An Emery Dress For Spring

 

It feels a bit like I've been hibernating over the past few weeks, I haven't done a lot of sewing and absolutely no blogging at all. What better way to come out of my winter sleep than by sharing a spring dress? This is my first Emery dress and I am pretty pleased with it. When I first made it though it was a  better fit but now has a bit of room both in the tummy and the back so I'll adjust for this next time.

 

My fabric was bought when I was supposed to be sale shopping in January but this was too lovely to leave behind. The colours look much brighter in real life. It isn't exactly following the plan of making a 'capsule wardrobe' either but it does fit my colour palette and flatters my shape so I am sure I will wear it lots.

Now I just need it to warm up even more out there and I'll be able to start wearing it for real. I have also made a couple of items which fit more into my capsule wardrobe so I'll be sharing those soon. Well happy (almost) spring every one. Zoe xx

Sew Your Own Pegbag

For about a year my pegs have been residing in a plastic bag that had seen better days. I decided it was about time I stitched up a new, and slightly more robust, home for them. This is a project that is pretty simple and a beginner sewer could tackle.

You Will Need:
About 1/2metre (or a fat quarter) of fabric
A hanger (I used a child size hanger)
Sewing machine (or needle and thread)
Iron and ironing board
Thread

Make Your Pegbag:
First of all you need to cut your fabric, you can use a dressmakers chalk if you have one but a pencil will do to draw around the top of the hanger about 1cm away from the edge like below:

Instead of drawing around the bottom of the hanger draw straight down as long as you would like your peg bag to be plus 1cm, cut one piece out this size and cut another out about 3cm longer.

Take the larger of the two pieces and cut it so that you have one large rectangle at the bottom and the hanger shape plus 2cm of the length at the top. Then fold the top over by 1/2cm towards the wrong side of your fabric, press and stitch. Fold the edges you have just cut over by 1/2cm towards the wrong side, press, fold over by another 1cm and press again. Then stitch all of these seams down:

These two pieces will form the opening for your pegs to go in. On the other piece of fabric, the back of the peg bag, you will also need to fold over the very top by 1/2cm towards the wrong side, press and stitch.

Now put the back piece on your work surface so that the pattern is facing up. On top put the two remaining pieces, lining up the seams that form the opening like this:

Pin these together. Then starting at the top on one side of the small seam you sewed stitch all the way down the side, along the bottom, and up the other side. The only tricky part here is the curves so go slowly. When you get to the corners, put your needle down and your footer up, turn your work and put the footer down again before you continue. Don't stitch across the top though as you need a whole for your peg to go through. It should look like this:

Now Snip off the corners (without cutting through your stitching), turn it out the right way and press. Finally pop your hanger in through the large opening and hey presto:

One simple peg bag. As if the sunshine wasn't reason enough, now you can easily hang all your clothes on the line to dry. Zoe xx

5 Things for Spring

I am so enjoying the spring weather so far. The barbecues (2 so far), the bare legs (occasionally), hanging my washing out to dry (Ok so this makes me sound old) are all things that I have enjoyed so far since it starting getting a little warmer. I wanted to share with you some ideas from the archives that would work for spring to keep you busy. Maybe you could try decorating a flower pot like this triangle one above?

Or you could make some homemade lemonade, its deliciously refreshing and perfect for a sunny day or barbecue.

You could get hold of some old furniture from a second hand shop or car boot (another great thing about spring) and paint it in the garden like I did with our bed frame.

Even though it's sunny it is still chilly some days, but don't despair you could easily sew up a floral scarf to wear for those milder days. This project is very easy and suitable as a first sewing project.

Or if you are a little more advanced in your sewing then you could try making yourself a spring dress, I have made two Elisalex dresses so far this year and think the pattern is lovely. (Here and here)

Do you have any other ideas for spring? I need some inspiration so please share! Enjoy the sunshine (if it comes back). Zoe x