An entirely stash make

This wasn't what I'd planned to make next at all, and nothing to do with my pledge to make up some of my 1960s-1980s patterns, but sometimes these things happen.

Not a vintage dress!

It all started with a bit of a tidy-up in my workroom, when I found a remnant of this.

Northcott 'Artisan Spirit - Nature Studies', image from Northcott website

I'd bought it around the same time as I bought the 'Shimmer' remnant, and I'd intended to use it for another skirt. The problem was that the material is 108cm / 42½" wide, so I couldn't use the full width unless I wanted a floor-length skirt. I'd put it aside while I pondered what to do, and then forgot all about it.

Finding it again, it still seemed a shame to waste any of the fabric. I thought about making a dress from it instead, but it would need to be something straight and plain.

Enter New Look 6643, one of my go-to patterns. I've used it several times, my favourite being the peacock dress. View A seemed the ideal style for what I had in mind, and fitted the width perfectly. I cut the two back pieces from a single layer of fabric, to get the position of the motifs right and the horizontal pattern elements matching with the front.

Pattern also from the stash

I really like the shape of the neckline and armholes on this pattern.

The armhole shape gives the look of a small sleeve

The neck facing was made from a piece of stashed blue cotton, and I already had suitable bias binding for the armholes and (for once) a zip of the right length and colour. I even had matching thread!

The one problem with the peacock dress is that the front neckline gapes very slightly. Taking inspiration from Simplicity 4463, I added a small front opening, which had the effect of using up part of the neckline width in seam allowance. It didn't need to be functional, so I just sewed the buttons to both sides of the opening.

I was especially pleased with the buttons; they were the spares from a Monsoon jacket which I had years ago. The jacket is long gone, but the buttons were still in my button box - the large one was for the front, and the small one must have been for the cuff. They were the perfect colour, and a nice textural contrast.

Buttons and false opening

The fabric worked perfectly with the shape of the dress. The dark section gives a belt effect at the waist, and the strong vertical elements of the flowers in the skirt balance the horizontal stripes - as you can see when I finally remembered to take a picture without my hands in the way.

Showing the full dress

I'm so glad that I didn't press on and make the skirt, this has been a far better use of the fabric. Yay for procrastination!

Peacocks and pussycats

New Look 6643 is finished. It took a while, because I’d somehow completely messed up the centre back seam adjustment for my sway back. Fortunately there was too much fabric in the dress rather than too little, but it did mean that once I’d corrected it, my careful pattern matching at the bottom of the seam was completely lost. Ah well.

It’s an odd fabric. When looked at closely, it becomes obvious that the pattern repeats are not as frequent as I initially thought. At first glance, certain feathers appear to be repeated.

The same motifs appear both sides of the centre back seam

However at second glance, the surrounding areas are very different, and the motif placement is not quite the same.

But other parts are not remotely the same

So it’s quite possible that the pattern would not have matched after all.

Once I’d fixed the centre back seam, all that was required was the teal band at the bottom of the skirt. Because the skirt is straight at that point, the teal section could be cut out as a single piece, rather than a front and two backs. Then, because the teal fabric is much thinner than the craft cotton main fabric, I decided to make the band a double thickness, folded at the bottom edge. This also meant that there was no hem stitching to try to hide, so it was win-win.

I’m really pleased with the end result. The front neckline gaped a little bit, but a running stitch along the facing, plus careful pressing, fixed that. The wide neckline and the cap sleeve effect of the bodice give the dress a nicely balanced look. And the contrast band and neckline trim work well.

The finished dress

It was a bit tricky taking photos as the weather this weekend has been, at best, mixed. One benefit of all the (warm) rain was that it made the honeysuckle in my garden smell wonderful, so as everyone must be sick of seeing the same wall in my yard by now, I thought I’d take some pictures in a different spot. You’ll just have to imagine the honeysuckle scent!

No side seams in the bottom section

Plus, here’s a bonus, taken-very-quickly-before-it-absolutely-pelts-down, shot of view D of the same pattern, which I made a couple of years ago. Also from a craft cotton remnant. By this stage it was so dark that the flash went off, which gives the photograph a slightly weird effect.

View D of the same pattern

Finally, something which I’ve meant to post about for ages. After a very difficult time, my cat-mad friend F moved into a lovely new home a couple of months ago. I knew exactly what I wanted to make for a house-warming present, and when I went to the quilt show in Malvern I was on the lookout for some suitably feline fabric to make up into cushions.

Kitty-cat cushions

Not only did I find fabric, I found buttons as well.

With kitty-cat buttons

I must confess that I couldn’t face sewing ten buttonholes, so the buttons and contrast strip are just for show. Instead I made envelope openings on the back, using the contrast and piping fabrics.

And flowery/marbled backs

F loved them. Teddy (her own, black and white, cat) declined to comment.

The peacock dress

No, not this one, something far less exotic (and quicker to make, I hope!)

I have been very good recently, and resisted the lure of the Craft Cottons remnant bin in my local fabric shop. However I weakened when I spotted this.

Peacock feather cotton from JoAnn

Now I cannot lie, I do like a bold print. However even I had to admit that an entire dress made from this might be A Bit Much. Plus the length of the remnant meant that it would be a shorter dress than I'm comfortable with. So I reasoned that a plain section at the bottom, with some matching plain trim at the top to balance it out, would solve both problems. Over to the Plain Cottons remnant bin, where I found a teal piece which was ideal.

Slightly toned down with a plain contrast

I'm using New Look 6643. I've made view D (bottom right) a couple of years ago, and have worn it a lot, so decided to make view A (main picture) this time.

For the trim I made 18mm / ¾" wide bias strip, which I put round the neckline 25mm / 1" in from the finished edge.

The completed neckline

Normally when I make a dress with an invisible zip, the first thing I do is attach the zip to the back pieces and sew the centre back seam, so that I have a single back piece to work with. Fortunately this time I realised that I had to sew the shoulder seams and attach the trim before the zip went in, and was then quite unreasonable chuffed with myself for thinking of this. (Yes, I am easily pleased, why do you ask?!) I then used this top tip for aligning the sides, and they match perfectly.

Trim matching happiness

The neck is finished with a facing, but the arms are not. Instead bias binding is pressed flat, then folded in half lengthways and sewn round the armscye on the right side, raw edges matching, with a narrow hem. The binding is then turned to the inside and slip-stitched in place. This seems to give quite a stiff finish to me; the dress may need a couple of washes before it is fully comfortable to wear.

Neck facing and bound armhole

Now I just have the bottom piece to add and hem.