Tag Archives: Jersey Dress

Me Made May 2017 recap

My pledge for Me Made May this year was to wear at least one item of me made (or refashioned) clothing each day in May. And I managed it! Yay! I remember when I first started sewing it was a couple of years before I felt like I had enough clothes to be able to take part, so to have enough to wear something every day is pretty cool.

Week One:

Day 1: black simplicity 2451 with my newest charity shop jumper; Day 2: navy spotty rushcutter dress; Day 3: navy blue simplicity trousers and red and blue checked violet blouse; Day 4: spotty drapey knit dress; Day 5: bright blue jersey dress; Days 6 & 7 blue spotty archer with rtw jeans.

Week Two:

Day 8: navy blue simplicity trousers and turquoise coco top; Day 9: black simplicity 2451 skirt and pink stripey banksia top; Day 10: silver toaster sweater; Day 11: flowery archer with rtw jumper and trousers; Day 12: my dressmaker’s ball dress; Days 12 & 13: refashioned coral mustard and navy dress into a shirt; Day 14: blue spotty archer.

Week Three:

Day 15: refashioners shirt refashion; Day 16: semi-successful moneta dress with mustard astoria; Day 17: black simplicity 2451 with my favourite charity shop jumper; Day 18: refashioned dress with peter pan collar; Day 19: navy simplicity trousers and electric blue coco top; Day 20: refashioned teapot dress; Day 21: simplicity trousers and my favourite charity shop jumper.

Week Four (and a bit)

Day 22: navy simplicity 2451 skirt and melilot shirt; Day 23: silver delphine skirt and rtw jumper; Day 24: navy scribble striped marianne dress; Day 25: wide-legged trousers I took in at the waist with breton striped plantain tee; Day 26: denim moss skirt with my merchant and mills sewing t shirt; Day 27: Gertie cigarette trousers (as part of my dressmaker’s ball outfit) with a rtw jumper and the coat I made from my Grandma’s vintage pattern; Days 28 & 29: Coco t shirt and rtw jeans; Day 30: navy simplicity trousers and silver toaster sweater; Day 31: electric blue jersey dress.
Things I’ve learned from Me Made May:

I hate taking daily photos. Thankfully The Boyfriend was a good instagram husband and took most of them for me, but quite often I’d realise we hadn’t taken a photo when I went to bed!
My simplicity trousers got a lot of wear. I definitely need more trousers I can wear at work – though I also wear them on days off too.
Quite often (unless I was wearing a dress) I would either have a top or a bottom but not a full outfit, so I need to make more pieces that go together. Hopefully by the time I’ve finished the Wardrobe Architect I’ll have ideas for more of a capsule wardrobe.
I failed to refashion anything in May, which was another part of my pledge. I have a bunch of clothes ready for alteration, so hopefully this month I’ll get back into refashioning.
There were a whole bunch of things I’ve made – mostly when I first started sewing which I haven’t worn this year and didn’t wear last year, so I’m going to have a wardrobe clear out to get rid of things I know I’m not going to wear.
I definitely need to make jeans, and more casual things to wear on my days off.
I found wearing dresses easier than putting together separates, so I’m planning to make a few more dresses. They’re also good for hot weather – if we get more hot weather than the one week we had in the middle of May!
It was nice to rediscover some of the clothes I’ve made or refashioned which I haven’t worn for a while.
There weren’t that many things I wore more than once (apart from my trousers and simplicity skirts), so I think I don’t need loads and loads more clothes, so I’ll try to be more thoughtful about what I make from now on.

What did you learn if you took part in Me Made May? Did you succeed in your pledge?

Save

Stripey Marianne Dress

7 Replies

I think this is my last make from April that I haven’t yet shared here. I’m a little behind, but that’s good because I haven’t made much this month so I wouldn’t have much to write about!

This is my – I’m sure first – Marianne Dress by Christine Haynes. This pattern first came out in late 2015 and I think I bought it not long after it came out……and it’s taken me this long to get around to making it! Which is a shame because I love it!

I made a size 4 with no changes – it’s a loose fit so no need to toile it really. I haven’t made anything really fitted for quite a while and I think that’s made me lazy, so I’ve got some fitted dress plans in the hopefully not too distant future.

I’ve got the pooling issue on my back again, that I had on my Denim Moss Skirt. Really need to sort this out for my next version – I didn’t realise by bum made a shelf for fabric!

I pattern-matched the stripes on the side seams and did a pretty good job, if I say so myself!

The fabric is some lovely striped jersey from the Textile Centre which is unfortunately not available any more. It’s a viscose jersey and I bought it after seeing it on Rosa’s youtube channel. And the really good thing is, because I made the version without sleeves, I have quite a bit of fabric left, so I think I’ll be able to make a t-shirt to match!

I really love the shape of the Marianne Dress. I think it’s more flattering on me than my Coco dress, which I’ve never particularly loved to be honest. I think Marianne will become my go-to jersey dress pattern. I’d like to see how it looks in a more stable jersey too.

I used the stripes in the other direction on the neckband and I really like how it looks.

I also didn’t bother with my twin needle this time, I decided to just use a zig-zag stitch instead and I like how it looks. Also it’s a bit less of a faff!

I took a close up of my stripe matching mostly to crow that I did a pretty good job. The advantage of jersey, of course, is that you can fudge it slightly if there are patches where it’s not quite perfect. Also you can see the scribbley nature of the stripes in the above and below photos. I really like it, it’s a bit more interesting than a solid stripe.

I definitely see more of these in my future, but then I always say that and have made very few patterns more than once! And then I buy more patterns……I’ve got a problem!

Save

Possibly my #MonetaParty Dress

7 Replies

This was going to definitely be my #monetaparty dress but I’m currently half way through another one which I like more, so that one may end up being my official entry for the competition/party. This one was probably more of a wearable toile!

But it does have pockets! This is my face when I have a dress with pockets!

After asking on instagram, the consensus was to use this fabric which is navy with white flecks, instead of some teal stuff I also had in my stash – which I’m glad about now, because I think that will make a better Christine Haynes Marianne dress.

I made the size xs and did have to take it in a little under the arms. I think because it’s quite a thin, drapey knit, it looked a bit saggy!

I also sewed the waist seam with a 2cm seam allowance and not the 3/8″ that pattern says, because I felt it just sat slightly too low to be flattering. I have an H&M rtw dress that is a similar style to the Moneta, but without pockets and with a v-neck, and the waist seam is really quite high, so I was aiming for that, though it still isn’t quite the same.

I do like the fabric, but when it’s stretched it goes white, the colour it is in the wrong side. The bodice therefore looks like it’s stretched too much, because the tiniest bit of stretch makes it look too stretched, because of the white showing through. I am wearing it with a navy vest underneath, which you can’t see, because it’s not really see-through, it just looks like it is, if that makes sense?

Luckily without changing anything except the underarm seam, the xs size fits me snuggly across the back, which is the place I usually have issues with fit.

The main issue with this dress, and what makes it a wearable toile, is that I messed up the neckline. I sewed it with a twin needle, but it didn’t quite catch the whole hem so I thought I could sew it again, overlapping one row of stitching so I ended up with 3, but that didn’t quite work. So I unpicked all the rows, and sewed it again. But by then the neck was stretched out and doesn’t look great. I wonder if I could rescue it a little with a neckband, but I’m not sure I like the dress enough to go to the extra effort.

I decided to try full outfits that I’ll wear when wearing this dress, and I think it looks good with mustard yellow, with a cardigan done up (to hide the terrible neckline!).

Even with the cardigan undone, it distracts from how wide the neck sits on my shoulders. And I’m sure people wouldn’t notice the neckline too badly if I don’t point it out!

I also really like it with my Colette Astoria – it sits just at the right place to hit the waist seam. It looks like it could be a top and skirt. This is how I wore it to hang out with Sarah from Like Sew Amazing today to have a irl #monetaparty, where I sewed most of my second Moneta, which is looking more promising, as long as I don’t mess up the neckline again!

I couldn’t resist showing you this outtake from my photoshoot, where The Boyfriend came out of the room which is behind the doors I use as my backdrop! You can’t see him, but I like the photo my camera, which was on a timer, took of me!

Save

Electric Blue Jersey Dress

9 Replies

I made this dress back in December and, as I mentioned in my post about my December makes, I wore this to the Sew Brizzle Christmas meet-up, having made it the day before. This has to be one of the quickest things I’ve ever sewn up. It really only took a few hours to make.

The fabric is the same enormous remnant I used for one of my Coco tops and I still have more of it left! There must have been over 3 metres of it! It’s ribbed on one side, which was the side I used as the right side for my Coco, but for this dress I used the smooth side for the outside, except on the hem band and neck band, where I used the ribbed side on the outside.

The pattern is the free Jersey Dress designed by Emily from In The Folds for Peppermint Magazine. You should check out their range of free patterns if you haven’t already, there are some great ones! And it has pockets! As you know if you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you’ll know how much I love pockets in dresses. These ones are cut on the sides of the dress front and back so it’s even quicker to put together (and cut out) than if the pockets were cut separately.

I actually really like the over-sized, cocoon-y nature of the shape of this dress. I made the size 10, which was the closest to my measurements, but I woulc recommend sizing down a size if you want a slightly less over-sized fit. The only change I made was to omit the cuffs as my jersey just wouldn’t stretch enough for the cuff pieces to fit on the ends of the sleeves. It is stretchy enough to go over my head, though, which is good! It turned out leaving off the cuffs was a good move as the sleeves would have been too long if I’d added them. Plus I don’t like not being able to roll up my sleeves and I feel even if I could have got them to fit, the cuffs would have been reeeeaaaaally tight.

I do really like this dress, it’s like wearing a secret blanket because the fabric is quite thick. Also I’ve been wearing it with a top underneath (instead of a cardigan on the top) to give me an extra layer of warmth. I even wore it on Christmas Day, though I got too warm because it was a really mild day and my sister’s house is really warm! I feel like it’s also just about smart enough for work, and I got loads of compliments on the colour the first time I wore it.

I think if I made this again, I would leave off the hem band as then I think it would be a slightly better length on me. This does feel quite long and although that isn’t necessarily a problem, I think it would be a more flattering length on me if it was a little shorter. I’m 5’3″ for reference, in case you’re going to make this and want to know how long it is on a short person!

Do you think you’ll make any of the Peppermint patterns? Do you have any recommendations of other patterns that are like secret blankets?

Save

December makes and January Plans

4 Replies

I know I already wrote a post about my plans for the year, but I thought it would have ended up even longer if I included my regular recap of what I made last month and plan of what to make this month, so here is another planning post in the same week!

My main aim for December was to make 4 skirts for my sister for Christmas, but I did manage to squeeze in a sneaky dress for myself!

This is the Jersey Dress by In The Folds with Peppermint Magazine. It’s free to download and has in seam pockets! I’ve worn it quite a few times so far, including to the Christmas Sew Brizzle meet up and on Christmas Day! It’s quite long on me but it’s like a secret blanket!

I managed to finish 3 of the 4 skirts for my sister – I stupidly thought they would be really quick, which was true to a certain extent, except I made stupid mistakes with the Mabel skirt which put my timings back a bit. I finished a red corduroy Delphine, a navy blue drill Delphine and a grey quilted fabric Mabel. I’ll post in more detail about them later this month hopefully.

I’m pretty pleased with the pattern matching of the quilted lines on the Mabel, if I do say so myself! And Phoebe liked the skirts and they fitted pretty well and were the right length, which is cool. She’s not sure about the colour of the navy drill one as she ordered the fabric online and it is quite a pale shade of navy, but hopefully when the weather gets warmer she’ll have other things to wear it with so it will grow on her. And if not, it’s not the end of the world 🙂

So my first make for January has to be the skirt I didn’t make in time for Christmas – a denim Moss Skirt. I’ve got the pattern assembled, traced and altered – she wants the long length but without the hem band, so I’ve lengthened the mini version pattern pieces. I have a zip and thread too, so I’m all ready to go!

There was quite a bit of fabric left from each of the skirts I made, so I also might see if I can make a Moss Skirt out of what I’ve got left from the red corduroy. Selfishly I might use the rest of the grey quilted fabric (probably for a matching Mabel!) and the navy drill, but I don’t wear red so I figure if I can make something else for Phoebe, then it doesn’t go to waste.

As I mentioned in my 2017 planning post, I’ve signed up for #ProjectSewMyStyle and I’m going to try to make the pattern for January which is the Sew House Seven Toaster Sweater 2. This might get bumped to February as I don’t have any fabric I’d like to use for it currently in my stash. And there was talk of a Sew Brizzle trip to Birmingham to go fabric shopping at the end of the month, so I’ll look for something then hopefully. I’m also in Aberdeen for a second Christmas with my uni friends so I might see if we can take a detour to a sewing shop at some point, then this might get made this month. I could do with some warmer clothes to be honest, as our flat is rather cold!

I don’t know how many more times I can add this make to my plans……

It’s getting embarrassing now! I now pledge to have the pattern and fabric cut out by the end of the month, then hopefully I can make them in February. I’m hoping once I’ve popped by trouser cherry, then my jean-making plans for the year won’t feel quite so scary!