Meet Flo

You may have noticed her a couple of weeks a go on this post, but I thought she deserved a proper introduction as I'm very excited about the new addition to my sewing team - meet Florence , or Flo to her good friends, my new (to me) mannequin!

I spotted a shop closing down (which was sad to see, because it's a little independent boutique and I always feel sad when those little shops don't succeed  - all too common at the moment unfortunately) and saw that they were selling off their mannequins - so I knew one had to come home with me!

An extra bonus is that she is actually pretty similar to me in size! Ok...her waist and hips are probably on the small side (but not too much), but her bust is pretty spot on to mine. And I'm hoping she will make hemming a lot easier (thank god!) too.

Apologies for the awful mess in the background of these photos - my sewing room is also my boyfriends washing room (shirts hanging everywhere waiting to be iron - by him...I don't do that!!!) and also general store room (it's a converted attic). The top on Flo is one I started making almost a year a go (mentioned here) (out of a sample curtain!), but I discovered that the fabric was really hard to work with....so I have put off doing the self-bias bound arm holes for a long time because I know they are going to be so fiddly! But I'm hoping by having it on Flo I will be more inclined to finish it....watch this space.

 

Photo from my post back in August.

What am I working on...

Just a little sneak peak at the latest project that has been under my sewing machine. Yep, another bag! What can I say, I LOVE bags (my boyfriend would say I love shoes...but I can't make them....yet!)!!!

Tuesday's Tutorial Treat - The Gilded Skirt

Yeay - time for another tutorial!

I just recently discovered Leanne's fabulous blog Elle Apparel - and if you have yet to discover it yourself then click on the link and have a good browse through it. She makes some really amazing things - including lots of gorgeous skirts. She has quite a few tutorials on her page but I have picked out one of my favourites to share with you all today:

The Gilded Skirt Tutorial

Burda Style July

 Well the first glimpse of the July Burda Style magazine is up on the German website. I was really excited about June's offerings, but unfortunately not as much with July:

I actually really like this dress - but 2 things mean I will never make it: 1. it's a knit and I haven't attempted knit fabrics yet (!) and 2. the big tie detail would draw attention straight to my hips - which is my biggest part! It looks really lovely on the model though!

 I'm a sucker for anything blue at the moment, so this is probably affecting my opinion of this top - but trying to look past that, I do think this could be quite a nice work top.

 This Kimono looks nice enough, but again, I would probably never make this.

 Cute enough, and lovely on the right person - but not my style.

 These look like very nice trousers and I would be tempted to try these...

 Interesting design - but I fear I may look like I'm wearing a tent, or am pregnant, in this dress!

 There seems to be a 'black' theme in this magazine, so the next few a all black. It's hard to make out the details of this dress without the technical drawing, so I look forward to seeing that, as potentially it looks like a nice shape.

 Same for this skirt, could be one to add to be ever growing pencil skirt pattern collection!

 Nice, but a knit - so not for me (at the moment!)

 I think this could be a winner for many people - it looks like a classic shirt/t-shirt which would suit a lot of people.

This dress may be the deal maker or breaker for me - at the moment I really like it, and think it would really suit my shape - but I want to see the technical drawing.

On to a purple theme now. I think this could be quite a nice smart/casual dress that would be very comfortable to wear.

 This jacket would really suit my shape - but I'm no where near ready to tackle tailoring!

 And this is a STUNNER! BUT - it's plus size! Yeay, for the larger lady...but I'm not sure I'm skilled enough to scale it down. Perhaps I could give it a go....

 Another lovely plus size dress.

 And another.

So what does everyone think? Anything here that excites you and makes you want to get your paws on the July copy?

You can see these and more designs from July here. And you can see some model shots here.

And I shall leave you with Burda's favourite fashion item - the over sized/harem pant....Why Burda, why?

Lace dress refashion

I have been dying to share this dress with you all (which I hinted about here) - but I dithered on hemming it for AGES (I really have an issue with hemming...I don't know why!). But, it is finally done and ready for it's big reveal.

This whole project started out because I nabbed a rather large and unflattering navy blue lacy 'dress' for £1 from Primark (I'm normally not a Primark supporter as I am doubtful about how they can mass produce clothing for so little without it having some unethical aspect along the line - but that's a whole other story! Plus the quality is really crap and I hate this 'throw away' society shops like this have played a part in creating - 'we' have no respect for clothes anymore....sorry, rant over). I had no intentions of keeping the dress in its original form, but because I had picked up a size 16 (largest that was left) I had a fair bit of fabric to play with:

The dress needed to be underlined/lined and I had originally thought something dramatic and bright, like hot pink. But when I held up the pink under the lace it looked mega tacky! So with a bit of searching around my local fabric store, I happened upon an off cut of taupe lining in the remnant bin - for a lovely bargain of about £2! I think the taupe colour (which is not normally a colour I gravitate towards) provides a more elegant aspect.

The plan was to use the bodice from a pattern and then 'make-up' the skirt. I had originally planned to make the whole dress out of the lace, but once I started laying out the pattern pieces it became evident that that wasn't going to be possible. So the midriff section was made using only the lining material. I do like the contrasting aspect, but to be honest, it is one layer of polyester lining material, so it is neither very secure nor flattering in certain angles!

The bodice is made from New Look 6557, view C (the yellow dress on the pattern cover). I made the skirt by joining strips of lace together to make the largest rectangle I could, cut a strip the same size out of the lining, and then gathered.

A shot of the back - again totally from lining, because I didn't have enough lace. I used an invisible zip, which had to be picked out a couple of times because I wasn't getting the waist line joined up perfectly - turned out my two back pieces were slightly different sizes (er - how does that kind of thing happen?!!!)! Easy enough to fix though - thank goodness! The straps are made of navy ribbon.

My favourite part of the dress is the underlined bodice, it turned out so well and I just love the colours together. It's perhaps a little big for me, but fine when I wear a bra - I just need to go and buy a navy one so that it's not so noticeable!

All in all, I do like the dress very much. I honestly only made it as a challenge to myself, and as such, I'm very happy with the results. However, I don't see myself wearing this dress very much - to be honest, I don't know what occasion it would be most appropriate for. But it ended up costing me less than £5 in total to make - so not a massive loss!