6 new homemade garments!

Hola ladies and gents!

So today I have some recently sewn projects to show you – 6 in fact… and more in the making!

I wasn’t sure whether they should each have a blog post but decided as I have a bit of a backlog building up I’ll kill 6 birds with one stone!

The span of this clothes making is about 3 months so I’m feeling pretty bad it took me this long to show them off to you but my excuse is I was waiting for a camera tripod and remote so I could do a little photo shoot without dragging my fiance in AND I have been busy gigging and writing new songs… yes siree- the flood gates have finally opened and I am writing again – yaaay!

Anyway without further ado I give you my 6 homemade garments:

1) ‘The Birds’ Megan Dress

This was one from 2014 – Early December before I knuckled down with Christmas sewing I made this dress. It is from Tilly Walnes ‘Love At First Stitch’ and was a delight to sew. The brilliant fabric is from Goldhawk Road and was £4 a metre which is a blooming bargain for such a pretty print. The sizing is spot on and I love the length of this dress as far too many dresses are embarassingly short these days – what is with that?!

This dress hasn’t had nearly enough love yet – in fact I’ve only worn it once and for this photoshoot I did with Rachel Sherlock in my sewing house… these are unedited sneak previews I will share more as they are done soon! I think it will get worn to death over Spring and Summer though!

FABRIC : ‘Birds and Bows’ medium weight cotton from Tonys, Goldhawk Road, London (£4 a metre)

PATTERN : Megan Dress from Love At First Stitch book

TIME TAKEN : About a day in the end… I think I am a very slow sewist!

COMMENTS/ IDEAS FOR NEXT TIME : I might move the chest darts down a bit but this is something I need to do on everything I make it appears! Would love to try a collar with this pattern too.

 2)The Stripey Circle Skirt

I started this one at my sewing lesson and didn’t have that much fabric to work with so made it a slightly less full circle skirt- I finished the waistband at home with a lot of youtube tutorials and books to make sure I was doing it right!

I love this skirt but it has a massive flaw and that is the fabric itself is stained- which I only realised after cutting it out and decided to proceed. As a lover of vintage clothes I’m not too bothered about stainage but it might have been a we bit silly of me to make a skirt from it. Oh and it’s a nightmare to decrease – I tried to steam it before the pictures but kindof gave up…Either way I’ll still wear it I’m sure!

FABRIC : Striped ‘silk’ from Chiswick Car Boot about 1m for just £1

PATTERN : Self drafted by Yuksell, my sewing teacher

TIME TAKEN : In all roughly 3 hours

COMMENTS/ IDEAS FOR NEXT TIME : Check fabric for awful brown stains before making anything with it! D’oh

3) The 2nd Winter Bella Dress – Spots!

When I made the first winter Bella dress pattern that is free with Love Sewing I lived in that dress – I’m actually wearing it now so I decided to whip up another – this time in my favourite combo black and white spots. I had lots of left over fabric from my Franciose competition runner up dress and love the fact that the fabric is warm and cosy but also rather smart so it was the perfect choice for my next Bella. As before I straightened and lengthened the sleeves, missed out the zip as it’s a stretchy fabric and this time I also added more length and tapered in the skirt so it is more of a wiggle dress. I also love the ‘reversible’ funnel neck which works both ways and I turned up the sleeve cuffs for a cheeky bit of stripe too!

Now I alternate which Bella dress I will wear daily – the first one is my go to ‘hang around the house, walk the dog’ one and this spotty one is my ‘leave the house and feel slightly smart’ one. I have another one planned – this time bold florals!

FABRIC : Black and White Spots with stripes on the wrong side from Fabrics Galore, Lavender Hill, London (£3.50 a metre)

PATTERN : Bella Dress by Simple Sew free with Issue 9 of Love Sewing Magazine

TIME TAKEN : 2 hours – it felt very quick as the pattern was all ready to go

COMMENTS/ IDEAS FOR NEXT TIME : None really – it’s a fail safe pattern! 🙂

4) The Spotty Circle Skirt

I made this one up from scratch after finishing the striped one and this one is a full circle with a zip on the side and two buttons on the waistband. I made this 3 weeks ago to wear on stage on tour but I made a massive mistake – I forgot to bring anything to wear with it… oh Gabby… oh well it will be worn next time I promise! I used the left over fabric from my first proper dress.

FABRIC : Blue and White Polka Dot light weight cotton from Amazon.co.uk  (£2 a metre)

PATTERN : Self Drafted!

TIME TAKEN : 1.5hours

COMMENTS/ IDEAS FOR NEXT TIME : Keep making loads more in time for summer festivals with something to wear on top…

QUESTION: What shall I pair with my circle skirts for a theatrical on stage look?

5) The Chevron Tie Back Skirt

This is another free pattern with Love Sewing magazine – in fact this time you get two skirts in one pattern. I chose to try the tie back skirt as I loved that bow at the back and had the perfect fabric for it! As my prize for being one of the runner ups for the Franciose competition I got a £50 voucher from BackStitch – an amazing fabric shop, predominantly for quilters – I am over the moon with my choices and will show off all the pieces they make in due course but this red and white chevron cotton jumped straight out at me to become a skirt and I’m so happy with how it turned out!

This was the first time I attempted pleats or a slit and I can’t wait to wear this skirt in the warmer months! Also I might have to lay off the chocolate as it’s a teensy bit on the tight side!

FABRIC : Red and White Chevron quilting cotton sold here at Backstitch  (£12 a metre)

PATTERN : The Back Tie Skirt by Simple Sew Patterns, free with Issue 10 of Love Sewing magazine

TIME TAKEN : 3.5 hours (those pleats kept me guessing!)

COMMENTS/ IDEAS FOR NEXT TIME : Make the waistband a bit longer!

6) The ‘Belgium Buttons’ Shorts

I am so happy to show you these shorts I made on Saturday mainly so I can tell you about the fabric! Stephen and I did a house concert tour in December last year and our first stop was in Belgium with the lovely Michelle & Christophe (I talk all about it here) and they took us to their local town, Aachen (in Germany) to an amazing fabric shop where I fell in love with this buttons fabrics but couldn’t afford it at the time. A few months later, a couple of weeks ago, I see Michelle at our show in Dortmund, Germany and she has a ‘late christmas’ present for me – 1.5m of this amazing fabric- how amazing is that? I was speechless and really am blown away by such a thoughtful generous gift. I also have been itching to make something from it so last Saturday I made sure I had a sewing day and knocked up this awesome shorts. I think these are my favourite make yet – mainly because of the history of the fabric and how much they mean to me already but also I’m rather proud of them- I would happily buy these in a shop – yay!

FABRIC : AMAZING button soft cord (non stretch) cotton from Aachen, Germany (price unknown… think around €8 a metre?!)

PATTERN : A cross between this free pattern on Peppermint magazine website (Issue 16) , this youtube tutorial for the first part (until it mentioned elastic waist) then moved onto this one for the waistband

TIME TAKEN : 4 hours

COMMENTS/ IDEAS FOR NEXT TIME : Use a sturdier contrast fabrics for pocket bags!

So there you are – 6 new homemade things to wear and now I’m off to my sewing class to hopefully make another – tonight we’re doing skirts with box or kick pleats!

In other news…

• I built a website for a friend to sell her amazing ceramics www.lucycarrceramics.com (NB, I am available for web design work at lovely low prices so get in touch here or gabby@gabbyyoungandotheranimals.com )
• I went car booting mad on Sunday getting bargains from Chiswick, Battersea and Pimlico – might have to do another ‘haul’ post on all the fabric and patterns I found!
• I knitted a massive hat that I’ve been trying to shrink but just turned into felt! 😉
• It’s my birthday in 2 weeks (16th March) so that’s rather exciting / scary turning 31!

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye,