Sew U graduate…

So, Sew U might mean Sew University? (Thank you Ann and Catja.) Well, I just did a re-sit of my finals

From stripy to spotty!

Busting that jersey stash!

I added the extra half inch of neckline I thought I needed last time, and it’s still wide. But I guess that’s the point with boat necklines? But should bra straps be clinging onto dear life on the edge of shoulders though?

And one more question on this make- are the sleeves to long? I wanted 3/4 sleeves, so lengthened the sleeve pattern. But then I just seem to do this all day…

Is it the warmer weather (hahaha!!), or do I just want the sleeves to be shorter?

Compare and contrast…

What to do?!

Sew U! (Is that an order?!)

Sew U Home Stretch book- I do like you, but your title makes no sense to me… Even colouring the words differently on the spine doesn’t stop me from thinking you have lost some punctuation along the way. Poor U…

Anyhoo… It’s the insides that count, and the insides of the book gave me this:

This is the boatneck version of the T-shirt pattern. I think I could do with a little less boatiness in my neckline, maybe even just half an inch each side, as my bra straps now have to live life precariously on the edge…

Using this fabric is part of my knit stashbusting, and it was left over from the maxi dress I made last summer. Who buys so much fabric that a maxi dress leaves leftovers?! Oh, yeah: me.

I lined up the stripes nicely on the side seams, then tried it on and realised I needed to curve the sides in a bit; the square-edged pattern wasn’t that flattering for me. Unfortunately, sewing machine feed dogs stretch knits and I wasn’t using my walking foot and I didn’t bother matching the stripes up again when I sewed. Why would I? Surely the current seam would hold them in the right place? Wrong!!

…it gets progressively worse in the direction I was sewing in! But am I going to redo…? Hmmmm, I’m honestly just going to see how much it bothers me. My face in that photo suggests a lot, but I’m thinking I’ll get over it!

And that maybe I shouldn’t pull that face again

This was such a fast project that I see a big dint in my jersey stash and an increase in T-shirts in my near future…

M is for make

So… I decided not to enter into Me-Made-May: I have enough trouble photographing my new items, every day was not going to happen!

I’ve been trying to use up my stash lately, and for a while have been considering going “official” and joining the big stashbust campaign organised by Cation Designs and EmSewCrazy. So when I read that month’s challenge is knit fabrics I am there!! Knits are so quick that I can make a serious dint in the stash this month… And that makes this Me-Make-May

 “I, Tania, of Feel the Fear and Sew it Anyway, commit to using ALL pieces of stash fabric in 2013.”

All? All?! Yes, All… I have a wooden Ikea box and there is stuff in there that I’ve had for quite literally years. It’s hidden away in that box, and I had a clear out at the start of the year- so when I look through it now, I like it all- so I’m going to turn it into stuff!

The lid is pushing off, and delights are peeking through, but most of it is hidden from sight…

There’s not loads and loads anymore, so I actually think that I can do this.

And to make sure I do this, here is a photo of the fabric that will be turned into clothes this year…

Woven on the left, knit on the right.
Ese-Jane’s rusty legs in the background…

And while I’m in a joining-up mood, I’m also going to declare that I’m going to tidy up my sewing area every night!

My sewing space is the dining table in my living room, and it can be a messy sight that “welcomes” me on a morning…! Thanks to Hannah from Made with Hugs and Kisses for this prompt too!

Things are going to get tidy around here…!

Blouse for a numpty

Ah, the popular New Look 6808 has arrived in my life…

I like what happened in the end, but this make made me feel such a numpty!

I spent ages faffing around altering the pattern (as per usual to make things fit me): dart placement and size, width, length, armscye, changing the angle of shoulders, etc etc, and then altering the collar pattern to work with these alterations.

But see the lines on this blouse?

How did I not see that this pattern is so simple that I just needed to completely replace the bodice pattern pieces with my own block pattern?! Why was I using the block to fix a pattern into being a replica of the block, and just getting confused with the printed cutting lines?! What a numpty, indeed…

All I actually needed to do was trace my bodice block, chuck an inch of wearing ease on the side seams and then make New Look’s lovely collar pattern fit the shoulder/neckline! That would have been a much shorter job… but hey ho! Live and learn, etc…

(I’ve also got a whisper of a memory that I bought this pattern thinking I would just use the collar patterns… As I said: numpty! )

I first saw this pattern on Annie‘s blog, and so onto my sewing table it came!

And another stashbust! A fine black cotton with little nobbly bits on it. V nice to wear…

I was originally going to make the bow as is suggested with this collar, but it just wasn’t sitting right, so plain collar it is for now. I wanted this top to be loose, and I think I managed to get the fine balance of it being loose but with a little bit of shape to it.  And I’ve avoided looking “back pregnant”- one of my fave new fitting phrases, as mentioned by Jo- in her fitting of this same pattern (Loving this bit of unintentional sewalong-ing…!)

I like this pattern- a bit casual, but not too plain… I’m going to make a few more, maybe try out the other collar. But next time, using my block and then altering only the collar…!

And with due respect to the blog post that originally introduced me to this pattern:

SQUIRREL!!

Quick! It’s summer!!

The sun shone and London finally smiled!

But… while an April “summer” has happened several times in the past few years, experience tells us that it probably won’t last too long! So when I responded to sunshine with a need to make a new summer dress, I knew it had to be a quick make! This means two things to me: a tried and true pattern, and jersey.

This jersey was another stashbust, this time using a gorgeous Orla Kiely jersey I was kindly given by Stevie, who blogs at Beebee’s Vintage Dress.  She had arranged the Walthamstow Market meet up and swap in February, and I got the fabric then. (Not at the monumental meet-up that happened last weekend… I was sorry to not be able to make that date- and by all reports it looked AMAZING!)

I loved the fabric, but never noticed the squareness of the print up close; it wasn’t until I held it in front of me in the mirror that I saw that. I also saw there was enough length to make another maxi dress!

When cutting, I lined up the print to have one of the strong vertical lines running down centre front/centre back, to give balance to the dress. And this tip was mentioned by the wonderful and wise Ann on Sewing Bee just a few hours after I had done it! I was so pleased! Give me a few more decades and I hope to have become as fabulous a seamstress as she is…

The neckline isn’t what I originally intended! The squareness of the print had inspired me to cut a straight neckline. I was facing the neckline by adding a 1” strip of jersey to the edge, but when I did a quick try on thinking “will my big old head fit through this straight neckhole”, the facing was sticking up. And it looked like a bit like a standing collar or a funnel neckline… I thought it really suited the style of the dress and fabric! So I cut another inch strip of jersey, and added it on to be the inside of the collar. I stitched in the ditch to secure the shape, and a totally different dress was born!

Stevie had already used some of the fabric, and she warned me that the metallic print comes off a bit if put through the washing machine-  so I’m going to have to handwash this to make it last.

I’m going to handwash a cotton jersey dress?! Hmm, I must really like this fabric…

Thank you so much for your generosity, Stevie! I hope you like what happened to your fabric!

Dotty Diana. Oh.

Simplicity 2594 was made in less than a day, and is a bias cut top.

But the fabric I chose really doesn’t like being photographed… There I was thinking that brighter days would make it easier to take halfway reasonable photos, but oh no, this fabric decided to make itself look like it was the cheapest nastier shiniest polyester you can think of. Thought of that monstrosity? Double it!

So these pics are as good as it gets… I’m really hoping it looks better in real life

This pattern included my first shoulder yoke! The last stage of the instructions covering this confused me massively, right side this to wrong side that, line up dots of shoulder bits, then flip it backwards so you can top stitch instead… Or something? But by this point I could see what it was supposed to look like so just laid it flat and pinned it in place! Yes: pinned. Just when I’m publicly saying I use as few as possible, most fabrics I’ve used lately have required pinning to help me control them…!

On the back, you have to gather up the bodice into the yoke, and I used Scruffy Badger’s top tip about zigzagging over dental floss! Not that I had any floss- I’m afraid I use those enviro-unfriendly plasticky flossing implements- so I used gardener’s string.

Get that round your gnashers!!

But it worked so nicely that I may invest in some floss especially for sewing!

The pattern is cut on the bias, and on fitting was quite loose although I had measured up and thought I’d cut out appropriately by comparing with my block. However, take fair warning- if you want to look like the lady on the packet, then check these finished measurements out… this amount of ease is really not going to replicate her style…

They ask for a metre and a half of fabric, but I cut the straight grain yokes perpendicular to their instruction- on the crossgrain-  so then it easily came out of the metre I had. I don’t think that this loose top will have enough strain on the shoulder that cross grain vs straight grain will matter too much?

It was still very loose on me at the back (no swayback adjustment), and wasn’t very flattering, so I pinged in some elastic to take out the excess.

Ooh, that’s not very straight stitching, is it?

I did it as the same width as the shoulder gather in the hope of balancing the design.

Not sure it 100% works – but it’s better than it was!

But do I like this top? Hmmm… I don’t feel the neckline drapes quite how I like a cowl to drape, and the excess width also appears to be plonking itself on my “shelf”. I probably will wear this top, but not going to be a favourite, I think!

Plonk!

I’m actually wondering if it might work better on me in jersey…? (The fabric, not Channel Island.)

I think this make reminded me of one of the challenges I have with sewing: you can measure all you like, but until it’s on you can’t be 100% certain that the fabric/design/fit combo will suit you!

But it’s good to experiment and not get locked into one safe style, right? And even going shopping (also known as a “trying on new style clothes I like and stealing ideas sesh”) doesn’t guarantee when the fabric might make it unexpectedly different…

Pencil it in…

A hen do called my name… And I replied with this skirt:

Stash-busted fabric (hurrah!), a who-knows-what woven mix, with a little bit of stretch in it. But the stretch was in the warp, which seemed a little unusual to me… so I had lots of room for bending over, not so much for sitting down! It’s also a little bit shot (two-toned, depending on light), with some background metallic thing going on too. Sort of a bronzey colour, but with peach threads peeking out of the cut edges. Definitely a who-knows-what from my favourite roll-end shop! She sometimes gets design house fabrics in, so I’ll claim it’s that. And only £2pm, and a metre I bought- how do you like that, fellow bargain hunters!

The pattern is self-drafted from my skirt block, and I popped panels into it instead of darts, which gave me more play with the fit.

Invisible zip went into the back, running through the waistband, and it’s a nearly got the elusive perfect flat top! Nearly?! Pah! When will this become second nature…? Perfectionist nature is being sorely challenged…

Topstitching went a bit mental (my feed dogs are rabid with this sort of thing lately…), and the band is a teensy bit wonky, but that’s not noticeable to most non-sewers when I have it on. Or unless I point at it with a big arrow on the internet… But I’m sharing so you’ll be as happy as me when I fully crack this top of the zip “fun”!!

I thought the inside of this sort of fabric deserved to be pretty, so I used Hug Snug as seam binding, as suggested by Laura Mae at Lilacs and Lace.

She’s right- it is fab stuff! It’s much more lightweight than bias tape, and looks better than ziggity-zagging. (I long for the day when I have an overlocker, but even that won’t look this polished…)

There are lots of colours of Hug Snug made, but I had to trawl the internet for UK-based stockists. And they seem to be mainly scrapbooking shops? We need to claim this magic stuff- those clever scrapbookers can’t be the only ones using it!

Oh, and despite the stretch in this skirt, I made it snug enough at the back that I nervously took safety pins out with me. Just in case!! But thankfully didn’t need. Phew!

But you get, in closing, a repeat of the first photo, no butt shots here today…

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New Look 6097

The material I chose for New Look 6097 was a black knit fabric from Fabric Land, which I think they called “evening jersey” or “dressy jersey”! It is indeed a bit slinky.

If by slinky you mean see-through!

Not the kind of effect I was planning on… Fortunately I spotted this when it got laid out for cutting, but it meant a trip back to Fabric Land to buy the same again, so I could double it up. Which, when it’s slinky jersey and the cut ends roll up like very roll-y things, wasn’t going to be the easiest thing to sew!

I made a few style alterations to the pattern.

I didn’t like the idea of the pockets, so just ignored this by sticking the pocket pattern onto the skirt pattern, and cut as if one pattern piece. And I made the 3/4 sleeves without cuffs. Also I lengthened it style-wise as well as tall-lady-wise, so it sits just under my knee now.

The pleats were actually pretty easy to do, despite tussling with the doubled-up fabric, and all came together quite nicely.

There is a bit of a thick seam here though – it’s made from two layers of fabric in the pleats of the top wrap joined to two layers of fabric in the underwrap joined to two layers of fabric in the back bodice!! But it’s not too bad- at least see-through fabric generally means thin fabric…

I made a small swayback adjustment on the waist seam, but once again, no FBA needed. Yes, it’s jersey and forgiving, but this seems to be a running theme for me with New Look patterns now. Are they drafting to bigger boobage measurements than most?! Although I still won’t be trusting their sizing, only the finished measurements- there is still tons of ease to get rid of in this apparently slim-fitting knit pattern!

And the wrap isn’t too low. Although, apparent cleavage depends on the haulage capability of the bra you choose to wear with the dress, right?!

And maybe with a little pop of colour?

New Look 6000

I’m late to Scruffy Badger’s Polka Dot Frock New Look 6000 party!

And not even fashionably late; so very late as in everyone is well-pickled and all the nibbles are gone… Sorry, Winnie!

But here it is!

I can hear you… “Er… you’re late and it’s not even really very dotty, anyway…?!”

I know, I know, but I have got a nod in the right direction:

Hidden as seam binding!!

I have been coveting a navy cotton sateen polka dot NL6000 since seeing Tilly’s last year, and really really wanted to make my own, but it’s just not to be yet. Lack of dosh and a ridiculous stash of fabric means my first NL6000 is made out of this dark grey, plaid, speckly (can we call it dotty?!), lightweight poly-wool mix fabric. It has been residing in my stash box for at least six years… Six years?! It was only right to give it freedom and purpose!

Yes, I did say “my first NL6000″- there will be a next time! I have joined the love-in for this pattern. I really like it, though once again, it’s a commercial pattern with a massive amount of ease. Why always so much? I suppose it gives room for error/fitting, but it also ends up eating fabric it really doesn’t need to. I laid my sloper over the pattern, and could see that somehow they’ve even drawn the pattern so I could manage to avoid an FBA! Just had to add a couple of inches to the skirt length, and curve the centre back neck in, as I usually have to.

I fitted the sleeves flat, as per my usual, but this time tried out Lin B’s tip to leave the last inch unsewn, do the side seams, then finish the armscye in the round to make it all sit pretty. Really like this slight adjustment to my usual way of doing it!

I had a fight with the collar, and I was very grateful for Ese-Jane (my dressform), as I just couldn’t get my head around the collar instructions, and so found it quite a pickle to put in flat, but once the dress was on her shoulders, it was so much easier to visualise the end result and pin. Yes, I needed pins on this project! I usually try to avoid…

The collars aren’t overlapping much at the front. I think somehow reducing the CB on the back of the collar to match the CB reduction on the dress has unexpectedly reduced the overlap at the front?

I popped in an invisible zip, and tried the technique that Jo pointed me in the direction of when I made my NL6094 and was unhappy about the gaposis.

Briefly, the technique involves leaving the tape above the zip stop unsewn. Flip it into the seam allowance (I tacked it down out of the way there). Then I flipped the facing over the zip, sewed close to the teeth and turned right side out.

Now as you can see in the photo, I left a gap between the zip stop and the collar seam. This was in the instructions, but I left too big a gap, and so I still ended up with the zip still not at the top as I wanted it! Bah!

But once I’d fought the collar and the facings, I just couldn’t be doing with re-aligning it all…

That little unhappiness aside, this technique is genius! The corner is so much more malleable: it’s softer and yet has more definition. Next time it is going to do what I want it to, I’m sure of it! I’ve reverse-engineered some RTW with invisible zips and this flipping-out-of-the-way technique is the way they do it, so I’m going to crack it; I just know it! 

I wasn’t sure about how the collar was laying at the back, I figured it would be straight down the side of the CB (it is on the pattern line drawing), and so I thought it had gone wrong with my adjustments due to the CB curvature, but a quick google shows everyone else’s also put the back collar points somewhere in the centre of the shoulder blades…

Next time I might try to draft a collar that sits more to the CB. But don’t hold me to that, as it might just be an overstretch of my drafting skills..!

I wasn’t so keen with the way the instructions suggest adding the cuffs to the sleeves- the edges of the cuffs under the foldback are left raw, although the pattern instructions suggest zig-zagging as a “professional finish”?! Pfft… Professional should surely be totally sandwiched in, and hidden away? (This would also solve the sleeve seams issue, where they’re exposed if you raise your arm!) But, I jumped at the opportunity to add a little more polka dot delight:

I just bound the raw seam with some of the polka dot ribbon, and then handstitched the joining point together to hide the dots!

All hidden away!

Pink buttons out of my button box to lift the dress from the possibility of looking maudlin, and ta-da! A not very dotty new dress!

Pattern instructions aside, I love this dress! There will be more…