Vogue 8671 More Spots

As I intimated in the last post, there was enough of the big spot ponte to make something else, so I went right ahead and made this. I'd had the pattern for a while but it seemed a natural match for the fabric- I could cut some of it out of the smaller spot part and some of the other pieces from the larger spots. It's a Marcy Tilton one with her take on a standard T shirt. Just that little bit different.

I'm very happy with the result and can see me getting a lot of wear out of it- an easy, throw it on when you can't think of what to wear kind of top. I did make a few changes along the way though. 

• I didn't stay stitch the neck, as directed. Because the neck edge is exposed, once the neckband had been stitched on with the twin needle, this would have meant THREE rows of stitching around the neck. And what would be the chances of lining the first row of stitching up with the second? Minimal in my case, I reckon. 
• The pattern would have you line up the neck edges of the neck and the neckband- the neckband is just attached on the inside of the neck and sits there, supporting the edge. I decided to extend the neckband a bit beyond the edge- I think it adds a bit of extra interest and I couldn't see the point of doing it at all if you weren't going to see it. 
• I knew that my thick fabric would not be able to cope with the way the front is supposed to be put together. You stitch the two fronts together, wrong sides together, then simply press the seam to one side. No Way! I had visions of this sticky out seam running down the front of my top, like some picket fence between spotty fields! Instead, I lapped the left front over the right and stitched them with a twin needle. 
• The sleeves and hems were supposed to have the same band treatment as the neck, so again, I couldn't see the point and just stitched them with a twin needle and left them raw. They are raw in the pattern, but just double thickness. I can see that a thinner knit might need the support of another layer but mine definitely didn't.
• I shortened the sleeve by 2 inches and also made it considerably narrower at the cuff. I hate flappy sleeves.
• Unusually for a Vogue pattern, it doesn't require you to stitch the underarm seam twice for reinforcement, but I did anyway. 

I know this looks very like the dress. But it's a top. 

I enjoyed making this pattern and can see me doing it again- it seems an ideal way of using up little bits that aren't big enough to make a whole garment and this is actually one of my favourite kinds of making things. I love the creative process of making things out of leftovers- in cooking, in knitting and in sewing. My garden (yet to be finished) also utilises leftover materials and it's really satisfying to do. My leftovers habit does result in a lot of stripey jumpers though! This top only took a couple of hours of enjoyable, easy sewing and it also cost virtually nothing! A dress and a top for £7.50!

I think the Tilton sisters would approve of the changes- they seem to have a very free and easy approach to sewing: disregarding grain lines, adding bits of random fabrics and trims and having whole workshops encouraging creativity. I would love to be able to go to one of these weekends. If only they weren't so far away and expensive! Until the distant day when I can go, I'll just stay at home and play on my own. Ahh.

Vogue 8536 ish

The side. Obviously.

I'd spent several frustrating hours making a Marcy Tilton skirt (review to follow) and needed an instant gratification kind of project. On a recent visit to Abakhan in Preston I succumbed to the lure of a 15% off sale and a pink and black poly/viscose knit. I think it might be ponte but I'm not sure how ponte is defined. Anyway, it's a hefty, well-behaved kind of knit, with large circles in the middle and smaller ones at the borders. I paid £7.50 for 2 metres (although the cut was generous and I got about 2.5!) and cut it out as soon as it had gone through the washing machine. And had dried, obviously.
The top part is a T shirt pattern, Vogue 8536, which I've used before- I love the fit and the fakey FBA (a bit of stretching in the bust area and it's done!). I grafted it onto the bottom half of Vogue 9631 (which I can't find an image of anywhere on the internet! Maybe my copy is the only one that was sold!). It's a very basic tank dress with a fairly slim bottom half. I just matched up the waistlines and fudged a bit.
It was a pleasure to sew. I didn't really look at the instructions but I did edge stitch around the neck to hold the binding down. There's no way it would have stayed down without it. All done in an hour or so and I'm pleased with the way the sleeves match the part of the body that they are next to. I particularly like it from the side! I can see me wearing this A LOT for work. Or for slobbing around in at the weekend. It doesn't crease and dries really quickly.

The sewing machine The faraway, sad looking shot  with what looks like a big sucker thing about to take me to another dimension. I really must get the hang of the camera. 

Back

Front

It served its purpose as an easy project after the tedium of the skirt but there were leftovers so I had to make.......

Simplicity 2614

Simplicity 2614 

Laura Ashley Floral Lawn Blouse

Next up, a pretty, pretty summer blouse. I'm not really a "pretty, pretty" sort of a person. Much more likely to be seen in trousers and T shirts than floral blouses but I quite like this one. 

My stash now stands at 159.84 metres. And that's just what's been catalogued! There's probably another 50 metres or so in crates and bags around the house. Most of the preshrunk, measured, described and catalogued stuff (did I tell you I used to work as an archivist in a museum?) is in a trunk in the living room. Some of it doesn't fit in there and is now in the sewing room, theoretically waiting to be made into planned garments. And then more stuff arrives. Obviously it does this of its own volition. It flirts with me, coaxes me, beguiles me in weak moments on the internet or in its dens of iniquity (fabric stores). I'm powerless to resist. I go out for a zip and come back with cotton lawn. I need interfacing, I get ponte. What's a girl to do? 

Don't know what that crease across my bum is about- it's not there usually!

In the interests of reducing my stash, I have been delving into the distant past for fabric that deserves a better life than to be squashed into a trunk. I bought this cotton lawn in Laura Ashley in Southport in 1985 or 6 probably, when they used to sell dress fabrics and they had sales where you could actually afford to buy things (not like now!). It's very fine and soft, takes creases beautifully when you want it to and feels lovely to wear. 

The pattern is Simplicity 2614 which is one of those that has different pattern pieces for different bust sizes. Always an advantage. I would have liked to have made a different sleeve as this style draws attention to my upper arms where I don't need the attention, but I didn't have enough fabric. After reading many reviews on Sewing Pattern Review, in addition to cutting the D cup, I did a bit of extra fudging to add a bit more bust room and I'm very happy with the fit. I just cut an inch lower on the upper front pieces and gathered along that edge to attach to the lower front. 

There was a lot of cutting out of pieces on the bias, which is a bit more of a faff than cutting pieces on folds but it was simple enough and quick to do. I didn't bother understitching the facing (I hate it and usually end up messing up the whole neck when I do it). I just pressed the facing to the inside and then edge stitched all the way round. It sits beautifully. 

I'm very happy with it and can see myself going out for afternoon tea in it. I don't go out for afternoon tea very often but maybe I should, just so I can wear the blouse.

Apricot skirt

Burdastyle 12-2009-122

This is the first of several recent makes. I seem to have spent more time in the room of loveliness than usual recently. Hours and hours listening to BBC radio crime drama on the iplayer and pottering between sewing machine and ironing board, avoiding the world. Fabulous.

The first on the list is a rarity for me- a Burdastyle pattern. I get the magazine on subscription every month and love many of the garments but the thought of the tracing and seam allowance marking really puts me off making anything. I actually did the tracing part for this skirt last year some time and even cut it out and THEN was put off making the skirt because it had separate bits for the fly front zip and no proper instructions as to how all that was supposed to work. After it languished in the basket of UFOs for probably eleven months, I girded my loins and tackled it head on. Actually I used the instructions from another Burdastyle magazine in which the garment with the fly front was the featured garment with the proper instructions, i.e. it had pictures. It went ok although I put the flyshield on backwards but I had well and truly reached the "Sod It" point by then and just carried on regardless. The skirt was a bit short when I tried it on and I didn't want it to get any shorter by hemming it so I made some bias binding and used that. I think all I've read about Burda fit is true though. I cut a 44 and am very happy with the way it fits.

The flouncy back view

Front

Back

Joyous waistband facing

The fabric is another ancient stashery- at least 25 years in the trunk, an apricot twill- with rather more synthetic than natural judging by the smell when I pressed it- and I didn't have enough for the front pockets or for the waistband facings. The front pockets would have been useful but the lack of waistband facing led to the part that gives me the most pleasure. I used a tiny piece of beautiful Liberty Tana lawn to face it and every time I see it, it lifts my heart. It's also butter soft against my skin. I think that is one of the chief advantages of sewing things for yourself- these little unexpected touches that set our garments apart from the run of the mill shop bought things.

I like the shape of the skirt (although not the shape of me at the moment) with its little flippy-out flounce and I think it will be useful for work and play from Spring to Autumn. It also cost nothing- the fabric was leftover from something else, the zip and the thread I already had. Free skirt! (I'm not counting the £4.75 a month subscription to Burdastyle. Out of the three and a half years worth of magazines, I have now sewn 3 things. I've just worked that out to a pattern cost of £66.50 per garment. Oops- better start sewing some more to bring the average down!)


The top I'm wearing in the first couple of pictures, by the way, was bought by my mum on a visit to America in 1964. Butterflies. Ahead of her time or what!!!

A Near Disaster

29.6.12

Some projects are just doomed..... I think everything that could go wrong with this did go wrong but I got there in the end.

The fraying collar

The original shirt

With hole

With prominent oil stain

 I bought this shirt in Warehouse in Liverpool in about 1989. I remember going to the theatre after I'd bought it to see a play about John Lennon, and one of the cast members was wearing the same shirt, but in black. I loved the shirt and wore it a lot- to the point of fraying, in fact, so I thought it deserved to be reinvented in a new and wearable form. I decided on Simplicity 2059, partly because I wanted to use it as a trial to see if a dress with gathers at the neck would suit me or not, and partly because I'd recently made the top with the gathers at the back and the pattern was still lying around in the sewing room.

I carefully cut the shirt apart and sewed up the two fronts to make a piece big enough for the back. I was thinking of having sleeves at this point but the shirt sleeves had mean little sleeve heads and it was going to be more trouble than it was worth. This was supposed to be a quick, quick project after all. Ha! I decided to put a little frill around the hem as it was looking a bit short. Fraying, piecing, gathering.... extra time. As I was applying the frill I pressed the front and noticed a hole near one of the patches. I decided to iron some light interfacing on the back to see if I could stop the decay in its tracks. Extra time. I decided to edge the neck and armholes with black bias binding. I only had enough to go half way round the neck, so more finding (my black fabric was hidden in the wool room for some reason), cutting, dragging through a bias binding maker, pressing..... extra time. Then because the fabric was fraying as I looked at it, I thought French seams would be best. It's not automatic to me to sew the first seam with WRONG sides together and I ended up having to  undo one side seam and one shoulder seam and do them again. Extra time for stupidity. And then, disaster. As I was snipping away some of the fuzzy threads that had escaped the second seam, I snipped the front of the top. So I then had to redo the side seam, taking a little detour to incorporate the snip into the seam. More extra time.

Finished. With exasperation.

The bias binding of the neck and armholes was time consuming but all seemed to be going ok until a blob of sewing machine oil landed in the most prominent place- high on the chest. At this point I felt like throwing it into the bin but finished it anyway. Who knows if it will ever be worn. Maybe the stain will come out with some effort but at the moment it feels like this top has had enough time spent on it.

There are aspects I like. The last few things I've made have all gaped at the back neck so on this one, I cut the neck binding in a smaller size and gathered the top at the back neck a bit. I'm much happier with the fit. I like the fabric, floaty and drapey but not too light. I like the contrast of the black bias binding and the way it ties in with the edges of the patches. I don't like the faff and the trouble and the OIL!

Recap of Me-Made-May

As I said in my last post, I participated in Me-Made-May but not officially and I actually did quite well! Much better than last year's half-hearted attempt anyway. I even took some pictures although that's obviously a skill I need to work on. Scroll down and you'll see what I mean..

I found it quite easy to put outfits together as I did sew a lot of things last year. It also gave me a chance (i.e. forced me through negligent ironing) to wear things I have worn either rarely or, in some cases, never before. There are obvious gaps though. I spent a lot of the month making a patio out of bricks and concrete and wore ancient sweats and baggy T-shirts picked up on my travels. But on the other hand, I don't think I want things I've made to be subjected to building materials anyway!

I didn't even often have to resort to knitted items. I used to work as a Rowan knitting design consultant and made a lot of garments as they give you the yarn to make 2  per season. I think I counted 70 hand-made jumpers and cardigans at one point but I gave quite a lot away as I couldn't fit them all in my cupboards.

The weather was varied enough to bring out cotton dresses as well as long sleeved T-shirts and the couple of days I failed to wear Me-Made things completely were hardly my fault as I was unexpectedly away from home without adequate (or any!) planning.
So, for next time I will:

• do it properly and officially sign up
• sort out the Gorilla tripod thing so I can take better pictures of myself
• make some trousers (I have no Me-Made trousers except some "comfy pants" made out of an old flannelette sheet)
• sew outfits rather than random items and maybe make some things to go with specific items of knitwear- I have several cardigans I haven't worn because I have nothing they go with

The evidence

This is an outfit I'm not really sure about. I feel a bit like a principal boy in a pantomime.  Or wearing the corporate uniform of a person-centred business. The top is Vogue 8546 made in some lovely but not very stretchy eco-cotton jersey my daughter gave me. The skirt is Simplicity 2211 made in some ancient Provencal cotton which might have been more suited to tablecloths. It's taking a long time to soften up! 

This was the first time on for this blouse (see what I mean about the rubbish photography!). It's polyester and I have to be pretty sure it's going to be a cool day for me to risk it! I hate sweaty polyester and don't know why I ever bother making anything with it! Except I liked the design of the fabric. The pattern is Vogue 8120 and it actually worked better than I thought (compliments even!) but I didn't dare risk putting my arms backwards in case the tiny press stud holding it together and preventing me from showing my all popped! I don't like clothes I have to think about. I really want to just put them on and then forget about them.  

This is a terrible picture of my Vogue 1250 which I love! I wear it more than anything else I think. I don't even have to iron it. See, it's the only picture I'm smiling in. 

My sewing room is tidier than this at the moment. I could have moved the chair.

This is a Simplicity 2599 made out of an old embroidered bordered skirt of my daughter's. It took a bit of judicious cutting to get it out but I love the very pale yellow colour and the fact that it's already soft and worn in. I think I need to pair it with something that's not as severe as black though. 

The jury's still out on this one. It's very, very summery and creases quite easily but it is definitely a put it on and forget it dress. The fabric was some really cheap stuff from Ikea (and I've just cut out a Simplicity 2059 from the leftovers) and the pattern is McCalls 2401. I attempted a FBA on it last year and it all went horribly wrong so it languished in the basket until April when I finally tackled it and kicked it into shape. I don't think it's going to get a lot of wear but I do like the feel of it when it's on! 

I think this is the outfit I was most pleased with (of the ones I photographed!). I wore this on the hottest day of the year so far and felt good in it all day. The cardigan is made of Rowan 4 ply cotton, the top is Simplicity 3751 and the fabric is Liberty cotton. There used to be a factory near here that printed for Liberty and they had a sale shop where I picked up lots of bargains. This piece of fabric had a ticket in the corner reading £1! If I'd known they were closing I would have bought a lot more! I miss it a lot! I love the colours in this fabric and the cotton is beautifully smooth. It doesn't get a lot of wear though. British weather. 

So where did the last few months go? My lack of activity here seems to coincide almost exactly with my taking on new responsibilities at work and I think it's sapped my energy more than I thought it would do. I have done quite a lot of sewing- I've even had weeks in which I've made several things- but I didn't get round to blogging about them. Maybe I'll have a day and rope someone in to take pictures and spend all day trying on outfits of things I've made and then put them up here. 
I was also kind of participating in Me-Made-May although without actually signing up to it and definitely got further than last June's attempt. I made it to last Friday wearing something that I'd made every day, then a combination of bad planning and being away from home (and reluctance to iron) led to two days of wearing bought clothes only. I feel a slight sense of failure but it's not as if I'm going to lose any sleep over it. I'm back on the bandwagon now and only missed a couple of days.


In the last few months I have:

• bought a lot more patterns than I should have or needed to.
• made several things I have worn a lot and which are now thoroughly embedded in my wardrobe (particularly a Vogue 1250 and a Simplicity 2599 that I added 3/4 sleeves to).
• made several more things that I have worn only once or not at all!
• made nothing from the three and a half year stash of Burda magazines.
• become the very proud owner of a fabulous sewing room. It's also the guest room but is generally known as "the room of loveliness" and is my go-to place for succour for the soul.
• thought about sewing and planned projects and drawn little pictures of garments and written lists of patterns and fabrics for much more time than I've actually spent sewing.
• still not hemmed the curtains blogged about in August. Hemming is so boring.

So this is my new determination to blog more frequently and perhaps even get around to putting up some pictures of things I've made! Eventually......