Busy Sewing Bee

After watching the final episode on BBC of The Great British Sewing Bee I was inspired to make myself some new garments as recently there have been a lot of bags, purses, cushion covers, curtains etc going through my sewing machine.

First up is a little shift dress made in Liberty Cotton Lawn that I found as an end of roll remnant a few months ago for only £2.00 - can you believe that price for such wonderful fabric?
The pattern that I used was from my favourite Japanese Pattern book.  I used the pinafore pattern (extending the shoulder seam out a bit) and then added the sleeves from the blouse pattern.  I put some waist darts in as well for a bit of extra shaping.

The sleeve pattern is gathered at the top and is supposed to be gathered into a little band at the bottom but I decided to do an inverted pleat there instead so that it didn't look too rounded.

Next I unpicked an extremely large dress that I had bought from a charity shop in the winter.  I loved the fabric - it is a soft brushed cotton - and there was yards of it in the skirt.   In fact I was able to make this long tunic with three quarter length sleeves and a skirt as well.  I'll wear the tunic over a grey long sleeve T shirt whilst it's still a bit chilly, and maybe a black cardi over the top to break up the pattern, although  I do love checks.

 

The patterns were from the same favourite book.  This time I used the body from the sleeveless top (again, extending the shoulder seam out  a bit) and added the sleeve from the dress pattern. There are no darts or shaping but it hangs nicely.
The skirt is the actual skirt pattern, but instead of a box pleat in the centre front I put in two - one at either side for a change.
I had no intention of wearing them together but when I put them on my dummy  - with the top tucked into the skirt I thought that they actually look OK as a dress - maybe a bit frumpy but we'll see.