Bridesmaids Dress Number 3

Me and my godsister having a good old gossip on the
morning of my wedding - plus a delicious breakfast!

Holy Guacamole! It's Thursday - I hadn't realised... my bad. I'm going to blame it being November, so my writing energies being used up on Nano, and also the fact I was away at the weekend charging around like a lunatic with a crossbow (Twisted Tales... best ever)

AAaaaanyway bridesmaids Dress Number 3 was for Gwennan – Gwennan is my godsister, and as she’s six months older than me I’ve known her my whole life, and she’s been my best friend since I knew what a best friend was – this is everything to do with her personality and nothing to do with the fact that her dress fitted her after just one fitting… Oh, and she chose a pattern with only 3 main pieces, nothing to do with that at all.

Also I can hear you arguing that Godsisters isn’t a thing, but I’ll have you know that the word ‘Gossip’ comes from the information you share with your god-siblings… so yeah, it’s a thing. I’m educational.

Faye's Bridesmaid's Dress

So - let's start with some bridesmaid's dresses. I asked my bridesmaids to design their own dresses, and whilst the adults had a little steering in the direction of colour and style, my two god-daughters (who were 8 and 9 on the day of the wedding) had complete free reign with their outfits.

The original sketch of Faye's dress

Photos copyright
vollsanger!

Looking cool before we
entered the church

Faye is eight years old (and used to be known as Erin, and before that Poppy, and before that Erin again - she's a fickle pickle! I'd complain, but I was exactly the same at her age), and she had some really specific design features that she wanted, foremost of which was 'spaghetti straps' which I understand are the highlight of sophistication! (Actually, initially both girls wanted strapless dresses, but we managed to talk them out of that...)
I made this pattern from Butterick 4385 and it was a relatively easy sew, although the pattern sizes are 7-12, and I had to make the 8 year old's mostly in the age & size, and the 9 year old's I had to grade down from the age 7!

Two Tiny Dresses

So, before I throw you fully into wedding madness, something else FAR MORE IMPORTANT happened in September. My godsister had a baby girl! This was awesome for many reasons, including it being her first child - and she is utterly gorgeous! My godsister lives way out in crete, so I can't go and meet the little darling, but I could send her some presents.

Please excuse the creepy model in these pictures, it's a doll I'm fixing which my niece broke, and was a convenient model to use.

I decided to whip up a couple of little peasant dresses, just like I made for my cousin's baby girl. The first of the dresses I made absolutely true to the pattern - although I lined it, as I made it out of broderie anglaise. I used the same lining technique as I did on my maxi dress (although obviously much MUCH smaller) and also lined the adorable matching bloomers.

Petticoat Tutorial

WARNING; YOU WILL ENCOUNTER
TULLE... LOTS OF TULLE

EXCITING TIMES… you get a bit of a ‘wedding preview’ today… or rather, you get a peek up some wedding skirts – scandalous I know! I made petticoats for myself and my adult bridesmaids, and they were actually SUPRISINGLY EASY TO MAKE – so I thought I’d share how I did it.

What you will need for this tutorial:

• Sewing machine
• Lining fabric
• Tulle ribbon
• Gathering foot (technically, yes this is optional, but trust me, you don’t want to do this without a gathering foot… you really don’t)
• Overlocker (genuinely optional – I used it, you could just use a zigzag stitch wherever I’ve overlocked) (Also this is a Serger to anyone who is speaking american... just to confuse you)

Rohan Skater Shorts

Please excuse the rubbish last
minute photos taken on my bed

So, I promised to talk about shorts - and shorts I will discuss! I actually made two pairs of these, one in a size 6, and one in a size 2 (that’s boys sizes btw) but I only have pictures of the size 6 - so apologies for that, if I get pictures of the other pair, I’ll put them up at a later date!

I knew I had to make something for my nephew and my godson, as I’d already made not one but two<link> outfits for my niece, and my goddaughters are getting new clothes for the wedding - so I figured it was the turn of the boys. I’m not ultra familiar with sewing boys clothes, but my nephew had gotten a skateboard for christmas, so I thought a pair of the Rohan Skater Shorts by the crafty kitty would be perfect!

Rosebud Dress

Please excuse the photos taken with it pinned
to my ironing board - I don't have a small
enough mannequin

So, I’m guessing if you’re here, then you know about sewing blogs, and if you know about sewing blogs, you must know about Lindsey from The Cottage Mama. Lindsey’s work is truly incredible – most of us make clothes for children for them to wear, she makes tiny works of art to put on her children – seriously, the time and effort she must put into each and every piece, it’s like couture, but for kids. I’m a massive fan of hers. 

She has released a free pattern, WHICH JUST MAKES ME LOVE HER MORE, The Party Dress was originally released as a sketched pattern, but has since been rereleased to her email followers as a proper pattern, in sizes 6months through to 10 years (I KNOW!) - and it is just ADORABLE. I decided that I wanted to use it to make my flower girl’s dress for the wedding, but before I did that, I wanted to do a wearable toile, to see how long it would take, and to judge which size I needed to make it in. 

LOOK AT THOSE GORGEOUS
ROSEBUDS - THEY'RE JUST SO CUTE

I braved the button box for these

Now, a few weeks ago Mr P’s mother gifted me a HUGE bag of fabric – she doesn’t really sew anymore, and she had a lot of things from Mr P’s grandmother, who used to make bridal dresses when she worked! I was obviously, completely delighted, FREE FABRIC, that’s the best kind of fabric – and whilst I was rootling through it choosing what I would take away (all of it), our little niece was “helping” me. I decided on a whim to ask her what she would like a dress made out of, and she picked out some pink poly-cotton, and some sheer green fabric, I couldn’t tell you what it is. I was dubious at first, but then I stumbled upon these darling little rosebuds – I have SO MANY OF THEM, I only used a few for this project, as I felt too many would have overdone it, but it made for the perfect dress. 

I wasn't convinced on
the colour combo -
I AM NOW

 I lined the whole thing in dark green lining fabric (also from Mr P’s mother), and the buttons were from the button box she gifted me, OH YES, I GOT A LOT OF TRIM WITH THIS STUFF TOO. TRIM AND BUTTONS AND ZIPS AND ALL SORTS OF VINTAGY GOODNESS. 

Yes, the ironing board is
leaning against my dressform
#don'tjudgeme

 I will admit, the button box overwhelms me at times – I have OCD, and the mismatched array of buttons doesn’t sit well with that, HOWEVER, I managed to steel myself for long enough to search through and find some buttons to go with the dress – at the time, I also managed to find the CUTEST buttons for her flower girl dress, but you’ll have to wait to see those. I didn’t hem the green sheer fabric, just used the selvedge as the bottom hem, it kept it nice and light, and was neatly finished already – I’ve still got loads of all of these fabrics left, so suggestions would be welcome! (Although I’ve a plan for part of the sheer fabric, but not a lot of it…) and this was such a quick and easy sew, I made most of it in an afternoon at a friend’s house! (Craft Khaleesi, go visit her for AWESOME SCALE MAIL KNITTING).

Such cute button loops
Decorative stitches are the best!

 I finished the armholes and waistband by hand – because I like hand-finishing things. That being said, this is not the neatest sew I’ve ever done – it’s for a little girl, so I’m not bothered, because much though I love my little niece, she is VERY GOOD at destroying things – so I don’t expect it to last five minutes in her hands! I think one of the cutest features on this were an accidental feature! I hadn’t bought any ribbon or spare fabric with me to make button loops, however, I discovered that I’d cut the pieces for the sheer overskirt too long – so with a bit of chopping, I had enough of that to make into some adorable button loops, with the use of a decorative stitch on my machine – as advised by Craft Khaleesi, and oh my goodness, didn’t they just turn out cute? 

Hand finishing!
Yay!

Overall, a pretty adorable little dress I think – I’m hoping the recipient likes it, and I’m feeling really confident about making the flower girl dress :-D as it should be even easier to sew up, as it’s only got one layer… I say should be… famous last words!

Patchwork Elephant

Rubbish patchwork - adorable elephant!

So, my friend Chrissie loves elephants, with a passion and I found this pattern by Katie over at Made By Enginerds - so I decided I simply had to make her a patchwork elephant for her birthday. Now, a quick disclaimer – I CANNOT DO PATCHWORK, the patchworkyness of this is SUPER MESSY, but it does look quite cute and quirky.

I made a couple of pieces of patchwork that were big enough for the pattern, and then cut it out. It was really quick and easy to sew up, although there was almost a HUGE DISASTER, when I was clipping the seams to turn it right side out, I slipped and almost cut his trunk off – however, this actually turned out really well, because I just stitched around the accidental incision I’d made, and it made his trunk look a lot better (I wasn’t so keen on how attached the trunk was on the pattern).

Look at that under-ear multicoloured deliciousness

Giving gifts to friends who can sew is always a little nerve-wracking, so I was delighted when Chrissie posted pictures of my little patchwork elephant all over facebook :-D. I’ve never made a stuffed toy before (incidentally, I stuffed him with offcuts of some really soft fleece which will appear for your viewing soon in the form of a COAT) and this was a really easy starting point. I’ve got a few more soft toys planned (mostly because my friend Ruth has a ragdoll pattern that I’m dying to try out!), but I would heartily recommend this one if you’ve not really sewn 3D shapes before.

I did debate making him out of just one fabric, but I liked the crazy patchwork, maybe because I loved Elmer books as a child – although this elephant isn’t quite so colourful! (Also if you don’t know who Elmer is, you totally should!). I made the ears out of just a single piece of fabric, as I thought the patchwork could get a bit overwhelming.

The tail is made out of a plait of several threads of embroidery thread – I think it looks so cute, and kind of matches in with the odd colour scheme that he’s got going on!

His eyes are badly embroidered on. I say badly, because the embroidery itself isn’t actually that bad (I used a woven wheel, it's actually really simple), but because although I measured and marked the eye points, I did it before I sewed him up, and must have not sewed him up perfectly (surprise surprise, this is me, queen of speed over perfection), and so the eyes are quite wonky when you loo k at him head-on. But hey! Let’s not judge an elephant just because he has wonky eyes.

Katy x

p.s. apologies for the terrible pictures, I had to take swift pictures of him before I parcelled him up to be posted off, so they were taken in the dark, with the light from my bedside lamp -.-

Failure on the First – A Whole Weekend of Failure

Do you ever have those weekends, where Saturday morning rolls around and you think ‘YEAH, I am going to get SO MUCH DONE this weekend’ well, the weekend I am about to tell you about started out like that.

I had one task on my ‘must do’ list, and then a whole bunch of other things that were on the ‘I’ll do if I have time’ list. The ‘must do’ task was to make an irish dancing skirt for my goddaughter. It was her birthday the following weekend, and it needed to be ready to be parcelled up as a present and sent off. I’d never made one before, and I was using stretch fabric, which perhaps isn’t my forte, and a twin needle, that I’d never used before either. BUT HEY. What could go wrong.

I was so confident about this self drafted pattern that I was going to do a tutorial for you guys. LOOK. AH how I now laugh at the sweet naïve me that preceeded that weekend. OH HOW I HAVE LEARNT NOW.

Failure number one was: pinking shears. They are pinkING shears, not pinkY shears. Apparently I misheard. This was the last photograph I took. Everything started to go downhill from there. I would also like to point out that the first thing I did when this happened was jam my finger in my mouth and run to the sink, because I had no idea how deep I’d cut and I was damned if I was going to bleed on my fabric! I then got Mr P to get me a plaster – I’m obsessed with plasters, I love them, it’s an unhealthy love, a truly unhealthy one.

I thought doing the majority of the sewing on the overlocker was a GREAT IDEA. Because overlockers are fab with stretch fabric, that’s what they’re best at. So I did. Forgetting of course that I was trying to put godets into a skirt is possibly not the easiest thing to do on an overlocker. I totally managed it though. Had to go over some of them a few times. And they looked a bit funny. But hey.

I then decided to do the waistband with a twin needle. Honestly, I don’t know what I was doing wrong, but the two threads kept twisting together in my machine, and all I could find online about it was the words ‘make sure your threads don’t twist together’ which is SO HELFPUL. But, I persevered, stopping every few inches. Only a skirt for a 9 year old, so it wasn’t that big, it didn’t matter so much. And I got it finished. And then I cried. IT WAS JUST SO UGLY. In retrospect, I gave it the designation of ‘looks pretty ugly on the hanger, might look alright on’. But at the time I thought my world was ending. So I sulked. And by sulked, I mean I did baking. Don’t judge me.

Baking done, I sat back down at the sewing machine. I needed something to give my goddaughter, and the ugly skirt just wasn’t going to cut it. So I decided to make her a simple patchwork tote bag to take her dancing things in, and a notebook cover. I’ve made the notebook covers before , just once or twice, and I am a MASTER at sewing these up. Seriously, I find them so quick and easy now. So, I decided to embroider a quote onto a patch on my machine, nice and quick, and then stitch it to the notebook cover. I got to the final stages of making said notebook cover, and wrapped it around the notebook only to find IT DID NOT FIT. I don’t know how. I’ve made SO MANY of these. And yet, this one didn’t work. Ugh. Failure weekend had me again.

So, I turned it into a cute little failure pouch. Which I put the ugly skirt into (I’d decided to send it to her as a prototype, as without seeing it on her, I couldn’t make any adjustments).

THE PATCHWORK TOTE WAS NOW MY ONLY HOPE. And patchwork is REALLY not my strong point. Actually patchwork is probably a bit of an overstatement at this point. Each side of the tote was made with 6 squares. That bit went FINE. I decided to line it to make it look all professional and nice, and also decided that it would be cute to put a pocket on the inside, with her name embroidered on it . Ok, so I’m a bit obsessed with the feature on my machine that means I can embroider letters… anyhow, I went to press the lining, which went fine! And then went to press the pocket down, the pocket which was made out of the same fabric as the lining, and THE IRON MELTED IT. I still have no idea how this happened. Demon Iron. Anyway, it fortunately didn’t melt it too much, and the pocket was salvageable.

Next, I went to stitch the lining into the bag. This is probably my only ‘win’ moment of the weekend. It’s less of a win, and more of an averted fail. I came within inches of sewing the lining to the outer bag completely and leaving no room to turn it right side out. BUT fortunately I realised my mistake in time, and just had to turn it through a TINY HOLE instead.

It actually looked pretty cute though. So I parcelled it all off and sent it to the birthday girl. Then I did more baking.

Happy June guys – it’s got to be better than that!

Katy x

A TINY dress (It’s so cute)

So, back in January, my cousin had a baby! This was extremely exciting as she is the first of my cousins to be having children and also because I GOT TO MAKE BABY CLOTHES. Disclaimer: I made these and photographed them back in January, BEFORE the baby was born so I could send them straight away, I have not waited until NOW to give a baby-gift.

So, I decided to make a baby blanket, and stitch the little girl’s name on (as soon as we knew what it was!) which I did do, but I also stumbled across this dress pattern and this nappy cover pattern from sewmuchado (seriously, if you are unaware of this blog, rectify that… NOW) So, I figured the only thing I could do would be to make an ADORABLE TINY OUTFIT. Seriously, every five minutes when I was making this I’d hold it up and look at it and squeal, because it is SO TINY.

Let’s talk about the nappy-cover first, the pattern is for ruffled fabric, which means that my version looks plainer, but I just used it as an accessory to go with the dress really. It’s made from polycotton. The hardest part of this was feeding the elastic through the TINY HOLES. That was stressful. I need a bodkin.

I’m not sure what fabric the dress itself is made from, as it was just some that I had in my stash. I chose it because a.) I wanted to make something in grey and pink (you might have noticed last week  I’m kinda nuts for that colour combo) and b.) it is the softest fabric I have to touch. It’s actually what I used here which was kind of weird as I was sewing the dress, whilst wearing the skirt. VERY CONFUSING. Anyway, it’s really soft to touch and I knew I wanted to use it, but when it came to cutting out the pieces, I discovered I DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH. Or rather, I didn’t have enough for the length without blocking it. So, I did what any sane person would do, and added a cute little frill on the bottom. ADORABLE.

The whole thing is just finished with overlocking – I didn’t hem the bottom of the frill, just overlocked it to keep it nice and light, as it’s such a dainty little dress. (awwww so cute!) And I added on a decorative ribbon for no reason other than it was cute – I used a nice wavy, slightly random preset stitch on my machine, as I didn’t feel anything angular would work well for baby clothes.

I can’t tell you how long this took – I was doing it simultaneously with finishing last week’s project AND the baby blanket (which is pale blue/grey with a pink trim too), however it was really quick, I do know that. Also, it took longer than it should have because of threading elastic through tiny holes and that being challenging, and making me swear a lot, and eventually giving it to Mr P who has more patience than I do and letting him do it for me.

I seriously can’t think about this outfit without smiling, I have found a new found love for making baby clothes – thankfully, I know a few other people who are expecting, so I can indulge this passion lots!