Floral Megan

Hey guys!

I have finally got around to photographing some finished makes, with the help of my wonderful new phone. I can't express how pleased I am to have the ability to take photographs back! I love capturing images and surround myself in the ones I take; both my room at university and my room at home have the wall space covered in photos I've taken and printed off. That's not to say I'm a good photographer! I'm certainly not, but I do love the memories that photographs hold.

So, with my regained ability to photograph my handmade garments, today I thought I would share with you my most recently finished make - the Megan Dress from Tilly and the Buttons' book Love at First Stitch.

This is my second Megan (you can see the first here), which I sewed up in a gorgeous floral cotton from Abakhan in Chester. It's quite a weighty fabric, almost like a softer version of a canvas, which made it a dream to sew with. I fell in love with the print as soon as I saw it and knew immediately it had to become a Megan dress. As you've probably realised by now, floral prints on navy backgrounds are definitely my signature style, even for my purse and phone case!

I already had the smallest size of the pattern traced off from the first time I'd made it, but I did encounter an odd fitting issue this time around. The finished dress was really gaping around the neckline, but after some thought I just pinched out a dart on either side of the zip, which solved the problem perfectly and got rid of the excess fabric.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the finished garment and have already given it it's first outing, to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. I had a lovely day and saw the Staffordshire Hoard (the biggest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold to be discovered in Britain, which was found by a metal detectorist), which I have been wanting to see for years! I also saw a lot of Roman, Greek and Egyptian artefacts, including a ring which belonged to Queen Nefertiti. If you're ever in the area I would definitely recommend a visit!

At last, a finished garment blogged. It feels good to be able to share my makes with you again; I've got a couple more posts planned which should be up soon, so keep your eye out for those!

I hope you all have a lovely week and, as always, thank you so much for reading,

Beth x

Checking In

Hey guys!

Can you believe it's July already? This year is just flying past. I'm having a lovely time so far this summer and, with all the free time I have on my hands, I've already completed my Outfit-Along jumper! I'm usually a fantastically slow knitter, but I was really motivated to finish this project and finished weaving in the ends today. Now I just have to sew up the Sewaholic Cambie in some gorgeous Liberty Tana Lawn I have and my outfit will be complete.

My phone is being a huge pain at the moment and isn't letting me take photographs, but a new phone is on the way! It's due for delivery on Tuesday so fingers crossed I'll finally be able to photograph and blog some long-finished makes. I know I haven't blogged about any actual sewing for a while, but that doesn't mean I've been completely idle, I promise! I've got two dresses to share with you - and at the end of July I'll be sharing my Outfit-Along with you, so watch this space for those.

Apart from that, there's not much news from around here; I mostly spend my days watching Netflix in my pyjamas. Last week was lovely though, my boyfriend came to stay for a few days and it was great to spend time with him, especially since I'd not seen him since leaving university for summer nearly a month ago. I've also got a trip to Norway coming up in a couple of weeks, so that should be a fantastic experience and allows me to tick off another place on the list of countries I've visited.

Have you got any plans for summer? I'd love to hear about them!

As always, thank you for reading,

Beth x

Outfit-Along 2016

Hey guys! How are you all?

I'm back at home, spending my days lounging around in my pyjamas and binge-watching 90210 on Netflix. Three months of freedom is starting to look like rather a long time... if anyone has any suggestions for cheap things to do in my summer holiday, please do comment below! I was planning to spend my time sewing, but a severe lack of fabric funds means I can't spend as much time crafting as I'd like.

Still, I do have a length of gorgeous Liberty Tana Lawn waiting to be sewn up, so I thought I'd drop by to let you know I'm taking part in this year's Outfit-Along (OAL 2016), which is hosted by the lovely Lauren over at Lladybird and Andi at Untangling Knots. The aim of the competition is to sew an item of clothing (for example, a dress) and knit another garment (such as a cardigan) between 1st June and 31st July. At the end you should end up with a whole me-made outfit! Though on it's third year running, this is my first time entering the OAL and I'm really excited to be a part of it. I've never worked to make a whole outfit before using both sewing and knitting skills, so I can't wait to see how it goes!

For my sewing pattern, I've chosen the Sewaholic Cambie, an old favourite of mine I've made many times before. For the knitting pattern, I've gone with the Coronis Jumper by Emily Ringelman, which I stumbled across on Ravelry. Hopefully the two garments will go well together! I've not chosen the yarn for my cardigan yet, but I'm heading down to my local market tomorrow to try and find one I like.





Finishing my dress on time for the deadline on July 31st shouldn't be a problem, I just hope I can finish my jumper! I'm not the world's fastest knitter. I've also promised my boyfriend I'll knit him a jumper too, so we'll have to see how that goes!

Are you taking part in the Outfit-Along this year? If so, what are you planning on making?

Have a lovely week everyone and, as always, thank you so much for reading.

Beth x

Summer At Last!

Hey guys!

Gosh, it's been over a month since I last posted. Time flies! Thankfully, I have at last got all of my assignments handed in, exams are over and I have officially completed my second year of university - now to enjoy the summer! 

I've already got started on enjoying the freedom of the holidays with a trip to London last weekend with my boyfriend and three of our friends, which was really lovely. I even managed to pick some absolutely gorgeous Liberty Tana Lawn! (Yes, my love of Liberty still knows no bounds...) 

I'm still deciding what to make with my Liberty fabric, but my sewing output in general has increased dramatically since finishing my exams last Thursday, with two dresses and a blouse completed! I'm slowly getting round to photographing everything so watch this space for their posts soon. 

You might also have noticed that I've added a new page to my blog's header - My Wardrobe! Photographs of all my handmade garments can be found there with the link to their original post, just to make it a bit easier to find past makes and to see the progression of my sewing (and photography!) skills over the years. In general it has to be said I'm not a fan of people who apologise on blogs, but I really think you're owed one here - my early blog photos (selfie in the mirror) are fairly horrific! Thankfully I've figured out how to self-photograph without the need for a mirror now. 

That's pretty much everything that's been going on with me recently. Just seeing people, sewing and binge watching TV series on Netflix! I'll leave you with a train selfie I took today on a trip to Chester. Hasn't the weather been lovely?! 

As always, thank you for reading - I'll be back soon with some completed project posts, but in the meantime, have a fabulous week! 

Beth x

Happy Me-Made-May!

Hey guys! 

Things have been pretty quiet on the sewing front round here recently. My sewing machine is currently at home rather than at uni, so it's been a while since I've made anything new. However, despite my current lack of creativity, I still wanted to check in and say happy Me-Made-May to everyone taking part! 

This year, due to assignments, revision and exams, I've decided not to take part. Vowing to wear a handmade item of clothing everyday just seems like an unnecessary stress to add onto an already pretty busy month, so this year I'm opting out. I still love dressing handmade, I just don't want to sign up to a challenge I know I probably won't be able to keep up with, especially because the weather is warming up significantly but all my self-sewn summer clothes are in my wardrobe back at home rather than here with me at uni. 

However, I'm cheering you all along this month and looking forward to seeing all of your documentation pictures! To everyone who has made a pledge for Me-Made-May this year, a huge good luck to you all - lets learn to love our handmade garments! 

As always, thank you for reading and have a lovely weekend. 

Beth x

Plans for Summer Sewing

Hey guys! How are you all?

The weather is at last starting to pick up here in Wales, it really does feel like spring is here, with summer on the way. I handed in my assignments today, so I have a couple of weeks break before I need to start the next one, which feels awesome. With the warmer weather in mind, I thought I'd put together a list of some sewing projects I want to get finished in the next couple of months to wear this summer.

1. White Coppelia Cardigan from Papercut Patterns - the cropped, tie waist version will go great with all my shorts


2. New Look 6457 - I've already made two of these, View A is just the perfect summer dress. If I have time, I'll make more than one in pretty floral prints


3. Megan Nielsen Briar - I love this pattern, it's just so cute! I think the cropped version would be a really good staple in warmer weather


4. Christine Haynes' Emery Dress - this has been on my To-Sew List for ages, it's about time I got a version sewn up!


5. Backless dress - this is going to be a challenge, as I don't actually have a pattern for one. I was planning on hacking either the By Hand London Anna/Flora...wish me luck!
 

6. Deer and Doe Melilot Shirt - I'm basically in love with the sample picture, I definitely want a copy in a white viscose


That's about it! I'm sure I'll deviate somewhat so whether everything actually gets sewn up remains to be seen, but there's the basic plan!

Do you have any plans for your summer sewing?

Thank you for reading,

Beth x

Fifi Pyjamas

Hey everyone! How are you all? 

I'm doing pretty good, I'm at home for the Easter break and finally have a completed sewing project to show you! 

Truth be told, I finished this project in January, but I've been putting off blogging it. Ahh well, I've got round to it eventually! 

This is the Fifi Pyjama set from Tilly and the Buttons, and a classy lady she is. I don't think I've ever felt so posh wearing pyjamas! 

The light in these photos is dreadful, you'll have to excuse me - proper daylight in January was a little hard to come by! 

From start to finish, excluding cutting everything out, this project took me about five hours. I stayed up rather late to get it finished, but I am super happy with the end result! 

I made the Size 1, which is usual for me and didn't make any adjustments. It fits pretty nicely straight out of the packet, but I do think I'll go back at some point and shorten the straps a tad. 

All the seams are French, which I've never bothered with on a whole garment before. They look sooo neat, I am seriously tempted to use this style of seam more often - the extra effort is definitely worth it. 

You can get a bit of a better look at the fabric here, which is an absolutely droolworthy, soft and buttery Liberty Tana Lawn. Yes, my love of all things Liberty is showing no sign of stopping - I visited the store with my mum last weekend when we were in London and to my surprise, realised that I can now name a lot of the fabrics! Definitely becoming a bit of an obsession...but look how pretty! 

A few close ups. This was my first time making an elasticated waistband, which definitely wasn't as tricky as I'd been imagining. I also added a little blue bow to the top, which I think looks cute! I was also really pleased with myself for how neatly I managed to get the bias binding, as that's another technique I haven't really had much experience with. Overall, these pyjamas were a real learning curve for me, but I had so much fun! 

Well, that's about it from me on the pyjama front. This is definitely the project that I feel most luxurious in whilst wearing and I'm really proud of it as a sewing achievement. 

In other news...ooh, I did recently manage to turn some 40" waist jeans into a 28". I know, that should be more or less impossible, but long story short my boyfriend wanted some jeans in the sale from River Island, and the only size they had left was 40". I ended up taking 4" out of each side seam (which ate into the front pockets a little, but they're still usable), then 4" out of the back. I also took in the legs a little all over, to balance things out. To my surprise, they actually look ok! I got my mum to check, and she assures me they look like regular jeans (though she's astounded I managed to take out a whole 12"). So, there we go! It's been a post for attempting the sewing extraordinary, at least where I'm concerned. 

How are your sewing projects going? I'd love to hear! 

Thank you, as always, for reading, 

Beth x