Bronte & Delphine: saved by the buttons

Things have been a bit quiet around here recently - I've been busy making presents for family birthdays and then forgetting to get decent pictures of them, or being too distracted by reading other people's blog posts to actually get round to writing posts of my own. I'm putting that right today though and have a whole handmade outfit to share with you - a Jennifer Lauren Bronte top and a Love at First Stitch Delphine Skirt.

This may be a whole me-made outfit, but both Bronte and Delphine are fairly simple patterns so I finished both projects pretty quickly. I think they took me about one evening each, and I'm not a particularly speedy sewer.

I didn't necessarily intend for them to be worn as an outfit - Delphine was the answer to my yearning for a red skirt to wear with my first Bellini blouse, and I decided to sew the Bronte to boost up the numbers of long-sleeved tops in my wardrobe ready for the cooler weather - but they work well together and I figured that as they're both fairly simple projects I might not have too much to say about them so I might as well put them together in one post.

So, Bronte...I really like the short-sleeved Bronte that I made in the summer, so it was the obvious pattern to choose when I wanted to make a long-sleeved t-shirt. As I'd already made the pattern before, this time it was a nice and speedy project. I made a size 14, with no alterations at all. I mentioned in my post about my first Bronte that I might lower the neckline on future versions, but having worn the top more I actually like the neckline as it is so no changes needed.

The fabric is a cotton/spandex jersey from myfabrics. It's lovely and soft, and I'm definitely tempted to order more jersey from there - they have so many prints! It's the kind of jersey where the print is applied to a white base, so the colour does fade slightly if the material is overstretched but it really has to be stretched a LOT to do that, and it isn't a problem at all for me.

Confession time! I came very close to ruining this project. It was all nicely sewn up, and all I had left to do was stitch down the shoulder overlap. I was trimming the neckband seam allowance and somehow managed to cut a hole into the main fabric of the top - aaaargh! Usually this would send me into a fit of melodrama, but for some reason I was remarkably calm about the situation this time. The hole wasn't that big so I stitched it up, leaving it hardly visible but still far too visible for my liking. Inspiration for a solution suddenly came in the form of my button jar. I had been planning to leave the shoulders plain for this version instead of adding buttons, but I had these oversized buttons that were just the right colour and the perfect size to cover the sewn-up hole. Problem solved, disaster averted, happy Ruth!

Now, Delphine. As this point I should point out that this post could also have been entitled "Red is really difficult to photograph". No matter what I tried, the skirt came out looking almost like a luminous block, but I promise it's not like that in real life. It's actually a nice red corduroy from Calico Lane, and it's lovely to wear.

Delphine is one of the earlier projects in Love at First Stitch, and is a nice simple pattern aimed at beginners, so makes a speedy but very wearable project if you've got a bit of sewing experience. As I'll mainly be wearing this with tights I added a lining using the method in Tilly's tutorial, but even with the extra steps which that involved, this was still finished really quickly. It would have been even quicker if I hadn't, for some inexplicable reason, initially traced and cut the waistband two sizes smaller than I intended to!

As with the other projects I've made from Love at First Stitch, the instructions were all really clear and super easy to follow. I made a size 5 at the waist, grading to a 6 at the hips. Other than that, I made no changes to the pattern - there's no need to!

All in all, I'm pleased with how both of these turned out and they're both really great wearable basics. I've realised I've got some material in my stash that could make a fantastic second Delphine (you only need 1 metre if you've got wide fabric - always good!) so keep an eye out for that at some point this winter, and I'll be making more incarnations of Bronte in the future for sure - but hopefully without nearly destroying them next time. Have you averted any sewing disasters recently?

OWOP: My Week With Lilou

I had a good think about what pattern to choose for OWOP (One Week, One Pattern) - my Emery dresses and Hollyburn skirts were both strong candidates, but in the end I opted for my Lilou dresses from Love At First Stitch because I thought they might provide more different styling options so be a little more interesting to look at together. Here's what I've been wearing for the last week....

Day 1: Berry print Lilou with soon-to-be-blogged Cria cardigan (carefully not showing you the trainers I'm wearing at this point - a bit ugly but much better for walking through a muddy wood than pretty shoes!). This was meant to be my outfit for the Outfit Along this summer but I didn't get my knitting finished in time. I got there in the end though, and I'm really pleased with how the two of them look together.

Day 2: Floral Lilou with RTW cardigan (which I didn't need for a large part of the day because it was so lovely and sunny!) and pretty beads. I love this dress - just putting it on makes me feel good! It features some of my favourite colours, so it's no surprise that when I made it I already had a couple of things in my wardrobe that look like they were made to go with it. I wore this for a day out with a friend, and it felt great all day.

Day 3: Denim Lilou with RTW t-shirt and me-made belt (tutorial here). Today was a work day, but I don't need to be smart for work and comfort it much more important! This outfit is so comfy, but still looks nice and presentable. I've worn my denim Lilou a couple of times already, and I like the fact that it's a bit of a blank canvas for combining with different colours and accessories.

Day 4: Berry print Lilou with RTW cardigan. I've had this cardi for ages but don't wear it very much. I dug it out of the back of my wardrobe because I thought it would work well with this Lilou and I'm really like how they look together so the cardigan might be getting more wear now!

Day 5: Denim Lilou worn under my Capital Chic Bellini Blouse in a (not very) cunning attempt to mix things up a bit and make it look like I'm actually wearing a top and skirt instead of variations on the same dress all week.

Day 6: Floral Lilou with RTW cardigan and leggings. As I said above, the number of cardigans in my wardrobe that I could wear with this Lilou is probably a good indication of how much I like all the colours in this fabric! This outfit felt a bit dressy for a day sat in front of the computer, but it's still really comfy and it's nice to be a bit smarter every now and then so it's all good!

Day 7 (today!): Denim Lilou with RTW t-shirt & leggings and me-made belt. Possibly my favourite outfit of the week! The more I wear my denim Lilou, the more I love it - the weight of the denim gives the skirt a lovely swish when I walk, which is always fun. I also really like wearing my fabric belts with this dress, and the t-shirt was a charity shop bargain the other week - it looks like it's never been worn, is great quality material and was only £1. So this outfit is a bit of a winner as far as I'm concerned.

I've really enjoyed wearing my different Lilou dresses this week for OWOP, so a big thank you to Jane for organising it! Although I won't miss taking the daily photos - I usually take blog photos in places where there aren't many people around, but I can't really do that on a daily basis and I've been getting some very odd looks from my neighbours as I've been prancing around the car park this week! Has anyone else had the same problem?!

Autumn-ready Lilou & OWOP

It may not be quite autumn yet, but I thought it was time to get thinking about sewing some clothes that can be worn at the moment, but will also still work once summer has definitely come to an end, instead of disappearing for a few days and then returning again as it seems to be at the moment. My Love At First Stitch Lilou dresses have been definite favourites this summer, so I decided to make another version that I could layer up and wear as the weather gets colder. Here's what I came up with...

Denim might not be an instantly obvious choice for a dress, but this is soft-washed denim (from Fabric Godmother) and it feels lovely and hangs really nicely. It also holds the pleats in the Lilou skirt well - you can see those pleats much better in this plain fabric than you can in my other Lilous where the pleats get a bit lost in the prints. The other advantage of denim is that it'll go with pretty much anything in my wardrobe. Also, as I don't really wear trousers, denim skirts play the same role for me as jeans do for many people, and I think this Lilou will get worn just as much as my denim skirts do.

A sleeveless dress might also seem like a bit of an odd choice for autumn, but one of the good things about the shape of the Lilou bodice is that it can easily be worn pinafore-style over a top or a blouse as I've worn it here, and there are also no sleeves to get caught up under cardigans or jumpers so that'll make it good once autumn hits as well. This dress is a little warm to wear on the nicer days we're having still at the moment, and it does look a bit odd if I try to wear it on its own without any layers, but I have worn it a couple of times already and it's super comfy, and is casual whilst still looking nice if that makes any sense?!

I used a regular centred zip for this version of Lilou instead of an invisible zip - partly because I wasn't sure if the denim, being a slightly heavier weight fabric, would work that well with an invisible zip, but mainly because when I went to buy the zip my local haberdashery only had white invisible zips, which I knew definitely wouldn't work and I was being impatient and didn't want to wait to find a different zip. It's a pretty good haberdashery, and they have a decent range of colours and sizes in normal zips, but only ever seem to have white or black invisible zips for some reason. I suppose they must find that's what sells but it seems a bit odd to me that they don't have more colours.

Other than that, I used the same size and length changes that I've used for my other Lilous (size 6 at the bust and hips, and a 5 at the waist, 1.5 inches added to the bodice and 2.5 added to the skirt) but didn't make any other changes. Part of me thinks maybe I should have tried adding pockets to this version, because I do love pockets and they are useful sometimes, but that part of me isn't arguing too strongly with the part of me that likes it how it is, so I think this one will stay pocket-less and I'll maybe try adding them next time I make the pattern.

Oooh, look - another contrast lining! I particularly love the pretty print compared with the plain outer fabric on this Lilou, and as I've probably mentioned before it's a good way of using up off cuts from other projects. This time I used the remains of the fabric that I used for my Mortmain dress, and it reminded me that I really should make another Mortmain soon - another project to add to the list!

As this is now my third Lilou (fourth if you count the one I made for my Mum!), there's not much else new to say about this one - but I'm really happy with it. It came out exactly as I imagined it in my head and I know it will get worn a LOT! I've also decided that I'm going to use my Lilou dresses for OWOP, which is being organised by Handmade Jane and is kicking off this Saturday. Is anyone else joining in? What pattern have you picked?

Two Lilou Dresses for the Price of One!

The glorious warm weather we were enjoying a couple of weeks ago may have been replaced with unpredictableness and dramatic rain showers lately, but today I'm going to try to tempt the sun to come back on a slightly more reliable basis by showing you another pretty sundress (you can't have too many of them, right?!). I mentioned in my post about my first Lilou dress that version 2 was already cut out, well now it's all sewn up and here it is!

Excuse the slightly wrinkled look here! I'd already been wearing it for most of a day at this point, but then came across a practically deserted little park which seemed like a good place to use as a background for some photos - I'm not the greatest person at posing for photos so the smaller the audience I have the better, but pretty places with not many people in them are few and far between.

I'm sticking by the glowing praise I gave this pattern, and Love At First Stitch in general, in my post on my first Lilou. It's a really lovely dress, and feels great to wear. While in this version it's the perfect dress for a summer day, it could work for lots of different occasions depending on what material you use and how you accessorise it. Without wanting to wish summer away, I have already been hatching plans for a version that I could wear on into the autumn and winter. 

For this version, I used the same adjustments as in my first one - size 6 at the bust, grading down to a 5 at the waist and back out to a 6 at the hips, and with 1.5 inches added to the length of the bodice and 2.5 inches added to the skirt. As I said before, I do have a little bit of extra space in the bodice, but it's only a teeny bit and I'm totally happy with the fit. Plus, you know, it's always good to have some space to breath!

The main fabric is a pretty berry print cotton poplin that I got from Abakhan. They have it listed in their craft section rather than dressmaking, but I think it works fine for the Lilou dress. It has less drape than the cotton sateen I used for my first version, which gives the skirt a little bit more body. I really like the colours in the print - I've always thought that yellow is such a happy colour but it just doesn't really suit my colouring (trust me, I tried it in my teenage technicolour phase!), but the small amounts of it in this print combined with blues, reds and pinks are perfect for the summer.

I'm a big fan of the contrast lining in my first version, so I thought I'd do the same for this dress. Plus, it's a great way to use up bits of the stash that aren't big enough for a whole garment. Or that are too see-through to be used on their own as is the case here! This one is a cute white and blue heart print, I suspect polycotton, that has been hanging around on my shelves for a while so I'm glad it's now been put to good use.

And here's the third Lilou that I've made! This one's for my Mum though. She really liked my first version so asked me to make her one as well. Thankfully we're pretty much the same size so I could just use the same pattern pieces as for my own version and didn't need to worry about fitting.

The cotton that I used here is from John Lewis (I think it's part of their 150 year anniversary collection). At £18 per metre, it's definitely on the pricey side for a cotton but it's great quality and was really nice to sew. I'm also assured that it's lovely to wear! I lined this one in some of the voile I had left over from lining my Cambie dress. 

It was really nice to do some unselfish sewing for a change, and I'm please with the final result - particularly the pattern matching that I managed to pull off down the centre front! My mum really likes it too, which is the main thing.

So yes, Lilou is a great dress - I'd definitely recommend it! 

According to my vague sewing plan, this was meant to be my last "summer" dress this year, but then at the weekend the new issue of Love Sewing magazine arrived, which comes with a pattern for a particularly pretty looking dress - I think it should be out in shops today so keep an eye out if you're a fan of fit and flare dresses! Surely leaving the pattern unloved on the shelf without trying it out would just be rude wouldn't it? So, in spite the questionable weather we've been "enjoying" this week, there will probably be another pretty summer dress on these pages in the not too distant future! And for now, I'll leave you with a twirling shot! See you soon!

Love At First Stitch Lilou Dress

Hello! How are you all today? I'm enjoying all the lovely sun we've been having here in the UK, and I'm excited to show you my latest creation - which is also particularly appropriate for this hot weather. Here's my second project from Love At First Stitch, the Lilou dress...

I mentioned when I posted about my Clémence skirt that I was particularly taken with this lovely dress, so it's no surprise that it was the next project that chose to sew. Having made the Lilou, I now feel like I'm even more qualified to recommend treating yourself to Tilly's lovely book as I've now used one of the patterns that's included with the book (the Clémence skirt has instructions for drafting your own pattern so I didn't use the pattern sheets for that). Yes, you have to trace the patterns because the pieces overlap, but these are the clearest pattern sheets that I've ever had to trace from so that's really not a problem. Everything came together beautifully and, as with Clémence, the instructions were completely clear and easy to follow.

The Lilou is the last project in the book, making it theoretically the most complicated, and it might be a bit challenging if you'd never sewn anything before, but even then it could still be achievable if you work through all the steps, and if you've got a bit of experience then it'd be no trouble. I'm a firm believer that if you've got good instructions, which you definitely have here, and you follow them at your own speed then most things can be done.  

Size-wise, I cut a 6 on the bust and hips, grading down to a 5 at the waist. I like this fact - it makes me feel like I have a small waist rather than abnormally large hips which is what lots of patterns often make me feel. Not that it bothers me, I know I'm pretty much the definition of pear shaped and I'm fine with that.

I wanted the dress to be comfortable for wearing every day, so added quite a bit of length because I like my summer dresses to hit at about knee length. I added an 1.5 inches to the bodice (fairly standard for me) and another 2.5 inches to the skirt, and this gave me just the length that I wanted.

If I wanted the dress to be super-fitted, I could probably afford to take a tiny bit of extra width out of the bodice, but I'm completely happy with how it is - it's nicely fitted whilst still having a bit of room to move, and I don't like clothes to be too closely fitting when it's hot. 

Also, I got over my temporary hatred of invisible zips - yay! They do give dresses a nice finish after all. I've definitely found that stabilising the seam allowances with strips of interfacing helps with inserting invisible zips, and didn't have any trouble at all when I was sewing this one. It's not completely totally and utterly invisible, but I'm happy with it so it's all good. 

Can we talk about the fabric now? I LOVE this material! Not only is it really pretty and full of most of my favourite colours, it feels gorgeous. It's a John Kaldor cotton sateen that I got from Fabric Rehab. It was lovely to sew with, and drapes really nicely whilst still having enough body to hold the pleats in the skirt (you can see the pleats quite well in the top photo - they're flattering and give the skirt a great shape) and allowing for a bit of twirl factor. Twirl factor is very important to me for dresses!

I decided to go with Tilly's suggestion of using a contrast fabric for the bodice lining - mainly because I've had this turquoise blue fabric in my stash for a while and wasn't sure what to use it for because it's quite sheer, and it was a perfect match for the bright blue flowers in the dress so surely it was meant to be. I got it as part of a bundle on ebay a while ago, so I have no idea what it is, I suspect it may be a polycotton of some variety, but its a good weight for the lining and feels nice so it seemed like a good choice. Tilly recommends that you trim off a tiny amount of the neckline of the lining to encourage it to lie nicely on the inside of the dress without poking out and I think that worked really well.

So, yes, in case it isn't already obvious, I'm pretty pleased with this dress - so pleased that version 2 has already been cut out (and my Mum's bought fabric for me to make one for her, thankfully we're pretty much the same size!). Plus, as an added bonus I think it's pretty perfect for joining in with the Summer Sun Dress Sew-Along - and who doesn't love a sew-along?!

Love At First Stitch Clémence Skirt

There's been a lot of love in the online sewing community recently for Tilly's new book Love At First Stitch, and rightly so - it's gorgeous! The book itself is wonderfully colourful and inspiring, and I can honestly say that I can see myself making all of the patterns, which is rare as in most books there's usually at least one pattern that I know that I'll never make. Anyway, I started off with the Clémence skirt...

(Excuse the slightly crumpled waistband in most of these pics, I'd been happily wearing the skirt for a whole day by the time they were taken)

This is one of the two projects in the book that include instructions for drafting your own pattern instead of tracing off the paper patterns included with the book. As it's a dirndl skirt so only the waistband really needs to fit, this is a simple process, and even simpler with Tilly's instructions to help you along. Each new technique (for this skirt drafting the pattern, French seams, gathering and stitch in the ditch) is explained in detail as you get to it, but presented on a different background to the instructions for the project itself so it's easy to skip sections for techniques you're familiar with, or to refer back to techniques from previous projects (invisible zips in my case, I should know what I'm doing with them by now but I'll always welcome extra tips - and this one turned out well!). 

The instructions are really clear and easy to follow, and are just the right level of chatty to make you feel like there's a real person helping you out, without being overly-friendly and annoying if that makes sense?! 

I drew out the pattern pieces in my lunch break (one of the benefits of working from home!) and sewed the whole skirt up that evening, which included hand sewing the hem (which I did mainly because I couldn't decide what colour would work best for topstitching!), so a nice quick sewing project, and definitely beginner-friendly.

The fabric I used for this is a lovely seersucker-type cotton, which is quite lightweight and therefore on the floaty side, but perfect for a summer skirt. Even if the weather this weekend wasn't quite summery enough for me to ditch the leggings, hopefully it will be soon!

The material has been in my stash for quite a while now (I got it at the same time that I bought the material I used for my Sureau dress, and weirdly like that dress, this skirt also had its first outing on a trip to Lyme Regis. I don't go there that often honestly, although I do love it there!). It had been sitting there neglected because, although I love all the colours in the material, I had come to the realisation that they don't all love me. There's a yellowy green in there that would look lovely on some people but just makes me look ill. So that scuppered my original plan of turning it into a dress, but I think it works fine as a skirt as I can wear a top in a colour that does suit me as a barrier between the yellowy green and my face! And having lots of colours in the material means that it'll go with lots of different tops. 

(and here's what the waistband looks like when it's nicely ironed!)

I cut the waistband on the bias partly because I like the way that checks look when cut on the bias, and partly to avoid giving myself a headache about whether I should try to do any kind of pattern matching between the waistband and the gathered skirt. To avoid stretching it too much, I applied the interfacing to the material first and then cut the front waistband piece from that, which seemed to work well. 

I did a bit of pattern matching down the side seams and centre back seam, but I didn't stress too much about it. I basically made sure that the horizontal lines all matched up, and that I wasn't going to end up with a massively obvious double line of one of the vertical colours down one seam. I think because the skirt is gathered and quite floaty I can get away with that level of pattern matching here (and it also meant that I've got enough of the material left that I'll probably be able to squeeze a pair of summery pyjama trousers out of it - always good!). 

I'm really pleased with how this one turned out and, thanks to Tilly's "Make it your own" tips on variations in the book, and some pretty chambray that I spotted the other day, I'm already plotting future versions. Although I might have to give some of the other patterns in the book a try first - the Lilou dress in particular will definitely have to be sewn soon!