handmade – Page 2 – Stacey Stitch

Children’s Raincoat: Robert Kauffman Ann Kelle Chicken Print

Published on July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 by Stacey Stitch6 Comments

And now for something completely different….

A few weeks ago I went off to Birmingham to a sewing show with my Step-Mum. We spent the day mooching about a huge space looking at lots of pretty fabrics and patterns, when this gorgeous laminated cotton caught my eye.

That would be perfect for a kid’s raincoat, thought I, and I had just the loveliest little boy in mind whose birthday was fast approaching.

So I bought my yardage and took it home and maybe was slightly concerned I had bitten off more than I could chew.

I couldn’t find a decent pattern anywhere so I searched the net and came across this tutorial from Riley Blake Designs. I sourced a hoodie for the template and bought my notions.

I decided to use some of my leftover cotton from different projects to make the lining, which turned out to be a bit of a mish-mash of designs, but I assumed he would look like quite the dandy in his super bright lined coat.

I instantly made a mistake by forgetting to put the seam allowance on my first two pieces, but luckily enough I did have enough extra to make that mistake, only I had to forgo the pockets in the end.

Making it wasn’t too tricky, after I remembered that:

I had to pin in the seam allowance (this is mean to me waterproof after all so not extra pesky holes).
Sewing takes a little more time due to the pressure of not being able to get the seam ripper out and start again.

But I took a deep breath, and started sewing.

After I had sewing the lining in, I washed the coat on a cold wash and hung it out on a hanger to dry and leave it crease free.

When it came to putting on the closure loops for the buttons I used clamps to hold them in place rather than pins

All left to do was to wrap the coat and hand it over to N. It was a little big for him but he very much seemed to like it, if all the talk of “chicken” and “cluck, cluck” were anything to go by.

It was a little bit big….but hey, kids grow, right?

Simplicity 4579: All Sewn Up – 50s Fringed Skirt

Published on July 4, 2015April 21, 2016 by Stacey Stitch12 Comments

My Step Mum found this pattern for me and I instantly fell in love with it especially the fringe trimmed version of the skirt, who doesn’t like a bit of fringing after all? So when the fine folks at Zazzle.co.uk got in touch with me so see if I would collaborate on a couple of posts it was instantly clear that this pattern would be perfect.

If you haven’t heard of Zazzle.co.uk they’re a fantastic creative customisation website with a whole host of different products but obviously, for me, it’s all about the crafting. I can’t even begin to tell you how wide ranging their fabric options are as it would take a whole post up in itself and I’d never get around to showing you my skirt but I will give you a quick overview.

You can pick from various categories from colour, pattern to theme. I obviously went for retro of course, but there are lots of others to choose from. In those categories you can pick the type of fabric, as its summer here I went for a cotton obviously (and I am glad I did due to the heatwave we’ve had) and then there’s the fun bit of customising the pattern too.

The only tough thing I found about the process was narrowing down my fabric choices as there are so many.

Anyhoo, they are fab and you should check them out.

To start the skirt is a 28 waist and 38 hip. Due to the lovely weather we’re having here in the UK, recently not being in the best of sorts and my love of dairy I am now sporting 40 inch hips. So I had to adjust the pattern.

I started by tracing the pattern onto some Swedish sewing paper and marking it up, then I made the hip adjustment by cutting out a perpendicular section from the hip line to the hem line and fitting and extra half an inch in.

I sewed up the darts and joined the sides and all went swimmingly. I put the zip in as instructed, even though it’s not the normal way I’d do the zip but it worked out okay if not a little fiddly. You don’t get anything from not trying though, right? Even if that something you do get is a little frustrated.

Then it was on to the hem and the decision of what I should do about the fringing. For all intents and purposes the instructions said to leave a length of fabric under the fringing but after trying out all options I decided not to do this. It just looked a bit odd.

So I took the skirt up a little extra and removed the split. Then I started sewing the fringing in. I have a little experience of sewing in fringing due to my previous burlesque dancing ways but I had only ever done it by hand. I did use the sewing machine this time and took a steady pace with it. No problems, no seam ripping, just a very happy me by the end of it.

All that was left was hemming to do which, as usual, went without a hitch. So ladies and jellyspoons here is my finished, sewn up skirt. What do you think? I;m super happy with how it turned out and it’ll look great for a work as well as a Sunday mooching round the vintage shops.

Disclosure: Fabric supplied by Zazzle.co.uk but all thoughts on their services are honest and my own.

Help me choose a pattern (aka being indecisive sucks)

Published on February 22, 2015February 22, 2015 by Stacey Stitch11 Comments

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?

Simplicity 2602: The Christmas Edition

Published on December 23, 2014 by Stacey Stitch12 Comments

Christmas eve is almost upon us and here I have a festive feast for your eyes.

The Simplicity 2602 all made up and worn for my work Christmas party (and soon to be seen on Christmas Day!).

I know I’ve been a bit slack on the stitching over the recent months but I have fantastic news to share, I’ve been making changes to my life and will be starting a new post in my current job in the new year. It’s the perfect way to round of what has been a wonderful year.

That’s the main reason for the lack of updates and besides that I decided to literally work my butt off after I found myself in a position where I couldn’t fit into my beautiful pink boned dress that I made back in June. I’ve been working out day and night and haven’t been in this good shape for years, but enough of that, lets get on with this fantastically festive frock!

I have to confess that I made the choice based on something quick to whip up (relatively speaking) and the lack of messing about with sleeves when I knew how busy I’d be in the weeks running up to the date I needed to finish by.

I picked a medium weight cotton from Benartex (Let It Snow) available from Plush Addict. I went for a good 4 metres and I was very happy in the end that I did.

I pinned out the pattern and up came a quandary, mainly that the pattern doesn’t repeat itself often enough.

It meant a lot of pinning and re-pinning before cutting and I had to deal with the sides seams not matching (I decided the back was much more important due to the side closure and the split).

So after holding my breath and cutting while crossing my fingers and every available part of me (I don’t often sewing with patterned fabric!) it was done.

I pinned the darts and pinned to my dressform and was already very happy before I even started to sew it up. Sewing was relatively easy apart from the back, which I had managed to get a tiny bit out of sync.

Yet again my seam ripper became my best friend and I opted to sewing on the fold down the back rather than try (for the umpteenth time) to match the seam.

I don’t think you could obviously see it due to the pattern but decided even if you could I’d give myself a break and not give too much of a monkeys.

So on I went, and the rest was relatively easy, the split was a breeze and the side zip went in with ease. It seems that a break away for a while has done me some good. Eight and a half hours later and I was done, pressed and ready to go.

I wore at the office party, looking way more dressed up than everyone there BUT it’s Christmas and if you can’t wear a lovely sparkly dress for a party what can you wear it for? Here it is in all it’as glory!

Better photos to follow after Christmas day – wait until you see my hand embroidered napkins and table cloth!

Wishing you all a fantastic festive season, a wonderful Christmas Day and much love and happiness with your friends and family. I’m off to ice my ridiculously boozy cake!

Merry Christmas!

All Sewn Up: Butterick B6031 Patterns By Gertie: The Slip

Published on September 27, 2014 by Stacey Stitch2 Comments

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).

Wee Little Stitches: Dumbledore

Published on April 9, 2014April 9, 2014 by Stacey Stitch3 Comments

If you haven’t seen the lovely designs from Wee Little Stitches where have you been? The’re a perfect mix of geek and cross stitch and I absolutely adore them.

When I found out my friend was expecting and I saw their fantastic Dumbledore pattern I just knew I had to make it as a present. Harry Potter is something that is very close to both of us and we have shared experiences of, we lived together for a while and we queued up to get our books at the midnight openings in Waterstones then raced to finsih them at home.

I think the quote says it all really. Congratulations Gillibrands can’t wait til your over from Aus so I can meet the ankle-biter, massive loves and fan hands 😀

Sneak Peek at what I’ve been sewing

Published on April 7, 2014 by Stacey Stitch5 Comments

I know, no posts for a week BUT I have been making progress with some Gertie pedal pushers in 3 different ways (2 done, 1 to go), then I was a little bit poorly and this weekend I was in London an got home super late last night.

Perfect excuse to show my Gertie’s off in the Natural History Museum on Saturday, here I am just chillin’