Up and coming projects

I have a few projects in mind to complete over the next month or so.  I a looking forward to a mega sewing marathon over the next few weeks, I just need to get to Friday then I have 16 days off work in which I plan to fill with lovely fabrics and patterns.


My plan includes completing another Butterick 4443 in a beautiful John Kaldor viscose fabric which I first saw in Fiona's blog when testing out the new By Hand London's Flora Dress.

I am more than half way through completing this and it is looking great.

I am taking part in Gertie's slip sew along too (Butterick 6031) and a ready to get going with fabric purchased and pretreated.   I am going for an all over navy blue slip with navy stretch lace and straps.  I have a lot of blue dresses and think this will get a lot of wear.

Still more plans...

At least one maxi dress for the summer, you know for those two days of sunshine we get here in Yorkshire (UK).  I have had the pattern and fabric for a while but have been waiting for the weather to change from constant rain and wind to almost like spring before I start it.  

Water Colour Jersey

It is McCalls 6073 although I am seriously going to have to shorten it.  I have some beautiful light to medium weight jersey which is called 'watercolour', it should be perfect for it.  

I am just realising the amount of projects I have planned with at least three more to tell you about.  WHOOPS! seriously addicted.

I am planning the Vogue DKNY 1160 in black chiffon fabric that is highly patterned with skulls, I have not really worked with chiffon before and I know this is going to be a real challenge so I plan to leave this project for a while so I can give it the full attention it deserves.  I would love it finished before Halloween though.

I still have plans to sew a couple more Washi tunic tops and have some beautiful Liberty Tana Lawn pieces in my stash ready and waiting to be stitched up into pretty garments for the spring/summer wardrobe.

Finally (for now) I plan of buying the Colette Crepe dress pattern.  I just love it but it seems to take a lot of fabric, that will need to wait until next payday.

Stressing about Patterns

Over the past year since starting my sewing quest, I have acquired quite a few patterns, mostly paper patterns with a few PDF downloads from indie pattern makers.  It was getting to a point where I really didn't know what I have.  TIME FOR A SORT OUT!

Over the weekend I decided to get my act together and sort them out.

Armed with several large letter envelopes, transparent folders, sticky tape and scissors I set out on a mission to organise my stash.

The first thing I did was sort through them and organise them by type, 

Dresses

Tops

Outfits

Skirts and Trousers

Underwear and Sleepwear

Bags and Accessories

For each pattern, I then placed the paper pattern pieces into an envelope, cut the original pattern envelope open and taped it inside a clear folder to the front of the envelope.  I decided to do it this way as it is just easier to put the paper pieces into a large envelope rather than a small one, the idea came from PBunnieP on Youtube  and I just thought this idea would work well for me.  At the moment I am storing them in magazine racks on the bookcases used in my sewing space.

So that was my patterns organised, but I still struggle to remember what I have, this was when I decided to make up my very own pattern catalogue.

I used images of the pattern I had along with the technical line drawings and put them into a regular self adhesive photo album.

 This was very inexpensive and although it took a little time to complete now, adding to it will only take a few minutes each time I purchase a new pattern.  The pages are numbered with a hand written itinerary at the front, these means I can quickly find the pattern on my shelf because I have stored them in numerical order. I chose to have my pattern list hand written so I didn't need to print a new version each time I add a pattern to my collection, I can just add to what I already have.  I listed them with Pattern Number, Type, Descripton, Fabric Type.

 

I have a new pattern to add right now actually, it the new pattern from Deepika Prakash at patternreview.com  It is the Winter Street Dress which I have been testing out for her.  It is available now.  I will be posting a full blog review on the 11th April when the blog tour heads my way but one thing I will say right now is that it is one of the easiest sews I have ever completed.

My first Washi Dress

Yes Yes I know the Washi dress/tunic pattern by Made-by-Rae is old news in the indie pattern circles but it is new to me.  I spent ages looking at other peoples versions and how it fit differently shaped women before I decided I really wanted it.  I took the plunge and downloaded it.  I was worried that by the time I had printed it out and fixed it together I would have lost my motivation and given up, however it wasn't that bad and I had a fully functioning cut out pattern in just under 30 minutes.

At first I decided I wanted to make the dress version with short sleeves and had some pretty cotton fabric in my stash that would be perfect, it is a quilting cotton but it is very very soft and drapes well, not like some of the crunchy cottons I have had in the past, unfortunately it still creases real easy.  It is a soft lilac with almost white flowers and leaves, I believe it is called buttercup designed by Kitty Yoshida for Bernatex fabric

I cut out my fabric and started to sew, the instructions were easy to follow but then I got to the shirring part for the back of the dress,  OMG!!!   what was I doing wrong, I tried and tried and tried, watched some youtube tutorials, searched the web, tried some more, tried again..... ARGH!!!   I gave up, that is one technique I really need to work on.  Eventually I decided to sew a band on 2inch stretched elastic across the back where the shirring should have gone, and actually it worked out fine, next time I will sew a casing which Rae has a tutorial for on the Washi web pages. 

This was also my first attempt at pleating and I think you will agree I smashed it, my pleats are perfectly balanced and look professional.  Apart from not matching up the pattern of course but hey, you can forgive me that right?I carried on following the instructions until I needed to sew the bodice lining to the bodice enclosing the sleeve.   All I can say it WOW!!!!    Rae's video and seemingly magic trick to sew the lining in was amazing, I completed this after watching her video tutorial a few times and am super impressed, I am going to try it on another one of my favourite dress patterns too it saves a hell of a lot of hand sewing and gives a tidy enclosed sleeve.  Once all steps except hemming were complete I tried it on, I love how the bodice fits but the dress length is not for me.  I have a huge derrière (backside) and the dress just looked sack like, there is no way I would ever wear it in public, it just didn't hang well, I decided to cut it down to tunic length and now I love it.

 I have plans for at least two more Washi tunics, I really want to make one for work with 'The Hungry Caterpillar' fabric and one with my mannequin fabric (I already purchased this)

Vogue 8710 by Katherine Tilton

I have been looking at this pattern for a while,
I really like it but was a bit nervous of stripes, they can be a complete disaster on a plus size figure (my opinion only) and the neckline is quite high for me but when 'Sew Today' club had a crazy sale I purchased the pattern and thought I would give it go.

I purchased some cotton jersey online but when it arrived it was very lightweight and I was a little worried that it wouldn't be heavy enough.  I went ahead anyway because although I like to complete wearable garments the whole adjusting, cutting and sewing process is fun for me and I learn something every time I make a fashion flop.  

I made a sway back alteration and just cut straight into the fabric, no muslin, no practice, I just went for it...

I followed the instructions more than I usually do with commercial patterns and I am glad I did because the way the sleeves are put in are like nothing I had done before.  The side panels are sewn in first, they you have to reinforce the front shoulders with fusible interfacing before sewing only one shoulder seam, the neckline is bound with a self cut strip (this didn't work out for me next time I will use bias tape) before the second shoulder seam is stitched (are you still with me here???) I was very grateful for the illustrations.  Then the sleeve caps are sewn to the bodice (on the flat) before the bodice side seams and sleeve lengths are sewn in one continuous seam.  I had never inserted sleeves like this and I have never ever seen it done even though I have watched my mum sew for over 30 years (closer to 40 years but I don't like to think about that too much).  It was super easy and the sleeves went in like a dream.  I only managed to get a 'selfie' of the finished garment so the perspective is not great but you can get the general idea of what it looks like. 

My husbands opinion "Yeah it's nice, you look like an NFL referee you should sew some numbers on it"  I guess that's another wardrobe filler then.  It might make it into the work wardrobe if it is lucky.

I will sew this top again but next time I will probably use a plain knit and have patterned inserts, I was thinking I might make a black version with lace print side panels, next time I will change the shape of the neckline too and use bias binding in place f the self cut strip of fabric.

Have been sewing but not blogging... tut tut tut...

I have a busy few weeks of sewing and have completed three projects that I haven't blogged about, I don't have construction photos for you to look at but here are the garments I have completed over the past few weeks.

I had seen and tried on a dress in the high street that I really liked but there were several fitting issues and an even bigger price tag issue.  I loved the shape or the dress and I wanted to make a dress of a similar style.

Here is the dress I tried on....   It has princess and waist seams, capped sleeves.  It was fully lined with a small amount of net tulle around the bottom of the lining which was unattached from the main skirt.

When I arrived home I had an email from my 'Sew Today' club saying they had a super sale and all patterns (Vogue, Butterick, McCalls and Kwik Sew) were on buy one get two free, what better time to stock up and stash?  

I found this, Buttrick 4443 which appeared to be a similar style and shape to the dress I had just tried on, I placed an order for six new patterns that day and the total came to less than £20 (WOOHOO!!!!)

I decide to buy some inexpensive fabric for my first dress and went to ebay to find what I was looking for...  I wanted something in navy blue so I could wear the finished garment with my beautiful suede peep toe wedges.

I purchased  brushed cotton sateen with a slight stretch and only £3.99pm ($6.70usd) and got to work the following weekend.

I spent some time adjusting the pattern (shortened bodice and sway back) and decided that I wanted to move the zip, I really struggle with back zips and prefer side zip closures so I just moved it and it worked out fine.  I lied the bodice as instructed but not the skirt and although I cant add that cute tulle like the original dress I tried on its fine and I love it.  I was determined to make the inside as neat as possible and have for the first time in my sewing journey achieved something I feel proud of.  Here is the finished dress modelled by Madge (my mannequin) with a self made tie belt, double stitched hem with self made bias tape (thanks to my wonderful bias tape machine).  What do you think??? I plan to wear it when the weather eventually changed to something more spring like with my navy peep toe wedge shoes and cropped denim jacket.

Dress is finished, ish................

At last I have finished my dress, there have been a few issues to deal with but its almost at a wearable stage.  The neck was ridiculously wide and ended up looking like an off the shoulder style dress, I added a self made halter strap which I think you will agree looks like part of the design.  I still need to hem the sleeves but if I am honest I probably will not wear it anyway.  Its just not my style, I feel awkward in it.  I also sewed in some little puckers (you can see them on the left) which cannot be removed (I am very annoyed with my self for this).  The photo is not great quality because I only have my phone available (my camera battery needs charging)

I am being positive about the whole process I may not ever wear the dress, and I might have made a few mistakes along the way but I learned from them and I enjoyed the process (mostly), I am moving on for now and ready to start a new project. Hopefully the next one will be one I can and will wear.

How many items did you sew before you actually got to wear something?

It's coming along slowly...

I have been working on the butterick 5988 for a little while now, I spent a long time adjusting the pattern which resulted in me cutting and sticking more than I should have, you see what I have been experimenting with below, too much tape and tissue...

I eventually got around to cutting some fabric but after the strange twisting, not matching up muslin I decided to cut and sew the lining first, the lining fabric was inexpensive so I wasn't too fussed if it went wrong.  I spent the whole of Saturday afternoon putting it together and it worked out fine, fits well, although it does feel a little loose around the shoulders, but I figure t will get almost and inch smaller once the lining is stitched to the outer garment so for now I am going with it.

Today I had time......   I love Sundays I just wish they weren't so close to Mondays.  I laid out my beautiful satin backed crepe and cut out the final pattern pieces............  Scary cutting expensive fabric.

I also had time to start sewing and I leared some new things about sewing today....  well actually it was about pinning, 

 I learned that it is not easy to pin a curved seam on a flat surface, so don't even try, I learned a pinch the fabric together technique which seemed to work out.

I also learned that using a hand needle and thread is much easier when basting in a zipper.

So far I have sewn the front of the dress and started the back, iserted the zipper and made the lining.  It is shaping up  nicely, what do you think???

The Front Panel, looking good on a flat surface.

Pinned to my dress form, I have wrinkles!!!!   hopefully they will iron out,  I still have to finish the back, sew it together, attach the lining and sleeves, and hem it.  That will be next weekends jobs.