The Bakerloo blouse from Nina Lee Patterns burst onto the sewing scene last month and it’s gone down a storm. The huge collar and ruffle ooze cottagecore cool (although maybe saying cool negates the cool?). The pattern gives two versions: a shirt and a dress and two sleeve lengths, so you get a few options before any hacking or customising. Another bonus, there are no fiddly fastenings to sew as it opens with a keyhole at the back!
Author: Alice in the Polka Dot Palace
Upcycling 101: 6 tips to get started
Well, hello! A new year and a blog post that isn’t about sewing!
Alongside sewing content, I thought it would be useful to share my adventures in sorting out our not-too-shit-but-shitter-than-we-expected house. We have gone from renting a two-bed open plan flat in South London, to owning a three-bed end of terrace little old house in Kent. The house isn’t a complete fixer-upper, but there’s a lot to do, so I thought it would be great to share the journey with you, and lessons learned along the way.
Here are my main take aways from my first few upcycling projects…
1. Look at shape, not finish
For particularly run-down items, look at the overall shape and try not to focus on how crap it currently looks. It’s amazing what a lick of paint can do – look how manky my chairs originally were (just ignore all the rubbish in the backgrounds – we’d just moved in)! If the overall shape is nice and the item isn’t falling to pieces, it’s good to go ahead with.
Honeycomb with a twist
The CocoWawa Honeycomb dress has fast become a favourite of mine, so I decided to make another one straight away! In the name of variety I decided to hack the Named Saraste dress collar onto the Honeycomb bodice. It was a learning journey, and one I thought would be good to share, as the principles can be applied to any pattern combo.
CocoWawa Honeycomb: Third time’s a charm!
I wrote about this pattern before (click here if you’d like to have a read), and I admitted that something about it didn’t feel right. It was my second attempt – the first was far too big, then the second try just looked off; my recent revelation about viscose explains why! I’m so glad I realised it was the fabric type and not the dress itself because I love the design.
Having realised it was the viscose that was the problem for me, I decided to make another in some cotton poplin that I bought from Sew Me Sunshine.
Why I’m breaking up with viscose
When you think of what clothes suit you and don’t suit you, you think of shapes and colours, right? That’s always been my take on it, but I’ve recently had the weirdest realisation: a fabric type doesn’t suit me. And that fabric type is viscose. I know, sad times.
