My first Megan dress...

After my victory of yesterday (still very excited!), I have found time to day to share my first attempt at the Megan dress by Tilly and the Buttons. This dress is from her 'Love at first stitch' book and is a fairly straight forward make. I decided to use some lovely balloon fabric that I bought from modes4u.com to make it, so it has a celebration theme - Hence the photograph with the Christmas tree again! 

The main skills that this dress teaches you is an invisible zip fastening (which I use on most of my makes, so not a learnt skill here), inserting sleeves (quite straight forward on this dress actually) and an open ended dart (a new one on me, but very easy - just don't sew into a point). The open ended dart is designed to give a softer look to the shaping than a traditional dart. Tilly gives great guidance on doing this in her instructions, so no problems there! I decided to add lining to the bodice pieces to avoid using a facing. This worked well and was joined in at the armholes when the sleeve was added.  

In regards to the finished article, it's certainly well made. I'm please with my pattern matching, zip and sleeves - three things that can be dodgy! However, i'm not convinced that this shape of dress suits me. I managed to fit the dress at the back neck as this was gaping, so the size is correct, I think it is just the silhouette that i'm unhappy with. I think my curves are just too prominent! I certainly think that i'm more of a Lilou girl (see here) and should stick with this shape as much as possible. Next task is to do a pattern hack involving the shape of the Lilou and the sleeves of the Megan; wish me luck! 

P.S. Ignore my disgruntled face, It's just an unfortunate photograph!

Winning with my festive Mortmain!

I woke up this morning to some super news. Last week I entered my festive Mortmain into the Gather Virtual Christmas Party competition (#gatherxmasparty). I had planned to make the dress anyway, but was alerted to the competition by the Gather team through Twitter. 

After the closing date on Friday, I had a few passing thoughts about the competition, but I never considered actually winning it. So to my surprise this morning, I received a personal message from @GatherKits saying that I've won the party dress category! I am so excited about this! There's a great page on their website (here) announcing the winner and there's a great prize haul too! Lovely vouchers, a sewing kit and some Gather patterns!  

To say that Santa has come early is an understatement!!!

My festive Mortmain!

It's finally finished! After a great battle with the sleeves, I am pleased to show you my Christmas dress. My festive Mortmain by Gather is actually a massive triumph. The fit of the bodice is better than my previous attempts at this pattern (see here and here). Also, the fabric was a delight to work with and I'm really pleased with the combination of plain black cotton and the Riley Blake Santa fabric. I can't wait to wear it on Christmas Day!

What can I say about the sleeves... They were actually fine to put in, but seemingly I have abnormally large upper arms, which meant that they were far too tight! I had to remove them and decreased the seam allowance on the sleeve, before inserting it again. They're still a little tight, but it should be fine for the occasion. Thankfully I don't do much dancing on Christmas Day!

I'd love to see your festive outfits! 

My Christmas make - a sneak peak...

After a busy couple of weeks at work, I've finally found time to blog! I have been sewing during this time and have been making progress on my WIP's. I may have been slightly over ambitious with the amount of garments I want to make before Christmas, I needed to make some decisions. So, I decided to prioritise my Christmas garment. 

I bought 2 metres of the Riley Bkake fabric above from modes4u.com a couple of months back and had originally planned to make a skirt with it - probably a Picnic Blanket Skirt. However, I had a bit of a change of heart. Although I like the picnic blanket skirts I have previously made, I'm not sure how they're going to cope with my expanding belly on Christmas Day! 

I didn't want to try a new pattern at this stage, so I started to consider a Mortmain by Gather. On a recent fabric shopping trip I bought some plain black cotton, which would compliment the festive fabric perfectly! This was the starting point I needed. The next decision I made was to add the sleeves to the pattern - my previous versions of this have been sleeveless. My final decision was patterned skirt, or patterned top... This is a tough one! 

Answer to follow once I'm finished! 

Second Picnic Blanket Skirt...

Whilst on one of my many recent trips to Sham Shui Po, I picked up this lovely little fabric. It has a woollen quality to it, which i'm guessing is acrylic and it has a random cream printed spot pattern on a lovely rich navy background. 

I made the easy decision to make a second Picnic Blanket Skirt. My first one was a very simple make, with a very effective outcome. This no pattern make by Tilly and the Buttons involves some simple measurements and only a few simple stages of manufacture - seam, placket, gather, waistband, buttonholes, buttons and finally hem. (See instructions here) This time I went with a dark wood button, which compliments the navy very well. 

As you can see, the fabric does crease when it's worn, but I think that this blends in with the overall aesthetic quite well. This skirt sits lower in the waist than the first one, which should suit lots of my existing tops. 

My next question is, do I make another Picnic Blanket Skirt, this time in Christmas fabric? 

A second Lilou dress...

After saying I was taking a break from Tilly and the Buttons makes, I was at a loose end, so I decided to create a second Lilou! The first one turned out ok, however I did need to take it in at the back, so I chose to make a few alterations to the pattern this time. I took 2.5cm off the centre back seam and also took 1cm off the front waist dart to improve the overall shape and fit. I also decided to move the straps over 1cm towards the centre back as it was not sitting perfectly flat. 

Once I had made the changes to the pattern, the cutting and sewing process was quite quick and I managed to finish it in about 4 hours. The fully lined bodice is a delight to do now that I have experience. I chose a white cotton lining as I figured that a self lining might show through. 

Overall, I am really pleased with the final garment. The fit is loads better than Lilou number 1 and the navy and white gingham fabric matches my capsule wardrobe colours! My only issue is that the checks don't match up precisely at the back zip. However, this is just a small detail that can be solved by wearing a cardigan. To be honest I don't think the general public would notice at all, it's just me being picky!

I have several work's in progress now, so i had better pick up the pace with my making and stop getting distracted by quick and simple projects! With Christmas garments and gifts to make, it's going to be a busy few weeks!

Chevron patterned Coco!

So I said in my previous post that I purchased some chevron patterned cotton jersey from Spotlight in Singapore. This is the make I used it for! After the success of my first Coco, I knew that I wanted to make more garments from this wardrobe building pattern. 

Chevron patterned fabric is something I have coveted for a while and have yet to find any for clothing in Hong Kong. I had considered purchasing some Riley Blake chevron fabric from modes4u.com, but it was quite pricey so I decided to wait. I'm very glad because I totally love this red, fine stripe version. It's a challenge to look at, especially with the funnel neck and cuffs! However I do enjoy the pattern it creates at the joining point. It is certainly a statement piece! 

The manufacture went smoothly and substituting a sewn neckline with the funnel neck made it even easier to sew than my first Coco (see here). I used the hemming tape that I also bought from Spotlight to help with the finishing of the hem. This made the process extremely easy and i'm sure that a novice with knitted fabric would find this very straightforward.

I'm now almost looking forward to the weather getting cooler here in Hong Kong so that I can wear all my lovely new wintery clothes! I'm off to Beijing on a course on Wednesday, so this little number might make it into my suitcase. 

Has anyone else made a statement Coco?