Art Deco Dress

I haven't written much about sewing for a while, but thought you might like to see my daughter's school art project. She insisted on editing the photos.

This is her final piece in an A-level art project. She printed the material with a lino cut. The theme of the project was art deco, and she decided to make her fabric into an art deco inspired dress.

Her bravery always amazes me, and I have to say that nearly every bit of advice I offered was ignored. "Buy a pattern" "V-shaped necks are difficult" "A v-shaped waistband will be tricky"  All ignored!

So despite my advice, she has made this beautiful dress, and without a pattern. She made the top initially out of calico and "shock" sellotape, so she could desconstruct it to make the pattern pieces for the printed fabric. It is all fully lined as well.
  

The photos are taken in the stairwell of our flat. The metal railing seem the perfect match to the gold print on the fabric. Though we were both keeping a look out for anyone coming in, ready to dodge back into our flat.

Just a reminder that there are still is still a little bit of time left to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for November. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

Bridesmaid Dress

I made this post a few weeks ago, and some how forgot to post it. We have all gone a bit wedding mad here in the UK, so it seems like the right time.

I read a very interesting post on Sum of Their Stoires, about sewing with vintage patterns. One of the patterns looked familiar to me, so I had a look through the old patterns I have in my sewing box. I was mistaken, as it was not quite the same pattern, but clearly from the same series. 

And since my sister and I have been sorting through the family photos, I thought you might like to see me in the bridesmaid dress. I was bridesmaid for my cousin. I also still have the dress hung up in a wardrobe, and my daughter wore it for a while when she was the right size. 

I think I might be giving away the fact that I am a bit of a hoarder!

Just a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May is still running. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

Northern Lights Dress and Intarsia Knitting

The idea for this design came from the beautiful colours in the wool (James Brett), and also that I sort of love Polar Bears. I knitted a polar bear sample square a while ago, with the idea of using it on a garment. I have an idea for a polar bear hat, possibly with smaller bears.

The dress/top pattern is basically the smallest version of my Baby Daisy Dress, and although I love the finished result, I've decided not to publish this polar bear version as a pattern, mainly because it was such a tricky knit. I thought the snowflakes would make it a bit easier, as the white wool is carried across the back on the blue parts, but the blue is not carried behind most of the bear (except on the leg section), as it was such dark wool it would show. 

Here is a photo of the chart that I made to use on this design. As you can see it all gets a bit scrappy. When I make a chart it usually involves a lot of tracing paper and transposing marks. There is also then the problem of how to get a large chart into a pattern document. (I had the same problem with my Tree Cushion, where the chart was absolutely enormous.) 

There must be an easier way to make a chart I thought, and with a bit of surfing around, I have found it. The Knitting Site has software to convert any digital picture into a knitting chart. You can scale the chart up or down, according to the wool you are using and how much detail you want in your design. So although I didn't use it for this bear, and can see myself coming back here for some other intarsia designs.

And here is the little lady wearing it ...

Baby Daisy Dress

My new pattern has taken quite a bit of thought. I love dresses with a yoke, and I also love moss stitch. So to combine the two took a bit of working out. I also love fair isle, but not the really tricky kind. So the fair isle daisies are pretty, but quite easy to follow.

So my Baby Daisy Dress incorporates all of these, but is still a fairly easy knit. The pattern comes in two sizes (0-3 months and 3-6 months) which is why it has taken me so long to produce. It even has a proper tension square.

I like baby clothes not in the traditional blue/pink, which is why I went for this gentle green. (This may be a bit radical, but I also think baby girls can look pretty in blue, and I like babies in dark colours.)

I have photographed it hung on my new willow screen, which hubby put up to hide a rather the neighbour's ugly fence. I thought it made a rather cool backdrop. 

It is knitted in Aran wool, which makes it a fairly quick knit. The front and back are the same. If you don't like the daisy pattern it would be quite easy to knit it plain, or come up with your own pattern. I will be posting about another version of this dress with an interesting intarsia design in a few days.

This dress has gone to its new owner, whose Mum's favourite colour is green!

And here it is knitted in the smaller size, using Rowan Felted Tweed Aran wool.

The pattern for Baby Daisy Dress is available on ravelry, Etsy and LoveKnitting.

Model's Own Accessories

I made this dress for my daughter before we went on holiday, and had the idea that some photos playing on the beach would be great. Somehow that isn't how they turned out. I think my little girl may be growing up before my eyes. When did that happen? These pictures were taken at the North Devon County Show. You may also notice the change of hair colour, which I agreed to in a moment of weakness, and am very much hoping will wash out before she goes back to school.

This is the pattern I used ....

... and the fabric that my sister will recognise, as I think it was a leftover from some window blinds. It was just the right width, and I like the balloon like pattern. I will probably have another go, and make the version with a different panel down the front, or the shorts version. This was quite an easy make. I made it over two days, though it could be done in one if you are a fairly quick sewer.

I slightly altered the pattern. Instead of using the shop bought bias tape that the pattern recommended, I thought it would look nicer to make my own tape from the main fabric. I had enough material to cut the tape for the front and back neck edges on the diagonal, but was running out of fabric and had to cut the tape for round the armhole straight. But it seemed to work fine. 

We then altered the shoulders to have ties, as this seemed much simpler that trying to get the lengths exactly right, and I thought would make the dress wearable for longer as she grows.  I top-stitched either side of all the seams as I thought it gave it a better finish. I would be interested to know what other sewers do about neatening seams. I don't have an overlocker, and often use a zigzag stitch to neaten, but this always takes a lot of time and thread.

But I am going to get back to some knitting next, as this seems to have become a sewing blog over the last few weeks.

Wedding Pictures

I didn't think I had any photos of my daughter being bridemaid at my niece's wedding in Ireland. But tah dah, there were some hiding on my husband's phone. The dress is really more purple than it looks here. Click Here if you want to read a bit more about the making of the dress.
 

And a few from the reception, where there was pottery painting, face painting, balloon modelling, and I think a lot of fun. I wasn't there as my son had some school exams, which still makes me sad. They have the coolest ever wedding video on Youtube which I will try to link to, though I am not sure if it will work. It makes me well up whenever I see it, although I am someone who cries very easily. The setting by the river is beautiful, but my favourite moment is at the beginning where my husband and daughter arrive at the hotel.

Link to YouTube
 

"Razzle Dazzle Em"

I promise this is going to be the last version of this dress.  I just thought I would make one more to get my value from the pattern, and this being my third version it really was a bit of a breeze. I didn't stress too much about tacking this time, but did finally work out how to insert the invisible zip properly. I remembered my techniques file from my City and Guild Fashion course, and there in it were the instructions and even a sample for an invisible zip. I must remember to use this file a bit more often.

This fabric was from the lovely Fabricland, and although my daughter doesn't really go for pink, this was a really subtle shade that we both liked. It was also quite a heavy cotton, which was very easy to sew.

So I had already planned to make this outfit, when she suddenly said that she would like to wear it in her end of year show: "Dazzle". So a bit of frantic sewing one weekend, and this time I let her win over the length, as she did have to dance in it. The show was fantastic, though quite emotional, as this is the end of primary school. 

So with the fabric I had cut off when hemming I made one of my "Land Girl Hairbands". I had forgotten how simple these are to make. The pattern is available in my Etsy Shop, and has three versions of tie. I have temporarily reduced the price to just $1. It is really fun to make bands to go with different outfits, but they are also a fairly quick make for anyone selling hairbands at fairs.

The Dress

All other crafting seems to have been abandoned, as I just concentrate on "the dress". I am really pleased with how it has turned out so far.  I added a really pretty but quite simple trim, and this time the skirt is lined and it has a bow at the back.

The top section is organza, and the main purple sections quite a simple cotton, but it seems to have quite a nice silky sheen in these photos.

Doing my practice version really did help, mainly with my confidence.

So the only thing left to do is the hem. We are still having a heated debate over this. I think my daughter is coming round to the idea of keeping it fairly long, as at this try on she liked how it felt so swishy. Sorry, but you will probably have to see some more photos of the actual event.

Practice Dress

Pretending to study the sewing pattern

I've mentioned that my daughter is going to be a bridesmaid for my niece. The only stipulation for the dress was that it be purple, but after a few fruitless shopping trips, we decided that the easiest thing would be to make a dress. 

We picked the pattern McCall's 6829, pictured above, and having decided that the shoulder section should be organza, I then got very cold feet. I have done quite a lot of sewing, but not much recently making garments. The pattern seemed so complicated (underlining, lining, understitching etc). Thankfully the Great British Sewing Bee had covered understitching, and this was a big help. 

I also had never sewn organza, so my initial idea was to make a practice version of just the top section of the dress. I was also a bit inspired by Gertie Makes and Bakes, and her practice toiles. We could also then check the fit was right, as my daughter is very small for her age.

"I'm so excited about my new dress! Mummy still needs to put zip in though."

Sewing the organza was not as hard as I imagined. I just had to be really careful to tack everything. No slapdash a pin here and there will do. With a new fine needle for my machine, and the advice to keep the stitch long. This rather goes against intuition, but it did work.

The fit of the dress was perfect, which was a great relief. The wedding is fairly soon, and I really just want it to fit well on the day.

Having made the practice top, it then seemed a bit silly not to add a skirt. The cream top colour I rather regretted. I had just grabbed the first bit of fabric in my stock of the right weight. So it took as a while to find something that matched nicely. We found this interesting fabric, which unfortunately wasn't wide enough. I had to put a seam down the centre front which isn't in the pattern. The pattern matching is not perfect but fairly good I think. Would it pass on the Sewing Bee? As my mum would say "A blindman would be glad to see it". I won't have to do this seam on the actual dress, though am going to line the skirt section, which I didn't do on the practice.
 

Handsewn button loop

The other mistake I made on this version was not buying an invisible zip. I put in the one I had bought, but am going to try and get this right on the actual bridesmaid dress. Though I think from this photo you can see how nicely it fits, and my neighbour's lilac tree sets it off nicely.

I love the dress at this length, but my daughter has got to an age where she has quite strong views on fashion. She likes thing to be really short, but we compromised on knee length. I hated cutting off the extra fabric, but as I know she won't wear it long, it seemed the only thing to do. Although she thinks the length of the actual dress is open to debate, it is definitely going to be ankle length. 

So here is the finished practice dress, and now I just have to make the real dress. She has a cold, and asked me to cut off her red nose. Fabric has been purchased, and I do feel more confident having done this trial run. It has also made me remember how much I enjoy sewing. It is just not very economic, except for something like this for a very special occasion.