Noa - all grown up

I didn't think I would be able to post anything during Hack It week on the Monthly Stitch, hacking patterns is not something I generally do.  I might add the odd pocket or turn a top into a dress, but nothing really big.

Then Marte at Compangie M. released the Noa Pant pattern for kids for 1-10 years and I just loved the pocket detail and I really wanted a pair.

So how do you change a kids pattern into an adult pattern.  A printer, a photocopier and a lot of sticky tape.  I also used an existing pattern that I knew fitted to compare and contrast.  I enlarged the pocket and top half of the trouser pattern by 120% and extended the crotch at the front and the back.  

I then did something I never do, made a muslin and it's a good job I did because I needed to add a 3cm insert if I wanted to get the trousers over my hips.  

Here's the pocket details I love so much.

I think I may need to move the button down a little.  The dark blue is a lovely bamboo cotton mix and the light blue is linen (I hope they wash well together), both crease like it is going out of fashion.  I did think about changing they from elasticated to a fitted waistband, but that was just going to be too complicated in the timescale given.  And finally a sympathy shot, Hagrid got an ouchie last week chasing after Bonnie, who was chasing after a squirrel.

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How many tops, it too many?

My love of the Paprika Patterns Onyx Top continues, these two version are actually the ninth and tenth time I have made this pattern (those ten versions weren’t all for me, one was for my Mum), it is my go to pattern for a woven top.

Let me gush talk about the pattern first, it’s only available as a pdf, but I’m one of those strange people who actually finds cutting and taping pdf patterns together therapeutic.  For me the added bonus of a pdf pattern is I can print it out again if I misplace my pattern (between cutting out the top version on Friday and the dress version on Monday I had misplaced the pattern and had to print it out again).  The pdf is layered so you only have to print out the size you want and the size range is generous from an 80cm to 124cm bust.  And the largest size only used 15 sheets of paper, with the instructions only using 7 sheets.  Lisa’s instructions are clear and concise, with additional tutorials on the website, if needed.

For both versions I made a size 6 at the shoulders and bust, grading down to a size 5 at the hips.  In previous versions I have lengthened the bodice by 5cm (I have a strangely long back), but for the blue version I left it at the original length because I had only bought 1 metre of fabric, 112cm wide.  Anyway let me tell you about the fabric, it’s from Faberwood, who I found through the Paprika Pattern website, but who are actually based here in Sheffield about ten minutes from where I live.  I emailed the lovely Fiona who runs Faberwood and asked if I could collect my order rather than have it posted, she said yes, and I got to meet her and chat about sewing and fabric, whilst my patient husband and not so patient dog waited in the car.  It is a dangerous thing having such lovely fabric right on my doorstep.  Check them out, but bear in mind Fiona is an enabler, she included swatches of all their lovely fabrics with my order.  The fabric I choose was a blue Indian block print that is kind of the soft lightweight cotton I have been looking for for ages.  It has a border print, but only on one edge, which I tried to use to its best advantage.  I would have loved to feature it on the front hem, but as the hem on the Onyx top if slightly curved, I don’t think it would have looked right.  I could say the pattern on the cuffs going in the opposite direction was a design feature, but that was the only way I could fit all the pattern pieces in 1 metre of fabric.

On to the dress, this fabric doesn’t have an interesting back story; it was from The Textile Centre on ebay and is a lovely viscose.  All I did to change to top into a dress was extend the pattern by approximately 35cm, I just eyeballed it when I was cutting it out.  I liked the idea of the split hem as seen on the Named Clothing Inari Tee Dress, which was very easy to do, especially with the broad stripe to follow on the fabric.  I just have to say how happy I am with the stripes matching on the side seams.

So those are my two makes, which will hopefully get a lot of wear this summer, it the rain ever goes away and the sun comes back. 

Do I look like I'm wearing a tablecloth?

The photos for this post are not the best.  My photo shoot (or as the dogs like to call it their walk) was curtailed when the dogs decided to do a runner, squirrels are more interesting that watching me have my picture taken apparently.

This is the Brumby Skirt by Megan Nielsen.  I need another skirt pattern like a hole in the head, but I succumbed to the pockets.  They are HUGE.

I made View 1, but cut the front on the fold rather than adding a seam and top stitching.  I also added some extra length, but I can't quite decide if I added too much.  However, as the fabric has an embroidered border, if I wanted to shorten it now it would mean taking off the waistband, removing the zip and re-doing the whole lot again.  I think I can live with the length. I've had this fabric for a couple of years, I got it from the bargain section at my local independent fabric shop Fine Fabrics, I think I paid about £1.50 for it.

I cut a size L and the fit is perfect.  The main pattern piece for this view is just a large rectangle, but the pattern does have a lovely curved waistband.  I have a number of skirts with straight waistbands and I don't wear because of gaping issues, but this waistband I love.  The pattern does feature an exposed zipper at the back, but I just put in a regular zip, just for ease (and because it was what I had to hand).

I've made this Summer skirt at just the right time, because the weather has just got stupid hot.  I can hear the rumble of thunder as I type this.  I definitely have plans to make this skirt again, probably a straight up View 1, but maybe lined to wear in the Winter.

Now tell me truthfully do I look like I'm wearing a tablecloth?

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.

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.

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

Me Made May '15 - Day One

 

So Me Made May is here once more and I am determined to actually document my participation this year, so that I actually feel like I am participating.  It will also be the first year I will be having my photo taken wearing my glasses, maybe I can hide behind them?

 

So here is the first offering...

 

The Simmons Dress

 

This is the Simmons Dress, which I made in December, for The Monthly Stitch challenge but never got around to posting (this will probably be a recurring theme in the coming month).  The fabric I actually bought especially for this project from Backstitch, because I didn't have anything suitable in my stash, they are both really stable Ponte Roma knits, which were a pleasure to sew up.  This is a picture of the inspiration garment... 

The inspiration garment

When this challenge cam up, I just had to pick Jemma Simmons as my inspiration because firstly I am a huge Joss Whedon fan and secondly the actress who plays Jemma is from Sheffield (when I live).  As we were taking these photos, Fluffrick commented that I should have saved this dress to wear on Sunday, as that is when we plan to go to Avengers: Age of Ultron.  I'll have to see If I have anything else Marvel appropriate.

The pattern is a mash up between Tilly and the Buttons Coco and Deer and Doe free t-shirt pattern Plantain.  The body is from Coco and the yoke and sleeves from Plantain, with the neckline raised several inches and the addition of a self drafted collar.  I am not quite sure about the length of the sleeves (I am my own worst critic), because I am cost conscious I only bought 1/2 metre of the spot fabric, so the sleeves are a tad short for my liking, but I can live with it.

This is only the second time I have worn this dress even though I really like it.  One of the main reasons for this is below...



Why I don't wear black

I don't expect to get through the day without being covered in cream fur.  I know it is a staple in many wardrobes but, I very rarely wear black, I would much rather wear colour.

 

So one day down, 30 more outfits to be worn and enjoyed.

A Snuggly Giselle

It is Frocktober this month on The Monthly Stitch, and as it is well and truly Autumn up here in the northern hemisphere I thought I'd make a Snuggly Giselle.  This is also a bargain basement Giselle, as I have had the paisley fabric for so long I don't actually remember buying it (I'm thinking sometime in the 1980's) and the turquoise fabric I got at the local AgeUK shop for the pricely sum of £1.

Here is a close up of the contrast midriff.  I love the shaping of the midriff, it makes me look like I actually have a waist.  I cut a straight size L, this the only change I made being adding 2cm to the back bodice and the same to the bottom of the upper bodice.

I wanted my contrast fabric to be on show on more than just the midriff and sleeve cuffs, so I attached the bias binding at the neckline on the outside rather than inside.

This dress is very twirly

The fabric I used is maybe a little heavy for the pattern, it gives a bit too much bulk at the gathers.  Having said that I already have plans for a babycord and brushed cotton version, which I may try pleats, rather than gathers at the waist.  I wanted to wear the dress out on Thursday evening, so I haven't put the elastic at the back waist yet and looking at the pictures I took of the bow I think it needs the elastic.  As a design feature I do like the back ties and it does cinch in the waist, but having a knot at the middle of my back is not always comfortable.  I'm not sure what I could be to keep the look, but loose the knot.

I don't see the Maxi version in my future, it just isn't my thing.  But I can envisage many other lovely knee length Giselles to come.  A contract midriff is great for featuring a lovely fat quarter of fabric.