Blue Floral Dress

 

This dress is made from a lovely viscose (rayon) fabric in a rich blue which I bought in a charity shop 2 years ago.

The community chorus I sing with have a summer engagement and asked us to wear blue for it. So that prompted me to get the fabric out and work with it. The large scale print seemed best spread out over a dress.

The main dress is from a Prima magazine April 1998, with sleeves from a different dress in the May 2010 magazine, and front ties I drafted myself.

NOTE: Prima is a UK monthly magazine. For subscribers it includes a free sewing pattern. If bought in the newsagent then there is info on how to get the pattern. I have been a subscriber for many years.

It works quite well under the jacket.

Blue Suit

 

I used some heavy rayon mix twill from deep stash to make a simple little suit..

The jacket is New Look 6481 with the hem levelled out and patch pockets added.

The trousers are New Look 6438 with an elasticated waist and front slash pockets added.

Floral Challis Blouse

 

I used Simplicity 9200 with a few tweaks.

I lengthened the sleeves, added a bound slit and buttoned cuffs. I also put the buttonholes slightly closer together and used more buttons.

The pattern does not have you interface the front band, but I did as the fabric is so lightweight.

The fabric was quite tricky to handle. I pressed the fabric, then laid it out on a table with a lot of weights, carefully cutting the larger pieces with very sharp shears. For the smaller pieces I cut them out of interfacing first, then fused the interfacing onto the back of the fabric pieces once I'd made them as straight as I could. I then cut round the interfacing.

For an accurate collar I traced the stitching lines onto tissue which I placed on top of the piece when sewing.

Gifts and Purchases

I recently had the chance to spend some time with a sewing buddy and picked up some goodies for the sewing room.

As always when visiting a sewing friend, we went into her sewing room and she shared with me some things she wouldn't be using.

Large bag of fabric

Interfacing (4 types)

Gold overlocker thread

The next day we went to The Malvern Quilt show where I was fairly restrained, but did buy a few things.

2 metres of stretch denim from Roy's Material World

Some clips from the Quilted Bear

A bag of leather scraps from Remade Worcester

Also (not pictured) some thread and some water soluble interfacing for embroidery.

The next day we visited the local Medieval Fair where I bought some vintage 36" wide cotton fabric from Bernie the Bolt

I got 4 metres, but since it is so narrow it'll be interesting to see what I can do with it.