Seeing spots ...

I am heading off to the Australian Sewing Guilds 9th National Convention being held at Ballarat Grammar School in Victoria, next Sunday and thought I had better make myself some new pyjama bottoms so I am decent.

I found this spotty flanelette at Spotlight at the beginning of this winter and have always planned to make pyjama bottoms from it.

The pattern is Burda 11-2009-131 (sorry about the french but it is the only way I can find a link) and this looks very different to my version.

I made the 36 and besides shortening them 7cm in length I have made no further adjustments.



I did stitch a triangle at the centre back to make sure the elastic stays in place and also threaded through some pale green ribbon as decoration.



Thankfully I have a t-shirt that works perfectly with my new pyjama bottoms as I'm running out of time to do much else.

Look who is being spoilt

Over at Pattern Review they are having a "Sewing for your Pet" contest and I decided it was time to spoil Roscoe (okay he is spoilt rotten, but what am I supposed to do), with a bed which is a bit better than the poor crocheted knee rug and what used to be a large sheepskin fleece that looks so small on his new bed (thankfully he has grown out of ripping things apart).



I have used McCall's 3071 (OOP) which is for pet accessories and includes instructions and patterns to make a dog coat, dog bed and dog bed cover.



The inner bed is made from calico which wasn't quite wide enough for the circles, so I added a seam in the centre. This takes 9 x 200g Craft Fiber bags to fill.



The patterned corduroy I have had in the stash for at least 14 years, I know I purchased it with the intention of making DH a pair of pull on pants to lounge around in, and yes he was wearing this sort of thing when I met him, I think they were left over from his surfing days.

I didn't quite have enough for the whole bed cover so I purchased 1 metre of burgundy corduroy for the side panels and used a burgundy zip from my stash.



And this is a sight that every Border Collie owner wants to see, them sound asleep.

Marfy 2254

Time has certainly flown by since I last posted and even though I have been very busy, I have very little to show.

I finished this blouse at the end of June and it has taken me this long to get photos.

This is my very first Marfy pattern, so I was interested to see what adjustments I would need for their patterns as I love the designs they come up with.

As I said in my earlier post, when I had the fitting session with Alison I had my normal adjustments done, which are:

Back

• Round shoulder – 1.5cm added
• High round back - 1cm added

Front

• Round shoulder - 1.5cm removed
• 1.5cm gaposis taken from the front neck edge

I explained to Alison that I had been having major difficulties with woven sleeves, and this was the fitting issue I really wanted to work on. Alison explained that a lot of the patterns now have lower armholes and the cap height doesn't suit everyone.

Alison then measured my bicep (27cm), and with the tape measure still around my bicep she measured from the top of the tape measure to my shoulder point which is the cap height (11cm).

Here is the Marfy pattern with the pattern tissue measurements, which showed the cap height on the pattern was 15.5cm, so Alison got me to add 1cm to the sleeve and blouse armholes before she looked at any other adjustments.



Alison then got me to do the following adjustments:

Back


• Take out the High round back and replace it with a 8mm gaposis from the back neck edge
• Added 1.5 cm at the centre back neckline, take back to nothing at the shoulder seam
• Added 1cm to armhole
• Added 2.5cm at side seam tapering back to the normal seam towards the armhole


Front



• Added 1cm to armhole
• Added 2.5cm at side seam tapering up to zero towards the armhole
• Shortened the dart by 7.5cm

Sleeve


• Added 1cm to the side seams to match the armholes on the bodice
• Bicep adjustment of 2cm

Here is the completed blouse at the end of a days work:

Front



Back



Notes for next time:

• I have managed to put one of the sleeves in wrong, it needs to be rotated back by 2cm.
  
  
• The cuff is too tight where the sleeve joins it, so I will straighten the sleeve side seams a bit each side and add the extra to the cuff as well.
  
  
• You can see a slight ridge near the neckline of my blouse, this has been caused by the 1.5cm that was added to the back neck edge. This will be removed for future blouses.
  
  
• I will probably make the back darts a bit deeper and add a small bust dart at the front.

I have some silk that I want to make this blouse up in and it will be a good Spring addition to my wardrobe.

Fitting Weekend

I'm back home after a fantastic 3 day weekend having patterns fitted by Alison, "The Sewing Lady" in Brisbane.

This was my birthday present from DS, a full day of fitting on the Saturday with Alison and then a general sewing/fine tune fitting on Monday morning.

This is how it worked, there were 3 attendees for the fitting day which included both DS and I (this was all day Saturday, a maximum of 4 attendees for these days and they get booked out well in advance) and I managed to get 3 patterns fitted:

Simplicity dress 2648, View A with sleeves.



Marfy blouse 2254 and Marfy skirt 2253 (the free patterns included in the Marfy 2010/11 Annual).



Sunday was sewing at DS’s home in the morning and then we met Alison at Sckafs, Indooroopilly to learn about what to look for when choosing fabrics, trims, interfacings, etc which gave me quite a few light bulb moments.

Monday was back at Alison’s for the morning session of general sewing with 4 attendees (maximum of 8) so we tweaked the dress, sorted out the blouse and the skirt is underway. I’ve still got a long way to go on the dress and skirt, but the blouse is closer to finishing so you will probably see it soon.

The reason so much was achieved was I had all the patterns with my normal adjustments done, taped and pinned together when we arrived on Saturday. Luckily only 2 people (me being one) were having patterns fitted that day which was fantastic. Alison fitted the paper patterns on me and I made the additional changes to the paper patterns, then DS (my birthday slave) cut out my fabric, pinned up the fabric toile for the next fit and then she got into the actual sewing of the garments, this was at the classes and at her home. I also managed to contribute to the sewing on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

This was a fantastic birthday present and one I will remember each time I wear one of the above garments.

I will share more information on each of the patterns as they are completed so until next time ...

Not much sewing going on.....

May is turning into a month of hemming projects and preparation, but no actual garment sewing.

As you saw in my last post I have been busy shortening hems on my t-shirts, and have finished another 5 since (1 of mine, 2 for my DM, 1 for my DS and 1 for a friend of DM's) and then DH hands over two pairs of work pants that need hemming as well (1 pair is still hiding in the sewing room LOL).

Then last Saturday at our monthly ASG meeting at Rhodes, Angie Zimmerman* talked to us about Chanel Jackets and then proceeded to help us adjust our patterns.

This was the prompting I needed to start the Chanel jacket that I talked about here.

I wore the Chanel jacket that I made about 3 years ago so Angie could see where it was overlapping at the top of the centre front, and the adjustment was a 0.5mm tuck in the neckline tapering to zero at the bust point.



The remainder of the day was spent cutting out the tweed and interfacing. Yes I am going to interface the whole jacket with Sheerweft just to give it a little more body and keep the tweed together. This is as far as I got on this project.

This week I am preparing 4 patterns to take to Brisbane with me on Friday for a long weekend to attend a Fitting Workshop with Alison Wheeler** and maybe by Monday I will have some garments to show you, so keep your fingers crossed.

*Angie Zimmerman writes a lot of articles for Sewing with Stitches Australia (formerly Australian Stitches) and also has her own sewing workshops.

**Alison Wheeler operates her own sewing school, "The Sewing Lady", in Brisbane. She is an experienced dressmaker and teacher offering a wealth of knowledge and information to her students across a wide range of sewing techniques.

How to spend a Saturday

One of the reasons I purchased the Janome CP 1000 was to help me get a more professional hem on my purchased t-shirts when I shortened them as they are always too long.

As the Sydney weather has suddenly taken a quick trip south in temperature, I need tops desparately so the other Saturday instead of going to one of the two ASG Groups I go to I bit the bullet and got stuck into this job.

It took me most of the day because I probably do it a lot more labour intensive than it needs to be, however this system worked for me.

First of all I tried on all the tops and pinned the hem where I wanted it to be.

Measured the turned up amount, deducted 2cm from this and cut the remaining hem off.

Pressed up the 2cm hem.

Glued the hem in place.

Wound the 3 bobbins to use in the Bob N' Serge and threaded the machine.

Stitched the hems.

Finished.

I now have 7 t-shirts that are the correct length.



The amount I shortened these t-shirts varied by brand ranging from 5cm to 8cm and that is not including the hem amount.

I have also made a note in my notebook of how much to wind on the bobbins for each hem as I'm sure this will be a job I have to do again.

Cardi for me

After making Mum's cardi and top, I decided I had better get my act together and make mine.

I had some brown Mercury Jersey from Lincraft that was waiting for its turn, so the other week, after reading a couple of reviews on PR (got to love that place if you want to save yourself some frustration) I started on this project.

I didn't do any adjustments to the Cardi pattern and only did some of my normal adjustments to the top e.g.:

High Round back and Sway Back.



Then I did the front neck gaposis and also continued this through the front neck facing.

• I read yorkshire lass's review and she did her “layout of the fronts single layer as directed but chalked the position of the first one onto the fabric then fit the other one around the chalked line. This way I got the two fronts way closer together than the layout suggests is possible”. This worked well for me as well and it made it a lot easier to cut out the front pieces as well.

• I read some of the others reviews and decided to follow their leads and not sew the elastic in the back neck area. Instead, I gathered this area down to 5”. Then I sewed the back collar facing to the neck seam so the facing would stay down on the inside. This created a very stable collar so I don't need to fuss when I put it on and it stays in place.

• I deepened the armholes for both the Cardi and Top by 2cm (7/8") and the sleeves fitted in nicely.

• I made View D of the Cardi Wrap so I can't do any of the wraps. I am wondering if I should shorten the cardi as I shortened the top by 5cm (2").

So here is the top with my skirt from the Mini Wardrobe



and now with the cardi



Another one of the challenges for the 2010 SWAP at Stitcher's Guild was that a garment will feature embroidery, beads or sashiko.

This is not something I have tried before and looking at the RTW it is everywhere.

Now Alison, one of my sewing buddies has the Professional Touch Applicator Wand and has just used it to add the bling to her daugters dress and shoes.

Well Alison has kindly offered to let me test drive before I purcahse this Wand and to help me along further Alison also kindly purchased for me at the Craft Expo in March two packs of Nail Heads. Here is what I came up with yesterday playing with the nailheads and I think I will do this when I catch up with Alison again and when I figure out how to mark the pattern on the neckband so it looks correctly spaced.



Oh I forgot to tell you that I have had some labels made to put into my garments. It is supposed to encourage me to finish my garments in a more professional way, unfortunately I can't find a brown sharpie to hide the fact that I used cream overlocking thread LOL.