Make your own...

...Oven Mitt, in just a couple of hours!

You may be thinking, why on earth would I make an oven mitt when you can pick one up so easily in almost any store, but I say why not?! Especially when you can make it all pretty and match your kitchen accessories. Once you've got the basic pattern you can go bananas with embellishments, yay!

Here's how, lets get started!

You'll need just a few things to get started:
- Your chosen fabric, four 20x30cm rectangles should do it (2 of these rectangles can be left over fabric as they will be on the inside)
- Thick heat resistant wadding, two 20x30cm rectangles
- Paper to draft a pattern on
- Some binding
- The essentials: Scissors, thread, pencil etc
- Then the fun part, embellishments!! I used a bit of lace trim


First you'll want to take your wadding and sandwich it between two pieces of fabric (one outer and one inner piece). Next pin and tack the fabric to the wadding to secure it in place. Repeat with the other piece of wadding and fabric rectangles.

Next sew parallel diagonal lines all the way across the pieces of fabric/wadding in one direction, and then the other direction to create a diamond pattern. The spacing of lines could depend on your fabric design, mine were about 1inch apart. You should end up with 2 quilted rectangles.



Cue tea break, and a sneaky biscuit :)

Lay your hand on the pattern paper and roughly draw round your hand with a space for your thumb, this takes a bit of judgment and practise as you don't want to end up with a really tight oven glove! Don't forget to add a seam allowance all the way round too (I may have done this 1st time around).


Cut out your two quilted rectangles using your newly created pattern piece. Then pin and sew the two pieces right sides together all the way round, keeping the bottom open. If you'd like a little hook to hang up your oven mitt this is the time to add it in. Pop a little loop of binding inside the two pieces before you sew them together.

Nearly there.... Turn the mitt the right way out and use the binding to encase the raw edges.

Now the fun part, embellish embellish embellish! Lace, applique, ribbon, buttons, anything you like!

All Done :) Well done.

What embellishments did you go with?

First sewing project of the year

Happy Sunday everyone! Here it is, my first real post of 2015. I wanted to tell all of you lovely people about my first sewing project of the year. Better late than never eh?!?


I've had this pattern sitting all sad and unused since London's Makegood festival last May. If you're in London this May you really should give it a visit - it was so good last year! It's one of Tilly's patterns from Tilly and the Buttons which was included in her book that I purchased at the Makegood festival. If you haven't got this book and are new to sewing, I highly recommend it; beautiful images and clear instructions makes one brilliant sewing book!

This is the Megan Dress from Tilly's book. I made some minor adjustments to the pattern after being inspired by another dress I saw online a few weeks ago. I lowered the waistline by about 6cm,  which involved a little experimenting with the darts. The original pattern is designed as an empire waist line, which is lovely, but I thought this lowered waist would work better with the design I had in mind. I also added a self-drafted collar and button placket.



I had to grade between a few sizes (Tilly gives a great explanation of how to do this in her book) and take out a little fabric in the back bodice, which I often have to do, but after that everything went together smoothly.

I was so pleased to give this pattern its first outing and I'm really happy with the results! Thank you Tilly!

I can't wait to make another version of this dress with the original waistline, perhaps with a soft cotton with a little stretch to make a comfy number - what do you think??





What have you been sewing this year? I'd love to hear about it :)
With love -x-x-x-

Navy Upright Collar Dress

Before the weather turned very untypically English, I decided to try turning a summer tea dress pattern into a more sophisticated self-shaping dress, inspired a little bit by Emilia Wickstead's Coat Dress worn by Kate Middleton on St Paddy's Day.

Adapted McCall's Pattern

I already had the McCall's M6503 pattern sitting in my room (which also makes lovely summer dresses, perfect for this time of year), so instead of searching for a different pattern, I thought i'd give an adaptation a try (View D). Making things difficult for myself.... again!

                      

                              














The first thing I did was measured myself and compared my measurements to the finished garment measurements. TIP: Summer dresses often have bigger pattern pieces, because a bit of extra material looks nice and drapey in a soft floaty material. However, I wanted each piece to lie flat and didn't want too many gathers, as in a thicker material it would look too bulky. It turned out the only thing I needed to adjust slightly was the front bodice pieces. I took a little bit off the centre and side seam edges, so that there were less gathers under the bust line.

Next, the fun part, choosing the fabric: I knew I wanted a material that would keep it's shape, but it couldn't be too thick or stiff. A medium weight corduroy would have the type of thing I was looking for, but at my local market I stumbled up on a navy felt/fleece, with a polyester backing - PERFECT! I was so excited to get going. I also chose a contrast chequered material for the waist and collar.

And so I got started :) I didn't have to change anything else, but I would always suggest TIP: to tack the bodice pieces together first to make sure all the sizing is correct, especially when you are adapting a pattern.

The only thing that was a little tricky, because of the thicker material, was the collar. I found that trying to sew that many layers of fabric is best done by hand. The collar on my dress isn't perfect even now, but I don't think it's too noticeable. I'm sure you'll have more luck!

Have you made a different type of look with a different fabric? Post your pictures!

Calling all budding seamstresses... hiya

My discovery of the month has to be the StyleARC website. It's an Australian based company which sells unique, fashionable and easy to use sewing patterns. It ticks all the boxes.

The site is updated every month, and has some really lovely designs, one of which was mentioned in my wrap dress post - the Kate Dress, i.e. THE blue engagement Kate Middleton Dress. We all know that's a worthwhile purchase!

The patterns also come on paper (newspaperish thickness), not that annoyingly easy to tear tissue which you'll find in most pattern packets: Absolute bonus!

Some of my other favourites are:


     

                  Layla Dress                                                                                         Felicity Blouse                                                                                            Paris Dress

TIP: Make sure you check your measurements on the size chart because this isn't a British Website, and the sizes differ to a little to ours.

I really love this website; sewing our own clothes is a lovely way to get the most out of our figures and skin tone. You can choose the colours and styles that suit you and adapt where necessary - which isn't easy to do with things you find in the shops. Plus, when people ask you "where did you get that?" you'll feel an incredible amount of pride saying "I made it".






I urge you to give it a go, try something simple first (how about the Olivia Dress), and if you have any sewing questions please get in touch.

I can see myself draining my bank balace very quickly! We need some more businesses like this in the UK...any budding pattern designers up for the challenge?! Although, lucky for us StyleARC can post you your patterns all over the world, so we can have the pleasure of enjoying some Australian talent too!

Don't believe my overly excited post? Check it out for yourself :)

Sunday (sewing) Treats - Wrap Dress

I don't know about you guys, but today was the first time I didn't feel like my fingers and toes were going to fall off the moment I even thought about the outside. The sun was out - and I almost felt warm for a while.

This MUST mean SPRING IS HERE (I don't want to hear any 20th March rubbish). Prime time to whip out the wrap dress I made last year.

Wrap dresses are really quite simple to make once you know your way around a sewing machine. Once you've had a go at a couple of simple cotton dresses, give a wrap dress a try. Only a few different pattern pieces are used and you don't have to be too exact with your cutting and sewing; the nature of the dress and material is quite forgiving.

For someone who has a couple of sewing projects under their belt, I would say this type of dress would take you about 6 hours, so a perfect 'Sunday Treat' activity or 2 evening's work. Pretty efficient I'd say!

TIP: I have since made this dress for a friend as a birthday present - why don't you give it a go; a lovely handmade present :) I knew her rough dress size, but didn't worry too much about sizing, as you wouldn't notice if it was a slight bit too big or small. Perfect! Maybe she'll be willing to put a picture of her wearing it up here...hint hint ;)

I have recently been bought some lovely blue jersey fabric which i'm going to make another wrap dress out of. This time i'll make a short sleeve version, perhaps experimenting with lace trim. I'll post some pictures up here when I've finished. Wish me luck!

TIP: Try experimenting with lightweight and heavyweight jersey materials. This one is a very lightweight jersey, with only a little stretch in it. I recommend starting with a jersey with only a small amount of stretch if you're new to the sewing world.

Some good Wrap Dress patterns are listed below (I've listed their original source, but have a search on the internet for British suppliers of the patterns. There's plenty out there - just type in the pattern code into a your search bar):
- Vogue V8379
- McCall M5974
- Butterick B5206
- StyleARC - Kate Dress
- I can't recommend highly enough Lisa Comfort's 'Sew Over It' Ultimate Wrap Dress course. You'll come away with a wrap dress pattern, one completed wrap dress and a whole heap of new knowledge and skills. The teachers will help you at every stage, and are so welcoming - all you need to do is choose your fabric and book a place on the course. Plus you get cake and tea whilst you sew, what more could you ask for? I love it there!

Send me some pictures of your completed wrap dresses and feel free to ask any questions. Sunday Love x x x