One of my work colleagues was going home to India last year for a visit, and I asked her if it wouldn’t be too much trouble and she had the time, if she could possibly bring me back some fabric? She was unsure as wasn’t sure what I would like or what sort of colours I like. I said I really didn’t mind anything, but can’t do Yellow! So she said she’d see what she could do. I of course said I’d pay her, and I didn’t mind what cost, we discussed what I usually paid for fabric here and she seemed happy she could probably find me something. I was just excited at the possibility of something different, maybe something I wouldn’t pick for myself.

And boy did she deliver. I loved it when I first saw it. The pattern was quite different to anything I might have picked for myself, so I was pleased about that. However it did take me nearly a year to make it into something.

And guess what I made?  Oh yeah you don’t need to its in the title. DOH!

There we are, a lovely Trapeze top. I’m not sure how much fabric there was, but I think at least 2 meters. One of the reasons it took me a while to turn it into anything was I wanted to make a Trapeze top but didn’t know if I’d have enough, as the fabric was about 115cm wide. Unfortunately I lost the pic of the pattern pieces laid out on the fabric, as there was only just enough, and it was lucky I wanted to make it with short sleeves.

Took me a while to decide which way up I wanted the pattern to be, but I think really its a no brainer that the red is at the top. At first I could see a sort of abstract flower design in the pattern but rather disturbingly it turned into a red devil wearing a black suit! What do you think? Anyway I love it, and Gigi wouldn’t let me pay for it as she couldn’t remember how much it was! So I’ve named it the Gigi top.

Not sure if the necklace goes or not?

Pattern matching didn’t happen as it was too tight a fit to have the luxury and also I’m rubbish at it…

I love it, the cotton is so so soft, feels like I’m wearing a cloud. It will be perfect for when/if the summer ever gets going.

Good or bad? well I’ve been doing some. Firstly on a pair of jeans that I’ve wanted to do forever, but was worried incase the inner leg seam wouldn’t go through the sewing machine. I think I mentioned this when I last altered a pair of jeans and someone very kindly offered the tip of hitting the seam with a hammer. well I went one better and hit the seam with a mallet, yes I did! And have to say it worked a treat. I don’t have a before pic but trust me the jeans were about 3 miles too long, but now they are perfect.

And then I went and altered this denim trapeze dress.

Made it shorter and also shortened the sleeves. and then top stitched the hem, neckline and sleeve hem.

I’m definitely pleased with the topstitching but not sure about the rest yet. I haven’t worn it since the alteration so watch this space… I might regret it come the winter!

I have worn it now!

Love it so much more :0)

Didn’t think I did at one time, always thought of myself as more of a spotty/dotty person, but it seems I’m loving stripes just as much. Maybe this is the difference when you make your own clothes, you can actually make something that suits you.

So without further ado, meet my stripy Trapeze dress in this gorgeous ponte roma jersey from fabricgodmother .co.uk, its quite thick but also drapes beautifully. And best of all it doesn’t crease whilst wearing. And it was lovely 2 day project, could have done it in a day but I didn’t want to rush it, as I sometimes just simply love the making process.

I had a horrible time trying to match up the stripes at the back and just gave up in the end. It was either have the stripes match down the centre back and have the stripes be wonky on the front or have them mismatched at the back and horizontal and straight at the front.

Quite bad for the eyes if you stare at it for too long, fortunately its at the back and I can’t see it.

Sides are not too bad, not perfect but a lot better than the back.

Think it looks quite good across the top too.

And just look at those stripes going from sleeves to bodice. Not bad eh?

I really love the way to hangs, and it feels really really good on.

So there we have it, Trapeze dress No: 5 I think. Oops! I think maybe a few more then I’m done… Or not!

My sewing room. I got rid of all my scrap fabric that was too small to do anything with and maybe some that wasn’t. But it had gotten ridiculous, I had so much I didn’t know what to do with it. I had big ideas that I’d make a quilt one day with all my leftovers, but have since decided that ain’t gonna happen. And  was running out of places to store it. So it had to go.

I tidied all my fabric into boxes and have made a little rule that if I can’t store it in a box, I can’t buy it! Wonder how long that will last?

View from my sewing chair. The clothes hanging on the wall are waiting for alterations. Keep putting them off though.

View from the door. The art works on the wall are stuff I did twenty plus years ago when I was doing my Art A level at evening classes. Really enjoyed doing that but then my art room got taken over by junk and I sort of lost the passion for it. And then I discovered SEWING!

The big black box and the pink box now house my fabric and some scraps that are big enough they might be useful. I painted the blue wooden box many years ago when this was my art room. That now houses stuff I can’t bring myself to get rid of yet…

I love my little room, I really can’t tell you the joy that just sitting in there brings, let alone actually sewing. And I still marvel at the fact that I can sew.

I started off with a plan to make another Trapeze top out of this black 5oz dress weight denim from Merchant and mills. Then I thought it might look nice with contrast sleeves. Which means reversing the fabric to show the lovely grey side. So I laid out the fabric and then wondered if I had enough fabric to make a dress with contrast sleeves instead? I didn’t quite have enough, but then I remembered I had some left over from previous makes (I’ve used this fabric quite a lot) and joy of joy I had enough for the sleeves and facing, Yay! I then thought about making it grey with the sleeves in black, so this is what I set out to do.

Once I’d put the dress part together I then thought I’d have a look and see what it might look like with grey sleeves. And I really liked it, i tried it with the black too but in the end decided to go with an all grey dress. And I’m so pleased I did as I think it looks quite smart. The grey side of this fabric is just gorgeous and I think I prefer it to the black. I don’t know if its meant to be reversible but thats the beauty of making your own clothes, you can do whatever you like…

I’m loving the short sleeves.

I think it looks pretty good with my necklace too. I have pretty much worn this necklace non-stop since making it :0)

Not sure if it makes me look pregnant from the side in the pics (I can assure you I’m not), but I don’t think it does in real life.

I will most probably wear it with jeans for the most part as my legs are not my best feature and they are very pale and pasty. I also think that worn with high heels it would look good for a party or wedding, with the right accessories.

I’m extremely happy with this dress and am also quite amazed at my thought process and how I got from making a black top to making a grey dress.

I appear to have become allergic to silver necklaces, maybe. My neck is irritated by something and I’m trying to eliminate the things that I think may be causing it. And one of those things is silver necklaces. I miss wearing something round my neck and often a necklace can pull an outfit together. So the other morning before I’d even had my morning coffee I made myself a necklace from a bracelet a friend made me a few years back and I’ve never worn, I love the beads but the bracelet didn’t really fit right. I used leather string to put the beads on, in the hope that it wouldn’t irritate my neck and I’ve worn it quite a lot since making it and so far so good. No sign of irritation.

I’m really happy with it and love how it pops against a black background. I love the length too. It works very well so far with all my tops.

Loving this crepe fabric, drapes so beautifully. Here it is in a simple black Trapeze top.

Bit of a bugger to work with as it frays like buggery.

The neck facing was a bit of a nightmare too actually. It kept wanting to roll back outside which was a pain in the arse. I gave it some thought and decided to top stitch round the neck and see if that helped.

It did help but created its own problem. The fabric sort of gathered towards the left shoulder. Seems to look Ok and people don’t appear to notice unless I point it out (which I do). Definitely looks better worn than it does on Gertie.

And here’s me wearing it for lunch with friends.

That is the question? I decided to shorten this stripy top the other week, as I just felt it needed it. I felt something was not quite right with it as it was. Below is the before pic.

And now the after

I think I prefer it. Goes with two different styles of jeans now. I don’t know though there’s still something I’m not quite sure about with this top.

I pondered yesterday on whether to shorten the sleeves, so took this pic. Below is the pic with the sleeves turned up.

I immediately thought I loved it, but sensibly took some photos before doing anything about it. And having compared them I think I’ll leave the sleeves longer, for now anyway.

Have you ever made anything that you keep revising? Have you regretted any revisions? I know I have.

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’ve gone back to my old tried and tested rectangle top. I have learnt so much since making my first top, that although this is a very basic shape and very easy to make, there has been a lot of thought that has gone into the making of this top.

The fabric is a viscose/crepe type, and its thicker than I imagine it is every time. I always think of it as being quite flimsy and delicate, and its really not. Handles really nicely. I bought this one a year ago but have been too scared to use it. I tried about 8 months ago but when I pinned the pattern to the fabric the fabric just moved all over the place. So I gave up and put it back in my fabric pile.

I wasn’t too sure how to use this fabric for a couple of reasons, one being that it was going to be tricky to pin a pattern to and cut it out, and the other being that the stripes didn’t run horizontally from selvedge to selvedge, but ran vertically. I did not want a stripe top with vertical stripes. So the fabric has sat there for best part of a year.

Now that I’ve started my little love affair with stripes I was ready to tackle this fabric again. I really can’t remember how much I bought but I do know it was 150cm wide, I think I only bought a metre but it might have been a metre and a half, and it wasn’t at all expensive. £4 a metre to be exact. I decided to fold it with the raw edge running down ,if that makes sense? So that the stripes would run horizontally. As the fabric has no stretch in it whatsoever this has worked out quite well.

It was much easier to cut out not having an actual pattern to cut round.

It took me a little while to remember exactly how I made these rectangle tops but I got there in the end. I decided to make this one a little wider than the ones I’ve made in the past, as I felt the fabric would probably drape quite nicely.

I aslo incorporated the selvedge into being part of the top and have used as a bit of design feature, I’m really happy with how it looks and think it works very well. And I have once again left the bottom edge un-hemmed and just zigzagged it.

I had to be really careful with stripe matching at the sides. As this is such a large stripe I think it would have looked so bad if they had been mismatched. It took some time and effort but it paid off.

So lovely not having a centre back seam to worry about.

I love how it drapes.

See what I mean about the selvedge. I particularly love that it ends with the navy colour. What do you think?

This might not be everyones cup of tea, but I’m so happy with it and I love it. In my opinion its a very stylish tunic that will be perfect for evenings out or nice lunches with friends.

So comfortable  and easy to wear, whats not to love?

I also love that I can make this style of top in just a few hours.