Work in progress: stripey skirt

This skirt was completely not on my my mental sewing list, but I saw the material in one of my local charity shops, left it because I have enough that I haven't used yet, then went back the next day and bought it! And I will openly say that this is inspired/ is a copy of the striped Ginger made by Melissa from Pincushion Treats.

I have been seeing lots of pretty Gingers popping up around the blog world, but am not super keen on the high waist on me.  Many of my skirts that I have been wearing for a number of years, sit a bit lower, and whilst I don't like them sitting on my hips any more, I think somewhere in-between is more me.

I have a pattern that I really like, Simplicity 5564, which now seems to be out of print.

I last used this about 10 years ago, to make the skirt shown in my MMM12 week 1 round up. I call that skirt my Pebble skirt - I have a feeling that was the name of the design for the fabric, and I used view A.  On my new skirt, I wanted to try the chevron effect that Melissa has in her skirt, so I had a good look at the pattern.  It is basically 2 pattern pieces - skirt portion, same used for front and back and a yoked/curved  waistband.  I decided that I would also like pockets. So, time to think.

I got out my trusty tracing paper and traced off the skirt piece twice.  It was a cut on fold piece, so I just added a 1.5cm seam allowance.  I then laid out the material, folded it to find the bias, had a bit of a play, then googled stripes on bias and got useful info from Coletterie and particularly helpful series of posts from Sunni at A Fashionable Stitch.  I marked on the pattern pieces the stripes that I was trying to match, which really helped lining up the matching pieces. I will be basting everything together to check for fit, and will have a play regarding the pockets, which I will be 'making up as I go along'.

checking the stripes

Also on my sewing table are, still, my Burda trousers.  I finally ordered an invisible zipper foot for my machine and put it to use last week. I have installed all the zips in my trousers, but am not entirely sure why the waist zip is invisible, when the opening is hidden by a flap - any way.... These are almost a pair of trousers now, and I hope to have them finished possibley by the end of the week.  

Middlest Daughter has expressed more interest in sewing, and after her success with her bag last year, has chosen a skirt pattern and some material from my stash. I just need to get a zip to match the fabric and she is ready to go. 

MMM12 week one round up

Still not got quite enough Me-made clothing to see me through the month, hence the 3 day a week, part of my pledge.

Here goes - Day 1, 1st May

Top: Me- made, original post here
Jeans: New Levi's demi-curve slim leg (I have been a 'bootcut' girl for years, so I am still getting used to this)
Boots: Ancient, possibley M&S
Worn with a combination, throughout the day, of long sleeved curly collared cardi (as seen in post about the top), raincoat & gloves, and wellie-boots. Temp approx 10C in the morning, rising to about 16C at afternoon school run time and mostly WET. (Photo courtesy of Youngest Daughter, who struggled to press the button without moving the camera!)

Day 2, 3rd May

Top: navy blue wool jumper, Boden seconds, some years a go
Cardi: MerinoMink, bought in New Zealand
Skirt: Me-made, pre-blog, around 2000.  This is made from John Lewis furnishing fabric that was around for years, although now (reasonably recently) discontinued. I didn't wear this for years, as I found it really hard to find tops that went with it.
Topped with raincoat for most of the day. I didn't check the temp, but it was not warm (note I am wearing 2 jumpers/sweaters - and it is May).

Day 3, 5th May

Top: Me-Made, original post here
Trousers: Ancient, Boden
Cardi: Kew. This cardi is going to repurposed somehow in the not too distant future. It is one of my favs and has worn so much, the elbows are bare. It has an interesting collar, which I love.
Again, it was cold and wet for some of the day, but I did get some gardening done between the showers, so jeans were swapped in for the trousers. (Same combo worn on Sunday, for more gardening).

So, gentle start to MM12.  There are signs that it might be warming up, so some of the summer stuff might make it out of the drawer under my bed soon!

I have been checking out the Facebook page, and the Flickr group, it's very interesting to see how people put their outfits together. I had tried to join the flickr group, but am having tech issues, so will have to enlist help at some point.
 

Me-Made-May 2012

 
Over the last couple of years I have sat on the sidelines and wished that I had more me-made clothing, so that I could participate in one of these challenges. This time I do have more, and even though some of my items are more wintery, I'm sure they'll get used aswell! I will be sewing through out the month so hopefully I can add to my collection too.

When I have finished this post,  I will be going through my wardrobe to assess my options for tomorrow, but also to weed out some of the things I that haven't worn all winter.  When we got back from New Zealand I rediscovered alot of my wardrobe (having taken quite a small selection of clothing out there).  I wanted to see what I would wear before I did any weeding and I have found several items that I still really like, but aren't quite right somehow. They either need some work on them or they need to move on in some way. Fortunatley, as a member of the local Primary School's Friend's committee, I can contribute some of these items to our up coming Ladies evening for the Nearly New Glad Rags section!

so here goes:

'I, Tamsin of pimpmycurtains.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '12. I endeavour to wear an item of me-made or me-refashioned clothing for at least 3 days a week for the duration of May 2012'

I will take pictures and post them here, probably in the form of a weekly round up post.

I look forward to taking part and seeing what everyone else is up to! Thanks Zoe of So...Zo for organising this again. 

FO: Summer Top - Newlook 6895

So, here is my summer top:

I used the Newlook 6895 pattern, sewing view C with sleeves from view E.  This was one of the patterns that Husband bought for my birthday last year, and I wanted to use it before my birthday comes round again! The fabric I used is some kind of polyester, I think.  It has a pleated crinkly appearance which I rather like, but made it a bit tricky to cut and has possibley made the top a fraction bigger than the size 10 that I cut out. Looking at the finished top, the pleating kind of hides the gathers at the neckline and on the arms.

As mentioned in my previous post, I used French seams where I could. For the armholes, I ended up doing an extra line of stitching in the seam allowance and then zigzagging over that second  line.  I could have used my overlocker but I didn't feel like doing all the adjustments to get the stitch right for the fabric! This fabric frayed like crazy so I hope the armhole finish will work out ok.


I did quite a lot of hand sewing, on the arm bindings, neck binding and the hem. I did the neatest, tiniest stitches as I possibley could, which took a while, but I am very pleased with the result. I think I need to invest in some beeswax, as I did get in a bit of a tangle in more than one instance.

There is a tiny opening in the back which has a button closure, so I did a tiny thread loop, but I can't imagine ever undoing the button as the top is roomy enough to pop on without opening it.  In a future make, I think I may leave the back as one piece and do away with this opening completely.

Work in Progress: summer top

Other than my Burda trousers, I have been sewing a a summer top.  I am currently not sure whether I will be able to wear it this summer or not!
 

I had great plans to sew it up in time to enter it in MadebyRae's Spring Top Sewalong 2012.  As with most things, life got in the way - Easter holidays, family at home, taking on a new allotment, choice of material etc, etc.

It is still not quite finished.  It is quite a simple top, but given my choice of  material, everything has been a bit more complicated than it would otherwise.
 

All the seams are French seams. I was planning to do french seams on the armhole aswell, but when I read Sarai's instruction's for the Taffy blouse in the Colette Sewing Handbook, it said that french seamed armholes need to be done before the side seams.... I was not about to rip out my lovely seams so I'm not sure what to do there yet.  I have sewn all the seams with tissue as a backing to make it go throught the machine a bit more easily. There will be a bit of hand sewing to do to finish it off, as I don't think the fabric will take top stitching.
 

I had a sinking feeling the other day as the hail battered the windows and the wind whistled round the house, that I wouldn't actually like the top when it was done.  With some trepidation I tried it on and was very pleased with it - phew! Now I need to finish it and we need to have some summery weather!

The evolution of the welt pocket...

The trousers that I am making for my sewing class (Burda trousers #105 11/2011), require a welt pocket. I have never done this before, but that is one of the reasons I chose this pattern. The instructions in Burda took a bit of working out and this was my first practice following the instructions:


I googled welt pocket tutorials and found this (it is quite long):


In the end I didn't use the tutorial, I followed my sewing intructor's advice. There is a lot of information out there, much of it conflicting or different enough to cause confusion!

So, here is the evolution of my pocket:

and finally, in the garment:


The fabric was quite tricky to work with as it is quite thick and almost spongy, but I think it turned out ok!

The next challenge is the invisible zippers.  There are three, one at each ankle and one at the waist.  I had to order an invisible zipper foot for my machine, which I rather hoped would come with instructions! Unfortunatley not, so I may be trying Youtube again...

OWOP round up

After much dithering, I decided to join in with the OWOP (One Week, One Pattern organised by Tilly and the Buttons)) excitment.  I signed up on the last day, knowing that I had completed the week! Actually when I looked through the photos I realised that I messed up completely on Monday, but I hope I still count!

Saturday and Sunday
Portfolio Tunic with jeans and brown corduroy jacket. No photo on Sunday

Monday  - fail

Tuesday
Portfolio Tunic with leggings and brown cardi


Wednesday
Portfolio Tunic with beige/camel coloured Boden trousers that I have had for years and got out especially for this!


Thursday
Denim Portfolio dress (with curly collared cardi in morning and evening)


Friday
Denim Portfolio dress with leopard print tights and brown cord jacket

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The last photo was taken by Pincushion Treats at the OWOP cocktails organised by Karen of Did You Make That. It was great to see Karen again and meet up with lots of other lovely ladies.  (Pincshion Treats, House of Pinheiro, Stitch & Witter, Auxetically, Lazy Stitching, Claire and, of course Tilly and the Buttons, Creator of OWOP)

Looking back over the week, it was tricky doing this with only two items of clothing, especially as it was unseasonably warm for most of the week.  I had vague thoughts that I would make a top from this pattern to widen the possibilties, but they were very vague and did not materialize! I think I also need to make a bit more of an effort with my photos (see Thursdays picture, best of a bad lot - nuff said!).  It also makes me think that if I am going to take part in Me Made May this year, I need to be much better prepared!

Thank you to Tilly for organising the week, and thank you to Karen for a lovely night out!