PatsyPoo Makes

I need to start this post by saying I really love this dress, I have another one planned for very soon and I am very glad I made it. However, I have a massive issue with one particular section of the instructions. It made no sense to me at all. Having been in touch with the designer herself, it now makes a little more sense but I still believe the finish is really rather poor. I'm talking about the  Sheath Dress  by The Avid Seamstress. It's a super simple - wait for it! - SHEATH DRESS! 😆 Sorry... It features grown-on sleeves, so the dress has one piece for the front and one piece for the back. The neckline is finished with facings and an optional elastic casing gives the waist some definition. There are also optional pockets, which I omitted (😱I know!!!) but more on that in a bit. The back has a zip closure as well but I swapped mine out for a loop and button instead. I believe it was a pull-on dress when it was first released, judging by some early reviews. Althou...

Until I succumbed to the Cleo fever  a few months ago, I never paid too much attention to pinafores and/or dungaree dresses. To me, they have been synonym with primary school uniforms and, consequently, not something I'd expect to find in the wardrobe of an almost 40-year old woman. I am happy to announce that Cleo completely changed those views, however. I have two of them now (there's a denim version , too) and I wear them a lot. But I wanted to try something a little bit different. Maybe one that looked a little more dress than dungaree? So when I found the  Ivy Pinafore  I couldn't stop thinking about making one for myself. As usual, this pattern had passed me by until I suddenly took notice of it. Why am I always doing this? Anyway, it's such a cute little dress and I am over the moon with how it turned out. The Ivy is a tent dress: more fitted around the bust and then it expands down in an A-line shape. There is a very swingy version and a more...

Hello again! I have such a massive backlog of finished stuff to share here that I probably could get away without sewing until the end of the year! We went gallivanting around New England a couple of weeks ago and I was on a mad mission to sew a crap tonne of stuff before we went. Funnily enough, the project I'm sharing today was not one of the ones I made for my holiday... Only because the new  Stevie  pattern by Tilly and the Buttons came out just before we were due to go and I didn't get a chance to whip one up to take with me. However, I saw to it just as soon as I got back home and felt like my brain could handle sewing again. Unfortunately this only happened last weekend - damn you, jetlag!

The children have been back at school for a couple of weeks, we're settling into our post-summer routine and I'm starting to focus on sewing for the cooler months. As it happens, the Love Sewing magazine I bought last week had McCalls M6886 as the free pattern and I was really excited to give this one a try. Everyone and their mother raves about it. I just needed to go find some fabric. Then, last night, I remembered I already had the perfect fabric for it!