Blue Period Part Two: More adventures in dying...

Months and months ago, I bought a lovely lacy knit jumper from H&M, I wore it ALL the time, if I was having a stress about what to wear, I always reached for it. Then, one fateful night I wore it out to see a friend in a (spectacular) play and we had drinks afterwards, drinks plural, lots of drinks, I was on the red wine, well until the red wine was on me, all down the front of my favourite cream jumper. If I hadn't been having so much fun, I probably would have cried. The next day I tried a bunch of stain removal tricks and then I put it through the machine but there was still a trace of that naughty stain. Boohoo.

Not sure how visible the stain is here but trust me, it's yuck.

Now, before I ventured into sewing and crafts I would've mourned the loss of my top and/or just bought another one. Ok, so I did just buy another one (have I mentioned how much I love this top yet?) but I didn't have to say goodbye to the old one either. I figured if I dyed it a darker colour, the stain would be hidden and I'd have a whole new wardrobe option. Hurray. So what colour do you think I dyed it friends?.. Yep BLUE!

I used Dylon Navy Blue dye but because the compostion of the jumper is 50% wool and 50% polyester I knew it wouldn't come out navy, but that's fine. I really love the shade it turned out, it's a bit different and now I have more blue in my wardrobe. Woop!

Not a huge project but I love how it turned out so I thought I'd share...

Alice x

Blue Period Part One: Long overdue Pendrell Blouse.

It has become increasingly clear that I am obsessed with the colour blue. I own 9 blue dresses, 2 blue skirts and 2 pairs of blue shoes, I even have some blue undies, oh and a pair of navy blue trousers! See; obsessed. So I'm sure, now you know this, it will be no surprise to learn I have a number of blue projects to share with you, some finished, some still in the planning stage...

So, what's first? Did anyone guess what garment I shared a sneak peak of? Those of you who guessed it was a Pendrell Blouse from the ever brilliant Sewaholic, were right.

I bought this fabric AGES ago during a trip to Goldhawk Road (looking back over that post I realised this is the only fabric I've  used from that trip back in March, clearly I am a hoarder) and I finished this blouse a good few months ago, I just didn't get it together to take pictures, oops.

I did my first pattern alteration on this baby, nothing major, I just took the hips in a little as I'm not quite as pear shaped as the Sewaholic measurements.. All the same I was pretty terrified to cut bits off my (traced) pattern, I'm a wuss, I know. I'm really pleased with how the fit turned out, there's enough room in the hips for wearing trousers underneath but it doesn't flare out in a hip size increasing manner.

I chose to make view B which features double ruffles on the shoulders but I left off the inner ruffle that goes along the princess seams because when I made my muslin it just felt like too much was going on. I don't exactly have a small bosom so I have to be careful about adding too much to the shoulder/bust area. I think I made the right choice and the single ruffle sort of cap sleeves are super cute.

So what did I learn.....

Lessons learnt making the Pendrell Blouse.

How to adjust hip width: unsuprisingly I used a tutorial to do this, in fact I followed the entire sewalong, hurray for sewalongs.

Princess Seams: I had no idea what princess seams were before this blouse, I did find them a bit difficult, it was definitely a square peg, round hole moment for my brain, but I'm glad I persevered as they're super flattering.

Uuuuuummmm.....: I can't remember what else, it was so long ago now but I'm sure there's more...

I'm really proud of this blouse, it's the most worn of all my makes, it fits nicely into my everyday wardrobe and (when the weather warms up) I'll be wearing it lots more.

I am LOVING this pattern and I have a whole rainbow of them planned in my brain, but I think I will definitely be making one in a similar satiny cream fabric with the pleated drape sleeves featured in View C.

Hope you're all having a fabulous weekend.

Alice x