My Vintage UFO from 2015

Back at the start of November 2015 I started this dress.  It was supposed to be my final make for the 2015 vintage pledge but I couldn’t quite get it finished in time!

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It took me a while to get everything done with it.  It was one of those projects where I would make a small amount of progress and then set it to one side.   In December I made a good amount of progress but then it got put to one side again. So finally, at the very start of January 2016 I actually managed to get the dress finished!

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The dress I decided to make was a combination of view 2 and 3; a sleeveless above the knee dress. The front had a curved seam beneath the bust, which had a bust dart at either end. The large front panel was made up from 2 separate panels joined in the centre.  All front seams were topstitched.

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The pattern pieces included in this envelope were not matching and they had been not cut very well at all.  So when I came to attach the shoulder seams together, one was considerably larger than the other so I did need to trim the larger one to match the smaller.  I then found that the facing pieces included in the envelope belonged to a different dress completely!  Facings were abandoned and I chose a grey binding from my stash to finish the edges of the neck and arms. I think I just need to add a hook & eye closure to ensure the top of the zip is a little closer together.

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My favourite part of this dress is the belt which adds detail to the back.  I love how the white buttons really make the belt stand out. 🙂

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Would I make it again?  Probably not.  I don’t really think that this is a flattering style on me, especially as it’s a tad too tight around the tummy area!  I may change my mind when I lose a little weight, otherwise this will be an ‘around the house’ dress. 🙂

 

First Make Of 2016 – Frances Dress

Back in December, Camilla sent me a lovely little parcel for my birthday.  It contained the Green Bee Frances dress pattern and some gorgeous Denyse Schmidt fabric.  Due to having visitors over Christmas, I hardly got any sewing done at all so once my parents had gone home, I was itching to get something made up – I knew this would be the pattern to make up first!

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Thank You Stitching Santa!

The office for our apartments closed for Christmas.  Of course, my #stitchingsanta present was delivered on the final day they were open…when I was out and I didn’t get back in time to pick it up before they closed! 😦  I was sad because I knew we were going away the morning after Christmas so I wouldn’t be able to open it until we got back on the 29th!!! Can you guess what I did first when we got back from Vegas??  I OPENED IT OF COURSE!!

Now my stitching santa was lovely Abi over at The Freckled Fashionista!  Abi did sooooo well putting the gifts together and I absolutely LOVE everything! Thank you so much Abi!

I did have a sneaky suspicion that Abi was my santa.  She posted a blog post with some presents wrapped with doggy paper and some English themed fabric.  Well, I have a dog, I lived in England and I now live in the US so I thought that it may be for me and it was!  I was so pleased when I opened the parcel because everything was wrapped up brilliantly – the wrapping paper was gorgeous!

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#stitchingsanta What I Think I sent?!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you have all had a lovely day – I know we have!

Back at the start of December, I feeling quite pleased with myself due to the fact that my #stitchingsanta parcel was all ready to be sent. In the midst of wrapping, I thought S**T oh dear! I had forgotten to take photographs of what I had bought and I had already wrapped the majority of everything up. 😦 AND now I’m sat here writing this blog post, I keep forgetting what I had actually bought and don’t have many photos to help me remember, so this blog post is a little bit thrown together!  I also decided to schedule this for Christmas Day evening as I didn’t want to spoil any of the surprises!

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#stitchingsanta update

It’s gone! Sent! Complete!  I really love putting parcels like these together as I find it a good challenge to make the most of the budget and to make some stash busting gifts.

The week before last, I set about with the handmade extras to my gifts.  I didn’t choose anything too big or fancy as I wanted my gifts to be useful to the recipient.

I’m actually thinking of doing more detailed posts about these gifts at the beginning of next year.  Even though I already used tutorials that were available online, I changed things slightly to suit my sewing style and patience!

First up, I’ve made a set of 4 quilted mug rugs/ coasters.  I’ve included a couple of tea bags with this gift as a little extra too.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I seem to use & have coasters all around the apartment so I think that these are quite a useful gift.

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