DIY I Do–The Theme

Get links to all photos HERE

For months I have been going back on forth on ‘themes’ for my wedding. I have been loving the whole vintage/shabby-chic styling that a lot of weddings are sporting at the moment, with the mis-matched floral china, burlap bunting and wild flowers, and I was pretty much set on that for quite some time. But then I came across the knot tying diagram (in the collage above) and knew I had found my theme. How perfect for Robin and I! Not just because the first figure looks like an ‘R’ and an ‘S’ that ‘tie the knot’, but because both of us love water sports and being by the sea. So our nautical theme was born.

Pinterest is a gift and a curse for wedding inspiration. I have spent far too many hours drooling over all the beautiful, gorgeous wedding images over there, and as any of you who follow me you will know, pinning on to a million different wedding boards! It’s great to have so much inspiration all in one place for free. No need to go and buy a stack of expensive wedding magazines (although I may have done a bit of this too!). The curse of course is that it’s almost TOO much inspiration. I have a million and one different ideas of what I would like my wedding to look like and I find myself getting carried away. Luckily Rob is a lot more grounded (as most men are), and has reigned in my fanciful ideas many times already.

So I decided it was time to be decisive and pick specific ideas or photos to base our wedding on and have created a mood-board to show this. It relaxed my mind almost instantly, as well as got me super excited! Gone are all the other images that I loved (OK, they are all still on my other wedding boards) and all I have are the ones that I’m going to use for OUR wedding. This is what it’s going to look like – how exciting!

Yes. I’m crap…

Just some of the things I’ve been doing (but not blogging) recently!

Ah – what a title to lure you in! A crap title for a crap blogger! I am still around, I have just lost my blogging mojo recently, so I’m sorry about that guys. Hopefully now that Autumn is approaching I may be more inclined to sew and blog again and we can get this place in better shape!

But in the mean time I just wanted to say a massive ‘thank you’ to everyone who wrote such wonderful thoughts, anecdotes and tips on my last post about a DIY wedding. I must have hit a chord with a lot of you as I’ve never had so many fantastic comments. I really appreciate everyone who took the time to tell me about their experiences and offer their advice – it has been very enlightening and so helpful. Oh, and keep them coming if you think of anything else!

I haven’t been sewing for a about a month – I think after the epic last minute sewing of the bombshell dress (image above, post to follow soon I hope!) I needed a break! But I have been having itchy fingers again and was back behind the machine again last night (whipping up a really fun and easy instant gratification jersey dress – I’m planning to share a tutorial of sorts on it soon too. Although, it’s so easy it doesn’t really need a tutorial!).

Plus I haven’t shared my completed purple Jenny skirt yet so realise that I need to get photos and a post up on that! Oh, and I’ve been teaching myself how to tie a Monkey Fist Knot (above, bottom left) and will be sharing the plans for that with you guys soon too.

So – hopefully lots to look forward to here. Let’s just hope I get my ass in gear and actually post some sh*t!

 

P.S. Totally in love with my new ‘Seamstress’ mug from Merchant & Mills (above, top right)
P.P.S. All photos from my instagram (susewssoso) account and shared on Twitter, if you want to follow

DIY I Do…or I Don’t?

So I announced a number of months ago that I had got engaged, and I’ve mentioned briefly in a few posts how stressful the wedding planning process has been. It all really boiled down to Robin and I wanting to get married abroad, but finding out that it just wasn’t feasible for family and friends. But for us, it was more important to have the people we love around us, sharing in our special day, rather than having sunshine and heat (let’s be honest - something we probably won’t get in N.I.!). Once we decided on a home wedding, we had the additional stress of budgets and locations that suited everyone…nightmare. I’m sure you are all aware of how expensive weddings can be – but it really is ridiculous how quickly things can add up!

Well, after a lot of deliberation, we have finally booked our venue and we now have a date – 6th July 2013!

I cannot tell you have much more relaxed I now am, and I’m actually starting to enjoy the planning process. Yeay! Obviously lots of things to organise, and this isn’t going to turn into a Wedding Blog, but I am thinking about doing some craft/sewing related things for the day so I thought I would document them here.

The question I have though is – how much do I tackle myself, and what do I leave to the professionals? I have two reasons for going down the DIY route:
1. Saving money!!! We are trying to keep the budget down as much as possible. It’s a difficult thing because as soon as you mention the ‘W’ word, prices sky rocket. But we are giving it a go anyway.
2. I think it will provide us with a much more personalised and meaningful day, and I know I’ll get so much satisfaction and pride looking at things on the day and knowing I had put my time and love into making it just right

I found this really interesting blog post on Style Serendipity which gives advice on tackling a DIY wedding. Do read it if you are thinking the same thing. I think the key thing I took away from it is – don’t bite off more than you can chew! I need to make sure that I’m not ending up doing every little tiny detail that really could have been delegated to a professional. As they mention: “Sometimes your time (and sanity!) is more valuable than money, and it can be well worth paying a professional to do an amazing job and make your life a lot easier.”

So, putting that thought to the side for one moment, here are the aspects of the wedding I’m thinking about take on myself (with the help of friends and family):

 

The Dress

Yep, this is the biggy! I’m still undecided about this at the moment. I have been doing a LOT of thinking and research into how feasible this might actually be. But at the moment it is still a possibility. Obviously, if I do decide to make the dress I’ll keep everyone updated as I progress. The sweet thing about this blog is that none of my friends or family read it, so I can reveal everything without worrying about giving anything away to anyone who will be at the wedding!

 

Bridesmaids and Flower Girl dresses

Perhaps a little bit insane to thing of making my dress AND everyone else’s too. Especially since I have never sewn clothes for anyone but myself. But I have lots of ideas. Plus, my mother is fantastic at sewing (my inspiration to take up sewing in the first place), so I may see if I can persuade her to make the flower girl dresses.

 

Favours

This is pretty much a definite. I have a fab idea and I’ve made and love the prototype so I’m good to go. Can’t wait to share it on the blog too!!

 

Cake

My mum seems to have taken this idea and run with it, she has even bought the tins already. I’m not precious about the cake at all, so I’m going to let her do whatever she likes!

 

Stationery

Again, I think this will be a definite. I’m planning on designing the invites, RSVPs, order of service and thank you cards which we will then get them printed at Robin’s work which should save us a fair bit.

 

Flowers

Argh, this is a tricky one. Everyone says – don’t do your own flowers, it’s too stressful. And I believe them. I know nothing about flower arranging! But seriously, I had no idea how expensive the flowers can be. My friend just told me yesterday that her flowers came to £1400!! What?!!! I had done a preliminary budget of £350 for my flowers, and even thought THAT was a bit too much!! Anyway, at the moment I’m thinking about getting bouquets and one or two displays done professionally, and then attempting to DIY a few decorations. We shall see!

 

Decorations

Things like the seating plan, table centres and just little things dotted around the venue. Should be easy enough to do myself, and I have a lot of plans and ideas for this already.

 

God, when you list it all out it looks like a LOT! But I have a year…that’s loads of time…right?!!!

So, as I said before, this isn’t going to turn into a wedding blog, but I am going to start a semi-regular schedule of posting inspiration, plans and progress as the year goes by.

Have any of you gone DIY for your own wedding? Or helped a friend with theirs? Any thoughts or any tips? I’d love to hear them all!!

Featured on Burda Style

I was so excited to see that my pink scalloped edge skirt was featured in a recent Style Gallery on the Burda Style website! They did a piece on the scalloped trend that has been around for a while recently and put together a gallery of member projects to compliment the article, and that’s where I spotted myself!

I have to say though, I think mine was perhaps a bit of a cheat to be included as everyone else in the gallery had painstakingly measured, sewn and cut their scallops, while mine were part of the fabric! Saying that though, it did take a fair bit of work to make sure my scallops matched up at the sides. Not quite the same though!

Some of the others that I Love from the gallery (click photos for links):

Check out the rest of the Gallery if you fancy a bit of scallop inspiration!

My Summer Sewing Swap Haul!

Whoops – a bit late in getting this up!!

For those of you who don’t know what the Summer Sewing Swap is, the lovely Kerry from Kestrel Finds and Makes arranged a wee sewing swap for any bloggers who fancied signing up. I jumped at the chance and was very lucky to have Dibs from Dibs and the Machine as my swap partner.

After a quick chat via emails we both agreed to surprise each other with our swap gifts. I spent a good time trawling through her old blog posts and tried to get a vibe as to what she would like to find in her parcel. I then turned to the internet to make my purchases and am subsequently still waiting for one final thing to arrive! Epic FAIL! I’ve apologised profusely to Dibs about the very late arrival of her swap parcel, but she has graciously told me not to fret as she is now off on her hols until the 17th August (lucky duck!). Anyway…I hope it will be winging it’s way to her very shortly…and I hope she likes what I’ve got to her.

Dibs was, however, a lot more punctual with her parcel dispatching and I was completely overwhelmed by her amazing generosity. Seriously – this girl went ABOVE and BEYOND the call of the swap. Her reason – she couldn’t decide what I would like so she just sent me a bit of everything thing! Take a look at this pile of goodies:

Holy Moly!!! Ok, let’s break it down into sections. Dibs said she had written a lovely note explaining her choices, but forgot to put it in the envelope before posting, so I shall attempt to guess her thought processes…

Here we have two lengths of gorgeous stretch lace in black and pink, which I’m guessing are for me to make some more knickers with. Plus 3 narrow stretchy elastic (probably for underwear) and some two lengths of very pretty narrow lace!

Two lengths of gorgeous fabric. Both cotton I think. The one on the left has an almost moleskin-like feel to it, while the one on the right has a bit of stretch to it. At the moment I’m thinking nice skirt for work with the left, and I’m going to see if I can squeeze a shift dress out of the blue/black fabric.

This lovely collection was bundled up together, which made me wonder if perhaps Dibs had put together a little project for me. We have a length of really soft pale yellow jersey fabric, a length of light and soft striped cotton, some thick elastic, some pretty decorative lace and some narrow elastic/strap. What would you make out of this? I’m thinking perhaps this is to be made into a vest/camisole and shorts combo? Jersey vest with spaghetti straps and lace detailing, and then stripy elasticated waist shorts (or trousers if I can get the length).

Yep, there’s more!! I honestly can’t believe how much Dibs sent my way…I am so lucky! Ok, so here we have the coolest little book called “Designer’s guide to color”, which basically is filled with loads of colour combining options. It’s a really great inspirational book which will help me think outside the box when it comes to colour combining. Next we have the “Handbook of Crochet Stitches”. I have ‘learn to crochet’ as one of my 12 in 2012, so I’m guessing that was Dibs thinking behind this book. I’m so excited – I haven’t even started to attempt crochet so this will be a little kick up the butt and a lot of help! Finally from this section is the gorgeous Simplicity 2250 by Cynthia Rowley. I don’t think I have mentioned this pattern on my blog, but I have been wanting this for a while…so Dibs must have just read my mind instead!!! Awesome!! I’m thinking it would make a gorgeous Honeymoon day dress in Chambray.

The final lot. This one is a total mix of goodies. some lovely eyelet floral trim, an apple shaped pin cushion, a fabric marker, some sewing machine oil, more elastic, some shirring elastic (which I’ve never even seen before – how do you use this, does anyone know??), 2 packs of green seam binding and finally, a cut of really awesome purple faux snake skin – which is destined to be turned into a fab envelope clutch bag I think (what would you make out of it?)!

So…not too shabby hey?!!! OMG, I cannot believe how many fab things I got!! Thank you so so much Dibs!!

Catching up

Believe it or not, I am actually still here – just about!

I guess life has just become rather hectic recently and unfortunately it means I don’t have as much time for blogging, or even reading blogs, as I used to. In fact, I have over 1000 blog posts to catch up on (eek!)…and since I suffer from FOMO I can’t bear to ‘mark all as read’! If you haven’t spotted a comment from me on your blog for a while, I’m so sorry – either I haven’t got to your lovely post yet, or I really enjoyed reading it but just didn’t have time to comment (I know, that’s a really crappy thing to admit to, but it’s true!)*.

But all that aside, I have actually been doing a little sewing (shock horror!).

I finally got my ass in gear and hemmed my purple Jenny skirt:

But I don’t have photos of me wearing it yet. Perhaps I’ll manage that this week sometime so that I can share it on the blog next week.

I have been beavering away on my Craftsy Bombshell Dress. The plan is to have the done in time for a wedding on the 30th July. At the moment I’m confident that I’ll make that deadline…but I’m hoping I haven’t underestimated the difficulty of the remaining portions of the course.

The photo above was one that I tweeted over the weekend. I was lucky enough to have the whole weekend to work on the dress, so I managed to get the outer bodice complete. I have since cut out the skirt, underlined (because the focus fabric is quite sheer), and I’m currently basting the seam lines. I still have to sew up the skirt, attach to the bodice, sew in the zip, sew up the bodice lining, insert the boning, hand-stitch the lining to the outer bodice, insert a waist-stay and hem. CRAP! Maybe I don’t have enough time! Plus I’m away most of next week with work (back to Zagreb…hoping to get a trip to some lovely fabric shops again!), so that’s even less time to work on the dress. EEK! Anyway, I’ll try and keep you guys posted on my progress.

And finally, in other sewing related news, I signed up for Kerry’s awesome Summer Sewing Swap, and got paired with the lovely Dibbs! I’ve followed Dibbs’ blog for a couple of years now, so I had quite a good idea about what her sewing style was, but since being paired with her for the swap, I have been doing some serious blog stalking! lol. So, I have bought one of my gifts for her already, but have a couple more to get (but I know what they are). Can’t wait to get it all assembled, wrapped and posted – hope she likes it!!!! And of course I can’t wait to see what she sends me!

That’s about me caught up now. Hopefully I’ll get a little more regular with my posting – hopefully!

 

* And on the subject of comments – how much do I hate ‘Captcha’ (or similar) comments. Am I the only one who can’t read the letter/number combos? Honestly, I get it wrong every time…and I promise I’m not a machine! If you have that on your blog, I probably won’t leave a comment because of that. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not because I don’t want to leave a comment!**

** What do people think of my comment system? Annoying? Fine? Let me know! If it’s really bad and you can’t even leave a comment, then send me an e-mail on: wilson.suzanna (AT) gmail.com

12 in 2012 Update and a Revision

 

So, I’m coming up to the half-way mark for my 12 in 2012 challenge (omg, has nearly half the year gone by already??!!) and I thought it was time to reflect on my progress and see what I still needed to focus on. Let’s have a look at how things are looking at the moment:

12 Pieces of Handmade Clothing:
1. Shirt (or shirt dress)
2. Jacket
3. Trousers
4. Some sort of under-garment - Lace Bandeau Knickers (inc. a tutorial)
5. Pencil skirt – I just have to hem this and then can tick this off
6. Summer Dress - A Nautical Knit
7. Bombshell Dress
8.Wildcard! - Pink Curtain Skirt
9. Wildcard! - Primrose Cowl Top - Purple Voile
10.Wildcard! - Primrose Cowl Top - Black polkadot chiffon
11. Wildcard! - Ikat and Lace shift dress
12.Wildcard! - Black and white shift dress

12 New Sewing Techniques:
1. Collar
2. Sleeves
3. Lapped zip
4. Hand-picked zip - Pink Curtain Skirt
5. Mitered corners
6. Baby/rolled hem - Self-drafted Cowl Top
      - Also used on my Lace Bandeau Knickers (with overlocker)
7. Piping
8. Scallops
9. Inset a Godet
10. Make own bias binding
11. Underlining
12. Boning

12 New Sewing Skills:
1. Sew from a vintage pattern - A Nautical Knit
2. Draft a skirt sloper/block
3. Draft a bodice sloper/block
4. Make a self-drafted half-circle skirt
5. Remove and replace a zip from a bought garment
6. Make my own Croquis...in progress
7. Sew with jersey - A Nautical Knit
8. Try patchwork
9. Make a garment from a Burda Magazine pattern (successfully!)
10. Learn to use an overlocker/serger
         - first post
- Rolled hem
11. Learn to crochet
12. Make a Colette Patterns garment

So I am well on target for my 12 pieces of handmade clothing, with only 4 more items to complete the list, but I’m sadly falling behind with my sewing techniques and sewing skills! On reflection I can see that, while I thought I was tying these lists together, I realise that I could have been a lot smarter. For example I have listed that I want to ‘make a self-drafted half-circle skirt’ under my sewing skills list, but I didn’t add it as one of the pieces of handmade clothing list! That was a bit of a slip-up there really. I also gave myself some ‘wildcards’ with the thought that you can’t plan a whole years worth of sewing because you never know what life if going to throw at you (like getting engaged!), but I should have built these into my techniques and skills lists too unfortunately.

With these thoughts in mind, I have decided to revise my 12 in 2012 goals:

12 Pieces of Handmade Clothing:
1. Some sort of under-garment - Lace Bandeau Knickers (inc. a tutorial)
2. Pleated Skirt - Pink Curtain Skirt
3. Cowl Top - Primrose Cowl Top - Purple Voile
                  - Primrose Cowl Top - Black polkadot chiffon
4. Shift Dress - Ikat and Lace shift dress
                     - Black and white shift dress
5. Summer Dress - A Nautical Knit
6. Pencil skirt – I just have to hem this and then can tick this off
7. Bombshell Dress (Craftsy Class)
8. Half-circle skirt
9. Jacket
10. Couture dress (Craftsy Class)
11. Shirt dress
12. Cape – (I have started this, so I’m keen to actually complete it!)

12 New Sewing Techniques:
1. Hand-picked zip - Pink Curtain Skirt
2. Baby/rolled hem - Self-drafted Cowl Top
- Also used on my Lace Bandeau Knickers (with overlocker)
3. Underlining (Bombshell and Couture dress)
4. Boning (Bombshell dress)
5. Carbon paper marking (Bombshell and Couture dress)
6. Thread-traced seams (Bombshell and Couture dress)
7. Setting sleeves (jacket and maybe couture dress)
8. Collar (shirt dress)
9. Buttonholes (shirt dress)
10. Working with silk organza (couture dress)
10. ?
11. ?
12. ?

12 New Sewing Skills:
1. Sew from a vintage pattern - A Nautical Knit
2. Make my own Croquis...in progress
3. Sew with jersey - A Nautical Knit
4. Learn to use an overlocker/serger
- first post
- Rolled hem
5. Make a self-drafted half-circle skirt
6. Remove and replace a zip from a bought garment (I have a charity shop dress that needs this done!)
7. Make a garment from a Burda Magazine pattern (successfully!) (Bombshell dress and jacket)
8. Draft own pattern (Primrose Cowl Top)
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?
12. ?

 

We shall see how I get on with my revised lists now! I have two MAJOR projects still to complete (the Bombshell and the Couture dresses) so I hope I’m not biting off more than I can chew…

How is everyone else getting on with their own 12 in 2012 lists? And revisions required or are you all sticking to your plans better than me?

A Nautical Knit

Ahoy there! Long-time, no blog! Sorry about the lack of blogging around here recently – I’ve been going through a lot of stressful/emotional/unnecessary-to-blog-about wedding-related crap recently (who knew I would find planning a wedding one of the most un-enjoyable things I’ve ever done!!) and it’s zapped my sewing mo-jo a bit. But I think I’m turning a corner and things could be looking up…after all, I have a lovely new jersey dress to wear!

This is my first proper attempt to sew with jersey (previously I made this skirt…but it was super-duper easy so I wasn’t really counting it!) and I used my lovely overlocker as much as possible. The jersey that I bought was part of a big haul that I picked up during a sale at my local fabric shop. I loved the stripes (I am a sucker for anything striped!), but it’s rather drapey, and while that might be nice for the end result, trying to tame it while sewing was a bit trickier than I thought. I had also planned for this to be a maxi-dress, but unfortunately didn’t have enough fabric for this pattern.

 

The pattern I used was McCall’s 5490, a ‘vintage’ 70’s pattern from an Ebay job-lot I won a few years back. It is specifically for stretch-knits…but requires a zip at the back. I don’t get that! I knew my jersey was stretchy enough to not need a zip, plus I knew a zip would weigh the fabric down, so I omitted it.

You may be able to see that the pattern also comes with your classic 70’s mega-collar. Not normally my style, but I thought I’d give it a go anyway. Turns out, I didn’t have enough fabric to add the collar! I was a bit disappointed about that, but I do like the dress as is nonetheless.

 

I cut the front yolk and the waist tie with the stripes perpendicular to the main body for a nice contrast effect, which I really love. The waist tie (or empire-line tie really!) is a god-send because without it the dress would be a bit sac-like. It does have a bit of shaping, but the tie really pulls it all in and make it a lot more flattering.

It’s not perfectly executed by any means, but as a first attempt at jersey, I’m pretty happy! I can see myself wearing this a LOT over the Summer (Northern Irish weather permitting!!!).

 

12 in 2012 update:

I am please to say that this project ticks off a massive THREE goals from my 12 in 2012 list:

12 Pieces of Handmade Clothing:

• A Summer Dress

12 New Sewing Skills:

• Sew from a vintage pattern
• Sew with jersey

Woo-hoo!!

Right…I’m off now to kick some wedding-planning butt!

 

P.S. For those of you who may be curious the photos were taken on Ballyholme beach, N.I. (where future-hubs and I are hoping to move to soon…if the wedding doesn’t consume all of our savings!!!)

Thai Scalloped Pencil Skirt

 

  Well, my computer decided to die, but fortunately Robin knew a guy who was able to fix it – AND save all our photos (THANK GOD!!!!!), so I’m able to post up my last project. This is the Burda 6889 pencil skirt that I have had highlighted at the side of my blog since I updated the look. I had made up a muslin for this ages ago and decided it was pretty much the perfect basic pencil skirt pattern for me – I didn’t even need to do any alterations at all (yeay!). The fabric is a gorgeous bright pink eyelet that I bought on my trip to Thailand last year. I only had a metre to play with so it’s a lot shorter than the pattern suggests for the length, but I think it’s fine (although, perhaps a little short when I sit down!). The skirt is lined with matching pink lining, which I actually treated as underlining as I thought it would be easier. I hemmed each piece of ‘lining’ before basting with it’s matching eyelet piece and then treated as one. It worked out really well, and together with the lovely serged seams, makes the skirt look really neat and rather professional inside! Still loving my overlocker!

In these photos I’ve paired it with my self-drafted purple cowl top, and I think they work really well together – something I wasn’t planning on, but I’m delighted with the result! Hey guys – I’ve made an outfit! Wooo! lol!

 

I spent a lot of time working out the pattern placement and measuring the scallops to ensure that the hem would match up. I am so delighted with the results:

Even the back seam is a perfect match:

Because the skirt is tapered, the rest of the seam doesn’t match up (plus I discovered that the flipping circle pattern didn’t line up with the grain!!!), but I decided it was more important to make sure the scallop of the hem was perfect.

I really love this skirt, and I’m planning on using the same pattern to make a skirt from the turquoise eyelet fabric that I also bought in Thailand. I’m not, however, 100% about the fit. If you look at the image on the front of the pattern, the waistband doesn’t actually sit right on the waist of the model, and the same goes for my skirt. So for all intents and purposes, it’s correct. But I just have the feeling that this skirt would look better on me if it was sitting at my waist. Which is something I’m really surprised I’m saying, because I have, for most of the fashion-conscious part of my life, always avoided wearing waistbands on my true waist. I have always felt that I have quite a short torso, and thus having the waistbands of things (skirts/trousers) lower, makes it look like my body is more in proportion. However, over the last year or so, I have really felt my opinion of this change and I have found myself reaching for waist-cinching belts, and wearing clothes that really accentuate my waist. Is that down to current fashions trends? Learning to sew and appreciating my body shape? Or perhaps loosing some weight and being happier with my proportions? Probably a bit of all of those options!

Whatever the answer, I think I am going to take in this skirt so that it sits at my waist. It will make it an inch or so shorter, but I think that should be OK. I’ll wear it with a killer pair of shoes for nights out!

I made it…AND I wore it! 9

Just a quick shot of my black and white shift dress in action. This is my family and I on holiday in Spain. My Mum and Dad organised a surprise engagement dinner for my Fiancé and I, including pre-dinner fun on rented bikes (of sorts). Since I didn’t realise I was going to by cycling, I wasn’t really in the right attire!!! It was such a laugh though…and I pretty much just kept my feet up the whole time!

A little bit Shifty

Oh dear, just when I announce that I'm back on the blog, my computer crashes!! Anyway, it's working again and I'm back - again!!

As promised, here is the second shift dress that I completed recently:

This is the same pattern as my Ikat and Lace dress, New Look 6643. Because I made it immediately after it was very quick. I even used my Ikat and Lace dress to get the sizing - laying it onto the pieces and drawing on the seamlines. Not sure quite how accurate that was though because this dress is tighter than the original! Fortunately the fabric has a little bit of stretch in it. Turns out that I really like the fit of this dress, it's a bit more flattering.

The pink flower brooch was made using this tutorial. It is really easy and so much fun to make!! I recommend you give it a go!! I'm actually thinking about incorporating it into my wedding in some shape or form. If I do, I'll let you guys know.

The zip for this version is a regular one, which I handpicked - such a great method! I've definitely jumped on that bandwagon, and I don't regret it one bit!!! Some detail shots of both dresses:

‘Little Black Jacket by Chanel’ Video

 

So I have been thinking about making the Chanel style jacket from the March edition of the Burda Style Magazine…:

…out of this silk tweed fabric from my stash:

I’m only at the ‘thinking’ stage, and I’m not even sure that I have enough of the fabric (I may cry if I don’t!). But I’ve recently been reading Claire Shaeffer’ Couture Sewing Techniques (omg, so amazing – I have learnt so much!) and thought perhaps I could add a few ‘couture’ elements to the jacket. I wouldn’t go full out couture, as I’m nowhere near that stage, but it would be nice to perhaps have a nod to couture sewing at least.

So in my search for more information on the internet, I came across this video, and I loved it so so much that I just had to share:

Tell me I’m not the only one totally mesmerised by this video – I actually find it so relaxing to watch (if you ignore the very urgent music!), and don’t you just love how they focus in on the sound of the shears cutting through the fabric!

If you enjoyed that, you will also love this older Chanel video (which you may have already seen):