BHL Anna, dressed to the nines!

Oh lala! Here's a picture heavy post starring a By Hand London Anna dress. 

Where shall I begin? Last year I wanted to make this dress for a ballet gala. The pattern got lost in the mail, was sent again, but arrived too late to use it for the occasion. I moved on to other patterns and once in a while I looked at the Anna dress but lost a bit of my enthusiasm. It looked so...I don't know. Everytime I put it back to the end of the sewing queue. Fast forward to Sewing Indie Month. Laura Mae of Lilacs and Lace hosts a Dressed to the Nines competition for Indie patterns. In one of her posts she mentioned being underwhelmed by the Anna dress until she put it on and it came to life. I had the pattern, I already bought the fabric, only one way to find out if I would like it. Cut it! And cut it fast so I could finish it in time to link it for Sewing Indie Month.

I wanted to create a bla(n)ck canvas. A dress that could easily be changed into another outfit by simply adding a cropped jacket or silk scarf. So black it was. I lined the top because I prefer a lining over facings. I used fusible tape to stabilize the neckline and shoulders. 

This picture shows the typical pleats, instead of darts. And of course I could not resist making the split.  I made no changes (wow, couldn't believe my luck!) except for cutting off nearly 6 inches at the hem. And yes, yes, yes, I like my dress! 

To finish the outfit I teamed it with a self drafted silk jacket. Very cropped, because it was a very small piece of silk that had been in my stash for over twenty years. I lined it with matching satin and used the leftover pieces to make some flowers.

I put the flowers on safety pins so they can be removed.

The pictures aren't the best, sorry. The deadline for the link party is today and at 4 pm I could finally start the hemming. By hand. An hour later a thunderstorm passed, it was dark inside and soaking wet outside. No time to lose (and as you can see: no time to press the hem either), as soon as the rain stopped I found a dry spot for the tripod and modeled the dress under a tree to keep the silk as dry as possible. 

This is where I spotted the next thunderstorm. Time to grab my dress and run!

Sewing Indie Month was just the little push I needed to finally make this pattern, and I'm glad I did!

The pattern is still on my sewing table, my next dress will be another Anna. I just have to decide whether I'll make the shorter version or a relaxed summer version of the maxi dress. Or both. To be continued!

Whatever the weather, happy sewing!

By Hand London Mittens skirt

At last we can share our little secret: we've been pattern testers for the new By Hand London Mittens skirt! It's a big day for fashionable pets all over the world. 

I made view B, the high waisted midi skirt. It's a highly versatile pattern. Excellent for sunbathing:

Or wear it as a maxi skirt for city trips.

Once again the BHL Circle Skirt App proved to be a very useful tool for drafting a 'maths-free' circle skirt.

The seam was pinked and as you can see the pattern includes a sewing label.

What changes would I make? As you can see below there is some risk of wardrobe malfunction on breezy days. Next time we'll go for view C, the pencil skirt.

Finally. On behalf of all canine customers of By Hand London the furry assistant wants to protest against marketing the Mittens skirt as a cat-skirt-only. Come on, girls, don't do that to our doggies!

But today she's wearing her skirt with pride.

My first weeks as a blogger and a happy dance!

Can't remember why it took me so long to start a blog. If anyone out there reads this and is wondering whether or not to start one: go for it, it's so much fun!

Quick recap: In the first week I joined two sewalongs. The first one is the Little French Jacket sewalong, hosted by Leisa of A Challenging Sew and Inna of Thewallinna. Inna kicked off with some awesome posts about colour theory and body shapes while Leisa wrote some indepth information about fabric and lining. When using couture techniques you can spend as many as 100 hours on sewing your LFJ, so careful selection of fabrics and patterns is in order to make sure the finished jacket is flattering both colour and stylewise.
Obviously the best fabric options for a Chanel style jacket are wool boucles and tweeds with textured surfaces. As I'm allergic to wool I asked if anyone could give me suggestions for non wool fabric that could work. I immediately discovered how supportive the online sewing community is. Leisa spent ages reading fiber contents on different sites. She was concerned lighter weight cotton or silk tweeds would not have the loft needed for quilting. Belinda in Singapore test quilted some samples of non wool tweeds and posted the results in the LFJ Flickr group. Other sewists sent links to fabric suppliers where I ordered some swatches.Thanks girls, really helpful!

I also joined the By Hand London Anna dress sewalong. So far it's the extras that makes this sewalong very worthwhile. The BHL girls have been posting interesting information on full bust adjustments (looking at me??) and adding a 3/4 sleeve to the pattern.

http://byhandlondon.com/2013/09/20/anna-dress-sewalong-2-tracing-and-altering-the-pattern/

And.....Remember that Negroni shirt I blogged about here and here ?

It was my entry to the Super Online Community Sewing Match, hosted by Sew Mama Sew. And guess what? I won a prize! A $35 gift certificate from Colette Patterns. Yay, happy dance!

Next up: By Hand London's Anna dress

My scissors are sharpened, my sewing machine is freshly oiled and last but not least: my pattern arrived! All is ready to start my next project: the Anna dress. I originally planned to make this dress two weeks ago, just in time to wear it to the season's opening gala of the Dutch National Ballet.
The pattern was supposed to arrive four days before the gala but got lost in the mail. When I contacted BHL's Charlotte about the RoyalMailFail she immediately shipped my order again, unfortunately it arrived a week late.Wondering what that other By Hand London pattern is doing on my sewing table? Charlotte popped in an Elisalex to make up for the disappointment. That girl certainly knows how to keep her customers happy!

Once the I've-got-nothing-to-wear-to-the-gala-panic settled down (of course there was a plan B in my closet, isn't there always?) everything turned out just fine. The gala was absolutely brilliant, for my upcoming birthday I'll be making a new Elisalex dress, and the Anna pattern arrived just in time for the official sewalong that's starting today.
Ready steady sew!