Girl Can Sew

Dress and Shoes are old Alexa Chung at M&S.  Here is my long-awaited review of my first ever rain mac. This is the Burda 6747 made in diamond bonded waterproof fabric (with Dewspo lining) from New Craft House . I had a voucher for New Craft House, and I wanted to get something a bit different which I wouldn’t normally get so this waterproof fabric was perfect. There are a lot of things to consider when working with this kind of fabric and you need some special supplies including: ·          -  A Teflon machine foot so the fabric doesn’t stick as you sew ·          -  Wonder Clips rather than pins as when this fabric is pierced the hole remains ·          -  Seam Sealant to fill the gaps in the seams to make the coat waterproof. You can get iron-on tape but you also cannot apply heat to this fabric as it will melt so I had to use the gel instead.        This ...

  I planned to make this skirt last winter but then we had a scorching hot spring and it felt wrong to be making anything in corduroy! Even though it is my favourite fabric. Once we hit October it was like someone flicked a switch and we are now deep into autumn and I can finally get back to those projects I put on hold. First on my list was the Salida skirt from TrueBias . My brother had kindly gifted this pattern to me last Christmas – Thanks Bro! I’d picked up some buttery soft, forest green corduroy from Goldhawk Road, back in the days when we could venture into London and weren’t fearful of the bustling streets! Before I could begin I had to choose which size to make, I have been blessed with quite a curvy figure which meant my waist was a good 4 sizes smaller than my hips which was a bit problematic as this is a fitted skirt. I persevered and decided to cut the waistband to the smaller size and everything else to the larger size and then once sewn, and before attaching the ...

  This make came up a little bit by chance as I was planning on using the Mind the Maker fabric which I picked up from Sew Me Sunshine to make a wrap skirt but I hadn’t yet decided which pattern and others I’d seen looked like they’d be too long on me. Until I saw an advert for this new pattern company – Made Label offering a free wrap skirt pattern which fit the bill completely! So I went ahead and downloaded, printed and assembled the pattern. Which was really easy to do, the colours and bold lines made it really easy to assemble and each pattern piece is assembled separately so you don’t need to worry about creating a giant pattern sheet that won’t even fit on your floor! Each size is a separate PDF as well so you don’t get confusing merging lines or have to worry about constantly checking the key for your size. Really simple pattern with only 6 pattern pieces and because it’s a wrap there’s no need to worry about any closures or fit issues. There are no written instruct...

This project began like many, with the fabric. This is a beautiful viscose from the Soiree collection from Dashwood Studios which I picked up from John Lewis , and thanks to an error in the till I got it for an absolute steal! I am absolutely in love with this fabric, the print, the colours, the drape, how soft it is. So much, in fact, I basically put the fabric on a pedestal which made it almost impossible to find an appropriate pattern I was willing to sacrifice it to. It had sat in my stash for months and I would take it out and stroke it every now and then even showing my colleagues, that’s how obsessed I was with this fabric! Finally I decided the only pattern brand that could possibly be suitable for this perfect fabric would be Tilly and theButtons because I knew whatever I chose would fit beautifully, have simple instructions to follow and be low-risk meaning I wasn’t about to waste my dream fabric on something I would never wear. I decided to go with the Indigo dress with...

As I said in my previous review there were a few things I wanted to make from the summer Fibre Mood magazine and the Lola top is my second make. I had some funky patterned cotton in my stash (I really can’t remember where I bought this from, it’s been in my stash for months!) which I thought would give this top quite a quirky look. Then to push it more into that funky, modern style I added fluorescent piping to the yoke seam which I bought from Sister Mintaka . Like in my previous review there are a lot of things to consider when using a Fibre Mood pattern but I was prepared this time so the process was less stressful! It was a quick make which I pulled together in one day, the tricky parts were attaching the gathered frill and then attaching this to the rest of the shirt but if you take your time it’s fine. My favourite part of this make is the back, the gathered part sits really nicely against the back and adds some interest. I think I would have preferred the yoke to sit lower ...

I was highly anticipating the arrival of the Fibre Moodsummer edition as there were actually quite a few things in this edition I wanted to make and I’d just purchased some beautiful linen from the New CraftHouse which would match perfectly with the Mindy dress. This fabric is so fun! It’s bright pink and white gingham linen. It’s super wide so I have some leftover to make something else. The stripes are quite close together so I didn’t worry too much about pattern matching just that the pieces were cut straight. Before I could begin with the cutting out though, I first had to trace out the pattern and there are a few things to note about Fibre Mood patterns which can be quite frustrating: 1) In the magazine the size chart is written in UK sizes e.g. 6, 8, 10 etc. but then on the pattern sheet they’re only labelled in European sizes e.g. 34, 36, 38 etc. so you have to convert them. 2) There is a key on the pattern sheets for each pattern but the sizes aren’t written on the lines ...

I saw this Mind the Maker viscose fabric on Sew Me Sunshine ’s website and just needed it, even though I had no specific plans of what to make with it. The colours and abstract print really appealed to me! Then it sat in my stash for a few months waiting for inspiration to strike me. Sometimes I buy a fabric and love it so much that I end up not using it because no project I ever imagine is good enough to truly showcase the fabric. I didn’t want that to happen this time so I began trawling through Instagram hashtags to see what other people had made with it and I finally settled on a hacked version of a dress I have made previously – Megan Nielsen,Sudley Dress ( see previous version here ). I really love this shape on me, it’s relaxed and loose fitting which is great for the summer – if it’s not already over! I also think it will look lovely with tights in the autumn. I made the following hacks: ·          Added a frill to the waist seam ...