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!

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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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!

It's that time of year -

"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!

Interfacing and Bluffed Patch Pocket

Now if you attended the ASG Industry Day at Niagara Park last Saturday week you will know exactly what I am talking about.

Martyn Smith, the Sales and Marketing Manager for McCall's was the guest speaker for the afternoon session to talk about "using the correct interfacing" and this was the main reason that I attend this Industry Day.

Martyn has an extensive knowledge base and has over the years has written some very informative articles for Australian Stitches.

So it is time to dig out some of your older Australian Stitches magazines and using the indexes I have here it was very easy to find Martyn's article in Volume 16 Issue No.4 "Blissful Bonding".  This article is pretty much the information that Martyn shared with us as well as showcasing the new interfacing's that McCall's have launched.

One of the items that Martyn strongly suggests you own is an "Elna Press".  Do you have a one of the many domestic ironing presses?

When my sewing teacher moved I purchased one of the ones that we used during class, it is a Singer Magic Press II and use it for all of my interfacing pressing as it makes any bonding so easy.

There it is bottom left standing to attention!

So what is a Bluffed Patch Pocket that had quite a few of us intrigued about last Saturday when Martyn showed us this jacket front during his talk.  Martyn explains it beautifully in Australian Stitches Volume 11 No.5 "Bluffed Patch Pocket".  I had to flick through the actual magazines to find this one!

You can just see the edge of the pocket above!

I have been busy sewing, but you will have to wait a bit longer to see the results.

Rachel Comey Skirt - V1247

This is another pattern that has been extensively reviewed at Pattern Review for both the top and the skirt and I have fallen in love with the simplicity of the skirt with its interesting pockets.

I have used a chocolate brown denim that I purchased from Kerryn's Fabric World in March 2012 and made the following changes to the pattern:

• added 15 cm (6") to the length as this skirt is very short
• checked that the hip/waist shape was the same as my self drafted skirt
• since this was stretch denim, I took 0.5cm (1/8") extra in at the waist.

This skirt is very quick to make, well with my limited time anyway, it was less than a week from when I cut it out to when it was completed, although I didn't add the bias binding to the seams as I was lining this skirt.

Lining and twill tape waistband.

Invisible zip and seam matching

Quilting cotton for the pocket lining.

The pockets are wonderful, they don't gape and it is so easy to slide your hands into them.

This skirt is my for my Everyday Collection of my SWAP and is my 7th piece.

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For those interested, I have added some additional photos for my lace top.

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A lacey top

The last month has been absolutely crazy due to work however I have been able to get 10 - 15 minutes most mornings in my sewing room and this is the result.

This fabric has been in my stash since 2009 when my sewing buddies and I  headed to Melbourne for 4 days of fabric shopping.

Then when I decided to do an "Evening Collection" for my SWAP this fabric just had to have its day.

I took me a while to work out what design I wanted to use and it was during one of my Pinterest sessions I found this wonderful top by Lover and realised that the lines were very much the same as my TNT blouse pattern.

Luckily the lace has a two way pattern, so I could use the scallop edge effectively for all the pieces.

Again there is not much to tell on this blouse, except I have used French Seams, a purchased satin bias tape for the neckline, Hong Kong finish for the armholes using sun silky, with an invisible zipper in the left hand side seam.

And here it is:

Nearly the same pose!

Satin bias tape binding on the neckline

Satin bias tape handstitched to the wrong side and french seams

Hong Kong finish on invisible zip and armholes

This is my 6th piece for SWAP, I really need to find some more time to sew, especially as the Trench has only been cut out!

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BTW, due the amount of spam comments I have been receiving I have changed my comments to be moderated and may have to stop allowing Anonymous comments. Deleting the spam comments is not a fun part of blogging.  

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