was perfect, and the fabric draped beautifully and felt suitably luxurious. Unfortunately, I discovered when I wore it that the fabric creases horribly - I actually ironed it to the best of my ability before taking the photos above, but I'm not sure it'll ever be crease free again! So we'll call this one a wearable toile.
Apart from that I'm really happy with this one, it was quick and easy to make so I may well be making more of these in the future.

I also made a matching slip using the fantastic free ruby slip pattern.
I'm not going to tell you how I made this as the instructions on the site cover everything you could possibly need to know! As I was short on both time and money for this project, I bought 2 pair of black lace boxers in Primark and found that these gave me just enough lace to make the bodice, including matching the scallops. I did have to piece to get extra width on the sides, and make use of the stretch properties of the lace for the back.
I'm so pleased with how this turned out - the bias cut skirt hangs and fits perfectly and a slip is always useful so I'll definately be using the pattern again :)

I spotted a really cute dress online and thought 'I can do that!'
I used the skirt of Butterick 5322 (fast becoming my Go-To pattern when I want simple pattern blocks to alter or add to something else), and drafted the top myself. This is really the simplest possible bodice pattern - a single pleat on each side, meeting at the center of the neckline. As the pleats are not stitched down, you don't even have to worry about getting the distance from the bust point right to avoid a dimple at the end of the dart - just fold things so they meet and it all work out!
The sleeves I figure out by trial and error - I think the next version I will move the arm scye just a touch further out on my shoulder, I bought it in quite a lot as the pattern block was much too wide on the shoulders and I think I may have over done it just a little!
All that hole-picking aside (I always want to get better!) I'm really pleased with this dress! I think I will be making another soon - probably in a lghter colour, to wear with a skinny black belt like the inspiration dress, and I may also try it with a pencil skirt instead of A-line.There's a couple more pictures for you below - the red is the original inspiration dress, and the second pic is a close up of the dress on my dummy.