Sewing saves you money

First week back at work of the new year out of the way and I have to say I was shattered by the end of it.  You have a couple of weeks off and suddenly you get tired quickly, it just goes to show how soon your body adapts to a different routine be it good or bad. Rushing around getting things done at the end of the day has meant my sewing has slowed down but this will improve as I get back into my working routine.

I like to practise my guitar, read and swim as well as sewing so I want to make sure everything is balanced and sometimes it feels like there are not enough hours (you know that feeling).

Today was intended to be my sewing day but I have had a headache all day which is only just lifting I may get a little done later but for now I thought I would give a run down on the cost of my Christmas sewing.

The fabric for all of the garments I made over Christmas and the the Christmas party dress I made a few weeks before came out of money I received for my birthday.  I ordered it from Minerva Crafts and it cost me £27 for 3 metres of chiffon (various patterns) 1 metre of sweatshirt fabric and 2 metres of Jersey.

Below is a round up of what I made for  that amount...

A party dress.  This would easily have cost at least £30 in a shop, more depending on where. 

This dress which can be worn day or night I think, it is very comfy and a really good weight fabric.

This dress which can be worn  any season as you just add layers under it. ( Which is what I did when I wore it last week)

Same style as the one above but without the sleeves.

This loose long sleeved blouse, needs a top underneath though!

Another top in need of a long sleeved T shirt underneath but that would still have been required had I bought it from a shop.






Finally this sweatshirt, I just made the pattern by laying out a top I already owned to give me an idea of size and measure my arms to get the sleeve length right.




So five garments for £27, I know some of you may be thinking that you managed that in the sale. However these garments fit me perfectly which is what you get when you sew for yourself, also you are aware of the labour that went into these items and also the enjoyment from creating them yourself.  Given those factors I would say that you not only save but also learn and find a bit of peace in the process.

Weekend Sewing

I thought I had better get on here and update quickly as soon as I came home as now I am back at work time is tight.  Saturday afternoon I made up another dress along the same idea as the blue one but this time without sleeves.  This material was not as heavy as the blue and with quite a bit of bounce which always makes for awkward stitching but it was still pretty quick to put together.

It was green in the picture when I ordered it (the lines in the check) but after staring at it it looks brown to me, then at work today I looked down and it did in fact look a bit olive green. So maybe I am colour blind, or I have bought some weird chameleon type fabric. It was worn today with very thick brown tights and a long sleeved brown T  shirt underneath.

I had to face around the sleeves on this one and I have not done belt loops as I have different size belts which I may wear depending on what top I wear underneath this.

Yesterday I made up a sweatshirt , I just used used a top I already had and made it loose, a piece for front and back, sleeves and a bottom extra hem piece.  Again very quick to make up so I really need to source  some more good heavy sweatshirt fabric (preferably with a bit of detail in it so it doesn't look too much like a hoody.)

This fabric had a bit of a fleck in it, a bit more interesting than plain, but quite a lot of fray.

So that was all of the fabric I bought a month ago with birthday money, it certainly gave me more value and entertainment than buying the items.  I have a few fabrics left bought at other times still to be made up so I haven't ran out just yet.  I will break down the cost of these items in a few days and hopefully inspire you to sew, or at least give it a go.

First dress of the Year

More sewing and this time it's a dress, not from the new book this time as I already had in mind what I wanted to do with this fabric when I bought it.  I have other dresses that I have made in the same style and they get lots of wear so I wanted to make something I knew would get worn often.
Here are the pieces all cut out...

Photos are so much better in the daylight.  I will learn how to take better photos in all conditions one day. I did not add it as a goal this year though as I have wrote down so many I do actually want to achieve some if not all of them! Adding another would have been too much but it may have helped with the rest.

Here I added the darts once it was on the mannequin, it works for me to do it this way or sometimes with me wearing it first.  It depends what I am  making and how confident I am with it, like if I have made it before I will just try it on the mannequin.

This fabric was just so lovely to work with I may have to get more. I would normally face or bind around the neck but as this was quite thick it would make it bulky, also there was no fray at all.  I just did a small zig zag around the neck then turned it under and hemmed it.  It lay completely flat, after all the faffing of the last few days with the chiffon fabrics this one was just a joy to sew.

Here it is finished, now I think this is such an easy dress to make and if you choose a fabric like this one (heavy jersey) with no fray you don't even have to finish off seams on the inside. It is also really comfortable.  I don't use a pattern I make it up as I go but I could do one for this in size 8 or 10.  So I am  thinking about learning how to size this up and then maybe having some printed to sell?

  This is all just an idea at the moment as I don't know where to begin really with the whole printing, marketing etc.  I do know though that I would give very detailed photo instructions for every step  so this would be perfect for someone just learning to sew.  I would really appreciate any thoughts from anyone out there on if you think this would be something you would be interested in.  Also any tips on moving forward with this sort of venture.

One last photo with the dress on...