Battle of the Stitches: Round 2. Going grey

Battle of the Stitches: Round 2 is a personal battle for me. A battle to be comfortable in front of the camera. I mean what do you do with your arms for goodness sake? What facial expression do I make? Dreamy? Pensive? Sultry? A cheesy smile? I could just imitate the model in the book and then call on my good friend Photoshop. Semi colon hyphen bracket.

This is my debut, the first time I am featuring in my own blog. I haven’t even got a picture on my about page. It feels a little strange. I have been apprehensive about it for weeks. But here goes, I’m being brave, laugh if you want to, I’ll never know.

So joining me and Toya in Round 2 of Battle of the Stitches we have Nina from Fliegfederfrei. Grey is a predominant colour in all our wardrobes, some might say grey is dull and boring, but Plain Janes we are not.

In an effort to distract from the fact that there are 8 photos of me in this blog post, let’s just focus on the top shall we? I’ve made just a few items for myself in the past, so I’m not used to bust adjustments and all those complicated things. Luckily, I can manage just fine without them because I don’t often wear clothes that require that level of fitting.

This casual but stylish, one-piece side drape top is from the Japanese sewing book Drape Drape 2. It was difficult to know which one to make first, all the patterns got my heart racing with excitement. I’m all about draped clothing, asymmetry, layering and monochrome.

Making the dress couldn’t have been easier. Made from just one piece of fabric and some neck and armhole binding. The most time consuming part was tracing the pattern. I used a bright felt tip pen to trace over the pattern pieces that I needed so that I could see them better. It’s easy to get lost in what looks like a road map of Central London.

The paper pattern ended up larger than my dining table. Usually I can get away with using the ironing board for kids clothes. You should have seen me trying to fold it up into a neat A4 shape to file away for later. I could have earned myself £250 on You’ve Been Framed if I had videoed it.

Now that I have the pattern all stuck together it won’t take long to whip up more, and I intend to make six more (one for every day of the week) that’s how much I love this style. I’ve even bought some chiffon specifically with this dress in mind. Oh yes! I’m a fearless sewer.The neckline fell too low for my liking, leaning forward reminded me of a particular school teacher I once had. But I won’t go into that. I just turned the dress backwards and voila! Perfect. I also made the armhole a little smaller, but I think it could go smaller still so as not to show bra edges. Exposed bra edges, not a good look.In a moment of pure stupidity, I cut 3 inches off the hem which I thoroughly regret. I though it was a little too long to wear over jeans or leggings. But if I had kept it longer I would have had the option to wear it on its own in the summer and I could just hitch it up when wearing with jeans or leggings.

It’s annoying because now it is wider at the bottom than it is suppose to be. Derr!!! Obviously! It does not cling, it just hangs uncomfortably loose and baggy around my legs.

I left the hem unfinished, I like it that way and besides after such a stupid mistake I wanted to leave well enough alone just incase I messed up again.

The fabric was left over from what I used to make the Alley Car Romper for Darcy. I picked it up from Walthamstow Market. It’s not the best quality jersey but I love the print. And the colour is just my cup of tea.

The length really bugs me, but we’ve all had sewing disasters right? Go on, own up, make me feel better about mine.

Toya is also making her debut appearance on her blog today, so I’m off to show her some love and check out what she and Nina have made in this calm, practical, impartial colour that we call grey. We love it. Do you?