Anyone else going to join me on the Sewing Bee watch?

[flubba]

A bit excited about it

:o

Soupa Love your ideas. I too tweak so many clothes to give a more flattering silhouette. A lot of clothes have necklines too loose for me (not through modesty, I am not modest! but more that it looks baggy and sloppy) and I have lost count of the amount of items I have taken in at the shoulder/neckline to pull the front bust area tighter. Most of the time I hand sew into place (rather than cut and machine sew) as if I sell the clothes on through Ebay I can just undo the tuck, also it stresses the item out a lot less to be hand-sewn. Pleating round the middle also a good trick. I reposition waist loops an awful lot, I like a very high (almost empire line) or a very low (hip line) slung belt.

But there's a difference between tweaking and resewing. I would hesistate to buy a large size dress to refit to me, whilst retaining the original shape, and I'm a really experienced sewing enthusiast!

Could you turn the dress into a skirt, harbinger? Use some of the top part for panels or pockets?

I love make do and mend. I once sewed sheets middle to ends and a neighbour felt sorry so gave me some sheets.
I'm not great at dressmaking but enjoy turning clothes or linen into other things.

Harbinger like Tunip has said, maybe you could make a skirt from the dress? Or (hard to say without seeing it) you could make it sleeveless, which would allow you far more leeway.

If you took the dress to an experience dressmaker, you could ask their opinion on what you might be able to adapt. But resizing the dress in whilst keeping the same design would be next to impossible, unless you are within one size, or two at the most. Hope you can do it!

Well, I just thought it was okay to do at the time and had no idea of how hard it would be.

I can use the bottom half and make a skirt.

What would you do with the salvaged top material?

Lesson learnt.

I feel the same about waistlines, lower or higher suits me best. Am rubbish at hand sewing though, am awfully clumsy and just stab myself repeatedly. It's on my list of things to master.

Post us a picture and size diffs and we could have a go at suggestions:)

Effie My DM used to do that. She had good sheets though. My DCs put their feet through them before it gets to that!

Top part will come in handy. go in stash box

Could you mix it with a contrasting or complimentary coloured material and redo it into a top? add trims, lace for hem etc?

Effie My DM used to do that. She had good sheets though. My DCs put their feet through them before it gets to that!

My sheets were proper linen and had worn in the middle. They were ancient but lovely to sleep on! I hand stitched them and it took me ages.
It was so kind of my neighbour but I think she told everyone that we turned our sheets!
I turn shirt collars too.

I often take waists in (I have massive shoulders so dresses that are big enough to fit them tend to be baggy round the waist) but I never thought of changing the height of the waistline - good idea.

Soupa No!

However, I am a size 16/18 top and size 10/12 jeans.

I am not plastic.

I used to swim.

Yes DM did the shirt collar thing too. I also remember loose collars with a stud.
Makes me realise that I have so much to learn.

Harbinger A lot depends on the fabric type but for smaller amounts of fabric I would probably turn it into a small bag of some sort, perhaps a little clutch, and with the remaining fabric (sleeves etc) strips from that would probably make fabric flowers for accessories.

For making bags, if there's not enough un-sewn fabric to make a whole bag of (ie darts, seams etc are in the way) then if the fabric really is special it might lend itself to being a panel in a bag made from a contrasting fabric.

Harbinger X posts. Re the dress, if you have wider shoulders and narrow hips then it's possible you might be able to resize the dress, as the hip area is generally easier to resize than the top half.. why not take it along to a dressmaker for an opinion after all?

Ha great stats.

Have a fine set of swimmers shoulders too. Think that is why I like to make my own shirts!

Alison Smith stocks Linton and I'm pretty sure she runs either a trip or a person from Linton visits her shop every year.

I thought the jackets were, without exception, dull.

I agree if this is a straight sewing comp that Ann should win but I think she's to safe for my tastes.

And to clear up confusion from before I'm making my friends wedding dress, although it's a corset and skirt. She's a people mcnugget so shrinking the corset is proving 'interesting'.

If I'd been Sandra I'd have said that's my embellishment about the straps, here's the ones I didn't use

Am looking forward to the shirt because plackets are my downfall.

BTW here's an FYI if you do get blood on anything you're making chew some cotton thread and dab, dab, dab. Your saliva will get rid of your blood but won't get rid of anyone elses iyswim.

If I'd done the dress challenge I'd have been VERY tempted to put a lining fabric in more fitted and slash the heck out of the dress to make it more a kind of punk georgian look

Turnip making bra's isn't hard it's just really fiddly, once you get the pattern right though you'll never have wonky boobs again.

EvilIsAGiftTiggaxx

Thanks for the blood tip dawntigga. I fell out of my back door last night (I was sober, I promise :)) and got blood all over my favourite jeans. I've soaked them in cold water but I think I'll try your saliva trick too.

Do any of you have a dressmaker's mannequin?

I want one of those olde fashionedy hessian type. in very large

I have a Lady Valet which can be adjusted to fit individual measurements (unlike the ones on Sewing Bee which are a standard size and is not adjustable). They are very useful.

dawntigga you actually make functioning bras! my girls would not stand for any home made malarky in the bra department scaffolding is more like it

Re the jackets, I was amazed that a seamstress as experienced as Sandra would have carried on overlocking her pieces when the distortion was so obvious. I would have zig-zagged all raw edges of each piece to stop fraying prior to sewing, personally. Far less stressful to the fabric than overlocking.

Ann's jacket worked well, everything she does is more or less perfect.

Jelly I'd have probably just overlocked them together then put in an extra line of sewing, it would have saved time and not added too much bulk.

As for functioning bra's they aren't that hard to make, the more knorkage the more pieces and some of the pieces are TINY but if you take it one step at a time it works out.

DoesNotLkeMakingBrasTiggaxx

Why do you make bras, Tigga? Is it to get a better fit?
The only people I have heard of before who do it are the retro sewing people who decide they can't get vintage dresses to look right unless they have the appropriate period lingerie.

Tunip it was a part of the city and guilds I did, they aren't hard to make and www.bramakersmanual.com/this is invaluable if you plan to make loads.

HateHateHateMakingBrasTiggaxx

And here is a link that actually works www.bramakersmanual.com/

DUH!Tiggaxx