An entirely handmade outfit

 My staple of handmade items to this point has been dresses, but I am beginning to dream of many summer separates. I am itching to hand in my thesis so I can have days of uninterrupted sewing. However, my days are currently more filled with referencing, and questions of twelfth century English identity through historiography.

Last Saturday night I decided to just sew something. I needed a break. I only had a metre of this absolutely beautiful floral fabric. It's Japanese, and the hand of it feels almost like Liberty lawn. I bought it at a fabric market last year. I wanted something simple, so I decided to modify the bodice of BHL's Anna dress, one of my TNT patterns.







I cut both front and back on the fold, and added about five inches to the length. This was dictated by the limited amount of fabric. I just extended down the pleats. It was a incredibly quick sew. I finished the neck with bias tape, and put in a side invisible zip. I always wear things tucked in, so the hem is actually the selvage. Very pleased with myself I then ran into a significant fitting problem. I hadn't graded out the hips. I am very much a pear shape, and the blouse no had hips narrower than my waist. There was no way this was fitting. I thought about adding a peplum, but in the end the fix was quite simple. I unpicked all the pleats and darts to their original lengths, creating enough room in the hips. I was incredibly relieved. I then also made a matching hair scarf. It's a little thinner than my previous ones, so it was a bit more a struggle to catch in all my thick hair, but it worked!

The skirt was made a few months ago. The pattern is Simplicity 6862, a one metre, four gore 1970's skirt pattern. This will certainly be a TNT. The fabric is a light weight pink wool. I didn't line it to make it a quicker make; I have a very large collection of slips as it is.

So there is the first of my summer sewing projects. I have a new outfit, and all the pieces will be able to be mixed and matched as well.

Watercolour Dress

This is the dress I made  for myself to test out the bridesmaid dress pattern

As I have talked about here, it is the BHL Anna bodice on a slightly modified Simplicity 2444 skirt. As I was adjusting the pattern whilst making this dress I picked a really large piece of fabric out of my grandma's stash I was not particularly attached to. um tells me it was bought to make toddler dresses for me.

With the warm weather now I have worn this dress twice this week, and it is growing on me. The pattern is incredibly comfortable, and the fabric is beautiful, quite different to my normal florals, it's almost a watercolour.






Pattern: BHL Anna bodice with Simplicity 2444 skirt
Size: 8/12 bodice with 12 skirt
Fabric: pink, blue and green watercolour floral; grandma's stash
Adjustment: skirt pleats moved to accommodate bodice pleats and darts. Neckline and arm holes finished with bias tape. Four inches added to skirt length.
Notions: pale blue bias tape, white invisible zip
Wear With: Pink pearl set, pale blue cardigan
Make Again?: Yes! This frakenpattern is quickly becoming a favourite of mine

She looked amazing

I finished the dress in a week. The graduation was lovely.

 

That is now all the practice bridesmaids dresses done. I haven't actually seen the other two wearing them. I simply bump into a mutual uni friend every now and again and they will comment "K looks amazing in the dress you made!"

A Practice Dress for a Highschool Graduation

My younger sister is graduating high school this week. She needs a graduation dress, and then a formal dress for after final exams in November. We went shopping today with Mum, found the formal dress, reminded ourselves of why we hate shopping, and I realised once again why I love sewing and thrifting over buying ready to wear.

I still haven't made my sister her practice dress for the wedding, as I was waiting for her to have school finished with. However, after the upteenth dress try on, I told her we were going to the fabric shop, and I would make it for her by next Wednesday. We found the fabric, then went back and got matching shoes.

The fabric is lovely; it's the blue colourway of my engagement dress, and I got four metres in case I want to make something else at the end.

I am so excited for this project!!!!

In other news, I finished the other practice dresses this week, been working on wedding dress prototypes and doing a lot of sewing,  not much in the way of finished items to blog. Hoping to be blogging more in the next weeks

Practice Dresses

Before I make the bridesmaid dresses, I have been making practice dresses, firstly to ensure I can meld an Anna bodice to a Simplicity 2444 skirt, and secondly to check the fit before plunging into the bridesmaid dress material. There are four practice dresses to make, and I have now made three. The are not yet hemmed, nor is the neck binding sewn down. 

With some guidance from Roisin I was able to merge the two patterns by making myself the dress in the middle out of some old fabric of my grandmothers. I cut a 8/12 bodice and a 12 skirt as per the pattern and sewed them together. I did not modify the bodice, but then marked onto the skirt where the pleats needed to move to, then took out the basting and modified my pattern. My other pattern changes were to bind the neck and arms in bias binding, and to lengthen the skirt by 4 inches (which is much too long).

I have now measured up two of my three bridesmaids (my sister is getting a break right now as she is in the middle of exam study. I made muslins of the the bodices for M and K, and then using their chosen fabrics sewed up these dresses. They are now waiting to be tried on once more to confirm skirt length. 

M and K are my best friends. We have known each other for years, going right through school together. M and I have been best friends since kindergarten, and K and I since high school. We now all go to university together (completely unintentional) though we are all studying different things. It's been so exciting making these practice dresses for them, as they are both so stylish, and they suit them perfectly. M's dress is the red dress. She wears a lot of red, but assures me this one, with tiny brown and green flowers, is different to her five or so other red dresses. K's is the blue one, and is a brilliant party dress; it has already been earmarked to wear to two weddings this year.

Doing this process has taken away any nerves I might have had about the actual bridesmaid dresses. I am looking forward to making one for my sister, it might end up as her graduation/formal dress, or we may go the hippy route... who knows. There is just something so nice about sewing for other people.