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Billowy white shirt

17/02/2012 6:55 am \ 35 Comments \

I’ve made a shirt… and the twist is that this was until recently a pair of trousers.  Yes really!
Before; as wide-legged trousers.  They were very low-rise in the style of about five years ago.   I could literally pull these trousers on and off without undoing the zip.  The last time I wore them was about two years ago (in this top right outfit) and even then I had the zip un-zipped and the sides lapped over and hoinked together with a big safety pin so they wouldn’t fall down.

However the linen was such beautiful quality! and I did not want to let it go to waste…
so I did not.  ðŸ™‚
I have been toying with a particular concept for a shirt-from-pants for a while in my head.  I’ve had a very firm picture of how it was going to go together.  Naturally my nebulous “idea” didn’t work out quite the way I had planned and I realised at some point that I needed more fabric, and in very different shapes, to what I actually had.  I had to pin, stitch, unpick, re-pin, re-stitch, re-unpick over several times before I dared to actually cut into any of the leg pieces… and there was a lot of this before I ended up with a design I was happy with.  No, I don’t do muslins very often.  I consider them a waste of fabric.
The construction… well, don’t ask me to go into great detail…  it was quite complex.  The long extended front bands, starting at the shoulders and extending down the fronts, and continuing around to meet at the centre lower back are from my original shirt plan, the one I had to abandon.  I liked how they looked, hanging in space like that, so I left them there.  To cover the join at the back, which by necessity in the design finished inside out with the seam showing, I made a little decorative button tab.

The shirt has two fronts, and the back has a two pieced yoke extending into the sleeve backs, and two lower backs joined centrally.
The back of the shirt has four corners of fabric joining together at a centre point.  I pressed the vertical seam allowances of the upper and lower backs to either side to reduce bulk in the long horizontal back seam joining them.  This is double top-stitched down.  Actually this shirt contains an eclectic mix of sometimes double top-stitching, sometimes single top-stitching and sometimes no top-stitching.  I applied these at whim.  It seems to work well with the casual and slightly avant-garde Japanese style of the shirt.
My favourite design detail is the sleeves and their closure.  The front sleeve is shorter, and almost a square.  The back yoke/sleeve piece has a distinct curve-and-flare in it, tapering off to one side, this was part of the original shape of the leg back pieces, and after lots of pinning the sleeve seams and trying-on multiple times I situated part of the existing curve to fall at the natural outer elbow. It looks very strange when the sleeve is laid flat, but the flare and curve actually accommodates the curve of the elbow very well.  It took a bit of experimenting, but I’m so happy with how this bit turned out!  It was a very serendipitous discovery!

Both points of the longer back yoke/sleeve piece have a buttonhole, and they both button down over a single button on the centre of the sleeve front hem.  To enable the button to cope with this amount of fabric, I sewed it to have quite a high and a very well reinforced shank.

So I’m super happy with how my shirt turned out!  There was almost zero leftovers, just a few shavings, the zip and the facings, and a few other miscellaneous small bits.  The 6 buttons were leftovers from this shirt.  Beautiful buttons, their only downside is that they are not for individual purchase, but only available on cards of nine.  Luckily I have a lot of use for little white buttons  ðŸ™‚
And I still have my original shirt idea in my head for another time…

Details:
Shirt; my own design, re-fashioned from a pair of wide-legged trousers, fine white linen
Shorts; Burda 7723, hot pink linen, details here, and to see these in 6 different ways go here.  My review of this pattern here

Later edit: the shirt has had a mini-revamp and it now looks like this:


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Valentine’s Day…

13/02/2012 11:56 pm \ 10 Comments \

…. and Fabio says it with flowers.
Wishing everyone a perfectly love-ly day!

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Curtains…

12/02/2012 6:12 am \ 29 Comments \

I have been sewing curtains!
This is our central hallway, an area that has been curtain-less since… well, since ever.  It has a very big and long window, which is fabulous for getting plenty of natural light inside.  But it did need something insulative for these really hot hot days of summer.  And we have no carpets in the house, which is perfect for keeping the place cool, but also means that soft furnishings are even more essential to soak up noise and add softness visually to the architecture.
Luckily our taste in home furnishings runs to very unfussy, plain and minimalist.  Even so, I have been steadily and craftily procrastinating for yonks, devising lame reasons as to why I could not get on with it.  High up on my list of excuses was the lack of a curtain rail.  Then about a year ago, my husband put up a curtain rail.  A quietly guilty period followed.  Occasional pleas for curtains were deftly fended off.  I had to be imaginative in this respect, you understand; had to think on my feet.  A lack of fabric was not the problem, since in a whimsically optimistic moment during a Spotlight sale ages ago I had actually purchased enough curtaining fabric for the entire house.  It has been sitting in a big roll underneath the stairs, taunting and mocking me with its whole still-unmade-into-curtains state.
Sewing home wares is not a joy to me, and particularly curtains.  Mostly because they are unwieldy and I have to commandeer the dining room, kick everybody else off and out and carry my machines over and set up on the dining room table since my little bench in the laundry where I usually sew could not possibly cope with the massive swathes of fabric.  Also, curtains are boring.  But while sewing together massively big rectangles in straight seams might seem easy and without any challenges doesn’t mean one should get blase about it… I had a wake-up call when I was distractedly overlocking the fluffy selvedge edge off a vertical joining seam, not paying enough attention, and on checking it later noticed to my horror that, underneath, I had overlocked a massive tuck of curtain into the seam…..  noooo!  But I was incredibly lucky…  The tuck was a narrow one and the fabric in it had avoided being sliced by the overlocker’s knife by a scant millimetre…. seriously!!  I unpicked the tuck and all was well….. phew!  That was a warning… and I sat up and took much better care from then on….!
The curtains are not super fabulous.  They are OK.  I think you can tell by looking at them they were not made with much love…  The best thing about them??? they are finished.

Oh, technical details; each side has two and a half drops of fabric, hems are 10cm and the top is triple pleated…. and no, I did not pose the pussycat.  She happened come over at the right time and I took advantage of the fact that she matched the decor….
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Fashionary

10/02/2012 5:18 am \ 23 Comments \

Thank you for those compliments on my sketch in the previous post; but I have to own up right now that I’m not really much of an artist…  I cheated!  ðŸ™‚
My “artistry” is all thanks to the Fashionary….

I first heard of the Fashionary about two years ago and immediately got one for myself and one for Cassie that Christmas (and posted about here).  I bought them here; and if you click on that link you can see how other truly artistic people are producing absolutely beautiful fashion drawings like mini works of art in their Fashionarys, compared to my very basic sketches depicting my prosaic little sewing plans in a practical manner without frills nor spills.  That is pretty much why I do not usually post my pictures of my own rather ordinary sketches up here….
But I still use it to mock up most of my ideas before they get made, and I looove to play with it!
Why?
well first and foremost, it is fun!  It’s like being in kindergarten all over again, except in a grown-up and (ahem) acceptably adult format….  It caters to that wannabe fashion designer inside of me, yet dispenses with that pesky requirement to have any actual drawing talent…  
Since it is so easy!  Just like doing dot-to-dot drawings when you were a teeny kiddy…
Most of the notebook comprises pages of these templates of figures; 3 to each single page.  You can get a female one or a male one.  They are drawn in with very faint red dots; like so…
and since I realise they are very faintly drawn in and you might not be able to see them very well, I have pencilled one in to show it off better…

When a new sewing plan or outfit or something starts to transpire in my head, or maybe if I am toying with ideas, then it is sketching time, and even better; colouring-in time…
Here’s one I prepared earlier  ðŸ™‚  (it’s unrecognisable, but the one on the left is supposed to be my Sunset maxi-dress, lol!)

And a hint of autumnal things to come  ðŸ˜‰

Cassie, a far more well-organised person than her mother, also keeps samples of the fabrics along with her sketches, and actually remembers to take it shopping with her.  This is an excellent idea that I really must adopt too… would take the guesswork out of thread and button matching…

I find my Fashionary useful to keep me on the straight and narrow, to keep me to my fabric and sewing “promises” to myself if you like.  The act of drawing up my design sort of commits me to it.  Like, there it is all drawn up and coloured in, now I have to make it happen!
Once I’ve completed sewing the garment I put a little tick beside it, thus satisfying my list-keeping-and-ticking-things-off tendencies.
And, did I mention it is fun?

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White, with a navy grid

07/02/2012 1:21 pm \ 33 Comments \

I’ve made a new little top….   well, just a summer version of a T-shirt really, from scraps, the leftovers from this shirt.  Constructively finishing off another small wad of fabric from my stash.  Smug self back-patting ensues.
This stuff is pretty good top/blouse/shirt fabric.  It is uncrushable and beautifully light.  Sam has been wearing his shirt stacks.  And luckily has no neuroses about his mother having a garment in the same fabric, although for both our sakes I have undertaken to only wear it if he’s not wearing his.
We do have some pride.  ðŸ™‚
I had dreamed that this top would be cut on the bias, with those gridlines laying diagonally across the design, and to have little kimono/cap sleeves, like my preliminary sketch below.  I thought it would look pretty cool like that, and had been thinking about it long enough that my heart was virtually set on it.  But cutting on the bias is such a fabric hog, demanding way more than I actually had and so my plans were sadly not to be….  Visiting the fabric store to purchase just a leeettle bit more to indulge myself was pretty tempting as the fabric was not price-y, and still plentifully stocked.  But I had to admit that doing so would utterly defeat any aspirations to green-dom.  sigh
So …
I used the pattern for top “a” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa, a very simple design that really does use a very tiny amount of fabric.  In its simplest pared-back form this is a fab basic little top pattern.  I grudgingly economically cut the pieces out on the straight…. which might not look as cool as my original idea, but is very effective for stash busting  ðŸ™‚  And it is a good useful and casz little summer top.
The seams are all French seams.  It doesn’t have any closure but can just be pulled on over my head.  I left off the stipulated bias finish to the armholes and neckline, and instead made three sort of tubes or funnels to finish the apertures off.  The sleeve tubes are just single fabric width, and sewn into the armholes and finished with a little hem, and the neckline tube is doubled over, and slipstitched invisibly down on the inside. 

Details:
Top; modified top “a” from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like by Natsuno Hiraiwa, in navy and white check stuff.  I have made this pattern up twice before, here and here….
Skirt; Vogue 1248, white cotton voile, details and my review of this pattern here
Thongs; Mountain Design

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An casual edging for knits

05/02/2012 3:29 am \ 32 Comments \

I used this great edging for some of my latest T-shirts.  This is a nice casual look for thin floppy knits that don’t fray very much.  It works really well on those fabrics that want to curl up spontaneously… and it’s always a good idea to listen to what the fabric wants to do and work with it rather than struggling to force it into submission…
Firstly, when you cut out the sleeves, cut them about 2.5cm longer than you want, and then slice off this extra length.  
(Oh, for the neckline, you have to measure the finished length of the edge of your neckline, and cut out a 2.5cm width strip (with the length going the stretchy way, natch) the same length, plus 2cm for seaming.  I didn’t take any photos of the neckline finishing, sorry…. maybe next time 🙂 but it’s essentially the same process from here on)

With right sides together, sew the sleeve seam, and the seam of the strip to form a ring.

Take your sleeve edge strip and fold it wrong sides together in half along its long length, over and enclosing the raw lower edge of the sleeve.

Pin in place.

Using a twin needle on your machine, stitch the strip down, keeping the stitching a perfectly even length from the folded edge.

So, you end up with this, which doesn’t look particularly… wow.  In its ironed, just-been-neatly-sewn state.  But wait…

…after washing, the raw edge of the knit will curl up nicely, creating a tight little ridge over the stitching.

Then I dyed the T-shirt using iDye in Crimson, which throws the blue stitching into focus.  Of course, if you don’t want contrasting top-stitching to show up as a feature on your garment; you must choose a thread colour that is going to blend in with your final colour after dyeing, as I did for my “bat” shirt.  In that case, I top-stitched with a black thread, since in that design I wanted the top-stitching to blend in, and the shirt was going to become a deep deep brown.  But in this case I like the tiny accent of blue on an otherwise very plain shirt.  And the way the raw edge of the edging has curled up and over the lower row of stitching is very pleasing.  I think it looks a little bit like piping.

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Some basics…

04/02/2012 1:35 am \ 30 Comments \

Nothing in this post is write-home-about exciting, but I have been laying down some handy layering basics for the cooler days that will be coming up …. sometime? …  ðŸ™‚  I’m thinking ahead, to autumn.  Planning, you know.  Being organised   hehehe 🙂

Remember this dress?  I put it on recently and my husband announced kindly but firmly that he thought it was weird.  His words sounded its death knell.  I have put this on once or twice since I made it and each time felt sorta… well yes, now you mention it, weird is exactly the right word.  I finally acknowledged that the fabric was wrong for the design, too thick and heavy and with too much body to drape gracefully enough.
My bad.  I now know that with a lot of the Pattern Magic 3 designs you do need reeeeally drape-y fabric (hmmm, I think I’ve said that before; once or twice, or ten times…) On the plus side I still like the bodice part of the dress and I had also used the leftovers of the same fabric to make a successful little T-shirt sooooo;
bit of butchery re-fashioning later…

and now we have…
I added waist bands and armbands.

and…

and…

not from the dress, but squeezed from the fabric leftovers …

T-shirt 1: I added waist bands and armbands to the bodice of the dress.
T-shirt 2: dyed with 1/4 tsp iDye in Crimson.  I’m very happy with this Tshirt, both its shape and the lovely cranberry colour.
T-shirt 3: dyed along with the “bat” Tshirt in iDye in Brown, then in the leftovers of the iDye Crimson dye-bath of T-shirt 2.  I love the tawny port colour it turned out, but there’s something “funny” about the proportions.  I wish now I had scooped the neckline a little more than I did.  Maybe this will just be an “underneath cardis and jumpers” kind of a Tshirt…
Tshirt 4: the first T-shirt made from the leftovers after the dress, using the same fabric and the same pattern as these other T-shirts, and it hasn’t been shown it here before….  It has a banded neckline and sleeve bands, and a turned up, hand-stitched hem.

I also made this using the last leftovers of bright cobalt blue fabric (same as the “bat” shirt) and it went into the iDye Crimson dye-bath simultaneously with the cranberry T-shirt 2 above.  I love the deep royal purple colour that it is now; will layer well with the jewel tones of the other T-shirts for some groovy colourful winter layering, when the time comes  ðŸ™‚   The texture of that cheap n’ cheerful fabric has to be one of my favourite knits ever.  I just wish it had come in ivory, rather than that intense blue colour.  Just think of the dyeing possibilities.  They would have been infinite  ðŸ˜€

Apart from the first Tshirt pictured, which is the original bodice of the dress on p18 of Pattern Magic 3 by Tomoko Nakamichi, the others are made up using the pattern formerly known as Burdastyle 06/2011, 120 first written about here.  In order to get a nice fit that pattern has been shaved and sliced and diced and completely and utterly altered until each and every seam-line is different from the original.  As well, I don’t use the neckline facing pieces at all.  As for the zip?? well forgetaboutit ….So I guess it can’t lay claim to being Burdastyle 06/2011, 120 anymore.
But my carved-up version is a great fitting T-shirt pattern now…  ðŸ˜€  Yay for that!

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Top; Gone a bit Batty

01/02/2012 7:04 am \ 23 Comments \

My latest project.  Do you like the name?  I know, right?  I could get a job at Anthropologie, thinking up delightfully poetic tag-lines for the clothing, for sure.  I am sometimes capable of romanticism, and dreaming up evocative monikers, conjuring up a magical wonderland way of thinking and engaging the senses in a positive way.  I could have gone with something along the lines of Black Magic, or Chocolate Swirl or Liquorice Twist.  Nicer, yes?  But a twisted sense of humour prevents me from behaving all “delightful” all the time.
Besides, have a look at it, spread out on the lawn, recovering from its dye-job.  Decidedly bat-like, I think.

So, this is one variant of the design from p47 of Pattern Magic 3, by Tomoko Nakamichi.  Like much of Pattern Magic 3 so far, I thought this a very easy project.  My thoughts with this one, a very drape-y knit is essential to allow the pointy bits to flop down into each other attractively; and when you put it on you have to pull and fold the layers to sit just so or it can look a bit weird.
Side views:

It started out its life this colour below, and then subjected to 1/4 tsp iDye, in Brown.  I initially bought 2m of this brilliant blue fabric which as well as being very cheap had the added advantages of being very light, very drape-y and 100% cotton.  However I only have room in my life for one bright blue top and so dyeing was always on the cards for anything made out of the leftovers. 

And yes, I have been doing a lot of dyeing lately.  Actually, to say I have run a dyeing marathon would be no exaggeration.  I’ve been on a fair dinkum dyeing bender!!
But results of the exciting dye-fest will have to wait until pictorial evidence has been collected.  You have been warned…
I finished the neckline and armholes by simple turning under the raw edge and topstitching with a twin needle.  This is a great and very easy finish for knits, not as polished a finish as the banded edge, but the perfect choice for something like this top where bands would have visually been too much detail on a top that is already chocka with textural detail.  Those little shark fins at the hips are as much detail as the eye can take in my opinion, and the plainer the rest of the garment the better.

Details:
Top; from Pattern Magic 3 by Tomoko Nakamichi, bright cobalt blue cotton jersey dyed with iDye in Brown
Shorts; modified Burda 7723, of yellow embroidered cotton, details here
Sandals; Misano, from MarieClaire shoes

Over-exposed and super highlight-ed to show up the folds better… and doesn’t this make the sky look amaaazing??

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