Wedding Outfit: the Outerskirt

So, this was the last sewing part of my wedding outfit to do.  I knew this one was going to be a bit of a head scratcher, but I had a very specific image I wanted to at least attempt to achieve. Originally I wanted to get secondhand curtains or table cloth, but after a lot of searching I couldn't find what I was looking for so I ended up buying from a local shop which stocks end of line products.  

As I wanted the scallops which run along the bottom of the curtains to run along the bottom as the skirt I needed to be accurate with the length.  This would also mean that, rather than just cutting the pieces out, I would need to put darts along the top of the pieces to get that shape.  I used the pattern pieces from the fantail skirt to help me get the same shape. 

First, I measured the length of the skirt (adding on the seam allowance) and transferred this onto the pattern pieces.  Then I pinned the scallop edge along the measured edge, pinned up along the sides, and then placed in darts at the top before cutting out the fabric.  I sewed up the darts to hold them into place, though these didn't hold particularly well due to the fabric.  

I sewed up the side seams, using a run and fell seam to give it some extra strength, and then used the same waistband pattern for the skirt I cut out a waistband piece.  Once I'd sewed the band on I realized that the darts on the front panel were going the wrong way, so I had to unpick this section and resew it with the darts the right way this time.  I hemmed the seam, with it running down into the skirt as I wanted to waistband to remain more clean looking.  The way these curtains are made the fabric doesn't actually need hemming as it doesn't fray.  However, as all the seams are visible from the outside I wanted them to be neat.  

Before I started making this I had thought that I'd leave the two skirts separate, but once it was on I realised that the two could easily separated whilst we are doing all our activities on the day..  So I sewed the two waistbands together with a top stitch.  Unfortunately, since doing this I noticed that the scallops at the front of the skirt are no longer flush with the bottom of the skirt.  I think it's due to the seam around the waist band which has could have lifted the fabric, so I'm going to iron it and hopefully that'll flatten this down.

And that's it, the last item I needed to sew for the big day.  The only thing left to make for the outfit was a shawl, which I've now knitted so it is complete.  Now all I need to do is work out hair and makeup, should be interesting.

Wedding Outfit: the Top

There was a very particular style that I was wanting for my wedding top and it has been so stuck in my head that I didn't want to produce anything else.  There was a lot of searching online for the right pattern, but, even though the style is quite simple, I just couldn't find one that looked quite right.  I did, however, find a blog that described how to make something similar to what I was looking for (Off-the-shoulder Ruffle Top by We All Sew) and decided I would use this as the starting point for the design I wanted.

This top was to be an off the shoulder top and part of the look that I was going for was to have lace along the top and around the shoulders.  However, I couldn't quite work out how I was going to make that work on a top that needed wasn't going to have any fastenings and which would hopefully be able to take some movement.  Then I realised that there is actually elastic lace out there, so I headed over to Minerva (which is fastly becoming my go to shop for everything sewing related).  When it arrived in the post it was actually much more beautiful than I thought it was going to be and it has the stretch it needs whilst still sitting really nicely along my skin.  The rest of the top was made up using the cotton bed sheets I had used to make the skirt with, but which I had put aside before dying.

My plan was to just draw the pattern straight onto the fabric and then cut it out from there, but I got a bit nervous about that so I decided to draw it out on paper first.  As I don't have any pattern paper but do have a lot of paperwork from when I did a mini declutter a little while ago I decided to just Sellotape those together and use that instead.  I double checked all of my measurements and then transferred this information onto the paper adding a 1.5cm seam allowance.  And yes, that is a bowl you see that I used to help me draw the circular sections underneath the arms.

The information on the website I edited this pattern from tells you to put out the front and back pieces exactly the same.  However, I have a small back and relatively large chest, so this would mean that the top wouldn't actually sit properly on my and would end up showing off my bra at the front of the arm holes.  To counter act this I increase the width of the front piece and reduced the width of the back piece, so I now have two pattern pieces which make up the main body of the top.

I started by sewing up the side seams of the body to check the fit and, once I was satisfied with this, did a run and fell seam along these sides and tidied up the edges of the arms.  It was then time to work out what size I wanted the lace section to be and where exactly on my shoulders I wanted it to sit.  I originally sewed up the lace based on measurements I took of my shoulders, but it was too lose so I tightened it a little.  

Next up was attaching the main body to the lace trim and, I'm not going to lie, this did take quite a while.  Firstly, the lace needed to sit a lot further down the top than I originally thought it would need to.  Even when I got this right and had sewn it all together it still didn't sit right and I had to unpick it and try and fit more of the cotton fabric into the lace.  As you have to stretch the lace to work the non-stretching cotton in I was worried that having to do this repeatedly would over- stretch elastic in the lace so that it no longer functioned properly.  Thankfully though, this wasn't the case and the top now fits exactly how I wanted it to.  

The last thing was to check the length of the top and then hem it with the basic fold over twice and sew method.

Now that it's all finished I am very happy with the results.  I am a little worried that I've now made the lace a little bit too tight, but we'll see how it goes.  I'll try it on again a little closer to the time and make any changes I need to then.  It feels good to have ticked off something else on the list of things I need to craft for the wedding.  Whilst I was making this top I was also making the matching masks we wanted to have just in case things changed with the pandemic again.  So now what's left it the lace overskirt, my partner's tie, and knitting my shawl.  I'm getting here, which is great and is making me feel a whole lot less stressed than I was before.

February 2022 Budget

Well February didn't exactly go to plan, and even that statement is probably an understatement.  The main issue has been that I got ill two weeks in a row, firstly with a sinus infection and then with an unknown illness where I just felt weak and tired (and which has actually been coming on for a few months now).  I've also had to take some time off work to get blood work, etc done to try and work out what has been happening (the conclusion being so far that we don't know) and the weather this month hasn't helped either.  To finish it all, my partner was made redundant at the end of February - always good.  So what did we actually managed to do in February.

I have managed to make payments into my credit card as I had hoped and some payments into my pension, though not the full amount planned.  Deciding to pay £50 a week instead of £200 a month into my pension has made a whole lot of difference though, probably because it seems a lot more manageable.  I'm going to try and up the amounts I pay each week in the future until I'm back on track with my totals (I seem to remember this happening last year 😂).  I've decided to pay off the last of the credit card with my savings as the interest I get on my savings is less than what I get charged for my credit card.  I'm going to keep it as  debt though and just pay back into my savings instead.

Not going to lie, it isn't just me earning less this month that's been the problem.  We've spent much more on takeaway then we should have done as the 'one takeaway /eating out a week' flew out the window.  We've also spent a little more than we should have on just things, though a couple of payments have been on some travelling we're needing to do in March, such as for job interviews.  One plus is that I've had to spend less on fuel this month as my work has been closer to home in February.  All other expenses have pretty much remained the same as usual.  We have had some more wedding spending to do, but thankfully we have savings to cover that.

The lack of income and higher outgoings than there should have been means that we haven't put any money into savings like we were supposed to do.  On the savings and sinking funds front, we've decided to move money from our four months emergency fund to fully pay our car repairs and Christmas sinking funds.  That way we know we don't have to worry about those anymore, especially as our car is very old now, in case work remains low for the next few months.  It also means we now only have one thing to focus on in the future.  

As for next month, money is going to be a little bit tight and we are going to have to be very careful with where our money is going.  It's pretty unlikely that we'll actually reach our financial goals this quarter, but that's fine - we'll manage.  I will try to find some extra hours at work to cover our outgoings and if we need to go on a diet of beans and rice for a bit I'm sure that won't be a problem.  I'm also pretty sure my partner will find a new job very soon, he's good at that.  My hope is that we don't need to eat into our savings any more than we have already and just work on building it up again once our earnings have gone up again.