How to spend a Saturday

On By Sharon4 Comments

One of the reasons I purchased the Janome CP 1000 was to help me get a more professional hem on my purchased t-shirts when I shortened them as they are always too long.

As the Sydney weather has suddenly taken a quick trip south in temperature, I need tops desparately so the other Saturday instead of going to one of the two ASG Groups I go to I bit the bullet and got stuck into this job.

It took me most of the day because I probably do it a lot more labour intensive than it needs to be, however this system worked for me.

  • First of all I tried on all the tops and pinned the hem where I wanted it to be.
  • Measured the turned up amount, deducted 2cm from this and cut the remaining hem off.
  • Pressed up the 2cm hem.
  • Glued the hem in place.
  • Wound the 3 bobbins to use in the Bob N’ Serge and threaded the machine.
  • Stitched the hems.
  • Finished.

    • I now have 7 t-shirts that are the correct length.

    The amount I shortened these t-shirts varied by brand ranging from 5cm to 8cm and that is not including the hem amount.

    I have also made a note in my notebook of how much to wind on the bobbins for each hem as I’m sure this will be a job I have to do again.

    Cardi for me

    On By Sharon9 Comments

    After making Mum’s cardi and top, I decided I had better get my act together and make mine.

    I had some brown Mercury Jersey from Lincraft that was waiting for its turn, so the other week, after reading a couple of reviews on PR (got to love that place if you want to save yourself some frustration) I started on this project.

    I didn’t do any adjustments to the Cardi pattern and only did some of my normal adjustments to the top e.g.:

    High Round back and Sway Back.

    Then I did the front neck gaposis and also continued this through the front neck facing.

    • I read yorkshire lass’s review and she did her “layout of the fronts single layer as directed but chalked the position of the first one onto the fabric then fit the other one around the chalked line. This way I got the two fronts way closer together than the layout suggests is possible”. This worked well for me as well and it made it a lot easier to cut out the front pieces as well.
    • I read some of the others reviews and decided to follow their leads and not sew the elastic in the back neck area. Instead, I gathered this area down to 5”. Then I sewed the back collar facing to the neck seam so the facing would stay down on the inside. This created a very stable collar so I don’t need to fuss when I put it on and it stays in place.
    • I deepened the armholes for both the Cardi and Top by 2cm (7/8″) and the sleeves fitted in nicely.
    • I made View D of the Cardi Wrap so I can’t do any of the wraps. I am wondering if I should shorten the cardi as I shortened the top by 5cm (2″).

    So here is the top with my skirt from the Mini Wardrobe

    and now with the cardi

    Another one of the challenges for the 2010 SWAP at Stitcher’s Guild was that a garment will feature embroidery, beads or sashiko.

    This is not something I have tried before and looking at the RTW it is everywhere.

    Now Alison, one of my sewing buddies has the Professional Touch Applicator Wand and has just used it to add the bling to her daugters dress and shoes.

    Well Alison has kindly offered to let me test drive before I purcahse this Wand and to help me along further Alison also kindly purchased for me at the Craft Expo in March two packs of Nail Heads. Here is what I came up with yesterday playing with the nailheads and I think I will do this when I catch up with Alison again and when I figure out how to mark the pattern on the neckband so it looks correctly spaced.

    Oh I forgot to tell you that I have had some labels made to put into my garments. It is supposed to encourage me to finish my garments in a more professional way, unfortunately I can’t find a brown sharpie to hide the fact that I used cream overlocking thread LOL.

    Mini Wardrobe completed!!

    On By Sharon15 Comments

    The last two items were:

    Jalie Scarf-Collar top which I told you about in the last post. I made it up in a knit purchased from The Fabric Store at Surry Hills last year. This is a great top and the instructions are so good.

    The jeans didn’t happen because I didn’t think I would have enough time to fit a new pattern as well. So my trusty pants pattern, Vogue 9537 was put into action and were made up in a cotton drill called String from Spotlight.

    The Pattern Reivews for both of these items are under “My Reviews” on the sidebar.

    My wonderful Easter break

    On By Sharon10 Comments

    Wow, 2 posts in one week, so here goes.

    This year for once we didn’t go away and DH had to work for two days as well, so I took advantage of 4 days of sewing, yippee.

    Now over on Pattern Review they are currently holding a Mini Wardrobe Competition and one of my goals this year was to complete at least 1 competition, so I am going to give it a go. Needless to say this has been going since 16 March and finishes on 15 April, however after last weekend I am halfway there so fingers crossed.

    This contest is to complete a 4-piece wardrobe in 4 weeks.

    There are quite a few combinations for this and I first of all started to think along the lines of a dress, jacket, top and skirt.

    I started with Simplicity 3775 which I had already traced off a size 4 at the shoulders and graded out to a 6 from the under arms and had done the following adjustments:

    • Round shoulder
    • Neck Gaposis
    • High round back
    • Sway back

    when I cut the rather wild knit fabric out on Friday morning the pieces looked rather small so I used my Croverpro to Chainstitch the bodice together and I am so glad I did as it was a bit too tight with the 1.5cm seam allowances.

    I ended up using 6mm seam allowances on the entire dress and this moved the front bands closer to the centre and the rest worked out perfectly.

    Then I was thinking of using the Simplicity Cardi as the Jacket but after discussing this with Alison I decided this wouldn’t work with the dress. So back to 2 tops and 2 bottoms.

    On Saturday, Alison and I headed off to the ASG group at Alexandria and I cut out BWOF 04-2009-101 Skirt in a salt and pepper mini corduroy fabric that I purchased at an Industry Day at Martin & Savage quite a few years ago. The smallest size for this skirt is a 36 and I am a 34, however I didn’t grade it down (still have to learn to do this) but thought with all the seams it should be okay. The only adjustment I did to start with was a swayback adjustment of 1.5cm.

    Once I stitched the front yokes using Deb Thompson’s great tutorial I basted the remaining seams together then had some great help from Alison in fitting this. Essentially I made the side seams and back panel seams 2cm and left the front ones alone.

    Sunday started with adding the side and back yokes to the skirt and getting it ready for DH to level the hem that night.

    I then cut out BWOF 02-2009-108 in the cream Mercury Jersey that DM and I purchased from Lincraft back in February.

    I had already traced this pattern out and had done the following adjustments:

    • Added 1cm to the neck edge
    • Round shoulder 1.5cm
    • High round back 1cm
    • Gaposis on front 1cm
    • Reduced the sleeve cap by 2cm and redraw sleeve cap
    • Sway back adjustment of 1.5cm

    This went together really well finishing it on Monday.

    Here are both pieces being worn to work today.

    I have now traced off the Jalie Scraf-Collar Top and have started to trace off BWOF 04-2010-120 Jeans. I’m not sure about the Jeans as I haven’t made Burda pants/trousers before, so I may end up making a pair of casual pants instead, need to think about this one a bit more as the time frame will be a major consideration if I want to complete this competition.

    March Wrap-Up

    On By Sharon12 Comments

    This is a bit late as last weekend was a major sewing weekend and I will share more about this in my next post.

    Now March didn’t see any new garments started, but it did see 4 garments finished and here they are.

    First up is the brown linen straight skirt that was for the 2009 Swap that still needed hemming in January of this year.

    Yes, I am wearing the same top and accessories with it as this one


    As you can see, my wardrobe is rather limited.

    Second on the list is the brown/coffee/coral linen that I showed you here. I used the same self drafted straight skirt pattern that I did for the brown linen above.

    One of the challenges for the 2010 SWAP at Stitcher’s Guild was a matched print and I had never done one before. So I decided to challenge myself and match the centre back seam and using Nancy’s great tutorial I am really pleased how it has turned out, what do you think?

    Now this skirt didn’t progress much until I attended one of my ASG groups in February and I only managed to get it hemmed when I visited DM in March.


    Back

    You will have to wait for another day to find out about the top I am wearing LOL.

    The Third garment is the Top to go with the Simplicity Cardi that I made for my DM. I took this to her home the last weekend in March with my Coverpro to finish the hems and here is the final set.

    and drum roll please for the Fourth garment……. the LBD is now finished.

    Back view

    The sleeves didn’t work, it appears that the wool that I used is a gabardine weave and has no give in it whatsoever and with the sleeves being very tight I had to change direction and make it sleeveless.

    The other thing I noticed when trying it on is that it seemed to be very close at the correct length already. Luckily when DH levelled the hem for me I had a scant 1.5cm hem to turn up so I purchased some 2cm bias tape to add to this and here you can see:

    • A strip of fusable interfacing fused from the hem fold with a pinked edged 1.5cm wider than the finished hem width. This make your hem a bit firmer and you can then stitch your hem in the safe knowledge that NONE of your stitches will show on the right side of your garment.
    • Finished hem

    • Mitred corner for the split

    • Hong Kong finish on the other side of the split

    • Lace attached to the lining

    • A Diamond stitched to the top of the split to help stabilise this spot.


    I also want to make a belt to go with this, if I can find abelt kit in one of the fabric stores.

    Here are the pattern adjustments that I made if you want to check them out.

    I’m still working on how to get better colours in my photos as the colour of the final dress IS the correct colour, however the lining and the diamond stitching close up shot is not.

    Lucily I have this fabric to make a Chanel Jacket with my ASG group in May.

    Sunshine Award

    On By SharonLeave a comment

    Thank you Gwen for your wonderful comments about my garments and for my first award.

    Here are the rules:

    1. Put the logo on your blog.
    2. Pass on the award to 12 bloggers and provide a link.
    3. Let them know they received the award by leaving a comment on their blog.
    4. Link to the person who gave you the award.

    I started my blog after reading so many other wonderful blogs and to pick just 12 of those who inspire me and bring a smile to my face because they have posted a new project or comment is unfair and too difficult.

    You can see them all on the sidebar under “My Sewing Inspiration …….”

    Umm more fabric

    On By Sharon8 Comments

    I receive emails from Gorgeous Fabrics about their sales and there have been a couple of pieces of fabric that I have had my eye on. So when Ann announced her 24% off birthday sale, these two pieces migrated from My Wish List to the Shopping Bag!!

    The first piece is “grrr baby! lining” and it will be used for a jacket at some point, just haven’t picked the pattern yet.

    The second piece is “designer raincoating – chocolate brown”. Now I haven’t been able to find any sort of raincoating here in Australia and have been wanting to make a new trench coat (my current trench was purchased in Melbourne in 1985, it is a cream colour and still going strong but hey isn’t this what sewers do LOL).

    I would really like to have this ready for the trip to Puyallup next year where Velosewer, Alison and I are planning to attend the Sewing & Stitchery Expo as reading the attendees comments on PR it can be wet.

    I received Threads May 2010 Number 148 the other week and it has a wonderful article titled “Sew Fashionable Rainwear” which I am keeping my fingers crossed will assist me in making a “chic and functional wet-weather” trench coat.

    Pattern Review get together…

    On By Sharon7 Comments

    Last weekend Jenny and I attended the get together for the Australian girls on Pattern Review in Melbourne and stayed at the new Travelodge.

    Mel did a fantastic job of organising the 3 days for us.

    It started with fabric shopping on the Friday which was co-ordinated with precise timing by Dorothyn with G_l_e_n_d_a’s assistance making the necessary telephone calls. We visited 12 fabric stores, NSW Leather and Jimmy’s Buttons, so by the time we got back to the Travelodge we were exhausted. I didn’t get to NSW Leather, this is now on my must visit list here in Sydney, as this was the same stop as Jimmy’s Buttons. This place is an Aladdin’s cave, with trim from floor to ceiling on the four walls and two rows in the centre of the shop, it was awesome.

    I was rather restrained with my fabric shopping, purchasing only 4 pieces:

    From the left is a Wool Blend Knit in a Teal colour, next a mixture of browns in this knit and the last blue is also a Wool Blend Knit in a lighter shade of steel blue. These 3 are from an unnameable Brunswick distributor (you will have to come on the next Melbourne PR weekend to find this secret out).

    The cream piece 3rd from the left is a remnant of Silk Habutai from Tessuti that I just had to have.

    On Saturday a number of us headed over to Nicole Mallalieu’s studio to do a workshop on straps and D rings. Most of were not sure how this would take all morning, however with Nicole’s directions and then practice we realised that such simple things make the difference between a homemade sack and a handmade bag! (Dorothyn I couldn’t say it better.) I came home with the Small Tote pattern and Purse Kit to get me started.

    On Saturday afternoon there was a skirt drafting & creating variations session with Anne one of the PR members. I didn’t do this workshop, instead I finally got to see an industrial binder working on a Coverpro machine, thankyou misschris.

    Saturday night was a very enjoyable dinner out with the group and Maree Pidgon and her daughter Jacqueline.

    Maree ran a workshop for us on Sunday morning on creating a designer t-shirt. This was a very inspiring and informative workshop and I am looking forward to seeing what the other PR ladies produce as there were so many ideas floating around. Also I am kicking myself for not buying that trim at Jimmy’s Buttons that I kept playing with. I think I need to make a phone call.

    Sunday afternoon was spent saying goodbye to everyone and Jenny and I headed back to Sydney thoroughly exhausted but so glad that we had attended.

    If you want to see more of what we got up to, go to the first link at the top of this post.

    I’ve been a bit naughty lately …

    On By Sharon7 Comments

    It first started with Pattern Review having a 20% off pattern sale for their members and seeing I had been very tempted by a few Jalie patterns I just couldn’t resist.

    2921 Scarf Collar Top and 2919 Pleated Cardigan and Vest


    as well as 965 T-Shirt and Camisoles and 2216 Cycling Jersey for Mark.

    I am also toying with the idea of buying fabric online, especially when the dollar is good (maybe not right now though) and have noticed that some of the fabric stores put the Pantone numbers that are similar to the colour of the fabric on their site. You guessed it, after following a link on someones blog I found Fire Mountain Gem and Beads for the Pantone Shopping/Color Guide which has 1,757 colors to choose from. Unfortunately I have since heard that Pantone are not making this any more and I can’t find it on the Fire Mountain website either.

    Then I have been admiring SewingYLD Marfy garments and this is what landed in my post box

    Their 2010/2011 Catalogue which includes 10 free patterns.

    I need to learn how to grade down 1 or 2 sizes for all of these patterns, but I really love the style of all of the garments. Now which one do I start with?