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! 

Our perfect day

The time has finally come... drum roll please... to reveal the "official" photos from our wedding 3 weeks ago!

It was such a perfect day - the sun came out for us (this may not sound like such a big thing for my non-UK readers but believe us, we were so lucky) and every single detail went to plan. We were able to just really enjoy ourselves throughout the whole day. 

Now the dresses. For those who have been following my blog in the past year, I made both my wedding dress and my bridesmaid's dress. 

My wedding dress

Yep, it was a huge project, especially as I wasn't that experienced at sewing when I started it. Two full toiles and countless adjustments later, we got there! 

Fabric(s)

The dress has 7 layers:

1) silk dupion pleats and drape, 

2) silk organza underlining for the pleats, 

3) silk dupion for dress layer, 

4) silk organza underlining, 

5) silk habotai lining, 

6) cotton corselette with spiral steel boning, and

7) silk dupion corselette lining. 

Pattern(s)

I used Simplicity 2959 as a starting point, not because of pictures on the pattern envelope, but the clean princess lines and the pleats. I made lots and lots of adjustments - to name a few:

• I added lots of layers including a corselette which extends to below my hips (see the corselette here);
• I changed the bodice to a sweetheart neckline - I didn't like how pointy the neckline was from 2959 and preferred a softer shape. I used Simplicity 4070 for the neckline instead - 4070 is also what I used for my BM dress as we thought it would be cute to have the same neckline;
• I changed the overall shape of the design - I found the skirt to be too full, and preferred a fitted dropped waist bodice and a more A-line skirt. I reduced the width significantly for the whole length, but more so around the hip area;
• I added a lace-up back and omitted the bow (see here for the lace-up back and here for a tutorial);
• I lengthened the train to a chapel length; 
• I ignored the pattern pieces for the pleats and made them to include a diagonal drape by trial and error with tissue paper (see here);
• I added a waist stay; 
• I added a one-tier French bustle (see here); and
• I dissected a bra and added them to the corselette (see here). 

The process

Would you believe me when I say that I think of the whole process fondly?? OK, there were a couple of times when all that hand sewing got too much and/or I doubted myself, and not to mention that horrific spider incident (read about it here - ewww) but overall it went smoothly! Who'd have known that I had this much patience? 

No doubt it was a steep learning curve, and I feel so much more experienced at sewing after the process. And almost a year's labour was absolutely worth it! 

More photos

Quick word of warning - there are a lot of photos (but haven't I done well narrowing down from 900+ photos??) 

The dress with the bustle done up in the evening:

  

Pre-wedding update - BM dress

2 sleeps to go! 


Thankfully I have finally finished the bridesmaid's dress today (would you believe it? this last minute? it's really not my style) so thought I would share some photos with you before my lovely bridesmaid wears it on the big day and takes the dress away with her!

The zip closed - it's a pink silk dupion dress with a yellow zip, and it will be worn with a lemony yellow ribbon. 

 The (contrasting) bodice lining with the waist stay inserted

 Hand finished zip between the layers. 

 Very wide hem! I had to shorten the dress by a rather lot, but I was too fearful to cut it short at this late stage (especially as I had hand overcasted the bottom of the dress already). I had to include "ruffles" for the hem so that the fullness is distributed evenly. 

Some non-sewing related sneaky peeks of the sweets jars (centrepieces) and our wine classes for the big day:

 for the top table

See you after the wedding! I'll have so much to upload then, from the wedding day and the mini-moon! 

"Easy" skirt - take one

As inspired by so many bloggers' elastic waist skirts, I've finally decided to make my own. Amongst all the very helpful tutorials, this was my favourite as it was inspiring on many levels for me:

Level #1 : it's called 20-minute skirt tutorial. The efficiency attracted my attention immediately; 

Level #2: it was an upcycle - I loooove upcycling!

Level #3: the fabric used reminded me of something I've had for ages... 

So this is what I ended up with - look at how much effort I was putting in to put this spin on? 

Do you see the resemblance in the fabric, as compared to Alli's skirt? I think both have a vintage feel, with floral prints, and the colours that sort of thing. I think you'll see what I mean. Funnily enough the fabric was from a oversized (for me) maxi dress that I bought from a Warehouse store that was closing down, for £5, with the view of unpicking it all and making it into something I'll like. I did do the unpicking part straight away, though waited over a year to actually refashion it. 

So I used 3 pieces of this lovely fabric from my stash (woohoo I still have quite a lot left!), one that was 105cm x 48cm, and two that were 52.5 x 48cm. I attached them together to form a long loop with French seams, and hemmed the bottom edge. 

I formed the elastic loop, and gathered the top of the skirt. 

And then the troublesome part came! I must admit that this took me much longer than 20 minutes... I was not having a good sewing day. I had great trouble with the elastic... Previously when I worked with elastic, I stretched as I sewed with a zigzag stitch, so I tried to do the same with the top of this gathered skirt. Unfortunately I lost control of it all, so the stitches were not a straight line, in fact, very far from it. 

Oh dear. After unpicking patiently, I started again, this time with my fiancée's help, who stretched one side whilst I kept hold of the other. Nope, still no control whatsoever. 

More unpicking, but this time less patiently... the time had come that I decided to risk the stitches breaking, but gaining more control by no longer stretching the elastic. Instead, I gathered the skirt some more. This time the stitches formed a lovely straight line,except that a lot of the stitches were skipped. 

This 20-minute skirt really became a test of my patience. After unpicking bitterly this time, I re-threaded my machine, and tried again. Skipped stitches again. It was only then I decided to refer to my sewing books (maybe I'll do some reviews of those at some point?). I don't know how I managed to sew with elastic without any issue before (pure luck?) but apparently what I should have used was a ball point needle which will "slide" better with the elastic without breaking and pulling all the elastic threads. As I didn't have any ball point needle at the time, and that I could not possibly let a 20-minute project drag on overnight, I zig zagged it a few more times to ensure that everything was attached securely, and was done with it. 

So this really was far from perfect, but now I can't wait to make another version to use what I've learned from this! After debating for ages with the perfectionist in me, we agreed that it wasn't terrible after all. Now I have a summery skirt that is light and comfy to wear, and who knows, it may just about make the cut to my mini-moon suitcase! 

More photos: 

My usual pose

I like the fullness!

Alice in action... not sure doing what!

Fresh as a daisy

Dear readers, before we start the double bill this weekend, do you like the new look of my blog? It's coming up to a year now since the birth of this baby, so I thought it was time to give it a simpler and fresher look. 

Anyhow, I was too excited to have finished my second version of Simplicity 2444, and just couldn't wait to share it with you. 

I think I will gladly add this to my mini-moon wardrobe, and I just hope that the weather will be nice and hot in Paris!

I just love how summery it looks - the fabric was a polyester that I bought from my Prague trip. Now I don't usually go for manmade materials other than viscose, but I fell in love with this daisy print and gladly paid about £10 a metre for it. 

What's more, this dress gave me a chance to wear those yellow shoes that I've had for a while ;)

I made a few adjustments to the pattern based on my wearable toile: 

• I cut a size 4 this time, and graded to a 6 at the waistline (as the waist was tight enough last time!)
• I made a small bust adjustment ("SBA"), having finally come to terms with the fact that I do, in fact, need to do this for most patterns... I think usually commercial patterns "cater for" a B cup, with a number of exceptions (eg Colette patterns have a C cup). I followed the very helpful tutorial here, which oddly meant that I ended up with a bodice pattern with only one set of darts rather than 2! But it did fit me much better. 
• I omitted the centre front seam of the skirt, and cut it on fold instead. To ensure that the side seams still align, I took the seam allowances off at the sides and it worked fine. 
• I took 15cm off the skirt length this time, and was happy with the length. 
• I did the neckline facing, but unfortunately the fabric was rather sheer so it showed through! It bothered me no end so I unpicked it all... and finished the neckline with a self-fabric bias tape instead. 

          This is what it looked like with the facing... ewww 

              I used the tutorial here to finish the neckline. Here're a couple of in-progress photos:

 
And that's it, my second version of the great Simplicity 2444. I love this pattern, especially now I have managed to get it to fit. I can't wait to make it again!