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Hawthorn, thanks for your nice comments about my skirt! I had a lot of help with the zip and the finishing and stuff, but still very proud of it.

Re finding patterns, have you got a tracing wheel and some of that paper with dots and crosses on it? In my first class, we were taught how to copy existing items of clothing by drawing or tracing round them, then adding the seam allowances. The skirt I made is basically copied off one I already had, but I took it up (I have the opposite problem from you, everything's several inches too long, I've all but given up wearing trousers!!) and in at the waist. So if you had a skirt you liked or could buy one, you could use it as the basis for many more skirts...

I'm a novice myself so probably will need help with fastenings and the like. I'm going to do a dressmaking course via ICS learning if I find I have a knack for it (I've made bits and bobs and it wasn't TOO challenging)
I want to get really good at it.

Now, I just need to find a decent fabric stockist here in the UK. There is nothing in my home city at all, apart from Boyes, and their stocks are limited.

Sewing in the UK seems to be a dying market

Have a look here guys ... I haven't used them as I am lucky to have good fabric on the markets here ... but they look very good and I like their prices ..

http://www.cheapfabrics.co.uk/thestore/ ... p/cPath/94

If you want free patterns I use these sites;

www.freeneedle.com and www.isew.co.uk,

and for inspiration and a good forum www.craftster.org

Happy sewing!

Thanks Kiery.........they have, HIPPY SKIRTS! Wooohooo!

nod nod - but havent made (or worn) a dress for many years - still comes in handy though

Hawthorn wrote: Now, I just need to find a decent fabric stockist here in the UK. There is nothing in my home city at all, apart from Boyes, and their stocks are limited.

Greenfibres do a range of organic cotton and other natural fibres... Not a huge range, but stuff you wouldn't be able to get anywhere else, I think.

(And I think that's the second time I'm mentioning them today - no, I don't get commission! Honestly! I just like their stuff...)

Ina, that's brilliant. Thank you :)

When you're fabric shopping do try the Asian shops, especially if you're in the north of England because they're quite cheep (hhmm, now I'm wondering why, where does the fabric come from????) and the staff are very knowledable.

In the sale in a tiny fabric shop in Oldham, Lancashire I bought a purple/orange/gold sari, the matching blouse and peticoat for £10 Only problem is such a sari doesn't really fit in with a Plain ethos....

Craftster is a mine of information, and it does have tutorials on how to make ths hippy skirts!

I'm saving bits of material to make my own at the moment.

I'm about to have a go at dress making too. It's one of the few areas where I shouldn't have any problems as my best mate is an artist who works exclusively with fabric, so sorting out my basic questions won't be a problem for her. I made the decision to at least try this as I'm fed up with big business telling me what colour/style clothing I can wear. A few years ago it was a disgusting burnt orange, it looked so awful on me that I couldn't buy clothes until the fad had passed - typically (but fortunately in this instance) that only took about three months.

Bluemoon, I felt the same when everybody started wearing those tunic-type dress things with 'footless tights' (i.e. leggings). They looked terrible on me and you couldn't buy normal jumpers in the shops for months!

I tried on one of those 70s inspired dresses, the ones where it's gathered above the bust and then flows freely from the centre of the bust...? if you have normal sized boobs that is.....


I looked like this:
http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/he ... impson.gif

I found a website the other day that has free patterns on it! you just print them off & stick them together... www.burdastyle.com. There are some pretty dresses & things on the site, and if you're clever you can post your patterns for other people to download & use. Old sheets are fantastic for making dresses out of...specially the cool old floral ones stolen from mum's linen cupboard

I didn't notice this thread before but it has lots of great links in it I guess I take it for granted that I did tailoring & dressmaking at college for 2 years - I'm constantly surprised when my friends can't make a simple skirt! But I'm proud to say that I helped my friend make her "dream skirt" recently - a funky circle skirt made from Thunderbirds duvet covers. I have photos but I need to make myself a Photobucket account to host them.

I love altering charity shop clothes and hate hate disposable 'fashion'.