TATB Tabitha Tee Dress

Tilly and the Buttons gets another go today - working from the Make It Simple book which contains some pretty good patterns!

 

The Tabitha Tee is a really really basic t-shirt pattern that turns into 7 variations - there are options for short sleeves, 3/4 sleeves, full sleeve, a 'ringer tee' with contract cuffs and then a dress with all three sleeve options aswell.

Oh yeah and if you make the shorts/leggings add on - the Tabitha Tee then magically becomes the Juno Pyjamas. It's a very versatile pattern. I've made the tee (and in it's Juno guise) several times now and it's a very quick sew.

Just throwing in some extra Juno's for your viewing here:

Back to the main event - the Tabitha tee dress!

I cut a straight up Size 8 (Tilly sizes are entirely different to RTW and other sewing patterns!) The only minor change I made was to shave about 1cm from the shoulder seam at the armhole as it was just a fraction too big on me. 

The Tabitha dress has you trace the t-shirt pattern, cut along the waist line and then draft a very simple rectangular skirt piece (that's a bit shaped for your hip but not much). 

Top and skirt are joined and the seam flips up to create a channel for a drawstring. The results inside are really neat and there are no raw edges showing. 

The drawstring is a really great feature giving the dress some shape, but also comfort as it's adjustable! Perfect for days where you need a little room. 

The fabric I used for this dress is a Pigeon Wishes Rainbow Jersey from Hey Sew Sister. It is GLORIOUS. The stripe is knitted into the fabric rather than printed on (yarn dyed?) and it's beautifully soft. 

It's another basic make but that's all I'm dealing in right now. At least this one can go through the seasons with me.

If you're after secret pyjamas this is definitely a contender!

Have a good week all x

Feel free to comment and come and say hello on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin too xxx

Union Swing Time Dress

You may be able to tell with the amount of upcoming Union Tee variations but I had a little phase of being obsessed with the new Hey June Handmade 'add-on. 

A couple of weeks back I showed you how I had turned the Union Tee into a Union Dress that had the nice back curve - well this is the flippy swingy version of that.  

The aim of the game was to make a comfy sweater dress that could go with pretty much anything. Job done I reckon. I look like a chubbier version of me in the 90's here.

For this version I laid out the 'new' (ie the one with the back curve shaping) Union Tee pieces on the fabric and just drew outwards from the waist line in a triangle shape to get a bit of volume in the skirt portion. I like how it turned out, just the right amount of fullness for me. 

 It's nothing revolutionary but it's a good staple. The main thing about this is ALLLLLL about the fabric. 

Oh this fabric. I wish you could stroke it through the screen. It's sturdy, but lightweight, soft and a bit sheeny and so lovely to wear. 

Photo from Lamazi Fabrics

This is an 'Ottoman Knit' that contains Ecovero viscose and just feels like you're wearing something really special. I found this via Lamazi Fabrics who stock it in a ton of different colours. It would make a gorgeous lightweight jumper or turtleneck. The picture above shows the colour much better as it really is a true jet black in real life.

The one thing I did do on this dress is accidentally cut the front neckline on both the front and back pieces, so the back is a lot lower than the regular pattern. However I actually quite like the mistake and the dipped back - just needed a bit longer piece of neck binding.

In case anyone was wondering (as I often do looking at other people's blogs) the tights are from Snag. (They size to your height and body shape so are pretty comfortable.)

Feel free to comment and come and say hello on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin too xxx

Itch to Stitch - Hepburn

Slight tortoise/turtle reference today in so far as it's a turtleneck I've made. Bit of a reach there...

 

Above - my favourite picture of old man Sammy with his own yellow turtleneck. 

Below - a new to me pattern - the Hepburn by an ever increasing favourite of mine, Itch to Stitch.  

Itch to Stitch have some great basics (including the FREE Uvita top which I've never blogged but wear almost weekly since I made it) and I do find them to be very true to size. 

For this top I graded between a 14-18 and made no adjustments at all to the pattern itself. 

The pattern was a gamble for me as it's close fitting - usually a major no-no, and the turtleneck would usually annoy me. It's a gamble that paid off though as the fit is flattering and the turtleneck is very comfortable. Enough to be warm but not enough that it strangles you. A 'barely there' turtleneck in terms of irritation factor.

I copied the ol' insta folks to style the top and tucked it into some jeans. And liked it. 

Turtleneck, tight, tucked... Who even am I?!

 

 The fabric used for this top is some lusciously soft jersey from Lamazi Fabrics. It has some amazing galaxy style paint splatter effect on there and was the perfect stretch for this top.  

This is a nice base layer top and I think I'd like to try another in more of a sweater knit fabric to see how that goes too. 

On a rare day that I got dressed for this I matched the pink to these awesome pink glittery TurtlebirdUK 'fuckbrick' earrings. (A little reflection of the UK right now). Send her a DM if you want a pair!

Feel free to comment and come and say hello on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin too xxx

Peanuts x Hey June Handmade

Happy new year all, or happier new year hopefully!

Here we are in 2021, not a space chicken in sight so I thought it would be safe to do some sewing and make a few plans now. 

I really wanted to adjust my TNT Union St Tee pattern to make a better fitting dress. I have hacked it into a dress several times however due to a sway back, big bum situation I get fabric pooling at the back. No biggie but a refreshed pattern was on my mind.

A couple of days of mulling over this led me to a back seam that could be pinched in where needed. Turns out - Hey June Handmade had already done the hard work!!

Couldn't believe my luck. 

The free Add-On pattern is a dress length hack for the Sheridan Sweater, however it can also be used on any of the Hey June top blocks!

I traced a new copy of the Union Street Tee in my new size and went about matching up the dress add-on pieces to make myself a TNT tee dress pattern. I guess this is now a Union St. Tee Sheridan hybrid.

It wasn't all smooth sailing as it all ended up very big and a lot of pinning and fitting ensued. Hopefully I've managed to transfer it all onto the paper pieces so we'll see on the next iteration. 

For now, my soul needed some creature comfort and for me that is Snoopy. 

 This rather glorious jersey is from Flamingo Fabrics. It's not all that stretchy and feels a bit more like french terry to me but either way, it's soft and has Snoopy on it.  

I feel positively weird wearing something that is not 'sack-like' but in trying to get out of a rut thought I'd give it a go. I don't hate it. It fits and it's comfortable and that's what it's about right!?

 Me and Snoopy have a long history, he featured throughout my childhood, helped me learn foreign languages in my twenties through familiar books, my Snoopy stayed with my mum when I was abroad and he's now with me now she's gone too. Now I'm a grown ass adult in my late thirties he's still with me. He's a symbol of love. So never mock a grown ass adult in a cartoon dress. There are plenty of us out there.

I'm pretty happy with the dress 'Add-on' for the shaped back. I did need to pin it out for my curves but I think it's certainly better that the amount of fabric pooling previously experienced. It's just 'a bit' now and that's ok.

This was originally long sleeves but the proportions felt off so I chopped to a 3/4 sleeve and much prefer it. I will TRY and break my leggings habit and wear this around the house/home working as it seems comfy enough for that.

On the theme of Snoopy I thought I'd share one of my 2021 projects as I was lucky enough to receive one of these kits!

Pic from Stitch & Story

 

Cheers to everyone, nice to see you on the other side. 

Feel free to comment and come and say hello on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin too xxx