Success!

I've got two complete tops! The white one and the blue one (that I'm currently wearing) are finished and the gold, silver and green ones only need their cuffs sewing on.

I've got a load more that I'm going to sew together with black tread when I get the overlocker rethreaded, but I think I need a break from making the same pattern again an again, and I don't mean just the darn tidying.

I'm currently trying to pack my life into a series of plastic crates and trying to get rid of everything I don't need or don't use, and there's a lot of it. I'm a clutterbug, a hoarder and a mess.

At least if I cut things out I can leave the scraps behind.

T-shirts And Studdies

I was a bit late getting this out because I spent most of the day with my older brother. Me, him and his boyfriend went to wetherspoons and talked about what I'm going to do this year. I've got to get on with researching universities and talking to everyone about what my options are but I'm feeling pretty good about it now.

I did manage to get quite a lot of work done on my t-shirts. I cut out four more and sewed the shoulder seams, as well as the back center seam on the neck band. I had a go at chain stitching (I think that's what it's called when you leave hardly any space between pieces) to save thread and make it go quicker. It worked pretty well and I ended up with the hideous neckband garland. You probably can't see but that things got 30 sharp pins sticking out of it.

The next thing to do will be sew the neck bands to the tops and sew up the sides. I think I should be able to get them finished by the 7th, and then I'm going to try making a wearable muslin of the dress I traced over the Christmas holidays.

First Projects Of The New Year

Yesterday I managed to leave my purse, with my train ticket, money, and house keys in it, at my parents house when I went to go home on the train. I managed to get on the train before I even realised and ended up having to pay again (well, dad did) and sitting for over an hour surrounded by a loud family, trying to read but unable to because of the noise.

When I finally got home I was tired, hungry and feeling a caffeine withdrawal headache coming on. Add on to that a growing feeling that I'm studying the wrong subject and managing to make dinner only to spill it on the floor and it felt like a pretty bad day.

I ended up talking to my older brother about it. We're going to meet up tomorrow and he's going to help me look at my options. I'm going to finish this year at the OU but it's not what I want to do in the long run. I wasn't expecting the new year to lead to quite so many changes.

After that I felt better. I did the washing up and even felt up to getting on with sewing! I got a blue velvet T-shirt cut out and I'm going to do another four before doing them all production line style with white thread. Then I can change to black and do the rest. :-)

Slow Progress And Future Plans

I'm getting on with tracing NewLook 6150 at a steady pace but it's still going slow. Faster than I would at home but not as fast as I was expecting. That's mostly due to laziness though.

What's more important, to me anyway, is that I've finally got my housing situation sorted for the next few months. I was hoping to move back to my home town but trying to find a place and then only being able to give my months notice when I have somewhere to go is both annoying and expensive.

I'm going to pack my stuff up and stick it in storage instead. Move onto Mum and Dads futon, where I've been staying this week, if I haven't found a place by the middle of February and be able to look properly for a flat. I'm feeling a lot less stressed about it now and edging into excited. I've still got to declutter a lot more but I can live with that.

Holiday's Over

The fun of Christmas has kind of worn off, and I spent yesterday evening tracing my little white dress pattern. I didn't realise it was unprinted and not very well cut. God knows what it'll look like.

The longer seam lines down the body were wonky and the notches were all uneven depths like it had been used before by someone who wasn't used to using scissors but when I get it everything was folded up like it had just come from the factory. I don't know if it was like that originally or if someone used it and then folded it up and compressed it well enough to look new. If they did they didn't use pins, but maybe that explains the wonkiness?

Today I'm going to get to work on NewLook 6150 so I can use it on some of my bigger knit stash pieces. I'm actually excited about making the version illustrated in red. :-)

White Lace (New Look 6230)

I put together another toile! I took the pictures with it on my sewing dummy because it's a bit see through but you get the idea. It looks a bit better on me, partly because I fill out the arms better, but one torso is very much like another in a loose knit top.

It's got raglan sleeves that would look great in a contrasting colour to the main body and there's a seam at the back that adds a bit of shaping (but not much).

Now that I've got a couple of T-shirt patterns muslined I went digging through my stupidly big fabric stash and pulled out any peace of stretch fabric too small to be made into a dress. I'm figuring I can make what I can into tops and what I can't I can finally get rid of.

Maybe I'll take one or two more patterns down to my parents house for Christmas? If I can't get any sewing done I can at least get ready.

T-shirt Work In Progress

I've spent the last two days sewing time tracing another t-shirt pattern, Newlook 6230, and it's at times like this I wish I just cut out the damn tracing paper. I know I'll use this one till it wears out so it's worth it to trace it but it really gets boring after a while.

It's almost ready for me to start cutting the fabric but I'm about to head off to my parents for the weekend and I won't be bringing it with me. Fingers crossed I'll get my Biology work done, though. :-)

Yay! T-shirts!

I got an overlocker (serger) a couple of days ago and I've been having fun with it, making my first stretch garments. I don't have any ball point needles so I'm going to wait to sew anything with good fabric, and I can't sew any seams on my sewing machine because I need to fix the bobbin tension before I can use the zigzag stitch, but both those things can be easily fixed.

Sorry you can see my bra! I didn't realise how see-trough the fabric was, but at least I found out here and not out in the real world. Also, did you notice my new haircut? I got my boyfriend to cut my hair and when he got it wonky (I shouldn't be surprised) I got the hairdresser to just go with it.

I made both the t-shirts in NewLook 6216, but the sizing got me really confused. According to the size graph I should have sewn a 14/16 but when I looked at garment measurements I got confused. It looked like I could wear an 8 with room to spare.

Turns out cutting the short sleeved one in an 8 was just fine, which is a bit annoying. But even more annoying was the long sleeved version, where the body was just fine but the sleeves where tight. I guess that's where the inflated sizing came from but it just looks horrible, and I think it would have whatever size I cut. I would edit the top to add size 16 sleeves to the size 8 top but it's such a wasteful pattern in terms of fabric I don't think I'll bother.


I will sew up the short sleeved top, probably again and again, and I'm going to try the trousers at least once, but I'll get a sleeved top from somewhere else.

New Looks For Me!

I've been very good lately when it comes to buying fabric, especially since I live near a great sewing shop. That being said, I have been looking at the sewing patterns.

When I first bought a load of sewing patterns a while ago I went for what looked cool. The kind of thing I'd stick on my Pinterest inspiration board. I didn't really put too much thought into when I'd be sewing and wearing these complicated patterns.

Now that the New Look patterns at my local sewing shop have come on sale again I decided to stock up on simple patterns that I could try making again and again. It was pretty easy to narrow it down to these seven patterns but here's where it gets harder.

I like dresses even though I only own one, the 1940s one I made myself but that doesn't really look very good without a slip. I have loads of leggings to wear under them and a dress pattern that would work fine for a slip so now I just need to get making.

The top two dresses are simpler dresses with nothing cut on the bias, but they're different enough that I might consider getting both.

These two, though, I'm not too sure about. They're both okay, but I can't see myself getting both and I don't know which one to choose. The one on the left, New Look 6093, looks kinda cool but it's a bit more complicated and the inserts are cut on the bias. The other one looks kinda plain though.

I also want this top, even though it doesn't quite come under simple basics either. Wrap tops are one of those styles that seem to look good on almost any woman and I really like them.

And finally, the really basic stretch tops. The one with separate sleeves is a bit more my style, but it looks like it would look best in unpatterned fabric and that really isn't what I end up getting, especially in knit fabrics.

Okay, so I'm indecisive, but at £2.95 a pattern I can live with that.

The First Idea For SS14

I'm kinda loving planning my spring/summer sewing now because it's starting to get cold here in England. I'm curling up with my hot water bottle and dreaming of days at the beach and pick-nicks in the park.

I've been looking at my pattern stash and I couldn't help but think of NewLook 6705. This top was a bit of a downer when I made it the first time but I'm definitely thinking that was because I made it in a stiffer, heavier fabric than it needed.

I've got loads of light, floaty fabric in my stash and some of it is perfect for summer, especially a piece I've already shown off on this blog.

The fabric bellow is a lovely silky fabric from the bolt end bins at Abakhan and it might be familiar from my ill conceived give-away that no one entered. I've got quite a lot of it so I'll make one and see if I want to make more. I might even use the white lace from the same post, but I'm still undecided.

If things go right I'll be making view A (the photo) in December.

Sew, Sew, Sew!

I spent at least a couple of hours sewing together my toile for the Hawthorn dress. When I first tried it on, stressed from sewing in the sleeve and hot from the July weather, I saw that it was all weirdly bunched up on one side and started crying my eyes out.

Then I realized that I'd managed to twist the right front panel before sewing it. I had to unpick the shoulder seam and do it again and, what do you know, all the wrinkles went away.

It's not a perfect fit but it's good enough for what it is. I might make ones that fit slightly better in the future but I'm not too fussy.

On the other hand, I just finished the blue top and I am too fussy to wear that. It makes me look pregnant but the colour's okay. Chalk this on up to experience.

Technical Problems

I'm seeing a new computer in my future when I've saved up enough cash. It blue screened today and trying to connect anything to it via the USB ports is a nightmare. There aren't as many pictures in this post as I'd like because they got eaten when my laptop couldn't decide whether to connect to my card reader or not.

One out of four isn't bad, I guess.

I have two days of work to talk about but none of it's that interesting. I attached the second sleeve to my blue top and did a little bit of hemming but the second day was mostly taken up by shopping and traveling. I had to check out a location for work and I'm going to be away from home for a few nights so I picked up two of those cross-stitch packs you give to little kids to take with me. What can I say? They were half price.

I got what I paid for. They've got the pattern printed on the fabric like a paint by numbers but it doesn't quite correspond to the wonky grain of the fabric and isn't to the same scale as the gridded picture on the front of the packet. Oh, well. It'll keep me amused and get me back into embroidery.

I did pick up something much more rewarding though. Our local bookshops have responded to the popularity of The Great British Sewing Bee by upping their stock and I picked up this wonderful book. I may not be selling things at the moment but I want to one day.

(source)

So Close

After I sewed the left sleeve of my top in yesterday I could finally get a good sense of how the top will look when I've finished. The sleeve heads are quite poofy and include a lot of gathering, which was a nightmare, but I'm starting to like that. Maybe it's just because of the amount of time I've invested, but I only meant it as a toile and a Me-Made-May helper anyway so I'm happy.

Today I'm sewing the other sleeve on and I'm staying away from home and my sewing machine for work so a quick hemming project will be really useful.

A Little Progress And Some Excitement

Definitely didn't do much work yesterday. Had a bit of drama with my boyfriend and only got time to sew half the back facing but my relationship is okay and that's what counts.

I'm not going to get any time tonight either because I'm going to a burlesque performance at the local theater. I'll tell you how it goes!

Return Of A UFO

I talked yesterday about revisiting my UFOs and I took that to heart. I may not have gotten out the jacket but this project is closer to completion. I attached the yoke and yoke facing and now I just have to sew down the facing, attach the sleeves and hem everything.

I look ridiculous in this picture, but oh well.

My White Whale: Part Two

You might remember my problem with iron on interfacing that I talked about a while ago. I went back and gave it another go today because I ran out of pins for my gingham dress and thought I could harvest some from and old unfinished project. Turns out the blue top didn't have any pins in it but I figured if I worked on it a bit or even finished it that would be one thing off my list of things to do.

I accidentally attached it to the pieces cut on the straight rather than the ones on the bias. It's good enough.

I've also been looking at tables to work on. I'll have to clean up more to make room for it but if I clear the space then I might reward myself.

All The Fixin's

I was reasonably busy yesterday even though I didn't really leave bed. I put the last two buttons on my black top so I could wear it today to meet the boyfriends grandparents. I really like it and I think it looks even better than it did before.

Also, I sorted the big bags of buttons I got from Abakhan! There was one of some and I think over a hundred of  the blueish ones. I'm really looking forward to using the toggles and the beaded ones but there are others that will probably sit in my draw till I decide I have to organize a project around them or give them away.

Finally, I've been working really hard to either fix clothes or get rid of them so I pulled out a pair of trousers I haven't worn for over two years. They have these straps across the legs that are sewn down between the holes but the stitch lines ripped an it dragged along the ground. I spent ages sewing the three lines of stitching then went to try them on. Tragedy! I discovered that not just the strap was broken, the zip was broken! One side of the zip had come unconnected from one side and some of the teeth are missing. I'll probably replace it but not quite yet. I have to get back to my gingham dress.

A Little Bit Of Fixing

Yesterday I put eight of the ten buttons on my black top and I'm feeling really good about my choice. It looks really pretty. Not a lot of work to go through to add a wearable item to my wardrobe.

Also, I was wrong about the size of Chris' display. It's actually 5 feet. To really put this in perspective, I'm five foot three.

Fixing Up My Wardrobe

I didn't get any actual sewing done yesterday. From 10am to 6:30pm I was pretty much walking back and forth to town. I had to get stuff sorted out with the bank and I walked to Chris's work with him and them met him for the walk home to bring his coat. After all that I just felt to tired to sew.

I did manage to get supplies for a mending project though. One of the tops I really like was missing a button and it didn't have a spare so I decided I liked enough to buy new buttons. The button loops are tiny so the ones I got were almost the only ones that fit. They're whirly black plastic with little gems in them and for ten I payed a whopping £7.40. That's more than I pay for most tops that I buy. 

What's the most you guys have ever payed to fix something? Would you pay that much?

In the Beginning

I love sewing. I love clothes. I love the idea of making everything in my wardrobe myself and looking awesome in all of it.

That's why it's so strange that I've never finished a garment that I'd wear out of the house. Not until yesterday, anyway. Yesterday I finally finished a top that I started sewing with my gran almost two years ago.

(The time code says 2008 because my camera hates me)

It's Kwik Sew 3538 and I love it. I'm determined to make another, and that one definitely won't take as long.