When Sam sent us a photo of a top she wanted to make, we were instantly backing the idea because the top was so unusual but gorgeous and stylish. We set about deciding which fabrics would be best and Sam chose from the swatches we sent. Read on to see how her make turned out.
One thing WhiteTree fabrics are proud of is our extensive selection of laces. Stretch, rigid, with a scalloped selvedge, without, floral, geometric, all different colours and designs.....we have over 700 designs to choose from. So when we saw that The Greart British Sewing Bee were going to be featuring a Pencil skirt challenge where the contestants had to work with lace, we reached out to our bloggers and challenged them to make a garment of their choice, the only rule being that that had to work with lace too. Sam chose our Black/blue lace. Take a look at the two great projects below.
Two ways with lace
As you probably know, I'm lucky enough to be a member of the White Tree Fabrics blog team. A while ago Lisa from White Tree contacted me and asked me if I would like to take part in a special, top secret project for them, using a particular fabric.
The fabric in question was lace.
Of course, I jumped at the chance, I haven't had much experience of sewing with lace and thought it would be good to try.
The reason it was top secret (at the time) was that White Tree Fabrics had been asked to provide some lace for the current series of The Great British Sewing Bee. This meant that I couldn't share my project until the series aired.
The "lace" episode aired yesterday (it was the semi-final) so I can now show you what I've made with the lace I was sent.
I've actually used it in 2 projects, very different from each other.
The first is a pair of lace and satin pyjamas. A bit glamorous for me - I'm normally in jersey pyjamas - but lovely for a treat!
I had to pin them to Rosie, as they're a little tight for her. They fit me fine, but I didn't really want photos of me wearing them on the internet!
For the top I used Vogue V7837, view G. This is actually a teddy, but I just chopped the crotch part off, and made it a top. I used this view as I liked the idea of the darted cups for a bit of support.
I teamed the lace with some black satin backed crepe I had in my stash, using the lace to cover the cups and make an edging to the bodice and the hem.
The shorts I just left plain, using a free pattern from Vera Venus (scroll about halfway down the page).
Once I'd made the pyjamas I still had quite a bit of the lace left, so I sorted through my fabric stash to see if I had something else I could pair it with. I came up with some grey and blue striped jersey - the blue being almost exactly the same shade as the lace.
A striped Breton style top with lace yoke was born.
I used the free Deer and Doe Plantain t-shirt. It was the first time I'd used this pattern and it won't be the last. I'm really happy with the fit I got.
I used the lace for a yoke, both front and back, and cut motifs from the lace to use in place of the oval elbow patches included in the pattern.
I hope these two very different projects have encouraged you to have a go at sewing with lace. As you can see it can be used in very different ways. Do have a look at White Tree Fabrics selection, I'm sure you'll find something you love!
Not every project is a winner. All the ingredients are there - a great pattern and lovely fabric, but sometimes in the end the finished garment just doesn't work. Having said that, we think this dress is lovely, but we'll let Sam explain in her own words.....
I have a long overdue project to share with you today. This is a dress I made with fabrics provided by White Tree Fabrics, for their blog team. I actually made it about 2 months ago, but for some reason never got round to blogging about it.
I think the reason why I haven't blogged about it is that although I love the fabrics White Tree kindly provided and in theory I like the pattern, I just don't like the finished dress on me. This is also why you're now seeing it modelled by headless Rosie, rather than me. It looks so much better on Rosie.
The pattern I used is the Zsalya dress by Kate & Rose Patterns. It's the kind of dress I used to love for Autumn/Winter with thick tights and boots and a cardi when it's really cold. But I think my style has changed somewhat and it's not really "me" now. It is a lovely pattern though, and well written. It gives 2 options for finishing the yoke - a "thorough" finish that leaves you with no raw edges and a quick finish that does leave exposed edges. True to form, I didn't use either, as I made my yoke from a single layer of fabric, rather than self line it as the pattern instructs. I did this because I wanted to use the remains of the embroidered lawn I used for my Victoria blazer back in the summer. To finish the neck edge I took a leaf out of Carolyn's book and used a bias cut strip of fabric. This highlights the crossover really nicely.
The main body of the dress is made from this ditsy print chiffon. It's really unusual fabric. The base is a crinkle chiffon, which has strips of lace applied across it, then the ditsy print has been added on top. It's available in several colours, and I had a hard time choosing the one I wanted. The pink and the green would both be lovely for Spring, if your thoughts are turning in that direction.
The photo above shows the lace overlay on the fabric pretty well.
In all honesty I'm not sure how much I'll wear this dress. I do have some of the chiffon left over, so I'm thinking I might use the leftovers and recut the dress into something I am more likely to wear, as I love the fabric.
Thanks must therefore go to White Tree Fabrics for providing me with the materials for this dress. Care must be taken by myself to ensure I'm making something I really want to wear when provided with such lovely fabric.
We still love Sam's dress! What do you think? Success or fail?
If you'd like to try working with our ditsy chiffon to try and create that perfect Spring/Summer dress, you can choose from these colours:
And to help you create the perfect garment, we've just put this fabric on sale.
Happy Sewing!
Here are WhiteTree fabrics, we've been incredibly lucky to work with such talented seamstresses and bloggers who have produced gorgeous dresses, fabulous tees, blouses, cardis, hoodies, bags, PJs and more. Every make we see inspires us and makes us look at our fabrics in a different light when we see what lovely garments can be created from them. The latest make is no exception! Sam contacted us to say she was making a blazer, an idea which we loved! So here is the first outerwear make in full.
I made the blazer using the same alterations as my first one (which was actually a muslin for this version). The frilled peplum was drafted using the information given with my inspiration version, although a little less deep as I wasn't going to be hemming it. As the fabric had a lovely scalloped edge, I used that as the hem of my frill.
Instead of the cuffs given with the pattern I used a strip of the scalloped edge of the fabric here as well to echo the scalloped hem.
WhiteTree fabrics are delighted to welcome Sam Molloy to the WhiteTree Blogging Team.
Sam is a building surveyor who wishes she was a fashion designer. She's rarely without some form of craft on the go. These days its most often sewing, or knitting, but over the years Sam has dabbled in everything from water colour painting to jewellery making.
Her favourite things to sew (and wear) are dresses, although she's trying to add more separates to her wardrobe of handmade items.
Sam also enjoys free motion machine embroidery and has sold her work at local craft fairs and through her online Folksy shop.
She is really looking forward to working with White Tree Fabrics and delving into their extensive fabric selection, and we can't wait to see what she comes up with! You can follow Sam's sewing adventures over at her blog, Stitched up by Samantha.
