sewing Archives - Page 33 of 41 - Handmade by Carolyn

white Issey Miyake shirt

28/01/2017 11:54 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

Self-explanatory, really. #endblogpost 😉
Pattern; Vogue 1384. It’s a vintage pattern, hailing from 1984, sorry. Yeah, it’s annoying when people make things in vintage patterns that you can’t get a hold of anymore. But I’m sure this is not particularly aspirational actually, it’s a little weird in that 80’s way. That high, slightly floppy collar combined with a billowing pirate-y blousiness is giving me serious Duran Duran vibes. That’s sort of a good thing btw HUGE Duran Duran fan, once upon a time… only you know, dating myself here #woops On a side note; watching that clip again, wow I think I’ve suddenly identified the genesis of my lifelong white shirt obsession… Also, haha, I totally dance just exactly like that, to this day still, lol.

I’d actually vaguely planned to make this shirt for quite a while, then Anna of blogless Anna proposed an IG #sewjapaneseinjanuary sewing challenge; prompting a jump to the top of my queue… sewing challenges are such fun!

I’ve previously made the skirt from this pattern too; here. That now resides in Cassie’s wardrobe. Thing is; the pretty floaty pink-ness, while lovely, I’ve decided is just not really ME. Not to mention that she put it on one day and obviously it looked only like about 999999 times better on her than it ever did me (sob) I’ve got to stop giving her my clothes to try on!! Just kidding; I wore it a few times but tired of it quite quickly and I don’t miss it, not one little bit. Though I do still really like that design and am thinking of making it up again, just in a more me-friendly fabric and colour.

Fabric; a thin, sparsely-dotted swiss cotton voile with ever so faint and equally sparse paisley embroidery on it in bits. Very very subtle. I bought it in Potters Textiles a few years ago, when it was in its other location.

The top looks at its best when it’s either tucked in or belted-n-blousy, and while I have a small collection of self-made belts… like, four maybe? none of them looked very right with this sheer-ish white top, so I quickly whipped up a thin white one in the same fabric to wear with it. Kt-chaaaaaaa!! *whip-crack sound effect* Sorry, I simply cannot read “whipped something up” with regards to sewing without hearing a crack o’ the whip sound in my head. Craaa-aack that whip! * (Devo, and a warning, do not click that link unless you WANT to be subjected to some really random and classic 80’s, madness. Yep, I was a fan of that too, *blush*)

The belt is basically just a waistband really. A poor, bereft and lonely little waistband, with no skirt to call home… *sad violins* It’s exactly the same deal as the one I made for my tartan dress. Just two buttonholes, and one button, and you wear it so the button is on the inside.

Also, interesting pocket tab/flap detail. You can’t really see it on the outside, which defeats the purpose a bit really, but oh well. It’s kinda cute when you notice it!

I flat-felled all seams throughout, as usual. Btw, you CAN flat-fell all sleeve and armscye seams too… my tutorial for flat felling the armscye seam is here… and the sleeve seam itself can be flat felled by starting from the middle of the seam and stitching OUT. Be sure to have the sleeve RIGHT SIDE OUT, so that you are sewing inside the sleeve… this will ensure that you are in no danger of stitching down the other side of the sleeve underneath…

In the case of this shirt; I stitched the sleeves to the shirt, and flat-felled that armscye seam before stitching up the sleeve and side seams…
First, stitch the sleeve and side seams in one fell swoop. Press seam open and trim one side. If you are flat-felling the seam towards the back of the garment, trim the back edge of the seam.

Press the front edge back over the back edge, turn under the raw edge, and press in a neat even width.

Turn sleeve RIGHT SIDE OUT (v. important) and from the wrist end of the sleeve; bundle the tube of the sleeve up to locate a point roughly midway up the sleeve. Position the bundled up sleeve tube behind your machine and pull the wrist end of the tube through until this midway point is under the needle. Take it nice and slow, and stitch the flat-felled seam from here out to the wrist.

To complete the seam; just repeat the same process as above only bundling up the sleeve from the armscye side… locate that same midway point of the sleeve, and stitch the seam from there, to the underarm, and keep going in one long continuous seam down the side seams to the bottom hem of the shirt.

Done!

Details:

Blouse; Vogue 1384, white swiss voile
Skirt; Vogue 1247, striped stuff, details here and my original review of this pattern here
Sandals (above): my own design, made by me, all details here

Denim shoes (below); my own design, made by me, all details here
location at top: Preston St overpass, Como, Western Australia

Replicating the 80’s pattern envelope pose, just because…. the 80’s.

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: blouse, daily outfit, issey miyake, seams, shirt, top, tutorial, Vogue 1384

rows of little white cottages

15/01/2017 12:52 am \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made another skirt and top set for Cassie :

Patterns; the Tshirt is the Named patterns Inari tee, and the skirt is Vogue 1170. I’ve made several of these skirts now, and quite a few are now owned by Cassie. The only alteration I made was to lengthen it by about 5cm, and leave off the pockets. Oh, I also made a few fitting alterations… even though I’ve made the pattern several times and I really like it; however the fit is actually not very good. Fortunately though it’s an easy fix, taking in each of the side/back seams… my alterations to the skirt seams are pictured with my original review of the pattern here, and basically I have to make very similar alterations for Cassie

Fabrics; both from Spotlight.. I spotted this cute cotton jersey with its wonky rows of houses during Christmas shopping, and while I’d already bought her Christmas fabrics I just couldn’t resist! Cheerful, cherry red background, and those cute little white cottages with pink and teal rooves! And by the way, what’s with me and pink and teal this year?? I’ve made four things so far this year and they have all been deep blue and/or pink. Weird! Anyway, the print is cute and young and fun and just right for her colouring, all round just perfect … and I knew she has lots of skirts and jeans that would be perfect with it…
Then I vaguely thought maybe a navy blue skirt would make it a nicely complete set, and she desperately needs skirts for work too … and lo and behold what should be lounging languidly about in the very next aisle but this teal blue suedette, which is a PERFECT colour match for the rooves. BAM! DECISION MADE. Lugged them both to the counter without a second thought, brought them home, tossed into the washing machine.

About this time, I saw that happylat had also made a Tshirt from this very same fabric. What can I say, but great minds think alike!

I lined the waistband with some of the house fabric… not because I had run out of suedette or anything, but I just thought it was cute and I wanted to tie the two pieces together!

this is on grain, I promise!! the print is just naturally, and charmingly wonky

The suedette “looks” nice and perfectly suede-y, but it frays like billy-o. I finished all the raw edges on the overlocker, and the lower hem with a bias cut binding cut from a scrap of purple/blue micro fibre. tutorial for this bias finish is here

The Tshirt is made up just like the pattern, except for the neckline… I’m lazy with my Inari necklines and have pretty much finished them all off like this! Just overlocked the raw edge, turned it under and topstitched from the right side. Since it’s quite a wide neckline and doesn’t stretch out when you put the Tshirt on and take it off, the stitches won’t snap and this kind of finish works perfectly well.

The lower hem is finished with my twin needle. Lisa asked about channelling with a twin needle.. all I can say is that I’ve never had channelling and what’s more I have no idea how I’ve avoided it so far either!! Only thing I can think of: I always finish the raw edge on my overlocker, then topstitch with the twin needle, and that’s it! Maybe the overlocked edge stabilises the fabric and that’s what stops a channel forming? That’s the only reason I can think of anyway. 🙂
red threads on top, white in the bobbin; white overlocker thread

So! New outfit for her. I think it makes a really cute ensemble and will get lots of wear, both together, and also separately a lot too, probably. See, in my experience deep blue skirts are just about the most useful things a girl can have in the wardrobe… and she practically squealed when I brought out the Tshirt! so I knew that was a winner too. Truly, she’s happy, therefore I am too 🙂

Later edit; at the time of making, she was pretty adamant that she didn’t want it lined so it would be cooler to wear in summer… however! the suedette is a little clingy! so, to give her the option, at least, I quickly ran up a simple little half-slip for her to wear underneath. Vogue 1247 with the pieces spliced to simplify it as much as possible, navy blue, polyacetate lining fabric. . A skinny 1cm finished width, uninterfaced waistband, a finished slit at CB and no zip, and with one small snap for closure. Easy peasy!

Details:

Top, Inari tee by Named patterns, cotton jersey
Skirt; Vogue 1170, lengthened, suedette
Petticoat; Vogue 1247, pattern pieces spliced, navy blue polyacetate lining fabric
Shoes; Melissa

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Cassie, inari, named patterns, petticoat, skirt, top, Vogue 1170, Vogue 1247

pink/navy DKNY dress

13/01/2017 7:38 am \ 53 Comments \ Carolyn

Terrible post title, I know. Every now and then, inspiration strikes and a fabulously perfect Word that describes my new “thing” to a T springs to mind instantly. Other times I just plump for the obvious. Today, inspiration was like a wispy breathe of smoke in a dark shadow of the night. Barely present, fleeting and rapidly lost amongst the dusty cobwebs in ye olde brain.
But, enough of that… wot abart the dress eh??

Pattern; Vogue 1351; bought aaaaaaaages ago. With the intention of making it up immediately, funnily enough! but more on that later…

Fabric; a slightly stretchy crepe from Fabulous Fabrics. Also bought aaaaaaaages ago with the intention of making it up immediately, sigh. The aqua and indigo, sorta-floral/sorta-galaxy border print runs along one selvedge of the fabric, so to retain that I cut out the pieces across the grain, rather than on the bias as recommended in the pattern. I just really love the colours in this fabric… but! I know pink doesn’t suit me, in fact I’m already anticipating that my Mum will have A Few Words to Say just as soon as she sets eyes on me in this sick-making, blemish-enhancing shade of pink. What can I say? I agree, but sometimes I just can’t help myself, I just LOOOOOOVVVEEE pink and navy together, and like a lemming I occasionally toss myself over that cliff. It’s one of my favourite colour combinations, with a lovely and natural yin/yang balance. Frivolous and girly; pitched against sombre and slightly masculine. Like a perfect summer sunrise over the ocean. It speaks to me.

Anyway, no doubt drawn to that; at some point about mumblemumble years ago I spotted it, oohed and aahed, and naughtily bought some. And cut out the pieces for Vogue 1351 that I’d recently bought in a club bmv sale. Honestly, I barely remember doing any of these things, but obviously I did and it’s been folded up and tucked neatly away in my fabric cupboard ever since. Then about a week ago I “found” it, and just set to, whipped it up. Whipped it, I say! Kt-chaaaaaaaaa! … that’s a whip-cracking sound effect there by the way, just in case it’s not immediately obvious, hehe.

Alterations; downsized the bodice. Hey, it’s Vogue, and something of this kind is an always-requirement for me in Vogue. Their patterns are designed for a more busty lady than I; but you know, I still want to use their patterns! Often I handle this by shaving something off princess seam curves, or doing some other variation of small bust adjustment. In this case, the bodice is one-piece with that draped neckline being the only feature, actually it’s the only feature of the whole dress…! So to avoid having to diddle around with that and possibly lose something essential to the neckline, the easiest thing to do is simply downsize.

I lined my dress fully with pale pink, polyacetate lining fabric, also from Fabulous Fabrics. The design of the lining is quite clever, the way it’s a little fitted around the décolletage and with a nice smooth joining seams still allows the drape to spill out over the top. It’s impossible for the lining to flip up or peek out in any way. Very clever. I love Donna Karan’s aesthetic, and am quite sad that we will no longer see her designs for Vogue patterns. She really knows how to flatter a woman.

Also! can I just say with regards to the issue of those of us with Autumnal colouring wearing Pink = A Really Bad Idea thing… see below how I’ve deviously dealt with it, by wearing it with my little teal cardigan. Whammo! instantly counteracting and negating the death-warmed-up effect. I think the pink actually looks quite OK on me like this!

Details:

Dress; Vogue 1351, printed crepe
Cardigan; Audrey in Unst, knitted by me, all details here
Wedge sandals, made by me, all details here

out in the wild… I wore it out to lunch with my friend J today 🙂
location; South Perth foreshore, Western Australia

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, pattern review, Vogue 1351

french navy, french navy orla

08/01/2017 11:40 am \ 44 Comments \ Carolyn

Partly because of the colour. And partly because the designer is also French Navy. Truly!

So, recently I discovered Sarah of french navy .. she has a chic, pared back style; easy, casual, uncluttered, slightly sporty, one that I love and very much can relate to; and it was exciting to see that she has lately decided to dabble in a little pattern designing. Her first pattern, the Orla dress, is a free pattern, I decided to give it a whirl; stat! hied myself over to her site, printed it out… and boom! Made it!
Fabric; a piece of thin, lightweight cotton drill given to me by my friend L when she was doing a big clean out out of her garage and “discovered” a large stash of fabric… I was so thrilled that she offered it to me! #insanefabricaddict Don’t you just LOVE friends like that?! She’s like, what IS this pile of junk? hey maybe my friend Carolyn would like it… 😉 So my fabric was free too. Basically, apart from the invisible zip, my dress was fabulously FREEEEEE!!!!! #miser

The Orla is a super quick and fun little pattern which is exactly what I wanted to cleanse my palate, so to speak, after my mad Christmas making-fest… Featuring a gently fitted bodice, rather pert short sleeves, which I think I would be rather nice in elbow length too; a highish waistline, and with a gathered rectangle skirt. I think the low scooped neckline is really lovely, it’s my favourite thing about the pattern. I added 3cm in length to my skirt… just because I thought the gathered skirt gave it a rather young look and I’m.. well, you know. not. Hehe, to be honest I agonised over the length of this skirt, you don’t want to know for how long.. at least as long as it took to make the whole dress. I pinned and tried on, contemplated; re-pinned, re-tried on, re-contemplated… I finally settled upon keeping some extra length that I’d added while cutting out, but I’m still partially tossing up the idea of re-hemming it shorter again. Man, I am SOOOOOO indecisive sometimes, I drive myself batty… I think I’m going to be ok with this length… FOR NOW, she intones, dramatically. I may or may not change it up on a whim, whenever. But maybe not. Might do, though.

Oh, I added inseam side pockets. Goes almost without saying, yeah? Everything’s better with pockets!

The neckline is finished with a bias cut strip, topstitched on the outside, and I added a hook and eye closure at the top. Normally I’m sloppy about that sort of thing but every once in a while I rouse myself to add these proper little extra touches.

oh HELLO you gorgeous thing.. yes you are a BUNCH more interesting than some old sewing details yes you are you big boo-fful fluffy ol’ booffy booff you… (cuddles ensue)

Ahem… So yes; now I have a new, sorta minimalist little frock, to be dressed up or down as the occasion demands. Knowing my lifestyle, most likely down. hehe. Seriously, at this time of year I LIVE in easy, just throw-it-on little dresses, and this is a great new colour for my current wardrobe too. It’s nice to have a few different silhouettes to choose from too and this one is a little different from my current crop of sack-like summer dresses; more fitted, loosely-waisted, with that low scooping neckline, feels a bit more “classic”. Hey, no judgement, I love my shapeless sacks too! but just that it’s good to have some variety.

And I’m looking forward to seeing what Sarah designs next!

Details:

Dress; the Orla dress by French Navy, in french navy cotton chambray, a free pattern available here
Hat; Vogue 8844, in ivory corduroy, details and my review of this pattern here

location; Eagle Bay, Western Australia

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: daily outfit, dress, french navy, frenchnavynow, orla dress, pattern review

… some clothes for Cassie

30/12/2016 12:07 am \ 17 Comments \ Carolyn

… and finally, I made some clothes for Cassie for her Christmas pressies too. At first I had wanted to make some luggage or a travel set for her too; but we were hanging out in Spotlight together, you know as you do… and I discreetly sounded her out about the particular fabric that I had in mind for her. And she basically nixed it. Aaargh! So I had to change tack. Realistically, she probably needs clothes more than she needs a travel set, anyway!

Particularly she needed little separates and dresses for work.

Et voila…

1. a little spotty top. The pattern is the cap-sleeved crop top; Burda 02/2015; 127 and is one I’ve previously made for myself, here. This one is sized to fit her and lengthened by about 5cm too. The fabric was a surprise goodie from Spotlight. I prefer polka dots to be irregular in some way, either in size or arrangement. When I spotted (hehe) this one, well I just couldn’t resist! A lovely soft grey crepe, with ivory spots in a satisfyingly random, non-grid pattern, and feels very luxe, just like silk. I don’t think it is actually silk but it does feel exactly like it; lovely, slippery and whisper-soft.

Funny story; I made this nearly two months ago… and risked posting it on IG for bpsewvember “spots and stripes”… I don’t know what I was thinking … that she might be too busy at work to notice it or something? but she did! and commented “thanks, Mum!” eek! I proceeded to just keep quiet about it and hope she wouldn’t actually come around asking for it, and luckily she didn’t think to do that!

that IG pic… with my own striped skirt

2. a white cobwebby, lace-y skirt, with a very pretty border. I used Vogue 1247… again! and spliced the pattern pieces together so there’s just one seamless front, and the two back pieces with one centre seam for the zip. The white lace shell and cream suiting gabardine lining/underlining fabric are from Fabulous Fabrics. The waistband is cut from the same cream fabric. I like the cream peeping through from underneath the pure white lace, I think it makes a really nice, tonally subtle contrast. The waistband looked a little bland by itself but I didn’t want machine topstitching, I thought it would look a little… I don’t know, like it would lower the tone of the skirt or something. But it needed something. So I did some hand-picksitching along the top edge… and really like how this looks; it adds a little bit of something, a certain handmade je ne sais quoi, and practically speaking achieves the stabilising effect of topstitching without the regimental look of machine topstitching.

note: shoes are Melissa

3. finally a plain pink Tshirt. Looks boring, but she was over the moon with this! This is my attempt to clone her favourite and beloved Cotton On Tshirt style and make a pattern from it for her… she has several of these and they’ve all been loved almost to rags! I borrowed one that hadn’t been stretched out toooooo badly, and made a pattern from it; this was also a Christmas gift for her 🙂 I think it turned out pretty good , the fit and style is just about identical to the Cotton On one, so yay! There’s nothing quite as valuable as an excellently fitting Tshirt pattern! and, bonus; they take barely an hour to whip up.

I finished the hems and sleeve edges with my twin needle, and since I was too lazy to wind up a new bobbin of pink, the double topstitching has one strand of pink, one of white. You can only really tell if you look right up close! and I kind of like it.

And that’s it for my Christmas pressie making this year!

Oh! I almost forgot! not a Christmas present, but a few months ago I also made a Named pattern Inari tee dress for her. This isn’t for work obviously, it’s just a casual, slop-around-at-home thing… the fabric was leftover from a hoodie that she made for herself previously, and she bought it in Tokyo during one of our holidays there. I added a kangaroo pocket at the front because, well you know; pockets! and finished the neckline and opening edges of the pocket with a bias binding; left off the slits and finished the bottom gently curving longer at the back than at the front, mimicking the high-low hem of the original pattern.

It’s not a very exciting dress, but she likes to wear it on the weekend, or in the evening when relaxing, or to watch tv and stuff. An after-work, but pre-pyjamas thing.

Ok, now that’s really it.

Now, to make something for meeeeeeeeee! she skips with a clear conscience to the sewing room, self-indulgent frippery in her heart…

(btw; I apologise for the terrible quality pictures. I just snapped most of these very quickly with my phone, on Christmas Day, as she tried everything on. I’m hoping she will give me a little time for me to take some nicer pictures sometime… but she’s currently away and I reeeeeally wanted to get these blogged before the end of the year, to round all my “made” things off! This post to be updated, in time!) Update; DONE IT!!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda magazine 02/2015/127, Cassie, dress, inari, named patterns, own design, skirt, top, Vogue 1247

some shirts…

27/12/2016 4:33 pm \ 42 Comments \ Carolyn

… in addition to luggage pressies, I made some shirts for those incredibly difficult to buy/make-for men in my life. Honestly, it would be so much more fun and frivolous if I only had girls to make stuff for, but you know. I love these big blokey-bloke creatures anyway.

My husband and sons all do like shirts fortunately, and I recently bought this new pattern, Burda 6874, and made a short-sleeved version for Craig, here. For these new ones though, I went with the full-on, long-sleeved version.
Prior to Christmas Craig and I went to several Christmas parties, and on on a fair few we encountered our good friend S, a man who is the most super-stylish, fashion-forward, hip dresser you could imagine in sleepy old Perth. Needless to say, he is not actually a born-and-bred Perth man.

I always look forward to seeing what he is wearing. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago he was sporting a floral shirt. And not a traditionally manly type of a floral, like a Hawaiian print or abstractly/discreetly masculine-y subdued-colour floral either, but a distinctly “pretty” floral with rambling roses in shades of pink and pale yellow. Well! With the way he’d styled it, with rolled up sleeves and faded blue jeans, it just looked so awesomely cool, it blew my tiny little mind. SO ON POINT!!! With brain a-buzzing, I forthwith made haste to the fabric store like immediately; to add some cool-dude florally goodness to Craig’s wardrobe. I should just slip in here, Craig is not much of a fashion-forward guy actually. To his credit, he wore this shirt on Christmas Day, and looked super cool. He garnered many compliments too, hehe (rubs nails on chest pridefully)

I also made a shirt for Sam. His is a fun and beautifully coloured feather print, that I just fell in love with, randomly. Oh, in each case, I’ve customised the fit of the pattern to suit each guy… Sam is my easy one, in that he just about perfectly fits a size 38. YAY!! Craig is not so perfect, ahem 😉 he still requires that 2cm extension out and down from each underarm point, plus the same modification to the sleeve/underarm point. Otherwise I run him up a straight size 40 with a little added length in the body too.

All fabrics and buttons are from Spotlight, both a crisp cotton print. Funny thing, while I was making each shirt, I kept each guy’s shirt super secret from that particular guy, but was less careful when that guy wasn’t around. So every now and again they would catch sight of the other one’s shirt. And even though I was careful to say to them, “btw, this is NOT for you!” they each privately thought the other’s shirts WERE for them, and were looking forward to wearing them! I’m sorry! but yes, I was telling the truth 😉

I altered things very slightly on each shirt… the pockets are different on each one. They both have two breast pockets; but Craig’s has arrow-pointed bottoms, and I did a little bar tack on the top edge of the topstitching, in lieu of the usual triangle. I don’t know why, just a whim. For Sam’s, the pockets have a rounded bottom, and the regular triangle at the top edges. I chose shiny black button for his shirt, to pick out the black feather borders, and unobtrusive, white, matte buttons for Craig’s shirt, to allow the floral to truly shine, hehe.

The other alteration I made for both was to make the sleeve plackets with an arrowhead top… the previous pattern I used Burda 7767, had this feature and I’ve just grown to like it. The Burda 6874 sleeve placket has a flat, rectangular head; I did use this pattern piece still, just cut it a little bit longer at the top and stitched it with the arrow head. I had to giggle at myself though, because there’s pretty good chance these shirts will ALWAYS be worn with the sleeves rolled up, they’re just that kind of shirt! and those immaculately stitched sleeve plackets won’t ever be seen. Ha!

When I wrote about this pattern previously, I mentioned how I always hand-slipstitch the inner collar in place before topstitching, and quite a few people commented how you could dispense with the hand-stitching; just press the SA in and topstitch and voila! However, maybe it’s just me, but I just do not get a very neat finish that way. I’ve tried it, but nearly have always ended up unpicking and re-doing little bits here and there, where it ends up a bit uneven. So, now I save myself the unpicking and just do the invisible hand-stitching, then topstitch from the outside; and get this satisfactory (to me) evenness in the collar finish. I suppose I am pretty pedantic, but I just cannot dispense with that step and I admire anyone who can.

topstitched on the outside

still looks kinda neat inside

In both shirts; all seams are flat-felled, including the armscye seam (tutorial for flat-felling a curved seam here) It’s a bit crazy, particularly given my very tight schedule for making Christmas gifts this year, but since I discovered that I could do this level of finish for my mens’ shirts, now I just can’t let it go and always have to do it. Really, it doesn’t add that much time overall. Sometimes I wish a little that I could go back to those days of carefree-ly zipping the seam allowances through the overlocker, but no. #sigh

This side seam, um… gusset/insert-thingy? don’t know what you should call it really, but this is a feature of the pattern. I love this! It’s just a little thing, but I think it looks really nice.

I’m planning to write a pattern review for this pattern too… but in a nutshell; LOVE almost everything about it! with the one exception of the instructions for doing the front buttonhole bands. Those are a little light-on and it’s not intuitive, really. You kind of have to work it out from scratch each time… I’m thinking of doing a little tute for myself to refer to in the future. Next time I make a shirt 🙂

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Burda 6874, Craig, mens shirt, pattern review, Sam, shirt

a whole swag of bags (portside by grainline)

26/12/2016 11:25 pm \ 32 Comments \ Carolyn

I haven’t felt like blogging very much, but absolutely must otherwise I’m going to get SO far behind… it’s time to get back on the wagon. I’ve been super busy busy BUSY, sewing up Christmas and birthday presents; including this bunch o’ stuff.

Luggage, or “travel sets’. This was my choice for a lot of my pressies for this year. I made three complete sets, plus four extra toiletries bags. Everyone (said they) loved them!
Pattern; the Portside travel set by Grainline Studio. I bought it during their Thanksgiving sale and got going on it immediately… It’s a nice little pattern for three pieces of luggage, a duffle bag, which is quite large, a “dopp kit” which is what we would call here a dilly bag or a toiletries bag, and a “pouch” which is a nice and handy, flat little purse-thing that you could store phone/device chargers, keys, cards, or just any small things that you don’t want getting lost as they knock about in the duffle bag.

Fabrics; all fabrics and bits and bobs are from Spotlight, except for the lining of Craig’s set, which is from Homecraft Textiles. The shells are constructed in thick, strong nylon drill from the upholstery section, intended for use in outdoor cushions and furniture, and all pieces are interfaced with the thickest, iron-on interfacing I could find. It stands up by itself rather nicely, and it should be nice and tough too! I lined everything with thin, waterproof, plastic-coated fabric, so the bags can be wiped clean inside. The interior of a dilly bag should be wipe-cleanable and waterproof in any case so your fabric doesn’t get stained and dirty from makeup/shampoo/toothpaste leakages, and I decided to use the same stuff for everything because I was thinking they all might want to sometimes use the duffle bags as gym bags, or alternately as beach bags. I just wanted all pieces to be both practical and tough.

Tim’s; made first. All grey/black/white, very masculine which at first I thought perfect for a professional young man. I actually made a matching grey/white dilly bag for him to start with, then suddenly felt all that extremely tasteful grey-and-white was all a bit plain-y plain blah blah blah, and decided it desperately needed an injection of FUN somewhere… we’ve been in sore need of fun around here lately… and Tim is naturally a pretty fun-loving kinda of a guy. When I saw this black/white Darth Vader/stormtrooper fabric in Spotlight, well it all just fell into place. I had bought some Star Wars Lego key rings for gifts when we were in Copenhagen last year; and had some leftover, and thought C3PO made a good zip pull for Tim’s bag.

Kelly’s set is all tropical palm print. Also fully lined with the same thin, white plastic waterproof fabric. And may I say… if only Spotlight had had this fabric in when I was planning my raincoat! I would not have resorted to using a shower curtain. But they didn’t. Oh Spotlight. you crazy hit-n-miss, lucky dip of a fabric store, you.

I also made a full three-piece set for Craig, for his birthday… the grey is the same as in Tim’s, and I bought a dirty camel-brown for the contrast, and a dull, air force blue webbing for the trim. I love these sludgy colours together, this one is actually my favourite colour combination out of all the sets… I didn’t like the thought of a white lining for this set, too stark; so went hunting for a “browner” alternative; and found this great, beige plastic at Homecraft Textiles. Actually, Homecraft Textiles had a really great range of waterproof fabrics… I’m seriously contemplating going there to get some raincoat fabric, hmmm.

In addition; I made two more of the Star Wars dilly bags; pretty much identical to Tim’s, except for the zip pulls. One was for Sam, and theother for Cassie’s boyfriend D. Unfortunately I only had one more of the Star Wars key chains, R2D2, which I put on Sam’s dilly bag; I had to promise D that if we ever got to Copenhagen again I would definitely get another key chain to finish his off to perfection!

I also made a pink flamingo dilly bag for my friend P, who LOVES hot pink and wears it a lot, thus the choice of this fabric. It’s funny, I wouldn’t have chosen this otherwise but I kinda fell in love with it while making it, and ended up utterly adoring it. Actually, it’s been pretty hard to part with any and all of these, for real 🙂

Finally, I made a second palm frond dilly bag, for another friend, M. She’s been so kind and sweet and generous to me all year, and I just wanted to make something for her. The only thing I’m super ashamed of is that I ran out of time and only just finished this one on Boxing Day, so it was a little late. Eeeeeeek!

I enjoyed making all of these.. the only difficulties I had was in getting the hardware, I cleaned my local Spotlight out of their entire supply of 25 and 35cm white and beige dress zips, 51cm white “chunky” zips, and also all their swivel clips and D-rings; completely! and had to visit Homecraft Textiles for more. I like the plastic swivel clips a lot; I know metal ones would be more “classy” and sure I could have found some online, but I just wanted everything lightweight and easy care, and I think these plastic ones are far more practical.

Some thoughts about the pattern and its construction… it is a good pattern, it works, fills a niche, all that; but I made a few minor little upgrades/mods/changes to the way I constructed mine, which I thought were an improvement to the outcome too.

As follows…

When sewing the side edges of the duffle bag and the dilly bag; start and stop the seams 1.2cm (1/2″) from the bottom edge… doing this makes it far easier to stitch the bag bottom piece on to each. Trust me, it really really does.

pictured here is the lower corner of a lining bag, but the same tip applies to the shell also

Also; before the stitching the lining bag to the inside of the zip tape: secure the linings to the duffle and dilly bags, between the shell and the lining bags, up the side seams and the four upper corners, as well as the bottom of each duffle bag. This helps further to keep the lining tamed firmly in place inside the bag, and not billow inside of the bag whenever you take things out.

Zips… the bane of our existence, no? Never the right length… for the duffle bag the pattern calls for 53cm zips, the closest I could find here in Perth was 51cm. To cover up the shortfall, I made a little inset bit to slip into the end of the seam covering the bottom of the zip. I think this looks really nice.

Likewise, the pattern calls for 33cm and 23cm zips; here they only come in 30cm and 35cm; and 20cm and 25cm. So for the 33cm; I bought 35cm zips and just cut the bottom ends off; and for the 23cm zips, well Spotlight ran out of the colours I needed and for several of the dilly bag pocketes I had to resort to a 20cm zip instead and made similar inserts to cover the bottom edge in the same way.

I added a little tab to the bottom end of each dilly bag zip, giving you something to grab at that end when you’re zipping it up. It’s just a short piece of the same webbing that I’d used for the duffle shoulder strap, folded in half and stitched in with the bottom of the zip. This helps a lot when you’re closing the bag.

I also lined inside the side pockets of the duffle bag, and also the side pocket of the dilly bag. It’s just neater and nicer, and more complete that way, I think.

To line the dilly bag pocket neatly… after stitching the upper side piece to the upper zip tape, lay the lining piece right side to the wrong side of the lower zip tape as pictured below, and stitch.

Proceed as per the pattern instructions, by topstitching the lower side piece over the lower zip tape

Not a mod, just a self-evident necessity; for the dilly bag I found I had to clip the freakin’ heck out of the top pieces, to get the top to fit in to the curve of the front/sides.

stretched out to the utmost…

Now, it has to be said; the complete absence of metric measurements in the Portside pattern is pretty annoying. When I saw this I was like, really?! I mean, I can forgive that in a pre-70’s vintage pattern… but not in a modern day pdf, sold internationally. It’s not a deal-breaker for me, but still, this is just not good enough. Sure, it’s not hard for us pattern purchasers to convert all the measurements ourselves and jot them directly onto our pattern, that don’t forget, we had to print out ourselves too; but when you’re paying $14 for it… well, I just don’t think you should have to do that.

Now it looks messy…. should NOT have to do this….

… I’ve only just noticed this; that under “gather your supplies” the list includes “sewing machine” ;D

… but I don’t want to end on a down note. Overall I’m pretty happy with my decision to buy and make it, well obviously, since I’ve made so many! Maybe I should … er, make one for me?!

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Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: accessories, bag, grainline studio, pattern review, portside travel set

Japanese Liberty shirt for Craig

04/12/2016 12:08 am \ 45 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve been sewing a new shirt for Craig… and feel quite bad actually because we bought this fabric for him during our visit to Japan last January… nearly a whole year ago! Yes, I feel terrible.

Anyway, now it has been made, finally, all done and dusted, better late than never!

Pattern: I even treated myself to a new mens’ shirt pattern! this is Burda 6874. My old favourite Burda 7767 is very very used now and a lot of the cutting lines have almost fretted away and a few are barely visible anymore. I’ve still got it and will use it for the collar variations, which have always been its best feature. This new pattern is very nice too; it is a basic yoked mens’ shirt pattern, quite slimline, more slimline that my old pattern! with two back variations, curved hemline, regular or hidden button band variations, long cuffed sleeves, a collar stand and collar which can be made as a regular collar or a button-down… and when it comes to that please don’t get me started on the widespread but incorrect use of the term “button-down” as it applies to shirts… my pet hate grrrrrr. Hint; it’s not about the shirt at all, but the COLLAR. If the collar buttons down onto the shirt, it is called a button-down shirt. If the collar does not button down onto the shirt, it is NOT a button-down shirt. Simples.

(deep breath) ok so this is clearly NOT a button-down shirt… as per Craig’s request I also made it with short sleeves and gave it a hidden button band. It’s interesting that the hidden buttons do not have even spacing under that band… the space between the second, exposed button and the next one down is shorter than the others… this made me a little nervous when I was stitching those buttonholes, I checked the pattern, and double-checked! and yep, it IS supposed to be like that!

Also above; I decided upon welt pockets rather than patch pockets. No, they can hardly be seen in amongst that busy print. I’ve made my peace with that, at last, though that was the motivating factor behind my decision to topstitch throughout with black thread, to make all the details of the shirt stand out a little more.

I made up the pattern almost as is, with just a slight custom-fitting alteration for Craig, namely extending the underarm by 2.5cm, and that same width to each side of the sleeves at the underarm too. This extra width is tapered away to nothing by the bottom of the sleeve. It’s a similar alteration I always did to Craig’s Burda 7767’s too, but slightly different/less exaggerated since the fit of the new pattern is slightly different. Or maybe Craig has slightly changed? always possible I suppose!

All seams are flat-felled, including the armscye seams, and see here for my tutorial on how to flat fell a curved armsye seam (as below). I also did the yoke using that burrito method, so there was no need for hand stitching. Still had to hand stitch the inner collar facing down though… I don’t think the method has been invented yet that can eliminate that!

Fabric; Japanese Liberty tana lawn, bought from Check & Stripe in Tokyo, during our holiday last January. Craig chose it himself; the little village and woodland scenes are so lovely. Do I wish I had bought more, and even a little bit for myself YES!! but oh well. I did buy plenty of other fabrics for myself, don’t worry. But oh! Liberty such a true delight to work with… its so pliable, smooth, even; it passes through the machine beautifully, folds and presses so crisply and perfectly. I just wish I could sew with it more often!! The little unobtrusive black buttons are from Spotlight. I know, not very worthy, huh. Bit of a letdown. Well, it’s not like the buttons are going to steal any shows here. That beautiful print does all the talking!