Simplicity 9915- A Trip Down Memory lane.

Standing in front of our new rammed earth wall in our straw bale/ rammed earth home !

My favourite project of the year has been this little white top.
I was given this white/ off white seersucker . I had 1.5 metres ( 1.6 yards )  but is was only 90 cm ( 35 inches ) wide . I initially wanted to make a top along the lines of Louise Cutting`s Ebb design. In my dreams ! I was really short of fabric . Then I tried Simplicity 5683 because I have made it twice before and it doesn`t take much fabric. Again I was way off the mark. I was getting a bit desperate now because I had also set my heart on using  these 4 vintage buttons which in my mind matched my vintage fabric perfectly  .
So it was quite fitting that I found this vintage pattern which matched my fabric allowance .

 Simplicity 9915 - It is dated 1981 and dusting off my memories this is the third pattern I ever sewed . And it is also the most made pattern I own ( apart from PJs ) . I love this pattern but it has been well and truly over a decade since I visited it. I think I have made it at least 8 times using all views in fabrics from pink butterflies, black and white gingham , coloured dotted swiss cotton , terracotta silk and taupe dots.
Once I made the little bow tie version in fabric that Princess Diana had a shirt from ( hers was black and white and mine was red but it was the exact same pattern ! )

photo courtesy  from Diana`s jewels website  - photo taken in 1983.

This is also my best sewn version of this particular view. According to the pattern description it has a funnel neck line and shoulder tucks and getting those right was tricky- the shoulder tucks are adjacent to the neck line . Apart from that the top is simple . The big difference this time ( apart from 20-30 years literally ! ) was thread tracing the shoulder tuck marks . This then allowed absolute sewing accuracy and everything came together really nicely . Because there has been a fair bit of chocolate , cakes and three children since my teenage years I also  did not add the waist darts ! The top has simple dropped shoulders and has just the right amount of ease.

A close up of the neckline, shoulder tucks  , fantastic textured seersucker and my vintage buttons. 

 This top will go with just about everything and since my favourite handsewn  white tunic has bitten the dust this is a much needed replacement . I have worn it several times already and my friend`s daughter commented that it was just like a burda style pattern she had recently downloaded .
Have a good day , Janine.

Butterick 4299 - More Remnant Stash Busting.

I told you that I really ran with the itty bitty remnant stash busting this year .
With only one ( holey ) windcheater and another ( even holier ) rugby top I really did need ( rather than my usual want ) a new windcheater.
I had a small piece of  french terry type fabric - only 80cm but very wide  - and a smaller  scrap of pale blue fleece fabric . Just enough to eek out my new windcheater. I used some piping type trim to cover the arm seams and make look like a ` design feature ` .

I used Butterick 4299 - a very OOP `Lifestyle Wardrobe ` pattern . As with all raglan sleeved garments this was a very easy sew. However I am not happy with the upper sleeves - they are quite voluminous . I have saved one of my daughter`s discarded raglan sleeved windcheater and one day ( those famous well intentioned words ) I will unpick this and compare the pattern pieces.
This is a very unexciting garment but I sew for  my real life and not my imagined life - so no pretty garden party dresses ( at least for now ) . This top has been worn heaps already.

I did sew some more itty bitty remnant stash busting projects but if you  get my drift I will not be posting photos. However I will say they are more comfortable than RTW and stay up ( a bonus !) . I will also say sewing un-die grun-dies are harder than they look .

This just about covers my remnant sewing for now . Cheers Janine.

Kwik Sew 2694 -Happy Families.

Continuing on from my small remnants stash buster I sewed another Kwik Sew 2694.

I love the grey and black print knit left over from making a totoro hat .What you don`t know what a totoro hat is ? Let me explain . On my eldest DD`s last day of school in 2012 she wanted to dress up as totoro - a Japanese anime comic  character . We needed dark grey fabric and the reverse side of this fabric was the closest we could find in the one and only fabric shop in town ( well I did have some dark grey/silver/ black shot dupioni look silk in my stash but I am not that nice a mother ) . So I only had 50cm of this minus all the hat pieces already cut out - that is not much fabric at all !
Hence Kwik Sew 2694 was about my best option . I combined the print with black bamboo knit ( I love this fabric too! ) remnant from Cleggs famous Boxing Day Remnants Sale . That event is a whole nother story as well - imagine scores of women three deep rumaging through a long table covered in 100s of remnants.  I lived to tell the tale and scored this beautiful knit - it is so soft . Once I pawed this I did not let go !
Truth be told I have probably overdone this pattern. This is now my fourth rendition .

Nuclear Happy Family of Kwik Sew 2694 

This pattern is still available and it is easy and a little more interesting than a plain Tee and it has certainly allowed me to make the most of remnants stash.
Here`s to happy healthy families.
PS I would love to show a photo of totoro daughter but she would probably kill me.

Tee for Two or Three ?

I have been informally sewing along with a group of ` Stashbusters `this year  . Each month was a different theme and February`s was using small pieces of fabric . I embraced this idea and ran with throughout February and then just kept on going .

I started with sewing two T shirts using four pieces of fabric that has been festering in my stash for years .

Using Simplicity 7692 - a very old basic T shirt pattern I slashed, cut and re- taped the pattern to recreate the above tops. 

Top one has an asymmetrical neckline with a matching asymmetrical two pieced front. I used three pieces of material to complete it - a small remnant of maple leaf print poly knit in the colours of navy, black, teal, violet  and  gray and matching teal mesh and navy cotton lycra . There was not much of the maple leaf print left and I absolutely loved it . I was determined to use it but it did take some thought on what to do . This project was certainly stretching my creative side and in the flush of success - yes I can do something a little different ! - I went and melted the top of the front while ironing it -duh . ( Oh well it was just going to be a wear around the house top anyway ) 

 Top two is a shameless knockoff of a vogue pattern released last year I think. Well it is just a variation of a simple T and for $25 plus for a vogue pattern  why not? I used a remnant knit of a blue/black/ gray/ white stripey soft knit  given to me from Mum and the remainder of the navy cotton lycra from Top one. Again there was not much of the stripey knit so some care was required.  I also took more care with the ironing !

This was a fun project. Using an old pattern and remnants ( the exception being the navy cotton lycra ) I had nothing to lose so I just kind of went for it . I ended up with two wearable tops from fabric too small to do anything else with. I would recommend others to have a go at this as well. 

And then as mentioned I kept on going with the remnant stashbusting . I sewed more short PJ bottoms for my middle daughter using material left over from her Kwiksew circle skirt. And then I made another Kwik Sew top from more remnants but that can be another blogpost for another day.