Quilt

The front

We are flying to Florida this Easter to visit my mom and have a family holiday.  I've been working like a demon to finish this quilt for my college roommate who had a  baby girl 6 months ago.

Another pic.  Those are my cherry trees in the back.  I highly recommend fan trained cherries.  They are easy to grow, take up no space and produce pounds of high quality cherries that the kids and I adore.  So do the birds.

My quilting is a little old fashioned, in that it is far from perfect and has to be made from materials on hand.  Some of you may remember this white cotton lawn with red and blue flowers from a burda dress I made two summers ago (it's lost on the old blog, boohoo.)  In fact, seven fabrics in this quilt are dressmaking or bag scraps.  Obviously, I have jazzed it up with plenty of quilting scraps to break up the size of the print and to add more dark colours.

Note on the back

Some people do faux-naive craftwork.  Not me, I really am untrained, and unskilled!  Check out my idea of freehand embroidery!  Luckily, all my friends and family accept these gifts in the spirit in which they are given.  At least, nothing is so precious and fine that it can't be used:-)

Trench Dress: Butterick 5598

General chit-chat about the dress

Here it, as per the pattern.

Trench coats are very fashionable, but I don't plan to make one.  They sort of fall straight from the shoulders which is a disaster one me.  I've seen some with gathered skirts, but these look terrible on everyone I've ever seen in them with the exception of a Beyonce in a magazine.  So this is my little piece of the trend.

Side view if this helps anyone.

My version of this dress looks a little pouffier in the skirt than other people's or the envelop.  Two reasons, my body poufs out at the hips, lol, and also my stiffer material doesn't fall as much as poplin might.

I wasn't wild about the sash, so I tried the dress with a few belts.  I think it looks loads better with a belt.

I didn't like it much with the sash, so I tried this skinny Boden belt.

But, it is this 15 year old Ralph Lauren belt that I think works best.

 Details about the sewing

Some things I love to sew, but don't really wear.  This I did not love to sew.  All that top stitching!  Lining! Button after button, arg!  As Claverie on pattern review remarked, it was like making a coat! 

But, I think I will wear this a lot.  Because it is heavy weight and has a tailored feel, it's comfortable to wear.  It doesn't feel like anything is "hanging out" or bulging or jiggling or whatever.

I read Carolyn's comments on this dress with trepidation.  I also had trouble pivoting on side panel inserts.  In the end, I didn't cut far enough and had to iron out the dimples.  It was never perfect, but the belt loops are strategically placed over my short comings.

I found that the belt loops were to high in the front for my waist.  I tried to move them down, but ended up making a hole in the dress with my seam ripper, so I settled for longer belt loops that I was able to make out the meagre scraps left from this project.  That's fine, large belt loops mean more belt loops and the design is barely compromised.

I used a piece of medium weight twill from Gorgeous Fabrics to sew up Suzie Chin's trench dress for Butterick.  I bought the twill intending to make trousers, then decided on a skirt and finally decided I really wanted to sew a dress.  I think this was a 2 yard order, but Ann is generous with her cuts, and I ended up with something more like 2 1/4 yards.  The pattern called for 2 3/4 yards, but with some ingenuity and some compromises, I managed to eek it out.

I had to piece the inside collar stand together.  It doesn't show or bother me at all. You can also see that I took Uta's advice and used this left over cotton lawn that I wasn't crazy about for lining fabric.

I don't know if you can see it, but I had to piece the sash together as well.  Again, I am not bothered, and I think I'll wear this with a belt anyway.

I sewed a 12 on top and cut out a 14 on bottom and then added an additional inch and a half around the hips.  I simply eased in all the excess fabric, when I attached the bodice to the skirt.  It was a lot to ease in over a small area too, I just barely made it.  Perhaps I should have sewn a 14 in the bodice anyway.  This feels a little tight just like the Simplicity shirt did.  Looks like I might have put on a little weight.  I am sure I am not the only one lazy about taking new measurements.  I just never feel like doing it, and always want to assume that I can use my standard measurements.

B5598 Line drawing, just in case you were curious.

Thanks!

Thank you Carolyn for thinking of me!  You definitely add sunshine to my day with your beautiful photography, warm open writing style and generous tips and tutorials.  It's an honour.

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Animal: Humming Birds

Favorite Number: 8

Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink:  Fresh Lemonade

Facebook or Twitter:  Facebook, barely. I don't tweet.

My Passion: My kids!

Getting or Giving Presents:  Giving. I am an awkward receiver.  Birthdays and such were really low-key when I was a kid, and I am always gobsmacked and slightly embarrassed by friends' generosity.

Favorite Pattern: HotPatterns Riviera Cardigan.  I've made it twice now.  I wore out my orange version and am on to yellow.

Favorite Day of the Week:  Monday(!)  I love my life and Monday's feel like a fresh start.

Favorite Flower: Roses, we have thirteen in our small garden.  No, they don't look like too much at all!  Roses really are very easy to grow in England.

Favorite celebrity role model:  I am partial to Oprah Winfrey and Dolly Parton.  Two very smart, talented women who made it from nothing.  And not just talented but with good business heads.


Now for the challenging bit, finding a reasonable number of people to pass this onto!  Since I listed everyone I follow with a readership of less than 100 not the versatile blogger award, I suppose I can list a few more established blogs here.  


Mushywear - Shannon sews beautiful, casual clothes and shares gorgeous pictures of Hawaii.


MezzoCouture - Tia sews lovely clothes for herself and her daughters with lots of thoughtful musings.


Seamstress Poppykettle - Melanie's blog is relatively new, but, Oh the clothes!  And she is cute as a button too!


Clio & Phineas - Clio is sewing a leather jacket at the moment!  Enough said.


Sew Tawdry - Audrey does some really ambitious sewing.  Always elegant.


Ten Thousand Hours of Sewing - Victoria is one smart cookie, and she sews beautiful clothes for herself and her daughter.


Sewing on the Edge - Barbara is an accomplished seamstress and I learn from her blog, but it is her musings on life that really grab me.  I always find myself nodding my head as I read her posts.

Now, the astute among you will notice that I left out some fabulous blogs.  Remember guys, some people prefer to not get these sort of chain-letter-awards.  So, I had to try to judge it carefully.  Also, some folks already have this one!

What to do with an old shirt?

That's what you end up with.

My husband works in a traditional office and has to wear a suit and tie everyday.  He doesn't mind.  It's easy and men's business attire is comfortable compared to women's.  No hose, no high heals, etc.  He does go through an awful lot of shirts, though.  Generally they tear in a small line across his right elbow.  When that happens: bye bye shirt!

In the past, I've taken them to the charity shop, or given them to my mother.  A school teacher who wears them with jeans on casual Fridays.  She is 5'3" and rolls up the sleeves so far that the tear never shows.

This time I thought I'd harvest the shirt for the buttons.  I got 12 buttons off of it.  Then I realised that most of the fabric was in fine shape.  So I managed to cut 19 6x6" squares and 14 5x3" rectangles.  It's not an exciting print for a quilt, but I like scrappy quilts with a little of everything.  And this fabric is so much softer and smoother than quilting cotton.

Mens' work shirts are made from long staple cotton (pima, sea island, egyptian, etc.) whereas quilting cotton is rougher, short staple stuff.   So this will feel quite luxurious in a quilt.

When you buy quilting cotton it's pricy because of the designer's input, not because the raw materials are so fine.  I don't mind, I think this is fair.  Designers like Anna Maria Horner or Amy Butler need to get paid, and I value their contribution.  I think it is kind of cool that contemporary, female artists can make a living selling their designs to other women, who then go on and create further from there.

Do you put your old clothes in the charity bin?  Or do you "harvest" the buttons, etc.  If you do, do you feel a little guilty that the charity misses out?  I kind of do.  But I am still glad to have my buttons and scraps.

Bow tie blouse!

The Bow Tie Top:

It's cute without being cutesy, and offer's opportunities to use up large fabric scraps by playing with a mixture of fabrics.  It's a quick sew, with no sleeves to set in.  It's comfortable to wear.

Taking pictures of oneself in the mirror isn't easy.

Especially with flashes.

And low light levels.

I am a 36" full bust measure at the moment, and I cut out a 35" size, which was fine.  I did flare out a bit at the hem to give me more hip room.  That's standard for me.  I was using the last remnant of some rayon knit from gorgeous fabrics and couldn't orient the bottom front of the shirt to have the stripes going vertically which would have been even better, but I still like it lot.


The construction Nitty-Gritty


Steph gave some sensible directions for applying the binding to the sleeves and neckline.  Somehow this just didn't click with me, and I did what I normally do based on my quilt binding experience.  I also used special knit stitches on my machine, wanting to do an *extra good job*.  I think you are already anticipating that I will tell you that the results were not as good as I wanted.


I didn't have any extra fabric to play with and unpicking a knit sometimes destroys it, so I will live with a neckline that could be better.

Applied like double bias binding on a quilt edge.  Stitched down with a knit stitch. 

The sleeve, after thinking again and re-reading the instructions.

The inside of the sleeve, with the raw edge stitched down.  It's plenty neat, and much less bulky than what I did to the neckline.  Live and learn.

Final Thoughts


I think this top would look especially good on someone busty.  It's sort of counterintuitive, with the cutout and everything, but I think all the details around the bust would visually break up the area and make it seem daintier.  Even though I am not very curvy on top, I feel good in this top because the cut and the stripes emphasise my shoulders a bit and help to balance out my pear shape.  I think it will be a cute top to wear this summer with capri pants, or an a-line skirt.


The Bow Tie Tee pattern is up for sale now on Craftsy.


I know the pictures I've taken are substandard.  I'll update with better ones if I get a sunny day and an accomplice to take them of me.  Meanwhile, we'll settle for these.

Thanks Jilly!

Thanks to Jilly, I managed to turn off word verification on my blog.  (Or I think I have.  If it is still on, please alert me.)  She has a some simple instructions on her blog that make it a snap, even for the technically challenged, or mentally lazy (my hand is up for both of these, oops.)

If we start getting unwanted solicitations for dodgy pharmaceuticals or worse in my comments, I'll have to turn it back on.  But lets give it a go.  I appreciate all your hints, tips, help and just plain encouragement, so I don't want commenting to become a quest for the golden fleece!

Now I am off to grocery shop, bake a birthday cake, pre-cook dinner, and pick kids up from school and then run them to ballet! And fingers crossed, find an hour to get going on that cute bow tie shirt, so hopefully, I can show it off to you all!

White Shirts; Wardrobe Basics Sewalong

The Overview

I've never sewn a shirt before.  I don't really like shirts, you have to iron them after you wash them.  Yuck!  Then again, maybe a well fit, basic white shirt would be a nice thing to own.  Here is my attempt.

Still taking pictures in a mirror, but hey! I left my head in the frame!

Smiling at the camera like a deranged model in a 1950s soap add staring adoringly at washing powder.

I used some cotton poplin from Dots and Stripes.  It has a touch of lycra, which I probably could have done without, but it is good quality, smooth stuff.  In retrospect, it is probably a little too see-through, but I wanted to keep things simple and not spend too much on this, my first attempt.

I used Simplicity's Amazing Fit pattern 2339.  And, I think the fit is quite good.  I cut a 12 and flared out to a 14 at the hips.  This is standard for me in big 4 patterns.  After blithely, cutting out the fashion fabric,  I had a scare, when I sewed the side seams with 1" seam allowances as per the instructions.  I couldn't even join the front plackets together!  I was busting out!  Luckily, going to the standard 5/8" seam allowance sorted everything out.  Except for the hips, where I needed every last bit of the 1" seam allowance.  So much for lapped seams.  (Oh yes, I had *BIG PLANS*.  But finishing the seams with an over edge stitch was not the end of the world.  There would be worse crimes against construction to come.)

Simplicity 2339

The construction nitty-gritty.

The instructions were pretty good, but I struggled in places.  How to bind the arm slit eluded me completely.  I just could not figure out how to neatly get around the apex.  The instructions glossed over it completely, and I considered trying to mitre it like a quilt or something but chickened out.  What we have instead is a wodge fabric jammed in without ceremony.  Just one of those details I hope people won't notice!

I couldn't figure out how to attach the binding to the cuff opening at the top of the slit.  It's just a mess.

 Also, the collar stand is far from perfect, but 2 minutes of hand sewing has made is passable.  I am sure there are tricks for all these things, I just don't know them.

I didn't manage to catch the collar stand at the edge openings.  Hand sewing to the rescue!

My final construction shortcoming, no picture for this one, was the top button hole.  The small area of the collar stand made a terrible base for my automatic button-holer.  Does anyone else have this problem.  It was sloppy, but I improved it a little with some hand stitches and then decided to ignore it.  Who actually buttons the top button anyway?  Right?

Up Next

I'm cutting out Stephanie's bow tie tshirt right now.   I loved her version, and I am tickled to be a pattern tester for her.  It looks like a peach of pattern and fingers crossed I get it done to show you by the end of this week.

My next wardrobe basic will be a khaki skirt.  (I have sent my shearling vest to a specialist cleaner.  Basically, I am hoping for a miracle on that one because I cannot figure out an elegant way to patch it. )
I'd like to use BurdaStyle's 10-2011-119.  I'm obsessed with how good MaryNanna's looks.  It looks better than the one in the magazine!  I know, I have a different figure, and it's just not sensible, but really, I won't be able to mentally let go of it, until I try.

Burdastyle 10-2011-119

Happy sewing everyone!