Sew Over It Lizzie Skirt

Hi lovelies!

I hope this finds you well, today I am going to share with you my experience of the Sew Over It Lizzie Skirt.

The Lizzie Skirt is a pleated skirt which normally isn't my style. When I think pleated skirt I think of an out of date pleated style where the pleats go in one direction all around the skirt. I do however love and trust Sew Over It so I decided to give Lizzie a go. Best decision I've made in a long time!

The main thing to note is that the pleats on this skirt are completely modern and flattering. They go from each hip inwards but the actual hip is left flat which avoids extra bulk. I'm a little bigger at the bottom and this is so much more flattering for me than most skirt shapes. Circle skirts look ridiculous on my because they add so much volume at my biggest point. I've been craving that big flowy skirt feeling and actually felt quite left out, I known that sounds silly but I just wanted to wear a big skirt and have it look flattering. I'm so glad that there is this pattern which allows me that big skirt feeling and actually flatters my shape.

I adore sewing pleats so this skirt was a total pleasure to sew from start to finish. And as always with Sew Over It patterns the instructions were clear and easy to follow. I decided to line my skirt to give it a bit more body and I'm really glad I did, it is lovely to have a pretty inside to the garment and it's such an easy step, totally worth it in my opinion.

As for my fabric, it's actually another duvet cover. Cotton is expensive and I just couldn't find one I loved and wanted to spend that much money on. This duvet was £11 and I used less than 1/4 for this. And I love this fabric so it was really an easy decision for me. It's strange that I love this fabric since I don't like roses but there's something about the colours I just love.

I decided to keep the skirt long which was sort of a last minute decision. I had planned to hem the skirt right up to above my knees but I tried it on and just fell in love with the big skirt. Also this means it's perfect summer length, I tend not to wear short skirts in summer. It looks adorable with some sandals and a t-shirt for a casual summer day. I'm glad I was able to keep it from being too dressy. That being said, I might make a matching crop top in case I need to go anywhere fancy...You never know, could happen.

I love everything about this skirt. The addition of pockets makes it so much more practical to wear and is a lovely feature of the skirt. The waistband fastens with a hook and bar (mine isn't here yet so I can't show you a photo of the back. Sorry!) which is another lovely feature and just looks so professional and neat.

I added a longer zip than is called for by the pattern because I usually struggle to get skirts over my hips otherwise but this was easily done. If you want to do this and are lining your skirt just make sure to sew the back seam of the lining only to the point where your zip actually is, as opposed to the zip notch on the pattern.

The one alteration (of sorts) I made here was something I always end up needing. After interfacing the waistband or facings of a garment I find they no longer fit so I cut them a little longer to allow for this. My waistband would have been to short if I hadn't done this here and wouldn't have closed with a hook and bar. I'm not sure if anyone else has this issue but it's something I try to factor in now since its caught me out a few times.

So that's the Lizzie skirt. Definitely my favourite skirt and for sure my favourite make thus far on my short sewing journey. I just want to wear it all the time but it's really cold out so I'll have to stick to twirling in my bedroom.

Thank you for reading!

Happy sewing,
Jessica x

Bettine Dress Review

Hi lovely people!

Today I have a pattern review of the Tilly and the Buttons Bettine Dress, my first ever Tilly pattern. I had wanted this pattern for a while and I love my first finished version.

 I used a duvet cover for the dress, assigning the llama print to the skirt and the flower print for the bodice. I figured a whole llama dress might be a little much, plus I liked the contrast with the pretty flower.

I made a size 3 in this pattern and it fits lovely with the exception of a slightly snug skirt. I am slightly bigger on bottom so this wasn't a surprise (especially in a non stretch fabric) and it was easily fixed by using a 1cm seam allowance instead of a 1.5cm as the pattern calls for. The next size would have been too large in the bodice so this slight alteration was great. I do worry though that Tilly and the Buttons patterns might not fit those who wear larger sizes as I'm normally a size 8 and was between the sizes 3 and 4. 

The actual dress is lovely, I adore the shape and easy construction. It's a great year round dress, just switch out your fabrics according to the season! Pockets are always a great feature and these are a really lovely flattering style of pocket. Overall I had no trouble with the dress other than the actual instructions....

I feel like I'm going to be the only one to ever say this but honestly, I really didn't like the instructions in this pattern. I've only ever heard how easy Tilly's instructions are to follow and how great they are for beginners so it was a surprise when I read the booklet that came with the pattern as I was sewing. My issue wasn't that the instructions weren't helpful enough, it was just that there was so much information for each step. Every step had a huge paragraph of writing so it was difficult to see at a glance (which is all I want to do as I know the basic construction) what the step actually was. I don't disagree that this could be helpful for a complete beginner although I'd argue that it's still a lot of information that could have been broken up more or written more concisely. Sew Over It are a great example of a pattern company who do instructions that are really beginner friendly without being too waffly. Also I found the pictures misleading and confusing on occasions but that might be because my head was already trying to process the huge amounts of information in each step. This is really off-putting for me as it really made sewing the dress slower. I would read through the whole step twice just to be able to pick out what it's actually telling me from all the superfluous information.

I bought the printed version of this pattern and I was pleased to see how high the quality was for the whole thing, it's really well presented and lovely to have good quality paper to trace from. The theme and colours are super pretty also.

Overall I'm happy with this dress and I would consider another Tilly, maybe just reading the instructions before hand so I don't have such an issue with the instructions whilst sewing.

Thank you for reading!

Happy sewing sweethearts,

Jessica x