Tag: McCalls

Birthday Dress and a Thank You

Thank You card

Last month we sent my niece, Milly, a box full of arty and crafty things for her fourth birthday. Paul picked out lots of stickers that he thought Milly would like (the wobbly eyes were especially popular), and we’ve just received this fantastic Thank You card. Isn’t it cute?

Milly's 4th Birthday Dress

There was also a Birthday Dress, of course, as well as a little pile of tote bags made in Frozen fabric, for everyone at her birthday party.

This year’s dress is McCalls 6022, another one with finishing techniques far more complicated than I would have expected for an “everyday” kind of dress like this – and especially one marked “Easy”! I had one metre of fabric, and only just managed to squeeze the dress out of it by cutting the yokes, pockets, and the “contrast” band at the bottom on the cross. I think this works quite well, as it gives all of the different characters a chance to appear the right way up!

The thing I like about these dresses is that they last for quite a long time. Even though Milly’s quite tall, she can carry on wearing this as a tunic or top over jeans or leggings, long after she’s outgrown it as a dress. I have this pattern up to age 6, so I expect I’ll be making a few more versions of it over the next couple of years. I will be re-writing the instructions though, to make the finishing a bit less fiddly. (And buying a little bit more fabric next time!)

Search for the perfect dress

McCalls M5924

 

Every now and then I get a bee in my bonnet about finding “the perfect dress”. Over the years it’s been vintage patterns that weren’t even remotely the same shape as my body, fiddly patterns that I hated to sew, or patterns that looked beautiful but turned out to be really uncomfortable to wear. I have dozens of these in my wardrobe, but it wasn’t until this morning that I realised the perfect dress is already amongst them.

McCalls 5924

This is McCalls 5924 (now out of print), and I’ve made two so far. The top one is a nice heavy cotton jersey, the one above is a lightweight drapey viscose knit, and the pattern works equally well in both. They’re empire line, which suits my shape, they have the all-important pockets, they layer well, and they’re really, really comfortable. I have enough fabric in the stash to make at least two more, and I don’t know what’s taken me so long!

While I was thinking about my wardrobe and the things I’d like to add to it, I added some more Gossypium yoga pants to my wish list. Then I realised that there’s almost certainly a yoga pants pattern out there somewhere, which is when I spotted New Look 6165. Not only yoga pants, but a skirt with the same fold-over waist! Ideal for wearing over leggings, and no elastic to dig in and give me a stomach ache. Perfect!

Of course, there’s always room for more than one “perfect dress” in any wardrobe. Which brings me to Vogue 8975. Another Marcy Tilton pattern (like the smocked silk dress), this time for knit fabrics and complete with a little jacket to wear over the top. Conveniently, my local fabric shop has a sale on both New Look and Vogue patterns at the moment, so I think a trip into town will be forthcoming early next week!

My next challenge will be to go through both my wardrobe and my pattern stash, and get rid of some things that I’m simply never going to wear or make. I’m the sort of person who will quite happily buy clothes in multiples if I find something that I like, so I have no problem at all with wearing the same few dresses over and over again. I’m trying not to think about how much money I must have spent over the years on patterns that didn’t suit me once they were made up, or fabric that turned out to be difficult to look after or uncomfortable to wear. All of that trial and error has brought me here – to the knowledge of which patterns I like to sew, and which clothes I like to wear. The photo above is an old one, but despite all the dressmaking I do, I basically live in a hoody, a stripy t-shirt, and a pair of ancient jeans that haven’t fit properly for a long time. Time for a bit of an overhaul, I think!

Waltz on the Wye – Sunday

Sunday

On Sunday it was very cold, and I was very tired. I honestly thought I was smiling in this photo. Apparently the smile didn’t make it as far as my face! In case you’re wondering, the stones in the wall are level, but the bench is on a slope.

(All benches in Chepstow are on a slope. In fact all of Chepstow seemed to be up a hill. In every direction. It certainly felt like it by Sunday, anyway.)

This was my least successful outfit of the weekend, or at any rate the one I was least happy with. I couldn’t face wearing my bowler hat (too tight) or my top hat (too big) again, so I borrowed Paul’s cap. The jacket (McCalls 5759) looked fine on the dressform, but turned out not to fit me terribly well. In fact I disliked it so much that it went to Oxfam along with the previous night’s dress.

We spent the morning looking at the contraptions exhibition, which was incredibly inspiring. The competition part of the proceedings was won by Richard’s beautiful pocketwatch. Chatting with Richard and Donna later that day left us full of ideas that we really must try out…

Sonic Screwdriver

I successfully nagged Paul into making a little contraption for me, and I’m hoping that next year I can encourage him to enter something into the exhibition himself. This started life as a Sonic Screwdriver projector toy. After some mysterious shenanigans with Milliput, wargaming model parts, and a detailed paint job, it turned into this lovely little thing!

Sonic Screwdriver

This was our one concession to sticking a watch part onto something. I take full responsibility.

We spent Sunday afternoon in the Drill Hall, looking around the market and listening to some of the talks. We started off with The Atomic Chemist’s slideshow about firearms. It was enjoyable, but became much more interesting to me when we came home via the Pitt Rivers Museum, and I could see exactly what he’d been talking about as we looked at their gun collection. We then stayed for Crinoline Robot‘s talk about Victorian and steampunk knitting, which was by turns informative and hilarious! I can’t wait to knit her scandalous Victorian ankle-less socks, designed especially for the event.

Sadly we missed Mark Cordory‘s Q&A session, mostly because we didn’t recognise his name until after we’d seen his contraptions, by which time it was too late. He used to be Head of Props Fabrication for Dr Who, during the Ecclestone and early Tennant eras, and the quality of his work was just lovely. We did manage to catch Will Segerman though, and his talk about quick-and-dirty ways of making great looking props was good fun. (And packed!) We came away from that one with lots of notes and ideas, well worth sitting in a horribly warm room for an hour!

Waltz on the Wye was our first steampunk event, and we went into it not really knowing quite what to expect. I was only really interested in the dressing up (anachronistic Victorian-ish clothing? yes please!), and I’d hoped that Paul might be interested in the contraptions. As it turned out, Paul was more interested in dressing up than I’d expected, and we’ve both come away inspired and enthusiastic. Everyone we met was friendly, helpful and open, which is a lot more than I can say for certain other events that we used to go to. The willingness of people to share their knowledge was just lovely, whether it was the best place to buy a pith helmet or an interesting way to make a contraption.

I really hope there’s another one next year, I can’t wait to go back!

McCalls 5924

McCalls 5924

I haven’t been able to settle to anything for the past couple of days (I’ve been unwell again) so I made a very simple little dress. It’s McCalls 5924, which I’ve made before.

The first incarnation came out a little on the generous side, so this time I trimmed the pattern down a size. This jersey’s also much more light and drapey than the cotton lycra I used the first time, and I think it suits this style better. I am a bit worried that it might stretch out of shape though, as the skirt’s pretty heavy to hang from such a little bodice. There is an option to add elastic at the waist, but the casing adds a lot of bulk and I didn’t want it to be tight.

It’s more flattering on than it looks on the dressform, and the most important thing for me is that it’s really comfortable. Not tight at the waist, nice soft fabric, and it has pockets. Perfect.

(Also, the pink flowers match my Fairysteps handbag.)

Now I just need to find some orange woolly tights to wear with it, and I’ve reached the height of mad-art-teacher chic. Excellent!

Summer Shorts

McCalls 6328

The Easter weekend was very hot, so I thought it would be a good idea to sew a little pair of floaty shorts for the summer. (SInce then it’s been too cold to wear them. Typical.)

They’re McCalls 6328, view D, and this is a link to a line drawing because you can’t really see the details on the photo. Basically they have an enormous great ruffle at each side which makes them look like a little skirt.

I followed the measurements given on the pattern pieces, and annoyingly I could have made one size smaller. But I can wear these as a lower-waisted style, and cut one of the others in the next size down. They’re meant to come up to your bellybutton, which I like, and most of the views are on separate pattern pieces so that you don’t destroy the others by cutting out one. Except for the waistband, which I can copy and re-size easily enough.

My next mission is to adapt the pattern and see if these will work in a lightweight silk as a pair of very fancy french knickers. I just need to decide whether to move the centre back zip to the side, or whether to re-draft the waist and finish them with elastic instead.

Suddenly obsessed with ties.

McCalls 2447

Not a bow tie this time, but a tie nonetheless.

The pattern is McCalls 2447, cut to the shorter length.

Although I love the way it looks, I have to say that quilting cotton is really not the best material for making a tie. Because it clings to itself, it’s difficult to make a decent knot and to slide it into place. It also gets very crinkly where it’s been tied, and I don’t think anybody would appreciate having to iron their tie as well as their shirt!

And the award for the most ridiculous sleeves goes to…

McCalls 6164

…McCalls 6164!

I saw a couple of incarnations of McCalls 6164 over at Gigi Sews, and couldn’t believe that this pattern had passed me by. I’m a huge fan of 80s-style pouffy sleeves, so I couldn’t resist grabbing the pattern and sewing view D, which seems to have the most ridiculous sleeves of them all.

The fullness in the sleeve head is created with both pleats and gathers. There is an additional option to do something clever with organza that makes the shoulders defy gravity, but even I thought that was taking things a bit too far.

I made a size Medium, but gave myself a bit of additional room in the waist. All the seams are done on the overlocker, and the neckline and hem simply have the serged edge turned to the inside and topstitched. I might actually go back and make a deeper hem, because it seems to have a tendency to roll up. I also need to make the bottom of the sleeves a little bit narrower. They’re designed to be about six inches longer than your arms, so that they ruche at the bottom, but I’ve got quite little hands and they keep falling down.

It was a really easy top to make, and uses less than two metres of fabric despite the length of the sleeves. For a proper 1980s vibe, I think I’ll be making a crushed velvet one next.

Dotty Dress

McCalls 9456

This is incarnation number two of McCalls 9456. (Here’s the first one.)

As you can see, this is a knee-length version with short sleeves. The fabric is a viscose/cotton jersey which is just hovering around the edges of being too fiddly for me to work with. It’s very light and drapey, and even using the differential feed on my sewing machine it did have a tendency to drag. I edged the sleeves and hem on the overlocker.

This is the second glorious weekend in a row that I’ve been stuck indoors sewing, instead of making the most of the weather and getting out into the garden. The reason this time is that we’re having a new kitchen delivered this week, and that means putting the entire contents of the existing kitchen out in my sewing Shed. I won’t be able to get at the machine or the cutting table for two or three weeks, so I wanted to get this little dress done first.

I’m going into hospital at the beginning of May, and I’ll be on crutches when I come out again, so I wanted a simple little dress that I can wear for lounging around. Wearing this one should cheer me up nicely… and if I get bored while I’m recuperating, I can always embroider something in the spots!

McCalls 9456

McCalls 9456

New job, new dress! I imagine this theme will continue for quite a while, until I’ve got a wardrobe full of clothes that I’m happy to wear to my new job.

This one is McCalls 9456. I’ve had the pattern for years – so long, in fact, that it’s now gone out of print. It’s just a basic princess-seamed dress, designed for knit fabrics.

There’s plenty of ease in this pattern, so I made a size 14, and it’s still a little on the generous side. Next time I might trim the pattern down a size. It’s supposed to have an integral tie belt, but I left that out so I could layer it without the belt getting in the way. I also left off the sleeves, and finished it off with a lettuce hem.

The fabric is supposed to be a cotton lycra, but I picked it up in rather a hurry, and it isn’t quite what I was expecting. I thought it would be like a heavyweight t-shirting with more stretch (which is what I came home with the last time I bought cotton lycra), but this feels more like a pair of extremely thick cotton tights. Thankfully you can’t see through it, and the fabric drapes very nicely. I’m disappointed that it’s so flimsy though.

At the same time I also bought several metres of a bright printed cotton jersey that was apparently made for Monsoon. It has shades of lemon, lilac and pink, so it’ll go beautifully over the top of my three new shirts – or make a pretty summer dress in its own right. I also have a few fabrics which would be perfect to make a shorter version for layering, including a burnout stretch velvet and a grey mesh with a butterfly print.

The pattern went together very easily, and the dress is wonderfully comfortable to wear. I think I’ll be making quite a few of these!

New job, new dress.

McCalls M5924

The reason I’ve been a bit quiet lately is because I’ve got a new job! As well as volunteering at the Museum of English Rural Life, I’m also working there as a Learning Assistant. This is a temporary position which lasts for the duration of the school holidays, so you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t have time to blog as much as usual.

It might seem odd to have made a dress with long sleeves and a high neck in the middle of summer. I’m working on the reception desk of the museum though, just inside the main doors, so sometimes it can get a bit chilly. (Plus I’m always cold, so lots of my clothes have long sleeves.) The fabric’s a lightweight cotton interlock, so hopefully it’ll be the perfect weight.

The pattern is McCalls M5924, and when it says “easy” it really means it! This is view B, with long sleeves and a high neck. View A has elbow-length sleeves, and a contrast panel at the hem. My favourite thing about this dress is the pockets. That makes it extra practical as well as extra comfortable.

I’ve been looking through my fabric stash, and I have enough remnants of stretch cotton to make collars and sleeves in pink leopard print, blue spots and black & grey stripes. I think it would be nice to make one with a contrast bodice and skirt as well.

This one’s not quite finished – I haven’t yet hemmed the ends of the sleeves, or the skirt. I’m just trying to decide whether to make a plain hem, as per the pattern, or whether to add a little bit of stretch lace. As soon as it’s done, I think I’m going to find myself wearing this one a lot.