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

Monochrome Lekala 4276 - A Daisy for Daisy

I keep surprising myself with how many new projects and initiatives I can incorporate into my sewing life and my latest post proved no exception when I decided to include myself in The Monthly Stitch's Monosewn Challenge . 

For those of you not in the know, the Monthly Stitch is the baby of 3 talented ladies (Kat, Mel and Juliet) who you can read about and link to here.  The idea is to share ideas, inspire and give yourself a goal, as well as reading lots of lovely blogs along the way. 

So, back to my efforts. 

I recently purchased my first PDF pattern (gosh, more firsts!!) from Lekala patterns and was excited when it dropped in my inbox.  Printing was easy peasy on A4 sheets and I soon had the pattern made up in greaseproof paper. 

The fabric was obviously meant for moi - a find on a trip to Brighton's Fabricland , which I spotted almost as soon as walking through the door.  DAISY print - can you believe it?  It's rather a soft satin cotton and I'm wanting to say it feels like a soft lint duster, but it was easy to work with and that's a good thing, right?

The dress was straightforward, being a sleeveless shift, but I'm afraid, in my eagerness not to miss the end of July deadline for the challenge, I did make a bloop.  As you can see here, the ribbon I added to the seams on the bodice did not quite make it to matching.  I think I'll unpick a little and have the ribbon matching, even though it won't be on the seam as this will be less noticeable.

I did, however, manage to fully line the dress with the same fabric, catching the zipper in between the lining and shell and neatly sewing the neck and armholes complete with understitching to give a flat finish. 

Modifications to my Lekala 4276 were not including the keyhole, leaving off the collar and cutting the neckline wider as I find  boatneck  styles much more flattering. 

The back vent was included in the pattern and makes for ease of walking, especially useful in a fabric without stretch!

I did actually already cut this pattern out as a top to use with some fabric from my Barcelona haul but as it wasn't monochrome it's had to patiently wait in my sewing cupboard until I have the time to get around to it. 

Overall I was really pleased with my Lekala pattern and my Daisy Dress and think it will be getting much wear while the weather stays in heightened temperatures. 

The basics:

Ease of sewing:  Dresses always seem easy so I'd say 4.5/10 with the lining to construct. 

Cost:  2 metres of daisy fabric at £3.99 per metre + 75p zip and £1.10 for the ribbon. 

Thank you to the Monthly Stitch ladies for allowing me to be part of the community.   Why don't you pop over and see the great makes there and get some inspiration?

Happy sewing

Linda x

Pretty in Prada

What a busy month it's been.  Here's the second "Lyndsey" dress - a bit long in the making due to fitting in a few of my own makes - oops, sorry Lynds!

This gorgeous fabric was purchased from Brighton stalwart Ditto Fabrics as one of their ex- designer fabrics, Prada no less!  It's a lightweight metallic slightly stretch fabric and the colour I'm thinking is nearest to describe it is pewter.

Not sure of what form the dress would take, we opted for 2 metres at £7.99 per metre (£7.99 per metre for (ex) Prada fabric - bargain!

Lyndsey has a love of drop waist dresses so I cut a straight simple dress pattern (omitting bodice darts) to the hip and then merged it with a skirt pattern cut in a handkerchief style.  To construct the skirt section I measured around the bottom of the top (if you get my drift) and then measured the top of the bottom, i.e. where the skirt fits onto the bodice, and modified the skirt at the join so both were the same measurement.  The rough sketch below shows how this was done. 

   

Due to the neckline being rather wide I added in three small darts (as shown above). I've now used this method a couple of times to make a neckline smaller as it seems to work a treat and cuts out the question - now what am I going to do? - when you discover your neckline is too wide. 

The complete mare part of the whole operation was fitting the bottom of the zip.  Not usually a difficult exercise but somehow the fabric decided to stretch itself and thus there ended up a bit of bagginess around the bottom of the zipper.  I unpicked twice, which in itself proved to be another problem as the delicate nature of the fabric meant it didn't like being sewn and unpicked and I was fearful of holes appearing. I re-sewed the zipper but in the end had to take in the dart at the back to take up the extra fabric, so I'm not 100% but, in the end the fabric could take no more amends and I had to slipstitch the slight amount of fabric that wasn't sitting right.

I'm wanting to say the fabric is "tissue-like" in nature and not very robust - but then when could Prada fabric ever be described as robust?  Hence, I decided to line it and, after checking out several fabric shops and not not finding a good match, had a rummage in the loft and came up with this tartan lining.

It gave just the right amount of weight once sewed up as a second dress. I used the technique from my Feminine Wardrobe dress to insert the lining and hand sewing the turning openings at the shoulders once the lining was fitted in place.

After an easy time hemming the handkerchief style bottom of the dress it was time for the fun bit - a little embellishment.  In this case a length of satin ribbon attached to the join with a bow finish. 

Give us a twirl.  Lynds loved the dress and decided to wear it as soon as it was handed over for a Tapas dinner date.

Have you sewed anything for anyone recently?

The details:-

Ease of sewing:  Fairly straightforward - 4/10 difficulty level.  Just that pesky fabric which kept threatening to stretch at the zipper.

Cost:  Fabric:  2 metres at £7.99.  Lining from stash and a bit of ribbon decor - 45p  Not bad for a Prada (fabric) dress!

Happy sewing.

Linda x

Butterick Retro Dress - 6582

Before I review my most current finished project I have a couple of things to mention.

First off I'm surprised to find I've been nominated for the Versatile Blogger award by Kychristine. How lovely, - I still can't think my blog is that interesting  to other sewists out there, but thank you very much Kychristine.  Of course I'll try to re-nominate other bloggers but squeezing this into my busy schedule may take a little time.  In the meantime pop over and take a look at Kychristine's blog - she has some fun stuff there and of course, you can see all the other nominated bloggers.

Secondly, I've put myself up for the Vintage Sewing Pattern Challenge as organised by A Stitching Odyssey, where the challenge is to make five vintage (or vintage style) garments before end of the year. Luckily my first vintage style dress was in the making when I found this blog post so I had a head start on myself.



I think it was seeing all the other vintage makes by talented dressmakers that spurred me to on try a bit of vintage myself.  That and the Mad Men Challenge by Julia Bobbin.  I'm definitely a sucker for a bit of a wiggle dress and a pair of kitten heels and already had a dress shape in mind when I went for a forage at Walthamstow Market back in May. 



What I found was some duck egg soft cotton satin that, on the roll, definitely had a look of wallpaper. At only £2 a yard it was a steal and I only needed 2 yards for what I had in mind.

 View A was the dress of choice this time

It had been ages since I used a commercial pattern.  I'm so used to my trusty Burda and Patrones and the way they work with my greaseproof paper trace-outs.  I thought the pattern pieces would fly away, they felt so delicate.  Hence cutting out took a little long than usual and with the front of the dress being asymmetric more room and concentration was needed too.

Construction was of intermediate difficulty with the challenging part being sewing the left bodice front as 4 layers.  Understitching was used to keep the neckline tidy and the facings were attached as per a sleeveless lining and then handstitched at the shoulder opening.

Not being one for making toiles -(something else I must get to grips with!) I stitched it straight from the pattern pieces and ended up taking in the dress at the side seams and darts and, my, did it take a fair bit of tweaking,  mostly at the darts.  It came up a bit large in the back and Mr P had to get handy with the pins to fix the darts and take in the zip at the back.

Once all the amendments were done a try on saw a good fit but then, horrors!  I decided to photograph my dress mid make and realised that the upper left front was cut from a piece of discoloured fabric. Ouch!

How did I not notice that?  

I realised a lot unpicking would be required to remove the offending bodice piece and, at that point, lost my mojo to complete the dress and it lay, unloved, consigned to the sewing cupboard, as an unfinished item. 

Three weeks later, and being spurred on by a dinner date, I decided to tackle the mishap and, once the dreary unpicking was done, had a new bodice in in double-quick time.

The remainder of the sewing went without incident and to finish I added bows, as per the pattern, on the shoulder 

I'm wasn't totally convinced about the shoulder bows as they seem a bit rigid, but they were press-studded on and I've now removed them and will make a lingerie guard type addition, but one that I can remove and press stud the bows to so I can wear it without if desired. I may also make new bows so they don't look quite so "boardy.  Also if I made this dress again the other thing I'd do is put a lining in, especially with such a soft fabric as I think that addition would give it a better hang.

The dress on it's dinner date 

All in all, I was pleased with my first attempt at vintage and will probably be using my Butterick 6582 at some point again, though probably with a full skirt next time

If you'd like to check out the Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge there's a Pinterest Board here so you can keep up with the vintage makes.

If you're near Brighton the Scicilian restaurant visited by me and the dress is Mediterraneo Deli - very intimate with all home cooked food and tons of ambience.

Finally:

Ease factor:  Intermediate. 5 out of 10.  Some experience needed here.
Cost:  Bargain 2 yards at £2 per yard from Walthanstowe Market, but obviously seconds so if you buy from the man outside Sainsbury's, it's good value but check the print to make sure you have enough good fabric.

Have you sewed any vintage?  I'd love to know.

Happy sewing.

Linda x