The next lot of finished tops ….

Still in my top making phase I finished my last lot of shirts.

07/2012 #108

 

The third top I made was from a lovely cotton silk blend that I got from The Fabric Store.

The fabric is quite delicate so I fussed a lot with it.  I didn’t want to stretch the hems so they are just held in place with Vliesofix T10 tape instead of left raw like the pattern suggested.  The fabric is cut on the bias so it does hang beautifully.

 

 

I do like this shirt though the bust darts are a little high.

These next two patterns I liked (below) are the same pattern with different sleeves, and the top one has the tie on the front.

07/2012 #116

 

07/2012 #108 

I bought some lovely peach chiffon to make the second pattern but thought I would make a wearable muslin just to check the fit first.

Using a printed chiffon from spotlight I cut out  #116 – accidentally forgetting the add the seam allowances.  I thought that this would be OK and I was very wrong.

The shirt looks great, but I can’t lift my arms.   There is no movement at all between the sleeves and the body of the shirt (most likely due to my lack of adding seam allowances)

Some small modifications were to put the tie on the back instead of the front and doing a simple folded hem on the sleeves instead of  bias binding.

I also made a sorbetto from this fabric.

I actually made this one first just to see how easy it was to use premade bias binding on such a flimsy fabric.  The shirt turned out ok apart from the fact that when I ironed the front pleat – the iron was too hot and I burned a hole in it.

So, over the past two weeks I have made 6 shirts: 1 sorbetto and 4 burdastyle patterns (the green and white dot are the same pattern).

I think that I would wear only one of them out of the house.  I am ok with that.  Even though I wanted some new summer shirts this has turned into a “process” rather than “finished product” project.

It could be the fabric/pattern combination.  I really wanted to play with shear and lightweight fabric.  Maybe these patterns weren’t suitable for that type of fabric.

It could be the patterns.  The burdastyle patterns weren’t great.  They are very simple styles with minimal shaping (darts or curves).  I also find the instructions difficult to follow and often just did what I thought was best.  I hate not having seam allowances included, but I think it is something that eventually I will learn to love.

Then maybe it could be me.  Maybe I am not as skilled as I thought and still need to have my hand held for fabric choice and instructions.

Whatever the reason, I am done with tops for the moment.  I still have some beautiful fabric to make 07/2012 #108 but maybe I might wait until I can find a better pattern.

 

last piece of winter sewing McCalls 7359

One rainy day I lent my little girl my tessuti new york cape to keep her dry.  She has been wanting her own ever since.

I found some great wool fabric at “The Fabric Store” on sale and picked up 1.5m.  Then I went in search of a kids pattern.  I wanted a cape that was lined, at least thigh length, with a hood, a neck closure and slits for arms at the front.

I settled on an out of print pattern – McCall’s 7359 that I got on etsy and made view D.

I didn’t have as much fabric as was required and it took all of my puzzle solving skills to get the pieces from the fabric I had.

The lining is a cheap crepe backed satin that was in my stash destined for a fairy costume.

 

 

The only other modification I made (apart from shortening it) was to round out the shoulders.  The pattern is designed to be worn with shoulder pads. So just simply straightening the shoulder curve made it sit much better on her.

It doesn’t show up very well in the photos but at the neck is a cream Chinese frog closure.  I bought 3 of them but decided that one was enough.

Even though I think we have seen the last of the cold weather it still might get some wear.  And hopefully it should still fit her next season.

Not to be left out, the little boy feels he needs to wear his cape too when she has hers on.

fabric a brac

Like most crafters I have a problem with my stash.  It’s not really a major problem it is just the fact that I have more supplies than available storage space.  My crafting stuff is starting to creep into other rooms and wardrobes.

I have a stash of quilters cotton – fat quarters and yards of prints and collections that caught my eye or were destined to be something.

Over the years balls of yarn have made their way into storage containers in the spare room.  There’s lace and sock yarn as well as a few sweaters worth of 8ply.  There is even enough for a blanket.

I knew I was in trouble when I started buying yards of fabric for potential garments.  I just do not have the room.  This is my storage space next to my sewing table.

So I started with a spring clean and I was brutal.

I got rid of a good portion of my yarn on a rav destash.  I was surprised at what sold.  All of those balls that were just waiting for the right pattern are now gone and I feel “lighter” for it.  Don’t get me wrong I still have a decent stash of yarn remaining and there is enough left to satisfy my needs if inspiration strikes and I need an immediate fix.

For fabric I managed to get rid of a fair bit at the fabric a brac a few weeks ago.

Susie and I shared a stall and we did quite well.

What didn’t sell was sorted and a “to donate” bag was created.

There was a little temptation from the other stalls but I managed to come home with only a few new patterns

and some fabric (5m @ $2/m) to go with one of the dress patterns.

And really that fabric is not going to be added to stash it will be made into that dress soon and the scraps thrown away.

I think that is the way that I want to operate – have the pattern or the idea – buy what I need, make it and then move to the next thing.  It is difficult in practice because there is always something new and shiny that will divert my attention, which will then lead to the potential of that item not being made and the supplies to become stash.  But I guess it  then becomes fodder for next years spring clean.

I think it will be a never-ending battle but I am heading in the right direction.  Have a little bit on hand, buy what I need and not get too far ahead of myself with a huge queue of projects.

I still have a stash but now there is a little more room on those shelves.

Did you spy the kitty in the first photo too?

Sock animals

After the little owl came home from Canberra the kids were continuously bugging me to make more sock animals.

On the first day of school holidays I could avoid it no more.

I dragged out my stupid sock creatures book and printed out my owl, sausage dog and baby zilla patterns. I have been hoarding socks for a little while and found some striped beauties at target this week. I thought they would be perfect for a sock monkey. There are lots of tutorials online but I purchased a pattern from squiggly monkey.

I set us up on the kitchen table with my little girls sewing machine and our bag of socks.

The little boy chose a dog like creature from the book and the little girl designed her own cat.

I took turns doing a little bit of each animal and got them to help me with tasks along the way.

Most of the construction is done by hand. The sock fabric is very forgiving and the quickest seams of running stitch seem to be fine. Not sure how well they will last after a little bit of love though.

The dog was named Jump and am really pleased with how he turned out.

The cat is called pounce. He is not as cool as the dog but she designed him and even did the face embroidery herself.

So in its own way, this one is more special.

They wanted to make sausage dogs next and a baby zilla for daddy. I wanted to make a sock monkey but after a few hours I had enough. Maybe another day we will spend another morning making more sock animals.

Gertie’s crinoline

Susie put me on to this fabric store at Springwood (near Ikea) called East Coast fabrics.  It isn’t the flashiest store but they carry a decent range of sewing and quilting fabrics.  Prices are reasonable and the bargain racks are always worth a decent look.  I have only been there a few times and it is very hard to go past fabric that is $1 or $2 a metre.

On my last visit I found this blue check sheer organza.  Not something that I was particularly looking for but it seemed perfect for a crinoline that I remembered Gertie reposting.

A crinoline is basically a petticoat that gives your skirts that little bit of flair.  I have had a look at buying one on ebay or etsy

but never committed because I knew that it might just not get worn.  There are also a few patterns on etsy that I have been interested in too.

But these skirts are a little too full for my liking.  Gerties tutorial seemed perfect and even though the blue organza is a strange colour choice for me, it does (kind of) go with a few of my dresses.

The fabric for the top part is something that I got at spotlight to match. It is soft, shiny and slightly stretchy.

The crinoline came together with a few small dramas.  Firstly I measured the elastic too loose.  Then when sewing it down stretched it even more – to the point of being useless.  So after I cut that off and redid the elastic I caught a piece of the fabric in the overlocker.  AGGGHH!! Lucky I hadn’t cut a big chunk out of the fabric.  It was more like a slash.  And with a bit f hand stitching it now just looks like an ugly scar.  I guess I could remake it but this will always be an undergarment so I didn’t see the point.

I wore it today to Mothers Day lunch for the first time under my denim dress.

To be honest in this dress it didn’t make that much of a difference.  The skirt is so full anyway and even though it is a lightweight denim, it is quite heavy.

But it was kind of fun to wear (though a little scratchy).

Sorbetto x 2

The weather has finally turned cool – not cold (remember this is Queensland!) But is now officially jeans weather.  It is cool enough to wear a pair of jeans all day but still warm enough to wear a short sleeve shirt.

My wardrobe was distinctly lacking any nice cotton short sleeve shirts.  I did a quick search through the virtual fabric bolts at Fresh Fabrics Australia (etsy) and came up with 2 fabrics.  These Joel and Denyse prints both had some yellow which would go nicely with my new favourite mix yellow cardi that I got at Coles.

I ordered 1.5m of each and within a day of them arriving they were sorbettos.

Love them.

the perfect denim dress

I obsessed about making a denim dress for a long time. It turned out just perfect.

My inspiration was from Make this look.  I used the same pattern but omitted the sash.

For this dress I didn’t make a muslin.  I used the principles from this book (Fit for real people) of tissue fitting.

I didn’t exactly use the tissue (the actual pattern piece) as I just can’t bring myself to cut a pattern.  I trace all of my patterns onto light weight interfacing and go from there.  So when I did the tissue fitting I used the traced pattern.  The concept of fitting the pattern to your body is a great idea, but just extremely difficult to do by yourself.  So I ended up doing it on mummy dummy.  I traced a size 10 for the bodice and a size 12 for the skirt based on the pattern measurements.  Lucky for me not this pattern didn’t need any alterations, apart from a small adjustment to the shoulder seam.  But it was good to check fit without wasting time making an unwearable muslin.

I struggled to find any lightweight denim locally and I ended up getting some on ebay.

I used bias binding around the arms instead of the facing an added top stitching details to the darts, around the neck and arms and of course the hem.

It fits beautifully!!!

The invisible zip went in perfectly.

And for a bit of fun I put some contrast fabric in the pockets.

I haven’t worn it yet because it feels a bit “dressy”.  Maybe to work tomorrow – we’ll see.

The lab coat

Two weeks ago I browsed make this look look again and got fixated on making this denim dress.

I rushed to spotlight that day and spent way too much on the pattern. 4 fabric stores later, I had no suitable dress weight denim.

The last shop I went to (bargain box at Capalaba ) had this blue black shirting. It wasn’t denim but I knew I could make a dress with it and I had just the pattern.

The little boy was sick and the little girl enjoyed some (obviously much needed) alone time. She was an angel all weekend. So with one kid in bed and the other occupied I got a full weekend to sew.

The pattern I made was the lisette traveller shirt dress view A.

I think it took me about 5-6hours.

It is a little short and am worried about puckering around the buttons when I sit down. I may sew the bottom half closed. But my new singlet slip that I mentioned in the last post might solve the problem.

Hubby thinks it looks Ike a lab coat. He could be right. Not sure how much wear it will get now but I bet coming it to the colder months it will be great with my long boots or leggings.

This is the second time I have used this pattern. The first was a two tone thing which to be honest I haven’t worn.

I realise now that if I want to wear clothes that I make, they have to be simple styles in solid colours that go with shoes that I own.

The denim dress has not been forgotten and I am still keen.  I ordered some fabric from ebay and it is the next to sew.

Ruby slip

This one I wouldn’t answer the door in. This is my latest lace effort.

This is the ruby slip. I stumbled across this pattern by Pattern scissors cloth. The pattern is very well drafted and the instructions are extremely well written. Did I mention FREE!

She has also done a series of posts about making the slip.  She goes into a lot of detail for each step along the way.  Paired with the instructions they made this really easy to make.

I used stretch lace for the bodice and made the “long” version. Because the lace has a dense pattern I didnt need to fuss too much with the seaming and making the lace motifs line up.

I cut a size 10 for the bodice and a 12 for the skirt. The bodice ended up being a little wide and I needed to take the side seams in.

Apart from that it turned out …. AWESOME!.

It was just the little steps that made this special to make and I learned a lot.  Things like leaving it hang to let the bias seams settle, making the bias spaghetti straps and finishing with a  handkerchief hem.

The skirt is made from a light voile. It is dreamy to wear and quite sheer. That and the lace bodice makes this one fail the answer the door test.

The slip isn’t quite red, a little pink – watermelon’ish. Really hard to photograph too.

I tried to take a photo of me wearing it.  I left my bra and black shorts on, not a great look but you get the idea.

 

lacy experiments

One of the things that I wanted to do this year was to experiment sewing with different fabrics.

So moving away from quilting cotton I went to knit fabrics.  I seem to have got the hang of them now.  I made yet another Mission Maxi dress.

I love that pattern – it the 5th time I have used it.  This is my favourite one yet and I wear it all the time.

So next,  for something different I thought about sewing with lace.  Susie lent me this book (Sweet nothings) which has lots of great patterns.  There were at least 5 or 6 in there that I would make.

I first attempted the camisole.  It is made with a knit fabric for the bodice, fold over elastic for the arms and stretch lace trim for the neck and hem.

Unfortunately it turned out a little big across the chest as I think I stretched it when sewing the elastic on.  Then because I had nothing to lose and had written it off as a learning project, I got a bit carried away.

I added a wide band of stretch elastic to the bottom hem, thinking that it would look cute.  It just made a short top look stupid.  So then I decided the add the rest of the knit fabric to the bottom and finished it off with the stretch lace hem.

And viola – I have a new nightie.

It is still a little big around the arms and chest.  I wouldn’t wear it to the shops, but for bed it is fine.  It even passes the Would you answer the door in it? test (not clingy or see through).  This is something I consider when buying my PJs – I do like to spend as long as possible in them.

The other two things I made from the book so far were a pair of undies

and a cami in some 18cm wide stretch lace.

I am waiting for some elastic for the straps to finish the cami.  They both turned out fine. And I was surprised how simple and forgiving sewing with lace is.  Not sure how much wear these two items will get.  I am very much a Bonds/Triumph black, beige and white kind of girl.  So I don’t think that I am going to start making my underwear but it is nice to know that I could if I wanted to!