Envelope Clutch Bag

Posted on February 21, 2015 by attieanddora

A problem I’ve recently stumbled upon is, what to do with scraps of fabric, which are too small to make into garments? Mostly mine are left over from completed projects, but more recently from a bag of remnants kindly donated to me by a good friend.

I searched some of my favourite sewing blogs for inspiration and decided to try the Envelope Clutch by See Kate Sew.

The PDF pattern was free and the instructions simple to follow. There was only one pattern piece, so this is a good instant gratification project.
I found the printouts slightly awkward to stick together neatly, but I got there in the end.

The fabric used for the clutch was originally an eiderdown from India, which my friend had used to make a large over the shoulder bag. I was gifted the remains. I adore the detail of the fabric and it was a perfect weight to give the clutch some structure. There was one issue with my chosen fabric, it was impossible to pattern match or achieve a symmetrical finish, due to the way it had been cut previously. Thankfully the pattern is quite busy, which stops it being too noticeable.

I omitted the interfacing, due to the weight of the fabric and lined it with felt. The self cover button is just for decoration, as the bag is closed using a snap fastener. I originally planned to do a button hole on my machine, but the layers of fabric wouldn’t fit under my presser foot.

Here’s the finished product, modelled by my sister. I would love to hear any tips for what to do with small pieces of material?

An Ultimate Shift Dress for India

Posted on February 14, 2015 by attieanddora

I recently travelled to India and struggled to find suitable clothing to pack from my wardrobe, which is suited to cold Shetland winters.

The look I was going for was, simple tunic tops with leggings and The Ultimate Shift Dress pattern from Sew Over It, proved the perfect pattern for the job.

I bought some lightweight cotton from the online Sew Over It fabric shop and set to work. The construction was simple and the fabric, easy to work with. The instructions were great, and easy to follow. The only change I made was to omit the facing, as I was running out of time to finish before the trip (actually finished about 5 minutes before I left for the plane). Instead of the facing I simply folded the raw neckline in on itself like a double folded hem and stitched in place. It seemed to work reasonably well, but next time I would include the facing for a neater finish.

I’m really happy with how it turned out and I love the fabric. The only downside is that the cotton creases easily, as you might have noticed in some of the photos.

This dress survived over 2 months in India and is still going strong. It proved an excellent dress for summer and I’m still wearing it now in the winter with big cardigans and opaque tights, definitely a versatile garment.

Beginning my sewing journey

Posted on February 8, 2015 by attieanddora

Hi, my name is Elie. I live on a small island in Shetland. I am starting this blog to document my progress as I learn to sew my own clothing. My love of sewing began, aptly, when I bought ‘Love at First Stitch’, the excellent book by Tilly and the Buttons a few months ago. I worked my way through the book, making each of the patterns in turn, until I came to my favourite pattern, which I will be writing about today. This is my attempt at the ‘Lilou’ dress. The fabric is 100% cotton and was from modes4u. It is, by no means, perfect, but I am really proud of this dress. Despite being quite a challenging make for a beginner, the excellent instructions provided in the book helped me through. I don’t have much to say about construction, as mostly, I followed the instructions to the letter. I did have a bit of trouble with the invisible zip insertion, think I need more practice on that front and I caused myself a bit of a headache with the fit, as I tried to grade between sizes in the bodice. My thinking behind this was to give a looser fit in the bust, but the end result was just too big. As a novice sewer, with no fitting or altering experience, I decided to rectify this by cutting some length out of the straps, to try and reduce the excess length in the bodice. It worked to some degree, but there is still excess fabric in the back. Next time I will skip the grading entirely. I think the fit would have been better if I had stuck to one size. Despite the fitting issues, I am really pleased with the end result. I think, as this was one of the first things I made, I will always have a soft spot for it, flaws and all. Follow my blog with Bloglovin © [www.attieanddora.com], [2015]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [www.attieanddora.com] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.