Long time no post... I have been away on hols (hooray) but am back now and raring to sew... (geddit??). Jackie was a hit at the wedding - though annoyingly I soon found out that my strap adjustment was a little over-zealous... and the bodice wasn't as close fitting as it should have been at the back - forcing soldier-like posture to keep it all flat. Some pics to follow when I find some nice ones (could be some time)...
So today I wandered down to Goldhawk Road to buy some fabric for some of the millions of dress patterns I appear to have bought but been too nervous to try.... It's the first time I've been down there - happily it is only about 20 mins for me on the tube. There were some gorgeous Swiss voiles in one of the shops for £25 p/m, I was going to buy some but didn't have a good pattern in mind and am not yet feeling confident enough to draft my own.. but I managed to find a lovely maxi dress pattern which would be perfect for some of the bordered fabrics. Very Cavalli... I did managed to get some lovely blue cotton with a sort of woven stripe, and another blue cotton with a fine purple satin-y stripe. I thought it would make a lovely dress, but then realised loads of the patterns I have say 'not suitable for obvious stripes'. Goddammit. Also got a heavy woven cotton in lavender and a sort of aqua / turqoise colour. And some lovely wooly boucle type stuff of which I have grand plans to make a Chanel-style suit for the winter... Though given I have made about four things in total so far - none of them involving sleeves in any format - that may be a bit ambitious... Anyway onto the current project.
In a massive pattern splurge in Peter Jones on Sloane Square, I found Vogue pattern V8232 which I thought was a really nice simple design that I could make up in loads of different colours / fabrics. And it was in the 'Very Easy Vogue' section. Hurrah! I am going to make it up in the plain blue cotton (and think I will line it) and then maybe do some funky decoration-type-thang with grosgrain ribbon... And I shall call her 'Lisa'.
So far I have cut out the fabric - am about to start on the lining. I am sooooooo slow....
The next thing I wanted to make was a dress - something that I could wear for lunches out, something a bit summery... I had bought a gorgeous vintage dress pattern in a 1950s style (Vogue 2960) and also found some yummy oyster silk which I ultima
tely want to make it up in. Thinking Jackie O with big shades, some natural pumps and a small handbag... I made it up in cheap cream cotton (and some bits of pink chambray for the skirt, which takes LOADS of fabric).. this pattern - though graded 'easy' by Vogue - was a lot more tricky for me. It had interfacing, darts and bound buttonholes! The interfacing I used for the bodice turned out to be much too stiff (lesson for next time, I have since purchased a lightweight version) and also the buttonholes were really tricky to do neatly. Even sewing the buttons on was a trauma... It turned out ok for a practice, though the cream cotton is quiet translucent so not sure to the extent I'll be able to wear this version. I hemmed it to just on the knee as anything longer than that is really unflattering on me.
I was really excited when I was choosing which pattern to start with, though I feared the whole thing might end in a pile of shredding tissue paper and a load of wasted fabric. Thankfully I had bought a load of really cheap cotton in a few basic colours so I wasn't so fussed about cocking things up.
The pattern I chose to start with was from the 'Very Easy Vogue' section of the pattern catalogue... I chose the version in the top right of the picture, no complicated sleeves! It has no buttons or zips either, you just slip it on over your head. It has a yoke which sort of lines the inside at the back and the front. The tricky bits were sewing on the bias binding around the armholes in a curved shape (maybe I wasn't pressing the binding properly but it was a tight curve and there was quite a lot of slack), and hand sewing (DOOM) the shoulders together. That and following the pattern - it sounds so obvious but on my first attempt at using a pattern I really found it tricky to understand what some of the steps were getting at. Luckily this is where VogueSewing came in handy.
I made two of these in the end. The first in a mint green cotton with grey satin binding at the armholes, and the second in a Liberty lawn which was actually really nice to sew with and iron. They are both sweet on. I hemmed them both to a level just below jeans waist (which is actually quite low on me) as I didn't want them to be thigh length.
For the second attempt, I managed to get the yoke the right way around; for the first one, the curved yoke - which is actually meant to be at the back - somehow ended up at the front. Looking back, that perhaps explains why it was slightly too wide at the front and I had to put in a couple of tiny tucks to take up the excess... d'oh. The second time I managed to get the yoke right. I also bound the inside seams with seam binding for the second one, which looks so neat! Well - for me anyway, it's all relative.
It seemed like such a wonderful thing to be able to make up clothes that actually fit in gorgeous fabrics, and so I thought I would teach myself to sew. Plus I thought it was about time I had a hobby other than watching Hollyoaks and shopping. I have always had a creative streak, perhaps from my mother, so I thought I might as well try to put my money where my mouth is. Obviously however it was not going to be a speedy process...
There is something about my obsessive Virgoan personality which meant I was never going to just jump right in there and start cutting up old t-shirts. Oh no. I need order and method. I already had a sewing machine which I bought the last time I was on the precipice of actually learning to sew, but before I actually jumped right in. So the next step was to find the highest authority in the land on sewing techniques. Something traditional. During an afternoon spent perusing Amazon, I quickly came across what surely must be the bible of how to create fashion... Vogue Sewing... and it is. I ordered it quicksmart and started reading as soon as it arrived. It is awesome. It was first published in 1970, and it shows - though updated there are some brilliant references to what one should and should not wear if you are 'carrying a few extra pounds'. I ordered a couple of other general sewing reference books a little later - I found on occasion that the diagrams in VogueSewing can be a bit tricky to figure out (well, for a novice). The great thing about VogueSewing however is that it reads really well in conjunction with their patterns, which was a real plus when it came to making up my first garment. Though I still managed to get things the wrong way around... More on that later.
There is also an abundance of free information and know-how available on the interweb and it wasn't long before I had found the BurdaStyle website which has loads of awesome stuff on it, and caters for total beginners... There are some really talented people out there!
So after much reading and faffing and procrastinating, I went to John Lewis and had a flick through their 'Very Easy Vogue' section and tried to pick a pattern that looked easy but was slightly more advanced than a sack with armholes...
