Make: Little Red Dress

I love to sit and doodle dress designs, and since I got an overlocker, I'd been dying to try it out on something, so I decided to turn a doodle into reality. I wanted a summer dress with a full skirt, and straps thick enough to hide bra straps.

I started with the skirt. I cut out four rectangular panels (same size as a n Evening Standard, as that was my pattern piece!) and four triangles.

The triangles would form "godets" in the skirt, adding volume and boosting the swishiness factor. They are inserted between the rectangles.

The fabric is the same I used on my curtain-making last year, and it frays quite a lot. I used the overlocker to oversew all the raw edges inside the skirt. This was my first time using the overlocker, so it took me a while (c.2hrs!) to get it thread up properly with the right tension.

Once all the pieces were together, I had to deal with the uneven bottom edge (think Pythagoras and hypotenuses...) but after that, the skirt was pretty much complete. Anything non-fitted is pretty much always easier to put together.

As such, the rest of the blog is pretty much dedicated to the fitted bodice of the dress.

I knew I wanted a pleated, decorative waistband, so I cut a rectangle that was taller than the final band would be, and then pinned it, ironed it and sewed it into pleated horizontal lines. I then overlocked all four edges. Because overlocking is cool.

I used an existing dress with a similarly shaped bodice and traced round the parts onto my "pattern paper" - yes, it does look a lot like newspaper... I dedicate most of my pattern pieces to London's free papers.

Then I cut out enough of these for the outer and lining of the bodice - two of the large pieces, and four of each of the smaller ones. You could use a different colour or type of fabric for the lining, if you wanted, but I had enough red fabric to do it all in the same colour.

Stage 1 of bodice assembly was to stop the edges from fraying... More overlocking action required! I had the hang of it better by now, so this was thankfully much neater and quicker.

First, I straight-stitched the central piece to the sides. In the above picture, that is the lined-up, overlocked edges. This involved carefully easing the pieces together, especially around the curves. Sewing curves isn't quite as simple as straight lines, but a good press afterwards really helps smooth out the seams. You do this for the outer and lining pieces, too.

I made the straps next. I cut two long, thin rectangles of red fabric. First, I straight-stitched then overlocked the long edge. Then I turned it the other way out (so the seam was on the inside) before ironing it flat. Then I added some edge stitching and decorative centre stitching.

Here's the Before and the After versions...

I lined up the top of the bodices for the outer and lining, and pinned the straps into place between the two pieces.

This is where we're at with all the different pieces of the bodice...

I stitched the neckline's of the outer and lining together next, and the attached the waistband to the outer piece. Turned out the right way and given a good press, it's starting to look like a real top!

This is the front of the bodice complete. The back was going to be made of two side panels, and a central piece of stretchy stocking done with shirring elastic (so it wouldn't need a zip).

I attached the side panels next, sewing them all together on their short edges, to make each side into one three-piece long, thin line, before sewing that to the main bodice. That's quite a clumsy description, and I didn't really take any photos of that part either, so all I have to show is the inside of the bodice once the side pieces had been attached and the seams overlocked. I do enjoy the neat symmetry...

This is what it looks like when turned the right way out (and pressed, of course!)

Now for the shirred elastic back! Smocking always takes a lot of time and patience, but at least with shirring elastic, it's fairly pain free, even if it is time costly.

I used shirring elastic in a few of my previous projects, to create waistbands. It's a great way of creating a "fitted" garment, without needing to put in a zip, or measure everything super-precisely. Or if you're the kind of person whose body shape changes, this has a degree of flexibility in fit.

First, you take a flat panel that is say... Twice the width that you want the final piece to be? Ish. Straight-stitch across the top like a hem, to create both a neat top edge, and also a channel through the which you will later feed some elastic.

Wind shirring elastic by hand onto your bobbin. Don't pull it too tight when doing this. Thread your top thread with thread that matches your fabric (yes, three "threads" in one sentence, but it does make sense...!)

Starting at one end of the piece of fabric, sew straight lines across the fabric. You have to pull it tight as you go, stretching out the stitching you've already sewn.

Keep going until you have done the whole piece! Mine involved about 38 horizontal lines of stitching!

Feed elastic into the top channel, cut it to length and sew down at the edges. I used the overlocker to trim all the edges of the elastic and thread ends in one go.

Then attach this back piece to the rest of the bodice by straight-stitching down the sides. Bring the straps over and sew them down.

I needed to add some last-minute darts on the front, to improve the fit around the bust.

The top of the skirt was (purposely!) bigger than the bottom of the bodice. This was so I could make it pleated. To attach the skirt, I sewed two lines of stitching around the top of the skirt, to create elasticated pleats. To make sure it was evenly spread around the bodice, I then pinned the skirt to the bodice at the sides, then middle of the front and back, then halfway between each of those points. This created eight even divisions of skirt around the bodice. I then straight-stitched this around, making sure to stretch out across the shirred elastic back! Then I attempted a blind hem on the bottom edge, which wasn't 100% invisible but...meh.

And here is the final dress!

I'm particularly pleased with the fitted bodice!

It took me an entire weekend to make this dress, but I am really pleased with the result! I'd like to experiment with different necklines and maybe a circle skirt next. But for now, I'm just going to swoosh around in this one!

Make: Table Mats

My mum asked me to make some placemats for the kitchen table, in some fabric leftover from when she made the kitchen curtains (sewing runs in the family!) I bought some interfacing and bias binding, some matching thread, and the leftover fabric... And got to work!

I measured the desired size of the placemat and used a pencil to draw it onto the interfacing. I then cut these out using normal scissors (as opposed to fabric scissors, which could be damaged by the interfacing backing).

It was iron-on interfacing, which has an adhesive backing on one side. I ironed it onto the fabric before cutting them out, to help keep everything the right size. Once it was stuck to the decorative fabric on one side, I cut that out, laid it out on top of some more fabric and cut that side out too. You could use different patterns of fabric, but I chose not to, as the whole idea is that they should match the curtains.

I repeated this until I had the required six placemat pieces.

To hold the three layers together, I used a straight stitch on the sewing machine and sewed regular diagonal lines across the placemat.

At this stage, the main body of the placemats were complete. The next stage was to do the edging, for which I chose to use bias binding. This is cut on the diagonal and you can make your own, so that it identically matches your fabric. But that is time-consuming, so I chose the easier option of buying it in a coordinating colour.

I folded the bias binding along its length, to allow me some idea of where to sew it to the fabric. The first line of sewing bias binding involves machining along the unfolded edge, all the way round the edge.

After going all the way around on one side, you flip over the mat, fold the binding into place, and then sew it down along the folded edge. You can do this by hand, if you want a super-perfect finish, but it's very time-consuming. I believe better to sew it neatly and carefully, so that its tidy on both sides, even if visible.

Corners are particularly difficult...

Then all that is left is to sew the ends down by hand...

And they're finished!

Amend: Leopard Dress

I've had this Warehouse dress for a few years and I really love the fit of the bodice, skirt length and shape. (Excuse the iPad-face, my phone is currently on the blink, so this was my only option!)

 

 

However recently, I've felt the fit on the sleeves has been feeling uncomfortably tight. I decided it was about time to sort them out!

 

 

I decided that precision... Is over-rated, so after vaguely working out what length I wanted the sleeves to be, I grabbed a pair of scissors and hacked away.

 

As usual, I went to some lengths to avoid tacking. I ironed over the end of each sleeve to neaten it up, and pinned it in place.

I wanted a very narrow hem, so the first round I did was a small zigzag around the hem. I then trimmed the excess on the inside as close to the stitches as possible.

Next up, I folded the zigzag section again, and sewed this down using straight stitch, to finalise the hem. I even changed thread colour halfway round, to blend it in with the black stripe.

The other amendment I wanted to make was to add some extra weight to the hem. I was hoping this would help counteract gusting tube winds. I chose to sew this on by hand, so it wouldn't be visible on the outside - not a decision to take lightly, with a 3m hem, requiring two lines of tiny hand stitches...

 

Needless to say, I persisted with the hand-sewing and (many hours later!) and am very pleased with the end result, for both the sleeves and the hem.

 

Mend: Leather Jacket

I love my leather jacket - I've had it several years now, and it's gotten to that stage where the leather is properly soft and supple.

Unfortunately, constant wear has taken its toll elsewhere too, so occasionally I need to do some repairs.

One of the pockets had a hole in it that had become so big, that my possessions were escaping through the lining into the interior of the jacket itself. I pulled the picket inside out and sewed up the two sides of the seam.

The buttons take a lot of wear and tear, but sewing them back on is more challenging than on normal clothes - due to the thickness of the leather, having one button on the front doesn't work. You have to have one on the back as well, twinned with the front one.

Above are the small buttons from the reverse, and below are the ones on the front. All fixed up and ready to wear!

Make: Crochet Booties

We're putting on an Easter and baby wear charity sale at work, for which I decided to learn how to make booties. It's been a while since I did much crochet, so I wanted a crochet pattern. When I found this one on Ravelry, I knew I had to try it.

It took me a few attempts at the sole, but I did finally get it right.

After watching several YouTube videos to explain all the stitches (BP-hdc? Hdc2tog?) I managed to put the rest of it together. It wasn't the simplest pattern to follow - in fact, I'm pretty sure I got this wrong in a number of places... But it still looks good!

And the second?

It seems we have a pair!

Time to work on some other colours...

EDIT

This is what they should look like, if you follow the pattern...