Sewing Ups and Downs.

A sewing ` up ` was this T shirt using my favourite pattern Kwik Sew 2965 . I think this is my 6th version now.  I only had a mere scrap of stretch panne velvet so I had to cut the back with a centre seam. The pattern is quick , easy and only uses small pieces of fabric. Win.

Another sewing `up ` was my first ever refashion ! I wish I had a before photo but years ago I made a jacket from some blue polar fleece . I paid full price for the Butterick  6835 pattern and full price for the polar fleece which wasn`t particularly cheap.  I wanted to make the shorter version and bought fabric according to requirements listed on the back of the pattern envelope. This turned out to be way too  much so I had enough for the longer version. The end result was a humongous ugly short coat / long jacket . But because I had actually invested some money in this I wore it - in public ! ( Amazing my daughters let me do this ) After a couple of years I came to my senses but put the jacket away in my cupboard to do something with.  Several years later I finally got around to it. 

I unpicked the jacket and because it was so huge it was easy to get new fronts , sleeves and a back on the existing pieces. I used another old pattern, this time  Burda 8881.  This pattern is much better sized but the instructions are  weird. It says to hand sew in the front zip !! What the heck !! No way. Apart from that little bit of Burda madness the pattern was very easy. I left on the pockets from the original jacket but they were massive too in keeping with the whole over sized thing  . I unpicked them but you can just see the impressions where they were. Still this is much better than the original garment and I have worn it many times . Win. 

But what goes up must come down . 

Sewing down . 

Down . 

 OK I think I have found a worse fabric to sew than silk chiffon . Really. Loosely woven sweater knit . Ravelly . Poor stretch recovery . Curly. It looks so pretty with its raspberry ripple appeal and so soft . It lured me in but what a devil to sew. I did try really.

I cut strips of bias cut interfacing and stabilised all the seams as directed. I treated the fabric like a new born baby , handling it so gently. I mean look how nice my collar looks . It was the hemming that led to my down fall. I measured where I wanted the hem but ahem,  cut a great bit honking hole in the main body of the pullover. I cut this off and overlocked the edge and it was all downhill after that . I tried to rescue my pullover by adding a wide band to the bottom but the seam line hits right on the fluffiest bit of my stomach and looked just terrible. I took a photo and chucked in the bin.
I am wondering if this failure is just not sewing karma because I used an old Burda magazine (August  1993 ! ) and cut out the pattern . Yes , I didn`t trace the pattern , I cut it out . After looking at the magazine several times I realised that I would never make anything else . Despite all this I really like the pattern and will try again . In a more cooperative fabric . And I won`t cut a hole in the front .
Hope your sewing is all up , up , up !

Casual , Comfy , Cozy Dresses.

 

First thing I do when  I get home from work is get straight out of my good clothes . It protects them from me but also gets me out of the being at work mental  zone  . During winter my favourite down time uniform is a pair of trackies .You just can not beat trackies for comfort and feeling relaxed and dagginess ! My last pair had bagged out so badly at the bum and knees that even Saggy Baggy Elephant would have felt sorry for them so they are in the gardening clothes pile now. With no trackies  left this was an opportunity to significantly up my casual clothes style. 

Pattern combo for the purple stripe /spot dress. 

Both fabric pieces came from Clear It bought at the end of last year . I used Butterick 6883 for the blue and grey argyle knit dress . This is a really fantastic pattern that also comes with pants , a sleeveless vest and the dress shortened into a top. The pants are definitely a contender for upmarket trackies too ! I love the front angled seams with pockets , the curved neckline with an interesting collar and dropped sleeves . Even the upper back has a curved inset piece. This makes for a very comfy dress with lots of design possibilities. I sewed this dress during a very busy period . Sometimes I only had time to sew up one seam at a time but over a couple of weeks I managed to complete it so it is a relatively easy pattern as well. The only changes I made were to lengthen the dress and I added piping to the neckline . The piping is woven  so the neckline is a little bit tighter but luckily I can still get it over my head easily enough. 

 The pockets bag out a little bit  but the pros of having them greatly outweigh that factor and after all these are just trackie replacements so I am not fussed by that. 

The purpley striped and dotty knit dress was made using a collaboration between a Kwik Sew 2900 top , Vogue 2101 dress  and a pocket from an old Burda WOF mag. Although I have made KS 2900 many times it has been a few years now but it was always my go to pattern for T shirts . I like the shaping of the vogue dress being slightly pegged  and knee length. I did double the width of the KS collar piece so it was a rollover collar rather than just a turtle neck. This was also a very easy make although attempting stripe matching required a bit more care. 

  

I used some of the dark purple stripe knit to bind the pocket edges and make it just a bit more interesting. 

I am pretty happy with my new dresses ( now just have to wait for the cool weather ) . Such a step up my usual casual outfits . I won`t be embarrassed answering the door now to unexpected visitors ! 

Big Collar , Little Band Raglans .

Blogging activity in no way reflects my sewing activities. I have made a couple of beige camisoles and acacias . I can see one of the advantages of sewing indie patterns is being able to write I made some acacias rather than I sewed some Kwik Sew 2100s but it boils down to  that I made some beige  underthingies and they are extremely basic and necessary and much better than shop bought especially in terms of comfort but totally boring and private so no way I will blog those.

Much more blog worthy are the raglan pullovers I sewed. I completed these last month but only just convinced my youngest to model for me ( it has been disgustingly humid and hot ) on the proviso they were headless photos ( morning , just got up , getting ready for work etc ) .

The pattern is from August 2017 , a raglan sleeve pullover with a ginormous collar . The fabric is a cosy , soft chevron thick knit from Darn Cheap`s $2/metre table.  I know this is seasonally inappropriate but I really wanted to get my daughter`s sewing out of the way so I could then be totally selfish and just sew for me. Also she is about to leave home for uni ! Happy and sad at the same time . This was a very easy project except for the pattern matching. Does anyone know is it even possible to match the raglan sleeves and the chevrons ? I think the answer should be don`t worry, who cares , life is too short but pattern matching is the holy grail for home sewers - one of the things that we do better than bought. Well  all I can say is that I tried my best.

I know this last shot is not headless as promised so please don`t look at her head but focus on the fluffy thing on the floor that is about to approach  her foot for a good tickly licking session.
Well now I have my selfless sewing out of the way ( three tops , one dress , one pullover in the last couple of months for my DDs ) the natural progession was to sew a raglan pullover for moi !

I used McCalls 6992 which was an entirely unnecessary pattern purchase  since  I already have an old Kwik Sew Raglan pattern and a saddle shoulder version in a Knipmode magazine but influenced by seeing so many fabulous versions out in sewing blog world . I used a navy and grey argyle knit from Clear It bought late last year.

This was another easy project BUT my neckline looks so much wider than others I`ve seen  and that annoys me because I used new , bought in a proper shop fabric rather than my usual op shop or gifted stuff . Perhaps I accidently stretched out the neckline applying my ( very old ) stashed ribbing ? Last time I sewed myself something with proper shop bought fabric that was also a dud so I am starting to get paranoid here. Well this pullover is not a complete dud  and I have worn it a few times .I will give  the pattern another try but will find some cheap opshop windcheater material next time.

Well so seriously sewing gurus could I have matched my stripey chevrons at the raglan Sleeves ?

And did you know that raglan sleeves were named after Lord Raglan (1788- 1855 ) a British commander in the Crimean War? No neither did I until just now. 

It`s A Wrap - BurdaStyle 09/2017 Wrap Dress 113.

 

Finally finished my first project of the year -yay.  My youngest daughter picked out this very pretty fabric from Darn Cheap last year when we were going material shopping for her big sister. Fair enough - no favouritism in our house - all three daughters are equally my favourites.
She then showed me some pictures of what she had in mind and they were all wrap dresses. Would you believe I  basically had  no patterns for a wrap dress!  Well, there was an old Burda magazine pattern  for knit fabrics and a 70s one for a large shawl collar version but that was it. I went to Spotlight and checked out the Big 4  patterns but nothing was quite right.

So when I went down to my local very small newsagent to get a new myki  travel card I could not believe my eyes to see they had the latest ( for Australia ) Burda and that there was a wrap dress just like she wanted ! If anything was ever meant to be this was it . I am so happy to see Burda magazines becoming so readily available now - hopefully this is a sign of a sewing resurgence.

                             
                                                   

The pattern is for petite sizes and my daughter is taller than  the 160 cm it is designed for . I did not lengthen the bodice and she is happy with where the waist sits . There is a waist band  with ties . The left tie inserts through a gap left in the waist band and wraps around the back.  The skirt and sleeve pieces are cut on the bias creating that lovely fluid fall of cloth . My daughter actually wanted short sleeves but she also wanted the wear the dress tonight for a date so to save time I just hemmed them as is . We can revisit the sleeve length another time. She also wanted the dress quite a bit shorter . She requested about 15 cm off the skirt length. That didn`t quite get Mum approval so I only removed 10 cm but shh don`t tell her.
We are both very happy with the end result . A slow but great sewing start to the year.

Acute Angles Black Skirt ( Burda WOF 02/2006 )

At the beginning of the year I gave away my good summer black skirt to my middle daughter which of course gave  me an excellent reason to sew another one just in case anyone should have  asked  "What are you sewing another skirt ?" " Yes ,but I gave my black skirt away and everyone knows that having a black skirt for summer is essential like brains and  baby goat yoga  ."
I have had this embroidered black cotton in my cupboard for only about 10 years . It counts as one my special fabrics because it came  from another closed down fabric store and it  is  lovely quality.

                                                            

I pulled out lots of skirt patterns that I would like to sew but eventually chose an old BurdaWOF pattern from the large pile I bought from the op shop earlier this year .

This is from Burda WOF February 2006 which is probably about how old my fabric  is so this choice is quite appropriate really. I  liked the deep cross over front pleat and shaped yoke which I find quite flattering and comfortable for me. The pattern was rated as easy . I could not see how the pleated pieces were joined but I went ahead and cut out my pattern believing all would be revealed as I sewed up the skirt.

Turns out that the two front pieces are not joined together !  The skirt was at least  easy to sew up as promised .
First a deep self facing is turned to the wrong side .

Then the right front is lapped over the left at some markings.

Finally the left front is folded over the right side  at the pleat marks ( I marked the pleat lines with  yellow stitching  to make this visible  and easier - obviously I pulled this stitching out later ) .









I have not yet worn the skirt out in the wild .However it was a positive sign  when these photos were being taken that  I got the seal of approval from my eldest daughter who said she would wear an outfit like this . I am hoping that the deep pleats will prevent flashing at the first breeze I encounter otherwise well it is going to be a very cool summer skirt indeed  but just not for the kind of  work I do ! (  Or I might add in some hand stitching but time will time .  )

Until next time may every day be a Sewday for you .

Three By Two Piece Dress.

I have been gradually stash busting during 2017 and turned my attention to a piece of knit purchased from Frou Frous in 2011 .It was a terrific little garment fabric shop which shut down. By the time I managed to get to the closing down sale the shop was quite bare and I may have made a few impulsive buys which I would not normally have done including the knit above. I ordered 2 metres but received a very generous 2.5 metres. Now this fabric is very loud and bright, something I am a bit shy about wearing and thought it might be a bit too much as a dress. So then I had the brilliant idea ( tongue in cheek ) to make a two piece dress and to be able to mix and match and water down the loudness. By being very careful I was able to make a skirt and two tops from my 2.5 metres.

I used three patterns to make up this outfit. The skirt has 6 gores using 2 pattern pieces with an  elastic waist .I used Simplicity 4074 . I have made the dress from this pattern which I made in 2008 and still wear heaps and have always wanted to make all  the other views . Now I just have the top left to make .  I lengthened the skirt as the dress I made was on the slightly too short side. I am much happier with this length which hits just below my knee. ( I am 169cm tall - used to be 170cm !!)

The  gathered raglan sleeved T-Shirt was made from Burda 02/2013.  I have made this before but not successfully and have always wished to retry it again with modifications. I added width to just below the waist line and also cut the neck band a lot shorter . The finished neckline measures at 75 cm and this is the length that Burda says to cut the neck band hence why mine appeared floppy. The longest piece of fabric I had left was 66 cm and this was lengthwise so not as much stretch as the crossgrain but it turned out much better. I will not make this T-shirt again but there are lots of other patterns I want to try from the magazine.

The cowl neck top was made from New Look 6470  . I have never made this pattern before and wish I had made it earlier now. I had to cut the back from two pieces because of my limited fabric but this was just as well because I had serious gaping issues at the back neck. Instead of just overlocking the neck edge and turning in and stitching down as instructed I made some narrow strips cut on the cross grain to apply. I did the same for the armholes. I was  very careful about applying this but in the end with the gaping I had to unpick it all so the back of my neck from being neat and tidy is a bit messy but at least it is not gaping anymore. I would like to make this pattern again and will be aware of making alterations to the top of the centre back or again cutting the back from two pieces.

So there is my two piece dress which will be able to be worn multiple ways.  I do love the handful of  dresses I have but I tend to wear more separates and with some hot weather coming up this week I will be able to start wearing this one straight away.  

Learning to Trust Your Sewing Instincts .

I  wish I could have just shown this flattering photo of this sewing project but that wouldn`t have been right .

The truth is shown in the bottom photos .
I bought the fabric  from Spotlight on March the 7th 2006   - I found the docket tucked inside ! I know I liked it when I first got it and I had a RTW shirt made out of similar fabric which I wore to death but over the years I gradually became meh about it . Anne Whalley had a recent post about fabric having a use by date and I agree !  But despite my meh instincts about the pink stripey fabric labelled a vintage dobbie I went ahead and used a new to me but very old Burda pattern 8918 . I really liked the tie neck , bottom hem band and flouncy sleeves which are a nod to the current sleeve fashions and thought this might be enough to overcome the fabric shortcomings .

There are a few reviews about the place for this pattern and they mentioned too tight sleeves so I used a narrower seam allowance and found they were fine but as for the rest of the tunic , well  not fine ! I am barely a B and it was too tight around my bust - this just never happens to me . Also there is quite a bit of pooling  of fabric at the back and  again this is unusual . The arm holes are uncomfortable and the bias tie neckline sticks out .Also  I realise now that part of the reason I am meh about the actual fabric apart from the fact it has been in my cupboard for over 11 years is that it is perhaps a bit too close to my skin colour . This tunic is definitely in the give away pile but if I had listened to my instincts I would have just saved some precious sewing time and given it away .

On the plus side at least I didn`t use some precious fabric to make this up , I have trialled the pattern and will keep it for now ( perhaps I just have to accept that I need to make a larger size ), it was fun to sew  and I used the very last of my Spotlight fabric .
To lick my wounds I have followed up this project with a usually never fails pair of PJs. Happy to report success there. Hope everyone is well .Janine x