Tabatha’s April Challenge 2014 – Days 21 – 30

Hello there!  Here’s my final round up for this year’s April Challenge…

Monday 21st April

It took me 1 and 3/4 hours to finish Little Tweedie’s dress today.  Here it is:

Little Tweedie’s Pride and Prejudice dress

The lace trim came from Debbie of Minnado’s House – thank you Debbie!  It was the perfect finishing touch 🙂

Tuesday 22nd April

Today I made another set of two Matilda cushions for a friend who saw the first ones and demanded I make her some 🙂  (I was happy to oblige!).  Sewing up these took me two hours.

Two more Matilda cushion covers for a friend

I then spent an extra hour in the evening assembling the PDF pattern of the Simple Sew Brigitte dress: a pattern that will be coming free with the first issue of Love Sewing magazine which is out on Thursday.  I’ve been asked to run a sewalong for this dress aimed at beginners so I wanted to sew it up as soon as I received the PDF.

Wednesday 23rd April

I spent two hours at naptime on the Brigitte dress, and an extra hour in the evening too.  During this time I cut the fabric, transferred the markings, sewed the darts, shoulder seams and facings, and took photos every single step of the way for the sewalong blog posts!

Thursday 24th April

I sewed for three hours today and finished my Brigitte dress.  I can’t post a reveal until the end of the sewalong, though!

Friday 25th April – Saturday 26th April

As I clocked up 9 hours of sewing in the previous three days, I took these two days off.  I was too busy socialising, eating cheesecake and going to wine tastings for sewing!

Sunday 27th April

Today I spent two hours at naptime tracing a new pattern, making the toile and adjusting the fit of the toile.  This will be my Minerva make for May.  I can’t reveal many details yet, but here’s a sneak peek of the toile:

Intriguing!

I then spent an extra hour in the evening unpicking a zip from a shop-bought dress of my sister-in-law’s – she has asked me to turn it into a skirt rather than a dress.  It took so long to unpick the zip as it was all overlocked as well.  Grrrr, I do despise alterations!

Monday 28th April

I spent two hours today cutting the fabric for May’s Minerva make, and transferring the markings etc.  I’m really excited about it!

Tuesday 29th April

I wanted to have a finished project for the end of my April Challenge, so I cut out and sewed up a new Cake Patterns Tiramisu dress in two hours today.  I let it hang overnight so that I could hem it the next day.  The fabric was from the man outside Sainsbury’s at Walthamstow market.

Wednesday 30th April

The end of the challenge!  I shortened and hemmed my new Tiramisu dress today, and, spurred on by my hemming success, I then shortened and re-hemmed my other two Tiramisu dresses, and shortened, straightened and re-hemmed my Gertie Shirtwaist dress as well!  Time very well spent, as it feels as though I have four new dresses.  The Tiramisu dresses were just that bit long on me, and I kept putting off wearing them because they made me feel a bit frumpy.  But now they’re a couple of inches above the knee and it feels like a more fun and flirty length – perfect for summer.  My Gertie shirtwaist was just wonky as hell, I recall being in a hurry to finish it at the time so that really needed some attention.  I’m extremely pleased to end the challenge with such a productive two hours!

Three dresses all shortened and re-hemmed!

Cake Patterns Tiramisu

So there you have it, the end of another April Challenge.  I’m really pleased with what I’ve achieved this month – a good mixture of sewing for myself and for others, and quite a range of projects.  I’ve not sewn some days, and sewn more than two hours on other days – overall I’ve certainly surpassed the 60 hours of sewing I planned.  Every year it really is a challenge to keep up with it, but it’s great motivation and I’m always pleased by what I can achieve.