New Look shirt and Burdastyle top

I've made yet another shirt using New Look 6963.  This time I went with the short version with short sleeves.

 This was made from cotton poplin from Spotlight.  I had a 2.5 metre x 112cm length that cost $17.48.

I also made a pleated blouse from BurdaStyle magazine 10/2015 #115A.

I struggled with the top part and couldn't understand the Burda instructions:" turn facing to inside and pull the front pleat section to outside. Baste loose neck edge of facing to facing fold line.  Lay pleat over facing edge, to inside, and sew to inside facing edge. Sew inside facing edge to seams."

I tried it out on scraps of fabric first, but each time I did what I thought the instructions were I ended up with a raw edge of fabric poking out from the seam.  In the end I did a usual facing finish. That also wasn't successful, as the instructions were to just baste both of the side pleats and when I was sewing the facing the basting on one of the pleats came undone.  I tried to refold it as I was sewing on the facing.  When I finished the facing and understitched it I found I'd folded the pleat the wrong way.  I decided I really couldn't live with it the wrong way and so had to unpick the facing and understitiching to refold it correctly.  

Next problem:  I was concerned the weight of the pleats would pull the facing through to the front, so I thought I would top stitch the neck.   Big mistake, when I had top stitched it  I hated the look of it, but unpicking it wasn't really an option as there would likely be visible holes from the needle.  So I ended up making some bias binding from left over fabric and putting that on.  For anyone looking at making it and worried about the weight of the pleats, I recommend just hand stitching the facing on the back at strategic points, I ended up doing this as well.

I wanted something a bit different and like the 'handkerchief' pieces at the side.  Though a bit worried about it being at the hips, emphasising the broadest part of my body, However if I wear with slim trousers it will look OK.  I also managed to make a mistake on these, my mistake entirely as I didn't read the instructions properly.  It said to hem the narrow ends and one long end.  I read it as one narrow end and one long end and so attached the unhemmed narrow end to the side seam of the top,  it should have been the unhemmed long end attached to the tops side seam, after folding the rectange in half, as per the tech drawing. Rather than unpicking it all I just folded in half, stitched a narrow end to the seam allowance and then stitched across the top.  A bit of a fudge, but only another sewer will notice and then they'll have to look closely.

This was made from faille from Spotlight I had 1.5m @ 148cm and cost $11.69.

Like my photo collages?  I just found this free software at Fotor.  So easy to use, expect to see more collages in future posts.

New Look 6963 Gingham Shirt

My favourite shirt pattern is New Look 6963.  I've made  3 long shirts with sleeves.  I wanted to make a sleeveless version and a shorter length with some red gingham for a nice cool summer shirt.  The gingham was from Spotlight and was $16 for 1.8m x 112cm.  I have a bit of fabric left over.   This was made using view A for the sleeveless version, but C for the length.  You can just see a glimpse here that the armholes are faced with red bias binding.

 

For the first time I tried pattern matching.  It worked!  Side seams, stripes continue across body

 

The top yoke is nearly invisible as the stripes running down match

 

Even the collar and yoke match.

 

I love this and with temperatures in the mid-20's I'll be wearing this a lot over summer.

 

 

 

 

 

2 more finishes and my Christmas present

I've been hankering after an overlocker for a few months. After doing a lot of online research, plus seeing what is available in NZ I had decided on a Brother 3034D.  My mother had very generously offered to buy me one for Christmas.  Last week I saw Spotlight had a special on the very model I wanted, plus Brother was offering a $50 cashback for November.  Too good to resist.   I dashed out to Spotlight and grabbed one.  A total of nearly $200 off the normal price.  Being worse than a child waiting for Santa, my Mum said I could have it straight away.

 

I spent 2 days just playing with it, practicing stitches and making a workbook with examples of different seams, flatlock, piping etc.  I was then ready to take that big step - actually using it on a garment and hoping I wouldn't cut in the wrong place.

 

Here is my wonderful overlocker

 

 

The shirt was another made with New Look 6963.  The seams were done as usual on the sewing machine, then finished on the overlocker.  The fabric was from Spotlight and the tag described it as a lightweight denim floral.  It is a very soft material.  I bought 1.8metres at 145cm wide for $27 and the pattern used most of the fabric.

 

 

 

The other garment I made this week was another knit dress.  This one was a mash up between the Maria Denmark pattern the Kirsten Kimono T on top, and the skirt from the SoSew Easy Wrap dress.  I altered the T pattern to shorten it and to fit the waist of the skirt.  For the skirt I widened it a bit to give it a bit of flare.The other 2 wrap dresses I made I added elastic at the waist and was going to do it on this dress.  However when I tried it on, it really didn't need it.    I'm quite pleased with the result.  

 

Fabric was another Spotlight, a lightweight ITY, in blue polka dot and I bought 2 metres at 148cm wide for $14.  I have quite a bit left over, easily another 65cm.  I have my eye on another SoSewEasy skirt patterns, for that leftover material.





 

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.