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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I've been a busy sewing bee these past few weeks, with little time for writing. So I thought I'd finally get my writing fingers out and say some lovely things about a dress.



This is the Appelstroop Sundress by the Eli Monster. As part of the ambassador team, I got to choose a pattern for this month, and well, Layla actually chose the pattern! She loved the open back detail on this dress, so that's what won her heart.



The dress is a fairly simple design, with a standard bodice front and a big gathered skirt, but what sets it apart from other dresses, is the button waistband, and of course, that open back.

The back fastens with two hook and eye closures on the very inside, almost invisibly joining the two back edges together. Then over the top is a detachable big bow.



I made an error when sewing the dress, not taking into account Layla's tiny waist, so of course, the age 6 waistband was huge on her. I had to take in the centre back seam a good couple of inches, which makes the button closure slightly off to one side. But no worries, it was easily fixed. The dress is made in age 7 height, so I blended sizes according to the instructions.



And just a quick mention of this glorious fabric. This is Petally Splendid by Art Gallery Fabrics. This is part of the Splendid Fusion collection, with this print being designed by Sharon Holland. By now you must know my love affair with big bold florals? Well, I think Layla is following in my footsteps because she just adores this print too.



We're just waiting for some warm weather. We've had glorious sunshine and dry days for weeks, but with a seriously cold easterly wind which is making the 'feels like' temps very wintry... not at all suitable for open back sundresses!

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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

During November and December I sort of lost the blogging bug. I was making a lot of gifts for Christmas and birthday presents, and as I couldn't advertise them online (or the recipients would see!) I didn't bother much with writing anything. What I should have done was written up the posts in draft form and released them all en masse after Christmas. Isn't hind sight such a wonderful thing?!



Instead, I didn't and now I have this huge hole in my blog. BUT I'm getting back on track with this post. I have just completed my second pattern test of the year (I'll have to write up the first one next). It's my first time testing for Bernadette of Duchess and Hare patterns and overall the experience was great!



I was accepted into her tester pool before Christmas and have been waiting patiently for the festive period to be over to get sewing. The request for these two patterns popped up and I jumped at the chance to join in. I have a serious love of the vintage vibe, and secretly, I want to keep my little girl 'little' for as long as possible. The Spinny Mini dress and A La Heart Pinny certainly fulfil the criteria.



The A La Heart pinny has a heart shaped bib attached to a simple elastic waistband, with straps joining at the centre back with a button. The skirt can either be a full circle, a tulip circle or gathered. It has the option to attach to shorts on their own, or underneath the various skirts, but my girl is really not a fan of rompers, or suspender shorts.



She squealed with delight the morning she saw the pinny on the dressmakers dummy, waiting for her to try it on for sizing the straps. She immediately put it on, and I pinned for buttonhole size, with the request I sew the buttonhole and button on before breakfast!



The pinny was made to go over something, as it's a bit indecent with the tulip skirt, so I had to get on with the Spinny Mini dress asap. The dress came together surprisingly easily and quickly. It's so refreshing to have everything line up in flat pattern stage, and then the sewing is easy on top.



I have never made elastic casing using self made bias binding before. I'm not quite sure why I haven't? It is the neatest, easiest way ever to make a casing, and I think I'll use it on many, many projects in the future.



My only gripe is threading elastic through casings. I hate it, even with my little nifty elastic threading bodkin. I have since found though that my 1/4" elastic is not actually 1/4" and made life a challenge unnecessarily for me. The problem between switching from imperial measurements, to metric, is that it's never going to be quite exact. Elastic is sold in mm sizes here, and my '1/4"' elastic was actually just over, oh well, at least I know for future.



The Spinny Mini dress comes with either short of three quarter length puff sleeves, I had to choose the short version, I just love the way the sleeve puffs up into a ball, it's just so sweet! The dress also has the option of the mini circle skirt with ruffle, or a longer gathered skirt. I wanted to go proper vintage length, so opted for the mini circle skirt. Obviously this option gives maximum twirl too. And, for common decency (not that my daughter gives a stuff...) there are a sweet little set of bloomers included in the pattern. I made a straight age 4 in these, and had to tighten my elastic to account for the tiny bum and skinny thighs of my daughter.



I bought three prints from the Priory Square collection of fabric by Art Gallery Fabrics before Christmas. I thought they would be good for my Christmas and birthday gifts, as well as my planned new collection for my shop. I simply adore the Sunday Clippings print, which pairs wonderfully with the Clover Field and Shambles prints. But now I have used up my supply of Sunday Clippings and I can't find it to buy anywhere in the UK, or even see it anymore on the Art Gallery Fabrics website, which puts paid to my plans to make a new collection out of it. Such a shame it seemed to be on such a short print run. Sunday Clippings has made the cutest Spinny Mini dress, paired with the Shambles print for the A La Heart pinny, with Clover Field underneath as the bloomers.



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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*