Fiascos and zips rarer than hens teeth

 

I have had two delicious weeks off and I honestly haven't been very productive. I have signed up for #mmmay16 and said that I will wear something handmade for every week day during May. Then I chucked out lots of stuff including things I have made. Which means if I don't get some serious making done, it might end up as a reenactment of the Emperors new clothes- Gulp!

So first the fiasco, as soon as I finished my last Viola skirt I cut out another one and then just left it in a heap in the corner of my dining room. Unfortunately when I got it back out this week I realised I had made a seriously rookie mistake. I had cut out a long and short front in one fabric and a short and a long back in the other. I managed to save the short skirt by recutting the back

but I have wrecked the longer skirt as not only did I have to recut it to the shorter length but I think I then also ended up cutting them both as fronts again as I cannot get the yoke to fit. What an idiot! 😞 hopefully I can buy another fabric at some point. For now though it is in the naughty corner.

Anyway the next project was this little bodice from the sewing bee book.

I don't actually own this book, I borrowed it from a friend but I actually think I might buy it as it has loads of cute patterns. I had the fabric in stash (it had been going to be an arielle skirt but it never happened).

I cut it all out and started putting together before I realised there might be a problem with the zip. I went to my local shop.

They didn't sell open 8"zips if any description. Online also seemed  that  most places didn't stock that size. I found one in eBay, navy, gold teeth,open,perfect! It arrived and it wasn't open, back to eBay I got a black one with silver teeth. I wasn't certain initially, but O loves it and I am happy with the end result. I pruned the seams in the size 8 and I think it worked really well at the front.

I could of gone in more at the back what do you think?

Viola, most sweet lady x

All of Sew me something's patterns are named for Shakespeare's heroines. Voila is no exception, though unlike Shakespeare's Viola, this one never wears trousers!

As I said, on Friday, Sarah and I picked up the pattern and fabric at the Harrogate show.

I decided to use the fabric I had bought, but Sarah decided to use some really pretty fabric her she was given for Christmas. My fabric was some kind of fluke, I loved the outer fabric but the co-ordinating fabric that I liked, there just wasn't enough of! So I walked away the chance of being to match with something else seemed unlikely, then I saw the grey at another stall an amazing, perfect match!
I decided to go a size smaller than I did with Kate , I also decided to ignore all of the pattern markings as I like traditional ones :)I was glad that I had, as they were marked up incorrectly and Sarah spent quite a bit of time unpicking!
Tip The back is bigger than the front. That is all you need to know!

However the this is a lovely skirt, with straight forward instructions and the two of us cracked them in super quick time! I loved the bias binding on the skirt so cute and so simple to do. I left it off the inner skirt, because as it was the same colour I didn't think it would add much, If I could of made it in a contrast I would of.

I worried that joining the two skirts together might of been ardours and stressful- it wasn't. The pattern told you wear to pivot and even though I hadn't added any markings, It was easy to do. It was really exciting when you went from two unfinished items to a really stylish, double sided, skirt. Woo hoo!

I had thought about covering buttons but realised that the skirts would be more comfortable with buttons that sat flat to the skirt. Anyway yesterday I popped to town just to see if I could find any buttons that might be ok. I didn't really have much faith that I would, but look at these babies? Totally perfect!

It is amazing how different our two skirts look. I love mine she is almost sombre, dark and perfect for work both in the winter and summer and I love Sarah's,

she reminds me of the seaside and promenading up and down the pier. Inspired by what we had made I went stash diving and came up with these.

The brown and aqua pieces I bought in Canada several years ago. I only have a metre of each don't have enough to make either layer and the red needed a friend, but a little trip to the doughty's road show yesterday I now see two more Viola in my future ( or maybe that is four).

Sadly that is the end of my lovely week off. I have made a dent in my fabric stash and tried out some new patterns. I have produced some lovely new pieces for my Wardrobe and E's. I have spent time wandering around blog land I am feeling inspired to try some new patterns and buy some new fabric. All ideas for another day.

So till then happy Stitching

Ax

The Kate Dress.

Hello,
so are you ready for day 2?
I need to apologise again for the quality of the photos! You will be able to tell which pics I took and which ones my family did for me it seems they like me better in soft focus!

So let me just start by saying how much everyone loves this fabric, especially the men in the house. M even asked where I got it, there has never been that much interest in any fabric or fibre before ever!


Then there is the dress - unfortunately nobody, but me, likes this at all!

The pattern:- the nice lady at Harrogate told me that the sizes of all of her things were similar to white stuff. I went one size up from what I usually wear from them just in case and then I ended up having to prune the sides so it was a lot less sack like. So I think she was right :)

The pattern itself was supposed to be for a beginner, but the pattern markings were a bit lacking. I put all of the markings on, but missed the darts, only realising there were darts when it told me to stitch them (always a good idea to read the whole thing through before you start).


A shame as it then mucked up my pattern matching. Luckily the back matches perfectly or I think it would of gone to the bin ( I am a little repressed when it comes to matching stuff)

I don't think for me that the darts really added anything, they seem to sit a little low and I couldn't really work out how to fix this without re cutting the front. Maybe if I was bigger busted, they would of been more use, So if I was doing it again I think would probably leave them out.


Those are the negatives but there are lots of positives yeah!

I love the bias hems, neck, sleeve and pocket they were super easy to do and they look lovely. Next time I might be tempted to add a little ric rac in there just for fun.

The pockets had a great step by step and they were also super easy to make. So cute hey?

I liked the top stitching down the back it is another cute detail.



This is obviously another dress for the weekend, super casual and perfect over jeans. I love it!

Today I am making yet another checked dress (by the end of this week you might think I am checked obsessed) this time it is
Francoise by Tilly and the Buttons.