She Who Sews

So now we know how long it took me to make the Spinny Mini, I thought it might be nice to have a little rundown of the dress itself.



The Spinny Mini is a vintage style dress with puff sleeves, a peter pan style collar, and a full circle skirt. The pattern has had a very recent revamp, and now features either 3/4 sleeve, or sleeveless, with the option of a ruffle sleeve and ruffle collar, along with a shaped gathered skirt, and even a romper option. There are almost too many options to choose from!



Layla chose the full circle skirt (she loves twirling) with ruffle hem, the pointed collar and the puff sleeves. This is pretty much the same as the two dresses I made her on the original pattern release. She also asked for a pinafore/apron to wear over the top.



I am pretty proud of my neat pointed collar, which meets exactly in the middle (although, annoyingly, it doesn't look like it meets in this picture!). I basted and sewed that section before finishing the rest of construction, to ensure it was correct.



And I'm pretty pleased with my puffy sleeves too. The gathers look fairly even in the sleeve head either side, I just need to add some catch stitches to stop the sleeve seams allowances from flipping in opposite directions.



The sticking point in the pattern, that makes it unenjoyable for me, is the skirt ruffle. I need to find some mechanical way of gathering, that doesn't involve pulling basting thread for metres and metres at a time. The ungathered ruffle in age 8 is just over 4m long. You gather in 4 sections, which clearly helps, but that means you're still pulling 1 metre of threads at a time. Still, the end result is rather pretty. To aid lining up, and setting gathers more evenly, I added extra notches to each half section of ruffle, and each 8th section of skirt.



I waited until the dress was finished before adding the buttonholes and buttons. But to ensure my back was lined up correctly, I basted the top neckline, as well as lower down on the centre back. This just made sure that when the waistband casing was sewn, the two back pieces didn't go out of line.



Then on to the pinafore. She wanted the same as in her original dress a couple of years ago. So as she is just in the age range still, I made her an A La Heart pinafore. I used the red chambray as I didn't want it to interfere with the busy, bold floral of the dress. I timed myself again for this sew. Not including the fabric cutting, it took me 1 hour and 25 minutes. A much quicker item to sew up!



And now, on to the fabric details. I used a print by Pat Bravo. Possibly my most favourite print ever, the Ad Lib Blooms Shout, part of the Artisan collection by Art Gallery Fabrics. I have now only got a small amount of this fabric left. Perhaps enough for a cropped blouse for Layla, or a tiny baby dress for my niece. I paired this with some red chambray that I have left over from Fabworks Mill shop. Both these fabrics were bought maybe 3 years ago now, if not a little more. It's like they were made to go together!



I have previously made a Free Spirit high low circle dress,



and a Petit Four dress, both by Duchess and Hare.



A Lola top and matching dolly top by Violette Field Threads,



and finally, a Paris Bolero by Frocks and Frolicks. All utilising the same two fabrics.



Clearly, big bold florals are my thing. And I'm pretty pleased that Layla loves them too, well sometimes... other's she gives me a look like this ;)



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Have you been tuning in to the new series of the Great British Sewing Bee?

It's not the first time, but it's been mentioned to me that I should apply for it. Quite apart from the fact I'm exempt due to previously having a small clothing business (I mean small, I sold only a handful of items over about 3 years), I would refuse on general principle. For anyone else interested, applications are open for the next season!

The programme has strict time limits for each challenge, which I think are totally unrealistic. On the episode last night (no 3), a toddlers smock dress had to be made. Now they said the word smocked, and I guffawed. Smocking is something that is done by hand, perhaps the gathering, or pleating can be done by machine, but proper smocking is a fine hand art.

I was intrigued by the process, and will attempt to give this cheats way a go in the future. For anyone interested, the pattern for the 18 month size dress is currently available on the Great British Sewing Bee website.

But back to the question in hand, they were given 3 hours 30 minutes to make an 18 month size dress, with set in sleeves, smocked front and gathered back skirt, dress. It closed at the back bodice with a bound keyhole, with rouleau loop and button.

In this time, they had to pick their fabric, cut out their pieces, then sew them, including the machine smocking. Forgive me for thinking this isn't long enough! But, blow me, they all managed it, apart from the lady that claims she's sewn loads of smocked dresses back in the day. She was being fastidious with cutting and lining up seams, but ran out of time for a perfectly done dress.



So today, I decided to make a vintage style dress for Layla, in age 8. Yes, it's a bit bigger (well, a lot bigger!), and yes, I think it was a bit more involved. She asked for this dress a week or more ago, and chose the fabric, so when I say I decided to make one, what I meant was, I got a demand for a new dress ;) I chose the Spinny Mini by Duchess and Hare.

It took me 28 minutes to cut out my fabric, that included a bodice front, two back bodice pieces, a lining bodice front and two backs, then two collar pieces, two lining collars and 2 collar interfacings, also two puff sleeves, two bias bindings for the sleeve hems, and one large circle skirt cut on two folds, and finally 4 long strips of skirt ruffle. I used the main floral fabric for the collar lining, main bodices, skirt and sleeves. I then used a plain chambray for the main collar, sleeve binding and skirt ruffle. Then the bodice lining was thin cotton lawn, and finally, the interfacing. So four lots of different fabrics.

Then sewing: The first task was to adhere the interfacing to the collar pieces and the centre back bodice; then construct the bodice; then construct the skirt; then join the two together.

I set my iPhone stopwatch at the very start of construction, stopped when my husband came home from work, then stopped again for dinner. I didn't include the time it took to measure elastic for the sleeves and waist on Layla. My sewing total time was 3 hours and 16 minutes, and cutting time was 28 minutes. So for the full dress, it took me 3 hours and 44 minutes. In the home sewing world, this didn't include the time to print, stick together, and cut out the paper pattern either!



I'm still yet to decide if this is fast or slow. To me, it feels slow. From a business point of view, it highlights just how little some work at home mum's make from their clothing business (a big reason why I gave up, I couldn't make any sales from the high prices of the garments I would need to set, to make a decent wage!).

So that's a lot of waffle for the end result of 3 hours 44 minutes to make an age 8 Spinny Mini dress by Duchess and Hare.



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