A Slinky Silk Anna Dress

Finally I got some photos of my third version of By Hand London's Anna Dress. I originally made this dress with the idea of wearing it to my birthday drinks a couple of months ago, and although I got it finished just in time it was a little rushed and I ended up wearing my first Anna because I love it so much!

For this version I wanted to go down a different route to the other two, which were both more casual day dresses in a viscose print and polyester crepe. This time I wanted to try out one of the other fabric suggestions on the pattern and go glamorous! I suppose this could count as my first foray into evening wear, although this dress is so simple to sew up I don't feel like it can! I used a silk crepe de chine which I got for a bargain price from Fabric Land on Goldhawk Road. I was really having a hard time choosing the fabric (should I go classic black, or emerald green?) but then this beauty made my mind up for me. The colour changes slightly in different lights, from a heathery grey to a deep navy, plus it didn't have too much of a sheen which I like.

Speaking of Goldhawk Road did you all hear the awful news that the shopkeepers there have lost their petition against the demolition of the row of shops they want to knock down to 'redevelop the area'? I'm really disappointed as I don't think the council realise how much of an impact that's going to have on a wide range of people, not least the shop owners themselves. It's not like it's a derelict area, it's thriving in fact, those shops are always packed. For me personally, working in the costume industry, it's going to have a big implication on budgets as EVERYONE goes to Shepherd's Bush for affordable good quality fabrics. Apparently shop owners will be offered retail space in the new development at 'affordable' rates, but how quickly are those rates going to increase either pricing the shop keepers out of the area or forcing them to increase the price of their fabrics, which let's face is not good news for any of us! Plus where are these shops going to go in the meantime while the area is being redeveloped? All just to put a shiny new commercialised face on an area which doesn't need changing to match it to the local Westfield.

Anyway, back to the dress! Construction wise it went pretty smoothly as let's face it I've had plenty of practice with this pattern plus I chose the same slash neckline as I have with my other Anna's, I just love the style. The only thing I did differently was...

No, that's not a wind machine, just the beginnings of the storm!

Yes I went for it and included the split! When the pattern was first released I never could have imagined making myself one with the thigh high split but as usual the power of you fellow bloggers convinced me otherwise! I saw some beautiful versions with the slit which were not at all over the top or showing off too much flesh, for example Lizzie's beautiful Anna Rose and Karen's test version. After seeing these and seeing a fair bit of sunshine over July and August I was convinced that maybe I could pull it off, even with the temperamental UK weather!

The fabric pressed really nicely and was surprisingly easy to get a neat and tidy finish with despite being silk. I think crepe de chine has that little bit more texture to it which means your pieces hold together in place nicely as they go through your machine, well better than a satin would anyway! Look at those lovely bust pleats!

I french seamed all the seams with the exception of the waist, which I wanted to keep nice and flat and the centre back zip seam. Both of these I pinked, along with the edge of the facing, again to reduce bulk. The pinking actually worked really beautifully on this fabric and is holding up well.

I'm really really pleased with my invisible zip and how all the seams match up. I again used Karen's tutorial for inserting a concealed hook and eye and managed to get a nice crisp corner at the top there once I'd slip stitched down the edge of the facing.

As I was really trying to get this finished before my birthday and around a crazy week of work I think my construction was a little bit too slapdash for what this type of dress really deserves and so there's a couple of things I'm not entirely happy with. For one I simply turned and machine stitched the slit and the hem because there's so much of it! I do now wish I'd taken the time to blind stitch but I've got it nice and flat and even so I don't mind that much.

Also some of those long skirt seams are a little bit puckered which is disappointing. I wish I'd done a bit more research into how to work with silk and perhaps tried the cutting and sewing using a sandwich of tissue paper and fabric trick but lesson learnt and perhaps next time! I'm really pleased with how the bodice came out at least so I think the problem was perhaps more to do with the fact that I was getting impatient with french seaming all those long LONG seams between the many panels of the skirt. Patience next time!

Having said that when I put it on to take the photos I liked it a whole lot more than I remembered and now I can't wait to have an occasion to wear it, perhaps if the Spoolettes' Christmas Cocktails plan comes off this could be a winner?! If I lived a MUCH more glamorous life I'd love to make this same version entirely in gold sequinned fabric...though I think maybe I'd need to be Beyonce to pull that one off...

Pleated Voile Scout Tee

I am WAY behind with blogging my completed makes. Well not really way behind with the blogging as I have got some posts written but I have been seriously lacking the opportunity of a time when both I and my ever so professional photographer are free when it's not raining or gloomy to get photos taken. Things are stacking up. I actually made this top right at the beginning of the heatwave towards the end of July. Another reason why this top in particular has taken so long to make it onto the blog is that I've been wearing it ALL the time so it's been in the wash during most photo taking opportunities; I can't say that that's a bad thing though, it must be my most regularly worn make to date!

I'm usually the type of fabric shopper that looks for fabric for a particular pattern or project, usually with quite a good idea of what I am after. But on this occasion the fabric came first. I was browsing in Simply Fabrics in Brixton and this caught my eye, once I had a feel of it I couldn't resist buying some! It's a lovely soft cotton voile and the subtle random print is very 'me'. I can't remember how much exactly I paid for it but it wasn't a lot. On the journey home I schemed up a plan that it would be perfect for a simple top like the Grainline Studio Scout Tee which I have already made use of a few times before.

The fabric is fairly sheer, especially in direct sunlight so after my first daliance with hacking the Scout Tee pattern (giving it a dipped hem and a bit more room around the armholes) I decided to play around with the pattern again to combat the see-through problem. I'd seen Claire from Errant Pear's lovely version on Kollabora for which she added pleats across the bust. This gives the perfect extra thickness of fabric and coverage in this area to make the top wearable on it's own.

I'm always a bit wary of playing around with the paper pattern, whether it's for fitting or playing around with the design, as I haven't done a lot of this so lack confidence and as my sewing time is fairly limited anyway I'm always keep to just get on a sew something quick rather than get bogged down in complicated stuff. Altering the pattern to include these pleats was super easy though and actually really quick to do. I just drew lines across the traced pattern piece where I wanted the pleats to be and then used the 'cut and spread' method at these points. A couple of people at work have actually asked if I cut the pattern piece from a pre-pleated piece of fabric which I hadn't thought of doing, but I guess would work equally well!

The top itself literally took a couple of hours to make one evening after a couple of hours spent adapting the pattern the evening before. My boyfriend couldn't believe it, he went out for a beer, came back and I had a new top! The fabric sat around for a little while after purchase but when the heat wave hit I realised I had hardly any clothes suited to doing a lot of running around London fabric shopping for work in those kind of temperatures and decided to get sewing quick so I had the top to wear with shorts the next day! It was absolutely perfect for the 30 degree plus temperatures (which felt like 40 degree plus on the train home at the end of the day!) and it has had a lot of wear layered up with cardigans and vest tops in the more typical British weather since.

I've got plans to make many more simple tops like this with little variations like the pleats. I've just treated myself to the new Colette Zinnia skirt pattern and need some more plain but interesting tops I can wear tucked into it. I've been frantically pinning images on Pinterest of details I like on other handmade or ready to wear tops that I think I could add to or adapt the Scout Tee pattern to include. If your nervous like I am about getting creative with your paper patterns I think the Scout is a great verstaile basic to start with as there are no darts to work around and just three pattern pieces to play with. I'm planning to make another version of this so will take some pictures for a tutorial, then you've got no excuse not to give it try!

Tutu Making and a Little Tip!

I've spent the last two days on the first half of a course on tutu construction at Morley College, it's amazing! I've always wanted to know how to make a tutu, plus the course description looked like it would teach me a useful thing or two to help with my everyday dressmaking. I've learnt so much already even though most of what we've done so far has been to do with pattern drafting and design.

These two weekends are all about how to construct a stretch bodice and the romantic tutu which is the longer style layered net or tulle skirt. There's other courses available in February and May next year teaching you the construction of the plate tutu and the boned bodice for dance. It's pretty likely that you'd find me there!

We've made corset blocks and stretch knicker blocks to our measurements, which are basically bodice and knicker blocks with no ease whatsoever. I love that we're using our own measurements so I've now got blocks to use for knits in future. Brigid, our amazing tutor then showed us how to remove all the darts and attach the blocks together at the waist so we've now got a leotard block!

She also showed us how to move the darts into one 'dancer's dart' which is this oddly shaped bust dart - strange huh?! Apparently it's great for giving some support and helping keep a close fitting stretch in that area for bustier ladies.

Once we had the leotard block we could add our style lines to create the look we wanted. I'm attempting to make a tutu in a similar style to these pictured below which are from the Royal Ballet's production of Swan Lake. These actually have a structured bodice but I'm just using white lycra for the main shape (with some applique detail) and then using flesh power net on the upper part of the torso to achieve the strapless look.

Brigid went through lots of pictures of tutus and unitards with us and explained how to alter the block for each. It was fantastic! I feel so much more confident about working with stretch fabrics already and I've barely touched them! Sewing wise we've so far made the 'dancer's waistband' and 'basque' which is the cotton twill piece which all the layers of net are attached to. I've just ordered my net and lycra ready for next week and I can't wait to get started.

I thought I'd share with you one of my favourite tips I've picked up so far. It's a tip to save you thread and most importantly time when sewing lots of seams one after the other. You literally sew them one after the other using a small scrap of fabric as a 'run off' piece. You sew your seam, with no back tacking, then as you get to the end feed your run off piece in under the foot after the end of your fabric. Once this is under the foot you can snip the piece you've just sewn behind the machine and proceed with the next piece, feeding it under the foot after the run off piece. Then snip off the run off piece and feed it under again when you reach the end of your second seam..and so on. I probably haven't explained that very well but here's a pic of me feeding in the elastic of the waistband behind my run off piece:

Also did you know that the word Nylon came from combining New York and London? There's a bit of trivia for you!

I promise there's some finished project posts coming soon, just waiting for it to stop being so gloomy or dark when I'm home so I can get some decent photos!