Little girl's skirt tutorial - sew get started!

If you click here to pop over and see the lovely Sarah who blogs at Fairy Face designs, you will see she is featuring a tutorial for a little girl's skirt like these, written by little old me!

Thanks for the slot Sarah, and I hope a few little ladies get a new skirt as a result of this tutorial!

x

PS Back later with some fabric pictures :)

Am I mad?

I joked about it in my last post, but since then I have actually decided to make my own wedding dress...however, even whilst I am typing this I am questioning my sanity! Why is she doing this, oh why? why? I hear you ask...

Well...
a) I don't want a traditional dress, I want a fifies style below knee frock with big underskirts (like the picture above - oh how I would like my waist to look like that!), but in a bright print.  Somehow this feels a bit more achievable than a traditional wedding gown with all the embellishments!
b) I've hopefully found a 1950s specialist designer/dressmaker who is local and has agreed to give me some "in the moment" lessons and guidance
c) Wouldn't it be totally cool to wear a one-off, and say to everyone, "Oh this? I sewed it myself...(!)"

I'm meeting the designer on Thursday, but from our phone call last week she suggested I practice inserting invisible zips.  Not one to need any excuse to sew, I had a go yesterday...following a few You Tube videos I found.

First time round my zip was extremely visible! (forgot to get a picture of the sorry state though). I unpicked it and found some advice online to iron the reverse of the zip to flatten the rolled over teeth, enabling stitching much closer to the zip teeth.

It worked!  Here's a photo to prove it:

And what did I sew the zip to?  Well, a little dress for Felix of course!

(whilst I am pleased with the zip and the applique, I am really not pleased with my other dress-making skills, namely, not thinking to add a facing or a lining, making a right hash of binding the armholes, and the width across the shoulders which makes Felix look like she's wearing an overall - live and learn eh?)

 

So back to THE dress...I am told that half the battle will be finding the perfect fabric.  I am also told that quilting cottons will be too heavy, so I am shocked to find that despite the task being fabric shopping, I am seriously out of my depth!  I would not know a dupion silk if it smacked me in the face!

Therefore, can anyone recommend any good dressmaking fabric shops in London or the South East where the service is friendly, the fabric is excellent quality (I don't mind paying for quality in this instance) and the shop carries a good selection of prints?   We are heading up to London next week, to Libertys and The Cloth House.  But other shop recommendations would be very welcome indeed!

x

Having a play...

I think it's partly a reaction to finishing a big quilt, but I've found myself mucking about with small bits of fabric recently, trying a few new ideas and styles in small items.  It helps that I've had my own screen-printed fabrics to play with, plus my new year fabric binge, that has been waiting patiently for my attention!

Here's what I've been up to:

A few zippy's:

This one uses a fussy cut clock from Melody Millers Ruby Star Shining range - which I love.  Mum loved it too, so she bought it! (am I mean to "sell" things to my own Mum?!)  I had a play with adding a few teeny bits of leather, a little tab, and as a zipper pull.

Then, I got brave and cut into one of my screen-printed designs.  This zippy uses a panel that I printed on calico, a little Echo and a piece of suede, which I've stitched over in a random design.

 Spurred on, I cut into another yellow panel and a red leather scrap and attempted to make an iPad holder.  I say "attempted" because in my desire to make it a snug fit, I forgot about the fact that zipper tabs at the ends would shorten the zip length and therefore make it impossible for me to get an iPad in it - doh!

And finally, I made Felix a little skirt, using a charity shop sourced M&S vest top which I've recycled and appliqued with, yes you've guessed it, another of my screen-printed scraps!

I am planning to do a tutorial for a similar style of skirt for Sarah's "Sew: Get started" series of simple sewing tutorials on 22nd March, so if you have a little person who would look cute in one of these, then look out for that!
x

Liberty lady...

I stopped all other sewing yesterday to make a present for Izzy, who's first birthday it is today, and who's party we went to earlier. 

Izzy is a classy one year old, so the average present just wouldn't do....

I knew which fabric I was going to use straight away, some of the precious Liberty print that was part of "the best Christmas present in recent history" from my Aunty Jane.  Izzy wears cute prints and cardigans so I decided on a sleeveless top. I couldn't find any decent (simple!) patterns so I kind of made one up by tracing round a top of Felix's and cutting the sleeves off. I added a basic box pleat at the front and a vintage narrow bias binding (charity shop bargain 10p!). 

It fits Felix perfectly, but darn it, the child wouldn't model for me, so this is the best picture I could get!

And here are Izzy and Felix at the party....and yes that is some kind of food stuck to Felix's foot, she's a classy lady too!

x

There's a slug in my craft room!

No, this is not a euphemism for something else, there really is a slug in my craft room, I found him with my bare toes when standing looking on the shelves for some ribbon.   Oh, and then I found his mate too.

The fact the craft room is so damp that slugs can have a party there - not good
The feeling of slug between unsuspecting toes - really really NOT GOOD!.

Something needs to be done....

However, in the warm dry kitchen I did manage to make a few things last week.  I made this skirt for Felix's friend Georgia's first birthday....using this simple pattern, and just scaling it down to baby size.

I got Felix to model it...

...and then James vetoed giving it away, so we kept it and I made this one instead for Georgia!

Oh, and a few days late (posted now, so should be with you shortly, Sarah!) I also managed to complete the August Bee blocks.  Sarah sent us a fab array of blue and black fabrics and asked for anything non-traditional.   She said experiment, so I did!

Block 1 almost beat me when I completely underestimated the amount of black needed, but I was rescued by a little package of more black and I was able to finish it.  Don't ask me where the idea came from, I think I started with Harry Potter, but then I couldn't resist adding the camera...by the way, big thanks to my bloggy friends for the lovely Flickr comments on these blocks, made my day :)

Oh and finally, for those of you not in Brit Bee (Mum!), here is a glance at the finished Project 51, which was a secret project that all the Brit Bee ladies contributed to. Trudi did an amazing job of the quilting and it has now reached it's lovely recipient. I hope it's being snuggled under right now..

x