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Category: Sewing Adventures
something shocking
For some time now I’ve been doing something shocking! I’ve not been buying any fabric.
Shocking isn’t it?
January 1st 2012 I set myself the challenge of reducing my stash. Our apartment is tiny (think how small you think it is and then at least halve it). And the stash was taking over.
So for the past almost 2 years I have been shopping the stash. I have made pyjamas for myself and friends, dresses for work, dresses for weekends, tops to wear dressed up, tops to wear when lounging round the house, clothes for the Englishman, gifts for family and friends, dresses for nieces and costumes. I even got a little bit brutal and gave some pieces away that I knew I would never use. In just over 2 years I have added less than 5 pieces to the stash and all but one of them has already been sewn up.
Now I would like to report that all that hard work has resulted in a lovely clean fantastically organised sewing area.
It hasn’t made one single solitary minuscule amount of difference! We are still overflowing with fabric and sometimes it seems to be a never ending pit.
Added bonus is that is I’m saving a great deal of money while shopping the stash and am finding some gorgeous pieces that I had tucked away for “something special”.
So when’s the next stash busting sew along? because count me in!
DIY Christmas Decorations
Last Christmas season while pinning away on Pinterest I came across this fabulous DIY of covered baubles.
It got me thinking and soon I was raiding my small scraps tub for Liberty and Liberty style florals. Armed with my pinking shears I started cutting and cutting and cutting some more. Soon I had quite a bundle of small fabric swatches.
Next stop was getting some baubles. Off to reverse garbage I managed to score an entire box for under $5 and looking in the back of my own cupboard I found some very cute teeny tiny ones that are just so sweet.
Armed with an old paint brush and some watered down fabric glue I got to work. As I moved around each bauble I found that threading a bamboo skewer through the hanging section made it a lot easier to hang on to, not to mention way less messy, as by this time my hands were covered in glue.
Soon I had baubles on skewers propped up inside jars all over my desk. After a good 24 to 48 hours drying time I had so many pretty baubles.
Now some made their way to the new homes and trees last Christmas, but many more are on their way this Christmas (I so hope this post doesn’t spoil anyone’s surprise too much).
Sewing Adventures
Well it seems I have gone from no skirts to a little bit of a skirt obsession (can 2 be an obsession? or is it more of a set?) I’ve gone from no skirts to 2 skirts in under a fortnight!
This latest creation is based on Pattern Runway free skirt pattern and made up in some voile from a recent Spotlight purchase. It seems to be a popular fabric with it popping up on Top Notch and Sew Brunswick and a number of sewers on Instagram and Twitter seem to have scooped some up too.
First up the pattern, I made a few small adjustments. I didn’t bother with the side seam pockets. The fabric is very lightweight and I was worried if I had pockets and put something in them and then was riding on my bike to do messages that the stuff would either fall or or potentially damage the lightweight fabric.
I shortened the length by about 20cm, and it is now just below knee length. No the pattern isn’t giant, I’m just really short.
I added about 5cm width to the centre front and centre back of the skirt but not the waistbands or the lining.The fabric is so lovely and lightweight and the pattern so pretty that I thought a few extra gathers won’t matter. Plus with the voile lining had the potential to make the skirt slightly less transparent. I used white voile for the lining and cut the waistband in the white, interfaced that and then placed the coloured voile on top. This way I got the strength I needed but I didn’t ruin the coloured fabric by being able to see the interfacing through the waistband.
Sewing it was very simple, in fact the hardest thing was locating a new extra fine needle to go into the machine to ensure a nice sharp stitch. The elasticated back makes it very comfortable and has the added bonus of not needing to put in zip or buttons! I did a smaller double turn hem as I thought it would work better in the fine fabric.
I really like it and am already planning to make another version. The pattern is fabulous and I cannot recommend it enough, not only is it a cinch to sew it’s free! So fab!
Hope you all had a productive weekend of sewing too?
Mini Obsession – scarves
Ok confession time, I can’t knit and when it comes to crochet I can make a chain, just a single long chain that I can’t seem to join anything on to?
The Englishman on the other hand watched a few YouTube clips and can crochet like a boss and will be turning out amigurumi figures in no time.
So when I say I’m in need of a knitted scarf it really means I’m buying the wool and sending it to my mum who will whip me up a scarf in next to no time. Or I’m scouring Etsy looking for a cool designer one.
Here are a few I’m loving at the moment
1. The Purl Bee 2. The Purl Bee 3. The Knit Kid 4. Yokoo
Does anyone else have any suggestions? I’m looking for something quite warm and snugly that will keep me warm during an English winter.
Sewing Adventures
After last week’s musings on skirts I decided to jump right in and make one on the weekend.
I had this pattern from one of those buy one get one free sales that Spotlight occasionally has. I had thought to make it up as a work skirt sometime?
The fabric is a vintage cotton with the pattern being printed on (including the green lines that appear to be the weave of the fabric, all printed!). I picked this up years ago at a thrift store and there was miles of it! So far I have made caps out it, dresses, this skirt and there is still heaps left. It is a great sturdy weight cotton and sews up a dream.
Now to the skirt. I omitted the waist tie as I thought this fabric would be too bulky for it to look good, and I added a contrast bind to the top edge instead of a self bind. Just for a bit of a pick me up on the duller green of the fabric. Fit wise the high waist takes some getting used to and the skirt is a bit too straight to be able to ride in (admittedly only an important factor if you ride your bike to work) but for general wearing is quite good.
One thing I didn’t factor in though? All my tops are prints! I have absolutely zero to wear with this skirt that doesn’t make me look like some kind of colour explosion (and I mean more than I normally do).
So I’ll be keeping an eye out for something to match to this and in the meantime will also be keeping an eye out for other potential skirt patterns?
Skirts
I’ve been thinking about skirts a bit lately.
1. elastic waist skirt 2. Green Pattern 3. Pattern knee length skirt 4. Gorman skirt
I’ve never been good with a skirt, as I kid I spent more time climbing fences and riding my bike that I just wore shorts all the time, a box pleated skirt for high school while a flattering uniform did little to endear me to them.
A few years back I fell in love with a denim skirt that I adored and spent most of the summer and part of the winter wearing. But apart from that, my forays into skirts seem to well, not work.
I’m short and have the legs of a cyclist so mini skirts are pretty much out and while knee length dresses look great when its a knee length skirt, I look well frumpy. All too short and wide and just odd proportions.
And yet I keep seeing them on girls in the street and photographs on the net and well, they just look so cool.
Can anyone suggest a pattern that might turn my relationship with skirts around?
Sewing Adventures
I have been trying hard to not show any of of my handmade Christmas presents pre Christmas but this one is too cute not to share.
Last week on Twitter I saw a link to the new release of Figgy’s Heavenly Collection. The Ethereal dress and blouse just stood out for me so I snapped it up and thought it would make a brilliant present for one of my nieces. Plus isn’t that red headed little model just the cutest?
Of course this meant finding the perfect piece of fabric. I couldn’t find anything in the stash that seemed right so I headed to Spotlight. I found a sweet stripe with little cherries all over it, a pretty floral, a stripe basically a whole bunch of stuff and none of it felt right, I even called my brother to see what he suggested (that’s a first right there). I had seen this pale lemon printed with large metallic yellow dots early during my search but it felt a bit stiff. However I just kept coming back to it, so I decided it was the one. The photos don’t really capture the metallicness of the dots but they have a real shimmer to them.
After some quick phonecalls to my mum and my brother to determine my nieces current size I assembled the pattern and went for it. The construction itself was quite straight forward but I made a number of changes to the Figgy’s construction method.
– added the gathers to the lower skirts and then attached them to their respective tops using french seams
– double turned the frill outer edge eliminating the overlocking/serging as I thought that the extra stitching would show through when pressed
– machine basted the frill onto the front neckline and armhole
– added the button loop using some patterned bias binding and bused the same bias to finish the back slit
– french seamed the shoulders
– bound the armholes using the patterned bias
– french seamed the side seams
– double turned the lower hem
– bound the neckline using the patterned bias
I did all the binding as the top is meant to be lined but this niece is in Queensland, and summer in Queensland is all high temperatures and humidity. The thought of extra layers was all just too much, so I just took them out. The added bonus of being able to use a patterned bias binding on the inside was also a factor as I totally love bias!
The french seams was mostly because I could but also because the printing is a little stiff. It will totally soften with a few washes but if I had just overlocked/serged the edges I was worried a small person might find them scratchy (and seriously who wants to be the person who gave the kid “that scratchy top”). Plus they look all pretty and professional.
Overall I am pretty happy with it and I hope my niece likes it too!
