Tasha Sews

Pattern Review: New Look 6049 As some of you may know I really struggle to find a nice shift dress that fits in RTW and handmade items. I did play about with Simplicity 2146  which ended up being more of a sheath dress. A lady from my sewing group gifted me New Look 6049  and so I decided to give the shift dress another go. Upon doing a muslin for this dress I discovered that the neckline was too wide and did a 1.5cm narrow shoulder adjustment. You can see above that it is still a bit too big, so if I make this again I will take more out of the shoulders. I deepened the neckline by 5cm as I didn't like how high it was. I cut a 14 on the top and graded out to a generous 16 on the hips. I added in the optional waist darts for added shaping and I took in approximately 3.5cm on each side underneath the bust.  The fabric is a silky feeling paisley fabric that I picked up in Malaysia at Jakels. I am not sure what the content is, but I am tempted to say that ...

Pattern Review: McCall's 3341 Firstly, some breaking news which is that I am currently featured on Pattern Review as their Member in Focus. You can check out my interview here. As promised, here is my second stash busting mini. For this skirt I used McCall's 3341  and went with View E. I have made this before in my pre-blogging days, also to use up a remnant of leftover fabric. This is a simple a-line skirt with darts in the front and back and is a pattern that I stole from my Mum's stash years ago. I cut a size 16 and sewed this straight out of the envelope. The only (lazy) change I made was to omit the waist band. I am trying to demonstrate with my above pose how the skirt is designed to sit just above your natural waist. I always find this quite strange in patterns, as so few RTW clothes have this feature. I'm sure that I have seen a tutorial somewhere (maybe Threads?) on how to lower the waistline of a pattern, but as I was doing some stash-busting/insta...

As you may have read previously, my sewing group held a 1 metre stash busting sew-a-long. I made Simplicity 1884 for the challenge. The sew-a-long inspired me to have another look at the remnants in my stash to see if I could use them for some quick instant gratification projects.  I had (just) enough fabric to create a mini skirt using Mimi G's pencil skirt tutorial . I have made this previously here and it's a definite go-to garment in my wardrobe.  For this simple skirt I used the remnants from Vogue 8827 . This is a ponte knit purchased from good old Simply Fabrics in Brixton, priced at £3 per metre.  As you can see in the photo above the skirt has two side seams, rather than one seam at the back. This is because I didn't have enough fabric to cut this on the fold. The skirt ended up being shorter than I initially planned as I the fabric is a one-way stretch which meant that I was further restricted by the amount of usable fabric.  A...

I really enjoyed Me Made May. I achieved my goal of wearing 4 items per week (except for week 1 because it was so short). Here is a summary of my handmade items worn during the month. I have provided links back to the original blog post, and have listed them clockwise. Week 1 Kwik Sew 3844 ,   McCalls 6488 ,  Simplicity 1810 , Week 2 McCalls 6209 , Vogue 8711 ,  Vogue 1247 , Simplicity 1884. Week 3 Vogue 8711,   Kwik Sew 3844,   Vogue 8645,   New Look 6123,  Week 4 Mimi G 30 Min Pencil Skirt (not yet blogged), Simplicity 1884,   Butterick 5744,  Self-drafted dress (pre-blogging days) Week 5 Vogue 8827 , Butterick 4443 , Vogue 1189 , Mimi G 30 Min Pencil Skirt Summary: I didn't find the challenge hard at all. I did have to think a little about what I would wear each week so that I fulfilled my aim of 4 handmade items, but I had plenty of handmade garments in my wardrobe to choo...

I am pleased to say that I have a finished Vogue 8827 . After reading the reviews for this pattern I have to say that I was feeling a bit apprehensive about tackling this dress. I also had a bad luck with the dress previously when I cut out the facings on wrong side and had to abandon it in favour of Vogue 8645 .  As a year or so had passed, this was enough time for me to mourn the dress and have another go. I have to say I am pretty pleased with how it turned out in the end and I like to think that the red fabric is both bright and femine! Although this pattern is rated easy, I had heard some comments about the collar instructions and the fastenings. And we all know that Easy Vogue patterns sometimes have a reputation for being anything but easy. That said, I took my time putting this together, ensuring that I understood all of the instructions and I had no problems at all. I cut a 14 and sewed it straight out of the envelope with minor alterations - due to styling pr...