magazine – Sew Dainty

Posted on 18/11/2020 by sewdainty — Leave a comment

Fibre Mood Elodie

Issue 12 of the latest Fibre Mood magazine is out today, and I was lucky enough to take a peek at the patterns that it contains a few weeks ago, and choose one to share with you on launch day today *

It wasn’t an easy choice, there are lots to choose from, I think that there are twelve, including three children’s patterns.

In the end I opted for The Elodie Dress, which looks deceptively simple, but actually features some lovely details when you look a little closer.

The basic dress is a simple round necked bodice with a centre back zip and an a-line skirt. Add to that the long puffed sleeves with statement cuffs, optional ruffle at the hem of the skirt and waist casing with tie belt and you really have something special.

The pattern calls for the fabric to have ‘fluid drape’, so I chose this floral viscose from Sewisfaction. I was drawn to it because of it’s olive coloured base, and I adore how it is absolutely covered with pink and blue flowers.

I chose to make a size 10. Looking at the size chart, it puts me in a size 12 bust, and 10 hips and waist. Then checking the finished garment sizes with ease, went for a straight size 10 as it looked like this would be spot on. The finished fit of the dress feels good. My measurements are 36-29-38.

Before cutting out, I had a good look at the pattern design to check if I might need to make any changes to the paper pattern before I cut into my gorgeous fabric.

I knew that the length of the dress would be too long for me. So that I could get a rough idea of the length I pinned the front bodice, waist casing, skirt and ruffle together and held it up to me in a full length mirror to see how long it looked. This only gives me a rough idea of course, but it told me that I definitely needed to take some length from the skirt. (the bodice length looked roughly ok). So before cutting out I shortened the length of the skirt pattern piece by 10cm. (I’m 5’2″ for reference).

The bodice of the dress is very simple. It has a high round neckline which is finished with bias binding. I had enough fabric left over to make my own bias tape from the dress fabric. An 8″/20cm invisible zipper sits at the centre back neckline and the bodice is fairly loose and relaxed meaning that no bust darts are required.

Gold mirror acrylic button necklace from my shop here x

The sleeves. Take a moment to appreciate. They are magnificent don’t you think? Nicely gathered at the front, top and back ensures they have volume to say the least, but somehow they’re not ‘over the top’ which was what I was worried about. They feel like they should be on this dress, and it would be a shame if they weren’t.

On the original pattern the sleeves finish with an exaggerated long open cuff finished with a button and rouleau loop. Whilst some would say that this is the main feature of this pattern, I just knew that I could not get on with a long open cuff, it would drive me crazy, so I just made a simple adjustment to the cuff pattern piece and cut out a basic rectangle (which needed 2 x buttons and rouleau loops per cuff), and I felt that this would be a more practical cuff for my everyday life.

I did hit a few problems here. Whilst I used the length of the original cuff pattern to ensure I had the same length cuff as the original, once they were sewed on I found that the cuff openings weren’t big enough to allow the sleeve to slide up my arms when I raised my hands above my head. I couldn’t lift my arms up! So I had to unpick these cuffs and make them longer in length (an extra 4.5cm in my case), giving them a wider opening when finished so that they gave me unrestricted movement when I raised my arms. It’s safe to say that my arms are not restricted now in any way! The depth of my cuff pattern piece was 8cm by the way.

Although they blend into the background, I self covered my buttons, which looks so pretty. Admittedly they are rather camouflaged so maybe a contrast button might have been a better ( and simpler) choice!

The pattern doesn’t come with pockets in the skirt, so I added simple in-seam pockets to my version.

I like how the waist casing is made and attached to the bodice pieces and the skirt pieces. It’s clever how this is used as a casing for elastic and a faux tie is attached through the buttonholes in the casing where the elastic has been threaded through, to make it look like the tie belt is gathering the waist. Clever. Gotta love an elasticated dress right?

When the dress was finished I think I hit the jackpot in terms of getting the length just right. I certainly would have been sorry if I had shortened the skirt pieces by any more – phew!

* Disclaimer: I was kindly gifted my choice of the Elodie pattern by Fibre Mood to sew and share. As always my review is honest and all opinions are entirely my own. This post contains some affiliate links. This means that I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you if you click through and purchase something that I have linked to. Thank you.

I’ve ended up with a fantastic dress despite a few hiccups with the cuff sizing! It certainly took me longer to sew that I originally thought it would, so is not a quick make, but the style is very ‘me’ and I have no doubts that I will be returning to sew this pattern again and again.

Take care, and I’ll be back soon, Kathy x

Posted on 13/11/2020 by sewdainty — 6 Comments

A Burda Style pintuck pleated smock dress.

Well this dress was a long time coming. It’s dress number 106 from Burda Style magazine issue December 2019!

I first noticed this when the lovely Jay Jay from The Camden Stitch mentioned it in one of her Christmas Vlogs last year – this one in fact! She flicked through it whilst having a coffee at St Pancras Station and when she paused to look at this dress I instantly decided that I needed that issue of the magazine too.

It’s been years since I bought a Burda magazine, and turns out they’re really good value. This was £5.99 for 221 patterns apparently! Not quite sure how work out 221 patterns, they must be including each size of each pattern I reckon, but there certainly are quite a few. In fact now that I have made this one I might get around to making another pattern that I also really liked in the same magazine..

Don’t worry if you don’t have the magazine, but still like this dress. I’ve got your back. It’s available as a individual pattern purchase here. You are welcome! Ha!

The dress is a smock style pleated dress. I have called it a pintuck dress, not sure if this is exactly right as I imagine pintucks to be really tiny, and these are fairly wide. But hey ho, whatever you call it it’s pretty cute right?

Alongside the pleats/pintucks it has a fantastic tie at the back of the neck – you know how I am a sucker for a tie back! It also has an unusual flounce insert at the bottom of the back of the dress, which I actually left out because I wasn’t that keen on it. Simple long sleeves complete the look.

The sample in the book was made up in a viscose which is probably my absolute fave fabric to sew with, so I used a pretty mustard floral viscose from my stash that I bought from Like Sew Amazing during the Summer. Sadly this particular fabric looks like it might be sold out now, but there are plenty of other beautiful alternatives over in her lovely shop.

Before I even start we need to address the reason why a lot of people are hesitant to use patterns from the Burda magazine. It’s the tracing. The magazine comes with one pattern sheet containing the all the pattern markings for every pattern in the book. It’s completely crazy. Take your time to read through what you need and where to look for them and don’t do what I did which is start to trace out late afternoon when the light is starting to go. Big mistake. To make it a little easier for myself I used a Frixion highlighter pen to draw over the lines that I needed to trace off before placing the tracing paper on top. This makes it much easier to follow the correct line when tracing and not be distracted by the others. Seam and hem allowances are not included in these magazine patterns by the way, so don’t forget to add these in before cutting out.

I made up the size 40 (with no adjustments), and my measurements are 36-29-38

The pattern was super easy to sew up actually. The main thing that I was concerned about was keeping the pleats nice and neat when I was sewing them as I thought the viscose might be too soft. Turns out they were no problem at all, they pressed nicely when I pinned them in place and stayed put when I sewed them in. Winner winner. I’m very surprised with how nicely they turned out (I was not expecting that)! It’s a shame the pattern on the fabric makes them really difficult to see from a distance. This would be a super dress using a chambray or lightweight linen so that you could really work on showing off those tucks.!

Silver button acrylic necklace available from my shop here

I also love love LOVE the tie at the back of the neckline. Sadly once again this kinda disappears into the pattern of the fabric but I hope you can get the idea. The ties are really long which is super cute I think.

Finally as I mentioned before, the dress has a flounce that is added to the bottom of the dress back. I didn’t particularly like this so when I cut the pattern out, so I just made the front and back dress pieces the same length and ignored the flounce piece.

I must be honest, the back view is not very flattering. I mean, I guess a smock is never going to be. I’ll add a pic here. Hmmm I did wonder if it would look better a little shorter. We’ll see. I can always go back to that. Or maybe I could add a belt?

The finished result has really pleased me, I wasn’t expecting to love it as I do. I was wearing a navy cardigan with it before we took the pics and that looked really nice – I should have taken some pics of it as that is definitely how I would wear it at the moment. With thick coloured tights and shoe boots or trainers. It’s a yes from me!

Take care, and I’ll be back soon,

Kathy x

Posted on 17/06/202017/06/2020 by sewdainty — Leave a comment

Fibre Mood Lola

The latest edition of Fibre Mood magazine is available from today (issue 10), and I was lucky enough to receive a preview of the patterns and had the opportunity to choose my favourite and sew it up in time for the launch. *

Whilst all of the patterns for issue 10 are contained in the magazine, they are available to purchase individually too.

This is the Lola, a dreamy ruffled sleeveless top, with an open back and neck ties, and as soon as I saw the selection for issue 10, this was the one that I was drawn to (although it was a difficult choice….) Regular readers will know that I have this thing for ruffles and ties, and this ticked both boxes!

My fabric choice is the sweetest embroidered floral cotton from Lucky Fashions, and I couldn’t be happier with it. Excellent customer service from them by the way.

I used the A4 print at home option of the PDF, and foolishly printed it out in it’s original format. Whilst there is nothing wrong with this, you will end up with every size, including the cutting lines and stitching lines of each size. As you can imagine this was quite ‘busy’ to look at and pick out the cutting lines that I wanted to trace off, so I highlighted the lines I needed before I traced out my size. If only I had followed the Fibre Mood guidance video here.

The pattern consists of 9 pieces, and is rated by Fibre Mood as a 3/5 in terms of difficulty. This project isn’t for the faint at heart, and is quite challenging to sew, and a fair bit of sewing experience under your belt is necessary I feel. The written instructions and illustrations are good, but sometimes I needed to bring in a bit of my own knowledge to fully understand them. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed sewing this blouse, and was delighted how well it came together.

The only addition I made was to top stitch above the ruffle, catching in the seam allowance just to make sure that the ruffles behaved themselves and lay nice and flat. I mean, nobody has time for badly behaved ruffles do they! Ha!

If you think that the blouse is pretty from the front – check out the back! How sweet is the elasticated open back and the neck tie?

I made a straight size 38, and I think next time that I make this I will need to make a gaping neckline adjustment to the two back pieces where they attach to the neck ties (to allow those pattern pieces to lay more flat). A gaping neckline adjustment is something that I often have to do, and I feel that this would improve the fit for me at the back greatly.

I hope that you like it as much as I do, it’s the perfect cool top on hot Summer days…

To celebrate each magazine launch, the Fibre Mood website showcases all of the garments that have been made in advance by bloggers from that issue. This is called a Link Party. The link party for this new magazine issue is called Link Party #14 and you can see my blouse along with lots of other inspiring makes from the latest magazine here.

Take care, and I’ll be back soon,

Kathy x

*This pattern was very kindly gifted to me to sew and share my honest opinions with you today, and this blog post contains affiliate links x

Posted on 25/01/2018 by sewdainty — 18 Comments

My Vogue V1392 off the shoulder dress pattern review for Sewing World magazine.

I have been bursting to share this dress make with you since last August! I was kindly approached by Minerva Crafts who asked if I would be interested in working with them in reviewing a pattern for Sewing World magazine. Of course I jumped at the chance, and as it was such an amazing opportunity, I wanted the garment to be really special.

I chose the most beautiful dress pattern I could find, Vogue V1392, which is a Vogue pattern in collaboration with Kay Unger. It’s a stunning design and the first time I have used a Vogue pattern before!

My fabric choice was this pretty stretch brocade, I love the sage green and dusky pink colour combination.

The full review of the dress is available now in the current issue of Sewing World magazine (February issue 264), so I won’t go into details of the make here, but I can’t resist sharing a couple of pics of the make which aren’t in the magazine…

vogue12 — These cute little elasticated straps are hidden in the shoulder straps to stop them from slipping – so clever!

vogue8 — So many layers to the skirt – main fabric, organza petticoat and lining too.

vogue6 — Pattern matching is always challenging but worth it!

So, I think it only fair to leave it here and direct you to Sewing World magazine to read the full review, but I would love to take this opportunity to thank Sewing World for allowing me to share my thoughts with their readers and to Minerva Crafts for their generosity in supplying me with such superb supplies, they were a dream to work with.

Take care, and I’ll be back soon,

Kathy x

Posted on 21/12/2017 by sewdainty — 11 Comments

My latest Sewisfaction Blogger Team post – The Jade Dress from Simply Sewing magazine

Hi everyone!

Just a quick one today to mention that my latest make as part of the Sewisfaction blogger team is now up on the Sewisfaction website. Do head on over and take a peek for all the details and lots more pics. If you want a dress that looks a little special, but feels like you are wearing your pyjamas, then this is worth a read!

See you over at Sewisfaction!

Take care, and I’ll be back soon,

Kathy x

Posted on 24/07/2017 by sewdainty — 2 Comments

Dressmaker of the Year – Winner for the ‘Ready to Wear’ Category.

I’m still pinching myself.

A few months ago, I decided to enter The Dressmaker of the Year competition. Not because I thought I had any chance of coming anywhere, but because I noticed that if you entered you would receive a free sewing pattern.

I wasn’t sure which garment to enter, but in the end chose my Joni Dress by The Fold Line. My reasons for choosing this dress was that it had attracted several comments when I had worn it, so thought it might be a good one to choose, I also had no time to make up something new. Decision made. I put in an online entry, attached a photo of the dress, and chose the free pattern that I wanted to receive.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when, in March, I heard that I had been shortlisted as a finalist. No way!

The next thing to do was to send off my dress to London so that it could be examined by the panel of judges. It was at this point that I wished I had maybe made a garment specifically for this competition, rather that choosing something that I had made not knowing that it would be looked at in detail by a panel of sewing experts! Oh dear – too late now! I’m usually pretty careful with how my garment looks inside as well as out so kept my fingers crossed that it would be up to their standard too!

After a nail biting wait, I was (and still am) over the moon to hear that I had won first place in the ‘Ready to Wear’ category. Little old me, who would ever have thought!

This was such a wonderful surprise for me, especially as the competition had more than 1,200 entries from all over the world!

My prize was a sweet sewing basket from Korbond which will come in useful for all the little bits and bobs in my sewing space that currently don’t have a home.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading some lovely articles in Make it Today Dressmaker magazine and Sew magazine too. All very exciting! Thank you to these publications for organising such a fun competition! Thank you also to Brother, Create and Craft and Korbond for their generous prizes.

The well deserved overall winner for her ‘Customising’ enry is Portia Lawrie. Her quilted upcycled denim jacket is superb and inspirational. I think you would love Portia’s website linked above, particularly at the moment as she is organising a huge huge raffle to support those affected by the Grenfell disaster, head on over to find out how you can join in!

The other three talented and creative sewists that are winners in their category are

Angela Green in the ‘vintage’ category
Georgia Marshall-Brown in the ‘children’s wear’ category
Harriet Johnson in the ‘reader’s choice’ category with her amazing Party Rings two-piece! Love this one!

Thank you so much for all the sweet comments that so many of you have sent via social media when the winners were announced. I am so grateful for your support, and it means so much to me.

What I have learned from this whole experience, and what I am sharing with you today, is that we should just ‘go for it’ – you never know what might happen!

Take care, and I’ll be back soon,

Kathy x

Posted on 19/04/2017 by sewdainty — Leave a comment

‘Dressmaker of the year’ Finalist!

Hi friends,

I recently had the amazing news that I had been shortlisted to be a finalist in the Make it Today Dressmaker Of The Year Awards. Yes, little old me.

This is a huge shock and I was totally blown away by this honour. The dress that I submitted was the Joni dress by The Fold Line.

I loved making this dress, and the fabric was a particular favourite of mine too. If you are interested in reading the full review then you can do so here.

The dress has been sent off for judging in London, which I believe took place yesterday. I feel pretty nervous that such esteemed judges have been examining my dress in close detail!

Whilst the overall winners will be chosen by the judging panel, there is the opportunity for anyone to vote in the ‘Readers Choice’ category. If you take the time to vote you are automatically entered into a competition to win some great sewing prizes – a lovely sewing book bundle and a years subscription to either ‘Sew’ or ‘Make it Today’ magazine. These prizes are worth £230!

If you would like to have the chance to win these prizes, I will leave a link here, I think you will be impressed by the variety of entries – there is a childrens category, vintage, ready to wear and customising category, so why not take a look, have a little vote and give yourself a chance to win a great sewing prize at the same time!

Don’t hang about though! The entries for this will close on the 25th April!

Whilst I am here, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the support and encouragement that you have given me since I started this little blog last October. Yesterday I received a notification that 100 people are now following me, so if you are one of them, I would like to say a very big thank you, it means the world to me.

The good news is I have lots of sewing plans lined up, and I look forward to sharing these all with you!

Thank you all, take care and I’ll be back soon,

Kathy x

Posted on 20/03/2017 by sewdainty — 6 Comments

McCalls M7381 Dress Pattern Review

I was delighted to see that in the latest edition of Love Sewing magazine, issue 37, the free pattern was this McCalls M7381. I love floaty dresses and this looked like it was right up my street.

The size range in this single pattern is quite impressive too. It covers sizes XS through to XXL. Pretty good (until you get to the part when you want to fold the pattern pieces back up and try to get them back in the envelope! Ha! Several versions of the dress are available to choose from. Long sleeves, short sleeves, sleeveless and maxi length. I chose view C.

My fabric choice was from Minerva crafts found here. Its a beautiful viscose challis and the print is adorable. I must admit that I love the Minerva web site, most often as well as a good description of the fabric there is a video which shows you how the fabric drapes, creases, stretches and how sheer it is. Super helpful.

The most difficult part of making up any pattern is deciding what size to cut. I must admit that very often now I will cut a toile, not great when you want to quickly get on with a new pattern but quite often necessary. I should have done so in this case and I didn’t. Off I jolly well went and after pre-washing the fabric (now this really is essential and I never skip doing this)! I chose to cut the pattern in a size large which is what my body measurements showed as on size chart on the envelope. I was nervous as this would normally by accompanied by a ‘finished measurement’ size chart which I would refer to but couldn’t see this.

The dress is fairly straightforward to make up. The bodice was the most complicated part because it is lined, so requires several pattern pieces. This was a nice challenge for me as I have made several very easy patterns of late and it was good to sew up something a little more challenging (but still not too difficult). After the bodice is made up the rest of the pattern comes together quickly.

Some pretty features of this pattern are the pleat details at the shoulders and skirt front. I also like the faux tie belt feature at the front waist.

It is comfortable to put on and wear, and has an elasticated waist at the back of the skirt. Snap studs or poppers are hand sewn in on the bodice front, although I moved the placement of mine to show less cleavage!

As you can probably see from the photos the dress has come up much too large. I could have easily have gone down at least one size band. The bodice has far too much room in it and the elasticated gathers at the back just seem to accentuate this unfortunately. Boo.

If i had not been in so much of a rush to cut it out and make it I probably would have read a couple of really good reviews by Amy and Rachel where both mention the size aspect of this pattern. Do head over to these lovely ladies blog posts if you are considering making this dress, I’m sure that you will find it useful.

I really enjoyed making the bodice lining for this dress. I feel it gives the dress much more of a finished look and looks so much better than seeing the seams on the inside. I also remembered to pop in one of my name labels – I often forget to do this when I get engrossed in my sewing!

Don’t let my sizing problem put you off making this lovely pattern. At the time of releasing this post I believe that issue 37 of Love Sewing may still be current- just. (next issue out March 23rd) so if you’re interested in a free copy of this pattern you may still be able to track down an issue before issue 38 comes out later in the week!

I think this dress can be rescued with some little adjustments here and there from me. It would be a shame not to enjoy it this Summer as I do love so love the fabric.

Have you made this dress, what did you think?

Take care, and I’ll be back soon,

Kathy

Posted on 11/11/2016 by sewdainty — 4 Comments

The Fold Line Joni Dress Pattern Review

As soon as I saw this dress I knew I wanted it! I had first noticed it mentioned on social media on @thefoldline and @SimplySewing_ on Twitter. I knew that if Rachel and Kate from the Fold Line were to have any involvement at all in a project it would be a good one! I instantly fell in love with the style of the dress, particularly the flattering pleats, and the contrasting placket, collar and cuffs reminded me very much of a couple of my very favourite RTW dresses that I reach for time and time again when I want to look my best.

So off I went and purchased Simply Sewing magazine issue 22. This was the first time I had bought this particular magazine and it won’t be the last. Apart from the Jodi dress pattern there are tons of projects that I will be making up in the future – one of which is the pattern for the Sew Over it Erin skirt – watch out for a blog on that very soon. The magazine has a lovely feel to it and I have really enjoyed picking it up and relaxing with it this month (when I haven’t been sewing)!

I was really pleased with the paper pattern and instructions. The pattern pieces were printed on good quality paper and clearly marked. The instructions were clear and simple, not overwhelming at all which can sometimes be the case, and accompanied by plenty of colour photos to help you along.

I decided to use some fabric that I already had in my stash. It is a gorgeous grey and green print that I picked up last year from a trip to Florida, and I have been itching for the opportunity to use it. It is called Fresh Mint Posies Grey I believe and it is from http://www.emmamila.com I picked it up at Walmart.

For the most part it was simple to make. The pockets may look like they would be tricky but are as easy as anything when you follow the instructions carefully. I do love me some pockets in a dress, I mean who doesn’t?

The contrasting cuffs are super cute too. So pretty with the little split detail and again not difficult at all when you are following such precise instructions. The photographs on the instruction sheet were particularly helpful with this part of the pattern.

The collar I found to be the most challenging part of this make. It is not a simple round collar but has a little shape detail along the inner edge. This is a tiny bit tricky and I had to be very very careful when sewing this edge. Lots of care needs to be taken as you would expect with trimming and clipping these edges so that the finished collar lays flat. I’m pretty pleased with how it came out though and I think I worried about it more than I needed to. The button placket was the finishing touch and I love the grey contrasting pieces on this dress, it really is something special.

Something else to mention is the zip. It requires a 22″ invisible zip and whilst I contemplated using an exposed zip, as I really like the look of these I stuck with the invisible and glad that I did. I have only sewn an invisible zip once before, way back when, so had some concerns, but after a little internet research (mainly YouTube) I felt confident to go for it. Again I was really pleased with the outcome. I did purchase an invisible zipper foot for my machine for this project which was great fun to use and I know I will get a lot of use out of it in the future.

Everything else is pretty much straightforward. The set in sleeves are not a problem, a little bit of topstitching and understitching here and there and ‘bob’s your uncle’ a dress that comes together really quickly. It is a great fit for me and came up true to size which I’m so happy about as I really don’t have the patience to make a toile (naughty, naughty) so is always a risk with beautiful fabric like this. The only very minor alteration I made was to turn the hem up slightly more as I’m only 5’2″. I think next time I may make it in a less fussy fabric, as the beautiful pleats are a little lost amongst the design of the fabric, but so happy with it overall. The long sleeves are a nice feature of this dress too and are perfect for Autumn.

I hope you have enjoyed my thoughts on this pattern. Thanks for taking the time to read my review. I have loved making this dress and can’t wait to wear it now. Have you made a Jodi dress? I would love to hear from you. Do check out http://www.thefoldline.com it is a gorgeous online sewing community full of patterns, reviews and news. Check it out!

Take care and I’ll be back soon,

Kathy x