Hello all, the schools went back today in Scotland. This means the end of our summer travels (we got back from Ireland visiting family at the weekend) and also means I will be going back to work in a few weeks. The flitting around the place has meant less time for sewing, but the going back to work will affect that even more. So I would like to knock out a few projects over the next couple of weeks and then spent what little time I will have making a painstakingly perfect woollen dress for the winter. I have the fabric bought for this and have been agonising over patterns but think I have decided on one. That will be another post however.
I am about to make my third version of
Butterick B5285. This pattern has a story. I know. Exciting.
After I started dressmaking classes and had been plodding through a couple of terms it occurred to me I should look at clothes I like and try to get patterns like them to make. I had had my third baby and was still at classes and struggling through a dress I was making a mess of and I hated. The baby and I were going to a music class run by a lovely German lady who wore nice clothes. One week she turned up in a pleated skirt made in a stiff, shiny, brocade material. The weight of the material meant that it flared out at the bottom of the pleats. It looked fantastic and I wanted it.
I had decided to make myself a shirt for the next block of classes - I am not that into shirts but I thought it would be challenging. As I was up the other end of town I called into the
The Dress Fabric Company. My friend Jane had been there and had been very nice about it. It is small but the fabric is lovely and the lady who runs it fabulous. If I lived on the south side I would consider becoming her BFF. She gave me advice on a shirt pattern and then, as an afterthought, I asked her about the skirt. She went rummaging through her pattern catalogues and came up with one she through would work.
I realise then how limited my imagination was. I would never have managed to find this as I was very focused on the material and didn't think about the shape of the skirt. In the mean times as well I found a very similar looking skirt in the Macy's sale when visiting a friend in Calfornia. It had the pleats, the shine and the sticky outness.
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| I didn't make this one - it is one I found that matched the shape I wanted. |
This skirt pattern needs a wide fabric - 150cm. This wasn't that obvious from the back of the packet so I think I had a couple of false starts getting material that wasn't wide enough and so could not get the full length of the skirt in. I had bought a skirt length of a shiny gold knit material at Mandors and the pattern fit on it. It didn't have the fabric weight that I wanted but it had the shine so I gave it a whirl. It was a real nightmare to work with - slippy and impossible to make marks on using anything but tacking (slow and boring). I managed to cobble it together but then struggled with the waistband in that material. Also I was meant to but a zip in! However after I had finished my very perfect but not really worn very much shirt I brought the skirt in to show the teacher and she just suggested I put elastic in. So I did and it worked and no zip trauma - hurrah. here it is.
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| Shimmer shimmer |
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Special apology to my friend Julie at Quilty Kilty who hates embarrassing poses for blog photos
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Isn't it lovely? It is the first thing I made that I wore AND got spontaneously complimented on. It is so glittery it is the kind of thing you have to point out. I found it hard to figure out what to wear with it and ended up with that black body on the recommendation of friends. I am not sure I have the styling of it sorted out but it works for now. I have my eye on the
Nettie bodysuit from Closet Case Files. This is on my long list.
Happily I also had enough material left over to make mini-me skirts for the girls which they love.
Skirt number one was a success but it wasn't the big flary out affair that I originally wanted. I started a material hunt but couldn't find any nice brocade. I even searched through curtain material but it wasn't what i wanted. It wasn't the end of the world as I did have the version that I had bought in California.
Having a rummage through my stash I found some beautiful stiff silk my mother had given me when I was home visiting one time. It was left over from her bridesmaid's dress and was the most gorgeous bluey black shiny colour. I tried the pattern on it but I didn't have enough to make the original length and so I decided to make a slightly shorter one. It was so easy to make with a stiff stable material. It came together really fast and I put in my most successful zip (forgot to photograph that bit , it is gorgeous). It is rather creased in all these photos so I might have to take some more (but I suffer from a lack of photographer, I made my poor sister take loads of me today when she popped round for a visit).
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| Ignore the lack of pressing, this one shows the pleats best. |
I really really love this skirt. Really love it. And I have been on the hunt to find some lovely material to make it for my sister. In
The Cloth Shop next to my girls' school I saw this in a pile next to the till:
Isn't it lovely? I love the colour and the texture and the pattern. I was so in love with it that I bought five metres - two to make my sister a skirt and the rest for a dress for me (again on the long list).
That is all for tonight. I have a dress for middle daughter almost finished that makes her laugh. It needs hemmed and I need to make sure she can get into it (I think the zip is too short). I also have some dresses that I brought back from Ireland that my mother made and I am hoping (with the help of a seamstress friend) to adjust to fit me. So I will have more to write about over the next few week.
Enjoy August people.
