Hey Peeps!
Happy Friday. I hope everyone has been having a lovely week? Mine has been super busy but with all things I find fun so that’s been awesome. Next week is shaping up to be incredibly hectic but for an amazing reason that I will be sharing next Friday. I’m so excited.
So I have a new dress (I have many MANY new dresses to share but I’m so behind with blogging my makes) to share…….in November the lovely Charlotte from T*rexes and Tiaras set up a Secret Santa swap which I promptly signed up for. I ended up with the most amazing Santa in the form of Vicki (vicki_mostly_sews on Instagram) who sent me this bunch of goodies….
……an oilcloth bag, a weekly planner, a cute pen and nearly five metres of the most beautiful fabric. How lucky am I????? I couldn’t leave this gorgeousness sitting in my stash for too long so I decided to go with something I had made before so there would be no fitting required. I ended up picking the By Hand London Flora faux wrap bodice and the Megan Nielsen Cascade skirt which is a combination that really works…..in my opinion. This is the result….
….and I LOVE it! I turned the faux wrap bodice in to a real wrap by just removing the seam allowance and cutting it on the fold. I stabilised the neckline with the selvedge from the waistband fabric which is exactly what I did last time I made this dress. The only change I made to the bodice was to take half an inch out of the shoulder seams as the bodice was just a touch too long before. Initially I was going to line the skirt in red cotton lawn which is what I used to line the bodice but I decided against that and just finished the hem with satin bias binding which I finished off by hand (that is a long hem!). This skirt has plenty of twirl-ability as I tried to show with these very derpy photos! I had also planned to cut out the waist ties out of the floral fabric but I didn’t quite have enough so I bought some red cupro which has ended up being a very happy accident. It’s a bugger to work with but so worth it in the end I think……
…..I cut out one waistband piece in red cotton so it had some structure where it needed it but the rest is just cupro which feels so lovely…..I see some drapey cowl neck tops in my future! Whilst I didn’t have enough fabric to cut all the waist tie pieces ( I cut six as I didn’t fold them over as you are meant to when you just make the skirt) I did have enough left to squeeze out a gorgeous little peasant style top for my lovely customer Sarah…..
…..super simple but so cute…..I see a few of these in my future too! All in all a most excellent Christmas present from Santa Vicki, thank you!
So If you’ve seen my March and April sewing plans
Vlogs on YouTube you’ll know that I’m attempting to make myself a version of the gorgeous Sewaholic
Robson trench coat. Now whilst I love this pattern the majority of things I wear are very (VERY) full skirted so I thought I would attempt to alter the pattern and make it full skirted trench coat. Here are some of the things I’ve been pinning as inspiration…
……the first picture is my absolutely favourite even though I have no idea what the front looks like! I’ve also been drooling over these jewelled beauties by Burberry…..
…..my inner magpie is so happy with me. Whilst lost in the depths of Pinterest I found a tutorial by Erica over at
Honestly WTF and everything clicked for me…….I CAN MAKE MY OWN! I’m not sure why it took me quite so long to put two and two together but I got there in the end. Whilst I was over in Saudi I picked up the jewels from EXO (which we have lovingly christened Alladins Cave as the whole place just glitters when you walk in)….
…..so I hadn’t intended on straight up copying Erica’s gem clusters but when you speak very little Arabic and just show a photo of what you are after……well you get exactly what you’ve shown on the tin as it were. I really don’t mind though as the selection is beautiful. Fabric wise I found this gorgeous sanded olive twill from Fabric.com (unfortunately they’ve completely sold out) it’s very very soft and drapes beautifully….
…..I’m planning on lining it with this amazing shot twill lining from
Stone fabrics. I know the Robson is designed to be unlined but I couldn’t resist. I’ve even got a beautiful dusky pink satin bias binding all ready to go……I just need to pull my finger out and make the damn thing!
Before I jump straight in though I want to test out my idea so I’m planning a wearable muslin out of some bright turquoise gabardine that’s been sitting in my stash for a few years now. I’ve traced and cut out the pattern all I need to do now is just get on with the pattern tweaking……..and the cutting out……and the construction! I am determined there will be a finished wearable muslin by the end of April……watch this space!
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