Going for Casual

This is my most recent make, because blogging about things in the order I make them just isn't the done thing!

Sophie is the new pattern release by Muse Patterns.  Sophie is a cute, sporty cardigan - a fitted style, which curves gently in at the waist and flares out again over your hips. Raglan sleeves add a casual touch and also give great opportunities for mixing fabric, which is exactly what I did.

I was lucky enough to be one of the testers for this pattern.  I cut a size 36. BTW I love the sizing of Muse Patterns - they are designed for the taller woman with a slightly bigger bottom half than top half, so I pretty much fit straight into a 36.

This pattern comes with so many collar options and front closure options that every version I've seen so far looks completely unique.  I chose to make the v-neck button up version, but as you can see I applied domes instead of buttons.

Oh, and there are two different pocket options.  I was really taken by the half circle at the side seam.

The entrance is just enough to fit my hand into, and spans the entire front of the jacket.

You could have so much fun with these pockets.  Not only the trim but the pocket lining could be a third contrast colour.

The sleeves are nice and long, as you would expect for the taller woman, and are perfect for me without having to lengthen at all - whoop whoop!  I know not everyone has long arms, and it's not the most complicated adjustment to make, but just not having to worry is a bonus.

Okay, enough about my Sophie, you should get on over to Muse Patterns and check out the lovely cherry red version with a collar and zip-up front.  It is delicious!

A few more photos on my Flickr -->

#NISM2015 I'm going, what about you?

This is gonna be fun! A weekend to just sew some new clothes and hang-out with other cool people doing the same. There are loads of other things planned, all revolving around sewing of course!

It's time to get out from behind our computers/mobile devices and come face to face with all our social media friends as well as new ones. If you don't want to come alone, that is understandable, but all you have to do is convince a friend to come to - easy!  I'll be there, so there will be at least one person you cyber know.  I'm sure you also know the organisers as well, The Curious Kiwi and Flossie FT.

All the details can be found HERE, while you're there sign-up and come join us on 1-2 August in Rotorua.

 See you at NISM2015 :-)

Ponte Morris Blazer

The Grainline Studio Morris Blazer is the ideal casual smart clothing item that fits perfectly into my wardrobe. The appeal of this pattern is that it is intended for a knit fabric (or a stretch woven). I imagine that it would wear like a cardigan in a knit.

I downloaded the PDF pattern from the Grainline Studio website, dug out some black ponte from the stash and set to.

I traced off a size 10 and made just one alteration.  I'm not really a 3/4 length sleeve kinda girl, so I lengthen the arms by 6 1/2", allowing for a 1" hem.  I did away with the sleeve facing because I thought the ponte would behave better with a turned up hem.


For the facing I used a merino remnant from my Gillian Wrap Dress, a very fine stripe in a grey. This was much much lighter than the ponte so I used an equally heavy knit fusible interfacing - that worked a treat.

I stitched all the seams on the sewing machine using a zig zag 1.5 1.5 stitch and finished each seam on the overlocker (serger).  Nothing usually makes it off the sewing table without a touch of hand sewing - this Blazer was no exception, I used a catch stitch to tack the collar facing to the back neck seam.

Now ... See those annoying wee bubbles  at the bottom of the front in the photo below - I wasn't sure whether I'd done something or whether it's a result of the knit fabric???  I did a bit of a search of other blogs and noticed it on some other knit versions as well, so figured that it wasn't just me.  But it could be that the facing is a tad shorter than the front piece caused by either incorrect cutting or that the interfacing slightly shrunk the facing piece.  Anyway the knit fabric moves and wiggles in every direction when I'm wearing it so I figured it doesn't really matter that much - I'm probably the only one noticing!!

The Blazer wears beautifully.  The only thing that I would change next time would be to lower the side seam at the under the arm; it's a tad high which restricts what I can wear under it and creates pulling when I look at photos of the back.

Anyway more photos on my Flickr -->

Granville Shirt Muslin

Shirts haven't really been a thing that I've been busting a boiler to make - not something I have in my wardrobe either. Maybe because I haven't really found one that fits comfortably. When the Sewaholic Granville shirt was released I was instantly drawn to the shape that it gave the body ... and the best thing about sewing is that there's the opportunity to tweak the fit if it's not working.

Rather than make a true muslin, I picked up 2.4m of cotton voile for $14.00 to make a wearable muslin.  To begin a took some measurements of the pattern, checking that the darts weren't too high, that the body length wasn't going to be short.  I did length the arms by 2".  I cut a size 8 and narrowed to a size 6 at the hip on the side seam.

I'm happily sewing along, following the instructions and feeling pretty pleased with myself and how fantastic the seam allowances looked on the inside with a french seam finish.
The yoke beautifully encases the seam finishes and is really easy to achieve. Then I got to the front and was all confused, coz I misses the note on the pattern piece where the cut line on the right side was different to the left. I had to cut off the band I had already attached and start again after I had cut the centre front in the right place. Luckily I had cut 2 of the front placket pattern piece anyway, instead of just one that was required. Must have known I was going to mess it up!

This was the first time I had sewn a sleeve placket... OMGosh how super fiddly these are.  I got there in the end but they're not super perfect.  The under piece doesn't quite fit is I had to fold it over slightly, but no one can see it anyway. The edge stitching needs some improvement, especially around the point. They are functional and the pattern of the fabric hides all :)

I also need to work on the curved corner of the collar stand in the front. They are passable but could be a whole lot better. I think I just need to work on the technique.

There are a lot of fussy fiddly bits on a shirt and I now have a new appreciation for this garment.

Lots of wrinkles from wearing it all morning!

The finished shirt isn't bad and I'll get away with wearing it over some jeans, but next time I need to look at:

• shortening the sleeve by 1", so it is only 1" longer than the pattern itself.
• move the side dart down by 1/2"
• more room around the waist - I don't want to go out a whole size but a 1/8" on the front and back pattern pieces will give me an extra 1/2" all round.
• moving the waist down about 1/2" as well. It's just a tad too high.

I bought some really lovely patterned silk from The Fabric Store that I've used for my real version.

More photos on my Flickr -->

Belcarra Tunic

When I purchased the Belcarra from Sewaholic I knew that it would be such a versatile pattern that I could manipulate to get multiple looks. This is my third look from this pattern.

This time a tunic!  I walked into The Fabric Store on 12 September 2014 and immediately fell in love with this border print.  I was there for another quite specific purpose, that alludes me just as this moment - coz every trip to the fabric store is for a specific purpose right!!!

It wasn't cheap at $36 for 1 length which was 1m x .95cm, but it was crepe de chine and felt soooo nice. After wrestling for some time with my inner voice I gave in a bought a metre. The border print is filled with pretty dresses in pretty colours ....

It's been sitting in the cupboard for a wee while because I couldn't decide what to match it with, until a few weeks ago, when I was back at The Fabric Store, I found some black crepe de chine on special for $10p/m.

I used every little scrap of the boarder print on the front and sleeves.  I then used the black for the back and the sleeve bands.  Because I didn't have enough of the boarder print for the neck binding and the black would have shown right through the cream, I had to use some knit tricot that I had in the stash - oh the joys of having a stash!

All the side seams and shoulder/sleeve seams are finished with a french seam. The sleeve cuffs where sewn as normal, right sides together, but then I graded the cuff seam allowance and turned the cream over and run another line of stitching around the seam allowance - the cream encasing the trimed raw edges of the black cuff.  The seam allowance had to be pressed towards the cuff so it wouldn't be seen through the cream sleeve. After a good press I tacked the seam allowance to the cuff by hand.

The bottom hem I used a hairline seam technique that is so easy and looks so great.

I fiddled with the pattern sizing a little more this time, after my dress version had way too much room around the waist and hips.  I traced the pattern off again, this time tracing a size 8 for the bust and graded it down to a size 6 at the waist and hips.  It's a little snug around the hips this time, which isn't the look I was going for, so somewhere in-between both sizes would be ideal for next time.

You may remember in my last post I talked about the WSBN 0 Degrees of  Sewing Separation Challenge... well this is my second link in the chain.  For the fabric I link to The Dreamstress who made a beautiful Dorothy Lara dress and for the pattern I link to The Crazy Gypsy Chronicles.  The full chain of links can be found in this post by The Dreamstress.

Thanks to The Dreamstress for taking some photos yesterday at our WSBN get together for High Tea.

More photos on my Flickr

Silk Granville Shirt

After finishing my wearable muslin (which I haven't blogged yet, oops! but will explain more soon...) I immediately made the following changes to the pattern pieces of the Sewaholic Granville Shirt:

• moved the side dart and waist down 1/2" using the cut and slash method above the bust on the front pieces and the two back pieces.
• I didn't want to change the length of the shirt, so I removed 1/2" at the high hip on all three pattern pieces.
• I added 1/8" at the waist by the front and side back pieces, created an additional 1/2" of ease all round.
• I added 1" to the original sleeve pattern piece.

This shirt is a little difficult to get a true read on fit because the silk is so mobile, but it is feeling like the changes worked.

To keep the silk under control while sewing I used some starch spray, ironed it in and then left it overnight to set. Not sure that you need to let it set, but once it was dry the silk had a wee bit more control.

I wanted to add some structure to the collar, collar stand and cuffs - so rather than using a really heaving interfacing I elected to use some silk crepe de chine on the underside of these pieces. I applied the interfacing to the crepe de chine pieces so the silk would move loosely over top . I love the end of result of this.

I think I should have used the crepe de chine for the sleeve plackets because constructing these with the silk was just a real pain in the arse! They are not pretty!!!

I finished all the seams with the french seam technique including setting in the sleeve. This is the first time I've used the french seam to set in the sleeve and I was so nervous about sewing it the wrong way I must have triple checked it twice over, each time.  It was relatively easy to do and the finish around the sleeve is now just as pretty as all the other seams.

Because the silk was so delicate I used a 70/10 needle in my machine and purchased some machine embroidery thread which is much finer than the standard polyester thread. I would definitely recommend it - I'll be using it again for other fine silk / chiffon fabrics. I also put my walking foot on my machine to minimise the movement of the fabric.  A combination of all these bits and pieces made sewing the silk very enjoyable.

I used the hairline hem technique which I've used more than once before, but this time it's a bit of a mess - not sure what I did wrong this time, but really wish I'd done a rolled hem by hand!!

You can't see in the pictures but there are pockets on both sides of the front. I probably didn't need to put them on because the fabric is so busy you can't see them, but I know they're there.

This time round I made a much better job of the collar stand. I drafted a collar stand template like Tasia recommended in her tutorials, marked the stitching line on the fabric and then followed on the machine. The silk was easy to tuck out of the way, resulting in the ends of the collar stand looking identical. Whoop, whoop!

The sad part is that the weather in this part of the world has just turned terribly cold - you know coat and gloves cold!  So my lovely silk shirt will probably have to hang in the wardrobe until the end of the year then the warmer weather rolls around again.  I had to put a merino on underneath to take these photos!

Anyway more about why I've blogged my lovely silk version before my muslin version of the Granville Shirt ... well you know that the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network (WSBN) get up to all sorts of sewing fun that also includes fabric enabling and pattern shopping :-)  The Dreamstress put this idea to the group: "Could the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network create a linking chain of sewing creations, where each person’s creation shares a fabric or pattern with the next person’s creation?"  And so the 0Degrees of Sewing Separation Challenge was born.

This was probably the hardest challenge we've had so far, it took a few months to sort out our connections and how they would link into a chain, but we got there in the end.  I am second in the chain matching the Granville Sewaholic pattern to Silly Billy Sewing who ended up being twinsees with Two Random Words.  The chain continues with Fifty Two Fancies using the same fabric as me to make a pattern shared with another.  You get the picture right!  For the month of April we are unraveling our 0Degrees of Sewing Separation with a blog tour.  If you are interested in reading about our antics head over to The Dreamstress who is updating her blog daily with each reveal.

More photos of my Silk Chiffon Granville over on my Flickr -->

Chiffon Marfy Top

This top is a really old make that I've been trying to decide whether I make again or not - this was my wearable muslin.

I picked up this colourful chiffon for $3p/m at a Fabric Direct Sale last year, and not just a couple of metres, oh no, there was 5 metres left of the roll so I got the whole thing! I paired it with some simple black chiffon that I got at the Arthur Toye closing down sale for $5p/m. So you can now see why I'm calling this my wearable muslin.

The pattern is Marfy 3450 from the 2014/15 catalogue, the first that I ever bought. What drew me to this pattern was the neckline with slits down the raglan sleeve. I cut the fabric exactly to the pattern in a size 46. The overall fit is fine, even the sleeve length is perfect.

After I cut the sleeves I realised that they were going to be very full and boofy! Not really me, so I removed 1.5" from each side of the sleeve at the cuff, grading it to 0 at the under arm edge. This gave me just enough to have a small gather around the cuff.

The cuff is folded in half, interfaced on the under half.  They are really comfy.

I used a french seam finish on all the side seams and sleeve seams.  For the hem I used a hairline seam technique on the machine using Gertie's video on You Tube.

... and it gives this really pretty finish.

The pattern didn't provide any indication of how the back closure was to be done. Marfy patterns don't have any instructions, but usually there are enough markings on the pattern to indicate what goes with what. I decided that I would use a couture technique that I learnt when making my free Marfy top HERE and keep the collar closed with a couple of hooks n eyes.

I was pretty happy with the top once I finished, given that I didn't have to make any major fit changes. I put it in my wardrobe and wore it a few times before I decided that there was just something about the hem that was bugging me. Back to the sewing table it went ... I needed to take some length off the front, oops forgot to note how much I removed, but it looks like about 1". At the back is only took enough off to remove the existing hem.

I think it has better balance now.

Conclusion: I do like how easy the top is to wear, but I'm not a fan of the front slits in the raglan sleeve seam. They are located in a place that is constantly moving so they don't sit nicely like the sample photo indicates. I think the top would be just as nice if the slits were sewn closed.

More photos on my Flickr -->