I'm a little bit late on writing this post, but for some reason August just flew by and before I knew it, we're almost halfway through September!
If you remember a few posts ago, I said that I'm going to try and push myself a bit further, by either choosing more difficult patterns or by using a fabric which needs to be pattern matched a little more carefully. I've (semi) successfully achieved that in August and I couldn't be more proud of myself! I also invested in an Adjustoform and I'm extremely pleased with my purchase. I'd been umming and ahhing for near enough a year now and finally took the plunge early August (shortly after payday...). I have to admit, this has spooked me more than once in the middle of the night.
Moving on...the first sew of August was another Colette Aster blouse.
This fabric is just...so gorgeous. It's a really nice quality cotton, something that I wouldn't normally go for. My Mum actually purchased this a few months ago from Rags in Worcester town center but never got round to using it, and if I'm being honest, I'd dropped a hint more than once that I loved this fabric and in the end, me and my Mum ended up doing a fabric swap. I'd given her a stretch cotton fabric which would be perfect for the sort of dress that she wanted to make, I had bought the fabric months and months ago and just never felt inspired enough to use it. All in all, a good swap.
I completely forgot to make this blouse a little smaller before I cut the pattern out, so it does gape a little. I may end up taking this in an inch or so either side to make it less...tent like. Now, for my first go at real pattern matching, I'm actually quite proud of this. I'm about a cm off or so on the front, but it isn't that noticeable if I pull the one side down a little. The only other place that's not that perfectly matched is along the yolk on the back, however as I have extremely long hair, I bet 99% of people aren't even going to notice it. I must say, I'm quite happy with this, and can see me getting a lot of wear out of it in the upcoming autumn months.
The second, and last, sew of August was the New Look 6449.
This took up so much of my time. I had one solid week where I spent around 2 hours a night tackling this, so all in all, it probably took me around 8-10 hours to sew, but I'm honestly so proud of myself for actually persevering with this. I'm not even ashamed to say I cried over this dress, I really did feel like giving up because as soon as I noticed I'd done one thing wrong, everything seemed to be going wrong. I ended up cutting out the largest size because that's what matched my bust size and to be honest, the rest of the fit is actually perfect! It's not too baggy but I will wear this with a belt, like I do with all of my dresses. But, without a belt, it's actually quite tailored to my shape, which is quite weird as I hadn't done any alterations whatsoever. If you follow Sew Over It on youtube, you'll recognise this fabric from Lisa's 1970's vintage shirt dress review and whilst it wasn't the nicest fabric to work with, it's certainly one I instantly fell in love with when I saw it. I need to be really careful when I iron it though...I have a feeling this will burn really, really easily.
I found this pattern quite difficult to follow, but that's due to my own ignorance. I'm happy to say I learnt a LOT whilst sewing this pattern...before now, I never knew what a continuous lap was, or how to sew a cuff onto an arm or a collar on to a neckline. It's by far the most advanced garment I've made and no, it's not perfect. The pattern matching is a few cm off on the front where the buttons are and the arms ended up being a little too big (that's one thing I'd downsize next time) but I am just. so. friggen. pleased. with myself!
I haven't had chance to begin sewing in September so far, but I am having quite a hectic time lately at work and by the time I get home, I'm so tired that I just want to chill out and not do anything. I'll see if I can find the time to squeeze in a few simple sews!
♥
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