hello! Recently my lovely niece J married her long-time man and so of course I had to make a new dress for myself for the occasion… I was vaguely toying with the idea of shopping for fabric before I remembered two things: 1. as everyone in our family knows, J’s favourite colour is famously yellow, and 2. I have a piece of very yellow, and happily wedding worthy fabric in my stash already!
I bought this neon-bright yellow guipure lace from Mood Fabrics in New York City back in 2019, when I was over there with my friend Yoshimi… we met with other sewing ladies and they took us on a fabulous fabric shopping spree! Such fun. I wrote about it on my blog here… Originally I had envisioned making a little mini skirt from the lace but when the fabric was rolled out on the counter it turned out there was a pretty large chunk of the border cut out, so the salesperson basically threw that part of the fabric in for free. Meaning, I ended up with a lot longer length than I had needed. And obviously I couldn’t waste the extra bit by making that little mini, so it sat, awaiting some other project that could make use of it.Et voila!
I used the Closet Core Ceilo pattern with a few small modifications… namely; spicing the back yoke and back pieces together to eliminate that seam, including inseam pockets in the side seams, and I also cut it to be a bit more flared. Oh, and I also traced a size up – or maybe two? can’t remember now – for that fashionable oversized look. The hemline, which is of course the natural border of the lace, was determined by how much length I could get, and I also managed to get the sleeves on a border. It only took a little bit of pattern Tetris but I’m thrilled that I achieved what is one of my primary aims with any sewing project, which is to have minimal leftovers!
My dress is underlined completely with a pinkish/coffee coloured silk chartreuse that I bought from Fabulous Fabrics originally. I basted the lace and silk layers together within the seam allowance all around except for the side seams below the pockets, and then overlocked the edges before continuing to treat the two layers as one. The side seams below the pockets I stitched the layers separately and actually the lace is arranged so there’s not a “seam” in this part, but the lace motifs are arranged and hand stitched carefully so you can’t see a seam here.
I cut the pockets and neckline facings from a natural cotton linen that I’ve had in the stash for years, saved specifically for this same sort of purpose.
I chose this because the silk charmeuse wasn’t going to be stable enough in these areas – actually the lace is very heavy, far heavier than it looks! I cut the lace front and back to have side seam extensions along the pocket area and stitched it down carefully to the pockets inside. So, when you’re wearing the dress the lace appears to go all the way inside the pockets, no flash of offensive beige to be seen, so it looks really nice. 
The seams allowances around the neckline, especially the shoulder seam area here are seriously bulky, and I trimmed, clipped and understitched aggressively to get everything to sit nice and flat! I also went back later and stitched the facing to the silk underlining as far around and as close as I could get to the shoulder seams.
I’m including a picture of the happy couple because, although I did not make the dress, I did alter it to fit her and also did some minor repairs. This took three separate fittings and I took precisely zero photos of the process or anything. My only excuse is that I was also working on my own dress and stressing a little bit that I wasn’t going to get it all done on time.
Thanks to its oversized and loose nature, my dress was so comfy to wear and to dance in, and I was so happy about that! and just saying, I only wore these high heeled sandals for the ceremony and photos. For the reception on the same property I went to our car and switched over to my white sandshoes with little socks, brought for this very purpose. Much warmer, and fabulously comfortable for dancing! I also wore my new pink wool Sienna jacket for the cooler temperatures that came as evening fell too, but no pictures of that I’m afraid. Anyway, I hope I can get more use our of this dress, which actually turned out more lovely than I thought. 🙂
Hello! I’ve made a new hoodie for myself, and think it’s rather beautiful if I say so myself. Many years ago, when I started this blog, I would sometimes berate myself for being scared of wearing colourful clothing. I tried to break away from making too many white things. I think I’ve succeeded in training myself to wear more colourful clothing, but actually my love for plain white things, or really, ivory things, hasn’t gone away. I still have quite a lot of cream, white or ivory fabrics in the stash! When the new Fibremood Dyron hoodie pattern landed in my inbox I got out some of my hoodie-weight fabrics and found I had enough of this lovely winter-white corduroy to cut out the hoodie. I’ve been hoarding this corduroy for a looooooooooong time so it feels really good to enjoy it, at last!
I made a size small, haha. Yes, it’s huge.
hello!
This one is a little different from the previous pink one, as well as being different from the pattern… I cut the front so as to have a straight edge and to have the front facing integral with the front. I also left off the collar and made a hood instead. I love hoodies and don’t have enough in my wardrobe! Honestly if I’d had enough fabric I definitely would have made my pink Sienna to have a hood too.
for the hood, I turned under a seam and lined the hood completely with a black, sorta silky but not-silk stuff that is thin but nice and soft. I cut the back neckline facing from the same fabric. The hood edging is turned over the edge of the hood lining and simply topstitched in place. After stitching, I trimmed the hood edging inside close to the stitching.
Similarly, the pocket flaps were made by laying the two flap pieces wrong sides together, and stitching together as normal; then trimming the seam allowances off neatly close to the stitching.
I fully expect by September it will be just too hot for it… really I should have made it at the beginning of winter! In any case, it feels great to have taken the fabric from out of the stash, and into the wardrobe!
It’s such an easy to make design there’s really not much to say. The neckline is finished with a bias cut strip and the pattern includes a lovely deep hemline facing, which I edged with the same orange linen bias binding. I think this looks so pretty. Designwise, it has deep side pockets and sleeve cuffs. Hmm, that’s it, really…
hello! I’ve made a whole new outfit recently… it’s not so often that I can present a new, head-to-toe handmade outfit like this! 
I settled on this cotton hessian with a multi coloured print of overlapping ovals. I loved this combination of colours; violet, duck-egg blue, teal blue, navy blue, lemon yellow and apricot. I thought it fitted in very nicely with my personal colour palette of true- to deep autumn.
hello! I made a fun new little dress…
I cut the collar and cuffs from a neutral linen that I’ve had in my stash even longer. I think this is from Calico and Ivy originally; it’s been very useful over the years for just cutting pockets, facings, and other bits and bobs that require a sturdy and neutral coloured fabric.
