Love At First Stitch Online Launch Party!

Are you excited? The unstoppable Tilly Walnes from Tilly and the Buttons is launching her new sewing book today, Love At First Stitch – and to celebrate, she is hosting an online launch party. Dress code: Brigitte Scarf!
Never one to turn down an invite, I had to get involved…but I couldn’t decide which way I should wear my new scarf (which, by the way was the fastest, most satisfying, instant gratification sew ever!!!)…

Have you seen the previews of the new book? The patterns look absolutely beautiful, and right up my street. I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.

Have any of you had early access to the book (you lucky things!)?
Have you made the Brigitte scarf?
Are you excited? (you should be!)

Style Sudoku | How to build a capsule wardrobe

Who doesn’t dream of a capsule wardrobe, where each piece works beautifully with multiple other items in your wardrobe? But building a capsule wardrobe can often be a daunting task. Personally my taste is too eclectic to even attempt to live by a capsule wardrobe alone, but I think it’s a fantastic way to plan for a holiday or trip – or, far more importantly, it’s a great way to make a sewing plan ( well, this IS a sewing blog after all)!

I’m not going to take credit for Style Sudoku, I actually saw this idea in a Grazia magazine a few years ago, and it has stuck in my mind since. I struggle to wear my handmade clothes on a regular basis, and I think one of the reasons is because I don’t have enough other things to pair with them to make workable outfits. So I thought that it might be more sensible to Sew With A Plan (as many of you will have done/talked about before). The Style Sudoku is a very clever and organic way of developing and building your own capsule wardrobe, or capsule sewing plan!

The principal is simple; 4 tops, 4 bottoms, 4 shoes and 4 accessories (It doesn’t work so well with dresses unfortunately. My thinking is that a dress is an outfit of it’s own almost anyway, so you could just add a couple of coordinating dresses to the mix to provide you with even more choice). The placement of your pieces are key to making this Sudoku work, so I’ve created the basic template to help you:

From this grid, outfits can be created by reading horizontally, vertically or diagonally:

Once you have this grid you can start building your wardrobe. I have found that it is easiest if you stick to a very limited palette, perhaps pick 2 neutrals and add one accent colour. For my example, I’ve gone with Black, Denim and Bright Pink:

Here are some of the outfits you can get from this Style Sudoku:

It’s worth noting that corner pieces coordinate with three possible outfits, so make sure those are the most versatile. It’s also harder to build your Style Sudoku if you have too many pieces with patterns – unless you are a pro at pattern mixing (I am not!!). Working with this grid system you can build 10 different outfit options. But actually, if you stick to a limited colour palette and pick simple styles, then essentially you open yourself up an awful lot more choice!

I have been using this Style Sudoku idea to help plan some of my future sewing projects and I can’t wait to share my Sudoku plan in a future post. I am excited at the possibility of so many different outfit options for my handmade clothes!

So what do you guys think? Is this a system you could adopt? Have I inspired you to start planning your next holiday wardrobe?!
If any of you try out your own Style Sudoku I would love to see it – please share a link in the comment section below or ping me an email!

(Links to the pieces in my sample Style Sudoku can be found here, and if you like to use Polyvore I’ve made a Style Sudoku template to help with your wardrobe planning)

Make It Yourself : J.Crew Floral Skirt

Before I get into this post, I just want to say a massive thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. It’s nice to know that everyone goes through dips in their sewing now and again and I really appreciated all your lovely, kind words of encouragement!

So, even though my sewing skills seem to be taking a bit of a dive at the moment, my joy of planning is, as always, flying high! I just love spotting pieces which I think can be recreated at home (when not in a funk! lol), quite often for a fraction of the price. So I thought I’d try and share some of these with you from time to time.

Today is all about the gorgeous floral skirt that Kendi was wearing recently. All details below:

Inspiration:
J.Crew floral skirt (£198!), as seen on Kendi Everyday

Make it Yourself:
Fabric: Floral fabric from Croft Mill (it’s not exact, but it’s pretty close!) £6.50/m
Pattern: New Look 6003, View E (any pencil skirt pattern would do!) £2.99 (currently on sale – woohoo!)

 

Edit: Argh! How typical – unfortunately it appears that Croft Mill have sold out of that lovely fabric…from last week! If you really love it, do keep checking back on their website as I know they sometimes get fabric back in stock. Or – if any of you have spotted the fabric elsewhere give me a shout and I’ll update the post! Apologies, and thanks!

Thoughts on being in a sewing funk...

I'm going through a bit of a sewing dip at the moment - everything I attempt seems to be going wrong! Do you ever get times like that? It's a real knock to the confidence and it's getting me kind of down. I make all these fab plans for my projects and dive straight in, but then get to a problem and just can't face trying to fix it!

Sunni from A Fashionable Stitch wrote a really poignant post the other day about choosing the right fabric for your project, and it really hit a chord with me. I have been sewing for quite a few years now, but I still struggle with pairing the right fabric with a pattern. I really believe that having the right fabric takes a garment from looking 'homemade' to looking professional, and I find that if something looks 'homemade' I have a lot less desire to wear it - which probably explains why I actually hardly ever wear my 'me made' clothes.

Take that pile in the photo above. The black denim was sewn up into a pleated skirt. I thought it was going to look awesome - but it just looks so awful and unflattering on me, so I haven't bothered to finished it (all it needs is hemming and sewing the inside waistband). I'm hoping I can rescue the fabric - perhaps it would be more suited for a short a-line skirt, maybe a Moss Mini?

And the plain maroon fabric - that was going to be a classic gathered skirt - but somehow I have made the waistband far too tight. And the fabric is rather stiff. I actually thought that would give the skirt a lovely crisp drape and look quite dramatic - which it does…but boy does that not suit my body shape!!!

Finally the fabric on the top is my attempt at salvaging another bad fabric choice. It used to be a lovely shirred maxi dress (that I blog about here) - but the jersey was to heavy for that style and I risked exposing myself whenever I wore it (!!!), so I thought I would try and turn it into a Plantain dress (tutorial here). The top part was going great, but I have attached the skirt on too low so it sits lower than my waist. It needs unpicking but I'm just not feeling the love for it as a dress to be honest! I'm tempted to turn it into a bit of a cropped t-shirt instead. 

I hope I can get out of this funk and get back to loving sewing. Anyone else get disheartened when things go wrong? How do you get yourself back on track again? 

Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year to you all! A bit late to the party aren't I? Ah well, c'est la vie. Did you have a nice Christmas, filled with lots of delicious over-indulgent food and drink and plenty of sewing related presents I hope? I have to admit I didn't get too many sewing related presents this year, apart from a very lovely red and white spot sewing basket from the in-laws, which I have already put to good use. I'll reveal it's new role soon.

But yes, back to the overindulging. I certainly enjoyed myself far too much over the Christmas period, so I'm cutting back severely now that we are into the new year. I'm not going on a diet per-say, but I am being more careful and selective with what I choose to eat. Why am I telling you this? Because I have decided that I need to take the same approach to my fabric stash!!

I have accumulated a substantial stash (although I have seen far bigger stashes across the net recently - at least I'm not the only one!) over the last few years. I've also developed a bit of an obsessive hobby that involves trawling online fabric shops, imagining vast wardrobes of fabulous me-mades, buying the required fabrics and then folding it up neatly (ish) and never actually getting around to making any of it (although I do get it out from time to time and drape it around me in front of the mirror!)! Anyone have this hobby?! Perhaps it's more of an addiction than a hobby...

I haven't made any New Year Resolutions or even goals this year, but my husband and I would REALLY like to move house this year. So I suppose to aid that, we are consciously cutting our spending. One of the ways I could/should do that is to work through my stash, and not buy any more fabric. Good ol' stash bustin'. So much easier said than done - I caught myself nearly buying a couple of pretty cotton prints today!

I'm not inflicting any rules on myself. I've discovered I don't do well with rules, deadlines etc. My blog is a testament to that. I'm just declaring that I WILL do a wee bit of stash busting this year. I actually don't have any space to store new fabric, so it's practical as well.

I'm off to a decent start, as I have a couple of projects waiting to be blogged that have both been made from the stash. And I've just washed 3 different fabrics that I'm hoping to sew-up, production-line stylie, into skirts. 

I see there a quite a few people also planning on doing a bit of stash busting or dieting this year. Are you? Or have you got some other plans for 2014? Do tell...

 

Would you? Could you?

I wasn’t going to post today (3 posts in 3 days from me…what’s going on?!), but I have just seen this on Design Sponge and I HAD to share it would you guys!

Grace has shared the most fabulous makeover by Cori Kindred who has covered a retro typewriter in fabric (click the photo for more). As soon as I saw it my heart skipped a beat (come on, we all love fabric don’t we?!) and I thought… could I do that to my sewing machine??!!!

It sounds like quite a tricky, fiddly task, but just imagine swathing your sewing machine in your most favourite fabric…my only problem would be having to choose which fabric to use!

So what about you, could you be tempted?

Trend Spotting : The Dropped Waist

I think we would all agree that at some point along the journey of sewing your own clothes you start to experience a sense of freedom and power against the RTW world – you realise that you don’t have to be tied down by current trends and fashion. You can choose whatever style, fabric and colour you like (if you can find it in the fabric shop that is, that’s another story!)! Although that is true, I still see current trends and fashions creeping into the sewing world. To be honest it would be hard for it not to, fashion tends to recycle itself. I can remember countless outfits when I was growing up that my Mum would pass comment on to say she wore it when it was first in fashion!

Anyway, all this is to say that over the last few years I have seen the twinkle of a trend and thought to myself, “oh I recon that’s going to be big” (either in the RTW world or the sewing blog world) – but I’ve never bothered to blog about it. Some examples of this are scalloped edges, peplums, coloured lace dresses, peter-pan collars…the list goes on. So  instead of just letting them pass by, I thought I would share my thoughts on the blog.

Todays trend may not necessarily be my favourite trend ever, but I’ve been seeing it pop up a lot and I have a feeling we may be seeing a fair bit more of it next year, both in the shops and perhaps on sewing blogs: The Dropped Waist. My guess is this trend is probably being inspired by the recent Downton Abbey Flapper style (it certainly wouldn’t be the first time Downton has influenced fashion), or maybe it’s a development from the peplum, which evolved into the hem flounce and is now a dropped waist? Perhaps a little bit of both.

It can be a hard look to carry off but can be done beautifully. Simple and chic it can be dressed up or dressed down:

Or horrendously:

Sorry VB, that’s just wrong.

But asides from the Fashion World, I’ve spotted the dropped waist on a number of commercial sewing patterns as well:

And more excitingly (because we all know we love and want to support them), the independent designers have been giving their own spin on this trend too:

So what to you think? Do you like this style? Are you tempted to whip up a drop waisted dress?

Personally, although I think it would actually fit in quite well with my search for forgiving patterns, I don’t know if I’m ready to jump on this wagon just yet…

 

*Click images for links

Thoughts on the cost of sewing your own clothes

The general consensus around these bloggy parts is that sewing your own clothes isn’t cheap. For example, you can’t just take into consideration the cost for the pattern and the fabric, there’s all  the notions the project uses as well (thread/zips/buttons/interfacing etc). Plus the start-up for this hobby can be quite pricey – even your basic sewing machine doesn’t come that cheap. I’ve also learnt the hard way that buying cheap means paying in the long run – I recommend never buying cheap fabric shears or cheap thread, the money you save is just not worth the heartache!

I’ve always been aware that my hobby was a bit of a money pit (shhh…let’s keep that between you and me, my husband needn’t know!), but do you know, I have never sat down and actually worked out how much each of my projects has actually cost me.

Until the other week that is, when I decided I would do just that for my Autumn sewing plans (photo above). I was busy making plans for things I would like to make, but they all involved buying new patterns and new fabric, so I was concerned how much my ideas were actually going to set me back. To be honest, my initial reaction wasn’t good, probably because I added everything up and got a big stinking figure. But anything is going to sound expensive if you add a whole pile of things together. Looking at each garment cost individually it’s not actually that bad – a dress for £29.45 sounds fair to me. OK I could get something cheaper in some of the shops from the high street, but I would guess (hope?!) that the quality wouldn’t be as good, plus I wouldn’t have a say in the fit, fabric type or colour.

Of course there’s the argument that you need to factor in my time spent on making the clothes and an hourly wage – but if I did that then I would definitely be shocked at the cost! I’m happy to work for ‘free’ with the reward of something pretty at the end of it!

And they are only good value if I actually MAKE them!! I don’t even want to think about the number of patterns and amount of fabric in my stash all waiting to be used up. That’s when things start to get expensive. I see lots of bloggers talking about shopping their stash and going on a fabric diet, which is what I planned to do…only I didn’t really have any suitable ‘Autumnal’ fabric in my stash. There’s always an excuse isn’t there?! I suppose every hobby has it’s costs though doesn’t it?

I think I will try and keep a tally of how much each project costs from now on though, and will list this when I blog about new makes.

I’ll tell you one thing, it’s hard to stop buying new patterns and fabric, when there are so many wonderful and inspirational sewing blogs out there, tempting me with their latest creations!!!

How about you? Do you keep a close eye on your costs? Do you work out how much each project ends up costs? And do you go on fabric diets (or maybe fabric binges?!!)?

Sewing with a different attitude

Although I have been back from my honeymoon now for about 3 months, I haven’t actually had much on the blog to show for it. My friends and family suggested that after the immense amount of sewing and crafting that I put into the wedding I should take a well deserved break. So they were a bit surprised to hear that I have already got back to the sewing machine – hey, I was away on honeymoon for 3 weeks, surely that was enough of a break? You guys know what I mean, right?!!

One thing that has changed though, is my attitude to sewing. Over the last 12 months I have been sewing with a very distinct deadline and (in my usual style) crammed an awful lot into the last month or so before the wedding. It stressed me out a lot and I started to loose the enjoyment that I used to get from sewing. So I have been trying to tell myself to just relax and remember what it’s like to slow down and take pleasure in each step – after all, it is my hobby!

The first thing I started working on when I got home was a version of Gertie’s Pencil Skirt, from her book Gertie’s New Book For Better Sewing, made up in the gorgeous floral cotton sateen (see above). I have been taking my time and paying attention to all the details, and really enjoying it. When I first started making it one of my colleagues in work asked if I was sewing anything, so I described the skirt to them. A week later they asked again, and initially I felt a bit embarrassed that I was going to have to admit that I hadn’t really made much progress on the skirt since they last asked – but then I realised that I have no need to feel embarrassed or ashamed that it has taken me a couple of months to make a simple pencil skirt* – who cares?! I know that, if I had to, I could whip up a simple pencil skirt in an afternoon. But I’m making it for me, taking my time to make it perfect and there is no deadline, so there is no need to get stressed about it. When it’s done, it’s done, and I’ll be happy that I have a new skirt, but until then, I’m happy I have a little project to work on! Currently it is waiting for me to blind-hem the floral fabric, and hem the lining (with some lovely lace). I’ll get around to it eventually!

Because I have always hated hemming, I might have got a little bit distracted and started another project! I am also currently making a Washi Dress out of a heavy burnt red linen which I’m hoping will be a good layering piece during the Autumn/Winter, and be a much needed addition to my everyday wardrobe since I currently can’t fit into half of my clothes (no lie people!). Again, I’m taking my time and just fitting in a wee bit of sewing whenever my life lets me, and I’m not stressing about getting it done asap.

Another thing that has often made me feel under pressure to finish projects is the blog. There are so many fantastic sewing blogs out there these days, and some sewists are able to churn out project after project so quickly! Because of that there is always that little feeling that if you aren’t keeping up, you will get left behind. But along with this new attitude to sewing I have also adopted a much healthier attitude towards my blog. My blog is here to document my sewing, rather than having to sew to fill-up my blog – and if there are readers out that who enjoy it then that’s all the better!

So, how about you – do you ever find yourself stressing over a project, perhaps with a deadline, and loosing the enjoyment from your hobby? Or do you ever feel the pressures of having to create content for your blog (for those of you who’s blog is not their job…that’s a different matter! lol)?

Form Forgiving Sewing Patterns

My post topic from last week on sewing and weight changes struck a chord with quite a few of you and it was great to hear peoples views on the subject. It was also interesting to see quite different approaches to the situation. Some of you declared that I should embrace the present and just enjoy making clothes for my current size – life happens and sometimes going back to your younger weight just isn’t realistic or possible. Others suggested to think about trying to sew some garments that would work for my current weight but would also still fit if I were to loose a little bit – for example sewing some knit pieces.

I have to admit that the latter appealed to me somewhat more – I realise life happens and we do change weight and shape over our lifetime, but I’m just not ready to accept that yet! So with that in mind, I thought I would look into what patterns I could work on now, that would also work well if I lost a little bit of weight, and not end up look like I’m wearing something too big. Now, this is relevant to the particular areas that I tend to put on weight – my tummy, bum and thighs, so perhaps the patterns I list might not be as appropriate for you (if you are in a similar situation to me and also thinking about what to make). Here are a few patterns that I think would transition well (with an eye on the current Autumn season as well):

The Coppélia Cardi, from Papercut Patterns. A really great wardrobe basic with a wrap detail which would essentially mean you could tie it tighter when you shift a few pounds!

Staying with the wrapped garment theme, how about this gorgeous Wrap Dress, from Burda Style (long version here, on the US site, although I’m not a fan of the fabric they chose!). I have been in love with this dress since it’s first appearance back in 2011, but they recommend wool crepe and when I went to buy some I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much money!!!

How about the lovely Tova, lengthened into a dress, by Wiksten? There are some really lovely versions out there of this pattern and I have had it in the back of my mind for awhile. I could imagine this in a nice Chambray, layered with thick tights and boots and a cosy scarf for Autumn/Winter, but it would work equally as well as a Spring/Summer dress too, paired with sandals and sunnies – so the potential to get lots of use out of it!

Also by Wiksten, but not actually released yet (she hopes do to so before Jan 2014), is the Marguerite Dress. Slightly fitted bodice but a gathered skirt, but the bonus is the ties at the back, which would mean you could tighten the dress to fit as you loose the weight (or loosen them if you put the weight back on again! lol).

Or how about the Washi Dress, by Made By Rae? Similar to the Tova and Marguerite, but with pleat details. Again this would work well layered up for Autumn/Winter or on it’s own for Spring/Summer. I have a lovely burnt red coloured linen in my stash that I’m tempted to make up in this pattern.

OK – not sure how this suggestion will go down. I was drawn to Gertie’s gorgeous gathered skirt because there would be no hip/thighs/bum fitting issues (and after wearing my Cambie and Wedding Dress I have fallen in love with wearing full skirts – so much fun!), but I realise that the waistband is fitted. So either, you make it in your current size and then if you loose an inch or so around the waist you just wear it further down. Or, how about making the back waistband with elastic? That way it would fit a few different waist sizes. Yes…I realise that this suggestion does have the danger of turning a fab skirt into a granny skirt. What do you think?

Perhaps this is the perfect excuse to finally get around to sewing a shirt? I’ve opted for the Archer Shirt, by Grainline, but any loose fitting shirt would work.

A lot of knit patterns would work well since knits are so forgiving, but I’ve picked the Renfrew from Sewaholic since it’s such a popular sewing bloggers choice – and I’ve yet to jump on board. Maybe now is the time?

The Victoria Blazer from By Hand London could be a great option for a jacket which has quite a loose, slouchy fit.

There are many more of course, but these are few that are currently on my radar. I’m quite excited about trying some of these garments. My style has always been very much the whole pencil skirt/shift dress/skinny jeans look and I would veer away from looser fitting clothes, so it’s a step out of my comfort zone – and everyone says you need to step out of your comfort zone now and again. Perhaps I will discover and develop a new style for this stage in my life. Another positive I’ve thought about these clothes is that they will serve me well (for the first few months anyway) if I’m fortunate enough to become pregnant as they are all quite forgiving around the tummy!

Finally I just want to state that this post is in no way a discussion on what is a “good size” and what is not and it is certainly not meant to promote or champion weight loss nor to imply that any weight is more/less desirable than another. Everyone is different and has different approaches to life (which is part of what makes life great!), and this is just my own personal situation at the moment.

So does anyone have any other pattern suggestions that would work well? I’m keen to discover more!

A Sewing Epiphany?

Image sourced from HERE

Now I know this may not be news to many of you, and you may already subscribe to the Craftsy Blog and will therefore have seen this recently, but I thought I would share it here just in case it might help someone else.

This has to be one of the things that I find most frustrating and annoying when sewing with a lightweight fabric (such as chiffon or silk). You spend so much time and care to prepare your fabric, using special pins, cutting it out sandwiched between two layers of tissue paper, changing your needle…and then you put the fabric under the sewing machine foot, press the pedal down and watch the fabric get eaten up by the machine! I can tell you this has definitely caused the most swearing and screaming to come out of my sewing room over anything else!

I did learn the trick about holding onto the needle thread and bobbin thread before you start sewing, and quite often that does it, but not always. So when I read about using a Stitch Starter on the Craftsy Blog, it honestly felt like an epiphany. It’s so simple but solves the problem – and it works on bulky fabric too (to avoid that horrible jamming and birds nest worth of thread accumulating on the underside of your fabric! I’m really excited to give it a try – and I’m currently working with some very misbehaving slinky fabric so it’s perfect timing.

If you are interested in finding out more about a Stitch Starter check out this post.

I also see that the Coletterie has just written a post about sewing with delicate fabrics which might also be useful.

Disclaimer: I have just realised that this post sounds like I’m getting something from Craftsy, but I’m not and they haven’t contacted me, I just wanted to share the information!

Thoughts on sewing and weight change

Firstly, can I just send out a massive ‘thank you’ to all the wonderful people who left such lovely comments on the post on my wedding reception dress – they made my day/week/month!

Secondly, how awesome are those Christian Louboutin tape measure shoes, in a kind of OTT-I’m-a-little-too-obsessed-with-sewing kind of way…

OK, now onto the topic of this post!

So, I’ve been back from my honeymoon for about two months now…and while I have actually been doing a little bit of sewing, to be honest, my heart is not in it. You see, I think I may be the first bride in the history of weddings who actually put ON weight before her wedding! In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret. When I came back from my honeymoon I had to go out and buy some new clothes to wear to work that would hide my belly for fear that I would start a rumour that I was pregnant – yes honestly, I had developed a little pot that looked like a bit of a baby bump!!!

Actually, I’ve noticed that since I’ve hit my 30’s it’s not as easy staying in shape as it used to be (yes, we’ve all heard that before – well I can confirm that it is true!), and also…living in a happy stable relationship (not complaining) has also been bad for my waistline.

Because of that, i haven’t really sewn as much as I used to. I keep looking through all my lovely fabric and daydreaming about what I’m going to turn it into (come on, I know you do it too!), and then I’ll fold it up and put it away, saying that I’ll make that dress/skirt/top when I’m back to my old weight. But I’ve been doing that for over a year now – it’s not good!

Now I know I’m not overweight, so please don’t be giving off to me about complaining about my size. But I think it’s all relative to what you are used to. I’m not overweight, but I am bigger than I used to be. My clothes tell me so. For example – you may remember my pink scallop skirt:

In the blog post I mentioned that it actually ended up being slightly too big and didn’t sit at my waist. I thought about unpicking it and taking it in, but I didn’t (see, I told you I don’t like doing alterations!). Well, it turned out to be a good thing that I didn’t take it in as it now fits my waist perfectly…and it’s perhaps a wee bit tight on the thighs!

So what do you think would be the best approach? Hold off on sewing clothes and focus whole-heartedly at getting back to my old weight/size, or just start cutting into that gorgeous fabric and use it already? I don’t know! I’m inclined to lean towards the first approach. I don’t like doing alterations, so if I make clothes for my current size I’m going to be left with some lovely homemade clothes that later on won’t fit me, and I’ll never get around to taking in. I find that thought such a shame because ideally I like to think that what I make will be in my wardrobe rotation for as long as possible – classic pieces so to speak. And plus, if my mind is of the opinion that I WILL loose the weight, then I’m not as inclined to put so much effort into my makes, if I know I won’t get an awful lot of use out of them, and then that partly defeats another reason I make clothes – to make something beautiful that I’m proud of!

What are your thoughts on this?

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!

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?

‘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):

Hey–I’ve seen that fabric before!

So I was walking home from work the other week when something in a local bus service advert caught my eye:

What the…! I literally stopped in my tracks and took a closer look at the girl in the red dress:

Does that fabric look familiar at all?

To me it did…I have the exact same fabric folded up in my stash at home! It may not seem like such a big deal to you, but N.Ireland isn’t the biggest of places…so I’m curious as to where the dress came from. I bought the fabric online from a shop in England. So did the ‘designer’ for the advert buy a ready made dress from a local boutique (if so, I want to know where!)? Did they buy the fabric from the same place I did and make up a dress (if so…why bother?!!!)? I don’t think they bought it from a fabric shop here because there aren’t that many and I’ve been to them all (pretty much) and have never spotted this fabric. Any other suggestions?

Regardless of the answer, seeing how nice this dress looks is spurring me on to get it out of my stash and made up into something to wear asap!!

And that’s not the first time I’ve spotted some fabric from my stash made up into something. I was merrily browsing through the gorgeous (and I mean GORGEOUS…do check it out if you haven’t) lookbook from Lena Hoschek when I spotted this lovely lady is a very nice floral circle skirt:

from here (was 315Euro!)

And the same floral fabric made into a (kind of) pencil skirt:

from here (was 375Euro!)

And below is my fabric…I recon it’s the same stuff. I bought mine for a steal at a local car boot sale. I’m pretty sure it’s curtain/upholstery fabric but I bought it thinking it would make a nice pencil skirt – and obviously Lena thought the same!!! I’m now dying to make it up into a look-a-like skirt for a fraction of the RRP!!! (It’s times like this that I really love being able to sew!)

So, have any of you spotted your stash out and about? Has it inspired you to get it out and use it? Did you maybe have an idea for it that was perhaps changed once you saw it made up into something else?

P.S. I am finishing off a quick shift dress this week that I cannot wait to share with you guys. I think this will be a TnT pattern for me (I’ve got at least two more planned!).