Of a magazine, a pattern, and a dress. . .

A few weeks ago I saw a new magazine that was being launched called Love Sewing, and it looked good so I decided to give it a try - it's fantastic! Lots of projects, new fabric lines, interviews, helpful articles, free gifts and patterns...what's not to love? I'm now subscribed so I don't miss an issue! 

The free pattern in this issue was a downloadable one from Simple Sew Patterns - the Brigitte dress.

I thought it was really pretty, and fairly simple which is good as I don't often make things for myself!

They suggest in the magazine to use cotton or jersey, so I decided on cotton as I already had a couple of metres of this gorgeous Makower beach huts fabric from Ditto Fabrics and thought it would make a pretty summer dress.

Printing out and assembling the pattern was pretty straightforward - after measuring myself and checking the sizes on the pattern I made a size 16 (I wear a 12-14 in 'shop bought' clothing) so make sure you check your sizes...however this is quite the norm for sewing patterns!

I also decided to make the sleeves shorter, and to add a lining as the cotton I chose was a little see through!

I'd never made a lined dress before, so I chose a thin cotton (from an old bed sheet!), cut all the pieces as I did for the actual dress, and tacked the pieces together like for like - from then on I treated each piece of matching tacked lining and dress fabric as one piece, and then sewed it all together. It worked really well doing it that way!

This is a 'halfway stage' picture...

The step-by-step instructions were really clear and simple to follow...even for the invisible zip, which I'd never done before! Mine didn't turn out QUITE as invisible as I would have liked, but that was down to my sewing skills and not the instructions lol! 

Overall, I was very impressed - I will definitely be getting more patterns from them! Actually, Issue 2 of Love Sewing arrived on my doormat yesterday (3 days before it's available in the shops - the benefits of subscribing!) and it has a paper pattern for this beautiful top and skirt from Simple Sew Patterns as a free gift, so I will be blogging those makes shortly! I love the vintage styling of them and can't wait to get sewing! 

So anyway - here's a pic of the *almost* finished dress...I hadn't hemmed it here lol!

And one of me wearing it (over jeans, it was chilly lol!) - excuse the photo, I had to rope in the Mr. to take it!

 I've worn it a few times since and had lots of nice comments - people even asking me where I bought it! Nothing better for a sewer than to hear that!

Well, I say nothing better...

I opened the above Issue 2 of Love Sewing yesterday, and what should I see but MY DRESS! In the magazine! I was over the moon!

Although next time I take a picture of something I make and post in on Facebook, I'll make sure to not have my ratty old ironing board in the background ha ha! Oops! 

In the next couple of days I will be sharing some thoughts on my new sewing machine with you too, now it's had a good road test!

Thanks for looking

Lisa

xxx