Carols Summit Back Pack for Sew My Style 2020 #SMS20

The Summit pack...

Hey, you guys, I’m really excited to share my make with you all this time.

Its February and that means I’m leading Sew My Style this month!

If you aren’t aware of what this is, it’s an international sewing challenge, where each month discount codes are issued to makers who are signed up to the subscription list, for both the two chosen patterns that month. Then at the end of the month a winner is chosen at random from all the entries, so you don’t have to worry or feel excluded if you are not the most experienced maker. 

Anyway, my point is I’m leading, eek…and the lovely Sammy is this month’s sponsor! 

The winner of the February make will win a £50 voucher to spend in The Samantha Claridge Studio!

So, I really wanted to choose some fabrics to showcase the fabulous range on Sammy’s website!

I’ve coveted the delightful quilting cottons on Sammy’s site for such a long time. But as I’m not really a quilter I haven’t used them much so far! But the pattern I’m making for months sew my style is the Cloudsplitter Summit Pack which conveniently suggests quilting cotton for the inside and outsides. 

I had a really tough choice though, as I couldn’t decide whether to go for these really cheerful summery ones. Which I know would be amazing as a summer bag or a holiday bag.

Left: Ruby Star Society

Right: Sweet bee sweet blooms

Or whether to choose these Figo Lucky charms, in Denim and Charcoal, which eventually won me over.

I chose these two as I decided that in this colour palette I would get absolutely loads of wear from the bag. The colours will be really hard wearing and not look too grubby even if I’m using it every day to walk to work with.

I chose the main colour of the exterior in the denim blue with the charcoal as an accent…

The charcoal is also used for the gadget pocket and card slot inside so that gives a great contrast to the interior. I used a left-over piece from my stash for the inside as I’m all about using up what I’ve already got in the interest of stash busting and sustainability.

All in all, I’m absolutely thrilled with my Summit pack, the Figo fabrics look as fabulous as I hoped they would. 

That’s all for now, but why don’t you come and join me on sew my style this month, you could use the same Figo prints as me or maybe you’d like a summer bag!?

 

Follow Carol @chatterstitch on Instagram to see her #sms20 makes! 

 

Tinny Dress

The prettiest of summer dresses!

 
 
 
One of my daughter’s favourite thing to wear, particularly during summer time is, undoubtedly, twirling dress. Who can blame her, really? So girly, pretty and fun.

The last twirling dress I made her, she complained it was too hot. Having the bodice lined and bearing in mind that it would mostly be used during summer holiday in Portugal, the fabric couldn’t be too heavy. The Sevenberry Yarn Dyed cotton worked perfectly. It has a good weight and as you can see twirls beautifully but it is not too heavy and of course, being cotton, it is breathable.

 

 

For the collar and sash I used the white dobby cotton lawn. Not only makes a lovely contrast, in colour and texture, but also being a cotton lawn is lighter weight and for that reason perfect for the collar. The sash is not part of the pattern and I did not attach it to the dress as she might prefer not to wear it, depending on the occasion.

 

 

The pattern I used for the dress is one that I’ve used before to make classic dresses for my girls, the Tinny Dress by StraightGrain. This pattern offers a variety of options but to fulfil M’s request I made circle skirt option, with slim peter pan collar, regular bodice and sleeveless

 

 

Regarding the size, I made a size 8 for height with size 6 for width. I believe it worked perfectly as it is not too tight at the chest and waist area but it is not to baggy either

 

 

In conclusion, the fabric worked beautifully for this project, it has a lovely pink colour not too bright, good weight and feels nice against the skin (this is an important aspect for my daughter). I can say for sure that I have a very happy girl.

Thank you Samantha Claridge Studio for the supplies and you for reading.
 
Happy sewing,
Maria x

 

Jenny @jennystitched makes a fancy robe

For my first Design Team make, I wanted to fill a gap in my wardrobe that was definitely more a ‘want’ than a ‘need’. I’ve been hankering after a lightweight summer robe for throwing over pyjamas in the warmer months and when I spotted this viscose print in the Sew Crafty shop, I knew it would make a brilliant robe. 

The viscose is a very bold print which typically is not my normal style, but when it comes to nightwear and loungewear I think anything goes! It’s a classic combination of black and white stripes and florals (who doesn’t love a bit of pattern clashing from time to time?!), but the scale of the floral design makes this fabric look quite fresh and modern rather than twee. I think my favourite flower in the print is the beautiful pinky-red poppy!

Despite picking this fabric quickly, it took me ages to choose a robe pattern. I felt like the big 4 pattern companies either offered ‘comfy and cosy’ or ‘lingerie’ and I wanted something that fell somewhere in the middle of the 2 options that I could just chuck on when it’s a hot evening. We have a great charity shop near me that has a large haberdashery section and I found this great vintage 1950s housecoat pattern that looked like just the thing. I did modify the pattern, I took 12 inches out of the skirt section – apparently, women in the fifties were built like Amazons, and I, most definitely, am not at just 5’ 3”! I also took about 4 inches from the sleeve to make it bracelet length so I don’t always have to roll my sleeves up to do anything, and instead of easing in the sleeve head I gathered the fabric to give the shoulder a more vintage look.

To complement the floral viscose I’d chosen from Sew Crafty, I used a cheap and cheerful black viscose from my local market for the roll collar and belt, but the floral is better quality. It’s got a great drape (for swishing around the house like a Hollywood starlet) but as it’s viscose it can be chucked in the wash over and over again without doing too much harm to it (because I am not a Hollywood starlet and have to do my own laundry).

The print on this is big but it doesn’t seem to repeat in any obvious way so I didn’t bother to pattern match as I think when a print is this striking it’s easier to get away with. As the black stripe runs horizontal to the selvage I chose to focus on lining that up for the pockets and pinned all the pieces in the same direction.

The fabric sewed up nicely and I finished the insides on my overlocker. I used a black Guterman thread for all the seams and the hem. Viscose can be quite slippy when pinning and cutting out so I would recommend cutting on a slightly grippy surface like a carpet if you can as this will help prevent any shifting around whilst you cut and avoid any funny shaped pieces! You can also use a starch spray to help make the pieces more stable as this will wash straight out again. I prewashed the fabric on a 30 degree with a colour catcher sheet setting and there wasn’t much shrinkage or colour bleed.

I feel very glam when wearing this – anything that elevates a pair of tired old pyjamas into an elegant lounging outfit is a winner!

Jenny