Tag Archives: Black

Black Roberts Dungaree Dress

I’ve made a thing!

And I really like it, though it may not be totally seasonally appropriate as the fabric is quite thick. It’s some mystery black textured something which I got at the fabric swap at the first Sew Brizzle meet up. It was quite thin so I underlined the back and the front skirt with some fairly cheap black polycotton and it seems to have done the trick – judging by these photos which were taken in bright sun anyway!

The pattern is the dress version of Marilla Walker’s Roberts Collection. I bought this ages ago, but only printed and assembled the PDF a few months ago. I printed the whole lot in one go, and it took AGES to put together, but I’m glad because now I’m tempted to make the dungaree version for the colder weather later in the year. I particularly like the back! I love how the straps look and the shape of the back.

This is the side view – and I’m pleased it doesn’t sit too low as I was mildly concerned even with a top underneath, it wouldn’t be decent! But there’s a little band on this side and 3 poppers to get a snugger fit and allow you to get in and out of it!

I made the straight size 2 without making any changes. But looking at it on, I think next time I could shorten the bib on the front and the back above the waist as the ‘waist’ seam sits just a bit lower than my waist, so I think it might be a little more flattering if the seam was on my actual waist.

I used poppers to attach the straps on the front – as I think the pattern says you should – but then sewed some buttons on the top as fakes! I thought about actually using buttons, but since my machine doesn’t like sewing button holes at the best of time, and because this fabric is textured and quite thick, I thought they just wouldn’t work so I went with poppers and fake buttons!

And it has pockets! Yay! I don’t think I’ll ever make anything without pockets in the future, it’s just so annoying to not have any!

I guess there isn’t too much to say about this make because the pattern came together really nicely and I think it will get quite a bit of wear in the warmish weather and with tights and a jumper underneath in the Winter. It will definitely fill in a casual gap in my wardrobe!

So I’ll leave you with an outtake to demonstrate how much I had to edit the photos because I’m too pale for the Sun! My top is cream and really isn’t the same colour as my skin, but it looks like it here! Lol!

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Fabric Inspiration: Wool

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After the (modest) success of remaking my wool skirt into a cape, I’m hankering after making more things from wool……perfect time of the year, right!?

In looking for photos as research for this post, it occurs to me that wool is a really versatile fabric. You can make all of the below things from wool – skirts (pencil, pleated and circle), dresses (wiggle, fit and flare, and maxi) and, of course, coats and jackets.

I like this skirt because of the fabric – I like the black lines that perfectly line up with the pleats.
(image source)I can’t resist anything blue pretty much, so I love this one!

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This skirt is from the 60s (which I think is why I was drawn to it) so it shows that wool is also hard-wearing, and lasts a long time. As long as the moths don’t get it!

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I like how this one has the pleats starting lower down so it’s smoother over the hips, which I assume is slimming.

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When I was first thinking of a post about wool, I assumed it would all be black, brown and other dark colours, but I was wrong! Electric blue, olive, turquoise and pink. Lovely.

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The pencil skirt is a classic garment to make with wool. I particularly like this grey one – I think it’s the styling (and the model’s legs) that makes it particularly awesome! If only I could wear heels for more than 5 minutes at a time……

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We can add mustard yellow to the colours of wool available!

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If you read my blog regularly, you’ll know I like masculine, boxy styles (as well as 60s styles), so I love this grey wool coat/jacket.

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More mustard yellow!

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Coral is definitely a colour that is one of my new favourite colours, and it seems to be in several high street shops at the moment, so it’s obviously one of the colours randomly picked for this season. Anyway, I like the combination of a sort of girly colour and a masculine shape of coat.

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The wiggle dress is a classic to be made of wool – they make me think of Joan from Mad Men.

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Since I like the 60s, I do enjoy a black dress with a white collar and cuffs. The babydoll style is obviously a classic of the 60s and it’s starting to grow on me.

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Ah, Pierre Cardin. Lovely!

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I love this lime green cocoon-y dress with the blossom embroidery. It looks so Springy! It’s making me want the weather to finally warm up.

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I like this wool, the black with speckles on. And the shape makes the wool look really modern.

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Who knew you could make a maxi dress from wool!

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This is a great green too, and I actually like the bow – normally I don’t like things that are too fussy, but I’ll make an exception for this one!

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When I do next sew with wool, I really have to make a coat for The Boyfriend. I promised to in January, but then we decided to move and now it’s almost Spring so it seems like a silly time of year to make a Winter coat! Have you sewn with wool? Outerwear or ‘inner’ wear?

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Pink Hounds-tooth Françoise Dress

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I’m a bit if a shamless stalker of Tilly and the Buttons (as I’m sure a lot of us are – really, tell me I’m not the only creep !) and though some of her patterns aren’t really my style, some of them really, really are. I love Coco (and this might be my first knit make, when I finally get around to it). I have Love At First Stitch and have made a Mimi Blouse, and have plans for Lilou and Megan plans for the warmer weather. I loved Françoise when it was first released at the end of last year and particularly liked the sleeved version with a collar which she made. So I made one! Just in time for the weather to warm up……..doh.

(I had a smudge on my camera and didn’t notice until I’d taken half my pictures, so I apologise for the splodge on my arm/ ampit!)

I made the size 2 and didn’t bother with a muslin as it seemed like it would be quite easy to make changes as I went along, and it was. The underarm seam is sewn in one go, so it’s easy to take it in. I luckily didn’t have to change the darts, which is good because I wouldn’t know how to do that! Luckily Tilly has a post about how to make bust adjustments, should you need to.

The fabric is pink and black hounds-tooth from John Lewis in their new year sale – it was half price at £8.50 per metre. This is usually more than I would spend, but since it was meant to be twice as expensive it seemed like a good bargain. I’m pretty pleased with the fit at the back as I usually have problems with things gaping at the back. I did decide not to over-fit this as I didn’t want it to be skin tight, to keep that slightly loose 60s style. I think the wrinkles just above my bum are because it had ridden up a bit rather than because it doesn’t fit properly!

I’m also pleased with the invisible zip I put in at the back – I bought an invisible zip foot a while ago and tried to use it once, but it just kept hitting the teeth of the zip, so I gave up. I’m glad I got it to work this time – I’ve no idea what I did differently! Moderate pattern matching – at least the stripes are in lines across.

The collar is made from the left over fabric from my first Victoria Blazer. As I discovered when I made the blazer, this fabric doesn’t really keep a fold when ironed, so the collar wouldn’t sit flat.

I decided the only way to make this comfortable to wear, without the collar sticking up, was to slip stitch the collar down. I did this about half way up so the bottom of the collar would still look like it had some movement and wasn’t totally stuck down.

I slightly change the shape of the skirt, which looking at the below photo, needs a bit of tweaking! The skirt as drafted just didn’t look nice on me and the fabric had too much drape for the a-line shape to show up. I sewed the side seams in from about the hips, down to the hem. The only other fitting change I made was to take some seam allowance off the shoulder seams as the dress was sitting a bit high on my shoulders. I also had to trim the seam allowance right down on the shoulder seams as the full seam allowance was sticking up and made me look like a rugby player! I also added pockets – I used the pockets from the laurel dress and just guessed, by trying on the dress, where they should sit. Looking at the photos, I think the pockets could have been a little bit lower, but at least I’ve somewhere to keep my phone! I tried to pattern match the pockets, but I went a bit cross eyed and only vaguely managed it.

I’ll leave you with this blurry photo! They always look fine until I upload them onto my blog – does anyone else have that problem? Any tips on how to fix my photography?Do you like Tilly and the Buttons’ patterns? Have you made any? Do you have plans to make any?