On one of the snowiest days of the winter, I decided to start making a dress for the summer. As you do…

It’s a Trapeze/Marshamallow mash up! Merchant and Mills Trapeze dress with the addition of the Marshmallow ruffle skirt bit.

Gorgeous fabric form FabricGodmother. Feels wonderful to wear. Can’t wait for warmer weather.

Once again, please excuse the bed hair, had to take pics whilst the light was good.

I’m a creature of habit. And when I like something, I really like something. And therefore when I find a pattern I love, I will make it time and time again. I will also find ways of making it simpler too. For I am a lazy sewer, very lazy. If I can skip a step or leave something out I will.

For my latest Marshmallow, I had it all cut out, pockets and all, but it sat in my to do pile which consisted of just that, for about 6 weeks. It has taken me long time to get over the cold/flu type thing I had at Christmas, New Year. And I just couldn’t face making it up. I cut it out, but just couldn’t bring myself to make it up. Why? Mainly because of the pockets. I love the pockets on this dress, just couldn’t bear the thought of sewing them. So I made a few other items in the mean time. One of those being the black sleeveless and pocketless Marshmallow (due to lack of fabric), which I love.

So I ummed and ahhd and finally decided to make another tunic version, but this time with sleeves, but still without pockets. So I cut down the length of the skirt pieces and put the pockets to one side, and cracked on with it.

And very happy I am too.

I made the seam allowance 2cm this time instead of 1.5cm, to see if it reduced the size a bit. And it does. However I had already sewn the centre back seam together before I made this decision. So next time I will make that 2cm too. I think it does fit a little better.

I’m really loving this fabric also. Its a charcoal grey quilted Ponte Roma from FabricGodmother, and its so soft, comfy and cosy. However I think it will pill like a bitch!

I had just over a metre of fabric left in this black quilted ponte roma. Thought I might have enough to make a sleeveless cocowawa marshmallow dress, without pockets, but didn’t have quite enough for a dress, so I made a tunic length instead. And I’m so so very happy with it.

Can’t wait to wear it with this bag.

I think I’ve said it before, but I am so happy that I can make the sort of things I like. Stuff you can’t buy in the shops. I will definitely be making many more in this version.

I have a Marshmallow dress as a work in progress, has been waiting to be made up for at least a month now. I am now contemplating whether I should make it into this version.

I wanted to share one of my Christmas gifts from my Husband. He got me £100 voucher for Merchant and Mills. Which I duly spent 4 days later. I got myself the Jack Tar bag kit, with navy dry oilskin for the outside and a grey for the inside. Can’t wait to be feeling much better and get this made…

I also got a clapper, which I’ve been wanting for a while. And I still have just over £11 left.

The grosgrain strap I already had, and think I will use this instead of making the fabric handles out of the same fabric as the bag. I think it will go well.

Okay then, second cocowawa Marshmallow dress completed already. Made this one in a size 10 instead of the 12 and whilst still a little roomy (but I think its meant to be) it is perfect. I’m so pleased I’ve found this pattern, no more Trapeze makes for a while I fear!

So without further ado here come the many pictures…

I think the fabric really helps in making this an interesting dress too. More of the Ponte roma quilted jersey.

So there we have it, my new favourite dress pattern. Expect to see many many more of these!

I WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018

XXX

Doesn’t need much introduction, and there’s nothing special about this dress except it marks my return to sewing after 2 months or more of not doing any at all!

I made it using my tunic length pattern hack, but I added 6cm to make it just a little longer.

Quick simple make, Love it!

I had a party to go to recently, and I bought a dress! And I rather enjoyed the process of buying the dress. I’d forgotten that it could be quite nice to buy something to wear for a special occasion. And the dress I bought I would not have been able to make myself, so it is justified.

I will also be wearing it boxing day, for a special lunch for my Mum and Dads 60th wedding anniversary.

And I still haven’t done any sewing. Think thats about 2 months now…

I made/altered back in September. I haven’t been very productive lately, and haven’t made anything yet this October. I think it s nearly a month since I sat down at my sewing machine. I’m blaming work and being too tired! Although I’m also quite content with my wardrobe full of self made tops and dresses. Plus its getting tricky to fit anything else in. And thats after having a good clear out.

Anyway back to what I did manage to do in September.

I made another trapeze top, but this time I added 6cm to my original top pattern. And I think its a pretty good length. This is my 3rd garment in this fabric.

And I loved this version so much that I cut down a dress I’d made in this fabric too. So from this

To this

It was fairly straight forward to do, and I’ve worn it so many more times as a top than I did when it was a dress. I still have the longer one I made, and I’ll be keeping that one as a dress. I know the tops look the same but trust me they are two different tops.

Then I shortened some jeans, it always makes me happy when I do an alteration! I think shortened I them by about 3inches but it might be a bit more. They’re not the jeans worn in the above picture, but these were a similar length, but I didn’t like them longer as they weren’t as tight as the others and I didn’t think they looked quite as good. Now I’m happy with them.

I also shortened sleeves on about six shirts for my Dad. Nothing fancy. I don’t have pics of those.

So thats about it for now. I do have a couple more Imogens I want to make before the years out, so I’m hoping to get my sewjo back soon…

I saw this gorgeous fabric on Minervacrafts.com and had to have it! When it arrived though I was a bit surprised at how stiff and rough it felt. Still I wasn’t put off and I put it in the wash. It felt a little better afterwards.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to make it into a Trapeze top/tunic or an Imogen, so I pondered on it for a few days and one day after coming back from my power walk I’d made up my mind to cut it out in preparation for an Imogen. I bought 3m and boy am I glad I did. I needed pretty much most of it for the pattern, as the fabric wasn’t very wide. I had hoped I’d have enough to make something else, but no.

I had a bit of a love hate working with this fabric, at first it felt stable to work with but then at times I felt like it wanted to stretch. It was horrible to iron, I had to really press hard and do it repeatedly to get any semblance of crispness.

I do love the finished garment though…

I tried it on before I’d finished it properly and for some reason rolled the sleeves up and was delighted with the look, so I made the decision to not put the elastic in leave the sleeves as roll ups. Don’t think thats the technical term!

The placket and the collar were the trickiest bits to work with. I still don’t fully understand what I’m doing and it always ends up working by accident or luck, but its never perfect. I’m a bit worried about the fabric at the bottom right side of the placket, I think there’s the potential for a hole!

And as for the top stitching at the base of the collar, well that went to pot. Its perfectly wearable though and I shall still wear it with pride.

Now for the mod pics… Please excuse the dusty mirror!

And here I am wearing it with a red stripey bag.

Very happy with it. And am now a convert to the vertical stripes.

I love this dress

But I couldn’t help thinking it would be better a bit longer. Unfortunately I didn’t have quite enough fabric left to add the amount I wanted to, so I had to settle for half the amount, I had wanted to make it 6 inches longer but could only make it 3″.

I’m still very happy though.

It might not look that much different, but it feels really nice to wear. I’m still going to make a version with the 6inches though.