Not bad for a bad day...

Today was threatening to turn into a distinctly unproductive one. I've got a stinking cold (not quite man-flu, but close!), and whilst I'd spent the morning sewing well, I seemed to send the afternoon unpicking everything again. Not good.

So, I figured it would be a good idea to step away from the complicated princess-seamed bodice, and pick up something more simple.

I've been wanting to sew Butterick 4928 for ages, and as it's basically just four huge pieces sewn together into a coat-shape, I thought I might as well give it a go.

Here's the pattern picture:

It's a new pattern, reproduced from a Butterick 1952 original.

I, however, decided to make in in a skull-and-crossbones printed polyester fleece. Well, it recommends using fleece on the pattern envelope, and I had three metres of this just lying about, so why not?

Here's how it looks so far:



Once again, you can't really see what this coat looks like, or more importantly how it feels by looking at a picture on a mannequin. I'm sure lots of you are looking at it and thinking, "but it looks like a tent!" I can assure you that when you put it on, it feels like the most glamorous coat you have ever worn.

It makes you want to swirl around - this coat would be perfect for ice skating out of doors. Or maybe for standing on the balcony of a ski-lodge, in the dark, sipping champagne as the snow falls gently around you. Really, it's that kind of coat. Honest.


It's not finished yet - it needs facings and interfacing, and maybe one ginormous button. You can form a queue to fight me for it, when it's done. ;)

Diane's Barkcloth Bolero

This morning I have been making a bolero jacket for Diane.

She chose the barkcloth herself, and sent it over to me to be transformed. It's a Robert Kaufmann design, in a 1950s style.

The ends of the sleeves are trimmed with a narrow black bias binding, and the lining is also plain black.

If I'd been making this for myself, I might have lined it in the deep red, or the mustard yellow, or even the olive green, and trimmed the sleeves with the same colour. Then I would have made a plain black dress to wear with it, with trim to match...

I don't know what outfit Diane has in mind, but I'd love to see some photos of it!

Website Update...

Today I have been mostly updating the Gallery section of the Design By Claire website.

It's still very much a work in progress, but the main gallery page was becoming far too long and unwieldy, so I decided to divide it up into sections.

There are now separate gallery pages for Dresses, Skirts, Tops, Jackets, Bags, Knitwear and Everything Else!

I still need to add a lot of the individual pages, but I've run out of time for web design now, and I need to get back to sewing even more things to show you!

If you're interested in anything which says "FOR SALE" next to it but doesn't have any more details, please feel free to drop an email to claire@designbyclaire.co.uk, letting me know what you're interested in.

Joanne's black jersey dress.

Here you go - I thought you might like to see the difference between the jersey dress on a mannequin, and how it looks on a Real Person:

I took the photo in electric light, and being black, you can't really see all the details. But you can hopefully see that it fits, and thankfully Joanne is really pleased with it.

The only alteration I need to make is to shorten the sleeves by about four inches - I think I can manage that!

A new incarnation in the leaf-print jersey should be done by the end of the week.

More Stuff for my Sister...

Here you go, I thought you might like to see a picture of the finished satin skirt:

I'm hoping to be able to get a picture of my sister wearing the whole outfit, although as she is very camera-shy, I'm not sure that I'll succeed!

Also on the list for far too long has been a jersey dress. This one is effectively a wearable mock-up, so that Joanne can try it on, and see whether there's anything she'd like to change before I make the real thing.



It's a tunic-style dress, which simply pulls on over the head. It has a deep neckline, and gathered raglan sleeves. The belt is fixed at the front and loose at the back, so it can be used to pull the dress in under the bust for a flattering shape. It's knee-length.

The mock-up is made in a heavy poly/cotton jersey with lots of lycra, but the final version's going to be in this gorgeous viscose jersey:

Work In Progress - Satin Ribbonned Skirt

This is what I've been working on today - a satin skirt for my sister.

It's a mid-calf a-line skirt. Finished it will be 27" long, plus a little ruffle of ivory net around the bottom. As you can see from the photo, it has two bands of ivory satin ribbon around the hem. I believe the technical term for this type of embellishment is "a bugger". ;)

My sister requested this skirt particularly to wear with her wedding shoes, and the bustier she wore the following day:



Isn't that going to be the most fabulously glamorous outfit?

A-line skull skirt...

Please excuse my wonky mannequin in this picture. I don't know what's the matter with her, she looks drunk!

Anyway, this is a new skirt for Chloe.

It's made with Alexander Henry "Mini Calaveras" fabric, bought from Cia's Palette.

The skirt is an a-line style, knee-length, with a side zip. It's fully lined, and attached to the bottom of the lining is a little ruffle of net. Not so much as to make the skirt stick out in a comedy manner, but just enough to give it a little bit of stiffness and shape.

This one is on its way to a Christmas party, so I hope Chloe can come up with some better photographs than this one!

A bag, a skirt and two costumes.

After yesterday's frenzied bout of organisation, I thought I'd better get on and actually do some sewing!

As a result I have photographs of two completed items for you:

This is a skirt which Rainbowskye needed, to replace one which I made for her under the guise of GothStuff. (Rainbowskye is not eight feet tall, by the way. It's just that my mannequin isn't very adjustable.)

It's a simple elasticated skirt in crushed velvet, with a lacy trim around the hem. It's a lot more full than my usual elasticated skirts, having four panels instead of two.



This one is another tote bag for Professor Yaffle - her third!

I'm so pleased that people are liking these little bags enough to want to buy more than one. There are so many cool fabrics out there, I almost feel as though I'd never have to repeat myself.


In other exciting news, I've been commissioned to make two costumes - McCalls M5444 and McCalls M4997. I don't usually sew costumes these days, so this is going to be a bit of a departure from my novelty prints!

The first dress is going to be made in a very dark purple satin, with silver satin underskirt and sleeve details. The second will be in forest green crushed velvet, with an antique gold under-dress. Faerierhona has been scouring Ebay for bargains, so she's even going to provide all of the fabric for me, and bring it over when it arrives. Expect lots of photographs, as the dresses progress...

T-shirts and Tidying.

Today I have been mostly listing an assortment of Organic, Fair Trade and Sweatshop Free t-shirts in my Ebay Shop. They're all on auction for a week, ending on the 19th.

There are a variety of styles, colours and sizes for men, women and kids. I hope you like them!


As well as trying to make a bit of space by listing t-shirts, I have also been trying to make a bit of space by throwing things out. I am amazed at how much junk I've managed to accumulate in the Shed in just over a year!

I needed to give the place a really good clean. Aside from the regular dust-bunnies you inevitably grow when you're working with fabric and thread, the place was full of feathers from my Hallowe'en costume, and I was getting to the stage where I had to move eighty-seven things to probably not find the one thing that I was looking for. Those of you who've seen my house will know that tidiness does not come naturally to me (I can hear my Mum laughing from here!), but the Shed is now a shining example of organisation, and I promise to try very hard to keep it that way.

The last thing I want to do is to sort out my buttons - something of a mammoth task! I've inherited half a dozen sewing and button tins from friends and family this year, and I've consolidated all of the contents - needles in one tobacco tin, pins in another, one box for trimmings, one for thread. The buttons are currently in a huge Tupperware container designed to hold a cake, and it's full to the brim! A few weeks ago I bought a "Really Useful" set of sixteen tiny boxes in a handy case, so I'm going to divide the buttons by colour and keep them in these little clear boxes, so I can see them all. I have a big tin left over, for all the black ones.

I'm really pleased with how the Shed looks now, so hopefully I'll be able to work more efficiently in my newly-organised room!

Fish Fabric!

I've just arrived home from my "Proper Job" to find my order from Cia's Palette waiting for me on the doorstep. It arrived all the way from Minneapolis in just nine days.

I opened it in a flurry of excitement - as well as Chloe's Day of the Dead Skulls, it contains my fishy fabrics!

Look!

This is what I saw when I opened the parcel:

An extra little fish! So cute!
I am saving all the labels Cia uses to wrap her parcels. Clearly I need to order a lot more fabric, so I can collect enough labels to decoupage a box or something. (That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.)

But look! Look at the fish fabric!





The fish have names! Proper fish names too, like Robert and Swimmy and Bjorn! (It probably helps if you know that my fish are called Alice and Dave. And the beautiful black one which sadly died was called Bob.) Look! The black one is called Spooky!

Sorry. I can feel a lot of eyebrows being raised at me across the internet.

But look! it has fish!