Cropped Hoodie

It was pyjama day at school on Friday and there was no way on earth that I was going to turn up in my oh-so-comfy but oh-so-ugly pink fluffy dressing gown. This is where the hoody comes in. 

I already had a pattern in my Sew U Home Stretch book by Wendy Mullin so all I needed to do was purchase some fleece. I found mine at cheapfabrics.co.uk. It says in the book 2 metres fleece, 1/2 metre ribbing. I only used 1 metre and 1/4 roughly of each so I have 1 metre fleece left over. What can you do with fleece besides making a hoody?

Showing off the ribbing and the cuffs

I chose size XS automatically but next time I would size up a far bit. I had to make it cropped because I only had an 18" hoody zip (no idea what the correct terminology for that is) instead of the 20" zip required. The zip was handpicked because I didn't trust myself to do a lapped one right the first time round without any unpicking and I needed to wear it the next day.

I cut out 4 pieces for the hood instead of two so I could line it and have a clean finish. I actually used the wrong side of the fleece because I just preferred the texture to the right side.

Just let me show you my ribbing again before you go!

Well that's all I've got to say for now, oh hang on. I do want to sew presents for family and friends for Christmas, but I haven't got a clue what to sew. Any ideas? Okay, now I'm done.
Thanks for reading!
Lauren x

My Halloween Costume!

Every halloween I invite a bunch of friends over for some good food and a couple of films (We watched The Birds and Dark Shadows).  This year after a lot of humming and harr-ing and about a thousand different ideas I decided that I was going to be a vampire. This was what I came up with.  

The pattern I used for the bodice was Style 3794. It consists of an elasticated neck and huge puff sleeves which are also elasticated. A zip is supposed to go in the back but that was omitted due to the fact that I am much smaller than a size 10 so it wasn't needed. I also omitted the bust darts because I didn't have time to fit them properly and the bodice was going to be tucked in anyway. I held the front pattern piece to the mannequin so see how much to take out of the centre fold. This ended up being about 2 inches. My skirt fabric wasn't wide enough for the pattern pieces of this pattern so I used the pattern that I used for the skirt of my prom dress instead.

Fabricwise I used taffeta for both the main bodice, sleeves and skirt. The wine coloured taffeta I found in a remnant bin for 2 pounds! Bargain! I didn't have enough of that for the skirt as well so I found some black/blue taffeta at Leicester market which was also a bargain at 15 pounds for 3 metres. I used some black lace also found at Leicester market. Sadly there was only enough for the neck ruffle and not the sleeve ruffle but luckily there was enough left for a belt.

This is what it looks like untucked. I didn't have time to hem it or the ruffle actually but they're both okay because the top is tucked in anyway, and the lace won't fray so IT'S FINE.

My friend Meghan and I had great fun making all the food. Amusingly we only got pics of pudding. I guess carrot soup isn't that photogenic anyways. 

The ghost and mummy cake pops

They were orange and purple inside!

Skeleton gingerbread men. (I found the coolest gingerbread cutter at John Lewis)

Green cupcakes with halloweeny sprinkles

Cobweb chocolate orange cupcakes (I even did the cobwebs myself!)

I'll leave you with the most vampiric pic of me..

Argghh NOOO THE LIGHT IS KILLING ME but I really need to show you how voluminous my skirt is!

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you had a great Halloween!

Lauren xx

Black Knit Pinafore

 Hello! I was digging around in my UFOs (unfinished objects) box the other day trying for something I could quickly finish to wear to London the next day (because you have to look your best when going to London) and this only required the sleeves edges and the hem to be finished. That's manageable I thought. It wasn't, I wore my Plaid Pinafore Dress instead which has become a firm favourite,  but I finished it later on because it's a great winter staple to go over shirts and the like.

Argghhh necklace why can't you stay central!

The pattern I used was from Sew U Home Stretch by Wendy Mullin which I use as a base for all of my knit projects. The line drawing below is the original pattern which I extended to make into a dress which only works because I have no hips (well noticeable ones anyway) This is the same pattern that I used for my dotty knit dress. but this time I omitted the sleeves.

It's funny because I started the construction of this waaay back in march, april time when I'd only been learning to sew for a couple of months. When I looked at it when finishing it off there was so much that I'd do differently, which just goes to show how far my sewing skills have come.

 The fabric is actually a double knit which came in a tube which was new to me, but fine to work with. The neckline is finished with turned over elastic and the hem and armholes were just turned over and slipstitched.

Oh necklace, what have I ever done to you? And by the way, this is my "ooh something interesting seems to be going on over there" face. In case you were wondering.

All in all I like this dress, but I'm not sure whether the proportions are wrong, because I have a long body. Would lowering the neckline help that? Not sure. It might just look better if I remove the elastic and then cut and sew a shift dress out of it instead. Hmm.
Anyway, thanks so much for reading! I'm just waiting for pics of a couple of halloween costumes I've made this year so stay tuned!
Lauren x