Completed: Another Camberie

This was a dress that was never meant to be a dress!

The other week I was digging through the large bag which has become my leftover fabric dumping ground to see if there was any way in which I could reduce its size and get some use out of something! Well what I found turned out to be the first ever muslin of my emery bodice and some lovely floral poplin from my first ever cambie. Two pieces which I reckoned had potential to be saved from the bag of doom! There was a good amount of fabric left from the cambie but in a strange L shape so my options were very limited - there certainly wasn't enough for a full gathered or pleated skirt and definitely not enough for a full dress!

I knew that one option that would work with the piece of fabric I had would be a pencil type skirt and I reckoned that with some coaxing I could fix up the bodice muslin and make a pretty summer dress. The initial muslin had been made up using black thread and a purple zip crudely affixed at the back. an hour and a half later the bodice had been resewn, re darted and the zip had been removed. The back neckline darts aren't perfect but I cant see them so it works for me :-) I also decided that I would try another exposed zipper. A feature that I really like right now.

For the skirt I revisited a favorite pattern - the sewaholic cambie. (I'm pondering a few changes for my next bodice, I love that top but the area under the bust could do with some curved darts methinks) I have never tried the variation A skirt and it looked like it would fit perfectly on the remaining fabric. I cut a size 10 based on the waist measurement, however it quickly became apparent that I could have made up the 8.

There are a few things wrong with the dress - most apparently those awful bust darts - more time and care next time I think. There is also a bit of extra fabric making an appearance at the back too. not in the usual place but more of an all over effect...That can easily be fixed with a cardi right!!

Todays outtake!!

I'm not sure exactly if and when I will get round to wearing this dress the fit isn't wonderful and I seem to be carrying a bit of extra weight again. I blame the stresses of moving house and finishing a thesis!

Hopefully everyone is doing well - I hope to catch up on my reading list soon and be back to sewing by the weekend! It feels dead weird to have my machine in a box and doing nothing!

Take Care
Jenn xx

Complete: A Christmas Cambery

Q. What do you get when you cross the Sewaholic Cambie bodice with the Christine Haynes Emery skirt?

A. A Cambery dress of course!

so here is my Christmas Cambery dress, a combination of patterns that I am sure to use again.  This pattern combination came about due to an engineering challenge that i set myself...failure to buy enough fabric for the really gathered and voluminous cambie skirt!

I have made up the cambie before however can't really wear it because of 'slight' errors that were incorporated when assembling the pdf pattern - somehow the waistband ended up about 15 mm too short and thus leaves me with a dress unsuitable for christmas dinner. I do really like the dress so after the festive season i'll throw some pictures together.

So based upon my previous cambie make I decided that this would be my Christmas dress of choice this year and when I saw this fabric decided that they would make a great match. I had enough to make the bodice and a skirt and some of the lining. The fabric was bought here at the village haberdashery and was £4 per fat quarter so that helped persuade me that only 1.5 m would be enough for a dress. Which it was, just not the Cambie.

The awesome lining material used for the pocket bag

In terms of changes, I removed my usual wedge from the back and made the dress up as per instructions only using the slightly different skirt and only one pocket...BIG mistake! I miss my second pocket :'(. The front two lining panels and sleeves are made up with the reindeer fabric however the back two are the same fabric as I used to line my minoru. There's still some left which will make an appearance soon no doubt!

I think I need a hook and eye here...

In terms of changes for the next time, I plan on removing 1 cm from the back length.  The bodice bunches a little however nothing compared to my coco so not such a drastic change. I love the sweetheart neckline and think it hits just at the right height.

I love a good christmas party dress especially now I can make my own  :-)

I hope everyone is having a great party season I went for my second Christmas dinner the other day - a Japanese restaurant in Glasgow's merchant city, last official trip into town completed! I'm  kind of glad that i'm avoiding town right now after such sad events yesterday - the only thing to take from this is that we as a city will get through this - we always do. People here have great community spirit and look out for each other no matter what.

Take care guys. Stay safe.
Jen xx