Girl Can Sew

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...

Wow! It has been almost a year since my last post, so long in fact that my hair is much longer now! I have definitely still been making (a lot!) especially with being at home 24/7! Although I feel now, with us all being kept away from each other it would be a good time to come back to the blog and share my creations with the wonderful sewing community. For my return to the blog I wanted to make something showstopping, a project I could take my time over and put a lot of thought into. I had seen a ph oto of this Orla Kiely dress online and, as many of us sewists often do, I thought - ‘I can make that!’. It’s pretty similar to the Tilly and the Buttons Martha Dress, which I have already made before – see here .  Orla Kiely Dress I saw online I just needed to hack the sleeves so they would be straight rather than flared and add a flounce to the bottom. I had already created a hack to add a frill to the princess seam and I bought some velvet ribbon to topstit...

Hey Everyone! Continuing with the skirt theme this week I bring you another make from my week off work, the Clemence Skirt by everyone's favourite indie pattern house Tilly & The Buttons. I had the opportunity of meeting Tilly at the Knitting & Stitching Show earlier in the year and I have to admit I did feel like a total fan girl! Tilly is sewing royalty and I find what she does as a female entrepreneur truly inspirational. The Clemence skirt is somewhat of a cult pattern featured in Tilly's book 'Love at First Stitch' which I'm sure is no news to you whatsoever as most people I hear talk about sewing refer to this book as being their introduction to sewing. Worn here with Simplicity K8376 I have been wanting to make this skirt since I got the book 3 years ago but I had not seen the right fabric - until now! When I was at the first Sewing Bee Live show a couple years ago I saw this jelly fish fabric (Michael Miller 'Into the Deep') on dis...

Hey Sewers! It's been a busy week and I've been sewing up a storm so for this blog entry I bring you a bumper edition - two reviews in one! The first is the Freya top by Tilly & the Buttons made in striped rib knit from Goldhawk Road and the second is the Erin Skirt by Sew Over IT (from the ebook My Capsule Wardrobe) made in a chunky cord also from Goldhawk Road - I had a shopping spree there after I'd planned all my autumn/winter makes so a lot of my fabric is from there at the moment! Freya top - Tilly & the Buttons I am a really big fan of Tilly's patterns and so I was really excited to finally open up my Stretch book and sew my first make. This make was inspired by my Seamwork mood board which is heavily leaning towards 70's style and colours. This fabric kind of reminds me of old tube seats - I love it! The pattern was incredibly easy to follow. This make took me about 3 hours from tracing the pattern to wearing my finished top and I even pa...

Hey Everyone! This week I bring you my latest make which probably anyone who sews has either made or is planning to make. It's the Tilly and the Buttons Cleo pinafore dres s. I used a super soft pink corduroy from Walthamstow Market. Practical things first - as with all of TATB patterns the instructions were super clear with plenty of photos showing each step. It also gives tips and explains why you do certain steps which has helped me when sewing other garments. I did not make any fitting alterations at all but I did make sure that I bought the hemline buckles as I have previously used the Prym ones and found the buckles tend to come undone too easily. I also bought Gutermann top-stitching thread as I wanted to make a statement with the top-stitching. I have seen many different versions of this dress so I knew exactly what to expect and it turned out precisely as I imagined it would. It is a simple design which makes it easy to layer with many different tops and jumpers ...

Hey Sewers! I'm really excited to share my latest make with you, it's the Tilly and the Buttons Francoise dress . What really inspired me to make this dress was the fabric, I recently found that you can purchase vintage textiles from Oxfam's website . So without a project in mind I bought a 1960's floral curtain, a wool bed sheet and a William Morris curtain. I had seen other people using vintage fabrics to make this dress so I thought this floral curtain would be the perfect match. As I've said before this pattern is exactly what you can expect from a TATB pattern, very simple instructions with plenty of photos. Slightly more advanced than the Cleo pattern as you need to fit an invisible zip, bias binding and darts.I did not make any fitting alterations other than rather than using the pattern piece for the bias binding I bought some normal bias binding as the fabric I was using would be too bulky and fraying to make a good binding. I was also quite lim...

Hi Sewers! This week I am very excited to share my latest summer make, it's a hacked Tilly & The Buttons Martha Dress. On my commute to work I often find myself observing other peoples clothes, making mental notes for future projects. Recently I've seen a lot of Broderie Anglais dresses and blouses with plenty of romantic details such as: frills, gathering, mandarin collars and trims. So I went about drafting up how I wanted it to look: Excuse my rough sketch! I was at work. Key features: Frills! - Bust, neck, sleeve Bell sleeves Lace zip Once I knew how I wanted it to look I went about finding an appropriate pattern and found the Martha Dress  with it's princess seams and mandarin collar was the perfect match.  Pattern Alterations The Broderie Anglais fabric has beautiful border embroidery so I wanted to take advantage of this on the hems of the skirt and sleeves. However, the skirt is cut on the bias which would have made this impossible. So...