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!

Mr. Mustard Tilly and the Buttons Francoise!

Garment number four in selfish sewing week is my Tilly and the Buttons Francoise dress.

I recently went on a little trip to wales to the huge fabric shop Abakhan. We have a smaller branch here in Bolton, but NOTHING on the the scale of the Mostyn shop. It has everything!!

So I had a good rummage in the printed viscose section and found this lovely vintage style mustard rose print. Now, I must explain, I am not very adventurous with colours, I like black, navy, grey and in the summer if you are lucky I will thow in the occasional colourful print. I just don't do colour, it doesn't suit me, so I stick to the darker tones. 

So in a vow to add a little more colour to my summer wardrobe I chose this mustard print.... Man how it doesn't suit me!! I am altogether way too pale to pull this number off. 

Anyway, getting back to the point. I made this dress up straight from the packet, and I am pretty happy with the fit, although the neckline/shoulders are too wide on me, but this is something I hope the rectify next time around. 

Pleas excuse the slightly dodgy photograph, it was blowing a gale outside and so I had problems with my dress blowing away... See below! 

I really like this dress pattern and the fit around my bust and hips is pretty flattering, all things considered. As I mentioned before the neckline is too large for me and needs some work, but hopefully nothing I can't rectify. 

As I said this colour really isn't working for me, and I am kind of gutted about that because this fabric is soo lovely and would be wonderful in the summer. Who knows maybe with a tan it won't look as bad?!

I will definitely be making this again, with alterations. I really like how different it looks to the sample image on the packet. I have used a completely different fabric to the ones recommended and it gives a totally different shape to the 60's versions Tilly has made. 

That's all from me for tonight, more selfish sewing week updates to come!! 

~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~ 

90's Floral Dungaree Dress

Hi all,

It's been a while!! I have been out with a virus and tonsillitis, but I am back (almost) ha ha. 

I have a favourite denim dungaree dress, it was a super bargain from a high street store last year and ever since we have been inseparable!! 

It is a dream to pair with thick tights and long sleeve stripey sailor tops and brogues, my favourite. 

My RTW version is a very soft drapey denim, which falls beautifully. I have had so much wear out of it over the winter season, I decided it was time to crack out the pattern paper and get drafting a pattern for it.

I have issues with doing this, tracing a pattern from a RTW garment, it doesn't feel right, as I normally draft my own from scratch, but I NEEDED this to be the same as my Denim Dungaree dress I love so much, ha ha. 

I decided to use a stretch floral twill for my toile, in hindsight the stetch element turned out not to be in my favour so much. All in all it became a wearable garment and I learnt a few tips for the next one!!! 

I bought this fabric to make myself a pair of floral trousers from, I was happy to have found a floral print I liked with some stretch in it, perfect. I did however think this fabric was black, (naughty shop lighting!) and only realised when I got home it was a very dark brown (although my family have done their best to convince me it is black....) 

One thing I love about this dress is the button fastenings on the straps, so fun! 

This toile also gave me the oppertunity to practice my top stitching, I have a twin needle ( I am just too lazy to get it out, there I said it!) I think it went ok, aside a few wobbles due to my machine not liking the thickness of the fabric and it stretching slightly, I think it isn't too bad. 

The dress has three buttons down the side, intended to be there to help you get it on and off, but the dress just pulls over my head so I could eliminate them if I felt I wanted to.  On the original they are lovely denim metal buttons, but I opted for yellow this time round. 

And finally here we have it, me with my awkward posing again, this time on the stairs, in the hope those lovely stairs will distract you slightly.......

I am happy with the overall fit, I did have some problems with the fabric stretching around the armholes and neckline due to the stretch in the fabric plus the cross grain, but the future versions will not be in stretch fabric and I am hopeful a quick stay stitch will rectify that. 

I am not sure this was the wisest choice of fabric for a larger lady like myself, but I will go with it for now.... Plus I have a lovely navy twill version ready and awaiting to be sewn up, so hopefully that will be a winner!

P.s. I was once told I looked like a childrens T.V. Presenter in an brightly coloured outfit I had on, and I once again feel like I am channelling that vibe...... (All those bright colours just are not me...where is the grey!!!!!! ) Haha 

Thanks for stopping by,

I would love to hear any comments you have, or if you know of any awesome denim suppliers you would like to share, don't hesitate to get in touch! 

~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~ 

Christmas dress.... In January?!

I love a good christmas outfit, it was always a highlight as a child, what I got to wear on Christmas Day, and I guess not much has changed.

This year I decided on a dress, to be precise the Sew Over It - Ultimate shift dress.

I have made this dress three times now, it's a really simple shift dress, A-line shape and can be whipped up in a couple of hours. 

I made my first one for a wedding last October and made a few changes to the pattern for round two. 

I decided I wanted to go with a rather Christmassy fabric, and add a bit of bling.

So I did just that... I went with a holly print fabric with gold accents. 

But that just wasn't enough! 

I decided to bead the cuffs and stitch gems round the neckline. 

That's where it all went a bit wrong. 

This seemed like an excellent idea, really, it did. But somehow I managed to go from sixties inspired shift, to a dress fit for a glamour nana. Bad times. 

I still like it, and believe it or not, it looks a lot better on than it does on the hanger. 

I sadly didn't get to wear this on Christmas Day, or Boxing Day as planned as I wasn't well. I think this one might be left hanging in the wardrobe until next year. 

Thanks for stopping by and reading my seasonally inappropriate post. 

~HJF~