Puffy sleeves! I really wanted to make my empire line tops with puff sleeves, so I pattern hacked the sleeves from Tilly and the Buttons “Mathilde” top, to fit the Merchant and Mills “Trapeze” pattern. And I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. I hadn’t planned on having the puffy sleeve head, just thought I’d get fullness to the bottom part of the sleeve. So it was Serendipity that I got the puffy sleeve head.

This is my wearable toile.

And then came this one. Made with the fabric I bought from Ditto fabrics in Brighton, back in February.

I am loving them.

I’ve been wanting to make a high waisted/empire line dress, top for ages. I’ve seen several patterns I quite like, but you know, I do like to stick to what I know. So decided to once again hack the Merchant and Mills, Trapeze dress pattern. I love the neckline on the Trapeze. Takes a bit of working out to keep that lovely curve on the bottom edge though, but I got there.

I used some cotton fabric that I bought from M&M a few years back. I was a bit concerned as it isn’t a very wide fabric, only 110cm, I’m more used to at least a 140cm wide fabric nowadays. And the pattern piece for the tier bit was wider than the fabric, but I just had to go with it. I thought about making the tier shorter and adding in some extra fabric, but then decided against it.

I didn’t have enough fabric to make a dress, only a top. It worked out perfectly and I am beyond happy with it.

I’ve already started on the dress version.

I’m a bit late to the Linden party, but better late than never. This is a pattern by “Grainline  Studio” and its a sweatshirt and its been about for years!

I bought this pattern over a year ago. It can take me a while to get round to making a new pattern. I’m always put off by the effort of trying to work out what size I am. I still don’t really know how to do it properly and it usually ends up as guess work.

Fairly simple to put together, my only headache came when I tried to attach the neckband the first time. Had a couple of issues. One being that the instructions weren’t very clear and I wasn’t too sure how exactly I was supposed to go about it, however I worked it out. Secondly was that I was originally going to use the same fabric as the main body of the sweatshirt for the all the bands. And it turned out that the sweatshirt fabric didn’t have enough stretch. At first I thought I must be doing something wrong, so I googled for some ideas, and found a blog where someone else had done the same (can’t remember the blog name now), confirming for me that the sweatshirt fabric didn’t indeed have enough stretch. And she ended up using ribbing. So I had to go get some ribbing. I found some gorgeous stuff in Merchant and Mills, which has coordinated beautifully with the sweatshirt fabric.

I really didn’t like it when I finished it and tried it on. Its quite different from my usual makes. Its more fitting and quite snug around the hips. And at first I was thinking it was too small (it isn’t), and I didn’t like the sleeves. I made the short sleeved version, which have no cuffs. And when I tried it on wished I’d made the long sleeved version. Although they were hemmed, the sleeves looked unfinished to me.

So I took it off and decided that was that, and reconciled myself to a failure!

After thinking about it for a while, I tried it on again. Really wasn’t happy about it being a failure as the fabric was quite expensive and I took a special trip to Rye to go to Merchant and Mills and get the ribbing. Didn’t want it all to be for nothing (had toyed with giving it to a friend). However, when I tried it on again, I had a moment of inspiration, and decided to add ribbing to the sleeves. Luckily I had enough left from the neckband.

And thats what I did, and that small alteration made all the difference.

I made it with a split hem.

Just look at that lovely ribbing. I love the thin gold stripe running just above the grey stripe.

Its not perfect, nothing I make ever is, but I’m still pretty damn happy with it! Hubby says it looks professional :0)

Another reason I didn’t like it at first was the length of the body, I usually like longer lengths on me, but I’m embracing something different. And I’ve come around to it.

I’m also quite satisfied with the short sleeves, as I don’t often wear long sleeves, if I do I end up pushing them up anyway.

This is one of the first things I’ve made that I’ve worn on the same day I finished it. And blogged it!

I made this in the second week of January, just taken a while to get round to posting it.

Had a trip to Brighton end of November last year and happened to stumble on a great fabric store, you’ve probably heard of it, I had heard of it, just didn’t know where it was exactly and had forgotten about it whilst I was there. If that makes sense? So my friend and I were wandering down the lanes and I saw this fabric shop, so had to go in.

It was filled with some amazing and beautiful fabrics and I had to restrain myself. I bought 2.5 metres of the most gorgeous cotton jersey. Oh and the fabric shops name “Ditto” fabrics. Do take a look if you’re ever in that area.

I made another fail safe, Marshmallow tunic top.

Its a gorgeous fabric, both to work with and to wear. I still have about a metre and a half left. Haven’t made up my mind what to make with yet. Actually I’m having trouble deciding what to make full stop, with any of my fabrics at the moment. I am feeling a bit crippled by indecision! I’m hoping that the new series of “the Great British Sewing Bee” will help inspire me again.

Made this to wear to lunch at the Shard in London with a couple of girlfriends. Thought it was smart and stylish, yet not as smart or stylish as the waitresses/hostesses at The Shard. Wish I’d taken pics, as I felt underdressed!

Anyhoo, I’m still very happy and pleased with this make, and have worn it many times since!

Came this

I do love this fabric, its so pretty. And its lovely and cool to wear too.

I bought 2.5m of this fabric. Very happy about the fact that Fabric Godmother now sells their fabric by the half metre. And I was able to get two tops out of it, happy about that too!

I don’t know why I only ordered a metre of this fabric, I never only order a metre, as its rarely enough for what I want to make. But for some reason I ordered a metre. This was October last year, and when I decided I wanted to make a Marshmallow tunic top I tried to order another metre but it was out of stock! I thought that might be the end of that idea.

I thought I’d have a look and see what I could get out of it, so I laid the pattern pieces on the fabric and happily I could get a sleeveless version from it. Also had to make the frill piece much smaller, think I ended up folding it in half.

No sleeves, no facing and no pockets. But I love it!

This is such a happy, colourful fabric. I love all the details in it, so much going on.

And I’m really really happy with the length of this one too.

And I remembered to make all the seams with a 2cm seam allowance.

Here you go, another Trapeze in the lovely quilted ponte roma fabric. I do love this fabric!

Not gonna say much about it, its all been said before.

I’ve not been very well since Christmas, nothing serious just this cold/flu virus thing thats going around, but it has made me feel pretty grotty for long enough now, and I’m fed up with it! Its left me with a cough that just won’t go and I get pretty exhausted quite quickly. I had to make the decision a couple of a weeks ago as to whether I was going to sew or start exercising again. I decided I had to get back into my exercising regime, got to watch that waist line! However I started re watching the last series of the Great British Sewing Bee (wish they’d do another) and really wanted to do some sewing. I have a work in progress, another Cocowawa Marshmallow dress, but feel its a bit too fiddly and needs too much concentration for the way I’m feeling at present. So I decided that this gorgeous quilted jersey fabric would make a superb long sleeve Trapeze top.

what I love about making the Trapeze in a jersey is that you only need 3 pattern pieces, and its so simple to put together. I almost completed it in one day…

I added 6cm again to the bottom of the pattern and turned up the hem by about 2cm. Very happy with length.

This is not a very good picture of the back!

This quilted fabric just makes every garment look that little bit more professional I feel.

Please excuse the bed hair!!

I love this fabric in the grey, its a bit different to the navy and black fabric, as its really soft to touch and so snuggly to wear. However I do feel it will pill like a bugger!! So there we have it, satisfied my urge to sew and I now have a gorgeous new top.

it didn’t quite work out as planned. I felt it looked more like a nightshirt and when the Husband agreed it was a done deal. So I turned it into a tunic instead. And I love it and have worn it so many times already. The fabric I got for my Birthday and it came from the fabulous Fabric Godmother, seriously that website is so dangerous for me! The fabric is a gorgeous crepe and it feels wonderful to wear. I think its sold out now otherwise I’d get some more.

Here’s a couple of pics of the dress version.

When I look at the pics again I quite like it now, I’m definitely going to have another go at making a dress version.

And now for the pics of the tunic.