I’ve sewn my first top!

Remember my new, old sewing machine I blogged about a few months ago?  Well I’ve used it to sew my very first top!  It’s taken me a while to sew (mostly because I’m too indecisive and didn’t want to do anything wrong) but I got there in the end.

Here’s something you don’t often see on my blog – a photo with me in it!  But I thought I couldn’t really show you my top without me trying it on…

Although I’ve done quite a bit of sewing I’m only just getting into dressmaking (the Great British Sewing Bee was such an inspiration!).  Surprisingly, since I went to an all girl’s secondary school, we never had textiles lessons so anything I’ve learnt to sew is either something I’ve taught myself, been shown by my Mum or Nanna or learnt from a book or the internet.  It’s such a good feeling learning to do something new.  For this top I learnt how to do lots of new things, including how to make bias binding (it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be!).

I bought myself The Great British Sewing Bee book – it has lots of patterns inside which I can’t wait to have a go at, although I have promised to make my sister a new handbag so I should do that first, and maybe make myself a new bag too…

I’ve also recently acquired a dressmaker’s dummy – for free too!  It really made my day when a lovely lady, who was having a clear out, gave it to me.  It’s made from polystyrene, so can have things pinned to it, and is almost exactly the right size for me.  I’ve already started using it for some dresses I want to alter – much easier than trying to pin them on myself!