She Who Sews

I'm so excited to be included in this tour with Sewing by Ti! I have taken part in a couple of other tours in the past few months, but this is the first time here.



I originally signed up to make something for my daughter. She is the person I primarily sew for, little girls dresses and outfits are just so rewarding. However, I've shifted my bias after sewing a dress for myself and thought I'd sew myself up another dress to write about. But, you know, life happened. I got as far as tracing off my size (fingers crossed!) and cutting out the traced pieces and then everything stalled. I was in a rush to make some orders for Avocado Pear, then in a rush to make some items for my daughter's birthday and sorting out the kids (summer holiday chaos) that the dress for me just got pushed to the side.



So it's back to the original idea, and a dress for my daughter.



It just so happens that her birthday was this month, and the dress I made her was perfect for this post. She loves long dresses, she doesn't own many, they're impractical for a little girl who splashes in muddy puddles and climbs trees. But there are occasions when a long dress is just 'needed'. Her birthday was one of those occasions.



I chose to splash out and bought the Chalk and Notch Cascade Maxi. I've loved the look of it since I first set eyes on it, but have been continually put off by the meterage of fabric it takes to make. In age 5 (my daughters size) it needed 2.8m of 115cm width, or 2m of 150cm width fabric. It's not the end of the world, but it doesn't make for a hugely cheap dress unless you can find some bargain fabric! So I printed off the pattern, stuck it together and rescued some lovely cotton lawn/voile that I had bought in France two years ago from the bottom of my (extensive) stash. I laid out the pattern, and hey presto, it fitted with space.



A few months ago, I read this review by 7 Pine Design and this basically sealed the deal for me. I've been a bit wary about new patterns recently, and if this lady says the pattern is good, I tend to believe her wholeheartedly!



The pattern came together in exactly the way the blog suggested it would. All the pieces simply fitted together beautifully. I chose to French Seam the skirt seams together. My fabric was super thin, floppy and uncooperative, and frayed really badly. So a french seam seemed the safest bet. I had to use my walking foot, and sewed slowly to avoid my fabric disappearing into the bobbin casing, or sliding off sideways, but I persevered. The seam allowances easily allow for a french seam, and instructions are included too.



I had a slight problem with the length. My dummy is only age 2-4 and when I put the dress on it, it was long and far too wide. No worries I thought, she's bigger than this now anyway. I measured my finished length once the dress had hung for two days, and found it to be a few cm's longer than it should have been. So I cut off the excess and hemmed as instructed. To make my hemming easier, I overlocked the very edge of the fabric, which made ironing the 1/4" first turn much easier.



I shouldn't have worried too much. The dress was an almost perfect fit on the day. The length was spot on, just above the floor at the back, and ankle length at the front, but I did have a gaping back in the elastic. My daughter is a pain to fit, and more so when it's a surprise and I can't fit to her as I go along. Her chest measures 23.5", so she is easily into the age 5, and I thought it would be a lovely fit, but this dress sits below her shoulder blades at the back, which puts her more into an age 2-3. I remedied it though by taking out 3" of elastic and sewing it back up. Now it hugs her back without any gaping, and she happily wore it all day long.



And now, this post ties in really well with my favourite sewing tool. My very recently acquired bodkin for inserting elastic. Mine was bought by my lovely husband from Amazon. Honestly, I don't know how I have managed all these years without one. I only got this for my birthday last month, but it has been invaluable ever since. I now relish inserting elastic into a casing, instead of finding every excuse under the sun not to do it!



You'll find all the other blogs in the tour here:


Tuesday, August 1st: Intro and Tenille's Thread
2nd: Stitching At Night
3rd: Sewing By Ti
4th: Needles To Say
5th: Very Blissful

Sunday, August 6th: The Fairy Dust Bin
7th: Anne-Mari Sews
8th: Sewing With Sarah
9th: Thats Sew Lily
10th: Stitching at Night
11th: EYMM
12th: Sew Sew Ilse

Sunday, August 13th: Lulu & Celeste
14th: Seams Sew Lo
15th: Tales From a Southern Stitching Mom
16th: Stitching and Making
17th: Creative Counselor
18th: Ma Moose
19th: Kainara Stitches

Sunday, August 20th: Embrace Everyday
21st: She Who Sews ***You are here. 😀
22nd: Idle Sunshine
23rd: My Heart Will Sew On
24th: Lovely For Life
25th: Margarita On the Ross
26th: Anne-Mari Sews

Sunday, August 27th: Made By Melli
28th: Adventures with Bubba and Bug
29th: Auschick Sews
30th: Me Made
31st: Living in Twinado Alley

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Today is my stop on the Back to School Blog tour with Made It patterns. Use the code btssws for 20% off all patterns from the Made It pattern shop until the end of August.



You might be thinking, 'err, hang on a minute, don't you home educate?'. And you'd be right. My kids are home educated, so they don't go back to school as such. However, a lot of their clubs and classes do stop for the school summer holidays, only to restart again when the schools go back. The thing my kids are most looking forward to restarting is Forest School. So I thought it only apt to create a 'back to Forest School' outfit.



The thing with Forest school down here in Cornwall, UK, is that it is regularly wet, and 9 months of the year are not only wet, but cold and windy too. My son has outgrown his trusty waterproof dungarees and coat that he's worn for the past two years straight, so now was definitely the time to make something warm and waterproof for him.



When I looked at the Made It pattern shop, I did initially wonder how I was going to pull off an outfit suitable for wet and mud. But I think I nailed it!



I chose the Bookfold trousers, and the Stevie shirt. Made in the suggested fabrics could give a formal to casual look. But I wanted to change that up a bit. For the shirt, I went with a quilting weight cotton that my son had picked a month earlier. I'd intended to make him a short sleeved shirt in a different pattern, but never got round to it. Then I wanted to use soft shell to make the trousers. I scoured the internet fabric groups trying to find something half cheap that might match the shirt fabric, and came up a dead loss. Then on a spur of the moment trip into the local fabric shop, found they sold a couple of dark coloured soft shell fabrics. The price was a touch more than the online prices I'd found, but I didn't have to add postage on top (making it cheaper in the end!), and I could actually get a feel for the fabric, and more importantly, my son chose the grey colour.



It turned out that the grey was a good match for a grey in the shirt fabric. But it wasn't easy. My son measured age 5 for waist, age 9 for hips, and age 8.5 for height. I ummed and ahhed over which size to make, and how much grading to do, but in the end, just did a straight age 9. I figured I could use less elastic in the back waistband, or cinch it in more as it's buttonhole elastic. I was worried about excess bunching, but I needn't have as they worked out just fine.



The trousers would have been an easy sew in a more appropriate fabric, but the thick softshell didn't help me. It didn't iron flat, I couldn't press seams open, or to the side, and it was really thick when the waistband attached to the fly and around the pockets. But I did it none-the-less. I really like the little hidden pockets in the back yoke. I used scraps of the shirt fabric to provide an orange peek from the slit pockets. And front pockets that are big enough to store sticks and stones in.





The fly is fully functioning. I used plastic KAM snaps hidden in the fly shield, and a large metal popper for the waist band. I wanted something with a bit of strength, and ideally would have used a button, but little boy loudly chose the metal popper. I used the same orange thread as the shirt as a contrast on the grey fabric to add a matching touch. I also used my twin needle to top stitch possibly more than I should have to help flatten out some of the seam allowances.





The shirt was a fantastic sew. I have sewn casual shirts before, but never successfully put in cuff plackets, or such a neat neckline placket! The instructions are clear, with really helpful pictures to guide you through the techniques, some of which were new to me. I love the simple bound neckline and the tab detail across the button placket down the front, it's such a nifty design feature.





The end result is a lovely little trouser and shirt set. The trousers are warm, windproof and showerproof, and the shirt is slim enough not to get in the way when a fire needs to be lit, or a stick whittled.








Check out the other bloggers on the tour, and don't forget that using the special code btssws will get you 20% off from Made It patterns



TRUDY - Fox and Me
BROOKE - Idle Sunshine
MARIA - My Cozy Co
EMILY - Enjoyful Makes
THAO - Little Cumquat
SASKIA - She Who Sews
MIRANDA - Inspinration
ANN - Atelier In ‘t Leerke
TOYA - Made by Toya
OLU - Needle and Ted

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I am so thrilled to be included in this new Cosy Toes Footwear Tour for Twig and Tale! It's my first time being in a blog tour, so I thought I'd be easing myself in with a small item like footwear. The sewing itself was easy and enjoyable, but photography of feet I have found out is not so easy. You can read more about the tour over at Twig and Tale. An additional discount code is in this post.



I have owned the wayfarer shoe pattern for some time, and made up several pairs of slippers for my own kids and as gifts for others. So for this tour I wanted to try my hand at the boots.



I had so many ideas floating around my head, ranging from full leather slip on boots to be worn as barefoot shoes (I still think I'll attempt this at some point in the future), to unicorn based wild things boots, to appliqued fairy boots for a truly girly look for Layla. But when it came to it, and I looked around my fabric stash, I settled on a simple pair of denim boots that I could enhance.



Inspired by the flower boots, I was now going in a very different direction to one I'd originally thought. I started looking through the internet for inspiration. I love paper origami and it got me wondering if I could create some origami flowers out of fabric? The google image search for origami using fabric brought up a few pages for butterflies which piqued my interest.



I found a couple of different tutorials online, and decided on one in particular (origami Matthews butterfly) and set about having a go with paper first to see how easy or hard it would be. My paper butterfly was easy and a success, so I tried it out on some floral and butterfly fabric. Again, this was actually really successful!



As my some of my original ideas included fairy wings on the back (in a similar fashion to the wild things dragon wings) I still wanted that wing effect. And a big butterfly on the centre back seam of the boot was a perfect fit. It looks a bit like wings from the front, but from the back is obviously a butterfly.



I used pale blue denim as the outer, silver leather as the sole, and lined the whole thing in butterfly print cotton poplin.



Between the sole and the lining, I added a piece of cotton batting, just to add a bit of cushioning and an extra layer for warmth. I did the same on the toe section. I chose not to add it to the main leg piece, but I'm slightly regretting that as it would have made them warmer, and also added a bit more support to the large butterfly on the back.




This tour coincides with the release of the new Ladies and Mens tie-back boots which are on sale until midnight (PST) Friday 9th June. The pattern is discounted already but the following code will then take the price down to just $7 (USD)!
CODE: COSYTOES for an ADDITIONAL 15% off the entire footwear collection. (This includes the new Tie Backs for Grown-ups, Wayfarers, Tie Backs, Flower Boots, Wild Things Shoes and Wild Things Boots).

Don't forget to check out the other bloggers in the tour:

Tuesday: Fliegfederfrei - Createnic - Sew Snippet - Sew Many Adventures

Wednesday: Sew Shelly Sew - She Who Sews - Life in our busy household - Inspinration

Thursday: Skirt Fixation - Sprouting Jube Jube - Needle and Ted - Just Add Fabric 

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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!*