This week I have been working on a pattern design for a top which I have scanned into illustrator to use as my first trial pattern for the pattern workshop online course I am currently doing. If you aren’t aware of it already Pattern Workshop is a website that runs Courses for PDF Pattern Designers and creative entrepreneurs. I am enrolled on the ‘Creating PDF patterns: from sketch to sale’ course. So far I am loving the course and I am learning so much so quickly. I am completely new to Adobe Illustrator and at first it seemed daunting, but Lauren Dahl’s (the course creator) tutorials are so easy to follow and well explained. I would thoroughly recommend it. I am still just getting started with the tutorials and this week I scanned my first pattern in and began tracing it in illustrator. I will keep you posted on how I get on with the course.

I also started making my version of the Closet Case Files Morgan Jeans this week. When I saw the pattern I almost screamed with excitement. I think Heather Lou read my mind with this one, I have wanted a pair of boyfriend jeans for a while now, but am never quite satisfied with ready to wear offerings, so now I can make my own!  I bought denim from Merchant and Mills and I am so happy with it, it’s excellent quality and quite heavy weight so I may have some fun experimenting with distressing the denim after I’ve assembled them. Rather than make too many adjustments at the paper stage I have just gone up a size (I want them to have a loose fit) and have added 5cm to the length, so hopefully I can tack my seams together first and make any required alterations as I go. I will let you know how I get on with these.

I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment, including making a wedding dress, in collaboration with a friend. I am planning to do some detailed posts on that after the wedding. It’s been such an interesting project and a great exercise in developing my pattern cutting and fitting skills.

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen me post a picture of another self-drafted dress a few weeks ago.

We finally managed to get some pictures of me wearing it at the weekend, when I wasn’t out enjoying all this glorious sunshine we have been having.

I had originally planned to wear this dress to my friend’s wedding in June, but when I wore it for the first time on Saturday I felt it would work well as a casual summer dress. I really like the midi length as it covers my extremely pale legs, but doesn’t feel as over dressed as maxi length can.

This dress was drafted using my block. I was playing around with different bodice shapes and to be honest I think it needs more work,  but I will still get a lot of wear out of this and I used up some fabric scraps making it – so that was really satisfying. The skirt fabric is the leftovers from this dress. I just managed to squeeze this skirt out of the remaining fabric.

Finally, how great is this weather we have been having? I have been out on some lovely walks in the last couple of weeks. It’s been slowing up my sewing a bit, but it has been wonderful to spend some time outdoors.