It feels like ages since I made the green Vogue V1102 dress, especially as I’ve made a few more since then. I had some leftover fabric from the make, and I thought perhaps I could eke out a separate dress from it. It did take a bit of manoeuvring but I got there in the end. Continue Reading…
You know what? I’m really pleased with how this dress turned out. I think it’s my favourite dress I’ve made in a while. It’s self drafted for a start, with princess seams and a gathered skirt. I put a lot of effort into it, both at the design stage and while making it and I think it’s paid off. I also fully lined it.
I prefer to just line the bodice usually and will probably not line the skirt next time (or I might, who knows?), but I love the grey blue fabric, which is just a sheet from good old Primark, and the orange polka dot lining, the same lining that I used for this one.
I hope you’re all enjoying the sunny weather today. London is scorchio and I’m really not looking forward to travelling on the central line in a bit.
I had some Liberty fabric left over from this dress recently and I really didn’t want to waste it. I love Liberty print despite it being rather pricey, and so I try to eke out every bit of fabric if I can. Continue Reading…
You all know by now how much I love the By Hand London sewing patterns. The Anna dress is a firm favourite, with its beautiful A line skirt. Having made quite a lot of dresses lately, I thought it was about time I mixed it up and made something different. I really love the shorter skirt from the Anna dress and it’s a great length for wearing to work, so I thought, why not make it into a skirt of its own?
I was lucky enough to be given some fabric remnants from the sewing editor at work and managed to cut out the skirt pattern using pretty much all of the fabric (I had to be quite crafty with my cutting skills). I altered the waistline and added in a shorter zip and here you have it, one Anna skirt.
I followed my normal size but somehow the skirt ended up being far too big, so I had to bring it in quite a bit. The length is great and I really love the print so overall it’s a really lovely skirt to wear, but next time I’ll definitely be a bit wiser when cutting the strips and measure my waistline correctly.
This dress, the Simple Sew Ruby dress, was a dream to make. It only took a few hours to sew up and, like my previous experience of Simple Sew patterns, the instructions were really easy to follow.
This dress was actually a freebie with Love Sewing magazine but it’s such a great make that the magazine rereleased the pattern a few months ago. I got mine on its original run but stashed it away for a future make. Recently I found some fabric I didn’t have a use for and, on a break from another sewing project, I decided to make it.
I’m glad I did as I really love the shape of the dress and it has a great circle skirt. One major thing I’d change (and should have done differently this time but I didn’t have enough fabric) is lengthen the skirt considerably. I really don’t like the dress length at all and even in the drawings it appears to be short. I think that’s even why I didn’t use the dress pattern straightaway. Looking at these photos I think next time I’ll also lengthen the bodice. I wonder whether other people have felt the need to lengthen the pattern?
I’m definitely planning to make more Rubies, especially as they’re perfect for the hot weather that we’ve been having lately! I guess next time I’ll order far more fabric to be able to make these changes.