And done!

Yay! The dress I was making is now made! It didn't actually take all that long to do but was still fairly time consuming. I mean, fitting it around work, gym, a social life and (non existent) blogging, I managed to do it all in a couple of weeks. Here's the fabric:

A nice light white cotton is summery and who can resist little multicoloured love hearts? Not me! Plus, the dress is lined so (hopefully!), see through-ness shouldn't be a problem. It's not like I'm being photographed by pant seeking paps when I'm out and about anyway. Not yet.

Here's the fabric all laid out with pattern pinned on, ready for the chopping. This is the first time I've used this pattern and I find pattern and fabric cutting by far the most boring bit!

Aw, look at the sunlight streaming in my window!

Fabric chopped, it was time to set up my wee machine. My mum got my it for my birthday/Christmas a couple of years ago and it doesn't always get the workout it deserves, so it's been nice to have it back out again! As you can probably see, it's a John Lewis machine. I think it's maybe one up from their most basic ones and it has a few different stitches, it's easy to adjust stitch length, there's a button to make it reverse easily and it's easy to thread and whatnot. And, yes it was all sewn on that tiny ridiculous table!

And so to construction:

This would eventually become the skirt.

And these bits, gradually coming together, would become the top.

Skirt put together with lining on the outside. I did stitch some of the lining back to front (there's always one bit I mess up!) and had to unpick it and do it again. Luckily it was one long straight seam so didn't cause too much bother!

Here's the top all put together and just waiting to be attached to the skirt and have the zip added.

The pattern didn't have a collar on it - I just added that on. In retrospect it's a wee bit small but it's a learning curve, right? Now I know that I need to use a bigger piece if I want to do a collar again! The only other thing I'm not happy with is that the zip sits slightly funny in the bum region. However, I think this might be because the lining is slightly tight (darn thighs!). The skirt and top fit great which I'm really pleased about!

Here's the finished article:

I like that the back of the dress is a wee bit different - I didn't have the forethought to take a picture of it but the zip only goes from mid back down to bum height, then the top is closed either with a hook and eye or button. I went for a hook and eye for now because I was desperate for it to be finished but I thought about adding a non functioning button over it on the outside, just for show.

It's my first pleated skirt and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the pleats were to do. If you've never done them, I recommend having a pencil (or tailor's chalk if you're dead fancy) and a ruler - it really helped me to get the sharp lines right - I slid the ruler right up against the crease I needed to make, folded the fabric over the top and ironed. I hemmed the dressed last night while drinking champagne (OK, maybe I'm a wee bit fancy. Or maybe I won it at work.) and watching 'Far From Heaven' and wishing I had the know how to make amazing 50s style dresses as seen on screen. Still, I'm happy that this is a good start! 

Here it is on. Ignore the flowery Keds, socks and leggings - they're just what I'm wearing kicking about today! This is my excited and surprised face.

Belt: Miss Selfridge

Sew what?

Hello all! I've been doing a wee bit of re-jigging things in the house, which you may be aware of if you've seen my shiny new old drawers and my, now, super tidy shoe closet. Bringing in the drawers was intended to save some space in the bedroom where our dressing table took up loads of room but offered very little storage. Plus, no-one ever actually sat at it, so the sitting space beneath it was where I ended up dumping all my crap totally redundant.

The plan was to Gumtree the dressing table but today, alacazam, inspiration struck! I realised that the dressing table could be ideal for sewing on! So through it went to our spare room, taking the space of an ugly TV table with a whole load of internet type boxes and wires on it (that can go on Gumtree. It's actually not that ugly just a bit 'Ikea' and no longer needed). And here it is!

Yup, the unattractive internet boxes are still in evidence but they're at least reasonably discreetly tucked away now which, by proxy, makes the spare room a lot nicer! (It was just a bit of a mish mash of crap before) All the guff associated with the cables is hidden away in the drawers. And look - my sewing machine (being shy under it's cover) is just begging to be used! The thing is, I actually find dress making very therapeutic, I just never find/make time for it. I plan to change this. Here's what else is knocking about:

My adorable sewing box that my lovely mum got me a few years ago...

Here are the goodies on the top tray. Thread, scissors, needles, tape measure, quick unpick (whoever invented this is a genius!) and plenty of buttons, trims and hooks 'n' eyes!

And underneath the tray lies yet more trims and trinkets, an abundance of gorgeous ribbon (I went through a phase of obsessive ribbon buying), pins, more thread, a cute Cath Kidston needle holder (another gift) and goodness knows what else!

This is the contents of my favourite drawer in the dressing table. It's one of those 'secret' drawers that might just be a strip of wood, so it's nigh on no depth to it, but it's perfect for storing dress making patterns and MORE buttons!

Here is the fabric that makes up the future dresses in my wardrobe! I have a cute dress pattern which I made a sweet purple dress out of but it needs a fuller skirt. I struggle to get the shapes right sans pattern (I think I need a freestyle dressmaking class!) so I need to get a pattern for a full circle skirt and I can then work that in with the top of the dress pattern - simple! There's more fabric underneath, including some gorgeous florals that it would be rude not to utilise this summer. Plus, using this fabric really helps with my 'money diet' (saving, saving, saving for holidays) as the only extras I might need to buy are lining and zips. Pah, who needs the high street!?

Half done projects! The mess of gold was an attempt at a dress that didn't go entirely right. However, I was working with flimsy dance fabric which didn't help. I think, if I can extend the shoulder it might work. All I want is to wear a dress that looks like gold tinfoil! It's important to have a dream peeps! Plus, there's at least one thing in there that's totally gonna work out - I just need to finish it.

So here's to getting sewing again! Wish me luck.