Cozy Corduroy

I finally (nearly) finished making my Red corduroy dress, after lots of broken needles and head aches it is now all done apart from the hem, which I need advice on. I am so pleased with it, perfect for chilly winters, a lovely casual dress, so toasty I don't even need to wear a coat over it. It was very difficult to sew, I had to re-cut the neck pieces 3 times before I finally got it right, I have no idea why as the first two Portfolio dresses weren't that bad.

Once I have hemmed it I will be living in my new dress, I also went and bought a larger size pattern to make one for my Mummy for Christmas we have very similar taste and I think she would look lovely in a black or red corduroy one too. It took hours to make but well worth all the time to get such a gorgeous result. I made the neck band slightly less wide to give it a more casual look too.

Corduroy Chaos

I wanted to make a Corduroy version of the lisette portfolio dress because I love corduroy and want a more hard wearing, warm dress for winter. I got some bright blue thick Corduroy from my local fabric shop and cut all the pattern pieces. I had not attempted sewing corduroy yet but managed to assemble the front perfectly. I foolishly tried ironing the fabric and burnt it, thankfully I think it will be hidden in the seam allowance so a good lesson learnt. I was a bit disappointed after the burning incident so went back to the fabric shop and got some bright red pure cotton corduroy to start again and avoid the chances of burning. I decided to come back to the blue dress once the Red one is complete. I have just finished sewing up the front of the Red dress and will hopefully get it finished by next weekend. Here they are, I hope they hang ok in the front and the seams sit flat, I am working very experimentally at the moment so its more exciting waiting for the results.

Lisette 2060

I just finished another Lisette lovely and here it is. I got the purple cotton in freelance fabrics in Kiddlington and the leopard print from cutting edge fabric in Newbury. I am going to wear it out for more Tapas with friends tomorrow I just need to finish the hem and sew on 3 bright purple buttons. It took alot longer than intended as I had to unpick the sleeves and cut and make them in size 14, the dress is size 8. I have quite muscly arms and did not realize quite how big they had got, I will definitely make sure I cut bigger arms in future.

I also got to try the button hole tool on my sewing machine which was very exciting, 3 prefect button holes on the left shoulder.

The belt was really good fun to make, it is designed to be worn on waist but I prefer it on the hips so I will make a longer one this evening ready for tomorrow.