Work in progress: New Look 6184 (1)

After making my new years resolutions, I've finally made a start on my first ever dress.  I bought the New Look 6184 pattern in a sale in Calico for the very reasonable price of £2.95, along with a couple of others.  It's similar to the dress that I wore to my cousin's wedding in the summer - I really liked the style, so I thought it was a good make for my first dress!

I used the fabric that I bought in America in JoAnn - at last!  As well as cutting my pattern pieces, I've also dutifully transferred my pattern markings - usually I'm not very good at that part, but I'm determined that on this dress I'll do my best to get all the markings transferred so that I get my darts in the right place etc.

So far, all I've done in terms of sewing is the front bodice piece, as you can see above.  It looks quite massive in that picture, but as you can see, it's because there is a bit of sewing to do in the front to get it into the nice fitted shape that looks so good on the model!

I sewed my two darts in, and they came out well - nice and sharp.

 

The next bit to do was the neckline.  This is a pleated neckline, which I really liked.  You make the pleats by folding, and then basted to ensure that they stay in place.

Now that they're safely in place, I've had to leave it, but I'm hoping I'll get more sewing time in at the weekend, and have some progress to report soon!

Red and cream draught excluder

The grand plan for Christmas 2013 was to do handmade gifts! All experienced sewists are probably nodding wisely right now - as you would guess, it didn't take me long to realise that if I wanted to do all my gifts handmade, I should probably have started in January! However, I did manage to make quite a few presents, and one of them was this lovely draught excluder for my mum-in-law. My in-laws have a beautiful big Victorian house up in north Wales - it's absolutely lovely, but drafts definitely come with the territory in a house like that.

I found lots of tutorials for draft excluders on Pinterest, but the one I liked best was this one. It was simple to follow - although I did increase it slightly because I knew their doors were likely a little larger than ours.

You might recognise the fabric pattern - it's the one that I used for my roman blind - but the red version! I just loved it so much that I got some more from Calico for the draft excluder.

A handy way to create the ends for the draft excluder...

I sewed the pieces up with my machine - leaving a little hole for the stuffing - and then stuffed it with the guts of a pillow which Pete had thoroughly mangled!!  I attempted to hand-sew the final bit together, but my hand sewing is appalling, so I ended up with the glue-gun, which was a perfectly adequate way of finishing it!

The finishing touch...my little 'handmade by Rebekah' label...!

Fabric shopping in Bedminster

It's been a slow week for sewing - I've had quite a lot on in the evenings, which has distracted me a bit unfortunately!  I went out in the sun at lunchtime today though and went to Calico for a bit of fabric browsing.  Well...it was meant to just be a browse, but of course once I was in there I just couldn't resist...!

My next project is going to be PJ bottoms, and I'm going to make them from the new fabric I got today!  It's a beautiful soft cotton stripe - perfect for comfy PJs for curling up in.

However...I am in a bit of a quandry at the moment - I was going to use the pattern from the Great British Sewing Bee book, but I've read a few things online that imply that the pattern sizing isn't quite right.  I've been on the Simplicity website, and found this project for pyjama pants instead, so I think I might give it a go!  Has anyone tried either of these patterns - any recommendations?

The other fabric which I got recently is this gorgeous denim star print - I got it in the Nelaro Fabrics sale on Facebook!  Unfortunately it was the very end of the line, and so I could only get half a metre - so that obviously very much limits what I can make with it!  It might be another bag - we'll see.  Any other ideas welcome...!

Denim stars

No plans for the weekend as yet (apart from packing for my trip to London) so hopefully I'll get some sewing fitted in, and maybe even take my new PJs away with me!