The Big Stitch - part 3, a finished dress!

After all the hand sewing on the bodice, the skirt of my Big Stitch dress was quick and easy - once I'd got the fabric. The skirt of the original dress was already a bit shorter than I’d normally wear. I knew that I would need to take some off the top to make it bigger at the waist, so it was going to end up shorter still. So I decided to add a plain black band round the bottom.

Black cotton; what could be easier to find?

Quite a lot of things, as it turned out. A hunt through the 'plain cottons' remnant bin in my local fabric shop quickly revealed that not all black cottons are created equal, and it took a while to find anything close to the shade of black used in the skirt. On top of that, the remnant needed to be a similar weight to the skirt fabric in order for the whole thing to drape properly. Finally I found a reasonable match, and it was a big enough piece. Phew.

The pattern was made by tracing round the bottom of a quarter of the skirt, drawing a line 15cm / 6" down from there, marking the extension of the fold and seam lines, and adding seam allowances. The original skirt hem was just an overlocked the raw edge turned under and machine sewn in place, so it was easy to unpick. I made up the band, sewed it on, and hemmed it the same way as the original.

Finally I made a simple tie belt from the leftover yellow fabric, and it was all done.

Transformation complete!

It's not a huge change (I doubt if it would get me very far in the Great British Sewing Bee 'transformation' challenge), but I'm pleased with the end result. It's given me a wearable dress with a bold, non-repeating print; which is something my wardrobe totally lacked.

Before and after

A bonus was the discovery that the new bodice is a perfect match to my yellow shoes. So I decided to dress things up a bit with more period-appropriate jewellery and a hat.

Pearls, and a black straw vintage cocktail hat

I should have added a handbag (and a cocktail!)

The Big Stitch - part 2, a whole lot of hand sewing

I had hoped to have a finished dress to post about, but my first Big Stitch project (the black, white and yellow cotton sundress) has involved a lot more hand sewing than I’d expected. As a result, I’ve only got the bodice complete.

I had already decided to discard the original bodice, so the first thing I did was separate it from the skirt. I left the zip attached to the skirt, with the idea that I might be able to sew it into whatever new bodice I added, but I quickly realised that the ‘spare’ part was too long to fit comfortably into anything else. So I unpicked it altogether.

In the meantime I was also considering what pattern to use for the new bodice. I was tempted to go with Butterick 6620 because I love it so much, but I wasn’t sure how the long sleeves would work on something that’s sewn onto a skirt (I know I'm being picky, but I do like to be able to move my arms!) Instead I went with Vogue 8789, which I used for my DIY Horrockses dress.

This has the advantage of having an entirely straight neckline. Only after I’d bought some yellow cotton for the new bodice did I remember that yellow next to the skin isn’t a good look for me. It would need some sort of trimming round the neck to hide the yellowness (of both me and the fabric - that's the effect it has!) I found some chunky cotton lace which I thought would be ideal, but which wouldn’t work around curves.

Raw materials: skirt, zip, yellow and black cotton, and the lace

I decided to sew the lace onto the four bodice pieces by hand, just overcasting along the straight edges. Unfortunately once I started to sew I discovered that it wasn’t all that robustly made, and was coming apart in places. So I had to sew down loose bits and remake some of the joining bars in sewing thread as I went along. Once I’d finally finished this, I decided that a single length of lace looked a bit puny, so had the repeat the whole exercise with a second row. All this took time. A long, long time.

Trim sewn onto a bodice back section

To make the white voile lining, I cut out the bodice pieces, minus the self-facing round the neck. Then I slightly trimmed the neckline and armscyes of the lining pieces. I made up the lining and bodice separately, sewed the two right sides together round the armscyes, and turned the whole thing right way out. I wanted to understitch the lining round the armscye, but this would be nigh-on impossible by machine, so I did it by hand.

The lining sewn in place round the armscye

Next the raw edge of the bodice self-facing was turned under, making the facing the same width as the double lace strip. This meant that when I slip-stitched the facing onto the lining I could catch the whole thing down to the main bodice occasionally, with the stitches being hidden by the edge of the lace.

The right side of the bodice was sewn up completely, the left just at the top. The skirt is wider at the front than the back, and I wanted to replicate this in the bodice. I did this by tapering the centre front seam and altering the side seams so that the raw edges didn’t match. It was only after I’d done all this that I realised it would have been far simpler just to make the substantial front darts slightly less substantial! Oh well, live and learn.

Next I attached the skirt to the bodice. In keeping with the ethos of the project, I re-used the existing zip. Re-attaching an invisible zip into a made-up garment was another thing which would be awkward by machine, so I hand sewed that as well, with a small back stitch. Finally (for now) I slip-stitched the lining (yet more hand sewing) in place around the waist.

Inside view of the bodice back, showing how the front is wider

Bodice front

Next up, finishing the skirt.

The Big Stitch

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a pretty good chance that you know how to sew on a button. But according to a recent poll of over 2,000 Brits, almost a quarter of the population do not. This was one of a number of sewing-related statistics recently revealed by the British Heart Foundation at the launch of its Big Stitch campaign.

You can read more about the campaign here, but the quite simply the idea is this: you buy a garment from one of the British Heart Foundation’s charity shops (and so help fund research into heart disease), and then during July make it your own by customizing it. You can upload your 'before' and 'after' pictures on social media with the hashtag #TheBigStitch, and there is a competition as well. A good friend of mine recently lost his dad to heart disease, so I've decided to see what I can make.

Now much as I love making my own clothes, the one thing I miss out on is clothing made from fabric printed for a specific item. All the fabric I use is either plain, or an overall pattern. Apart from border prints, there aren’t many other options available for the home dressmaker. So for this project I thought I’d look for something with a distinctive, non-overall print. In the event I bought two items, both dresses.

Exhibit A

First up is this cotton sundress from Bay, an entirely new name to me. This cost all of £4.49 ($5.69). It has a flared skirt with a design of large black and yellow flowers. The bodice is plain white with narrow adjustable straps, there is a side zip, and the back is shaped with a shirred panel. Clearly it once had a belt, because there are loops on the sides, but this was lost by the time I bought the dress.

Bodice back

Like all regular ready-to-wear clothing, the bodice is too long for me; so it bunches up around the waist. Overall, the dress is also a bit small. The bodice style isn’t something which I’d usually wear, but I think that I can do something with the skirt.

Exhibit B

This maxi dress is from Dorothy Perkins and cost £6.99 ($8.86). It is made from 100% polyester; not a fabric I’d usually use, but it has a lovely soft drape. The dress has an integral tie belt, and like the sundress there is some shirring at the back. This one is a bit too big for me, and this combined with the wide neckline means that I don’t actually need the button fasten at the back to get it on and off. Again, the bodice is too long.

Back view (with label still attached!)

Natural waistline on the left, bodice shown full length on the right

I love the fabric, but I really have no idea what to do with this one. And that for me is the point of this project. I really can’t stress enough just how far this is out of my comfort zone. Back in the days of The Great British Sewing Bee, the 'alterations' challenge of was always a complete mystery to me; I could never imagine how anyone could take a piece of clothing and make it into something entirely different. And now I’m going to try it myself. Twice. Wish me luck!

More to the point, if you’re inspired to have a go yourself, please let me know in the comments. I’d love to see what you do.