Mirroring Suzy Bee Sews - Life So Strange It Should Be Fiction

  This is the third time I've made this for my daughter, its turned into her TNT coat pattern! This version is similar to the last one , Sz 42 but I took it in at the waist and lengthened the bodice. I also took a 1/2" tuck out of the front bodice piece and pleated the skirt rather than gathering it. The hood is traced off a hoodie she has that fit well. The fabric is a stretch drill from the best garage sale ever , its a mint colour but the photos all came out slightly darker than it is in real life. The lining was a satin she picked out, there was only enough to line the body so the sleeves are a poly lining from Great Nan's stash. Since the skirt section was pleated I hid the pockets in a pleat, copying the directions from the Colette Macaron dress. The buttons are reused from the first version of this pattern. The belt was made mostly following Tilly's tutorial except I used elastic instead of interfacing and some press studs. Makes a really cute belt and I...

My poor handbag is falling to pieces and I can't find anything I like in the stores at the moment so thought I'd have a go at making a bag. This is the pattern from the Burdastyle handbook, its the main version of the bag with a couple of changes like inside pockets and different straps. I had fabric leftover from my rose trench coat so first made an underlined pencil skirt....... which bagged out and looked terrible so I unpicked it and remade it as a lined pencil skirt....which fitted badly enough I didn't even hem it. So it was oddly satisfying chopping it up for this bag! I reused the original skirt lining too as the bag lining. The straps were originally sleeve bands for the trench coat which I left off so it was nice to use them for the straps since I'd already done bound buttonholes in them. The silver buttons are out of my stash.   Because I was using a thinish cotton sateen for the bag I interfaced it and also used fusible fleece on the lining to give it a bit ...