Kitcat here wearing the sequinned bomber jacket @bessworks made for her (she’s very pleased 😀).
This is the Charlie bomber from Jalie patterns – The pattern has really clear instructions and goes from teeny tiny toddler size all the way up to adults, it’s highly recommended 🥰. Bomber jackets are also excellent stash busters as all the pieces are quite small (especially for the kids!) and you can mix and match, bomber jackets are an easy fit so good to make “in secret” without the need to try on. This multicolour sequined version used only 45cm of the sequin fabric- handy because it is £55/m 😭! – it’s a great way of getting a jacket out of a special fabric that you don’t have /want to buy much of.
doing a twirl in multicolour sequined bomber jacketmulticolour sequined jacket -Jalie Patterns Charlie Bomber
Bess made this green linen jersey cardigan purely because she needed an excuse to use the fantastic scroll sequin trim. This trim is not confined to cardigans, and whilst it may look like it is a pig to attach it really wasn’t (Bess sewed it by hand). The pattern is a basic t-shirt pattern with bust darts that Bess cut open with a V at the neck.
Bess made this pink tutu for her niece Amélie (who is 16 months) for Christmas, numerous layers of tulle were gathered and pleated (there is a few layers of cream underneath), and then fitted to a silk dupion waistband and drawn in with elastic. Then, Christmas being Christmas and the bling level needing to be raised Bess added beads and sequins to the waist.
Bess used the formula of gathering the tulle to 7″ bigger than waist measurement which worked okay but for a skirt this small 5″ is probably enough.
Bess made these two tutus for her nieces Kitcat and Miaow with a loose brief of Nutcracker in mind. There are a gazillion layers of tulle gathered and pleated and sewn onto a silk dupion elasticated waistband and embellished with feathers and sequins.
3 colours of tulle were used to get a greater depth to the skirts. A short layer of creamy beige, and second longer layer of sugar pink and a top (longest) layer of very pale pink.
Bess doesn’t really do ‘fluff’ but had a lot of fun making these. Her kitchen was well and truly tullified.
Jane made this sequinned tulle dress for her grandchildren Kitcat and Miaow (they share). The armholes are bound in lightweight satin bias binding, the hem is taken up with turquoise lycra binding and the neck has a plain mandarin collar made from cotton jersey so the scratchy sequin factor is minimised. This dress makes all the grown-ups exclaim “I WANT ONE!”.
Annabelle in her fabulous orange sequinned silk georgette coat trimmed with pink diamanté buttons.
ED. It is normal for me to have sewing envy when posting up pics of your makes but this is at a whole new level. I need an orange sparkly semi sheer coat! I need it!
Michaela made this fabulous pink sequinned dress for one of her clients, it has a v-neck, a lovely georgette pointed collar (on the back) and georgette sleeves.
Kitcat singing us all Christmas carols in her sequinned dress made by Jane. It is lined in heavy tricot and the armholes and neck are bound with jersey binding.
You get fabulous movement with this sequinned fabric as each sequin is black on one side and silver on the other, so every move is exaggerated with the movement of the sequin. They are surprisingly easy to sew -just snip them out of the seam allowance so you don’t need to sew through them.
Bess went to Vegas to see her Sister get married (Johnny Cash came back from the dead to marry her). Of course she needed a new coat but Vegas being Vegas sequins were in order, albeit subtle and rather stylish ones woven into a fabulous Linton Tweed.
The tweed was quilted onto silk organza to give it a bit of stability (machine quilted in vertical lines with silk thread), it was lined in silk crepe de chine, trimmed with a cotton decorative braid, fastened with corset hooks and weighted at the hem with chain.
It has since been the go-to coat for weddings/birthday parties and posh dinners out.
Bess wearing her posh white grosgrain and sequinned zippy dress, with red cotton sateen inserts.
Bess has a bit of an obsession with zips
Fabrics and Notions: White cotton and acetate grosgrain
Black sequinned jersey
Red cotton and poly stretch sateen
Red continuous zipping
Red piping
Red bias binding (cut from sateen)
Iron-on reinforced stabilising tape
Iron on stabilising tape
Black fold-over grosgrain binding (hem)
Bess made sleeves and lined her sequin dress in cotton jersey because she is fairly intolerant when it comes to suffering for fashion (and sequins are hot and scratchy).
This dress would have taken much less than an hour had she not taken the time to cut away the sequins along the seams (which makes sewing easier, reduces the risk of a sequin jabbing her in the thigh, and the seams lie nice and flat. It was unnecessary to sew any back on.
Due to the tulle backing the sequins are sewn on to no hemming was required (result!).
How to celebrate turning 45? Applique a single onto your t-shirt, of course! Bess made the t-shirt out of her precious stash of denim jersey (she has been hoarding this since 2008, and this is her 5th t-shirt out of it). She then used bondaweb to applique the sequined fabric, the reflective grey ‘stylus’ and the glow-in-the-dark centre. Not willing to trust the bondaweb on a stretch she then meticulously stitched around by machine.
With all the shiny/reflective/glowing parts to the applique this t-shirt is brilliant at night.
When feeling uncomfortable with an impending birthday the only thing to do is embrace it!
Jane made this amazing military style jacket from two different brocades and a piqué textured jacket weight wool. The pattern is Vogue 7975 with some major/minor adaptations to make it more military looking (the pattern is classic Chanel style jacket). It is lined in fabulous electric blue silk seersucker satin.
Bess was supposed to be making a princess dress for her niece Eloise but it kind of mutated into a Wonder Woman dress instead. This is what happens when you sew with no real idea of what you are making! The skirt is made up of many layers of tulle with a Venezia lining, the bodice is yellow viscose jersey that was a bit thin for the job so was interlined with a cotton jersey, and then appliqued with a piece of sequinned fabric. There is elastic in the waist and sleeves to draw it in and red plastic snap fasteners on the back bodice.
The skirt was made without a pattern (gather the tulle until it is 7″ bigger than the waist), the bodice was pinched off a bridesmaid dress -long since discontinued and certainly not intended for floppy jersey. The worst bit was sewing the heart on straight…. or getting the bulk of the tulle onto the bodice (it had to be ripped apart and regathered with pleats as just gathering was too bulky with all the layers). Despite the moments of GAAAHHHHH! WHAT AM I DOING! it was a great fun make.
Bess used her 5 and 8 year old niece’s fabulous drawings as inspiration for the embellishment on this wool tweed A-Line skirt. First she used white fabric paint and then embroidered using a heavy thread and added beads and sequins. It was all done by hand as the tweed is quite a loose weave and she was concerned machine embroidery would make it too stiff (certainly the kind of embroidery Bess has the patience for!).
It is lined in Venezia lining – turned on the lining with no waistband and bound with an ottoman (heavy) bias binding. Strips of Iron on interfacing tape were used to reinforce the back of the areas where the belt loops go. The concealed zip was moved from the back seam to the side so the back could be cut on the fold also. You rarely get any shaping on the back seam so if you have enough fabric to do this (it invariably takes extra on an a-line skirt) you can without brainache.
Bess is very fickle but this is her absolute favourite skirt at the moment.
Butterfly
house with roof blowing off
house flower
girl with yellow hair
star flower
Elsa from frozen with her high heels and plaited hair
doodle
doodle
Pussy Cat
house without a door
robot
star
apple tree
hem (Hong Kong finish)
Belt detail. Don’t look too close at the bias stitching.
wiggly worm
hand embroidered children’s drawings onto wool tweed skirt
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Bess doesn’t really do ‘fluff’ but had a lot of fun making these. Her kitchen was well and truly tullified.
