Sunday 26 May 2013

Pin It Forward!

Today I've got a little post for you about one of my favourite things on the internet, Pinterest! They've just launched in the UK but I've been using the original version for a while. I'm sure many of you already use it (in fact I'm pretty sure I follow a fair few of you on there!) but for anyone who doesn't know what I'm on about Pinterest is basically an online tool for visually collating and organising inspiration and things you love.

Pin It Forward UK 2013


People use Pinterest for all sorts of things; planning weddings or holidays, pulling together ideas for redecorating or cataloguing recipes. My favourite thing to use it for is planning sewing projects of course!

When you sign up you can set up different 'boards' to pin to. One of mine is a 'Sewing Ideas' board. On there I pin anything that inspires me for future projects. New patterns I like the look of, lovely versions of patterns that I see on your blogs, tutorials I want to refer to later, as well as images from all over the internet of RTW clothing I fancy recreating an aspect of.



There are a couple of easy ways to pin items. You cab either 'repin' other people's pins (This is how I got started and it's super addictive!) or you can pin pictures from anywhere on the internet. With so much inspiration surrounding us every day it's easy to feel like some brilliant ideas are passing us by so it's great to be able to pull them all together easily in one place to come back to later. 

I also have the Pinterest app on my phone which is great. Just like on the website you can browse different categories of pins, or search for something in particular. You can then start following other pinners so their pins come up in your feed; a bit like Twitter.

The best thing about Pinterest is once you've pinned an image whenever you click on that pin in future it opens the web page the original pinner got the image from. So I can whizz straight back to that tutorial I wanted to try or the web page where I can buy that perfect present.

It's like creating a personal visual reference library that you can call on for inspiration whenever you need. I love that it's a library of pictures rather than notes; a picture of a pattern envelope or of one of your beautiful inspiration garments is a much more useful reminder than a list of pattern numbers and titles.



I've also used specific boards to collect ideas for sewing challenges like Julia's Mad Men Challenge and The Great Gatsby Challenge, as well as pinning my sew-a-long garments to the By Hand London communal boards. It's also possible to make some boards 'secret' so your followers can't see what you're pinning to them. This is great for pinning things like gift ideas; I know my sister follows me on there so I can pin ideas for her to this board without having to worry that she will see them.

The list of uses goes on and on but I would love it if you followed me on there and we could make the pool of sewing inspiration even larger. Just click on the button towards the top of the bar to the right of this post to do so. If you don't have an account yet but would like to join an easy way to do so is to click right here!

This post forms part of the UK 'Pin It Forward' Campaign, launching the UK Pinterest. I'm delighted to introduce the next blogger in the campaign Sue Rawlinson from the sweetpea family blog. Sue has some great inspirational boards over on Pinterest and comes up with some brilliant crafty creations! You can follow her on Pinterest here!


Friday 24 May 2013

Me-Made-May Week 3! (and Gatsby!)

So I completely failed in my attempt to wear jeans less, well at least when wearing me-made. I did wear ready to wear dresses a few times this week, I have a lot of comfy jersey dresses in my wardrobe that are fairly practical but still make me feel a bit pulled together (mainly the same style of French Connection one over and over again in different print, even the same print and different colours!). When we actually get nice weather they become a bit of a summer staple, especially the maxi dresses which I am loving even more this year. I think I need to get making pronto before Me-Made-May is over and get the hang of knits, I know I wear jersey dresses a lot so why haven't I made any?!

Anyway, on to the me-mades:


Thursday May 16th: Costume shopping, budgeting and a little bit of home sewing
Trousers: Levi Skinny Jeans - Macy's
Coat: Lightweight Mac - Dorothy Perkins
Shoes: Leopard Print Pumps - H&M (otherwise known as the heel cutters!)
Accessories: Turquoise and Silver Earrings - Forever 21


Friday May 17th: Date night - The Great Gatsby, chippy for dinner and cider!
Skirt: Floral Print Mini - Topshop
Tights: Thick Black - Wolford
Shoes: Black Suede Ankle Boots - Steve Madden
Accessories: Gold Bow Necklace - Forever 21
& Skinny Leopard Print Belt - Primark
(no jeans - hooray!)


Tuesday May 21st: First Preview for my Romeo & Juliet = lots of frantic running around
Top: Me-Made Dip Hem Grainline Scout Tee (again!)
Trousers: Skinny Jeans - Primark
Jacket: Black Tuxedo Style - Urban Outfitters
Shoes: Converse All Stars - JD Sports
Bag: Grey Satchel Style - Century 21 (NYC)
Accessories: Brass Dangly Earrings - Camden Market


It's been quite hectic work wise last week and I've been feeling a bit shattered which makes it so much harder to be creative when getting dressed in the morning! So apologies for the similarity of some outfits compared to those gone before. I desperately need the sun to come out next week so I can wear a Lonsdale!

As you may have noticed though, I did manage to get to see The Great Gatsby on Friday which was exciting! I really enjoyed it but wasn't blown away. I didn't expect to be really when I love the book so much, but I do love Baz Luhrmann and Leonardo DiCaprio who did not disappoint. I'd say the costumes were '20's inspired' rather than at all historically accurate and I didn't really love any of the girls costumes (especially not Isla Fisher's as Myrtle) but some of the boy's suits were gorgeous. I know some of the female costumes were designed in collaboration with Prada and I could definitely see that 'contemporary fashion doing a twist on 20's' thing happening, which I guess fit with the idea of making the film more accessible to a modern audience by using Jay-Z in the soundtrack for example. It was a fun take on the story but I'm not sure if I would have preferred to see it done in complete period accuracy though as the 1920's setting is such an exciting and key part of the book to me. But then that's all be done before... All in all still very fun to ogle at though, a visual whirlwind as all Luhrmann films are! Has anyone else been to see it yet?

Thursday 23 May 2013

Black Lace Scout Tee


This is the third time I've made up Grainline's Scout Tee pattern and I can see many more in the future! It's a great basic pattern which looks lovely made up as is (as I did for my first version in some lovely Liberty Tana Lawn) but also provides a great base for getting a little bit creative and adding your own twist (as I did for my second silk version, adding a dip hem detail). This time I decided to try out a style which I've been looking for in the shops for ages but couldn't find anything quite right; a slightly 60's style lace top with an underlined bodice and sheer three quarter length sleeves.

Before I get into the details let me just apologise for the sparse amount of modelled photos, and the bad quality of the one's you do see; man, black is hard to photograph!


As tempting as it is to buy amazing looking fabric to make up pretty dresses I'm really trying at the minute to make things I can actually wear a lot and am therefore taking a look in my wardrobe at what actually gets worn a lot. I do try and get colour into my outfits but often end up falling back on a black t-shirt and jeans so decided to go with black on this occasion rather than a colour which may not appeal to me so much when trying to put together an outfit on a miserable grey English summer morning. I had the ides for this top rattling around way back in January and managed to pick up this lovely stretch lace in the John Lewis sale for a bargain price which escapes me now. I also picked up the black cotton poplin underlining there. Having now completed the top I wish I'd gone for a more delicate lining, maybe a cotton lawn with a bit more drape as the poplin is a bit stiff for the shape of this top which has no darts. From the side in the top photo I look a little like I could be pregnant!!


I've never made anything with lace before or underlined anything so it took a bit of figuring out but I think it worked out pretty well in the end. I kind of made it up as I went along so I doubt it's the proper or recommended way to do it but I'm happy! I really wanted to incorporate a shaped edge to the lace along the hem and on the cuffs, so although I was underlining I wanted the hem of the cotton poplin to finish higher than the hem of the lace and to hang separately from it. Rather than begin by basting my front and back lace pieces to their respective poplin pieces I hemmed the poplin to start. I then basted the pieces together around all the other edges so I could continue assembly treating the layers as one, having already created the tiered hemline.


I thought the two fabrics together would be a bit thick to cope with my favourite french seams so opted to bind the edges using a bought black bias tape. This worked in my favour when it came to tidying up the ends of the seams at the hem. I was worried about ending up with a messy bit each side where the poplin had been hemmed nicely and the seam allowance of the lace continued from inside it. With the binding I could bind lace and poplin together, continuing over the join and just fold the ends of the bias tape in on itself to create a clean finish at the hem. I'm not sure that makes any sense written down...however it looks nice inside with the lace visible in the seam allowances between the binding but I couldn't get a decent picture with it all being so black!


I cut out the slightly scalloped hem and cuffs using the pattern of the lace as a guide. I love this detail and it was what first drew me to tops of this style, I love fitted little lace dresses with scalloped hems too. I was a little worried about how the raw edge would hold up but it's doing fine so far! I particularly like it as a feature on the three quarter length sleeves. The pattern comes with pieces for little cap sleeves so I did a little bit of the most basic pattern drafting you can do and traced off these pieces and extended them, narrowing towards the cuffs ever so slightly to achieve a nice slim fit.


One of the things I love most about this pattern is the neckline; on every one I've made so far it's sat really nice, flat and even. Jen has you use bias strips cut from your fabric as a facing. On this I used the same bought black bias tape as on the seam finishing and machine stitched it down so a row of topstitching is visible on the outside. I could have catch stitched it down and kept it invisible but the topstitching really helps hold the lace down flat against the underlining.

All in all, not my favourite thing I've ever made but I have actually had quite a bit of wear out of it so far. anything I dislike about it is entirely to do with my choices rather than the pattern though. I really recommend giving Grainline Studio Patterns a go if you haven't already, Jen's drafting is just great. I love all her patterns for their simple design perfect for making up some more practical garments which I can actually get some wear out of day to day. As discovered through Me-Made-May my dip hemmed Scout Tee must be my most worn item I've made. I've got the Tiny Pocket Tank cut out and ready to make up and the Moss Mini Skirt paper pattern is assembled and ready to go to!

Monday 20 May 2013

Me-Made-May Week 2!

I'm still going and I'm still enjoying it! I was super excited about Me-Made-May this week as I was going to get to wear my very special Elisalex dress to my boyfriend's brother's wedding! This in fact was one of the reason's I ended up signing up this year, because I knew I had one day sorted already!


Friday May 10th: My boyfriend's brother's wedding!
Shoes: Teal Court Shoes - Marks & Spencer
Bag: Hot Pink Satin Clutch - T K Maxx
Accessories: Hot Pink Petal Earrings - V&A Museum Shop


Saturday May 11th: Relaxing and recovering(!) at the hotel wedding venue
Trousers: Levi Jeans - Macy's Sale
Shoes: Cream and Turquoise Ballet Pumps - Primark


Tuesday May 14th: A morning of costume shopping and an afternoon of fittings
Trousers: Levi Jeans (again!) - Macy's sale
Jacket: Black Tuxedo Style - Urban Outfitters Sale
Shoes: Nude Ballet Pumps - Primark
Accessories: Green Rosebud Earrings - V&A Museum Shop

Putting together these photos, along with my photos of the first week, I've noticed I've been wearing jeans an awful lot! There are a couple of reasons for this. I generally do wear jeans a lot; my job involves a lot of running around in all weathers shopping, getting hands on and practical doing costume fittings and moving rails around and being backstage in the theatre. Jeans and trainers are the ideal uniform for this I'm afraid! Much as I'd prefer to be wearing lovely, pretty things everyday. Another factor is that when I'm not wearing jeans I wear dresses a lot. Most of my 'suitable for everyday wear' me-mades are tops and I don't have many bottoms to pair them with apart from jeans. I think I need to concentrate on sewing skirts and dresses for a while (hooray!) or perhaps even tackle trousers...eek

Saturday 18 May 2013

A Special Circle-Skirted Elisalex

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen

This dress is special for three reasons: 1. It was made to be worn to my boyfriend's brother's wedding last Friday, 2. It was made using fabric from Mood NYC purchased on my recent trip of a lifetime, 3. It's AWESOME!

I've been mega excited about sharing this make on the blog but had such a good time on the day I completely forgot to get any photos of me in it (and this was not top of my fella's priorities either being a best man and all!) and it's taken me a while to get my act together this week and recreate my outfit for you.

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen
Shoes: M&S (years ago!) Bag: TK Maxx Earrings: V&A Museum Shop

I knew right away that I wanted to make my dress to wear on Richard and Nicola's big day, and I worked out quite quickly that I wanted it to be an Elisalex dress from By Hand London. I made up a muslin (which I haven't had chance to blog yet) in a bargain fairly heavyweight fabric from A1 on Goldhawk Road. I was fairly happy with it but wasn't loving the shape of the skirt on me and don't think using a cheapo fabric was doing it any favours. I love the idea of the skirt and think it looks fantastic on other people, just look at Dibs and Roisin's gorgeous versions. I don't think there's anything wrong with it on me, but it's really not a shape I'm used to so I wasn't feeling very comfortable in it.

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen

So I decided to switch in a circle skirt, which I think has been a fairly common change for other bloggers to make when working with a lighter weight fabric that wouldn't hold the shape of the skirt so well. I was slightly apprehensive as I'd never done a circle skirt before but I followed a combination of Casey's Circle Skirt Sew-Along and the tutorial on Circle Skirts from the girls at By Hand London themselves and can't believe I've never tried it before! They are so simple to draft and put together (with the exception of the huge hem!), flattering and of course fun. Perfect for twirling at a wedding disco! I think I'll be making up some more lighter weight cotton circle skirts for summer.

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen

Fabric-wise I really wanted to get something special so I decided to make this my aim for my trip to Mood in New York. There were so many gorgeous fabrics there I thought I would never decide! But with the assistance of my wonderful sister who somehow managed to help me make a decision I settled on this gorgeous turquoise cotton sateen at $14 a yard. I could not be more pleased with my purchase. I was questioning my choice right up until the moment I started sewing with it and then I just got happier and happier from there! It is very reasonably priced when I think about the quality; an dream to cut and sew with, my machine loved this stuff. I didn't want anything too satin like (I was very wary of looking too much like a bridesmaid) and the sateen has the perfect sheen which in this beautiful colour just glows. I was worried it would be too heavy for the circle skirt but actually it's fantastic as it gives it body and shape. It also works fantastically well for the bodice; it holds the structure of those lovely princess seams and also has a teeny bit of stretch which makes it super comfortable to wear.

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen

Apart from how lovely and 50s and fun it looks I'm most pleased with how wearable it is. I was honestly so comfortable in this all day (with the exception of dealing with the circle skirt in some fairly major wind outside the church!). I didn't feel like I needed to tug it about to make it sit right when I stood up or down, I could almost forget I had it on and for an occasion dress I think that's quite an achievement! The fit is so nice and that's all down to the drafting skills of the By Hand London girls.

Anyway on to the construction details. This was the longest it has ever taken me to put together a garment, but I really took my time and put in the effort to make this extra special. Plus I was slightly slowed by the fact that I have just discovered Project Runway and had it on constantly in the background; I had to keep stopping so I could properly watch the runway shows!

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen
Lining!

I wanted to fully line my dress, the first time I had ever attempted a lining. As I had gone for a plain fabric I really wanted to add a little bit of interest to the dress and with the help of Charlotte and Elisalex themselves at Rachel's meet up a few weeks ago I chose a hot pink! It's a lawn like silk and cotton blend from Classic Textiles on Goldhawk Road. I highly recommend it as dress lining because it's so lightweight and gorgeously soft on the skin. Plus for the quality it's a bargain at £4 a metre. I love the pop of pink that peeks out as the skirt moves and was so please with the colour combo I decided to go for hot pink accessories with the exception of the shoes which I already had and are the almost exact same colour as the sateen.

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen

There were a lot of sewing firsts involved in the making of this dress for me; first lining, first circle skirt and first time sewing princess seams. Despite this it came together quite easily, I actually think it helped as I was so careful with every step! It was also my first time using horsehair braid. I added this to the hem after Casey recommended it in her sewalong and followed Gertie's tutorial to do so. I was very excited to find some 2" wide hot pink horsehair braid on eBay. It gives such a lovely neat finish and really helps with that round hem, though at 4 metres catch stitching the braid up by hand took a fair bit of time! It's well worth the effort though, I felt like a princess in that full skirt! To hem the lining I used the rolled hem foot on my machine.

Diary of a Chainstitcher Horsehair Braid Hem
Hot pink 2" horsehair braid around the hem


As I was lining the dress I just pinked most seams to finish them. This worked particularly well on the sateen, that stuff does not want to fray and when pinked had a lovely crisp finish. I used hot pink bias binding to do a hong kong finish on the centre back seam and waist seam. I loved getting a bit more of the turquoise and hot pink colour combo going on! I was tempted to bind all the seams but as the bodice is so close fitting I wanted to keep all those seams as bulk free as possible to keep a smooth finish on the outside.

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen
A mid-construction shot showing the bound waistband seam, pinked seams and stay tape around the neckline

The only two parts that I found a little tricky and troublesome were the neckline and the zip. I think I was a little cocky about the zip as I've never had trouble with them before and this was the first time ever that I've had to unpick one and redo! It wasn't too bad, just the two sides of the bodice weren't lining up quite right so I unpicked one side and pinned more carefully the second time around.

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen
I'm pretty proud of the finished zip result!

I initially found it difficult to get the front neckline to sit flat to he body. It took a bit of fiddling with but I managed to sort it out using a combination of techniques. I wanted to prevent the beautiful shape of the front and back neckline stretching out so I used stay tape along the seam allowances (F.Y.I. It was some amazing sticky stay tape from Pacific Trimmings). I stuck this on then under-stitched the lining to the seam allowances as I really wanted to keep the clean outside finish and not topstitch. I ended up clipping the seams right through the stay tape as the stiff stay tape was preventing the curve from turning back completely smoothly. It still wasn't sitting quite right so rather than give up and topstitch I went back and catch stitched the seam allowances to the fashion fabric to pull everything back flat. This did the trick and it's barely visible from the outside.

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen
I'm also pretty proud of the setting in of that lined sleeve!

I'm sure there's more I could say, but I'm aware that this has turned into a super long post, I just love this dress so much I couldn't help myself! Overall this is the most proud I have felt of anything I have made. I felt great in it and was really pleased with the quality I achieved; it even survived a Dirty Dancing 'Time of my Life' lift related accident!! As we came out of the church a lady I didn't know came up to me and said she absolutely loved my dress and wanted to look at it up close. I got to say 'Thank you! I made it!' for the first time and the look of disbelief on her face made me feel SO good!

Diary of a Chainstitcher By Hand London Elisalex Dress Sewing Pattern with circle skirt made in Mood Fabrics teal cotton sateen


Wednesday 15 May 2013

Me-Made-May Week 1!

So I'm a little behind on recording my Me-Made-May - well a lot considering we have just passed the end of week two! It's not the wearing handmade garments aspect of it that I'm finding challenging but the photographing. I don't know how you ladies who are doing handmade every day of May and are putting up gorgeous photos are doing it!

I completely missed taking photos on the first two days so decided to go about it a different way! I've been taking photos of my outfits laid out on the floor. I know it's not as exciting as seeing it worn and it totally doesn't prove that I actually wore it but I (and my boyfriend the photographer!) can't cope with remembering to take a photo each day while I still look respectable!

I've pledged to wear 3 me-made garments each week of May and am so far really enjoying myself!.I think usually when I'm groggily pulling an outfit together in the morning I tend to reach for easy ready to wear garments as I tend to see my handmade clothes as 'special'. It's been really great having a reason to wear the things I've made and it's made me realise that they are just as easy to wear and launder as everything else! So here we go:


Wednesday May 1st: A day of costume fittings
Trousers: Levi Skinny Jeans - Macy's sale (from my NYC trip!)
Jacket: Black Tuxedo Style - Urban Outfitters (another sale purchase!)
Shoes: Leopard Print Pumps - H&M
Accessories: Star Necklace - Topshop


Friday May 3rd: Costume shopping and an afternoon of sewing at home
Trousers: Levi Skinny Jeans - Macy's sale
Cardigan: Old, long and black! - Topshop
Shoes: Nude Ballet Pumps - Primark
Accessories: Pearl Earrings - Tiffany & Co


Tuesday May 7th: More costume fittings, meetings and shopping
Top: Me-Made Black Lace Grainline Scout Tee (unblogged as yet!)
Skirt: Mustard Yellow Mini - Forever 21
Leggings: Ankle length - Topshop
Shoes: Gold Sandals - H&M
Sunglasses: Leopard Print - Primark (hooray for the brief bit of Spring we saw!)

I have got the Week 2 post lined up and ready to go but there's a pretty special make in there which I haven't had chance to reveal on the blog yet and I think it deserves a proper introduction and a post to itself!

Thursday 2 May 2013

Giveaway Winners!

The big moment has arrived and it's time to announce the winners of my little giveaway to celebrate passing 50 followers!

I've used the random number generator to pick the lucky winners so without further ado...


The winner of the Lisette pattern is...


Entrant No. 3 - Shelley from Cuckoo Chanel who made a beautiful Anise jacket in honour of her recent blog-iversary!


And the winner of the Cynthia Rowley pattern is...


Entrant No. 6 - Vicki Kate from Vicki Kate Makes! Vicki makes some seriously gorgeous dresses and was the brains behind the wonderful Sew Very Merry Christmas Swap!

Congratulations to both you lovely ladies, I'll send you an email to get your addresses and then get these patterns in the post and on their way to being turned into lovely creations!

UPDATE - Shelley I couldn't see your email anywhere on your profile so would you please be able to send me an email with your address? Thanks!