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!

I bought 3.5m of this utterly gorgeous blue indian cotton. I found it at the sewing parlour in St Leonards-on-sea. More of a workshop than a retail shop but they are working on it, and have a gorgeous selection of fabric. I had a chat with a very lovely lady in there about my favourite subject, sewing. She was very friendly and full of good tips and ideas. If you’re ever in the area I strongly advise a visit.

I have a green and white spotty blouse, that I’ve loved for years, from before I could make my own clothes. And since starting to make my own I’ve been dreaming of making something similar. whilst what I’ve made is a long way from resembling the green blouse due to it having a button fastening down the front and peter pan collar. My version does have short sleeves which are similar and spots. That really is where any similarities end. However I am very very happy with my version.

Usual shot of pattern pieces.

I’m trying to get more of an A-line shape to my tops so I’m improvising a bit.

I’ve angled the pattern piece slightly away from the edge of the fold.

Its just a small bit, but it does give a slightly looser fit.

At some point I’ll do another pattern hack myself and draw it up on paper.

Its got just the right amount of floatyness for me.

This really is beautiful fabric. Feels so good to wear. And the blue is a great shade too, goes well with everything. Think this top has become one of my favourites. I have enough fabric left to make a dress, which was my original plan, but I don’t know I might end up making another top. Haven’t made up my mind yet. It would make a lovely dress…

I received a compliment on it from a stranger the first time I wore it. And for once I resisted the urge to say I made it.

Do you always say when you’ve made something when you get a compliment on it?

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. 

What can be better than a black and white daisy block print top? I’ll tell you, a black and white daisy block print dress thats what! Fabric from Merchant & Mills. I just love this fabric so much I had to have a dress in it. I think I bought 3 meters of it with the intention of making two short sleeves tops, but then I wondered if I might have enough to make a dress and a top. I don’t think I would have if I’d only had the 3 meters but I had some scrap fabric left over from when I made a previous top. So yippee!

Showing the pattern layout for dress and top.

Pattern layout for the dress.

I made it a little bit shorter than the green dotty dress as I just didn’t think it looked right being the same length. I wasn’t happy with it at all. So taking off a about 2cm made all the difference. I think it might have something to do with the colour, something about it being lighter made it look not as good as the green one.

Longer version.

Shorter, only a little bit.

I said there would be more of these dresses…

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!

I have decided to just embrace the fact that I love this style of top and that I will be making it in lots of different fabrics, and sometimes the same fabrics. I am a creature of habit and when I know what I like, I know what I like. So if you’re after a blog that shows you lots of different garments then I’m afraid you are in the wrong place my friend.

I love this fabric, its a cotton poplin. And at £6 a meter (I bought a meter and a half) this top cost me a mere £11. And that includes the matching thread.

I love the pretty selvedge.

Very happy to get all the pattern pieces on the right way round on 1.5meters of fabric. And its only about 110cm wide. I know it looks like it doesn’t fit, but it worked out perfectly.

Its usually at this stage I think I don’t like it. I’m never very impressed until I’ve added the sleeves.

Love the neckline.

There we are, much better.

Loved the selvedge so much I kept it.

Trying a new pose!

And there we are.

I would also like to add that it is 2 years ago today that I made my very first cushion cover

This one.

And I have not looked back since. Sewing is the best thing I’ve discovered, EVER! I still can’t believe that I can create my own clothes and bags. It really truly gives me endless enjoyment. And nothing can compete with the feeling I have whenever I’m wearing clothes or carrying a bag I made. I think I probably wear something I made pretty much most of the time now. Happy happy me :0)

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.