Miette Cardigan

This is a present to myself and I am delighted to finish it. It is warm and cosy and soft as anything, a delight to wear.

I bought this Louisa Harding Grace Hand Dyed last summer, I just loved the colours. It comes in very generous amounts. I only used 7.5 skeins for this cardigan.

I thought for a long time about what I should make with it. Then saw Miette's popping up on the blogosphere. I can see why 1,300+ people have made it on Ravelry.

I should have made it a bit longer but I'm pleased I made the sleeves full length. I went for clear buttons because there are a lot of them on here.

Me-Made-May '14

The lovely Zoe of So, Zo... What do you know? is hosting Me-Made-May again and this time, I am feeling confident enough to think about joining. Actually, I'm scared stiff but I've gone ahead and pledged anyway.

Here is my pledge:
I, Cathy of Cathy's Makes, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear a handmade item at least four days a week and, for one week, every day for the duration of May 2014.

Apple Dress

This was supposed to be a Boden knock-off. When the girls and I cut up the Boden catalogue to decoupage a shoe box for doll clothes storage, this little cutie caught my eye:

Mini Boden S/S 2014

Boden works so well because the fabrics are so fantastic. I can't imagine the resources they must have, just for fabrics.

When I saw this one on sale at The Village Haberdashery, I knew I had to get it and have a go at a re-creation (OK, a knock-off). It is called Sevenberry, made by Japan. Sewn up, it is not as red as the Boden fabric and comes out looking white with red spots.

It didn't quite work out but I am not ready to declare it a fail.

I drafted the pattern using the bodice that I resized for the Angel Dress. She has almost grown out of this now so I need to re-draft a new bodice block. I increased the front by 2 inches for the pleat. For the facing, I cut another bodice piece, without the pleat, but ended it about 3 inches below the arm.

I’m going make a plan to do a tutorial for the steps involved in assembling a dress like this. It is not difficult but there are a lot of steps. I want to document them, both for myself, and because I hope they will be useful for someone else.

I had a regular zip that came from my red Christmas dress so I used that instead of my favourite invisible zips. I don’t have much practice at a lapped zip so it was pretty bad. I should probably just make them exposed.

I wasn’t in love with how the whole dress was looking so I went over most of it with red topstitching. I love topstitching! I added two rows at the hem.

I had these cute wooden buttons so they went on the front with red thread.

The cost of the project was £9.00, all on 1.5m of fabric. I had enough fabric left over to make a matching doll’s dress and some trim. (Maybe that should be a £6.00 child's dress and a £3.00 doll's dress?)

Refashion: toddler pants to doll's skirt

 

Does this count as a wardrobe refashion? If judged by scale, or usefulness, perhaps not. But I’ll stake my claim and say, Yes, it's a refashion: I've taken an unused garment, reworked and given it a new lease of life.

These pants came with a gorgeous toddler dress that both my girls have worn for years and years. (Side note: I stopped insisting nice dresses be saved for special occasions. I noticed that I was packing away unworn dresses that I loved. I embraced the “use it up, wear it out” movement and the decision has brought my girls and I great pleasure ever since. Want to wear your best dress to the playground? Sure! *End tangent*)

I put the matching pants away in my fabric stash because the fabric was so lovely. I came across them the other day, I think I was looking for scraps to make a pocket lining. As I had doll clothes on my mind, it became obvious to me that these pants would transform easily into a doll’s skirt.

And so they did. I sliced off the leg holes and bottom, leaving the elastic waist intact. Then I trimmed the hem with an exposed bias facing. Finally, I opened a section of the waistband, enough to pull out the loop of elastic (thank goodness it wasn’t sewn into the channel). I pulled it tighter, to fit the doll’s waist. Trimmed, re-attached and hey presto!

Toddler pants to doll’s skirt in less than an hour.

Doll Popover Sundresses

I had just enough of this cute apple cotton from this dress to make a doll's dress and some trim.

I used the Oliver & S Popover Sundress. This is very generously provided free, with a bonus doll's dress. There is endless scope for fabric combining and this style is particularly good for using up every last scrap of fabric.

Farmer's Wife Dress

Just to show that there are no hard feelings, after my disparaging remarks about wearing cotton prints, I made a dress from quilting cotton. I call it my Farmer's Wife Dress because I think it looks very old-fashioned country. When I've finished here, I think I'll go and feed the chickens.

The fabric is from Makower UK, The Henley Studio. I don't have a name, I call it my green sprig cotton. I got it from Spotlight in Australia. All they had left on the bolt was about 1.5m @ A$7/m, so I took it all. It was 115cm wide and it did shrink a bit on washing. I have nothing left over after the dress.

The pattern was a "freebie" on the front of a magazine, New Look K6144. OK, the pattern was £5.99 with a magazine attached. I like the pleated neckline, the raglan sleeves are an interesting variation and who doesn't like a new dress pattern? I made view D. Next time, I might make the longer sleeve version in navy cotton twill.

I cut out a 12 and raised the waist by 3cm. I lowered the hemline by a corresponding 3cm. I did half a sway back adjustment by scooping out 1.5cm from the back neckline. I needed to do the same to the top shoulder seam, and facing, but only worked this out after I had put it all together, including understiching and tacking the facing down to the seams. Out it came and now the back sits so much better. It is still not perfect, I can see a few fit issues in these photos. I think it could do with a little more ease.

I thought I was very clever, remembering to add side seam pockets. I was really pleased with how nicely they fitted in to the seams. But the skirt is too straight, with too little ease. I couldn't get my hands in there, they were pulling the sides and I needed to let the seams out. They had to go. But I had already notched the seams at the pockets and one of my seam allowances was the selvedge. So I kept the left one and only let out the right. Next time: no pockets, 1cm seam allowance. Raise shoulders by 1.5cm.

I pinched out a lot of fullness at the back, then attached the zip. This is going to be my go-to way of fitting a dress without making a toile. I didn't have enough fabric to do the full back vent. Vents take so much fabric. I cut out the back with the vent on the fold, it gave me about 1cm, then kept it joined as a pleat. There is enough room for movement. If it is too restrictive, I can cut it open and have an unlapped vent.

Pattern changes:
*Raised waist by 3cm
*Lowered hem by corresponding 3cm
*Front dart ends higher than specified
*Cut out 1.5cm from middle of back neckline
*Raised top of shoulders by 1.5cm
*Side seams @ hip: reduced seam allowance to 1cm

Costs:
Fabric: £5.88 (A$10.50)
Pattern: £5.99
Zip: £0.60 (US$1.00)
Total: £12.47

Now, where are those chickens?