easily distracted by shiny things…
Posted in inspiration, sewing, tops on May 19th, 2011
I’ve been looking for “interesting” shirt patterns, thinking that I could make lots of plain white shirts with fancy details, and then dress them up with jewellery or waistcoats or (cool) bow ties. The pictures above are about half-and-half patterns that I own already, and ones I’d like to buy. Except that I’ve bought dozens [...]
This is Vogue 1290. The copyright date on the pattern envelope is 1993 (can you tell?), but I probably bought it in 1997 when I was given a new sewing machine as my graduation present. The pattern is for a shirt, jacket, dress, coat-dress and trousers. It’s been in my possession for around 14 years [...]
Back in March I managed to find a lovely TM Lewin women’s shirt for a bargain price in TK Maxx. We were going to see Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer, so I thought it would be a good idea to make a gentlemanly sort of an outfit for the occasion. The bow tie is Kwik [...]
Posted in inspiration, sewing, shopping, tops, Uncategorized on Mar 11th, 2011
I walked past my local branch of Hobbs yesterday, and spotted this lovely pink dress in the window. Then I came home and looked in my wardrobe at my pink party dress, which has a very similar keyhole-and-knot detail on the back. Now I don’t need to covet the Hobbs dress, and have thereby saved [...]
I know I’ve already made one little jacket in this fabric, but when I looked at the whole outfit together on the dressform I wasn’t sure. S, I had a little browse on the internet, dashed down to the fabric shop, bought another pattern and made another jacket. As you do. This one’s Butterick 4731. [...]
This is Simplicity 2478, view C. I made it exactly as per the pattern (for once!) and then embellished it with the very last tiny pieces of my broderie anglais trim and a pretty red frog fastener. What can I say? It went together really easily! It helps if you have prior experience of sewing [...]
I made this waistcoat so long ago that I’d almost forgotten about it! The pattern, as for the shirt underneath it, is Simplicity 4923. Although this was already the shorter view, most women’s patterns are too long in the body for me, so I decided to shorten it even further. Men’s patterns are even longer, [...]
This is Butterick 5260, a variant on View A. I only had a very small piece of fabric, so I ended up shortening both the top and the sleeves. It was supposed to be a short dress, but it’s a long top now! I also did away with the little piece of elastic gathering at [...]
I bought this lovely wool fabric back in August, at a re-enactment event. Originally I was planning to turn it into a jacket and trousers, but when I saw Butterick 5425 I knew they were a perfect match. I particularly like the slightly puffed sleeves and the very full skirt. The only thing I would [...]
Today, rather than sewing something I actually need, like a dress for work or a winter coat, I decided to make a pirate shirt. As you do. (If you’re me.) The pattern is Simplicity 4923, view C. I made a size Medium. The fabric is just a plain black polycotton, and the cuffs are trimmed [...]