I’d planned to make this Shelby dress for a 90s themed birthday party I was going to. I bought the fabric and the pattern well in advance – but thanks to some other sewing deadlines I had, I ended up with only two days to make it! Spoiler: I managed it in time.

This time pressure gave me the impetus to try out a technique I’ve been meaning to do for a long time – task batching. I mean. It’s not exactly revolutionary. I do the same thing in the kitchen when I’m cooking.

I’ve got a blog post coming up on how to batch tasks, so look out for that!

The dress is inspired by a particular music video from the 90s…

I’m really pleased with how it came out, given the sheer panic I was operating under while making it. I actually cut the midi length, which meant the pieces were too long for my cutting table, and I had to cut on the floor (which also meant scissors rather than my trusty rotary cutter). That wasn’t great for my back as I have a condition that means I’m super prone to backache. Annoyingly, I actually ended up trimming the dress to just above the knee anyway, so I should have just made the short version and used my cutting table after all! Oh well.

The dress came together really nicely – even considering it’s viscose, which I really used to struggle with, but I’ve got enough experience with viscose now that I am better at manhandling it.

The only real issue I had was that the button band facing wanted to hang differently from the outer dress fabric, which caused some weird pulling around the front centre. I suspect I accidentally cut the outer fabric on a slight bias. I had to redo the hem a couple of times to get it to work, but I got there. I ended up hanging the dress and pinning it where it wanted to hang.

The buttons are actually pearlescent, which you can’t tell in the photos. I added the extra three up the neckline in homage to the original dress from the music video.

The fit isn’t perfect – but given how little prep I did (no toile!!!) I’m overjoyed at it. It’s slightly too big, which is fine at the waist as you can use the back ties to cinch it in. But around the bust, the princess seams don’t sit properly on the bust point, and there’s a little bagginess going on. But I don’t care. I’m very happy with this dress. And I’m very happy with the lessons it taught me.

It’s time to admit that we’re entering Autumn sewing season. Thankfully, I’ve got sewing plans that I never got around to last Autumn, which I’m still excited to get into this year. Assuming I get around to them this time.

First of all, I need to interrupt this broadcast to give a huge thank you to TipStitched for the How I Create Digital Sketches video, which explains how to make images like the one above. Game changer.

Let’s dig into it!

First up, I’d like to make myself another pair of Ginger Jeans. This will be my second pair of Gingers. I took a jeans making workshop at Bobbins and Bolts a couple of years ago and made a pair in indigo denim, but I needed a lot of handholding at the time and so far I’ve been too nervous to attempt them again by myself.

I feel like my sewing skills in general have come a huge way since then, so I’m ready to give them another shot. Plus, I need some more jeans for the cold weather.

I’ve coloured them in green here because that’s what excites me… but I don’t actually have that fabric in my stash! I’ve got some more of the indigo denim, so I’ll start there and if it goes well, then I’ll invest in some vibrant green denim (if I can find any with the right stretch percentage).

The Ottoline jacket is next on my list. I’ve picked a beautiful pink colour for this image, and I’m picturing that in canvas … but I don’t actually have any of that fabric either. (Did I get a bit carried away with my new Photoshop skills? Yes. Yes I did.) In reality I’m going to make a wearable toile in a beautiful light blue denim that’s already in my stash.

I’ve never made outerwear, so this will be a first. I’ve got a mild nervousness about it but I don’t have a rational reason for that. I’ve made collared shirts aplenty, and my machine is heavy duty enough to sew denim, so I don’t know what I’m scared of. The unknown, I guess. Another chance to face up and be brave.

The third thing on my list is this polkadot Shelby dress, which is vaguely based on Gwen Stefani’s dress in the Don’t Speak video. That video being on repeat when I was in my family’s home in the Philippines in 1995 is a pretty formative memory for me. That album was one of the first CDs I bought, and it remains one of my favourites.

I’m making this for a friend’s birthday, which is 90s themed. So it’s the only thing on the list with a deadline, and that deadline is freakin’ soon so I’m going to have to get a move on.

The other thing that’s on my list is to draft a pattern like this Gucci dress. I’m currently learning pattern drafting from Pattern Workshop and the excellent book Metric Pattern Cutting by Winifred Aldrich, and I reckon it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for me to draft this for myself.

The dress retails for £2550 and if I can get this right, I can make myself a version for under £50 in materials I reckon! And probably £2500 in time and skills because this is going to take me ages…

Let’s see how far I get with these plans ey!

I tend to prefer sewing clothes, but every now and then I’ll make something for the house. This week I made a cushion cover, and also made the cushion itself out of upcycled materials.

I have some old cushions from Habitat that are well over 10 years old and completely flattened and stained. They came round the world and back when we did our stint in Singapore. The last time I unzipped them to wash the covers, I discovered that the fabric of the cushions had completely disintegrated – and I mean completely. There was just dust left. Which is… kind of freaky?

Anyway I had this lump of cushion filling.

So I took a couple of old toiles, unpicked the darts, and sewed them up into a 45x45cm cushion casing.

If you look closely, you might notice that fancy felled seam. These piece of old toiles weren’t wide enough, so I had to piece them together. I took the opportunity to practice using the new felling foot I bought for my machine after reading David Page Coffin’s Shirtmaking, in which he heavily encouraged the use of the felling foot – and I must say, it is rather good.

Then I fluffed all the stuffing up to bring it back to life. This made a LOT of mess as all that disintegrated fabric was mixed up in there. I ended up putting on a facemask to avoid breathing it in 😷

Next up, I squashed it all in and stitched the gap shut on the machine. I did a crap job of making that neat because the huge stuffed cushion was a bit awkward to manipulate! I usually hand stitch cushions closed, but what’s the point? No one’s going to see it.

Cushion done.

Finally I made a cover made out of a fat quarter of quilting cotton that has been in my stash for years. I made the cover in the same dimensions as the casing so it’s not saggy (had to mess with the seam allowances a bit to make it work as my fat quarter was a bit skinny).

There you have it. Trash & stash into something useful.

A lot of knitting updates this week, too. I went to Scotland for a week and didn’t fancy taking my big project with me, so I started a new one (I know, I know!!):

As you can see it’s going insanely quickly. Not only is it stockinette on nice worsted wool and lovely big needles (relative to my other projects), but it’s also my first time knitting a bottom-up sweater. I’ve been afraid of them for the longest time, but I now have no idea why. It’s so satisfying! I’ve already knitted the whole body up to the under arms, and am now on the first sleeve. Usually when knitting top-down, the fun bit is in the yoke, and the body and sleeves are tedious because you just want to be finished. But doing it bottom-up means I do the “boring” bits while I have all that new-project energy, and I get to look forward to ending on the yoke.

This one has a fun yoke, too. You’ll see.

Here’s the birthday sweater I’ve been working on since the dawn of time (or last Christmas) – far slower progress.

My plan is to finish the sleeves on the blue jumper and join them onto the body first, before I return to finish this project. It’s not long til it’s done, but second sleeve syndrome right?

And my third concurrent knitting project, the one I’m making with my knitting club, is going nicely too:

We’re a good way into the cables now. This is the most intricate of my three projects, and it takes the most work for sure. I find it quite hard on the hands to knit, although that has improved since I switched to the correct size cable!

As ever, cat pics from the week.

I’ve been working on a skirt this week – the Amelia Skirt from The Pattern Stash. For full disclosure, I was sent this pattern (and a kit including fabric) for free in exchange for an Instagram post about the skirt. This post is not part of that exchange – I just wanted to share a little about the making process.

This is my second toile of the skirt. On my first toile I did a straight size 10 – I should have known that was a silly idea! My hips are less curved than most patterns are designed for, so I always have to do some heavy modifications to make the hip curve straighter. I took in the side seams and increased the intake of the back darts, but I quickly realised that my changes were distorting the lines of the pattern – the panels weren’t nicely distributed anymore. So I decided to trace off the size 8 at the hip, and grade to a 10 at the waist. I also picked some leftover linen to make this a wearable toile. You may recognise this fabric from my April dress!

The fit is far better now. I’m also very pleased with my invisible zip insertion. It used to take me a minimum of 30 minutes to get a zip in nicely, with multiple rounds of unpicking – but I’ve got the technique now, and I typically get it right on the first try. I freehand the first side and then pin the second side very lightly. My problem before was over-pinning – so my big tip is to let the zip lay where it wants to lay!

I’m looking forward to completing this toile and getting started on the real deal. I’ve picked a bright fiery red corduroy, which is a bit outside my comfort zone in terms of both fabric and colour. But it’s good to push ourselves. I do have bits of bright fiery red corduroy all over my house now though.

Before I close, here are some cat pics from the week:

Thanks for reading. See you next week! 🙂