Before and After

My next job was pretty simple. I was asked to adjust a dress. I took off the top part and then sewed the raw edge over, and ta-da a new dress/top. July 2010

A tie by any other name...would still be a tie

When it came to my brother’s birthday I wasn’t sure what to make. This was the first grown male I had made a present for. Not sure that he would want a bag so I decided on making a tie. This was quite tricky in the end. It took me forever to find some fabric that I thought would work well as a tie and then the only guidance I had was a project in a sewing book that didn’t seem to tell me all I needed to know. It told me how much fabric to get and which way to cut the pieces of the tie from it but it had nothing about sizes. I managed to find my old school tie to try and work out the size but I think the school tie was smaller than your average tie, so I still just had to make it up. July 2010

Pattern...what pattern?

I made some pj shorts for my next present. I took a pair of short’s my sister had and used them as a pattern to make another pair. Because I used tartan fabric and I wasn’t sure how to match it at the seams I purposely turned the fabric so the pattern went a different way all together. The fit wasn’t as good as her original shorts but for a first try without a pattern I think I did pretty well. July 2010

What every 3 year old boy wants...

Hmmm… what to make my nephew for his 3rd birthday. I didn’t think he would want a bag, or a cushion (these seem to be what I make the most of) so I went for a pair of pyjamas instead. I did cheat slightly by buying a plain blue t-shirt. I then made a little motif dinosaur to sew on the front that matched with the bottoms that I made. Jun 2010

Is it a bird... is it a plane... no it's a top!

I wasn’t sure what to make for my sister’s birthday and decided to try making a top similar to one I have. So I used my top for the main shape of the top, by folding it and drawing around it onto the fabric. This is probably one of the trickiest things I’ve made as I didn’t have much experience of making clothes and I was just making it up. I was pretty pleased with the out come. A couple of things that bothered me were 1) I didn’t attach the straps at the front of the top to the very outside edge of the top (but at least I know to change that if I make similar top) and 2) it looks quite boxy (I did put some elastic in the back to pull it in but I didn't do it tight enough. Plus when the top is on it doesn't look so boxy). Apr 2010

My first order

One day my 4-year-old niece came over and saw that I had a book about making skirts that I had borrowed from the library. She proceeded to look through the book and put in an order for the skirt she would like. She asked for a red skirt with flowers on, and went on to point out a few styles in the book that she liked. Since her birthday was coming up I decided I would try to make the desired skirt. Luckily I already had some red, flowery fabric. I had also seen a simple child’s skirt in a sewing magazine I had. The skirt wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do so I took a look and then started to make it up as I went a long. It was pretty basic to make and then I just added a belt and belt loops to add some more detail. The green parts are from the lining of a jacket I took apart since I loved the colour but hadn't worn it for ages because the style didn't look right on me. Mar 2010

Following the pattern

This is the first time I have followed a pattern. I decided to make some pj bottoms for a friend but didn’t know where to start so I bought a Newlook pattern (6859). I went shopping for material and it took me nearly a whole morning trying to decide on the fabric. I didn’t want to use checked material as this makes it harder due to trying to match the pattern so I went for a busy flower pattern instead. This is another fabric that I got a lot of so, again, it pops up in some other projects.It took me a while to decipher how to read a pattern, but once I had figured it out I managed to get the bottoms made pretty quickly. Dec 2009


This picture makes the legs look different lengths, but I assure you they were the same length.