As it Seams

Take One Dress: Sew-along!

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 08:01

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News update...! Time travel... and more!

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 05:49

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The Louisa dress becomes a nostalgic blouse

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 12:19

Did anyone remember that my New Year Resolutions were sew 'practical' and 'less experimental'?

No ? Neither did I, when I set about creating this blouse.

And when Marte announced her Compagnie M Sewing Contest, the part of me that can't resist a deadline kicked into action. (I'm a journalist - I simply do not function without a deadline.) And I had such a sense of vision about what I wanted to create, that I couldn't help but start cutting up this stone-coloured cotton linen blend.
I've entered this blouse in the contest - see here

Ever since I made my first Louisa dress, from Marte's simple and perfect dress pattern, where I added a front placket, I had pondered taking this idea further.

So, I extended the middle section of the Louisa's distinctive placket to run the full length of the bodice. I also wanted to add fullness, so created the placket with a separate piece with eight pintucks. With a bit of fiddling and thinking, I kept the Louisa's lovely pockets.

I had a vision to create a very nostaligic blouse, a little inspired perhaps by the children's clothes worn in the Cotswolds here in England 100 years ago. A bit rustic, simple lines.

The back closes with a single button, and I moved the Louisa's split back further up and added eight pleats.

The asymetrical collar was 'borrowed' from Straightgrain's Tinny dress. I made a size 5, cut large, and Missy is only 3 so this is a little big on her.

I sewed this like a demon over a couple of evenings, broke a couple of needles, stitched my finger etc... Then I faced a photographic nightmare. Missy has been ill this week, a fever and a cough, and not in the mood for pictures. And it has barely stopped raining for a second! Literally. There are homes just a few miles away where sandbags are their only defence against the surging River Severn. So work has also been busy for me - reporting on what's going on.

Then this afternoon, it stopped raining for five minutes (yes, really) Missy seemed a little brighter, and I lured her outside with sweets. But brushing her hair properly was a step too far. And we could really only stay out for a few minutes in her new blouse. There's a fierce gale blowing too! So these photos will have to do.

She wore it with a little cardigan and looked lovely later on - like a doll from an old photograph.

I've got this blouse and my first Louisa dress entered in Compagnie M's contest. If you like them please click over and click on the little heart thingy. There are some fantastic creations to browse through - and great prizes. Here's the link to vote for my first Louisa dress. And to vote for the blouse click over here. I love to have your support! Thank you!!

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Take One Dress - La Gang a Nat to Do Guincho

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 23:59

The first Monday of the Month - and that means Take One Dress! Take One Dress is the monthly series on As-it-Seams, offering a chain of inspiration to bloggers. (See here for details).

And I am so thrilled that Marta from Do Guincho said yes to the challenge. Marta lives in Portugal and sews for her two daughters. They look like really fun girls, and she's one of those bloggers that I wished I knew in real life - playdates and sewing chats with Marta would be amazing!

She's also an architect and brings a real sense of vision to her sewing. I knew she would do something really interesting with the challenge posed by La Gang a Nat last month and, of course, she has...

My name is Marta, I blog at DoGuincho and I am delighted to be guest posting at As It Seams. Thank you Victoria for the invitation!

Last month Natalie, the girl being La Gang a Nat, not only made this lovely outfit for her little girl but also choose a superb vintage dress to be an inspiration for my creation.

Natalie’s dress had lots and lots of details I could use, but I decided to pick my favorites: color combination (pink/blue), big box pleats and contrasting zipper.

I’ve started by drafting my ideas on my sketch book (I knew from the start I wanted to use a lace zipper) but then a package from my friend Constanca arrived with these great vintage patterns she bought in New Zealand… One of them was just the right one for my outfit! Lucky me!

And I also already had the right fabric to make my Take One Dress outfit: a blue and white polka dot fabric from my grandmother’s stash. But this was not any polka dot fabric. Actually I had two pieces of fabric: one with “condensed” dots and another one with fewer dots per square meter. But the two of them together looked great.

As the fabric wasn’t enough to make a dress I decide to sew a tunic instead and match it with a pair of basic pink corduroy shorts (using the same self drafted pattern I've used for this denim shorts). I have to say I am in love with this outfit! It has just the right amount of vintage felling but it is also super comfortable! And now I fell like adding lace zippers to all my clothing!

Unfortunately Ines was not in the mood for a photo shot. These photos were taken under my bed sheets as this was the only way I could make her have fun while I was trying to take photos of her new clothes…

Well, choosing a dress to inspire Jenya, the great Russian/Australian blogger from While She Was Sleeping, was a lot harder than I thought. Especially because Victoria and Natalie had made such a great job choosing the previous dresses…

So I e-mailed Victoria asking her to give me some directions and she told me it could be anything! In her own words: “I don't mind what the next garment is, just as long as you think it's inspiring, it can be something you own, but I did also think it could be a historic outfit or film costume or anything really!”.

A film costume would be great, I thought. But a TV series costume would be nice too… I immediately though about Mad Men! Besides liking a lot this series, I love the vintage but modern filling of the costumes. So her it is! This is a dress for Miss Holloway (in a great illustration by Stanley Chow) but, Jenya, fell free to check out other Mad Men costumes and be inspired by them.

Happy sewing, girls!

Marta! I love it. A box-pleat and exposed zip in one! Genius. Thank you so much for taking the creative story to the next chapter.

And I'm inspired by your Madmen dress - and excited already about Jenya's creation, due to be posted here on March 3. Follow As-it-seams on Blogger, bloglovin, facebook etc if you think you'll need reminding of the next installment !

And if you're inspired to sew along, there's a Take One Dress flickr group. And also let me know and I'll share your creations here!

See you March 3!

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Take One Dress....the journey so far....

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 13:34

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Kids Clothes Week Part 1 - A super-easy refashion!

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 16:19

It's Kids Clothes Week, which means loopy women (and men?) across the globe are sewing like crazy.

Except me.

The aim is to sew for an hour a day, all week. Oh, if only I had that hour!

It was my son's birthday last weekend, which took up most of the previous week planning and creating, and it's left me behind with the other stuff - like work. (Starwars theme - We made a Deathstar lampshade and a Yoda birthday cake, among other things)

And now sewing is barely happening.

I have a very complicated sewing project underway, which requires thought, planning and concentration. Hopefully I'll blog about it in 2014, but sadly not in Kids Clothes Week...

Then last night - I finally managed a frenzied sewing burst - and amazingly produced something that I think will be the most wearable and valuable addition to Missy's wardrobe that I've yet made. Warm and comfortable!

I set about refashioning a woollen jumper of mine. It looks awful on, too boxy on me, but the wool is good quality and I couldn't bear to just get rid of it.

So, I hacked it up with scissors instead.

I shrunk it first on a hot wash in the machine. Then cut bodice pieces out of the front. I cut raglan sleeves from the existing sleeve, and used the surplus 'fabric' from the top of the sleeve to create triangular inserts in the side seams to give it a 'flippy' shape. I put two more smaller triangles in the front, again to add shape, and attempted to do something clever with the stripes. I love the swing silhouette this now has!

Two rather nice buttons, hide my sloppyish sewing.
I 'hemmed' it with red strips cut from another re-purposed woolly jumper. The zig-zag stitching has made the hem all wavey - not deliberate, but I like it. Like a flower, said Missy.

And Voila...

Not much more than an hour start to finish, and Missy has a new cosy stylish sweater that looks a zillion times better than this ever looked on me.

And much as I love sewing beautiful dresses, this is actually the kind of thing she will WEAR....Warm, practical...and I do love the flippy triangles.!

I'm inspired! This revelation that I can sew with old sweaters has opened a whole new door for me!

Now I'm eyeing up my winter woollies in a whole new light - and am on the verge of reaching for the scissors. Snip.... snip! Woollies beware!

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Behind the seams...the dress that 'doesn't matter'

By Victoria As-it-Seams - 01:47

This may look like a sweet little girl, in a corduroy dress...

But this is actually the result of an experiment in fabric engineering. With dubious results...

This is not a finely crafted blogpost. I'm revealing my 'sketch book' here, my less-than-perfect, creation.
This is Secret Squirrel Dress Number 1, rejected by my 'quality control' in favour of the far more successful Secret Squirrel Dress Number 2, blogged here.

Secret Squirrel is the monthly blogging series organised by Straightgrain and Sewpony with a theme. Back in October I was took up the challenge with the themes; the Princess Bride film, Watercolours, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Polka Dots and Clock.
This dress was my attempt to incorporate the themes; the Princess Bride and watercolours in a single dress. Watercolours are represented by a patchwork band of brightly coloured silks, made from an old Indian Sari silks. And for Princess Bride I tried to create a v-shaped waist reminiscent of mediaeval style dresses.

Except it didn't work. I just could not get that v-shaped insert to lie nicely. It's a self-drafted pattern, loosely based on the Tinny dress bodice I think. I added pink piping (of course) to one edge of the band and was tempted to add it to both, but resisted, thinking less-is-more. And I attempted to create a box-pleat in the skirt at the centre of the 'V.'

Somehow this also doesn't sit properly.

And then there were those Indian sari silks. I cut out the squares from an old skirt of mine, and ironed them to inter-facing, before stitching them together.

I carefully selected the colours to 'balance' across the waist, choosing a stunning purple for the centre of the band.

Only I hadn't anticipated just quite how fragile these silks are and, of course, that purple seems the most delicate of all. Look closely at the pictures and you'll see it's already fraying. And now, after a few washes, that lovely purple bang in the middle is already threadbare. Oh, what to do? It's disappearing before my eyes...

But there are some little touches, small things about this dress, which I do quite like. I made different coloured silk button loops on the back. (These are now fraying too!)

And, ironically, because this has been an 'unsuccessful' dress, it has actually been worn more than the others. The sleeveless corduroy seems to work well with layers in winter, and I don't 'care' or 'worry' about this dress. Missy can just wear it and wear it, to nursery or out to play or wherever, and it doesn't matter. I've noticed Mr As-it-Seams often chooses it when he's dressing Missy, as if he also senses it's the 'doesn't matter' dress.
(It is so much the 'doesn't matter' dress, that I've barely 'styled' these photos. Missy is wearing an ancient t-shirt, and I don't have the motivation to re-do them).

And so I've revealled a little of my 'behind the seams' sewing - experiments that don't quite work but bring something unexpected.

And that's what this sewing journey is all about, surely?

Take One Dress Update
I'm still bowled over by Natalie's gorgeous creation for the Take One Dress series, and the challenge she's passed on to Marta at Do Guincho.
And as this series is all about spreading inspiration, I'd love to see any sew-along creations. If you're inspired to sew-along, please get in touch, and I'll post a photo and a link with the next Take One Dress post on February 3.