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. 

Happy 80th Birthday Mum! -- New Look 6009 Top.

After doing a suck-up - I mean some sewing for  my MIL I needed to be fair and do the same for  my own Mum. She has just turned 80 years young and still sews most days - most of her own clothes and  patchwork and machine embroidered quilts. She can also do that thing with knitting where she knits really fast without even looking and doesn`t make a mistake - totally jealous and hate that but then again I am not a knitter so there.

Just when I was wondering what am I going to make Mum this year  I found 3.6 metres of Thai hand woven  silk in the op shop for $8.00!  In a background colour of mauvey, browny I don`t know what with blue and brown diamonds it was perfect . Talk about lucky - I just wish I could find that winning tattslotto ticket .

So I nicked - well borrowed - a pattern from my Mum`s stash - which is only fair really since it was for her ( and I promise I gave it back too - except I might nick it again to sew up for me ) -New Look 6009.
It is a simple drop shouldered top . The cute part of this pattern is the keyhole in the front with a loop of fabric above which gathers the  material into a sort of a bow look. The back is done up with one button / loop  .

It is a REALLY easy pattern - with only the front , back and facing pieces and a small rectangle for the loop.
The only tricky bit was because I used fabric with such an obvious pattern it just took a bit of  care to match the diamonds . I found some matching bias binding to finish the facings and a cool vintage button for the back from  my stash ( bummer that I only had one ) .

End result - one happy Mum who loves receiving ( and giving ) home made gifts. ( And the other best bit is that there is heaps of material left over for me .)

As Jen S said in her blog - yesterday was sewing group. One lady was doing a toile for a red lace dress for a wedding, someone else was sewing a self drafted dress , another was completing a chanel style jacket  impeccably  fitted mind you, another perfecting a toile for a shirt which already looked  well  perfect , another was making a lined coat , Jen cut out her houndstooth jacket and what was I sewing - a plastic fold up shopping bag - I am all class I tell you. Our new group is called From Tshirts to Couture - but perhaps it could be changed from plastic bags to couture :)  .

Cheers . Janine.

The Ultimate 61 Year Old Stash Bust.

Hello there . I have been debating do I , do I not ?  Not sewing of course but blogging. Without sewing I would probably be locked or hidden away in a small dark place( Ha Ha this probably describes my sewing room anyway ) . But then I read another blog about blogging for herself  , a kind of sewing diary and I thought exactly so.

I have been informally sewing along with other stash busters and this I believe must be the ultimate in stash busting. This fabric has been in a cupboard for 61 years ! Not mine , I`m not that  old  thanks ! I will make a long story short , my mother -in-law has a friend who apparently has a lot of fabric and was thinking about giving it away . Well in a nutshell she is not quite ready to let go ( yet - I still have hope ) but this led to my MIL telling me about the time she pleaded with her mother to buy her some fabric to sew when she was 17. Her mother did so with the promise she must actually sew it -hmm fast forward 61 years .

After a good and gentle ( and a lot of trepidation ) hand wash the fabric came up pretty well. There was one small stain and a few moth holes but pretty good for being a senior( heck I hope I am that good at 61 myself ) . My MIL wanted a kimono style  robe so I used New Look 6928 - a unisex pattern for sleepwear . I have made the robe once before - size Small and it is huge but very simple to construct  . I had just enough fabric - 3 1/2 metres at 90 cm wide. I managed to avoid the worst patch of moth holes but could not avoid the stain . There wasn`t even enough fabric left to make even one pocket. The fabric was lovely to sew with and ironed beautifully ( it wrinkled beautifully too ) . It was marked in one spot on the selvage  -Anglosheen -British fabrics- and I wish I knew more about it  .

Well my MIL is very pleased and says her mother will be looking down at her from Heaven happy as well. I should have offered to sew this up 20 years ago when I first started going out with her son ( not that I knew about the material until this year )because I think my approval rating has gone up a couple of notches  .

Cheers Janine.

PS I am soooo enjoying The Great British Sewing Bee. I don`t think the smile left my face the whole time watching it.

Knipmode - The $2.50 Op Shop Michael Kors Skirt

Michael Kors would be rolling around in his  NY penthouse suite or Monaco Yacht or where-ever he hangs out to think us sewists could make up one of his skirts for only $2.50 but isn`t that one of the reasons we sew ? 

Sewing this skirt ticks lots of boxes for me .

1.  I finally got to use of of my Knipmode magazines. This skirt pattern comes from the supplement to May 2012 `s edition. The supplement was only for skirt designs. 

2. I used an old stash fabric - this has been maturing for at least 6 years . It is a turquoise light weight linen . It was so easy to sew with and the colour alone made me feel good . And it was only $2.50 .  Luckily I still have a remnant leftover  .

3.I finally got to try out bound buttonholes and mitred hem corners . 

The skirt is unusual but simple in design - It has a slanted side on the left to  which is attached a long rectangle . Then buttons are added to this same side to create the unstructed pleats. 

    

My first bound buttonholes . The buttons are sewn on the inside of the skirt.

Knipmodes are dutch sewing magazines . For any Australian readers who are interested I bought mine from Crafty Mamas and as a bonus there is free postage .  I  started to use google translate but it is quite a slow process. I did a little research to find that like other pattern magazines there are no seam or hem allowances. 

After that I sewed the skirt by instinct because it really is a simple skirt. 

The steps I followed are -

1. stitch darts in the front and back. 

2. sewed up the back skirt pieces . 

3. added the zip. 

4. sewed the front and back skirt pieces together. 

5. sewed the front and back waist facing pieces together ( after interfacing them ) 

5. sewed this to the skirt then trimmed , snipped and understitched  the facing. 

6. added a bias binding trim to the waist facing and handstitched this to the zip area. 

7. measured out my rectangle piece needed and attached this to the skirt front and back. 

8. sewed the hems (  by hand except the mitred corners ) 

8. made bound buttonholes and attached the buttons.

  

Now why was this skirt only $2.50 ? 

Well the fabric was only $2.50 from the opshop and I only used about three quarters of it so say $1.70. 

The buttons were also from the op-shop - $0.50 and finally the zip  came from the op-shop as well  - they were three for one dollar so about $0.30 . ( I did try to buy a zip new but there were no zips that even came close to the colour of my skirt . I walked a few doors down to the oppie  and found a really close match and it was Australian made !) 

Finally channelling my inner Angelina Jolie ( and by inner I  mean really really inner. ) 

Cheers Janine. 

PS Jane I tried to find another photo of this skirt but all I have is  the photo from the magazine. 

Not Backwards about being Forward - Welcome 2013.

I have enjoyed reading everyone`s sewing reflections and their sewing hopes for 2013.
It seems that although we greatly differ in styles and productivity everyone seemed to enjoy their own sewing challenges and grew in the process. I do think the internet contributes to this a lot-we learn and are inspired by others .

New sewing project.

My sewing statistics were less in previous years because my sewing challenge was to slow down, enjoy the process more , do my personal best  and try new techniques . Therefore although I only sewed 13 items for myself in 2012 I am more than happy with this. I  do not need more clothes but I still want to sew.

Overall I sewed  27 items for the year - 14 for others - mostly my daughters but also my husband and mother-in-law. I sewed 11 new patterns a couple of which I then repeated later on. For my family the fabrics were purchased specifically for their projects   but for myself  I used all stash fabric so my stash is just a tad   smaller than last year - not that my sewing room looks any less cluttered  :)  .

My new challenges and techniques I accomplished this year were learning to confidently deal with chiffon ( If only this could extend to dogs and family and significant others !) , using flat fell seaming including on long sleeves, using french seams in armholes  and making changes to patterns to improve them or suit our needs more. I also finally got around to sewing that handbag pattern that had been glaring at me for probably 8 years. I did not blog about a few projects including a secret Xmas shirt for my husband - he initially thought it was a RTW one and  was very touched by his homemade present  ( which warmed the cockles of my heart ).

So now it is a new year and a new sewing challenge  -

yes that is my cutting table .

I have finally cut out my knipmode skirt - I bought three  magazines back in July 2012 and have been looking forward to attempting this pattern which is from the skirt supplement of the May edition . It is a Michael Kors design knockoff and I have taken a picture to show the  unusual shaped pieces. The above picture shows the skirt front at the  top and the skirt back pieces below. There are also the waist facing pieces and a long narrow rectangle ( which I have not cut out yet ) .
This project will be a challenge for me in several ways and so what better way to start a new year .
It will be a totally different fashion style to what I am used to , the magazine is written in dutch ( and now I know where  the term  It is all Double Dutch comes from ) and I am going to try bound buttonholes and possibly mitred corners. There now I have done it - it is written down in black and white and I can not back away. Wish me good luck.

I look forward to continuing to reading everyone`s sewing blogs in 2013 . I also look forward to hopefully a happy, healthy , safe , interesting and varied  year. Cheers Janine.

Kwik Sew 3637 A Circle Skirt and Farewell 2012.

I have managed to complete the final project for 2012 - a  little thrill that I can start 2013 all afresh . My middle daughter did not forget about the promised skirt she requested that I sew her. So ta da - here it is - in all its live modelled glory -yes my daughter agreed to have this photo taken ( after my youngest tricked her and took a photo anyway !)

I used Kwik Sew 3637 , a yoked circle skirt . The fabric is a Japanese cotton lawn from Spotlight - it actually has  a nice hand and is reminiscent of Liberty but without the accompanying $40/metre  price tag. ( I mean it is not as good as Liberty but still a really good substitute ) .Bonus my fabric was on special for only $7.99/metre and there were lots of patterns and colours to choose from   .

The skirt was really simple to sew -it only has two pieces - a yoke- cut out four times  and skirt piece- cut twice .     I did make a couple of  small  changes . I lined the skirt with dark blue cotton voile and surprisingly I found some navy blue ready made piping in my stash which added a nice little touch to the yoke. The only tricky bit of the skirt is the zipper and managing the lining and piping in this area . Also I overlocked the lower edge of the skirt and then made a narrow machine hem .   It does take alot of fabric  - size small uses 2.75 metres  but the resulting  softly cascading folds of fabric look lovely on her .

Well now I am truly ready to start sewing for me again - my pattern is traced  and fabric washed and ironed all ready to go for next year . To everyone have a  Happy New Year . Cheers Janine.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.

For a few years now my youngest daughter has pointed out to me that her christmas stocking is somewhat smaller than her two older sisters and I have been able to ignore these mutterings. However as she gets older  it also gets harder for me to put this aside and so finally I decided to correct this injustice.
I bought a chrismassy panel from a local patchwork shop and then trawled my stash to complete the sack. I used some cheap and nasty  dark green and white spotty  patchwork fabric that I have had for at least 16 years for the back and some much nicer vintage red and cream gingham cotton  to line it  and I couldn`t believe it but I found that I already owned a suitable christmassy panel ! ( SewYears Resolution - shop my stash before buying anything else )
Then because it is the silly season I went to town decorating it - using all materials from my bits and bobs box - glitter paint, fluffy sparkly pom poms, gold iron-on motifs, `toy` buttons and charms , lone gilt buttons and little bells rescued from the necks of chocolate Easter bunnies.
Now I hope it doesn`t matter that  this is not a stocking and that this is now much larger than my other daugther`s stockings otherwise I will get to practice my diplomacy skills AGAIN .

With the completion of this ( downright quick and easy ) project my Christmas preparations are done. Presents have been bought, cooked ,sewn and wrapped. The Christmas cake has been baked ( and eaten !) , the tree has been decorated and my daughters are cooking the desserts we need to take for the day. Now I get to sit back and relax and hopefully get to read Anna Karenina and watch the Carols by Candlelight.

Hope you and your families  all have a safe and happy and healthy  Christmas.
I also want to thank everyone for their kind words and awards even during the year. It has made blogging even more fun and enjoyable.
Cheers Janine.