Butterick Dress

I finally finished the Butterick 5351 dress.

The zip was a major issue for me as usual. I started by basting a regular zipper, then changed my mind, and used an invisible zipper. The result was quite unsatisfactory, as for no apparent reason, one side became shorter than the other. So I took that one out, and reinserted the regular zip. I am just so happy its finally done. Somehow I have to get over my fear of zips.

It was a really bright day today so I took this opportunity to drag my husband cum photographer out for a photo shoot. Unfortunately the sun was in my eyes, so my face looks very technical in the photos.

The sun was killing my eyes at this point, and of course the mister just had to take the picture at this time. I like the pic though.

To make View A (the one with the flower print), I bought 2 metres of  material from Goldhawk Road (as usual) for 5pounds  a metre. I also prewashed it, as it is cotton stretch, and I did not want it to shrink to unimaginable proportions after I'd spent hours making it.

The pattern instructions were easy enough to follow. My main issue with them was the fact that they rarely tell you when to finish the seams, so you would sew and sew, and not know when to overlock the seams. I've been making notes though, so next time I will know when to finish off a seam, so that the end product looks more like a daisy field, as opposed to a bomb ridden rice field, with unfinished seams all over the place.

I also find the hem shorter than I would have liked, so next time I will lengthen the hem. All in all, I think it came out ok. What I need to do now is probably practice zipper insertions more, so I don't spend hours trying to put a simple zip.

Have a good week everyone.

xoxo

Dibs

Green Simplicity Dress

Did you  see Kate's Dress? No?. Hmmphh....then you are probably the last person on earth not to have seen it. I loved the top part of her dress. You can see it here at the Royal wedding website, which also gives the low down on the construction of the dress, and pictures of the day.

I was not really excited about the royal wedding though I was more than grateful for the extra bank holiday. So I had not planned to wake up at 6am ( when the BBC started coverage) to watch the proceedings. But I had been interested in seeing her dress, and I knew I was not alone in this, as I am sure everyone and their cats grandparents was also interested in THE dress. I spent Friday night working on Butterick B5351, and went to bed at about 4am, with just the zipper left to do. When I woke up in the morning and turned on the TV, the first thing I saw was the royal wedding church service, and caught a glimpse of Kate's dress. To say my eyes turned green with envy, would be a MAJOR understatement...lol....on the one hand, I was in love with the dress, on the other hand, I kept wishing I was in possession of such an exquisite dress, or in the absence of that, an imitation. But I think I would have to rob more than a few banks to be able to afford it.

Inspired by envy, I decided to express my mood through my favourite medium. Yep!! you guessed right. Sewing. I checked through my fabric stash and pulled out a green dress.So, considering the fact that I still had to finish my butterick dress , I needed to sew something simple, which could be finished in a few hours. Cue in Simplicity 9827.

This was such an easy pattern to sew. And who ever knew envy could inspire you, up to the point where you make very few sewing mistakes? . I was even so inspired, I decided not to use the facing provided by the pattern, but used a lace trim for the neck and the sleeve bands ( If Kate can have lace, I can too). This dress does not have closures, so there was no time spent mulling over how best to insert a zipper, or which buttons to use. It was just a breeze really. Hopefully it looks nice to you guys.

oh...a stray ribbon fold there. Will adjust that.
I decided to add a bow made from the ribbon trim.

I like using trims because they give you a unique finish, and you can go crazy with the various ways you can use them.  They are also a fast way to finish your projects without the hassles of understitching facings, or folding and slip-stitching hems.  If there's one thing I think I will be investing in on my sewing projects, is trim.

This dress hopefully gives you all an idea on my state of mind on friday.  I was green with envy, and at the same time loving the lace overlay on Kate's dress.

Right, I need to get cracking on the zip of my Butterick dress. Gosh I hate zips!!!

Enjoy the lovely weather people!

xoxo

Dibs

Simple Lace sandal DIY

I'm back in London!! Yay!!!

It feels so good to be back in my own home, staring at my lovely sewing machine. I wanted to sew a dress, but I was so tired, so I decided to do a little DIY on my pink sandals.

Before

So you need: sandals, lace trimming, scissors, glue ( I used gutterman, though its not in the picture)

Measure the length of the area you want to cover, and apply some glue to it.
Next, place your lace trimming over the glue. Do this for both legs. Fold the lace trimming inwards at the edges.

After

And its done.
Go out into town and strut your stuff.
This should take about 5 minutes maximum, including drying time for the glue.
Dodgy looking legs right?

Take care everyone.

xoxo

Dibs

Free patterns galore!!

While cruising through blog land, I fell across a really interesting post by sewconvert, talking about a new campaign being run over at grosgrainfabulous, called the Free Month Pattern.

Basically, Kathleen of grosgrainfabulous, has lined up a whole month of free patterns from guest bloggers, starting Monday 25th April on her blog. I'm so excited I can't breath. Now I love sewing patterns, but I love them even more when they are free. Which puts me to shame somehow because I do not have the skills to draft a pattern for wider consumption. The most I can do is probably an A-line skirt. I know that because I have drafted one before, but have not worn it out of the house. So I think its fair to say i'm crap at drafting. But I really want to learn it.

There is a sneak peek on Kathleen's blog of the first pattern, which coincidentally, is being offered by Adey, the sewconvert. I love the colour of the fabric she used.

I can't wait to see what the other patterns will look like. 1 thing I know for sure though, is that I will be following that project all the way to the end.

Will anyone else be following this project?

2nd Crochet hat and Jewellry

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday so far.

My 1 week holiday has been a success for a number of reasons, chiefly because

1. I got to wake up each day after 10am ( yeah I'm that lazy)
2. I did not feel guilty drinking more than two glasses of wine everyday ( Wine aids digestion you know)
3. I learned how to crochet ( well I think I have)
4. I made some jewelry ( well sort of)

A few days ago I wrote a post about my first foray into crocheting, which resulted in a rather dubious looking hat. Well I'm glad to say I gave it another try, and ended up with this

I think its supposed to be a chunky beanie hat!

Back view

Don't know what dance I was doing, but I can ASSURE you all, I was quite sober

well maybe just.

So, I think I can consider this second attempt a success. Its been really hot today, but I wore my hat all day when I went to town to do some last minute shopping. I've decided to wear whatever I make this year. Nice or not. The nice ones will make me feel good about myself, the not so good once will make me work harder, and be more patient when sewing the next project.

JEWELRY

I also thought I should try my hand at jewelry making. Why? because I think we are good at many more things than we think we are. So I am going to keep trying everything crafty, to find out what I enjoy, and what I don't. So far, I've established that 

1. I adore sewing
2. I'm not crazy about knitting
3. I like crocheting, even though I am not good at it yet. 
4. I will like to try painting, jewelry making, millinery, perfume making, soap making, candle making, sculpture, and everything else under the sun that involves using the creative part of my brain....did I mention i'm not mad about knitting?

That said, when I went into town today, I bought some pendants, and some string. I wanted to make simple necklaces. These are probably the easiest things to do when it comes to jewelry making, because all I did was tie the string round the pendants, and I was done. A total of 30 seconds. Or less I should imagine. So, the more experienced jewelry makers will probably not classify this as jewelry making, but in my little book, I say it is. lol.

Ladies and gents (?), I present ( drum rolling), Dib's masterpieces

Raw materials

So all in all, a very productive day for. 

Have a wonderful easter everyone.

xoxo

Dibs