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As an experiment, I set myself the target of taking a garment idea from concept to actualisation in 3 days. And I did it! Well - actually it took me 4 days. But that’s far better than not doing it at all, which is what happens to all my other ideas!

Behold, my self-drafted A-line princess seam dress:

I ended up deviating quite a bit from the original design. Below are my original sketch, and a technical drawing of what I ended up sewing. The princess seams and the flared skirt stayed, but I ditched the side panels, the racer back shoulders, and the keyhole opening. I added a centre back zipper and a boatneck.

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Recently I pattern tested the Esti co-ord for Tilly and the Buttons. As I was sewing from a pre-release copy, it wouldn’t really be fair for me to review the pattern until I make a copy from the final version. But I can say that this is a solid, simple pattern, excellent for beginners! There are no closures; the top just slips over your head, and the trousers are elasticated.

I tested the cropped length view - I can’t remember for the life of me why I chose the cropped length, when crop tops aren’t really my style! But at time of writing, it’s super sunny and warm in York, so a breezy belly is comfortable. Come autumn though, I will use my leftover fabric to extend the top, so I can tuck it in for that faux jumpsuit vibe.

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Recently I was lucky to be sent an advanced copy of the Auri jacket pattern from TAUKO Magazine Issue 7. They let me choose which pattern I wanted from the issue, and I couldn’t resist the Auri with its wavy lines and colour blocking opportunities!

What fabric and size did I choose?

I used Sevenberry cotton twill. I actually bought a little extra twill in yellow to add the optional ruffles, but in the end I decided to keep it simple and focus on the green and blue.

This is a size 2. I chose the cropped length, full sleeve view, with no ruffles. I lengthened the sleeve by 1.5", which is a standard adjustment for me.

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I made the Sylvie top from Forget-Me-Not patterns!

NB. I am a part of the Forget-Me-Not patterns Insider program, which means I get access to all their patterns in exchange for some social media posts showing off my makes. Forget-Me-Not haven’t asked to write this review though, and I get nothing for this. I just want to share the details of this lovely pattern!

What fabric and size did I choose?

I made a straight size 34, no mods at all.

This is a cotton jersey fabric from Selfmade.com. I picked it up on holiday in Oslo last year. I spent like an hour in the store touching all the fabrics and the haberdashery and generally being very excited. It’s suuuuch a lovely fabric.

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I originally wrote this blog post as a guest feature for Dovetailed London, as I’m one of their brand ambassadors. I received the fabric in exchange for the blog post.

It’s my first Dovetailed London Ambassador make! To sew this dress, I used the Megan pattern from the book Love at First Stitch by Tilly and the Buttons.

I chose this dress pattern because it has clean, simple style lines, which let the fabric be the star of the show. It also has a lot of straight seams which makes pattern matching much easier! The pattern also recommends fabrics with a little bit of structure to their drape, and even suggests quilting cotton - so I knew it would work nicely in wax print, which has a little bit of sturdiness to it.

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Inspiration finally struck for this meter of gold foil fabric! I made a top from it a few years ago, but this leftover length has been sitting in my stash just waiting for me to do something with it. So I sewed up this Bibi skirt from the Tilly and the Buttons book Stretch!.

The skirt is so simple, folks. It’s two pattern pieces (a skirt panel and a waist band). The construction is straight forward, and fitting is easy as you can just baste the panel seams before you sew them up properly. A super quick make. Which is really what I needed - a quick win to break up the ongoing saga of my self-drafted bodice block.

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After many, many (many) iterations of trying to retrofit a bodice block from an existing pattern, I’ve decided to step up my game and do the damn thing properly. So I’m drafting one myself.

I bought myself a copy of Winifred Aldrich’s famous book Metric Pattern Cutting. This is a classic - and it isn’t cheap. It’s very much a text book, that teaches you the formulas for drafting patterns. It explains how to draft basic blocks, and then it shows you a whole bunch of different modifications you can make to those blocks - all mathematically. And I love it. I’ve fallen in love with the book. The technical angle works wonderfully for my brain. I’m a software engineer by trade, so I’m very much a precise/logical thinker. This makes so much more sense than guesswork.

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I tried out a great technique to speed up sewing.

Recently, I had to make a dress on a deadline. By which I mean, I left it til the last minute to make it! I had so little time that it barely seemed possible to finish the dress. But rather than give up, I used the pressure to try out a technique that would make my sewing more efficient: task batching. And it worked so well!

Batching your sewing tasks is such a time saver - and it doesn’t even involve cutting any corners. (Insert joke about trimming seam allowances here.) You’re not skipping any of the important steps - you’re just rearranging them.

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