I want to add to my dressmaking knowledge

I am eagerly awaiting this book in the post. I wonder what these secrets will be. Mmmm.
I am also at the stage of needing to learn a little bit more about the dressmaking process. I can just about manage with simple patterns but I would like to move on a bit to the next stage, as it were.

Seeing as I am a full time student nurse I simply do not have time to do any courses. There is an amazing course at my local adult education that runs for a year at one evening a week but I just can't commit to it. So I have ordered this:

It was over £50 so I really hope I can get  a lot out of it. Does anyone else have this box set, if so have you found it useful? 

Also I'm getting to the stage of thinking about getting an overlocker. Does anyone have any advise for which to get for a beginner?

My Daughter's Burda 104

Hello again everyone! How's sewing going? Isn't it wonderful to be able to sew in peace with the windows and doors open and the sun blazing outside, especially after all that snow at the start of the year. Aah bliss.
Ok, I've managed, by some weird miracle to finish AND photograph this dress.

   

I really didn't think I would manage to make the dress look so, well, so un-home made. It just looks like a normal dress you might see in a shop, that is unless you looked inside. I don't have an overlocker and I'm still not at the stage of making the wrong side of the garment look neat and tidy. But the outside, that looks fine.

Just wanted to put in this quick post and will post again soon with my next project - something quick and good to take on holiday. Till then.. Oh by the way sorry about the location of my photos, the kitchen isn't that glamorous and certainly the dirty dishes in the sink aren't so appealing, I will try and choose a more scenic location for your viewing pleasure soon.

Catching up

It has been a while since I added anything to this blog. I have been reading everyone else's blogs avidly and with great interest and continue to find new blogs all the time to add to my collection of favourites...I just have to remember how to add them to my list on the side, I'm sure it will come to me.

There is so much amazing stuff being sewn on these blogs that I feel like a real newbie, lets face it I've only been sewing for a few months. However I have managed to make a couple of things during my blogging absence that I will photograph and add in due course, but right now I am making two first Burda patterns ever, at the same time no less. Firstly is this delightful dress;

We have chosen a red stretch sateen for the dress. It needs to be complete by this Friday as it is her prom to celebrate the end of secondary school. . I've been very worried about the whole process of tracing, cutting out and fitting the patterns, but I was courageous and did it. This dress had me sewing my first invisible zip which I had two attempts to get right, but I did get it right and it is as the name suggests - invisible. Pictures to follow

The dress on the model is quite loose I think, I cut out a snug fit on my daughter and have yet to attach the facing and straps. It sounds so simple and quick but everything takes me so long as I am learning with everything I do.

The other thing I'm working on is this lovely looking summery, airy top that I thought would look great with jeans;

It looks so simple, doesn't it and it is to many of you. When I started doing the shirring and bias binding I didn't produce the results I was hoping for, as you can see;

I simply did not realise how neat and precise the markings for the shirring needed to be. Before I did it I could not visualise what the Burda instruction where telling me to do so it was a bit hit and miss. I will rip it and do it again, the same with the bias binding on the neckline...what a disaster that was. Still I will keep learning as I go and maybe one day I will be sewing as some of you are.

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I was making a Vogue dress. It is finished now and I have worn it several times since, it has proved to be a really convenient style to have in my wardrobe as I think it has a modern edge on the traditional dresses. I have been doing Lighter Life for a month now and have lost a stone in weight since these pictures were taken. I think I look rather large in them, in fact they were taken on the eve of starting my diet. So, I am bearing my soul here somewhat with these pictures but I'm sure soon I will be posting more flattering ones.

                                                              

I will catch up on taking more photos of finished and unfinished projects and post them very soon. Promise not to leave it so long.

Regards...