A beautiful handmade bridesmaids dress for a beautiful handmade wedding

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Last weekend I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid at the wedding of one my oldest and dearest family friends down in Somerset. The bridesmaids were able to choose their own dresses, so naturally I wanted to make a special dress to mark the occasion. 

My mum trained in fashion and textiles at Farnham art school and still has many of her printed silks that she designed and printed by hand for her degree collection more than 30 years ago!

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For this fabric, my mum had airbrushed most of the surface area in soft pastel shades of pinks, blues and greens and then screen printed an intricate pattern based on feathers in coral, gold, yellow and teal. Every part of the design was printed by hand using either an airbrush gun or silk screen stencils. 

One-of-a-kind vintage silk twill!

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Constructing the perfect bridesmaids dress!

I used ByHand London's Anna Dress sewing pattern and opted for their maxi dress version with a few alterations:

• Extra Fabric: I didn't have quite enough fabric for the entire dress, so I picked up some pale grey silk crepe de chine from Broadwick Silks (just off Berwick Street in London) and used it to make up the 2 side-back skirt panels;
• Shorter Skirt Length: I reduced the length of the skirt by 14.5 cm (partly because of my short legs and partly because all the bridesmaids were going barefoot during the ceremony!);
• Skirt Width: my first attempt at an Anna dress ended up a bit voluminous around the bottom of the skirt, so I reduced the bottom width of some skirt panels by 8 cm  (4 cm each side), tapering it in at the top to ensure the width of the waist remained exactly the same;
• Small Back Adjustment: as with my original test run of the Anna dress, I needed to reduce the back by about an inch around the top of the zip;
• French Seams: finally, as the fabric was so old and delicate, I used French seams wherever possible for durability.

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The wedding took placeat Little Quarm Cottages in Wheddon Cross in the heart of Exmoor National Park in Somerset.

As well as making my dress, I helped decorate the venue with 25 metres of home made bunting in lace and hessian with matching table runners, and helped feed the guests with home made Rocky Road!

A sleeveless summer jacket for mum - a 'pattern hack' of the (ByHand London) Victoria Blazer

Sleeveless jackets are everywhere at the moment, so I thought I'd try and knock one up myself :)

Unfortunately, the finished jacket suited mum far better than me so I'll just have to settle for a shop-bought one...but at least mum is super pleased with the new addition to her wardrobe!

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Creating (my) perfect summer jacket

The Victoria Blazer from ByHand London is such an easy pattern to follow  and comes with a sleeveless version, so it was the perfect choice for this project.

I chose a neutral fabric for the shell - a cream cotton with flecks of neon thread (another find at the Cloth House sale!) - it was very loosely woven which meant it was a nightmare to sew (something of a recurring theme with my sewing...). Once I knew that the jacket was for mum, I chose the lining fabric in her trademark "bright pink". 

As for the shape, you can't beat the clean lines of a trench coat so I changed the collar and lapels of the original pattern. After a bit of 'trial-and-error' playing around with different widths and angles, I ended up with an exaggerated collar and lapels that sat at complimentary angles.

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The all important details:

• Follow ByHand London's instructions for the sleeveless Victoria Blazer (variation 3), cutting out all pattern pieces but leaving the collar (piece C) and lapels (piece D) aside. 

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• I compared the collar on a Victoria Blazer that I'd made previously with my trusty Hobbs trench coat and made the following changes to the collar and lapels:
  • Extra width: to achieve the dramatic effect of a trench coat, the original collar and lapels pattern pieces needed widening by about 10 cm;
  • Collar (piece C): the original pattern piece is a perfect rectangle, so I tapered out the ends every so slightly; and to make sure the tapering was even on both sides, I re-drafted the pattern piece so it had to be cut on the fold;
  • Lapels (piece D): to create the perfect angles for the new lapels I traced a deep arrow shape out of the lapel pattern piece (thereby creates a beautiful desired point when the pattern piece is folded in half). Although not necessary, I drafted 3 depth options for the V.
• I also used interfacing for the collar and lapels for extra body so that those sharp points stayed nice and crisp!

The finished jacket definitely isn't perfect, as I think this pattern lends itself to fabric with more drape, but mum seems pretty happy with it!

Anna maxi dress, ByHand London

My third pattern from ByHand London is the Anna Dress.

With summer coming, I have a gazillion versions of this dress that I want to make...but first up, a practice run of the V-neck maxi dress variation.

I used a black and white zebra print, but wanted to break up the pattern so I cut the centre-front skirt panel from a plain black fabric. This meant I could squeeze the rest of the pattern pieces out of only 2.5 metres of fabric...result! Maxi dress for just over a tenner :)

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As the cost of the dress was now cheap-as-chips (although I never seem to value how many hours I spend on my creations), I was bit quick with my stitching. I ended up with loads of puckering attaching the bodice to the skirt panels! Argh! But as I had opted for French seams with this garment, I was in for a surprise...all my puckering was hidden by the second line of stitching!

Other than this little hiccup, this dress is really simple to sew up (especially with ByHand London's helpful sewalong) , and I can't wait to get started on the next one!

Easy to adapt: 

• A PERFECT FIT: I'm not normally confident tweaking a garment for a better fit, but I found it easy to shorten the skirt panels by 14.5cm (I then turned up my hem twice at 1/2 inch each time), and then to reduce the back by tapering in the top of the zip by about 1/2 inch each side of the zip. 
• REDUCE AMOUNT OF SKIRT FABRIC: A possible adaption for my next version might include taking in the bottom width of at least one skirt panel (by an inch or two). It may just be the way the crisp fabric falls, but I feel that there's a bit too much fabric floating around at my feet). 
• COLOUR: Although more to do with the choice of fabric rather than the pattern, I'd quite like to introduce some colour (especially given the huge volume of fabric of this garment). I have some ideas in mind, so I might "upgrade" this dress once I'm bored with the monochrome look :) 

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OTHER VERSIONS IN THE PIPELINE (ALL MAXI-dress VERSIONS SO FAR):

• A very special hand printed patterned silk, safely preserved for a few decades (more on that later);
• a very soft navy cotton that has an almost silk like sheen, covered with a multicoloured tropical bird print; and
• ....maybe I should stop there for now!

Charlotte lace 'mini' skirt, ByHand London

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I couldn't wait to get started on my very first sewing patterns (both from the lovely ladies at ByHand London), the Charlotte Skirt and the Victoria Blazer (more on Victoria here).

Eyeing some of the beautiful creations made by other talented stitchers out there, I opted for plain black cotton topped with thick black lace (found on my first trip to Walthamstow market). To cater for my short little legs, I took up the skirt by about 6” from the original pattern.

To give the skirt a bit of movement, I decided to make up the 2 skirts separately, joining them together at the waistband and the zip. I encased the lace seams with black bias binding,but unfortunately this created quite a bit of bulk at the side seams. 

When it came to stitching the zip, that's when the fun began. Confident with the successful test run on my muslin (and armed with ByHand London's invisible zipper tutorial for back up) I thought it would be a breeze. But after my first attempt, I could barely close up the zip. So the unpicking began...

I grabbed some cotton black binding from my sewing box, which I thought would make a nice feature whilst keeping the teeth of the zip away from the lace! So I started sewing the binding on top of the zip...on top of the lace...on top of the cotton...ok, so it wasn’t the lace that was the problem, but rather than huge volume of fabric that was causing the zip to jam!  So I unpicked the zip for the third time...(I had to unpick a second time when I sewed the zip on the wrong way!)

By this point, I just wanted to finish the skirt, so I stitched the zipper directly on to the binding, and stitched the binding to the skirt (reinforcing it afterwards by encasing the seams together...fingers crossed this skirt passes the test of time)

The skirt fits like a glove so, all in all, despite my attempts of self-sabotage by deciding to use such a tricky fabric, I'm really pleased with it.

Just don't look too closely at the finishing ;)

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Learnings for next time:

• Beware of lace!: Lace is problematic at the best of times, but heavy thick lace is even worse. 

• The last inch at the top of my zip still won't do up - it seems I stitched too close to the teeth (is that even possible?)

• Bulk at the side seams: in an attempt to neaten the raw edges of lace by encasing the seams with binding. I must try French seams next time (which I'm trying out for the first time on my Anna dress).

• Stiffen up the waistband: although a really lovely feature, interfacing would definitely help the waistband stand up proud.

Victoria "Coat", ByHand London

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This cold snap is showing no signs of letting up, so I am thrilled to have finally finished my new coat (adapted from the Victoria Blazer from ByHand London).

I chose some beautiful light grey wool for the shell (from M Rosenberg & Sons) and a dusky pink Liberty print in a heavyweight cotton for the lining (the print is also available in a lovely mustard colour Tana Lawn at Ray Stitch).

I took my inspiration from Victoria's own pattern hack, but added a few additions of my own. This was my first attempt at adapting a pattern, so following Victoria's guidance I extended the centre-front and centre-back pieces by 11”,  but also lengthened the 3/4 length sleeves to full length (to keep me warm!). There was no need for the collar, lapels or cuffs, but (again, with extra warmth in mind) I added a wide shawl collar.

Victoria's instructions are really clear so I'll only mention how I did the collar, which was super simple, and didn't require huge amounts of accuracy :). To make the most out of the little wool I had left (I only bought 1.75 metres) I measured from the centre-back point all the way down the front opening, and cut out 2 strips in that length as wide I could manage (which ended up being about 7 inches). I stitched the two lengths together to make one long strip, folded it lengthways, gave it a good press, before pinning and stitching it to the centre-front opening (in a similar way to attaching the collar and lapels on the original pattern instructions). 

Learnings for next time:

• Sleeve lining needs a slippery fabric: I only had 1 metre of my lovely Liberty fabric, which wasn't enough to cut out the sleeves, so I used some scraps of stretchy poly-cotton from my sewing box. Rookie mistake - the sleeves stick to the clothes underneath, when taking the coat on and off, rather than gliding over them.

• Thinner lining generally: the bottom of the coat doesn't seem to fall perfectly, and I'm not sure if it's something to do with the unusually thick lining I used. But I love the Liberty fabric (plus it makes the coat super warm), so maybe if I hem the lining separately from the shell this will help both fabrics fall properly (with some hand catch stitches to stop the 2 pieces flapping about).

• Closure/Fastening: as you can probably tell, warmth is important to me with my coats, so I need to think about how to incorporate a closure or maybe a sash belt for the coat next time.

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Pattern Lust:

I thought that a coat would be daunting for a fairly novice stitcher, but with ByHand London's sewalong and clear instructions, the Victoria Blazer (and coat hack) was pretty straightforward :)

If spring wasn’t just around the corner (and I didn’t have way too many coats already), I’d definitely look at some of these gorgeous coat patterns:

• 2 divine coats from BurdaStyle’s Feminine Folk collection:
  • Classic Notched Collar coat
  • Princess Panel Patch Pocket coat

• Colette’s Lady Grey wrap coat with princess seams

I hope you enjoyed this post - until next time!