Sewaholic Cambie Dress

Back when I first started making my own clothes last year, there was one pattern in particular that caught my eye that I knew I wanted to make at some point - to be honest the only reason that I didn't start making one there and then was because I knew my very novice skills wouldn't do it justice! While I'm by no means claiming that I've become an expert in the last year, I knew that I was now definitely up to the task so it was time to sew myself a Sewaholic Cambie dress.

The Cambie is rated as an intermediate pattern, which is what put me and my then-limited skills off last summer, and I think that is probably right as it is a bit more complicated than a standard beginner pattern due to the full lining. At the same time though, there's absolutely nothing scary about this and, as always with Sewaholic patterns, the instructions and diagrams are totally clear and easy to follow and everything came together really nicely.

The Cambie is such a gorgeous design and so flattering - or I think it is at least! The sweetheart neckline is really pretty and the gathered cap sleeves add an interesting bit of detail. I think having the separate waistband also really helps to define the waist, which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned. It's also probably no secret by now that I'm fairly fond of girly dresses with nicely fitting bodices and twirly skirts, and this definitely fits that bill - plus there's the added bonus of pockets in the skirt. That's not to say that I don't like view A with the A-line skirt though - that will be on my to-sew list at some point in the future.

Without wanting to tempt fate, I think I might have done a U-turn in my opinions on invisible zips! After completely losing faith in them when one broke on me a month or so ago, they now seem to be behaving themselves and I haven't had any trouble (touch wood...) with the last couple that I've sewn, and they do give a nice finish to a garment.

I cut a size 14 at the bust, grading down to a 12 at the waist and back out to a 14 at the hips, although I could probably have got away with using a straight size 12 for the skirt - it's lovely and full so there's plenty of room around the hips. Other than this, as normal I needed to add a bit of length to the bodice (an inch and a quarter in this case), and that gave me a toile that fitted really nicely. 

Once I came to try on the dress to check the length for hemming, I noticed that somewhere between the toile and the finished dress the sleeves seemed to have grown a bit and, even though the bodice fit me perfectly from the neckline down, I had extra material up around my shoulders. I fixed this by unpicking the seam between the front of the sleeve and the neckline, and then inserting more of the sleeve through the gap that is left there. This does mean that my shoulder seams are slightly further forward than they should be, but I don't think anyone other than fellow sewists would notice this, and it seemed like a much better option to me at that point than unpicking all of the lining to adjust the shoulder seams instead!

The fabric that I used is a John Kaldor cotton lawn that I got from Fabric Rehab, although unfortunately it looks like it's sold out now. It was lovely to sew and it's great to wear. As the shape of the Cambie is undeniably pretty girly, I quite liked the idea of using a more geometric, abstract print for this one, and the gorgeous shade of blue and white together are a good colour combination for me so choosing this fabric was pretty much a no-brainer. I intentionally cut the waistband with the print in the different direction to try to make it stand out more, which I think has worked. For the lining, I used some plain white cotton voile that I got from Abakhan - again it seems to have sold out (and I'm now wishing I'd ordered more!) but this is the same fabric in black, it works really well for lining summer dresses.

This might be quite a big statement to make, but I think this may possibly be my new favourite dress. I love the print and the colour, it's really flattering and it feels great to wear. 

I've come to the conclusion that one way to judge the success of a sewing project is to compare how easy it is to get decent photos of each garment - I always make far more weird faces and awkward-looking poses when I'm wearing things that I'm not entirely happy with, whereas with this one, while I'm definitely no supermodel, the main "problem" was not getting blinded by all the lovely evening sunshine - which isn't a problem I'll be complaining about any time soon because, after all, more sun equals more excuse for making pretty sundresses, yay!

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?

Sewaholic Belcarra Blouse: Take 2

I mentioned in my post about my first Sewaholic Belcarra blouse that my second blouse was already cut out, and as it's a nice, easy pattern to sew up, it didn't take long for it to get from being cut out to a finished blouse and slotting perfectly into my summer wardrobe. Here it is...

This time I didn't have to worry about reusing oddly shaped bits of material, so I stuck to the pattern straight out of the envelope. Like last time, I cut a straight size 12, and I'm happy with the fit. The neckline seems to have turned out a little wider than in my first version (maybe I was a bit too enthusiastic in my cutting or something!), and I do sometimes end up with a bra strap peeping out at the shoulder when I'm wearing it, which I don't with my first version, but it's not much of a problem.

I chose to sew view B as I thought that being as I was using a plain fabric the cute tucks along the shoulders would stand out well and add a bit of interest, and avoid the risk of a plain top being a boring. 

The tucks were the only bit of the construction that I hadn't already tested out on my first version but, like the rest of the blouse, they're simple to sew - you just need to take a bit of time and care to make sure that they're all nice and even. 

The fabric that I used this time is a pretty pink cotton lawn from Croft Mill. I was a little bit worried when it arrived that it would be too sheer and that it would need underlining, or that I'd need to wear an extra layer under it, but it's actually turned out just fine for this top. I think you'd need a lining of some kind for a more fitted top or a skirt though.

There are a whole load of different materials that I've got my eye on to buy at the moment, but I was good with this one and stuck to a plain material for a change instead of being seduced by all the fun prints that I usually go for. Like a lot of the online sewing community, I've realised that while all the pretty patterned materials are great (and don't worry, I'll definitely still be using them), I do also need some plain separates here and there to make sure that I'm not wearing a complete mess of different prints. This fits that bill well, as it goes nicely with a couple of my skirts - and as an added bonus is a perfect match for the flowers on the necklace I'm wearing here which I treated myself to recently!

I'm keeping my eye out for a nice fabric to make a slightly smarter Belcarra with as I think it's the kind of style that could easily be dressed up with nice accessories if you made it in the right fabric, but having been sensible with this project, I might allow myself to make another pretty patterned dress or two now! What's everyone else working on this week?

Simple Denim Skirt

While it's always nice to try new patterns and learn new skills, sometimes you just fancy a simple sewing project using a pattern that you know and love. This was just the mood that I was in this week, so I set about making another version of the Sewaholic Hollyburn skirt, this time in denim.

The Hollyburn was the first thing that I made for myself when I took up dressmaking, I made a second version quickly after and I've worn the second one in particular quite a bit - the first one not so much recently but it'll definitely be coming back out this summer. It's a great beginner's sewing pattern, nice and simple and with no fitting issues - as long as you've got the waistband right, you're sorted! It's a shape that I really like and that suits me, so when I wanted a simple project this was the obvious choice. As with my second version, this time I made view C with the belt loops from view A.

The fabric choice was also a no brainer because a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win some denim and other related goodies in a giveaway from Winnie of Scruffy Badger Time - thank you again Winnie! If anyone fancies some denim for themselves, it's available with the other bits that I won as a kit from Minerva.

Anyway, winning the denim was quite exciting for me because I never win anything, and it was particularly well-timed because I needed a new denim skirt. I don't really wear trousers, so denim skirts are sort of like jeans for me - they go with everything and are easy to throw on so get worn a LOT.

My prize came with some fun gold ric rac, which I was going to use as a trimming around the pocket edges, and some nice contrasting top stitching thread, which I did even start using at one point, but then I decided to keep things totally plain this time so that the skirt will go with absolutely everything. And it means that the fun of using up my prize can be extended to another project!

The denim is obviously quite a bit heavier than the cotton and cord that I used for my first two versions of the Hollyburn, and that means that the skirt has a bit more body to it and hangs a bit differently which is quite nice. I think it'll probably soften up a little bit with wear - I've worn the skirt a couple of times already since I finished sewing it and I can already notice a slight difference.

All in all, this project did exactly what I wanted it to - it was nice and quick and has filled a little hole that had recently developed in my wardrobe. Now I'm ready to get my teeth into something more complicated again - watch this space!

Hollyburn skirt

Yesterday I wrote about Denman College and the dressmaking course that I went on, today I'm back to talk about what I made. We were asked to take a pattern for a simple dress or skirt and, after much consideration and reading of various blogs, I opted for a Sewaholic Hollyburn skirt - partly because it's the kind of skirt I wear a lot in the summer, partly because it's for beginners so I thought there shouldn't be too much danger of me not being able to cope and partly because Sewaholic patterns are specifically designed for pear-shaped women - a group which I definitely fall into!

The material choice had the potential to be more difficult because there always seem to be too many pretty fabrics around, but a trip to a local material shop provided the answer, and here it is...

It's Moda Recipe for Friendship. I'd already bought a fat quarter of this to use for small projects and loved it, and this time when I went back it was 50% off - decision made!

Making the skirt was great fun, and surprisingly simple. Admittedly I did have the benefit of having the talented eyes of May Martin watching over me, but I'm pretty confident that even without that advantage it would have been easy to sew up this skirt as the instructions are so clear and easy to follow.

I chose to make up view B of the pattern - a knee-length skirt with button tabs on the waistband.

The bits that I was most concerned about were the pockets and making sure I had a nice finish on the outside so that it didn't look too handmade. I needn't have worried as the pockets were a breeze, here's a little close-up of one of them...

And I think I did a pretty good job with the finishing too. Here's the back zip...

And here's one of the button tabs...

I quite fancied having cherry buttons on the tabs, but I couldn't find any that I liked and I thought these flowers were jolly and would pick up the red of the cherries well, so they were what I went with - and I'm pleased with how they look. 

And the final result? I love this skirt! Partly because it's my first successful dressmaking project, but mainly because it's colourful and fun and I know I'll get loads of wear out of it (as long as the sun stays out anyway!). Here's a picture of me modelling it (note to self: must have better pictures of myself in any future dressmaking projects)...

I'm already plotting a more autumnal version of the skirt, possibly view C this time. Watch this space!