Ellis Shirt Dress Remake! Part 2

Well, what can I say, I little bit of a long wait for this next post, but here it is!

Set your machine. This is what mine was set to throughout the whole project.

• Match the correct thread colour
• Tension 3
• Stitch A
• Spacing 2

Adding in the pleats

Ok, I forgot about adding these in before doing the collar so I suggest if you want them further apart then do this bit before the sewing the collar in place. When I pinned the two pleats in place, I had to go with them being closer to the buttons because of the collar curve being much straighter than it would be if I had done them towards the shoulder a little more.

As you can see these pins were not straight. I didn't measure. tut tut! Instead because of the pinstripes I chose to make sure the pattern of the pins stripes matched. I only made the pleast down to the third button as that is where the soft part of the collar will be attached. I did also stitch too far down on one side.

So I do believe I stitched these in unevenly in both length and distance from centre. Notes to remember.

• Measure and make sure pleats are symmetrical
• Using a pin, mark where you would like to finish stitching. This was a good tip that I recently read on Tilly's blog when stitching darts. 

Sleeves

I marked the length of one of the sleeves, and then folded the shirt in half and matched them up, marking as I went. I then cut them both to the same length. At this point I also made the sleeve width a bit smaller but this wasn't necessary so I won't add this in.

Preparing the collar

I folded the soft collar in half and cut it in the middle for equal parts. 

I then stitched a seam around the edge. 

BUT, I didn't press it before doing so, so it was out of line and uneven (I had to hand sew a little bit in the back so that it wouldn't show on the front.

Both collars should be prepared ready for the next step.

Taking in the sides

So I decided to take in the sides just a little and I don't think I should have. So you can skip this part if you like. 

Using the soft part of the collar, I pinned it where I thought it should be sewn in. I planned on taking the sides in a little and embedding the end of the collar into the seam.

Using the form, I pinned the sides in and repinned and then repinned again what I thought would be a good fit. The form is a little bigger on the tummy than I generally am because I made after eating lunch.

This was my first attempt. It didn't leave much room for any gathered pleats.

I then pinned in place what I was comfortable with.
























I then pressed a fold where I wanted to take in the shirt. I straight stitched down that line.

 This is how it turned out. I unsure why it gathered a little, it wasn't as neat as I wanted it to. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Did the tension need adjusting? of was it catching underneath without me realising?

 This is one of the finished sides

It didn't feel like I had taken it in that much and when I attached the hard part of the collar on the back, I hadn't realised that there was not going to be enough fabric for gathering.

So now that I had done that, I needed to prepare the hard collar ready for attaching. Now I think I made this a lot harder than I needed to.

This step can be shortened and you need not do what I had done.

Adding the hard collar

I do have reasons though. The shirt had bagginess to it. 

 It was rather a lot of bagginess.

I pinned the sides of the hard collar in place and was presented with lots of shirt with no idea how to attach it so that it looked neat. That bagginess, weellll, I decided to hide it behind the hard collar. 

Look below.

I tucked the excess underneath the collar and folded the shirt collar underneath also, so that only the top half was available to me to work with. I started to pin the excess in place to sew and then realised I was going to need some folds (which she had in the original anyway). So I measured the centre.

I then went two inches either side of the centre and made a fold of half and inch (so it 1 inch each side).

 I had to repin in the correct place ready to sew, this was inbetwwen the shirt and the shirt collar. So this is what it looked like when I was ready to sew it in place. The excess was pinned hidden and the folds were in place. I stitched a long the seam that was already there. Reinforcement I suppose and neatness - that would have been a pain had I have had to restitch!

This is what the shirt looked like once stitched into place.

Almost finished the shirt!

Gathering

The picture for some reason will not turn around. So I'll come back to make that look better later. For now though here it is. As I gathered I pinned into place. I started of pinning every bit of gather but rapidly ran out of pins, so I had gather but pin a few at a time. 

Once pinned, I stitched into place. Now had I not have taken in the sides, my gathers would have been much better and noticeable. On the other hand though, I think it suits the petiteness of my body shape.

Ok!

So the last bit!

The Sleeves

Cut the cuffs to a more lady like width. I went by the pinstripe again as it was the same on both cuffs! I stitched down one side on the seam that was already there.




I then slid the right sides together (new term I've recently got the hang of). This means to lay the side that is going to show against the side that is going to show, so that once it is folded out you won't see the seam. See below.










I made a few pleats and lined them up each side of the cuff so that they were symmetrical. I then stitched in place a half inch seam.







Do this on both arms.

Then you are all finished! It is generally quite a quick and easy project if you plan BEFORE hand and not as you go!

So notes to remember:

• Measure and make sure pleats are symmetrical
• Using a pin, mark where you would like to finish stitching. This was a good tip that I recently read on Tilly's blog when stitching darts.
• Press, press and press... with an iron of course! Especially with those collars.
• Do not reduce the width of the sleeve unless you really have to (this causes problems with taking in the shirt)
• You do not need to take in the shirt either if you want bigger pleats.
• More folds could have probably been a better solution to the bagginess in the back of the shirt.
• Gathering, make sure you have enough pins OR use them wisely, hehe.

Then I actually got round to wearing it a few days later and I was chuffed. I hid the mishaps well. No-one need notice! It was comfortable but yes I did indeed need a jumper over the top. I was only able to wear it like this for the pictures because the logburner was on! I cannot wait for warmer weather though!

I have attached the instructions in short to burdastyle.

I'm going to be checking in soon with my next project the Sorbetto Tank Top

I'm quite excited about this one because I have had to make some adjustments to the pattern.

I look forward to sharing it with you.

x Lily x

It's finished!

Good Afternoon!

It is a beautiful sunny day BUT cold none the less.

While I'm sifting through hundreds of pictures of what seems to be my two gorgeous doggies...

 with attempts of finding the pictures I took whilst taking my most recent refashion to make instructions, I thought it would be nice to upload my first few projects that I undertook as a complete beginner, who am I kidding, I believe I still am!

So I bought a machine, I don't  remember exactly when, October 2014? Maybe, well around that time. It came with a flimsy bit of plastic as a sorry excuse for a cover, so I thought I'd make a lovely cover for it. I had already painted my sewing table a pastel coloured green, so I felt green and creams were a colour to continue with. So I had already bought some fabric before I had chosen what to do with it as it was the end of the roll at fabricland.

I found endless tutorials on pinterest for making sewing machine covers but for some reason, I didn't really follow any instructions per se.

I saw this tutorial and ran away with ideas from there -->

Easy Sewing Tutorial from My Decoupaged Life

I measured and designed what I wanted. I used cream for the inside and the sides and green for the front back and top. In between I used wadding. Unsure of the weight (is that right?) of the wadding because I have a bad memory. I can update this when I go back to the shop. Wadding was probably a little over the top, well it felt like it was, but I needed something and made use of what I had in the house (otherwise the house would start looking like a fabric store and I don't have room for it all). I kept my cover basic. I found that a lot of the wonderful covers that I have seen were very elaborate with quilting squares and embellishments (still yet to figure that out) and so on. I think I liked the Brittany's tutorial because she went with simple too. The colours were not too over the top and they complemented each other.

Anyway, I'm happy to create a tutorial for my sewing machine cover if it is needed or wanted. I may just update with one at a later date.

The second project I set upon was an interesting one to say the least. It was my first refashion. I was looking through the charity shops for clothing and bed sheets to practice sewing on, practice all the different types of stitches, the tensions, etc. Something I thought was quite important. Well I'm not saying it's not, but I haven't sat down to practice yet apart from with refashions. Bed sheets were not so cheap at the charity shops. I paid almost £10 for double bed sheet and pillows - I have taken to it though and couldn't bare to chop it up (yet). So as I browsing my aim for clothes set in. I spotted in the shop window a gorgeous maxi skirt. the colours very autumnal:


It was size XL. I loved it, I LOVE maxi skirts... will I wear them? Barely EVER... and I have no idea why. So this got chopped up.
In fact in this picture I had already chopped it, but tried over lapping it to take a picture of it as a full skirt. I measured the length that I wanted it from my waist to my desired length and went from there. It was a little tricky because those lovely khaki green coloured ruffles are lace, so I attempted to make it so that it was symmetrical.

This is the front and it's the same on the back. I can actually make another skirt the same from the original AND very likely one or two skirts with the top half. I wear this a lot. I love it. However I will pay attention to detail with the second version that I make.

Mistakes that I made were:

• type of stitching used with material
• The waistband width (it is far too small)
• I accidentally chopped the petticoat (is that what it is called now?) lining on the wrong line, so it is stitched in 4 or 5 places. 

I am up for learning, but I don't catch on with the lingo very easily (I do have reference books though) so I welcome any guidance or advice in those areas.

Finally, project number three is FINISHED!

This is great because I started it a couple of weeks ago and everything just seemed to have got in the way. I think as a beginner, I totalled a couple of days (without instructions). however I think anyone could do this in a day! 

This is the post that I am currently creating, altering and perfecting. The reason for this is, I saw a refashion that I LOVED. I wanted to do it BUT there were limited instructions (link below) but commenter's still asked for instructions. 

Here is the much sought after refashion:                              and here is my close attempt:

Ellis Shirt Dress

So, I cannot wait to post this!

See you soon!

Lily x x