New game to play!

This is going to have a lot of photos.  

I’ve finally taken the time to work through the curious kiwi’s amazing tutorial on visualising fabric and patterns.  I really don’t know why I didn’t do it before.  The first one took AGES, but once you get the hang of it it’s quick and I’m able to get enthusiastic about projects that have withered for a while.

Frocktober will have to start with this dress...

I bought the couture dress course back in January, and I’ve watched most of the lessons.  However, I was procrastinating over starting the dress as I considered several fabrics from my stash.

A summer evening...

A classy work option

Now I can actually visualise what they might look like if I got my A into G and actually started sewing them.

I’ve been hankering after a jumpsuit ever since I considered one for the Burda Sew a long in May,   but did a jacket instead.  Now I can see just what my fabrics would look like.

Although I’ve also recently bought the Tania Culottes and wonder whether the pastel print would look good as a Tania?  Wonder no more!

And with summer round the corner I can get excited about flowery print dresses and skirts too…

…and even the long promised jeans…

On a more serious note, that nice pinky sort of tweed would make a great jacket...

... with a matching skirt of course...

The down side to this is that I’m actually having to go through and acknowledge my fabric stash, and tell myself again that I MUST stop buying fabric until it has diminished:

150 x 160

135 x 220

110 x 100

220 x 150

120 x 90

130 x 200

150 x 400

150 x 750

110 x 400

150 x 300

110 x 200

150 x 120

150 x 200

150 x 300

150 x 100

150x 100

This is less than half of what I have hidden in various cubby holes so I don’t have to face the real size of my stash.

Do other people know how much fabric they actually own?

Project 17

OK, finally back to my 52 projects. 

I’ve been offered a temporary job, covering for a month, so I decided I needed a new work outfit.  Well... actually I don’t... I have enough work outfits to go for a good six weeks of work without having to repeat anything, but I WANTED a new work outfit. 

Project 17 was a bias cut skirt from a pink and black hound’s-tooth. 

When I made the list I obviously didn’t realise just how much I had of this fabric.  When I checked the fabric I decided I had enough for a jacket too.  Although it wasn’t on my list I really wanted to do a jacket for the Burda Challenge, and I’d sort of “used” the fabric by putting it on the list of 52 projects, so I used this fabric to make a jacket toned down with a little plain black.

This made a new work outfit really easy, as all I had to do was the bias cut skirt and magic... a new suit for work!

I’ve always had a bit of a love hate relationship with bias cut skirts.  I love the way that they look, and I love the way that they swing, but I’ve always struggled to get them right.  When Diane came over for my lesson she made a few suggestions regarding the handling of bias cut seams, and specifically zips, so I felt ready to put her ideas to the test.

Since this was going to be a really quick and simple project, nothing, of course ran smoothly.

First of all I drafted a yoked skirt from my basic skirt block, as I didn’t want the skirt swinging round the hips.  When I cut out the yoke pieces on the straight grain, and the skirt pieces on the bias, the yoke pieces looked really odd.  The mix of the two directions just didn’t work.   

I had plenty of fabric to re-cut the yokes, but if I cut the yoke pieces on the bias too, I was going to lose the stability I wanted round the waist.  Even interfacing the yoke pieces wasn’t going to control the bias wiggle.   

I put the project aside and went and watched an episode of Susan Khalje's couture dress course on Craftsy.  By some bizarre stroke of luck, I randomly selected the episode where she talked about interlining.  That woman is a genius!  I abandoned her mid-class and pulled the small amount of black silk organza that I found in my $1 stash and interlined the yoke pieces.  Problem solved!

I happily carried on, making up the yoke pieces first, then laid out the skirt pieces...

Spot the deliberate mistake?

Look a little closer...

I had cut one of the skirt back pieces upside down.  In all honestly I didn’t even realise that the direction would make any difference, and I spent a good ten minutes squinting at it before I realised what the problem was.

Still, could be worse.  I still had plenty of fabric so I re-cut the offending piece and carried on.

I’ve learnt enough about cutting stuff on the bias to know that it needed to “rest” before I hemmed it, so I hung it on the dummy and invited my little girl round to help me pin the hem up over the weekend.

The finished result has its problems.  Actually, it has one problem.

I should have twigged that this would be an issue when I saw the straight cut yoke and the bias cut skirt pieces together, but it wasn’t until I put it on the dummy with the jacket that I remembered that the jacket was also cut on the straight grain.   

I’m not sure whether its the grain issue, or whether a whole outfit in pink and black hounds tooth was always going to be too much, but this is definitely not a workable suit. The pattern seems to fly off in all directions, it clings at the bottom and is boxy at the top.  Somehow, it just doesn't work.

Not that it’s a complete disaster.  The skirt works fine with a plain black jacket and I've worn the jacket several times with black trousers

 This is undoubtedly the most successful bias cut skirt that I've ever made. Diane's tips for stabilising the bias seams and zips did the trick, so I feel as though I have conquered that particular dragon of mine.  

Fortunately my daughter tells me that suits are only ever worn as separates these days anyway!

A quick re-fashion and capes

I have been rather slack lately.  I didn’t realise that it had been almost 2 months since my last post!   

Not that I haven’t been sewing – I’ve been doing HEAPS.

Not that I haven’t had time – I was made redundant at the end of July so I’ve had HEAPS of time 

Part of the problem has been a lack of photographs.  I’ve been making stuff, but spending most of my days in Jeans and sweatshirts, so I have quite a collection of new stuff that I’ve not worn yet.

As I said, I have sewn quite a bit, and even done a bit of re-fashioning, which is not normally my thing.  I had a plain wool sort of aqua skirt which I made ages ago.  Trouble is, I made it too small.  At my slimmest I could just squeeze into it, so long as I didn’t have to sit down. 

So it sat in the back of my wardrobe for about seven years! 

Logic would have had me throw it out, but I love the colour, and it’s a really soft, warm wool.  Every time I come to do a wardrobe cull I look at it, am reminded how much I love the fabric and kid myself I will one day fit into it again.

Finally I decided to deal with it.  I spotted a skirt in Fashion Quarterly in navy and aqua panels and decided that I would add a navy blue panel down the sides of the skirt to give it the extra width that my butt requires.

I’m oddly happy with this botch up.  The panel actually looks like it’s supposed to be there and does slim the lines of the skirt down slightly.

Instead of the waistband I faced the waist with the navy blue, so I ended up with a waistband and the strips from where I had cut off the sides of the skirt.   These apparently insignificant scraps came in use later...

Anyway, enough of re-fashioning; A few of the Wellington bloggers have come up with a brilliant idea.  They’re managing a collective group of sewers into “The Monthly Stitch”.  The idea is that the group sets a monthly sewing challenge, which is broad enough for anyone to adapt, then everyone posts their creations.  The first challenge is capes.

This was easy for me, I love capes.  The very first garment I ever made (about 30 years ago) was a cape, and I still wear it now.  I made it just after “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” was released.  Meryl Streep did some great dramatic moments in a full length cape with a hood.

I’m not sure that mine looks quite as dramatic...

...but it’s long, warm and a bit dramatic.  It keeps the rain off and can be slipped on over the top of anything; an evening dress or even a business suit, and it keeps me warm and dry.

On the down side, the plain black is... well... plain, and there are no holes to slip my arms through, so driving is a problem.  Since I didn’t have a pattern I didn’t give myself enough fabric in the front so I have to clutch it to chest in the wind.

 

I’ve made a Burda cape from an old magazine since then, which solved a couple of those problems, but didn’t have a hood, which I do miss in Auckland, ‘cos it rains a lot and I straighten my hair, and if it gets wet it goes really frizzy and horrible. 

Like the first cape, it also has no pockets, which can be a nuisance.  Still, I wear that one too, although again, it’s a bit plain.

 

 I was contemplating the cape I wanted to make when I arranged to meet my daughter for lunch one Saturday. 

Look what turned up!

She straightens her hair too - so she has a hood!

That was it for me, if she can wear capes, then I can.   

She has been known to suggest that some of my choices are a little dated, but she approved of the cape idea, although I can’t imagine looking a wonderful in one as she does!

I had plenty of navy wool left from my re-fashioning project so I took the Burda pattern and drafted a hood to replace the collar.  I also drafted pockets to fit next to the arm holes.

At this point I was not inspired.  The navy is very dark and I could see this being another yawn-fest.

Remember the scraps that I had from the re-fashioning project? 

I cut the waistband in half and used pieces of it to trim the armholes, used the side pieces to make piping for the edge of the hood.   I found some printed satin to use as lining that contained the navy and aqua...

... and the whole thing now looks a lot more dramatic.  

And it has pockets!!

I’m really pleased with this.  It is not as dramatic as my daughter’s red one (but I’m not 19 either), but it is warm, keeps me mostly dry in the rain, and looks good with the re-fashioned skirt too.

Project 26

This was originally supposed to be a dress inspired by this one. 

 

The fabric in mind is a stretch knit.  The same sort of design hit the shops here half way through the summer and I tried on a few examples to help me envisage the finished dress.  All was able to envisage was every lump and bump in my imperfect figure outlined and hi-lighted for the world to see!  Horizontal stripes?  What was I thinking?  I was ready to push this one aside and see if I had got rid of any lumps by spring, until I happened to spot the fabric in my stash next to the remains of a sort of green/teal fabric that I had made a skirt out of.  The colours looked quite striking together.

As a separate train of thought I had been watching the pattern reviews for the lace cardigan in March Burda Magazine.  I had considered it for one of my patterns for the Curious Kiwi’s recent Burda Sew-a-long, but didn’t have a stretch lace.

Once I let go of the striped dress and considered the fabric for a top to wear with the green/teal skirt, I was ripe for grays08’s review of the pattern in a solid, sort of stripe.  Inspired by her finished cardigan, I made one in my striped knit.



Look at those Stripes!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I did make a few changes.  All the reviews point out that this is a very close fit, so I used white drill (non-stretch) for the button band to avoid gaping across the bust.  Obviously this required a little grading and trimming round the curves, but it was not that difficult. 

When I gathered according to the instructions I ended up with a sort of lump in the middle at waist level.  After some experimentation I also replaced the gathering with small pleats, but only over the top half of the gathered area.  This seemed to lie flatter, and produced a nice shape across the bust.

 

Overall?  I like this pattern.  I will wear this as a top, rather than a cardigan as it is a snug fit, but it works well as a top.  I’m not sure I’d make it in the lace, as suggested in Burda, as that would require a camisole or similar underneath, and I suspect that would make it all a bit lumpy.  I will, however, almost certainly make it again.