Completed: Peony Hazel...

 I finished another garment! This is my first dress in 2 years! How nuts is that? Its Colette Hazel and its a great summer dress. This fabric is from Ditto in Brighton and is Michael Miller Peony fabric. I have a bit of a love for Peonies and my favourite is a pink one called Sarah Bernherdt after the actress. So when I saw this fabric I had to have it, even though it was quilting cotton. There in lies the problem with this dress. Its not the pattern, its the fabric. I'm not in love with it! I've received great compliments since wearing it out but i'm still not sure.

I used this dress to teach three students last weekend in my new "studio" (read sewing room) We had a great time and I'm teaching another one on 29th and 30th of June. If your interested in joining this class please drop me an email.

Here it is with a purple cardigan. This is mostly how I wear it. I've made a second version from Sateen that is going to be blogged soon and I like that one much better. I just feel this fabric is way too girly for my current style. I think i've grown out of cutesy frocks, but it doesn't hurt to have one in your wardrobe does it?

So heres the Stats:
Fabric: Quilting Cotton from Ditto pre 2013 so 0.00
Notions: One Zip from Stash 0.00
Pattern: Colette Hazel PDF around £10
Total: £10
Wearability: 4/10 Its going to get worn occasionally when I need a girly dress but its not a wardrobe staple for me.

Finally I have to say I love the Hazel pattern. My second dress took me just under three hours to put together. There could be a lot more of these to grace my wardrobe!

So Much to Tell You All... The Sewing Room!

I'm back! Not that I ever went away mind you, I've been sewing up a storm!
I finally got my sewing room up to scratch. Its not yet perfect but its pretty close. Piemaker worked really hard and got it ready for my first group sewing lesson this weekend! Even putting up the Expedit for me.
(It looked a lot neater before.) I'm so excited I had to show you, I still have tweaks to make, like a longer table and some more colourful bits like curtains and lamps etc.

 Can you see one of my recent unblogged makes? Photos to come soon! I managed to put almost all of my fabric in colour order on my Expedit so I can see it. I find so much inspiration from looking at my books and fabric so I was glad I could have them out on display! Its a south facing room and is really light and lovely. The wall colour is called Rice Cake. We tried out something with a sparkle in but it looked like streaks of fake tan on the wall. I was not happy! Bless him Piemaker did the whole room again!

We went for laminate flooring this time so pins don't get lost. In our old house I got constant pin fear as they used to stick up unexpectedly in the carpet. I have a couple of finished projects to photograph and Me Made May to catch up on! I've been stalking the Flickr group and loving what everyones wearing!

Me Made May 2013...

Yes guys I am signing up! Unfortunately I'm not going to go better than last year. I've come down with a nasty virus thats affected my breathing so I'm less than inclined to take photos of my snotty, wheezy self every day for a month.
Since the weight loss, a lot of my me mades also no longer fit me and I've not yet caught up with enough to make it through a full month.
So here goes:

 'I, Stevie of 'Beebee's Vintage Dress' blog sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear one item of me-made clothing three days a week for the duration of May 2013. I will also make two new garments in this time.'

I'm more likely to stick to this as its been rare for me to make it to the end in the past, it also gives me a bit more time to deal with deadlines I have coming up on my MA. 
How are you taking the pledge this year?

I Was There!: Sewing Summit...

I'm sure you've seen this all over the blogisphere this week. But we managed to cram 40+ Sewists into a meetup! How awesome is that!

It was lovely to catch up with old friends and finally meet some new ones. I was so pleased at how many meet up newbies were there. 

 It was all organised in honor of Lizzie's trip to the UK! By the lovely Rachel, who by the way was lucky enough to meet me first on her first meetup a couple of years ago, hehe. I was also thrilled to finally meet long time online buddy Marie! We have missed each other on so many meetups so it was great to finally meet, she is really that awesome in person!

 We had such a lovely day and I was gutted when I had to leave around 5.30, I took huge amounts to the swap and I'm so glad that I did. There was just enough to go around (Joking there was LOADS!)

I got some great goodies and I'm so grateful for the items I got in the Swap. If I got something from you please let me know and I'll thank you properly,

I'll do a separate post imminently to do my swapsies justice! 

 All photos from Digpal Singh you can see more here!

Bee Bee's Great British Sewing Bee Top...

Longest title ever maybe? But this top is pretty awesome. Its more inspired by bumblebee's than the Sewing Bee but still! I know, I know its another Renfrew but with Me Made May coming up I need lots of good basics. I scored this lovely jersey on a little solo trip to Brighton. It was in the remnants and it was exactly what I've been after. It looks very different on the website. If it didn't look so different I would have ordered it in a heartbeat. The grey stripe looks more turquoise.

Nevertheless I got it in the end and the quality is fab! Gill told me it was ex-blumarine. I didn't reverse the stripe on the bands on this one and those that follow me on Instagram saw how little fabric I had but this just meant no waste. I didn't bother with cuffs on the sleeves and they are just about perfect length on me. With the cuffs on they would have been too long. 

 I topstitched the neckline and the cuffs to give a nice neat finish. I couldn't quite match the stripes everywhere though.

So heres the stats...
Fabric: Striped Jersey remnant for Ditto £8
Notions: Thread from Stash £0
Pattern: Renfrew, used before £0
Total: £8
Wearability: 10/10! I ADORE this top. Its the perfect colours for my wardrobe, fits nicely, its nice quality. Can't get better than that!
I will be wearing it whilst watching the third episode Great British Sewing Bee. I do hope they bring it back for a longer series next year. I'm really enjoying it. (in case you hadn't seen on the sidebar, I'm on Team Patrick!)

On The Seamless Pledge...

Its been almost a year and I've not spoken a lot about how I'd fared in this challenge.
On a personal level, since May last year I've not been able to find a contracted job that would allow me a Tuesday off and have been surviving on a bank work job on a "as required" basis. When starting my MA this seemed like a good idea but work can be erratic and with the house sucking up money we've struggled.
So in actuality I've not had any spare income to indulge in any retail therapy anyway. That being said, with the weightloss I'm left wearing a lot of clothing that is too large for me and I've been wearing it out of necessity. At Christmas I asked for a few items of clothing and they have pretty much sustained me through the winter.

I said that I wouldn't count shoes, tights underwear and socks and I think I should have included leggings into that group. They are a basic in my wardrobe and I seem to wear through them fast. I have purchased 3 pairs of leggings and I need to replace all three. I still haven't mastered trousers so I purchased one pair of jeans and the grey and yellow top (from my moss skirt photos) in the M&S sale (I'd been stalking it for months and its become very worn!)
So although I said no purchases I've bought 5 items but only two if you count leggings as underwear/tights which I do!

Other than the aforementioned offenders there have been no other purchases except slippers. I've also had a good go at clearing out my wardrobe but this meant tossing out a huge chunk of Me Mades that don't fit.
Overall I'm pleased with how i've done but my sewing took a huge dive last year and I desperately need to replace stuff. Co-incidentally I've noted a real change in my style this year. I think this will come across in Me Made May. The vintage style I used to covet so much has taken a back seat as its just not practical enough for day to day life. As a dress historian, I'd like to think i'll revisit these elements in various projects later on but I don't think i'll be making more dresses than separates anytime soon. Its quite nice that the end of my seamless pledge will be overlapping with the start of Me Made May so I can really test the pieces I've made and contemplate the holes that need filling.
Have you ever thought about the Seamless Pledge?

The Great British Sewing Bee

I know everyone is jumping on it but I was so excited last Tuesday about "The Great British Sewing Bee," I was running around in circles like a little puppy much to Piemaker's distain. I sat down with what can only be described as a bowl of tea and proceeded to gasp, groan and generally chunter all the way through. I genuinely like all the contestants and they all seemed to work hard throughout the challenges.
So here's what I think. I love that sewing has finally come to be seen as popular enough to put on TV, I'm also glad it wasn't full of one kind of person all ages and sexes and the choices of fabric the contestants have is pretty fantastic.
I think that the judges are fair and to be honest I have a serious crush on Patrick Grant. I can't help it!
I'm a bit sad its only a four part series but I guess they are testing the water. Although lots of people commented on the men having to make a skirt in the first challenge, I didn't think that was too much of a problem. They were testing their ability to construct a garment and follow a pattern. Its no different to having a "Bread Week" or "Macaroon Week" on the bake off. Sometimes one week is going to be a stronger one than others. I can't wait to see next weeks.
In other news Piemaker is currently ceremoniously tearing out an ancient wall heater marking the beginning of my Sewing Room Makeover! So excited! I will be tweeting lots of pics as we go along.