Here’s another simple rectangle top. The fabric was £6 a metre and I bought 3 metres, so I shall be making more black crepe tops, but not necessarily rectangle ones.

I have again incorporated the selvedge into the top. I think it makes a really nice neck line.

I love it!

I said in January that I wasn’t going to make multiples of the same pattern but what can I tell ya? When I like something I like something and I want lots of it! So here comes a stripy Trapeze top in the most wonderful jersey fabric ever.

I remember also, saying back last year that I didn’t like working with jersey so just goes to show you can’t believe a damn thing I say! This jersey though was a dream with. Didn’t slip and slide all over the place and wasn’t floppy. It stayed where I put it and pining and sewing was so easy. I must get some more.

I’m rather pleased I have to say with the pattern matching on this top. Its not perfect by any stretch but is a damn sight better than the tartan.

Here come some pics…

As you can see, I couldn’t fit the sleeve pattern piece in its entirety on the fabric, so I have shorter sleeves on this top. And I couldn’t fit the neck facing on the fabric either, luckily it wasn’t needed anyway.

Slightly mismatched stripes on this side.

But better on this side.

Center back seam not too bad either.

For the neck, I simply folded the edge over 1.5cm and top stitched down. Works really well. Nice neat finish.

Not so well matched shoulder seam.

Beautifully matched shoulder seam.

I also top stitched down the shoulder seam allowances so they would lay flat.

I zigzagged the hem edge again. This is proving to be quite a successful finishing technique.

My favourite thing about this top is that it only took me 4 hours to complete. From cutting out the fabric to finishing the hem. And that my friend is the magic of jersey. No seam finishing and no need for neck facings make for a really speedy process. And its satisfying too.

I love this fabric. Its comfortable to wear and doesn’t need ironing after washing. What more can I say? What more can we want?

Just wanted to share my new hair do, and how I wore the top for a day out yesterday to London and afternoon tea.

But its exactly what I wanted and I love it. I used the Trapeze pattern (again), shortened the sleeves a little, but otherwise its the same as the others.  And instead of doing a proper hem on the bottom I just zigzagged the edge. It was going to be a real pain in the arse to do a proper hem with the fabric I was using, which was a beautiful black crepe from fabric godmother.co.uk.

Could possibly get away with being shorter, but maybe next year I’ll shorten it.

The fabric turned out to be really nice to sew with, I was pleasantly surprised. My main problem with it is that the facing at the neckline shows through from the underneath. Not a major concern but bugs me a little. Otherwise a lovely stress free make.

PART II

The length was really bothering me. I finished this dress 2 weeks ago and blogged about it pretty much soon after (but hadn’t yet posted it). I mulled over it for a week and finally decided to cut off 1.5 inches. And now its fabulous, in my eyes anyway. Its probably still a little boring in some peoples eyes but its a great backdrop for a statement necklace.

I would like some more of this fabric and would like to try the sleeveless version. Maybe next year…

Love the way its hanging here. The fabric has a lovely weight to it which makes the dress hang beautifully.

Without necklace…

With long necklace…

With vintage beads…

Haven’t yet decided which necklace to wear. Probably make that decision two minutes before going out the door!

I think I like it better without tights.

I apologise once again for the quality of the pictures. Black is really hard to photograph well. Also I’m afraid most of the pics were taken in the evening and the ones that weren’t were taken on a really gloomy day. It really does look better in person.

But oh so good to wear. You know the drill.

Top version of the black dotty fabric.

One thing I have learnt about this fabric is that you need to set the colour, which means washing it with a handful of table salt the first time you wash it. This should stop the colour running. I didn’t do this with my green dotty fabric and it has faded and also ran into my white and black daisy dress making it not quite so white now. Still wearable though, so not a problem. I’m more bothered about the fact that the green fabric has faded. Again still wearable, just not quite as vibrant in colour as it was. Live and learn people, live and learn!

This fabric is gorgeous but really quite bad for the eyes when working with it. Also its really difficult to tell which is the right and wrong sides as both are so similar. I think it took me about an hour to decide for sure. In a way it doesn’t seem to really matter, but once you’ve decided which is the right side its really important to mark the wrong sides so all the pieces are the same side out (hope that makes sense).

So without further ado, here’s my third dress.

Pattern pieces laid out. Being careful as I want to get a top out of it too. Think I bought 3.5m but can’t quite remember. Really must start making a note of these things.

Same fabric as the green dress.

I’m really happy with the shape.

I like that the block print isn’t exactly perfect, which means I don’t have worry too much about pattern matching.

I’m also really pleased with the sleeve cuffs on both this one and the daisy print one. I read the instructions properly (finally) on how to do them and surprise surprise this results in a much neater finish.

Every time I make something that I’ve made before it turns out a little different to the previous one. I think this one is a bit looser than the first and second.

3 dresses all in a row. These make me happy!

Sometimes I do something other than sewing. Sometimes I meet friends for cake!

Like this

& this

One of my favourite things other than sewing and cake is the sea. I love love love the sea. Don’t like being on it ( I tried that) but I love looking at it and being near it. So a lovely walk along the seafront near where I live is simply a joy!

Here’s a few pics from a recent day out.

Actually I love the clouds almost as much as I love the sea.

I also popped into the lovely and very friendly Sewing parlour, they are slowly becoming a shop as well as a sewing studio. I picked up this gorgeous blue indian cotton 3.5 meters in fact. I have to say that at the moment indian cotton has to be my favourite type of fabric. Easy & comfortable to wear, easy to wash and iron.

It was the beginning of June and I was just about able to wear my M&M coat, only just, as it was warm in the sun but it did keep getting covered by cloud. I also wore the green dotty dress.

This is what I wore. Makes me so proud to be wearing a coat and dress I made. 

Shorten something!

This dress bothered me the last time I tried to wear it. It just didn’t feel right.

I wondered what it might look like shortened into a tunic. As I was too tired to focus on a full sewing project I decided the only way to find out was to do it.

Thats what it looks like.

And this is what it looks like on me.

I’m not sure if I prefer it or not, but its too late now, its done. I’m wondering if half the problem is the fabric itself. Whilst I love the Liberty tana lawn fabric, it creases like buggery the minute you put it on, as you can see from the picture. And I just don’t feel right when my clothes are all creased from the start. Its different if you’ve been wearing them all day for them to be creased, but at the start of the day I think not! Its a shame as I really love the pattern of this fabric and I love the feel of the fabric, but at the moment I don’t think I’ll be buying anymore. Its too expensive to not be entirely happy with it, don’t you think?

I really wanted to have a go at making a dress using the pattern hack I created a while back

These…

I used some gorgeous fabric from… Yes, you guessed it, Merchant & Mills. Its not on their website anymore so I won’t be posting a link, but its a gorgeous green dotty indian cotton. I’m so loving the Indian cottons, its such a beautiful fabric. Feels soft against the skin, hangs nicely and washes really well.

Its really hard to capture the true colour of this fabric.

Keeps looking more khaki in the pictures.

This shows the colour quite well. Hmm suppose it is quite khakish!

I have to say, I really love this dress. Its got the shape I like the length is perfect for me, I love the sleeves and its so comfortable to0. Get ready peeps, there will be more where this came from!

This is the last time I shall mention this coat, promise!

After I cut off the extra fabric from the skirt section of the coat I decided I wanted to add the hook and eye fasteners. And can I just add that I’m so glad I haven’t used a fabric that needed a facing, as all I can say is that to add the hook and eye with the facing looks really complicated to me.

It was fairly straight forward, once I did away with the idea of measuring out where to place the hook and eyes and just did it by sight. I hung the coat inside out on Gertie and just went for it. I watched a youtube vid first, of someone attaching hook and eyes, as I wasn’t entirely sure how best to do it. So glad I did as it made it easier.

I managed to put most of them on evenly spaced, I think there’s one pair that are a little further apart than the others but I’m not too worried. I’m really happy with how it looks now, and I feel so much better knowing I can do it up.

Here I am wearing a coat, top and bag I made and jeans that I’ve shortened. Man do I feel smug!

Have you ever made something that has evolved over time?

I’ve had these jeans for about 4 years now. Not sure why I bought them as they are made for a 6ft supermodel! I would wear them with the most ridiculous turn ups or not such huge turn ups and have them drag on the ground. So when I started sewing, I thought, finally I might be able to shorten my jeans. Then I got carried away learning new things and forgot all about them. Then I remembered them but got scared. Those inside leg seams are very thick. Then I read Matt Chapple’s (winner of the GBSB 3) blog post on shortening jeans and was convinced to give it a go. He made it sound so easy. I haven’t worn these jeans much for the last of couple of years, so to be able to shorten them and make more wearable has been so satisfying.

Here they are before.

Just too darn long!

This is what I cut off.

I think I cut off about 10cm and then turned them up about another 1.5 cm. I was trying to avoid turning the hem over twice as I was concerned about the thickness of the fabric and getting it through the machine. So I started off by zigzagging the raw edge, but realised this wasn’t going to look right so I had to turn the ends of the fabric over, could only afford to do it a little bit (or else the jeans would be too short). I bought denim needles for the machine as I thought it best, because of the thickness of fabric. I also bought some topstitch thread in the best colour match I could find. Which turned out quite well.

The side seams have ended up a bit messy, but they won’t be seen.

The inside leg seam, I did struggle a bit to get it through the sewing machine. Had to be very firm with it.

This bit looks neater.

The topstitch thread.

Looks pretty good right side out.

So much more wearable now.

Very happy to have finally done this.

A very satisfying job.

These have become my favourite jeans again. The perfect length for me now.