A slight pattern hack for the Til the Sun Goes Down Amelie Tuck Blouse

It is a while since I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate and sitting in my to-do pile has been the Til the Sun Goes Down kit for the Amelie Tuck Blouse.

I loved this blouse particularly for the collar, which is wonderfully vintage looking and quite frankly in my opinion, cool.  I liked the sleeves, but I was wanting a longer sleeve to the blouse so I decided I would make it to have the sleeves I wanted.  I already have made a couple of patterns from this company and the one I made for my daughter's wedding, the Ritz dress, had long sleeves. I wondered whether I could swap the sleeves from one to the other.

A bit of faffing around and I decided that it could work.  The pattern was quite straightforward to put together.  The tucks in the front were easy to do.  There should also be tucks in the back, I did not put those in as, she whispers, I do not have as defined a waist as the pattern would wish.  This made the pattern fit well and comfortably.

The sleeves fitted in perfectly and I think they do not look out of place with the overall design.

and the collar makes me very happy. 

The Knitting and Stitching Show, Harrogate November 2017

Several years ago, when I was in my dressmaking dormancy but knitting and crossstitching regularly, I visited the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate. I lived a bit closer to Harrogate at that time so it felt a reasonable day trip.  When I started to think about going this year to my delight I discovered that whilst I live a bit further away; the total journey time is much the same.  I was lucky to have been given a press-pass and so I enlisted my crocheting daughter as company for the day and we set off relatively early on the Sunday morning.

We arrived in Harrogate just in time to the show’s opening time.  My trusty sat nav helped us find where to park and we excitedly made our way to the venue.  As we got closer we just followed the steady stream of crafty looking people to the entrance.  It is a fascinating building, it looks very modern from the outside, but inside we discovered there is a wonderful old theatre.

Where we found a seat to drink tea and eat cake.  Energy was going to be needed for the day ahead.

It is a place with a lot of history and I loved that so much of the original building was kept intact.

My memory of the event was that is was large, I need to correct this, it is huge!  I think there were five large halls full or stalls and workshops. I say I think there were five as I am pretty sure that we actually didn’t find one of them. This is despite the plentiful extremely helpful staff on hand and lots of large maps and a Show programme. We had run out of oomph when we realised there was still a hall to find and decided that next time we would find that hall first. 

It is the most eclectic show you can imagine. There was plenty for me as a sewist and knitter, my daughter was in crochet heaven and I managed, just, not to buy any crossstitch, but only just.

One thing we did both buy was a guide dog.  Ok, we didn’t actually buy a dog, but we did both sign up to sponsor a puppy.  The man who was trying to convince us to do this convinced us both with one sentence, that they receive absolutely no government or lottery funding.  Think about that, think about the job that these dogs do - we were shocked and signed up straight away.

I went with a set budget.  I took the amount of money I wanted to spend and in a very disciplined way managed not to resort to card payments.  I felt a little proud of myself.  So what did I buy?

Well:

I came away with a rather good haul.

Firstly I bought some thread.  It might not sound the most exciting thing in the world, but I needed some this colour and it was a good opportunity to buy it.

I also bought these bargain buttons, I think you can never have too many buttons.

I had to buy these ones with poppies on.  Readers who follow my gardening exploits know that poppies are a very favourite flower of mine.

These kits from Til the Sun Goes Down were at a bargain price.  I love their patterns so I had to buy a couple, it was rude not to.

The fabric for these kits is perfect, I am in a paisley mood at the moment so I am really looking forward to making up the dress in particular.

I also bought these wonderful fabrics, I am thinking of using them for linings.  I am having a bit of a thing at the moment about lining in general and being more adventurous when lining.

Yes this is exploding Tardis fabric, how exciting is that?!

I also bought this amazing birdy fabric, which is already being made up into the lining of a jacket.  The birds are clearly very realistic as Esme was happy to help me when I was trying to cut out the pieces.

I do enjoy a good knitting pattern, and I love a good vintage knitting pattern.  So this little booklet had to be bought.

I really want to knit this suit soon. Isn't it fantastic?

I also bought this large ball of wool, no this is not to knit the suit from, but I will enjoy finding something exciting to make from it.

Finally I bought these very pretty little scissors.  Perfect for snipping threads.

We made our way homewards, tired, but very happy.  I think I probably have enough sewing projects now to keep me going until the next Knitting and Stitching Show in spring, which is at Olympia 1 - 4 March 2018.  The show returns to Harrogate in 22nd -25th  November 2018.  The show also takes place in Dublin and Alexander Palace, see their website for more details.

When I got home I found my daughter had left her trademark reminder of her presence, did I mention she crochets all the time?

A vintage moment to test my skills

When my daughter first announced she was getting married, my first thoughts were around offering to grow the flowers for the wedding.  My flower adventures can be followed on my gardening blog here.  As the weeks passed I started to think that I would have to consider at some point what I would want to wear.  There was no hurry so I put it to the back of my mind. As the weeks passed my sewing bug had well and truly kicked in and I started to ponder whether I could make my own dress to wear.  I was not sure I was good enough yet, but I had a look at some patterns and thought some more.

Then I found the pattern I liked, I do like a bit of vintage and I had enjoyed making the Beach Pyjamas from Til the Sun Goes Down, so I wandered back to their website to look at more patterns.

Firstly I found the perfect fabric, the perfect perfect fabric. I knew whatever I made it had to be in that fabric.  As I looked on the website further I saw that they made kits of some patterns, these kits provided you with the pattern, notions and fabric.  By buying them as a kit you pay a little less for the pattern.  There was the perfect kit with the perfect fabric and perfect pattern.  The only fly in the ointment was the unperfect me, was I capable enough to make it?

Well nothing ventured, nothing gained I decided I would give it a try.  If I failed then yes, I would have wasted some money (never a good thing) but I could go and buy something ready made if necessary.  The wedding was to be in October, so I decided to give myself plenty of time and bought the kit in August.  Much to my delight the kit arrived with a comforting hand written note, saying that they had also made this dress and that it should turn out well.  The comforting hand written note became my comfort blanket as I sewed.  I took it out and read it every and now and again as it made me feel it was possible.

The fabric was a beautiful crepe de chine.  I have never made anything out of this kind of flimsy fabric before, so even the cutting out gave me more anxiety than usual.  I always take great care on the cutting out as one false move can lead to disaster, but I went more slowly and checked more often this time.

I had a few days off work planned and so made my start.  The front bodice was, and this is a technical term, a pig to get right.  The pattern instructions told me that this was the most difficult part of the dress and also vital to get right.  I used an old sheet that I cut to the pattern first so I could practice and get it right.  This was an extremely wise move.  The  crepe de chine is very easy to damage with pins so I need to practice without ruining the dress before I had really got started.  It took me several hours to get the bodice right, but eventually I worked it out and after that the dress came together rather well.

Much to my great relief I decided it was good enough to be worn.

On the day I was very happy with it.  It felt a success.

After completing this dress I felt very chuffed with myself.  I felt I had gone through a rite of passage and could tackle even more.  I sloughed off my beginners mantle and stepped onto the threshold of the purple haze that is intermediate.  I am sure I heard a welcoming tinkle of bells as I did so.

The Beach Pyjamas

Sometimes to see something is to have to have something.  One of the glories of Twitter is that it introduces me to some wonderful people and some fantastic things.  This 'Now and Then' pattern from Til the Sun Goes Down for these wonderfully retro beach pjjama and holiday dress that was just too tempting not to buy.

I did wonder if I was pushing myself too far for this to be a second project, but the glory of dressmaking is seeing things like this and giving it a go.  I just knew I had to go carefully and slowly, something I am not always very good at.

Firstly though, I decided I wanted a matching jacket of some sort to go with it.  I looked around firstly to see what I thought would look right and then I found a pattern.

The jacket pattern from Butterick was really very simple so I knew I had to do this first to make sure I was getting more confident.

The jacket came together really well.  The fabric was bought from John Lewis and it hangs nicely.  I decided I would take the plunge and start on the pyjamas.

I cannot begin to tell you how pleased with them I am.  They fit and are very comfortable. I also did not make any huge mistakes or have to hide any blunders.  At some point, probably closer to next summer, I want to also make the summer dress.  I have bought some pattern chart paper so I can cut around the original pattern and also have the right pieces for the summer dress.  Well who knows,  I might have to make more pyjamas one day

My confidence took a big leap forward and I started to think that I needed to be even more serious about my new found love for my sewing machine.  Completing this project successfully meant it suddenly felt that a whole raft of possibilities was now open to me.  I got so excited that I decided the time was right to create a sewing room, which I will write more about in a future post.

To be continued as they say......