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

Finished a Colette Patterns Zinnia Skirt!

Hello :-) good day, good evening if you will.

So finally here is my entry for the stitchery studio's zinnia sewalong!

Colette Zinnia Skirt Version 2

So you may have seen this fabric in one of my previous posts and I only just realised that it's been a month since I started this skirt (and finished it too) however two mini breaks and a complete dress size weight fluctuation later ...and it fits again (almost)! Yuss!

So I wanted to give my zinnia skirt a summery feel and from the get go I was looking for something that I could wear day to day. The fabric is a lightweight 100 % floral cotton from remnant kings. I chose this fabric because I love wearing light floral clothes not only in (the three days of ) summer but through most of the year; this fabric fits in well with my wardrobe plan (thankfully) and will integrate well with my existing pieces. I altered the pattern slightly and omitted the belt loops as I don't intend to ever wear a belt with this skirt. I kept the pockets though. Everybody loves a good pocket (in fact I put on a similar Primark equivalent today and was devastated that it was sans pockets!!)

The skirt seemed to be a good length and I just used the standard hem length - for once i didn't chop inches off the bottom!!

I also changed the zip length as I couldn't find a 9 inch zip in a matching colour and couldn't be bothered going to at least two different shops in my lunch break, so went for a slightly shorter 8 inch zip which worked just as well. I was particularly proud of the invisibleness of the zip too :-). Cue close-up!

 The button I used was from my stash and is just a plain coloured button. I think it's probably intended for decorative use only however i think it goes pretty well with the colour scheme!

In terms of sizing for the skirt, I graded out from an 8 at the hips to a 10 at the waist. It could maybe do with moving the closure a little bit so i fits better but i'm hoping to shift those final few pounds :-D

I added this side view coz i think it shows the length quite well. Its sitting just above my knee.

and finally the obligatory twirl shot :-)

So all in all apart from the fact this skirt is still a little bitty too small I think i'll be making another one of these and making the waist another 1/2 size bigger.

Have a fun week all!

JCS

MMMay

Although not actively taking part in MMMay2014, I have been using this month as my own time to reflect on the current state of my wardrobe and identify where the gaps lie and what I can sew to fill these gaps.

I wasn't intending on doing this however my daily uniform of skinny levi's was eaten by the tumble drier and so I had really little option. Thinking about Colette's Wardrobe Architect silhouettes, my evolving personal tastes and what I actually already own, I have been wearing as many of the clothes as I can that have not seen the light of day in a good year to determine why it is that I no longer wear these items. The reason mostly is that they do not flatter my shape. Younger me clearly got the colours right - no yellows or anything too pale - however I did not know how to style my body shape correctly.

Whereas I'm a pretty standard height and my bust and hips seem to fit smack bang on most of the pattern sizing guides I usually have to grade up about two sizes for my waist. Something I never considered before I started to sew my own clothes. Previous skirts I have bought like this one from River Island just hung there and to put it simply just looked dreadful the whole day I wore it. I had no shape and had a boyish figure.

On the positive however, I rediscovered my tailored wardrobe, fitted shirts, belts and pencil skirts, which nip in at the waist and of course peplum tops which provide an illusion of a more hourglass figure.

My dress wardrobe remained largely unscathed - it would appear that my range of day dresses and evening wear is pretty much spot on in the shape stakes - again this involves a number of very fitted styles - a mixture of asymmetric and strapless included as well as a number with peplums and belt loops. (Yes I have a dress wardrobe, Yes it is full, Yes I love it, No the boyfriend does not- I get the feeling it's life is limited). Other more relaxed styles here include fitted bodices with full skirts. As long as there is a waist the style seems to work.

Having determined the styles which I like and which I love wearing every day has helped me come up with a sewing plan of items which can replace the jeans and give me the styles I desire and not replace the forgotten wardrobe items!

The first on the list is to remould this skirt into a a more fitted version of itself - i love the belt loops and the band on the bottom so I think it will be a case of unpicking the waistband and removing some of the excess material.

Other items on my list include:

Image from www.simplicity.com

A retro shirt dress - fitted top with a full skirt

image from www.victorypatterns.com

The Ava pattern has been on my to do list for a while in the top version - again I think the peplum is flattering on my figure

Image from: www.colettepatterns.com

Another shirt dress. I love this style and think it fits with my desired silhouettes

Image from www.tillyandthebuttons.com

The lilou. this has gone in straight to the top - a perfect styling of fitted top - waist detail and full skirt.
So hopefully after some self assessment in the styling stakes i'll be able to give my wardrobe the overhaul it deserves and at the same time sew with some clearer direction. how does everyone else choose what they will sew?

I do have another make which has been finished a while however the sizing issues occurring from another holiday has prevented any picture taking of this one!

Happy Thursday all!

JCS 

Finit! Mes Shorts Chataigne from Deer and Doe!

Well hello again blogging world! This has been a busy old week for me! I had a first draft finished of my next conference paper and am well onto my second. But enough of my day job...

So this week saw me hack my way (literally) through this lovely pattern for some tailoredish shorts Chataigne - brought to us by Deer and Doe. I cannot tell you how long I have been looking for this pair shorts for but when I found this pattern the other week I knew lifes problems were solved :p. I made view A although instead of invisible stitches for the cuffs I opted for some top stitching.

 

So after finding the patern I took a wee jaunt up town andcame across some wool fabric reduced to only £5/m, I bought 3m of it so expect this stuff to be making another appearance soon! I rather like this fabric and as you can see there is a bit of a pattern in it too.

Well I had 3 best friends whilst making these shorts:

My overlocking foot (the wool was rather prone to the odd frey! (and I dont yet have an overlocker)), my stitch ripper (more on that in a sec) and my invisible zipper foot! So I made a rather slight mistake and stitched one of the pockets onto the wrong side of the front panel... :-\ what a dumbass! haha however a glass bottle (ahem) of wine down I threw a hissy fit and left them languishing for an evening. I also managed to stitch the back on back to front. URGH! so yeah after picking out the stitches they kind of stretched an itty bitty. This kind of caused problems later attaching the waistband to the legs :-(. Im hoping this won't be too noticeable! What does anyone else do when working with wool? I thought of throwing them in the dryer however I didnt want them to frey or anything?!

so yeah that 3rd best friend - the invisible zipper foot. I tried an invisible zipper before but with only a regular zipper foot but if i ever give any advice - SPEND THAT £5er and BUY THE FOOT! ha. how much easier did this make the job.Well chuffed with the result!

I know the edge isn't quite straight but I'll take that!

Also mighty impressed with the end result with the lining in place. Totally going to try more invisible zips. just need a project! so now for the photo shoot...(My living room is a TIP!)

Its kind of hard to see coz its an AWFUL camera! My phone broke and a certain 'Best British Brand' 2014 airline broke my camera charger! Rage. But the fit was great - I cut a 40 and made no alterations.

I will definately be buying more Deer and Doe patterns!

JCS