A Brown Study

A pinch and a punch, June sewers!

I'm here to show off two sewing firsts for me - a turtleneck top and my first rigid trousers! Both these patterns are very popular in the online sewing world - the Nikko Top by True Bias, and the Dawn Jeans from Megan Nielsen Patterns. 

I've wanted to sew jeans for ages, but had the big nerves about doing it - the fly, the jeans buttons, the fitting issues - the FEAR. I thought it was time to give it a whirl though, and I'm glad I did. I feel like for the first time I really get what people mean when they say something is beautifully drafted - the Dawn Jeans felt like that. They took me a long time, and a lot of wrangling with my machine and top-stitching, but at no point did anything go heinously wrong and I put that down to the drafting and the instructions of this super pattern.

Fitting-wise, I'm not sure... I can see that there are problems here, and I'd like to have a go at fixing them next time. I think I'd already like them more in denim - this corduroy was left over from another project, but I'm not currently nuts about corduroy jeans... I have drag lines on the front, knees and under the bum. Reading through the excellent help on Closet Core Patterns' jeans fitting page, the advice to chill and not worry too much about fit already has helped - but I'm definitely going to have another go with this pattern.

Bum lines - but how much do I care about something I never see?? Not much, is the answer.

Okay fit I guess! Quickly on the Nikko, because there's little to say - I sewed a straight size 8 and love love love it. It's a lovely melange cotton jersey from Ray Stitch. A million more for next winter, I feel.

Until next time, summer sewers!

Stripey Mindy

 Hello sewing friends!

Here I am with a Fibre Mood Mindy, this time made into a long shift dress. I LOVE this one! It's in stripey fabric from Merchant & Mills - a little see-through, as these photos have shown me, but nothing a slip won't cure. And I really feel good in this dress.

Having made the Mindy top a couple of times, and having modified the back to be higher (I don't love designs that have my back out - it feels weird, like sleeping without a cover on. Monster bait!) I felt okay just extending this from the bodice, flaring it enough to get over my hips.

It's a bit of a shapeless tent without the tie belt - a magical addition to so many dresses, in my opinion.

I also made another Fennel Fanny Pack. I love this pattern - but I think the original isn't really big enough for life's day-to-day essentials (now including sunglasses and earphones). I deepened it this time by 1", and lengthened it by 2". I didn't use either stiff fabric, or interfacing - which was an error. It's a lovely bag but I think should be much stiffer to hold its shape. Next time, which there will be - these make great gifts, too.

Until soon my sewing friends!

Feeling a good kind of blue

 Hello April sewers! 

I made this dress over the long Easter weekend - it's been on my mind for a while to make a long, swishy summer dress. I had to steel myself a bit as I've mainly being sewing separates over the past year, and much prefer it - I really don't enjoy wrangling big bits of fabric.

For a few years I've had this dress pinned on my Sewing Inspiration board and a hankering to recreate it. 

This blue fabric from Minerva was intended as a toile, but has turned out much nicer than I expected - and the whole process was such a faff, I'll take a breather before embarking on the orange dot cotton one I have in mind next! 

For this dress, I used the shirt block that I've been making so much over the past months. I cut into the bodice back and front to make seams to put the ruffle into - the ruffle is a long rectangle about 1.5 times the length of the overall seam, back and front. I cut the bodice to my natural waist, and gathered it to fit a self-drafted skirt - adding a ruffle 1.5 times the length of the skirt bottom. I've put in a side "invisible" zip to get in and out - I haven't yet bought an invisible zip foot for my Pfaff, so that didn't work too well... but it's fine! 

The glass bodice buttons are from The Swagman's Daughter once more. 

I like this dress a lot - maybe it won't be the most practical thing in the world, but it turned out just as I'd imagined, and I'm excited to realise the orange one at some point...

Until soon!

Cord 'n' ruffles!

Hello Spring sewers!

I've been sewing up a storm to get through these last weeks, and here are two fruits of my labours. The skirt is a modified By Hand London Charlotte Skirt - front extended to make a button placket, and three belt loops added round the back. The nice brown baby cord is from my stash, and I can't remember where before that... 

I've made the Charlotte Skirt A LOT, one way and another. Mostly as part of the button-through dress I've made four iterations of. I'm happy with the fit on me, apart from the normal (for me) pencil-skirt issues. I love the pencil skirt silhouette, but in order for it to fit by the evening, it needs to be too big in the morning... the belt and loops help with this adjustment during the day. I guess an elasticated waist at the back might be another solution... till then, this fix is the best I've managed.

Back vent for added walking potential. 

The shirt is yet another version of my ongoing play around with the original Simplicity 8523 (view B) - this one is the same the last in every way except for a gather ruffled collar this time. I think I measured the neckline and multiplied by 1.5 - ruffley goodness. The cream buttons are from The Swagman's Daughter - lots of lovely goodies on there, I highly recommend a peruse if you aren't familiar with the website!

Hard to photograph this lovely black Swiss dot - here's a better one - and the ruffle shows up more as well! There's a lot of SD cotton around at the moment, hurrah, but this one is from Minerva and I'm happy with its quality.

Until soon, sewing friends! 

Very velouring!

 Hi sewing friends!

I'm repeating silhouettes now - sorry to be boring while I'm caught in a puff-sleeved shirt/Pomona Pants frenzy which I have no desire to get out of. 

A few months ago I was alerted via Instagram that Rainbow Fabrics Kilburn had some affordable cupro for sale, and bought three metres. It's beautiful, and I love how it feels, but it's the shiftiest fabric I've worked with yet. I spent longer cutting out than usual, and once cut all the pieces looked dismayingly wonky and different in sizes. But a bit of wrangling, and lots more pinning than I'm accustomed to, and they all fit together. I made exactly the same shirt as in my last post, minus the frills round the collar. 

I love this shirt - it's very comfortable, and looks quite smart with some jewellery to jazz it up. I think it'll get a lot of wears.

My other recent fabric purchase was this mint green jersey velour/velvet from Fabric Godmother. Having not read the description properly I'd taken it for a woven velvet when I purchased it, so was a bit sad when it arrived that it wasn't as fancy as I'd imagined. But it's beautiful in its own right, and after a little fear that I'd actually made myself Juicy Couture pants when I made these Pomonas, I think the high waist and shape keep it out of that danger zone! I think they look kind of 40s and sophisticated - or they did before I bagged them out and got them grubby by wearing them every day since I finished them two weeks ago.

As it's important to embrace those things which we fear, I decided to lean into the Juicy Couture thing and make a matching t-shirt. I had to do some piecing at the back as I was almost out of my two metres. But I quite like this look in the end. I think it's sort of Carmela Sopranoesque.

Absence of "Juicy" writing on the bum - far too sophisticated for that!

Thanks for reading! And thanks to my friend Steve for taking these pics in front of our shared building - a bit of natural light to sparkle on my velour.

A puffy frilly shirt and a SCARF!

Hello fellow sewers!

It's me, on repeat with these puff-sleeved shirts! I'm really enjoying making different iterations of a shirt whose basic fit makes me feel really good. Maybe I've gone too far with this version, I'm not sure! Very little to add to the last three, apart from the ruffles on the collar, which I almost enjoyed making, and am proud of the result of!

More lovely Merchant & Mills cotton, such a lovely feel to this fabric. 

And more buttons from Textile Garden!

And two pictures of the scarf I finished this week! My sewing feed was getting full of wonderful enviable knitted content, and I was suddenly struck down with a severe case of FOMOK. After some practise and helpful lessons from Sheep & Stitch, I spent a soothing week or so knitting up this scarf, and I absolutely LOVE it - it's the warmest scarf I've ever owned. But I'm not in love with knitting, and still feel massively intimidated by the idea of anything more complicated, much as I love the idea of wearing my own sweaters... will see!

Ready for the Brighton seafront!! 

Rya Coat and matching beret

Hello fellow February sewers!

Today I'm here to show my Rya Coat, by Fibre Mood patterns.

Fibre Mood patterns seem to be pretty ubiquitous in my Instagram feed when they are releasing new patterns, and many of the sewers I follow made lovely Rya Coats. This shape seems popular in RTW at the moment, and I've seen many a jaunty version on the Brighton promenade this winter. (Regrettably, they also seem to be referred to as "shackets", but that's a portmanteau too far/annoying for my liking.)

I downloaded and assembled the pdf and bought and washed my wool from Minerva, then this project languished for quite a while, which was down to some fear - of Fibre Mood's quite minimal instructions, of working with wool coat fabric and of having to pattern match (dreaded).

 

But once I got my nerve up, it was really smooth sailing. Despite lack of hand-holding from FM, this was a simple construction, and I think a nicely drafted one too. My only errors resulted from my woeful bias binding (SO messy - avert thine eyes!!!) and my choice of thinner fabric for the pockets - everything else turned out peachy. I made a size 38 with no adjustments - and I'm really happy with the fit, which can contain my thickest sweater underneath. It's meant to be oversized, and perhaps I could even go up one if I ever made it again... I wouldn't do a full coat again, but I saw a version by bisforbryanna hacked into a bomber, which looks excellent and is something I'm thinking about.

Pleasing scoop hem at the sides - classic shacket move.

Looking at my button placement (buttons from Textile Garden), I could wish I'd spaced them evenly throughout the patterned squares. I was very pleased with my pattern-matching but buttons in the middle would've looked even swankier! But I'm really happy with this coat, which isn't warm enough for the coldest days, but brilliant for the in-betweens, and which I think looks really smart.

Finally, with my leftover fabric, I had a go at making a matching beret. I'll make a quick post about this next time, as I think it's an easy scrap buster, and who doesn't want a beret to match every outfit?

Thank you for reading, until soon!

More Pomonas and another puffy shirt

Hello January sewers! 

This is a summery shirt I've been thinking about and got round to making last weekend. I do like this aesthetic - sort of cowboy/Victorian flounce. Which seems to be a thing - I've seen nice examples popping up in my desperate-to-sell-me-stuff Instagram feed. Gross how they know just what I like.

Following on from my last puff-sleeved shirt, this is self-drafted, using Simplicity 8523 (view B) as a bodice block (it's a really simple top pattern, which was one of the three used at Ray Stitch when I did my six-week introduction to sewing course about six years ago. I think it's a great one for building on - just two front darts and apart from that a really simple block). 

From there, I used the bigger armscyes and sleeves I'd drafted, but made a v-neck and shorter sleeves for this blouse. I also drafted a collar and put buttonholes in the cuffs for some simple ties. 

I love this shirt! It's one of the times (which thankfully are starting to outnumber the other times) when what I imagined and the finished object are the same! 

The trousers are another pair of Anna Allen Pomona pants! I sure do love these guys. Nothing to add to these from my previous pairs, but these are in medium weight denim and have proved really useful for colder weather. Their bagginess means they're friendly to having layers of tights/socks stuffed under them too.

Fabric close-up! The shirt fabric is a lovely thin cotton from Merchant & Mills, with buttons from the ever-reliable Textile Garden. Both stash, now happily married together.

So it's a pretty thin, summery shirt, certainly not up to this weather. I'll have to wait for warmer times to wear it... a lot of waiting happening, these days. I certainly feel grateful to have sewing to keep my mind occupied.

Thank you for reading! Until soon!