Spotty Anna

The last time I made an Anna dress, I had to make a lot of adjustments to the fit to get it right. This time round I learnt my lesson, I used the finished garment measurements instead. To do this I used my Upper bust, bust and waist measurements.

There is usually only about 1-1/2 inch difference between my upper bust and bust, so I've never done a full bust adjustment, choosing to make any adjustments once the dress is made. Maybe if I find a dress that I find has a lot of issues I might do this in future.

However, I have found that it is useful for me to grade from the smaller size at my upper bust for the shoulders/ neckline to the full bust measurement. I did this on the Anna as below:

This means that I get a closer fit above the full bust line. This dress therefore now fits so much better than my previous version (before all the adjustments). It's so comfortable to wear, and I added my favourite skirt on as well New Look 6723 , this is basically just a trapeze shape which I add pleats to once the bodice is made. In order to do this I stitch the skirt sides together, and pin to the bodice (with pleats sewn in) at the side seams.

I then find the centre of the bodice and mark, and the centre of the skirt and mark. Pinning these two centre points together and then up to the point of the pleat like so:

I then create a pleat from this point by folding over the excess fabric to the inside. I then do exactly the same at the back, but instead of folding the fabric under itself, I create a box pleat by bringing the excess fabric from either side of the pleat into the middle.

Using this method, I can ensure that the pleats on the skirt and bodice match up perfectly. Using this skirt instead of the drafted Anna skirt means I can have a big lunch and not worry about the consequences ha ha. Once I got the bodice right on this dress, I managed to make it up in 2 1/2 hours! I've now made two for friends and two for myself, I'm becoming a bit of an Anna obsessive.

I got the inspiration for this dress from a Cath Kidston one I saw that was navy polka dot with ric rac on the bottom, I really liked the style, though it's probably more twee than I would normally go for. I bought the fabric from ebay though and it has already started to fade quite a bit, so I may need to replace it soon. I've found it so easy to wear to work, I think another couple in some 'sensible' fabrics may be on the cards.

It looks like the back is quite gappy in these pictures, and there is a little bit of ease here, but the dress is so comfortable I wouldn't want to make this any smaller. My other version is in a slightly thicker material, so may have needed to be brought in. But I'll tell ya all about that when I post it!

Do you like the shoes? Definitely not sensible, I decided this year was the year of the shoe. They are the perfect way to feel dressed up, and Ive only fallen in them a couple of times! (I always fall over... even in flat shoes, no real reason just that the ground likes me) I think I want to get some more fancy shoes. I figure I dont buy ready to wear very often these days, so I can splurge occasionally.

Dino Kelly

Dinosaur fabric! Skirts! Hoorah! This is my first rendition of the Kelly skirt, and it definitely won't be my last. I took a lot of time over this skirt, and added in a couple of extra details to make it more faancy.

The waistband has stretched out a little unfortunately (it's a light blue/ grey teeny cord). I think I might add a little elastic, to the back of the skirt. The main fabric of the skirt is unpholstery/ canvas Cath Kidston fabric. It was pretty thick, and it makes the skirt a-line stick out really well. I did flat-felled seams on the sides, to make the seams lie flat.

I made piping for the pocket, and covered my own buttons. I love this fabric, the colours are amazing! 

And it has super deep pockets!

Not much more to saw about this skirt pattern, the instructions are easy to follow, and I'll definitely be making more

Mad Men Dress

Ah only fools post about challenges they've nearly finished... or some such sewing based idiom. I did finish my dress in time (promise) but a series of unfortunate technological events contrived against me and the pics weren't ready in time for the challenge showcase! Boo! Ah well ya win some ya lose some. What I won was an awesome By Hand London Anna, proud of how it came out in comparison to my inspiration... and although I missed the challenge here are some Peggy inspired pics.

Hard at work on my latest advertising piece

You can see there's a little bit of bagginess at the back still. I did struggle with the sizing on this dress, it came out far too big on the first go so I kept having to adjust. Ill have to go down a size or two for the next one I think. I also wanted to shorten the skirt pieces, but didn't do it in the pattern stage so made myself some little pleats. I love how they came out as I like a little extra material round the midriff. Anyway, back to work...

Hmm.. what rhymes with Coca-Cola..?

Here are some pics on Betty so you can see some of the details. 

Can you see my picture on the wall? It's the legend that is Captain Picard "Make It Sew", Data and Geordie have sewing machines... it's the best

And if you're interested, oooh look at the pretty insides. I used pre-made bias binding to bind the seams, and hair canvas around the edge to give it a nice standing out skirt. 

Red Checker Skirt

I'm back to some proper sewing posts! Hoorah! Though if I'm honest I made this skirt last Summer so this post is a bit long in the making. I loved the process of making this skirt, and was so excited while in the process as I thought it would be gorgeous. And then I tried it on.. and though it fit very well, and I was really proud of the finish, it just didn't really suit me (not to my mind anyway). 

I think choosing to make an a-line skirt with this material was where I went wrong. 

When I was making it, the material looked all flowing and lovely, but obviously as I made a slim a-line skirt, the flowing loveliness disappeared.          

In order to make the skirt I adapted New Look 6128, using a combination of the original width of the straight skirt, and overlaying the a line version over the top to add extra fullness.

I then added a placket down the centre based on the back placket on Tilly's Mathilde blouse.

Some of you may recognise that I made Mr T his tie from this skirt material. On the bodice you can see how I wanted it to look, and below is how it looks on me. Not quite right, it catches on my hip and then kicks out, not a great look.

I know how to fix it though. I think I'm going to add a panel in the sides of the skirt in the shape of a trapeze between the side seams, add another couple of pleats, hopefully that will give it back that flowing loveliness like on Betsy!

Don't forget to join my pattern pyramid competition. Time is running out!