Make Of The Month; Liz

Every month I trawl the #sewhayleyjanemakes hashtag to find out what everyone has been making and select one lovely maker to tell us more about their beautiful garment. This month it was Liz @thebakerthatsews

Hello everybody, my name is Liz and I am also known as @thebakerthatsews over on Instagram and Youtube. I have been sewing for nearly four years now and love everything about making my own clothes!

I have been subscribed to the SewHayleyJane boxes for over two years now and the excitement I feel towards each box is still the same as when I first subscribed. It is such a treat to receive a box full of sewing goodies and it really feels like a gift to myself when it arrives. I eagerly anticipate its arrival once I know Hayley has sent them off in the post. My box usually arrives after a couple of days although recently it’s been a little longer due to postal delays.

My unboxing ritual usually involves waiting until I can film my reaction to the month’s box for my Youtube channel. This can sometimes mean waiting until the weekend to film – I am always surprised when I manage to wait until then to open it! I love opening it on camera and sharing my reaction and thoughts as I discover the theme and fabric. I have found this to be a wonderful way to get ideas and inspiration too from the wonderful sewing community who watch my vlogs.

This month the theme was ‘Sunday Brunch’ and as soon as I saw the fabric I knew it had to be turned into something immediately. I am an early years teacher and after half term we will be using the book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ for our focus. The cotton poplin that was included just reminded me of this story so much and I started to make plans for some fun outfits to wear to school. It is a navy fabric that has cute fruit all over it. I think the children in my class will have fun naming all the fruits and matching them up as we read the story together.

In my unboxing video I talked about plans for a skirt and top that could be paired with different garments I already have in my wardrobe and asked for suggestions for patterns – particularly a skirt pattern. The Made By Rae Cleo skirt was suggested by Eponine Baker which is a pattern I had already but had forgotten about. It has an elasticated waist channel at the back and is flat fronted which makes it comfortable but stylish at the same time. I then spent some time going through my pattern stash for inspiration for a top as I wanted to create a faux dress look too.

I subscribe to the Classic Box which means I got 2.5 metres of the cotton poplin so I knew I would have enough fabric to create two garments. I had to be careful when laying out the patterns and had to play a game of pattern Tetris to ensure all the pieces fitted but I was delighted when I realised I could indeed squeeze a top and skirt out of the fabric!

I wanted a top that had some interesting details to it as I knew the skirt was quite simple so went with a firm favourite and a tried and tested pattern I already had – the Sagebrush top by Friday pattern company. It is a simple woven top pattern with puff sleeves that gather into an elastic channel, a cute ruffle across the chest and the neckline is finished with bias binding that ties at the back creating a keyhole opening.

When making the skirt I didn’t have enough fabric to add pockets but in my opinion pockets are an essential part of making any garment! I didn’t want the pockets to be a contrast detail so was careful when selecting the fabric to use. I looked through my previous fat quarters and found a space themed navy piece to use. I ensured I under stitched the pockets when adding them to ensure they don’t peek out.

Once I had sewn the skirt and top I enjoyed playing around with outfit combinations and I am so happy I now have at least three different outfits to wear to work whilst we learn about ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. The first outfit combination is the faux dress look I was hoping to create using the top tucked into the skirt. The second outfit combination I chose to pair the top with my Tilly and the buttons Bobbi pinafore. The third outfit combination I wore was my Sew House Seven toaster sweater with the skirt and I love the pop of colour you get from the fruit on the skirt.

Although I have created three looks using my two makes I can see many more outfit combinations using either the skirt with different tops and cardigans or the top paired with trousers, pinafores, skirts or culottes.

Thank you so much Hayley for providing a fabulous fabric this month that gave me lots to smile about as I got creative!