Black Circle Skirt

Hey look, another black jersey item...how exciting! 

Yes fine, it's not the most challenging make, but I'd argue that a good circle skirt is a pretty essential part of a wardrobe. Especially when that wardrobe has to fit into a rucksack and spend the next two weeks travelling by rail and bus through Poland, Germany and France. 

It was for that very reason that I chose this black, textured double-knit jersey from my gigantic eBay haul of a couple of years ago. The fabric's weight gave the skirt a nice drape, while the all-over crinkly texture helped disguise most packing wrinkles. I was able to shake it out of the bag and put it on without fussing with an iron. Best of all, it helped me look and feel slightly more elegant - even when I was just wearing a t-shirt - then the pair of shorts and crumpled trousers I'd brought along. 

The lovely team at By Hand London brought out a circle skirt app several months ago - if you haven't tried it yet, what the hell are you waiting for? It's helped simplify things so much, and was what I used to make this skirt. I've used it before to make another circle skirt - a navy and white striped piece that has yet to be blogged. And now I keep wanting to make more skirts! I'm currently restraining myself from making 20 different circle skirts, but it's hard to do when the app makes it so easy and the results are so comfortable. 

There's not much else to say about this skirt really - other than I really LOVE IT and have worn it A LOT. So much, in fact, that I have to make a conscious effort not to wear it every week so the people I work with don't think I only have one set of clothes. I really should make one or two more circle skirts in other fabrics to change things up a bit. 

What else? It's got a lapped zipper, and a waistband made of the same fabric, which unfortunately stretched a bit but is really useful for when I've eaten too much. Oh, it's also got big, deep pockets, lined in big pink fabric. For keeping my hands in, either on cold days or when I'm feeling awkward and have no idea what to do with them.

 Sunglasses - Shotgun Wedding at the Tea Rooms, T-shirt - op-shop, Skirt - self-made, Bag - op-shop, plimsolls - John Lewis

The Lil(le) Black Dress

Now that winter is well and truly on it's way, why not do a post about a really hot summery daytrip in July, eh? The occasion was The Manbacon's 35th birthday, and I'd spent the previous two weeks frantically arranging tickets to Lille, and making sure that he'd booked that day off, while keeping the trip a surprise from him. I also managed to make myself a little black dress for the trip, in between everything else. 

It's difficult to make out many details on this dress, but it's made with black jersey (from the op-shop, of course), to a bodice pattern by Sew Vera Venus. The pattern itself is only available in one size, for busts between 35 to 37 inches, and is meant for woven fabrics. Since I usually wear a 34" bust, I simply 'cheated' and made the seam allowances slightly larger, instead of faffing about with grading it down. I figured that since my fabric had quite a bit of stretch to it, it wouldn't really matter too much if I accidentally took too much in.  

Once the bodice came together, it took no time at all to make a skirt from the rest of the fabric (simply two rectangles joined at the side seams) and attach it to the top. I also cut a long strip of fabric and sewed it into a tube, to make the spaghetti straps for my dress. Probably not the best idea to use a flimsy strip of stretchy jersey to hold up your dress - I spent many minutes throughout the day tugging at the bodice and tying and retying the straps and as they had a tendency to stretch and head south as the day progressed. 

Other than that little problem (which seems to have finally sorted itself out - the straps seem to have stopped stretching), the dress itself was a dream to wear, especially on a filthy hot, humid summer day. I've since worn that dress several times, putting it to the test by cycling and even getting tangled in blackberry bushes while wearing it, and it's held up wonderfully. 

As I mentioned above, it was a pretty disgustingly sweaty type of day, so we passed the worst of it in the seemingly under-hyped treasure that is the Lille Natural History Museum (Musee d'Histoire Naturelle). There was almost no one else there except for us and the staff, so we explored the collections in peace. There's plenty of wonderful taxidermy animals in it, including the rather magnificent Ron Swanson-like snow leopard above, as well as a little tableau showing how they mount the animals for display. 

The twitchers among you might also be interested to know that the museum has a vast collection of stuffed birds, all displayed in beautiful old vitrines, including hundreds of jewel-toned hummingbirds. These were breathtaking, I spent ages staring at them trying to memorise every single detail. There are a few displays of dinosaur fossils, although nowhere near as spectacular as the displays at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. And, almost forgotten in a hidden corner upstairs, is a rather lonely little axolotl. It's quite a small musuem, but it's got such a still, old-fashioned air about it that it's easy to lose hours in there enjoying the various exhibits. 

Dress - self made, pattern from Sew Vera Venus, handbag - vintage, belt - Sainsburys, sunglasses - vintage

Musée d’Histoire Naturelle

19, rue de Bruxelles
59000 Lille

France

Two-tone Bucket Bag

The temptation to sew my own bags hit me hard about a year ago, but I tried to resist, until, one fateful night about six months ago, what should I find on ebay but a copy of McCall's 9261. It included about 7 patterns, mostly for simple tote bags, but what really caught my eye was the military-style bucket bag on the cover. All that for only 60p, because the seller's dog had taken it for a chew toy. Two clicks and it was mine! 

I wanted a hard-wearing bag that wouldn't clash too most of my clothes, so I dug out a piece of black faux leather that a friend had given me a while ago. The leather was just long enough, but alas, not wide enough for the bag. What to do? A quick dig through my stash and I found a leg from some old black jeans - it turned out to be wide enough to make up the missing height, and made a nice textural contrast against the black leather. 

The pattern itself is fairly simple - two large rectangles for the bag and lining, and two circles for the base of the bag and the lining. There's also one smaller rectangle for the pocket, which I placed inside, on the lining fabric, instead of front and centre as in the illustration. The other change I made was to add two straps, so I could wear the bag on both shoulders (more comfy this way!), instead of one strap across the body. I cut the straps out of some lovely dark blue suede that was purchased from an op-shop last year. 

The lining fabric - which you can see peeking out in some photos - is a very polyester-y, 1960/70s upholstery fabric that I got for free (FREE!) when a friend of a friend was destashing and moving to faraway lands. It was a nice loud floral, very emblematic of it's era, but I had qualms about using it in something wearable, because, urgh, so plasticky. It made a nice contrast to all the black and blue on the outside and was a nice, heavy weight. The pattern also suggested interfacing the fabric, but I skipped it because the denim was thick enough, and also, laziness. 

It all came together fairly quickly, mostly straight lines except for having to sew the round base to the tube of fabric to form a bag, but even that was pretty straightforward once I neatened up the edges of the circles. The machine did groan a little when going through double or triple thicknesses of denim and leather, but I just told it to shut up, used a leather needle and sewed very slowly. I also topstitched everything, in an attempt at a professional, finished look. 

The longest, and perhaps most annoying bits, were having to insert the grommets into the top of the bag for the drawstring closure. The grommets required were pretty big, about 15mm wide, and I had to be very careful and make sure I didn't tear the fabric too much so they popped out and left a big hole in the bag. Which, when all you want is to go the park with your new bag, is very frustrating. I used a awl (the sharp point thing, not an owl, the bird) to make the initial hole, then widened it slowly with a variety of sharp implements, carefully pushing the threads aside instead of cutting through them. Then, when it was wide enough, I had to hammer the grommet in, making sure no sharp metal bits stuck out. The first one took me about half an hour to insert, I kid you not. I think I managed to get it down to about 7 minutes per grommet towards the end, but dammnit, that was a long afternoon. 

Sunglasses - Shotgun Wedding at The Tea Rooms, Brick Lane

Dress - from Hong Kong (about 15 years old)

Bag - Self-made

Boots - H&M (about 3 years old)

None More Black Bustier Top

Hello, remember me? I fell off the blogging map for a bit. My excuse? The computer imploded, and despite being married to an IT genius, I had to survive on an ancient Mac laptop that was basically help together with several reels of sticky tape for the next few months. My hands have been far from idle during this period - this bustier is one of a number of items I've sewn up but haven't had time to blog about yet. 

I intended this to be a wearable toile, before cutting into my fancy fabrics. The material came from two old skirts - a corduroy one that had seen better days, and a velvet skirt that had already been partly incorporated into a pencil skirt. It was also lined with some scraps of double-knit jersey from my stash, to prevent any potential chafing situations. 

The bustier was based on Burdastyle 01/2012 #127 - it comes with a pattern for highwaisted pants which I will attempt sometime soon (in Spandex perhaps?). It's a relatively simple pattern, with three pattern pieces - centre front, sides and back. I also added some thick straps to it, which were traced from New Look 6675. The straps help prevent any embarrassing clothing malfunctions, and also stop me from having to hoik up the bustier every 10 seconds or so. The bustier was lengthened by about 1.5 inches, by attaching the waistband of the corduroy skirt to the bottom of the bustier. I felt that this gave it a more finished look, turning it from lingerie-style top to a proper 'outside' top.

I made it in a size 34 bust, and used the size 8 for the straps. Unfortunately, my shoulder-to-boob ratio (proper technical term) is slightly shorter than the long lithe creatures they usually design for, so the straps were just ever slightly too long. Which I only found out after wearing the top around town for a day, constantly fiddling and pulling them back up onto my shoulders. So I ended up unpicking about half the machine-sewn stitches and cutting about 1cm off the straps. The top fits so much better now but let me tell you, I could have stabbed someone with a seam-ripper when I had to do that correction.

The double-layer of thick fabric was perfect for April, which was when the bustier was finished and when these photos were taken. It was perfect over a high-waisted skirt or trousers, and under a light jacket or cardigan. However, the temperature has risen considerably since than, which means that I end up with a rather unglamourous line of sweat between my boobs. It's a very comfortable top for these warmer temperatures though, so I will be working on one of two more versions in the near future, made with much thinner fabric. 

Sunglasses - vintage (op-shop)
Necklace - op-shop
Denim jacket - Levi's (bought new about 15 years ago)
Bustier top - self-made
Belt - Sainsburys 
1970s skirt - op-shop

Folksy Front

It doesn't happen too often, but when it does...it feels like a treat everytime I go on to Folksy or Etsy and see one of my items included in the front page. 

The Garden Party Dress

The warm, golden sunlight in these pictures will probably alert you to the fact that these pictures were taken months ago. Oh well, best get blogging about this dress before winter finally gets here!

The impetus for this dress came about when an acquaintance handed me the invite to her wedding. Dress code - 'formal'...which always brings to my mind some sort of Disney princess dress (like this) - you know, floofy skirt, lots of sequins and tulle, the works. The type of dress that I would wear to a Manowar show, but felt a bit uncomfortable wearing to a mid-summer, outdoor wedding reception. Thus began the hunt for a 'grown-up' dress pattern. 

A quick online search lead me to Butterick B5281, a reissue of a 1946 pattern. Those illustrated babes looked so elegant and sassy, so a few clicks later and I was on my way to replicating that sassy elegance. Unfortunately, elegance is a foreign country to me, as evidenced by the above photo of me hanging on to 2 wine glasses. Oh well, I'll go for sassy then.

On to the technical bits. For the bodice, I decided to trace a size 10 at the bust, graduating up to a size 12 at the waist seam and skirt. The other change I made to it was to hack about 5 inches off the skirt, because I have short stumpy legs. Since it was rather more complicated than my usual patterns, I decided to make a toile first, in the same fabric that would later be used for the lining (a pink polycotton sheet for the bodice, and a navy blue acetate for the skirt, both from the opshop). The dress fabric was two metres of slightly sheer ikat-looking fabric that I purchased last year at the Wimbledon car boot sale. It's most likely a wool/polyester mix - it has no label, but I have a skirt that feels exactly the same, and is about 70% wool/30% polyester.

Constructing the dress was suprisingly easy, although the shoulder-flap bit on the left threw me a little.The trickiest part was probably inserting the side zipper - my first! I took my time and yelled a few unnecessary words, but managed to fit it in without too many wrinkles. It's a lapped zipper, which I thought fitted the whole vintage pattern thing a lot better than an invisible zipper.

Although it wasn't too difficult to sew up, it did take a lot of time though...so much so that I was sat at my machine at 10.30pm the night before the wedding, trying to finish fit the lining in. I cheated in the end, and set in the sleeve lining with big rough basting stitches. The skirt was roughly turned up and sewed with big machine basting stitches. No-one else could see it, and I've since managed to clean it all up. 

Dress - selfmade, necklace - vintage, brooch - vintage, tights - Sainsburys, shoes - from Hong Kong

The Mjolnir Shorts

Look, another new post! Despite my absence from this poor ole neglected blog, I haven't been slacking off. Okay, well, maybe a little...but I've been making stuff too!

These shorts were made sooo long ago - before our summer 'heatwave' (which has since disappeared). It might be sunny in these pictures, but it was still chilly enough for the good old black tights.

The pattern is Simplicity 6337 - if you click on the link, you'll see a spectacularly mum-jeans-esque confection, styled in superbly 1980s fashion. Your first instinct might be to shy away from the computer screen. However, mum jeans (or mom jeans if you're an American reader) are now cool again, according to Elle Fanning and Topshop. 

I've been wanting a pair of highwaisted jeans for a long while, since all my other pairs of jeans were quite literally falling apart. I actually ordered the much talked about Colette Clover pattern last autumn, but worked on a toile, but found that they need way too much faffing about with, so I got lazy and gave up. Then I found this pattern for 50 cents in a Melbourne op-shop, and picked it up mainly because it was so cheap, and who can have too many patterns anyway? Not me!

The pattern languished in the dark for a while, until I found this thickish mid-blue denim, with a nice weight to it, at another op-shop. It's really stiff and sounds like thunder if you try to wave it in the air. I imagine this was what cowboys in Westerns used to wear. 

Anyway, this came together surprisingly easily. I made a toile, found it fitted pretty well, and cut into the denim. It's easy to be fearless when you don't care too much about the fabric. I did make a couple of changes to the pattern though - left out the front pockets, and moved the front fly zip to a side lapped zipper. The insides were all overlocked with my awesome new toy, a Huskylock S21.

I also added some belt loops to the waistband - which is why they are called the Mjolnir shorts. Have you ever tried sewing through about 5 layers of thick denim? It's not fun. My sewing machine definitely wasn't having any of it. Out came the hammer so I flatten the fabric before sewing the loops on, and even then it was hard going. I'm pretty sure I was sweating the whole time.

It ended up very fitted around my bum and hips (great for holding it all in after a juicy kebab), and slightly too loose around the waist. The waistband hits just above my belly button, and I had wear a belt to prevent gaping around the area. I thought I could live with it, but it eventually got too annoying and had to be altered. Which meant unpicking those pesky belt loops so I could take it in an inch around the front about about 4 inches in the back. And then sewing on the belt loops again. 

These photos were taken before the alteration, but I guess you get an idea of how it looks. They are immensely comfortable, and I've seen found that dark grey stretchy denim I purchased in Poland last year, which means there will be a long version of them coming soon. 

Folksy Summer

Good morning, world! I was just browsing Folksy when I realised that something on the front page looked very familiar - it took me about 5 seconds to realise that my navy blue Amelia bloomers had snuck in an appearance too! Those of you on Pinterest can see it over here too - Folksy Summer.

Black Poppy - Refashioned Floral Dress

The original dress (plus some wrinkles)

This dress, like so many of my other refashioned items, was found in an op-shop (for the bargain price of £2.99! I love Salvos!), and originally from Marks and Spencers. I loved the print and drapey fabric, and the bodice evoked 1940s dresses with its double-breasted opening. Unfortunately, it was a size 16, and way too long for me - the skirt went down to my ankles. The shoulders were also much too big, and padded as well, for full 1980s effect.

Out came my trusty seam ripper, and off went the sleeves and skirt. There was some elastic along the waist, so I gently unpicked that too, and saved it, just in case. I started by adding some bust and waist darts, and then took in an inch along each side seam, to bring in the bodice and make it a closer fit. The shoulders were still too big, so I cut off an inch at the top (narrowing it down to nothing at the bottom of the armscye). This of course meant the sleeves were a little too big when I tried to set them in, so instead of gathering and easing it in, I added two little pleats to the top of the sleeves. You can see how that turned out in the photo above - I'm quite pleased with it, although of course it means I have to iron them down after every wash.

After that, everything else got done fairly quickly and smoothly. I gathered the skirt and attached it back to the bodice, then reattached the elastic that I had unpicked from the dress earlier. The belt was still much too big though, so I added a couple more holes with the help of my trusty eyelet kit. I found mine in an op-shop, but you can find a similar kit here - trust me, it's more useful than you think it will be. 

The only thing left was to shorten the skirt. I briefly considered leaving it long, as I'm partial to a good mid-length skirt, but this just looked a little too mumsy for my taste. So I ended up taking a good EIGHT inches off, which left it at a nice just-above-the-knee length. Job done, and it's quickly become one of the dresses I reach for whenever I want to feel just a little bit (not too much) dressed up.

Short Shorts

Is it still too cold for shorts? It seems like Spring may never arrive at this rate, but I'm still optimistic and have churned out a number of shorts in brighter shades (that orange isn't really so fluoro in real life, the camera makes it look exceptionally vibrant for some reason). I'm sure I've seen several hipsters hobbling down Brick Lane in recent weeks sporting tiny cut-offs over thick tights in recent weeks anyway.

Those two in the pictures above will make an appearance in the Etsy and Folksy shops - just as soon as I get to cutting out and sewing another pair. The ones up there are available in the Tea Rooms in a size M, and I've got enough to make a few more pairs of each. The blue border print pair below is a one-off in size S, made with the last bits of fabric from the HUGE vintage kaftan that was used to make the cushions in this post. Always match your clothing to your soft furnishings, that's what I say!

In one more bit of shop news...I've finally caved in and joined Twitter! You can find me over there under @BobbieandLola, and I believe I've added a button on the right for you to click on to. Join me, I'm lonely!

Last Minute

Still rushing around desperately looking for Christmas presents? Come down to the Tea Rooms this weekend, where the cushions pictured above, as well as other vintage and handmade items, will be available for sale! The cushions are made with vintage or unwanted fabrics, and come in two sizes. See you there!

The Swanning Around Outfit

Here's a two-in-one sewing post, because one post means less writing (typing) than two. And I'm lazy. 

I finished this blouse months ago, in the summer in fact, but only wore it for the first time two weeks ago! Why the delay? Well, about the time I completed it, Manbacon and I bought tickets to see Swans at Koko. Swan blouse, Swan band - coincidence? I think not! So I decided to wait until the day of the gig to take the blouse for its first outing. Long wait...and not a very sensible choice on a cold November night, since the blouse was hidden under layers of coat and scarf. Anyway, I had made up my mind, and so it was done. 

The pattern, as you can see, is Simplicity 5451, purchased about two years ago on eBay. I never felt any inclination to actually use it...until I found this pink and white swan fabric - actually a sheet - in the op-shop about a year ago. I knew what it would become as soon as I found it. 

'Overnight Success'! Well, the pattern cover wasn't too far off, although it did take me slightly longer than overnight due to other projects. The contrasting collar and cuffs were less a design decision and more a running-out-of-fabric decision. The sheet was rather narrow and short (I think it might have been meant for a baby's cot?) so there simply wasn't enough fabric for the collar and cuff facings. I think the white accents help give the blouse a bit of a 1950s diner waitress look though, so I'm not complaining. Finally, the plastic buttons were harvested from the duvet cover that turned into my Summer Safari dress. 

On to the skirt. It's based on my trusty pencil skirt pattern, except I redrafted it slightly so that the front waist darts become princess seams. This allows for the insertion of panels of different fabric into the sides of the skirt. It's a great way to add interest to a fairly plain design, and allows for smaller amounts of fabric to be used. 

The main fabric came from an old A-line velvet maxi length skirt that was given to me a while back. I cut the side panels from this massive bag of jersey remnants that I bought off eBay last year (it's THE bottomless bag of fabric - I've made so many things from it and it still sits there, undiminished). It's lined with supersoft black and white fabric harvested from a duvet cover, and the hem is catchstitched so it hardly shows on the velvet. I made the waistband out of faux leather, for three different textures of black. The faux leather was an arse to machine-sew though, and I ended up having to sew it to the skirt by hand. It's finished off with a  vintage metal button with markings that look rather like a fingerprint, however, you can't really see it in this photo so you'll have to take my word for it.

Hat - vintage

Jacket - Op-shop (Glasgow)

Blouse - Self-made

Skirt - Self-made

Tights - Pretty Polly

Boots - H&M