One of my Nieces is getting married next May, and I’m trying to decide on what to wear/make. I want to wear a Marshmallow dress, but can’t decide on length. So I’ve made a wearable toile. I quite like this length but can’t decide if its too casual. But then again I’m hoping the fabric I’ll end up making it in for the wedding will make it more formal, so to speak.

And of course I won’t be wearing it with Birkenstocks or bare feet!

Cropped my head out of the pictures as had really bad bed hair!

Here’s a pic with good hair!

Just realised I have a couple of things at least that I’ve not photographed and as a result have not yet blogged about, but to be fair I have been on holiday!

Came this

I do love this fabric, its so pretty. And its lovely and cool to wear too.

I bought 2.5m of this fabric. Very happy about the fact that Fabric Godmother now sells their fabric by the half metre. And I was able to get two tops out of it, happy about that too!

However I managed to save it. I was making another Marshmallow, using a 2cm seam allowance. And forgot that woven fabrics don’t tend to have as much give in them as the knitted fabrics. When I had completed the top half of the tunic, I tried it on. It fit okay and I was happy with it, but then I tried to take it off! And almost got stuck! after a good 5 minute struggle I eventually got it off. all seemed okay, except when I looked closer I noticed that I had put the centre back seam under considerable strain and it now looked a bit delicate. Like it could rip if I tried doing that again.

So I decided to unpick the centre back seam, and sew it again using a 1cm SA, i did this, tried it on and it was still a struggle to get it off, not quite as much as before, but more of a struggle than I wanted it to be.

So I then unpicked the sleeves and the side seams, and more or less started again. using a 1cm SA through out this time. Which made it quite tricky in places, for this was no ordinary fabric. Its a beautiful cotton poplin type fabric with embroidered flowers scattered about. And sometimes the embroidered bits would get a little stuck going through the sewing machine. And I would have to be very firm with it.

I had 2.5m of the stuff, and had already planned to make Marshmallow tunic and then a Marshmallow without the ruffle. I decided to make this first one the top without the ruffle bit.  Just in case I wasn’t happy with it.

I think it ended up quite good, I’m quite happy with it. And surprisingly you can’t really see where it was unpicked at all!

There will now be lots of pics so you can see how lovely this fabric is.

I tried to place my pattern pieces so that I wouldn’t have too much of the embroidered parts at points where the seams would join. Impossible to avoid all of them though.

I have already worn it, last week in the lovely warm weather. And it was very nice and comfortable to wear.

I’ve had this fabric in my stash, for a very long time. So I’m happy to have finally used it! And I’m not even going to apologise for making another Marshmallow.

This is a beautifully soft cotton from Merchant and Mills. Still available from them, also comes in other colours.

The last two I’ve made were sleeveless, and whilst I make no apologies anymore for my arms and I will wear sleeveless proudly. I still prefer a sleeve, so I’m very happy to have had enough fabric to make them.

This is going to be so lovely when the weather warms up!

So I’ve had this fabric in my stash box for a year or more now. Has taken me this long to decide what to do with it.

Once again I only had a metre, well tell a lie, I bought 1.5metres but the fabric is only 110cm wide, so I had to fold it in half horizontally instead of vertically. The stripes should run vertically, but as theres no stretch whatsoever in this crepe type fabric, it doesn’t matter which way the fabric goes, if that makes sense?

I am very happy with my umpteenth Marshmallow tunic, but can’t help feeling it looks better on Gertie than it does on me!

The white stripes are actually more of a cream than they look here, look very white in the pics.

Have to say I didn’t even pretend to try and pattern match the stripes. I can’t be doing with that kind of headache!

Its not a perfect make, but I’m happy.

I think it would have looked better with sleeves, but I really didn’t have enough fabric for that. So you do what you gotta do.

I’m off on holiday in May, so I’m hoping for the weather to be warm enough to wear it then.

I don’t know why I only ordered a metre of this fabric, I never only order a metre, as its rarely enough for what I want to make. But for some reason I ordered a metre. This was October last year, and when I decided I wanted to make a Marshmallow tunic top I tried to order another metre but it was out of stock! I thought that might be the end of that idea.

I thought I’d have a look and see what I could get out of it, so I laid the pattern pieces on the fabric and happily I could get a sleeveless version from it. Also had to make the frill piece much smaller, think I ended up folding it in half.

No sleeves, no facing and no pockets. But I love it!

This is such a happy, colourful fabric. I love all the details in it, so much going on.

And I’m really really happy with the length of this one too.

And I remembered to make all the seams with a 2cm seam allowance.

For christmas my lovely hubby gave me a voucher for Merchant & Mills, and I’d been looking at the Jack Tar bag pattern for quite a while, but hadn’t gotten round to getting it. then they started doing a  kit, which includes everything you need to make the bag. So armed with my voucher I trotted off to Merchant & Mills and bought it.

Its taken me a couple of months to get round to making this, but I’ve finally done it. I have to say it was a rather pleasant experience. I did things I’ve not done before, like snap closure, and used D rings. Also a facing on a bag, which I’ve not done before. And turning a bag right side out through a hole in the lining. That was an experience I can tell you.

This was also quite a painful make too! The outer fabric I believe is a dry oilskin and the lining is a sturdy canvas, both fabrics were quite tough to get my pins through at times, and I managed to stab myself on many occasions.

I also want to say, that whilst the pattern is supposed to be beginner level, Merchant & Mills can be quite frugal with their instructions, and If I hadn’t already known how to attach a base to the main body of a bag I would have been a bit stumped at that point.

Base of the bag pinned to the top. Above ^ and below

It was quite tricky getting it through the sewing machine, as the fabric was quite stiff. And this was one of the areas where I would get stabbed by my pins!

Picture of the lining, before I’d sewn the base.

All finished. Inside view of the pockets.

Another inside view, with the shoulder strap. The bag kit comes with a leather strap, but I decided not to use that, and opted for a webbing strap instead, same as I used for the handles. There is an option to make the handles yourself out of the same fabric as the bag. I like the contrast the webbing straps give though.

This is a pretty big bag, I think it will be really useful as weekend bag or carry on bag for flights, as well as being a great everyday bag for town and shopping. The 3 inside pockets are the perfect size for your purse, keys, sunglasses and phone. Plus any other small items you don’t want to lose inside the main compartment. the pockets are also ideally placed for good access whilst carrying the bag crossbody, but I reckon would be tricky for someone to try and pinch your purse.

Carrying options, are as follows.

My favourite is crossbody, so comfortable.  So there we have it. What do you think?

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!