Bettine in Jersey

Pattern: Bettine Dress by Tilly and the Buttons.

Fabric: This time I made it in jersey as suggested by Tilly. It is a really thin jersey and I got it for £3/m from Walthamstow market, London. I bought it because I was lured in by the color and the flowers, but was not sure what to make with it. But I think Bettine is the perfect match, because the drapy qualities of the fabric suit Bettine well.

Alterations: This is already my third version (see V1 and V2). My last two versions were made from woven fabric and I had problems with the underarms ripping when bending forwards. So the jersey fabric was kind of a cheat to avoid this! (But don't fret, I'm still determined to solve that problem!)

The original pattern comes with a facing, Tilly however, has a tutorial on her blog about how to add the neckband instead of the facing. It is super easy to follow and my neckband turned out great first time. The only thing I'm not 100% happy with, is the hem. I had to iron it for these photos because it is all wonky. The twin needle and thin jerseys are not really good friends in my hand. And I was to lazy to stabilise the hem with fusible interfacing...next time.

Will I make it again? Can I hear you groaning, hehe? I really love this pattern. It is very easy and fast to sew. Even I can manage to make it in one day and that usually never happens! So I will definitively be tempted to make it again come summer *I'm daydreaming here. Warm days, hmmm*

Last years Bettine Dress

Pattern: Bettine Dress by Tilly and the Buttons. It is already my second version - my first version I made for our Honeymoon.

Fabric: This time I used a very drapy viscose. I think I got it from Walthamstow Market last autumn. As always when I see a fabric with butterflies on it - I just can't leave without it. I tried, but came back at the end of the shopping trip. I knew immediately that it would be perfect for Bettine!

Alterations: I have some minor fitting issues with my first Bettine. A) it is too short, B) it rips under the arms when I try to bend and stretch forward, and C) the shoulder seams slip backwards. The length was easy to fix, I just added 4 cm to the pattern. For the shoulder seams, I added 1.5 cm to the back shoulder seam tapering to nothing towards the sleeve and removed the same amount from the front shoulder seam. Tapering again to nothing towards the sleeve. As you will see in the photos, the shoulder seam is still slipping backwards.

Lastly, I did a broad upper back adjustment and added 1 cm to the front and back bodice in the shoulder area. I'm not sure if this adjustment is actually the right one for me because I have a narrow back. The problem of ripping underarm seams is not completely solved yet, as they still tend to rip if I'm not careful (although there is some more give). I guess the actual problem are my broad shoulders, so I have to look into fitting these.

For this version I also added the optional sleeve taps and small white buttons that came from my Kiev shed find. I didn't make the pocket version as I felt the fabric is not stable enough.

Have I worn it yet? I did loads in autumn and I really love the fabric. It is super soft! However being so soft can also be disadvantageous. I noticed already that something weird was going on with the fabric when I tried to straighten it before cutting it out. I was using the thread pull method to identify the grain. I did not pull hard but the thread kept breaking. Not snapping but just disintegrating.

So, when I was wearing the dress the first time after a couple of hours I noticed pulled threads on the front of the skirt! The culprit was my kitchen table. The wood of the table apparently pulled the threads out. Leaving white spaces behind where the thread had been before. That has never happened to me before. With none of my garments.

I'm still wearing it because the marks are not that visible but they are there (you can actually see them on most photographs). Has anything like that happened to you before? I have not sewn with soft viscose much, so maybe it is a usual feature of this fabric? Or maybe it is just bad quality...

Foxy Coco

Thanks a lot for all your lovely comments last week. I had a rummage through my wardrobe and have indeed found a few of the colors that you suggested I should wear with my black and white polka dot sweater. I would have taken some pictures to show you, but with it raining all weekend there is just not enough light! So, be patient :)

Fabric: A thick sweater knit with fleece on the inside (you might remember it from my last weeks make - Moneta Sweater). I bought it from Yakhlaf Stoffen - a fabric store in Albert Cuypstraat in Amsterdam. The shop had a lovely choice of sweater knits and jerseys (so difficult to decide which one to buy) and the sweater knits were only 8.95 Euros/meter.

Pattern: Coco Dress by Tilly and the Buttons. It's already my third version (version 1 and version 2), but I'm still tweaking it for a better fit! The fabric is a bit stiff so I imagined it would hold the A-line shape of Coco very well. It does!

For this version of Coco, I decided to sew a simple turned neckline which I stabilised with hem tape before sewing. I love to use hem tape for knits - to stabilise not only hems but necklines and cuffs that are only turned over. The hem tape prevents them from stretching out and also makes sewing much easier. Nonetheless my sewing machine had troubles to sew the neckline at the shoulder seams. With the fabric being so thick it took some convincing to get over the seams.

Alterations: You will notice as with my previous versions, I added two back darts to mimic the shape of my sway back. I also shaved off some excess fabric from the front and back armholes as well as from the sleeves. I think I could have removed even more as there is still a fabric bulge close to the armpit.

Embellishments: I added a little fox embroidery to make the dress more interesting (and yes it is a fox and no cat, mum). A fox came to my mind because, obviously, the dress is orange. On google I found this adorable little fellow - he is a free pattern - from Alicia and just had to have him on my dress.

I've pencil copied the fox on some piece of thin fusible interfacing and then fused the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric. The interfacing added some stability as well. I then used two threads of embroidery thread and with some difficulties started to embroider. The curios thing with embroidering such a heavy knit is, that the needle does not go in and come out at the same position. I had to unpick a lot until I was satisfied with the result. The dress has been in the wash several times and so far the fox is still staying on. No unraveling of stitches, phew.

Have I worn it? Yes, I've worn the dress almost every week since I made it in November! It is really warm and cosy as you would expect from a sweater knit. There is only one annoying thing: when walking the dress sticks to my thighs and starts to ride up in the front. I'm not sure if this is because the dress is (too) short or because of the fabric. I've noticed that it is not as bad when I walk slowly, but unfortunately I'm a fast walker!

Honey Moon Sewing: The Bettine Dress.

Finally after 6 month of writing wedding dress posts and sewing on my wedding dress, I managed to sew a casual dress! It is the Tilly and the Buttons Bettine dress! I finished it before we left for our honey moon and so I had the opportunity to get the photographs taken in Corfu, Greece - where we spent a fantastic time!

Pockets :)

I'm not sure what exactly the fabric is other than it most certainly contains polyester. It is very soft to the touch and draps nicely. That's why I have chosen it for this style of loose fitting dress. I can even wear the dress with tights and the fabric is not clinging!

I've cut a size 3 for the bodice and graded up to a size 4 at the hips. However, I always seem to forget that Tillys pattern are a bit short for me. So instead of hitting me over the knee the hem stops somewhere mid calf and makes sitting down rather awkward.

For my next version - and yes there will be one - I also have to add some width to the shoulders as they are a bit tight. This dress is actually the first dress where I managed to rip a seam. I was sitting in the car and bending down to pull the lever for the petrol lid when I heard a rip. The seams directly under my arm pit had ripped apart.

Here you can see that it is really a bit short on me.

For a quick fix I stitched several times over the weak spot in this version - and I'm careful how far I stretch my arms. So far it is holding up.

Other than this it is a very comfy dress that came quickly together. It was also the first time that I added elastic in a waistband and I'm happy with how it turned out! I have already layed out the fabric for version two and hopefully will find some time next weekend to sew it.

On other terms, I need some fall sewing inspiration. I somehow do not know what to sew next and have spent the last couple of weeks to find inspiration. But haven't been able to. It is really frustrating to have time to sew but not to know what to make. So tell me what are you making for your fall wardrobe and which colors are you choosing? Hopefully the spark will fly over to me!!!

Two Ms: Mimi and Mabel.

I think I’ve given you enough time to forget about my last version of the Mimi Blouse :) The pattern is from Tilly and the Buttons book “Love at first stitch”.

Fabric: My first version was made from a drapy and soft fabric - it was actually a fabric used by the Oasis retailer to make a blouse. I found out about it on twitter because JessB had the blouse, haha. I always try to get my hands on shop fabric and I actually succeeded without knowing! For my second version I used a liberty copy print cotton lawn. It is a lightweight fabric, but much stiffer than the fabric from version one. I’ve used this fabric before to make a dress at a sewing class and was happy to finally use up these leftovers!

For the collar I used some leftover cotton lawn also from my stash. The buttons come from my button jar as well. So you can say, this blouse cost me almost nothing :) I love it when this happens.

Fitting: The fit was quite good in my first version but I was not 100% happy with it, because the collar was laying not flat. It wasn't that obvious because of the drapy fabric. But you know how it is: when you know it’s there, it bothers you. So back to collar drafting I went and a thorough measuring of the neck curve revealed that my collar curve was longer than the one on the yoke. I can’t remember the exact measurement, but it was something around half an inch. I removed the fullness and after some more fiddling on my dress form was happy with the fit.

I hand stitched the hem on the sleeves.

Construction: Having sewn the blouse before, sewing this one was really fast. I mostly followed Tilly’s instructions. The only change I made was to sew the collar in flat. That means I sewed the collar to the yoke before sewing the side seams. I think it results in a nicer collar because you can press it much better :) and it is easier to pin and sew.

By the way, the skirt I'm wearing is the Colette Mabel Skirt. It is made from a Romaknit Jersey that I bought in Goldhawk Road. It is a bit see through and I can wear it only with similar colored tights or underwear.

Here is the reason why I'm not showing you the skirt in its total glory - I had a big afternoon tea before taking the pictures.

I made the pencil skirt version 3 in size M. The pencil skirt has side seam details and a kick pleat. I'm not sure if I cut the wrong size or if it was because of my fabric, but I had to take out 8 inch from the waistband and then from the top of the side and back seams to make the skirt fit. The skirt is sitting now on my natural waist - I'm not sure if that is the right position because the pattern says mid-rise. But anyhow the skirt felt very loose before and I was afraid it would slide down when stretching over the day.

The skirt was easy to sew otherwise and I sewed it mostly on my overlocker. It was a race against time. I have to stop sewing at 9 pm because the walls in our new flat are so thin. I started cutting the fabric at around 7 pm and then participating in my own little sewing bee. And lost. But would have won, if I wouldn't have fitted the skirt :P

I'm a bit disappointed with the kick pleat because it is only a mock kick pleat. My mum asked me actually if I had forgotten to open the pleat. Nope it is closed - unless I misunderstood the instructions? Any thoughts from your experience with the pattern?

Despite it little quirks the skirt is a favorite of mine and I wear it at least twice during the week. Yeah for basics again :)

Smart Casual or Girly? A Polka Dot Coco!

Here it is finally. My latest Coco in a Polka Dot Fabric. It is not perfect, but I love it.

 

Pattern: Tilly and the Button Coco Dress. This is already my second version of this pattern and this time I made the dress with a fold-under neckline and three-quarter length sleeves.

I've added again two long darts to take out all this extra fabric that would otherwise be pooling in my swayback.

 

 

 

Fabric: Ponte Jersey Knit that I bought in Goldhawk Road, London. It is slightly textured and unluckily has not much stretch. Do you always test die stretch of your knit before cutting out? I keep forgetting. Because this jersey has hardly any stretch it would have been better to use it as a woven.

 

Fitting: I didn’t do any additional fitting this time (for fitting details of my first version please have a look here).  However, because the fabric is not very stretchy one fitting issue has arisen (or is more pronounced than in my previous version). The shoulder/armhole seam does not hit my shoulder. It causes the drag lines in the sleeves. So for my next version I have to do a broad shoulder adjustment by adding to the front and back shoulder/armhole. Otherwise I would say the fit is spot on :)

Dr. Daniela :)

I love the silhouette of the dress that is so pronounced with this rather stiff fabric. The black polka dots on white background make the dress look very classy. So classy that I decided to wear it for my graduation ceremony which took place in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Thanks to the polka dots my family which was sitting on the upper stalls had me in good view all times.

I've spent some time the last couple of weeks, trying to figure out what kind of cardigans I should wear with my dresses. I have a lot of cropped and knitted ones that don’t go with such an A-line dress. I didn’t want to wear a black cardigan with this dress, as blacks makes me look really pale. But I think this long rose cardigan paired with a bow belt and rose shoes makes the dress look really girly. Which is the style I like :)

Good news: I'm currently spending more time on my wedding dress (I've forbidden myself to sew anything else!). I've taken a couple of pictures of my progress - which is rather slow. There are so many decisions to make and I tend to procrastinate a bit. But I'm back on track and will give you an update in my next post!

Let's fly away Mimi Blouse

Little preamble: 
Me: Shall we go for a walk? We still haven't explored the surrounding area.
He: Yes sure. I will take my camera in case we see some birds, deer...
Out and about.
Me: Can you take a picture of me?
He: Yes sure.
Me: Wait. I have to take off my coat.
He: What??? I can't belive it. Are you taking every opportunity to get photographs for your blog?
Me (broadly smiling): YES!
Does this sound familiar to you?

 

It looks like I'm working my way through Tilly's sewing patterns. Because next on is the Mimi Blouse from Tilly's book "Love at first stitch". But what can I say, I just love Tilly's style (just to warn you, I'm also having the Francoise pattern in my stash and I'm eyeballing the Arielle skirt).

I started to fit the Mimi Blouse last year, but couldn't get the fit on my shoulders right. You can see a photo of the muslin on Claires Blog where I wrote a guest post about Muslins. (It's the "fitting a blouse" photograph near to the end of the post.) I gave up on fitting the blouse. But the thought that I gave up (and got defeated by a piece of clothing) kept nagging on me. Thus I started anew and succeeded :)

Alterations: The biggest change I made was to add 1 1/4" to the yoke at the shoulder to adjust for my square shoulders. Before, the neckline didn't lie flat, but now it is! Adding so much fabric to the shoulders meant that my neckline changed a lot and thus I had to draft a new collar and facing. I also did my usual 5/8 forward shoulder adjustment.

I had the feeling that the sleeve hem looked a bit tight on some photos of the Mimi blouse. Thus I added 3/8" to each sleeve hem tapering to nothing towards the armhole. I also raised the sleeve cap by 3/8" and moved the shoulder point forward 5/8". That's it. These are not a lot of changes for me and I managed to sort them all out in one afternoon.  

Construction: I followed Tilly's instruction, which were brilliant as always. Tilly suggests to sew the side seams first and then to attach the collar. I think for my next version I would prefer to set in the collar flat first and then sew the side seams.

Fabric: It is because of this fabric that I decided to revisit Mimi. It is super soft and drapey and I knew immediately that it is perfect for the blouse. I think it is some viscose polyester. I bought it from a market stall in my new home town for £2.99/m. Guess what convinced me to buy it? The birds, haha. It looked awful on the bolt, so many creases. Ironing helped :) However, it was off-grain. A lot as you can see on the photo below. But that didn't stop me to cut the blouse.

Off grain fabric.

Do I like it? I love the blouse, it looks so playful and feels so nice on the skin. I was planning to wear it with my Delphine skirt (version 1 and 2) like Tilly does in her book. But unfortunately due to my sway back, there is a massive fabric balloon on my back. It just doesn't look pretty, sniff. But I had a rummage through my pattern stash and found the Mabel Skirt pattern from Colette patterns. I'm planning for ages to make that skirt. The time has come :) Mabel is a tight fitting jersey skirt and I think will look lovely with Tilly's blouse - if the blouse is not tucked in - that's how I plan to wear it.

The first button is gold-blue because I didn't have enough of the blue ones.

Will I make it again? Ahem, at the time of typing version two is already made up and version three has been cut out. I'm in love :) I hope you are getting not bored, but I try to not show them to you one after the other! Have you ever been so enamored with a pattern that you HAD to make it at least twice - without sewing something else in between???