Tessuti Lois Dress - A tale of desperation

Recently the UK (and most of the rest of the planet) was in the midst of a mental heatwave that I, as a pasty Scot, was totally unprepared for. I have very little in the way of summer clothes, mainly because I don't have the legs for shorts, I don't like to have my upper arms exposed too much and I ALWAYS have tights on under my dresses. So all of these problems combined with not liking many RTW clothes these days, meant that I had to really think about what I would actually be happy wearing.

I came across the Tessuti Lois Dress and thought this is the pattern for me! It's got enough of a sleeve that I wouldn't be uncomfortable having my arms out, and loose and long enough for me to not be too hot or too exposed. I had the pink fabric in my stash from when I attended the Hobbycrafts show in Glasgow in March and it was the perfect weight for this pattern.

I managed to get the PDF pattern printed and stuck together and the fabric cut out before the room got too hot so I had to leave the actual sewing until the next morning when it was cool enough again. The construction was pretty straight forward, I found the darts a bit unusual because you actually cut them as a V before sewing them together. The only real issue I had was the insertion of the side zip. I had never done one before and it had to be inserted within the side dart of the skirt which I really struggled with and ended up with the bottom of the zip making the skirt stick out.

 But even with the dodgy zip, I really liked this dress. It's soft and floaty and shows off my best assets 😂😂 It kept me cool and comfortable while having a nice wee wander round Glasgow Fort with my wee maw 💖

 And now that I have something in my wardrobe that's actually suitable for summer, the sun has now of course, gone away again 😂 Ah well, there's always next year!

P4P Brunch Blouse aka My Favourite Pattern

As you may have read in a previous post one of my resolutions is to try more indie patterns including this one in particular. I like Patterns for Pirates because they have lots of good basic patterns that I would actually wear on a regular basis, I settled on the Brunch Blouse because it's something that I can just through on in the morning and head off to work and still be comfortable all day.

Back in March I was at the Hobbycrafts show at the SECC in Glasgow and found a GREAT stall from M. Rosenberg & Son that sold loooooads of lovely fabrics, I had to actually limit myself because the fabrics were so lovely and so well priced that I could have gone on a mental spending spree 😂 Anyway, it's where I bought the lovely navy poly-viscose bird print that I made the first version of this dress.

The pattern was really easy to put together, I skipped out on the breast pocket, and made it a round neckline to be more work appropriate. I finished the neck and hem with satin bias so that it had a nice clean finish and threw it on to see how it looked. I LOVED IT! It's comfy, work appropriate and still quite casual.

I thought it was the perfect little dress to have several versions of so I had a rummage through my fabric and found the brushed cotton tartan that I bought last summer and was waiting for the right project and as luck would have it, I had the perfect amount for this dress! So I set about making another one and I loved this one just a little bit more because I love tartan and it reminds me of home 💗

This is genuinely how much joy tartan brings me

I had another look through my stash to see if there were any other fabrics that would suit this pattern, but alas there was nothing else that I thought was the right look, buuuuuuut during a weekend visiting family in Glasgow, I came across this mental sixties-esque print which is the perfect weight to make a third one!!

Unfortunately, I had a bit of an argument with the neck of this one and tried to iron it out, which made it worse 😂 If anyone has any suggestions to fix it, please let me know, otherwise I'll just have to make it part of the style!😂

In short, I would definitely recommend this pattern to anyone looking for that perfect, throw it on, no effort involved dress and Patterns for Pirates in general (and they also have some free patterns!)And if I keep going at this rate then I can just have 5 variations for every day of the work week! 😂

Cotton & Chalk Dungarees AKA The outfit that almost never was

So I've wanted a pair of dungarees for ages and I even had the pattern ready to go , but I just couldn't find the perfect fabric that just leapt out and said "Look at me! I'm everything you've ever wanted, let's run away together and live happily ever after!" So after literally months of checking every fabric shop under the sun, I thought, maybe I should just keep it simple and make them in a plain colour, since that would be sensible and I'd actually get more wear out of them. So I thought about different types and different weights of fabrics and I decided that black cotsat would be the ideal fabric because its not too heavy or too light and has that liiittle bit of stretch to make them extra comfortable. So off I went on my hunt again and searched and searched and searched but I just couldn't find any for a decent price! So I went into the Birmingham Rag market looking for alternatives and I described what I was looking for to one of the stall holders and lo and behold he had it!! I said I need 2.7m and he said he would do me 3m for £13! What a bargain! So I bought my fabric and went on my merry way 😁

I got all my pieces cut out, stitched the bib together, assembled the trousers (complete with pockets) and thought I'd better try them on just to be sure, and they were bloody massive! They were what can only be described as 'enormous clown trousers' 😂 I couldn't believe it! I had followed the sizing and the instructions to the letter and they were just unwearable, I know that they are designed to be a bit loose and casual looking, but they were just ridiculous. So after a fashion, I decided to resize them completely, but did I have any tracing paper left? Nooooooooooo! Of course not! So I had to order more tracing paper and wait for it to arrive, trace the legs two sizes smaller and re cut them. Which I did, but by then the whole country had been dropped into Satan's oven and it was way too hot to sit in the south facing sewing room and actually put them together.

Accurate representation of my sewing room

 Cut to a few weeks later, it's finally cool enough to sew them up so I crack on and get the trousers and straps assembled, throw everything together and get the trousers rolled up and pressed in place (with a lot of help from my long suffering husband) and they are GLORIOUS!!! I bloody love them! And no jokes about MC Hammer from certain colleagues (James, I'm looking at you) will change how much I love them ♡

They even have beautiful Liberty cotton pockets (leftover from the robe I made for my Mum) in the trousers and lining the bib pocket 💖

My only problem I have with them is the same problem I have with all dungarees and jumpsuits, you have to practically strip off to go to the loo! 😂 😂 But in all seriousness, these are incredibly comfortable and that dreaded word practical 😱 and I can just roll the legs down when it gets cold!😂