Two new garments

Theses trousers are made from the Vogue pattern 1035. I made them during a sewing course at the Modern Approach Sewing School with Janet Moville. I cannot recommend Janet highly enough. I went on a two day course where you could sew a garment of your choice. I learned so much from Janet, for example how to make welt pockets, sew a fly zip and the best way to hem a straight edge so that it does not show through. The absolute best thing though is the fit of these trousers. Janet fit my toile to me and then showed me how to alter the tissue pattern so I can make them again in the future.  It is hard to get wider leg trousers to look good when you are petite. You can see how good the fit is:

The second garment is a knit dress from Vogue 1027. 

I bought the fabric from Hot Patterns Ebay store. I made the dress size 8 at the top and 10 at the bottom but I should have made a size 6-8 as the pattern comes up very big. I followed Christina's tutorial about sewing the ties double so that you cannot see the wrong side of the fabric. You can see her guidance here. 

I am pleased with the dress, particularly the way I have used the stripes in different direction, and I like wearing it, but I have realised that I need to learn how to handle knit fabrics properly. I haven't got the grainlines lined up properly (as ou can see on the back view), the neck seam does gape a little ( I have had to put a stitch to hold it) and the hem is wavy. The fabric was generally very difficult to sew because it kept rolling up.

I have made a purchase, therefore!

I have seen a few good reviews of this book. Wendy, as in "Built by Wendy" explains how to sew with Knits. There are also three patens included. Whilst I was on Amazon, her other book using wovens just happened to fall into my shopping basket at the same time....now how did that happen?

I am also investigating overlockers which I have been dreaming of for a long time. This could get expensive!