Love Sewing Magazine Ella Skater Dress

I loved this jersey dress as soon as I saw it in last month’s Love Sewing magazine. I’ve been so impressed with their patterns of late, and by how many of them they manage to squeeze in! The only problem is keeping up with them… But not a bad problem to have when you have a subscription I guess 🙂 I really liked the fact that the skirt on this Ella Skater Dress had enough fullness to make it fairly casual looking, so great for weekends and less formal workdays, but not too much to leave me feeling hip-y. Straight skirts tend to suit me better generally, but are pretty constricting to wear all of the time, so this is a nice (and more comfortable) compromise.

This would be a great pattern for a beginner to knits, especially if you’ve already got a Coco or an Agnes under your belt. The instructions were really clear and it came together pretty quickly too. The only thing I found difficult was selecting a size. The hip measurements in particular seemed a little odd. In the end, I plumped for a size D, based on my bust measurement, hoping this would be the fullest part for me. Luckily this was spot on, phew!

I used the leftovers from my Papercut Coppelia cardigan and I’m so pleased with the result. The fabric seems to suit the pattern perfectly (which doesn’t always happen for me). It’s the perfect, layering dress with a cropped cardigan, and several of mine seem to match really well, pulling out the various colours in the fabric. Apparently there’s a tutorial to add a cowl to the neckline too, which I’m yet to investigate but sounds tempting. This is firmly set to become a favourite design for me.

Pattern: Ella Skater Dress

Designer: Pattydoo (via Love Sewing Magazine, issue 22)

Size: D

Adjustments: none this time, but looking forward to adding a cowl neckline next time

Soundtrack: First Aid Kit‘s My Silver Lining

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The Agnes Revisited

The Tilly and the Buttons Agnes top seemed the perfect, simple top to tackle this weekend. Last time around (see here) I totally managed to bodge up the neckline, ending up with an array of small holes where I was forced to unpick, which I then had to cover up with a lace trim. That said, I’ve still had plenty of wear out of it underneath a particular jumper that matches the colour of the spots perfectly 🙂

This time around I was determined to be more careful. This lovely, inky blue (almost purple) with tiny, dark pink dots was from Guthrie and Ghani and has an almost silky touch to it. Originally I cut a size 3, but this turned out to be a little snug, especially around the arms. I therefore added an extra cm to the width of each sleeve and also to the front and back pieces, resulting in a much more comfortable fit.

I went for the plainer view as I intended to wear this under things whilst it’s still cold. I’m looking forward to trying the ruched-sleeve version come spring though. This time around all went well and this really took no time at all to sew up on my over locker, switching to my regular machine just to hem. At the last minute I decided to add the bust detail. Although it resulted in a neat finish, I clearly didn’t quite pull it tight enough. Next time! I had a bit of a rummage through my button jars and found this blue one which matched well. Hopefully through adding it, it looks more like a planned detail? 😉

Pattern: Tilly and the Buttons Agnes

Adjustments: extra cm to width of sleeves and main body

Next time: pull the elastic detail tighter!

Soundtrack: David Bowie’s Greatest Hits

 

So, #jeansjanuary

If you read my post over the weekend, you’ll know that I really haven’t been very well at all. For the past three days I’ve finally given into it and taken myself to bed after being sent home from work. I suspect I’ve had the flu, but been in denial, which in hindsight has probably made matters worse. Suffice to say, that I still feel pretty rubbish and it will probably take me another week or so to get back to normal.

I valiently tried to soldier on with Jeans January this morning, and I’ve got so far… but I think given my health situation and that it’s going to take me all my energies to catch up with work at school, I’m going to have to admit (I hesitate to use the word ‘defeat’), let’s call it ‘postpone’ instead 😦

What I have done, I’ve really enjoyed so far. The pockets were fun to construct, despite being time-consuming. And my first attempts at top stitching in such a bright, contrast colour aren’t too bad at all. But when I basted them together after having completed the pockets earlier, the fit is completly wrong and I’m really not in the right frame of mind to be tackling issues that I think I’d probably find pretty hard at the best of times. So I’m bowing out I’m afraid! I do feel bad letting everyone else down, but if I do get chance to sew over the weekend I’d quite like to settle down to something a whole lot simpler, not something that’s going to cause me stress after a very long week.

I’m hoping I will return to this pattern later in the year (maybe after some more practice on some regular trousers which I still don’t feel I have quite under my belt yet). The instructions (both written and online) are incredibly detailed, but there are just too many factors to contemplate for me right now sorry!

Best of luck to everyone else taking part, I’ll still be following your progress just as eagerly, but hopefully without the additional stress completing this project would cause me right now 🙂