Shift dress version 2.0

I drafted this post a couple of weeks ago but never got around to publishing it(hence the rather summery footwear!). Better late than never though ... Here's my second attempt at that shift dress. 

I am feeling rather pleased with myself this week. I retried the shift dress that I was so disappointed with a couple of posts ago- but this time I kept it simple with a plain cotton - and it's turned out great! I even wore it to the office. Can't tell you how huge that is. I have never worn anything I've made into work before. I got a compliment too!!!

Check it out:

 

I don't have much to say about making it. I followed the pattern exactly and it went pretty smoothly. The only downside is that the fabric isn't at all special. Just a cheap plain cotton. But that meant it was easy to work with and I wasn't scared of making mistakes. So now my confidence levels are up again and I am ready to experiment agin. 

Beach Skirt ... On a Real Life Beach

Just a cheeky note to show that I did actually wear my *cough* competition winning skirt on the beach this summer ...

Riviera Style

A few weeks ago now I went to the Riviera Style exhibition at the Fashion Museum on Bermondsey Street in London. It's a really great exhibition, displaying swimwear from the end of the Victorian era until today. It's a thoughtfully currated exhibition with some truly beautiful and genuinely interesting pieces on display. The thing that struck me most was the apparent speed with which people went from modestly covering as much flesh as possible on a trip to the beach to super glam, surprisingly slinky bikinis. Apparently, this is a result of the popularisation of sunbathing in the 1930's. Before this, the outfits had been exclusively for bathing. I also think it has a lot to do with radical changes in society; attitudes towards women in particular and I think that it is in no small part thanks to that generation of  bright young things who were challenging old fashioned conventions.  

As ever, the early to mid twentieth century appealed most to me, but here's a selection of photos I took  throughout all of the ages on display. It's only on for a couple more weeks, so get there if you can!

Home Improvements

Holidays. Time for some rest, relaxation and ... catching up on my blog! Finally I've got a chance to show you a project I finished quite a while ago!  

One of the best things about the house that we moved into almost a year ago now is that it hasn't needed anything big or expensive doing. No new kitchen, bathroom, boiler... We should probably replace the windows, but we can live with them for now. And that's great, because we haven't got any money. The problem is that everything's so UGLY! But it's amazing what a coat of white paint and a bit of bright fabric can do!  

Case in point : Clinging on for dear life to the back of the house is a 'conservatory'. It's not, nor has it ever been the uPVC dream of suburban grandparents everywhere. It's more akin to a rotting green house really. But it's a useful space for the washing machine and lawn mower and we'd be lost without it. It is however through this room that people have to pass to get to my pride and joy (the garden). So, once the garden was done up it was only fitting to improve this room as much as possible too. A coat of white paint over the rotting timber frame and some masonry paint over the (single skin) of brickwork and the structure was looking better already. We then raided IKEA for some cheap storage for the garden tools, toys and the other random junk that always finds its way into rooms like this. One of the units we bought was the xxX, which can be used as a seat as well - it just needs a cushion. 

And with that, we finally we reach the sewing!!! I made this cushion cover.

 I pretty much followed May Martin's 'Sewing Bible' instructions for box cushion covers, but I omitted the piping. Is it just me who hates piping on cushions? It's only good for catching crumbs!! The fabric is this beaut from Fabric Rehab. I got the foam for inside the cover is from here. They can cut you a piece of foam to whatever size you need. 

To make the cushion I cut out the following pieces from my fabric:

One piece the size of the top of the foam and one the size of the bottom (plus 1.5cm all the way around)

One piece the size of the front side of the foam, one piece the size of the left side and one piece the size of the right hand side - each with an extra 1.5cm all the way around. 

Two pieces the same length as the back of the foam, but half the depth, plus 1cm on one of the long edges and 1.5 cm around the other edges. 

I took the two long pieces that I cut half the depth of the foam and pinned them right sides together. I then marked the length of the zip along the pinned edge, starting in the centre and sewed the pieces together from the outside edges to the marks showing the ends of the zip using a 1cm seam allowance. 

Next, I inserted the zip into the gap, one cm from the edge of each piece. Once that was done, I took the piece with the zip in and pinned it, right sides together, to the other pieces that would eventually run around the edge of the cushion. I sewed them together with 1.5cm seams to make a band that runs around the whole cushion. 

The only tricky bit came next. I took the two remaining pieces of fabric (the bigguns that would eventually become the top and bottom of the cushion) and pinned them, right sides together to the continuous band. The important thing is to catch all three seams at each corner. Trim each corner once you're done to remove as much bulk as possible. 

If you try this, make sure that you have the zip a little bit open at this point. 0therwise you'll end up with it on the wrong side of your cover and you won't be able to open it at all without some serious effort. You need to be able to open it in order to turn the cover so that right sides face out. But once that's done, all you have to do is stuff the foam in. And it's DONE! 

Here's some more pictures. You'll see that it's a bit wrinkled because it's slightly too big. I tried sewing the seams a bit tighter, but it's still baggy. But it's not too bad, so I'm going to leave it for now and just enjoy the view of my garden. 

.... And here's one I made earlier... Before I started this blog, one of the first projects I completed was a seat cover for our bay window, which I thought I would share a couple of pictures of too. 

Crest of the wave

What a week! First I win the #simplicitybloggerchallenge (have I mentioned that yet?!), then I successfully complete a really quick, easy and effective sewing project. I've made a new cover for my IKEA POANG chair. You know these beauts? They're cheap, comfy and not all that ugly. A lot of people I know have one. Our's was plain and looking a bit tired. I should've taken a 'before' photo, but I forgot. So you'll have to imagine it ...  it was beige-tactic, accented with a few unidentified stains.

And now it looks like this!!!

Wowser! I am so please with the result. The key is, of course, the A-MAZING fabric. It's a cotton canvas from Fabric Rehab (again!! - they are fast becoming my absolute favourite). You can find it here. Unlike that stretchy jersey that I tried to make a dress out of a few weeks back, I absolutely nailed the fabric choice here. It looks stunning, it's comfy to sit on and I'm pretty sure it will be hard wearing. 

So, how did I achieve this transformation? Firstly, it was super easy, so I shouldn't gloat too much. I based it on the step by step instructions in this  blog from Stickleberry (thank you!), but I changed it up just a bit so that I could use a plain fabric on the back. You see, my theory is that this project needs an amazing fabric (otherwise you might as well just buy a new cover from IKEA). But amazing fabric is expensive. Sooooo, I wanted to use the patterned canvas for the front, and then finish the back with plain cotton. That cut the cost of the fabric by about a third, so it was well worth doing. BUT, there are a few important measurements to keep in mind if you want to do the same. I'll highlight them below...

I didn't take any photos of the process as I went along, so I've drawn seem diagrams instead. This was a really fun to do, so I might do it for more of my blog posts in the future. Let me know if you like it -or if you hate it I suppose. But don't be too mean!

Step 1 : Measure your existing cushion and cut out your fabric

The important thing here was to make sure that I had enough patterned fabric to wrap around the head-rest and down the back of the cushion a little way. I nearly messed up here and had to sew an extra rectangle of fabric onto mine - fortunately you don't notice it  now it's finished. I allowed an extra 4cm at the end of each piece, so that the ends that would be eventually exposed could be hemmed neatly. Then I inclded 2cm everywhere else as a seam allowance. This is a generous seam allowance, but I wanted to play it safe to accommodate any measuring mistakes!

You should also allow enough plain fabric for there to be an overlap once your cover is finished. 

Step 2: Sew fabric together

This step is easy - I just had to sew the two ends of the fabric together! That's it. 

Step 3 : Put cushion on top of fabric

This is easy too. I laid the existing cushion on top of the fabric, with the  right side of the fabric and the back of the cushion both was facing up towards me. The important thing here was to get everything lined up right so that the fabric would wrap around far enough at the top and the bottom of the cushion.





































Step 4 : Wrap fabric around cushion 

So now I could wrap the fabric around the cushion. I tried to make it as tight and even as possible. I then pinned the layers together from the bottom fold to the point where the two fabrics overlapped. 

Step 5 : Velcro

Next, I took a piece of velcro and pinned it in place on the right side of the fabric - making sure that it will be able to attach to the corresponding velcro on the existing chair. 

Step 6 : Remove cushion and sew

That's almost all there was to it. The next step was to remove the cushion and stitch up the part that I had pinned together (i.e. from the bottom to the overlap). Then I pinned together the top bits and sewed them together.

Step 7 : 'Clip and sew' the corners

So that the cover would sit neatly around the curved corners of the existing cushion, I stitched diagonal lines across each corner, and then clipped them just outside this line. Apparently shearing scissors are the best tool for this job, but I don't have any. So I cut a straight line and then zig zag stitched along it with the overlocker foot.

Step 8: Stuff your cushion in

Then a bit of  a press and that was it. I stuffed the cushion into the cover and I was done. BOOM!

Fanfare Please...

So this is a blog post I never thought I'd need to write. 

Do you remember the Simplicity Blogger Challenge I entered a couple of months ago? Well, they announced the winners today and ...  quite unbelievably ... I only flippin' well went and won the newcomer category! I'm not really sure what else to say about it. I'm completely flabbergasted and really grateful. It's given me the kick up the ar$e I needed to keep on sewing and keep on blogging!  I'll admit that the summer sun and my enthusiasm for the new garden have somewhat distracted me lately. As  result, my output has been - let's say - 'found wanting' lately. Well, not anymore! Time to put this renewed vigour into action!!! I'm working on a new post as we speak - and trying out a new approach to the way I present my blogs. Watch this space...

On Running Before I Can Walk.

I have news. This might come as a bit of a shock, but Jersey and I have decided to go our separate ways. We need some time apart. We're just not compatible right now. It's not Jersey, it's me - I wasn't ready for such a big commitment. I thought I could handle it, but I was wrong. Maybe if I was a bit older, a bit wiser, a bit more patient... 

Oh god! I've been such a muppet. I did always know that stretchy Jersey would be a different beast to the cotton I have been sewing with until now, but I fell in live with the stripes. And the colours. Oh those colours!  I didn't really think it through when I bought it and by the time I realised what I'd done it was too late. So that's when I started lying to myself. How hard could it be?

Even after I'd started sewing I had myself convinced it was going fine. And maybe it was for a while. I merrily sewed away, all the while thinking to myself 'what's all the fuss about?' ... and ... 'It's no different to cotton'!!! I'll say it again- I'm a muppet. But to be fair to myself, the darts did go in fine, and the side seams were fine (if a little curled around the edges). See - it looks pretty good from the front (except for the creases - I did press it. Promise!):

But then came the bloody zip.

How could I be so naive?! After two attempts I basically gave up. It's so lumpy you could mistake it for the Pennines. I could have tried inserting it again. And again. And again. But to be honest I knew how it would turn out. No matter how many times I tried it was destined to be lumpy!

And that's not even the worst of it.

Look at this!!!

The neckline has been so stretched out of shape by my butchering that it sits about 3 miles away from the back of my neck. I have got absolutely no idea how this happened, but it looks ridiculous! I can't wear it like this, so I'm going to have to find it in myself to go back, and make some changes. I am envisaging taking the zip out all together and sewing up the centre back seam. The neck line's certainly big enough to get over my head. It will probably only make it worse, but what have I got to lose?!

Ps. I can't imagine why you'd care, but the shift dress pattern I used was Simplicity New Look 6176, and the fabric is this Ponte Roma Jersey from Backstitch.