Afternoon tea top

Just finished making this afternoon tea top from the pattern from burdastyle. Anyone that's ever sewn with me knows I don't do patterns. It's was a battle but luckily it didn't come with lots of instructions and I just ignored the pattern pieces that I couldn't work out so it seems to come out ok. I even managed darts! Altogether it was a very un-bunni make but I'm pleased how it came out. So pleased in fact that I didn't wait til I'd actually finished it til I took photos (spot the un-hemmed edge) so I'm actually still hand sewing the zip in a bit tighter at the moment.


I used my £3.99 a meter dirty baby blue spotted fabric from truro fabric shop and put a piece of lace in the seam. That actually happened by accident... I meant it to be on the top edge but because it's made from a pattern, I didn't know which was the top edge til I'd realised I'd already done it wrong. This is the problem with patterns. If I'd just made it from my head, I'd know which was the top edge! I guess I could manage them if I was just a little more organised and methodical.

This is actually my first day off in a while. With boardmasters and all the sunny days, I've been needed at work pretty much all the time. But when it starts raining again which must be soon now I'll start blogging more regularly again.

Let me know what you think as usual with a comment below.

Dresses dresses and more dresses (and two skirts...)

I'm spending this gloriously sunny english summer (bitter sarcasism) working in a beach car park down in cornwall. It's a pretty awesome job really - the people are great and the views are still stunning everday but I 'm not really needed on wet days and seeing as there are quite so many this year, I've been filling my time with sewingg. This post is just going to be a quick look through most of the pieces I've made so far. If anyone's interested in exactly how I made anything in particular, leave a nice comment below and I might just write a tutorial for you. If I'm feeling nice.


This first one I just altered to fit me. I kept seeing this dress in tescos but it was just too expensive (£18) so I kept putting off buying it. Then they put the last few on sale but obviously there were only very large sizes left so I bought a size 16 (UK) and took it in. All I did was sew further in on the seams. It actually fits me pretty exactly seeing as I didn't alter the chest at all really. I love the dress itself. It's the whole grecian mamma mia thing. Though it is possibly a little long so I might take the skirt up at the waistband. Would have been perfect for a sunny summer. Grr


Sorry for the terrible terrible photo. Not quite sure what happened there btu I'm too lazy to take another. It's supposed to show my garden skirt which is a basic high waisted skirt with a thick band. I planned to gather the skirt to the band but in the end I did tiny little pleats which look ok but I think I'll either gather it or pleat it properly next time. I actually had the skirt practically finished for ages but I finally finished it just now because a certain flik ran off my the zip that I bought for it. She did post it back with a lovely message in red crayon though so I'll forgive her. Just this once.
Anyway, back to the skirt. Not sure if I should leave it as it is or possibly put in a slight bubble hem. It's a little so straight lined for me - makes my bum look big :P Let me know what you think. COMMMENTT



This is a little bubble dress that was a long time in coming. The idea came from this dorethy perkins dress and I bought the fabric agess ago from the amazing truro fabric shop. I finally decided to make it the other day. It's not my favourite dress actually now. I guess I've spent too long making it and now I'm kinda bored of it. It's just basically a grey jersey top with the skirt attached and then with elastic in the bottom of the skirt.


This is more of a recon than a proper handmade dress. The skirt is cut from an old primark prom dress that I wore to a school dance a long long time ago. The top was very fitted with boning and miles too small so I cute it off and saved the boning and the skirt. Not sure if I'll get around to use the boning but its nice to have. To make this dress, I just attached the skirt to a jersey top made from the same as the one above. It bought it from one of the amazing charity shops in helston for £2 for a good meter and a half. It's actually a bit wooly and really soft to the touch so probably isn't actually jersey but I don't know exactly.

This is another made from a helston charity shop find. It was a big rectangle of fabric with this amazing batik style border on the bottom so I made a nice shirred summer dress. I think it's all these summer dresses that I've made that's jinxed the weather.... If you want a tutorial how to shirr and make a similar dress, watch this threadbanger video.

This is by far my favourite dress. It's made from a navy primark t-shirt (cos I'm lazy and jersey is expensive) and a striped tesco value duvet cover. I think its just the ruffling that makes me love it so much. Other than that, it's very very similar to my other dresses. I'm quite tempted to make a few of these for people. Let me know what you think.

This is the other skirt which is made from a man's shirt bought in a charity shop on the scilly iles. I loved the fabric and it took me ages to pluck up the courage to cut it but I'm really pleased with the result. The bias pockets were done on a whim but I think they work well. It really needs another button at the bottom because it's slightly indecent at the moment but I think I might get around to changing all of the buttons. Plus it's not warm enought to go out without leggings at the moment anyway.

And that's it for my marathon post. Let me know which is your favourite with a comment below. What do you think I should make next? I found some brilliant vintagy floral fabrics in a charity shop this morning and got the lot for £1.50. There's 2 dresses and 2 skirt's worth I think which is pretty good. I'll show you pictures in my next post along with the introductions for my stuffed animals and monsters that I've been making when I'm bored of clothes.

So yes. Comment now!