And doesn't it look fab?! Clean, fresh, bright, bold and fun. Exactly what I've come to love about Tilly's blog and style. All the photos are really clear and bright, I love the way she uses plain backgrounds to make things really stand out (and co-ordinating nail polish!). The writing is exactly the same tone and style that Tilly uses in her blog, and the little touches of humour work perfectly, there's no talking down or dumbing down, definitely more of a good friend and great teacher leading you through, and depending on your confidence levels you can keep referring back to earlier tutorials, or move on more quickly to the next project.
I read through the whole thing cover to cover over the weekend and was really impressed with how the book has been put together. As other bloggers have mentioned (I followed the Love Sewing Blog Tour last week), the book is designed to get you stuck into sewing straight away with progressively more advanced techniques introduced as you move onto the next project. This makes such a refreshing change from a lot of other sewing books, which focus sometimes half the book on dealing with each technique separately and in isolation. I've been referring to my Mum's copy of the Reader's Digest Complete Book of Sewing (published 1978!) when I get stuck on how to do something, and it's fine for dipping into for a quick reminder, but not the kind of book I want to read from start to finish.
Love at First Stitch definitely makes me feel much more encouraged to just give it a go and learn while doing. I'm one of the world's worst procrastinators when it comes to trying new things - I have somewhat perfectionist tendencies, so if I don't think I'm going to be able to do something well, I worry about even trying and therefore put it off... Obviously I've managed to conquer this with regards to my knitting, so with Tilly's help I don't see why dressmaking should be any different.
The projects in the book are all lovely, really good classic shapes that will help form the basis of an everyday wardrobe, and with enough variations and suggestions made for individualising them to feel confident about making things work for me. For instance, the Megan dress is designed with a high waist, which I know won't suit my body shape, but there are instructions given for lengthening the pattern pieces and making adjustments to move darts. Not too scary.
The pattern pieces for most of the projects are included at full size on separate sheets in the back of the book - I haven't had a go at tracing these off yet, but I've got my tracing wheel and carbon paper ready to give it a whirl.
Having already made my Brigitte scarf for the online launch party last week, the next project in the book is a pair of pyjama trousers called Margot, finished with a drawstring waistband. So that's what I'm going to attempt next.
Coincidentally, it was Plush Addict's warehouse open day on Saturday, and as they are only a 45 minute drive away from me I went for a ride over there to have a look round and see what goodies I could find. Oh. My. Goodness. I could have been lost in there for days! Racks and racks of fabric gorgeousness in as many colours and prints as you can think of, and probably a few more after that! It was clearly a popular outing for lots of people from all over the place - I heard mention of trips from Ipswich and Cardiff! But I did have a lovely look round and eventually managed to make my mind up, coming away with this fabulous foxy print cotton to make my Margots.
I also got a couple of other bits, but I'll let you know what I make with them when I get round to figuring that out! I could have quite happily spent a small fortune on beautiful florals, bold polka dots and chevrons, cutesy animals and even Star Trek prints! But as my greatly suffering bank account would have likely had an aneurysm I managed to restrain myself.
Plush Addict had also got some sewing machines there for demonstrations and for sale and it made me think seriously about looking for a new machine to upgrade and give me some more useful capabilities. I'll keep you posted.
So, as per Tilly's instructions in Love at First Stitch, I've washed my fabric, and it's ready for a press before I get stuck into tracing the pattern pieces and actually cutting them out of the fabric! The foxy print is so much fun I don't really care how the trousers turn out, but obviously if (when...) they are perfect (ha!) I will be living in them permanently. Until I make my next beautiful garment from the book of course!
Congratulations and thank you Tilly for a wonderful book, I'm definitely going to be ordering the Coco pattern soon too, once I've got the hang of a few more basics. What do you all think of Love at First Stitch? Have you made any of the other projects yet? I'd love to see what you've been making, and I'll show you how I get on with the Margot trousers soon.
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