Marilla Walker's Ilsley skirt

I love Marilla's creative approach to clothes-making and her garments are so carefully thought out and versatile. I have been reading Marilla's blog for a while so when she launched her free skirt pattern the Ilsley I was excited to make one.

I had the perfect grey linen in my stash (that had originally been destined for my McCall's 6696 shirtdress) which had the right sort of weight and structure for a skirt of this nature.

Onto the construction of the Ilsley skirt:

The PDF is only about 15 pages long and Marilla has meticulously planned the tessellation so it uses the least amount of paper as possible. Genius!

Next step was the curved hem, then onto the construction of the pockets which are French seamed for a neat finish. Finally sew up the side seams and attach the waistband and there you have a beautifully finished elasticated skirt!

I love it. It is so comfortable.
Depending on the fabric you use it can have a totally different look. I image it would be super-chilled out in a very soft sweatshirt knit or much smarter in a cotton sateen.
Overall it is a lovely skirt and I can see a few more in my wardrobe by the time Me-Made-May 2016 comes around.

The crazy / beautiful 1970's shirt was another purchase from the vintage stall from Camden Passage in Islington last week.

It was £10 because it has a few tears and holes in it. I will need to repair / re-style it so I can wear it without the fear of it disintegrating on me. It is made from a beautiful sheer cotton muslim but has seen better days under the arm and on the button holes. Looks like I have another vintage pledge project to get creative with!

Warhol Dolores Pocket skirt

I spotted this awesome skirt at the vintage market in Camden Passage in Islington on my walk home from work last Wednesday. I knew I wouldn't be able to wear it as it was (the waist size was 24") but I knew it could be re-fashioned into something else because the fabric is fantastic. And a bargain for only £12.
It didn't take me long to decide it would be *another* Dolores Pocket skirt. This will be my fourth version of this pattern - you can see my other versions here, here and here!

It started off as a simple gathered skirt with a single button waistband and small zip. I think it is a late 1960's / early 1970's skirt judging by the print (let's be honest here it could be 1980's too!).
It was all hand-sewn and had a metal zip; which leads me to think it could more '60's or '70's rather than '80's!

I un-picked the hand-stitches and ironed out the creases on Thursday early evening and had cut out the Dolores Pocket skirt number four by the end of the night.
I assembled the skirt on Saturday morning without needing to refer to the instructions (did I mention I had made this pattern before?!). Things went together smoothly and here is the finished item:

I have called it the Warhol Dolores Pocket skirt as the bold, colourful flowers remind me of the bright floral prints of Andy Warhol circa 1960.

Have you re-used fabric to create a new garment or up-cycled an existing piece of clothing?
Also, does this count for a Vintage Sewing Pledge because I have used vintage fabric?

Liberty Simplicity 1364

Last month whilst reading the blog for Guthrie and Ghani, Lauren mentioned she had been selected to be a judge for a competition for sewing bloggers by Simplicity. To enter you need to e-mail Simplicity stating which pattern you would like to use (there are three choices) and they send you a free pattern!

You need to make the garment by 31st May and blog about it. I am going to show you my first attempt at the vintage reproduction Simplicity 1364, (I'm hoping I could make another one by the 31st).

Let's introduce Simplicity 1363 = it's a cute little 1960's top pattern:

The Liberty Tana Lawn was a little bargain that I picked up from Shakut's last year and I had just the right amount for this little top - it was meant to be.

The pattern has deep French darts, a neck facing and tiny darts at the elbow of the sleeves. 

Construction was fairly straight forward but I did have trouble with the application of the neck facing. I omitted the small zip at the back after trying the top on during fitting stages when I realised you can quite easily get away without one. 

I may decide to use a button and hand-loop on my next one and do French Seams for a neater finish. What do you think?

This top could also qualify for my first Vintage Pledge of the year which is quite convenient - or is it cheating?