Tag: PR Weekend

#SewingDares – Cardigan

On By Sharon12 Comments

It must be the weather, but when I read Gillian’s post  on #SewingDares – Its’ back! I thought why not and it might just be what I need to get my sewing mojo back.

I did wonder what Gillian would come up with for me and I must say I was very happy with the dare that Gillian has given me:

You mentioned needing more layering pieces in your wardrobe, so I dare you to sew a drapey cardigan and/or long-sleeved tee!

The best part of the dare is that there is no time frame but I did want some winter layers/tops so that did make me focus on it a lot quicker.

I do have a drapey cardigan that I sewed back in January and at this stage I don’t need another one, but after seeing all the long cardigans about this year, I thought this would be an excellent alternative.
 
I purchased this fabric back in 2004 at Martin and Savage Textiles during an ASG Industry Day and it has been quietly maturing in my stash.

What I wanted was:

  • Cardigan to be open e.g. no closures
  • Length to fingertips

I then figured out that my TNT t-shirt pattern KS 3740 would be perfect with some length added.

Pattern changes:

  • added 18cm in length
  • full bicep adjustment on sleeves of 1.5cm (eventually)
The rib in this fabric is quite distinctive so I cut it in single layers to make sure they were straight.

I did wonder how I was going to finish the edges as I didn’t want a band as the fabric was too thick for that option.

This fabric looks brown, but when I auditioned various bias tapes, it looked a lot happier with olive.
Now this cardigan was started back in May and was up to the binding, but the sleeves were too tight, as I hadn’t done the Full Bicep Adjustment then 😦 and they were 4 thread overlocked in place, and it has been sitting in the too hard corner since then.
Thankfully I had enough fabric to re-cut the sleeves so that was a relief.
Then last weekend a group of us from Pattern Review got together in Brisbane for a weekend of sewing and this cardigan was one of the items I worked on.
Luckily for me, my sister has much better eyesight and very generously unpicked the 4 thread overlock so I could add my new sleeves.
Then I started to scratch my head about the bindings when Skye, who was sitting next to me, suggested I just turn the edges under and Coverstitch!  Why do I over think things!  
To finish the edges for the Coverstitch I added some interfacing:

  • Neck edge – Formband  colour charcoal
  • Front edges – Edge Tape colour charcoal which I cut into 1cm strips.

I am very happy with the result as this cardigan tends to float about as I walk and the bound edge would have been a lot more noticeable.

I did add some bias for the sleeve hems.

Here is how I wore it to work last Friday.

I think it will be a great layering piece until the weather warms up.

******************
2016 Stash Out: 10.2 m
2016 Stash In: 18 m

Pattern Review Weekend in Sydney

On By Sharon2 Comments

The SSS Wrap-up was delayed as I was finalising the organisation of the Pattern Review Weekend here in Sydney which has just finished and what a weekend we have just had.

It all started at 9am on Friday morning with 26 of us boarding the coach for the all important fabric shopping tour and Gay and Lena have posted some great photos and information about the shops we visited and here is most of the group at the end of the day.

Saturday morning was a Knits: stretch and shrinkage factors workshop with Lena and a Come Alive with Colour workshop with Wendy, with others sewing or taking measurements for others. In the afternoon Wendy took the measurements for the Simply Stylish: Your Ideal Silhouette workshop which continued on Sunday morning, while others headed back to The Fabric Store or Tessuti after having had their colours done.

On Saturday night we went out to dinner at The Clove and had a very enjoyable Indian Banquet and then seeing it is PatternReview.com’s 10th Anniversary this year, I organised this very tasty Bon Vivant from Cuisine Patisserie and topped it with an edible image from Custom Icing for dessert.

Sunday saw half of the group complete their workshop with Wendy, while some sewed and others took turns in wrapping each other in glad wrap – Saran wrap pattern making method.

Here I am wrapped and MelJ is marking in my waist line, before packing tape is taped on top the the glad wrap on centre front, centre back, shoulders, waist and neckline.

before it is cut off along the centre front and centre back lines,

I had to do some further cutting to get it home, and I will share this later.

It was a really fun weekend, and getting to meet the girls from the Sewing Down Under board on PatternReview.com was just wonderful.

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.