Well as you know we’re in the new house, all is unpacked and yesterday we had our nearest and dearest over for a housewarming. So lovely to have our friends over and the next generation ( not star trek – just our mates awesome kids).
Now the dust has settled I’m in the mood to SEW!
I took a little trip out to my local John Lewis last week and picket up this gorgeous fabric for half price but now I’m stuck on what to make with it.
A dress? Yes, but which one?
These are the three I have to choose from:
(View 1)
(also considering making the coat in the heavy gold satin I brought back from Vegas)
(with sleeves)
I’m favouring the Simplicity or Vogue at the moment, the Butterick is gorgeous but it’s quite a similar shape to other dresses I’ve made in the last year and I’d like to try something different.
Any feedback/help in making my mind up will be appreciated. What would you make?
I thought it was time I pushed myself away from the cotton and towards something a little slinkier, so when I saw Gertie was starting a slip sew along back in February I thought I’d give it a go. The massively underestimated my time so I only got around to it this week.
I opted for purchasing one of Gerties slip packs from Etsy as I thought it would save me a lot of traipsing about or online searching for the little bits and bobs and of course I went for yellow.
Yellow is my favourite colour because it’s the colour of sunshine, how can you NOT like yellow?
The main material is micro jersey fabric (poly/spandex blend) and the lace is stretch. I decided that I’d go for a contrasting yellow cotton while sewing as I like the effect it has on it, give it a little cheat style decoration. I missed the bows off because I didn’t really like them all that much, and much prefer the slip all plain Jane.
So off I set. The pattern was relatively easy to sew up and I was surprised at how easy it was considering all of the stretch in all of the fabrics. This would have taken me a day to complete if I’d had a whole day but it took me several nights and half a day in the end and I am very pleased with the result.
The only problems I had were with:
Double sewing the dart on the bust. One side, if you look really close up, doesn’t look as neat as the other, I had a bit of an incident with the slippy fabric but trying to go as slow as possible on the other side was fine. So less speed required from me in future.
The straps; it took my dyslexic brain a while to figure out which way round the straps were sewn once the extending fastening pieces were threaded through, I got there in the end though and this is the finished result.
Next up on my sewing table are the pants (we say that up north, rather than knickers, or panties across the pond).
You probably all sat there thinking “c’mawn…where’s the sewing?!” lately didn’t you?
Well, I have indeed been Sewing for Vegas as I promised a few weeks back, it’s just been terrible weather here and combined with Timothy working away, and out of town visits to friends and family, I haven’t been able to get some photos until now.
So where did I start? 4 metres of stretch slub denim going for a song on ebay. Perfect, I thought, this will be a good foundation for my day wear when I’m pounding the pavement and looking at the wonders the strip has to offer.
So I got out my Gertie capri pattern and cut out the pieces (in a bigger size than my test pattern a few months ago) and got to sewing. I found the tips over at Handmade Jane’s blog on denim sewing tips a great help and before you knew it (and in a day) I had a pair of denim capris.
Following this I decided to make up another pair for shorts, because it’s an easily to chop some length off a pattern, and the day after voila! A pair of high waisted denim shorts to be roaming about in.
Then I got all cocky with myself and made the decision to adapt the pattern and make a skirt.
Now, this might not seem like a lot of bother for some readers of this blog but I have never attempted anything like this.
I made the adjustment to the front parts of the pattern, ensuring I took the seam allowance off the centre as this would be placed on the fold.
I made a few other adjustments to the back side of the legs to taper in more and made a toile with some stretch cotton, before using that toile to cut the pieces of denim for the final skirt.
I have to say I’m so happy with how it all turned out and now I have my day wear for Vegas.
I just have to find something for my top half as however liberal Vegas may be I’m sure they don’t want me flouncing about topless in the streets.
So what’s next? Well, I’ve been joining in on Gertie’s slip sew along as I have never sewn any undercrackers or used that type of slinky material.
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Well I had a little good fortune a couple of weeks back (thanks to a big PPI refund) leading the very excited announcement that:
*drumroll please*
I AM GOING TO VEGAS!
That’s right! In June I will be going to Vegas to attend the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend, with a few of my burlesque pals. Not only will I be out there surrounded by super amazing talented folk, some of the best showgirls and guys in the business, some of the legends from the old days and everyone will be super sparkly, I will also be there for MY BIRTHDAY.
For anyone who is used to jetting off to the States or anywhere further than a field in England for their holidays, you probably aren’t as excited as me, but as I have haven’t been abroad for a holiday since we spent 3 weeks in Vietnam in 2010 as my husband is studying full time, this is all kinds of awesome.
Now, foolishly or not, I have decided that most of the things I take away with me will be home made. I really can’t afford to go away and spend a tonne of cash on new threads for the trip. I would like to look as lovely as possible though so for the next few months I’ll be Sewing for Vegas.
Sew Retro
Now I did have a little money left over (once we’d bought and insured a second hand car – yippee – we are mobile again!). So I bought a little equipment (self-healing cutting board rotary cutter plus a few other little bits) and enrolled in a couple of Craftsy courses, one of them being the Gertie Sew Retro class.
I’ve picked a lovely cerise medium weight cotton, with a contrasting pale blue for the trimmings. This will be my birthday evening out dress.
Has anyone else taken this class? Any tips?
I’ve also bought a few metres of stretch denim so I can make the Butterick B5895 Capris, in full length and have a go at making them into shorts. Hopefully I’ll have enough left over to make a pencil skirt too.
I’m planning on making a start this week, progress to follow!
You may remember my post from January where I said I’d be getting on with the start of this Joanie inspired outfit by starting with the green pussybow blouse. It appears to have taken me an inordinate amount of time to complete. I have (in my defence) been quite busy with other things though; the prep for two interviews in two weeks for jobs I didn’t get (unfortunately), babysitting for our lovely friends’ adorable six month old and visits from old friends; it’s all meant that I haven’t been able to crack on as I would have liked to.
BUT here we are and finished in all it’s splendour is my blummin gorgeous 60s blouse a la Joan Harris (nee Holloway).
So where did I start? Having never made a blouse before I wasn’t entirely sure what material to go for. I decided on a trusty poly-cotton which meant the drape would be a bit stiffer than the one shown in the picture but I did want the collar to be a little stiffer, and as I wasn’t sure how this would all play out I thought not splashing the cash on fancy fabric would be the best option.
I went about cutting the pattern, fabric and interfacing out and I was quite happily thinking “less pieces, less work than a dress”. Ah, the young sewing fool inside me.
At the end of the first day I’d made the bodice and the collar. It dawned on my when I finished that I’d absolutely breezed the collar this time, I think I’ve been so caught up in worrying about the set in sleeves that I appear to have somehow mastered collars without thinking about it. Pretty good eh?!
Then it was sleeve making time. I should state, at this point, I have never made a full length sleeve, the previous ones I’ve made have been short/cap sleeves.
So this was a bit of a learning curve.
A sleeve with a cuff turns out to be very confusing when you get down to the cuff part. In the picture above are the markings to make the shirt fit to the barrel cuff. The part that I’m about to start stitching is the reinforced part which is then turned inside out and makes the opening that you then attach the cuff to.
All looks great on paper, all does not make sense once I’ve sewn it and pinned it.
It took me half an hour to figure out what it was meant to look like from the illustration on the instructions and the consequent consultation with my husband, to figure out if I was having a particularly bad case of dyslexic brain. Turns out his dyslexic brain was not computing either.
But with fiddling, and pressing, and a few minutes break away from it I had that all too common eureka sewing moment where it clicked. I finally pressed it, attached the cuff and hoped for best. It turned out pretty well and meant the second sleeve was a breeze.
Then it was on to the dreaded time.
The set in sleeve time.
The time of doom.
Now, I made a little list of goals at the beginning of the year (some have totally fallen by the wayside already) and one of these was to master set in sleeves by the end of 2014. So when I went into this part of making the blouse I did so with a new determination that I would not simply settle for “that’ll do” and I would set these sleeves in over and over until I got them perfect.
Plenty of people gave me advice (thank you everyone for all of your helpful tips and guidance) but I really owe massive thanks to Clare at www.sewdixielou.com for spurring me on when I was halfway through ripping the sleeves out for the second time (and on the verge of having a little cry) who simply said “I never use gathered way hate it. I do it by hand gently easing larger fabric pinning every 1/2″. Then when happy pin in between pins then baste by hand. Remove pins check how it looks then machine”.
Now, this may strike you as odd (but probably goes a long way to explaining more than bit about me) but I never considered for a moment that I should use any other method than gathering.
It’s what everyone had shown me; books, sewing tutorials online, pattern instructions. All gathering. It’s a rule right?
Wrong. I am learning more and more that sewing is about finding what works for you and just because people say you should do it this way, it doesn’t mean you have to do it this way.
In the end I went for a bit of both, I gathered a little and then pinned and pinned. I sewed from the inside of the sleeve ; calmly, slowly, gently and smoothed as I went. Et Voilà! A perfectly set in sleeve!
So overjoyed was I that I ran about the house and told Tim he should come and look, at which point he did and we embraced and then I did my little happy dance (literally). Then I proceeded to set the other in, with no problem at all and then made Tim come back every five minutes to look at my beautiful set in sleeves on my fantastic blouse.
Needless to say, it wore a bit thin (for him- certainly not for me) after the 50th time, saying that though he was very chuffed for me.
Next up were buttonholes and buttons, which I forgot to buy. I finally located some small-ish ones and add them to the cuffs and the front of the blouse with a pop stud opening at the top (which is covered when the collar is done up) and here we are, the finished article.
I really feel like I’ve made sewing skills progress with this blouse.
I have learnt sleeves with openings and cuffs; I have finally managed to successfully set in sleeves and I’ve made a new type of collar. Wholly happy.
Footnote:
As I have said blouse so much in this post I’ll leave you with this little clip from Bottom. I can’t think about the word blouse without thinking about Ritchie giving his famous chat up likes a whirl “my what a lovely blouse you have on”!
I definitely fall into the category of someone who acquires things I don’t use, buys fabric because it’s on clearance and regrets it, and goes for something because it’s close enough!
I’m really looking forward to the follow up posts, hopefully this will help me with a little management and structure when I’m compiling my list of what to sew and what not to sew this year.
And on that note (and before I get too sensible about things) I’ve decided that the next thing I am going to sew will be this fabulous Butterick pattern for a blouse. Mostly I have decided to do it in green because I have the wonderful outfit my beloved Joanie (have I said how much I love Mad Men?!) wore a couple of series back which I really want to emulate.
I’ve bought some plain green cotton, which might be a little too heavy but we’ll see, either way it’ll work out as a good practice or something I can go swishing about the office in.
I decided to subscribe to Sew Today to give it a go and see what it’s all about. I have not been disappointed, there are two very handy articles in the two issues I have received (one on different types of “french” seam, the other about making your own wedding dress…I have an evening gown in mind that is not dissimilar to a wedding dress).
The bonus of the sign up is that I get most patterns at half price now I’m a member and I also got to pick two patterns for free.
I went for Butterick B5895 and B5882; both Gertie patterns (I am so in love with her blog and creations….and have lurked around her blog watching and reading avidly for some time now!).
Although I’m looking forward to trying them out, they both present their challenges. I have never made any kind of trousers before and I have never used boning in a dress either, but then this is what this is all about isn’t it?
Does anyone have any recommendations for other sewing mags that may be of use to a beginner? websites or other blogs to visit? I do follow quite a few vintage blogs and sewing blogs but I’d be eternally grateful for any help.
In other news I have been cracking on with my McCalls dress and have finished. Blog to follow soon!
Stacey Stitch 