Dress making part 2

Most people probably enjoyed a nice relaxing bank holiday weekend in the UK (Well, not the leader who took some of our Guides on a county camp. I suspect she enjoyed a very tiring weekend) but I was stuck at work for 2 of the 3 days so didn't get much sewing done. That's the problem with starting at 4am. I can never be bothered to do much apart from sleep after an 8 hour shift!

Sunday was designated a sewing day though and instead of choosing the sensible option of just finishing something I decided to go for part 2 of making the dress.

I put all my pattern pieces on my fabric - very impressed because I bought too much fabric so I have some spare that I'm sure can be used for a bag or something.

I then wandered to my sewing machine and sewed all my darts in and my pleats. Easy! the hardest bit that seemed to take forever was transferring all the markings to the fabric from the pattern. I must find a better way to do this!

Then it was time to join the tops and bottoms together. At this point I realised why instructions always say 'seam ripper needed'. I sewed this seam 3 times! The first time I forgot I had it on a very long stitch for basting. The 2nd time I caught the material when sewing (see pic) and the 3rd time I finally managed it. Luckily the other 3 pieces were done without as much hassle.

And look at this! the back of my dress all sewn together. Not quite the way the pattern says because I'm an idiot and ordered supplies after watching the Great British Sewing Bee so I ordered an invisible zip instead of a normal one. Never mind, I found it rather easy to insert after a quick glance at a youtube video and I think the result is a rather invisible zip! I've now decided any more clothing I make will have an invisible zip.

And look! Here is the dress on me and it actually fits! It still isn't finished though. I've yet to do the neck facing or the armhole facing but that shouldn't be too bad after the trauma of the zip! It will be my first attempt at playing with interfacing but that will be a good practise for when I make a bag. Because I am determined that I will make a weekender bag at some point.

My only possible problem with this dress is the neck. It just seems to have a lot of fabric loose around it but maybe the neck facing will sort that out. I have a friend who's mum is a seamstress who has promised to look at the pattern for me to see if we can't just make it a V neck instead.

So now I get to look around and pick fabric to make the real thing. I'm rather torn between this, this and this. of course I have no idea which is the best fabric for a dress and they are all very different!

I've also discovered bloglovin' since the last post. What a handy way to read the blogs I follow when I'm on the go on my ipad or iPhone  So if anyone would like to follow me on there then I have a little linky button that hopefully will appear under here and will work!

Thanks for reading!

(Oh and yes, I did stay inside sewing on what was possible the nicest day we are going to see in the north east of England this year as you can see from the sun in my photos!)

Back again and inspired by great British sewing bee

Well yet again I'm back. I'm awful at this blogging thing. I suspect this is because I only have 1 follower and so I doubt that anyone actually reads these! Although who knows. Maybe if I posted more I would get more followers?

Well onto a catch up of what I've been doing.

Remember those hexagons I was hoping to turn into a tablemat for Christmas? Here they are all finished.

Yay! I do like them and I think they work well with the linen.

That starry quilt I was making for my friend? That's been free motion quilted too. I finally plucked up the courage to do it and managed to do the whole thing in a day. It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but for a 1st attempt it's OK  It looks really good from afar. The quilt just needs binding now and I've cheated and bought some binding to do that.

Since my last post I've also gained more fabric (oops) including some very funky tube map fabric that I got for my birthday, rather a lot of Amy butler fabric that was on sale in hobby craft for £6 a meter (silly to pass up that chance) and some home dec fabric from ikea to make a bag. I would to to make Amy butler's weekend bag but I suspect that's a little beyond my skill level so I'm going to limit myself to something from the bag making bible instead.

I've also for some reason agreed to make a quilt for my friends wedding which is in October. Plenty of time right? The theme for the wedding is a vintage tea party and so I've had to buy a lot of fabric to match this theme. I had nothing in my funky stash that would work. It's a basic quilt with lots of squares for people to sign and we ate hoping to transfer some photos on too. I've put my friend who is one of the bridesmaids in charge of gaining photos. It's all a secret from the bride and groom so I'm having to be very careful what I say on Facebook.

my newly gained fabric. lots of flowers

I'm not alone in making this quilt though. I have help! The friend who is a bridesmaid is helping me make it. She's never used a sewing machine before which is just a tiny problem so last weekend I spent a Sunday afternoon letting her loose sewing straight lines and we got a few blocks made. She loved her time using the sewing machine and is really looking forward to our next sewing get together in a few weeks.

7 of 66...

And then we get to the great British sewing bee TV show. For those who don't know what it is... If you've ever seen great British bake off its the same thing but sewing. Lol. Basically a group of very talented people complete challenges to make items every week with people being knocked out every week until the finale. I have no idea how they are making those things in that time. I mean seriously I takes me months to make anything. Never mind making an evening dress of a tailored jacket in 8 hours from start to finish! Utter madness.
I was given the book for my birthday last week and I also magically at the same time managed to gain a dress pattern from as magazine. It's a sign I tell you! I've always quite liked slightly vintage dresses (not so much the flowers. Kath kidston flowers make me cry so you can imagine how I'm feeling about that wedding quilt) and with my recent (and hopefully continuing weight loss) I've decided now is the time to try and make a dress! You never know. Summer may appear yet. I'm also aware that making a dress may be a stupid and expensive thing to so when I'm still loosing weight and planning on starting the insanity workout DVDs so I've opted to just have a trial run and see how it goes since its the first item of clothing I will ever of made and will be only the 2nd zip I've put in (everyone has to start somewhere right).
The fabric has been ordered, the invisible zippers and zipper foot for my sewing machine have been ordered, the book will give me hints, and the pattern gives me basic instructions. How wrong can it go? I'm hoping to blog the lot so you (dear reader who has done very well to get this far) can see. If I can make a dress anyone can.

The pattern. Can I do it?

Coincidently the woman who won the sewing bee had never made a quilt before. At least I've done that even if I've never worn anything I've made! lol. Hopefully next time I post I'll have started making that dress. Or have more of the quilt made... I'm rather excited about the dress option tbh...

Productive week!

Well my week off work was rather productive as far as sewing goes! Pity that the weather was awful so i didn't get a change to go out for a wander in Northumberland somewhere and go geocaching but I did manage to get all this sewing done - a lot for me!

The first thing I work on was this cute bag that came with Patch! by Cath Kidston that I got at Christmas. Making it revealed to me that I have NO patience whatsoever for paper piecing things. i hated having to cut out fabric with scissors and then loads of paper templates then having to baste it all and then sew it together. What a faff! I much prefer using my Dresden ruler I have which cuts half these steps out and means I can rotary cut it all. Another leader from our Guide unit also had the book and made her bag about the same time as me on her new cheap sewing machine. We both had hours of fun making the puff for the middle. She managed to make her's too small and I made mine too big and as you can see had to pop an extra bit of fabric in the middle because the fabric supplied only had the print on 1 side. Oh well...

I also made myself chuckle as I sewed all the seams inside and I blindly followed the book which said to do a zig zag stitch on the seam to make it stronger. just as I turned the bag the right way around I realised not only do I have a hemming foot with my sewing machine (doh!) but it also has a pre set stitch for it! (double doh!). I'll have to remember that for my next project which is the bag fro the Make! book that I was given for my birthday by a friend.

My bag

Project number 2 was the starry quilt (yes, the one I started earlier this year that is a birthday pressie for someone who's birthday was in feb). I FINALLY got all the stars made and spent a good hour with my twin sister working out the best layout so we didn't have groups of colours or collections of the same type of star together. I guess a lot could be said for planning and not being spontaneous but where's the fun in that! My sister is  huge fan of the grey/pink/yellow star that's in the middle column 2nd down. She's requested a whole quilt of it (not demanding at all!). I on the other hand am a fan of the purple and green one in the top left corner and the green and grey one in the bottom centre. I love the idea of making a quilt with a grey background and using bright colours to really add some 'wow' to it.

As much as I love this quilt and will be proud of it when I've finished I still would have preferred it on a black background but the recipient wanted it on a creamy one. I think black would of looked fab. This quilt is all pinned now and just needs to be quilted which leads me to project number 3...

Starry Quilt - top all pieced!

Project 3 - learn to fmq on my new(ish...) sewing machine so i can quilt this quilt with stars - it seems only right for it. I sat myself down one afternoon with a couple of large quilt sandwiches and just sat playing with the tension and everything to try and get it right. It would appear that changing the stitch length to 0 has a huge impact and once I managed to get the tension right for a straight line (I have to loosen the bobbin tension every time I put a new bobbin in because my sewing machine hates me lol) I was whizzing around and actually getting rather good results fro my first attempt. The tension was perfect even around corners although my stitch length was a tad dodgy in places - all in all i think I could get the hang of it easily because it just seemed like such a natural thing to do. I bought a couple of star templates and some air vanishing pens to mark the quilt so hopefully if i get a chance this weekend I may get the quilt done. I'm so excited!

As for my other project of the week - Herman - he worked OK but not brilliantly. I blame it on the instructions I was given being in American (I have no idea what a cup is when baking - obv in real life it's what holds my tea). This time around I used a recipe that had English measurements and he looks a lot happier. I'm due to cook him this weekend so we'll see how he goes!

hopefully next time I write I'll have a quilt that just needs binding (or is finished!)

Cup of tea anyone?

I've managed to achieve something already in 2012. A finished quilt! Granted its actually a tiny coaster (or mug rug to Americans) but its made and quilted none the same so counts as a quilt in my world.
It was actually an experiment. I just got a Dresden ruler and I'm rather keen on making a full Dresden plate quilt so this was a good trial of using that and it was also a chance to test out the new sewing machine at appliqué! I think the tiny blanket stitch I used looks rather fab and much better then when I made cushions for my grandparents on my old sewing machine. Being able to limit the speed and keep the needle down really helps.

In use

yes, my sewing area is that dark!

I've also finally received all the fabric I need for my friends quilt so I can finally start making it. Just need to pluck up the courage to cut into the nice fabric. Oh dear.

Don't worry - I actually have rather a lot more of the cream since it's the background colour

Let's see how far I get in the next few days.