Tag Archives: Own Design

Mississippi Avenue

03/08/2015 10:00 pm \ 36 Comments \

I’ve made a little sundress for myself  ðŸ™‚ in very fine, light handkerchief-grade linen from Fabulous Fabrics, deep browny/olive green.  I asked my husband how to describe the colour and he replied immediately “Sherman tank”, haha.  Hmmm!
I’ve been told a zillion million times that I should wear drab colours, but I struggled with them for years.  My teenage self desperately loved pretty feminine colours, hey it was the 80’s; and I thought muddy sombre colours like this were horrible and ugly, like the exact opposite of pretty.  *sigh*  Anyway.  I’ve learnt to embrace couleur de Sherman tank.
I added a little bit of pretty in the form of some cream lace-y motifs appliquéd around the lower hem edge.  I cut the motifs from a quite thickish, lace-y fabric and hand-stitched them on to look kinda random and rambling and lending some semblance of froth and frivolity… I think the lace was maybe from Spotlight originally, but honestly I’ve actually forgotten where it came from exactly.

I sewed all seams throughout as French seams

The pattern is the Mississippi Avenue top/dress by Sew House Seven, a pretty, easy-to-wear little number with a modest V-neckline and skinny ties gathering the shoulders up.  It’s a satisfyingly quick and simple project that goes together easily, and I think it’s all of sweet, cool, casual and flattering.  The very thorough and helpful instructions are aimed at the beginner. 
And it is included in the bundle of patterns to be sold as a set for Sew Indie Month.  
What is Sew Indie Month? do I hear you ask? well it is in September this year and has a charitable component, yes, we all joke about sewing selfishly and this is seamsters trying to give a little bit back!  The lowdown…

  • The idea behind Sew Indie Month is to create a global community sewing event, sort of like a big, online sewing workshop, if you like, while simultaneously supporting small women-owned businesses and raising money for charity.  During the month of September, pattern designers are collaborating on the Sew Independent site to put together blog posts and informative tutorials; and a terrific bonus is a sewalong contest with prizes!   Sew Indie Month is co-ordinated this year by Mari from Seamster Sewing Patterns
  • The pattern bundle is available to buy here, and the sale will run from Monday 3rd August to Wednesday 12th August.
  • 20% of bundle proceeds will be donated to the International Folk Art Alliance, which provides education and exhibition opportunities to folk artists from around the world. Just a few examples of what the International Folk Art Alliance has been able to accomplish by helping artists create stable, year-round livelihoods includes helping shelter women from domestic violence in Ecuador, building a school for children in Pakistan, empowering women in repressive cultures around the world, and feeding villages in Niger.
  • You can check out all the details and information on participating patterns and the pricing options, here; on the Sew Independent site

My fellow participating seamsters who will be making their own lovely and unique creations using one or more of the patterns are:

I also added slanted front pockets to my dress… because, well, pockets.  Where there’s a will there’s a way, mwahaha.  I did these same sort of pockets for my blocky sundress, and it’s an easy feature to add when the front is already in 3-panels like this.  For this reason, my method could also work in a princess seamed dress.  I took a few piccies this time to illustrate how I put them in…

Mark on the pattern piece a slanted line where you want the top of your pocket to sit, and another horizontal line to mark the bottom of the pocket edge.  Instead of cutting the side front as one piece, cut three pieces: 
1. piece at left, upper S (side) front, from the top edge of the pattern piece to the bottom edge of the marked pocket allowance, plus seam allowance,
2. middle piece, pocket; from the top edge of the slanted pocket line to the lower edge of the pocket allowance, plus seam allowances top and bottom.
3. piece at right; lower S front; from the slanted pocket line plus seam allowance, to the lower edge of the pattern piece.  It’s a good idea to add an extra, say, 4-5cm in length to the lower edge to allow for possible boo-boos in seaming, just in case.
Transfer all notches and new marks to all pieces.

Stay stitch the slanted edges, and then stitch the pocket piece to the lower S front piece, right sides together, along that top, slanted edge.  Press seam open, turn out, under stitch inside the pocket.

 Lay lower S front/pocket piece over upper S front piece, aligning notches, pin along side edges.  

Lift aside the lower S front piece and check how well the lower edge of the pocket aligns to the lower edge of the upper S front piece.  If they differ, trim them to match each other.

 Stitch lower edges of pocket and upper S front piece together in a French seam.

 Pin the three layers of upper S front, pocket, lower S front together at side edges, baste.

 Lay the original side front pattern piece over and trim any excess length off the lower edge.  From now on just keep on putting the dress together just as normal.

Voila! slanted front pockets!

btw; please know that, as always, there are no affiliate links on my blog and never will be.  I received the patterns free, for me to make an item to help spread the word, and I chose to use the Mississippi dress pattern 🙂

Details:
Dress; the Mississippi Avenue dress by Sew House Seven; in deep olive linen with cream lace appliqué
Hat; Vogue 8844, cream cotton corduroy, details and my review of this pattern here
Shoes; Bronx, from Zomp shoes

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Black moto jacket

16/05/2015 7:18 am \ 38 Comments \

Finally! A wintery day!
It’s pretty unusual for me to get excited about a wintery day, haha.  Believe me, winter is my very least favourite season… but I have my reason, see; I’m happy for an excuse to wear and show off my newest thing.  My moto jacket!
*sings* the leader of the pack…  brrrrm brrrrm brrmrrrrrrm!
Silke, the designer behind schnittchen patterns contacted me asking if I would like to road test one of her patterns and I chose the Tina jacket; a blouson style with an asymmetric front closure by exposed zip, and a wrap-around collar.  
Danke, Silke!
I immediately envisioned making something in a combination of leather/wool… well; making this, wot I’m wearing here, essentially.  My jacket here is made up pretty much exactly to the pattern… except I made my sleeve cuffs a little wider, because I have quite long arms apparently, and I added leather sleeve tabs, sewn into the sleeve seams and wrapped around to close with two hammer-in press studs.  I also fully lined my jacket using black polyacetate lining fabric.

Also I top-stitched the body and armscye seams, stitching the seam allowances down inside. And a little bit of narrow zig-zagging along the top of the pocket openings, to strengthen that bit.
And I also made the pockets about 2cm deeper.  So, just a few teeny alterations here and there, after all  ðŸ™‚

All of my materials are from Spotlight.  The “leather” is obviously vinyl, very thin, soft and pliable and a little stretchy.  I found I could use my regular sewing machine needle on it just fine.
The “wool” is a wool/acrylic mix tweed.  It felt quite stiff when I bought it, but a pre-wash in my machine on the gentle/wool cycle brought it up beautifully soft and fluffy, and the collar feels heavenly snuggly against my neck skin.

I chose to fully line my jacket.  The pattern doesn’t stipulate lining but that’s no biggie.  I used the pattern pieces, and to save myself the trouble of tonnes of piecing the multiple body pieces, I spliced the side front/side pieces together to cut them as one piece in the lining fabric, and also the centre back/side back pieces I spliced together in the same way.  When laying down the centre back piece; I laid it down with the centre fold line 2cm away from the fabric fold, giving myself an extra 4cm in width at the centre back. 

Note: re-enactment shots, when I realised I hadn’t taken any pictures, doh!

This extra width at the CB I folded into a box pleat and basted it in place for the first 5cm in from each edge.  Doing this gives me a nice bit of wearing ease in the lining, which is always a good idea in a jacket.  I learnt this little tip from my standby McCalls 5525 coat pattern.

When cutting the pocket pouches, I cut them of half lining fabric with a leather facing at the opening edge, so there’s no danger of any lining fabric peeking out unattractively.
Also, when cutting the sleeve linings; I tapered out by about 1cm down each long edge, again to give the lining a bit of elbow-bending ease inside the sleeves.

Thoughts?  Well, the pattern is a lovely classic style and the pattern works beautifully, all going together and fitting in place like a dream.  I really love the style, and how my jacket worked out.
However this might be a challenging project for the non-German speaking, beginner seamster.  This is a German pattern with German instructions and an English translation, with no illustrations or pictures.   Occasionally there were some innovative words and phrasing, reminding me of that time I typed a set of Patrones instructions into Google translate.  Memories.
The schnittchen website does however have an excellent step by step photo tutorial which clearly illustrates all steps and is very helpful.  I think if you had made a jacket before you would be absolutely fine with the English instructions.  They gave a good construction order and they worked perfectly well. 
Finally and most importantly, I’m super stoked and excited with my new jacket.  According to the fashion report on the news the other night, leather and leather details are IN this winter.  How fortunate!
Whatevs the fashion, I’m going to LOVE wearing it.  It’s very cosy, comfy and super warm.   Its edgy vibe is a nice bonus  ðŸ™‚

Details:
Jacket; the Tina jacket by schnittchen patterns, faux leather and wool mix
Tshirt (under); white cotton, using my own custom fit pattern, details here
Skirt; Vogue 1247, overdyed purple cotton denim, details and my review of this pattern here
Tights; black polyester stretch, using my own custom-fit pattern, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoe boutique

In other making news, I ran up two new pairs of black tights for myself, in stretchy polyester knit.  I know I had this whole thing about how I wasn’t going to make my own tights any more, just buy them… but I’m taking part in me-made May again and going ALL me-made, as is my “thing”.  And I just decided that to cop out on the tights when it’s so laughably easy to make the darn things, well it was just that; a cop out.  I bit the bullet.  2m of fabric, half an hour of cutting/sewing, whack in an elastic waistband; BOOM yah.
Two pairs of new, super warm tights.

Also I *cough cough* um, “made” a scarf….  as in five minutes of zig-zagging the cut edges of a nice piece of fluffy brushed cotton plaid and fraying with a fine-toothed comb.  I found this plaid in Homecraft Textiles.
Like most of the world, probably, I fell in love with the Zara blanket scarf that was all the rage last Northern winter.  And though we do actually have a brand new Zara store here in Perth now, I don’t think we’re going to get the scarves here.  However I still kind of fancied one for myself.  So I have my diy version now.  Yay!  And if I get tired of it I can always cut it up and make a top or something with it still!  Double yay!
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fractal

21/04/2015 7:21 am \ 105 Comments \

I’ve made a weird patched dress using twelve old Tshirts of my boys’.  I know it’s bizarre and crazy and probably a little bit ugly but I totally love it!
I’m constantly pinning patchwork-y and randomly asymmetric things.  I’m actually very inspired by and crave to wear stuff like this A LOT in reality, even though I also make and wear a lot of plain things.  I think I have a very non-cohesive brain, wardrobe-wise.  It plods along all plain and quiet and unobtrusive for a while, “fitting in” with the norm *yawn* and then will suddenly have the urge to zoom off into arty, thrown-together-land.  Making something kinda weird and wild like this makes me feel quite exhilarated; sorta free and unconstrained and satisfied and happy.  I don’t think I act upon this often enough.  Clearly, I need a little more such craziness in my life!
Anyway, the new dress.  I was inspired by this dress credited to Jurgen Lehl.    
I used one of my oldies, Vogue 7795 with some adjustments; namely with the front bodice tucks and back bodice darts removed and the waterfall skirt drape transformed into an asymmetric box pleat.  Also I made the back bodice and back skirt as one piece each, with the CB seam removed from both.  In my memory this is a very drop waisted design, so I also shortened the bodice pieces by about 4cm.

I’ve made this pattern up a couple of times before; both many years ago, my first version in white swiss dotted voile is pictured here looking tres touristy with a gelato and at the Fontana di Trevi in Rome, and my second version was pink, although I can’t find any pictures of that one.

When you’re making a large scale, randomly patchworked design like this one, I’ve found it’s a good idea to draw out the adjusted pieces full scale and lay them out as a guide for the patchworking.  That way, you can see how the design is looking on the scale of the dress as the piecing progresses.

I selected twelve Tshirts, all old, some very old, cast-offs from my boys.  This is one of the things I love the most about it actually, in that I am so familiar with each and every one of these shirts, having watched my boys run around playing in them a zillion times, also of course I’ve washed them all, hung them on the line, folded them and tucked them away into their dressers about a zillion times each also.  
A sentimental dress then, in a way  ðŸ™‚

There’s also one “new” fabric, harvested from a recent Absolute Fail… *sad face* IG’ed here.  
I cut all the fabric into varied width strips and then just got creative.  

In a super random design like this one it’s good to install some order to the thing somewhere, and in this case I stuck to the same order in the colour arrangement.   I finished the neckline and armscyes as simply as possible with strips of black Tshirt, stitched on right sides together, then folded to the inside and topstitched.

So, my dress is fulfilling several intentions; firstly to satisfy that creative urge, and my desire for a bit more crazy in my life as outlined above.  Tick!
Secondly, I made it as a kind of a muslin for another project that I’m planning right now.  Then I had the patching idea, was distracted and got  a bit carried away.  I may or may not go ahead with that original plan, but I’m very happy with this particular result! I’m pleased to say  ðŸ™‚

And lastly, I recently received an email from Charlotte regarding the sew solidarity challenge run by the charity TRAID.  Essentially it’s this: to commemorate the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse you select an old, not new! mass-produced garment, possibly from Bangladesh although I didn’t restrict my options country-of-origin-wise, re-fashion it fit for a new life and then you’re supposed to wear it on 24th April.  Last year I joined in the same-aimed Fashion Revolution movement by wearing my self-made clothes inside out.  Theoretically this year I could do either of these commemorative activities… option 1, wear this dress as per the Sew Solidarity challenge; option 2, like last year wear something else I’ve made inside out as per the Fashion revolution challenge; OR option 3, combine the two challenges and wear this dress inside out.  The only problem with option 3 is that I’m pretty sure my insides might be kinda too ugly for me to get away with this in my very conservative suburb!  The insides are a gridlock of overlocked seams, and because I used some fabric pieces wrong side out, the prints are then on the inside of the dress; so it’s a bit of an unholy mess in there.  But I guess the option is there, should I choose to look irredeemably ridiculous.

Details:
Dress; modified Vogue 7795, made from old Tshirts
Shoes; Zomp, from Zomp shoe boutique

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purple skirt, with “tulip” pockets

09/03/2015 9:13 am \ 44 Comments \
I’ve made a new skirt.  This new skirt is un-noteworthy except that I gave it some rather unusual little side pockets.  They sit down at the hem, inserted in off-set side seams.  They’re not very big pockets, just a nice size to hold my fitbit and maybe my phone at a stretch.  Really, I was playing; got the idea to put them in a skirt and went for it.
The pockets are based on those in this picture, which ?I think? is from a vintage design.  To accommodate them in this otherwise very plain little skirt I drafted for myself a 4-panelled skirt pattern using an old favourite Vogue 1247, a straight skirt with waistband, as a starting point.  I treated the pattern like a “block”, and spliced, cut and spread and sliced and rotated to eliminate darts etc to make a 4-panelled pattern with a narrow front and back and two, even narrower, waist-to-hem side panels which host the pockets.  
Fabrics; outer and lining fabrics are both from Fabulous Fabrics, a greyish purple silk hessian for the outer shell from the remnants table and burgundy polyacetate for the lining fabric.  I only had 60cm of the silk hessian, barely big enough for anything at all!  Extreme laying-out skillz were employed, hehe.

lining was cut using spliced-together Vogue 1247 straight, with the waist darts simply pleated into the waistband.
The grey cotton jersey edging on those pocket panels is harvested from off of an old Tshirt of Tim’s, and lack of fabric forced me to use it for the waistband facing too.
front view is kinda boring
So…  skirts.  I’ve been having some deep thoughts.  Well, about as deep as can be expected on the subject of skirts, which is approximately puddle-depth in the scheme of things … but still.
Keeping tabs of my wardrobe over the past few years has not been totally fluff n’ puff with no substance, believe it or not some actual useful conclusions have been reached.  *gasp!* 
Into Mind writes about finding your “uniform” and I find I tend to favour two quite distinct and different kinds of skirts; plain and straight “little” skirts like my new one here and then longer, three-quarter length ones that can be a bit more visually interesting, more pfouffy with layering and/or detailing. 
During winter, well I could happily and comfortably live in the former, plain, straight, little skirts, all winter long.  I like to wear jeans every now and then, but really, if I’m being honest, skirts are just far more “me”.  
It’s nice to have some skirt-and-top “outfits”, that go together so well they don’t need to go with anything else, ie. my Alabama Chanin ensemble; but obviously solid-coloured separates are the absolute best workhorses for mixing and matching the sometimes disparate elements of my wardrobe.  Colourwise, I have seasonal favourites and basics and neutrals, sure, and I also like to have some odd colours, “outliers” in my wardrobe to choose from too, to suit whatever changing mood I’m in.  And, I don’t know if it’s because I pluck them from my wardrobe more frequently, or because of their straight shape, or both; but all my “little” skirts always seem to bag out and die more quickly too.  
Sadness ensues.  Cue tiny violins.
Anyway, just some random thoughts.  Ergo, I’m stocking up on some little skirts in a few different colours.  So sensible!  It’s early to judge it yet, but I think this sludgy purply-grey colour might be a totally excellent one in my winter wardrobe.  It’s not obviously a neutral, nor a colour, but manages to be a bit of both, if that makes any sense at all.  We shall see, we shall see…  ðŸ™‚
 back view, also kinda boring

Details:
Skirt; my own design, derived from Vogue 1247 as a “block”, deep purple silk hessian
Top; the loose drape top, modified, from drape drape by Hisako Sato, white cotton jersey, details here
Shoes; Zomp, from Zomp shoe boutique
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Cassie’s terracotta dress

28/02/2015 9:31 am \ 62 Comments \

I made this belated birthday present for Cassie; we recently went on a girly shopping expedition together for her birthday present and spent hours browsing, looking at pretty things, chatting, having hot chocolate and enjoying ourselves! we had lots of fun but she couldn’t decide on anything that she liked.  Finally I suggested, hesitantly, would she like to go to Fabulous Fabrics to get some fabric of her choice and I could make her a dress of her choosing? and she delighted me by immediately agreeing.  She’s so sweet  ðŸ™‚  I say “hesitantly”, because while I love to sew things for my family I absolutely do not want to force the products of my sewing on them.  And I often worry that my love of sewing is influencing them to ask for me to make something for them, just to make me happy; if you know what I mean.
Anyway, happily she says she loves the new dress, and plans to wear to work at her office with her black ballet flats as well as sometimes on the weekend with sandals.  The pinky-brick/terracotta viscose from Fabulous Fabrics is a fabric Cassie has loved for “ages” and she chose the dress style based upon one we had seen in Morrison, with some minor design alterations to make it what she wanted in her birthday dress.

The result is quite plain, with its main feature being a wide front tuck emanating from the neckline and disappearing into the body of the dress.  I started out with my standby, plain sheath dress pattern Burda 8511, and rotated out all darts, cut it with an 8cm tuck allowance in the front panel, i.e. an extra 16cm width at the neckline tapering off to nothing by the hemline.  I scooped out and widened the neckline, added inseam side pockets, rouleau belt loops and a long self-fabric sash.  

The side and pocket seams are French seamed, with a hand stitched, narrow hem.

I’m extremely happy with how chic Cassie looks in the new dress  ðŸ™‚

Details:
Dress; own design, using Burda 8511 as a starting point, terracotta viscose
Shoes; from Hobbs shoe boutique

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a creamy little double-fronted top

08/11/2014 12:32 am \ 40 Comments \

My new top will come as a very un-surprise to anyone who has been following me in the Sewvember instagram challenge, haha!…
This pattern is Burdastyle 04/2014-115, with modified sleeves  and my fabric is a silk hessian from Spotlight.  It has a very loose weave, a rather pleasing slightly rough and rustic texture.  The rich, almost buttery cream colour apparently suits me.
Now, I have received a handful of patterns of my choice from Burda… however this is NOT one of them.   I had bought this magazine myself already!  and I’ve already made the asymmetrical turtleneck top from the same collection in the mag.  Ok, honesty here; I actually totally love just about this entire collection.  It’s embarrassing to admit how easily I am swayed by colour choices.  Those peacefully harmonious shades of soothing cool non-colours; *sigh* heavenly!
So style-wise, this is a plain design.  And my choice of fabric; quite plain.  But that’s ok, a bit of plain is a good thing to have in the wardrobe to set off the more eye-catching elements within.  But as I was doing the sleeves, which are likewise as plain a style as could be, I worried that they were going to tip my blouse over into the territory of Irretrievably Bland.  So I added a little feature; a faced split that has a little button closure on the corners.  I’m very pleased with how this looks; quite primitive, like a vague sort of a nod towards a tailored shirtsleeve button placket.

Construction-wise, this is a nice, quick and simple little pattern and utterly foolproof… . oh, I put the wrong front lapping over.   Haha.  We’ll just pretend that I did that on purpose, ok?  Ahem.

Insider biz; the side and shoulder seams are flat-felled, the sleeve seams overlocked.  The neckline is faced with a bias-cut strip of pale yellow/cream cotton voile.

Finally, my usual criteria; if I saw this in a shop would I be tempted to buy?  Heck, yeah!  Plain is my middle name.  Along with all the other middle names I adopt when the mood strikes.  This is going to be worn a tonne  🙂

 

Details:
Top; Burdastyle 04/2014-115 with modified sleeves, cream silk hessian
Skirt; adaption of Vogue 1247, coffee lace with silk charmeuse lining, details here
Thongs; Mountain Designs
Sienna wears her own custom-fit coat

Later edit: 4 yrs later, and I gave this little top a rejuvenating dye-bath!  it’s now a pretty shade of cherry-blossom pink…
Other outfit details:
and then again, to an exciting new shade of hot pink!  I love it like this!
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studio faro pocket dress

28/10/2014 1:29 pm \ 30 Comments \

New dress, with interesting pockets.
While browsing Pinterest, as you do, I came across a line drawing of a very elegant dress on and I immediately knew I wanted to have a go at drafting it for myself.  It is the pocket drape dress designed by Anita, of studio faro.  Subsequently I discovered her absolutely fantastic blog well-suited, where she very generously shares her considerable expertise in understanding how designs actually work.    If you’re interested in exploring and understanding pattern making then Anita’s blog is totally brilliant; sure to inspire and motivate.
I’d previously measured and made a custom-fit darted sheath dress sloper for myself during my early explorations of Pattern Magic and I used this to draft my pattern, following Anita’s guidelines pretty closely.  I made a first test version using an old sheet.  It worked, but well, ahem.  I have to admit I looked less than chic in that thing.  I think my drape was a bit of an epic fail.
However I decided I really did love the pocket, so I went with having the pocket on both sides.  Also I fiddled about with the crossover neckline, put in a few random folds and made it asymmetrical.

The deep side pockets have flap openings that are an extension of the bodice side panels.  They are fully functional pockets, but their positioning with the opening sitting up high at the waist makes them not really conducive to shoving your hands in.  So, not as practical as they are decorative.  Well, I could put a few small things in there that I don’t need to get out in a hurry.  The pockets are perfectly useable pockets, but just for things, and not hands.  But still…  a very cool design, and I reckon they look really interesting  🙂

The pockets are kinda hard to explain… they are inset into the side of the dress and have an extra piece which is part of but also sitting over the pocket, that extends into a flap hanging loose and free past the bottom of the pocket.  
Working out how to construct the pockets was quite an enjoyable puzzle, and I really enjoyed the process of nutting out a way to put it together neatly!  I don’t know if my way is the way Anita intended for it to be made, but it worked out OK for me.  I think  ðŸ™‚
I’ve written my instructions at the end of this post, mostly for myself, if I ever want to make these pockets up again.  Please be warned that they will probably not make sense to anyone not making up the pockets…

the pocket detail; underneath is a fully functional, 2-layer inset pocket

In the muslining stage I found that the pocket sagged down on the inside, pulling down on the pocket flap; and so decided it would be better to add a lining to the front and back side panels above the pocket, and to “tether” the top edge of the pocket to the side panel lining, by sewing the panel lining lower SA to the upper SA of the pocket bags.  Having a lining added some much needed hidden support and keeps it all holding up and together, nice and stable.
Subsequently I decided to go the whole hog and properly line the whole dress in the same creamy polyacetate.  I used the same pattern for the lining pieces.

inside view; lining of side panel and inset pocket

The fabric is a rich cream, silk dupion, slightly slubby yet still with a subtly glossy sheen, and a decadently crinkly texture.  I bought it at Fabulous Fabrics forever ago and it’s been living quietly in my stash, patiently awaiting its turn.  It had gone slightly yellow but I gave it a good wash and it came up lovely and fresh, seemingly as good as new.
So I like my dress.  Well, it’s OK.  It was not easy, ahem! and I’ve decided my self-drafting skills are kinda rubbish.  And even though I thought my muslin looked dreadful I have a sinking suspicion that maybe it was more interesting that way.  I think maybe I could’ve stuck with the drape, hmmm.   *sigh*
But I do love how the pockets look and I very much love that I have a nice fresh off-white dress to pop on for summer.  So I will wear it very happily.
And now all I want to do is just leap onto some commercial pattern, already drafted up for me, ready to go, easy peasy, no thought required, neat and tidy like.  Yeah.

The Pocket: feel free to skip this bit if you want.
So, you have the pocket detail, the pocket bag, the pocket bag lining and the pocket flap facing.  Also the back side panel, front side panel and their lining pieces, which have the pocket flap facing allowance  removed …
Sew pocket detail and pocket bag R sides tog at top edge, turn, understitch.
Sew pocket bag lining  to pocket bag, R sides tog at bottom edge.
Sew pocket flap facing to pocket bag lining R sides tog, press pocket flap facing up.
Sew back side panel and front side panel R sides tog at side seam, press open, repeat for panel lining pieces.
Sew lower edge of joined panels to pocket flap facing R sides tog, trim, clip side panel pieces into corners, turn pocket flap out, press.
Align and layer 3 pocket pieces together and baste tog at sides, clip into the SA of pocket detail at junction with pocket bag lower edge.

For the side panel lining; and this is where it gets a little more complicated…
the dress pieces need to be assembled except for the shoulder seams and keeping the lower part of the pocket detail free, and the dress lining assembled likewise, leaving out the pocket lining which is attached to the dress already, meaning there is a “hole” in the dress lining where the pocket lining should be.
 Sew the dress to its lining pieces together at the underarm and neckline seams, understitch the lining as far as possible, turn; then the side panel lining pieces can be sewn to the upper pocket bag seam allowances on the inside, W side to R side.  Clip into the corners, then the SA around the three remaining sides of the dress lining “hole” can then be stitched to the pocket lining seam allowances inside, R side to W side, between the dress and its lining.
The lower pocket detail edges are turned under and invisibly hemmed by hand.

All that might seem a bit convoluted, but trust me, if you are putting together the pocket it does work!

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a blocky sundress

16/10/2014 9:21 am \ 49 Comments \

I screen-printed this random murky-coloured block fabric last year, and have finally got around to making it into something.  At last!  The 5-colour print is my own  design; and in fact the dress is my own design too  ðŸ™‚   

Originally I had cut the ivory cotton into vaguely sheath-dress-shaped pieces to help me size and place the print.  

Inevitable then, that I would go off the idea of a sheath dress … and eventually I dreamed up, well; this!  It’s a blocky sort of a print, and a blocky sort of a dress in design too, with all straight lines and edges throughout and not a single curve to be found!  The style lines have been marinating in my head for a few months now and so I’m happy it now has corporeal form.
Maybe I should make a pattern for this.  Be a designer.

Bwahaha, kidding! 
The side panels are two piece, with the lower one overlapping the upper one so as to create a simple pocket that extends into the side seams.  The design is fairly unstructured and unfitted, boxy enough that I can just pull it over my head without the need for closure.  Then to give it some shape I made two little arrowhead tabs that can button at the sides to pull in the boxiness and create a bit of shape at the waist.   The domed textured buttons were inherited from my grandmother’s stash.

I think it will make quite a good casual knockabout dress.  The fabric is not soft, but quite stiff and thick and crisp and densely woven, so I think it suits this loose but structured boxy style quite well.  In retrospect I think I was quite ambitious with my print.  But y’know? I’m glad I did have a good go at something a bit tricky, and I like it despite the problems and imperfections.  Now I’m thinking I really should get out my screen printing stuff again.  Give it another go!

o hai there, watcha doing?

Details:
Dress; my own design, screen-printed by me as described here, on ivory cotton, stiff, thick, crisp

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