Sew Over It; Vintage shirt dress! Love it.

Hello fellow stitchers, I am ridiculously excited by today's make, it's the Vintage Shirt Dress by Sew Over It. And I really enjoyed making it.

Tulips picked by my youngest - no stems!

The pattern had appealed to me for ages, and I thought it was something I would enjoy wearing. In fact, I was happy from the moment I owned my pattern! The packaging is lovely, and the instruction booklet is detailed, well-illustrated, and easy to follow.

Indeed my favourite instruction was one telling me to drink plenty of tea and eat cake. I am always happy to follow those kind of instructions!

I deviated from the pattern in two places, cutting length out of the skirt pieces, and secondly making a narrow shoulder adjustment. I didn't muslin it, as I have suddenly come to the realisation that anything I make with sleeves needs this alteration. The adjustments have worked well, and the sleeve caps hit just the right spot.

The fabric is from "Timeless Treasures", a cotton poplin with lines of repeating perpendicular spots as its pattern. The cotton behaved beautifully and pressed and sewed like a dream.

The dress comes together easily, and the dress tucks make a nice change from darts. Although it wasn't a particularly hard make it was pretty time-consuming. I think the longer process will make me treasure this dress and really look after it.

There was also some lazy hemming in front of the telly, which is always good. All in all I think version #1 is a good wearable muslin - it's helped me get to grips with the construction and I am looking forward to making version #2 already, though I may try sleeveless next to mix it up.

Stylish Dress book; box dress D.

Hi there, the sun was shining today and my tulips sparkled in the light.  For the first time in ages, it's actually been warm enough to have blog photos taken without needing to run back indoors for warmth! Of course having said that it did hail heavily over the weekend so who knows!

Looking at my tulips!

This gorgeous little dress is dress D from the stylish dress book. If you haven't got it and you like Japanese style, this is a must have! The pattern was actually the first dress I made.  I recently let out the sides, as I had sewn it with a wide seam allowance; in doing that, I fell in love with this dress all over again.

Fortunately for this dress, I decided to make it at the same time I was going through my stash and scolding myself for having beautiful fabric and not using it up! So, enter this fabulous fabric from the Fabric Godmother. I had bought it at her last open day, and was subsequently scared of it because it was expensive!

Pattern matched pocket for the win!

Well, Josie told me it was ex liberty needlecord and it is so soft that it's actually lovely just to sit and stroke it!  In fact she still has the fabric in stock in a mocha colour-way. But this is cream, mossy green and brown. I did have a brief moment of "should this be a classy skirt?" But, in reality, I have nowhere to wear a fancy skirt, and this is much more me.

This is slightly adapted from the pattern, in that I took 1.5cm out of the centre fold both front and back. I also re-drew the front neckline slightly lower than drafting. This meant changing the facings, but it was no big deal really.

Had I had a solid amount of time, I'm sure I could have whizzed through this dress quite quickly, but I seem only to be able to be able to sew in ten minute chunks at the moment due to kid based distraction!

Well, I am really happy with this dress, it will really come into its own when the sun cranks up the heat, and I can ditch the tights for bare legs and sandals.

I will be back soon with my Sew Over It Vintage Shirt dress, just need to photograph it.

Refashioning for the win

Hello folks; a couple of weeks ago, the whole family was laid low with fever. One of the worst things about being ill is that as you start to get better you crave to sew again before you're ready; still slightly befuddled and below par, I didn't want to mess with any of my lovely fabrics and ruin them! My thoughts turned to refashioning.

Old Ben Sherman Shirt.

I'd sourced three raggedy shirts from my Beloved last year when Portia from Makery ran her refashioners challenge. As usual, time passed by, and I didn't even start the challenge! Oh well, I have used them now. They are all 100% cotton lawn. So so soft!

Old M&S shirts.

The pattern is The Sailor Top by Marilla Walker.  I really love my knit version;  Marilla said it was also suitable for woven fabric, and I wanted to try it out in a risk-free way. She's right, it works really well. These are comfy, if a little patchwork in aesthetic!

I found the top so much easier to sew up than my first version. Always easier the second time, I suppose. It flew together quickly, and even though I had to colour block with different shirts, I think it works for an everyday kinda shirt.

Original button placket down the back!

I've already worn the check one quite a bit even though these were only really to play with the pattern in woven.

Next up, my Sew Over It vintage shirt dress, which I am almost finished with. I just need to find the right buttons and not get distracted by a shiny, new project! Must... not... get... distracted...