The Finished Postal Dress

I finally got the red dress finished and I photographed it when I got to my mums. Well, she photographed it. The hall of my parents house is quite dark so even though it was a sunny day the photo didn't come out well. I'm glad we got it done then because half an hour later we had hail and thunder.

It doesn't look that bad in this picture but I'm not happy with it. It has pointy bits at the end of the bust darts, I have trouble lifting my arms and my hips are too big to fit into the unaltered dress comfortably. It's also very unflattering unbelted, but with the belt it's kinda okay.

I get the feeling this dress, or a version of it, might be good for wearing under a corset with some tweaking to the sizing and the darts. It might even look quite pretty.

This was the first non stretch garment where I've tried to finish the seams with my overlocker and it was quite trial and error. For the seams between the main body and the sleeves I tried using it like one would do hongkong seams with them pressed open but the machine wasn't very happy and they don't look right, but for the side seams I just sewed it like normal and overlocked the two edges together. It looks a lot better. The facing is just pinked and invisibly handstitched to the seams. It's definitely the neatest garment inside yet.

So not my favorite, but not a disaster either. A learning experience.

T-shirts And Studdies

I was a bit late getting this out because I spent most of the day with my older brother. Me, him and his boyfriend went to wetherspoons and talked about what I'm going to do this year. I've got to get on with researching universities and talking to everyone about what my options are but I'm feeling pretty good about it now.

I did manage to get quite a lot of work done on my t-shirts. I cut out four more and sewed the shoulder seams, as well as the back center seam on the neck band. I had a go at chain stitching (I think that's what it's called when you leave hardly any space between pieces) to save thread and make it go quicker. It worked pretty well and I ended up with the hideous neckband garland. You probably can't see but that things got 30 sharp pins sticking out of it.

The next thing to do will be sew the neck bands to the tops and sew up the sides. I think I should be able to get them finished by the 7th, and then I'm going to try making a wearable muslin of the dress I traced over the Christmas holidays.

My New Toy!

I've mentioned my overlocker once or twice but I haven't actually bragged told you about it yet. It was a complete fluke that I found it, and exactly when I was looking for one.

I had gone to the charity shop to drop off a few books (I'm trying to declutter) and passed by the new 'retro' shop. I hadn't gone in before because I don't buy clothes that much and I find the valuation of second hand clothing confusing. I just wanted a look really.

The other stuff in the shop was a bit boring and it was very dark but sitting on the counter was this wonder, complete with instruction manual:

The thread and ballpoint needles actually cost more than the machine

I don't know how old it is or how the shop came to have it but it was clear after a quick conversation they didn't know what to do with it, even though they'd checked to see if it was working. The guy in the shop admitted as much and called it an overedger. :-)

When I asked the price and he shrugged and pulled £20 out of thin air I practically jumped with joy and asked him to keep an eye on it while I walked to the bank.

Walking half a mile home with it in a big paper carrier bag I almost regretted my decision, but not quite! :-D

My Most Useless Make Yet?

I made a pattern holder/wall hanging doodad!

I'm not quite sure why I did this. My mane trail of thought was that I could easily get stuck doing the same patterns over and over again because tracing them takes so long when I first want to make them. I figured if I made one new one every month then I'd have more and more ready traced patterns when I come to sew something nice and quick.

I made it completely with my overlocker because I couldn't be bothered to change the thread on my sewing machine but it turned out pretty good. There's one slot for each month of the year and at some point I'm going to get a wooden dowel (pole) and sew it into the top so I can hang it one the wall. Pretty good for a 1 evening make with no pattern.

Yay! T-shirts!

I got an overlocker (serger) a couple of days ago and I've been having fun with it, making my first stretch garments. I don't have any ball point needles so I'm going to wait to sew anything with good fabric, and I can't sew any seams on my sewing machine because I need to fix the bobbin tension before I can use the zigzag stitch, but both those things can be easily fixed.

Sorry you can see my bra! I didn't realise how see-trough the fabric was, but at least I found out here and not out in the real world. Also, did you notice my new haircut? I got my boyfriend to cut my hair and when he got it wonky (I shouldn't be surprised) I got the hairdresser to just go with it.

I made both the t-shirts in NewLook 6216, but the sizing got me really confused. According to the size graph I should have sewn a 14/16 but when I looked at garment measurements I got confused. It looked like I could wear an 8 with room to spare.

Turns out cutting the short sleeved one in an 8 was just fine, which is a bit annoying. But even more annoying was the long sleeved version, where the body was just fine but the sleeves where tight. I guess that's where the inflated sizing came from but it just looks horrible, and I think it would have whatever size I cut. I would edit the top to add size 16 sleeves to the size 8 top but it's such a wasteful pattern in terms of fabric I don't think I'll bother.


I will sew up the short sleeved top, probably again and again, and I'm going to try the trousers at least once, but I'll get a sleeved top from somewhere else.

A Promise

I don't have any sewing to share with you from yesterday so I wanted to share with you a promise I made to myself.

You may have already heard of Me-Made-May, you might even have taken part, but I only found out about it recently. When I started sewing again I wanted to improve my machinery setup but I don't want to go spending loads of money if it's just a phase that I'll loose interest in. I decided that if I could successfully complete the light version of the challenge and wear an item I made each day of may then I would splurge and buy myself an overlocker. (I think they're called sergers in the USA).

I'm really excited about it but if I fail there will be consequences. I'll have to wait for a new month and try again. I'm doing this to give me a little discipline and a sense of achievement if I manage it.

Wish me luck!