A darling dress!

We here at CM are big big fans of Megan Neilsen's Brumby skirt. It's my favourite makes- it gets out of the draw at least once a week. I had some excess light weight medium denim , and hankering to try it out, it was a perfect duo.

I love that the instructions for the Darling is so straight forward. As is standard practice- I traced out the pattern on Swedish tracing paper first. I have a small chest, length wise so I normally need to adjust shoulders so I don't show boobage- I wish I had done that for this dress. More on that later..

The denim is incredibly light weight- like some of our chambray's, it was nice to work with, and could withstand a few rounds with a seam ripper (which is most important).

I wanted to slightly jazz up the whole appearance so for the neckline and the waist ties I used Cotton + Steels Bluebird. 

I also wanted to add it to the rim of the pockets but only for the edges. I didn't want to use a lot of this fabric up, if no one was going to see more than the lip. So I cut out the pockets out of the denim and then cut 4 strips of about 5 cm of the Bluebird and sew it on top. (not straight on- right sides together sewing the most inner side and the edge was sewn when the pocket was sewn into the dress),

The only time I needed to refer to Megan Nielsens tutorial (which is very good) was for the plackets. Using 2 different fabrics made it slightly more complicated (but only slightly). But plackets and I don't really get on,(just ask the Colette Negorni shirt that has languished in my sewing box with a backwards placket in the arm for the last 2 years.). But it wasn't all that bad. There were step by step pictures and short of seam ripping and re stitching about 5 times, because I couldn't get the symmetry right- and I sew wonky sometimes. It was done in no time!

I also decided to use the brightest reddest buttons we stock for this, I wanted them to pop out- I was trying to avoid it looking at all drab.

Back to small chest issues, and this is where learning how to make adjustments are a good skill to have, I should have fixed this all before I started sewing, rookie mistake- too excited. The front is now too low and I need to wear a vest under it (this is what I have to do with almost all of my dresses) and a result of my short torso,  the darts have come up too high and it looks like I have headlights (nipple showage) I'm trying to work out ways to fix it, but I have't come up with anything- I'll just attempt to unpick it and try to put them in again. I will make this dress again, but I will defiantly make up a toile for the top half first, making the v smaller and shortening the darts. 

Shoulda really spotted the problem at this stage really.....

On a note- I had finished cutting and sewing up the bodice and child walked in took a look at it and said "you could turn that into a Nelson vest" Thanks- but I had to admit, she had a point.

Taking Zinnia for a spin

I must admit this wasn't the first fabric choice that came to mind when I first decided that Colette Patterns Zinnia skirt was going to be my next project. That honour had gone to  beautiful Les Fleurs folk birds fabric in canvas. But then I was afraid  about cutting up such expensive fabric without at least test running it first. Second choice was Melody Millers Trinket Telephones in navy.

But this is where I ran into my first hurdle. The pattern layout was to be cut on the crossgrain and in the opposite direction of the print. Not being a seasoned sewist , I had an idea of how to solve the problem- but not having the confidence or ever working on the cross grain before- I was worried that if I had cut the fabric on the grainline that I would somehow mess with the structure of the skirt. 

Luckily my Colette rep is awesome and very lovely and understanding to answer my novice questions, with the above photo attached. I was told that my gut instinct was correct and it will work. I was still too scared to cut into folk birds (they did suggest that if you do use the canvas / linen that I should put a lining in also. I've never put a lining in before- bit scary)

So it was my sisters birthday and I promised her a skirt. She liked the Les Fleurs Tapestry in black- so here was my chance to do a test run before I tried the linen.

So I laid out the pattern like in the picture and then had to Frankenstein sew the corners cut from the sides to the edge to get the full coverage. Due to the busy pattern you couldn't really see where the joint was made thankfully.

Pleats went in easily, and the body of the skirt- including the brilliant pockets (using some of my table runner fabric again!) was finished really fast. But I started to look at the finished panels and thought - this is not going to get around my waist. I sized it up against the waist band and it came up too small (and I had cut the pattern a size up in parts). So out came 2 of the pleats from the two back panels and that remedied the problem.  Always check before you attach the waist band! Zip went in fine, thankfully...I don't like zips.

We come to the waist band. I'm not really a follower of instructions. The waist band instructions need a bit of concentration. It was late- so instead I winged it. I folded down the seams  by about 1/4 of an inch (old quilting ways die hard) facing the wrong side of the fabric the attached it to the raw edge of the body of the skirt and top stitched it into place. It worked, it probably doesn't look as good. 

This does cause a small problem when you have to attach the button but it would have been fine, had my machine not given me so much grief....But although millimetres off, I'm ok with that.

I'll be making the zinnia again, now I know it's quirks and it knows mine. It's an easy pattern- but may be worth doing a practice run first before you cut into your gorgeous rayon.

A lil tank blooms into a willow

Off to the seaside I was last weekend and I wanted to make an aptly sewn top to match the event. It was supposed to be hot (so it typically rained for the whole day) . But as with all things I was short on time , so needed something that will only take a few hours.

I picked the tiny pocket tank from Grainline Studios, now before I start on this, I will say that this pattern has now been discontinued and replaced with the Willow top & dress pattern. But for all purposes, this is about the tiny pocket tank so things may have been improved/ updated for the Willow.

I paired it up with Tossed Anchors by Dear Stella. It was hard to choose as we have quite a few different nautical themed fabrics but as this pattern has darts I was conscious of the impact of putting in a dart into a heavy patterned fabric.  I only say this because it was my first time putting in a dart, (yeah, I know- not sure why that took so long) and I really didn't want obvious pattern mash.

These patterns normally accommodate for a B cup, I'm much larger than that- but i'm too afraid to start extending cups and busts, so haven't, I just measured my bust and went from there, which for me worked out fine. ..well not really. More on that in a bit.

This is a super easy pattern, there is only 3 pieces to sew and the construction is almost identical to the Scout tee (but the scout doesn't have any darts). So I knew I had to be careful with my bias binding, but the rest of it was going to be a breeze. Inserting all the armhole bias binding went fine...but I did overstretch it a bit in the neckline..pain!

I still haven't settled on my favourite way to finish off seams, so I had wished I had finished with french seams but I made that decision too late, zig zag it was.

Back to the bust, I've got a bit of a bust, but also a short chest.  With other tops I have made I haven't made any adjustments and this hasn't been much of an issue, but with this one it was. I stupidly didn't think about my short chest (gotta stop sewing in a rush)  so once it was finished it was way too long in the front with  too much boobage on show for my liking as well as really gapey at the back, it sat like something my aunt would wear.

 It was too late for me to do any proper adjustments, so all I could do was what I do with most shop bought tops I buy, I hemmed up the seams at the top (I normally stick them in my bra). This wasn't ideal as they came in at an angle and now my armpits were tight and rubbing. I lowered it a bit and came to a compromise in top and bottom. 

I don't think it's too obvious but next time I make one I'll definitely have to adjust the top half to make it shorter (there's a new thing to learn!) but I threw a blazer over the top and it looked great. It all held together on the rollercoasters and in the non stop rain (I have a cold now boo hoo). I'll tackle the Willow in it's dress form next but I think I'll go for one of our soft chambrays  like the union...although in the bound would be amazing.... 

OK, pocket is a bit square too....

smells like Geraniums

Last week we got our first kids pattern in, yay! I find a lot of children's dress patterns a bit frumpy, a bit ruffled and a bit over the top. The Geranium by Made By Rae patterns is none of that. it's basically the Washi dress in kids version. (and without the elastic shirring!) You could have a matching set if you felt inclined. Beauty of this is you can use so many different fabric's, i love patterns where you can use medium weight quilting cotton- it just opens up the scope of possibility. 

There is 2 different versions in this pattern, it can be made into either a dress or top with three different sleeves versions and three different neckline and the option to make it ruffled or pleated.

I opted for faux capped sleeve. basic neckline and a ruffled skirt , mainly because I've done much gathering and never pleated before and the ruffled sleeves looked a bit beyond my easy, quick Saturday morning frame of mind- and pocket version.everything has to have pockets!

I've made up the biggest size, which is a 5 but it is on the smaller size (I was making it for my skinny minnie) so may need to add extra to the top bodice if need be. I used a meter and a half of the Cats heads in blue by Wee Wander Gallery, the good thing about this fabric is the heads are small enough that I didn't stress out too much about pattern matching. I can be lazy with stuff like that. 

The construction is straight forward, As usual I used the Swedish tracing paper to begin with (used on the GBSB didn't you know) The rest was a breeze, unless you count when I read the pattern wrong and closed the wrong bit of the bodice - (then lost the seam ripper for a full 20 minutes- That made me loose it). Obviously I'm an impatient person and I only ever skim pattern instructions- always resulting in unpicking, (I NEVER learn).

The funny thing about this dress is I thought it wasn't looking great through most of the sew, I thought it was looking a bit bulky and not quite right, but once I pressed it and held it up- as if by magic- it looked fab. Even inserting the buttons gave me no grief. I wanted to put in cute little pencil buttons but they protruded and it's not really the type of dress for that, plus it would just get tangled in hair.

Happy with that, There is a size 6-12 year old version available, I'm trying to get my hands on it locally (and not importing it from the U.S), So hopefully it will appear on our pattern page soon.

Other shop news.....

Tula Pink announced last week that there will be 3 new additions to her Hardware range, and we are now taking pre orders for these! They are due for release in July- so not too long now. Available will be a pair of 6" scissors, a pair of 4" micro cute scissors and left handed shears.

For all pre order information click on the images below! I'll write a more detailed entry when the stock arrives.

Easter sewing!

Over Easter I wanted make something using some of the great bunny fabrics we stock, although I couldn't choose between Ghost bunnies or the Moon bunnies. What I did know was that I wanted to make the Brumby from skirt. 

I gunned for the ghost bunnies after asking on instagram. For the inside pocket detail I used some of my own stash, bright pink with birds was a good contrast even if you can barley see it.

I'm always too excited when I make these kind of things, so as usual I didn't pre-wash my fabric, but being med weight cotton it was fine. But the pattern matching in the middle I probably should have thought about more. But in a weird way I like the half rabbits, like they are synchronized.

I used Swedish tracing paper again, loving that stuff! I then measured out just under a meter and a half (130cm to be exact) of the ghost bunnies for the medium size. It was so easy to whip up, I mean super easy. If it wasn't for the zip, I would say this is perfect for a beginner. Unless that beginner wants to learn how to put in a zip.

The instructions were straight forward, but perhaps made some of the steps sound a little more complicated then they actually were. The pockets were fun to make and easy.

 It sits really well, I didn't have any difficulty with the gathering or anything like that. It was a straight forward delightful pattern that I'll make again.  

You can get the brumby here!

...and in cross stitching world

Sally is coming along really well, it's coming along quicker than expected!