Chantilly

Here it is, finally finished! It's been so long since I fitted it, that I can't remember what size I cut. I do remember cutting a smaller size for the neck pieces, and grading the bodice out so that I didn't have to do an FBA. It worked well and I'm really pleased with the fit.

I always feel awkward when Dom tells me to pose, so I pulled a silly pose instead! His directions included things like 'stand up straighter' 'put your shoulders back' and 'stick your bum out'!

I ended up shortening the skirt by about 4 inches or so. The longer length made me look short and dumpy! I really like the shorter length, it lets the skirt flare out really nicely. The shape of the skirt is one of my favourite things about this dress.

The back isn't perfect, fit-wise. But it's comfortable and doesn't look too bad. When I fitted it, I fitted it to be too tight with the intention that I would slim into it. I'm really pleased to say that it's now got a nice amount of ease! I'm getting close to a healthy weight (according to BMI), so this dress fitting nicely is like icing on the cake :)

This dress is my favourite thing that I've made so far :) The instructions for this pattern are perfect, and I took my time with it so I'm really pleased with the construction. 

Onto the next project! :)

After a short break. . .

I had my last ever uni exam yesterday! How weird is that?! So revision was the culprit for the silence on the blog. I think the exam went ok though, so hopefully it will be worth it :)

During my silence, I've worked on my Chantilly dress a little and have finally nearly finished it! I need to finish sewing the yoke lining down, insert the invisible zip and finish that seam, and sew the hem. So close! Also in sewing news, my pre-order of the gorgeous Cambie dress pattern from Sewaholic arrived! I think this will be my next sewing project. Though I've been thinking about sewing up some quick and simple maxi dresses, as I'm seriously lacking summer clothes. 

In knitting news, I've made great progress on my Lauriel cardigan and it fits wonderfully! I've now almost finished the first sleeve, but here's a photo of the body:

Also, if you're wondering why there is no hair on my shoulders, I got it cut! It's been a couple of months now, and I still like it ;) There'll be photo's when I finish Chantilly :)

I've also taken an interest in my nails, and the wonderful world of nail art! I came across a thread on Ravelry where they were showing off their manicures. I discovered dotting tools, and nail stamping and fell in love :) I also discovered quick dry top coats. They work like magic and I haven't smudged my nails since using it! Here's my first attempt at nail stamping :

The shininess of the top coat and the gold I used to stamp with made this quite a challenge for Dom to photograph ;) Click the photo for a closer look. I need to get better at being neat and cleaning up, but I'm still pretty impressed :) If you're interested, here's what I used and how many coats:

Base coat: Sally Hansen Double Duty

Colour: Rimmel Lasting Finish, in double decker red. Two coats.

Topcoat: Sally Hansen Instra-dri anti-chip top coat. The top coat sped up the drying time and made it solid, so the stamping didn't smudge the colour.

Stamping: Stargazer Chrome nail polish, in gold. The nail plate is Konad M73.

Topcoat: same as before, but I did three coats to make it extra strong.

As a first attempt, I think it went pretty well :) It's very pretty and very subtle. Stamping is very fun to do, and I'm slowly building up a decent nail polish collection. I also bought a Bundle Monster 25 piece set of nail plates which is a great starting point, as well as a few Konad plates that caught my eye. So lots to choose from :)

Have you ever tried nail stamping? I've never heard of it before now, so thought I'd share in case you haven't either :)

Ashley x

Gathering

I've been slowly putting the shell of my Chantilly together. For the bodice gathers, I decided to try using three lines of basting. There was a post a while back on the Coletterie that showed the difference between two lines and three lines of basting and I wanted to see for myself :) For the lining, I only used two lines of stitching, and you can see the difference. Here's a very cropped zoomed in photo:

The gathers are much bigger and so not as even. So three lines of stitching certainly looks better, but it does take longer. The extra line of stitching takes more time, the actual gathering took longer as you're wrestling with three threads, and of course you have to unpick at least one line of stitching as it shows on the right side. I think the results are worth it though! :)

In knitting news, I may have acquired more yarn ;) One I bought, and one I was given as a thank you because Sarah from Spins and Needles asked me if I'd like to knit a shop sample!! It was very flattering to be asked :) She has just taken delivery of some Malabrigo Sock, so wanted a sample to show off in the shop. Sarah chose Damson by Ysolda Teague as she also stocks Whimsical Little Knits 2 that the pattern is in. I finished it last night and it's currently soaking ready to be blocked :) And as a thank you I got to choose a hank of the Malabrigo Sock for my very own! It's lovely yarn, so soft and the colours are beautiful. 

And another Zauberball. . . I think a yarn diet is in order! Though not a very strict one. I'm going to try and only buy yarn when I go to the monthly knit night. And I'll try and keep it to one projects worth.
Hmm, we'll see how long that lasts ;)
Ashley x

Chantilly - lining

Isn't lining fabric hard to photograph? I blame the flash and it being too dull to take the photos without it. I actually cut and sewed the lining all in one day, Monday. I just haven't had time to photograph it yet. And I've been busy with my dissertation since then, I've only had time to wash the fashion fabric. I could have fit in some sewing if it had already been cut, but cutting takes me an age because our carpet is cheap and scratchy so my knees get sore if I'm cutting for too long. And I always change into my pj's to cut out, so I don't wear through my tights! That's how awful the carpet is.

Anyway, I'm really liking the look of it so far! I love this pattern! And my darts are getting better :) Also, the lining is from Croft Mill and is much better quality than what I can get from the market. This makes it much easier to sew! 

Oh, and I've joined My Sewing Circle! I'd been meaning to for a while, but just hadn't got round to it. I need to add my past projects to it at some point. My profile is here :)

Ashley x

Chantilly - fitting #2

I've cut the seam allowances away from the waist and armholes. Lucy was right, I need to pinch out a little from the arm hole. I've transferred this to the pattern piece. Now here's the back before:

And after:

Much much better! But still not perfect. Hmm. Any ideas on those diagonal wrinkles under my arms? I think part of the problem is the darts, as the tuck I took out made the darts point towards the seam line. I've fixed this on the pattern piece so the darts are now parallel to the side seam as they were before. I also think it might be because the neckline part of the back piece is now angled downwards. So I've added a little height back to the centre back neckline and smoothed the line out.

I'm going to muslin the back again with these changes, but before I do that does anyone have any idea what could be causing those wrinkles? The changes I made were just guess work. 

Ashley x

p.s. Yesterday was weigh in day. I lost 0.8lbs and a total of 2.5 inches. Also, the waist on the Chantilly muslin isn't as super snug :)

Update After doing some googling, it seems adding a little height to the centre back was the right thing to do. I came across several sources that said diagonal wrinkles from the underarm to centre back indicate there is not enough length between the neck and the waist. So. . . another muslin is order!

Chantilly - fitting

Look!! Actual sewing has taken place! Well, kind of, it is only a muslin/toile but still! Please excuse the tummy ;) It's quite snug, but that's what I aimed for what with the weight loss/gym thing. (As a side note, my first weigh in was last Wednesday, and I lost a pound and a total of 5 inches!). 

On to the fitting! I came up with a cunning plan for the fitting. As the yoke is completely separate, I cut the size 6 so it would fit my shoulders. Then I cut a 6 for the armholes and graded out to a 12 (yep, 3 whole sizes bigger and it's still snug! Ick!). It worked pretty well!

The front fits really well I think. I wasn't sure if it was a little tight across the chest but Dom says he thinks it's ok. Opinions please? Bearing in mind that when I lose weight, it comes off my boobs a little too. As I said, it's snug across the waist but I'm ok with that for now. 

The back needs a tuck taken out horizontally. Dom pinned it out for me and I need to tuck out about an inch. Apart from that I think it's ok. Once I've taken the tuck out of the back bodice piece, I'm happy to start on the real thing :) (Unless you think I should add a little width across the bust?)

This is such a pretty pattern! I absolutely love it, and I think I'll be making more for summer dresses :)

Ashley x

It's back!!

It's back, it's back!! My sewing mojo is back!! Or at least, I'm pretty sure it is ;) I think the Pendrell dress scared it away, but now that I've decided that it's ok to have a UFO (unfinished object) I actually want to sew again because it means I don't have to work on that dreaded dress! I mean, heck, I have plenty of knitting WiPs (works-in-progress) hanging around, including a cardigan that I haven't worked on in forever. 

Now, no sewing has actually taken place yet. However, some fabric/pattern shopping has! And I have a massive urge to browse through my pattern box. Here's what I just ordered:

Chantilly

Rooibos

Bleu

The fabric is for the Chantilly, and I also ordered lining. I cannot wait!! Now I'm off to browse through my patterns!

Ashley x

I'm on a roll!

I just posted about two more Christmas presents over at the Crafty Christmas Club! My post is here :) I'm getting excited for Christmas now, but mostly I'm looking forward to going home. I've not been home since the middle of September so I'm missing everyone! Plus mums just moved house, so I'm looking forward to seeing it :) Apparently there's a church pew in the hall!

In other news. . . 

Isn't it beautiful?! And it's ring bound!! How practical! No more faffing with a silly book trying to make it stay open on the right page! It's really nice to have a reference book, so I don't have to go looking for a tutorial online. I think I'm going to try the Pastille first, as it's the only one I really have suitable fabric for. I find it so difficult to find fabric with enough drape that isn't a sheer chiffon online! It's so hard to tell, or the description will be 'suitable for dressmaking or quilting'. So not drapey then? Grr! I need a BIG fabric shop near me so I can feel and see the fabric properly. 

Is there anywhere online that sells lightweight fabrics that aren't a sheer chiffon? Please let me know!

Ashley x

New boots!

I got some new boots this week! As you can see, they're Doctor Martins. I've needed a warm pair of boots since it got colder, but the rain was the worst. Now my feet are warm and dry! :D Last winter, when we had all that snow (I haven't seen that much snow since I was about 5!) I made do with a pair of socks, plastic bags over my feet, another pair of socks, and then a pair of converse shoes. Yeah, not the warmest or the driest. I love them already! I had a little bit of rubbing on the backs of my heels, but not enough to cause a blister. After wearing them twice, the rubbing is now gone. Hurray! Also, they're gonna last a long time! Dom has had a pair for 7 years or so, and they're only just starting to fall apart. 

I paid £63 (student discount!) for a pair of warm waterproof boots that are definitely going to last the winter, and probably many more. I paid £28 for a pair of brogues from Dorothy Perkins that lasted about 6 weeks. And I didn't even wear them everyday! After 6 weeks, a hole had worn through on the bottom. At least I don't have to worry about that happening with these boots. Also, the soles are almost bouncy! So comfy :)

Anyway enough about my boots. I took my Pendrell dress out of the wardrobe and spent an hour or so removing the zip. It wouldn't have taken so long, but I had stupidly finished the seams before trying it on. Here she is after I had finally freed the zip:

The poor thing. I'm still grumpy at her, but I'm considering working on her tomorrow morning. It depends how long it takes me to write up an essay plan. I hate writing essay plans.

In knitting news, I've finished another Christmas present! And half finished another! The finished present needs blocking though, but I should hopefully have a post up over at the Crafty Christmas Club sometime this week :)

In other news, I pre-ordered the Colette Sewing Handbook from Amazon.co.uk a few weeks ago. Yesterday morning, I got an email to say my order has been cancelled as they are no longer supplying it. But then today, it back up for pre-order!! I am more than a little angry. I have already ordered it from the Book Depository, so hopefully my order won't get cancelled this time. Grrr!!

I hope you had a lovely weekend :)

Ashley x

Fabric purchases!

I found out from a member on The Sewing Forum that there is a fabric shop at the top of Steep Hill (if you've ever been to Lincoln you can't miss Steep Hill!) It must have opened during the winter, as we didn't really bother going all the way up the hill in the cold! I was ridiculously excited about a new fabric shop, so we puffed our way up the hill. It's called CallyCo, and it was lovely! Lots of lovely good quality designer fabrics. I eventually settled on 2 fabrics, I think the first was £12.90 pm and the second was £10.90 pm. So pretty expensive (for me at least!).

I bought 3.5m of this one, I plan on using it for making the Ceylon! I love this print! I just hope it isn't too big for a dress.

I love this cutesy print! I bought 2m of this one, and I plan on making a blouse from it. I haven't quite decided on the pattern yet, I'll let you know when I do :)
I also bought these:

They're so pretty, and were only £1.80 so I just had to have some! I can't wait to make these fabrics up :)
Next door to the fabric shop is a lovely whiskey shop. Dom treated himself to a bottle, which we sampled it when we got back. Now I don't usually drink whiskey neat. Nor do I usually drink such good quality whiskey. You should have seen my face at the first mouthful! Wow! I swallowed badly and coughed a little, but I was ready for the second mouthful and actually managed to taste it properly. It's good stuff! We also treated ourselves to an ice cream from the wonderful ice cream parlour across the road from the fabric shop. Delicious!
Jellybean x

Sencha - Finished!

I love this blouse. But it doesn't love me. I'm pretty sure I should have done an FBA. You'll see why in the pics:

I didn't think it looks so bad judging by these photos. Though it does make my chest look bigger and my shoulders look wider.  It looks a bit better with the Beignet:

Then I saw this one, and thought OMG my chest looks huge:

But still not so bad. But then I saw this photo, and thought yep, definitely needed an FBA. That's what dresses do when its too small for my chest. It needs more length across the chest, as my boobs kind of hitch it up.

It looks stupid, and I am not happy with it. Or rather, I'm not happy with the fit of it on me. The construction is fine, and the fabric is lovely.
So what did I do? I asked a friend if she would like it if fit her, as she is a C cup, perfect for Colette patterns! As I described it to her she got more and more excited. It fits her beautifully! :D It was very strange to see something I had made for me on someone else. I'd rather see it worn than just sat in the wardrobe though. I'm hoping to get some photos of my friend in this blouse sometime soon. I'll post em when I get em :)
I might try this blouse again in the future, but this time with an FBA.
Jellybean x

So close to Sencha

I only have the button holes and buttons to do!! :D I'm so close to being done. The colour really doesn't photograph well with a flash though. I can't wait for sunnier days!
I'm still waiting for the black silk crepe from Cheapfabrics though. I sent them a message nearly 2 weeks ago and received no reply. I'm getting rather annoyed.
As the Beignet and Sencha took so long to complete, I think I've had enough of these patterns for now. I'll definitely be revisiting them though! As for the red Klona cotton fabric that I was going to use for the second Beignet, I'm planning on making a blouse out of it. And the black cotton underlining that was supposed to be for the silk crepe Sencha? I'm tired of waiting for the silk, I figure I'll just get some more black cotton to underline it when the silk gets here. In the mean time, I'll use the black cotton to make a skirt. I'm still deciding on the patterns, so I'll let you know when I decide! :)
More later!
Jellybean x

Slow going Sencha

Look at it. The poor thing, its had that one side finished since Sunday night and has been hanging sadly on the wardrobe door since then. I just haven't bothered to work on it. Maybe later? I don't know, I had hoped to have finished the 2 Beignets and 2 Senchas by the end of February! Ha! Ah well, I'll do it when I fancy it I suppose :)
Jellybean x

Beignet Skirt - Finished!!

Now, I had wanted to take some lovely pictures of me in the skirt around Lincoln inspired by the always lovely photo's Debi takes of her finished projects. However, it turned out my photographer/fiance Dom was actually at work! He'd remembered wrong, its next Saturday that he's off work. I suppose it's for the best because when I opened the curtains, this is what I saw:

Not exactly ideal picture taking conditions. So when Dom left for work, I eventually got the tripod up, and worked out how to attach the camera to it. Then I spent the next half an hour working out how to set it to self timer and making it focus in the right place as the auto focus isn't on and I've still not got round to asking Dom to turn it back on! Then I got dressed up nice :)

Yay, I'm so pleased with it, I like it alot :) I love the belt too, its so cute! I used Tilly's tutorial. Also, it's my face! I finally had the courage to show my face! Trying to choose pictures was really hard, there were many more that were just awful. I can still find something wrong with myself in every single one of these pictures, but in the end I just had to try and stop criticising myself and get a grip! Lol. I'm hoping choosing pictures of myself and the clothes I make will get easier as I go along. I'm going to try hard to stop criticising how I look and just be happy with myself. 

Anyway, enough rambling! What do you think? :) Also, I'd love to know which is your favourite picture!

Jellybean x

ps. the necklace is the one I showed you here!

Marital Rating scale

You might have already come across this, but I thought I'd share it with you anyway :)
This a Marital Rating Scale from 1939. There is a scale for the wives and a scale for the husbands. Here's the first page of both:

Click on the picture to make it bigger so you can read it. I also found the rest of the scale uploaded by a Flikr user here. When viewing each image, right click and choose 'original'. This makes it plenty big enough to read :) I've just done the husbands one, and came out with 79! Very Superiour! lol Of course, some things like the ones to do with cars and children, I had to imagine. This is ok, I know Dom well enough after nearly 6 years to know if he'd let me use the car if I needed it! There are some very funny ones, and some in the demerits column that I don't mind so much. Have a read through, its really interesting, really gives you a feel for what a marriage was meant to be like in 1939!
Also, my Beignet is 99% done!! :D The skirt itself is finished, but I want to make a belt using Tilly's Bow Belt tutorial. Then of course there are the belt loops to do. Hopefully I'll get that done today, and it can go in the wash tonight to get rid of chalk marks and stuff. I'm hoping to wear it tomorrow, so will take pictures for you then :)
Jellybean x