Tuesday 26 August 2014

A Completed Emery Dress

I have joined the party!

Meet my latest make - Emery. I did make this a few weeks back so I have got a lot of wear out of this especially at the games and laterally at the festival. A little fox pas though - at the time of making this dress I did not realise how much it resembled the school tunic of Glasgow academy....


Outside St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh
So following in the footsteps of my philatelists dress, this is the Glasgow Academy dress. Usage strictly limited to weekends and halowe'en. Heh.

Lurking the close - Well as it is an emery I had to get a Dolly Clacket esque shot outside the door :p

I bought the fabric back in April at Sherringham market in the pretty Norfolk town where me and the other half went on holiday - to visit where he grew up. I'm not really sure what the composition is but I melted a little bit of the inner waistband when I was presing it so there's at least a good %age of polyester in there... it was also all kinds of stretchy which made it a pain to sew.

I've read a few places that the bodice of the emery was a little short and sure enough after making a muslin (:O:O:O (only of the bodice though)) that it was indeed a little short. I also didn't like how high the neckline sat so edited the pattern to remove a small slice starting at the botton of the shoulder and along to the centre front.

After adding a little bit of length at the lengthen/shorten lines allowed the bodice to hit my waist


I didn't fancy the bow or the collar so made up the dress with none of the options but made sure to keep the inseam pockets. Im not sure I could wear this style with no pockets they're so darn handy! They're the perfect size for keys and a phone (both were totally in my pockets while taking photos) and are so effortlessly hidden within the fabric of the skirt when you're wearing the dress.

there was a slight offset occurred when hand stitching the waist - im not gonna lie you can notice it when worn but meh the front looks good!!


I'm thinking the back of this dress is still a little broad so the next time I'm going to either make the top back darts a little bigger or maybe cut the size down and only use 1/2 inch seams - does anyone have any thoughts on this fitting issue?
Added bonus - the zip lined up!

I really like the pattern for this dress - it really lends itself to large prints so much so I have another one ready to go - once the back issue is sorted!

The only thing i would do differently next time is to shorten the hem by about an inch so I don't have to take such a large hem.

Has anyone else made up the emery dress?

Also while i'm here I have a couple of shots of the cat print bronte I posted last week
Another photo lurking around next to St Mary's
This one is a little far out but I think it's just possible to see that the fit is prety good.

A slightly closer shot the top is a little loose around the waist but then - thats how she wanted it!

Have a good week guys
JCS

Monday 11 August 2014

A Second Cat Print Bronte

Happy Monday!

Where has time gone?? So after a busy two weeks of taking part commonwealth games activities, and another week of the Edinburgh festival plus a thesis which has now passed the mere planning phase, free sewing time has been strictly limited!
 On the plus I did manage to whip up this Bronte top for my mum on Friday night. (I'm also waiting to find a tripod for my camera to arrive so the picture is awful at best)

Bronte Top
 It really was a fast make this one and because I had made it before and there were now the full compliment of sewalong instructions ( here) I was confident I knew what I was doing! I kid not I am like the slowest sewer ever and i started this at 6 pm on friday and after a dinner break and a beer run and an hour long battle rethreading my overlocker it was finished by about half 10.

The top is a little tight on me but my mums measurements are that of the patterns size 10 and I cut mine in a 14. Although on seing this I think i'll make any subsequent versions for me in a size 12.

The fabric for this was a cat print lightweight jersey from remnant kings - I picked it up near the end of the sale and they don't have it online any more, but yeh! cats :-D. I also think the binding worked out better this time than the last - it sits flatter and doesn't droop the same after a full day at the festival! (after giving it to her it was put on straight away and she loved it!) so she liked it, I'm proud of how it turned out and I have some fabric left over for a tank top. WIN!

Has anyone else made up the bronte? I really love the neckline (as i've said before) and reckon when the cold breaks through the window in the flat it will be a useful extra layer!

Also a recent purchase I made was some woven labels to add to my makes! Does anyone else use these? I thought they were pretty cool.

Hopefully I'll have my big project finished soon and can share a few more makes.

Have a good week all
JCS