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?

Colette Anise

I should probably start by saying that I apologise in advance if this post is a bit overly enthusiastic and full of photos, but this project is the creation that I'm prodest of to date. I give you my version of the Colette Patterns Anise jacket...

I decided a few months ago that I wanted to try to make myself a jacket, mainly because I'd been looking at the Boden catalogue and was inspired by all the nice coloured and patterned jackets in there. I then spent a couple of weeks wondering whether my sewing skills were up to making a jacket yet, and debating between which pattern I wanted to make. I changed my mind a few times, but I kept coming back to the Anise - I really like the collar, and I thought the short length would be good with all my skirts and dresses, so I took the plunge and went for it.

As well as the pattern, I bought the Anise Companion and I think that was definitely a good move. Like all Colette patterns, the instructions and and diagrams that come with the pattern itself are great, but the Companion and all its photos were a great reassurance and helping hand with the slightly more complicated steps (mainly welt pockets - not nearly as scary as I thought they might be!). I'd definitely recommend the Companion to anyone thinking of sewing the Anise who isn't familiar with all of the techniques already.

I also liked the fact that the Companion was divided into 8 separate sewing days, which made everything seem more manageable - there are quite a lot of steps that go into making the jacket so it was nice to be able to cross them off the list section by section and feel like I was making good progress. I decided at the start that I'd take the project slow and steady and not rush it, and save working on the jacket for times when I could concentrate on it properly, so I also made up a couple of more simple projects along the way for when I wanted some sewing that I didn't need to think about so much.

I'll be honest and tell you that it wasn't all plain sailing - with the outer fabric, lining, underlining and interfacing, cutting out all the pieces took ages (although it may have seemed to take longer than it actually did because I told myself I WAS going to cut it all out in one evening, maybe if I'd stopped when I got tired and carried on the next day it would have been better!), and I found attaching the collar a bit fiddly and actually ended up handstitching a small part of that (but I can't remember why now because it was a while ago I did that - should keep notes during long projects!). There may also have been an incident (entirely down to my stupidity!) where I started stitching one of the buttonholes the wrong way and then had a fight on my hands to pick the stitches out of the linen! Overall though, everything went together really nicely and I didn't feel out of my depth, even though I don't have a massive amount of sewing experience.

I made a straight size 10 without making any alterations at all, and I'm pleased with how the fit turned out. My measurements put me somewhere between a 10 and a 12, and if I'd been making this as a winter jacket, think I would probably have gone for making the 12 instead to allow space for extra layers, but I think the fit has turned out just right for a summer jacket. 

I made the jacket using a lovely jade coloured linen that I got from Calico Laine. I was originally going to make the jacket in a patterned fabric, a la Boden, but then decided that I would get more use out of a plain coloured jacket, and that if I was going to spend all the time making a jacket then it would make sense to make something that I would wear a lot. I'd usually go for blue over green, but this is a lovely shade and goes with lots of my wardrobe so I think I made a good choice. And as you can see above, I used some fun patterned fabric for the lining.

My lining is a lovely Liberty lawn that I got for a bargain price on ebay ages ago. It had been sitting around being neglected for a while because I wasn't sure what to make with it, I love the print but it didn't seem right for tops or dresses, or at least not right for me, but I love it as a jacket lining. Cotton lawn isn't one of the recommended lining fabrics, and I'm not sure if it would be a good idea for a jacket that you'd be wearing with layers underneath, but I think it works well here as I'll mainly be wearing it with short-sleeved or sleeveless summery clothes. It's worked fine so far anyway! And it's pretty!

A little detail shot for you! I'm really pleased with how the welt pockets turned out - cutting into the middle of the jacket fronts was slightly scary, but with the Companion by my side it wasn't complicated, and it all turned out fine. 

The Companion has instructions for making bound buttonholes, but I decided to stick to normal buttonholes this time. I think they work fine with the linen, and I already had quite a lot of new techniques that I was trying for the first time in this project, so I thought I'd save bound buttonholes as something new to try another time! My buttons are self-cover buttons covered with some cotton that has been in my stash for a while. 

Overall, as you can probably tell, I'm really happy with this one! I enjoyed the process of making my Anise - it did take longer than whipping up a simple dress, but I got a great sense of satisfaction when I finished each stage, and especially when I finished the whole thing. I know it'll be a great wardrobe staple, and I'm looking forward to showing it off when the dismal weather we're currently "enjoying" goes away!

Woodland Stroll Cape

I made a cape! I've always had a slight obsession with capes, ponchos and the like, but was slightly disappointed with the ones I tried on in the shops or couldn't quite manage to convince my Mum/sister that they were a good idea. When I found the Woodland Stroll Cape pattern from Liesl + Co., and it got the thumbs up from my style advisers, I thought I had to give it a go - here's how it turned out...

It's a pretty simple pattern and I didn't need to make any fitting alterations - this isn't a particularly fitted kind of garment after all and, in this colder weather at least, there needs to be space underneath for a jumper or cardigan to make sure your arms are warm enough.

That's not to say the cape itself won't keep you warm - it will! I've been perfectly cosy as I've been wearing it around this weekend. It's definitely helped by the fact that I used this lovely Melton fabric from Calico Laine, which was great to work with and perfect for a cape or coat. It's lined with a purple polyester lining, also from Calico Laine. I toyed with the idea of using a pretty printed lining fabric, but I wasn't sure quite how much the lining would be visible when wearing the cape so in the end I went with a plain colour.

While there are lots of lovely buttons out there that I could have used to fasten the cape, I really liked the look of the buckles used on the orange cape in the pattern pictures so decided I wanted to find something similar myself. A quick search led me to these lovely leather buckles from bag-clasps.co.uk...

It was a little bit fiddly making sure they all lined up right, but it was definitely worth it. I think they make the whole thing look really professional, and they may be at least partially covered by a scarf for a lot of the time that I'm wearing the cape, but I'll know they're there and that's the main thing!

Other than having to take time to match up buckles, the only other thing that caused me any problems was getting slightly confused about the facing on the inside of the neck, but I soon realised that I was being stupid and it was a probably a sign that it was too late to be sewing and that I should be going to bed instead! Stupid late-night sillyness aside, it all came together really easily and I love the end result. It's nicer and worked out much cheaper than anything similar I've seen in the shops, and has been given the Mum/sister seal of approval - yay!

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