Sewing Indie Month: The Cressida skirt

Jennifer Lauren Vintage Patterns
We're nearly at the end of it now, but happy Sewing Indie Month! The month is all about celebrating indie sewing patterns, and on top of that, there's been tutorials, sewalongs and some brilliant pattern bundles for sale (with 20% of proceeds going to charity too) - see all the action here. 


Here's my make from pattern bundle 1 that I snapped up in August - the Cressida Skirt by Jennifer Lauren Vintage Patterns.


The pattern is sweet and feminine, yet simple in design and totally wearable. It also has pockets so it's practical too. You can get plenty of button hole practice in with this make. The pattern offers really thorough instructions on making both versions, but button holes aren't my favourite so I stuck with the single row button placket rather than the double.


I made it up in this sort of twee and slightly unseasonal vintage cotton that I picked up in Oxfam. I've been steering clear of delicate florals, but the retro print really lends itself to the style of the skirt. It's turned out pretty summery, but I think I can get a decent amount of wear out of it when paired with tights.


I was in two minds whether to add the belt loops or not as I thought they looked quite big, but they actually make for a lovely feature. And luckily, I had just enough of these buttons in my stash. They've been hanging around for years, so it's nice to finally put them to use. Also I loved the technical challenge of a neat bit of top stitching.


Another great thing about Sewing Indie Month is that you can enter your makes for the chance to win prizes. I'm going to submit this for the Everyday Casual Category which is being hosted by Mary at Idle Fancy. This category is for 'those pieces that can take you from brunch with friends to a day at the park. Comfortable, chic, and easy to blend into your busy life.' and I think this skirt fits that description pretty well.

Did anyone else manage to grab one of the Bundles?  I'm looking forward to making the Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers, and the True Bias Sutton Blouse. What will you be making?



Stay in touch!

Seventies sun dress

finished project
So this one is my last sew before packing up my machine for a little while to move house, and I'm absolutely itching to wear it in all it's 1970's sun dress glory! But it's being saved for my holiday next week.



I bought the lovely vintage fabric from a fab little vintage shop called Copper & Corduroy when I was in Bristol recently. I keep spotting pictures of dressmakers being wonderfully creative with vintage table clothes and curtains, and I LOVE retro prints, but I've always struggled to drop on a fabric that's the right weight for sewing with. (No one want's a beautifully patterned, but starched to hell dress...) But this was just right - a soft brushed cotton, and it looked like it was in decent condition too. The pattern and colours are just dreamy, my phone pictures could never do them justice!



Just one thing I've found about sewing with vintage fabric... be ready for some hole dodging.
Like I said, I checked it and it looked in decent condition. It really was, but when I pressed it, I found a few little holes dotted around that look stress and damage from where the fabric had been folded. Luckily, some clever pattern piece placement meant that I could dodge the majority of them!


But as luck would have it, I went and pinned my CF pattern piece bang on a whole. So I had a bit of patching to do. I applied a bit of iron on interfacing on the reverse and then picked a matching thread to stitch over the hole and enclose the raw edges. I'm pretty pleased with it, but the print is so loud that it detracts from the patch job anyway, which is a good thing as I had a fair few more to do on the skirt. I positioned my pattern piece so the holes were clustered around the bottom of the back skirt pieces, where it would be harder to spot my patching.



The dress is made from a self-drafted pattern I've been working from and adapting for a while. You can see previous incarnations here (the Liberty one), here (the earliest one), and here (the party dress one). For the latest version, I adapted the neckline so it was round. The skirt is based on the Emery dress, with a decent amount added to the length - it's not quite as long as I've made it in the past though.



The petal sleeves, as always, remain the same, but I absolutely love them, they're definitely my favourite part of the pattern. They're so interesting to sew and really comfortable to wear - no pulling or tightness at all. 



And here is the finished garment! Hoping it will be warm enough in Barcelona so it gets a Me Made May wear. Now to pack for hols and house move... see you on the other side!




I would go out tonight... But I haven't got an occasion to wear this dress to

finished project
Sooo I finished my first make of the year, and this one really has been a long time in the making, with the process spanning the last few months of 2014... it's my (almost) final self drafted dress! If this is starting the sewing year as I mean to go on, then I think I'm onto good things!



This is a wearable muslin of sorts, made from fabric that I wasn't at all scared to chop into and ruin - it's some sort of viscose/synthetic, drapey stuff that was £4 for 3.5yds from the Hebden Bridge WI Rag market, very late 80s/early 90s no? My retro fabric is sort of at odds with the perhaps more vintage design of the dress - it's based on a picture of a Viven of Holloway dress I collected for a mood board - but I'm going to claim that it's all the name of added interest.

Although I've made and tweaked many a muslin during the pattern drafting stages, this is the very first time I've put the whole pattern, bodice, skirt and lining, together as a finished garment. I've already spoken about the most challenging part to fit (the bodice) in an earlier post, where I made it up as a dress with a simple gathered skirt. It was mainly an excuse to use this lovely patterned brushed cotton, and break up what felt like weeks of staring into calico-white-space.  



The bodice and sleeves have only had a couple of tweaks since then. The tulip sleeves pulled a bit at the back during wear, so I lengthened the back-sleeve pattern piece just a bit. This piece then gets gathered in ever so slightly, so it has a bit more 'give' or movement. I also moved the shoulder seams so they sat a bit further forward too.

The skirt had to be drafted from a basic pattern block before I could make the draped and gathered tulip skirt that I dreamed of. This is great though, as now I have an overall basic dress pattern that I could make up or play around with - one pattern, many looks!



I did some draping and pinning on the model and a little bit of cutting too - I have to say that I was a bit reluctant with the cutting, it took a bit of encouragement of the tutor at the evening classes I went to at college! It helped to give a rough idea of how the finished garment might look, and I could work backwards from the pinned version to understand the pattern pieces I needed.



By the time I got to making I just wanted to get on with it, so I hardly took any pictures, sorry! I sort of worked out the skirt and skirt lining pieces as I went along. The skirt lining seems to want to peak out just a little where it's draped at the front, but I can live with that, and I think I'm prepared for what to do when it comes to the final final version.



The only bit I struggled with - and it was entirely my fault - was the lining for the bodice. I drafted it against the facing which I'd already added a seam allowance to, and then added a seam allowance to the lining  as well - CONFUSED?! Basically there was too much bodice lining to fit into the garment. I only realised what I'd done wrong when it was pretty much sewn up, so took the lazy 'oh well, it's on the inside, no one can see it anyway' route and left it as it was. But I need to shame myself and show it publicly to make sure I don't do it again. Here you go...



So there is a bit of gape and excess in the middle. But if you ignore that, the rest of the lining doesn't actually look too shabby...



Other than that one one blip, I'm so so pleased with how the dress has turned out. Even though I'd drafted it to fit me perfectly (and tested it) I still had 'the fear' when I was inserting the zip, that it might not do up - it has just been Christmas after all... but it fits, and I feel absolutely fab in it :) Now if only I had somewhere to wear it to!



So to round up, pattern drafting takes time, effort and patience, lots of it. But I don't think I've ever been more proud of something I've made and I can't wait to wear it! 



I've already got my fabric ready to make the final final version. I've chosen a rich teal crepe with a bit more weight to it, and a contrast mustard/gold fabric for the lining (for when you get the tiniest flashes of it). The only thing I'm struggling with is finding a perfectly matched concealed zipper - does anyone have any internet shopping suggestions to help me track down one in the perfect hue?

Thanks for visiting!

Thanks for visiting!