FO: sleeveless cowl #2 and a (very simple) refashion

I made this top last week to boost my summer top selection.  Whilst I have sewn a lot of tops over time (more than anything else), they mostly seem to be long sleeved/cooler weather tops.

This is another version of the MyImage Cowl neck top from the Autumn/Winter2012 magazine. I left the sleeves off again and did pretty much the same as I did for my last sleeveless version. I got a new sewing machine for Christmas (lucky me!) so everything I have made since has been with this machine.  I found a great stitch on my old machine when I did the hem on my black version, but there doesn't appear to be the same/similar stitch on my new one, so I just did a zigzag stitch.

 

Now that I have made this top a few times (2 long sleeved, 2 sleeveless) I find that it is a very quick and satisfactory make. I *love* the cowl neck and the way that it fits at the back. I think the back piece is marginally slimmer than the front piece, which gets rid of some of the pooling of excess fabric that I sometimes get.

I have linked to it before, but I use the tutorial from Melissa at FehrTrade for the neck line finish.

The long shorts/cropped trousers that I am wearing in these pictures were refashioned in MeMadeMay. A few years ago I bought some long tracksuit trousers that were too long. I then shortened them, but it was too much and they looked ridiculous.  I put them away to deal with later and promptly forgot all about them. In my effort to go through some of my stuff during MMM I found them again and very quickly sorted them out. I put them on, pinned roughly where I wanted to cut them and checked in the mirror before I cut them.  I used the cut-off section of each leg to create a cuff using the calf band pattern piece form the Hudson pants, and ended up with a quick pair of lounging/casual trousers.  I was a bit concerned that even with my careful checking of where I cut the legs, the finished seam attaching the cuff might be a bit irritating as it is right in the crook of my knee.

Happily, having worn these quite a few times now, they are very comfortable. The fabric is incredibly soft so the seam is not irritating at all.

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...

Me-Made-May round up #3

I haven't done so well on documenting this last lot:

May 15th:

Dodgy neckline

New unblogged fleece Renfrew in Navy. I made the three quarter sleeves in an attempt to copy a RTW navy jumper that is slowly dying. It is not great, there is something wrong with the neck.  I think is is the top stitching for the neck band being a bit tight. Also the three quarter sleeves are not long enough - the top of the arm band seam hit just on my elbow and is just the wrong length, therefore somewhat annoying. Worn for everyday stuff, and then to pub quiz in the evening.

May 17th:

Refashioned dress worn for Husband's Grandmother's funeral.  We were told not to be too sombre, so I decided to finally get round to modifying this dress that I have had for some years:

Bought in late '90's, love the material, not the style anymore!

I shortened it and changed the neck. I may do a separate post on it. This is the only picture I have at the moment:

Lovely meal after funeral with Husbands cousins

I know I wore something else that week, but I have no idea what or when! (I think I may have missed something out from my previous round up and put the green Renfrew in the wrong round up  - Hey ho!)

I'm very glad I am not doing this every day - I'm really not sure I would be still going at this stage if I were....

Mackenzie Frock Stars 2011

This time last year, I entered a competition local to the area we were living in in New Zealand, called Mackenzie Frock Stars, blogged here and here.

So this year I have a title to defend and I believe I am the only international entrant! I received a parcel about a month ago with my dress and all the competition details. Being unable to model the finished piece myself this year, I have made it to fit my friends 10 year old daughter, who has already volunteered to model it for me.

I had the dress on my dress form (nicknamed Lola after my friend and organiser of the Frock Stars comp) for a few days to inspire me and think I now have some ideas...

Here are some details:

and here is Eldest modelling the finished dress (she is the same age and similar size as my friends daughter)

I posted the parcel last week with a week to go before the closing date and managed get it there before some of the local contestants. There was a massive dump of snow recently, which meant several roads were closed and postal services were down - I must have just beaten the snow!

Final judging and the Fashion show is this weekend - can't wait!

still got the blues...

I have now finished the refashion of the blue tops for Eldest Daughter.

I used the body of the paler top and the arms of the darker top.
I gathered the head of the sleeves slightly so that I wouldn't have to trim them down. I think you can see that in the pictures below. I used a trimmed section of the darker top to highlight the neck, copying the way one of her Boden tops has been finished.
I wanted to decorate the front some how and had a little play:
Here she is, very pleased to be wearing her new top ( just a few seams to tidy up on the inside). She likes her tops quite long and is constantly pulling down ones that are a bit shorter, so this is deliberately on the long side!

Feeling blue?

Not really!
I found these two tops in a Timaru charity shop. I really want to try sewing with knits, but don't want to screw up good fabric. Having been flicking through various blogs, and looking at the Wardrobe Refashion website, I thought I would try refashioning a couple of t-shirts first. My eldest is in need of more long sleeve tops - she keeps doing this rather inconvenient thing called growing - so I thought she could benefit from my efforts. She has a lot of blue in her wardrobe, most of which still fits, so hopefully this will help. My plan is to make the body from the light blue top, which seems to be a heavy-ish weight t-shirt material. Then add the sleeves from the darker blue top, which is a ribbed knit. There will be embellishment of some sort having been inspired by this blog, but I will try very hard not to include all my ideas in one top - sometimes less is more!

Current state of play - both tops are minus their collars and arms, with the paler top cut into a smaller t-shirt shape. Forgot to take pictures of these stages. I am planning to put it all back together with in the next few days.

Mackenzie Frock Stars 2010

This took place on Saturday 31st July. There were in the region of 40 or so entrants, mostly modelling their own creations. We had a rehearsal on Saturday afternoon, where we were divided into our categories: Under 16's; Daywear/Casual; Eveningwear and non-garment items. We had a 'walk through' so that we knew what order we were appearing in and where to walk. Having arrived and changed a bit early, I spent quite a long time standing round and getting nervous, being near the end of the running order! Eventually the bright lights beckoned and it was my turn to strut my stuff. As each entrant went on stage, a picture of the frock in it original form was projected on a screen behind us. Having struck a few poses, I was off again, then we had to wait for the announcement of the winners. There were prizes for each category, then a few extra prizes...

So now I present the winning outfit of the Envy Award - Outfit that the judges most wanted for their wardrobes:
From this:
to this



Further photos can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/frockstars2010 . Photos courtesy of Thomas William-Powlett aka Husband!

Frock Stars

Next up was the Mackenzie Frocks Stars competition.
"Your mission is to take one of our icky old frocks & give it a new lease of life in whatever way you can! Unleash your creativity & cut it, dye it, adorn it or completely reshape it - in fact ANYTHING you can to make it gorgeous again!"

I collected a frock - not my first choice - and had a think. My frock was black brushed cotton, with with sprigs of multi coloured flowers (red, white, khaki-ish green and purple). Having been reading Marisa's blog New Dress a Day I knew that something reasonable could come out of this! It was clearly a handmade dress, and had an interesting row of buttons with loop closures. My first thought was to make a jacket to keep the interesting buttons, then came across the Nadine jacket on BurdaStyle - a plan was beginning to form...

During Husband's birthday weekend away to Christchurch, I dragged dragged him to a fabric shop I had been told about, called Bolt of Cloth. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but very quickly found a bright 'tomato-y' red fabric that would go with the red flowers on the dress. Having bought the red fabric and obtained some samples of other fabrics for possible future projects, I then had to tackle the dress. I had decided to use the Nadine pattern as a basis for my jacket, and wanted to use the red fabric as a statement. I used the collar, sleeve ruffles and and peplum from the Nadine and cut them out of the red. I cut the dress horizontally just below the last button and set about attaching the extra pieces, leaving the collar to last (this was the trickiest bit).

Having done all this I found the piece I had left was just big enough to make a skirt. I used the Burdastyle Kasia skirt for inspiration and again used the red fabric to highlight the hip yoke section.


The entries were judged on Wednesday 28th July (I think) and who knows what people thought of my creation. The Fashion Parade t00k place on Saturday evening and and I will be modelling my outfit. This is not usually 'my thing' as I am not keen on people watching me, but I will have to tell myself that people are looking at the clothes rather than me and get on with it! I forgot to take pictures of the finished clothes so will post something after the Parade.