The Camo Bombshell

The construction is over! I give you my Camo Bombshell.

I am so in love with this dress! Following Gertie's instructions was fantastic, she's really a great teacher! Obviously, there were ups and downs and this dress isn't perfect but I am quite chuffed with how it turned out. I loved all the hand sewing, which is something I used to dislike. Some parts were a challenge to sew, such as the zipper guard and bottom of lining to bodice. The polycotton I used is not very forgiving on mistakes and it was a challenge to invisible stitch to one layer only. On the zipper guard I had the opposite problem. Too many layers and little access to bottom bit (that probably don't make any sense but there you go).

A huge thank you to Gertie and the team at Craftsy for making this available. I do hope there's more to come.

Today I'm heading towards the BFI in London for the highly anticipated Bombshell Meet up party. Karen from Did You Make That? will be there wearing her fantastic Bombshell. Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons and Jane from Handmade Jane will be there too. This fantastic meet up was organised by Roisin from But it can't be Dolly Clackett? whom I'm also looking forward to meet. I have my camera on me and will report back.

Maroon Clovers

You will have to wait a bit more to see my Bombshell in action. I have tons of hand sewing and finishing to do but promise I will be done before the end of the month. In the meantime I am happy to report I have finished my Clovers from Colette Patterns.

I was quite wary of cutting the original chosen fabric for these as I knew that if major fitting issues occurred there wouldn't be much chance of recovering it. I waited for some time until chance took me to a almost local fabric shop where I found some stretch bio suiting (anyone know what type of fabric this is?) for £3.50. Ideal price for a muslin, no? Out of the colours available maroon was the most wearable so I settled for that.

I decided to sew these trousers as per instructions with pockets and complete waistband. Firstly because I wanted a practice run before I cut into the original fabric and secondly so I could use them if the muslin turned out wearable. 

And I'm so glad I did! Without any fitting alterations they are perfectly wearable. They could be a bit snugger under my bottom and the fabric is not the most pretty or comfortable against the skin but it's not too bad.

 The construction was easy and straight forward. The waistband is constructed the same way as Ginger which lends to a perfect finish. I struggled a bit with bulk in this area though and need to address this the next time I sew them. I also have a imperfect invisible zipper. I used a black one (because it was what I had in at home) and it's not completely invisible. The inside of these is very, very ugly. I decided not to try the trousers on until I was almost finished so didn't want to waste time on seams finishes. Not a problem as the fabric doesn't ravel too much.

Now that I done these I can move on and sew them again with the original fabric choice but with a Bombshell and a winter dress on my queue I might wait a few months.

In Construction: Camo Bombshell

Almost finished with my Bombshell dress...

I am loving constructing this dress. As I probably said before Gertie is a great teacher and makes the most difficult things so easy to understand.
All I have left to do is the lining, the boning and the hem!

What about you dear readers, are you sewing a Bombshell?

Clover Sewalong and other things...

Colette Patterns are having a sew along!! Woohoo, no way would I miss this! I love sew alongs, I love Colette Patterns and I love the crazy, unpractical and risky fabric I chose for the gorgeous Clover trousers.
I know, I know!!! This wasn't in my sewing list. Things changed (ha! What a surprise!).
I have decided not to do the coat. To be honest I was very indecisive on it and after the few near mishaps with my Beignet Skirt, I decided I need to take it even slower. That means not embarking on a hugely challenging tailoring project. I'm still working on my Bombshell dress and I'm loving how it's turning out. Those of you who follow me on twitter will have seen a sneak preview. If not, don't worry, I'm planning a post around it. I want to make sure I finish by the end of the month when a Bombshell cocktail party will take place. It will be awesome and I can't wait.
I realised I wouldn't have any decent coat to take to this party. It will probably be cold, although nowadays you can't trust the weather. I decided to do a quick and easy cape with some wool blend I bought in Hungary. I'm underlining it with fleece for ultra warmness. We'll see how that turns out!
After all that I will embark on another challenging project. My beloved winter wool dress. Mostly challenging because of the amount of buttons and the fact I cannot screw the expensive fabric up. I'm in dilemmas over how to wash it now. And that's all for now!

Custom Couture Book Winner

Thank you to all that entered my book giveaway. It was fantastic to read so many of you are interested in refashioning. I'll try to be inspired and do some refashion at some point.
All names in a jar...

 Asked f to pick a paper out...

 And the winner is...

Natasha De Vil!!! Congratulations Natasha, hope you get inspired by this beauty and make good use of it.
Email me at: suzysewingblog[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk with your address and I'll get this book on your way  shortly.