Alpine Liberty Emery Dress

Hello guys,

Today I am back with another Emery Dress. I am rather a fan of the Emery Dress by Christine Haynes, and although this is only my third, I can see many more of these in my future. 

I made my first ever Emery during Selfish sewing week, it was made from some lovely vintage Peter Pan cotton that was donated to me by my Aunty and you can take a peek at it here. 

This is my third Emery and I have made some quite significant changes to the pattern to get the fit right for me. I would like to say I did an FBA straight away, like I should have, but I didn't, and in the end I have made multiple changes to the bodice pieces and I think I am now finally quite happy with the fit I have. 

This has been one seriously popular pattern, I mean googling it brings up a whole host of AMAZING variations of this dress. The thing I really like about this pattern is that is seems to be flattering for a lot of different body shapes, which is not something you can often say about a pattern. Yes, I had to make a lot of adjustments to get the fit right, but I do with most commercial patterns. 

For me this pattern is such a great staple, I feel I can make a really simple version like this one, to be worn casually, or choose a really special fabric and make it for a special occasion. 

For this version I decided to cut into my stash of Liberty Fabrics....

During the half-term holidays Mr.F decided he wanted to take me to Standfast and Barracks factory shop in Lancaster. This is the home of Liberty printing, where they print not just their cloth, but John Lewis', Christian Lacroix, Sanderson etc. There they sell misprints of these designer fabrics, some of it may be that there was just a flaw at the beginning or the end of the roll so they couldn't sell the whole roll, some there may be a slight shift in the print or a flaw that runs the entire length of the fabric. However the times I have been I have been very lucky in that most of the flaws are unnoticeable or are easy to work around in the cutting out stages. 

Now, I love Liberty fabric, in a sense that the quality of the fabric and the prints is incredible. I am not however super keen on florals. I like the odd floral piece here and there, but I tend to go for the more abstract ones. I do love the Liberty Art prints through and have had my eye on a few of the geometric designs for some time, I have some of the Queue for the Zoo in my stash which is also a particular favourite. So when we went to the factory shop I had a few prints in mind I was hoping they might have. I was a little disappointed in that most were florals that day but it is completely hit and miss depending on the printing process. 

I did however find a print that I have been eyeing up for some time....I believe it is called Jonathan B and I first saw it a year ago. I loved it because it reminds me of pencil shavings, which believe it or not used to be part of my job, sharpening pencils. Ha ha. I also love it because it reminds me of the alps, with mountains and fir trees. I was lucky enough to grab this for £3 a metre and it doesn't have a single flaw on it, lucky me. 

There was just two metres left which was enough for me to squeeze a long sleeved Emery out of it, with a few bits left over (maybe for a bow tie, who knows). 

And here we have it, I should probably mention at this point that I made this dress for kind of a special occasion. I was attending an Etsy Craft Party run by the store Berylune in Leamington Spa. I was also meeting up with an all round awesome gal and fellow sewer for the first time too, so you see, I needed me a new party frock! 

Here you have the extra secret Liberty pockets.....

You may notice in the photographs that I have my sleeves rolled up, well this was a style choice, initially I wanted to make the sleeves three quarter, but I am still having issues with my sleeve fit, they are too baggy, so I decided to make them a little longer and roll them up to give the dress a more casual look. 

I love this dress and I felt very comfortable in it all night. The bodice is fully lined and I decided to hand stitch down not only the lining waist but the lining armholes too, I am not a fan of having the overlocking on the shoulder seams visible on the inside, so I hide them all in the lining, nice!  This means that the only visible overlocking is on the skirt side seams and the sleeve side seams.

I can see lots of versions of this dress in my future wardrobe planning, I have a few I would like to make for our up and coming summer holiday. I am hoping to redraft the bodice to accommodate some shaping to the armholes to make a sleeveless version, wish me luck. 

Are there any other Liberty Fabric fans out there?

Do you have a favourite Liberty Fabric you are waiting to buy?

 I would love to hear what your favourite prints are!

Did anyone else attend an Etsy Craft Party? 

Thanks for stopping by guys!

~HJF~

Me Made May 2015 Round up!

Hi all,

Today I am back with a round up of all of my Me Made May outfits. I have to say I started this challenge thinking I would just enter the odd day here and there when I could but in the end, I wore me made clothing every day for the month of May. It was however a challenge and I will get to that later. First lets do a round up, the fun bit, with photographs, yay!

Ok outfit one was my Tartan Linden sweatshirt, which I really enjoyed wearing layer over a shirt, this worked for me.

Outfit two was one of my Dungaree dresses that I drafted from a RTW dress, this gets worn a lot, and I love it.

Outfit three is my Grainline studio alder shirt dress layered with a jumper, I think I prefer it like this as the neck is a little large so the jumper helps hide this a little ;)

Outfit number four were my Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers in a paisley pattern, super comfy like a stretch jean and also get a lot of wear because of that. 

Outfit number five is a chiffon tunic dress, self drafted, that has a silk yoke made from a scarf, I used to wear this for work a lot (with trousers, not leggings, fear not) but I think I have fallen out of love with it....

Outfit number six, I think is up there with my favourites, my self drafted polka dot vest and my By Hand London Victoria Blazer in a navy crepe?

Outfit seven is my Grainline studio Alder shirt dress shirt refashion which you can read more about here. 

Outfit eight is a self drafted boxy top made in some striped stretch satin viscose, this was made to wear to work but still gets a lot of wear now. 

Outfit nine is the same self drafted top as outfit eight but in grey chiffon and with a faux black collar and back neck keyhole detail, again this is old now and used to get a lot of wear to work. 

Outfit ten is my Tilly and the Buttons Francoise dress which you can see here.

Outfit eleven is another pair of Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers, this time in a stretch cotton featuring a tile print.

Outfit twelve is my Grainline studio Linden dress hack which can be seen here.

Outfit thirteen is my Parrott party frock or Emery dress if you like. I love this dress, it would have been better with ought the tights but it was way too cold!

Outfit fourteen is another self drafted boxy top in a really cool digital printed chiffon I picked up earlier this year and made during selfish sewing week, read more about that here.

Outfit fifteen is my Ikea fabric house print dress in a self drafted pattern. I loved this dress when I made it but looking at it now I am not so sure.

Outfit sixteen is my self drafted vest again, this has proven to be so useful to layer up between seasons.

Outfit seventeen is another dungaree dress in navy cotton twill, nautical is my favourite. 

Outfit eighteen is my third and last pair of Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers in a Tartan cotton. 

I skipped one day of Me Made May, well I didn't, I was still wearing my super comfortable snowflake Linden but I had come down with tonsillitis and wasn't feeling the selfies so I had a few days of accessories and stand ins to get me through.

Outfit nineteen is my latest and most favourite newly knitted bobble hat, I can't remember the yarn I used but it is wonderful.

Outfit twenty is my mustard scarf, which technically isn't me made at all, but Mum made. She made a piece of batik cloth for me with polka dots on it the hemmed it to make it into a scarf, it is the softest thing ever and rather dear to my heart. 

Outfit twenty one, Mr. F stood in for me and modelled one of the bow ties I made him for Christmas, it is a favourite of mine, I wish I had a matching party frock of the same fabric!

Outfit twenty two is my Carolyn Friedlander Nest Egg Tote which double as a handbag. 

Outfit twenty three is my Peter Pan vintage fabric emery which was also made earlier this year during selfish sewing week.

Outfit twenty four was my newly drafted t-shirt style top with cuffs, soon to be blogged. 

Outfit twenty five is my Sew Over It Ultimate Shift Dress in a cotton lounging leopards print. 

And that about sums it up, I have left out any repeats, as I am pretty sure seeing twenty five selfies of me is enough to last anyone a lifetime! 

I didn't think much of it when I signed up the this challenge, I just thought, hey, this will be fun, I might get to meet some new people and get some inspiration. It was so much more than that! 

When I have looked back though my photographs of the month I can honestly say there are very few outfits that I am really happy with. So I decided I needed to analyse this and do something about it. 

I took a look at the outfits I really liked and tried to narrow things down a bit. 

And as it turns out, this is it. Twelve out of twenty five and I am still not sure about a couple of these but I think that has more to do with fit than anything else. 

I looked at what I was left with and it still didn't fill me with joy, it wasn't a whole wardrobe of garments that I could piece together to make outfits. 

The other outfits that didn't make the cut were just, not me anymore, I think it is a combination of poor choice of colour and just out growing a style. 

So here are my findings from my Me Made May challenge.

I do not make enough me made comfortable clothes, I tend to make clothes for occasions, dresses mainly, this is ok, but I am at home a lot at the moment and party frocks just won't cut it! 

I do not have a colour palette so my me made clothes do no coordinate particularly well, this is fine for individual garments such as dresses, but for separates, it would be nice to be able to coordinate my pieces. 

I do not make many warm items of clothing, so, when the weather is bad I am often left wearing RTW items that I am not happy with.

So, I have decided I would like to do a bit of a wardrobe overhaul and reassess what is missing from my wardrobe. I can then draw up an action plan of how to fix it. 

In my next blog post I will go into more detail about my plan to make my me made wardrobe work for me! 

Lastly I would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone that took part this year. I have met some amazing, inspirational people through this challenge, people I would not normally have had a chance to chat to, everyone has been so welcoming and supportive. The sewing community really is a great thing to be a part of. 

If you have taken part in Me Made May this year and have found it helpful, I would love to know why? 

Has it helped you identify gaps in your wardrobe? 

Has it made you realise which are your favourite me made items of clothing and which go largely unworn?

Or have you just seen people's entries into the Me Made May challenge and are inspired to join in yourself next year?

Let me know in the comments below...

~HJF~ 

Selfish sewing week round up

So selfish sewing week is over...:(

I have so enjoyed spending a whole week sewing up new patterns and old ones alike. I have taken on three new patterns this week and feel I have learnt a whole lot. So incase any of you guys missed it, here is a quick round up of my makes in what was a really fun #selfishsewingweek!

I managed to complete;

One tank top for my mum, not particularly selfish, but I gave it to her on Mother's Day and she was over the moon with it!! It was kind of selfish because it was a wonderful excuse to use some of my all time favourite Cotton and Steel fabric by Sarah Watts.  You can see more details about that here. 

My first ever Emery dress also got completed, and I have to say, I now know what all the hype is about!! I love this pattern, so beautifully drafted, and I have high hopes of making a few more of these for the summer. See more pictures here, and if you like silly gifs of people twirling in skirts hop over to my instagram here!

Garment number three is the chiffon blouse that is from a self drafted pattern. To hear about my lucky fabric find and my attempt at testing out a new bit of kit take a look at this post. 

Number three is my mustard Tilly and the Buttons Francoise dress, I chat about fit, fabric choices and my indicision over colour, take a peek here. 

And last and least impressive is my self drafted polka dot vest top. To read a little more about my FBA process and salvaging projects click here. 

Thanks for stopping by over the last week, I have had a lot of new visitors thanks to Selfish Sewing week, I hope you will all visit again.

That's all for now, up next on the sewing table is a new navy dungaree dress, don't go too far. 

~HJF~ 

Emery Dress - #selfishsewingweek

This is rather unlike me to post each day, but seeing as I have committed myself to the rather overambitious task of sewing every day this week I thought I might as well keep you informed of what has been flying off my sewing machine!

First up.......

My very first Emery Dress by Christine Haynes. 

I loved this pattern and as soon as I saw it, I added it to my Christmas list. The shape is very me, fitted bodice and a full skirt. In truth it is not too dissimilar to the dress patterns I had drafted for myself in the past, but this has sleeves... So it was the sleeves that swayed me, there you have it! 

As part of Selfish Sewing Week I decided to give this pattern a go. When I started to stitch up this dress I went from, oh no, this is going to be way too small, to ooh this looks like it will be a good fit to finally.... It's huge on me. So I set to altering the bodice in hope of a better fit and I think I am almost there! In the bodice pattern my measurements ranged from a 14 - 18! Crazy. In truth I should have known better and just done an FBA but sometimes I like to just test the pattern out and see how it fits straight out of the packet. 

So here is my Emery in a lovely vintage Peter Pan print fabric donated to me by my Aunty. 

I had a lot of crazy fit issues on this bodice and have ended up adding a couple of neck darts just to salvage the dress. I had worked too hard and loved the fabric, so I wanted to make it a wearable toile. 

The bodice fit perfectly across the bust but was huge at the waist, so I increased the dart size there. The neck was huge, like 4cm worth of gape down the front, so in this version I added a couple of neck darts there, but on the pattern I have taken the excess out so, hopefully that will be much better next time round. 

The skirt was a dream so twirly!! And I now want to add pockets into every dress I make, the are just so perfect. I also chopped the bodice down by 2cm as I prefer things to land a little higher than my waist. 

I didn't have a long enough zip to make this dress... Why didn't I check that first?! 

So I improvised a little and did a zip with three ruloux loops and buttons at the top to finish it off. 

This dress calls for a lining, but as this was just intended as my toile, I just drafted a facing and went with that for this version, but next time round I will have the right length zip, and not be lazy and do the proper lining!

I love this dress pattern though, and hopefully with all the alterations now traced onto my pattern pieces, next time around shouldn't be as difficult. 

Thanks for stopping by again, I hope you are enjoying #selfishsewingweek as much as I am!!

~HJF~ 

#SELFISHSEWINGWEEK Selfish Sewing Week - plans, prep and patterns

Hey folks,

I decided to take part in #selfishsewingweek over on Instagram this week. In preparation I cut out five garments to sew and patterns for three others, so I thought I would share with you my hopes for this week, it seems I may be hoping for the best sewing week of my life!! 

1 - Vintage Simplicty tank top 

2 - To toile my first Emery dress (Christine Haynes) 

3 - To toile my first Francoise dress (Tilly and the Buttons)

4 - Self drafted digital print chiffon blouse

5 - Self drafted swing tank top 

The patterns I have cut in preparation for use are

1 - The Alder shirtdress - Grainline Studio (with pattern alterations)

2 - The Workroom Social Tate Top

3 - A self drafted swing tank top 

Phew! It's quite a list and I am pretty sure I am not going to get though it all this week, but it has been a good motivation to get sewing again. 

Anyway..... Feel free to check back to see how my sewing mission is going.... Wish me luck!!

~HJF~ 

Alder Shirtdress - a Grainlinestudio Pattern

The Grainline Studio Alder Shirtdress is one of the many lovely patterns I received for christmas. 

Check out this sweet haul! 

Pretty lucky girl huh!

So I am gradually trying to work my way through the patterns, Linden - done, Nest egg Tote - done, and now the Alder shirtdress is finished, Yay!

I decided to try out this pattern using some lovely fabrics from M is for Make (they had a super sale on, and as ever they have excellent service)

I used a Kona cotton solid in Prussian (which in honesty was a little more *blue* than I had anticipated, more on that later) and some rather awesome Leah Duncan Florascape Moonstone from her Meadow collection by Art Gallery Fabrics. 

This pattern was a breeze to put together, it really was. I was a little hesitant about putting a collar in, it has been a few years since I have done one, the pattern is beautifully cut and didn't give me any trouble. 

I decided on adding some top stitched lines down either sides of the button placket to add some texture to the plain fabric. I have used bright blue Kam Snaps instead of buttons, and I am quite happy with the finish. 

The Snaps however were not the breeze I thought they would be! I trialled a few on Christmas Day when I got my new tool, and thought....yes! This is the most amazing thing ever! What can I put snaps on, I want to put snaps on everything!!! Quick, make something you can put snaps on!! Ha ha. 

In reality, I wasted seven, yes, SEVEN! Snaps making this dress, think I was tired and rushing to get it finished, so maybe I will have better luck next time. 

I adore the contrasting fabric I used for this shirtdress, in an ideal world the whole dress would have been made from it, alas, my contrasting collar and back yoke will have to do. 

I finished this dress and before adding the snaps I tried it on, and couldn't quite believe it. It fit, no FBA needed, no awful drag lines, ok, I would prefer a slightly softer fabric but the fit is good! 

Please excuse my awkward posing and weird non smile face, it is -1°C, there is still snow on the ground and I am outside prancing about in my summer weight shirtdress and jelly shoes trying to look all casual like I am not freezing... Ha ha. 

(p.s. I had ironed the dress just before I took the pics, looks like it's going to crease a little) 

All in all I love this shirt dress and I already have a lovely soft floaty rayon mix lined up for my next version. I also plan to take a few inches of the hem, so it sits just above the knee.

 I do have a slight issue with this dress, the colour. It is more blue than I anticipated, I was going for navy and this is quite royal blue. Totally my fault, it is true to the website colour swatch, I guess I didn't have my eyes on straight when I was ordering ha ha. The colour reminds me of a uniform a little too much, but I will still be wearing it. 

Thanks for stopping by.

~HJF~