Sew Your Own Affordable Luxury - Silk and Liberty Lawn Shirts.

 More shirts ! No exaggeration , I love sewing them.
First up a cream silk shirt using Vogue 2634 , an OOP pattern .
I just wanted a very simple pattern to showcase the beautiful cream silk that has a self small chequered pattern . I bought the silk from the op shop last year  for only $2.00 for 4 metres but it is very narrow ( only 72cm wide ) . At the time I was trying to fabric fast so I kidded myself that the silk would be for my daughter who wanted tops made out of natural fibres for her travel overseas in 2018 . Ha ! cream silk must be the most impractical thing in the world for a student travelling on a strict budget.
Just in case she changed her mind though I have quickly made it up while she is still away.
The only variation I made to this pattern was to add vented cuffs from a Kwik Sew pattern. I did not do any top stitching , did not add the pockets and hand stitched the hems to keep the shirt details to a minimum.

 

I used the collar tutorial from Four Square Walls which she took from an old sewing pattern. I remember using this method to sew up a collar / stand when I was in my teens so I went through my old patterns and sure enough I found a Simplicity pattern from the 80s that uses this order of collar construction. It really does make a very nice collar . I can not recommend it enough. 

Next up a liberty lawn shirt . I seem to be the giftee of atypical liberty lawn. This is my second liberty lawn project ,both generous gifts and not a floral in sight !  This particular liberty was a Xmas gift from my husband. It`s funny because he bought this after a Xmas work party in Melbourne . He told his colleagues he was off to The Fabric Store after lunch to buy me a chrissie present. They were apparently horrified that he was making work for me ! On the other hand my sewing group friends were very impressed that he did this off his own bat and said he is a keeper ! 

The pattern is called Matt Madison and consists of diamonds with little scenes of bare branched trees and lakes etc . Very wintery fabric with its grey and olive based tones . Unlike my first Liberty Lawn project I didn`t take years to decide what pattern to make and sew it up. 

I knew I wanted to make a shirt ( well that is all the fabric I had anyway ) and since it is an unusual Liberty I wanted to make a variation of a standard shirt pattern. I used Kwik Sew 3620 another OOP pattern. I love the collar and like the addition of the front ties. Another poorly kept  secret is how much I love the old Kwik Sew patterns and the way the collar is constructed is so neat . I used my rolled hem foot to mainly successfully finish off the front ties ( use your different sewing machine feet - really ! ) 

So there you have it .Two very different but luxury shirts that feel sooo nice to wear but cost a fraction of bought ones .  ( PS I actually really like floral Liberty lawn - I would love to get the  classic Wiltshire pattern with the berries on it . )

SImplicity 9659 - A Feminine Tunic .

   I was reading a new to me blog and realised just how much I enjoy reading chatty sewing blogs and how much I like having a little prattle too. It is an entirely wet and cold day and since I have caught up with the house work I want to do ( dusting and washing floors and cobwebs be damned ) it is time to catch up here too.
I sewed this tunic top 1-2 months ago. It is based on the Simplicity pattern 9659 below and I can not find any reviews of it on the internet . The pattern looks very dated and was bought for a song from the op shop but I liked the collar details , the empire waist and thought it would make a nice tunic top much like the Ebb and Flow pattern from Louise Cutting ( a pattern I don`t think I can buy in Australia ) .

I was also intrigued by the FITRules! on the pattern cover. I wonder if this is an early prototype of the Simplicity`s Amazing Fit patterns. The pattern had different cup sizes and some basic fitting advice .
I used some vintage fabric also picked up from the opshop . It was narrow but there was plenty of it . It has a white etched floral print on baby blue with pretty ditsy roses.

The interestingly shaped collar . I added bias binding to the facings as well. 

The sleeve vents. Several of my recent projects have them. I am obsessed !

Back ties which were popular in the 90s. These ties are not actually needed for shaping but I included them anyway. 

 I am happy with the tunic although the fabric creases like crazy. I won`t make the pattern again . Too many unused Burdas and pattern envelopes with the promise of some European sewing mags to be posted by my daughter having a fantastic overseas  adventure  this year.

I still have a few things to document here - a cream silk blouse  , a panne velvet T shirt , a grey tweed look long vest , a refashioned polar fleece top and a blouse made from my Christmas pressie Liberty lawn and I am just about to finish a pair of Burdastyle pants.
It doesn`t feel like I sew a lot but my sewing corner is my safe happy place and sewing a little bit every so often gets stuff done. My sewing is uncurated ! I pull out patterns and magazines I haven`t made before and match up with fabrics in my cupboard . I will see something someone has made and think that looks great and try sew something similar . I will put out a piece of fabric taking up lots of room and make it up . It all seems to work though . I make what I sew work for me so there are few unloved or disastrous makes even if I just end up wearing them around the house.
I have pulled out a few more wintery  fabrics and have washed and ironed them all ready to cut out and sew
hopefully before the end of Winter.

Style Arc Winnie-The-Top .

I have been continuing on with the sewing theme of making alternative casual comfy winter wear to tracksuit pants. I ordered this black and white jacquard knit online and it was quite a surprise when it came. I wasn`t expecting the print to be so large and so  loud - ah the hazards of online fabric shopping. A positive though was I received a generous cut .
I used my Winnie Top pattern from Style Arc , a freebie when I bought the Blakeley jeans pattern. Sometimes I wait to buy Style Arc patterns until I really like the free offering and this was one of those  patterns. It reminds me  of the popular Toaster and Talvikki sweaters .

This is an easy top to sew but has stylish features - the funnel neck , the hem splits and the just right amount of modern ease . The instructions on this one were easy to understand and I like how they construct the hem split which looks professional and very  neat.

Included in the patterns were little name tags - a lovely bonus . It sure came in handy too because telling the front from the back is near impossible. The only difference I could see is in the cut of the armscye .
As I said I received a generous cut of fabric so there was just enough to cut out a skirt . I chose to resew a Knipmode skirt that I made last year but was a total wadder due to the fabric but also operator flaws. It is just a simple pull on  slightly pegged elastic skirt but the elastic does not extend all the way around the front . I was determined that such an easy pattern was not going to defeat me. This time I cut out the notches marking the top of the skirt pieces and the waist seam. Once the fabric is cut out and held up it looks like a rectangle but this is deceiving and is one of the reasons my skirt failed last year . It also helped that although this fabric has some stretch it has good recovery as well unlike the fabric that I used last year .

      
The loudness of the print is growing on me and  I might or might not wear the skirt and pullover together but overall I am pretty happy with the results .  I will definitely be sewing Winnie again.

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 ! 

Style Arc Blakley Stretch Jeans.

 This is the first pair of jeans I have sewn and they  might not even be the last. When I read an email from Style Arc in November selling the pattern / fabric bundle for the Blakley Stretch Jeans I pounced quickly and bought it.

 It came with the Winnie Top which I hope to make very soon. The jeans have a skinny leg style ,wide waist band with elastic , faux front pockets and a faux fly.

On the back though are fair dinkum , dinky di functioning pockets !

It is that time of year where we all complain about how dry it is and we wish it would rain. One advantage is that you don`t have to mow lawns and even the weeds have trouble growing. This year though we have enough feed for our sheep. 

I have already blogged about those pockets which were the hardest part of this project.
The jeans were relatively easy to sew. I did not follow the order of instructions which say to sew the pockets on first before constructing the jeans. I sewed them on last to get the best looking placement I could - I attached them just under the angled back yoke rather than the 2 or so cms gap recommended as that looked too low. I also sewed the front and back waist bands to the front and back pants separately so I could sew up the side seams last.

It did take me three goes to put in  the elastic - the first time I attached it  to the wrong part of the inner waist seam and the second time I got the insertion correct but the elastic was too long so the waist band gaped.
I also had to look up  a tutorial on how to do the faux fly as I could not quite understand the directions although the rest of the instructions were easily to follow.

The only changes I made to the pattern were to lengthen the legs by about an inch . I could find no reference to what height the jeans are drafted and I did indeed need every little bit of that extra length ( I am 169 cm tall).
I have never sewn jeans before because I have not had the need to . I don`t really wear them so much these days and bought ones fit fine. However the main advantages to me of making my own were the fun of decorating those back pockets . If I am not careful I might starting embroidering everything that doesn`t move ! I also liked having the choice of double stitching my seams with plain navy blue rather than the usual gold threat and there is always that satisfaction of making your own clothes.
I  might make these again but using some of the Style Arc Bengaline or other stretch woven. I would highly recommend this pattern as a great easy way to sew jeans.

New Comey Vogue 1503 and Old McCalls 2094 and How Long Do You Keep Your Clothes For ?

I love the colour red and in particular red tops . This is the fourth summer red top / shirt I own !
I finished sewing this red  rendition  a few weeks ago and was initially disappointed in the outcome but I have come to realise that the bottom piece I wear with it is essential to its success.

The pattern is Vogue 1503 and I made view A . There are lots of lovely details . The back pieces extend over the front shoulders and the front has a gathered peplum but the back piece is plain so avoiding extra width in this area. The sleeves are finished with bands creating a  neat look. The front and back necklines are finished with self made bias binding.  The instructions include french seams and  bias binding covering exposed seams so the inside looks very professional.
I used a very fine red dobby polyester with small white and green dots and black dashes which Mum gave me over three years ago. A fine drapey fabric is needed to make that gathered peplum work.

These photos were taken with me wearing a loosish pair of linen pants and the combination did not look good . However later on I tried a pair of skinny navy pants  and I liked my peplum top much better.So for now it is a keeper and it will match up with newly completed embroidered skinny jeans ( have to get photos taken of those yet ) . As an aside I really love the long sleeved version too and will make that one day !
I should say there was one small mistake in the instructions. They forget to tell you the finish the back  neckline with a bias strip after staystitching. The pictures show the bias binding though. Apart from this the instructions are fine and the pattern is easy to follow.

I have been reading  a few  blog posts about how many times we wear our clothes and the number 30 seems to have been chosen as representing environmental value. It seems a quite random number and I am not sure if there are any studies which proves its worth.

The above red and white floral broderie anglaise shirt would fulfil the 30 wearings number ( as would my other red tops) .

I made it using McCalls 2094 in 2007 which makes the shirt 11 1/2 years old. It is probably one of the best fitting shirts I own and I still love it. In all honesty the upper back is starting to get a bit yellowed as is under the arms but nothing that can not be covered with  a cardigan or jumper .  This is not the oldest shirt I own though. 

 Also using McCalls 2094 is this sleeveless shirt made using some cotton lawn . I sewed this in 2001 so it is now 17 years old ! The cotton is so soft and wonderful to wear on hot days. It is not stained or holey.I simply can not bear to get rid of it and I can see no reason to . 

So am I weird to have clothes for so long ? Does anyone else have clothes this old which are worn over and over ( past the magic 30 number !) 

On Sewing Mistakes ,Sewing Doldrums And Sewing Successes.

  I have been trying to make my first ever pair of jeans. When Style Arc sent an email advertising a pattern/ stretch denim package  for jeans I immediately bought it which is another first and I don`t know why . The mysteries of advertising which tap into the human psyche .
One advantage of making my own jeans was to be able to customise the back pockets .

My sewing machine has an embroidery function which I rarely utilise so a couple of weekends ago I set about relearning how to use this , looked through some folders of designs available to me ( which my late father created for my mother - what a man to spend hours doing this for her ! ) and practised some designs which I liked. I finally settled on one from a Pfaff Creative Card 300, design 27 .I even really liked their chosen colours.

I practiced on some old serviettes and then went to work on the denim of which there was not much to spare. It all went really well.
Now I have discovered that I mainly make mistakes in two situations . One is when I am tired and it is later in the day and I just want to finish up a project. I relearnt this several times and now I just do not go there. Once I am tired or a  bit sick of sewing I just stop even if I am really close to completing something.
The other time  is when I am really excited about a project so I just tend to leap in . I don`t think there is much I can do about this.

So I was in the process of sewing up the pockets and noticed that one pocket was slightly larger than the other . Then I realised what I had done. I cut the pocket out the wrong way so the stretch is going vertically , the pocket size is out and the design is going the opposite way. And here I thought I was so clever by making a see through plastic pocket template so I could centre the design properly !

I was seriously thinking about just making this a design feature but even though I am a bit of a slapdash sewist - a wrinkle here or there  doesn`t bother me- I knew the magic closet would not work with this one .
So last weekend I set up the embroidery function again and redid another embroidery.

Well everything was going really well until I got to the orange colour . Is it my imagination but does that look a bit different to the original ? Sob, no my glasses did not need cleaning , I had picked out the wrong colour. Sigh. So I worked out the correct orange embroidery thread and off we went again. ( very hard to tell in the above photo but the orange colours are different - one is more a bronze ) .

Success ! Finally . ( This saga does not even include the one where the embroidery thread broke and I realised too late ) . Now initially I told myself I was a sewing eejit but does that make me feel better about myself ? No. Does it get the embroidery done ? No . Now I am telling myself that it was all good practice and the wrong colour confirmed I liked my initial choice and I am much quicker at setting up the embroidery part of my Pfaff now . I am still frustrated at the waste of time but I am not putting myself down.
This leads me to sewing successes and how we perceive them. I recently read an excellent post by Diary of a  Sewing Fanatic asking whether we compare ourselves to others in term of how much sewing we get done. A lot of people admitted they did. I have  not  been a joiner inner on sew alongs etc. I joined in MMM and a fabric fast last year . I have always been on the fringe of things all my life and being part of the sewing internet community is one of them. But this is also why I think I am successful. My blog is so small but I have not given up. If I judged my success by the number of followers and comments then I would have quit years ago. I have read people complain about this but IMO this is not a reason to blog. I blog and sew for myself. I have never sewn the trendy indie patterns or the latest fabrics or sewn couture or been artistic  but I wear my home sewn clothes almost every day and keep them for years and years so this is a success. It does seem so obvious to say this but comparing yourself to others does not lead to contentment . Besides we only ever show the best / happiest side of ourselves on the internet.

One last photo - an outtake for my latest sewing project yet  to be blogged . A sewing mistake and success all rolled into one ! .I was using the self timer and my daughter was trying to get past .
Well hopefully anyone in the sewing doldrums can read this post and feel better about themselves.