Merry Christmas, Alice-who-isn’t-a-cat.

Finally, the Linton cape is finished.

It’s been a bit of a bear to sew.  The pattern itself is really straightforward and the instructions are clear, but, as always, I made a bit more work for myself by interlining it.

I don’t mind telling you that Linton tweed and lining fabric do not make for simple sewing.

If I’d been making this for myself it would never have been finished, thats for sure!

But the result was worth the effort:
The self fabric covered buttons were super easy to do as, even though I lightly interfaced it, the loose weave of the fabric gave the teeth of the button something to hang on to:The only thing I wish for this is that I’d had enough fabric to really match the checks, but I think because they are a broken check, I can just about get away with it.  Let’s face it, it’s only us sewers who are so hyper critical of our projects, and I’m not going to be stopping passers-by, pointing at Alice and saying “look how those checks don’t match”.

Honestly. I won’t. Pinky promise!

It’s done.

It’s finally done.

I should have gone with a purchased pattern in the first place and saved myself some time, but I’m counting it as all part of the learning curve.   And apologies for the dark pictures.  It’s a very cloudy and gray day here but I simply couldn’t wait for the sun to return before I share this with you.

As you know the pattern used is the Chic Everyday Coat Pattern from Heidi and Finn on Etsy.  Obviously I’ve had to shorten the coat to make it fit on the fabric and I’ve straightened the A-line somewhat for the same reason.  I made the 3T size deliberately to make this too big so she’ll get extra wear out of it. To make it fit for this season I’ve shifted the buttons to make this Chinese inspired style.  I’ll just move the buttons across as she grows into it.  We’ll get lots of wear out of this beautiful coat, which I’m very happy about.

I utilised the pockets of the original jacket, much to Button’s delight.

She’s so pleased that I’ve made her a coat she insisted she wore it to visit Grandma this morning so she could show it off. Makes it all worthwhile.  I’ve a feeling this won’t be the last of these I make, but next time I’ll make the size smaller. I also think there’ll be plenty of Heidi and Finn patterns in our future too.  They are delightful.

 

For The Boy’s adoption day I had been frantically sewing in an attempt to get the Linton Tweed dress finished in time. 

So much so that on Wednesday evening I sat with Alice-who-isn’t-a-cat and a glass of wine watching masterchef and frantically stitching bindings into place.

But I did it!

And I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this dress.

I cut the size 18 with a larger waist (as I don’t have one at all) and could have cut a 16 I think, as I ended up taking it in a bit.  I find this truly surreal as it’s not that long ago I was cutting the 22.  Anyhoo, because the pattern has different cup sizes there was very little else for me to alter.  I added three inches to the skirt length and next time out will add perhaps 1/2″ to the bodice.

I also took up the shoulder seam by about 5/8″ and pinched out another 1/2″ all the way down the back to stop it bagging on me.

The only thing I’d change for the next iteration is that the front neckline needs a tiny dart folding into the pattern to reduce the neckline gaposis.  But again, it’s livable with this one.

After my near disaster with the preshrinking, and after much steam pressing, I managed to restore the fabric almost to its original texture.  However it was still very wonky on the table so I’m amazed that the pattern matching came out so beautifully:

There is a seam there, I promise…you can just about see it down the middle where the horizontal stripes don’t quite line up, but full length, you ain’t seeing nothing, I can tell you!

Because the fabric is so unstable, I interlined the whole thing with an inexpensive black cotton, overlocking all the pieces together before I began construction:

Because of this I felt that facings would be way too bulky so finished the armholes, neckline and hem with 1″ cotton bias tape: 

With the exception of the neckline being slightly squiffy at the top of the zip (and I’ve seen that on ready to wear costing hundreds of pounds so am cutting myself a little slack), this dress is just perfect.

It was inspired by a dress I saw last season in LK Bennet which was the same style but a dark raspberry colour and cost about £200.  Mine cost about £25!  And it fits! Which is truly a testament to doing things properly…making a muslin, taking time to press everything properly as you go, measuring seams, etc!  I’m a convert, and I will be making this dress again.

I’ve given up waiting for good light to photograph these little pinafores, so please excuse the slightly weird pics.

Both are made from this pattern:

It’s such a simple pattern which makes up in no time at all.

I’m sure you’ll recognise that the navy dress is the last of the nasty polyester. The pink is a piece of floral corduroy given to me by Himmelbjerget.

Both dresses have a straightforward lapped zipper at the centre back:

with armhole and neckline facings which you can just see peeping out on this picture.

The navy dress has a ribbon faced hem just because I could:

and the pink hem has the best top-stitching I have ever achieved.  I’m mighty chuffed with it:

The stash gets smaller!

 

Yesterday I finished the second navy pinafore for Button.I used the Oliver + S Birthday Party Dress pattern, but this time cut a size larger.  She will insist on growing!

Also, because this nasty fabric really doesn’t pleat very well, I altered the front to remove the pleated section, making this a plain square necked pinafore with a button back.

Button is delighted with it and insisted on wearing it to nursery this morning.