2 dresses

I've made a couple of dresses using the free pattern for a wrap dress at So Sew Easy.  The first I made as a maxi version.  I've never owned a maxi dress but have recently thought it would be nice for around the house.  The fabric was an ITY jersey from the special table at Spotlight and was just $12 for 2m at 148cm wide.  I needed all the fabric for this dress.

 

 

The second one I made was from the wrap dress version, but I still lengthened it so it is below the knee.  I loved this fabric from Morelands Fabrics so paid a bit more than I usually pay. This was $32 for 1.8m at 150cm wide.  This fabric was slightly heavier and I found that the neck was gaping too much, not sure if the extra weight is pulling it down. To get around the gaping I had to top stitch across the front bodice where the pieces overlap. 

 

Another page finish on Spirit of Winter.

 

 

New Sorbetto top and WIP's

I made a pair of trousers from some blue chambray using Simplicity 1699.  I don't have a photo of those yet, so will post separately when I get around to that.  I had enough fabric left over to make another Collette Sorbetto top.   I added red bias binding to the central pleat and around the neck to make it more interesting.   I toyed with the idea of using mismatched red buttons down the centre pleat, however I decided less is more, and just used one button at the top, again for a bit of added detail.   This time I lengthened both the top and the sleeves.

As always I have a few WIP's on the go.  This is from an adult colouring book, Enchanted Garden.  I haven't joined in the current craze for adult colouring, not really my thing.  However some of the designs would look really good done in embroidery.   I first made some copies of the page I wanted to embroider so I had copies I could colour in and one to trace the design onto fabric.  Once I was happy with the colour scheme I found threads from my stash that matched.  This is the embroidery progress so far on the owl I am doing.  Stitches used are detached chain, rope stitch, feather stitch, fly stitch, satin stitch, fishbone stitch, french knots and buttonhole stitch.

 I am also doing a Hardanger.  It is on a purple fabric with white thread.  In hindsight I wish I'd used a white fabric, but with so many hours invested already I don't want to stop and change now. This is using an old Burda pattern. I want this to go on top of a scotch dresser in my bedroom so needed to change it somewhat so the dimensions are the correct size for the dresser.

left-over makes

This week I've made 4 tops out of left over fabric.  It feels good to make something that essentially hasn't cost anything as it was just scraps.

The first make was a Kirsten Kimono Tshirt.  This is a free pattern offered by designer Maria Denmark.  The very first garment I sewed was a pink t shirt.  I had also done some leggings in an eggplant colour.  There wasn't enough of either to do a full t shirt so I combined both.  There also wasn't enough to cut on the fold, so hence the centre seam line.

The next was another Kirsten Kimono T made from left over fabric from that first pink tshirt and another pink fabric from a tunic.

The next two tops were made from a free pattern offered by Colette Patterns, the Sorbetto top.

The first was made from left over fabric from the purple polka dot dress.  I added sleeves from the pattern provided by The Seasoned Homemaker.  I love the centre pleat down the front of this top, it turns it from a plain top into something with a bit of style.

My mother had given me some old headsquares and silk scarves for using in my crazy quilting.  Among them was a huge square headscarf with a fringed border and around each edge a flower pattern and in the centre a paisley-esque design.  I thought it would be great if I could somehow turn it into a top and the Sorbetto pattern seemed ideal.  There wasn't enough to add sleeves, and again not enough to cut on the fold.  I managed to piece it together so that the pattern 'flowed' and I am pretty pleased with how this turned out.  The central pleat requires the bottom of the pleat to be stitched, but as I intended to use the fringe from the headscarf, rather than hemming, I though the pleat would look odd stitched at the bottom, so instead I inverted the pleat, stitching partway down and leaving the bottom free flowing which gives a bit of a swing to the top.

Front view:

Back view:

Simplicity 1699 and Spirit of Winter

Over the last couple of weeks I've managed another couple of finishes.
As I'm trying to stretch myself and learn new techniques, the first was a dress from Simplicity 1699.  The new techniques were princess seams and inserting a zipper.  While I've inserted zippers into bags and purses, I've not done it in dressmaking.

 The photo makes the fabric appear blue, its not. Actually it is purple.

 In the photo it appears the fabric is blue, its actually purple.  The fabric was on special at Spotlight and is a double crepe.  The cost of fabric was $17.50 and I have enough left over to make a top.  I'm thinking of making the Colette Sorbetto which is a free design.

I will make this dress again.  Next time I will lengthen it as its a bit on the short side for me and I'll use something with a slight stretch in it like a cotton sateen.

My next task was to make something with a lining.  Again using Simplicity 1699 I made the jacket.

This is a pale purple linen and is a good match for my polka dot dress.  The fabric was from Centrepoint and cost just $7.

In an online class at Craftsy the tutor said to interface linen to stop it creasing.  Thinking that was a good idea, I cut out the pieces and then fused interfacing to it.  Disaster!  When fusing the interfacing, even though I pressed rather than ironed, it distorted the fabric.  The two front pieces in particular were baaaad.  When I put the pattern against them, in some places it was off by as much as 2 inches.  The back wasn't too bad, and the sleeves were a bit distorted but again not too bad.  Fortunately I had just enough fabric left over to re cut the front pieces.  This time I fused the interfacing before cutting out the pattern.  However I did notice that the grainline was altered significantly.  While it looks reasonable, the proof will be when I come to wear it.  As the grainline was off so much on the front and sleeves the jacket may end up twisting when I wear it.

Apart from the interfacing disaster, it sewed up very quickly and the lining was very easy to do.

I'll definitely do this jacket again, but probably not in a linen.  Or if I use linen, I won't interface it.

I finished page 20 of Spirit of Winter by Heaven and Earth designs

I can see the end in sight now as I'm about to start the last row.  After 5 years on her, only around another 6 months to go.

Another tunic Simplicity 2054

I finished another tunic.  I made it to wear over leggings, but it is long enough to be worn as a dress on its own.  However the colour is a bit brighter than I realised, a bit too bright for me.

This is Simplicity 2054.  Fabric is a ITY jersey from Centrepoint and cost $17.

I made a mistake with the neckline.  I sewed the facing on inside out so the raw edges were on the outside.  As this is a knit fabric and I used a stretch stitch it was going to be just about impossible to unpick it.  I decided to hide the raw edge by covering it with lace.  I first trimmed the raw edge  as close as possible to the stitching and then attached the lace.  I was lucky that I had some lace in my stash that was the exact colour of the dress.

 I'm pleased with how that mistake turned out.  It looks as though it was meant to be and even adds interest to another wise plain garment.

New shirt and Spirit of Winter update

I finished another shirt.   Last year I bought a solid red fabric and a small red check fabric. I combined these on the new shirt.  This is another of the New Look 6963.

Its been a long time since I finished a page on Spirit of Winter.  Finally page 19 is complete.

This weeks (week 8) TAST stitch was chain stitch.  These were my examples of its use.

First is part of a combination seam on a crazy quilt block.

 And used as a filling stitch in a goldwork piece.

This week I'm aiming to make another tunic to wear with leggings.

TAST stitches and shirt finish

There have been another couple of TAST weeks.  Week 6 was Chevron stitch:

Week 7 was Detached chain:

I've completed my first shirt.  This is the first time I've made buttonholes.  It was a bit nerve wracking putting the buttonholes in.  At that stage all the shirt was made up, so if I'd messed up the buttonholes it would all have been wasted.  Fortunately they worked out really well.  This was a New Look pattern 6963 and labelled Easy.  However I found some of the instructions really difficult to understand and they really weren't in-depth enough.  As a result I spent a long time on Youtube looking at how to videos.  Of all things, the pocket instructions I couldn't follow.  I thought patch pockets would be easy, however it turns out to be a type of fabric origami.  Easy enough once you know how, but the instructions on the pattern weren't nearly good enough.  The turn up sleeves also defeated me and I ended up doing my own thing with them.  The pattern calls for a 2 1/4" hem and have a tab looping around to appear to hold up the sleeve.  However if I'd used a 2 1/4" hem there would have been a huge amount of surplus fabric hanging down from the tab.  In the end I folded 2 1/4", and folded again.  I then sewed close the folded edge.  I then turned this to the right side of the sleeve and stitched at the bottom of the sleeve so it appears like edge stitching at both the top and bottom of the cuff.  This fits perfectly in the tab and is the perfect length.  With the two double folds this ends up as a  6 3/4" hem.

I'm very pleased with how this has turned out.  It's a smart casual shirt.

I'm going to make another of these shirts.  I have some red checked fabric and solid red fabric so I'll use a mix of these using the checked fabric for the body of the shirt and the solid red for collar, sleeves and pockets.

I'm going to add some more tabs to this blog showing only photographs of finishes as a quick reference.