My little Lisette traveller

Before I start showing off my new creation, I thought I would remind you all of my first ever GIVEAWAY that is still open. Remember, all you need to do is commenting on that post before 30th September 2012 for your chance to win (the winner will be selected at random)! Good luck! 

Now I cannot wait any longer to show you my new dress ... voila!

With belt:                                                        Without belt:

So here it is, my very own version of Simplicity 2246, the Lisette Traveller dress. This was a pattern that I've had, and been wanting to make for a while - as it turned out, I was simply waiting for the right fabric. 

The fabric

I bought this gorgeous lightweight cotton (poplin?) from my mini-moon at Paris, from a store called La Folie Des Coupons on Rue d'Orsel, not far from Sacre Coeur. As the name suggests ("coupons" mean pre-cut fabric lengths in French, and typically they come in the length of 3 metres), this was a 3 metre remnant, which only cost me €10 (see proof)! I simply fell in love with the print - it was subtly floral yet sophisticated, and I just had to have it. The good news is, I only used just over 1.5m for this dress, so there should be plenty leftover for another project ;-) 

The pattern

This was my first Lisette pattern, and I loved it! Lisette is a relatively new line designed by Liesl Gibson, who had worked as a designer at a couple of top brands. I seem to recall her designing another pattern brand, but I think that's for kids clothing only. 

The pattern has been standardised by Simplicity, so it has a similar sizing and ease with your usual Simplicity patterns. The instructions were a little bit different though, as they are even more helpful than the usual Simplicity patterns. There are lots of Lisette tips along the way and it reminds you to finish seams after each step. The pictures were very illustrative too, and I had no problem making the collar and the button placket, both of which were a first for me. 

I think this is why a few people on PatternReview have rated this pattern easy and great for beginners. My view is that this is a wonderful pattern, though one that I would not recommend to beginners. Whilst the instructions are very helpful, I thought that this pattern had quite a few steps which may well be overwhelming for a beginner. I remember the days when I started sewing, and feeling nervous about making one single buttonhole (on the Cath Kidston bag from the Sew! book), let alone 10 of them, and not to mention inserting a collar and all the topstitching. 

Another thing I liked about the pattern was that it had a cute name - the traveller dress. 

Pattern alterations

I made a view C (the one with the gathered A-line skirt) and made a few alterations to this pattern:

1. A small bust adjustment - this pattern included a total ease of 5 inches around the bust for a size 6, which I thought was a little excessive. I halved the ease for my dress, by doing a SBA. I'm planning on doing a series of tutorials on how to make SBAs, including alterations on a number of different basic bodice patterns (please watch this space!). UPDATE: see tutorial here! 
2. I made a petite adjustment on the bodice.
3. I also shortened the skirt by 6 inches so that the skirt finishes above the knee.   
4. I also made a self-fabric belt from view A/B but am currently unsure whether it actually adds anything to it (let me know what you think?)

My "new" gadgets!

and some of them not so new actually...

First of all, I tried out my brand new "gathering" foot. Did you know that this existed? I bought a universal one and it cost me less than a fiver! I thought it was an excellent investment given how much I hate gathering. It looks like this:

Although it is not a snap-on foot, it is really easy to attach - all I needed to do on my Singer 8280 was undoing the screw and swapping the shank with the gathering foot. I then set the stitch length to the longest, and increased the upper thread tension to 6+ and off it went! There was no need to do parallel stitches, pull bobbin thread, baste and unpick. All done in one step (unless you wanted to unpick this one stitching line, if it bothered you - yep I am one of those pedantic people!). 

I used this helpful gadget on the waistline of the skirt, and on both sleeve edges! It was really easy and I was a happy bunny. 

Next I used "new" gadget number 2, the button foot. I made the purchase over a week ago, at the same time as buying the gathering foot, making comments like " oooh isn't this just soo clever? I can't believe I have not come across it already!" Guess what, when I was putting all my new sewing feet away after making this dress, I realised that I had one in my toolkit already!!! There it was, sitting quietly in my little zippy bag, only a shade darker than my newly purchased one. In fact, it was a standard accessory that came with my machine. D'oh! So if you haven't done so already, I would suggest checking what sewing feet came with your machine before purchasing new ones... 

Anyhow, it was a helpful little thing nonetheless. The soft blue tip holds the button firmly in place where the buttonhole step 3/4 stitch option does the zigzag stitch without feeding the fabric anywhere. It was rather clever and was so much easier and offers a lot more control than hand sewing buttons into place. A word of warning though, start very slowly by checking that the stitch length and position is right by turning the needle by hand as failure to do so would be rather disastrous. I ended up with one badly cracked button and 2 slightly chipped ones. Oops, I was far too clumsy. 

Where was I?

Have you noticed that the pictures weren't taken on top of our staircase today? No, it's not because I am still waiting for my freshly painted wall to dry, and no, of course we didn't paint it... -- with the weather being 27 degrees (in the UK! in September!), how could we possibly not take advantage of it? ;-) So we went to Mapledurham House and Watermill, which was a 10 minute drive from my house. Isn't it so grand and beautiful? and did you know that some lucky people still live there? 

It was a lovely day/afternoon out, made even better by the fact that my Lisette traveller was ready to travel and see some grand stately home just in time for our little trip. Perhaps next time we'll take a picnic!

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... 

1st blog-iversary and 1st giveaway!

This little blog of mine is 1-year-old today! I can't believe it!

Despite accidentally deleting my first ever post last week (oops! I noticed that the font was too small, but when I tried to make the text bigger, the update brought it out as a new post... obviously then I went into a state of panic, and accidentally deleted it! But hey, it didn't say all that much), I remembered that today is indeed Moonbeam's first birthday! 

Too bad I haven't baked a cake for it (yet), but I thought perhaps I could try to do my first ever giveaway (if the response is good, I'll do more giveaways in the future)! 

Looking back over the last 12 months, I'm really pleased with how many clicks Moonbeam has received (about 20,000) and my lovely followers :D I am also surprised to find how many sewing projects that I fitted into (no pun intended) my busy schedule, not to mention to oh-so-time-consuming wedding dress! 

I thought I'd pick some favourites -  

•  Favourite dressy pattern: Simplicity 4070 

• Favourite casual pattern: Simplicity 2444 but since I've just finished my first version of Mccall's 2401, and am working on my second, I'm also struggling to get that one out of my head!

• First homemade dress worn to a work event (Summer Ball 2012): the Serena dress
• Favourite dress: the wedding dress of course
• Most fun to make (besides the wedding dress): the green Serena dress
• Most popular dress on the blog (again, besides the wedding dress): the green Serena dress

Now the giveaway - as my Serena dress has had the most clicks, I thought I could do a related giveaway to celebrate the blog-iversary. 

I have over 2 metres (144cm width) of the rich green "dupion" (this was sold as a silk dupion, though I was rather sceptical about its true nature. That said, I thought it was a treat to work with and gave really good result) which I used for the Serena dress to giveaway! I did try to take a photo of the fabric but I don't think the lovely colour is showing through too well:

I think the picture below is a slightly better representation of the colour:

And just to remind you, the finished dress looked like: 

Comment before 30 September 2012 to win! Although it is not necessary for winning the giveaway, I would, as always be interested to hear what you think of the blog - be it your favourite post, favourite tutorial, what I could do to improve it... anything will be welcome. 

Best of luck! and please don't be shy. Also please don't worry if you don't live in the same country as me - I will post it to anywhere in the world. I can't wait to see what you make with it! 

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: