CJ made: rouleau loop

Thursday, 20 April 2017

Liberty Laurel Dress

I finished this pretty summer dress yesterday after hanging around in an almost finished state for nearly a year. I started in May 2016 and have only just got around to finishing the bias bound neck and fastening at the back in April 2017! If you are not familiar with the silhouette it is the ever-popular beginners shift dress the Colette Laurel.

I remember cutting out and making the majority of this dress last year but luckily I gleaned a bit more information via my 'project' section of the Foldline sewing enthusiast platform. Foldline is a great online community of sewists where you can create a profile and interact with other sewing enthusiasts. You can also write pattern reviews, create an online visual of your stash fabric and contribute to a forum.

Above is an example of my laurel project as seen on my Foldline profile. I added a few notes about the changes I made. Apparently I have added 6cm to the length of the dress (I had forgotten that detail which is bound to happen if you take 11 months to finish a dress!) and the Liberty cotton was purchased in a 30% off online sale. The Liberty print is called Kinetic from the Spring / Summer 2016 collection. You can get it from Sharkut for £14.99 per metre.

Not much else to report other than I used the same closing technique as my Sew Over It Ultimate Shift dress with a hair-band cheat rouleau loop and a lovely button I had in my stash. I used the reverse side of the button as it had pretty flecks of grey, pink and white in it that picked up on the colours of the Liberty print.

I hand stitched the self-made bias binding into position including around the opening at the back.

It fits well on the upper body but is probably a little wider than I'd like at the hip area as I did my usual grading between two sizes from bust to hips. Perhaps I don't need to do this on my next version as it is a fairly loose fitting shift dress. It does however look nice worn with a belt. When I get a chance I will post some photos of me wearing it.

Pattern: Colette Laurel Dress (I made the top here) = £12 (second make from pattern) = £6

Fabric: 1.1 metre of Liberty Kinetic Tana Lawn = £15

Gutterman Thread: Pink from stash = free

Rouleau Loop: Hairband from stash = free

Buttton: From stash = free

Total: £23

Check out lots of other cool crafty blogs at #handmademonday organised by Julia of Sum of their Stories.

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

Linen SOI Shift Dress

After the success of my previous Sew Over It Ultimate Shift Dress I decided to use some fabric I bought for my birthday in November from Sew Over It (it looks like its sold out now - sorry folks!).
It is a beautiful autumnal floral printed linen which has a lovely weight and drape to it. I paired it with a shocking pink silk lining that has been in my stash since my textile student days in the 1990's!

I sewed the outer shell and lining of the dress using the sewing machine but most of the final finish was completed by hand.

Here are some close up shots of the dress in construction including a nifty way to finish a dress or top without the need to make a fiddly rouleau loop. The black loop is an elastic hair-band cut in half and I added a square of felt to reinforce where the button is sewn into position.

The 'rouleau' loop just needs to be fixed into position between the seams. I hand-stitched through the knot to make sure it was very secure - if you are a fan of machine stitching I would slow down the speed to make sure it manages to go over the lump of the knot.

I chose to hand embroider the neckline with some embroidery floss from my stash. (I selected the 4th from the right). As I decided to line the dress from the start I eliminated the facings of the original pattern and sewed the lining to the neckline and hand-stitched it to the arm sythe. Aside from the aesthetic appeal of hand-embroidery the main reason I embroidered the neckline was to stop the lining from showing and to fix the outer-shell and lining from shifting and moving around.

I am really happy with the final dress and enjoyed spending the time of the hand-finishes including a hand-stitched hem on the outer dress and lining.