Sew My Stash Sunday – 15

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Posted on May 10, 2015

Today I made a start on sewing a shirt I cut out a few weeks ago. It is a piece of material that was given to me some time ago and I am making a shirt for my daughter. This is an illustration of the pattern I am using.

I am using flat fell seams wherever possible on the shirt. This is the type of seam that is generally used in purchased business shirts, boxer shorts and jeans. This article explains the method very clearly. I like to use them as they provide extra strength and there are no raw edges inside the garment.

Here is a close-up of a section of the finished side seam. The triangular section on the right-hand side is the side dart on the front.

I have sewn the side darts in the fronts as well as long darts in the back which will create a nice fit. The shoulder seams and side seams are done.

The shirt has a two-piece collar – collar and band, but I think I overlooked drafting the piece for the band. I got side-tracked while I looked for the other piece and the sewing ground to a halt. Hopefully, I will get some more done this week. In the meantime I will need to buy some buttons as I do not have anything suitable in my collection

Sew My Stash Sunday – 14

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Posted on April 26, 2015

I have a completed garment to share with you this week.

This is the top I have made to take to Singapore later in the year. I bought the fabric a couple of months ago at Sckafs Fabrics at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. The prices are not cheap but they have a range of top-quality fabrics that you won’t find in Spotlight or Lincraft. This is a lightweight 100% cotton fabric but it looks luxurious and would be suitable for wearing in the evening.

I made a prototype here and the only adjustment I have made is to make the sleeves a bit longer so that they are elbow-length.

Remember this skirt?

Weeks ago I said that it was finished apart from the handsewing – yoke facing and hem. It has remained in that state for several weeks but today I did the hem and hopefully the facing will be done by next week. It was this skirt that I had in mind when I chose the fabric for the top. There are many colours in the floral pattern, including mint green. I think the top will look equally good with black or white trousers.

This skirt was even less advanced so today I attached the yoke and facing, inserted the zip and hemmed it. There is now only the handstitching on the facing to do.

The reason I did not finish the skirts completely was that I ran out of daylight. I find handsewing in artificial light quite difficult so prefer to do it during the day. Even though the skirts are not quite finished, I am pleased with my progress this week.

Sew My Stash Sunday – 13

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Posted on April 12, 2015

The black lawn to line the yoke of the blouse has been bought, cut out and pinned to the yoke pieces. That is where the sewing stopped for this week. A birthday celebration and houseguests, including grandchildren put paid to any more sewing.

However, there has been some activity in the sewing room.

I found a use for this set of mini-drawers which came from my mother. They are now on my sewing table and contain various small sewing items.

Next, I repositioned this chest of drawers to sit under the table. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before. I previously had to move them, and they are very heavy, every time we needed to pull the trundle bed out.

Finally, I did do some fabric work this afternoon, although it was not strictly sewing. I started cutting some old t-shirts that i got on Freecycle into strips. My plan is to make a plaited floor rug like this.

I have plaited this piece which is about 8 metres in length, so far. I will need quite a bit more before I have enough so keep watching for the finished article.

The stash has grown rather than shrunk this week as I was given some fabric by a work colleague. More about that another time.

Sew My Stash Sunday – 12

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Posted on April 5, 2015

I am pleased to report that I have actually finished something. Remember this trial from a couple of weeks ago?

Well, I went and bought the silver/grey lawn to line the front yoke. It cost me the princely sum of $1.80. I then made the top with one slight alteration from the original pattern. I made the front 8cm narrower as I felt there was too much fullness in it for my liking.

It was simple and easy to make and has no fastenings of any kind. I am really pleased with the look of the finished garment and am looking forward to wearing it. It is easy to forget that this was only ever a prototype so it is an added bonus that I get a pretty top to wear as well.

Buoyed by the success of my trial I was ready to cut out the next top. Here are the pieces cut out and ready to sew.

As with the first top, I need to buy some lawn for the lining of the yoke and the back neck facing so that is on my ‘to do’ list for this week. I would normally use the same fabric for the lining and facing, however, in both of these instances the fabric is so fine that the pattern from the lining pieces could show through and disrupt the look of the finished garment.

Flashback Friday

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Posted on April 3, 2015

As with all new projects, ‘Flashback Friday’ is being fine-tuned. As well as linking back to the original post I am going to copy and paste it into a new post. So, here goes…..this is from August 2012 just before Izz turned 3.

I have been making a gift for Izz for her birthday. She has a doll’s bed which has been passed down to her but no bedding.

I bought 2 u-shaped pillowcases recently from the op shop. Here is one that I have unpicked ready to use. Note the roll of fabric which is the dismantled and pressed frill.

The Duke bought a piece of foam cut to size for the mattress and I have covered that using some of the pillowcase fabric.

The next step was to make a patchwork quilt. I worked out the size and number of pieces I would need. The plain pink is more of the pillowcase, plain mauve from a piece in my stash of fabric, Dora pattern is a few leftover scraps from the doona cover and curtains that I made for Miss O last year and the pink patterned fabric is from a blouse I picked up at the op shop. The frill is the one I unpicked from the pillowcase. The hemmed edge remained intact so I simply regathered it and reapplied to the quilt edge.

I bought a large piece of cotton/bamboo batting for a bed quilt I am working on for Izz’s bed so I used a small piece for this quilt. (I think this is a rather spoiled doll!) The backing is more leftovers from some op shop fabric. I quilted it by simply machine stitching along the seam lines which is nothing fancy but seems effective.

The finishing touch was to make a matching pillow. A couple more fabric scraps and some salvaged filling from an old cushion and I had a complete set of bedding for the doll. Here is the mattress with the pillow.

The total cost of things I bought specifically for this project was $6.60. This is a gift which I know will be loved regardless of the cost. I am looking forward to seeing Izz’s face when she opens the gift.

Now I need to work on the the bed quilt I am making as well since her birthday is in 2 weeks and I want to be able to give her the present before we go on holidays.

In the interests of presenting a complete picture here are a couple of photos I took when she received her parcel.

Sew My Stash Sunday – 11

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Posted on March 29, 2015

The recurring theme of these posts lately seems to be how little I have done. This week has been no exception to that pattern.

This photo of my ironing board covered in fabric tells this week’s story. I decided to take a break from dressmaking and make a start on a cover for my KitchenAid mixer which lives on the bench in the corner of my kitchen. I bought this fabric a few months ago. It is off-white with black silhouettes of kitchen utensils which seemed perfect to use for this project. I washed and ironed the fabric this morning and found various pieces of calico for the lining. I intend to use some bamboo batting to pad it and machine quilt the pieces before assembling the cover. I have cut out the calico pieces.

The mauve and blue floral top which I started last week has come to a grinding halt as I need to buy some fabric to line the front yoke and cut a facing for the back neckline. It is not feasible to use the same fabric because the pattern will show through. I thought I could use some plain white lawn but it shows through a too bright, if that makes sense. I tested for a suitable colour by placing a pale grey t-shirt behind the fabric and that colour works perfectly so I will buy some silver/grey lawn fabric this week and hopefully will get back to that top before next Sunday comes around.

Sew My Stash Sunday – 10

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Posted on March 22, 2015

Another week has flown by and the sewing had not been touched. Before I could start sewing I had to do the ironing and there was quite a bit as I did not do it last weekend and had just ironed a few things during the week to keep us going. I got it all done early this morning and then we headed out for a few hours with our overseas guest. This afternoon has been wet so it was a good excuse to sew rather than being out in the garden.

I could have finished the hand sewing on the green skirt or finished making the denim one but I decided that I needed a change of scenery. The first thing I did was cut out a white shirt for my daughter from the pattern I had drafted a couple of weeks ago.

Then I moved on to drafting another pattern. I have given quite a bit of thought to what style I would use for this piece of fabric.

I drafted the top from this ensemble but with a few modifications.

The neckline will be a ‘v’ rather than square. The lower edge of the sleeves and body will have a few rows of shirring elastic rather than being gathered into a band.

I decided to make a prototype before cutting into my new fabric that I bought especially to make this top. In the spirit of using up my stash, I found a pretty piece of lightweight fabric which was given to me a year or so ago. Despite much thought I had never been able to come up with an idea of how to use it and there is just over 4 metres of fabric. So at least some of it is now the prototype.

To get an idea of how it might look I decided to simply baste the pieces together in the first instance.

This is not a particularly flattering photograph but it gives an idea of the style.

Things I discovered:

I can easily get it over my head
The neckline is perfect
I will cut the sleeve a bit longer next time
I am going to recut the front body as there is too much fullness in the front
When I cut the pattern in the good fabric I will straighten the side seams and take out the little bit of shaping at the waistline

Even though this is just a test run, I really like the fabric and I am sure it will earn a place in my wardrobe.

Old News

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Posted on March 18, 2015

While I have been sorting through the blog photos, I have come across some that I took to use in blog posts that never eventuated. Maybe it was because something more exciting came up or I simply did not get around to it.

Anyway, here are some that were sitting in a folder just waiting for the story to be written.

I noticed these small holes just below the collar on one of The Duke’s polo shirts. It was where the label was stitched on and it was beginning to tear away as there was only a single layer of fabric and no facing.

I carefully unpicked the label.

The next step was to iron a small piece of fusible interfacing to the wrong side. This helps to reinforce the fabric.

I then stitched over the holes using a zigzag stitch. The thread was a close match and the mend is barely visible. It is certainly an improvement on the holes that were there.

Finally, I trimmed the interfacing back close to the stitching and the repair was complete.

In future, I think I will remove any labels that are on a single layer of fabric when the garment is new to avoid this happening.

Oh, and you may have noticed that ‘The Duke’ still exists. Thank you for your suggestions and I have have come up with a couple but none of them really captured his imagination so I will ponder a bit more. It is enough of a challenge to change once but I do not want to find myself in the same position in the future.

Sew My Stash Sunday – 9

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Posted on March 8, 2015

I have made steady progress this week with my sewing.

I cut out and have started sewing my next skirt.

The pockets, side seams, yoke and facing are stitched. I had hoped to get more done today but Miss O and Izz came to stay. It is pretty well a full-time job to keep them fed and entertained so sewing took a back seat.

The green skirt now has a zip.

I actually added to my stash early in the week when I bought this piece of fabric.

The photograph does not really tell the full story. It is lightweight with a variable texture and is 100% cotton. I paid $35/metre which seems a lot but for $52 I will have a gorgeous quality blouse to wear with the green skirt. This will be my ‘good’ outfit if we go out in the evening when we are in Singapore. I have not made a final decision on the exact style of the blouse yet.

My other achievement was to draft the pattern for a long-sleeve shirt for my daughter. I hope the cut it out next week.

Sew My Stash Sunday – 8

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Posted on March 1, 2015

Sadly, I have not done any sewing this week. I had a particularly busy week at work this week so the weekend was mostly devoted to household chores like washing and ironing. I probably could have squeezed some sewing in today but instead I helped The Duke build another raised garden bed. More about that another day.

I have also been working on re-installing the photos into all of the old posts. It is a slow process but I am making progress.

So, I lieu of any new sewing projects I thought I would share this blog post from 2012. It sounds as though nothing much has changed – I am still trying to tidy up my sewing room and complete some projects!