FO: Mouse house creations Julia Cardigan

I made this cardigan/jacket to wear with my BHL Anna Dress that I wore for a wedding earlier this year.

The fabric is a navy blue ponte knit that I bought locally and have had for a couple of years. I bought it to try and knock off a dress that I had seen in Crew Clothing and had never got round to making (I even have the sparkly fabric too).


The pattern is the Julia Cardigan from Mouse House Creations, which I bought as part a pattern bundle a couple of years ago. It is a downloadable pdf. I quite enjoy putting these together, unlike many people! It takes me back to living in NZ and rediscovering sewing with free downloads from the Burdastyle magazine.

I just about managed to squeeze the pattern out of the quantity of fabric that I had. I think I had about 1.5 metres and the pattern calls for considerably more than that. I employed some creative cutting and ended up piecing the inside of the back edge.  I choose the view that has the double layer at the collar/edge as it doesn't need hemming and I wanted it to look good with my dress - I wasn't sure that turning the edge under and stitching would look as nice.

I had minimal scraps left after cutting

piecing inside the back edge

lots of pins

I really like the pattern, it was an easy sew and the instructions were fine. I am pretty sure that I put it all together with my overlocker and just did a spot of top stitching on my sewing machine. Once done, I tried it on with the dress and even ordered some shoes and a bag to go with it all.  It looked good, but I felt it was a bit casual and I had in the back of my head that I wanted something a bit more striking - and the BHL Victoria Blazer was born!

the shoes and bag got returned

Having worn it as a cardigan alot over the summer I really like it and would like to try it in a different fabric for a more slouchy version.  If I make it again I think that I would grade up to a bigger size across the back of the shoulders. I feel that this one is a little tight and the back of the armscye is distorted when I wear it.

FO: A BHL wedding outfit, part 2 - Victoria Blazer

In my previous post I showed the Anna dress that I made to wear to a wedding.  Here is the jacket that I wore with the dress.  It is, as one commenter asked, the By Hand London Victoria Blazer. I have had this pattern for a while as my reward for supporting BHL in their Kickstarter efforts to start printing fabric.

I have seen many versions of this over the few years with varying opinions on the pattern and style.  I have not been that sure of the style especially the longer length, it being quite slouchy but cropped version looked quite cute in most of the versions I have seen.

I picked up the fabric at a fabric swap that I went to in London in May or June.  I don't know who donated it but there was loads - at least 3 metres if not more. I wasn't sure what the composition was or whether it was washable so I cut a square, zigzagged the edges as it frayed like crazy and popped it in the wash with a bunch of similar coloured stuff - just in case the colour bled out.  There was no discernable shrinkage but the colour did seem fractionally paler. I then chucked the rest of the fabric in the wash on its own and was very thankful for my large washing machine! My mother-in-law informs me that it is almost certainly silk.  It pretty thick, feels quite rough and a tiny bit scratchy.

Because of the thickness of the fabric it was really hard to cut - not helped by my scissors not being the sharpest. The lining for the body is taken from an old White Stuff skirt that I had hardly worn - I liked the fabric but not as a skirt and the colours looked really good with this coral.

The pattern doesn't have you line the sleeves, but I knew that I wanted to line mine. I used the same fabric for the sleeve lining as I used for my Sewaholic Minoru sleeve lining. Again it goes well with the lining of the body.

too lazy to change the thread on seams that would never be seen!

I had noticed in my internet researches that many people commented on the lining of the jacket going right up to the front edge of the jacket and that the lining often peeped out when being worn. I found an excellent post by Nicole Needles describing the steps for drafting a facing for the front edge. This also involves slightly redrawing the front lining pieces. I followed this and drew out my own facing which you can see here:

I wasn't 100% sure it would work due to the thickness of the fabric but fortunately the fabric pressed really well so I steamed the heck out of it and it was fine!

The was quite a bit of hand stitching involved with the lining, but I quite enjoy that.

 

Here are a couple of details:

I tacked the lapels down to stop them flapping about

The jacket is quite swingy at the back and initially I didn't like it. I considered putting in darts at the back like Shannon at The Modern Tomato did with her blazer, but once I tried it on with the dress, I actually liked the shape with the nipped in waist of the dress.

walking through the woodland from the church to the reception

This was actually the second jacket I made to wear with this dress. I am really glad I went to the extra effort for this jacket as I love the pop of colour. The first is fine but not as smart and will have a post of its own soon (ish!)

FO: By Hand London Polly Top

In a short break from the Summer of Stripes, I bring you another top, this time including a spot of refashioning and stash busting.  Can't go wrong with that!

The Polly top is a free pattern from the lovely ladies at By Hand London. I had my eye on it for sometime before I got round to downloading it. There are a number of gorgeous version of this top around the internets, my favourite being this from Crab & Bee.

The patterned fabric was given to me by a good friend in the shape of a top from Jigsaw that she had had for some time. As soon as I saw it, I thought it would make a great feature panel in a Polly top.  I took the orignal top apart completely and the spent the best part of a day working out the pattern repeat and matching the pattern pretty accurately, I think:

Spot the seam??

just to show there is a seam there!

The fabric is a silk and linen blend according to the label, so I thought I would pair it with some navy blue linen hat I have had for a couple of years, bought from Geoff Rosenberg at Trumpington Village Hall. I only used a small quantity of the linen so I think I am pushing it to say that it was a stash bust! The two blues are the same tone - I tried a different navy linen and it just looked wrong some how.

The panel is shaped in such a way that the top doesn't need darts.You just have to be very careful sewing the curved seam evenly and without puckers - which I managed first time round due to an excess of pins on the corners! I also clipped the corner very carefully before overlocking the seam edges. The clipping made a huge difference and the two fabrics pressed really well.

I basted the shoulders and side seams together to check on the fit as some people have said it runs a little large.  I opted at that stage to sew the shoulder seam at 2.5cm rather than the usual 1.5.  I sewed the side seams as basted, then after trying it on, basted in a more shaped side seam that curved inwards at the waist.

taking in the side seams

For the neck and armhole binding I used shop bought navy bias tape.  I didn't have quite enough of the patterned fabric to make my own without a ton of joins. Because the bias wasn't a true match for the linen, I did a concealed binding, which resulted in the shoulder straps being considerabley narrower than most versions I have seem.

I think doing this affected the fit as when I tried it on again, the armhole were gaping and the neckline seemed awfully low. I then tried taking up the shoulders again, which didn't work so I undid that. Then I decided that the seam under the arm needed to come in a bit, which involved undoing the very neat binding and redoing that.

I have worn it once a couple of weeks ago but the straps kept slipping off my shoulders, so I have sewn in bra strap holders made from ribbon and clear plastic poppers.

I was considering making it a hi-lo hem and may well change it. Having worn it today, it creases right at the top of the thigh when I sit down, which doesn't look great when standing up! Here are a couple of photos taken after having worn it all day:

tired face cropped out!

I look quite brown in these...

Usually I take my photos with a tripod and remote (hence the rather solomn face in most of my photos), but I wanted these done quickly and press-ganged Middlest daughter to do it for me. She told me to be silly...

FO: Polka dot Anna

photo from BHL

I have been eyeing up the Anna dress from the By Hand London ladies for sometime, and finally gave in when I visited Backstitch on their opening weekend.

I wasn't sure what fabric I would use, but I had been looking at a lot of polka dot things recently and in the interest of trying to use up some stash fabric, decide to go for a navy polka dot cotton that I have had for some time. In fact, I bought it as part of a kit in 2011, as it was the only way to get hold an out of print pattern that I wanted. It is not really the best fabric for this dress as it has no give at all and as a consequence the front skirt seams and bust darts are fractionally out. But it will do and I am very pleased with the result.

I made the 'midi' version with the boat neck. It was a pretty easy sew, which I did in small increments. The instructions were easy to follow and I also looked at the online sew-a-long posts the BHL ladies have done.  I did a couple of extra steps, the first was to understitch the neck facings. I have had trouble with facings not staying put in the past and I know a few other people have had problems with the facings on the Anna. To further secure the facings, for step two, I very carefully stitched in the ditch of the shoulder seams - no flapping facings for me!

spot the stitch in the ditch

The most interesting thing about this pattern for me is the way the bust is dealt with - instead of darts there are two sets of pleats that 'open[ing] up almost flower-like to accommodate your boobies!’ (straight from the instructions!). It is an interesting way to create shape in the bust area and very flattering too.  I had to shorten the pleats by nearly 1.5cm so that they had the desired effect.

Several people have had problems with the back neckline gaping, so I was prepared for a slight problem here - I basted the zip, tried it on, then ended up having a marginally (3mm) wider seam allowance at the top of the zip on each side. I could probably have made the seam allowance even wider by about 2 mm but it seems ok at the moment.  If you have a big problem with gaping, GingerMakes has  done a tutorial on how she took out the excess in the back of her dress.

The skirt has seven panels that all look very similar, so it is advisable to label them all so you get them sewn together in the right order. I tend to do this anyway, it just something I have always done. I usually pin little labels to the right side of the fabric of each piece which also helps to make sure I don't sew a piece the wrong way out!

Here is a little shot of the insides - very neat if I say so myself

I was hoping to wear this at Easter lunch, but even though it was surpisingly mild today, it definately wasn't warm enough to wear a summer dress! The photos here are, sadly, mostly out of focus, but I wanted to get this up pretty swiftly. And no need to ajust your screens, my legs really are that white.

I wanted to get this up in time for the 'Sew Dolly Clackett' competiton held by Sarah of Rhinestones & Telephones. Roisin of 'It can't be from Dolly Clackett, she gave me an Easter egg!' is getting married soon and the lovely sewing world have planned (with Nic, her partner) to send her off into wedded bliss with a homage to her amazing collection of handmade dresses. I greatly admire many of the dresses that Roisin has made, and one of her favourite dresses has been the BHL Anna - so I hope mine is the perfect contribution!

 

Popping in to Backstitch

Our Backstitch haul - minus Middlest's fabric

I have recently been adding quite a lot of new blogs to my reader, one of which was the blog for Backstitch an online fabric and haberdashery shop, run by the very helpful Alice. The first post that I saw was one to say that she was starting a 'bricks and mortar' store - the second thing I noticed was that it was at Burwash Manor. Hang on just a minute I thought, that's not far from here - hurrah for another fabric shop within striking distance!

The next post was a request for applications for a part-time sales assistant. OMG I thought, I'd love to work somewhere like that, but realised very quickly that she wanted people to work at weekends. With my bevy of girls and various commitments, I felt that wasn't a goer for me. Sad face, as Eldest would say.

Backstitch was opening the weekend of 15th &16th of March and initially I didn't think I would be able to visit that weekend. As it happened Husband was out all day on a 'how to teach cycling' course, the girls and I had had a pretty lazy morning and got all the homework out of the way, and it was a lovely afternoon.  I proposed a trip out, expecting a distinct lack of enthusiasm, but they all seemed keen so I bundled them into the car before they could change their minds!

The last time I had been to Burwash Manor was probably 14/15 years ago when Husband and I were deciding what to do with the large garden that came with the house that we had bought. Husband was keen to plant a mixed hedge somewhere in the garden with a view to laying it at some point in the future. As luck would have it the National Hedge Laying Championships were being held at Burwash Manor so we went up with his Mum to have a look. I recounted this to the girls (who weren't that interested!) as we arrived there . If you look closely at the hedges you can see at their bases, the trunks of the bushes and trees woven together.

example hedge -  image from shropshirehedgelaying.co.uk

There are different ways to lay your hedge, depending on where you are in the country, so the hedge above would not be how it is done in Cambridgeshire.

We went straight to Backstitch and were very pleasantly surprised to find it quite busy.  The units at Burwash Manor are reasonably sized and as we walked in, the first thing I noticed was how bright it was, due to the large window that took up the whole side of the shop. All the fabric bolts are beautifully arranged along one wall and we all spent quite a long time admiring and stroking the fabric. Alice has a lovely wide range of linens, perfect for the summer and an extraordinary array of printed cottons. There were also a few jersey fabrics, that weren't quite to my taste, but very reasonably priced - think £8 -£9 per metre as opposed to £18 and more in places like John Lewis.

She also has a great range of patterns from Indie pattern companies such as Thread Theory, Colette, Sewaholic and the new stars of the moment, By Hand London.  I have been eyeing up the BHL Anna dress pattern for what seems like an age - mostly because I felt that after my pattern cutting classes I should be able to draft something very similar. However, I gave in and bought the pattern.

Image from By Hand London

Whilst pondering this, I got talking to a very nice French lady - Hello Nathalie! - and we were discussing which of the patterns we already had and what we would like to get. While flicking through the Sewaholic patterns I paused at the Minoru and said something along the lines of 'oh I have that and material for it but haven't got round to making it'. It turned out that Nathalie had not only made it , but was wearing her version of it, in waterproof fabric no less. It was great to see a real life version of it and it has certainly pushed my version further up my mental sewing list.

I had already said to my girls, that if they were feeling crafty I would consider getting some stuff for them to make things with.  Youngest was keen to to make a pencil case and chose some spotty fabric with matching zip and various trims. Middlest wasn't sure, but was veering towards a cushion with embellishments so she got some fab fabric and embroidery floss. Eldest has recently started her Textiles GCSE course and has sporadically shown an interest in sewing. She is very keen on tops with a Peter Pan collar, and so we ended up with the Colette Violet blouse and some quirky fabric with foxes on for her!

After leaving Backstitch, we pottered around the rest of the shops there, and stopped for a cuppa at the tea rooms. By this time it was towards the end of the afternoon and our table in the sun was pretty chilly, but we had a great afternoon and will be going back I am sure.  I have already recommended the shop to a friend from my cutting class who is pregnant and I had noticed that Alice stocked Megan Neilsen's pregnancy patterns.