Pinning out a practice Pendrell

I have been following Tasia's Sewaholic blog for a while now and when she announced her first pattern, the Pendrell blouse, I ordered a copy quick sharp. I knew that we would be returning to the UK in a couple of months, so I got the pattern sent to my in-laws for safe keeping. Having thought that I had lost the pattern at least twice during our unpacking, I wanted the Pendrell to be the first thing I made for myself.

After tidying the spare room for my parents visit, after they had gone, it was clear enough to start sewing. I decided to make a muslin of view A, before cutting into my Liberty fabric.

I found some curtains during the unpacking, that were surplus to requirement, so decided to cut into them. They were a muslin type material, quite light and floaty. Muslin for a muslin!

Having finished the muslin and tried it on, I think the neck line is too high for my liking (and a bit wonky) and the sleeves seem huge on me. I felt like an extra in Star Trek!

I did some research on the net and had a look at other peoples versions of the same view and found that most people had done the pleats on the sleeves to face downwards, whereas I had my pleats facing upwards. I think that the upward pleats are making the fabric too 'stand up-y' (not a real word I know!), instead of drapey. Next step is to take out one of the sleeves and reset it with the pleats going the other way, just to see, and then work out how low to make my neck line.

Getting back to sewing

Well, I have finally started sewing again. Lots of things have been going on... in brief:

Over a month ago, my mother-in-law took me shopping for my belated 40th birthday present - an overlocker. After lots of research on the net and some advice from Tilly and Karen, we went to the Sewing Centre in Clapham and I am now the somewhat daunted owner of an Elna overlocker. Following that, mother-in-law took me to some of the fabric shops that she has used in the past. We went to Joel & Sons, MacCulloch & Wallis, Cloth House, Broadwick Silks, Borovich Fabrics and a few more. Amazingly I only bought two pieces of fabric:

this for a Pendrell;













and this for a muslin for a shirt for Husband;













However, since that shopping day, the weather has perfect for gardening, so the overlocker is unpacked, but otherwise untouched, and the fabric remains uncut.

My parents came to stay for a few days over the Easter holidays, which meant that the spare room/sewing space was transformed from this:




into a space that they could sleep in.

The garden was pretty much untouched by the tenants while we were in New Zealand, so we have been transforming the garden as seen here.

Eldest and Middlest daughters have expressed an interest in using the sewing machine and creating something themselves. Over the holidays I have been helping them with a project I found here. This has been an education, most for me. I have found that I cannot teach them both at the same time, even with a spare sewing machine. Each of them needs a different approach, and acceptance from me of differing attention spans! Middlest now has a finished bag, which she has taken to school to show today. Eldest has a half pinned heap of material waiting for her.

I have also been making a muslin for my Pendrell blouse, but I will save that for another post.