Sixties Dress

I am continuing to work my way through sewing some amazing charity shop dress patterns, and this week I tackled what I believe to be the oldest in the pack - copyright 1968.

The material I used was from my Pembrokeshire holiday haul.  A duvet cover I purchased for a pound.  I chose this material as I specifically liked the idea of tackling a bit of fabric placement and the bottom panel of the cover gave me that challenge.

I pondered whether to fussy cut the sleeves to also include the broad green panel that is on the bottom of the dress, but after considering the issue I thought it would be better to line the sleeves up with the fabric drop so that they blended into the sides more.  I have a tendency to over embellish and I thought too much green panelling would be overpowering.  I'm pleased how exactly the fabric panels match up - I hope you can see the match in the photo above.

 

I love the raglan sleeves but they did present a problem when it came to inserting a lining to the front and back of the dress - something that the original pattern did not have.  In the end I caught the lining at the neck edge, sewed the side seams independently from the main fabric and then slip stitched the lining to the sleeve seam.

Originally I meant to make the pattern loose - like the light blue dress shown below - but when I put it on it was just too tent like.  It would have been ok had I been able to shorten it and wear it as a tunic but then I would have lost the green panel that was the main reason I had chosen this fabric.  Dilemma.
 

In the end I decided to make a casing, which is actually used in the longer dress above with the yellow ribbon.  There was a slight trepidation in doing so as I had already attached the lining and was sure that I would accidentally keep catching the main fabric as it bunched up underneath but luck was on my side and it came out the other end ok!

Finally, just to prove that I do wear my handmade creations outside of  the house, here I am at a soiree wearing the said dress.  To match the dress I had a teeny tiny snowball cocktail as I remember my mother drinking it only at Christmas time many years ago.  Good job I only tried a little bit as I definitely prefer the dress to the drink!

Knitted Bunting and Craft Fair Mark II

I had an idea to knit letter bunting but didn't want to reinvent the wheel so I had a look on Ravelry for a free pattern.  I found a lovely one but I still completely changed it!  I wanted my bunting to be smaller than the original design so I re-drafted the letters and cast on a smaller amount of stitches.

I really like the cream and orange combo.  I would like to say it was chosen as I am an edgy crafter who likes to push the boundries on 'traditional' christmas colours - but the truth was I couldn't find any red wool in my stash! :)

I had a second attempt at a craft fair on the weekend.  The table I was provided was quite small but I managed to get pretty much everything on it.  I have been working on adding height to my display and I was quite pleased with the result.  So have I managed to 'Pay for Pembrokeshire'?  Umm, nope.  The stall cost £15 to hire and I made..... £13!  But - in my usual twisted logic - I did get 2 free cups of tea from the organisers which they were selling to punters for £1 each so that makes it up to £15 ∴ I broke even!

Owl Cushion

Following my recent post about a charity shop blanket, I have summoned up the courage to cut it up and this is the first cushion made from the fabric.  I was tempted to keep the blanket as it was but I am lucky enough to already own several lovely blankets so didn't really have the need for another. 

I used the same owl pattern I drafted for the party bags I made for my daughter's sleepover.  The only difference this time being that I embroidered french knots for the eyes instead of using buttons, as I am not keen on buttons on cushions - I always think they are going to be uncomfortable!

Like a math's exam - I like to show my 'workings out'!  This is the reverse of the cushion and I try and keep my work as neat as possible.  I did throw caution to the wind though and didn't cut the embroidery thread between the french knots used for highlighting the eyes.  This might mean that you deduct marks... :)

Gratuitous close up.  Can I just say however I do not recommend two layers of fabric backed with fusible web and a thick layer of felted wool when machine sewing a blanket stitch.  My sewing machine is no longer speaking to me.  It managed two owls fine and was so gummed up by the third set of wings it stopped playing.  I have left it alone to sulk and hopefully it will be happier tomorrow!

Monster! (Too late for Halloween!)

Scary?  It's funny what speaks to you when you look at a pair of shorts bought from a charity shop for 50 pence.

The pocket was just crying out for teeth!

But the scariest thing is that there is another pocket!  I'm thinking another monster friend....