Clothesline's Mary Q pattern is fully lined, so if you make the lining in a fabric you like, your dress is reversible.  Two dresses in one -  beat that for versatility! 

Surprisingly, fully lining a dress is not as difficult as you would think.  Time is saved as you don't need to finish any seams with overlocking / zigzag because all seams are enclosed inside the dress and can't be seen. 

Sewing is straightforward - knowing which seams to join together is the tricky part of lining a garment.  To make it idiot-proof, I've included some short videos online, as it's easier to show this in 3 dimensions, rather than through photos or diagrams.

One little tip -  choose fabrics that are opaque, or you will see the inner fabric showing through.

So next time you spill food/drink on yourself, just whip into a bathroom and turn your dress inside out! 

Inspired by Mary Quant and all things sixties, Clothesline presents the Mary Q Shift dress pattern. This classic style is listed in Erin McKean's field guide to the most iconic styles of our time, "The Hundred Dresses." 

Traditionally worn as short as you dare, Clothesline's Mary Q pattern has extra length added.  Feel free to adjust the skirt length to suit yourself!

In true classic style, a version of the Mary Quant dress can be updated and in fashion at any time as these 2014 versions show.

L to R.  Original Mary Quant shifts from the 1960s, 2014 Mulberry campaign, 2014 Alice& Olivia Spring/summer collection

The Mary Q Shift pattern is:-

*fully lined   *reversible  *adapted to longer skirt lengths.  Not everyone has the legs for a mini skirt!  This pattern has been made a little longer (knee length on me at 160cm (5'3") tall) so that you can cut it to a length you're comfortable with.

*easy to sew for all levels.  Great seamstresses can use the one-page cheat sheet for instructions.  If you like more visuals, there are 16 colour photos and on-line explanations.  For raw beginners, tricky parts have an accompanying video to spell it out in detail.

Instant download pattern available at our Etsy store - Clothesline Emporium- for just $5.50 AUD.

L to R:  Mary Q Pattern Cover, Mary Q Cheat Sheet, Online Instructions, Online Videos.

Can't afford to splurge on expensive birthday gifts? Handmade pressies gives the precious gift of your time.  Though the raw materials cost only a few dollars, if we take into account the time spent making them (costing our time at say $50 an hour) - now that's an extravagant gift!

Poppy and I made these pressies for 5 year old Hazel from 3 tea towels and a piece of wood found in the shed.  Estimated upcycled value = materials ($10) + labour (say 5 hrs) = at least $250.  Now no-one can accuse us of being cheap!

The Daisy Dress pattern is quite loose fitting around the waist and hips to allow it to slip on, as it has no zips, buttons or closures. This pink Daisy variation in a crisp cotton has sewn in ties and is custom fitted at the back.

Ties inserted in side seam

TO SEW TIES

Cut 2 straight strips  each measuring 75 x 8cm (30 x3"), fold  in quarters ( so you won't have to turn them inside out!) and topstitch all around, tucking in short ends.  Mark your waist level (make sure it's the same on both sides by measuring distance from bottom of  armhole). Insert tie into side seam, sandwiching between front and back.  (Unpick a small section if you've already stitched the sides.)

Back view before altering back

Back view after adding a seam down the centre back.

TO ALTER BACK

Make back of dress narrower by sewing in a new seam in the middle of the back.

Crisp fabrics that don't drape well can make your Daisy dress look a little voluminous, particularly at the back.  A quick alteration to reduce the back by 5cm (2") in width is to create a centre back seam.  Fold dress  carefully along centre back and stitch a 2.5 cm (1") seam in.  (Check to see you can still get in and out of your dress first!)  Trim seam back to 1 cm (3/8") seam allowance and zigzag/overlock to finish.  

NB:If you'd like to reduce the back width but don't want a seam here (maybe your flowers look disjointed!) adjust the pattern piece before you cut out the back.  Simply fold under 2.5cm (1") at centre back (long straight edge of the pattern piece) before you cut it out.

If you'd like to try these variations but are a bit confused, just let me know.  I'll explain more fully and draw some diagrams for you!

Inspired by  Erin McKean's The Hundred Dresses, a lexicon of 100 iconic dresses, Clothesline presents... the Daisy Dress Pattern!

This field guide to frocks written by blogger Erin McKean from A Dress a Day (dressaday.com) identifies every iconic dress from The Austen to The Xena!

We thought it would be great to sew our own version of some of these frocks. Possibly not The J-Lo or The Cupcake Bride but we're tackling The Bouquet  - a dress that "is meant to call to mind the traditional association of women with flowers: whether you are a shrinking violet, an exotic orchid, a full-blown rose, or as fresh as a daisy." 

"It's the expanse of surface area given over to flowers that defines a Bouquet dress - one or two blossoms do not a Bouquet dress make."  The Hundred Dresses

Pick up your Daisy Dress pattern at our Etsy store, find some flower festooned fabric and stitch your own icon!

This style - The Bouquet - inspired our own Daisy Dress pattern.

Simple to sew, the Daisy Dress is a blank canvas to bedeck with your favourite flowers.  This version is sewn from a vintage sheet.

This pattern was made in 1973, but not much has changed.  When I made it up, I put in an invisible zipper ('cause I think they're less messing around once you know how) rather than the method Simplicity showed.  But the bias cut is still timeless and the end result just looks like something you bought last week!

Found the Seventies inspired fabric at Lincraft, I think.  Cowl neck top is a variation of the Daisy Dress pattern I've been working on.

I love Japanese pattern books like Shape Shape 2, so this week made a sample of their skirt with shaped hem and buttons, that can be worn a number of ways. 

Wear this skirt unbuttoned, buttoned as sarouel pants, turn waistband and wear buttoned or undoe on the side.

Sample made up in a light cotton stripe

It looked great in the book, but perhaps the fabric I used didn't hang so well?  

I found the sarouel pants they converted to looked a bit too baggy (and poo-catchery if such a word exists!)

Pegging the skirt by turning the waistband front to the side and fastening the buttons looked a little awkward too.

 In the end, wearing the skirt with just an unfastened button feature proved the best option.

 Ah well, back to the drawing board...

Last Christmas, I found a fun 70's print sheet at the second hand shop that I thought would make a good tablecloth.  But last week I was too lazy to hit the shops so it was pressed into service to try out a pattern I'd redrafted.  It's a variation of the purple cowl dress I made a couple of weeks ago, but I added ties in back to give it some shape, instead of wearing a belt.

Ah, the joys of recycling!

"They look just like pants you'd buy at the shops" says my husband.  This is a compliment from him, meaning they don't have any obvious flaws!  But it does raise the question of why do I bother making clothes when so many are readily available for sale.  And the answer is ... because I can.

It amuses me that when I told a ten-year-old friend that I made my last pair of Alice & Olivia jeans, she thought I was joking.  I had to show her the pattern packet and scraps of fabric before she'd believe that it was humanly possible to make them at home. Yes it can be done!  Clothes don't all come from factories in China. 

These pants were a bit fiddly, with welt pockets, buttons, loops, fly front zip, but satisfying at the same time, just to see if you can do it.  

Another Sunday; another Sunday dress.  Found this strange silky fabric at the Mirani Op Shop for a few dollars.  Adapted a pattern by adding a cowl neckline - mainly so I wouldn't have to sew in a zip!  And being the queen of quick sewing used the same pattern piece for front and back so I could fold the fabric and cut out just one piece.  Aaahh.... give me the simple life anyday!

Forget talent, genius and aptitude, if you do anything for 10,000 hours you can be an expert in your field, says Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers.  I'd love to be a sewing expert so I thought I'd take an inventory of how far off I am from "expert" status, by clocking my sewing hours.

Year 8 school sewing lessons, then private sewing lessons with a meticulous little old lady named Mrs Quinn 70 hours

Loved making clothes and became a bit obsessed with home sewing in my younger days 175 hours

Ran my own visual merchandising business In the Window,  where I sewed some backdrops and props 50 hours

Event styling at Staging Connections - some sewing of napery and curtains  15 hours

Great patternmaking course with Brisbane dressmaker  Ana Fataciolli  200 hours

Ran Clothesline patterns on a full time basis for a year producing paper patterns 1500 hours

Realised you can survive on charm for the first 15 minutes, after that you better know something.  Back to school - Advanced Diploma in Fashion at Tafe (This was really hard work, harder than the science degree I got after I left school.  Honest! )  5000 hours

Unpaid slave labour aka internships at Kitten d'Amour and Inkahootz ( two great Brisbane businesses) 80 hours

Sewing a dress a week for new blog, time wasted looking at sewing tutorials and pinterest  sewing pages and putzing about in my attic sewing room 1500 hours

Frenzied activity sewing really fast at a local alterations shop 300 hours

Total: 8890 hours.  That means with just 1100 hours to go I'll be an expert.  Can't wait!

Must have overdosed on Downton Abbey re-runs...this weeks new hand made dress is very uncharacteristically all bows and lace!  To save it from too much vintage vibe, it does have a certain assymmetry.  Yes one shoulder is deliberately wider than the other, that was intentional!

Like last week's effort this is also cut on the bias, a technique popularised by Mme Vionnet back in the 1930's or thereabouts.  Bias cut dresses are usually left to hang (sometimes with weights on them) for 24 hours to see how much the fabric stretches.  An interesting experiment for me!

Over the holidays, spent some time with my mother-in-law Amy, a professional grandma who taught me how to make green mango chutney (yum!).  This weeks dress looks like something she'd have worn in younger days! 

This Vogue/Calvin Klein sewing pattern is nearly 20 years old and cost a mere 20 cents from a thrift shop at the Sunshine Coast. 

Can never be sure what you'll find at chain stores like Spotlight, but was pleased to find this cotton/linen granny print fabric was even made in Japan.

This dress is cut on the bias - pattern pieces are laid out diagonally onto the fabric to give the fabric a bit of stretch. Extra stretch means it has no buttons, zips or fastenings making it super quick and easy to whip up. I started at 3pm and was done before dinner!

Sewed this little sixties shift for three year old Odessa.  All up it probably took me just a couple of hours to download the pattern, paste it together, cut and sew it.  That's what sewing is all about in my book!

Books are a great present for kids - make them extra special with their own gift bag.   Eternally useful, book bags can do double duty as toy bags, or when you're travelling, somewhere to store kids' shoes or undies.  I sewed these with fabric from Lincraft - they take about a fat quarter each plus 1 metre of twill tape.

I love the way books double as cards. When you write a message inside the front cover don't forget to add the year and occasion!

Just sew a closed tube for a belt

In Brisbane for a wedding, where I found this nice stripe jersey.  Just had enough time to make up a previous pattern by Sunday.  Look familiar?  This time I recorded all the steps to show how simple it is to make.  How to's coming soon...

This extra appendage of fabric ( I call it a waterfall) is deliciously simple to add to a dress.

Trickiest part is probably sewing on this neck and armhole binding.  But I'm too lazy to cut out and add a facing.

The Fabric Store in Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne buys up great fabrics from designers like Anna & Boy.

My husband got this invite from the school he teaches at:

Chanelling the Fifties at the Year 12 Formal

Mirani State High School would like to formally invite you and your parents to the Graduating Class of 2013's Year 12 Formal. 

Hmmm... while I would be required to pose as his 80-something year old Mum, thought I'd go anyway.

A 20 cent belt kit from the thrift shop gives a nice retro touch.  And literally had 10 minutes to buy some costume jewellery.

Luckily Lincraft had a sale on silk dupioni ($20 per metre instead of 40!) so made up this dress. I started out with a New Look pattern that had a big gathered skirt.  Well, in that coral pink, I looked like a fat fairy so I unpicked the skirt and put in big boxy pleats instead.  Accidentally assymetrically on the back as you can see.  But had no time to change that -  I just kept my back to the wall most of the night!

All good Persian carpets have one deliberate flaw woven into them, because only God is perfect. Spot the "deliberate" mistake here. Unpicking silk dupioni makes it fray so much, I may just have to live with assymetrical pleating on the back of this dress.

R.I.P. Style Patterns - once one of the big top four pattern companies.  Luckily their patterns can still be found in second hand shops...

Cutting it fine - finished this dress ten minutes before we left for church! 

Found the comfy cotton fabric at a charity shop, already pre-washed and ready to sew. 

Style patterns are now defunct, but this classic sheath dress from 1991 hasn't aged too badly.

Had better start cutting out next week's dress now! 

Fabric cost $3 I think, so the most expensive part of this dress is probably the zipper! 

A beautiful print jersey makes this simple dress work...

This Sunday dress cost me nothing.  I found the fabric in a cupboard - it belonged to my husband's wife Sheryl who sadly passed away a few years ago. 

As for the pattern, I traced the bodice shape from a book and added a square of fabric to the bottom.  The skirt had a fair chunk of excess fabric which forms a waterfall extension thing. 

And the belt is another rectangle sewn into a tube.  Easy as! 

The skirt used the full width of fabric, sewn into a tube.  Rather than gathering the skirt to fit the bodice, I just left a chunk that falls to the front of the dress. 

Used every skerrick of fabric for this dress!  Just had enough to make a belt, but can't eat too much when wearing it! 

This dress gets it's shape from darts sewn on the outside of the dress.

This Sunday dress I sewed a while ago from a 1998 Vogue pattern from the op-shop. It hasn't dated too badly!  It was a bit of fiddly as  it's completely lined with a side zip.  But still completed in a day (my whole philosophy in sewing!) and terribly comfy to wear.

 I have such fond memories of favourite dresses I made as a teenager, but they're like old friends who are long gone without a trace! Very self-indulgent, I know, .posting what I wear to church on Sunday, but it's just a nice way to document what I've sewn.

Instead of paying $25 for a Vogue pattern, thrift shops have them for 20 cents to $2. 

Left thread ends hanging on the dress just for fun...and to annoy my husband...

Wait, there's more darts on the back too.  Sewn in 100% linen this dress is long wearing...they'll be unearthing it intact in archeological digs...