Big Brother Washi

Hey hey! So apparently being on maternity leave takes more energy than you would think! I've been sleeping lots, and having baths and painting chests of drawers, and buying copious amounts of small people things, and sleeping! Did I mention sleeping?

Monday was my birthday, which was really lovely. I didn't put loads of pressure on myself because, well I wasn't going to get any of it done so you can't say fairer than that. So my friends came to me, we sat in the yard on a sunny day and I drank No-jito. My new favourite drink. I got lots of lovely pressies, and even made myself a dress! The dress I'm talking about today though is not that dress. 

Remember this logo?

It's kind of creepy right? It's from Big Brother Series 11. Do you remember when Big Brother first started? It was supposed to be sort of a social experiment thing, maybe, and they were all fairly nice people who didn't want to evict each other and kept reminding each other that it was all just a game? Shame that didn't last, though I guess people would have bored of it pretty quickly. So anyway the fabric for my dress really reminds me of these logos:

It's another Washi! Surprise! Ha ha, I know, I'm a broken record but they really are one of the only things I can fit on myself these days... I got big! It's due date on Monday so not long to go, but could be any time really, before or after then. It's weird being off work for this amount of time, I'm well into my third week and I'm starting to fall into old habits like when I was on summer holidays back in the day. You remember that time? You get halfway through and your life starts to slip into a routine? You know what time of day Murder, she wrote starts? Although at the moment all I'm doing is powering through hundreds of episodes of Warehouse 13. Have you seen it? It's on Netflix so it does that dangerous thing of just lining up the next episode and before you know it you've watched five in a day. I wouldn't say it's great TV, but it's very watchable, which is all I'm after right now. Don't want to stretch my brain thanks!

Evidence of my giantness, though this was a few weeks ago so again, imagine me bigger as I write this ha ha. These dresses are really misleading because from the front you don't quite look as big, then you turn to the side, and it's boom! Baby time ha ha. I can't believe I've made no adjustments to fit my belly into these dresses, I'm impressed! 

One change I have made is to add a zip down the front, this is for nursing. Thanks so much for your thoughts on this. I decided that I would start by adding in front access, so I can at least wear something other than pyjamas at home once Spud arrives. Then I went to Mamas & Papas recently for a car seat, and found a jersey dress that I like! That has clever parts for nursing after baby is born. I'm going to copy this for some new makes and will make sure I show you so you can do the same. It's great because it's somewhere between a dress and skirt and top combo... but still comfy! All will become clear I promise.

What do you think of my new background? This is the wall we painted for the nursery, we just used masking tape and emulsion paints and they came out way better than we imagined. The theme in the nursery is rainbow colours, and it's starting to look awesome. Once we have the chest of drawers all finished up and I can get some of the clothes away it's going to look amazing. We ran out of paint so it went on a bit of hiatus for a while. Back to work this afternoon though. 

So yeah, I haven't really said much about this dress but you get the idea right? I feel like I've talked the Washi to death so don't really have anything else to say. I reckon my shirring elastic game is pretty damn awesome now though. I sometimes wonder if I did the Sewing Bee now, how would I fair? I've got way more sewing under my belt, maybe I'd be more comfortable? Have different ideas? Guess I'll never know! See you on the flipside folks, 

Debs 

Post Number 100 and a Floral Flora

Happy Saturday puny humans! This is my one hundredth post woooo

I guess that isn't really that impressive as I've been writing this blog since 2010... but there have definitely been some large gaps between posts. I'm really enjoying doing more regular postings, and I now have a backlog to keep me going as I photograph in bulk, that's how I've finally managed to keep up momentum with the posts. So thanks world for sticking with me, and new readers... welcome!!

I'm at the end of my first week of maternity leave, what a week! I've been out for lunch a couple of times, bought a lot of things online, painted one chest of drawers, started knitting a blanket and still managed to keep my feet up. Feel very pro-active! Though I did have lots of appointments and lunches to go to so maybe I'll lose some momentum next week.

At the moment it's pouring down outside, so of course I've got a holiday summer dress to show you! This is the By Hand London Flora, I'd been obsessing over a wrap over style for a while. I have this idea in my head of a wrap top with floaty sleeves in a massively seventies style, so I thought I'd use the Flora as a base, and to create something floaty to wear for our holiday to Croatia (yeah... I'm a bit behind on the posting ha ha)

Unfortunately there are a few issues with the bust fit, pretty much the same issues I get with RTW (ready to wear) wrap dresses. It is all just a little loose around the top. Not sure where to go with adjustments to be honest, I know that a lot of the issues are caused by me stretching out the fabric as I stitched the lining to the main fabric. This fabric is very light and floaty, I tried to be careful but clearly I didn't do such a good job.

Also I think I could do with shortening the front bodice, I've added some ribbon here to get rid of some of that excess fabric, but it's something to keep in mind for next time. Other than that I'm not sure... maybe I should just go a size down? Ideas on a postcard :-) I've also made it maternity friendly by adding the Washi and shortening the under bust to lose the waist. Man, I can't wait to wear something with a waist again. I know it won't be immediate, but at least I'll be on the road to a waist soon!

The back fits really well though, so the issues are definitely all in the bust. I didn't bother pattern matching as this is such a busy fabric, I figured it would all get lost in there. I love this material, so hopefully I can make it a little more wearable (without the need for a safety pin) so I can wear it again before the end of the summer).

Hopefully I'll get some more sewing done next week, I'm still not sewing for the little one, but seeing as I have about 30 all in one bodysuits, and 25 vests I'm not sure it wouldn't be a waste to be honest. I can't wait to show you the nursery, it's the first time me and Terence have properly done up a room together and it looks so awesome!

Like I mentioned I have started knitting a blanket though so I don't feel quite like the terrible mother I could be ha ha. More dresses for meeeee

Vintage Pledge Pinafore Complete!

Aloha folks! How is your day going? I have finally reached the end of the five thousand social engagements that have taken up my every weekend for the past six weeks. I'm pretty tired, but only have a week and a half of work left so am looking forward to finally taking a moment off before Spud arrives! 

This weekend my plan is to potter, finally make those dresses I needed for work.... so I can wear them in my last week (oops) and sit with my feet up for a bit. We had a baby shower over the weekend, and showed off the nursery to family and friends. I managed to stay up til 2.30am! Pretty chuffed with that as my last hoorah for a while ha ha. 

Today I'm showing you my stretch denim pinafore, made from vintage pattern Style 1156, this is the first ever vintage pattern I have ever used! Can you believe it? People are always saying I have a vintage style, I like to think I like everything and that's why I have a bit of a vintage aesthetic. 

Therefore I have completed my #vintagepledge for 2015, to actually sew an original vintage pattern! Im pretty sure that this is from the '70s. 

For some reason I look a bit unimpressed in these pictures, but actually I'm pretty darn chuffed! I used the stretch denim that I bought for my simple stretch maternity skirts that are now a bit indecent (I didn't realise quite how high my bump would be... it pulls skirts up rather high! :-)  ). You can't tell in these pics really but it's got a lovely flock pattern. 

It looks in the pattern like there is a placket centre front, but in fact this is a small fold which is topstitched with buttons added. Once it was topstitched, and because I added the button tab detail I decided it looks better plain. I'm sure I'll make another one at some point, I might change this so it's a proper button placket for breastfeeding. 

I went to a workshop about breastfeeding on Monday, and am feeling a little better about it all. My only worry is what I'm going to wear? I wear mostly dresses that don't open at the front, so the double layer vest and top thing would basically mean me getting naked? The two dresses I'm making at the moment I'm ensuring have front openings to try and limit this issue but if anyone has any suggestions (that don't involve me wearing solely jersey for the next six months) I'd very much appreciate it. 

I used the original skirt pieces from the pattern, as I figured it would stretch around the bump, and I was right hoorah! This now means that I have something that has a different skirt to the washi in the wardrobe. I mean I love the washi skirt (clearly) but I am getting a little fed up of having the same silhouette every day, especially as I can't wear my skirts.

When looking at the cover art it appears to be a pinafore, but in fact this is a dress with a a full back. I didn't quite have enough fabric to pull this off so adapted the back to be more like a pinafore, with tabs coming from the back, at an angle so that they would sit well on my shoulders.I also used these straps as tabs, adding in the buttons to complete the pinafore look. It was nice to use up some buttons from the stash. I probably should have ironed this before taking pics, but what can I say? I'm lazy these days. 

.Again I've got that sway back problem like with my last make, but I'm pretty sure this is due to bump and will go away once I'm back to relatively normal. The zip is also separating at the top, so it probably needs a hook and eye.

This picture must be about a month or so ago, so imagine this picture, but bigger and you get an idea of how big my belly is now he he.

The pockets are lined with a white muslin with little red flowers that I've used in lots of projects and now have lots less. After talking about trying to get through my stash, I started the process last week, going through my massive bag of excess fabric that is left over from other projects. I separated out all the cottons that I'm likely to make patchwork/ possible kids clothes from, set aside any pieces of material big enough to make big people clothes from, and put all the wools and heavier materials into a bag under the stairs. This is only one bag of the masses of stuff I've to get through, but I feel better now for having made the first inroads on this massive task. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts on my stash stress. 

Washi Cami Sixties Inspired Day Dress

Good day to you guys and gals! Hope you're all doing well, the past couple of weeks have been a bit crazy with last minute flights, trips to Birmingham and London, and this weekend we're off to Scotland. Who says pregnant ladies need to relax?!

To be fair I have done myself a bit of damage trying to do too much so am working from home today. I can't tell you how amazing the flexibility of my new job has been, I'm not sure I would have survived this long without it. Though sitting on the comfy seat does seem to make baby want to press his head against my rib.

Did you take part in Me Made May? It's all over now... and has been for a while ha ha! I had a fantastic time this year, and actually made it all the way to the end, which is the best I've ever done out of three years of taking part. You can see my pictures on my instagram account. What normally happens is I'm really enthusiastic at the start and then slowly lose enthusiasm for it all and go silent. But this year I managed to stick to the documentation as well as (generally) wearing a me made item a day. That was my only goal, to stick with it so I'm really happy I managed it. Next year I'll try and take a pic a day, but this year I'm just proud to have finished it. No sweeping statements about what I have learned about my wardrobe for as you can imagine the only thing I learned is that my belly is getting bigger and there's not much I can do about that!

So this dress is another Washi make over ha ha. Once I find something that works, it's very difficult to sway from the path, I jsut make hundreds of the same type of thing until I don't want to make it ever again! In this case it's a good thing though especially as it's important these clothes take me through to the end of my pregnancy. This is a hybrid of the skirt from the Washi by Made by Rae and the bodice of the Cami by Pauline Alice.

I used my fully adjusted Cami bodice that you can read about here. I've still got another post to do for that series, but I've covered all the fitting adjustments now, now I just want to show you all the different versions I've made!

Instead of having the bodice its full length, I scooped the bottom of the bodice pattern to the length of the Washi bodice, following the shaped curve. This means that the bodice is now the right height to accommodate bump.

I then used the back piece of the washi pattern, laying over the cami pattern to create the correct neckline and armholes. To ensure a comfy fit I left off the shirring elastic and replaced with fabric ties. It makes for a bit of a creasy ripply back, but it's so comfy and not everything has to fit to within an inch of its life ey? Ha ha. Oops, just spotted a loose thread on the bottom of this skirt. I don't think I've ever made anything where all threads are well trimmed.

Argh! Giant face! I wanted to include this to show off my collar. Every time I make this, the collar gets a little bit better, I'm still not the neatest sewer, but i'm getting better! Also, just look at that pattern match across the seam! So proud.

I think I managed ti avoid the points on this design falling exactly over my nipples, they are pretty close, but they did have to go somewhere, so I'm not worrying about it too much.

I don't often make clothes that fit well into the bracket of a certain decade, but this is definitely sixties, the design of the fabric, the fit of the skirt and the style all come together to make one heck of a sixties day dress. I feel pulled together and yet comfy, so important with Spud getting bigger. I think I'd like a fleet of these for post-baby clothes so I don't feel slobby when I'm comfy. Not that I can slip into the jeans and top routine as I don't own any jeans ha ha.

Again, these photos are from quite a while ago, so you'll have to take my word on the size of the bump, but it's getting pretty big!

What am I up to?
Have any of you got your tickets for the handmade fair yet? I'm going to be doing a workshop! So excited, some of you may remember that I (and my mum) made masses of flowers for the decorations at my wedding. Learn how at my workshop! http://www.thehandmadefair.com/skill-workshop/yarn-textiles/

Hope I see you there, Debs x