Tuesday 30 June 2015

Does anybody else think Jean Jacket when they see a tablecloth, or is it just me?

We just had Netto open a branch down the road, so I went to have a look round on Friday, I do love my budget supermarkets.  And look what I found...


Sadly Netto have not started selling fabric, but they do sell table linens.  This is a denim weight cotton, 140cm wide by 220cm long, for the princely sum of £8.  I saw this and just thought Jean Jacket.  I have a denim jacket that I got from Gap many years ago, but it has a distinct lack of usable pockets, no where to put keys or poo bags (one of the many joys of dog parentage).  I think I will have enough fabric to make a skirt as well, but NOT to be worn together.

So what pattern to use?  I did make a Jean Jacket before in my late teens out of a green drill fabric with an Aztec accent fabric.  Fortunately I don't think there is any photographic evidence of this garment and it had been gifted to charity long ago.  But the pattern may still be somewhere in the house - but do I want to waste a week of my life searching for it only to find pieces missing (I have never been good at putting my pattern pieces back in the envelope).

Fortuitously Burda pattern are half price at the moment, so I have opted for Burda 7018, even though it is a Young pattern and I am definately not.



So as I have declared here, my sewing intentions, I had better well make this jacket and not just add to my fabric and pattern stash.


Sunday 28 June 2015

One Melissa, Two Melissa, soon to Three and Four

You know when you find a pattern that just fits.  I have quite broad shoulders and a long back, so usually have to tweek patterns to get them to fit, but not with Melissa, if fits straight off the printer.  I made a blouse and skirt with this patterm for Separates week over at The Monthly Stitch and decided to make another blouse for One Pattern Two Takes.  I previously blogged about my adventures with Melissa here.


The only fit issue I had the first time round, was it was a little loose around my waist and hips.  I remedied this by grading the seam allowance for 1cm to 1.5cm for the bottom 15cm of each seam and now it fits beautifully.  I had ironed this really, it just I'd been wearing it all day at work, hence the wrinkles.


The fabric I used was a man's shirt I bought from a charity shop and some white cotton from my stash.  It was a bright sunny evening when we took these photos and the colour has washed out somewhat, the stripe is actually very close to my skirt colour.  I decided not to include the back contrast chevon as I thought it might look a little busy, but did include the chevron trim on the pockets.


I utilised the original buttons and buttonholes from the men's shirt, which has lead to me being confused no end as the shirt buttons the wrong way.  When I do this again I will try and remember to cut the front upside down (provided it's not a directional print), to get the buttons to do up the Ladies way.


Making this for a second time, did make the process a whole lot faster.  The only fiddly bit was of my own making, as I had to bind the collar with a bias strip as I wasn't utilising the facings.

I already have plans to make this blouse again with some not so subtle red gingham for Check it Out Month

It's been really fun to participate in IMP2015, now I just have to keep up with the posting.

Saturday 20 June 2015

Is this too formal for walking the dogs?

So it's still Indie Pattern Month over at the Monthly Stitch and this week is dedicated to "New to Me".  Sew an Indie pattern from a designer you have never sew before, it's not hard for to find an Indie designer I have not sewn before.  I've only sewn from a handful of Indie designers, although I own patterns from several more just waiting to be sewn.  So did I pick one of those patterns to sew? No.  Did I sew my "Secret Santa Swap" pattern? No (technically I couldn't, as I have bought and sewn the Onyx top from Paprika Patterns since being given the Jade skirt in the swap).  No I bought a new pattern after reading Diary of a Chainstitcher, there is a regular update of new Indie pattern releases and news on this blog.  The pattern in questions is the Fatale Sister Skirt by Vanessa Pouzet.


It's a simple pencil skirt, with an open ended zip at the back.  So you can make the split as high at you dare.


The pattern consists of only two pieces and prints in only 12 pages.  Some patterns on this site are in English, but this one was only available in French (I haven't studied French in over 30 years).  Fortunately the picture instructions were good and with the dubious help of Google translate I was able to work out what I needed to do.


The pattern is meant to be fully lined, but I didn't have any suitable lining, so I finished the hem and waistband with bias binding.  Of course I couldn't leave it as a simple two piece skirt and I doubled the number if pattern pieces by adding pockets.  The fabric is a funishing fabric I picked up at Standfast and Barracks (the Liberty Factory Shop) on our way home from holiday on the Isle of Arran in February.  I only bought 50cm so that is the length of my skirt.  The turquoise open ended zip I picked up at the Yorkshire Spoolettes meet up in Dewsbury.


So it it too formal to walk the dogs?  I don't think so.

Saturday 13 June 2015

Today I will mostly be making seperates


If Me Made May showed me anything, it's that I wear mostly separates.  Out of the 31 days, I only wore dresses on 4 days, the other 27 days I wore separates.  I just find them much more versatile, I can happily wear the same skirt 3 days out of a week, pairing it with different tops, but would feel self conscious if I wore the same dress twice in a week.

So when The Monthly Stitch announced a Separates Week during Indie Pattern Month, I knew it was the challenge for me.  But what pattern to choose...  I eventually opted for the Melissa Dress/Blouse/Skirt by Muse Patterns.  I bought the pattern not long after release (unusual for me, I don't tend to be an early adopter), because the 40s/50s aesthetic appeals to me.



I keep trying to use fabric from stash, rather than going our and buying new and found a remnant of red denim that I have had for at least four years begging to be used.  The only problem was, the pattern calls for 1.8m of fabric either 114 or 150 wide and I had 1m of 1.2 wide.  A couple of modifications were required.  I decided to omit the button front and insert a side zip instead, I also omitted the centre back seam.  As you can see from the picture above, my Tetris skills came to the fore when positioning the pattern pieces.  I didn't think my fabric had any sort of a nap, but just to be on the safe side put all the front pieces in one direction and all the back pieces in the other direction.  I also didn't have enough fabric for a waistband, but as I'm not a huge fan of straight waistbands anyway, I opted to finish the waist off with petersham ribbon and a large hook and eye.







The fabric for the blouse is also from my stash, it's a dress weight cotton from Ikea, with a copyright date on the selvedge of 2007, so I've had it a while.  I love the pockets on this pattern, they may not hold a lot, bit I think the chevron details is lovely.  I replaced the button and buttonholes with poppers, partly because I liked the look, but mostly because my sewing machine has recently been having a strop whenever I try to do buttonholes.  My sewing machine has now had a service after 5 years of abuse and I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear is feeling much better.  There will be buttonholes in my future.


And just to finish a not great picture of my outfit but a lovely picture of the lovely Hagrid