Wednesday 25 March 2015

Vintage Pattern Pledge 2015

I loved seeing all the beautiful clothes sewn up as part of last year's Vintage Pattern Pledge hosted by Marie of A Stitching Odyssey. This year's is even bigger and is co-hosted by Kerry of Kestrel Makes.  I've not got many vintage patterns but the ones I do have I'd love to sew up so this year I've decided to take part! Are you joining in?



I posted this pic on instagram of my four options and I still can't decide what I'm going to try first. Definitely one of the dresses but I'm not sure which one yet.  The bottom right dress got the most votes (5) followed closely by the top left (4) then the bottom left (3).  I'm torn between the top left and bottom right so I think what I'll do is look through my fabric to see what I would use for each then decide.  Are you taking part in the vintage pattern pledge? Have you sewed with a vintage pattern before? This will be my first vintage pattern.

Friday 20 March 2015

Music class skirts

That's me just signed up for Kids Clothes Week Spring 2015 - who else is sewing along this time?
In the spirit of getting more organised I thought I'd try and blog my backlog - all of three things that it is!

First up - some kids sewing.  These skirts are the Oliver + S Music Class skirt pattern. I traced the pattern and cut out the first skirt back in summer 2014, then forgot about it for ages. More recently I cut out the other one and got them both sewn up and posted off to their wearers in January.



They didn't take long to sew up at all - once I got started!  As I've already found with Oliver + S patterns the instructions were brilliant.  The only bit I struggled with was making the pocket on the side but by the time I made the second version I'd worked it out and both skirts came out good. I'm really pleased with them. The red cord is lovely, I took time to overlock the seams, I added lovely trim to both the hems, and I put little tags to mark the back of the skirt.  I used a different trim on each skirt, which you can see in the photos. I think I got the trim from The Cloth House in Soho, and the red cord is from a Peter Jensen fabric sale a few years back (also used to make this pouffe).

I'd definitely recommend this pattern. The pleats and side pocket make it a bit more unusual and the good instructions mean it's still possible for a beginner to do without too much stress.  I'm sure I'll be making some more this summer! Has anyone sewn any other Oliver + S patterns? Any you'd recommend? I'm quite tempted by the Sketchbook shirt & short set.

The side pleats and pocket
Hem trim
Tab to mark the back of the skirt