My Favourite BHL Moments

I think I speak for many indie pattern enthusiasts when I say how saddened I was to hear that the women at By Hand London had decided to close their doors on their printed patterns and fabric printing businesses. They took a great leap of faith in launching their kickstarter campaign and whilst many of us got behind them unfortunately it wasn’t enough to make their new venture viable. However, I would like to take a few moments to remember the good times BHL gave us. Here are my top BHL moments, some personal, some global.

1. The Anna dress. The Anna dress was an absolute phenomenon. For what felt like half a year every second blog post I read was another stunning, floor-length dress with that famous thigh-slash. A quick google image search brought up these beauties:

2. Meeting the real Charlotte, the woman behind the skirt! When I was staying in London I emailed Charlotte to purchase some patterns from my shop. She noticed my new address was mere suburbs, no longer oceans, from her apartments and she kindly invited me over for a cup of tea. We had a great yarn about the indie pattern industry, the best places to buy fabric in London and our travel dreams. She is incredibly hospitable and I was very touched that she invited me, essentially a stranger, into her home.

3. The joy of unboxing one of the beautifully designed patterns. So much of the joy is in the unwrapping! And yes, all indie designers take a lot of pride in how they present their patterns. But BHL packaging is next level beautiful. The lovely thick coloured card, the cut out front revealing one the of pattern views, the line drawings and sketches. Their printed patterns included so much detail, and all very much appreciated by your buyers. 4. Number four has to go to ‘sewing my first BHL pattern.’ It was only a few days after I had visited Charlotte at her house. I was feeling terribly homesick so I took myself to Sew Over It, bringing with me a Charlotte skirt pattern and some very bright brocade. I immediately felt at home – laying out my pattern pieces, marking my tacks, stitching the skirt together in my haphazard way. It was a lovely way to spend a day. Here is the skirt I made.

5. The bios on the back of the beautiful patterns topped off their beautiful packaging, undoubtable creating an emotional connection with their loyal customers. Surely these must be true right? I can just imagine Charlotte getting down do a sleezey RnB beat and I’m with you Elisalex – you can never be overdressed. Sorry Victoria, I did have a chuckle at your jelly phobia! 6. Three girls one pattern – totes inappropes, but well played ladies. Here’s their ‘Three Girls, One Kim Dress’ post. (If you don’t get the reference, I’m really sorry but I won’t explain it to you!) 7. My Georgia dresses. Being the curvaceous lady that I am, I had, prior to meeting Georgia, steered clear of tight-fitting patterns. I had assumed it would take a lot of fitting a fluffing about (I am a woman of efficiency) to get any fitted dress to look good. However after only one muslin I managed to pull my first Georgia together. My second is below. This pattern gave me the confidence to sew more complex patterns. Thanks Georgia! 8. The circle skirt app. Did you know that the clever BHL ladies created an app that gives you the necessary information to make a circle skirt without a pattern. You just enter your waist size, whether you’d like a full circle skirt, a half circle or a quarter circle and if you’d like to make a mini, midi or maxi length. Everyone loves a free pattern/tutorial so check it out.

All BHL patterns are on sale for $20 until all sold. What is your favourite By Hand London moment?

A reminder to always mark the notches – my Davie dress

I made a Davie dress last week and I’ve already worn it three times… I think I might be in love.  

  

The dress is very easy to put together and would have been even quicker for me if I had just marked my notches. I was racing along very happily and my hems weren’t quite matching up. This isn’t too weird for me. I usually need to take a couple of centimetres off the bottom of my dresses so I can be a bit carefree when cutting the pattern pieces at the hem. So I sewed the next front and side front pieces together. Except this time they were even more off than the first side. Something was afoot. I unpicked the pieces and got my pattern out again. I had stitched my pieces in such a crazy way with my centre front backwards 😣. What a goose. I recovered quickly and raced to try it on. I liked it from the first glance… But lesson learnt. 

  

I made this dress in a pont knit from The Fabric Store. I love that indie designers are getting on board this knit fabric trend! This dress is super comfy and very easy to wear. I made the size suggested for my figures but ended up taking it in 1cm on each side. I wanted this to be a fairly fitted dress… I know this isn’t the correct way of doing things but I didn’t have the heart to undo all my careful top stitching. 

I made my Davie dress all in one size, not adjusting for pear-shaped-ness of Sewaholic patterns, despite being me more of an hourglass figure. I really like the shape of the skirt so I don’t think I’d grade it down for my next Davie. 

  Question: Bizarrely my thread kept snapping as I was sewing – sewists: what am I doing wrong?! It was like the fibres in the thread were twisting the wrong way, unravelling itself and becoming very thin. This was super annoying especially when I was top stitching (and there is a lot of top stitching in this dress) Muy extraño…

Well this is awkward – I sewed something I’m never going to wear



Have you ever made something and immediately thought “I’m probably never going to wear this”? This is how I feel about this dress. 

We all know I lost my sewing mojo a few months ago. So after my marvellous cushion covers I decided to crack on with a project that I had been thinking on for a long time. And although this idea had stuck in my mind for several months I hadn’t been able to bring myself to cut into the fabric. I should have trusted my instincts. 

I finished the dress in record time and rushed to try it on. My first thought was erghhh and my second was this is a very stuffy dress. I was pretty under-wowed with my creation. 

My biggest issue with this whole look is that I fell into the vintage-pattern-trap — an affliction that causes me to see all the potential of a vintage pattern without considering how how dated and therefore costume-like it might look in today’s context. In particular, I fell for the A line skirt and the high (almost) Nehru collar. The worst part is that I chose a psychedelic orange fabric with floral details that amplified the costume-i-ness. 

On the plus side I really enjoyed the process of sewing this dress. It was very quick to put together – something I put down to all the straight lines – the linen was very easy to work with and most of all. I’m back in the habit of seeing. Like all the time. At the moment I making a Davie dress. What’s your biggest sewing fail? Please share! 

Finding my sewjo – I made cushion covers

2015 has been a busy year. It’s been difficult to find time to sew anything worth blogging about and I’ve been lacking my usual impulsiveness with my pattern-fabric choices. So I went to social media and asked how to get my sewjo back. The most common piece of advice I got was to make something simple, a tried a true pattern. Something that I could make quickly, and not to agonise over it. I took this one step further and completely omitted the pattern. I made cushion covers. These are made from a heavyweight linen from Martha’s Fabrics in Newmarket.



It’s safe to say the sewjo is back because after I made these I whipped up an easy Belcarra blouse (below) and then cracked on with my psychedelic orange mod dress. Needless to say – there’s plenty more blogging to come!



What do you do to find your sewjo?

Named Clothing’s ‘Ticket’ Collection – my picks

Named Clothing has released their latest collection Ticket (view the collection). I love that the sisters at Named build a story around each of their collections that pulls the patterns together and takes their followers on a journey. Their designers say:



In a large collection of 15 looks (three have two patterns in one) it’s hard for me to pick my favourites but here goes…

The Florence dress and Lourdes cropped jacket are very thought out patterns with great details and accents. 



The Beverly Bikini is a fun twist on the classics triangle bikini. I like that this swimsuit is a bit more substantial than most store-bought bikinis. 



The Zaria skirts are another favourite of mine. I say skirts because this pattern comes with a beautiful sculptural skirt (pictured below) and a pencil skirt. Work and play options! 



I love this kimono! The Asaka kimono is a great project for a beginner with no closures and lots of straight stitching. 



This jacket is what I have been looking for – something that I could dress up for work and wear in the weekends. I have a pretty strong feeling the Augusta hoodie is going to be sold out really soon… 



Which are your favourites in the Ticket collection?

A Riot of Colour

We’re averaging a high of 27* in Auckland this week and I am loving it! Best of all, my new dress is perfect for the warm weather – a By Hand London Georgia dress. I was gifted this crazy multicoloured print by a friend. I think it is linen and it’s so loud that it is perfect for summer!

I have made this dress before (including two muslins) so I knew how the sizing would work on me. I mean, this is a very fitted dress. I used the amended bodice pieces that I had created for my previous Georgia but decided to cut a bigger size than my usual for the skirt because this fabric has absolutely no stretch. In the end I did take the skirt sides in a bit but after my vanity sizing disaster with my Alder I wasn’t willing to risk it.

My previous Georgia is the wide strap v-neck version. It’s a great little evening dress with a twist. But this version, I feel, is more versatile. The sweetheart neckline is traditional, pretty flattering on a lot of body types and certainly easier to pull off. It’s also a lot cooler in summer.

Because this dress is super fitted I made several adjustments so the pattern. I had intended to make the longer version that finishes below the knees but being the five foot two gal that I am this looked really frumpy. I lobbed off 10cm and voilà. I also shortened the straps by 6cm, and used my amended bodice pieces. I’m not sure if this is an accepted bodice adjustment but it has worked well for my body shape. That’s all that matters right?

Have you made the Georgia dress?

Slinky Silk Sandpoint Top

 

I would like to take a moment to welcome summer to New Zealand. We got off to a good start in early December, then things were a bit rocky for a while there but now we are in the full swing of it – beaches, barbecues and a little bit of sunburn. And I know have a new top to add to my summer wardrobe – the Sandpoint Top by Grayday Patterns. As you may remember Helena of Gray All Day blog was the winner of Project Indie, a collaboration between myself and the lovely co-ordinators of the Monthly Stitch blog.

The Sandpoint top is a causual summer-y blouse with a cowl neck back. It is designed to be sewn in knit fabrics, but I’m a bit of a rule breaker so I made mine in a silk crepe de chine that has a fair bit of one-way stretch. I’d always envisioned this pattern as a slinky evening top. Next time I’m thinking more slinking. Black sequins anyone?

I made a couple of alterations to the pattern including omitting the neck band and the waist band to fit with my evening look.

 

 

Have you made this pattern yet? I’d love to see yours – send me a link in the comments below 🙂

The Jobhunt Dress

I feel most comfortable when I’m wearing a dress. Trousers can bulge awkwardly, blouses need ironing, skirts and tops can be hard to match perfectly so dresses, for me, are a great, choice for a job interview. So here is my newest edition of an old favourite, a tried and true pattern – McCalls 6201, rated easy.

I made this dress in a wool blend houndstooth that I acquired many moons ago from, of course, The Fabric Store. It’s a nice lightweight fabric, with the right amount of body and drape. It’s also got a tiny bit of stretch for extra comfort.

I made a couple of alterations to the sizing and construction of this dress, including adding an additional 1.5cm to the side edges. It turns out that the 2011 edition of Penny guessed that she was a size 10. Little did she know that RTW sizing has no bearing on McCall’s take on sizing. Silly 2011 Penny. I also decided to finish the neckline with some store bought bias binding. The pattern had suggested a full lining but there was no way that was going to fly with us Southern Hemispherians heading into summer! I decided to compromise by making a facing to attach instead. I cut and interfaced this facing before remembering that I abhor facings, hence the bias binding.

Here’s another one of me taking a picture in the shiny facade of building. What must the people inside think?!

In Other Exciting News there are two things to watch out for this week! Firstly, I will be teaching a class at Sew Love sewing lounge at St Kevin’s Arcade this Saturday! We will be CHRISTMAS APRONS! I’m really looking forward to it! Second, the Auckland Sewists’ Collective is having our first ever sewalong! The theme is nice and easy – “summer dresses”. If you live in Auckland and would like to be part of the Sewalong and blog tour you can request to join our Facebook group.

Saltspring Made in a Hurry

Hi lovely readers! It was a hot and windy day here in Auckland yesterday and guess what?! I finished a Saltspring dress by Sewaholic Patterns! I had to make it in a hurry because I really wanted to wear it to my friends’ engagement party. Luckily I finished just in time! (OK, we were a bit late…)

I made this dress out of a silk remnant I picked up at the mid-year sale at the Fabric Store, Newton. It’s a lovely slinky fabric that has a nice one-way stretch, shiny on one side, matte on the other. I love how the feel of this fabric and the style of the pattern work so well together. I reckon I could wear this dress for work with a bold coloured cropped blazer or casually with a denim jacket. I think it’s my new fave!

I made a few alterations to the pattern and construction of the dress. For starters, I shortened the bodice front and back so they were less “blousy”. We all know how I feel about that volume right? I also assembled the waist slightly differently to the suggested method. I simply attached the bodice and skirt, overlocked the edge, sewed the ends of the elastic together, marked it in quarters and stretched it out along the waistline. Much quicker than creating a channel for it, but perhaps not as pretty and neat! I also omitted the zipper from the centre back. I had read a tonne of your blogs saying that it wasn’t necessary and I trust you guys 🙂 Oh, and I just made one shoulder strap and cut it in half for the straps.

I made this in a size 8 bodice / 4 skirt. I think the sizing is mostly fine. Only ‘mostly’ because I feel like the straps sit a bit wide on my shoulders. I think for my next Saltspring I will take some fabric out of the centre front and centre back bodice pieces to help move them in. The straps could also be shorter perhaps.

I had a wee bit of trouble with aligning the straps as I was zipping along joining the bodice to the lining. I think with the next Saltspring (I’ve said it twice so I’m going to have do do it now right?) I’ll be taking this a bit slower and doing it in stages so that I can check to see how I’m going.

Have you made a Saltspring dress? Share your link with me! I’d love to see yours and get some inspiration for my next one!

I am Loving Sewvember

I have to say I just love being part of the sewing community in person and digitially. I love that someone can say “let’s all do this sewalong” and sewists just get into it! It’s awsome. In case you’re not on Instagram (which is totally where it’s at) Bimble and Pimple blogger Amanda has organised an online event called Sewvember using the hashtag #bpsewvember. There’s a theme for each day of September and you take a photo on that theme and share it.

So yesterday the theme was an Early Make – something that you sewed when you first got going as a seamstress. I shared the picture above, my wool crepe vogue dress. I made it in 2011 and despite having no finishing on the seams (I was very new to sewing) I have worn it heaps, including to a wedding at the beginning of this year, to a corporate ball and to my graduation.

One of the most interesting themes was Insides – the lining or finishing of a garment. I posted the photo above. It is the lining and facings of the navy brocade dress I made for Julia Bobbin’s Mad Men Sewalong in 2013. Navy on the outside, shocking pink on the inside!

Prior to that we shared photos on how we are inspired to sew. A bunch of people said Pinterest was what got them going, others said their surroundings like street fashion or the environment. For me it’s the fabric! Glorious fabric. I guess I kind of work backwards, finding fabrics that I love and working out what kind of garments they would look great as.

I *heart* the sewing community! Thanks for being awesome everyone!