Another superb shirt made by Rachel and modelled here by Luke. Again the fabric is a quilting weight cotton which is great for casual shirts. There is a light knit interfacing in the collar, cuffs and front placket.
Jane busy sampling wearing her digital print viscose jersey mock wrap t-shirt made by Bess. The Pattern is Kay Unger for Vogue V1519 which has a cap sleeve, Bess used the sleeve off another top (that just so conveniently fitted) so as to have a longer one.
As it was quite a complicated design and tricky to see the sizing so Bess made a toile first in cheaper jersey. The wrap part is lined in viscose jersey and Bess used turquoise stretch piping on the neck to keep the tension and shape. There were lots of pleats and tucks that were carefully marked, and whilst Bess truly did intend to follow the instructions she forgot after a while, but it came out okay. Hoorah!
Lauren made this amazing kimono sleeved coat for her final year degree show using pink felted wool coating. It’s tied together through oversized eyelets, has an extended hem at the back and an embellished shawl collar. Soooo beautiful!
Marion looking fabulous in her peacock blue abstract print short sleeve stretch cotton sateen dress made and designed by Dawn Hooper of Hardy and Hooper (Maidenhead)
Rachel made Luke this beautiful harlequin jacquard cotton shirt. I think we can tell he likes it 😉
Two little sweeties here (like butter wouldn’t melt) wearing their printed brushed cotton pajamas made by Aiste. Love the funky flared cut. 
Emma from Sweden is wearing her classic wool tweed 1970’s ulster made from the wonderful navy wool tweed she bought in the Autumn. She also made her dog a matching coat! 🙂 She loves the fabric!
The pattern is Very Easy Vogue 8699 from the 1970’s, (see picture). She made the coat a bit longer and wider than the pattern instructed. It’s a simple and straight-forward construction, but a bit unusual as no interfacing at all is used. The most special feature, in our opinion, is the contrast lining that shows on lapels, pockets, belt and sleeve bands. She used a light-weight worsted wool fabric for the lining. There is topstitching around the front and along the raglan sleeve seams.
The lovely Wendy with her plummy pink shawl collar jacket-weight wool Melton coat. It is super soft and lightweight, the lightness is continued with wool wadding in the collar and front facing. It is lined in jacquard coat lining, and there are tailored shoulder pads to add shape and help with the structure. There were a few telephone calls during the making of this coat over advice for what to use and where, it was worth all the deliberation, we think this coat is going to get a lot of wear over the coming years 🙂
The pattern is Katherine Tilton for Butterick B5960
Wendy’s comments:
The wool wading worked very well. The collar and front facing are both interfaced with it. Quite an interesting construction with the collar, front and front facing in one piece (for each side) with a dart to form the collar. I tried various things in the hem, including the wool wading, but it seemed to need more weight so I used a 3” strip of the hair canvas in the end which worked well. I have quite narrow, sloping shoulders so I had to give the shoulders/top of sleeves more structure with shoulder pads and sleeve heads which looked a lot better on me. I also hand sewed the lining hem to the coat with a jump pleat rather than leaving it loose as the pattern suggested.
This bottle green wool crepe coat with wine red cape was made by Catherine Davis as a remake of an original stage coat worn by Roy Wood (from Wizard & Electric Light Orchestra). Time was limited and decisions over the colours had to be done on the telephone which is not something we recommend but Catherine was very pleased.
Julie at her daughter’s graduation wearing the navy lace shift dress she made with fuchsia pink lining (the Champagne was made in France). This looks like a very simple dress that is easy to make but as with many simple things, the devil is in the detail and Julie has become an expert on fitting dresses beautifully to her curves. Beware: Once you take the time to do this you will never be able to buy shop bought again.
To suggest lemon curds can’t go on the catwalk would be discrimination against lemons, and these hats in yellow and multicolour underwater print cotton are fabulous.
Aiste playing with jersey again here with a jacquard weave heavy wool mix knit. The pattern was taken (and modified) from a purchased top.
The fit is fabulous – this is why we love jersey! and the asymmetric cut makes it interesting from all angles.
Kitcat in the shop for the holidays wearing her elasticated waist viscose dress made by Jane using Burda pattern 9367 (age 9). Jersey bias was used for the elastic casing and was set lower so the fabric blouses up. a drawstring was added to the front and the same jersey bias was used to case the armholes and neck.
Aiste had a moderate case of P.S.F. (phobia of stretchy fabrics) which we said was irrational and she should get over it. So she did.
This is her first attempt at sewing jersey – possibly not the easiest of choices but The Girl Did Good, the stitching is beautiful and we think this might be the start of something brilliant. Well done Aiste!
The jersey is a polyester and lycra (fine, slinky and super stretchy) which was possibly not what we recommend to beat P.S.F but the important thing is it is a fabric you really want to sew. The waist is elasticated. Nice and simple.
Did you know you can sew yourself sassy? Rachel couldn’t help but wiggle and saunter about in these leather look trousers she made using a viscose stretch trousering with a PVC coating. They make her happy therefor we are happy 🙂
Here we have the headless beauty Molly the Dolly modelling the kind of dress only mannequins can model -namely that pins are poked into her at strategic places to hold it just so. Don’t do this at home kids 😉
The fabric is an amazing polyester twill that has wonderful saturated colours in the floral print. It is a taffeta type fabric that doesn’t crease much and is great for dresses which need a bit of structure.
Miaow wearing the proofed linen raincoat made for her by Jane using #32 Ottobre pattern from the winter 6/12 catalogue. It is lined in pixel daisy print quilting weight organic cotton (which adds a reasonable amount of weight). It has been top stitched with pink thread (two standard threads through the same eye of the needle), Also used: light blue buttons, a pink open end zip, and lightweight knit iron on interfacing was used in the collars and facings.
Rachel made this fabulous vinyl records print shirt for Luke, perfectly matching everything, of course. Shirtmaking is an art Rachel has mastered to a tee. The fabric is a quilting weight cotton which is on the heavy side for a shirt but great for casual (and fun!) projects. There is a light knit interfacing in the collar, cuffs and front placket.
Here is a close up of Rachel’s matching: (in her previous life she was a chameleon)
Pauline made this fabulous denim jumpsuit using a 1970’s jumpsuit pattern from Simplicity (3322), she used a soft medium weight linen mix denim with floral painted buttons and hand embroidered pocket details.
Pauline looking smart and fabulous in wool challis using the classic sleeved shift dress from McCall’s (2401). The dress is lined in Venezia.
Belt, Shoes and Smile Pauline’s own.
Pauline made this sweet bunny print shirt with printed quilting weight cotton. It is a Butterick pattern (6324) that has minimal/confusing instructions (it is clearly the instructions at fault and not the readers!), so Pauline came a bit unstuck working out how to do the concealed buttonhole band, but she got there in the end 🙂
The collar and cuffs are interfaced with lightweight knit iron-on interfacing
Marion wearing her lovely blue and yellow geometric print stretch cotton sateen shift dress made and designed by Dawn Hooper of Hardy and Hooper (Maidenhead).
Fit for a Princess. Spotted in the Torygraph on 15th March 2017. 60’s inspired dress made by Eponine –I hasten to add the red and white checkerboard suiting was bought from LG at source, not from us, but it is the same.
Sooooo Coool!
Rachel made this fabulous cotton shirt for her son Luke. Rachel is applying for title ‘Queen of shirt making’. This fabric is quilting weight which is great for a slightly heavier warmer shirt (and also happens to have the wackiest prints).
Thank you Luke for modelling for us, much appreciated!
Julie at the Keep on Sewing weekend course wearing her navy blue crepey jersey dress with purple and white geometric print. She says she hasn’t stopped wearing it – it packs well and can be dressed up or down (it even goes with slippers!).
Susie terribly pleased with her spotty modal and elastane lightweight sweatshirting jersey dress -it has a great swing to it and has started Susie on a quest to find lots more jerseys with a similar medium weight like this. Watch this space!
Marion blending in nicely at the nursery with her orange and green floral print stretch cotton sateen dress with fabulous peplum detailing, made and designed by Dawn Hooper of Hardy and Hooper (Maidenhead). 
From the South of France we have the wonderfully gifted teacher, Brigitte, in her new skirt made out of pink and grey check wool tweed and Chantal in her black and white spotty heavy cotton and acrylic knit top. Bernie (not pictured) lets them look at her Cloth Club fabrics and they all add their orders to hers.
Bess on top of the South Devon Cliffs wearing her fabulous pink tweed jacket that was made by Jane a couple of Birthday’s ago and still going strong.
The lining is chartreuse satin lining on the sleeves and multicolour chevron printed cotton (quilting weight) for the body. The collar and facings are red jumbo corduroy because Bess didn’t want the tweed against her skin.
The design is an old burda fur jacket pattern -somewhat altered! Fur coat patterns are dead easy because they tend to have very boxy simple cuts.
This is basically a remake of a pink denim jacket Bess made earlier – but suitable for the winter. Even the buttons are the same.
Miaow and Arfur out in Granma’s garden modelling the fleecey jersey dressing gown made by Jane (granny).
The pattern is a discontinued Vogue pattern made up age 6 with no alterations (all hail the joys of “trés ample” fit!)
Marion again, this time in a floral and paisley print cotton babycord top and skirt. All of us at Stone Fabrics are loving the scalloped hem and pattern matching. Made and designed by Dawn Hooper of Hardy and Hooper (Maidenhead). Soooo Clever!
Marion here wearing this super fitted stretch drill dress with lovely cut out detail on the back. She cheats by getting the uber talented Dawn Hooper of Hardy and Hooper (Maidenhead) to design and make it up for her (I must say if I had a Dawn I would too).
There is a danger with not-so-good designers to make ‘funeral clothes’ -clothes that look great on the front but are plain and boring on the back (you don’t need the back to look pretty if you are lying in a coffin). When we look at ourselves we rarely see our behinds (hoorah for that I say!) but other people do so it’s good to make it look pretty.
Bess made this skirt on a bit of a whim – the wool challis had been in her stash for some time (if you have ever worn wool challis you will understand why she stashes it). The petals mysteriously turned up in her handbag the morning after a somewhat riotous wedding and have been hoarded ever since. And so the skirt was born, with no idea if A) the wool was washable and B) the petals would leak colour if it was washed.
The skirt was made in an evening, the a-line pattern is an ancient Burda start pattern (3198) that has long since discontinued although Burda 8237 is pretty similar (if you get rid of the waistband), or if you lengthen 6682 (both super easy alterations). The skirt is lined in Venezia and lightweight knit interfacing was used on the facing. Bess did the thing she always tells her customers not to do- she cut the lining the same size as the skirt and it ended up pulling and being too small. The wool challis has quite a lot of give in it, the lining doesn’t so you should always cut the lining a fraction bigger to allow for the ease, so the lining had to be chopped out and raised to allow the room. It’s a little short but if she doesn’t tell anyone they will never know 😉
Finally she attached the petals by first arranging them by eye with pins and then sewing a single line of stitching down the middle of each petal.
Bess made this rucksack for her niece, Miaow using an existing bag as a rough pattern. She blocked the vinyl onto a lilac showerproof fabric before constructing the bag – as the bag has all the seams on the outside this meant it was instantly lined -yay! The seams were bound in red ottoman bias binding and reflective grey bias binding, waterproof zips were used for the openings and nylon strapping for the straps (made more comfortable with pads of vinyl). Don’t look too closely- it was made in a rush and without a proper pattern somewhat bodged!
Aiste wearing her Black Watch tartan check panelled peplum pencil skirt she designed at college. The skirt has a central panel that can be unzipped and swapped for contrasting panels and the peplum is removable. The skirt was designed to a brief for sustainability allowing the wearer complete freedom to change colours and silhouette using minimal materials.
It is lined in Red Venezia which is visible from the front as the hem scoops down at the back.
She makes them to order so please contact us if you’d like one.
Jane made this “Channel” inspired dress using a LG tufted bouclé mixed fibre tweed for her daughter Lulu. The pattern is a discontinued Mizrahi vogue pattern that has been altered by adding a sleeve.
The whole dress was quilted to purple silk habotai lining – Jane cut all the pieces bigger and recut after the quilting was done (because the quilting tends to draw the pieces smaller), then a few more lines of quilting were added near the seams once it was sewn. Jane trimmed the neckline and pockets with velvet gimp braid.
Linda was waiting in for a delivery and thought she’d make a dress for Hogmanay… as you do. So here is what she made. It’s a New Look 6000 pattern with the gathered side made here in stretch velour. Isn’t it amazing?
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.
Jane made these gold lamé leggings for her grandchildren Kitcat and Miaow because every 7 year old and 9 year old needs gold leggings. Of course they do. She was surprised how easy it was to sew – we don’t usually buy this kind of ‘fancy dress’ fabric, but we made an exception for this rather better quality heavy jersey with a foil finish. Sewn with a stretch needle designed for high lycra content and ballpoint twin needle. No skipped stitches!
Abba songs in your head are an unavoidable side effect of seeing these trousers
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.
Sue looking STUNNING in Greece getting married, wearing the dress she made using fabulous embroidered silk organza. Sue slightly amended the Vogue Original pattern so she could make best use of the scalloped edge, removing part of the lining to allow for 180” of skirt material being gathered into 27” (few sleepless nights there) but all in all, it was the best possible fabric choice she could have made.
Here is Lesley’s latest shirt to be added to the collection. The wool challis drapes so well, it was a good choice for a warm winter shirt. She added detail on the pocket with a couple of Thermofax Screen prints and the buttons were sewn on with orange thread just to add a bit of warmth to the look of the garment.
Jane made these fabulous porcupine faux fur gilets for Kitcat and Miaow (grandchildren). Lined in Leopard/Jaguar Print Liberty Tana Lawn. Because they are such squinges Jane managed to cut all pieces out of the width of the fabric (just 40cm). Hoorah for squinges!
Rudi is a Siamese boy who has a healthy obsession with tulle and netting. He says he wants to be a ballet dancer when he grows up (except he’s so heavy he can’t jump). Here he is hanging out with the Action Man fairy and not looking remotely suspicious.
School shirts don’t have to be made out of polyester to be easy care, why are all the school shirts in the shops either horrid stiff cotton or polyester? Jane makes Kitcat and Miaow’s school shirts in supersoft cotton dobby lawn which hardly needs ironing at all, just flatten the collar and they are good to go! Made using Burda 9744 with such a tiny bit of fabric the under collar has been seamed in the middle.
Miaow told Jane that she didn’t want her to make her school jumper because she was too slow, she wanted Bess to make it…. which was a cunning plan of a 7 year old to get granny proving otherwise. The jumper was made the very same day as the request, and in the post for her to parade around the school and stand corrected. Made with supersoft Modal, Cotton and Elastane jersey (lightweight sweatshirting) with stay tape on the shoulders.
Pattern: converted from jacket on McCall’s 7044 which is out of print but there are others similar.
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!”.
Susie wearing her super cobalt blue polka-dot printed cotton needlecord tunic pattern made from the indie pattern company Wiksten Tova.
Jacoba on the amazing Wahiba Sands in Oman wearing her printed linen and viscose tunic dress – the perfect fabric to cover up yet remain cool in the blistering heat.
Look at that blue sky ~looks out of window at drizzle ~ look it’s blue! Continue reading Red and Jade printed Linen and Viscose Tunic Dress
Jacoba matching her kitchen fabulously in her red silk tweed skirt that was interlined to save getting a ‘bum’, and lined. Fabric stashed from years ago which just goes to reiterate our mantra -buy fabric when you see it – it won’t go off in the cupboard 😉
Red Blue and White check Linton Tweed made up in Burda 7041 (sadly discontinued but there are similar). It is quilted in 2″ lines to silk organza for stability and then lined in spotty silk satin. There is black satin piping round the collar and down the front and a heavy chain fixed to the inside hem to help the coat drape (it is particularly heavy so creates a real swing). It fastens edge to edge with a rouleau loops and metal half round buttons.
Bess finished making this coat nearly a year from starting due to some ‘issues’ so it’s a miracle it was ever finished as Bess does not do ‘issues’. Bess makes coats in a day, maybe over 3 days if there are complicated bits to do and she has other things going on. The problem with UFOs (unfinished objects) is once it goes in the pile it rarely escapes. To rectify this Bess hung it on the door and was not allowed to remove it – even though this meant the door couldn’t be closed. The problem that caused such a delay is No1. she used a cheaper silk organza that was heavier than normal which made it substantially heavier than she intended (unfixable). The 2nd thing was she cut the lining too short at the centre back (rectified by piecing in a bit of braid so it didn’t pull up the coat). 3rd, and rather majorly despite her checks matching perfectly at every seam when she tried to hem it it was going up in a spiral and being one check off at the front (rectified by hemming it straight and never looking at the hem thereafter).
Kitcat here (age 9 going on 14) wearing the dressing gown that she made with granny (Jane) in the summer holidays. She insisted she wanted a slinky dressing gown (like Mummy has) and was adamant that this fabric was the one. Surprisingly, despite viscose lawn being a harder fabric to sew with (we were trying to steer her towards a brushed cotton) she did a very good job.
Look at that proud face!
Viccy sent us this photo of her stunning digital floral print viscose jersey dress made with black contrast bindings and waist.
Julia (apologising for the quality of the photos) wearing her navy wool jersey cover up using Burda 6850. She was really pleased with both the weight and drape of the fabric. This is a really nice simple Autumn cover-up!
Anna from Munich (brightening up a dull day in Totnes) wearing this fabulous maxi dress. It was made up in digitally printed viscose lawn and velvet for the bodice, the pattern was taken from a dress bought in the market.
Miaow (age 6) made this tropical bird printed cotton canvas bag (with help from Jane). With appliqué parrot dangling. How cool is this?
Bernie in the South of France wearing her blue and cream dragon print cotton culottes made using a pattern taken from the Burda magazine no 195, March 2016. She made adjustments (intentionally) and took out the pleat in the front simply by seaming it down. The culottes were finished by then but felt they were far too wide so rather than disturb the good fit over the hips and waist she just took out the fullness by stitching the pleat down as a seam and then cutting away the surplus, an overall difference of several inches. Bernie did have to undo the waistband for a few inches on each side to do the job properly. Then (unintentionally as when using the overlocker to finish these extra seams she got the back caught up in it thus making a hole!) made a similar seam down the centre back of each leg of the culottes, no more than an inch or so of width, and is very pleased with the result. (HOORAH!)
As for to the top, it is made from some lightweight organic cotton jersey and the pattern is an amalgam of several for a far too complicated reason to explain! Let’s just say it is a t-shirt!
Kitcat wearing her terribly kitsch cat digital print cotton and elastane jersey long sleeved dress (made by Jane). The pattern is Burda 8455 but Jane pieced together the yoke and hem so as not to cut up the print. Kitcat is such a squinge it is cut to age 6 but lengthened in sleeve and body (Kitcat is 9!). The neck was lowered so as to go over her head and negate the need for a zip but next time the neck will be altered so it doesn’t gape.
Now all the grown-ups want one too.
She then said that she needed pink leopard print ponte jersey cardigan to complete the outfit -personally we are not so sure this is a good fashion move but what do we know in the world of 9 year old fashion? We shall leave it to you to decide. The pattern is McCall’s 6542 (age 6 with lengthened sleeves), it is bound down the front and around the neck with jersey binding.
Lesley made this fabulous chartreuse and camel stripey proofed cotton cape. This was a cape pattern picked up at a Quilt Show in France which she embellished with flowers cut with a Sizzix machine attached using the Bernini Eyelet accessory and printed with Thermofax screens. It was fun to make!
