Sew For Victory!

Well I thought I would have to miss out on this but as the lovely Rochelle kicked back the deadline by a week I had enough time to get my project photographed. I made it at the beginning of April so it is just laziness that meant it didn't get photographed before....oh well!

First up my inspiration. I pinned a few different patterns on Pinterest HERE.

If you know me well, you will know I am all about the shirt-dress! I L-O-V-E them! So it seemed at first that this would be a no brainer. But then I decided that it wouldn't be anything special to crank out a TNT pattern for a sew-along. As I am not a frivolous sewer, I had to make something I would wear, and preferably that I need. One of my pins answered that, I needed a blouse!

So my inspiration is this -

(source)

And from the four on here I went for a version of the bottom right hand one.

I didn't have a pattern, so I kind of maybe just bodged one....and by bodged, I mean really bodged!
However, it did work! I wanted to have some kind of bust dart for a bit of shaping, and some darts in the back of the blouse too. As I am a lazy SOB, I didn't want to change up my overlocker threads and french seamed it. Which was okay until I realised I could do with taking the sides in a bit (read as quite a bit). As a result my back darts are too deep but a belt/ my hair disguises this nicely ;)

I would also like to note that I do not have a suitable looking skirt so have opted to make this a contemporary look, Rochelle had mentioned about doing so and I think it is a good idea, especially for separates. It shows that a vintagey pattern is not a one trick pony, and allows you infinitely more choice when wearing it.

So eek! Here it is! I don't like pics of myself, they remind me about how fat I am that I try to forget ;)

Well I guess I should have ironed it! But never mind. White on white is hard to see in pictures but I decided to only have the frilly trim round the neckline, it would have been a bit much round the arms too I think. I trimmed either side of the button placket with lace and sewed a 3mm white ribbon on top to give it a little something extra. The buttons were in my stash having bought them for my doomed Mad Men Challenge dress (I'm not ready to talk about that yet haha!) and in true make do and mend style, the fabric used to be a flat bed sheet. It is unlikely to have been used much before it ended up in the charity shop, the fabric hasn't gone "old bed sheet soft"  yet and it is still very bright white.

Well, I'm glad to have joined in on Sew for Victory, big thanks to Rochelle for doing it again :)

Any one else joined in this time?

T-shirt Decoration

Hey guys! I don't know about you but when it comes to vest tops and t-shirts, I tend to stick with black and plain. I'm boring and frightened of colour ha ha ha!
In an endeavour to jazz things up a little but still have a "plain" daytime look, I decided to embellish a couple of tops in my wardrobe (and with the price of a t-shirt nowadays if you create something hideous then you can chuck it in the scrap pile and start again!).

First up is a simple button and sparkly hot fix crystal affair (Seriously, if you have not investigated the Kandi Kane yet then I urge you, in the name of sparkles, to check it out!). I dug out some similar sized buttons all in purple shades from my button box, well I say dug out but my button box is totally organised into colours so it was less digging, more selecting ;) I was uber anally retentive and made sure my buttons were in the order of 2 hole, 4 hole, 2 hole etc and spread them out equally. I then sewed them on with embroidery thread. Finally I positioned the crystals between the buttons and heat fixed them to the top. I would recommend putting a book or something in between the layers of the top to stop them sticking together when the glue is all melty.

Here is a close up.

On a different top I had a go at a simple freehand embroidery, meant to be cherries btw....
Anyway, I got the idea for button fruits from the mistress of divine knowledge Martha Stewart, I just was a bit kinda gung ho about it so it looks a bit crap! In my defence it looks weird because the picture is the wrong way around but I am far too lazy to turn it around at this point!

Last but not least, floral decoration in black, naturally. There are flower tutorials all over the internets, I used THIS ONE from the uber adorable Disney at Ruffles and Stuff. It says no sew flowers but I sewed them in absence of a hot glue gun.
*On an unrelated note, don't you just hate people who have no courtesy when parking?! My neighbours drive me up the bloody wall with their selfish parking, joke will be on them when they have blocked me in and I have to go somewhere and bash my way out! Sorry, I have just watched one of my neighbours reverse right up to my front bumper with 2 inches to spare and I shan't be surprised if the same thing happens behind me before the night is over - GRRRR!!!*
Right, err, yeah.... So I sewed the flowers onto the top in an aesthetically pleasing multi sized trio.
Takes longer than the first two but is cuter :) The flowers can be made to go on anything so a useful tutorial to memorise.

So go forth and decorate!

Things I forgot to put up.

A couple of items that I had brought upstairs to photograph and put on here but forgot about! 

I made the skirt about a fortnight ago, it's so small, probably fit a child! The halter top was made shortly afterwards, same pattern as normal, edited to have tie up straps instead.

 I made the pattern for the skirt using an A4 piece of paper, measured the top of it to determine the amount of panels I would need...... and completely forgot about seam allowances! Which is why it ended up so small, I have got another similar skirt on the go (being lazy and not finishing it because it is one of those time consuming and completely boring bits left to do!) which is more grown up sized!

I only had enough of this purple ribbon to do two bows, had wanted five, perhaps I will pick up a metre next time I'm in town, but it looks okay anyway :)

Used up the last of this fabric with this top, well, a few scraps left that I'm sure I will use for something!

Really satisfying knowing that I've got so much use out of half a duvet cover! The other half of it was the blue with ivory daisies, I got it from a charity shop but it originally would have cost more than I would ever contemplate spending on a bed sheet! Some people have more money than sense, especially to give it away in perfect condition to a charity shop! 

Apologies for the usual reason of terrible photos, when the weather co-operates I'm going to take some proper photos (still with my phone but it can't be helped) outside, in the sunshine with my good friend Bethany as my model because she is far slimmer and far more photogenic than I am! This has to be the biggest problem with making clothes that don't fit me, but I wouldn't ever sell them if I could squeeze into them!

Part 3 of the finishing week!

Finally got around to finishing this, one more thing complete!
I made this using the contour bust tutorial from Lex over at whatthecraft.com.
As you can see I've added a ruffle edging around the top, straps and two layers of ruffles/gathering round the bottom.

The straps cross over at the back, I was going to have this as a halterneck but the back kept falling down so I decided upon this type of strap, a halterneck look at the front but keeps the back from slipping down. You can't see in the photo but I have elasticated the top part to keep it tighter and still let me get it on, I really didn't want to mess about with zips or buttons.
I have also added in a few pleat/gather type things along the centre of the back as it was a bit too baggy. It creates a nice effect even if its purpose is more practical.

Lastly a close up of the front detailing, probably should have took this picture with the top on my body form but that involved too much messing about!

Well this is one more thing out of the way, few more things to complete before I start creating a whole load more half finished products!

Recent sewing

First up is a top I made yesterday, same fabric as the daisy circle skirt, lace trim and ties made from the same material. Very summery! The bust part is from a tutorial by Lex (Contour bust tutorial) and the elasticated back was my own addition because I didn't want to mess about with zips or buttons! I will be doing a version with a zip when I get around to it on my big list of thing to do!

Second is the dress that I made for my mum, isn't the butterfly print cute?!
Just a basic halterneck dress like the other ones, finished all the seams really nicely and even hand sewed the excess material around the elastic casing! Mum has promised me a picture so when I get it I'll post it up to show what the dresses look like when they are on a person as opposed to on my living room floor!

Two other things I made for the craft fair!

First pic is of a dirndl skirt (as I found out today, didn't realise it had an actual name!) which is basically an elasticated tube and takes about half an hour to make. I personally think the fabric is a little on the awful side of things but I'm a fan of black, black, polka dots, black, black, leopard print and err more black! Colour and pattern freak me out a bit, I feel messy if I'm wearing more than two colours (one having to be black).
Second pic is a halterneck top in daisy print, basically just a shortened version of the dresses I've been making. I was really pleased with myself whilst making this as I didn't have to look at the instructions at all, it's been granted a slot in my brain to remember forever!! I do like the pattern though, I might even sneakily make myself one, probably just a top rather than a dress, will look good with shorts, unlike my legs haha!