Never outdress the bride... but get close!

This is Sue, and she wanted a stunning dress for her best friend's wedding in Manchester. I have to say, getting a bespoke dress for these kind of events is THE best way to not only get a gorgeous dress that fits perfectly and is comfortable for a long day, but to also make sure you never have to deal with the often-dreaded scenario of someone else wearing the exact same thing!

Work in progress

We started by looking at vintage-style dress patterns. Sue (like many ladies) wanted sleeves and a tea-length hem. She chose a Vintage Vogue style with a faux wrap bodice which gives a gorgeous neckline, and short sleeves that I lengthened for her.

I created a mock-up of the bodice part of the dress so that I could make all the adjustments needed to ensure a perfect fit, and Sue choose this beautiful cotton fabric with printed gold highlights.

And doesn't she look divine? Swamped with compliments on the day, she now has a unique and personalised frock in her wardrobe on hand for any event.

An unflappable Flapper dress

Every other Saturday I head over to the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre Costume Hire Department to volunteer my time helping people choose the perfect theatrical outfit, and to work on plus-size costumes to expand their existing stock. It was a Saturday such as this, and I had arranged to meet my parents for lunch afterwards when I managed to pour my breakfast all down my front! (Yes, I know - can't take me anywhere!)

Luckily, while I popped my dress in the wash, I tried on a dress from our rails that I'd not tried on before - a red & black 1920's number made by another volunteer. I was really impressed with the fit and the flare in the skirt of the dress and insisted on borrowing the pattern immediately!

The original had been made in a crepe though I was uncertain if I would make mine from the same, and as I needed to have a browse of some sparkly trims for a separate customer's commission anyway, I headed to the Indian and Asian fabric shops. 

As I was only really experimenting with the pattern, I didn't want to spend a great deal on the fabric, but I lucked out with what I found. One of the shops was selling a set of fabrics for making a complete outfit - trousers in plain, tunic in patterned, and sheer fabric for a scarf - all colour co-ordinated and only £5 for a 7 yard bundle! I'll be going there again.

It's quite a light fabric, so my overlocker was needed for every seam to prevent a fraying nightmare. The pattern itself was nicely written out - though I had to be careful with my labelling so as not to get confused by all the skirt gores - good old post-its! 

The red & black version was sleeveless, but with the sheer scarf fabric in my bundle I thought it'd be nice to make the bishop sleeves view that were included in the pattern. I think it makes it a bit more wearable too.

Finally, I couldn't bear not to add a bit of glitter after all the bling-hunting I'd been doing for my sparkly client, so I added just a little trim to the dropped forward shoulder seam above the gathers.

It twirls fantastically on the dance floor and even matches my hair!

Circle skirt making workshop

Learn how to make your own made-to-measure,1950's style circle skirt in a day!
You will learn essential sewing skills including how to turn your measurements into a simple pattern, how to hem a curve, how to create a comfortable waistband with button fastening, and will leave wearing your very own custom-made, fabulous skirt!

Whether you are an advanced beginner or have never sewn before, I will talk you through every step of making a circle skirt in detail to leave you with skills that will help with your future projects.

Sunday 19th March 10am-5pm

Location: Nim Burgin Studio, 27 Murray Street, M7 2DX
Workshop cost: £40 including refreshments throughout the day

Please send an email to nim@nimburgin.com to book your place.
Workshop sizes are kept small to ensure a high level of personal tuition.

You will need to bring:

• Sewing machine (limited number available if needed)
• Basic sewing kit (thread, scissors, pins, etc)
• 3 meters of your chosen fabric (non-stretch)
• A button (small range available from me at no extra cost)

Circle skirts

Pinstripe prettiness

The 1957 Clare McCardell dress pattern has been sitting with my patterns for far too long. When I heard about the competition from Evadress I knew it was the perfect time to stop procrastinating and make myself a fab dress. It takes a fair heft of fabric to make and sadly the bold monochrome print jersey I originally planned for it was short by about a metre! I ummed and ahhed over the pinstripe but I'm really glad I went with it. The grain in the raglan sleeves works beautifully and there's something very pleasing/potentially slimming about the diagonals meeting centre front and back.

It was all a bit of a dream to put together to be honest, the zip was probably the fiddliest part, as zips are wont to be, and I learned an interesting new technique inside the underarms or protecting the clipped curves with a small bias covering. It makes sense when you think about it, with no armscye seam allowance to protect it, that's an area of high stress to have just a clipped seam on.

The dress itself is wonderfully comfortable (I've been wearing it at work all day today - and I got so many compliments!) and the fabric is quite an easy-care and resists creasing quite well. The front of the skirt is a fairly straight pencil skirt look, it's the back where all that fabric went! A mass of pleats at the back give it a brilliant swish when walking and pulls the whole thing into a really flattering shape. I would have liked the sash a bit longer for the bow at the back but that's easily fixed for the next incarnation, which will almost certainly be in jersey this time!

More tailoring, this time for the patriarch.

So my Dad asked me a little while back if I could make him some vintage style trousers. Gee'ed up by the sucess of my golfing knicker attempt I agreed to give it my best shot. He'd been watching a lot of The Hour, he told me, and wanted an outfit similar to one of the stars. I had a couple of (untouched) vintage men's trouser patterns in my arsenal and after some umming and ahhing and concluding that front pleats might not be the most flattering for anyone with more meat on them than a rake, I chose a flat-fronted, 1934 wide legged style.

After a lot of confusion around the fly-area (which was solved by borrowing a pair of similar style trousers and retro-engineering in my head) we had a partially successful mock-up pair. I had extended the length in the body as well as in the leg as my Dad is a very tall man, and as the waistband was just a little bit snug after a big dinner we agreed that a V shaped cut out at the back would work well for flexibility and fit in with the style very well.

The V shape left me scratching my head a little when it came to the belt loops, and whether they were even needed as it was obviously a style for button braces. Bit In the end I thought that it's better to at least give him the options, and the do add a little bit of visual detail.

The fabric for the final trousers was an absolutely lovely grey/green in pure English Wool with a very subtly herringbone weave. It was exactly the right weight for what was needed and it was an absolute bargain! (always helps.) It was unfortunately just a smidge to short, but I hid a seam in the turn ups and get creative with the cutting. It worked brilliantly, and I think he looks the bee's knees in the finished pair, pity you can't see the button-up tank top he convinced my Mother to knit for him at the same time!

Fetch my golfing knickers!

I'm still studying my 1945 tailoring book, though it's seriously hard going! When a friend asked me if I could make him some plus fours for a fancy dress do I jumped at the chance. As it's for fancy dress I don't have to be too worried if it's not perfect, so a great opportunity for me to try with not too much pressure.

The pattern was one that I'd bought over a year ago now, and the instructions consisted of nothing more than a badly scanned envelope from the 1920s! It didn't have any pictures, just 2 paragraphs of badly punctuated text. Needless to say, this was actually quite a challenge for my first pair of men's trousers and the fly is something I'm still not too sure I understand, let alone the crotch guard!

However, they were lined, and had fully working side- and back-pockets, as well as a watch pocket on the front right. I did have to leave the pattern behind towards the end and start improvising, but both I and my friend were really happy with the results - a pair of genuine 1920s plus-fours!

Kitsch... I think I can manage that...

Well it's been a busy month or so behind the sewing machine so hopefully the drought of blogs will be replaced by a tidal wave. Starting with this one.

This was my outfit for the kitsch-themed Dystopia night. I had to find quite a lot of fabric for decorating the venue so was in a good position for getting myself some perfect prints. In the past I've been rather reticent about buying fabric online - "you need to feel the schmatter" as a good friend of mine would say. However, despite a slightly annoying colour mix up it was a very successful venture, including this rather funky cotton tattoo print.

The dress pattern is a Butterick Retro Collection pattern - retro patterns re-drafted for the modern seamstress, a godsend! The pattern and instructions were simple and easy to understand, and the sizes were much more modern too. I had originally intended to make the wiggle dress version which is what I made for my mock up, but at the last minute I decided a full skirt had more kitsch value. It took about a day and a half - not bad at all.

The contrasting corset has been made with the pink tattoo print on the reverse so hopefully it will function as a reversible corset. This will make the busk a little weird I think, but I'll see how it goes - I only finished putting the grommets in an hour before the event so it wasn't able to do up very tight sadly, it's based on the simplicity 9769 which gives such a wonderful curve to the waist. It has a bit of a strange height (about mid nipple) which works quite well over the top of a dress but not on it's own.

As for accessories, I made a facinator with a kitsch-tastic button and a healthy amount of white veiling. Sewing into memory foam is always a bit risky for tearing, but I made good use of UHU too :) There was also a matching croissant handbag that sadly I have no pictures of, based on a 1940s pattern. I made it from the pink fabric with a rose decoration made from the blue fabric of the corset.

I was a bit concerned it was overly demure for the event, but the entire outfit went down very well and I received a lot of compliments which was really lovely.

I also performed at the event, and created a couple of little gems that I will post about as soon as I get some pictures.

Such austerity...

I think this is a 40s or 50s pattern. It is one of the one's salvaged from my grandmother's house. She must have been fairly waif-like back in the day. This pattern is for a size 14, which falls somewhere between a modern day UK8 and 10.

With some pattern modification and inserts though, I managed to make this.

It's made with a really light and floaty dress fabric bought on a 13m roll, so expect to be seeing more of it! They didn't exactly go too low with the necklines - this is the more daring v-neck style! The pattern asks for shoulderpads but I just couldn't bring myself to do it...

I need more and more dresses as summer approaches and I have a few old patterns to keep me busy!

That dress finally!

I completed this dress a while ago but I've been slack about getting the picture up on here. I decided not to put the featherweight bones in in the end as I didn't want them getting creased and looking rubbish. It does roll down a little at the back, especially when wearing a corset, but I think that could be fixed for future incarnations. It needs a decent petticoat which means I need to spend some time with my Ultimate Ruffler! In this picture I'm wearing it with my longline white underbust corset which looks great on the waist. It is wearable without a corset though, which is lucky for dancing :)

Thanks to Chris W Parker for the photo x

1954 Halter Dress

January's effort has been to make myself this dress.

I found some lovely dark navy cotton with a small and busy cream paisley pattern that I picked up for a song. (I'm trying to branch out beyond black, red and white!) It's really light and floaty - perfect for dancing in! I've faced it with some plain navy sheet-weight cotton.

The wide halter straps are really flattering and I like the modesty of the insert behind the sweetheart neckline. The bust and strap sections were quite fiddly but will be much easier when it comes to doing them again I think.

I've pretty much finished except for hemming and some finishing touches. I'm still trying to decide whether to add the featherbone stays the pattern calls for at the front, though it definitely needs the ones at the back to stop it rolling down...

One thing I did not expect was how true to the picture it would be! The insanely waspie waists of the illustration were merely artistic licence thought I - not so! Good job I'm not averse to a corset as the hip/waist/bust ratio is a bit extreme! I love a dramatic waistline as much as the next woman, but I will be modifying this for future incarnations of this dress.

I hope to finish it tomorrow and I'll post pics asap :)

Dammit Janet

This was my very precise Janet Weiss outfit worn to see Rocky Horror in December. The pink dress was made from a 50's tennis dress pattern that I'd bought at a vintage fair a year or so ago. Cardigan is Primarni :)

The pattern was my first truly vintage pattern and didn't have any instructions or printed pattern pieces. Just pieces of tissue paper with variously sized holes punched in. It took me a while to figure it all out, not least because the previous owner had for some completely unknown reason chopped off the shoulder parts of the front pieces! There was some very creative cutting but it came out rather nicely.

I rounded the collar to match the shape of the dress in the film and added a belt. Both were made of pink gingham but sadly I couldn't get a 'Janet' necklace in the time I had.

I even had just enough time to knock together the white lace-trimmed split slip she wears underneath, which was lucky as I realised once I started walking around in it that I really could have gotten away with adding another button!

I even curled my hair and abandoned my signature red lipstick. I looked worryingly wholesome! Baby pink is not a colour I wear much, though I have got the perfect outfit should anyone wish to take me on a date to a milkshake bar...

Belated photos of my Halloween costume

It's taken me a while to get the pictures of my halloween costume uploaded. I was really pleased with the overskirt with built in bustle and underskirt with train. Both from Truly Victorian patterns. It's pictured with my black underbust cincher and a lovely hat made by a friend of mine.

1950's Keyhole Blouse

I started last night, and finished this afternoon. I did take some progress photos but silly me forgot to put the SD card in the camera so they've been lost to the ether.

Quite chuffed with it as a first punt at the pattern. The fabric is fray-o-liscious and I should have done more overlocking but it will not exactly be hard to make myself another one. The pattern was a tiny bit small for me but some tweaking to the seam allowances and button placement have cleared that up. The collar was fiddly, but I'm yet to meet a collar that isn't. (And yes, the photo is taken in my bathroom - the lightbulb in the hallway has blown!)

Apparently my mum made a very similar blouse for a school project back in the late 50s/early 60s but without the diagonal front.

At first I thought the raglan sleeves were making it sit oddly baggy across the shoulders, but I've realised this allows a great range of movement which will get tested at lindy hop tonight :)

winter productivity

Apparently today is the least productive day of the year in the UK because it is the first Monday after the clocks going back. I was quite gratified that I was slaving over a hot sewing machine when that came on the news :)

Now I'm thinking, it's not that late, and maybe I would feel even more smug if I got started on this...
I've picked up a whole roll of suitable fabric and it would be nice to start sinking my teeth into the big pile of vintage patterns I recently bought.

However, I do also have the latest Pratchett to devour...

Decisons, decisions!