When life gives you lemons, make a lemon dress

| quantumbetty

Hello, sewing friends!

I have now started sewing my autumn projects, but I still have a couple more summer ones to share, just in time for the end of summer before it starts getting really rainy and chilly and the leaves start changing!

Today I wanted to show this 1950s dress. I made it using this stunning cotton sateen that I got for my birthday.

Quite unoriginally, I used my recently self-drafted all-in-one sleeve bodice, and my pencil skirt. I don’t actually have much to say about these as I have already talked extensively about both!

To complete the look, I was lucky enough to find this fab 1950s Juliette hat that matches the dress perfectly.

I hope you like it!

Watermelon dress

| quantumbetty

Hello again, sewing friends!

In my last blog post I talked about my successful attempt at pattern drafting a bodice with an all-in-one sleeve, and today I am sharing my summery version of the dress!

I love 1950s silhouettes, as I feel that the styles fit my hourglass shape; I have been trying to make myself some more accurate reproductions of 40s and 50s clothes, but I am a sucker for a good novelty print, so here we are!

While the print is not very historically accurate, I love how summery the dress looks!

Now all I need is some nice weather! I realise the summer is ending already, but I’m Spanish, so I always hope for summers to last longer than they do in the UK!

Hope you like it! Sew you later!

Pattern drafting adventures

| quantumbetty

Hello everyone!

How are you all?

One of my sewing goals for this year was to learn the basics of pattern drafting. I enjoy making fairly simple clothes with small design variations that result in very different looking pieces. Last year I worked on getting a nicely fitting sleeveless bodice, and this year I have been experimenting with pattern drafting.

Earlier in the year I took some online workshops by Project Patterns to learn the basic of bodice modifications – as well as how to draft some other bodices that I will eventually make. I have also been watching The Closet Historian for so long I was finally ready to attempt the all-in-one sleeve bodice.

For this bodice I followed Bianca’s tutorial to go from my two-dart bodice to this one. I wanted to try adding these pockets by Vera Venus to my pencil skirt. Everything is better with pockets. Since my pencil skirt pattern has two waist darts, I moved them into the side seam to have a seamless front – I can show the process if anyone is interested. I then used the pattern pieces for the pockets and merged them to my new dartless front. I made no modifications to the back of the skirt.

I made this dress as a mock up for the pattern using some scrap fabric I had from other projects, but I love the result and I have worn it loads already, it is such a comfortable dress! I wouldn’t use bias binding to hem the sleeves, as the weight of the bias was heavier than the fabric and it sticks out a bit, but it was just a mock up and I couldn’t be bothered to fix it.

I have already modified this pattern further to make three different dresses, I hope to be sharing them soon!

Sew you later!

Vogue 1645

| quantumbetty

Hello my sewing friends!

These last few months I have been really busy sewing, but since it rained for all of May and most of June I didn’t take any pictures of any of my projects. I have now had a chance to do that, so I will be posting a few of my latest garments!

Today I wanted to share my latest jumpsuit, which I made using Vogue 1645. I made a toile for this pattern, and found that I didn’t have many adjustments to make for the fit I wanted. You can see my toile here.

When I made my toile I used a floral fabric I had in my stash, but the pattern features didn’t show that well with the busy print. This time, I used contrasting fabrics, and I am over the moon with how it looks!

I used polyester crepe, a spotty microfiber which is no longer available, and this jade green crepe, and it is so soft and comfortable!

I love this pattern so much! I will be making a wintery version that I can layer over a jumper.

Hope you all like it!

See you next time!

Sewing through the seasons: summer time

| quantumbetty

Hello sewing friends!

I am back with yet another Simplicity 1459 dress! I am determined to make this dress work for all four seasons, and today’s version is a summer ready one!

When I lived in Spain, spring was my favourite season, as the weather was nice and warm but not too hot to bear. However, in the UK, summer is the Spain spring equivalent, and I am so excited for it that I am now almost exclusively sewing for summer!

For this version, I used view C, and as I did with my spring version, I swapped the side zipper for a button placket all the way down the front of the dress.

I got this fabric a couple of years ago in Spain, it is a soft cotton poplin, very light and summery.

I hope you like it!