Hello again! I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has messaged, sent love and thought about me in my absence. I'm pleased to say I'm currently doing well and looking forward to sewing {and blogging} more regularly again.  I'm really happy to introduce the Nottingham Top to you along with my Mountain View Jeans I made a few weeks ago.  The Nottingham is the newest pattern by Itch to Stitch and the Mountain View Jeans are a fairly recent one of theirs too.  Nottingham is a lovely quick sew for jersey fabrics, with just 4 pattern pieces ad looks far more complicated than it is to sew.  In the past week I've made 3 and I'm only sewing an hour or so a day at the moment!

Those of you who have been following me a while will certainly not be surprised to see the first one I made was in a floral fabric! I bought this pretty viscose lycra at Kingston Fabricland in March and love how it turned out for this. It has plenty of stretch, beautiful drape and good recovery and it was the first of my stash fabrics which called to me having seen this pattern and even better that it perfectly matched my new pink jeans! 

The pattern includes 3 sleeve options (elbow, long and butterfly flutter) a round neck and is relaxed in fit through the body but with slim sleeves.  I chose the elbow length for this one as I knew it would make a pretty summer top.

Like all Itch to Stitch patterns, the sizing is US 00-20 (31-46" bust, 33-48" hips) and is a printable PDF pattern.  An A0 version is included if you prefer to skip the taping and get a copy shop to print full size for you however the pages all went together perfectly when printed 100% on my laser printer and I'd already sewn my first one {bar hemming} within an hour from downloading the pattern!  

I'm loving being involved in blog tours at the moment, here is my stop on the first Sewing by Ti tour I've been involved in! I've followed Ti's blog and tours for quite a while now so it's a little nerve wracking to be involved myself this time! Ti's blogtours are all themed but what that means to us is up to our individual interpretation! This tour is themed "Dress up this Town" and my immediate thoughts on that were dresses for occasions, not just for Weddings, Christenings and evenings out but for the lunch dates with your girlfriends, for attending Church, for any occasion where you want something a little more than an everyday casual dress. What I came up with may not surprise those of you who know me and know what a HUGE fan of Itch to Stitch Designs I am, so here we have 3 dresses all from ITS all very suitable for occasion wear when sewn in the right fabrics whilst still working brilliantly as casual everyday dresses in others. PS. make it to the bottom for the great giveaways!

​I am SO excited to be part of this blog tour celebrating the Bluezette's 2 year anniversary! Released by Love Notions in both Ladies and Girls sizes, this is a dress pattern I've not tried before but have seen so many gorgeous versions of and hadn't realised quite how many variations could be made from the pattern and blog add-on! So many, I couldn't decide on just 1 version to make so made 2!

With well drafted sewing patterns for wovens becoming harder to find as the preferred jersey knit patterns seem to be increasing in popularity, I was happy to see Itch to Stitch's new pattern was another designed for wovens! I have to admit, I was just a little outside my comfort zone on this one as I've never worn a jumpsuit before, so I signed up for testing out the dress version only but a combination of curiosity and trust in the designer led me to trying the jumpsuit too! AND I'm glad I went with it as it's opened up a whole new avenue to explore and create with this Summer! 

From the very first sketch I saw of this beautiful dress in the Love Notions* newsletter, I just knew I needed the pattern! It was my first testing experience with Love Notions* and I was very impressed at how thorough their testing process went. Tami was so determined to get the fit perfect we actually went through 9 versions before getting to the final pattern!  I was also super happy to be able to squeeze the bodice out of the last of the stunning Summer Garden print from Lulus Fabrics, the fabric and pattern just works so well together! 

Double brushed poly, or DBP, as it's often abbreviated to, is a relatively new fabric base available to the UK market, so when I was offered the chance to sew it up and review it I was very excited! I sewed up a sample from a lovely custom fabric company, Lulus Fabrics UK, and as usual, I like to test to the max! I washed it, tumble dried it, checked for colour running, fading and shrinkage and sewed it up into various different garments to test how it sews, stretches, wears and looks! Here are my projects, thoughts and findings....