As it Seams: 2017

Inespiration: How my friends (and a little Nani Iro) inspire me

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 04:04

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Sunshine and Sheep - Back blogging with Bohemian Baby Doll Dress

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 14:57

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Coffee and Thread Tour 2017: When everything works out perfectly

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 15:36

Sometimes everything comes together.

Not often. But sometimes.

Usually when I have a vision, it fails to become reality.... But this little project delivered the vision.

A girl in a floral dress, in the spring sunshine - on a Sunday afternoon.

But let's go back to the beginning. This is the Ania tunic, sewn dress length, for the Coffee and Thread pattern tour 2017. I don't blog very often - and when I do I need a good reason. I like being part of something special, like the Coffee and Thread Tour. Olga, who designs Coffee and Thread patterns, is the most beautiful sewist, and photographer, and I love to join in anything she's involved with.

It's the 'thinking' that takes me the longest with any sewing project. Trying to choose fabric, takes me days....

A couple of weeks ago I visited my parents in Scotland. And my mother, very sheepishly, showed me her fabric stash, hidden in a drawer.

I know all families have secrets! But my mother's are particularly awesome. She has a drawer full of unsewn Liberty, and a few other vintage lawns. (That didn't stop us potentially shopping for more together! Here she is eyeing up some more Liberty, at discount pricesat Edinburgh's Remnant Kings).

But we resisted buying more! We vowed: "Unsewn fabric Must Be Sewn First!"

So, in the interest of thrift, I persuaded her to let me 'borrow' this blue floral lawn.

It's not Liberty, but has the silky feel of high quality lawn.

I remember my mum buying metres of this, an end of roll bargain, from the same shop, nearly 30 years ago. I sewed a blouse from this when I was about 16. So I have a kind of nostalgic fondness for it - and I knew it would make a lovely Ania.

And didn't it?!

It's an easy pattern, with simple nostalgic lines. My only modifications were to add piping to the yoke, and I hemmed the sleeves and the skirt with pink bias binding. You can just see it peeking out of the hem

Missy wore it for a Sunday afternoon stroll. This is the common, miles of open grass land, just five minutes walk from our house. I felt so blessed that afternoon. Missy was happy, loved her dress, picked flowers, played with my friend's beautiful baby - the simple things!

The Ania tunic is just one of Coffee and Thread's lovely patterns, and Olga is offering a 20% discount this week with the code Coffeeandthreadtour

There's also a big Blog Showcase of all her patterns - click around the links below!

April 3

Enjoyful Makes || Idle Sunshine || ZowieZo Handmade || Angie Burgett

April 4

Handmade Frenzy || Replicate Then Deviate || Fairies, Bubbles & Co || Coral + Co

April 5

Made By Sara || Naeh-Connection || The Bag of Unexpected || Circle Meets Line

April 6

Skirt Fixation || Sewing Like Mad || Hello Holli || Buzzmills ||

April 7

Little Cumquat || Thread Bear Garments || Pearl Berry Lane || Plus 2 is 5 || Sew Chibi

April 10

Stahlarbeit || Knee Socks and Goldilocks || Bonnie and Lottie || Sew Sophielynn

April 11

Mouse House Creations || While She was Sleeping || Mix it Make it || By Dagbjort

April 12

Gaafmachine || Beletoile || LBG Studio || My Cozy Co || As It Seams

April 13

Moineau & Petit Pois || Just Add Fabric || Sweeter Than Cupcakes || Frances Suzanne || Sew Liberated

April 14

Stitched Together || S is for Sewing || Boevenbende || Lafolie Sewing Booth || Sew Pony ||

With Love By Eva

And there's a giveaway! Olga has got tons of fantastic prizes! Too much to list, but let's just say it involves fabric, more fabric, and patterns. Full details are here

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Make it Mine Waterfall Raglan Tour.... real life, real clothes

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 05:15

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Clothes that create smiles: the Groove Dress.

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 03:32

Clothes make me happy. Sewing makes me more happy. And I love it when that happiness is spread around.
When my Missy skips down the street, I see her make strangers smile.
I think it's her joy at being six years old, which is unbearably precious, and quite rare, which is quite simply infectious.

Certainly she makes me smile all the time (and drives me a bit crazy too).

And I like to think that it's the clothes that spread smiles too.

I mean, who could not help but smile at this overdose of pandas?

Especially when these pandas are swinging around on an A-line dress with a super-duper amount of swing to it.

These gorgeous pandas were a gift by fabric company Poppy to all the participants in the London Sew Social, back in the spring. (Yes, I know, I take forever to sew and blog). The delay was partly because I was a teeny bit scared. I'm a novice with knit fabrics. I don't have an overlocker/serger (yet) and fumble around with my very simple machine.

But because I joined the 'groovement' and sewed an ever-so-simple Groove dress, by Made it Patterns, even a knit-wit-novice like me could create something super cute and wearable.

Don't look too carefully, you'll see that hem rippling.

The groove dress is an A line swing dress, but I didn't have quite enough fabric to get a full groove on. I had to tone down the angles of the dress, so this has less fullness than a proper Groove Dress. It's a panda 'groovette'.

I think, though, because this fabric has a substantial weight to it, the loss of fullness doesn't impact too much.

Isn't this hat also adorable? It was a gift from a friend and is an original vintage velvet beret, I'm guessing from the 1950s.

It's just gorgeous, and red and mustard! I would never have thought it, but when Missy ran off after barely two seconds posing for photos, we headed into town for Saturday shopping. She skipped along the pavement in her red beret, mustard pandas and I swear I could see random strangers smiling...