All's Well that Ends Well.

It started in Devon where I was looking for some denim to make some trousers and visited Malbers Fabrics.  I came across exactly the fabric I wanted but, woe, there was only 80 cm left on the roll.  However the retailer offered me a good price to take that remaining fabric so how could I resist?  I did not intend to make anything with it immediately but an attempt to draft a skirt for use with a particular fabric did not work out so I was wanting a quick make as a form of solace and set about thinking how I could use that denim.
I had a pattern that I had hacked many times, very simple - just 2 pieces- back and front and 2 darts to each piece.  I also had a splendid open-ended zip, silver with flashes of pink, green and yellow, just begging to be show-cased somehow.  That's why I thought of making a slim skirt with a zip front.  Easy! easy!- just add a grown-on facing to the centre front of the skirt and insert the zip down the front, instead of a short zip at the left side as I usually did.  So I just squeezed the adapted pattern on to the available fabric and cut it out.
When I had sewn the darts I realised that I had adapted the back instead of the front- the pieces look so similar and my writing in pencil on the pattern pieces had faded from age and use (as had my eyesight).  I thought "Why not have the zip at the Back?"  Because it is not comfortable to sit on and might break under stress from my fidgety backside, that's why.  Why not have a centre back seam and cut out another front piece? Because I only had scraps left, that's why.
However, from the waist down, again due to fading with age, my front and back are not too dissimilar in shape.  I thought I could get away with wearing the skirt back to front, the only problem being that the back darts  were not quite right at their tip if worn as the front of the skirt.  If only I could disguise the dart tips in some way....

Pockets!  Jiggling around with the remaining scraps I managed to cut out 2 small pockets, just big enough to get my hand into.  However plain pockets seemed to be rather boring and I wanted a quick, simple embellishment.  Recently Ana of Coco Wawa Crafts generously had given me a lovely enamel pin as a present for the tiny bit of help I gave her with a knitting project. I love it and it made me think that a pink heart would be a ideal motif, especially because the zip has hints of pink in it.

Doesn't the pin look good?  I love the idea of proclaiming your allegiance to a craft via a pin.

I had some Gutterman thread in varying shades of pink so I used this to decorate the pockets and to top stitch along the zip sides and at the hem line.  However I do fear that the skirt may run in future washes, though I did pre-wash it, and the pink stitching may be obscured by blue dye then.  Time, and the washing machine, will tell.

Instead of a separate waistband or a facing I simply applied curved petersham to the top of the skirt.  This meant that, before I sewed up the side seams, I could gauge the diameter of my waist simply by looping the petersham around myself, marking where the waist band should begin and end.  I could  see then if I needed to take in or let out the side seam allowances for the skirt to fit at the waist before I sewed up the side seams.  The zip comes up to the top of the waist and to make the fastening doubly secure I extended the petersham on the left hand side and placed a snap fastener to prevent the zip opening accidentally if it came under stress.

 I am so pleased with this skirt, especially when I realised how well it went with the cowl-necked Freya top that I made last year from Tilly and the Buttons book "Stretch".  I may look grim in the photo below but really I am very satisfied.

Frankenstella

It's a Stella Hoodie- but not as we know it.  Yes, I am continuing my love affair with Tilly & The Buttons patterns in her new book STRETCH.
I fell in love with this knit fabric at the Spring Knitting and Stitching show at Olympia.  It is more suitable for pyjamas for the under sevens than a daytime dress for an over 70  but it made me laugh and I had to have it.  

The peppermint green base does not show up well in this shot but the quirky characters, which called to the infant in me, do. I thought that I had bought only enough to make a top but when I came to cut it out I realised that I had enough for a dress.  By this time, having made 5 items from STRETCH, I knew where to go for a reliable pattern.  I wanted to try out the dropped shoulder style of the Stella Hoodie but didn't actually want to wear a hood made up in this fabric- so the Frankenstella was born.

I traced the Stella top, added length from the hemline of the top  and finished it off with the curved hem of the Frankie tee.  This was easy, as you can read in my previous post about creating the Frankie dress,  because I had made a separate bottom piece for that dress.  I extended the end of the Stella hoodie straight down, marking horizontally the point at which I wanted the side edge of the hem to end.

I then placed the piece I had cut from the Frankie tee at the edge and traced around this, ignoring the part that extended past my vertical line.

All that remained was to decide how to finish the neckline.  I went for facings rather than a neckband and made these by measuring and marking 4 cm around the neck of the front and back bodice, then tracing the result for the facing pattern.

With hindsight I would have made a narrower facing of only 2.5 cm.  I understitched the facings after clipping and trimming the curve so that they lay flat and then zig-zag stitch round the neckline- no chance of them popping out from the neck!
The result I have mixed feelings about.

 I did not check the sleeve length and I feel they are too long, but not if I double the cuffs back so I will leave them as they are.  However there are issues on which I should like some opinions.

I  think that I should have made the dress a bit shorter, maybe the length that raising my arms achieves.  I also considered putting elastic in a casing around the waist to get a blouson effect.  Below I have achieved this with a belt. Does the curved hem make it look too much like a nightgown and should I shorten it by cutting the hem straight across?

What do you think?  Should I make it shorter or should I add elastic around the waist or should I leave it as it is?  Please leave a comment below to help me decide.

Tilly & The Buttons Frankie Tee becomes a Frankie Dress

Ever since I got my copy of Tilly's new book STRETCH I have been sewing like one possessed.  I highly recommend this book both for the clear explanation of techniques and the patterns that come with it.  I used to be afraid of jersey knits but no more!  I have a Bibi skirt and two Freya tops now, one with the mock roll neck and one with a modified cowl neck.  I was going to make the Stella Hoodie dress next but then the British weather turned from Arctic to Tropical and I decided to make a Frankie tee but as a dress.

This is so easy to do and probably the method requires no explanation but I am going to give one in any case.

Cut across the Lengthen or Shorten Here line on the pattern. Since the Frankie pattern is cut on  a straight centre back and centre front fold line all you need to do is place a sheet of appropriate paper  to align with that fold line as a continuation from the Lengthen or Shorten line.

Decide how much longer you require the tee shirt to be to turn it into a dress and place the bottom piece of the pattern at the desired length, remembering that the pattern includes a 2 cm hem allowance.  You will need to create a gentle flare line between the severed patterns pieces.  I went for a flare of 1 inch (this will give a total of 4 inches extra width to the dress at the hem) and positioned the bottom pattern piece 1 inch in from the centre fold line.

I then drew a straight line between the bottom of the side seam of the top part to the bottom edge of the side seam of the lower part.

And there is your amended pattern.  Since the front and back pieces of the Frankie Tee are the same from below the lengthen and shorten line, I only had to do this with one piece and carefully removed the dress bottom taped to the back bodice piece and placed it over the front bodice of the Tee to cut that piece.  Below you can see the difference between an original pattern piece and the amended one.

 

And now some more views of the completed dress.

I cut a size 3 (if I was doing the top only I would do a size 2) as I do not know what is the composition of the fabric, which has been in my stash for years so I am pleased to do some stash busting, but it was synthetic and I wanted a loose cut to allow air to circulate in the summer  but also that could take a close fitting polo neck (cue the Freya) in the colder weather.  I added 47 cm in length to the pattern.  It took 2 metres of  160 cm wide fabric for this dress in the long sleeve version.  I hope this helps in estimating how much fabric you would need if you wanted to make this pattern into a dress.

Finally a thank you to the Sun for shining.  It makes the flowers look glorious.