MMM'16 Final Week round-up!

A little late, but here's the round-up of my last week of MMM'16. 

Let's begin with the Old Favourites Dress:

My Bottle Green Vintage Liberty strikes again:

 The Vintage Pleated Skirt:

And last but not least, one of my McCalls 3830 in action: 

So that's it for another year! I've found it really enjoyable to participate, and MMM has inspired me to make more of an effort to wear home made items for the rest of the year. 

Have a great week guys! The sun is shining here beautifully, and I hope you've got the same fantastic weather where you are, too! 

My Pattern Picks!

Remember my silk kimono? That was my first encounter with Love Sewing magazine. I was really impressed with how current and informative this magazine is, and you can probably imagine my excitement when the editor Helen asked me to write a feature on My Pattern Picks! 

This has just been published in the latest issue, issue 12, which has been on sale since 26th March. I'm sure regular readers of this blog will not be surprised by the patterns that I chose below, as I have never shied away from recommending them :)  

Here are the links to my versions of these 5 wonderful patterns:

McCalls 2401 (need I say more?) 
version 1 (blurry)  version 2 (spotty) version 3 (stretchy floral) version 4 (neon lace)

Simplicity 2311 
My wool coat

Simplicity 1368
My 30-minute maxi

Vogue 1137
My unlined version

Sewaholic Alma
View B
View A

Another piece of good news is that I am now a White Tree Fabrics blogger! Watch this space for my makes ;) 

Thank you for allowing me for some self-indulgence! 

A touch of neon, in lace...

Hello, all, I hope you are having an enjoyable weekend. I was in Edinburgh for the long weekend, the main purpose of which was to attend a wedding yesterday. It was truly a beautiful day, and it was so lovely to see the sweetest couple tie their knot. 

We've just got back home now, and I couldn't wait to share my wedding guest outfit with you. 

You have probably guessed from just looking at the dress that it was another Mccalls 2401 make!! What I can say, whenever I lay my hands on some slightly stretchy material, that is the first pattern that pops into my head. It is perfect for so many occasions, and attending wedding is certainly one of them. 

The fabric is an interesting one. Fabricland described it as a jersey, which is completely true, but the lace is not a print, but an additional layer that's "glued" on top. I think the lace layer is less stretchy than the jersey itself, so it ended up being quite a stable fabric, but with a bit of give. My favourite type!

I loved the lace, and the colour -- kind of pink, kind of coral, but with a touch of neon to it. How very on trend? 

What a lovely spot to tie the knot! 

The best thing about using a tried and tested pattern is that you could "whip up" a dress in no time, as no additional effort is required to adjust the fit. I used my normal sewing machine, with a ball point needle, and despite the fabric being jersey, it sewed up in straight stitches without any issue, as the stretch goes from left to right (very handy!) and this pattern doesn't contain a vertical seam. There's not much more to say about the construction, but if you did want to refer to what adjustments I made to the original pattern, please click on the tag Mccalls 2401 below which will bring up my 3, yes 3, other versions. 

A photo of the bias facing for the neckline and armhole -- I really like the lace and stripes combination. You might be able to see what I mean with the fabric more, here.  

So that's it, the loyal little pattern strikes yet again, this time in an interesting fabric. How do you feel about neon colours? How "neon" would you go? I would love to hear from you.   

Old Favourites Dress and SOS on my Singer 8280!

What a beautiful summer weekend! For those that don't live in the UK, I hope you had lovely weather too! 

First thing first. I am very sad to report that my modern Singer (aka Sallie Moonbeam) broke down last night...  The handwheel mechanism got jammed up, and would only move a tiny teeny amount back and forth. I took her apart almost completely (big mistake), didn't find anything that was caught (but man was it filthy and fluffy), and when I proudly put everything* back, there were 3 screws and a cylinder left!!! Needless to say, it still doesn't work, and I am getting more and more wound up over it. I didn't quite realise just how much I was relying on my sewing machine, until it stopped working! 

HELP PLEASE! Has this happened to you before? Also, if anyone has any experience of any sewing machine repair/service specialists in the South East (UK), please could you let me know? 

Now onto the project. This was a quick project with one of my favourite patterns, McCalls 2401 (see previous versions here and here), and the same stretchy cotton fabric that I used in my Alma Blouse. I've called it the Old Favourites Dress, though strictly speaking the fabric is quite a new favourite. 

It was a breeze to use this tried and tested version, which I have altered previously to fit me (see adjustments here). This time I made a View F, with the bateau neckline, and sleeveless. I love this pattern with a stretchy cotton - it hugs the body so well and it's super comfortable to wear.  

  

I finished the neckline and armholes with a navy single-fold bias binding as facing - you can't see it from the photos but I love the slight contrast on the inside. 

I think this is quite a smart looking dress. And did I mention how comfy it was to wear? A bit of stretch is all you need sometimes! 

Have a lovely week all! My priority will be to get my 8280 fixed but in the meantime, I'm going to try and use my Singer 99k to keep me busy... 

McCall's 2401 - spotty version

McCall's 2401 - take two!

Personally I think this version is quite different from my first blurry version, in terms of the fabric, the fit, the silhouette  the sleeve lengths, etc etc... but when my hubby (yep!) saw this, he said something on the line of "the dresses you make are very similar, aren't they?" Needless to say, that burst my little bubble about how different I though my two version of M2401! 

But without further ado, here it is - my spotty version of the same dress. I'll let you decide for yourself whether it is similar to my first version. 

By the way we are planning on finally painting the hallway next weekend (had been putting it off for over a year... "I don't have time, as I need to work on my wedding dress" no longer works!) so this may well be the last project that is photographed in front of this (boring) magnolia wall. 

The fabric is a lovely polyester crepe from my local Fabricland. I had to buy this as I have always, since when I was a little girl, had a soft spot for red fabrics with white polka dots. It's just the cutest thing! I bought 3.5 metres of this as I was originally planning on making Buttericks 5708, but having read the reviews on PR, I decided against having a go at that pattern. After my first version of M2401, the drapy quality of this crepe came to mind, and I was really glad it did, as I think it was perfect for this pattern - look at how it hugs my (rather limited) curves!

I made a view E again, size 6 petite, without shortening the sleeves as I wanted them to go just under the elbows. As this crepe had no stretch at all, I incorporated more ease than I did in my previous version. I still did a SBA, widened all darts by 1cm on each side, and shortened the skirt even further than last time so I didn't need to have a very wide hem. 

Another change I made was that because the fabric was quite soft, I omitted the facing and used single fold self-fabric bias tape (I ought to buy a bias tape maker - ironing it bit by bit is needlessly frustrating) as facing. Once again, I used the tutorial here. 

Here's a photo of the inside of the neckline:

I was really happy with how my spotty version has turned out. I just love the bataeu neckline and the simplicity of it all. Now I am confident that this version is not "too disco" and can therefore be worn to our dress-down Fridays :D 

Now I just need to stop myself from making another version of this pattern for a little while, and experiment with other things. After all, my sewing list for before my little blog turns 2 is already quite long (I know that it only turned one yesterday, but it literally takes me no time to come up with a list...), for example, I'm going to try sewing with lace (Vogue 8766, anyone?), making a bolero to go with my mother-in-law's wedding dress next Feb, making myself a bridesmaid dress (and probably a matching bolero), and also focusing on my work wear wardrobe... 

Mccall's 2401 - blurry version

Mccall's... here I come! 

Yep, it's my first Mccall's pattern. First impression - fantastic! Once the fitting issue is resolved, I loved how the dress turned out and just how simple it is. I'm already making a second, and less blurry, version of this.  

And yes, I AM wearing my wedding shoes (and again yes, I did wear pink shoes to my wedding!)- they go with the dress rather well, no?

I love this fabric. It's bright, yet blurry and almost make you feel out of focus. It's a cotton with Spandex from my local favourite, Fabricland, at £5 a metre. It's really easy to sew - this was actually my first time sewing with fabric with a bit of stretch, so I used my stretch needle (not sure if it's necessary though?) It was really comfortable to wear too. I enjoyed the whole experience so much that I have already purchased another couple of metres of stretch cotton! It is supposed to be in a beautiful turquoise (I bought it online) and I can't wait to have it. 

Now the pattern - Mccall's claimed that it was easy, and it really was. 2 main pattern pieces for the dress (front and back), the facings and sleeves, and you are done! The whole thing took me half a day from day to finish, which was a record for me, especially for a dress that involves more than just lots of shirring. 

I adore the simple yet classic design - it really helps show off fabrics like this, doesn't it? I would say that you could wear it to all sorts of occasions... but perhaps not with my choice of fabric. For example, the dress code for our dress down Friday is " nothing too disco", so I think this safely rules my blurry dress out. It's definitely too "disco".  

As I mentioned before, there were some fitting issues. This pattern runs from a size 6, which based on its measurements, would fit me fine. However, the envelope suggests that the finished garment has a chest measurement of 34 inches. It may not sound so huge but why would anyone who has a 30.5 measurement want to have that much ease? What does Mccall's think that we are going to do when wearing a shift dress like this? 

So anyway, I made a few adjustments to the size 6 pattern to make it fit me:

• I made a small bust adjustment and managed to remove the side dart (it's a bit depressing really!) and taken the bodice part of the dress in in width by 1cm or so; 
• I made a petite adjustment; 
• I widened all darts by 1cm on each side so taken the dress in at the waist by 8cm in total;
• I widened the seam allowances by 0.5cm on both sides thereby reducing the overall width by 2cm;
• I made a wide seam for the zipper; and
• I shortened the dress by another 5cm (and still made a extra wide hem). 

They may sound rather drastic, but bearing in mind that I was working with a stretch cotton, I really didn't want that much ease at all. So for the second version of the dress that I'm working on, I'm using a not-stretchy-at-all polyester crepe so I'm going to not shrink the dress by as much. but enough about that - you'll soon find out!