Thoughts on repetition

Where do you stand on the issue of repetition in sewing? Do you have certain tried-and-tested patterns that you use over and over again, or do you prefer to try new things whenever possible? Anyone who read my last blog post, in which I shared a shirt that was my third version of Butterick 6563 and the fifth garment that I'd made using a particularly lovely Liberty print, would easily guess that I tend towards the first category.

There's nothing that would demonstrate that better in terms of my sewing than my collection of Christine Haynes Emery dresses.

This week I got a new wardrobe, and I decided that it would be fun (small things amuse me!) to initially just hang my Emery dresses in it to see quite how many I had. I thought it was 12 - turns out I'd underestimated myself and the grand total currently stands at 15!

Now, I definitely like to make multiple versions of successful patterns, but this is by far the biggest collection of one single pattern in my wardrobe. While part of the reason that I've made so many is because it was one of the first dresses that I ever made for myself back in 2013, therefore I've had more time to make multiple versions of Emery than of newer patterns, a large part of it is that it's a simple silhouette so when you're wearing it the focus more on the fabric rather than the dress itself. At least that's what I'm telling myself anyway!

Thinking about the patterns that I've made the most, they generally fall into this category. Other frequently used patterns in my wardrobe include the Sew Over It Susie blouse, although most of mine are my scoop neck hack (side note: finding that blog post to link to has uncovered a neglected 16th use of the Emery pattern in the form of a skirt), New Look 6217 (there have been more made since I wrote that post) and the Jennifer Lauren Gable top/dress.

Having a good simple silhouette to showcase a beautiful fabric is definitely welcome to someone like me who tends to be drawn to colourful and vibrant prints.

All this isn't to say that I don't like trying new patterns - I definitely do! My first pair of trousers are sitting waiting to be photographed and will hopefully be appearing here soon. At the moment I've got a toile cut out of what promises to be a super pretty new dress. I'm also thinking of joining in with #sewtogetherforsummer and sewing a jumpsuit or dungarees, which would definitely be out of my comfort zone. So I do enjoy learning new techniques and challenging myself to try different things.

However, there's a big part of me that primarily sews to relax. That part of me enjoys knowing that I already have pattern pieces cut out and adjusted to fit me. That I can just cut into my fabric and then get sewing, safe in the knowledge that I'll have already figured out any possible challenges of the construction process on my first (or second, third, or maybe even fourteenth!) previous version of the pattern.

Emery dresses modelled as they were finished, in roughly chronological order. Plus my changing hair over the years!

So while I'm not entirely in one camp or the other, I tend to like the comfort of the familiar with touches of sparkly newness thrown in every now and then to liven things up. How about you?

Easter Emery Dress

Hello hello! How are you all this evening? Suitably relaxed and chocolate-filled after a long Easter weekend I hope! I used the bank holiday on Friday to put the finishing touches to the latest in my long line of Emery dresses, which I'm here to share with you today.

I'll warn you now, this won't be a groundbreaking post - there's nothing new to say about sewing what is undoubtedly my most tried-and-tested pattern, but this is probably my favourite version to date so I wanted to share it anyway.

Apart from the fact that it fits me really nicely, and is exactly the kind of silhouette that I like, one of my favourite things about the Emery dress is that it's a perfect simple canvas for showing off gorgeous prints, which meant that it was the obvious choice for this beautiful floral number.

You know those times when you see a fabric and just HAVE to have it? This was one of those occasions! The print is Plockade from the Sommer collection by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller. I picked it up from The Village Haberdashery, who sadly don't seem to have this colourway in stock as I write this, but they do have lots of the rest of the collection available. I instantly loved this print, and knew it would make a really pretty dress so I treated myself to a couple of metres.

I did briefly consider trying a new pattern, but when such a lovely fabric was involved I thought it was better to go with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it principle" and stick with an Emery. I also decided that being as the print features daffodils, the dress needed to be finished while the daffodils were still in bloom, so it skipped to the top of my (admittedly fairly loosely defined) sewing list. You may notice that particularly brilliant fabrics have a habit of doing that with me - and I make no apologies for that!

As it's a good quality cotton, it's no surprise that this fabric was a pleasure to work with. It's got a really nice feel to it as well, with a better drape than lots of quilting cottons. That's not to say that it drapes brilliantly, but it has got a softer hand than other quilting cottons I've used. It works perfectly for a dress like the Emery and feels lovely to wear.

In case you haven't guessed already, I really love this dress. It combines my favourite pattern, a gorgeous print and lots of pretty colours so really it was always destined to be a winner, wasn't it? Have any great fabrics "forced" themselves into your shopping basket recently?

An Emery Dress for a Rainy Day

I was finishing off sewing a dress this weekend when I realised that I still hadn't got round to showing you the last dress that I made. As my semi-bare legs in the photos may hint, I've had the photos ready to go for about a month but they've been neglected waiting for the writing to accompany them. I blame a slightly stressful month in terms of work. It wasn't anything major, and stress levels in my job are definitely nothing compared to many professions, but it was enough to make sitting at a computer again the last thing I wanted to do at the end of the day. Thankfully that's all over now, so here's my (kind of) new dress!

As you may have guessed (or read in the title), this is my latest iteration of the Christine Haynes Emery dress (previous versions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). I made no changes other than my standard fit adjustments that I've mentioned in my other Emery posts.

This time, I chose to make it in a fun umbrella print from the Dashwood Studio Rain or Shine collection. I bought the fabric about 6 months ago because I found it with a great discount, but always intended to leave it until early autumn to sew up when umbrellas would probably be more weather-appropriate. Not that I didn't need my umbrella during the summer, but I always like to be optimistic!

I also always knew that this fabric would become an Emery dress because I think it's a great pattern for showing off a fun print. It's also undoubtedly my favourite pattern, mainly because I know that I'm always going to end up with a dress I love. If ever my motivation to sew is slightly lacking, or I've been left disappointed by a project, I know that making an Emery will put everything right again. Do you have a magic pattern that does the same for you?

Having extolled the virtues of the Emery, I have to sightly contradict myself and say that this one almost didn't have a happy ending. I was trying the almost-finished dress on when I got the bodice lining stuck in the zip. Completely, totally and utterly stuck. And I was stuck in the dress too. I momentarily debated which would be the less bad option between cutting and ruining the dress to get it off, or going round to one of my neighbours (who I don't know very well) to ask for help, but finally I managed to find some contortionist skills to free myself, and that made releasing the lining much easier. Please tell me I'm not the only one who's done that?!

Anyway, thankfully I can put that little crisis behind me and get on with enjoying my pretty new Emery! I've got a couple of other finished and nearly-finished projects ready to show you, and work has now returned to normal so hopefully I'll be back to enjoying blogging again instead of hiding away from the computer. See you soon!

Sleeveless Emery dress - a stamp collector's dream

How do you get out of a sewing slump? For me, the answer usually involves an Emery dress and some fun fabric, because it's a combination that I know is going to be successful. So when I was annoyed that a pattern I'd ordered had been lost in the post the other week, that's just what I set about sewing. Unsurprisingly, I'm pretty pleased with the results!

I've made quite a few Emery dresses now (the last one's here), so it's a pattern I'm familiar with and doesn't cause me any stress. This time though, I decided mid-way through that I'd change things up a bit.

The dress was hanging up just waiting for sleeves and a hem, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it looked great without sleeves, and that adding them might be a bit too much with this busy print. I tried it on and decided that the armholes wouldn't be too big to be left sleeveless as long as I used a 1 cm seam allowance instead of 1.5 cm (which doesn't sound much, but it did seem to make a difference!). As I'd already lined the rest of the bodice, I cut some bias strips from my fabric and used them to finish the armholes - and it seems to have worked a treat as far as I'm concerned.

I love the fabric I used for this version, a lovely cotton poplin from Textile Express with a whole rainbow of colours. I called it a stamp collector's dream in the subject of this post, but I suspect it may actually be more like a nightmare - I'm not particularly knowledgeable about the ways of stamp collectors but I think they probably wouldn't appreciate the pretty floral and dotty "stamps" that intermingle with the more genuine items. For me, they definitely add to the fun though so it's all good.

OK, time for some honest opinions now! The observant among you may have noticed that the headband I'm wearing here matches my dress - is that just a little bit too twee or is it OK? Personally, I think I can just about get away with it here because it's a print with a relatively large repeat and until you look at it closely, the headband sort of just looks multicoloured, but with a more obvious fabric pattern it would definitely be too twee to be matching.

I have become slight obsessed with making these headbands recently though - they're really quick, a great way of using up scraps and something that I wear regularly. I'm a bit disappointed that none of my family or friends would really wear them, because if they would then that would be birthday and Christmas presents sorted! They're pretty simple, but I was thinking of doing a tutorial if anyone's interested?

So there we go - a pretty new dress and headband! They did just what they were meant to in terms of inspiring me to sew again. I'm also pleased that I tried leaving this version of the Emery sleeveless - I'd definitely do that again, which is nice because it gives me more options for my most reliable pattern. All in all, three cheers for TNTs!

Roses Are Blue (and so is my wardrobe!) Emery Dress

This is not the most seasonally appropriate dress I could have made at the moment. Don't be deceived by the sunshine and blue skies in these photos, there was a bitter wind to go with them, and I had to run inside for extra layers as soon as possible or I would have turned the same colour as my dress! Sometimes though, you just need to sew what you want to sew and not the "sensible" option, and this, my latest Emery dress, was just such an occasion.

I picked the fabric up from the remnants section of my fabrics a couple of months ago (they have more of it here if you like it). I wasn't sure what it was going to become at the time, but I already had a couple of items in my basket, and spending a bit more would mean I got free delivery so I convinced myself that it actually made financial sense to buy this. Plus, you know, it's pretty!

The fabric sat patiently waiting to see what it would turn into for a month or two and then when I realised that I'd been terribly neglectful and not made a single dress yet this year, its fate was sealed. And I think it's a pretty good fate - like my other Emery dresses (1, 2, 3, 4), it just makes me feel good as soon as I put it on.

This time I lined the bodice with some lovely soft shirting I salvaged from a second-hand man's shirt. The collar was a bit worn but the rest of the fabric was fine and it was great quality so I'm glad it now has a new lease of life. I love how the lining looks with the main fabric too - I might have to restrain myself from unzipping my dress to show off the lining to random people!

It occurred to me recently, and this dress is a case in point, that I sew an awful lot of blue garments. I always have loved wearing blue in all its multifarious shades and hues, so this shouldn't be too much of a surprise, but I was rummaging through my scraps the other day and even I was slightly shocked by just how many of them are blue. Seriously, there are almost no fabrics there that don't feature blue to some degree or another!

How did that happen without me noticing it? And is there anything wrong with it? Part of me thinks that I should put an embargo on buying blue fabric and branch out into other colours, but then another part of me thinks that blue suits me and I like it so there's nothing wrong with my wardrobe having a tendency towards the monochromatic. After all, from navy to turquoise to baby blue, there's a lot of variation within this "one" colour. What do you think?

I suspect that however much I broaden my palette, which won't be hard because I do love colour in general, there'll always be something that brings me back to blue. Similarly, I don't think this will be my last Emery either, as number five is just as much a success as its predecessors. Do you have a colour or pattern that you're always guaranteed to love?

I heart the Emery dress

While variety may be the spice of life, sometimes it's nice to stick to something tried and tested that you know is going to work out perfectly. With that in mind, here's another Christine Haynes Emery dress...

I figure it's OK to keep making different versions of the same dress (my other Emery dresses are here, here and here) as long as each version is a bit different - which I think mine definitely are, so it's all good. Plus, I know it's going to fit me without having to make a muslin (I know to add an inch to the bodice but other than that a size 12 fits me perfectly), I know it's a shape that suits me and I know that it's a dress that's nice and comfy to wear. What's not to love?!

This is the short sleeves from view A but with the collar from view B. I still need to make myself a version with the bow from view A, so there will be at least one more Emery in my sewing future (who am I kidding, there'll be many more!), but I might give it a rest for a couple of months now so that I can try out a couple more of the patterns on my ever-growing "to sew" list. At the moment it seems like almost every time I catch up on blog reading there's a new pattern or pretty material that gets added to my inspiration list, I can hardly keep track of them all - does anyone else have that problem or is it just me?!

The fabric for this one is a lovely cotton from Croft Mill, although it seems to be sold out now, which is a shame because it was great to work with and it's really nice to wear. I wouldn't usually go for a heart print because I think that they can be a bit overly cutesy, but this one has enough randomness and quirkiness to make it pretty rather than excessively twee. From a distance, I don't think you even necessarily notice that it's hearts. 

The white for the collar is some cotton of unknown origin from my stash. I'm really happy with how the collar turned out and the way it makes the white of the main fabric stand out a bit more.

Like my last two Emery dresses, this one has a normal zip instead of an invisible one. It started out life with an invisible zip, and not any old invisible zip but the best invisible zip that I have sewn to date. The seams matched up perfectly first time and the zip was actually invisible, I was a happy bunny! Once I'd finished the rest of the dress and excitedly went to try it on, disaster struck - the zip broke, argh! Definitely not a happy bunny any more! The dress was then left to one side until I could bring myself to unpick the once-perfect-now-broken zip, at which point I wasn't trusting invisible zips so I went with a normal one. I'm over the trauma now though, and my invisible zip in my Clémence skirt seems to be doing fine, so I'll stop being irrational and give invisible zips another chance. They do give dresses a nice finish after all.

As this is my fourth Emery, there's not much else to say about it. I'm really happy with how it turned out (as I was fairly sure I would be), and it's already been worn a couple of times, hopefully with many more outings to come this summer.

On a different note, excuse the slightly odd blurring round the edges of these photos - I didn't realise when we were taking them that my camera was accidentally set to one of its "art" modes, and by the time I did realise I no longer had a field of daisies to pose in front of, and I think you really should make the most of a field of daisies when you find one so I decided just to go with it!

I'm now looking forward to the start of the weekend - I'm hoping to combine celebrating my Mum's birthday and enjoying the sun with a bit of knitting here and there in my quest to join in the Outfit Along. What's everyone else up to?

Off to market with the Emery dress

Things are a bit quiet on the sewing front around these parts this week - my machine is booked in for a service so I'm focussing on the knitting part of the outfit I'm planning for the Outfit Along instead. I had a bit of a disaster with it at the weekend and I'm not the speediest knitter in the world, so not sure if I'm going to get it done in time, but I'm giving it a go! In the meantime, I've got a dress that I finished last week to show you. Here's a shiny new Christine Haynes Emery dress...

This is my third version (version one here, and two here), so I don't have too much new to say about this one. Like my last Emery, this is view A without the bow. I'll get round to making one with the bow at some point, because I do love a bow, but I didn't think it would look quite right on this busy print.

Speaking of the print, this is Alexander Henry Market Stalls - I managed to snap up the last 3 metres at a bargain price from Fabric Yard (they're having a sale at the moment if you fancy a bit of fabric shopping...)!

It might not surprise you to know that I bought this a couple of months ago, just as Sew Dolly Clackett was coming to an end and my blog reader was full of beautifully bright and patterned dresses, which made me want to buy all the colourful fabric, and this fit the bill completely. I'm glad I snapped it up when I did, it's really fun and cheery, the market stalls are cute (there's tiny bunting in there!) and it's perfect for a nice summer dress.

I used the same alterations as in my previous versions (an inch added to the bodice length, and a smaller hem than in the instructions), and it feels fine when I'm wearing it, but looking at these photos it doesn't seem to fit quite as well as my other versions as there are a few wrinkles around the bodice. I think this might just be down to the fabric - this is a quilting cotton and it is a bit crisper and not quite as soft as the beach huts fabric I used last time, and obviously the Liberty lawn I used for my first version was even softer than that. Or it may just be that my posture isn't as good here - entirely possible! I'm pretty sure it's not that I've shrunk (I'm too fond of food to do that!), because I took my measurements again recently, and my other Emerys still fit nicely. I'm not going to loose sleep over it though, it feels fine when I'm wearing it and I've been told it looks nice, so it's all good as far as I'm concerned.

You might have spotted that I used a normal zip instead of an invisible zip again on this one - I've got a bit of a love/hate thing going on with invisible zips at the moment, which is currently more on the side of hate due to one breaking on me recently (more on that another time). I'll get back to loving them again soon, but I think in some ways I prefer normal zips on a casual dress like this.

I didn't have enough material to do any proper pattern matching, other than across the back of the bodice, but I tried to make sure that the horizontal lines matched up at each of the seams so that things didn't look too messy.

I think that's all I've got to say about this one - it's a happy dress to wear, and luckily I finished it just in time to wear in this lovely sun that we're enjoying at the moment. What's everyone else working on this week?

Emery goes to the seaside

So, the dress that I have to show you all today is probably my favourite garment that I have sewn so far - wearing it just brings a smile to my face, which is always good! It's my second version of the Emery dress by Christine Haynes, and my entry for the Sew Dolly Clackett contest...

I'm sure the whole of the sewing world has heard about Sew Dolly Clackett, which is being organised by Sarah of Rhinestones and Telephones in honour of the lovely Roisin's upcoming wedding. I'm a big fan of Roisin's amazing array of dresses, so as soon as I heard about the contest, I knew I'd have to take part. Plus I'd been meaning to make another Emery, so this seemed like the perfect occasion to do so and join in with congratulating Roisin in the process!

I'd also been eyeing up this fantastic beach hut print cotton from Ditto Fabrics for a while - I love a trip to the seaside so the combination of beach huts and sailing boats, and the cheerful colours, really appealed to me. It also seemed like it would work nicely with the Emery dress, and I thought it would fit in well for Sew Dolly Clackett, so I set to work.

I'm not entirely sure why I waited so long to sew a second Emery, because I love my first version and it's a shape that I find really flattering. Never mind, I've corrected the error of my ways now and I'm already planning a third version.

For this version, I made view A but left off the bow - I love the idea of the bow but I just didn't think it would work with this print. Like last time, I added an inch to the bodice and I also used a smaller hem on the skirt. I didn't think about the length of the dress before I started sewing because I know my first version is just right, but I forgot to consider that I wear my first version with black tights, and I prefer summer dresses that I wear without tights to be just a little bit longer. With the tiny hem that I used, this dress ended up being pretty much right but I'll probably add an inch or two to the length of the skirt for version 3.

I also used a regular zip for this version instead of an invisible one, partly because that's what I had here and partly because I had a limited amount of time to finish this before I went off on holiday and past experience shows that I can sew regular zips much more quickly than invisible ones!

I'm really happy I made the effort to match up the pattern across the centre back seam - I think I must have been inspired by all the talk about pattern matching on the Great British Sewing Bee or something! I couldn't get it to match the whole way down the centre back of the skirt without going off the grainline of the fabric but, without wanting to boast, I think I did a pretty good job on the back of the bodice.

(Excuse the weird crease around the waistline here - it's not usually there, I'd been wearing the dress for a whole day at this point!)

All in all, I LOVE this dress - it fits really nicely and the fabric is so fun it just makes me smile. There may have to be some more Dolly Clackett style dresses in my future if the feel-good factor of this dress is anything to go by!

Emery Dress

In between all the secret Christmas-related making that I've got going on at the moment, I managed to find time to finish some selfish sewing - the Emery dress by Christine Haynes.

I loved this pattern as soon as I saw it - with a fitted bodice, full skirt, pockets and the option of a collar or a bow, what's not to like?! It's pretty much my favourite kind of dress so I snapped it up straight away. I then got slightly scared that I might have bitten off more than I could chew because this dress featured a couple of techniques I hadn't used before, but you've got to try new things at some point or you'll never learn, right?

Of course, I needn't have worried! The instructions that come with the pattern are great and I followed the excellent sewalong that Christine just ran, and that was a useful helping hand for the steps I was slightly less sure of, so in the end I think that I've ended up with my best finished garment to date and I'm no longer scared of invisible zips!

I made the dress in a size 12, and the only change I needed to make was adding an inch to the bodice - which seems to be a fairly standard adjustment that I have to make on most patterns. I chose to make view B with the longer sleeves and collar, but followed the steps in the sewalong to change the collar from the pointed one in the pattern to a Peter Pan collar. The original pointed collar is cute, but I love a Peter Pan collar and I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

I almost added the bow from view A too but I've restrained myself at the moment! Although I'm very tempted to use the bow from the dress pattern and turn it into a bow belt in a solid colour to bring out one of the many gorgeous colours in the fabric.

Speaking of the fabric...I spent quite a long time pondering what material to use for this dress. I had found a couple of lovely brushed cottons that I thought might be nice to use for this time of year, but then I found this beautiful Liberty cotton lawn at a bargain price on ebay. There was just enough to make the dress so I thought it was a sign and went with it!

Yes, cotton lawn might not be a standard choice for this time of year, but I love it and as the bodice is lined, and if I wear it with a slip, I've found it perfectly warm enough. And those brushed cottons that I almost used are still in the back of my mind so there may well be a slightly more conventionally seasonal version in the pipeline soon. 

Overall, I only have good things to say about this pattern - if you're thinking about sewing it yourself then I'd definitely go for it!