So I know the Great British Sewing Bee (series 2) ended what feels like ages ago (already looking forward to series 3), I have only recently managed to get my hands on their book 'Sew Your Own Wardrobe'.
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| The book comes all wrapped up in plastic with the pattern sheets nice and safe in their own envelope |
I was dubious about buying this at first because I didn't believe that it would have that much in it, after all it is a TV link in book and they're usually a bit crap. It does state, in very big letters, on the front that there are 5 pattern sheets included, I made the mistake of thinking that this meant five patterns. In my (somewhat pessimistic mind) I imagined the crappy patterns that would be no good for me (the baby clothes, the mans anorak, and maaaaybe a woman's skirt), but after borrowing a copy to have a look through I got rather excited... there's loads of things in there I want to make... LOADS!
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| The 1960s style coat, for an advanced sewer methinks |
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| Bowling shirt, nice and casual |
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| They recommend jersey fabric for the wrap dress, not tried that yet |
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| Lovely little skater style dress with cute sleeves |
Included with these (and there are loads more patterns in there too, including men's shirt, trousers, leggings, t-shirts, shift dress, baby dungarees, different skirts) they have tips and details about types of fabrics and some skills that are used in the making of the included patterns.
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| Good instructions and illustrations... this book is awesome! |
The pattern sheets themselves look really complicated (moment of panic), they are all double sided and have lots of different pieces on each sheet. Luckily they are colour coded so each piece for each garment is pretty easy to find and to trace (phew, panic over).
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| I know it's in here somewhere... |
So after getting really excited about al of the things I could make and how I could make them (and after taking myself to one side and having a quiet word about only being able to do one thing at a time) I have decided to start with the 'Full Skirted Dress' which I keep calling the skater dress...
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| I love this shape, perfect for a summer dress or a winter dress |
I love the fabric they've used in the books version, I would love to recreate this identically with the green gingham, but alas I could not find any to match (one day... one day), so for my version of this I'm going to use the recommended cotton in beige with small orange/red berry pattern on. This is a lovely soft cotton that I think would be perfect for summer (if the warm weather decides to come back). It's been in my stash for a while now, just waiting for the perfect pattern.
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| extreme close up. I can't decide if they are red or orange berries |
The big draw back to this book and the pattern format is the tracing. While this isn't as difficult a task as putting together a PDF pattern (which I wouldn't do if the blouses/dresses/skirts weren't so pretty), I do have a bit of a wobbly tracing line on some of the pieces.
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| I traced the size 10 as well as the 12 so I can check the sizing without having to trace again! |
So now I have all of my pattern pieces traced out, I'm just waiting for the perfect Bank Holiday weekend that I can get stuck into making my lovely little skater dress.
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| Did me some (wobbly) tracing!! |
The sewing machine is coming out of storage... and I am very excited!!
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