Sewing Gage

New year, new shirt. Here's a time lapse video of me pattern cutting for a shirt.

I've uploaded three more sewing tutorials to my YouTube channel, please watch and subscribe.

I decided to practice my tailoring skills again and make a new shirt. I got the material from Paris when I was there a few months ago. I was pretty impressed with the result, I still need to improve my collars, but practice makes perfect! I haven't added any buttons or buttonholes yet. It was the Friday before Christmas and the last thing I wanted to do was head to the shops just to buy buttons. I'll add these later.

Photo by Captured by Corinne Photo by  Captured by Corinne Photo by  Captured by Corinne Just a few pics of the Marilyn dress finally completed. I really enjoyed making this, it was time consuming but I love the result. It's the first time I made a toile to get the fitting spot on before making the final garment, and it fitted perfectly.  The boyfriend made the headpieces, which were stunning! We even made the gay press. (c) QX Magazine (c) Boyz Magazine

Just a quick update on the red dress. The bodice is almost done, just the zip to put in at the back. I'm covered in sequins, but am so happy in how's it's progressing! And this arrived yesterday, my new overlocker! It just makes life so much easier! I'm going to try and send my old one back to the British Sewing Centre and demand a refund, which may be a challenge, going on reviews from other people trying to do the same thing. Wish me luck!

Me and the boyfriend have decided to make this iconic dress from the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (he's Jane Russell, and i'm Marilyn) for our Christmas outing at Cybil's House . I know it's not Christmasey (apart from being red maybe), but it's a good excuse to try and make it. Yeah, this really is a challenge! It was a challenge just sourcing the material. I searched everywhere online and only found one place that stocked it, but they were out of stock. When I contacted them, they told me that the material had been discontinued. I had tried all my usual shops, but one day I decided to visit Shepherds Bush, in West London. There's a whole street full of fabric shops there. After visiting six or seven shops, I finally found it at Toni Textiles . There was only five meters left on the roll, so I took the lot! We began by creating a toile, a test version of the bodice, so that adjustments could be made. I have never done this before, but for th...

Wanting to further practice my tailoring techniques I decided to make another shirt, this time for the boyfriend. Whilst we were in Paris, we visited an absolute textile heaven. Just to the east of the Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre is a huge range of shops and stores selling all kinds of fabric. I could have spent all day there, and all my money! Some of the shops have three metres of pre-cut fabric for fifteen euro. I picked up two such fabrics, one of them was this red, white and blue strip fabric. Very French! (well the boyfriend is french!) I decided to do a casual long sleeve shirt, so I chose McCall's pattern 2149. Again, I struggled with the collar and the cuffs, but at least I put the buttonholes on the right side this time. The collar button position is not in line with the other buttons, which was a mistake, but I kind of like this. Think i'm going to make this my trade mark collar.

It's been a while since my last post. I've been super busy so hopefully i'll get round to doing a few more updates. In the meantime here's a few pics of the Barberella outfit and the silver trousers with  organza top. Photo by Dan Govan www.purenift.com www.instagram.com/princesssleya Photo by Dan Govan www.purenift.com

In my normal job I often do night shifts, which are long and boring, so I thought I would see if there were  any online courses that I could do at work, and try and learn a few new sewing skills. A quick look online and I found a course at Online Academies   in Dress Making and Fashion Design. It was online £25 through Groupon, so thought I would give it a go. The online materials were a bit dated. The sketches of 'fashion' were very late 80's/early 90's and it didn't even touch on new technology or fashion blogging. The course really needs some updating. Having said that the materials have provided me with some resources that I can use and refer to. I passed with distinction! To be honest the qualification is pretty worthless, but the certificate looks good on my wall above my sewing machine!

It's about time I made some more boy clothes and practice those tailoring skills! When I was visiting family in Plymouth, I had a day trip to Totnes, where I came across a fantastic fabric shop, Stone Fabrics . They have so many gorgeous fabrics, I could have spent hours going through the swatches. I decided a navy blue geometric floral print which was £8.50 a metre; I chose  The biggest difficulty I had was with the collar, it took me a couple of attempts, but I finally got there; The final result wasn't too bad. I think the sleeves were too long, oh and I put the buttonholes on the wrong size, but apart from that, not bad for my first attempt at a long sleeve shirt!

I absolutely loved the costume in Maleficent, so I decided to try and recreate one of the costumes from the film for Halloween. I knew which one it was going to be, the gown worn during the christening scene, I just loved it; I found the perfect material from the Wimbledon Sewing Centre in Tooting Bec, a crushed polyester, at £5.50 a meter. I've never made a whole dress from scratch before, so this was certainly a challenge. First thing I needed to do was to work out how it would come together with the separate pattern pieces. I wanted the lines of the folded fabric to run diagonally, so I knew I had to cut the fabric on the bias, which would also help with the shape and drape of the dress. I started with the bodice, and, as mentioned before, cutting the fabric on the bias. These were sewn together on the overlocker to form the bodice; The skirt was cut in the same way and attached to the bodice; The sleeve...