Tuesday, April 30, 2013

SWAP is completed!!

Yes I know on Sunday I said I still had 3 pieces to make, welllll
  • I only had to finish the hand stitching on this sequin top for my Evening collection (9th piece) and that has been done.
  • I had already decided to bring in a previously sewn garment as per the rules, this black wool skirt  for my Evening collection (10th piece).
  • then the only piece left was the all important cross-over piece, the Trench.

    After a semi frustrating day sewing the Trench at my Guild meeting last Saturday where I did more unpicking than sewing, I sat down on Sunday night and listed what was left to do on the Trench. 

    There are still 18 steps left to do and one of these is working out how am I going to install a metal zip into the curved collar for the hood.

    I really want to finish this Trench with care and attention to detail and I realised I was not doing this by trying to finish it for SWAP.
  • Therefore I needed a new cross-over piece, so I have gone to the other extreme in difficulty and made another version of Simplicity 2603 the waterfall cardigan as my previous version needs to be retired.
I will be back shortly with more details for the sequin top and the cardi wrap, but thought I'd leave you with this:

Sorry, got to investigate that noise!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Brown Jeans

This is the same brown denim that I used for the Rachel Comey Skirt and I have used Jalie 2908 my jeans pattern that I am very pleased with the fit.


This time the only change I made was to reduce the size of the back pockets by 1cm all the way around.

The back pocket design is the same one as I used on my blue denim jeans for last year's SWAP but this time I used Gutterman 697 Upholstery Thread and Stitch 47 in Mode 2 on my Janome MemoryCraft 5200 which I think is a triple straight stitch.  You also saw here how I had initially sewed them on, this looks much better.


You may have noticed I have added a small design feature a second rivet at the top of  the back pockets, well I got a bit carried away with putting the rivets on and accidently caught extra fabric in the Prym Tool and had this hole to cover.


The fabric I used for the pocket lining is left over from this bag.


Now for the rest of the details:

Jeans button and zip

Coin pocket and rivets

This completes my Everyday collection for SWAP and is my 8th piece.

Ann who has been one of the contestants for the Great British Sewing Bee, is also our co-ordinator for all our photos for the SWAP so luckily for me the SWAP deadline has been moved to 10 May as I still have 3 garments to complete.

Episode 3
Episode 4
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Stash Out:  8.85m
Stash In:  0

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Great Inspiration

Have you been watching, The Great British Sewing Bee that the BBC has been showing?  Thankfully for us not in the UK there are You Tube links:-

Episode 1

Episode 2

I watched Episode 2 last night and then trotted off to my sewing room all enthused and sewed the back pockets onto my jeans and thought they looked pretty good, but then I noticed ....


There is no way I want a half circle there, frogstitching to the rescue.

Fingers crossed you will see a pair of completed jeans soon!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

It's that time of year -

me-made-may'13

"I, Sharon of Petite and Sewing sign up as a participant to Me-Made-May'13.  I endeavour to wear only me made garments (not including lingerie) for the duration of May 2013."

I have a lot of fun trying out new outfit combinations during the Me Made months, so for this challenge I am not going to let any RTW garments creep in, as I think I now have enough layers to keep me warm!