Tag: WiaW

Not quite finished

On By Sharon1 Comment

With all the good intentions, my plans didn’t work out for WiaW.

DH came home with a cold last week and by Friday I was thanking my lucky stars that I had’t managed to get it, unfortunately I came down with the sore throat and stuffy head that night.

I had managed to sew the Black and Burgundy Wool pants during the week after some major frog stitching and letting the seams out, and these are up to the hemming stage for both the pants and their linings.

The Mauve cross over top was next on the list. This is the first time I have sewn mesh and I have learnt a few things maybe about this mesh in particular e.g. when I sewed the Seams Great around the neckline I usually pull this reasonably tight to prevent gaposis, however after I had coverstitched the tape under, the side seams didn’t line up, so frog stitching again, the coverstitch is quick to unpick once you find the looper thread but the zig zag I used for the Seams Great took forever. Second attempt was much more successful until this afternoon.

I have learnt a very large lesson – do not to touch the overlocker when I’m not feeling 100%.

When I first did the coverstitch hem on the neckline of the cross over top it just wasn’t working so I logged onto Pattern Review – Sergers, Coverstitch and Blindhemmers Message Boards and I found under Vonnevo’s Tips to use the Bostik BluStik to glue down the hems and once dry this gives the mesh enough body for the coverstitch and it washes out in the wash. It worked brilliantly.

The plan is to finish the pants and make up the mauve cowl neck top and take my mesh top to the next ASG day to see if any of the ladies there can show me a creative way to fix this.

Giraffe Toile

On By Sharon4 Comments

I thought I had better toile the cowl neck pattern that I drafted this week to make sure it works before I cut out the mauve merino wool. The base pattern is V8151 and I have used the tutorial by Pamela Kerr in the Australian Stitches Magazine Vol 14, No.3 page 30 to draft the pattern changes and construct the cowl pattern.

This has been a quick put together and the hems still need to be done, but I am quite happy with the cowl drape and look of the pattern and will finish it.

This is a knit fabric that velowsewer gave me a little while back and it has an elongation ease of 80% (using Christine Jonson’s “Perfect Sewing” Worksheet) and the Merino Wool has 100% elongation so I may need to reduce the length of the cowl.

Friday is nearly here, but I will have to wait until I get home from work to start sewing.

(Sorry about the grainy photo, not sure what I did wrong)

WiaW – Prep Week

On By Sharon2 Comments

I’m almost ready!

I’ve cut out the black and burgundy wool pants and their lining and have pinned the darts and inner leg seams for the first sit down at the machine, also the bobbins have been wound for both and all the pieces are together in their zip lock bags with the invisible zips and threads.

The Burgundy Abstract Mesh Print Cross-over top is cut out after much fiddling to make sure there would be no bull-eye’s present once finished.

Trying to follow instructions on how to adjust your knit t-shirt pattern to create a cowl collar is not the easiest thing to do at night after work, but at last I got the pattern finished last night and might try and sew up a quick toile tonight before I cut into the Mauve Merino Wool.

Wardrobe In A Week

On By Sharon1 Comment

Over on Stitchers Guild they are holding a second Wardrobe in a Week (“WiaW”) contest and I had decided to join up just before we went on holidays.

WiaW’s idea is to create 4 pieces that match any combination of the 4 e.g. three tops and one bottom, or three bottoms and a purse – all that matters is out of the four things if you wore two of them on the same day together you would not look out of place.

It is actually over two weeks, you have a Prep Week and A Sewing Week as follows:

Prep week: Friday August 14th from 7:00 am wherever you are to Thursday August 20th 11:00 p.m.- Cut, mark and interface, first pin, any of your garment fabrics, wind bobbins – any activity that in fact does not involve actual needle piercing fabric sewing.

Sewing week: Friday 7:00 a.m. August 21st wherever you are and ending 11:00 p.m. (really we shouldn’t be sewing till midnight) August 30, which is a Sunday.

No rules on pictures or posting, but if you can put up pictures on Stitchers Guild WiaW site that would be good because everyone wants to see what you are making.

The prize is that if you complete four compatible pieces by the deadline you get to go out and buy for yourself a yard (or meter) of fabric you really want – one for each garment completed, so that means that every finisher wins four meters (or yards) of fabric that they really love. If anyone in the family asks why you are buying more fabric you can quite truthfully say that it is because you have won a contest. Personally I think this clause is bullet proof.”

These are my fabrics:

As I am desparate for pants in the cold office I work in, I have decided to make 2 pairs of pants and two tops as follows:

Vogue 9537 is my TNT Pant pattern and I am going to make up the black and burgundy wool in the first pair on the left on the pattern envelope, and will fully line both pairs.

Butterick 3344 is my TNT Cross Over top pattern which I have made here. I will be using the Abstraction Print Mesh Burgundy that I purchased from KnitWit last week.

Vogue 8151 – view B, round neck and make it up in the Mauve Merino Wool. This is the pattern I used for this top and I am tempted to add a cowl neckline as described in a few tutorials in the Australian Stitches Magazines (yeah I can search for key words in the excel indexes I have crearted and can find them so easily!!).

Today I purcahsed the lining, zips and threads and DH goes to Thredbo for 9 days tomorrow night so I can set myself up in the lounge/dining room and have fun Character Smileys