Thursday 31 May 2018

Cocowawa marshmallow dress in peach skin!




This is a tale of trial and error. Crafty Sew and Sew kindly gave me some peach skin fabric in the most fabulous of colours to blog about! I've never sewn with peach skin so I wasn't sure what to expect when it arrived. If you've never used peach skin it's a kind of lightweight cotton lawn with a bit more structure to it. I thought this would be perfect for the Cocowawa marshmallow dress as it would give the ruffles a bit more drama. Turns out I didn't really need the drama!

I did my usual ruffle trick where I used stretch elastic to create even ruffles for me when I attached it though the shape didn't suit me much at all. I added a contrasting coloured collar which I love! The collar is a little tricky to piece together but the way it attaches to the neck piece is really easy. My collar fabric was super thin, almost organza so it flitted and floated around a lot till I ironed the interfacing onto it. I wish I had also made the button bands in contrasting fabric rather than just the buttons to give it a bit more pop but I think it works perfectly as it is also. 



The peach skin was super easy to work with though. I put my walking foot on because it looked like it could have slipped around under the feet but it sewed just like cotton! I love the brightness of this fabric, I think I should have thought I bit more about the ruffles pattern placement as that may have made it a bit more flattering as it effectively just repeats the pattern from just above it.


I decided I probably wouldn’t wear the dress as it was as it wasn’t very flattering on my shape. The ruffle band hit just across my bum on my widest point and appeared to make it look even worse. I decided to take the ruffle back off again so that I could wear it as a blouse. I love the look of it now and it’s perfect with jeans giving me that extra pop of colour we so desperately need on these dull days of thunderstorms! Where did summer go?!

Anyways in conclusions I love my bright new blouse and I think I’m a peach skin convert!




Friday 18 May 2018

Seamwork Almada and Made for Mermaids Bridgette set



This post is TWO things off my make 9 in one swoop! I have made myself a lovely lightweight dressing gown and a fancy lingerie set.
I used the lovely lightweight yellow crepe and yellow stretch lace from Sew Crafty, they even have matching fold over elastic!

The patterns I have used are the Seamwork magazine Almada and the Made
for Mermaids Mama Bridgette bralet and pants!
I made the size 42D despite being a 38E in the real world. The bralet isn't designed to replace your normal bra and the level of support it provides but with power mesh your are pretty darn close! I made the racer back because I thought the lace would loook super cute as a racer back through a low backed top or dress. I used the edge of the lace for my racer back and cup edges. It's not intentionally scalloped but by cutting the surrounding eyelashes it made it a lovely shape. I did have to be careful with the stretch round the edges but I made sure it was secure with the fold over elastic sewn flat on the inside of the edges.

When you get to deciding how much you want to overlap your cups at the front, I did 1.5" which I thought brought my boobs in just enough for support and comfort. I also made the bottom band from power mesh giving it more support along the bit that's more strained, and shortened the straps by about an inch, which you can see folded in the picture This stretch lace is perfect for lingerie as the pattern has quite large flowers giving lovely lace with good coverage.. ha ha! The stretch has good recovery too making it perfect for bralets.  I also added 2" to the height of the pants so they would pull up over my tummy. I like the shape of these pants and can see loads more in my future! Perfect for scrapbuster!

The kimono is such an easy make! Everyone is getting these as gifts from now on! It's my second one I've made this time in much easier lovely crepe. It didn't slip slide half as much as the silk on I made making the whole process much more enjoyable. I decided to bind the edge with contrasting floral binding to give it a little pop amongst all the yellow which I think finishes it perfectly!
I didn't really think through the fact I now have to post pictures of me in my pants on the internet.... so here's a flat lay!!