I’ve had a lot of wear out of these three Trapeze dresses. I have to say I’m really loving them. They are so easy to wear, just fling em on and go. And when the sun is shining and its hot hot hot, you really don’t want to have to think too hard about what you’re wearing.

I thought this one was pretty boring when I first made it, but now I really love it. And I can’t stop thinking about a longer one.

Wasn’t overly keen on this one either when I finished it, but with the right footwear and accessories its perfect and I feel really good in it!

And this baby is one of my all time favourites, made it last year and wore it lots and am wearing it lots this year too. I need some more of this fabric.

All three made from the Merchant and Mills Trapeze dress pattern, all slightly different. Its amazing how much difference the fabric can make to how a garment turns out.

I don’t know if its the fabric or the stripes, I know its not the pattern as the Imogen is one of my faves. I just can’t put my finger on it. I’m hoping it’ll be one of those makes that will eventually grow on me. I have quite a few things I’ve made that I didn’t like or not keen on when first finished, and have since ended up loving. So fingers crossed, as I do hate putting in all that effort and then not wearing it.

I am quite pleased with the stripe matching across the front and the sleeves though. Didn’t work at all at the side seams, they are way off!

So there we are, underwhelmed!

I’m afraid there won’t be many pictures but the ones there are say it all really.

I made a skirt for the first time, following various on line tutorials for a simple jersey skirt. Didn’t quite work out as planned as came out a bit too big! However lessons learned and have since found another tutorial which I prefer and will give that a go.

After making the skirt I ended up making a top to go with it, a simple Trapeze top. Very happy with it too, took me about 3.5 hours in total to make the top and about 4 to 5 for the skirt, mostly because I’ve not made a skirt before and it was sort of self drafted!

I found this gorgeous jersey fabric in one of my local shops and as it was only £6 a metre I bought 4 metres ( why wouldn’t you?) And I managed to squeeze the top and skirt out of 2m of fabric so I still have another 2m to play with…

I have to wear a belt with the skirt otherwise it will fall down.

And here is the skirt with some other of my self made tops.

I wore skirts like this all the time when I was a teenager and in my early twenties, so its been a while!

And here’s the top worn with jeans.

I made this grey jersey Imogen dress a while back, I wasn’t entirely happy with it but did think it would probably be ok for very hot summers day.

However it kept bugging me, every time I’ve tried it on I liked it at first and then after a few minutes I don’t like it. I would find myself hitching it up at the sides (you know, like when you hitch your skirt/dress up when paddling in the sea) and I liked it much better.

I have been wondering how best to do this and have it look Okay. And then I thought about how I often have to gather sleeve heads or the collar area (Imogen) and decided this was the way to go.

I’m really happy with how its turned out and can’t wait for it to be warm enough for me to wear it.

Before:

After:

I love the shape and the drape the dress has now.

Such a simple alteration but it has made it that little bit more interesting.

A couple more pics with one of my bags. I love the combination of the grey and the red.

In this.

Lovely striped viscose jersey fabric in black and cream. However I fear I look a bit like a wasp in it. I still love it though.

I made another Trapeze but this time I only altered the sleeve length, and left the dress length as is, instead of doing my usual and shortening it.

I tried to be so careful with the stripe matching and it worked for the most part. Just goes slightly out of kilter here and there.

I love the drape on this fabric too.

And although its a relatively light fabric it has a lovely weight to it when worn.

Although I’m wearing heels in the pics I’m much more likely to wear it with flats. And I think it looks better in the flesh than in these pictures.

Its been too long! I have been sewing, just haven’t got round to blogging them yet, sorry. I will soon, promise. XX

I’ve been given some gorgeous fabric from a colleague/friend who recently came back from her trip home to Tanzania. I am incredibly touched that she thought of me whilst so far away.

The fabric is printed in panels and usually sold as two panels. The two panels together measure nearly 3 metres and they are 1metre wide. You can find lots of examples on google. Whilst usually used for traditional dress in Africa I will be using mine for probably an Imogen top! I reckon I can make quite an interesting one using the border print for certain pieces of the pattern.

I believe the words in the middle of the panel mean “Thank God” in Swahili.

I can’t wait to get cracking on making this into something lovely. Thank you Mia, rafiki yangu. Xx

The last Imogen top I made if you remember I made about 8cm longer in the bodice and 11cm longer in the sleeves. I really really like those lengths on me so I’ve made an addition to the paper pattern to make it easier for me next time I make one (which will be soon).

To you all. And a big thank you to everyone that reads my little blog! And I wish you all

A HAPPY NEW YEAR! Xxxx

So I had some of the navy jersey left over. It was just enough to make a sleeveless top, which was somewhere in length between the tunic top and the regular top. Now I’m not too keen on the sleeveless look on me any more but I just couldn’t waste that amount of fabric so I had to go for it.

And I’m really glad I did.

I could only manage to get a top out of the amount of fabric I had left because its jersey and doesn’t need a facing of any kind. and I do so love the seams don’t need finishing, as it made for a really quick make. 3 hours in total.

I simply folded over the edge of the armholes and the neck by 1.5cm and sewed in place. I know a lot of sewers frown on this, but I say if it works why not?

It hangs really nice. Its a lovely weighty jersey.

Apologies for the headless pics, but had really bad bed head hair!

I’ve decided I don’t mind sleeveless on me when its in a plain fabric and a certain length. I think I might even try a sleeveless dress for summer.