Girl Can Sew

I’ve been meaning to write this review for a little while now but just haven’t been in the mood, to be quite honest! That’s the thing with lockdown sometimes you’ve just got to do what you want to do and if that means sitting watching pointless silly videos on YouTube then that’s okay! I finished this make a few weeks ago and it took me a couple weeks to complete it because it has some advanced techniques which I wanted to take my time over. This is not beginner friendly pattern, there’s the collar and lapel, fly front and the piping which I’ve never tried before and I’m pretty happy with the end result! I saw this fabric online from Fabrics Galore and being a Pug owner myself I thought it was so ridiculous I had to get it and there was no other garment this could have been more appropriate for than a pair of pyjamas. I’d been eyeing up the Carolyn pattern for a little while and I didn’t own a nice pair of pyjamas, they’re all just old t shirts and some sets my mum bought me from...

I was struggling to find inspiration of what my next make should be so I did what all sewists do and started sorting through my fabric stash and browsing through pins on my ‘fashion inspiration’ Pinterest board. I have a few makes which are just waiting to be sewn but I just didn’t have the motivation to start until, inspiration struck! I had bought this red leopard print in the remnants section in Misan fabrics down Goldhawk Road at the end of last year and I remembered this image I’d seen of a Wear Lemonade skirt and I thought – yes! That’s what I want to make next! I don’t actually know what this fabric is as it was just a remnant but it’s definitely a knit which doesn’t fray and has a crinkled texture which I thought went really well with this particular skirt design. I had quite a few trial and error moments through this make beginning with the pattern drafting. Firstly, I considered using a circle skirt for the top tier and then adding rectangular ruffles. However, because ...

I am keeping up with the blog and this time I bring you a vintage make! This is the Maudella 5952 which I picked up in an antiques shop. I made it up in a suitably vintage style old duvet cover I also bought in a vintage charity shop . The prairie style cut of the dress with this patchwork pattern make the perfect 70s pairing. I was a little apprehensive to begin this project to begin with because I’ve had fitting issues with vintage patterns in the past and they always seems to come up way too big! I began firstly by pinning the pattern pieces together and trying them on. Surprisingly, it seemed like it was going to fit perfectly so I ploughed on ahead! Pintucks sewn Front completed I love this old fabric, it has a really nostalgic smell of old summers which reminds me of our family’s old wigwam we used to play in when we were kids.  Trim attached to bottom of dress I didn’t have enough fabric to cut 5 frill pieces, yes 5! But I knew that the dress was going to come up too long ...

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...