It was all going so well . . .

Remarkably, I had managed to get through almost five months of the year with only one fabric purchase - and that was made up as soon as it was acquired. Obviously, this was mostly due to circumstances rather than steely self-restraint, but I take my wins where I find them!

Then, I called in to my local fabric shop to look for some material to make a black skirt. I didn't find anything suitable but, perched right at the top of the craft cottons remnant bin and calling to me, was this.

Resistance was futile

I had recently worn my first version of Style 1271 to an event, remembered how much I liked it, and was already thinking about making another. (There is something just not quite right with the second version, and I really need to work out what it is and fix it, as I love the fabric.) And this stripy design, with its (to me) faintly mid-century vibe, seemed ideal for the job.

Nothing whatsoever to do with making a dress, but I was taken with the colour details on the selvedge - so much nicer than just dots.

Charming

I spent a lot of time looking at the colours on the selvedge, because I had the idea of making a jacket from plain fabric, with a collar made in the dress fabric. Of course getting an exact match to the background colour was hugely unlikely but after an extensive trawl of the plain cottons remnant bin I found something close. I don’t know exactly which pattern(s) I will use, but I'm thinking of something like this.

The idea

So, the Stashometer has taken a hit.

It was inevitable, really

I do have a couple of half-done items on the go, and my historical sewing plans will use up some more stash fabric, so there's hope for the right-hand column yet - provided I actually get on with some sewing.

Plans

I'm hoping to get back behind (in front of?) my machine soon

Initially I wasn't going to make any creative plans for 2025. Both Christmas Day and my birthday earlier this month were completely taken up by having to deal with family issues, and this is only going to happen more frequently, and for longer, in the future. Indeed, part of the reason why I knit so much now is that it's far easier to take that with me when I have to be away from home than taking my sewing. So with all this in mind, there seemed no point in planning any projects.

But then it struck me that this was being a bit defeatist. Yes I may not get much done, but surely it is better to have some plans and accept that they may be derailed, than to not even try. So, with the understanding that these are very much aspirations, here we go.

Historical sewing
The success of my Victorian toile has definitely made me want to revive my 1874 ensemble project.

The ultimate aim

Realistically, there's no chance of me completing the whole thing in a year, but I would like to get the under layers done. I've decided that I do want to make a new corset using this Truly Victorian pattern, as the Laughing Moon one has too little waist definition. After that, the next things to make will be the bustle cage and petticoats. All of these can be done as challenges for the 2025 Historical Sew Monthly (along with a couple of other things, if I really get going), and I'm hoping that this will spur me on.

Stash
I say it every year, and every year I fail dismally - I really want to sew from my stash. The stash shop definitely helps in reminding me what I already have, but not going into fabric shops would be a bigger help. This wonderful Tom Gauld cartoon appeared in The Guardian last year, and I did give serious thought to building something similar for fabric storage!

Painfully relatable

I seem to be having a bit of a confidence crisis about getting things to fit properly, which is putting me off sewing at all, so I need to find a way to address this. Also, I have come to the conclusion that some of the fabric in the stash will never be used, either because my tastes have changed since I bought it, or I should never have bought it in the first place. So there will definitely be some stash reduction this year, as I rehome several lengths with people who will actually use it.

Part of the stash shop - two more used, and one rehoming candidate

Knitting
Having finished both my other projects, I have finally started my Poppy jumper.

The kit for Poppy

I went with my plan to knit the sleeves first, so that they are not waiting for me at the tail end of the project. With 2.75mm needles for the ribbing and 3mm needles for the rest, this is the finest gauge knitting that I have done so far, and it's going to take me a long time. I suspect that another project (with bigger needles) might get picked up for light relief. Even double knitting would feel chunky after this! Which brings me to

Waiting to ambush me

Squirrels
Whether I plan my year down to the last week, or take a more relaxed approach, I know that a squirrel project or two will always come along to disrupt things. Let's just see what 2025 brings, and be grateful for anything that I do get done.

Review and plans

Last week's post got taken up by my last-minute green velour dress, so here is a rather late review of 2023, with a brief look at my plans for 2024.

I didn't make a lot this year, for a variety of reasons, but I'm happy with that.

Completed 2023 projects

Looking back on my post for 2023, it's fair to say that my plan to finish my winter coat, Vogue 1266, has been a complete failure. Nothing has been done. Mainly because I bought a beautiful 1950s black coat from the wonderful FantoucheVintage, and all my winter coat needs were instantly met. In fact, I almost enjoy cold weather as an excuse to wear it! I've not got very far with my 1930s Butterick dress, either.

On a cheerier note, looking at what I did make, my version of Simplicity 4463 (top left) was a definite success and gets a lot of wear. I much prefer its flared skirt to the pleated version of its reissue, Simplicity 1777. Style 1571 in a vintage glazed cotton (top centre) has become something of a 'best' dress, as I don't want to lose the fabric finish through too much laundering. Meanwhile, Style 2911 (top right) continues my love affair with 1979 Style patterns!

My sewing triumph of the year, however, was the Peppermint Batik dress (second left, bottom). It was totally unplanned project, created from someone else's part-made skirt found in a second-hand sewing box, and a bodice made from deadstock cotton found in my local fabric shop (which never normally sells deadstock) in colours which blended perfectly with the skirt. It's super-comfortable, especially in hot weather - of which we had a lot this summer.

My non-dressmaking sewing consisted of some soft furnishings, and a new workbag.

The workbag was needed because 2023 was the year I took up knitting. Yes, I had made a couple of minor attempts before, but nothing very complicated. This time, thanks to a fantastically well-written pattern by Tasha, a whole potential world of knitwear which actually fits has opened up to me. I made a blue version first, and then a pale green version, and as a knitting newbie marvelled at the effect that different yarns can have on the same pattern.

So what are my plans for 2024 (other than actually knitting the tweaked Wondrella which I have been planning for ages)? Not a lot for the first few months, as I am doing a college course and my assignments are due this term. After that - more of the same, really. I have realised that there is no point in my planning a 'Make Nine' or similar, as my ability to go off on tangents knows no bounds. Instead, I want to continue to concentrate on slow sewing and stash reduction. I do want to finish my Riviera dress, but there is no need to tackle complex trim application until the weather gets warmer. I'm slowly documenting my stash in the 'stash shop', and have quite a lot to choose from.

The 'stash shop' so far - a couple of items have sold out

The Stashometer has been reset for 2024

On the subject of which . . .

Whoops!

I do have projects in mind for all of it, but I can see that I'll have to make sure that my new yarn stash doesn't get out of hand!

More fabric shopping

When I was writing last week's post, I realised that there was a fabric purchase in there which hadn't been added to the Stashometer! Tsk, tsk. Time to rectify this.

It is at least a fabric which was bought for a specific project, rather than in the, 'just because it looks pretty' camp (which happens more often than it should). About a year ago, I posted about finally getting hold of McCall's 9155, a 1984 Laura Ashley pattern which I had previously owned and disposed of.

My version had white text on a dark green background

I fancied making this up in baby needlecord, as I had made one of my 1980s versions in this fabric, and it worked really well. However, I just couldn't find any in a colour that I liked. Most available options were in pale or muted colours, which just aren't me. But then I spotted this bold print/fine wale cord in the remnants bin in my local fabric store.

Big print, small cords

It's perfect, but for a couple of issues. First up is the quantity. 1980s clothing erred on the looser side than I would want to wear now, so although I will need to enlarge the pattern, it's probably not by a full size. According to the pattern envelope, I should just about have enough yardage. However, it's in two separate remnants. It's fortunate that I enjoy pattern tetris, as I think there's going to be a lot involved.

Another 4.3m added

The other thing is that the finished article will have to be washed separately, probably forever. I'm used to some dye-run when I pre-wash fabrics, but not this much!

I did consider trying to dye something in this!

I know that pre-washing is a divisive topic, but this shows why I am firmly Team Wash. Despite all this, I'm looking forward to having a version of this dress in my wardrobe again.

Fabric shopping - in more ways than one

No sewing this week, because I have been concentrating on knitting a summer cardigan. Which admittedly is a slightly odd thing to be doing in late October, given that I'm not planning any trips to the Southern Hemisphere and Storm Babet has been causing havoc for the last few days and making it very clear that summer is over.

Not the most obvious project

The reason for this is that I really want to begin some winter knitting. I have both yarn and plans, but I don't want to start on the slippery slope of having knitting UFOs to add to my sewing PHDs (UnFinished Objects and Projects Half Done, for the uninitiated). So the only way I'm allowing myself to cast on my new project is to crack on and finish my current one first. Not a lot of progress had been made since I cast on the first sleeve in late July, so I've really dedicated some hours to it to get this far.

But a 90% complete cardigan is not a bloggable topic, so instead I'm looking at another area of my creative life where my enthusiasm gets the better of practicality - my fabric stash, and my latest attempt to tame it.

I am lucky enough to have a dedicated workroom, with lots of space. This means that most of my stash is neatly stored, which does lead to a certain 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality. So I am slowly documenting everything, with pictures, to create what I'm calling my Stash Shop. Crucially, rather than just keeping these plans on my laptop or online, they will be permanently visible in my workroom. The hope is that whenever I'm thinking about what to do for a new project, this will prompt me to choose something from my own 'shop' rather than going out and buying yet more supplies.

I started by photographing the fabrics for which I had definite plans. I also photographed the intended use, and put the images together in a spreadsheet. Naturally, most of the plans involve patterns.

A pattern-based section of the spreadsheet

But there are a few other sources.

Inspiration from my 1940 Vogue counter catalogue

Photograph from a 1940s costume book

Quick on-the-train-home sketch of a dress I'd seen in a shop

Once I had built up enough of these to fill a sheet of A4, I printed them off and pinned the sheet on a noticeboard in my workroom. And so it goes on.

A completed sheet

Of course, these plans are not set in stone. My original intention for this jaunty print was a Butterick reissue, but when I found some peach cotton poplin which was a perfect match, I immediately thought of a contrast section at the bust, and found a suitable picture online to illustrate the idea.

Original idea, and the current one

Admittedly, this hasn't stopped me from buying some fabric recently. But at least it wasn't an impulse buy. My self-drafted pinafore is starting to look a bit worn - hardly surprising given that it's been on heavy rotation in the six years since I made it. There was nothing suitable for a replacement in my stash, so I felt that in this case I was justified in buying new.

Just the right weight, and a subtle pinstripe to boot

It's a charcoal remnant of either wool or a wool-heavy mix. The lining will be from stash however, even if it ends up being a couple of different colours, so hopefully the overall effect will be stash reduction. And for once, I actually have a zip of the right colour and length - wonders will never cease.

But first, I really do need to finish this cardigan!

An easy (I hope) project

Welcome to the first in a series of short blog posts. July is going to be a very busy month for me - but sadly not with fun stuff like holidays. In fact, the majority of it is going to be pretty stressful. This last week has been busy, too, as I've tried to pre-empt issues which might come up in the next few weeks.

Amid all this chaos I want a nice, non-taxing, project which I can pick up easily when I do have some free time. So, not my pineapple dress. Instead, following on from the success of my peppermint batik dress, I’ve decided to pursue my plan to re-use the bodice pattern and make up Simplicity 3662.

It's more of this!

I'm going to use this cotton poplin, which has been in my stash for a couple of years.

The colours are far brighter, but my camera refuses to capture them properly

Because it is such an obviously directional print, it wouldn't work with a circle skirt. Instead it needs a skirt which is either in panels or a tube. Panels would take a certain amount of work, because while I couldn't pattern-match the motifs I would want to at least align them. And I just don't like gathered skirts, on me at least. This design however, with its deep pleats (similar to the peppermint batik dress), seems like it would work. I am not going for the closed pleat at the bottom, though - for someone who takes quite long strides that looks like a recipe for disaster!

I will make the skirt on the right

View 1, in black, has a tie belt, but view 2 is described as having "corded piping in the waistline seam". This is a technique which I've never used before, so I'm tempted to have a go.

Interesting waist treatment

So far, I have resized the skirt pieces, and tweaked both them and my hybrid Simplicity 3662/Butterick 5748 bodice pieces to make sure that the darts match up with the pleats. So now I'm ready to start cutting out.

A UFO completed

And it's not even my UnFinished Object! I've completed my latest squirrel project - making a dress out of a part-made skirt which I acquired in an auction lot.

The bodice pattern I was using had been drafted with a centre back zip, but the skirt consists of two panels sewn together at the sides. I didn't want to cut into the back panel to make an opening, so instead I moved the zip to the side. This involved opening up one side seam of the skirt enough to accommodate the lower part of a 30cm/12" zip once it was attached to the bodice.

Unfortunately, even though I unpicked the overlocked edge to retain all of the seam allowance, it was still too narrow to support a zip. Rather than make the skirt narrower, I increased the seam allowance by adding strips of the deadstock cotton for the top underneath and overcasting the seam allowance onto them. The neat selvedge of the cotton came in very handy, as it acted like seam tape, and the raw edge of the strip was tucked into the fold.

Widening the seam allowance with fabric strips

The top was very easy to make, as it is only three pieces plus the facing. Even though I had changed to a side opening, I could not cut the back on the fold as it is not cut on the straight grain. I included an opening at the back neck, but as I have since taken the completed dress off without remembering to undo the buttons (from my button box) first, I think that this was probably unnecessary!

The back, with superfluous opening

Once the top was complete, I pleated the skirt to fit it. Purely by chance, the patched area ended up hidden inside an inverted pleat - yay! My local fabric shop had run out of white zips of the length I needed so rather than wait for a new delivery, and in line with the general make-do ethos of this project, I used a longer zip from my stash and cut it to length.

When I was cutting the top out, I had been careful to place the pieces on the fabric in a way which left a long section down one side intact, and I used this to make a long sash. Finally, I attached the three remaining buttons to the front to add interest.

And here is the end result. It isn't especially vintage (although 1990s and 2000s are now classed as 'vintage', and I think that the skirt is older than that), but I've styled it here with vintage accessories.

Not bad for deadstock and leftovers!

It's nothing special, but I think that it's going to be a real everyday workhorse dress. My two maxi dresses (the same design, in two different colourways) are about the only RTW items which I still regularly wear, so it's great to have a me-made replacement for them. The skirt is a very lightweight cotton - as is apparent from this photo taken in a slight breeze - so it should be cool while providing some sun protection.

Even a slight breeze catches the skirt

And I really love this neckline. I may add some lingerie straps because it is so wide, but my favourite What Katie Did bra works fairly well with it. Plus, the grown-on sleeves provide a bit of cover without the hassle of fitting a separate sleeve. I can see a lot of iterations of this bodice appearing on this blog in the future.

#sewnshownseated shows off the neckline

And for once, that new fabric on the Stashometer has gone straight back out again.

Back down to a mere 17m deficit!

Whoops

Yes, again.

"At the Sign of the Three Squirrels" - Goslings Bank *

At least it gives me a chance to use this photograph I took last time I was in London. (And yes, we have reached the stage where I take photos of squirrel-related things when I see them, because I know they will at some point be useful for this blog!)

This is what I should have been working on.

Exhibit A

And this is what I am working on.

Exhibit B

The two are actually related. When I am making a bodice toile, I always struggle to get the length right. What seems fine initially can change completely once a skirt is attached. To get round this problem with the bodice of the pineapple dress, I decided to use a skirt which I had acquired in a box of sewing stuff bought at an auction. It appeared to be part made - two panels of batik fabric sewn together at the sides and hemmed, with what I'm guessing was a very haphazard channel for a drawstring at the top but no drawstring. I had unpicked the top, closed up the misaligned drawstring holes with tape, pressed under the top edge to a uniform length, and got no further.

Drawstring holes (I assume) from right side and wrong side

It has been folded up in my workroom ever since, until I had the idea of using it as a 'mock skirt' by pleating it roughly to size and basting it in place.

Attached to the bodice mock-up

It worked very well for checking the bodice, but you can guess what happened - it looked so good that I immediately wanted to make it up as a dress. To speed things up, I decided to use the bodice pattern I had just drafted but with the neckline of Simplicity 3662. Unfortunately, despite having lots of plain blue cotton in various shades, none of them really worked with the skirt fabric. So it was back to the fabric shop to look at yet more plain blues. While I was there, I spotted a roll labelled "original vintage cotton". The staff couldn’t tell my anything about it, but the fact that it is only 90cm/36" wide, has a proper woven selvedge instead of a modern fluffy one, and also has some discoloration along said selvedge makes me think that it is indeed vintage deadstock. Either way, the colours blend perfectly with the skirt.

Such neat selvedges!

So now I have not one but two dresses on the go, and more fabric.

Another 1.6m

* - Goslings Bank was a very old bank on Fleet Street, which eventually became part of Barclays. While geese might seem more appropriate for the sign, squirrels were chosen for their thrifty habit of storing nuts for the winter. Sadly all of this history did not protect the branch from the onslaught of online banking, and Barclays closed the branch in May this year. I wonder what has become of the sign?

I bought some fabric!

I've been trying very hard not to buy any 'new' fabric this year (vintage or other second-hand fabric is acceptable), and have mostly succeeded. The only yardage I have bought was for a specific project, and has been made up. Unfortunately, I can't claim that this was down to iron-willed restraint - I just don't allow myself to go into fabric shops!

No!

I have even created what I call the 'Stash Shop' - images of fabrics in my stash, alongside possible pattern choices. These have been printed out and pinned to a noticeboard in my workroom. I find this approach less restrictive than my old MakeNine/UseNine attempts, but when I'm thinking about a new project it acts as a useful reminder that I have plenty of choice already without going out and buying anything.

Part of the Stash Shop

My next project from the Stash Shop is to finally use a length of cotton which has featured several times on this blog, but has never got as far as being used. According to the invoice I found folded inside, it was bought in February 2020. After a lot of thought, I had settled on making Butterick 5556, but was never really happy with this choice so nothing happened.

Not entirely what I wanted

Looking at it again, I decided that I wanted something with a fitted bodice, but a wider neckline and much shorter sleeves. After considering and rejecting various patterns I have made already, I decided that Butterick 5748 was the best match - but it needed more shoulder coverage.

Closer, but still not right

I had recently bought Simplicity 3662, and decided that the grown-on sleeves were exactly what I want for this dress.

Getting there

Yes, I could have just used 3662, but I would have had to redraft it to fit me, which seemed silly when I already had a very similar bodice pattern which fits perfectly. Then I remembered that Tasha of Tasha Could Make That had a video on merging patterns like these two - the link is here, and the video is excellent.

I started with the back piece, as this was easier. The two fitted together perfectly, but there was one issue. 5748 is cut on the straight grain, but 3662 is not.

Note the grainline on 3662

I assume that there's a good reason for this, presumably to do with fit. Tasha mentioned in her video that she always matches the grain, so I decided that the simplest solution was to mark the grainline on my new piece to match 3662.

The front pieces are more complex, but again matched well. Even the bust darts were almost the same size - note the word 'almost'!

The two fronts

I used the neckline of 3662 but made it higher at the front, for reasons which will become apparent later in the making process, and started on a toile. This was when I discovered that the front side seam was shorter than the back. Luckily I was able to fix the problem by reducing the bust dart to, ooh, about the size of 3662's dart!

In line with my ongoing sewing goals, I want to do something a bit more complicated than just make up a mash-up dress in this cotton, and this is where the purchase comes in. I wanted some plain fabric in a toning colour, but was expecting to have to concoct it myself using white cotton and fabric paint. But to my amazement, when I went to the fabric shop to buy paint, I found a cotton poplin in a very similar colour to the background of the printed cotton (the brown stippling over the top makes it look darker), and a similar weight to boot. Half a metre was actually cheaper than a jar of fabric paint which was a less good match - it would have been silly not to buy some!

I could hardly believe my luck

Half a metre in will hopefully lead to far more out

The next stage is drafting the extra details for the dress.