Colette Pattern Giveaway Winner!!!!!!

First of all I'd like to say a big thank you for all your wonderful birthday wishes, they really made my day.  And hello new followers, I've had a great time looking through all your blogs!  Now, onto the business at hand, the randomly selected winner of the Colette pattern is.....

Number five comment - Lisa!!!!!!!!!

Lisa has a great blog called Lisa Sews and has made some really lovely things.  She couldn't decide between the Beignet skirt or the Violet blouse on her comment, so it's decision time! Lisa, e-mail me when you've decided and I'll sort out your prize.

Being naturally nosy, it was fascinating to read which pattern each of you would choose. For anybody who's interested, the next Colette pattern on my sewing list is the Oolong dress, which I'm hoping to make in the next few weeks.  

Thanks again everybody for entering the giveaway, and especial thanks to Kate at M is for Make for so generously supplying the winning pattern.

Have a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend. x

Dipping my toes into Japanese pattern books...

I’ve had this beautiful Japanese pattern book for a while, but have been scared witless at the thought of making anything from it. 

 

I spent hours swooning over the classic, elegant clothes and stroking the lovely, thick creamy paper before deciding a skirt would be the easiest thing to make for a first attempt.

Before I started I read up on the subject.  There's an excellent article in issue 25 of Sew Hip magazine by Florence of Flossie Teacakes.  It's really well written and a pleasure to read.  If you're thinking of sewing from Japanese pattern books I'd highly recommend trying to get your hands on a copy as it's a great introduction.  After reading it I was filled with confidence about approaching my pattern.  Also, by happy coincidence, Kate from M is for Make is running a Japanese Pattern Book sewalong at the moment.   Although I’m not officially sewing along (I think I’ve had my fill of sewalongs for a while) I am scouring each post for tips and advice, of which there are many. Here's a big, giant, enormous tip - if you’re thinking of buying a Japanese pattern book, get it from M is for Make.  No, I’m not on commission, but as well as having a fantastic selection, each book comes with translation sheets of sewing terms which Kate herself has put together.  I can’t tell you how useful they are.  Even if (like me), you only manage to decipher a few, it will make all the difference. 

So here’s the skirt I’ve chosen to make.  

I love A-line skirts and fancied making one with some detail to it – I like the little pleat at the front.   Mine won't be as long as this one, as anything too full and too far below the knee starts straying into frump territory on me.  Going by the size chart, my waist size just squeezes into the largest size (13), phew.  

Expert linguist that I am, I worked out which characters translate as ‘front’ and which were ‘back’.  I then tried to translate lots more of the Japanese on the page.  Bad, bad idea - I’m not joking when I say my head was physically hurting after about twenty minutes.  So I changed my approach.  I think as long as you can work out essential translations such as ’front’ and ‘back’ etc, you can piece the instructions together just from the illustrations, which are very clearly drawn.  

For instance for the skirt pattern, I only really need the instructions for the front pleat - the insertion of a lining, zip and waistband I know how to do myself. 

Next, I had to find my front and back pieces on the pattern sheet 

Looks terrifying doesn't it?  Luckily all pattern pieces are numbered according to which pattern you're making, so it's pretty logical once you've got over the initial terror.  I just had to trace them onto tracing paper and voila – I had my pattern pieces.   I made a quick muslin, in case there were any fitting horrors before cutting into my nice Goldhawk Road fabric (see first picture).  Good job I did because it didn’t do up at the waist (ahem), so I added a bit of width to the top section of skirt and started following the instructions.  

So far so good, next time round I'll show you how it turned out... x

Pinny frenzy

Remember this pinny?

Well I was so pumped up with confidence after all your lovely comments, I decided to make a few more to sell at Christmas.  So here they are, in suitably 50’s housewife fabrics.  

Chicken fest pinny

Apple pinny

Housewives in action pinny

The first two are from the Alexander Henry Farmdale range from M is for Make.  I love this range and the fabric is gorgeous to work with, really soft and stretchy. I read this about the collection, "these prints celebrate the era when the kitchen had curtains, mum wore homemade aprons and everything was made from scratch and filled with love." which says it all really.

The last pinny was made from some new fabric I got in the Seamstar sale just this week. It was born to be made into an old fashioned pinny!  This is my favourite lady:

Cool ironing gal

It's how I like to think of myself doing the ironing!

I loved making them, they're so easy, and if they don't sell they'll make fab Christmas presents. x

Socialite Dress

I've been wanting to make this Anna Maria Horner 'Socialite Dress' pattern for a while but wasn't sure the style would suit me - it's quite a loose fit and being on the curvy side, clothes that are too loose often make me look, shall we say, pregnant!  Then I saw a few lovely versions made up with belts - genius!  Not little fabric scrappy belts but big, substantial thick ones that nip you right in at the waist, which for me, changed the whole look of the dress.  

The pattern and fabric both came from M is for Make, one of my favourite fabric and pattern sites.  It's run by the lovely Kate who has given me TONS of great advice and help ever since I started sewing.  She also stocks gorgeous, unusual fabrics and patterns.  I used one of Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley fabrics which are all beautiful.  It took me a long time to decide which one to use but the colour finally swung it (I like grey).

So here it is…..

I'm glad I went with the grey as I can actually wear the dress in the Autumn layered with a cardigan and boots (as I did today).  

As this was the first pattern I've attempted without the help of my sewing tutor, I read the pattern all the way through about four times (seriously, I'm so sad!), just so I knew exactly what I'd be doing and I really think this helped.  Size-wise, I went with a medium which was perfect (I'm a 10/12).  Once everything was cut out it probably took two afternoons to sew, one uninterrupted and blissful, one with the kids whining down my ear the whole time so not quite so enjoyable.  It's a great pattern for a reasonably confident beginner to attempt as it has no zips, buttons or fastenings of any kind - hence the V-neck and loose fit in order to get it over your head.  The language is friendly and it explains every single stage, even down to back stitching at the beginning and end of each seam, which could be quite annoying for a more experienced sewer, but for me was fine.  The gathering at the front and back took the longest, but this was because I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing!  It came out OK though.  

A slightly better view of the gathers

I'll probably make another one for wearing in the spring/summer, in which case I'll make it longer (there's an option on the pattern to do this).  With tights, it's fine, but I'm not displaying my knees!