THE GREAT NOVEMBER FABRIC EXCURSION - Was Epic!

On Saturday I met up with some fabulous bloggers almost all that I had met before. Steph, Santie, Claire, Dibs But also some new faces. I was pleased to meet Alana and Nikki for the first time too!

I was also thrilled for Dibs who as you can see here is waiting for her lovely little boy to come!

We hit the fabric shops straight away but most of us were pretty restrained up until after lunch.

Goldhawk Road did not disappoint as usual and we had a great time not leaving until it was dark! Of course laden with fabric!

Claire was also kind enough to give me this cute little tin and a multi coloured pencil for pattern drafting!

So what did I buy? I have to admit I could have bought a lot more! I had a plan and I pretty much stuck to it but I didn't even get everything on my list.

This cotton is for a wrap dress

This cotton is for an unidentified christmas present.

I think me, Steph and Dibs all bought this cotton sateen. Its so fabulous!

This poly was the bargain of the day. Just £1.25 per metre!

I had my eye on this linen last time I went to Goldhawk road and so I had to get it the next time around!

My favourite thing of the day however was this awesome lobster print that I'm going to turn into a shirt dress!

I had such a brilliant time and I can't wait to do a bigger outing again soon!

Starting my Lady Grey...

A year later than planned! But It is getting cold. I asked what you guys thought and Kirsty and Freya both made excellent points for both my Cherry print dress/shirt and Lady Grey coat but the coat won out.

I am intending to overfit just a tiny bit. I want this coat to be worn in the snowy winters so it needs to have enough ease to fit a couple of jumpers underneath!

I started my wearable muslin this afternoon. I'm going to go back through Gertie's posts and do both muslin and final coat complete with padstitching etc. I'm doing this because if all goes well both will be useful coats!

I have to admit I bought a wool on sale to use as my muslin and I think I like it better than the fabric I bought a year ago.

This is my original fabric and lining. The Lining is Paul Smith shirting with little S' on so I figured S for Stevie!

I'm quite short (5ft3) so the coat is currently coming out at mid to knee length. I don't mind this so much as it will keep my legs warmer in the cold weather. Plus once its got the lining bagged in and its hemmed it should be a little shorter. I purposely cut a size larger than I normally do but I have ended up taking it in on each seam by about two sizes!

Before tweaking and taking in the back looked like this...

After it looked much better!

I fitted it to Adele and then tried it on pinned together. The fit is pretty good so far so I'm going to take it apart again and start with the interfacing etc.

This is what I'm thinking of lining my wearable muslin in. Its a japanese glazed cotton. I'm not sure though perhaps it is a bit too busy and bright? I'd love your opinions!

I have a final question for you all! Can you padstitch onto normal interlining? I can't find any hair canvas anywhere and I'm itching to get sewing!

Me-Made Meetup!

(Just a few of us! Thanks to Suzie for the photo)

Ok so this is an interval in sewalong posts. Yesterday I met some lovely friends old an new, for the me made meetup in Brighton.

We had a fantastic time and did a bit of light fabric retail therapy followed by a fabric swap.

I'm happy to say the fabric I took to swap went to a new home where it was wanted, and the fabric I received in return was fabulous!

Heres my purchases for the first part of the day. All were from Ditto.

This is a firm cotton twill? Its a bit softer but not silky enough to be a sateen. This is going to be a burda Marie Skirt I think.

Some polkadot Jersey. I always love the remnant table and almost never buy their jersey unless its on the table.
The red bamboo jersey was also a remnant. Its normally a tenner a metre so I was pleased to pick this up!
The next lot is a Paul Smith shirting with little S' on!
Now onto the swap stuff. This is a lovely cotton sateen style fabric.

This is a slightly silky jersey, perhaps a slub?

Then there is a cotton jersey in yummy ice cream colours!

Finally I got a floral with a slight needlecord feel and stretch.

You would think that would have been more than enough right? But the day before some lovely quilting cottons came that I ordered from the U.S. about a month ago!

Jeanine Morrison's Atlas in Butter,

The next is Dena Tea garden in Oolong! (love the tea reference and the pink is amazing.)

The final one is a Joel Dewberry Deer in Barnwood. Delicious right? Looks like a 1930s feedsack print.

Now to plan all the lovely clothes to make!

Onwards!

Today has been a day of meh-ness. I got all exited that I had fully lined my beignet with no problems. But alas! Twas not true, I've either lost a piece in translation or I have sewn it to another piece and it is therefore trapped in the lining. Doh.

Look there is even a Butt pocket! In the wrong damned seam.

Anyway that was thrown on the floor in a fit of rage...

Heres my MMJ Day 2 outfit. This is my market blouse that I will be doing the Sewalong for on the 20th of June! (Me and Piemaker have been working on the button and stuff for this!) This is paired with cheap RTW sailor trousers from Dorothy Perkins or something that I cut into shorts. Bit boring but I've only been sewing today and it required comfort!

So Once I had calmed down and ignored my Beignet I grabbed my Kona cotton (in Curry colour, plain yellow) Then stopped myself. Not wanting to waste a good quality plain fabric when I was mad. But I needed to make something new and craved something happy and yellow.
I grabbed my Amy Butler fabric I bought at Sewing For Pleasure Aeons ago and grabbed McCalls6011 (My Pearl dress was made from this) and chopped it into a top.

I literally LOVE the result. I was worried about wasting the fabric but I'm pleased I cut it! I just need to make some facings and finish off the seams. (To add to my distress my overlocker ran out of white thread!) Here's a sneaky peek. Pie maker is out galavanting so yet again I am forced to take my own damned photos.

Literally LOVE this fabric...

At Dawn We Dress Handmade...

Indeed I did.
Today I wore my red white and blue mark 1, (A Lisette pattern), and my Etta cardigan for little errands in The Laines, post office etc.

This definitely needed an FBA and the waist is a little tight for my liking.

I did my photos on photobooth as I was waiting for Piemaker to be my resident photographer. He's not yet in from work and its date night so were going straight out for dinner and then to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4! ( I think its the 4th right?)

Well anyways. I did errands today and spent the rest of the day sewing.
I got the collar and button placket onto my shirtdress and did a few odd sewing jobs, cutting some interfacing for my duck egg peplum shirt I had to use my pattern weights! I also started putting together my Beignet!

You didn't think I could walk past two fabric shops and not buy anything did you? I got some buttons for my duck egg blouse. Some Mustard Kona cotton (I really like the weight of this I was thinking it was going to be too thin!) some unknown floral fabric, like a very lightweight cotton linen texture and some Michael Miller Peony fabric. It was an expensive treat but I had some birthday money. (9.99 pm) I had also seen it online but it was too breathtaking in person to leave. One of these florals will be a Lisette tunic dress I think!

Hows your first day of Me Made June?

Progress List...

Morning all. I am blogging early so I can drag my sorry self to the library. Something tells me I won't be getting much sewing done this week which is making me a bit tense.

So I figured a progress report will help so I know where I am with each project.

First up is my duck egg cotton. This has been cut for Simplicity 2601 in the end. I have some duck egg swiss dot I got at Goldhawk Rd. I could use for the Violet if I wanted a blue one.

This hasn't got past the cutting stage. But as I've made this before it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to construct.

My Violet shirt is started. I'm getting on really well with it. I'm into the collar stage so it shouldn't take much to finish.

I didn't really talk much about this one. Partly because its fast becoming a UFO. The fabric is beautiful and expensive but I rushed it for the Sew Weekly meetup and the sleeves are appalling. It needs the sleeves taken off and a few bits straightening out, the collar put on and the belt made. I have to get this done as it is a lovely cardigan that I would get a lot of wear out of!

My original plan for this fabric was a different pattern, but since i bought the minty green colourway I reserved it for that pattern instead and went for this in pink with a white collar. This is virtually finished but someone started to sew the collar the wrong way round (DOH)

I did all the finishings first though so no more fiddly bits left on this one.

My Jeans are cut and marked but I had a bit of a freakout about how complex they looked. I have had a look at Peter's Jeans Sewalong posts and a few other bits and bobs but I think I have to be 100% focused to be able to get around to these.

My Lisette Traveller is cut and ready. I'm doing the tunic version with the small collar but making it longer so that I can wear it with leggings.

I know I was trying to resist cutting the Beignet but I couldn't I did it yesterday whilst waiting for an email from my tutor. I just need the interfacing piece cut and this is ready to sew. I was surprised at how difficult the needlecord was to cut. I ironed beforehand but it just kept wrinkling, hopefully this won't affect the pieces too much.

I've prewashed my fabric ready for the Market Sewalong. Just a plain dark purple. I have some cute buttons lined up for the placket too! I personally will be doing Version E but if you want to do a different version be my guest! I might squeeze in the tunic version but I am already pretty swamped!

This is the Jersey for the simple 6874. This is pre washed and drying before its cut out but I think this could be done in an afternoon no problem.

It doesn't look like that much on my rail. Gosh. Here's hoping I get some free time soon!