Notions Of Fabric

Here today I have a dress from the vaults. I was inspired to make this dress following a rewatch of the TV show  Dollhouse   It was cancelled too soon, in my opinion. The premise of the show was that there are "actives", people with their personalities wiped so they can be imprinted with other personas in order to be assigned engagements with the rich and powerful. A great show, would recommend if you haven't seen it! Eliza Dushku played the lead, Echo, and she had a wide range of personalities and therefore costumes in the show. This costume was from one of the season 1 episodes (I can't remember which off the top of my head, unfortunately), and I was immediately caught by the horizontal centre darts and the flattering shape of the bodice. So I went looking for a pattern to be able to replicate it! The pattern I found was a vintage Simplicity crop top pattern ( 8130 ), which features a vertical centre seam, as well as side panels, and four horizontal darts on the fro...

Today I have a double post - both patterns which you have seen on the blog before. Let's go from the top down! The top is another  True Bias Ogden Cami ... I think I've made 5 at this point? I wear a lot of this style top (and did before I discovered the pattern), so I am now in the process of updating my original Primark tops in this style with Ogdens. I have also found that every time I find a print I like but am not sure if it will work as a dress, I am tempted to get a metre and make a top. Maybe I need to start making some for others! This fabric though is pretty special. It's the first ever silk I've seen with! It's a sandwashed silk, which I purchased on Goldhawk Rd while in a meet up with Claire of  Claire Sews   What I actually had planned for sandwashed silk is to make an underdressed in black to go with an embroidered tulle fabric I have in my stash, but given I'd never sewed with silk before I thought it would be a good idea to test it first to make ...

Before I had even finished my first Kew dress (which you can find  here  if you are interested), I knew I was going to make another. I just had to do it soon, before we ran out of summer in London! Luckily, even after that, we have a trip or two planned to places which will be nice and warm so there should be plenty of opportunity to wear it again. I can even picture it over a black t-shirt when the weather cools down which could look quite 90s cool. For this next  Kew   I wanted to make it a bit more wearable by leaving off the cold shoulder straps. I do really like them, but I just think that in order to get the most out of this dress throughout multiple seasons (and wearing cardigans/layers with it) that it is more versatile without the cold shoulder. Plus, with this heavier fabric I don't think it would drape quite as well or have the same effect. This fabric was the only piece of fabric I purchased while we were actually in Australia for Christmas (before the wh...

Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I love being a part of fandom and talking about my favourite books, TV shows and films. I love Pokemon (as evidenced in my last post by my Pikachu tee), Doctor Who (see wayyy back in the archives for my exploding Tardis dress), but my one true fandom love is Harry Potter. I read the books over and over throughout my life, they really helped me through tough times growing up. Now, I am a proud Hufflepuff (represent!) who, honestly, is a little shocked that I don't own any me made Harry Potter things! I have owned many a tee throughout the years, and currently wear almost exclusively HP socks, but I never found the right fabric for a themed dress until the Knitting and Stitching show last October, where I found this amazing HP newsprint fabric! While I have been trying to steer away from quilting cotton (which this is), I am not averse to using it when the design is so relevant to my interests! I made a NL6048, a pattern which I have made m...

Today I have a real summer staple for the blog. As soon as I finished  my Lander pant   earlier in the year I knew that what I wanted for the summer was a pair of light denim coloured  Lander shorts   So I set off, buying a single piece of denim from  Guthrie and Ghani   Making the shorts also means much less fabric; I’m pretty sure I got this out of a metre of the fabric. I also pulled out one of my stashed Japanese fat quarters for the pockets, which are a beautiful touch. I really like using fun and different fat quarters for pockets. Same as with my last pair, they went together very quickly and easily. I love the instructions  - they make making trousers so much less scary! I did want to use proper jeans buttons, however I couldn’t find them anywhere so I used these regular gold buttons which look pretty jeans like. I still think if I’m not 100% sold on the buttons that I’ll try the jeans buttons after that. This time around, I went one size down ...

No new photos today, folks. My regular photographer ran his first real (Olympic plus distance) triathlon today and we are both much too tired! So instead, I have a question. Or a quandary. While I was waiting for the race to finish, I grabbed some pencils to match fabric swatches. My current queue is one Kew dress, and then my next BIG project - a Closet Case files Sophie swimsuit! I am equal parts intimidated and excited for this project. Notions were actually quite easy to get - I just ordered a basic kit from Emerald Erin in nude and it has everything that I will need! So that was easy. I have spent an reasonable amount of time looking for fabric, before deciding on a splurge from Blackbird Fabrics. I've never ordered from them before but have been looking for an opportunity for a while, so I order 3 fabrics which I thought would coordinate with the thought to mix and match across a bikini. So I spent a few hours colouring in some of the croquis, using the closest colours that I...

Today we have a change of photographer and scenery - on location photos! These photos were taken on my iPhone by my lovely friend Jess, so the quality might not be quite the best, but I am on location in Barcelona! I'm currently on holiday in Spain without my usual Photographer husband, but here I am in the kitchen courtyard of Casa Batllo, my favourite of the Gaudi designed residences. I just couldn't turn down the chance to get such great location shots! This dress is hot of the presses, as I finished it less than a week ago! I have made several Ogden cami tops, and decided that I really liked the dress version on the  True Bias  blog and wanted to make it myself! I used the tutorial roughly, although I did end up having to take more off the back to even it out (I just did it as I tried in on with the skirt basted to make sure it hung straight on my body). This fabric is from my trip to Paris last summer, and I'm pretty certain it's a viscose. It's light and drape...