Where has the time gone? The year seems to be speeding away from me and all of a sudden, it’s almost time for Sew Up North! Only 6 days to go!!! Say what?!!

All attendees should have received an email with final details for the day; please message the Facebook page if you haven’t received yours and were expecting it.

Today we’ve got the final round of sponsor details for you.  The prizes they’ve so generously donated will help us raise money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, a fantastic local cause.  Don’t forget to bring some pennies for raffle tickets on the day!

First up today, we have The Fabbadashery, a wonderful little shop based in the centre of Halifax.  Chrissy and the team stock a wide range of fabric and haberdashery and run a wide range of courses; they have donated a make your own bunting kit and a place on one of the workshops.

Fabrics For All is a relatively new fabric shop on the outskirts of Leeds city centre. They stock a wide range of fabrics and a selection of independent patterns, and Sarah has kindly donated 2m of gorgeous Lady McElroy cotton lawn to the prize pool.

The Denim Company specialise in (wait for it!) denim, with a great selection of different denim fabrics available through their website.  They have donated 6 x 1m lengths of denim to the prize pool.

Opian Patterns are a swiss company providing stylish pdf patterns including skirts, swimsuits and even a snood! They have donated 5 patterns of the winners’ choice to the prize pool.

And, last but not least, Simple Sew patterns have given us a bundle of 5 of their paper patterns to add to the prize pool – thank you!

So, that’s it. For a full list of all our sponsors, check out my Sew Up North 2018 page, or simply admire the graphic below!

See you on Saturday!!

Sally & Becca x

The post Final Round of Sponsors for Sew Up North!! appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Wow, why I haven’t posted this Tutorial till now, I’m not sure why as this is one popular pattern and on my previous blog one of most popular tutorials!! Also my 1st ever Tutorial!! OMG!!

Today I’ll be showing you have to make The Skater Dress which was a freebie from Issue 8 of Love Sewing Magazine, but the pattern is now available by itself here in Paper format.

Now first things, make sure you launder your fabric prior to you starting to cut your pattern pieces out as this allows for shrinkage as it would be a complete shame not to do this before hand and to make a beauty of dress, wear it and love it then to put in the wash where it’ll shrink and the dress would be too small to wear!

First open up the envelope and make yourself a brew and read the instructions and make a list of materials/equipment you need if you don’t have them already so no last minute dash to the local haberdashery store or waiting days for online orders lol.

Here is what I’ve used:

2.5m of 60″ Notting Hill Birds Lilac by Gutermann from Sew Scrumptious

0.5m Iron on medium-weight interfacing

Guterman Thread – There’s no other thread like it in my opinion, you do need good quality thread as it does show in your creations.

16″ Concealed Zip or if you dont have that size available by a bigger one and you can easily alter it to 16″ by heating up a knife to get hot and gently press on the teeth of the zip of where 16″ is from top of the zip and hey presto!

Paper Scissors – For cutting Pattern Pieces out as these will blunt and make cutting fabric out quite uneven!

Fabric Scissors

Pins

Tailor’s Chalk – For marking on fabric that soon rubs away

Greaseproof Paper – Tracing the Pattern onto as for some reason i don’t want to chop up my paper patterns just in-case i need to make for a gift. Also a great alternative to expensive to Dress Making Paper.

French Curve – handy for getting those straight lines whilst tracing or to grade in between sizes if your measurements are in between sizes but i’m lucky enough that with Simple Sew i can use a straight size 10.

Pencil

Weights – for holding down pattern pieces in place without pin marks. I picked my up for 30p each from Boyes.

Iron and Ironing Board

And last but not least the Trusty Sewing Machine, Normal sewing foot and Concealed Zip Foot as using a normal zip foot will not have the same neat effect. I picked mine up from Amazon for £4.99.

Now then, you can go ahead and cut straight into the paper pattern to the size you require but if your like me and like to keep my paper pattern intact then trace your pattern onto the paper and to make sure you add any nothces/darts/markings onto the paper then cut out like shown below:

Fold fabric Right Sides Together selvedge to selvedge and places the pattern pieces on the top. Align the straight grain line on the pattern piece to grain of the fabric and either pin down the pieces or use pattern weights like i have its up to you! Then of course cut away!

Then iron on interfacing to the wrong sides of the fabric, there are only 3 small pieces to do and just a tip put a tea towel over the fabric and interfacing when ironing just incase you put it the wrong side as it makes a right mess of the iron and also a nice heat that itsnt too hot that would scrunch up the fabric.

Once you have cut out the pieces, transfer the markings onto your fabric using the tailors chalk, A handy tip for the darts i put a pin through the paper and fabric then gently pull away the paper to leave the pin in then match up the lines to the bottom of the dart…simples

Also i like to overlock (if you don’t have an overlock stitch on your machine just use a small zig zag stitch that works a treat too) the raw edges which are bottom edge of the facings, sides and bottom edge of the pleat panel – sides of the front bodice and bottom of the front and back bodice, skirt top, side seams and bottom edge of the skirt pieces that will in contact of me wearing the dress i.e. the seams so they have a lovely soft edge to them so you don’t have to fiddle around doing them whilst constructing the dress together.

Now finally onto the construction!!

Make sure you have plenty of thread in your bobbin as there isnt anything worse than getting halfway through sewing a long stretch of garment and to find you have only sewn half of it, trust me this has happened many times LOL

Make sure you have sewn all your darts in place before hand on your bodice pieces – to sew a dart always start at the bottom and back stitch to secure then stitch along to the centre front then dont back stitch here just tie the ends together as this prevents the dart looking bulky not a good look to have madonna style points LOL! Then press them so that they are facing the centre.

With the Right Sides Together pin the front and back bodices at the shoulders then press the seams opens. It is a good tip to keep pressing as prompted as you go as it keeps the garment nice and crisp and easier to sew.

Now join the Front and Back Neck Facings Right Sides Together and again press the seams open.

With the Right Sides Together pin the neck facing to the Bodice neckline then stitch into place. Clip notches into the inside edge of the neckline facing down to the stitch line just don’t cut into you stitching as this will make it lay flat and not have bulky bits when turning the facing out. So turn it back so it inside of the dress so now you have a lovely neat neckline and of course press flat!

Now onto the sleeves….a must admit I’m not a fan of sleeves as i have only made 2 sets of sleeves in all of sewing experience so far!! But these went in lovely as long as you take your time and not rush

Sew a Running Stitch (basically a stitch that isnt back stitched its just there to hold the fabric together until you have the permanent stitch in place – its stop the fabric from moving around) on the sleeve curve and pull on the threads slightly so it will fit into the curve of the armhole on the Bodice.

With the Right Sides Together stitch the sleeve into the armhole curve on the Bodice

Once you have sewn in both sleeves it should look like this:

Now we are getting somewhere! Now to join the front Skirt to the Front Bodice with the Right Sides Together, then sew the Left Back Bodice to the Left Back Skirt and then repeat with the Right Back Bodice to the Right Back Skirt.

No in the instructions it doesn’t tell how to join the sleeves together so here we go:

Pin with the Right Sides Together of the Sleeve and Left Hand Side of the dress and Sew all the way along from the sleeve end to the hem and then repeat for the otherside and voile you have a dress now just onto the zip and hem the sleeves and bottom of the dress! Nearly there peeps!

Now onto the tricky part, Pin one side of the zip Right Sides Together to the Back Bodice and then tack to secure as this will make it stay in place easier than pins when sewing. Remember to change your foot to the invisible zip foot and to stitch as close as possible to the Zip teeth and when sewing try to get as near to the bottom of the zip as you can. Then repeat onto the other side but remember to check that the zip is aligned at both sides as you don’t want a mismatched length zip lol!

Now turn the dress inside out and change back to your regular foot and sew from the last stitch on the zip to continue all the way down to the bottom of the dress.

Now to finish the zip at the top, as you will see ive stitched the zip onto the facing, hang on it will disappear! Turn the facing to the inside and pin it so it meets with the zip in the inside and hand stitched to secure and then iron the facing so it laid flat inside

and it should look like this:

Boom! Lovely neat Zip ends!!

Now all you need to do now is sew the sleeve hems and bottom of the dress I’ve used 2.5cm hem for my sleeves and 1cm for my bottom hem and hey presto you have a lovely Skater Dress as modeled by moi!!

The Front:

The back:

Please excuse the tannage line at the back LOL But this is a real gem to sew!

A big thank you to Laura at Sew Scrumptious who provided the Lovely fabric for me to make this dress it’s called Notting Hill Birds Lilac by Gutermann It’s 100% Organic Cotton and 145cm wide which is perfect width to make this dress. She has a lovely wide range of fabrics so please go and have a nosey and treat yourselves! Plus she has speedy delivery times too a total bonus when you need your fabric fix!

Now i hope you have found my tutorial helpful and if you have any questions please get in touch!!

Happy Sewing

Sal x

The post Simple Sew The Skater Dress Tutorial appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Hello Peeps!

A very warm welcome to my tutorial for Simple Sew’s Pleated Wrapover Trench Coat! Now this is my 1st ever Coat and you know what is was really nice to sew and quite easy as long as you read the instructions and not to rush ahead lol!

You can buy the pattern here from Simple Sew directly.

According to my measurements I needed to cut out a Size 10 which I am in other Simple Sew Patterns. But If you wanted to wear this Coat with a Thick Jumper i would recommend going up a size.

As always make sure you launder your fabric prior to you starting to cut your pattern pieces out as this allows for shrinkage as it would be a complete shame not to do this before hand and to make an awesome staple Dress, wear it and love it then to put in the wash where it’ll shrink and the dress would be too small to wear!

First open up the envelope and make yourself a brew and read the instructions and make a list of materials/equipment you need if you don’t have them already so no last minute dash to the local haberdashery store or waiting days for online orders lol!

So remember before starting your sewing on a fabric you haven’t used before use some scraps to make sure you have the right stitch or you could end up ruining some of your lovely fabric.

Construction List:

3.5m of Black 100% Cotton Denim from Whitetree Fabrics

0.5m of Medium Weight Iron on Interfacing

4 x Scraps of Art Gallery Fabric (big enough to get the pocket cut out in one piece)

Thread and Bobbin

Denim Sewing Machine Needle 110/16

Paper Scissors – For cutting Pattern Pieces out as these will blunt and make cutting fabric out quite uneven!

Fabric Scissors/ Rotary Cutter – whatever takes your fancy for cutting your fabric, i use both

Cutting Mat

Pins

Seam Ripper

French Curve – handy for getting those straight lines whilst cutting out with rotary cutter or to grade in between sizes if your measurements are in between sizes.

Pencil for marking out the pattern of course

Iron and Ironing Board

And last but not least the Trusty Sewing Machine, normal sewing foot

Now then, you can go ahead and cut straight into the paper pattern to the size you require  and to make sure you add any nothces/markings onto the fabric then cut out the pieces 

But if you do need to adjust the pattern to fit as you are in between sizes then check out my previous post here where i show you to do it

Make sure you have plenty of thread in your bobbin as there isn’t anything worse than getting halfway through sewing a long stretch of your garment and to find you have only sewn half of it, trust me this has happened many times LOL

Now then this is a bit different to cut out like I’m used to as the Fabric is opened out and not folded. So you do have to turn some patterns pieces face down for it to construct together properly or you would end up with Wrong Side Fabric showing when piecing together but it does show that on the layout plan of the instructions.

Now to finish the raw  outer edges on the Facing pieces. It states in the instructions to finish the Skirt and Sleeve hems but with myself being on the short side, I’ll be altering the length on these so i had left them out for now till later.

Now to apply the interfacing to Front and Back Facings,

With ironing Interfacing you have to be careful not to scorch your fabric but also for it to be hot enough to fuse the Interfacing to the Fabric.  So what i tend to do is to use a tea towel over my fabric and Interfacing and gently steam on top. When applying Interfacing you always apply it to the wrong side of your fabric.

Now to Sew in your Darts in the front Bodice Pieces,

A handy tip for the Darts is that I put a pin through the paper and Fabric then gently pull away the paper to leave the pin in the fabric then match up the lines to the bottom of the dart where i had made a notch with Tailors Chalk for ease of sewing.

Now with Darts i tend to start from where the Dart ends so its easier to keep that perfect sewn line just to remember don’t back stitch here just tie the ends together as this prevents the dart looking bulky not a good look to have Madonna style points LOL! But back stitch at the end of the dart (the widest bit) to secure.

Then repeat for the other side of the Front Bodice and then press both Darts downwards.

Join the Front and Back Bodice with the Right Sides Together and Sew along the Shoulders and Side Seams of the Bodices. Then Zig Zag Stitch to neaten the seams and then press the seams open.

Now that’s the Bodice made, now onto the Skirt!

Join the Back Skirts Together with Right Sides Together at the Centre Back Seam. Finish the Seams and Press.

Onto the Pockets! Yay!

You will have 2 pairs of Pocket Pieces ( 4 pieces in total). So attach the bottom Pocket piece to the Back Skirt piece at each side. If you need assistance of where the pockets need to go remember to mark on the skirt piece with tailors chalk and notches.

Now onto the Front Skirt Pieces, we are going to mark in the pleats along the Skirt Waist. I cut little notches to help then pinning in place.

Now i set my Sewing Machine to a longer stitch to tack the pleats in till i sew the Skirt and Bodice together where I’ll take the them out after the Press the Pleats.

As you did with the Back Skirt, attach the top pocket pieces to the front of the Skirt, again making sure they align perfectly with the bottom Pocket pieces.

Now stitch from the top of the Skirt to the top of the pocket opening remember to Back Stitch to secure. Then start stitching again from the bottom of the pocket opening all the way along down to the hem. Finish the Seams and Press.

Sew along the way around the curve of the Pocket then finish the Seam.

Now the Skirt should look like this and the pockets are on the wrong side of the Skirt like a pocket should be

With Right Sides Together, sew the Bodice and Skirt together matching the Side Seams and Middle Back Seam. Finish the Seams and Press. So when its turned out the Right Side it should look like this. Now this is the time to get rid of the tacking stitches that we made earlier

Now onto the Facings, With Right Side Together join the back neck facing to the front facing and repeat for the other side with 1cm Seam Allowance . Finish the Seams and Press.

With Right Sides Together, pin the Facing onto the Coat and Pin in place and sew with 1cm Seam Allowance all the way round, starting at the bottom hem to the other. Press the Seams open and then turn the Facing to the Inside of the Coat and press Flat. Remember to take care when coming to the corner of the front facing remember to stop 1cm away from the edge whilst the needle is in the fabric then turn the fabric to continue on with the rest of the facing

Now to keep them pesky Facings in place, I’d Stitch the Ditch! Basically I pinned the Facing to the Coat itself and then stitched in the Seam so the stitches can’t been seen and it gives the Facings a better appearance too I put a pin at the end of the facing so i know where to finish my Stitching in the Ditch!

Onto the sleeves!! We are nearly there!!

Now to make the Gather for the top sleeve to fit the armhole. I used a longer stitch (basically a tack stitch) at the points where marked on the pattern piece and make sure you don’t back stitch at either end and to leave enough thread to pull it gently to make it gather.

With Right Sides Together, attach the undersleeve to the top sleeve, Finish the Seams and Press. I’ve used a 1cm Seam Allowance as my arms aren’t that skinny with shifting loads of heavy stuff at work  ;). Attach the other side of the undersleeve to remaining side of the top sleeve Right Side Together.

Repeat for the  other sleeve.

Fit the Sleeve Head into the Armhole with Right Sides Together so that your Sleeve is inside the Coat itself. Pin in place and Sew. Then take out the Tack stitches with the trusty Seam Ripper and finish the Seams and Press.

Try the Coat on as in my case i had to take off 4 inches of the length of the sleeve to fit my short arms!!! Hahahaha!

Woo hoo nearly there now onto making the Belt and Loops!!

Now with the belt you need 4 pieces of the Belt. With Right Sides Together sew 2 of the pieces together to make it one length and repeat for the other 2 pieces.

With Right Sides Together, join the belt pieces together. Pin together but to remember to leave a gap big enough for you to turn the belt out. Sew together and turn right side out and Press.

Now to Slip Stitch the opening. Start by starting to sew from the inside of the gap so that the knot is hidden. and carefully catch both sides of the fabric and repeat all the way down the gap. Finish with a knot and there you go you can’t see them!! Boom!

For the Belt Loops you should 3 strips of fabric, carefully press down the edges and top stitch in place.

Now with the 3 Loops i placed them at the side seams and Back Seam. Pin them in place and machine stitch if your confident or hand stitch. I took my time and machine stitched mine.

Now try the coat to see if your happy with the length of the Coat. I took off 6 Inches as again I’m only small and having a too long of a coat does me no favours!! I had turned up my hem by 1.5cm pressed and pinned the sewn all the way round.

Of course I couldn’t help myself to add a little bit of embellishment on the Coat Collar by adding a Cream Crochet Heart from my stash.

And here were are one Pleated Wrap Around Trench Coat!! I am really proud of this being my 1st ever Coat!! To say I’m wearing double denim it actually works quite well!

A big Thank you to Whiteree Fabrics for supplying me with the ever so gorgeous Black 100% Cotton Denim and  i had some left over Art Gallery Emmy Grace Budquette Nightfall 100% Cotton Voile from My Peter Pan Collar Blouse its really beautiful and soft to touch perfect for giving your hands a bit luxury whilst in pockets!

So remember peeps Sewing is meant to be enjoyable and to have that satisfaction of making your own clothes is awesome so if you do get stuck please get in touch and i can help before you abandon it?

Sal xx

The post Simple Sew Pleated Trench Coat Tutorial appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Today I’m showing you guys how to make the Lizzie Dress from the New Contemporary Collection by Simple Sew Patterns which is available to buy here.

Our classic Lizzie Dress is a delight to sew with shapely princess seams on the Front Bodice and satisfying to stitch Box Pleats which look amazing on this garment. You certainly won’t tire of this flatteringly feminine summery dress.

Especially when i have used this lovely Printed Cotton Lawn from Whitetree Fabrics. Its just beautiful with a vintage floral print with cute polka dots!! It’s a delight to sew and it’s just perfect for the Lizzie Dress with its lovely drape and print for a Summer Dress! Why else wouldn’t you buy some of this its a steal at £4.50 a metre and its 147cm wide too Win Win!!

Now upon reading the measurements on the back, I decided to cut a Size 10 for the entire pattern as i am lucky enough that the Size 10 fits me perfectly with no grading between sizes but i did have to shorten the Skirt Pieces by 10cm so ill show you how to do that later on the post dam my shortnest!!Hahahaha!

So it’s always best to double check your measurements before you start cutting into the Pattern but don’t panic if you need to grade between sizes and your thinking where on earth do i start ?! Go and click onto my previous Tutorial here, where I’ll show you how to grade in between sizes with ease!

As always make sure you launder your fabric prior to you starting to cut your pattern pieces out as this allows for shrinkage as it would be a complete shame not to do this before hand and to make an awesome staple Top, to wear it and love it and then to put in the wash where it’ll shrink and the Dress would be too small to wear! Noooo all your hardwork unwearable!

First open up the envelope and make yourself a brew and read the instructions and make a list of materials/equipment you need if you don’t have them already so no last minute dash to the local haberdashery store or waiting days for online orders lol!

A tip before starting your sewing on a fabric you haven’t used before use some scraps to make sure you have the right stitch or you could end up ruining some of your lovely fabric.

Construction List:

Simple Sew The Lizzie Dress Pattern

2.5 m of Printed Cotton Lawn from Whitetree Fabrics which was kindly given to me by my Sponser of Whitetree Fabrics

22″ Concealed Zip which i shorten by 4″ again myself being short an 22″ is too long for my body! hahaha!

0.5m of Medium Weight Iron on Interfacing

Navy Guternmann Thread and Bobbin

Paper Scissors – For cutting Pattern Pieces out as these will blunt and make cutting fabric out quite uneven!

Fabric Scissors/ Rotary Cutter – whatever takes your fancy for cutting your fabric, i use both

Cutting Mat

Pins

Seam Ripper

French Curve – handy for getting those straight lines whilst cutting out with rotary cutter or to grade in between sizes if your measurements are in between sizes.

Pencil for marking out the pattern of course

Sticky Tape

Iron and Ironing Board

And last but not least the Trusty Sewing Machine, Normal Sewing Foot and Overlocking Foot. Now I’m using this foot as i use my Overlocking Stitch to finish my Seams. But if you are using a Small Zig Zag Stitch then your normal sewing Foot will be ah-okay. Missing from the Pic my  but you do need it to install the Zip!

Make sure you have plenty of thread in your bobbin as there isn’t anything worse than getting halfway through sewing a long stretch of your garment and to find you have only sewn half of it, trust me this has happened many times LOL

Now then, you can go ahead and cut straight into the paper pattern to the size you require  and to make sure you add any notches/markings onto the fabric then cut out the pieces 

But i needed to take 4 inches of the length of the skirt so i’ll show you how to do it;

Now on the Skirt Pieces there isn’t a Shorten/Lengthen Line, so i decided to draw a line 38cm from the Top of the Skirt as i felt this was about right to alter the length from then drew a straight line across the width of the Back Skirt and Front Skirt.

Now then all you have to do is fold the pattern up to the cutting line and tap down using some sticky tape.

Then we have to match the pattern again so its all aligned again, i used my french curve and drew a line from the taped bit of the pattern down to the rest of the skirt in a nice line to match the pattern, the chopped off the excess. Remember to do that for both the Back Skirt and Front Skirt and of course to mark any notches they may have escaped from being chopped off  

Now onto the cutting the Pattern Pieces out. Fold the fabric Right Sides Together selvedge to selvedge and places the pattern pieces on the top. Align the straight grain line on the pattern piece to grain of the fabric and pin down the pieces. Also cut out your interfacing pieces too! Remembering to snip any notches on the patterns pieces as you will need these for lining up and sewing later on!

Which then you should have the following pieces:

1 x Front Centre Bodice, 2 x Side Front Bodice, 2 x Back Bodice, 2 x Side Back Bodice, 2 x Back Facing, 2 x Back Facing – Interfacing, 1 x Front Facing, 1 x Front Facing – Interfacing, 2 x Back Skirt and 1 x Front Skirt. Wow that’s a lot of pieces but it is soooo worth the end result!!

Also apply the Interfacing to the Facings.

When ironing Interfacing you have to be careful not to scorch your fabric but also for it to be hot enough to fuse the Interfacing to the Fabric.  So what I tend to do is to use a tea towel over my fabric and Interfacing and gently steam on top.

When applying Interfacing you always apply it to the wrong side of your fabric with the shiney side facing down.

Now onto Sewing it all together! Yay! We will be using a 1.5cm Seam Allowance for the Seams except for the Neckline and Armholes but I’ll remind you when to use 1cm Seam Allowance

With Right Sides Together, Pin and Sew the Front and Back Facings at the Shoulders.

Press and Finish the Seams.

Right Sides Together, Pin and Sew the Front Side Panel to the Front Bodice, matching the notches.

Repeat for the other side, Press and Finish the Seams.

Right Sides Together, Pin and Sew the back Side Panel to the Back Bodice.

Repeat for the other side, Press and Finish the Seams.

Right Sides Together, Pin and Sew the Front and Back Bodices together at the Shoulders.

Press and Finish the Seams.

Now onto attaching the Facings to the Bodice

With Right Sides Together, Lay the Facing on top of the Front and Back Bodices like I have here. Pin in Place around the Armholes and the Neckline. When sewing these remember to use a 1cm Seam Allowance, starting at the Centre Back.

Also when you get to the V detail at the Centre Front of the Bodice, pivot your needle at the sharp corners to maintain them lovely corners

Trim the Neckline and Armhole Seam Allowances to 0.5cm and snip into the curves to relive the pressure and to enable the fabric to lie flat. Just don’t chop onto your stitch line but as close as and to snip into the v neckline too.

Turn the Facing through so its lying on the inside of the Bodice. To do this, start by pulling the Left Back Bodice through the Left Shoulder Cavity and then repeat for the Right Side Bodice. Press the Neckline and Armhole Seams.

Now onto a tricky part!

We need to understitch the Neckline! This is optional but it it does give a real neat professional finish to your Dress.  I would recommend setting your machine to a smaller straight stitch to catch the snipped Seam Allowance. Lift the Facing from the inside of the Dress so the Right Side of it is facing you. Then start stitching about 1cm away from the existing Seam Allowance from the Centre Back of the Bodice to the Shoulder then starting again at the Centre Front back to the Shoulder, Repeat for other side too. Take your time with sewing this bit, don’t rush as you only need to sew the Seam Allowance to the Facing and not to the actual Dress itself. It really is worth the effort!

Yay! The Bodice is together! Now to the Skirt.

On the Right Sides of the Front of the Skirt, Fold the Pleats towards the centre notch like I have shown you here. Pin and press in place and the use a Basting Stitch (A Stitch that isn’t secure and its quite a long in length) about 1cm Seam Allowance to secure the Pleats. Repeat for the Back Skirt Pieces also.

With Right Sides Together, Pin and Sew the Front Skirt to the Front Bodice, remembering to match up the seams if you can.

Then repeat for the Back Skirt and Back Bodices. Press and Finish the Seams.

Now they are securely in place you now take out the Basting Stitches

Turn the Dress inside out so its Right Sides Together and flipping the the Sides of the Facings at the Side Seams. Pin the Front and Back Bodices together at the Side Seams and all the way down to the Hem and Sew in place. Press and Finish the Seams.

Its soooo close to be completed!! Now onto inserting the Concealed Zip!

I like to uncurl the Zip itself with a warm iron as this helps to get the stitches as close as possible for a great looking concealed Zip.

Now Swap your Sewing Foot to Invisible Zipper Foot and flip the Facing up and then Right Sides Together of the Bodice and Zip itself, pin in place on one side of the Back of the Dress so the the zip matches the raw edge of the Dress and that the Top of the Teeth of the Zip just sit below the Facing seam. so when the facing is folded back over its sits beautifully at the top of the Dress.

I like to hand tack my Zip in Place before Stitching in place.  Try and get as close as you can to the bottom of the Zip as much as your Sewing Foot will allow and remember to Back Stitch to secure too. Repeat for the Other Side.

Now to finish the Back of the Dress, I changed my foot back to the Normal Sewing Foot and with Right Sides Together, Pin and Sew the Centre back Seam starting from the Hem up to the point you stopped sewing the Zip in. Just be careful not to sew the Zip ends just keep them out the way whilst you sew.

Press and Finish the Seams.

Now then!!

For an extra touch of neatness, i decided to make my Bodice Facings lie neatly by flipping up the Bodice Facing and folding over the Seam Allowance of 1.5cm at the edge. Pin in place with the Facing and Seam Allowance and Sew together just like the understitching for the Neckline. Look how good it looks and plus it keeps the Facings in place too.

Just to hem this Beauty of a Dress! Remember to Finish the Raw Edge of the dress before Sewing the Hem in place.

With myself shorten the Skirt before hand, I didn’t have to take any length off and I like to use a 1cm Hem but that just personal preference but feel free to use the 1.5cm Seam Allowance as stated in the Instructions.

Then give it all a Good Ol’ Iron everywhere and Voila you have one Lizzie Dress!!

Here’s me on my way to see Claire at Simple Sew HQ, I’m off on a choo choo!! Hahaha!

Now then! I’m thinking this is overtaking the Ruby Dress as one of my Favourite Dresses of all time OMG!! It really is well designed and its nice not to be sewing Darts to give the Bodice shape it needs too.

So remember peeps Sewing is meant to be enjoyable and to have that satisfaction of making your own clothes is awesome so if you do get stuck please get in touch and i can help before you abandon it?

Sal xx

The post Simple Sew Lizzie Dress Tutorial appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Now this is one of my earlier Tutorials from my previous blog, so I apologise now for the lack of proper lighting shots!

Welcome to my Tutorial for Simple Sew’s Raglan Dress, which of course is a part of the Capsule Wardrobe Collection ?

I’m showing you how to make this Dress in Jersey so it is a quick and easy make with no zip insertions so It’s great if your new to sewing but if you are making this Dress in a cotton fabric you’ll need to apply interfacing to your neck facings and to insert an invisible zip but I’ve show you how to do that in my Nancy Tunic Tutorial .

As always make sure you launder your fabric prior to you starting to cut your pattern pieces out as this allows for shrinkage as it would be a complete shame not to do this before hand and to make an awesome staple Dress, wear it and love it then to put in the wash where it’ll shrink and the dress would be too small to wear!

First open up the envelope and make yourself a brew and read the instructions and make a list of materials/equipment you need if you don’t have them already so no last minute dash to the local haberdashery store or waiting days for online orders lol!

My Construction list:

Simple Sew Raglan Dress Pattern

2.5m of the ever so beautiful Art Gallery Petal & Plume Panache Profundo Knit from WhitreeFabrics. It’s a 95% Premium Cotton and 5% Spandex Knit and its 60″ wide which was perfect weight for this dress and feels really nice too!

Guterman Thread – There’s no other thread like it in my opinion, you do need good quality thread as it does show in your creations.

Paper Scissors – For cutting Pattern Pieces out as these will blunt and make cutting fabric out quite uneven!

Fabric Scissors/ Rotary Cutter

Cutting Mat

Pins

Tailor’s Chalk – For marking on fabric that soon rubs away

French Curve – handy for getting those straight lines whilst tracing or to grade in between sizes if your measurements are in between sizes.

Pencil for marking out the pattern of course

Iron and Ironing Board

And last but not least the Trusty Sewing Machine, Normal sewing foot

Now then, you can go ahead and cut straight into the paper pattern to the size you require  and to make sure you add any nothces/markings onto the paper then cut out the pieces?

According to my measurements i had to grade to 14 for the hips but Size 12 for the Bust and Waist (too much eating and not enough exercise lol!) but that is easy enough to do like I’m going to show you here:

The Waist point of this dress is the middle of the double pointed dart and shown here is where i have marked on the pattern to start grading to the 14.

Now you can see here I’ve drawn a slight curve from the waist and graded it to the 14 mark and then carried on that line to the bottom of the dress  so its not just a huge jump and for it to look like its meant to be 

Remember to do the same for the back piece too

Now after grading if you needed to, you should have the following pattern pieces:

1 x Front Piece, 1 x Back Piece, 1 x Sleeve, 1 x Front Neck Facing and 1 x Back Neck Facing

Now with myself making the Jersey version of this dress i don’t need to add any interfacing to the Neck Facings? and when it comes to cutting out the Back Bodice Piece:

Fold at the Line where it says cut here for Jersey fabrics and with myself following the pattern of my fabric i’d placed the Back Bodice Piece face down so you will still have the right way of the pattern on my fabric to your other pieces and also for ease as I am using Jersey i’d place the pattern on the fold of the fabric rather than having 2 separate back bodice pieces as we don’t need a zip for this version!

Fold the fabric Right Sides Together selvedge to selvedge and places the pattern pieces on the top. Align the straight grain line on the pattern piece to grain of the fabric and pin down the pieces.

Then of course cut away!

Now onto Sewing the Darts!

A handy tip for the darts i put a pin through the paper and fabric then gently pull away the paper to leave the pin in the fabric then match up the lines to the bottom of the dart with tailors chalk for ease of sewing.

Now with Darts, I tend to start from where the Dart ends so its easier to keep that perfect sewn line just to remember don’t back stitch here just tie the ends together as this prevents the dart looking bulky not a good look to have madonna style points LOL! But back stitch at the end of the dart (the widest bit) to secure.

Now repeat for the other side and  press them so that they are facing the centre, now onto the Diamond Darts!

Now these can be a bit fiddler to sew as you start from the middle of the dart then sew all the way to the end and then repeat gain from the middle to the other end. So remember not to back stitch at the middle and at the ends like I’ve shown here and just make a knot?

Now you should have the Front Bodice with 2 bust darts and 2 Diamond Darts and the Back Bodice has 2 Diamond Darts

Now with the Right Side Together attach front side of sleeve to front bodice. Remember the notches? Now its easier enough to match up the single notch with the single notch of the front bodice. Repeat for the other sleeve.Press the seam open. Then finish the seams, I’ve used my pinking shears as I’m using Jesery but if i was using cotton i would use a zig zag stitch to neaten them so they wouldn’t fray.

With Right Side Together attach back bodice sleeve to the back side of the sleeve. Remember to match up he double notches? and repeat for the other side, press the seam open and neaten the seams.

Now to sew together the Neck facing with Right Sides Together like shown below:

Right Sides Together with the Bodice pin neck facing in place and then stitch all the way around from centre back to centre back like shown below.

Snip into seam allowance all the way around, stopping at the stitch line, this will allow facing to lie flat. Turn facing through to inside of dress and press flat.

Right Sides Together stitch all the way from the sleeve hem to the skirt hem to close the side seams of the dress, press the seams and neaten. Repeat for both sides.

Woo-hoo nearly there! Now onto the hemming sleeves, now with myself only being petite the sleeves were far to long for my liking so i had to take 3 inches of mine but if you are of normal statue I’m sure the sleeve length would be okay?

Turn up sleeve hem by 1cm, press and stitch in place, press and neaten.

Turn up skirt hem by 1cm, press, stitch in place and neaten the edges. Now i didn’t have to take any length off this and I’m only short so it’d best be wise to give the bodice pattern pieces a measure to see where it’ll come to for your preferred length.

And voila! Here is your super quick and easy Raglan Dress!

A big Thank you to Whitree Fabrics for supplying me with the ever so gorgeous Art Gallery Jersey it is definitely a premium jersey it has such a lovely drape and weight to it.

So remember peeps Sewing is meant to be enjoyable and to have that satisfaction of making your own clothes is awesome so if you do get stuck please get in touch and i can help before you abandon it?

Sal xx

The post Simple Sew Raglan Dress Tutorial appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Up for grabs is not 1, not 2 but 4 Simple Sew Patterns OMG!!! ?

The Shannon collection features four garments in our broadest range of sizes, 6-20. Make a pair of the stylish wide-leg trousers and the ultimate jersey dress.

The Skater Dress is one of the most viewed tutorial on my blog so why not have a go at making yours with ease with my detailed instructions to guide you through from the beginning to the end!

The Pussy Bow Blouse/Dress is an update on he 1970’s pussy bow dress. You decide to make the blouse or dress or both!

The High Waisted Skirt is an easy, yet sophisticated garment to make. It has a centre back concealed zip fastening with a faced high waist and perfectly placed waist darts to give you a hourglass figure.

Now this giveaway is open worldwide as some of our over the pond friends may not have access to these beautiful patterns!

This giveaway will close on 30th September 2016  so plenty of time to enter yourselves in! All you have to do is leave a comment of this post and to follow my blog to keep in touch to see if you are the lucky winner! 

It’s also open to instagramers too, I don’t mind if you want to double your chances of winning!! Also sharing is caring peeps!

Good luck! ?

Sal xx

The post Oh what’s this…..a Giveaway!!! appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.