Trying out a new dress style

Well its been a crazy week and a half working on a commission and a dress from New Look pattern K6723 which came with one of the SEW magazine editions. 

I will update you on the commission once I has all been approved, we are awaiting on licencing details before it can be published.   But in the mean time I've got a wedding coming up in a few weeks and due to my illness I can no longer get into the dress I have.  So I decided to do a trial run of the dress. I chose to go with style C and when ahead and cut out the pattern pieces I needed.

After rummaging through my fabric box and pinning the pattern to one lot of fabric and realised I didn't have quite enough. So I hunted again. I finally settled on some baby pink cotton fabric. 

Once I'd laid out, pinned and cut out the required pattern pieces of the pink fabric I then cut out the required fusible interfacing and lining.  Working through the pattern instructions I completed the bodice and it's lining and attached them together. 

Following this the sleeves were next on the instructions.  Now I'd added an extra panel into the bodice to allow for my bust measurements but decided not to add an extra in the arm and just had the sleeve less gathered.

Following inserting the sleeves it was time to work on the dress skirt and attach. 

So this is currently where I am with the dress.  It fits but I will do a few tweaks to the pattern before completing the final dress. I will add an extra fabric in the sleeve arms cuff and reduce the back neck line when adding in the zip and finally I think I will reduce the amount of fabric to the skirt as too much gathering of the fabric. 

I'm glad I did this trial run to check the style suits me and the make amendments to the pattern. You can get an old sheet and use it as a practice run,  I used fabric which I picked up in a charity shop so otherwise I would have found an old sheet or cheep fabric. 

Another tip with pattern piece, once cut the correct size use fusible interfacing on the pattern pieces to strength them so they can be reused with reduced damage.  I picked this tip up in a talk about patterns and fitting essential foundation, last year at the NEC at 'The Stitching and Sewing and Hobbycrafts Show' made by Gill Arnold.

I have still to complete the hem but have been preparing my list for this year's trip to the NEC starting tomorrow, by going through all my crafting supplies to see what I need to buy while I'm there.  I will try and check in during my trip if I have wifi or if not on my return to show you what I purchase.

Back soon. 

Welcome to The Eclectic Craft Room by Jane

For most of my life I have been a creative person, however, following my GCSE's I fell out of love with all things creative.  My time doing art at Secondary School forced me to be creative to a deadline and I hated this.  For many years after I attempted to get back into my art and only through the progress of 12 years have a worked my way back to being creative.

Now this process properly started when I  was working at a local shop 'Just Trading', and situated within the shop was 'Wool and Willow' (sadly has since ceased trading).  While working there I would watch people knit almost all day and this sparked by inspiration to learn something new.  From this point onwards I taught myself many different crafts and picked up old crafts that I had tried as a child and enjoyed.   So my progression back into creativity had began.


From Knitting, I moved on to crochet.  Learned how to make socks.  I knitted a jumper dress for my niece for her birthday (unfortunately I do not have any photos of this).  From here I picked up cross stitch again which I had loved as a child.  I started turning odd cross stitches into cards for friends and family.

 
Making Christmas hampers for family full of homemade produce.  Then I started playing with card making equipment to enhance these skills and ended up producing all my grandmothers 90th birthday invitations and all my wedding invites.  Last year I also started back on my adventures to creating my own clothes after receiving a sewing machine from my grandmother for Christmas.  Finally this past year I have been able to pick up pencil and paper again and start drawing for a set design at my local theatre and my true love for creativity returned.


My interest in being creative always varies dependant on what I feel like and I love to combine different elements of crafting together if I can.  This diversity this is therefore the origin of my name 'The Eclectic Craft Room'. 

My decision to walk along this path has come about following a year of illness last year making it difficult to work.  So I took the decision to plunge into all my crafts and make them available for sale.  My aim is to set up a storenvy or an Etsy store for people to access my products online and to hopefully attend a few craft fairs this year to take the step out there. However, first I want to document my creative process and hope to blog as much as I can.  I therefore wish to welcome you to my new blog 'The Eclectic Craft Room' and I hope you enjoy following my creative adventures and that I may inspire you to have a go yourself.