Hibiscus Mock Wrap Dress

Proof (as if I needed it) that good fabrics give good results. I got this stretch cotton sateen at Fabricana in Vancouver this summer and knew that it would become a mock wrap dress. I aim to only buy stretch fabrics for apparel in future. But I still have a lot of wovens in my stash. It is quite lightweight, but doesn't drape. I love the hibiscus print and the navy on white is an unusual pairing for a summer print. The pattern only needs 1.5m, of which I have substantial scraps left, making it a very economical dress.

The pattern is New Look 6123, in which I managed to look past the comically woeful styling on the pattern cover and spot some amazing style lines inside. Pattern review also has some great versions, and I can see it becoming a great shift dress, if I can get past my beloved New Look 6968. I went for the bodice from version A/B and the skirt from B/D, without the sleeves and the flounce. There are some great sleeve options that come with this dress, but this was for summer, and I can't imagine that I'll ever wear a flounce. But never say never. I made quite a few pattern alterations for fit, most of them quite familiar to me now:

Short Waist: 1 inch
Sway Back: 1.5 cm
Reduce shoulder seams: 1.5cm
Side seams, seam allowance, 1cm @ waist area
Bias binding neckline, 5mm seam allowance.
Lowered length by 1 inch. Haven't moved vent down.
Waist seam 1cm @ front
Back Seam, 1cm at waist
Peg side seams by 1 inch

I also used bias binding instead of the facing. I left the full seam allowance in place, so it gives an extra 1cm around the neckline (5mm for bias binding, instead of 15mm for facing). In truth, it is a bit high, but I prefer to keep everything inside. For the bias biding on the armholes, I did trim 10mm off to keep them to 15mm seam allowance.

Construction was very simple, and pretty quick. I was surprised by how much pleating and gathering there was through the wrap sections. The pattern has you pleat and then gather over the top of the pleats. In a stretch cotton it was fine, but a heavier woven might end up with a lot of bulk.

I sized down to a 10 and would make a 12 in a woven. It is pretty snug through the hips and my waist is always much larger than the rest of me, but I am really pleased with the look and the fit.
Costs:
 Fabric: Fabricana, 14.39
 Lining/binding: reclaimed sheet, 0.00
 Interfacing: not used
 Pattern: Minerva Crafts, 3.99
 Zip: Mood, 0.60
 Thread: existing, 0.00
Total: 18.98

Christmas Checked Dress

This is Big Sis's sewing project; finished, in true home sewing style, with a tight deadline, late nights, and sewing in pyjamas the morning of the wearing.

She has been asking for sewing lessons because lots of her friends are signed up for local classes. Given that I just have to spend the time and effort to show her the ropes, I thought I had better get on and do just that. I committed to sewing with her for an hour on Fridays and Sundays.

She decided she wanted a red checked dress in time for Christmas. We shopped for the fabric online and got a lovely soft flannel. She decided to use the wrong side out because it was unbrushed and she liked the cleaner lines of the pattern. She was not terribly impressed with using the same pattern as always, The Party Dress from The Cottage Mama, perhaps because she wanted cap sleeves. I wasn't about to go and trace and cut out a whole new pattern bodice block, but I did find a BurdaStyle pattern with sleeves so I traced the sleeve and the armscye from that to use over the block.

We spent a long lesson with the fabric laid out, working out grainlines and nap and cutting out with the rotary cutter. She was pretty bored. Then she moved the deadline up by 3 weeks to wear in time for the school Christmas Fair. From then on, we kept her role to sewing up and I was in charge of repairs, cutting and pinning.

The sleeves were a bit small, I re-did the seams with a 5mm allowance, but she doesn't have much room in them. The bodice was too short for her so we added the waistband. For future reference, it needs to come down by about 10cm. I cut the skirt at a length of 62cm, but hemmed about 15cm of it away.

Her sewing was excellent. With almost no practice, she sewed straight lines and got the fabric moving through the machine well. The second and third seams she ever sewed were putting the sleeves in. That is not easy to do and they went in perfectly. I was so proud of her.

Needle Felted Solar System

The Year 5 Solar System Science Project: what a rite of passage!

I have literally been planning this for years. Every year, the school foyer is decorated with a marvellous installation of immaculate solar systems. I knew I had my work cut out.

Most parents (because, who are we kidding here?) make theirs out of polystyrene balls of different sizes, painted with acrylic paint. These are then mounted in a variety of ways.

When I discovered needle felting as a craft, I was pretty sure that this would be a) different, b) achievable, and c) for bonus points – something that the child could actually help with.

It turns out that she took to it like a duck to water. She jealously guarded her right to needle felt all the planets. She wanted it to be her work, and I tried to be supportive of that.

These are the planets we made, in chronological order:

Mercury

To start, I helped her research the right colours and sizes for each of the planets. I also guided her towards working smallest to largest. So she started with Mercury. I showed her how to tear up the roving and mix strands together for colours. Mercury was a mixture of two different greys to give a rocky, mottled effect. Since it is so tiny, it was a pretty speedy stab to get a viable planet.

Mars

Next up was Mars. This one was a combination of dark brown and a touch of deep red. She kept it to the same quantities as Mercury to get the size about the same.

Venus

Venus weighed in at 5 grams to Mercury and Mars’ 3 grams. This was a much more involved colour mixture: gold, silver, cream, light pink and light brown. I think it is too mottled, but Owner-of-the-Solar-System says it is just what she wanted.

Earth

She really hit her stride here. We weighed the roving to get the right quantity of blue for the base sphere (5g) and made up a plain blue ball. Little sis helped here too. (The planets will likely be handed down in 2 years time.) I showed Big Sis how to make a flat shape and she went ahead and made up some dark green for the continents, added all sorts of land masses and some wispy clouds over the top. I think Earth looks lovely and I am very proud of her for how she made it happen. Earth's moon was depicted with a pin, stuck into the planet. Sorry moon.

Uranus 

Next we started on the Gas Giants. Our commitment to scale was stretched to its limits by this point. Jupiter is so enormous that we would need to felt a ball the size of a basketball to make it accurate. The four rocky planets would be lost against the others. I tried to find my old polystyrene balls to cover, but I have no idea where they are, so on we felted, using up almost all the roving.

Neptune and Uranus are quite plain, and pretty colours too so were not terribly daunting. 

In her words, "Uranus was made plain pale blue wool with not much interesting pattens or colours. Little Sis helped too much in my opinion."

Neptune 

"Neptune was made dark purple with darker patches here and there."

Both weighed in at about 13 grams.

Saturn

With Saturn, we went for plain yellow roving, filling in the inside with leftover greys and silvers. Eventually it was large enough. I cut out a disc from yellow felt and drew circles on it with a pencil to give an impression of rings, then I hand sewed the disc to the ball.

Jupiter

Jupiter with its distinctive markings, gave me the most concern. It came out not too badly, but the eye/red spot is more like an ugly mole, rather than a gas storm. This is the only planet I made without the children helping. I built up the ball and then added strips of cream and different browns to get the stripes, then the red spot, which I should have done earlier and made much flatter. But it was recognisable enough as Jupiter. (We didn't attempt the moons!)

Sun

I ordered a large polystyrene ball, which came in two halves, for the Sun. Painting it and sprinting yellow glitter was really easy and fun and I wondered why, exactly, we were not painting all the planets on polystyrene balls. We kept the paint uneven colours and splurges with paler areas where the white shows through.

Mounting the planets on the Sun was a major pain. The assignment notes suggested that the whole project not take more than six hours. Well, Mr Science Teacher, hanging the planets from the sun took me more than six hours, and untangling them took about the same again. Twice.

My mistake really. I should have used wire, not cotton thread, to hang them. Or yarn at the very least. But I wanted them to be as invisible as possible and on long strings so that the spacing would work out. I'm pleased to say that, once all the untangling was done (twice), the piece looked how I wanted it to, and hung from the ceiling at school marvellously.

A Bamboo Cardigan

I love the feel of this bamboo knit fabric! It is so soft and silky. It drapes beautifully too. Now that I have an overlocker, I am knocking out knit garments as fast as I can cut them out.

Actually, this cardigan took me over a year to make. I first bought only one meter of this from Fabricana in Vancouver. I hadn't realised that my last knit cardigan used more than 1 meter. More like 1.5m. I considered another cowl neck top, but deep down, I knew I wanted a cardigan. When I went back to Fabricana this summer, I looked out for the same bamboo so I could get another meter and make a cardigan. Luckily, they had it. I can't tell any colour difference between the two, so I was lucky indeed.

I used the same pattern from iCandy Handmade, the Boyfriend Cardigan. But I added the shawl collar from the Seamwork Oslo Cardigan. I considered a whole Oslo, but I like a more fitted shape and the Oslo has a dropped shoulder and a lot of ease under the arm.

I stupidly didn't read my own pattern notes from the Boyfriend Cardigan. I needed to add a seam allowance. I didn't until the front pieces. I also forgot the length I needed for the hem and the sleeves. I made another serious boo boo on the cutting out. When I lengthened the sleeves, I cut the left one in too far and it is tighter than it should be.

While I am confessing mistakes, I also sewed the front pieces on with the wrong side out!

I stabilised the shoulder seams, using the sewing machine, with pink ribbon. Overlocked the sleeves in place (easing the shoulder), side seams, and shawl collar. I should have used the sewing machine for the lower hem of the collar, because it needs a smaller seam to give it more drape. 

I used my twin needle for the lower hem, but it never seems to work with the walking foot. Without, it stretched out and you can see a lot of rippling along the lower hem. I hand sewed the hem of the sleeves instead. 

Costs: 
 

 Fabric: £19.84
 

 Thread: (new overlocker colour) £7.50
 

 New tools: (stretch needles and twin needle) £8.92


Total: £36.26

A Coat...

One coin at a time.

I have been reading and enjoying Gretchen Rubin's book, Better than Before, and invoked her One Coin strategy to get this coat started/finished.

By one coin, she talks about how a single action, e.g. putting a coin in a jar, can add up to a great amount over time. One seam at a time, each of my tiny actions added up to making a whole coat.

I made myself contribute one coin / process per day. Cutting out the pattern, making a toile, cutting out the pieces, adding underlining to each piece, joining the yoke to the front, joining the side seams, even cutting out a pocket bag, a coin was contributed every day.

At the end of many months (or years!) I had contributed enough coins that I had a full coat. Albeit a very loud and attention seeking coat!

By years, I mean that I have had the fabric since 2013, and have been musing over it and hoarding ever since. More here, where I posted the Peony dress I made with the rest of the fabric. A loud floral in a traditional Macintosh appealed to me most. I am experienced enough in the vagaries of the British weather to know that Spring is maddeningly cold, for many months. The daylight hours are long, the gardens are blooming, we want to wear summer apparel, but the temperatures are low. The short answer is to have winter clothing in light colour fabrics. This goes doubly so for any Spring events where you are going to be outdoors. Your coat will be the part of your outfit that people will see. Think weddings, garden parties, racing, etc. (As a side note, the women of Royal Family do this all the time.) So a dressy Spring coat it was to be.

I considered Burda 6921, a full skirted coat, but with such a loud fabric, I thought a traditional mac style would work better. I had grabbed Vogue's V8884 in a $5 pattern sale at Spotlight, literally as I was on my way to the checkout. Sadly for me, I should have been more careful, when I came to cut out the pieces, I realised I had grabbed the wrong size! I am so used to multi-size patterns, that I hadn't even checked. This one is sizes 14-22.

That was my first mental hurdle: how to adjust the sizing. I started this project in March, hoping to have a Spring coat ready by this spring. I decided to cut the smallest size, the 14, and adjust from there. Luckily my lovely mother was visiting in April and advised me that pattern adjustments should be made from the centre line. Revelation! Thanks Mum! I accordingly pinched out 1cm down the centre line of each pattern piece, as well as my usual 1 inch short waist adjustment. I left the sleeves as is, knowing I was going to make a toile from the planned underlining.

I sacrificed a lovely pink flannelette cotton from my stash for the underlining. I has this earmarked for pyjamas, and am definitely planning on getting some more for this purpose. But it is also perfect for getting some warmth into what is quite a lightweight upholstery fabric. I also used it for making a toile of my fitting changes to the pattern. A coat of pink flannelette is quite hilarious to behold, but sadly, I didn't get a picture. What I did get was a clear idea of how to adjust the sleeve to get it to fit. 5mm off each sleeve seam, with a corresponding difference in the two yoke seams that feed into the armscye.

I then unpicked my toile and used the pieces to cut out the main fabric. That was also really helpful because I could cut out flat, paying attention to pattern placement and saving on fabric at the same time. Then I got held up, procrastinating about making bunting for the school fair. I put everything aside, procrastinated for a while, and then got on with my allocated 100m of bunting from used school uniforms.

This is what 300m of bunting looks like.

By early June I re-commenced the making of the coat. By then I had read Gretchen's book and my head was resonating with the One Coin strategy.  I have used it before, making my Grey Flannel Dress, but now it has a name.

Every single day, I made myself contribute one coin to the process. Even if I was just pinning a seam, it counted. In truth, once I started, I could usually pin and sew a seam. I am clearly a marathoner, not a sprinter (Gretchen again), when it comes to sewing. By the time I went on holiday in July, the outer fabric was finished and one sleeve set in. When we got back, in August, I quickly added the second sleeve, and made the lining. Once it starts to come together, I am much more motivated to contribute more than one coin at a time.

I really like the false storm flap in this pattern. It is made by sewing the yoke with an extra tuck underneath and then top stitching it in place. This creates the look, without the actual storm flap. Let's face it, I am not actually going to wear this coat as a keeping dry layer. On the minus side, I think the collar is too large, and swamps me a bit. I might make a narrower collar another time. I didn't bother with pattern matching. The repeat is so enormous that I would have needed about 5m of fabric to match. I actually used 2m.

I made a sleeveless Peony dress from the remaining 1m in July, and some birthday present sewing in August. I finished up all the hemming and hand sewing of the lining hem to the coat hem in early September. I will absolutely wear the coat and the dress together for a dressy occasion!

The lining was from the Village Haberdashery, a lovely purply silver grabbed on impulse. I didn't have quite enough so the sleeves are lined with ivory which my mother in law gifted me from her stash. You don't notice the different colours because the double breasted front creates a very roomy interior. The pattern instructions are a bit sketchy when it comes to the lining. They don't instruct when to remove the basting stitches from the centre pleat. But I do like the couture finish of slip stitching the lining to the hem, rather than a bagged lining.  Vogue missed a huge trick in their drafting: there is no hanging loop on the inside of the collar. This would have been so easy to add, but I didn't think about it until the first time I went to hang the coat on the back of a toilet door!

After the lining and hemming, I only had to work on the closures. This part is a love song to living in London. I went out and about in our wonderful city and made the most of the specialty shops and resources that we have. I took the coat to The Button Queen in Marylebone to find the 10 buttons it needed. I wasn't planning on these deep pink ones, but they were the right mix of blending in but not completely that I was looking for. I got the same buttons for the inside fastening as the outside, because I wanted the buttonholes in the lapels to match exactly.

To get my buttonholes as perfect as possible, I outsourced them to DM Buttons in Soho. Leaving my coat there was like dropping off one of my children with a stranger! Would it be ok? Would they mix it up and give me back the wrong child? DM Buttons is a fascinating place. It is in a grubby service lane off a side street in Soho, which is... eclectic, to say the least. The business is one room with a whole lot of industrial machines. Of which does what, I have no idea, but I think I saw one for putting in studs or eyelets. I chose a keyhole buttonhole and left my baby in their care. There is no way I could have put in keyhole buttonholes at home, nor could my machine have sewed through the 8-10 layers of fabric (underlining, facing, underlining, seam allowances, with underlining) that needed buttonholing. Not to mention cutting them open!

I collected my coat 2 days later, buttonholes done; sewed the buttons on, dashed outside for photos and 7 months after I started, my coat is finished!

Costs
 Main fabric: £18
 Underlining fabric: £15
 Lining fabric: £4.50
 Pattern: £3
 Thread: £1
 Buttons: £9
 Buttonholes: £4.50
Total: £55

Stash Accounting

Maybe I am a bit over the top about accounting for my sewing costs and garment makes. Forgive me, but I find it really interesting to work out the details relating to my sewing hobby, especially in contrast to buying ready to wear clothing.

I also love, love, love making lists, and online organising. I use Trello for organising my sewing including projects, fabric and patterns. I am a huge Trello fan. I am not going to go into details about how it works, it is pretty easy, and Trello have a great intro board here.

I use it at work and for other stuff at home too. But my favourite boards are my sewing boards. I have five (Five! I thought I had about three!): one for patterns; one called inventory, which is where I keep my project list and supplies; one for kids; a quilting board; and one for completed projects.

I look at my Inventory board most often and I love re-arranging the project queue and fabric “swatches” with the drag and drop feature. I have three To-sew lists: one for others/kids/gifts/home etc. (This one doesn’t get much action). My own sewing is split into two lists: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. I pull the lists to the left depending on the upcoming season and what I feel I ought to be sewing. Theoretically top left is where I should start, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

I have also recently split my fabric stash lists into S/S and A/W. The lists were getting a bit long and it is helpful to see what I have to sew with from season to season.

When I buy a fabric, or a notion, I photograph it and log the details into a new card in Trello: date, where I got it, quantity, width, price and ideally, where I have physically stored it. Once this is done, I almost never go through my stash in person. I know what I have, and what I want to do with it. Once I have used a fabric, I record the details in the Trello card, with how much is left, and a link to the blog post of what I made. If the fabric is used up, I archive the card.

Pattern cards are really useful. I photograph the front and the back of the pattern envelope. That means I can refer to the quantities needed when I am in the fabric store. When I sew with a pattern, I record the changes that I made and links to the blog posts from the finished garments. Then I read through these notes and blog posts before I use the pattern again. In theory, anyway. My patterns are divided by garment type and fabric type. Currently Dresses (woven); Dresses (stretch); Tops; Skirts; Coats/Jackets/Cardigans; and Outfits. The last are those wardrobe patterns that have a top, dress, skirt and trousers or jacket in the same pattern and I should probably duplicate them across all the other lists because I usually forget what is in them.

When I have completed something from my to-sew list, I move the card to the Complete board and link to the blog post of the finished garment. I don’t look at this list very often because my blog post contents have it covered for me.

That covers what is coming up, but something that Trello does not do is analyse my lists. To do this, I have finished a little exercise that I called Stash Accounting.

I wanted to know:

1. Quantity of projects sewn to date. Including how they divide between sewing for myself and for others
2. How much fabric have I bought?
3. How much of that have I used?
4. By inference, how much fabric is sitting around, unused?
5. What is my average cost per garment.

I didn’t have any truly nasty surprises from the results, but there were a few interesting findings:

• I have made more items for the children, than for anyone else. I have also spent vastly less on projects for them. I have made about twice as many things for them, as for me, and at 1/3 of the cost. A lot of this is because projects for them are made from cheap cotton or polycotton and a lot of those are made from leftovers from other projects. If I bought fabric for a project, I counted the whole cost of that purchase towards that project, even if there was enough left over for something else.
• In that vein, my 24 items of dolls clothing have cost me a total of £15. This gives me an average cost of 64 pence per garment!
• My gift making is woefully stingy. Only two genuine gifts in there, plus some doll clothes.
• My stashed fabric is not as bad as I thought. I have sewn with 2/3 of the value of all the fabric I have ever bought. Yes, that also means that 1/3 of my total fabric consumption is unused, but I note that the more expensive fabrics are the ones that I hold on to for longer. That means the actual quantity stashed is not too bad, but they tend to be things I feel are too nice to use (my precious!). Time to cut up some silk.
• The final, really cool, thing I learned is that I am liking my finished garments more and more recently. I gave each a rating out of 10 and then rearranged them in a list. More recent stuff is at the top of the list. Either I have not got sick of something yet, or I am actually getting better at creating things I genuinely enjoy wearing.

I also have exactly 31 finished garments that are still wearable. The same as the number of days in May. Is this a sign that I should go for a Me-Made-May challenge with no repeats? I don’t think a beach wrap is going to work terribly well in May, but I might consider giving it a shot.

Karen Drape Dress by Maria Denmark

I made a new dress today!

I was only going to pin and baste the pleats. Truly! But I went with the flow and by the end of the day, I had a new dress.

How about a wide eyed round of applause for how organised I am for Autumn sewing. I am not known for my well planned seasonal wardrobe, as my yet-to-be-posted Spring Coat will prove.

But back to Karen. I made an annual pilgrimage to Fabricana in Vancouver, despite having not sewn everything I bought last July. (OK, one out of four was sewn.) I went a bit crazy and bought lots of stuff. I was looking for apparel fabrics and I even left a quilting border print behind, saying to the sales assistant, from behind a tower of bolts of fabric, "I have to tell my husband I didn't buy everything I wanted."

This black textured knit literally fell off the bolt into my arms. I already had another knit picked out but asked if there was a discount for the bolt end and they gave me the remainder for the price of 1m. There was almost 1.5m on the bolt so that was good enough for me to go ahead and add it to the pile.

It must be pure polyester, but it washes easily and has good stretch and recovery. The textured surface means it is forgiving to wear, giving it some weight and not showing every lump and bump underneath. 

I wasn't planning to make it up first from my Vancouver haul, but I already knew it would be a great Karen Drape Dress from Maria Denmark. Then Maria went and had a birthday sale so I snapped up the pattern. Now I had the fabric, the pattern and the overlocker, plus thread.

Maria helpfully included an A3 print version of the pattern, which I really appreciated. So much quicker to print out and tape together. What I got seriously wrong was that I didn't read the instructions first, nor look at all the pieces of the pattern sheets before I got cutting. When I got to the big red caps saying SEAM ALLOWANCES NOT INCLUDED, I was a bit put out. I hate having to add my own seam allowances to patterns. I worry about getting them wrong and not matching up properly. I am not a pattern drafter, that is why I buy patterns. Please Maria, could you add seam allowances to the Karen? 

Since I had already decided on my size (S) and cut out to that size at the same time, I could only add seam allowances to part of the front piece. And hems, what about hems??

So I didn't make the dress from scratch today. I spent one evening assembling and cutting out the pattern pieces, all three of them, and one evening cutting out the fabric. To make the pleats through the front, the pattern piece is curved with the skirt on the straight grain and the front bodice on the diagonal. This fabric's texture gives it the appearance of vertical lines and I wondered if it would look odd on the diagonal. But you can barely see it - black is very forgiving, so I went with it. Mine is also quite thick and stable.

I shortened the waist by 1 inch, including the diagonal waist line on the front. I didn't bother to change the pleat placement accordingly, and they have worked out looking even. I also lengthened the hem slightly. I added length to the sleeves, but decided at the end that a bit of wrist looked better than a severe black dress, so I chopped them off again. I stabilised the shoulder seams with ribbons, going for it with hot pink!

After I had re-threaded my new overlocker, and figuring out how to stop the fabric edges from flaring out, I had to summon all my courage to get on and attach the sleeves using the overlocker. I have been using it, but only for seam finishes. I have a bad habit of cutting the fabric any time I use it on a curve, so I was really nervous that I would cut my lovely dress. But I didn't. I went ahead and sewed the whole thing. 

The neckline gave me a bit of trouble. I used clear elastic, but I didn't realise how hard I had to stretch it going in, so the back was very loose and wavy. I tried again, twice, but it wasn't working well and I was starting to stretch the fabric too. I used ordinary elastic in the end, and it worked well too. I didn't attach and then fold over. My machine couldn't manage that with the clear elastic. I just folded the elastic inside and then zig zagged the whole thing down. The white elastic is peeking out in places, but unpicking black thread from black textured fabric is not good for my eyes, even in full sun, so I am calling it done. With something like a thin jersey, stay stitching the neckline would be a good idea.

I zig zagged the hems on the sleeves and the hem too. The sleeves worked great, but the hem is waving out slightly.

I wanted to pull the under bust section in by 4cm. But I didn't. Maybe leave out the top pleat? Maybe it's just the fabric. It looks a bit baggy under my left boob, but I'll leave it. The boob, and the baggy.

Photographing the details of a black dress is utterly impossible. Making the most of the bright sunshine, I grabbed these pics. I had to blow out the detail shot and the full shots have my shadow in the background, messing up the outline. But it is the best I can do. Who knows if we will have another sunny day in 2016. There is no point photographing it on the hangar, it just looks like a saggy nothing. It is much better on.

And I do love wearing it. It's dressy, it's comfortable, it's smart and it is totally "me". I have never made anything like it before, but I have about 5 similar in my wardrobe already, so I know it is going to be a new favourite.

Costs:
 Fabric: £6.87
 Pattern: £6
 Thread: £7.50
 Notions: Elastic 17p
Total: £20.54

Little Makers: Teddy Bear Dress

Little one sewed this dress for her teddy bear entirely by herself.

She selected the fabric from some scraps she had been given as a party favour from a sewing party.

She started with the floral piece for the skirt, because it was big enough to wrap around the bear for a skirt. She stitched the button, chosen from her stash, and then I made the button hole for her.

Then she added straps as sleeves. She cut the fabric to size, trimming off the uneven bits, and hand sewed them on to the skirt with a running stitch.

Then we photographed Bear and put the pictures on the blog!

English Rose Dresses

Taking the children shopping at Ikea is pretty fun, as long as I adhere to these survival tips:

 1. Go as early as possible on a weekday morning. School holidays are fine.

 2. Take water.

 3. Drink water.

 4. Make a list in advance.

 5. Try, as much as possible, to stick to the list.

 6. Don't buy anything I am not absolutely certain about. Returns are a pain.

 7. Linger in the children's bedroom section and let them play on the displays.

 8. Stop for food in the cafe.

 9. Don't buy the fast food on the way out.

10. Don't go with a husband = no discussions!

The fabric selection at Ikea is quite extensive. But they are mostly very large scale prints on upholstery weight fabric. Extremely eye catching, but actually quite difficult to work with. Nevertheless, I have bought them before; and made a tablecloth, this skirt, and a sewing machine cover.

When I went with my accomplices, to get some toy boxes, we stopped to admire the small range of cotton prints. It is about the weight of quilting cotton, and is clearly destined for aprons and other such homewares. We got 1.5m of this one, pink roses on a white background, and the same on a blue background. The white one is for little sis. Big sis wants to make her own teddy bear from the blue - which will be adorable! 

I had the right quantity to make the Cottage Mama Party Dress. Including the extra full skirt made from two widths of fabric. By lining the bodice with an old sheet (of course), I saved enough fabric for a matching doll dress.

I have used this pattern often before:

2015: Molly's Party Dress 

2014: Isle of Wight Dress 

2013: White Dress

2013: Red Spotty Dress

2013: two Daisy Dresses

I made the size 8, and it is very large on my 7 year old. I usually take in a lot at the back, when I am fitting buttons or zips, but this was a gift, so fitting wasn't possible.

I used some pearl buttons that I had removed from an Ann Taylor cardigan and replaced with plainer shirt buttons. They were too much for a lavender cardigan, but lovely to dress up a dress. Working out the buttonhole size was a bit hairy though.

I put in a piped edge between the bodice and the skirt. I did this in the Daisy Dresses and I really like the subtle decoration it gives, in return for very little effort. Pale pink worked best with the colours of the flowers, especially because I didn't have any green on hand. I also added in seam pockets, which I did for the Isle of Wight Dress, to the delight of the owner. Even if nothing ever goes in them, for some reason, its nice to know they are there.

I lined the bodice with white cotton, harvested from an old sheet. The whiteness of the cotton shows that the background of the dress is actually more of an off-white. When I make this dress now, I cut the lining 2cm longer than the bodice pieces, so that I have enough to turn in and stitch down, without having to stitch in the ditch. I topstitched it in place for these makes. I left the skirt as long as possible, for that tea length look.

The doll dress is my favourite doll pattern, made 7 times before. I also added the pink binding, minus the piping cord, and the back is fastened with velcro instead of pearl buttons.

Costs (both):
 Fabric: £10.50
 Lining: upcycled
 Patterns: free
 Fastenings: upcycled
 Bias binding: stash
 Piping cord: 22p
Total: £10.72