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!

Sweater Mania

I'm having a massive shortage of sweaters in my wardrobe. Especially sweaters that I can wear with my high-waisted skirts. But you know how it is, basics usually end up at the end of the sewing list. Not anymore.

Before Christmas I decided it is time to overcome that sweater shortage and dug out my Colette Moneta dress pattern. Colette patterns have a great tutorial on their website showing how to turn the Moneta bodice into a vintage-style sweater.

I've made the Moneta once before (here) and struggled with the big sleeves. This time I substituted the sleeves with the sleeves from my Tilly and the Buttons pattern Coco - the sleeves fit me much better. I also copied over the armholes to make sure the sleeves will fit.

Although not perfect (yet) I'm more than happy with the result: three sweaters :) and all are made from leftovers! (Although not all of the main projects have made it to the blog)



Sweater No 1: Made from an orange sweater fabric (it has fleece on the inside) with beige rib knit for the waist and cuffs. The neckline is only turned and stitched with a zigzag stitch. I found it quite hard to find a color that goes with the orange and think my color combination is a bit retro (but very autumny). The sweater goes best with my Colette Beignet which I'm wearing in the pictures. I've made a Coco from the fabric, it is already photographed so you will see it soon.



Sweater No 2: I've made the Oslo Sweater (Seamwork) from this fabric and sadly didn't like the outcome at all (I think the Oslo in this fabric is just not my style). But I do love this sweater. For the waist and cuffs I used the wrong side of the fabric to have a bit of a contrast. Also I added a neckband to stabilise the neckline. For this version I made another change: I tightened the sleeves as they were massive on me. They don't look as massive on my version 1, because the orange sweater fabric is much more stable than this blue (ikat?) knit. This sweater goes best with my denim Delphine skirt.



Sweater No 3: This was the sweater I was most looking forward to. Because I've made a Coco from the fabric that I love (here). But for some reason I have not fallen in love with this sweater. It might be that I have troubles to pair it up with any of the garments I have. I'm wearing it in these pictures with an old H&M chiffon skirt. Lescha doesn't like this combination at all. I think it goes well together and the outfit looks very 1970s. This is probably enhanced by the rolled collar. So far I hadn't the courage to wear the outfit in public. Any suggestion what you would wear with this sweater?

In other news: As I said in my last blog post, we were house hunting for the last couple of month. Beginning of November we've made an offer that got accepted. However, the chain here moves rather slowly so we haven't moved yet. But because of all the house buying stress, I was depressed and not in the mood to look at my sewing machine at all (I'm one of these people who get easily overwhelmed with big projects - it reminded me of certain phases when I was sewing my wedding dress). Hence my absence from the blog. I'm much more relaxed now (probably because we can't do anything anyway) so I've made a couple of things that I want to share with you. Happy sewing ;)

Bruyere - finally mine!

It took me almost a year from buying this pattern at the last SewBrum to actually get it sewn! I rediscovered my love of shirt dresses when I put my 2013 McCalls makes on (here and here). I had to have another one, or two, or three. Only one so far.

Fabric: Cotton print fabric that I bought from Goldhawk Road this year. I love fabric with flowers on it. I'm always in love with Ruths and Roisins makes and decided to finally make a flower dress for myself. I managed to cut the Bruyere from 1.5 m of fabric - at least I thought so. But discovered that I had missed the back facing, ups. There was no fabric left and so I used some white leftover cotton.

Pattern: Bruyere from Deer and Doe. I cut a size 36 for the bust, a 38 for the waist and a 40 for the hips. It was the first time that I cut a bigger size for the bust. I went to a proper Bra fitting and I can only recommend you go as well if you have the chance! I always bought 32B and the bra that fitted me best was 28/30 D (the shop keeper was raving about my very narrow back). I couldn't believe it.

 Cutting bigger bust sizes might also improve the fit of the clothes on my shoulders which I always struggle to fit right. For the Bruyere, I only did a forward shoulder adjustment and then crossed my fingers. I usually make a muslins, but as shirt dresses are not as snug I usually can get away with not fitting them. I also lengthened the shirt dress to size 46 because I'm not planning to wear it over trousers.

Constructions: As others have already commented, this pattern is for the advanced seamstress. There is not much detail and I was actually surprised by the lack of it. One of the challenging parts for me was to put in the sleeves. There seemed to be a lot of ease and I was wondering if they have to be gathered. But according to the internet I was the only one struggling. I unpicked the sleeves several times and managed to get them in with a minimal amount of puckers. Did anybody else experience problems with this step? Or was it just my lack of skill ;) Oh, I'm also not showing the plackets. Thankfully my fabric is patterned...

Fit: Not perfect yet. When wearing the shirt to work today I noticed the bust darts riding up which caused the build up of a fold over the bust. I'm not exactly sure why that is but I might try to move the bust dart down a bit because I thinks it is a bit high. For my next version I will also reduce the ease in the sleeves as they are a bit puffy. Other than that. I love it!

I had some trouble to style the dress. For the blog photos I was wearing it with purple tights. But tights are see through and so I didn't feel safe - especially because the fabric kept clinging to my bum and then riding up - any tips? Also what type/color of shoes would you combine with purple tights? I've worn the Bruyere with black leggings and a purple camisole today which felt much better.

Not my favorite photo, but the only one that shows the proportion of the shirt dress a bit better.

Lastly, thanks so much for your comments regarding my pink stripy dress last week. They are most welcome and I will review them coming spring. For now, the dress has been put to the back of the wardrobe and will be ignored :) PS: My sewing mojo seems to be back following a trip to Amsterdam - pictures to come -  and I'm merely sewing and embroidering. There is also some house hunting in the mix, but so far no success. Do you really need a sewing room? YES!

Pink ZigZags!

Country Girl ;)

I actually planned to have more sewing time after all the wedding preparations were done. But no, we went straight into our next big adventure: house hunting! So that's how we spend most of our Saturdays - looking at other peoples houses. So far nothing has come along that both of us really like. That means more searching and less sewing.

But I've found some pictures that we took in August in which I wear the first dress I made after finishing my wedding dress. I wanted a quick no-fitting sewing project and thus made my third version of Simplicity 1803 (see versions one and two).

The fabric is a liberty copy print on cotton lawn. I bought it on Goldhawk Road and it is one of the first fabrics I ever bought. So it felt really good to finally use it. I tried to match the Zigzags as best as I could and am really happy with the result.

Sewing the dress was quick, but there was some fitting involved. I hadn't made the yoke version before and didn't anticipate any problems. But having pinned the yoke to the dress, the yoke was strangling me. So I had to take it apart (Does anybody enjoy to take out understitching on trimmed seams? No me neither) and then deepened the neckline curve by 1cm. I couldn't go deeper because then I wouldn't have been able to turn the yoke right side out. The fit is better now, but still not 100% comfortable.

Due to my square shoulders the yoke is not sitting smoothly. You can see the fabric bulging next to the armpit. I tried to handstitch the bulge down but couldn't get it to lay flat on the right side, buh.

Gathers at the front.

Other than that the dress came quickly together. I used my overlocker for the first time to gather a seam. Just amazing: so fast and even gathering. The good thing is that you don't need a special foot for it. So if you have an overlocker and haven't tried that feature yet, I can only recommend it!

Now the big question: Have I worn it? Yes I have, but not very often. The problem is that if I'm not standing straight and don't push my shoulders back, the yoke is bulging massively. See the evidence below. I've worn the dress with a pink boat-neck wool jumper. It is a really nice outfit but I don't like to wear wool on my skin. And also I'm in autumn mood which means I want to wear brown, orange or red colors.

I wonder how it would look like without the strap of the bag?! Probably worse.

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!!!

My Wedding Dress: The Big Reveal

Here is finally the moment you all have waited for. I'm going to share my wedding dress with you. As the pictures were taken on my actual wedding day (who would guess) it turned out I didn't have that many that really show of my dress or only show me without my blog-shy husband. So I did some cropping, but hope you will enjoy the photographs anyway.

There are no photographs without the bolero because I was wearing it the whole day. When I tried it on initially the lace felt a bit itchy and stiff but on the day I didn't feel uncomfortable in it. It also made the whole outfit look much more bridal.

My bouquet, as well as the buttonhole flowers for the men and the roses for my hair, were flown in from Germany. My mum brought them with her the day before the wedding and I think we were all a bit worried that they would get damaged or welt. The bouquet is vintage inspired and has three hydrangeas and some roses in it. The stems are wrapped in lace and bound with some ribbon.

Most photographs were taken from my right side and so it is difficult to actually see the flowers that I hand stitched to the left side. They were flowing down to the train.

My hair was braided on one side and then arranged to a curly bun. The roses were the same as in my husbands buttonhole flowers. 

Thanks again to everybody who encouraged me to keep the train. It felt amazing to have it swoosh behind me all day. I loved it so much I didn't take it up at all. The train has some grass stains on it but otherwise held up very well - no rips. I've given the dress to the dry cleaners already so fingers crossed they got the stains out.

I also made our ring cushion with the fabrics from my dress.

We had some gas filled heart shaped balloons that we released into the sky. They all carried well wishes from friends written on postcards with our address and stamps on it. If they are found, somebody might send them back to us. Lets see, so far none has arrived.

Our wedding day was an amazing day. Full of emotions, laughter and joy. It went so fast and if I wouldn't have the photos and wedding band on my finger I might doubt it actually happened. We are just back from an amazing honey moon in Corfu and live settles back into its usual routine. It means there will be time for me to sew and knit again and actually think about my autumn wardrobe. Have you started with your autumn sewing or are you still holding on to the last sunshine of summer?