Finished: New Look 6184

Good news - the dress is finished at last!  It has been slow progress at times - life sadly getting in the way of sewing - but I've made it!

The final bits that I needed to do were the zip insertion and the hemming.  The zip is a lapped zip, and I was very aware that this one needed to be good, as it runs the whole way down the back of the dress and so it would be glaringly obvious if something goes wrong!  I took the time to baste it in - and I'm glad I did, as I discovered that one side of the dress had somehow crept up and was slightly longer than the other, so I had to do some adjustment at the waist to get it to match again.  A good save, I think!

I think the lapping was a success - the stitching was nice and even, and the zip almost disappears into the back from a distance, which is what I was hoping for.

I also inserted a little hook and eye, to pull everything together at the neckline.

Finally, I needed to hem this skirt to just finish everything off.  As the skirt is very straight, this was pretty straight forward - much easier than hemming a more pronounced curve.  It's great to get the garment all finished off nicely!

I've not taken any photos of me in it yet.  We're away at the weekend, so I'll see if I can get the hubby persuaded to do a little photoshoot for me!

Notes for next time:

This is definitely a dress I'll make again.  The shape is really flattering, and I really like the neckline - it's effective and not at all revealing, without being old fashioned.

I do need to do some thinking about the back for my next attempt - although this dress fits perfectly at the front, there's a bit of gapping in the back of the bodice.  It fits the lovely Matilda perfectly on the back, but unfortunately I'm not quite as long and sleek as her!  The gap isn't too noticeable but it's something that I'm aware of, and it would be nice to get the fit perfect.

Thanks for joining me on my journey through making my first dress - hopefully the first of many!

Bright stripes cord skirt

I look the opportunity last weekend to finish off my New Look 6030 skirt. All I really had to do was finish the yoke and install the zip - both techniques which I've become a bit more familiar with recently! One thing which I do like is the way the patterns recommend finishing the yoke - by stitching through the existing seam, so that there is no top stitching visible when you are sewing the yoke facing to the front. I then finished the back with a zig zag stitch, just to neaten it up.

This has probably been my best (and most pain free) zip installation yet - I managed to not sew random bits of skirt into the zip, and the little flap to cover the zip looked good too. I'm happy that I'm finally getting the hang of this one...!

As the skirt is quite neat fitting, I've decided that I need to reinforce the all the seams with some top stitching, as I did on the front seam. I probably should have done that right at the start, but the pattern didn't suggest it.

I wore the skirt out that evening, and no-one pointed and laughed - always a positive sign! It's been hard to get decent photos - when I leave the house in the morning it's dark, and when I come home again at night it's dark again - horrible! I'll hopefully persuade the hubby to take some for me at the weekend when I finally emerge to get to glimpse a bit of sunshine - so those are to follow!

Sewing with a striped pattern - and with cord - has been a completely new challenge. When working with stripes, the yoke is something I'll definitely be thinking about in the future, and whether the curve should be relaxed a bit, or whether I want to cut another piece, and 'hide' the seam under my belt carriers.

One other thing which I didn't think about when preparing my fabric is that cord fabric has a nap to it - check out this helpful post to understand what that means, and this one when thinking about sewing with cord. Basically, all the pattern pieces should be cut out in the same direction. This was not something I considered! However, now that it's all together, I notice that the brown stripe on the front of the skirt looks a little darker on one side than on the other.  If you were to turn the skirt upside down - it's the opposite way round. The skirt also feels softer in different directions - on one side it feels softer if you run your hands up, on the other side it feels softer when you rub your hands down. This is because I cut my pattern pieces out in different directions, and so the nap is wrong.

To be honest, this isn't a massive concern for me - the colour thing isn't particularly noticeable, especially as the stripes are so bright, and neither is the feel. But it's something that I will definitely want to get right next time around when I make it for Esther - so I'll be referring to those links again.

Watch this space for photos...

Pink & black roses skirt - with a flounce!

Finally - my Simplicity 2655 skirt is finished!  What do you think!?

I've really missed my sewing machine, so rather than watching paint dry this week (literally), I took the chance to do a bit of sewing between coats!  This is the final product from the first commercial pattern that I've bought - I have to say, it was (in the main) easy to follow and use - I'll definitely be making one of these again!

The two things I left to do were the zip and the waistband.

The zip

This was actually the first time I've used a standard zip in a skirt rather than an invisible zip - I like to tackle the really difficult things first, it seems.  It definitely was much easier to insert than the invisible one.  The pattern then indicated that there would be a bit of a fold to disguise the zip, rather than having it on show.  I really liked the effect this produced - and as it was easier to put in than the invisible zip, is definitely something to bear in mind for the future.

The waistband

The waistband, on first reading of the pattern, seemed a bit complicated!  It needed four pieces of fabric, as well as twill tape and interfacing.  After finally locating twill tape in Fabricland's haberdashery section, I was good to go.

One thing that had previously confused me about interfacing was how to get it to stick to the fabric...rather than the iron.  Thanks to a handy hints and tips web page, I discovered that the best way to apply iron-on interfacing is actually by covering the interfacing with a damp cloth and then pressing for between 10-15 seconds.  The results were perfect - and interfacing glued to my fabric, rather than my iron.

The twill tape is used to strengthen the waistband and stop it stretching.  I actually really like this idea, as I've noticed on other skirts that I've made that sometimes the waistbands do stretch, so it's good to keep it in shape.  I just sewed it in when I was sewing in the seam.

Twill tape

Finally, I had to sew in the waistband itself and sew the inside of the waist to the zip - I had to do a bit of hand sewing for this.  Hand sewing always makes me glad I normally can use my machine - I'm a bit of a clumsy hand sewer, and usually end up stabbing myself

Now it's ready to wear!

Flounce!

LOVE cushion

In case you've been wondering where I've got to...I've been on holiday with my hubby and my folks in the USA :-) !  We had such an amazing time - absolutely loved it!  The three weeks flew by - it's hard to believe we're back to reality already - but I'm happy to be here updating my little blog!

My friend and her boyfriend got engaged back in Northern Ireland at Easter time, and I was pondering what to get them as an engagement present.  A bit mortified because it had taken me so long to get something sorted, I decided that it would be nice to make them something, rather than just buy a gift - that, as well as the few hundred miles of distance between us, might excuse the lateness...!

So may I present my first ever cushion...

LOVE cushion

I went down to Fabric Land here in Bristol to buy fabric, and got a gorgeous cream crepe - I asked the girl serving whether she thought it would be good for cushion, and her only comment was 'Well...it's cream"!  So that was a yes, and I'm trusting that the colour of the fabric isn't too challenging for them!  I also had some of the fabric left from which I made my bunting back in May - I thought it would be ideal for my letters.

There were a few great challenges for me with my first cushion

1. Letters 

This was something a wee bit different - cutting out letters from fabric and then sewing them onto the cushion.  I used a zigzag stitch on my machine to go round the edge of each letter, and this worked really well - it was a cute little effect, and also stopped the edges from fraying.

Template letters

Cut out letters

"L" with a zig-zag stitch around the edges

2. Putting in a zipper

Zippers continue to be a challenge!  

Please, please, please, when you're making a cushion, don't do what I did.  I got so carried away with all my cutting out of letters and all sorts that before I even thought about it, I'd sewn up the other sides of the cushion, and left the zipper til last!  Disaster - as all good sewists know, you should put your zipper in as early as possible.  This understandably led to a bit of complexity!

Ideally I would have used a 14" zip, but because I had already sewn everything together, I ended up using a 12", as there just wasn't enough space to fit the longer length in at the corners of my material.  One of these days I will definitely install the zip at the right time - I continue to live in hope!  However, in the end it looked fine - more coincidence than my skills, I can assure you!

Popped my little label on the back of the cushion - at least this shows that it's handmade, so hopefully that adds charm to the little flaw underneath, haha!  The little lip around the zip hides the zip nicely, which I think is a nice little effect as well.

For a first attempt at a cushion, I'm really pleased - and the bride-to-be was as well, which is really the most important thing!  What a relief!