Sam's Wedding Outfit explained...

The original pattern - Vogue 8766

 For Lisa and my cousin Jen's wedding I had decided I wanted to make a dress, an original plan to find a shirt to go with the trousers from this pattern was soon abandoned as the trousers remain unfinished in a bag (probably for another year - a way too complicated pattern for my short attention span). 

The material I had was a metre and a half of Nottingham lace (I believe untouched since it came out of the factory in the 1970's!) and a metre and a half of stretch jersey in the same bright green. I had thought about making the above pattern as it was, but I felt I wanted to make something that was a little more of the style of the 1920's fashion, simple straight lines. 

I also had rather less fabric than is needed for making the dress above, so I had to make the decision to live without sleeves and hope that the weather would be nice enough that I wouldn't need them (it was thankfully)! 

I have an idea in my head for a dress that is rather 1920's in style - it's an era I've always admired and then after watching Midnight in Paris I fell in love with it even more, Marion Cotillard's costumes are beautiful - and one day I will make it, Rosie (Grandma who is too young to be called Grandma) very kindly bought me a beautiful piece of deep pink sandblasted silk that I haven't dared cut into until I definitely know what the pattern is like and I've tested it and made sure my own invented pattern works! I had intended to make this dress for Jen's wedding but moving house twice and searching for a job took more of my attention than I would have liked.

The pattern has a rounded neck, which I decided to change slightly to more of a v-neck. When I was sewing the seams I found I had issues because the lace was really thick, so sewing the two together and making it neat and tidy was a little difficult! The v-neck sadly didn't have as much of a point as I wanted it to - that's something I need to work on!

As I mentioned before, I had rather less fabric than I would like, and the waist on the dress is quite high, so to make my skirt longer and give the dress more of a drop waist, I added a lace panel in the middle by cutting one straight strip of lace and inserting it between the bottom of the top and the skirt.

Finally, the other adjustment I made was to change the skirt; rather than turning it into the circle the skirt usually has, I kept the fabric as a square creating the points in the drape of the skirt, an effect I really like and I feel makes a "Circular" skirt much more interesting. 

When trying the dress on, I did feel somewhat rather like I was going to a fancy dress party dressed as Tinkerbell, or potentially a leprechaun, but as I only finished it the night before the wedding I had no other choice of outfit! I was pleased with the dress overall, and I really liked the adaptations I made to the pattern.

The finished dress! Tinkerbell eat your heart out!

Lisa and Sam's Wedding outfits!

My gorgeous daughters in the glam dresses they made for Jen and Mark's wedding!

Maxi Dress for a September Wedding reception

This was the photo I texted to Lisa and Sam the week before the Jen and Mark's wedding in September.  Always a last minute sewer!  Being able to send photos of what we are sewing is a lovely way of staying in touch. Borrowed the mirror in their room so a bit cluttered but gives the general idea.

This dress is made of a grey lycra covered with a stretch gray lace.  I was so chuffed with the way it looked and felt.  It has a back split and the neckline is really unnusual.  I am sure I will be using this pattern again.  The difficulty was making it out of 2 fabrics, I sewed the lycra and the lace pieces together before constructing the dress but had to unpick when I got to the hem as there had evidently been some stretch at some point which meant it wasn't hanging correctly.

My niece Manon's Prom dress

Spent a couple of weekends helping my niece Manon with her Prom dress! This is the only photo I have so I will be asking Manon for a photo of the finished dress for the post.  It was a white satin and as you can see the pattern has such a pretty bodice.  The bodice was made of two layers and the lining and was probably the most time consuming part of the pattern.  Manon has been sewing for about 3 years - she is 16 now and I feel she made a beautiful job of the bodice.

Firstly Manon thought she would make a gathered skirt into it, so she cut that out.  Later she decided that she would like a straight fitted long skirt.  The pattern went to knee length for the fitted dress but I said it would be fine we could just measure down and then insert a back split into the pattern so that she could walk in it.

I was making dinner when Manon got started on cutting out the straight skirt pattern from the gathered one she had already cut out, so I discussed how to go ahead and then moved back into the kitchen.  I poked my head around the door about 5 minutes later to see how Manon was getting on to see her just cutting out the skirt at knee length!!  She turned towards me and must have seen the look of horror on my face, then turned back to the fabric and groaned "Oh no, I knew I would mess this dress up!"  Poor lass - some time of consolation later - we agreed that I would go to the shop on Monday - post the fabric to Manon for her to cut out and that she would bring the dress to France for the long weekend away we were all having in Le Mans so that we could finish it, I would be transporting my sewing machine to the self catering gite we were all staying in!!  The shop had 1.1metres of the fabric left, the question was - would it be enough!?

In the end, I believe Manon would have liked it a bit longer but she had a lovely pair of shoes to show and she looked really stunning!

Ali's Birthday Card with Alphabet and Insects

Mum and Dad gave me the lovely gift of the Cross Stitch Card Shop magazine for Christmas 2011 and I had been dragging my feet in getting started with a project, some of which are quite involved, usually because I think about a card just a few days before someone's birthday and this does not give me enough time to get sewing and finish it before their birthday.  I have so enjoyed receiving the magazine though and imagining what I will do very soon!!

Then a little later in this year, my mum in law Marie gave me all the embroidery threads that her Mum Alice had left from all the beautiful embroidery she did.  I felt really chuffed and privileged to receive this gift and had a delightful time sorting out all the colours and skeins into order and organising them, whilst remembering the colours that Alice had used in each of the tablecloths she embroidered.

Having not done any embroidery for a long time - it was coming up to my sister Ali's birthday and we had been on a charity shop run together and I had found a huge batch of cross stitch books with ideas and charts in.  One of them had a gorgeous insect alphabet so I decide to start with something relatively easy and have a go, much helped by the fact that Ali is only 3 letters!!

I was quite pleased with end result.  I am currently in the midst of another card - which is late!!

Triangle cut out back short dress for a Wedding

I hope to be able to scrounge some photos from someone of me in this dress at Caroline and Lee's wedding.  I love wearing this dress.  I wore it many times in the summer and was complimented a lot on it, it really was not quite right for the April wedding that I first wore it to, the weather was freezing!

Black Jersey Waterfall Cardigan McCalls M6084

I have already made this one in blue jersey - love the pattern, it is so straightforward - highly recommend it.  This is a thicker jersey and has proved to be great for winter warmth and being black goes with so much!! Very useful.  The front edges are a simple hem and look fine if they fall to show on the outside. I plan to make a no sleeves one in a brown mesh - think this will be summer 2013 now!!

Blouse in white viscose with black leaf motif, New Look 6407

 Felt very pleased with the way this turned out, looks good with black jeans either tucked in or out.  The darts shape the blouse really well at back and front so it is a flattering shape.

 Chose to neaten the seams by turning a small amount under and sewing with a straight stitch - I do love the inside of a garment to look as good as the outside.

Have some more versions to go at with this pattern and plenty of material in the cupboard!!

Rainbow T-shirt for fancy dress party

This was for my friend Jen's themed birthday party.  The theme was black and white so I thought I would go with a rainbow,and stay somewhere in the middle of those two!!  I pinched a yellow T-shirt from my daughter Lisa's wardrobe - hey she was away ski-ing for the season - no need for T-shirts in the snow! Or so I thought until she rang and asked me to post some as it was so warm over there!!

So I just handcut wiggles of colour from scraps in my sewing cupboard and lined them up next to each other and sewed in same colour zig zag as the rainbow stripe.  You can just about see the red at the edge there.  Now I look at it it seems as though I have the indigo and violet in the wrong order.

The Mini car shirt for Andy's Christmas present Vogue V8759

 I love this fabric, I bought it on Ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Classic-Mini-retro-Car-fabric-fat-quarter-50cm-x-56cm-By-Nutex-/310449574716?pt=UK_Crafts_Fabric_Textiles_SM&hash=item48483c933c&_uhb=1#ht_586wt_1186 - not sure that it was this seller - I paid £25 just for the fabric which is made by Nutex.  Naturally, I didn't get it finished for Christmas - although it was done for early in the new year

 I must try making another one in the short sleeves for Andy - there are so many more car motif fabrics to choose from for my petrol headed husband!!  Below is one of the French seams in the shirt, it was so long since I had used this technique.  Once again though I was pleased with the way the shirt looked inside and out.  The shirt is well fitted so I wonder if the next size up might have been better for a really comfortable fit but it gives Andy a good incentive to keep in shape to wear it!! :)