June was a much quieter sewing month than May. The first week of June, I was away in London and treated myself to some new scissors as well as lots of different denims to dive into trousers and jeans making in the coming month. What I noticed while in London that my wardrobe is perfect for Dubai, lots of light clothes for hot weather but a bit thin for cooler weather back home :) I have lots of 3/4 length trousers so my feet were a bit cold at times. So in the coming weeks, I will try to work on trousers and hopefully won't get distracted by pretty dresses.
For myself, I only sewed three new garments:
A pair of overalls or dungarees. I still have to work on the fit, they are a bit long in the legs, although I had already shortened them by 3". They fit well around my hip but the crotch is a bit long and needs to be shortened by 1" at least. I am looking forward wearing them, once the weather cools down again or we go home for a couple of weeks in August.
I am looking for the perfect wrap dress and have tried a couple of pattern in the past. One of them, you can find a pattern review on my blog. Now, I am looking for a dress pattern that has good coverage around the bust, meaning I don't have to sew on a snap button to avoid my bra being visible. Which unfortunately was the case for the Bellbird Wrap Dress by Common Stitch I sewed this month. A quick review: the instructions don't come with finished garment measurements. I feel between 3 sizes and wanted to check how much ease the pattern used. I had to measure the pattern pieces to be sure. I sewed a size 14 and feel comfortable in it. I really like the grown-on kimono-style sleeves. The belt doesn't sit in the right position, I could be couple of cm higher. I shortened the front and back pieces by 2" (because I didn't have enough fabric and I normally have to shorten dresses, skirts and trousers by 3"). There is no shortening & lengthening line, so I took it off the hem. All in all, it is a nice pattern but unfortunately, I had to sew on a snap button to give enough coverage around the bust. The instructions are easy to follow, as long as you have sewn a couple of items before as well as have good eyes! The instructions only come in A1 format and I can only print A4, the font was really small. I didn't know how to make it work on my printer settings. It sewed up fairly quickly, maybe 3 to 4 hours. I made actual bias binding to finish the raw edge of the wrap that's because I didn't have enough fabric and had to piece everything together with the smallest scraps. Which is great because I only had the smallest amount of fabric left.
I don't think I would make it again because, the skirt piece could be a bit fuller/flared and the coverage around the bust.
During the soft launch of the Intro to Jersey workshop, I sewed with my students together and made the coral-coloured Agnes Top and a pair of knickers with the scraps too.
For my workshops, I sewed samples such as pillow cases and a couple of new samples for each dressmaking course to get some nice pictures taken off.
Like I said, not that much but nevertheless a great sewing month, teaching more people to sew.
What have you been sewing this month?
Thanks for hanging out with me.
