A Ribbon-trimmed Fifi Camisole/Slip

Last summer Sew Crafty Online held a Facebook competition with a huge prize package. I couldn't believe that I won and was speechless when the incredibly generous prize arrived in the post. All of Tilly and the Buttons sewing patterns, with fabric, a carrier bag and a neat measuring tape were included.

 

It really is about time I sewed something from that wonderful parcel...

 

I picked the Fifi camisole pattern (extending the length), some beautiful AnnaMarie Horner voile fabric (from my stash), soft blue denim and sage gingham ribbons from Jane Means ..... et voilà!

 

 

 

This pattern was a very pleasant surprise - excellent & detailed instructions, easy to sew, neat finishing techniques, bias-cut and gently fitted shape. I hadn't expected these details from Tilly's patterns. My perception (inaccurate) was that her patterns were basic and mostly unfitted/loose as some of the earlier ones were.

 

 

I both simplified and complicated the sewing process. Using ribbons made it easier to create the straps, but making them adjustable needed a little more brainpower! I attached ribbon loops at the back and threaded the ribbons through. This was an easy alteration to make, and would be very useful if making the Fifi pattern as a gift with nobody available for fitting.

 

A soft ribbon like this denim ribbon is recommended as I was able to press it into shape, to conform to the curves of the pattern. Good pressing technique is crucial to make ribbons work for this pattern, and it is worthwhile for the time it saves in creating bias strips.

 

 

 

 

Not wanting to lose length at the hem, I sewed a tiny seam covered with gingham ribbon hem to preserve as much length as possible.

It was necessary to get very creative when I realised I was short a few cm of ribbon for the hem. I turned to another favourite ribbon company of mine, Farbenmix and added a woven patch and a short piece of one of their fun woven ribbons to cover the gap.

 

 

The beautifully neat, inside finishing details are, very impressively, all included in the pattern instructions. Usually I would have to figure out how to include these details myself.

 

 

Adding a ribbon to the hem is not included in the pattern instructions, but gives a little extra weight to the hem and also finishes it neatly - as seen from the inside.

 

 

All the inside seams are French-seamed and the inside back view shows how well the pattern is designed and styled for a closer fit at the back.

 

I love this pattern and have a bias-cut, ivory bamboo silk version with gingham bias trim and straps cut and ready to sew.

 

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Ribbon Dresses & How-to Select Ribbons for Sewing

The inspiration for these dresses came from a few sources, particularly the Great British Sewing Bee, Kids Clothes Week & a series on sewing from Japanese sewing Books!

Kids Clothes Week at the end of April gave me the push to start sewing the dresses but it was the wonderful series on sewing from Japanese Pattern Books that helped me decide to sew a Japanese pattern. I used a pattern from this book, bought from an excellent eBay seller. The fabric for these dresses is quilting cotton, the blue is from Oliver&S and the yellow/lime fabric is from Heather Bailey.

I loved the BBC's recent TV series about sewing and watching Lauren's approach to adding details & embellishment on the Great British Sewing Bee confirmed my own love of adding fun elements like ribbons, facings and other details to what I sew. The haberdashery and fabric showcased each week on the show (and linked to by the Sewing Directory) was impressive, in particular all the beautiful ribbon which was supplied by Jane Means.

I had fun picking ribbons for these dresses, so I listed what I consider important when I'm selecting ribbons, though it may be obvious!

How to Pick and Choose Ribbons for Sewing:

There are no simple rules for selecting ribbon types and colours when sewing dresses like these.

• Ensuring the ribbons are pretreated (eg by washing) in the same way as the fabric is important, so that the finished garment will be washable.
• Picking a theme is helpful, especially here as so many ribbons were being used. I chose striped ribbons for one dress & the other has spotty ribbons (see above).
• Deciding on ribbon colour can also be complicated, but keeping with Colour wheel recommendations, I like to keep to 3 main colours. These can be complementary or contrasting - as you can see below I initially considered raspberry as a strong contrast.
• Focusing on colours in the fabric that can be matched is also a good start.
• Use ribbons to highlight a specific feature. As these dresses have square hems, I chose ric-rac and decorative ribbon to create a focal point on the garment.
• Personalise and add fun elements, especially when sewing children's clothes. These dresses were for two 6 year olds, so the music and dog ribbon were added to personalise the dresses to the girls interests.

 

Trust your instincts when choosing ribbon colours for sewing projects. Lay your ribbons out on the fabric for a day or so. Swap, move and change ribbons around until they begin to look and feel right to you. Aim to enjoy the process, rather than putting yourself under pressure to find the 'perfect'' ribbon. There really is no 'right or wrong' ribbon!

 

I used quite a selection of JaneMeans ribbons on these dresses, but also included details like Liberty bias binding, flat-felled side seams and ........

....... an exposed zipper. These have been around the fashion world for a few years, and I've finally decided I like them! I've seen them sewn a few different ways in tutorials, but generally followed this tutorial from BurdaStyle

I love the simplicity of these dresses, which look like a regular a-line style, when hanging.

However the unusual shape isn't fully evident unless the dress is being worn, or is spread out fully.

I sewed the lime-coloured dress first to help me with sizing for the blue dress (for my niece). The lime dress ended up being a little short so I sewed up leggings for my daughter to wear with the Riviera pattern from the Sewing Clothes Kids Love book.

 

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A Birthday Gift - Girl's Dress with Princess Seams

(Aka: How to sew a Communion dress part 1 - The Muslin)

My niece (also my goddaughter) turned 9 recently, and as usual my gift is a dress. Most dresses I made for her over the last few years have lots of ruffles, or are in brighter colours, so I toned it down dramatically this year as she tends not to like too many flowers or frills - oops, oops & ahem oops!!

The major reason this dress is different from others that I made her, is because it's a practice run for her Communion dress.

She is making her First Holy Communion next month and I offered to make her dress - very exciting, if more than a bit nerve-wracking!

We picked a style by going specialist shops and she was very specific about what she wanted - fairly fitted, not fussy, with a wide a-line type skirt. The style she most liked had a chiffon outer layer, underlined with satin and then lined, with a diagonal sash on the bodice (and costing €230!)

Fabric was bought at Hickeys Cork (costing approx €50), but not a pattern, as I already had Vogue 7845 - the exact style she wanted.

 

The next major step was a muslin which I usually try to avoid, so that's why I made her this style of birthday dress.

As I prepared the pattern, I noted the sizes on the pattern are 7-8-10, which is just the age before puberty for most girls. Vogue, however, seem to know something that I don't and when I compared the bodice pieces, I found they were shaped to give extra room at the bust - see the pattern pieces on the right above.

My newly found pattern drafting skills do not yet extend to drafting princess seams, so luckily the summer 2012 edition of Young Image magazine came to the rescue! I copied the Princess seams from Y1204, redrafted the neckline and used the skirt shape from the Vogue pattern and finally got to sew the birthday/practice dress.

The Communion dress will be lined, so I also lined this dress. Sewing the princess seams was interesting, and the first time I've tried it. I found that sewing from the end of the skirt, right up to the top made it easier to sew the curved seams at the bodice (There are some great tips in Simon Henry's book Little Best Dress on sewing curved seams)

 

All the seams are hidden, and there's an invisible zip, which is actually not that invisible! The Vogue pattern has a curved centre-back seam, which made matching the dots more difficult.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual I couldn't resist adding a trim somewhere. I had almost decided to add ribbon to highlight the princess seams, but I went for simplicity this time and just used a ribbon from Farbenmix on the hem.

What is a pretty dress without an accessory?! The heart-shaped bag is a from a Japanese Pattern Book.

My niece was delighted with her dress, and she wore it for the one warm spring day we had recently! The feedback on the sizing was that the bodice and neckline are perfect, but the waist is about 2cm above her waist - an easy fix!

This week I am planning on making a lot of progress on the dress .....

 

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Colourful Teacher Gifts

 

Last year, for teacher gifts, I made the Mother & Daughter Totes from Oliver+S which is one of their free patterns. I'm not sure why I didn't make them again this year, but this pattern on Sew4home caught my eye.

It is a Roll-up Makeup Brush Case, made with a wipe-clean lining. Most of these type of patterns have square corners, but I liked the curved corners and the Sew4home website gives a template for this.

 

It's a lovely easy pattern and what took me the most time was joining the bias binding on the outside.

This is the inside of one of the rolls with some mini brushes inside

and opened out to get the full effect.

I used a very varied mixture of fabric from Stenzo, Hilco, Moda, Farbenmix, Patty Young and laminated cottons from Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner.

 

I've had a lot of fun making these, matching and mis-matching colours of fabrics, bias and ribbons. I have 2 more to make and that will be the end of my assembly-line sewing for a while.



 

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A Feliz, and lesson learnt!

This the second dress I made for my goddaughter for her birthday this year. The first was the purple Lisette dress. She has just turned 8 and still loves dresses, but I thought it might be the last year that I could get away with making her a very ruffled dress.

The main fabric is a Hilco cotton, the red ruffle fabrics are scraps I had left, and the lining is a very lightweight cotton.

(inside front view)

All the side panel seams are flat-felled and the hems have Farbenmix ribbon sewn over them to give some weight to the dress as it is so twirly.

(inside back view)

The seam allowance of the 4 ruffles on the back are also covered in ribbon, and I gathered these using the technique I mentioned at the end of the last post. As I still dislike gathering, this meant a little less 'pain' and a lot less thread!

I thought I was quite the expert in making up this Farbenmix pattern. After making a few other versions, (can't believe it's nearly 2 years since I sewed a Feliz!) I noticed that the straps tended to slip off the shoulder at times. As it had happened with more than one dress, I went back to look at the Feliz Sewing Guide on the Farbenmix site. Some of these are in German, but the pictures are excellent.

When the pattern pieces for the straps are sewn together, there is a larger curve on one side. Intuitively, I presumed this should be closest to the neck. Lesson learnt!!! (less intuition, more following pattern instructions!). The larger curved side of the strap goes on the shoulder side, and the straps stay on the shoulders perfectly......

...even through lots of twirling. My daughter tried this on for me on a cold afternoon - hence the boots and long-sleeved top.

At the moment I'm working on this knot dress pattern for a 'Sewing on a Budget' Blogger Challenge from Abakhan Fabrics. I'm hoping the colours will work together!

 

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More Little Lisettes

I'm so delighted that I got these dresses (Little Lisette 2063) finished - thanks to KCWC. It doesn't seem much, after a week of sewing, but a few 'inconveniences' such as not enough fabric, and cutting pieces out incorrectly caused some delays!

The pink dress is for my just-turned-6 year old niece, who told me her favourite colours were pink, purple (no surprise!) and orange. My daughter loves spending time with her, so enjoyed helping me decide on fabric. My niece has blue eyes and light brown hair, so I wasn't sure if pink was her colour, so the neck binding has some blue stripes which I hope will help.

The neckline binding is a lovely detail on this pattern, and is explained very clearly, especially how neatly the ends are finished.

The buttons are on the opposite sides of the dresses because of a mistake I made in cutting out the bodice pieces for the white dress. It was almost a disaster as I had no more fabric left, so lots of alternative thinking was needed. If I hadn't added lining to the dresses, it might have been much more difficult to fix!

 

The inside, lined with a very lightweight cotton. I flat-felled all the side seams, as well as the ruffle seams so the dresses would be comfortable to wear.

 

 

 

My favourite part, the ribbons which hide the seam allowance of the ruffles. 3 of the ribbons are Farbenmix, and I have forgotten where I bought the one with pink elephants. My daughter picked these out, I think they're her favourite part too.

 

The white fabric is a Hilco cotton from Dotsnstripes, and, if I remember correctly, the polka dot is a Stenzo from Volksfaden

As I only had 1 metre of each of these fabrics, I had to cut the lower 2 ruffles as rectangles instead of curved like the pattern piece. These were cut a few inches wider than the pattern pieces. I also cut the underdress wider at the lower hem, which make the dress more twirly.

 

My daughter had a lot of fun trying these on. This is, she told me, her 'funky dance'!??

 

And the twirling picture .....

 

I really thought all the ruffles would get the better of me, but once I got started they weren't so bad. As I have no ruffler foot, and always get tangled in all the thread from the other methods, I use a method described in Simon Henry's book The Little Best Dress. It just involves pinning the fabric to be gathered in even sections to the smaller piece, and then sewing the seam while pushing the fabric under the foot with a seam ripper, or large needle. It takes a little practice to get the gathers even, but works!

The white floral dress is for my daughter to wear to another niece's First Communion in a week, but the weather is so cold here at the moment, I may just need to sew her a warmer dress!

 

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Overload of dresses

Before all the pics of the recent dresses I made, I want to show a picture from a website I came across recently. This company is selling beautiful dresses, but on a second look, it's a Feliz! sewing pattern made up. Can you imagine having the cheek to use that and market it in such a large scale. Not only that, but the Laguna skirt from Studio Tantrum and Patty Youngs Kyoko and Sydney are also on the site, the latter two are even made up in Patty Young fabric! Oh, and to even top that, they call their Feliz 'Patty'. All these patterns are copyrighted, most of them I have, so seeing a company being this blatant is unpleasant and must be so upsetting for the designers.

Back to my own sewing ..........

I'm almost finished the Lonsdale Dress by Sewaholic. I was going to shorten it quite a bit but after seeing the pictures, I think I'll just sew a narrow hem.

The two dresses below are for my nieces 7th birthday. I wanted some pictures of them, so my daughter had some fun trying them on, odd socks and all!
The orange dress (my niece specifically wanted an orange dress - this is the girl who wanted the green dress at Christmas) is made from a sewing magazine Sue & Blu #3080, 2006 with Anna Maria Horner 'Innocent Crush' fabric. I sized up the dress to size 8 to make sure it would be long enough. This was the second of the 2 birthday dresses I made and I wanted something easy to sew where I wouldn't be forever finishing seams. So it's a bubble dress.

Very straightforward to sew, all seams hidden and no zip, just 2 buttonholes, with lovely patterned shell buttons from my stash.

I even made belt loops, which are a bit twisted, but much improved on my first effort. There is no belt in the pattern, but the dress looked too wide for my niece, so I added it a simple ribbon belt which worked perfectly.

I lined it in white rather than any other colour because it seemed to brighten the orange on the outside.

Of course, the requisite bag, made from the Japanese pattern I've used many times before.

Another action shot!

The second dress (which I sewed first) is a combination of 2 patterns, the Analise from Portabellopixie for the bodice and Studio Tantrum/Farbenmix Redondo for the skirt. I had decided for quite a while that the skirt would be the Redondo, but it took me ages to settle on a bodice pattern. I make these dresses without my niece's measurements, so I'm always trying to make sure they're adjustable in some way. The elastic and shoulder straps of the Analise were ideal.

The Analise is easy to sew. I made 2 changes to the pattern - adding 4 more rows of elastic to the back, which means the back of the dress lies flat even with the straps tied which is not the case in the pattern pictures. The other change was to cut the underarms higher because these seemed to be too low, also in the pattern pictures.

My fanatical seam finishing continues ..... I sewed flat-felled seams on every curved seam to neaten the inside, hence, my choice of an easy bubble dress after.
The flowery fabric is Heather Bailey and the purple is Kafe Fassett, and I bought all these from Quilt home.

The bag pattern is a drawstring bag and was adapted from a picture I saw in the 2009 Sue & Blu magazine, because I wanted it ruffled like the dress.

Finally, the Redondo part of the dress. What a fun pattern! I added an extra panel so I could have an even mix of colours, this meant I had to do some calculations on the pattern pieces to make sure they would fit to the bodice.
The pattern pieces are like a puzzle, and when I had the fabric cut out, I had no idea how I would make the curved seams fit together, really NO idea, even after reading the translation of the pattern instructions.

Once I realised that the inner circle of one piece was only sewn halfway down the outer circle of  another piece, it started to come together. Two other tricks helped: sewing the curved seams with the fabric to the right (rather than the usual left) of the sewing machine needle and foot made these curved seams dramatically easier to sew; and tapering to zero seam allowance at the hem made hemming the skirt much easier.

On the day of my niece's 7th birthday, she opened the bag with the dresses, pulled out the orange one and put it on - a happy Birthday girl! and a happy sewist!!! Pin It Now!