M to the power of 4: Week 3

Me Made May Mondays weekly roundup

Day 14: Maroon NL6808 top
and black cord NL6843 skirt

Day 15: Fake dotty day dress aka
Sorbetto top and S2215 skirt

Day 15: sun on my evening run

Day 16: Olive button back blouse
and denim Kelly skirt

Day 17: Maroon NL6808 top and
black cord pinafore dress

Day 18: Sleeved Sorbetto and
Cambie skirt (not yet blogged) 

Hmm, I think it's a tad long

Day 19: Washi

Day 20: Oh dear, it's
the Lydia top again

On Saturday I took my friend Katie (over from France for the weekend) on a fabric frenzy shopping spree. We went to the Cotton Patch, Guthrie & Ghani, the Birmingham rag market, Fancy Silk Fabrics and, of course, Barry's. Here are my spoils, bought just from the market and Barry's:

Clockwise from top left: a really soft, drapey, floral cotton (the bolt said "lib fabric" - does that mean Liberty do you think? - but it's not expensive enough!) £7.95 for 1m to make a blouse; another soft, drapey viscose with tiny blue/orange/black flowers at £3.95 for 1m again for a top; turquoise butterfly cotton jersey (to make pjs) £1.50/m, I bought 3m and lastly my favourite: a soft, flowy navy mystery fabric with white/pink/orange flowers  destined for a maxi dress (and a bargain at £8 for 4m!).

They have all been washed and dried and ready to rock!

Fake dotty day dress

Do you remember in October 2012, I first started my sewing class and chose the Simplicity 2215 skirt as my first make? Well, guess what? I actually, finally finished it eight, yes eight, months later!!

 

My class is only once a fortnight (with breaks over Christmas, Easter etc) and with five or six other members and a very particular teacher, the going was ssssllllloooowwww....

But, I am learning loads of techniques and it's such a laugh.Gill, the teacher, who used to be wardrobe mistress for one of the Birmingham theatres back in the day, likes us to do things her way and so I haven't really worked on the skirt outside of the classes.  Instead, I've just got on and sewn whatever I've wanted to get my fixes!

The reason I call this the fake dotty day dress is that the first time I wore it, I paired it with my Sorbetto made of the same fabric and with a belt on, it does look like a dress. I wish I'd done something else with my hair that day, it looks awful in the photos above. But it was a work day after all so it was a case of shoving it up into a messy bun and just getting on...

It does look just as good with a different top

Oh, it is definitely polka dotty, the
previous photos are blurry! 

Um, I'm going to let you into a tiny secret. Even though I was really careful and thought I had paid attention in class, the waistband is about 3 inches too big! Don't think I'll be getting an A star for that, right? Whoops!!

Oh and one other little thing - my design came third in the sewcialist logo competition! The winner was Joost, with an ingenious design that can be personalised with different colours - I've already got mine up on my sidebar. Go and get yours!

A blouse for Popeye's girl

Towards the end of last year, I bought some organic cotton dyed naturally to an olive colour. Unfortunately it faded to a sand colour after washing (something I was warned about by the company at the time of purchase - they say it's "only  for the creative and adventurous soul"). I used most of the fabric for another (yet to be blogged about) project but still had over a metre left. What to do, what to do? I didn't want a sand anything really. So I dyed it olive with some Dylon...

I've been wanting to try my hand at a button back blouse for a while. I think they're cute. Plus, cotton will be great for my upcoming holiday in Kenya. Oh, did I mention I'm going on safari?!

I was planning to use the Sorbetto pattern but after looking at it again, I decided it was a bit too boxy so I turned to NL6808, partly inspired by Amy of Almond Rock who made a fabulous one with some bird fabric. I do admit to stalking her blog post for a while as I was so jealous...!

My Mini helper...

I made a couple of changes to the pattern. No collar for one and I extended the shoulders out to give an impression of cap sleeves rather than putting actual sleeve pieces in. Although they seem to have turned into short sleeves rather than cap ones!

To make the button placket, I extended the centre fold of the back pattern piece by about 3 or 4 inches and cut the entire back piece into two along this line. I then folded the edges over three times making sure the the width of the placket would be big enough for my buttons. I found a link to a great tutorial via Adrienne of stitchingontheedge who recently made a button back Scout tshirt.

Look how neat I got the placket!

Can someone tell me why one edge of the buttonhole has way fewer stitches by the way? I tried every single setting on my machine and I could not for the life of me get it to look any different!

Anyway, very pleased with the final result - it looks great with trousers or a skirt and will come in handy for my holiday... and I'm finally getting the hang of modifying patterns to make different garments!

M to the power of 4: Week 2

Me Made May Mondays weekly roundup

Day 7: Mustard skirt (NL 6843)
with sleeved Sorbetto

Day 8: Black cord skirt (NL 6843)
I look pissed off as I was on call

Day 10: Green Cambie

I had to get in a photo of the heeled Brogues that my sis gave me (they didn't fit her) - I am in love with them! You must excuse the Nora Batty look of wrinkled tights though, it's def not the look I was going for!!

Day 12: Lydia Tshirt

Mr Sabs and I dismantled a neighbour's greenhouse on Sunday which is going to my Dad. I dressed for the part in my trusty boilersuit!

Day 13: Robe Sureau

Turquoise Washi dress

I've had a bit of an emotional roller coaster with this one. I've been obsessed with the pattern since day one, after seeing Rae's original. I finally dropped enough hints for my brother in law to get it for my birthday and then found the perfect fabric for it. It's a mystery fabric from the very random International Stock in Kings Heath which sells all manner of everyday goods and chavvy clothes but they have odds and ends of fabric too. Most of the time it's too gaudy to even bother with but I saw this in turquoise and brown a few months ago at £1.50 a metre and snapped them both up. No idea what it is, it's really soft and drapey and must have polyester in it as it doesn't crunch or crease. It's gorgeous and I only wish I'd bought more!

The only thing was that the fabric was a bit too sheer to wear on its own and I didn't have quite enough to self line. Looking through my stash, I found some similar material in a bluey-grey colour that mum gave me a while ago. I didn't know how to line this dress though, as it has shirring in the back - do I shirr both layers separately, do I not shirr the lining at all? Rae has tutorials for a partial bodice lining but I knew I couldn't do that - you'd still be able to see the rest of me through the dress in direct light! I did a bit of research and came across Adrienne's lovely version. She underlined hers - what a genius idea! - so I emailed her for some tips and she was very obliging!

So, I traced and cut out the pattern pieces (size XS), then the fabric, paying no heed to anything much at all. I'd looked at loads of other Washis out in blogland and knew that some people had minor fitting issues. But for some reason, that went out of my head while I sewed.

Just like Adrienne, I sewed the bodice and lining together at the neckline, right sides together, then flipped the whole thing right side out. I tacked the two layers together and treated it as one. The dress was fairly easy to sew and came together quickly. Shirring is completely new to me and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. My test piece through both layers was perfect, but when I came to shirr the actual dress, the elastic and fabric kept getting stuck in the machine. No idea why. Luckily it didn't rip the fabric but it wasn't looking very gathered. I read somewhere that if you steam the shirring, it gathers up more - and it's true! Tip of the year if you are into shirred garments!

I wish I'd done French seams but I stupidly forgot about them so I've finished all my seams with bias binding, including the pocket bags and hem. The best thing by far about the Washi is the sleeves. Lovely little cap sleeves that look really cute with a great method of hiding the raw edges, again using bias binding.

Anyway, for some reason I didn't really try on the dress much during the construction. When I finally did, there was only one thing I could see: I looked preggers! Combination of empire line and pleats. Hmm, isn't that exactly the same problem I'd seen with loads of other Washis and ignored? Damn. I took the sides in as much as I could but still I looked a few months pregnant. Cue sad emails to Adrienne telling her I'd probably relegate the dress to the cupboard until such time as I needed maternity wear....

But on Bank Holiday Monday, it was a gorgeously hot, sunny day and Mr Sabs and I were off out to visit Baddesley Clinton garden. A turquoise dress with cap sleeves seemed to be the order of the day. With a better fitting bra, make up and actual shoes (not slippers inside the house), the Washi was transformed! No longer did it look like maternity wear (well, only from certain angles). Nope, that day it looked like a summer dress. Really comfy to wear, perfect for a day out to a garden and it shines in the sun!

I've had a bit of a love-hate-disappointment-love again relationship with this Washi. After all that, I've decided I do like it and I think I will make it again. But next time, I'll lengthen the bodice by a couple of inches so it sits on or just above my natural waistline and I'll make the skirt less full.

I have to say a huge fat (turquoise) Thank You! to Adrienne for all her encouragement and help along the way. Again, she's a shining example of how brilliant the online sewing community is and how much I love being part of it. Go and check out her blog stitching on the edge, it's fab!