Finding time for sewing – reflecting on Me Made May – my Nina Lee Kew dress

I really enjoyed Me Made May 2019. I didn’t put load of pressure on myself to share a photo every day, because let’s face it, some days you really don’t feel like it, can’t be bothered, or on the odd occasion, I totally forgot. That said I DID wear handmade items every day in May and on a few occasional I was able to wear 2 if not 3 handmade garments in one outfit (& that’s not taking into account my handmade jewellery)! Until I started the challenge this year I hadn’t quite realised I’d be able to wear handmade everyday day, so easily.

This is me, wearing 3 handmade garments in one outfit, with my almost finished coco top made from the leftover fabric from my Agnes top, at the sewing belle.

The whole challenge has made me think about my handmade garments more, what works well together, what I didn’t wear, what did I wished I had in my wardrobe. As I went through the month I kept note in my phone to help me form a bit of a plan for my future makes to fill gaps in my wardrobe. I also got back into sewing (not that I ever got out of sewing) but it’s sometimes hard to find the time and space for it (both mentally and physically). However a friend of mine, Natalie, took up sewing in March this year and has already make more garments in the last few months than I have in the past few years. She’s a full time teacher, but makes time for her sewing, mainly by attending classes and drop in sessions. It was chatting to Natalie (and my desire to conquer using an over locker) that made me attend a workshop at the Sewing Belle, to make my Agnes top back in April and since then I have done another workshop to make a Nina Lee Kew Dress and popped along to their sewing clinics, to finish my dress and start another! I’ve also been working on my Zadie dress.

I think by doing the occasional workshop and attending regular drop in sessions I’m being for more productive. I’m not spending huge amounts more time sewing than I would at home, but it is much more absorbing with far less distractions in a dedicated space with help on hand. Elaine who runs the workshops and sewing sessions is the ideal level of help, she checks in on everyone, so you feel supported without being bombarded, but equally if you’re happy in your own little world of sewing she’ll leave you to get on, though never far away it you do need a little help.

I finished my Kew dress, last Sunday while watching the Wimbledon men’s final (double excitement) it had just been waiting for me to adjust a strap & add some poppers! This has ended up as a very wearable toile, I realised in the making that I’d gone for a size too small on the bodice so I let out the side seams and lengthen the straps slightly, though it has resulted in the bust darts being too high. I made the bodice part have a faux button band, sewing buttons on the front but the closure is actually poppers, as I didn’t want the button holes too close to the edge of the fabric, where I’d had to make adjustments, which I think has worked well and you can’t really tell when the dress in on.

I learnt how to sew buttons on with a sewing machine, something I’d never attempted before!

I also had fun and added a few contrasting fabric, on the button band facing and I added pockets (obviously)! I didn’t add the cold shoulders as I thought I’d find them annoying. All in all it’s not perfect, however it is wearable, it was really straight forward to construct & I’ve learnt a few things along the way!

I have already cut out another Kew dress, the tea dress version, in some stash fabric and if this one goes well I’ll make another in lightweight denim.

Simple Knitting as an effective break

Sometimes simple is what I want, especially after a long, fiddling or slightly frustrating knit. I chose to knit the Be Simple shawl after I’d completed my Puffin Jumper. It hadn’t been difficult as such but there was a bit of faffing regards lengthening the sleeves at the end, which you can read about in a previous post.

I also needed something that I could keep knitting until I ran out of yarn, as the lovely Eleanor of Knit Nottingham gifted me one of her first batch of hand dyed yarns, it was a 4ply (Cotton/wool blend, we think, neither of us could quite remember after the fact), but that didn’t matter, Eleanor had used colours she thought I’d like & it had turned out wonderfully!

A mixture of grey turquoise and blue, it knitted up nicely with colours pooling and striping, I’m curious as to how the yarn would have worked in a pair of socks, though at the time I was not back into knitting socks. The shawl was a simple and enjoyable knit and I love the end result. for some time I had felt each new knitting project I selected had to be more complex and intricate from my previous one to challenge myself and improve and learn. I still like to challenge myself, but I also like to relax and just knit something from time to time, and that’s ok!

Still looking and feeling a bit awkward in photos – at least a shawl is easy to model 😛 

I’d finished my be simple scarf/shawl at the wrong time of year, just as it was nicely warming before summer, so it got put away ready for Autumn, which actually is lovely to do, it’s like a little gift to your future self. It turned out to be the perfect indoor scarf to wear at work which can be rather chilly being in a beautiful Victorian building.

I wouldn’t hesitate to knit another simple shawl for a relaxing project and I’d definitely knit more of Eleanor’s yarn, I’ll just have to be fast, she usually just dyes yarn for special shop events and if you’re not there when doors open you might miss out!

(Since writing this I have started knitting sock again and managed to buy more of Eleanor’s yarn at the shop Birthday event)!

Thanks for reading!

Steph

Lilou Dress

I have recently got into what I would call ‘proper’ dressmaking, actually following a pattern and making considered decisions, rather than just making things up and keeping my fingers crossed. I think my problem was I was getting a bit over whelmed and found the idea of adjusting a pattern very daunting. However with the wealth of information on the internet from blog and helpful hints on Pinterest it’s far less intimidating.

The pattern I choose was the Lilou Dress from Tilly and Buttons – Love at first Stitch book, I thought the style should suit me and having previously sewn a Coco top, the Megan dress and the Margot pyjamas, steadily building up my confidence I thought I’d be alright having a go at the most complex pattern (though not actually too difficult) from the book.

Not knowing how well the bodice would fit I very sensibly made a toile (something I’ve never really bothered with before – rookie error I know). I measured myself, in case I’d changed since my last project, my measurements came out as bust 34’’, waist 29.5’’ and Hips 39.5’’, not quite fitting a single size (as usual). So I initially made one adjustment on the bodice and made the side seams go from size 3 under the arms out to a size 4 on the waist. The skirt pattern I cut out at a size 4 (closest size for my hip measurement).

I completed the bodice, including adding a lining (I wanted the practice), in some floral fabric I inherited from my Gran in a similar weight to my dress fabric. The first bodice was a terrible fit – well it just didn’t fit. I was determined not to get put off even though I was a little frustrated as I’d checked the measurements and everything seemed to go well. It was a little loose on the waist, the back was baggy, there was way too much space across my bust, the straps stuck out and it was too long. I started thinking about how to address each issue. I’ve read about FBA (full bust adjustment) and SBA (small bust adjustment) when I first attempted the hawthorn dress (which I got too overwhelmed by and couldn’t face tackling at the time – it is currently hibernating). So I took a deep breath and starting googling SBA. I came across this great blog post Hungry Zombie Couture – My Cup Does Not Runneth Over I was relieved to find these wonderfully wise words, as I believe the lack of information and “just reverse a FBA” is what put me off tackling previous patterns. So taking on the advice of Shannon before getting too involved in my adjustment, I tried decreasing the depth of my bust dart; I traced off another bodice pattern this time all at size 3, making the waist smaller, then decreased the bust darts by 2cm but kept them the same length, I also shortened it by 2cm and tapered the straps towards the shoulders by 5mm. I also trimmed a little fabric off the bottom of the arm holes as they’d been a little sung. I tried it on at this point without the lining and found the fit on the waist and bust much better, there was still extra space in the back so I just added an extra 5cm in the length of the back darts and that did the job, I then made the lining and attached it so that I could make sure it all worked together and it did – phew!

I hadn’t done a toile of the skirt, I knew I’d easily be able to adjust it if necessary, however I did have to retrace the pattern as I’d changed the waist size to a 3, so I needed the top of the skirt to also be a size 3. I also lengthened the skirt by about 5cm so it hit my knee and I’d feel comfortable wearing it without tights in the summer.

I decided to treat myself to an invisible Zipper foot – it’s amazing! It made adding the zip so easy, I don’t know why I haven’t bought one sooner (well actually I do it was £19.95 – it made a nice Birthday present to myself).
Once I fitted the zip (before I finished attaching the lining) I tried the dress on and discovered that it was overall a bit big *huge Sigh*! I unpicked the zip and trimmed 1cm off each side of the back edge (including the edge of the lining) and reattached the zip – it did the job and fitted *relaxed sigh*! I hastily finished everything off, including leaving a raw seam in the back and a crude hem as it got to 10pm the evening before I needed to wear it to a friend’s wedding. No one noticed and I can now sort that out while not having a deadline looming over me.

Eek – looking at this makes me realise just how pasty I am, I’m almost blending into the white pebble dash here, I’d also like to point out that these were not the shoes I wore to the wedding, I wore posh navy shoes. The brown summer flats were all I had with me when I got my Mum to take the photo.
I was impressed with how neatly the darts and pleats met at the waist and having never lined a garment before I quite enjoyed discovering how easily it all went together. Overall it has definitely been a great learning curve, as frustrated as I got at points I kept my cool and persevered (including the point when I got the lining stuck in the zip at the final trying on stage – eek). Even though I now have a pattern I could re-use I’m sure about the idea of making this dress again, there’s still a few, minor, fit issues. Although having said that I have decided to make the toile (which isn’t too bad really) into a finished dress with a gathered skirt, I might as well, especially given how much time I’d have spent working on it.

I realise this is yet another lengthy blog post, however when searching for people who’d written about their Lilou dresses I wanted to know more, what exactly they adjusted and why, I decided it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to give a blow by blow account of my journey with this pattern and show that it’s doable for even a relatively novice dressmaker (& if I do ever make it again I’ll have a record of what I did). I’m eager to do more sewing now, I need to practice my button holes, maybe the Mimi blouse would be a good warm up and even give me the confidence to attempt the Hawthorn dress again.

Thanks for reading, I’d welcome any hints & tips to help with my dressmaking adventures!

Creative pursuits, a yearning for learning!

A relatively local place to me is The Textiles Workshop in Sherwood, Nottingham. I have attended many classes there over the past few years including a couple that were set over 16 weeks, 3 hours a week, in patchwork for beginners and them printmaking which were great fun, I learnt a lot & loved having 3 hours a week dedicated to something entirely selfish, that fitted around work being available as an evening class & it’s surprising and really satisfying to see what you can accomplish when you have no other distractions.

Bit of a theme with my printing, Owls & Textile texture!

I’ve also attended a day class in screen printings and a ‘make a dress in a day’ which I’ve previously written a blog post about. There’s so much on offer from them, it’s always hard figuring out what to try next. One thing that helped this year was their summer school classes, which have acted like a little taster session for their longer classes. Their 2 day silversmithing course jumped right out at me. What appealed was that it ran on a Wednesday (my day off) so few things run on a Wednesday so I was delighted. Unfortunately I didn’t act quick enough & the places sold out, but fortunately for me a few days before the class was due start I got a call to say a place had become available. At £30 for two days (not including materials) I thought that was a bargain!

My work after the first week, looking a little rough around the edges.

I’ve previously done a little silversmithing, many years ago while at college and I’m familiar with jewellery making so I wanted to find out whether I really wanted to commit to a full 16 week term or whether a 2 day course would satisfy my curiosities. Over the two days we made a lovely stackable set of rings, 5 in total, some with little tops on them (I went for my favourite shape – a triangle) & some with texture to sit in between and space out the topped rings. I love the fact that although we were making a whole set to wear together you can mix & match them too, wearing maybe just the two spacer rings, or spacer rings with just one triangle… endless possibilities. We also make a pair of earrings, I haven’t quite assembled mine just yet & I ran out of time polishing them, so no photos of those at the moment.

My finished stackable rings, they photographed well on the dark surface, with no flash.

The 3 plain rings with their rounded triangular tops, the camera flash here has highlighted all the tiny imperfections – plenty of room for improvements, but I’m thrilled with them all the same & they have been handmade after all.

My two textured, spacer rings, nicely split up my triangular design rings.

I love the subtle contrast of the smooth rings with textured rings sat in between them.

Having completed the two days yesterday I can definitely say, Yes! I want to do more! So I filled in the forms & I’m already really looking forward to it getting started in September, so no doubt there’ll be more blog posts to follow!

Before that course commences I have another workshop to attend. The only declaration I made at New Years this year was that I wanted to learn how to make a basket & that is exactly what I’ll be doing this bank holiday Sunday. Having not been able to find a date suitable for myself I arranged a booking just for me & a few friends which Blithfield willow crafts who were very friendly & accommodating. This is a craft I’ve wanted to do for some time, I love the idea of making something so sturdy and practical out of natural materials, that I believe if done right, could last you for years & years! I can’t wait. You’ll hear all about it very soon & hopefully I’ll also be able to learn how to fix one of my Grandma’s baskets that I inherited, that currently looks a little worse for wear.

Chip chose just the right moment to photobomb my lovely basket, ah!