Tag Archives: Tutorial

Heather purple dress, part 1

14/01/2010 12:38 am \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

I have been sewing like mad over the past few weeks, what with the kids on holidays and I’ve got a break from my office work as we’re in the process of switching over computer systems, and I’ve nearly finished all of my autumn sewing plan. I finally finished my trench coat the other day; the belt buckle situation was a real hold-up, but I went op-shopping with my daughter and I picked up a nice heavy-ish brass one (attached to a ghastly PVC belt, I wouldn’t chop up a leather belt but PVC, hey, all bets are off!) I only have one item left to do on my plan and that’s the heather purple sheath dress. It was my husband who suggested I take some photos during the construction process and put them up here as a kind of progress report. After all, even my mother probably doesn’t want to look at photos of me every day! so I thought, good idea…. I think I’ll do this on alternate days for a while.
For my sheath dress I’m using Burda 8511, one I’ve used before four times. My first version I thoughtlessly put in the Good Sammy’s bin during a fit of cleaning madness, the second version is here, the third here, and the fourth is a winter dress I haven’t posted about on this blog yet. Although the third version is a loose shapeless dress, on each of the other versions I have fine-tuned the fitting of this dress and am quite happy with the simple chic of this style. For this one I want it to be quite formfitting.
I’m using hessian silk, from Fabulous fabrics, which has a sort of rich magenta warp with a sky blue weft, the final effect is a sort of dusky purple. For the lining I’m using mauve bemsilk, and I’ve got a 46cm “eggplant” invisible zip.
Variations I am doing on the pattern:
1. As this is to be an autumn/winter dress I’m lining the whole thing. (this is a bigger variation than it initially appears!)
2. The back is laid on a centre fold, eliminating the central back seam, and I’m relocating the zip to the left side seam.
3. I’m shaping my own neckline
4. The dress will be fitted to be way more form-fitting, as the original pattern is pretty shapeless. (again, a biggie)
5. The dress will sit above knee, so no need for a rear central slit.

Here are some of the pattern pieces, cut out. The front neckline (at left) is still uncut as I haven’t decided whether to make it rounded or square at this point yet (often a last-minute decision!) On my sewing plan I drew it as quite high necked, but then had second thoughts… I’ve also cut out full dress lining pieces.
As I am doing a whole dress lining, I’ve extended the facing pieces and made a composite facing/lining out of self fabric and bemsilk. (This is something I worked out successfully from the last time I made this dress)

Here are the facing/lining pieces; the front (at right) has been joined and edges finished (overlocked and topstitched down) and the back facing + lining are pinned ready for seaming (the whole bit at the top above the pins will be cut off with the seam!). The shaping and darting markings haven’t been transferred yet.

Here I have pinned the front and back pieces onto Bessie and marked my own fitting darts. These were perfected in my previous efforts using this pattern. Sorry, I’ve realised just now that some of the pins I used are small headed and so invisible in these photos! Doh, camera skills, please…

And here is the front piece with darts sewed in.

These same shaping darts are sewn in the lining also, although here I have sewn them approximately 5mm shallower on each longitudinal dart, for ease of movement. Then the front lining and front are pinned together at the neckline and armhole edge and sewn, likewise the back and its facing/lining piece.
At this point it is essential that the seams start and finish 1.5cm in from the raw edge (my unpicker is pointing to illustrate), and that the gaps at the top for your shoulder seams are exactly the same width front and back. This is real important. If they are not exact, there will be tears. Just saying.

The front (at right) has been sewn, and the seams graded and clipped, you can see I’ve decided on a demure curved neckline, and the back (at left) is just pinned.
At this point I stopped for the day, not because I wanted to, but because the family was starting to grizzle from hunger… must be dinner time already.
More in a couple of days..

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 8511, dress, Fabulous fabrics, own design, tutorial

A dye-job

13/01/2010 1:17 am \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

Looking through my wardrobe searching for new combinations of my clothes to wear each day, I am continually struck by how many of my shirts are … white… Yes, can’t seem to break my white shirt habit; I just love white shirts and always seem to have multitudes. By white, I’m including off-white, cream, beige, etc. My Mum would confirm it’s all I wanted to wear as I was growing up, just a white T-shirt and jeans/denim skirt. I still can’t stop buying and/or making them in the dozens.
This particular tank top I’ve had for about three years and in duplicate, and I have a hankering for a yellow top, so it was off to rummage through the spice box…
Ground turmeric, in my opinion, is a very reliable yellow dyer, with a pretty good colourfast factor. You only need a tiny quantity, and it’s a damn sight cheaper than purchasing a commercial dye, not to mention kinder to the environment, so is the dye of choice for a small item like this one. Of course, if you’re dying a whole sheet set, say, and you don’t want your bedroom smelling like a curry house because you failed to rinse sufficiently well; perhaps a commercial dye may be wiser. Of course a thorough rinsing would be essential anyway if you want to avoid waking up in the morning looking like a serious case of jaundice has struck during the night…
Woah, getting off track like I always do, we’re not dying a sheet set here, just a simple tee, so…
Before…

I soaked the tank top thoroughly, sprinkled a few shakes of ground turmeric into my wash-bucket (probably about half a teaspoon) A little bit of this goes a long way, and I wanted a gentle yellow wash not a really garish bright yellow. I’ve got nothing against garish bright yellow, but not this time…
I used about half boiling water straight from the kettle, then about half cold water, then dunked in the top in one swift plunge…. followed by lots of swirling, whooshing (technical terms), soaked for a few hours for good measure, then rinsed THOROUGHLY. And I’m a good greenie, I poured the rinsings over all my pot plants…

And I have a great “new” tank top to mix and match for some new looks.
This skirt I’ve posted about previously, it’s the same pattern as the skirt I posted about yesterday, but view C. I love this new colour of the top; its an almost lime-y acidic yellow which I think will carry me through autumn and should combine well with and cheer up the grey beiges, greys and even blacks of winter. Am I starting to fantasise just a leetle of autumn/winter already? that’s because I saw on the news last night we are expecting a couple of days of over 40C, oh, joy…

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7880 view C, printed cotton
Top; Country Road; dyed with ground turmeric
Hat; Rusty, from the surf shop at Dunsborough
Sandals; Anna, bought from Marie Claire

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: dyeing, Fabulous fabrics, skirt, tutorial, Vogue 7880

A collar tute

07/01/2010 2:14 am \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

As part of my autumn sewing plan I’m making a mustard top, and actually remembered to take a few pictures during the construction process… My mum has a Threads magazine-produced video of Louise Cutting demonstrating all these wonderful sewing tips and she showed a great way of cutting out and constructing collars that eliminates some seams, thus some of the bulk inside the collar. The extra fabric of seam allowances in collars can sometimes spoil the whole look of your lovely flat crisp sharp edged collar you had envisioned, and I thought I’d give this method a whirl.
Here goes.
Firstly, you get your collar piece and make a new collar piece like so;

trace your collar piece with the centre marked (at right above), then flip over the pattern piece and re-lay the same piece, overlapping at the SEAM ALLOWANCE line (1.5cm in from the cutting edge) If this isn’t marked on your pattern piece, you can mark it on yourself for accuracy (I haven’t because I’m slack). Then trace around this piece again in its new position, and at the 2nd centre (at top left in the photo above) ADD A NEW SEAM ALLOWANCE, seen at the very top. This whole final thing is your new collar piece. The final centre of this new collar pattern piece is where it was in its original position when you first laid the pattern piece down, on the paper edge at far right in the photo above (I’ve marked it in the photo but it may be difficult to see my scribblings…) Cut out your new collar piece, placing the centre on the fold.

You will end up with a collar piece that has one portion on the grain (the first one traced, your upper collar) and one portion on the bias (the second one traced, your under collar) Now, with right sides together, sew the seam allowance of your 2nd (under collar) centre, you know, the one you added a seam allowance to when tracing the pattern. In the photo above the unpicker/pointer is pointing to this seam.
Now open out this seam and press, then with right sides together sew the outer collar edge seam. In the photo below the under collar is facing up and my unpicker/pointer thingy is pointing to this new seam.

Now clip and grade your seams as per usual, turn and press, blah blah. In the next photo I’ve added the collar stand. Not quite sure why I’ve included this photo as it doesn’t really add anything, but seemed a natural progression in photo taking at the time…

And in this next photo is the finished collar on its stand. Already you can see the points of the collar are nice and crisp, in spite of the fact that this collar has quite an acute angle which would normally be a challenge to get a nice sharp point on the end. This is because of the elimination of one of the seams at this point.

And here is the collar finished and attached with its stand to the shirt (although sans sleeves at this point…)

One of the downsides to this method I reckon is the extra fabric requirement as its an awkward pattern piece to work with, but if you’re clever you can sort your pattern pieces around it to get the best layout using minimal fabric.
My final verdict? This method works well for just a simple collar on a top that hasn’t been “tailored” as such, and expects the upper and lower collars to be cut from the same pattern piece… Will I use it again? If I can be bothered with the extra cutting out of a new pattern piece, and if a crisp sharp collar is a priority, then yes.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Collars, tutorial

Cool and casual for a hot hot day

21/12/2009 2:18 am \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

Remember this bright bright white top? Almost needed your sunnies just to look at it?

And do you remember me saying I thought I had way too many white tops and it was time for a dye-job?

So, I do from time to time use dyes bought in the chemist, or at a craft shop. But for preference I will use a natural dye, or something I already have to hand about the house. I wanted to make this top a sort of blotchy blue/brown colour, so hunted about for possible candidates to produce this sort of effect. I made last year a jacket for myself out of navy blue hessian silk, which has been a marvellous jacket, but runs like mad when it is washed. And I mean, like when it is dipped in the tub the water goes like ink. Luckily, being silk, I was handwashing from the word go…

Anyway, time to put this to good use. I also grabbed a half bottle of instant coffee that had been languishing in the pantry for months (now my husband has his coffee machine it’s nothing but the best around this place, although some of my friends fortunately prefer instant so I always keep a jar handy)

Did the coffee soaking first (24 hrs),

followed by the jacket washings soak (another 24 hrs),

and voila, I’m very happy with my “new” top. It didn’t really end up with the hoped for blue/brown splodges, but is more of an aquamarine/sepia all-over washed effect, and actually goes beautifully with the nacre buttons that I had already used on the shirt.