Floral Viscose Vikisews Nola Dress

Sometimes I'm just in the mood to sew myself a summer dress out of the prettiest fabric I can find. I don't wear dresses that often, but I've become much more converted to them since making my own and I really enjoy sewing them. The construction process of making a dress is so satisfying - so much time and focus goes into the bodice and neckline and then the side seams are sewn up and all of a sudden you have a finished dress! 

For this dress I used a pattern that I bought a while ago and have been wanting to make for ages, the Vikisews Nola Dress. This was my second time using a Vikisews pattern (I've also made the Courtney Dress) and the process went quite smoothly, although the instructions are all in Russian and google translate's version of events was... odd! Either way, the pattern came with detailed photos for each step so I just followed those. I found out afterwards that the Nola Dress is one of the few patterns that Vikisews has translated into English, so I definitely kicked myself for having bought the Russian version!

Floaty fabrics are ideal for a dress like this, the design of the looser skirt that comes out below the bodice is so pretty and I don't think that a cotton would do it justice. Because of this I knew that I wanted to use a viscose fabric. I'm always on the lookout for pretty viscose fabrics and I thought that a floral print would be perfect with this dress. I was set on this viscose from Felicity Fabrics as soon as I saw it, I could immediately picture the pattern and fabric paired together. 

 

Viscose has a reputation for being a slippery fabric that's hard to sew with, but so long as enough pins are used I don't think it's much harder to handle than other fabrics. Also, any issues with the sewing process are definitely made up for by the fact that viscose drapes so nicely! The puff sleeves were one of the details that drew me to this pattern and they are held perfectly in place by the fabric. I've never sewn puff sleeves like these before but they were really fun to add on; there's an elastic casing on the inside of the sleeve which adds a really neat finish too. I think the combination of elastic and gathers could be a little too much on a longer sleeve but with these short sleeves it feels just right.

As well as the sleeves, I really liked the back bodice details of this pattern. More specifically, I love the shirring panel. Shirring isn't a technique that I've used much in the past and I was a little worried about how it would turn out. In my experience bad shirring can ruin a garment and I really didn't want to destroy such lovely fabric! In the end I was pleasantly surprised at how simple the shirring was to do. I used this tutorial which explained it well and practiced on a fabric scrap before the real thing. One thing I'd recommend is to sew each row of shirring without cutting the thread at the end. I can definitely see how shirring can become addictive, I might be adding it to all my makes from now on!

This is a really small detail but I like the fact that the shirring panel doesn't go all the way across the back. Instead, there is another panel on either side which provides a curved shape up towards the shoulders. 

This dress has so many pretty details! There are three ways in which gathers are created: elastic on the sleeves, a drawstring at the neckline and gathering above the skirt. The gathers worked really well in this fabric and I love how they bring everything together.

I'm so pleased with how this dress turned out! Making five more of them is probably unrealistic in terms of how much I wear dresses but I'm very tempted to sew one in every colour. I think the bodice would be really pretty as a top tucked into jeans too.

My Handmade Holiday Wardrobe

I always enjoy packing my handmade clothes to take with me on holiday and being able to wear something I've made always makes me smile. I've also found that limited packing space means that holidays are a great opportuntiy to pair my makes in ways that I don't at home. Usually, holidays also give me a chance to wear summer makes, although this year we went to Scotland and the weather was not in our favour! 

Last time I did a handmade holiday roundup was in 2017 and it's nice to be able to look back and see how much my sewing has improved. Whilst we did miss the heatwave that the rest of the UK experienced I also did a roundup of a week of handmade outfits at the start of summer so I have at least been able to wear a few warm weather items this year.

Orange t-shirt and Gingham Landers

My Gingham Lander Pants have been a favourite of mine since I made them. I usually wear them with a plain white t-shirt, but I brought this orange t-shirt with me on holiday and I thought that the two went well together. I made this t-shirt quite recently out of leftovers from this top and it was a really great one to wear on holiday. We were on the Isles of Mull and Skye for the most part of the holiday and this t-shirt was perfect for walking and cycling.

Stripy boxy t-shirt

This outfit is a pretty accurate depiction of what I wore most days for going on walks or cycle rides. I really like being able to wear a handmade t-shirt even if it's hidden under a jumper (which it almost always was - it was cold!). I made this stripy boxy t-shirt in 2019 and it's a really simple one that's easy to throw on.

Gingham Lander Pants

We finished our holiday in Edingburgh which gave me the opportunity to wear my Lander Pants again. They weren't quite warm enough to wear on most days as they're made from a cotton fabric rather than a denim but they were perfect for walking around the city. 

Zadie Jumpsuit

I'm so happy that I got to wear my Zadie Jumpsuit! It's still a little out of my comfort zone for wearing everyday so it was one of the first things that I packed to take with me on holiday. This was another good one for wearing around Edingburgh.

Black Lander Pants

I really enjoyed wearing my gingham Landers in Scotland but regretted not bringing my black denim pair with me too. I made sure to take them with me when we went to visit my Grandparents and as predicted I wore them a lot. The top that I'm wearing them with here is also handmade and is a new favourite that I've worn a lot since making, I'll share the blogpost for it soon.

Floral Vikisews Patterns Courtney Dress

 

Sewing projects are often a strange mix between those that turn out exactly as planned, those worse than planned and those better than planned. This dress was the latter of these. It's not that I was expecting it this dress to turn out badly, more that I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do! The sewing process was tricky in terms of fit which is always slightly demoralising, but I'm very pleased that I persevered with it. 

The pattern that I used for this dress is the Vikisews Courtney Dress, which I've made once before as a top. I mentioned more details about using a Russian pattern in this post, but in summary the step-by-step photos provided were enough to understand the construction. I really love the bodice of this pattern and always planned to make the dress version. The different panels give the dress a lovely shape and also provide a great opportunity for topstitching, which I added to all the seams.

A simple adjustment that I made to the pattern - which makes a big difference to the dress - was to level off the back bodice. On the original pattern the back bodice is curved around the arm and comes up about 2" higher (you can see this clearly on my Courtney Top). I chose to have the back bodice go straight across, which I find much prettier. All it involved was folding down the pattern piece at the armhole and changing the facing shape.

The cotton fabric that I used was great in terms of holding its shape but not quite so good when it came to unpicking. I had to baste and unpick the front skirt panels several times to get the fit right and each time the fabric frayed a little more, This wouldn't be a problem if I made the dress again as I now know the changes to make to the fit and would be able to sew it correctly without the need for unpicking, but I was a little worried that the skirt would fall apart! In the end it was fine, and adding the topstitching to the seams also helped to secure the fabric so that it wouldn't continue to fray. 

I did really enjoy sewing with a cotton fabric, which isn't something that I often do. I tend to use jersey fabrics for tops and jumpers, with drapey fabrics such as viscose for skirts and dresses. The closest I come to using fabric without any stretch is usually denim, but cotton is even nicer to sew with! Cotton is also a great fabric to use when it comes to pressing the seams, it's nice to be able to give everything a crisp, neat finish.  

I'd definitely recommend using a cotton for this pattern, it's a good stable fabric that will allow the dress to hold its shape. However, I did make a mistake in deciding to omit the interfacing in the upper bodice. When I made this pattern previously I used a linen fabric which was more heavyweight and didn't require interfacing. With the cotton, the curved edges of the bodice wouldn't stay in place and the whole thing just looked untidy. I unpicked the curved edges from the front bodice and, rather than adding interfacing to these, I cut a new set of the pattern pieces out and interfaced those. The result is so much better, I actually can't believe how much of a difference the interfacing made!

It was the fit of the skirt which caused several issues when making this dress. I knew from making the bodice previously that it was a little tight across the back, so I added 1" to the centre back seam when cutting out the pattern pieces. This allowed me to make any adjustments after trying on the dress before adding the zip. I also thought that the skirt might be too tight across the hips so I added a bit of extra width to that when cutting the fabric and basted the side seams in place. The extra fabric I added across the hips is what caused me to baste and unpick the seams several times, fraying the fabric and adding to my frustration. It was definitely worth it in the end though, I'm very pleased with the fit and now I'll know the adjustments to make for next time.

One of my favourite little details of this dress is the mini split I added to the skirt. I hacked the skirt pattern pieces to have three panels at the front (this is something that I did on my prom dress and this midi skirt) and I love having the panels and topstitching there. It made sense to add a little split as a nod to the panelling which is otherwise concealed by the busy print. I finished the dress with deep double hem which makes the whole thing feel very neat and professional.

I actually intended this dress to be a wearable toile of my prom dress. At this point I don't think prom will be happening, but I'm very glad to have made this dress anyway. I've now made the necessary changes to my pattern fo fit correctly next time, so I'd definitely like to make it again. I only ever wear dresses in the summer and even then infrequently, but I do love being able to wear dresses that I've made. This one will join my floral Shelby Dress that I made last year and I'm looking forward to wearing it.

[This fabric was given to me by Minerva in exchange for a blog post]

Tilly and the Buttons Freya Top - Sleeveless Turtleneck Hack

 

A few months ago I shared the details of a white sleeveless turtleneck top that I made. Well, I was so pleased with how that top turned out that I immediately made an identical one in black! Given how much I've worn both tops over the summer I thought I'd share some more photos of the black version, it's become a top that I reach for again and again.

I can't really say I prefer either the white or black fabric as both colours are really easy to wear. The white top is great as it goes with so many pairs of trousers, but I really like the elegance of the black version. I've made black t-shirts before (this one was worn a lot) and I definitely want to make a few more as they go well with busier trousers. I really love how this top looks with my gingham trousers, and trousers like these ones are also good for pairing with plain t-shirts.

To make this top I hacked my much used copy of the Tilly and the Buttons Freya top. Rather than simply leaving off the sleeves, I changed the shape of the armhole slightly and narrowed the shoulder seam to give the top a nice shape. I went into more detail of the changes I made to the pattern in this post, but in summary it took a lot of pinning and cutting tiny snippets of fabric to make the curve deeper bit by bit until it was just right!

I actually made a long-sleeved black Freya turtleneck back in January, and knowing how much I've worn this one over the summer months has made me think of new ways to wear the long-sleeved one during winter. I have found the sleeveless one much easier to wear and I think it's because the length of the other one is a bit odd - neither short enough for it to sit well on a jeans waistband nor long enough to tuck in - so I might change the hem.

As for the hem on this top, I'm very happy with how it turned out. For the white version I used a shop-bought bias binding and it worked very well, so I made my own jersey bias binding from the black fabric. Jersey tops are tricky to hem so this was a good method to use. The armhole is also finished really neatly with a band of fabric that was folded in half and sewn right sides together to the armhole (like a neckband would be). It means that the t-shirt is well finished around the neck, arm and hem which is definitely worth doing on an otherwise very basic top.

I'm so pleased with both of my sleeveless turtleneck tops and have worn them a lot with high waisted trousers such as these flares, these wide-legged jeans and my balloon jeans. I particularly like the shape of the armhole and would like to make a couple more similar tops with neckline variations. It doesn't get that hot where I live so the balance of a sleeveless turtleneck works pretty well during the summer but I  think that making the same top without the turtleneck would be great hotter days.