Jumping on the bandwagon - Tilly and the Buttons Cleo Dungadress

Ta Daaaaa.

I finished my new Dungadress, and I think I am in love! The Cleo by Tilly and the Buttons is fabulous. It is the first time I have used dungaree clips, and the first time I have done any top stitching so I am still working my way through all my firsts.

I ordered a meter and a half of Denim fabric from Sew Crafty Online which was more than plenty! I still have quite a bit left and was thinking of projects to stash bust with some hard wearing denim. I already had some top stitching thread, which to be perfectly honest I had ordered a good while ago by accident as I needed some normal thread the same colour for my Daisy Dress and didn't realise there were different types of thread! This is how far I have come in the last year of so, yet this project taught me I probably needed a top stitching needle but I managed ok.

The denim was easy to work with which I was surprised about and it wasn't too thick so I used a normal need rather than a denim one. The hardest part I found was turning the straps the right way, so I got out my giant knitting needles and it did make it easier.

I only did one line of top stitching mostly because I ran out of thread, but also I think it makes it a bit more unique. I didn't even have enough thread to do the hem but actually I love the frayed look! I have done a line of zip zag in an inconspicuous black just above the hem so it won't fray too far.

Here is a picture of the whole dungadress with added Murphy dog the cockerpoo! He loves it too.

The Moneta Party

I so very much enjoyed the Moneta party! Isn't it amazing how one pattern can look so fabulously different on different body types, shapes and different fabrics too! And the pattern hacks, wow! Some of them have truly inspired me to work out how to hack a pattern as they looked fabulous! I especially love the maxi versions, and the backless version and well erm everyone's versions!

I made my Moneta in one size down from the maximum which account to my measurements should have been my size. I think my problem was I went with my largest measurement which is my bum and that then left the rest of the dress a bit tent like and the skirt bottom is gathered and oversized anyway.

I have never gathered with elastic either, but I did cheat slightly and I used white 1/4" elastic instead of clear elastic but it seems to have worked perfectly for me.

This was also my first time using a twin needle, which was a lot less scary than I thought it would be and finished off the neckline, sleeves and hem.

Once I put the dress all together it looked really potato sack like, so I took it back to the drawing board. Whilst wearing it I could pinch in a few inches at my waist each side, so I took it off and ran my overlocked from the armpit seam to the point I could take it into on the waist, I then did another line up to the pocket seam. This then gave the dress a synced in waist but had enough room f
or my boobs and bum! Perfect for me!

My zigzag fabric is from my favourite fabric store Sew Crafty Online. This fabric is a super light microfiber type jersey, which washed and dried so quickly and lovely. No creases! Not that I iron if I can help it anyway!

All in all my new favourite pattern. I also may have a slight obsession with buying jersey now as it's not half as scary as I thought it was!

Baby Clothes - The cutest things!!

There seems to be a lot of baby's around in my life at the moment, so I thought I would have a go at making some gifts for them! Sadly I can't claim the beautiful knitted cardi's as my own, my beautiful Grandma made those and she is such a speed knitter too.

I then made a couple of sets with car seat blankets like I have blogged about previously at this link.
Baby Car Seat cover. The parents I have given these too love them as the keep the car seat clean and it's easily washable but it is great for swaddling the baby in and keeping them warm without them being able to kick the blanket off in the back of the car.

I also had a go an some little hat's and matching leggings, as I knew each baby would be a little boy.
I made the knot hats using this tutorial from How Does She's Blog.
I used my overlocker for the entire of this hat, which made it so quick and easy. The band around the bottom of the hat is added on after so every bit can be done on my overlocker. I was quite scared of my overlocker till I made these projects and now I have mastered curves!

The little trousers were a pattern from Made by Rae with her Just Hatched Leggins pattern which again is so easy. It only has two pattern pieces and a small amount of elastic which makes them very easy to create. I had to do the cuffs and waist band on my normal machine for these but using my walking foot it gave them a lovely professional finish.

I bought this Horsey fabric especially for this gift as the Mum works with horses and the Dad is a farmer, hence the tractors on the car seat cover.

I made another car seat cover without the double layer, just a single layer of fleece which worked really well also. It then meant it was even easier for swaddling and washing as there is only one layer to get tangled.

All in all some very cute babies with some very cute iddy bitty presents!

Winslow Culottes in crepe!

Two firsts for this project! First some kind of trousers, with a gusset and pockets and everything, also first type using a slippery material like crepe.

The beautiful Crepe was from Sew Crafty Online and the flow on it is lovely. There are so many beautiful colours on the fabric I had too many to choose from for my jacket! Please excuse hubby's stupid face! Doh!

I really enjoyed this pattern though as it has minimal pieces and I am beginning to love PDF patterns as I don't have to trace them out and they seem much easier to store than rolled up grease proof paper!

There are 4 pieces for the 'legs' and a waist band, two pockets and a zip. So a nice easy sew really. I've never really made trousers before that have looked suitable for wearing outside the house!

I struggled with the fabric really as I have never used crepe, it seemed to creep a bit whilst sewing as I think my tension was a bit too tight. After I had done a few seams I changed the tension and it seems to ease off a bit. I used my normal foot for this but I'm told a roller foot may have been a better option for me, so that's one to try next time!





I love these culottes as they were so comfy all day at the wedding, I could dance and move around not worrying about skirts exposure, and they still looked formal enough for the wedding.

I think I am going to make myself a long pair of these for the summer as the waist band hit me at a really nice 'high wasted' point perfect with baggy tops. Made in crepe they will lovely and floaty for the summer too. I think I may experiment in a thinker cotton too for some for work as the shape really suits the shape of my body.

I really do recommend trying out the Winslow culottes!

The Butterick Retro B6318

This was another project from the lovely people at Sew Crafty Online the fabric is absolutely beautiful and all my scraps have been carefully saved for future quilting and small projects as I couldn't bare to throw them out!

My Butterick Retro pattern has caused me a few headaches. Mostly in the boobage area! My first issue was my measurement didn't really fit the sizing. So I just made the on the was going to fit my top half with the hope the skirt would be floaty enough to survive.

As you can see even on the mannequin this appeared to be a strange shape but my hope was the waist band would pull it in a bit. Which it did beautifully on a real person, the mannequin doesn't do it justice.

I think if I were to make this again, I would take the top in slightly across the boobs as it doesn't have any dates to give the top any shape. I think they shape would be perfect for a the larger breasted lady though i'm afraid mine were a little lost!

Once the tie is around the middle you really can see the shape it is aiming for which is beautiful, though I think I have learnt to stay away from Kimono tops as they don't fit me properly. I found the tie quite hard to attache and the instructions weren't great but after some perseverance I think I cracked it.

But seriously whilst the fit isn't perfect on this dress it is absolutely beautiful because of the fabric. The flowers are so cheerful and wonderful it brightens up any day in the office! So all in all a successful escapade.

It's a bugs life...

I found this beautiful bugs fabric on ebay whilst hunting for something else and I knew immediately it would be perfect for my friend at works daughter, who is bugs mad!

I bought and let her parent chose which pattern I used from few free ones on Pintrest. The pattern they chose is the one in the picture to the left, if you click on the picture it will take you to the sewyourtv.com website too which the pattern and instructions if you want to make it yourself, please take what i'm about to say into consideration if you do want to.

This dress is not really for beginners, the concept would be great for beginners but the pattern is just pure awful. For example the front pattern peice is about 7 cm's longer than any of the other prices for no reason that I can tell, as I ended up slicing the excess off. Also there is no pattern piece for the bodice lining so I hacked it using the front and back pieces put together overlapping enough for seam allowances. I used bias binding around the arm holes as there was no was I could get the bodice lining to turn right way out once I has sewn this. I also didn't use the pattern piece for the skirt as the pieces didn't seem to fit together right, so I just used a straight rectangle and used my new gathering foot to make the ruffles. (ps gathering foots! genius!)
Once I had gifted this dress also, she couldn't get it over her head! Now, not having a 3 year old of my own and never having owned one I wasn't really sure how big her head was going to be, but I remember looking and thinking wow kids have small heads! Apparently not that small! So I have now had to slice down the back and create a button panel so she could wear it!

Anyway enough about the failures of this dress I does look super cute! The frills on the sleeves are a great stash buster, do you remember the turquoise from my simplicity dress and my Victoria jacket toil? I tried to french seam all the bits that had to be inside and I have done the skirt seam on the outside so it didn't irritate her, and the sash covers it nicely.

I'm going to retrace my pattern pieces into what needs to be used next time so that I can make another because once it's finished it is lovely, it's just a lot of brain work to get to that point.

My Project for the Refashioners 2016 challenge

What a great idea to reuse jeans in this way! I don't know about you but I had load's of jeans in my house desperate for re-use! I flitted around my ideas but finally decided on a bardot style off the shoulder top.

I looked around on pintrest and found Fabric Godmothers tutorial and thought this was a great starting point.

I started by making the darker jeans one big piece of fabric, mostly because at the beginning I was going to make a dress but I didn't have a big enough piece. This piece then became the top frill of my bardot top.

I then made sure I had enough of the lighter jeans. Now this pair of jeans were bought with 'designer' fraying already put in, which just got bigger and bigger of a hole! So I had to repair these holes before I could use it as the main bodice to my top and not expose myself too much! Once that was done I cut two rectangles one 40cm deep and one 20cm deep.

I used the jeans hem for the bottom of the bodice and I zigzagged in contracting cream thread for the frill which I think gives it a nice finish. One I had made two tubes of fabric, I attached them using the wonderful tutorial above.
I only had thick elastic in, and I'm impatient to wait to go to a shop, so I pushed that through the frill's tube opening I had made. Whilst we are on the subject of threading elastic through.. there HAS to be an easier way to do this?! this is what took me most of the time!tip and tricks most welcome please!

When I first put this top on my husband laughed at my soo much as I had tried it on over my t-shirt and put the frills on top of my shoulders like a vest top, once I rearranged it looked much better (shame about my tan lines though!)

There are so many great adaptations of using jeans to make something else so please check out the hashtag #therefashioners2016 and #jeanius and see what everyone has been making. I love how everyone has used it so different and I especially love the negative space removing the pocket gives you like on my shoulder details.