Reboot: part 1

Ok so I have been pretty slack with my blog recently.

Honestly, even though I have been sewing, and also now knitting, its been taking me some time to settle into a new life in Bristol.  Work has been really hard, and I've just struggled to find the energy and motivation to sit at my computer in my free time to write up blog posts.

I'd like to get gat back into blogging again, so here's a quick recap of what you've missed the past few months:

After learning to knit just before Christmas, I have been a knitting nut of late.  People, how has it taken me 30 years of life to discover knitting??!!!

In October I booked onto  a 6 week knitting class, and I loved every minute of it. The second I picked up some knitting needles something "clicked", and I'm not just talking about the needles here! That's not to say I'm a natural talent, I've completed afew projects and my stitches are a bit uneven, I can't sew things up very neatly, and my casting on is very loose, but I care not, I'm already addicted.

So here are the first few things I've made, some ribbed armwarmers:

I'm using the leftover woll from the armwarmers to start a blanket, which I'm hoping to add to every time I have left-over aran wool.

I also bought The Gentle Art of Knitting by Jane Brocket and have just finished the slouchy hat:

 

and just need to sew up the chunky cable cushion.

I have also just finished the honey cowl by Madeline Tosh.  Pics to come soon.

Kelly skirt = love

 

I’ve wanted to make a nice simple A-line button-down skirt for a fair while and was mulling over purchasing the Wiksten Tulip skirt as I loved Shivani’s version. However because this pattern is a download I didn’t buy it. Partly due to the lack of a printer at home and also because I couldn’t be arsed with sticking the pattern pieces together and then cutting them out. So it was a real blessing when Megan Nielsen released her Kelly skirt. I snapped that up after seeing Roobeedoo’s awesome versions, (also here and here), and it is still a homage Shivani's skirt because I loved the colour of hers.

 

 

 

I use a cotton chambray for the main skirt and a cute flowery scrap for the pocket lining.

 

I have to say I love this skirt.  It's so simple and quick to sew up but is really cute and easy to wear.

 

The only thing is it is a little loose at the waist, and I sewed the top two buttons quite close together so after a days wear, the skirt starts going into a V shape at the front waistband and sags between the buttons on the waistband and the button on the skirt.  Any ideas how to fix this?  I am thinking either adding a third button or a hook and eye  in the bit that gets saggy, to hold it together.

 

I have already decided to make another one with some wine coloured corduroy I bought ages ago.

 

Seriously, I love this skirt!  This is the first item of clothing I have made that I am truly happy with.

 

Apron!

I recently made this apron for a friend's birthday.  I love this pattern by sew liberated, as it's reversible, and have in fact made one of these for myself.

Here's the other side:

Those are cute little hedgehogs

My topstitching on this was pretty ropy at times (there's a lot of layers to sew through), but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Do you sew basics? - Follow-up

 

Firstly thank you to everyone for your responses. 

The consensus seems to be that as a [semi] beginner it would be better for me to sew things that excite me, rather than making boring basic wardrobe-building pieces.  Rachel did mention I can make simple stretch tops on my machine, but I think my machine is too basic as there is no stretch stitch. At least I can't find one. 

So although I do fancy having a go at stretch fabrics, I think it'll have to wait until I invest in a more advanced machine and/or an overlocker.

Some of you also brought up the interesting point that I could have the best of both worlds and make a staple piece I am likely to wear frequently but that also is a fun and interesting pattern.  I totally agree, and following Sarah's suggestion I think the Beignet skirt is bumping the queue to be first on my to-sew list once my accounting technician qualification is done and dusted (only 2 exams and 6 weeks to go!!!).  It fulfils both criteria of being a beautiful pattern that caught my eye (plus I’ve been inspired by the gazillion gorgeous versions you other bloggers have made) and it is a good staple piece that I know I will wear. 

I think I will probably make it out of dark denim so I can wear it with my pre-existing tops.  But I’m not sure what buttons I should go for.  There are a few blue versions I’ve seen, namely Jane’s (who used red buttons) Ashley’s (who went for gold/metallic) and of course Tilly the queen of Beignet (who chose yellow buttons for her blue denim version), that all inspire me but I am confused as to what to go for myself.  I've not used buttons on anything before, and want to make sure that this skirt can be worn with lots of things, so a strong contrasting colour may not be the way to go.  Could I make self-covered buttons with denim do you think?

But at least I decided what my next project should be.  Sadly it means leaving a few UFO’s behind at least for a while.  I don’t want to be the kind of blogger who posts about works in progress and then never shows the finished article (ok so I’m already guilty of that, see grey leafy skirt, echino bag, quilt top etc etc), but I really think I need to kick start my sewing afresh, with a shiny happy sewing space and a brand new project!

Fingers crossed I’ll find time to finish up my WIPs soon.  I’m most keen to finish the quilt, but I can’t sign up for another class until after July so that’ll have to wait anyway!

Pretty purses

I finally completed something!!

They are both made from the same pattern, but when squaring the bottom corners I cut off more on the red one to give it a smaller squashier look.

Here's some inside views:

Both are a bit wonky, which is slightly annoying.  I've got the hang of the glueing now, but it is still a bit fiddly.  All in all a great little gift project, and I've cut the pattern onto cardboard now so I can cut all the bits out nice and easily with my rotary cutter when I make one of these again.

Purse prototype completed!

Well here it is folks a finished version of the purse I'm planning to make a couple of for birthday gifts.

This project involves some fiddly glueing so i wanted a dry-run before doing this for real.  Here's an inside view.

Note:  For some reason blogger is turning this pic on it's side.  I've tried about 10 times to get this thing the right way round and it's not playing ball, so you'll just have to tilt your head (or the computer screen) I'm afraid!

The purse pattern I used was created by the lovely Lisa Lam, whose book I own, and who I've now met in real life thanks to Craftaganza (and yes she is super lovely).  I also used her free purse making tutorial which is really handy.  Check out her shop's blog, as there's loads of free tutorials and stuff on there.

The type of frame I used means you glue the fabric into the frame.  This isn't too tricky but I did manage to get the glue everywhere, mainly because I was a bit impatient.  The instructions say you should wait 4-5 minutes after applying the glue to the frame before you attach the fabric.  The reason for this is the glue goes from gunky and messy to tacky and easy to handle.  But me being me wanted to crack on and so a gloopy mess was the result.  It's ok on the outside but the inside isn't great. 



Yukky gluey inside

But for a first attempt I am happy with the result and feel confident enough with the process to get on and make the real ones:

If anyone has any suggestions for how to get rid of the glue from fabric that'd be great!

Bags and purses a go go! Skirt less go go, more go-slow

Don’t you love getting packages in the mail? When I am ordering things online, I tend to try and order everything at the same time so all my parcels arrive within a few days of each other.  This is mainly because they don’t usually fit through our letterbox so need to be picked up at the post office, and it’s easier to do this in one go.  As a result I tend to get a stash of packages to open, which I love!

Following my updated crafting plan, I ordered the bits I need for my first few projects, which I couldn’t buy locally.  I have now just received the purse frames for my gifts purses plus the bag handles and beady trim for my Echino bag.  I have the lining fabric now too.  Thanks go to Jane for her suggestion of fabric colour.  I like the combo, don’t you?  Best get cracking now.

My grey skirt has taken a back seat just because I’ve decided it needs a lining but am a bit flummoxed as to how to do it as I’ve never lined anything before and the pattern is for an unlined skirt.  An old sewing book my Gran gave me says that for lining skirts, pleats in the main skirt fabric and lining should be done together as one piece (unlike darts which apparently should be done on the lining and main skirt separately), but I’m not sure if / how to attach the back bit of the lining to my zipper in the main skirt, as the rest of the lining will fall free from the bottom of the sewn pleat.  I’m thinking I might just baste it to the seam allowance on either side of the zip and see how that goes.  This is probably not making much sense and is hard to visualise, but if it works I’ll post a pic. 

Also if anyone has any advice on lining a skirt please let me know.  The pattern is McCalls 5803 and it’s a simple skirt with pleats that attaches to a straight waistband.  I’ve already sewn the back pieces together and inserted the zipper (which is not coming out for love nor money) and have sewn one half of the pockets to front piece’s sides and the other half of the pockets to to the back piece sides.  Oh yes I forgot to mention it has pockets, does that matter lining-wise?  Nothings attached to the waistband so I thought now was the time to get the lining sorted.

I have put aside a day this weekend to crafting, so hopefully I will have something completed to post here by next week.  Here's hoping!

The reason why I haven't made any dresses recently

Boobs! 

Or to be more precise, the cursed fact that patterns are made for a bust size about 100 times smaller than my own.  I actually decided to start sewing my own clothes because all the cute little summer dresses I liked never fitted me, blouses and shirts I wanted to buy always gaped and showed things they shouldn’t, and I resented having to buy clothes that didn’t fit properly or splash my cash on speciality companies' clothes which cost a lot more.  I wanted to make things that fitted me properly!

Now the irony is that my bust is again the thing holding me back from making all the dresses I have bought patterns for, such as the ones below.

To explain why involves 2 examples of things I have made that don’t quite work [in my opinion anyway].

Exhibit A

This is the very first piece of clothing I made, which I completed in the sewing class I was going to at the time.  It’s view A of Burda 7798.

Apart from finishing the neckline it was pretty easy to sew.  The neckline was basically bias bound but the way they instructed you to do it had me totally confused and even both of my teachers were head scratching and furrowing their brows for a couple of minutes before they figured it out.

But anyway back to the problem.  I made no adjustments to the pattern even though I knew the bodice might not fit my bust, but it was my first ever garment so I just wanted to get on with the sewing.

The bodice should end just below the bust (empire line stylee) but in my case it stops about 2/3rds of the way down.  And it isn't exactly roomy for me either.

It’s not massively visible, but I know the seam is there!  Plus it just doesn’t sit right on me; I can feel it even if it doesn’t show that badly.  I wear this dress at home but have only worn it out once.  It just felt too weird and uncomfortable, like I was basically wandering around naked, so it has not got past my front door ever again!

Exhibit B

Now this dress I made all by myself. from New Look 6557.

This pic was taken during the same "shoot" as my reversible apron, and was taken at the point when my boyfriend got bored and wanted to try taking pics from strange angles.  You can see from the expression on my face how much I was enjoying this!

This dress was also actually surprisingly easy to make, apart from a fiddly facing turning inside out weird bit about half-way through.  It's also really nice, and i do like quite a few of the different bodice views (especially view E).

On this dress I knew the bodice would fall far too high on my bust so planned ahead and bought myself a pattern fitting book and did a full bust adjustment (ah ha, take that B-cup patterns!).

Here’s a pic of it, looks fancy right?

Now to also try and be all big and clever I did a toile / muslin / prototype [whatever you want to call it], of the main bodice.

The first one still hit me too high on the bust, but was pretty good in terms of boob coverage.  So I did another, bigger full bust adjustment and tried again.  Now the second prototype was made, and alarm bells should have rung.  The bodice is gathered to make it look all pretty and the FBA made tonnes of extra gathering, too much in fact on prototype 2.  But it fit fine length-wise. 

BTW, The FBA I used was from the book Fit for Real People, by Pati Palmer & Marta Alto.  It gives you width and length but ultimately keeps the side seams the same length so they still match with back pieces, and I think it is a good method to use.

What is should have done now was keep FBA 1 from prototype 1 but increase the length of the bodice a smidge.  Only then it wouldn’t have matched up at the side seams with the back bodice.  So I didn’t do that as it confused me.

So instead the dress was made with FBA 2 and alas, I feel like there is too much bagginess in the gathering.  It makes my bust look at least and inch bigger just because of the extra fabric. 

Well I did wear this dress on holiday (but have no pics to prove it), but wore it only once as again I felt like a weirdo, and was just constantly paranoid everyone “knew” I was wearing a home made dress (as if that is something to scorn and stigmatise someone for)!  In reality if anyone knew it was homemade (but how would they “know”?) I doubt they would have run up to me pointing and yelling and shooing me off like I carried the plague, but I just felt like they would!

And since then I’ve been too scared to make any dresses.  Admittedly both dresses are a bit long so I feel a bit frumpy in them, and should really adjust the hems.  But I hate hemming so haven't bothered yet. 

The whole FBA process has totally confused me though.  I know I need to add a bit more length after doing an FBA, but do I extend the back bodice pieces too, because surely that’ll make the bodice slant backwards.  If I don't make the back longer then how do I match the side seams of the back and front bodice, as the front bodice will be longer than the back?  And what about any waist or skirt pieces (depending on the pattern) that attach to the bodice.  Do I need to shorten them to account for lengthening the bodice?

Oh I don’t know and my head hurts just thinking about it.  Curse you B cup pattern makers, you’ve beaten me.

Can anyone offer advice on this issue?  As it is seriously holding me back at the mo.  I love dresses and to make my own, that I can wear down the road and not feel self conscious in, would be lovely.

A completed project, and my first photo "shoot" experience

You may have noticed I am all talk when it comes to sewing.  I have a million ideas milling around in my head, but I don't record them or complete them very much.  I plan to sort out my planning and organisation in the coming weeks.  But in the meantime please enjoy this project I made earlier (last summer in fact).

I made this apron from a Sew Liberated Emmeline pattern and is reversible.  This side is a Michael Miller print.  Check out the other side:

It was pretty easy to make but took ages, also I had to make the bodice bit a bit longer so the "waist" fit below my bust.  It also involved a lot of top-stitching.  I altered the neck strap and added D rings to make it adjustable, in the pattern the neck straps need to tied-up into a bow like the waist ties.

This is also the first time I've had pictures of me on my blog.  I hate having my photo taken (all I see in these pics is massive hamster cheeks and frizzy hair, yuk) but if I'm going to have a sewing blog I am going to have to get used to it pretty soon!

Anyway this is what I learnt from my first photo shoot

1. Don't ask the boyfriend to take your picture 5 minutes after he has started playing a new computer game, this is bad timing and will cause annoyance
2. Don't spend the following 5 minutes preening yourself in a mirror as this causes more annoyance and leads to questions as to why you disturbed the boyfriend in the first place
3. Don't ask him to take the same picture 5 times just because you believe you are un-photogenic and think all previous photos were rubbish
4. Don't get annoyed if he gets bored and starts trying to make "arty" shots by photographing you at weird angles and taking advantage of the "natural sunlight" (that, coincidentally came out just as we started "shooting")
5. Iron the item you are planning to photograph
6. Do your hair beforehand!!!
7. Lose weight (the camera actually adds about a stone!!)
8. Relax and smile more

What should Laura make with this? No. 1

I have a confession to make.

When I first had sewing lessons and actually managed to make a couple of things, I might have got a tad over excited about the prospect of being able to sew.  Soon after the course finished I went on a bit of a splurge [read massive huuuge ridiculous splurge] and bought a lot of fabric and quite a few patterns, with no real focus or forethought behind said purchases. 

I then hit a few hurdles over recent months, one being having no time to sew due to struggling to find time to study whilst working, the other being an issue to do with pattern fitting which I will cover in another post soon, so have not really made much in the way of clothing (although I have made plenty of other things).  As a result most of the patterns have remained untouched, as has the fabric.

I feel quite guilty about this now, as my bank balance is suffering somewhat, and I don’t feel I’ve really justified my purchasing by being productive and actually making things.

A lot of the fabric I bought because I thought it was nice, and had no plan in my head of what I was going to do with it.  Now I have banned myself from buying any more fabric or patterns until I have used up some of my existing stash and made use of a pattern or two that I already own.

Therefore in an effort to be more productive with my existing stash I am planning to make this theme “What should Laura make with this?” a regular feature on my blog, and am hoping my readers and followers will offer advice and suggestions of what to do with each item I post about.

Note: simple projects are preferred at the moment, just because there’s more chance I will find time to make them which increases the likelihood that you might actually get to see me post about the finished result!

So for post No. 1 in this series I have decided to start with two lengths of fabric.

The first is a 1/2 metre piece of linen/cotton blend fabric by Echino which I bought in sale at M is for Make.

Pink isn’t really my colour but I loved the design so thought I’d snap it up while it was on offer.  I was thinking of turning it into a bag, maybe for my embroidery bits and bobs, as I don’t see me using a pink bag on a regular basis when going out and about.  However I have no bag pattern in mind, and am also open to alternative suggestions about what I could do with this.  If you have any recommendations of good bag patterns (preferably simple in design and free in price), or other things (home dec, accessories and clothing ideas welcome) please let me know.

The second fabric is 3 metres of medium weight cotton I bought in Ikea back in October. 

At the time I thought it would make curtains for the bedroom in our new flat, but for reasons I won’t go into that’s not a viable option (not least because 3 metres is nowhere near enough fabric to cover the windows!!)

The design on this one is quite big, see the pic below for an idea of scale, so its not ideal for clothing – but if you disagree do say so as I am open to all suggestions.

The vague idea I had was to maybe make a bedspread, but I’ve never done patchwork or quilting before and again the design is so big I’d have to keep the fabric pieces quite large.  I am keen to hear any ideas here as I think it’s a funky design, also the pinky parts match the colour of the walls in our bedroom (our flat’s rented so I can’t repaint them even if I wanted to). 

Right that's the end of post 1.  Can't wait to read your suggestions!

Pattern conundrum - advice please!

I’ve just started cutting out a pleated skirt and have been halted by an error in the pattern.  The issue relates to the placement of the waistband piece on the fabric.  The layout diagram shows the waistband (piece 14) placed so that the short edges are parallel to the selvedge. 

However on the piece itself the grain line is shown to go across the long edge of the waistband, suggesting it should be placed long-edge parallel to the selvedge. 

Which method should I use?  Should I place it parallel to the selvedge on the short edge or long edge, so option A or option B, or option C either. As does it really matter in this case?

Big purple bow

Recently I have been admiring the trend of having big bows on tops and dresses.

An old issue of cloth magazine had a tutorial on stencilling a bow onto a t-shirt.

Source: Cloth Magazine

I liked this and knew I wanted to put a bow on one of my plain t-shirts, but wanted to actually put a real bow on my top, not just stencil something on. 

So then I went browsing at wardrobe refashion, in the hope of inspiration.  And low and behold I came across a post by Bethany, and as soon as I saw it knew that a lace bow was exactly what I wanted.

And even better she had a tutorial on her blog [yes!!].  But alas and alack I’m not sure if the blog had moved or been deleted, but I couldn’t find it [Nooooo!!!!].

So I wasn’t sure what to do, as I didn’t quite have the confidence to try and make something up myself.  But then a couple if days ago read Lucy’s post on her blog Tricky Seams, and saw she had done something very similar except with ribbon.

Lucy's cool ribbon top

I really liked her version of this trend, and the fact that she had been inspired by the same thing, seemed more than coincidental to me!  I was meant to make a lace bow top.  So finally I decided, “Enough procrastinating woman, just do it already!”

So I did.  I went out and bought some lace.  I’d tried to get navy blue lace, as the top I wanted to embellish was blue, but couldn’t find any so went with a dark purple.  I’m so glad I did as I don’t think blue would have shown up too well.  The top I was using was a stretchy cotton so I was a bit worried about sewing onto it, in case it went all squiffy, but I went slowly and carefully and it went ok.

But anyway here is the finished article:

Close up [sorry I know the pics are rubbish!]:

I'm actually pretty happy with it!

A blanket for a newborn baby

A good friend of mine has recently had a baby boy, who they have named Zachary [well his wife actually had the baby, but you know what I mean].  So I decided to make them a homemade baby blanket to celebrate.  I found this really cool Alexander Henry 2D Zoo fabric, which [I know is conforming to social norms] is totally perfect for a baby boy.  The other side is a nice soft fleece.  Here's a pic of it laid out:

I also decided to applique his initial in felt in the corner and embroider around it.  I love blanket stitch!

The felt actually matches the colour of the rhino in real life.

Even though I'm fairly new to sewing, a lot of the things I've made have been gifts for other people.  It's so lovely when you can see how much people appreciate a gift you have made them.  It makes the whole process 10 times more rewarding.