The Roberts Collection Dungarees - In Vintage Olive floral

Hi lovely folks,

Today I am back with a bit of garment sewing, if you keep up to date with my Instagram @hannahjanefellows its pretty much all been about the home decor over there recently.

That was until the lovely Marilla Walker got in touch and asked if I would like to try out one of her new patterns from her new collection, and I jumped at the chance. Marilla makes fabulous patterns, if you don't already know of them you can see them here and here.

I decided to start with the dungaree pattern, because I have been wanting some loose legged turn up dungarees for a while now, and I loved the detailing on these!

My dungarees are made in a Vintage wool mix olive green floral fabric.

I made these in a straight size 7 and I know that there have been some mods to the pattern since then, but I love them so much! I haven't made any mods to the pattern, I like to make it true to pattern when I am testing. 

They are so comfortable to wear, I cant wait to make a million other versions! I chose the wool mix for my first version so they would have some drape, in case I had got the sizing a little large, but next time I am hoping to make these up in a lovely denim or linen.

There are so many lovely details within this pattern, like the fine straps, or the neat waist tucks, which make it just that extra bit feminine.  

( please excuse the twisted straps, I was sure they were lying flat) 

There are several other patterns included in The Roberts Collection that are all equally beautiful, the Pinafore has my name written all over it, as does the blouse, and the jumpsuit would make a great seasonal outfit. 

Head on over to Marilla's blog to read more about it and to go buy the pattern for yourself. If you only buy one pattern this autumn, I can highly recommend this one!

Thanks for stopping by again guys! 

Have any of you purchased this pattern yet?

Are you hoping to make something from The Roberts collection?  

I would love to hear about it, drop me a message in the comments below!

Up-cycled vintage foot stool - My first Upholstery

Hello lovely folks,

So I am back today with some rather exciting news, after months and months of waiting we finally.... got the keys to our new (old) house this week! We could not be happier, but the beaming happy faces soon turned into determined, hard working faces as we set to, and started to tear the inside of the house apart from top to bottom. I am not going to go into details, but it needs work, I thought however you might be more interested in seeing what I have been sewing to go inside the house...it's far more exciting than the piles of rubble that currently reside within the house ;)

So, a couple of years ago we started to pick up the odd bit of furniture we liked, in the hope that one day we would have our own home to put it in (yay! we made it) and on one of our Sunday trips to the car boot we spotted a vintage footstool. 

It was in a right mess to be honest, the sponge had started to disintegrate, the fabric was a delightful deep olive green velvet with a fringing around the edge, that even the most eager of vintage lovers would have turned their nose up at. I took one look at it and said, we will have it, it has potential!

I am so glad we did, because it cost me £2!! And today I am so happy with the end result.

I have never done any re-upholstering before so it was all new to me. It was a really simple process and the only thing we needed other than my sewing machine was a screwdriver to remove the legs and a staple gun ( we used an electric one) 

I found the fabric online through Ebay of all places, I fell in love with the fractured triangles pattern and couldn't resist it. I bought two meters of it, and it is excellent quality, it is really heavy weight and it also has the Fire Retardant coating on it as well which is really important to think about when upholstering something. I hope to use the rest of the fabric for other things in the living room.

We decided to spray the legs gold to bring it up to date a bit, they were originally black plastic, so our options were limited. 

I am kind of kicking myself for not taking a before picture.... I will try and remember for the next project!!

I had so much fun transforming this foot stool and seeing it come back to life after looking so shabby. I feel that even after buying the new sponge and the fabric, it still remains a good value piece of furniture, but not only that it is unique. I am now looking forward to finishing up my next re-upholstery project which is slightly larger in in scale to put in mildly.... stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!!

~HJF~

Vintage Blue Ikat Ultimate Shift Dress

Hi Guys,

Today I am back with a little bit of me sewing, a simple Sew Over It London, Ultimate Shift Dress. I have been sewing a lot for others over the last few months, and not really had a lot of time to sew anything for myself. The last last dress I made, the Liberty Alpine dress, I made to go to a Craft Party in and I made to a deadline, so ultimately I was rushing up until the last moment to finish it in time. Cue hand sewing til midnight... totally worth it though :)

And the same goes for this dress really, just finished in time for a deadline.  Last week I was sewing some gifts up and it got to Thursday and I checked the weather report for my trip out on Saturday.

Now, if you haven't already realized I live in England...  and as most will well know, it is pretty much essential to check the weather report if you want to go anywhere. I was travelling to another part of the UK and I was informed we would have sunshine!  oh hello!Well, I was not prepared for that!

 So after checking my wardrobe and finding that I didn't have a single thing suitable I decided I would have to whip something up. Truth is I have just not had time to update my summer wardrobe, I have been so busy with other projects and because summer just doesn't seemed to have arrived here yet, there hasn't exactly been a rush on the sleeveless vests and sundresses! The summer wardrobe is now edging closer to the top of my list.

On a side note, I really need to stop this last minute sewing, I don't enjoy it very much, and I don't want to start putting pressure onto a skill that I really love... sewing. I need to plan more, and put time aside to sew the things I really need to fill those gaps in my wardrobe, not just last minute sew things when I have been too busy to plan ahead... not good.

Anyway... Me, a trip out, sunshine, nothing to wear. I decided I didn't have time to go too fancy, and if I wanted to make something I had just Friday to do it. So, I opted for the lovely Sew Over It London Ultimate Shift Dress pattern. I guess you could say this has become a bit of a well loved pattern for me. I think I have made four altogether and I find it a really quick garment to put together with really pleasing results.

Next up was choosing the fabric, I had a quick look in my fabric stash and pulled out some rather lovely Vintage Ikat blue cotton. This fabric was a rather lucky find from a local Vintage Fair. They don't usually do textiles there but there was a lady selling home furnishing fabrics and she had two pieces of this wonderful stuff! I think in total it cost me £6 for the lot, and I only used one of the pieces, so I am now wondering what to make with the second piece?! Suggestions would be very welcome!!

So am I going to stop chatting about the weather like a typical Brit and show you the dress...

The print had a bit of a crazy pattern to it and if  wanted to follow grain and keep those diamonds running parallel down my body it meant that the diamonds seemed to go on a bit of a wander across by body. I think that is just the pattern though and it was the best possible placement without loosing those strain grain parallel diamonds. Hey, I am happy and sometimes with vintage fabrics you just have to go with it, I have had countless pieces that the prints are all kinds of crazy off grain, but I think I just about get away with this one... 

I was a little worried about this colour on me. I loved the colour, but I was worried it would make me look larger, but I think keeping the silhouette clean with a simple shift dress has help to minimize that.

This is the first Ultimate Shift Dress i have made with short sleeves and I really love them! I was a little skeptical at first as I usually go for a three quarter length as I find that a flattering for me, but this could be my new summer sleeve length!!!

And if any of you are wondering if  got my dose of sunshine.... I totally did not...it rained and poured all day, so much so I put on my tights and brogues instead of my sandals. You win some you lose some.

 Here I am on my way down to see my friend, we were stuck in traffic, in the rain, but I was just too excited to be seeing my friend and wearing my new dress. (I wasn't the driver by the way) ;)

That's all for now, I am back to sewing for others for the moment, and I am eagerly awaiting the next gap so I can get sewing my summer wardrobe!!

Do you have any favourite patterns that you return to when you are in need of a quick make?

I am always interested to hear!

I am also open to suggestion to what I can use my left over Ikat fabric for? I have just over a meter left and feel a bit clueless about what to use it for. If you have any suggestions please drop me a message in the comments below. :)

Thanks for stopping by...

~HJF~

Simple Paisley scarf

At Christmas Mr. F asked for a vintage men's scarf, you know the ones, paisley printed silk one side, cosy complimentary coloured wool the other. I would call it a men's dress scarf but who knows the real name?! Well he asked for this about a week or two before christmas, and I searched but couldn't find one anywhere, and without time to venture to manchester to wade through the wild array of vintage shops there I decided to give up...... For now.

After my bow tie making marathon before christmas I realised I had quite a few sections of some lovely quilting cottons left over. So I felt a quick project was in order. I realised I had some rather lovely paisley cotton left over that was just big enough to make a scarf with. So I rummaged though my remnant box and found a piece of lovely camel coloured wool mix twill that was an incredibly good match! 

It may not be the vintage one he asked for, but he is happy all the same.

This was a super simple project that probably took half an hour in total with cutting, sewing and pressing. Okay, okay, well maybe a little longer if you include hand sewing the lining shut. 

There you see the lovely warm lining. This scarf was four pieces cut, joined and then, "bagged out". Then a quick trim of the corners, turn the right side out, press and finish with a little hand stitching.

I debated whether to top stitch the whole way round the scarf but I thought that might make it look a little clumsy. 

The fabric is a really lovely quality quilting cotton that I got from Minerva Crafts, unfortunately i don't have a brand or name for it, and there was no selvedge on my piece.

And here he is modelling the scarf. I am sure he really loved modelling this for me.... Ha ha. 

Thanks for popping by, and as ever I would love to hear your thoughts on any of my projects. 

~HJF~ 

Yoke top pattern hack

This make has been hanging in my wardrobe for a little while now, I finished it probably in September, ironed it and forgot all about it, hence not sharing.

I made my first Lauren Guthrie Yoke top a while back in October. I got the pattern free with my subscription of Love Sewing magazine. 

I really loved the pattern but I felt it didn't quite suit my, ahem, figure and the gathers only accentuated that. 

So after making my first yoke top I decided a pattern hack was in order. I loved the yoke and the neckline, but the gathers for me, personally had to go.  

Here is yoke top number one.

Loved the contrast piping, the slightly sixties collar and the a-line fit. I decided the best way to go would be to add bust darts for the shaping and I used Sew Over It - Ultimate Shift dress bodice as a guide. I could have drafted a new lower bodice piece from scratch but I wasn't going for anything too dramatic, and the measurements were pretty much spot on with out too much grading, I just had to shorten it. 

So here it is, my bust darted Lauren Gutherie Ultimate Yoke top. 

I used a rather lovely rayon mix from my vintage stash, which has wonderful drape and I am really hoping will work well for the summer. I usually make my own piping but I was at Chorley market and spotted a stall selling the most amazing jewel coloured bindings and pipings. Well that was it, I bought a selection, lovely. Although I love the colour of the piping, I will be going back to making my own as the quality was a little disappointing. 

For the back I left it pretty much identical, but instead of including a button placket I finished it edge to edge, creating a key hole, with a hook and eye fastening. 

And because my pictures don't quite do the fabric justice here is a close up. 

I am quite happy with the changes I made, but I think I will return to the button placket next time, I just think it creates a neater look. 

Looking forward to making my next one now. 

And here are a couple of me, looking super awkward in bad light, sorry about the bad quality. Hopefully my pics will improve now my remote has arrived and I can take pics in the daytime, yay!

Thanks for stopping by!

~HJF~

Vintage look baby romper

I wanted a small knitting project to see me through a couple of evenings. Now, I admit I am not the best of knitters! I am slow.... So I needed something fairly simple. I usually knit for a purpose but, I decided a baby garment would be a good idea. 

So a baby romper it is! 

                                     

I used a lovely pattern called Lesley from dailyknitter.com (link below)

http://www.dailyknitter.com/lesley.html

I knit this up pretty much as the pattern states but I added a striped bib section and a ribbed straps. This is knit for a 0-6 month old baby, but I see it being of more use in a larger size, knit in cotton for the summer. 

           

                                     

I plan to knit this up again soon, but I will make a few changes along the way. I plan to use a moss stitch for the bib section and lengthen the ribbing on the legs. It looks a little messy around the straps, so I hope to improve this next time around, but all in all I loved knitting this up, so quick too!