I feel like I’ve just got back to sewing and blogging after my moving break, so a What-I-made-this-year round-up doesn’t seem to fit right now.  Instead, here’s what I made a few weeks ago for Mr B’s Christmas party:

Yes, basically t-shirt and shorts!  The top is mostly black jersey, apart from that centre panel (lined in pale-gold, don’t worry) and the peplum.  I used best-friend-pattern Simplicity 2588, omitting the zip. 

The lace came from Goldhawk Road – a rather accidental buy.  I was just admiring it in one of the shops, no project in mind, and with a massive bag of fabric already… but I got sort of sucked in to the sales patter:

• Goldhawk Rd guy: “Hey lovely lady!  You want some of the lace?”
• Me: (Shouldn’t really.) “Um, how much is it?”
• GR guy: “£23/m”
• Me: (!!!) “Oh… that’s a bit more than I wanted to pay…”
• GR guy: “How much you thinking?”
• Me: (About a fiver?) “Like, £15?”
• GR guy: “Nah… but could do £18?”
• Me: (Walk away now, you don’t even really want it.) “OK!”
• GR guy: How many metres d’you want?
• Me: (firmly) “One”.
• GR guy: “One? What you gonna make with one metre?”
• Me: (Don’t know, but there’s no way I’m putting down more than £18.) “A top?”

That metre of lace sat in the stash for about 9 months.  I didn’t even look at it too often, feeling the twinges of spending regret.  And then I came across this outfit:

I like everything about it, from the collar to (Jessica’s) shoes.  And finally my guilty lace clicked into place.  See, Goldhawk Rd guy, I did make a top!

I’m thinking of shortening the peplum a little bit more, and I do want to try a white collar, but otherwise it works – so comfy in jersey, and still classy enough for a smart-casual dress code.

(And the shorts?  Oh… the shorts are a self-drafted wearable muslin, barely finished – in fact, I left the waistline raw (can’t see it under the peplum), and the hem is just turned under once and stitched in place – shhh, don’t tell anyone.  Hopefully something more presentable will emerge shortly.)

Happy new year everyone!  Here’s to excitement and achievement in 2013!

Happy new year everyone!  As usual I’m running late, and have a project from last week (last year!) to post before thinking about this year’s goals and plans.

I wasn’t planning to make myself anything for Christmas, on top of all the stitching I needed to do for other people, but then I found this fabric on eBay:

It’s a soft brushed cotton which really should’ve been shouting PYJAMAS! at me.  And it was listed by the fat quarter in auctions, which made it painfully long-winded to buy.  But the chevron pattern reminded me of this:

Cheryl Cole is not normally my kind of fashion icon, but I like everything about this skirt – the fabric, the shape, those belt loops.  And the front pleats instead of darts reminded me of my all-time favourite pattern… Simplicity 2588. Again.  I know!  But it works every time!

Put it all together, and I got this:

(Yep, I even copied Cheryl and paired it with a shirt).

I’m so pleased with it, especially as the improvised belt-loops turned out exactly as I’d wanted with zero fuss (and how often does that happen in sewing?).  Hurrah!  Happy Christmas to me.  The only question is, can I get away with wearing it during the rest of the year?

On holiday I missed my sewing maching, but I missed internet access even more.  All those little daily references: weather, email, love-to-hate-it-Facebook, reading other people’s blogs, Google, and for Mr B and I, extensive use of Wikipedia to settle arguments discussions.

So in Amsterdam we found an excellent coffee shop with free wifi access (and ahem, no smoking) and debated whether a holiday should truly mean ‘getting away from everything’.  I definitely wanted to leave a lot of things behind for a while (and maybe not have to pick some of them up again at all) but actually, pottering around the web for a while is something I do enjoy.  It regularly sparks my curiosity and creativity.

And besides, we could see the canals out of the window.

And besides, the coffee shop was awesome:

Later that day I finished the hand-stitched bits on my apple-a-day Orla Kiely homage and I love, love, love it. Except…

…I’d put the zip in in a rush about an hour before chucking it in the suitcase and leaving the house, and one side is higher than the other…

…and I’d like to change the buttons for something chunkier and retro, more like Orla’s:

But all in all, I’m pretty darn chuffed with it:

Isn’t it lovely when a project seems to work out all by itself?

I bought 3m of black/white polkadot polycotton with the idea of making the main view of this:

And then I was just sort of draping the cotton round me (does anyone else do that when they get their hands on new fabric?) and thought… polkadots would make an awesome ballgown.

Sadly, no invitations to the ball have been forthcoming… and one could not have a polycotton gown.  But, it’s just a little design jump to get to a maxi dress, no?  I was convinced that a maxi wouldn’t suit me, mainly because most of the examples I see have only teeny tiny bits of thread for straps and itsy bitsy triangles to hold the girls in place… so no can do, despite those gorgeous floaty skirts.

Instead, a bit of pattern mix-and-matching, and voila:

I still made use of the Lisette pattern: can you spot it?  I used the skirt from the waist down, extended to hit the floor.  Oh my goodness, those pockets! Love a good pocket, me.  Possibly one of my main drives in dressmaking is that ready-to-wear clothes never have good pockets – if any at all, it’s really rather shocking.

And then the top half is my favourite pattern of ALL TIME, Simplicity 2588:

I used the sleeveless bodice view:

Almost matched the spots at the waist seam!  As the 2588 is close fitting but the 2245 has a lot more ease, the top edge of the skirt is gathered to fit at the waist.

To conclude, I now know maxi dresses to be awesome: a) they’re an outfit in one, so no thinking’s needed to coordinate a top and bottom, plus b) it doesn’t matter what state your pins are in.  When life gets busy, that is pure gift from my wardrobe.