My dressmaking year part 2

Now to reveal the other bits and pieces I've been whipping up this year.

Trousers, tops, accessories and a man shirt or two.

Many years ago I had to make trousers if I wanted any that were long enough for my 6ft self. Suddenly the shops figured out that tall women existed and hooray suddenly you could buy in lengths of 34" and even 36". Sometimes they're too long for me which is a very strange feeling indeed. I've never bought shirts for the same reason as the sleeves are woefully short.

Now I've always loved capri trousers. Shop bought capri trousers come up as pedal pushers on me (I might be exaggerating slightly here). Now there is far more choice in length, but not always in the print I want. I ordered the Sew Over It London Ultimate Trousers pattern for a quick and easy make. I loved everything about this style apart from the fact that the waistband skims the bellybutton. I felt as if the trousers were falling down all the time so I drafted a deep side fastening waistband to match the side trouser zip. The other plus of high waistbands is I can wear shorter tops without that bit of pink belly popping out.

My mum loves this style too so I've been making her a plain pair to wear, but she doesn't need them lengthening as she's far shorter than me. 

This is my most favourite, most worn top that I made this summer. It's from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. As with most of her patterns you have to modify another shape to create your chosen one, but that's fine as I get more and more confident with this dressmaking lark.

Sewing with jersey is an acquired taste and can make you curse a lot. According to my daughter's I swear a hell of lot while I'm sewing anyway so what's a few more expletives thrown into the mix. When I popped off to our local fabric emporium I swooned when I saw this cloud print. 

Then I spied gold skulls too. Equally gorgeous, but not as loved as my bright blue sky and clouds top.

A dressmaker whose style and makes I love on instagram is Back to Blighty. She posted a picture of a simple, but sweet summer top she'd made which I immediately wanted to make. Simplicity 1467 includes a great jacket too which I plan to make at some point.

I had some white cotton with a subtle feather print hanging about so that was the first top I made in this pattern. 

Wanting to make another more colourful one I found the fabric guided me. I had a small amount of vintage fabric from Pomme de Jour. An edge strip from a bed cover I think. It was just enough to cut the front as two separate pieces with enough for stitching and careful pattern matching so the join wasn't too obvious. With just enough left to make the neck yokes I added plain green cotton to the back and I kind of think it works.

I bought some gorgeous 1950's blue rose cotton from Donna Flower early in the year thinking I'd make it into a skirt. Then I came across Butterick 6217 designed by Gretschen Hirst and it seemed the perfect pairing of cloth and pattern.

I have to admit to having never worn this top. I throughly loved making it, think it looks great, but everyone time I put it on I think No, not right. No matter, sometimes it's the joy of the making and the extra skills picked up along the way.

My most loved designs for clothes come from the 1930's through to the 1960's. I adore the bias cut shapes of the 30's, 40's feminine tailoring, the flirty fun of the 50's to the zinginess and simple shapes of the 60's. I've always dressed in vintage clothes and those with a vintage twist. Although I've never been one to favour the full look, I just prefer to mix it all up in the way that I want to wear it. 

The top above is a 1960 Vintage Vogue pattern 9187. It looks like a simply constructed shell top, but it was actually quite a fiddly little devil as was finding a bottom opening zip for it.

One of my other most worn and favourite shapes is this top of which I have a few. It's a pattern hack from a dress pattern into a shape that I wanted to wear. Easy to layer over long sleeve tee's, dress up or down with cut off jeans for fun days at the beach.

Having really enjoyed making up the Arielle skirt I printed off the pdf version of Tilly and the Buttons shirt Orla. I personally find pdf patterns a pain, all that joining up of pieces before you can even draw the pattern. It's another preparation job to add to the list before I can get on with the fun bit of actually sewing, but if that's how some patterns come then so be it.

I made this one up for Valentine's, you know red hearts and all. What I love most about this top is the petal like collar and the lacy exposed back neck zip. It's simply a fun and sweet design.

Now we're moving briefly into the world of man makes. I've made three fitted shirt for my love so far. The first one was ok, but was a sod of a pattern. Then I searched for another and found Burda 6931 which is a dream to sew up once I'd got my head around the difference of man shapes.

He likes skulls and wears some great silver skull rings so I thought he might like this cloth whipped into a shirt. 

Well he was really pleased with it and so was I as it fits perfectly. That inspired me to get on with making another one in a cloth I'd chosen with him in mind. This one I made in record time once I had the pattern firmly in my mind. In fact all ready to wear on a night out with me in my newly finished dress too so we were a handmade pair.

Sometimes I get the urge to make an accessory or two to pzazz up an outfit. 

Scarves occasionally.

But, more often a brooch. I tend to wear a brooch with every outfit so I can never have enough. My favourite are kitsch plastic ones which are jolly hard to sew and felt ones that are far easy to get a needle and thread through.

This floral posy is my most worn, all time favourite which I made from vintage felt. How I wish they made felt with this stronger texture and in these richer colours.

This is it for now for my makes of 2016 so far, but I do have a few more pieces cut out waiting to hit the sewing machine. I warned you it has become obsessional.

Annual Tops

I've been busy whirring away on my machine over the last week.

I received so many lovely comments from you about the tops that I designed and a few of you wondered if I might be offering them up for sale to you lovelies aswell. 

Well, I'm really thrilled to let you know that I have the first four Annual Tops hot of the machine, ready and waiting for a new home.

Each top is a one of a kind, all handmade by me, Bobo Bun, with great attention to detail, in a selection of vintage fabrics. 

Annual Tops are inspired by the pretty and easy to wear tops I wore in my 1970's childhood.

 

 I even managed to get a beautiful model for the day so you really get a feel for how they look. 

First up isTammy.

 This is a stunning 1960's blue and lilac floral cotton print. One of my absolute favourites to be honest.

The facing is a blue polkadot print with stripy binding. 

The slash back is fastened with a lace trim bow.

Next we have Mandy. 

 This is a made from a beautiful light cotton print from the 1950's covered in flowers and bows.

I've added a pink floral facing with pink binding and fastened the back with a tiny white flower button.

Then we have June.  sold thankyou

 June is a 1960's cotton floral, edged with a blue trim. Polkas dot blue facings with a light green binding.

Last of all we have Bunty. Sold thankyou

This is a very pretty floral cotton from the 1980's. Pink polka dot facings and green lace trom to the neckline finish Bunty off a treat.

I've several of these tops which I wear all the time. 

On hot days they're perfect with shorts, skirts or cropped jean. I just love how they instantly cheer me with the pretty prints.

 On colder days they look great over a t-shirt and when it's really cold add a cardi too.

All are made from vintage fabrics with vintage and recycled trimmings too.

 They are cut generously to fit a size 12/14.

Length from shoulder to hem is 26" (66 cm).

 As these are the first Annual Tops I've made for you, I've made them all in a mid range sizing to start with.

I am planning in the future to offer other sizes, fabric choices and individual commissions.

Now for the nitty gritty.

 Each Annual Top is £40 plus £2 post and packing in the UK. 

If you are outside the UK please email me at bobobunmakes@yahoo.co.uk for postage costs.

If you wish to buy an Annual Top then please email me with the name of the top you're interested in. 

I'll then send you an invoice via paypal. If you don't have paypal, don't worry as I can also take cheques.

Are You a Copycat?

I've been absolutely taken over by top making frenzy.

The first five are all stitched up and hanging waiting to be worn. 

I've been making lots of drawings of different changes I can make to each one. From embellishments, to shapes and fabrics. 

When an idea pops in my head when I'm out and about, I scrabble in my bag for paper and pen. When I get home all these scrappy shopping lists and receipts get added to my book of ideas and things

I've been having a lot of fun stitching these tops. I started off with a basic idea in my head and as I've gone along I've made changes to make the pattern work better.  I feel I've now got the pattern to how it works best and that means I can start to try out all my other ideas for it. 

That means even more tops then.

 I wore this one to work this week. 

There was nothing wrong with it at all, but I got the urge to add a little something more when I got home.

Come Friday I was at my machine as soon as my man drove Little Bun off to school (Miss Rosey has been abed all week with high temperatures). This is my second to last Friday off for a while as I'll be doing five day weeks for a bit so it was even more precious stitching time. 

Within a couple of hours I'd done and dusted the yellow and blue tops I'd cut out last weekend.

 I decided to keep the yellow fairly plain and simple with just a cream trim to the bottom.

 The blue one is made from one of my favourite fabrics. It has all the best shades of blue in it and I just love the bolder print. 

This is cut from a double sheet that I found at last summers Little Vintage Lover Fair in Heydon.

I've not wanted to cut into it as I couldn't decide whether to use it for curtains, a dress or ?????

Then I thought for goodness sake use what you've got and stop being so precious. 

So I cut some of it up.

Then I thought I know I'll add some blue spot binding to the neckline, give it a bit of a break up of pattern.

I squeezed out time this week to finish Little Bun's top too. 

 It fits perfectly (phew) and she loves it too (second phew). 

 

Miss Rosey hasn't asked for one yet, she is more of a Jack Wills, Hollister lover, but will wear things I make for her now and then.

Do you know, with five all hot off the machine, I have one absolute favourite. It's this one made in the most glorious cotton. The print is in perfect shades of pink, mustard and yellow which I love, but even better than that is the softness of the cotton. I found it in a fleamarket and am so glad I chose this one. I only had enough cash on me for one of the two fabrics I'd picked up and I nearly chose the pale lilac floral instead.

 

When I got the idea in my head that I wanted to make a top I knew exactly what I was after. I drew up some shapes and gathered some fabric together. As I'm slowly trying to teach myself how to make my own patterns I searched through my books to find a basic shape to help me out.

In the first Sewing Bee was a basic vest shape that gave me the starting point for the type of shapes I needed to draw. From there I made my own patterns and created tops that are nothing like the original pattern I turned to. 

I've been thinking about this a lot this part week. Does this mean what I've made is my own creation and the idea belongs to me, or is it a copy?

 My man feels that once you take something commonplace such as a vest shape and make it into your own then the design right belongs to you. A friend I chatted about it with thought you only had to make two changes to something for it to become yours. 

Copying and copyright are something that have always been on my mind and is really quite a tricksy area which a lot of other creative blogs have also discussed.

In the end I looked it up to see where I stand. 

If you're interested in this type of thing then here's a bit of what I found out woven up with my own opinions.

Question 1. What do I do if another person copies me? 

Question 2. What do I do if I see someone has copied another person?

Question 3. How do I avoid copying other people?

Question 4. Are there any rules or laws on this?

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There is the view that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". There's another view that imitation or rather downright blatant copying is not done and is in fact stealing.  For something to copyrighted it has to be original, not commonplace Design Right Act of 1949.

It's hard to absoultely avoid appearing to copy another persons creation as we are all prey to similar influences and trends and there are few things are truly original. However, there are certain things that are commonplace such as basic trousers or t-shirt shapes for example, it's what you do with that design that makes it original.

There are also some things we just want to copy for our own use as we love it so much.

If I want to copy something because I love it or I see something that inspires me then I always refer to that source. I would never offer that design for sale as my own as it's just not on (aside from the fact that there are laws about this fair dealings/fair ise rules). 

I checked up on the laws around this and it seems that are two things to consider. First, the designers brand identity. Second, the embodiment of their ideas (what they produce). 

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I've seen two examples of blatant copying over the years where one person not only takes the brand identity, rather than being able to establish one of their own and then they go on to produce exact copies of that other persons work. Both designers that I've noted being copied are very well known and highly thought of in their fields so possibly they aren't bothered by these two smaller fish in the pond. However, copying without consent of the copyright owner is against the law as is copying if you then have a financial impact on their sales. I guess this is where your copy is cheaper and easier to get hold of so people will buy from you. 

In one of these cases I was contacted by another blogger, who happened to be a highly regarded artist and had become a friend of mine (the point of this is that she was struggling with her work being copied). She asked what I thought about this other person who was copying Julie Arkell's work and then selling designs as her own. I agreed I thought it was going on and so I mentioned it to someone I knew who is great friends with Julie. Her response was that Julie was aware of it and really wasn't bothered. She created from passion and I guess at the end of the day this other person knows they're a cheat.

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If I believe someone has copied my ideas then I might challenge them if I have enough proof. 

On the whole, with the amount of places we can post our ideas and work these days, I think uploading images of your work and reminders that it is in fact your work serves as enough of a gentle reminder at times. 

You can take the other option and just ignore it as often what they've created is pretty awful anyways.

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There are so many other aspects to all of this I know. They're just my views on the subject, I'd love to hear what you think.