A Night of Designing

Yet again my bobbins haven't arrived! Really unfortunate as I'm getting that 'I need to sews something' itch that often comes after a while away from the machine. So I'm back to fashion sketching today.

If you'd like to give fashion illustration a go yourself, I've included some details in last week's post here.

I apologise for the bad photo, the light is pretty bad here and I haven't yet figured out how to change the settings on my iPad's camera. I'm just playing with ideas for my new fabrics that I bought a couple of weeks ago, I would love to make myself a dress as I've not made one in a while.

Have you bought any gorgeous fabric recently? Any photos would be greatly appreciated!

Really hoping I'll be back sewing soon, and hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Toni

Autumn/Winter All Sewn Up

So this supposedly quick sew has turned out to be a not so quick sew...but in my defense I have had my job inductions to do as well as all my college work, so there are my excuses for not having started sewing it yet.

Excuses aside, it has been cut out. Yes it has.

I'm going to start sewing it tonight! I'll have to go out and buy some woollen tights so I can wear it through the winter. Here's the other fabric I'm using for the front 'yoke' bit, it's a warm fabric that's grey. Now I think about it a black or a navy might work better, but other than the photo on my Pinterest board, I was inspired by a grey top that was similar in colour to the one I happened to have in my fabric box, so I thought 'hey, why not?' also as much as I love a navy, three quarters of the clothes I own seem to be blue, so I am very bored of navy at the moment.

I better get started, there will be a lot of pleating to do. See you on the other side, folks.

Next week, to celebrate the upcoming milestone of 500 page views I am uploading my (deep breath) first ever tutorial! It's perfect for adults but it also works brilliantly in miniature. It's quick and this makes it perfect for a kid's project as as well as being fast to make there is not much sewing going on...bit weird with this being Toni Sews Clothes, but I thought I'd start off simple. Tune in this time next week for a spooky DIY.

Toni

Autumn/Winter Dress...Almost There

So this is what I took my inspiration from this week for my dress, drafted from my blocks I drew last week. Initially I was going to copy it exactly, but then I realised I only really have some tartan that would be the correct drape for it.

Considering that, I decided that the top section  should be something else other than tartan, to contrast with the it and to make me look less like I'm buried in plaid...that's what I'm aiming for anyway. Considering it's going to be below the knee and have long sleeves it might not work, but I'm going to try it out and see what happens.

Here's the pattern so far...

I've split the front 'yoke' bit up with pleats, a little like the ones in the picture below. (The pleats are going to be in that big rectangle on the right.) It's one piece of fabric from the shoulder to the hem, but I am aiming for it to look like they're cascading down the front of the dress...I'm hoping my sewing skills are up to scratch!

I cut the block down to strips the made the strips wider at the bottom than at the top, to give myself more fullness in the skirt. I didn't want to put a seam in at the waist as that would have given the dress more panels and would have made it more complicated - the bit I really want to focus on getting right is the yoke and the pleats, as that is where the faults are going to be easier to spot.

Having said that, as I've flared the pattern out from above the breasts and not the waist, there is a possibility there will be too much fullness there, which might have to be combated with more pleats on the waistline, perhaps like this? Maybe this is a little casual.

I've tried to keep the back as simple as possible as this was meant to be a quick sew - it was only meant to take me a few weeks, but I haven't even drafted a sleeve yet! This will take me a while...I'm aiming to start sewing it by this time next week, after which I have my first ever tutorial for you!

Is there anything you've started that has taken a lot longer than anticipated? How long did it really take you in comparison?

Toni