FO: Burdastyle skirt 11/2016 #102

I saw this skirt in the November issue of the BurdaStyle magazine and thought it was quite a nice variation on a simple skirt. My plan was to make it out of the shimmery beige fabric at top left in the picture below.

I didn't want to mess up the shimmery stuff, so very sensibly made a muslin using a greyish blue poly crepe fabric from the depths of my stash.  I tend to find that Burda patterns run big on me and the muslin showed this to be true again. I should probably just cut a smaller size. I took off the seam allowances on the side seams, put it back together and it fitted perfectly. The muslin also gave me a chance to construct the flounce. I couldn't get my head around the instructions and basted everything slightly wrong a couple of times.

Having got the muslin fitting nicely, I tackled the shimmery fabric.  I can't decide if it is a stretch woven or stable knit and it is really had to tell from either side of the fabric. It feels like faux suede and drapes beautifully, but was surprisingly hard sew - it was really hard to pin and it felt a bit 'sticky' going through the sewing machine. I have since bought some wonder clips to try if I come across the like again. Despite how tricky it was to handle, the invisible zip went in perfectly

Despite trying on at various stages of construction, the finished item has turned out to be a bit big in the waist - I think it stretched out with being handled. It would be a pretty easy fix if I wanted to sort it out. I am unlikely to wear it with a tucked in top, so may leave it.

Having had a very specific vision in my head of the finished skirt, I am not sure that this skirt lives up to that vision and due to the shimmery aspect, I am not sure that it is very flattering. I have worn it, it was ok. I am wondering, looking at various photos, whether it needs to be shorter, in which case I will definitely sort out the fit at the waist as that will hoick it up a bit!

FO: Jersey tops for me...

At the beginning of December I went to the Stitch Fabric/MRosenberg fabric sale at Trumpington Village Hall. I wasn't sure that I would buy anything - goodness know I don't need more fabric! However I came away with a number of fabrics that all go together and a plan forming in my head.

 

I washed sample pieces of each fabric to see how they would react. There were no adverse effects so I washed everything on a normal wash and line dried them.  The jersey I thought would make a nice wrap dress or top, but it had quite a few flaws in it (It had been in the remnant pile and I knew the flaws were there)

Once I laid it out I decided to cut out a couple of tops rather than a dress, and opted for my trusty Burdastyle Raglan top

 

This top has gathering on the raglan sleeves, which looks lovely, but I forget how fiddly this is every.single.time! The neckband was really tricky this time - I normally top stitch the seam allowance of the neckband to get it to stay flat, but the fabric did not like that, so after a couple of attempts I gave up. I finished the sleeves and the bottom hem with bands, but I think I may take off the hem band as the top is very long.

I also made a MyImage magazine cowl neck top that I have made a few times before,

For some reason this top was a much easier sew than the other one, and possibly because of that I prefer this one out of the two!

I am hoping that these two tops will be quite versatile - there are so many colours in them that they will co-ordinate with a number of things already in my wardrobe.

Catching up with 2016....

I *still* haven't caught up with all the blog posts I wanted to write, about all the items I made in 2016. This post is going to be the catch up post so get ready for a long one, probably with lots of pictures! If you follow me on IG you may have seen some of these already.

Tie and bag for summer wedding:
I have done a couple posts already about my garments for this wedding. I also made Husband a tie to match my dress, using an old tie of his as the pattern

I also made myself a little bag for wedding day essentials, lippy and tissues! I basically made it up as I went along, lined it with the green silk I had used for the sleeves of the jacket, stitched the handles to make them feel more substantial and fashioned a little tassley thing to make it pretty

Pinafore dress for Eldest
I got a free pattern with a sewing mag that was a pinafore/dungaree combo (Cotton + Chalk Sunday Set).  Eldest asked me to make the dress and chose so fabric from the stash.  Unfortunately there wasn't enough for the skirt, which was a gathered circle skirt. I drafted a half circle skirt from her measurements and just about manage to squeeze it out of the fabric

She likes to keep her phone in the front pocket, which forces the bib down when being worn. We have just this week bought some dungaree clips so that I didn't have to bodge shortening the straps for her!

PJ's for Youngest
Youngest was in desperate need of more nightwear but was adamant that she wanted shop pj's.  I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandria Palace in early October and bought some lovely jersey that that I thought might appeal. As soon as she saw it she asked for pj's out of it in exactly the combo that I had envisioned!

I almost had a disaster when trimming down the neckband, in that I nicked a tiny, but obvious hole in the centre back of the top. I made a quick fix with some fray check and sewed a contrasting patch over it. I used the True Bias Hudson pants and the Sewaholic Renfrew top

Skirt for my friend
Earlier in the year I made a skirt for a friend of mine who has trouble getting skirts to fit properly. I finished it just in time for the weather to warm up so didn't get any photos until a few weeks ago.  The fabric was a great find from MRosenberg (Stitch Fabrics) and I drafted the skirt from her measurements

Skirt and top for me
I made a jersey skirt using the free Lindy Petal Skirt pattern by Itch to Stitch. I had quite a bit of this blue marly knit that I think is ex-Paul Smith left from other projects (Hudson pants, skater skirt, skater dress) so used it for this skirt and for a raglan sleeved top, pattern Newlook 6230, with some more leftovers as a feature in the front. I can't remember what size I cut for the skirt. It fitted pretty well straightaway but I did trim a little off the side seams in the hip area to get a smoother fit.

Fancy dress party
Husband and I were invited to a friend and her husbands joint 40th and 50th  birthday party in November, the theme being Dead Famous.  There were many variations on a theme, but I decided to go as Prince from a specific video. I made my jacket, the frilly cravat thing and at the very last minute, stretch crushed velvet leggings from a skirt from a local charity shop. The jacket pattern was McCalls 6844. I made a medium (12-14) but could heave easily gone down to a small or even extra small.  The front is supposed to meet at the centre front, but mine overlapped considerably. I made view C with a high/low peplum.

can you guess the Prince video?

Self drafted shift dress
I have been attending pattern cutting classes for a few years now and haven't used many of the patterns that we have drafted. I thought it was about time I did, and wanted a simple dress to show off some fabric.  I decided that I wanted french darts in the front, which we hadn't actually covered in class, but I used my block and found a tutorial on the Internet (can't remember where though) and worked it out. I am very pleased with the result, although it needs taking in a little

as is

pulled in a bit

 Pink sweatshirt for Eldest
I picked up some lovely sweatshirt fabric from a fabric swap earlier this year without much thought about what to do with it. Eldest saw it when I was looking for something else in my stash and asked it I could make her something.  The piece was quite small but I managed to get a cropped version of the Newlook 6230 raglan top out of it. The edges rolled like crazy, but Eldest liked that and asked that I leave the edges unfinished so that they curled up

Late night photos means the colour is a bit off, but it is a lovely soft pink.

Husbands Christmas present
For the last 5 or so years I have made Husband a shirt for Christmas. We both felt it was time for a change so I started making him a waistcoat. Unfortunately, I got really poorly just before Christmas and was sent to bed by Husband so that I would be well in time for the festivities.  Spending the best part of a week in bed threw all my plans out of the window re sewing and everything else really.  I got as far as I could, wrapped it up and gave it to him with an IOU! Even though I had checked his measurements and checked the finished garment measurements it is a fraction too small. However, I am going to finish it as it has the best welt pockets on that I have ever done, and Husband is on a mission to fit into it!

Top for New Year
Having had my sewing plans scuppered in the run up to Christmas I was determined to whip up some thing for the new year.  I made a couple of tops, a Burda raglan top ( Raglan shirt 02/2013 #127) that I have made a lot before, and a MyImage cowl neck top that I have also made a few times already. Both of these tops are out of the same fabric. I picked it up from MRosenberg pretty cheaply just before Christmas, but it was full of flaws (this was reflected in the price!) that required some creative layouts. I currently only have a picture of one of the tops, but may blog them both properly in the next week or so.

I really like this picture! I looks like I have put s crazy filter on it, but it is just the lighting in my sewing room.

Phew, that is it for last year.  I have been sewing nonstop in the last week, so hopefully will have some finished items to show soon.  Happy New Year and Happy sewing!

FO: Burda 109-10-2015 and Newlook 6230

Or the top that didn't want to be made....

Top stitiching and zip

So not everything that is made is a success. This top was a disaster almost straight away. The fabric is a lovely coral coloured cosy fleece backed sweatshirting material, bought from Geoff Rosenberg. It would have been ideal for a hoody or zipped hoody or tracky bottoms, but definately not this top.

It is a Burdastyle slouchy raglan top which looked great in the magazine. Catherine Daze had made it and it looked good on a real person, so I thought I would give it a go.

I downloaded the pattern and cut a size 38 (I think). I basted it together, and honestly it looked like the top was wearing me! I looked like I had an oversized spacesuit on.

Quite short

I took a massive vertical dart from both the front and back yoke pieces to try and bring the shoulders of the top somewhere near my own.

massive dart taken out of yoke

I also decided that I wanted the top to be longer so added a band at the bottom. This was foolish in the extreme given the shape of the hem and I somehow managed to mess up the all the seams on the band.

The insert where I got the drafting of the hem bands wrong

The mess on the inside of the back hem band

I have worn the finished result, but it is not drapey relaxed top I had envisaged. Having gone through all these pictures and not having any of it on me in the completed state, I might have to give it another chance before I give up on it completely.
 
To try and redeem my sewing I went to the next Geoff Rosemberg sale and managed to get the last of the bolt of the same fabric.  This time I was planning a reasonably straight forward raglan sweatshirt using a pattern that came with a sewing magazine - Newlook 6230.

Having checked the finished garment measurements and taking into account the thickness of the fabric I made a size 14. When I tried it on I realised that the neckline was far too wide. Had I done any sort of internet reasearch I would have come across this problem and dealt with it before cutting into the fabric. It would have been too wide as a t-shirt let alone a warm sweatshirt. I managed to add on extra fabric at the neckline and improve the fit of the neckband, but all in all this was pretty much a disaster as well.

creases from being folded up in a drawer...

I haven't worn this top much either, although it was a vast improvment on the Burda one. I think I have just had enough with that fabric!

These two just show that even though I have been sewing for years now, it is still possible to make mistakes and that, 9 times out of 10 the choice of fabric is key to the success of the project.  What have you learnt from recent sewing?

A collection of collages and another sad summer

This is a long post, grab a cuppa, try not to fall asleep! I have noted before that my blog gets a lot more attention from me during MMM as it tends to highlight all my un-blogged makes, even with semi-regular posts I still don't seem to have caught up yet! I wanted to do individual posts for these but I seem to be running out of oomph and have other things to think about - more of that at the end. I have been sewing a lot so have quite a few things to mention here - they are in no particular order.

Self drafted trousers
I mentioned these in a post a little while ago.  In my pattern cutting class we transformed our skirt block into a trouser block. Had I written this at the time I made the trousers, there would be a lot more info on how we did this. Right now, I can't really remember! I had been desperate to learn how to make trousers to fit rather than faff about with a pattern and an assortment of alterations, but it took me a good 4 or 5 months to put my pattern into use - and this was all about a year ago. I used an interesting mystery fabric from a local charity shop - £4 for nearly 4mtrs and I think it is a wool blend. I have washed the fabric several times and the resulting trousers. The fabric shrank lengthwise a little the first time it was washed but not since, and the trousers have shrunk a little in the leg nearly every time I have washed them. They were hemmed to be the perfect length for a specific pair of shoes, but now they are a fraction short with not much hem to let down, sigh.

too big; too tight; waist ok - dodgy legs; spot on!

Eldest's dress
Eldest was keen for me to make her a dress a little while ago - she is a happy recipient of mum-made clothes. The pattern I used was Simplicity 1699 which came free with a sewing magazine I picked up one day. As noted before, Eldest is much bustier than me so I thought this would be a good dress style-wise because of the princess seams on the bodice - they would make any fit changes a bit easier. She is also quite petite so I had to shorten the bodice. I bought the fabric at Backstitch when we visited for for the shop's first birthday back in March. There is very annoyingly, a seam down the centre front, which I totally didn't take into account so there is a slightly dodgy pattern running down the skirt. Eldest and I have agreed to ignore it. A sneak peak of the dress was seen in this post. You will see that she opted for the more discrete sleeve edge. She has already asked me for another dress using the same pattern. I have cut it out and remembered to cut the skirt front on the fold!

Indecision averted
A little while ago I was berating myself for being indecisive when it came to choosing a pattern for a dress for me. I ended up making the BurdaStyle dress which I had had my eye on for some time. I chose it because it was a bit different and thought it would go with my fabric well. I have only worn it once on a night out with some friends - none of whom could believe that I had made it! and I didn't get any photos of it on. Middlest had thought it was too trendy for her Mum, but thought it looked much better on me than she thought it would....

True Bias Hudson pants x 2
I made the first pair of these during MMM - I have worn them to lounge in and to go to the gym in. I wasn't sure about the style but having seen loads on the 'net I thought I'd give it a go. Rather than waste some fabric if I didn't like them I decided to use a pair of Husband's jersey PJ's that he no longer wears, There was just the right amount of fabric to cut out the legs from the pj legs, then I used the co-ordinating t-shirt to cut the waistband, pocket edges and the cuffs.  I really like this pair and would make them in again jersey.  The second pair - hhmmm, not so sure about these. They are also made from Husbands cast-offs - this time some Boden lounging trousers. These are woven and totally the wrong fabric - it is thickish and stiff with no drape at all. I left the cuff off. I haven't worn these once other than for photos, which probably says it all. I think in a softer drapey-er fabric they would be lovely...

jersey pair vs woven pair

Purl Bee City gym shorts x 3
My girls like to wear shorts under their school skirts. For Middlest I had whipped up a jersey pair using a pair of her leggings as a guide. That was fine, but I realised that she was also using another pair of shorts as an alternative. This was a pair of Primark's finest, quite sporty in cut and using a thin silky fabric.  I had been checking Kollabora at around the same time and seen quite a few of these City Gym Shorts which is a free pattern from Purl Soho. They looked to be pretty similar to the Primark shorts so I offered to whip some up. I used a couple of Husbands old work shirts, again if the pattern didn't work or the girls didn't like them it wouldn't be a waste of 'good fabric'. I used the Women's sizes for both girls (aged 9 and 13) and found that the pair I made for Youngest didn't fit at all. I inserted a panel between the front and back pieces and she likes this better than the original. Middlest's fit ok, but they both said that they got a bit of a wedgie at the back - but not enough to not wear them.

I then made another pair, possibly for me, out of an old White stuff skirt that no longer fitted me. I scooped out the crotch curve a bit at the back on this pair, using the Hudson Pant pattern as a guide. Eldest saw them on my sewing table and asked who they were for.  I said she could have them if she wanted and they promptly disappeared (I don't currently have a photo of this pair).

Self drafted skirt
This is again using one of the patterns drawn up in my class. I wanted a shortish linen skirt with a little kick/flip at the hem. I used a pattern for an eight panelled skirt, but mashed it together to make it four panelled. It kind of worked, but I didn't quite get the flippiness I wanted. It's close enough though. Because most of the ladies in my class are beyond 'a certain age', all the skirts that we drafted are very modest in length. To get this skirt the length I wanted, I had to take out nearly 6 inches/15cm and could probably have taken a bit more. To keep the flare, the length taken all came from the area between the bottom of the pocket and where the flare started. It sounds more complicated than it was - I basically folded out the excess and hoped for the best!. I am very pleased with it and have worn it a lot.

Linen = creases!

Sad summer
Amongst all of this I have had other things to think about - namely I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in May. Since the diagnosis I have sentinel node biopsy as part of a research project, a lumpectomy and sentinel node removal operation including repositioning of my nipple to keep things looking nice in the future, a contrast MRI to check for signs in my other boob, and a further lumpectomy to remove cancer cells that were not removed in the first op. This is probably not the best time to be writing this as it is not even a week since the last operation and I am feeling pretty wobbly about the whole thing. The nice tidy job that was pretty much healed and looking ok, is not looking quite so tidy now. The surgeon said I will probably need some sort of reconstruction at some point, but we get the results from this op next week and then we will find out what the next stage of treatment will be. I will keep sewing as I find making stuff is important to being me. There may be more selfless sewing, although I think I am pretty good at that! I am not sure what effect the next stages of treatment are going to have on my body so I don't know what I will be sewing for me - I may just move the focus away from my top half and make a few more bottom half items - who knows.