Sewing Saves .........

Rather an ambiguous title for my my most recent scribbling, - apologies for the sparseness of posts, what with working, working out, and life generally, (including fitting in some sewing) the blog seems to have fallen by the wayside somewhat.

Saving money by brewing own tea?

Anyway, back to the saves...................  Sewing saves.. what!  Lives - no that's a bit dramatic;  sewing saves money - not in my case - fabric shops are wallet emptyers.  

No in fact in this case it doesn't save anything.  I was more thinking along the lines of those garments you had such high hopes for and that don't turn out quite the way you had wished....... but then you have an idea whereby you can alter (cos you can sew) and give that destined for the bin, or worse, the UFO pile, a new lease of wearable life.  Are you getting my drift?

It was a usual Saturday afternoon when I stepped into my local fabric shop More Sewing to buy some buttons and lining and spotted one of their new additions.  After querying the price and fainting(!) I ummed and arrred and left with the buttons/lining/non exciting sewing necessity.  Of course two hours later and before closing I hot footed it back to the shop to purchase 3 metres of the stuff at £14.00 per metre (see what I mean about wallet-emptying?)

I originally thought about a twirly girly skirt in my loved vintage style but decided that a straight dress would show off this fabric to its best advantage.

Anyway with the pre-wash done and the fabric airing on the line I picked my way through my patterns to carefully find the most suitable one to showcase this scrummy find.  I decided on a Burda Style bodice from their vintage collection and my self drafted skirt.  The bodice went together pretty well and I don't usually have any trouble with the skirt - I just had to line up the princess seams with the darts.

Dress finished I took it off to a Kent Vintage fair and found this cutest of pups in Clarissa Caravan - owned by the talented Clarissa and Co who makes beautiful shabby chic items.  Of course when you find a pup this cute she just has to be photographed, but, wait........ there's too much leg - and it's not the fur covered variety.  My dress turned out nice, apart from the fact that it's not really a Vintage length -I've not seen too many 1950s dresses "over the knee" if at all!

Being a straight dress with a VERY definite pattern I wondered how I could fix (read SAVE) this garment so that I'd feel inclined to wear it again.

After looking at the remnants left behind after cutting I decided the best course of action would be to add a sneaky extra hem, cut on the bias, so it looks as if it has been designed that way.

  Gosh, no one will ever know I cut it wrong in the first place!  I also have to admit I had to add in a triangular godet of lining so that I could actually walk instead of wiggling - saving again!!!

So there you have it - sewing really does SAVE - and sometimes more than once!!!

Happy Daisy.

Lowdown:  Well I bought three metres (who wouldn't with that print) but still have some left so I may be writing a post about remnanting some time: eyewatering £42.00

Lining - already in my stash (saved again!) about 1.5m

Zipper

See what you can save..................

Happy sewing

Daisy