Black, White and Grey. And Pink.

Previously I’ve mentioned the fun that can be had by using a contrast colour in the serger to finish seams. One of the first places I did this was with a black-and-white t-shirt. I’m gonna talk more about that t-shirt in a minute, because I did toile the pattern before cutting into the pretty fabric, so we’ll have a look at that one first!

Wearable muslins are the best! This is Burda Magazine Top 113 from 08/2018. It’s a very square, boxy shape so I wasn’t sure if it would just look like a sack on me, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result.

The fabric I used for the toile was all from the stash – some black cotton knit with a little spandex, and some pale grey french terry left over from another project (another one I haven’t blogged about, and originally a remnant from The Fabric Store).

Incidentally, it was chilly when I took the photos, so I’m actually layered up with a Seamwork Elli in a remnent of thermal jersey from The Fabric Store. It’s lovely and cosy 🙂

I like this pattern not just for the look – that diagonal seamline is fun – but because I had a feeling the pattern pieces would lend themselves to using up odd shaped peices of fabric. I was right for the most part, although I did have to piece a couple of bits of the grey fabric on the back. And I got distracted by that piecing exercise and ended up cutting that upper back piece the wrong way around! Oops. It wasn’t a big deal – the black knit looked the same on both sides so I just flipped it over. So the seamline is the opposite of what it should be on the back, but I wasn’t worried as it was a toile – turns out I quite liked the effect anyway though!

I used the coverstitch and some pale grey thread to join my pieces for the upper back. I kinda like the effect.

Okay, on to the real deal! This gorgeous deco-face fabric I snaffled up at a Spoolettes Fabric Swap, last year I guess, or even the year before. It was an offcut of a border print, the majority of the remainder was the dandelion print (they look like dandelions to me. Could be poppies, maybe? For the purposes of this blog, I shall refer to that part of the fabric as ‘the dandelion print’) with some bits of the face print at one edge. Lucky for me it was the perfect partner for this pattern.

As is often the case when I’m deep in tho pattern placement zone, I didn’t take any photos of the pattern layout on the fabric. Which is a shame because I was really enjoying that challenge and it would have been fun to show you. Ah well.

It’s a very simple pattern: two front pieces, two back pieces, hem and neck binding pieces, and the sleeve/cuff piece. Any shirt finished with a hem band or sleeve band is a winner for me. Hemming is not my favourite activity, but whacking on a band – usually with the overlocker – makes it so, so simple to finish a garment.

Oh, wait, we were talking about inside details, weren’t we?

Front, showing the diagonal seamline, sleeve cuff and the contrast thread on the neck binding. You can see the lovely deco face print nicely in this photo.

The ‘tag’ is made from a length of tape-measure-print ribbon I picked up at the Sewing Basket a while back. I love having a tag on the back of shirts or pants (I mean, legit, it makes it easier to get dressed, let’s be honest here). I do have some of the adorable KATM labels but I’ll usually save them for fancier makes, but a couple of inches of this ribbon makes a really cute ‘tag’ for simple sews like this top.

This here is the back. Are the faces upside down? Sideways? Is it off grain, or perpendicular to the grain? Can’t really tell, right? So it totally doesn’t matter. You can also see a slight fade line on that upper section, like it was folded in someone’s stash for a while, but I don’t think it’s noticable enough in this print to matter.

The thread looks red in this photo, but it’s actually hot hot pink. And nobody knows it but me.

Oh, and you folks.

Obligatory cat photo. Look, she matches the top.

Yes, she’s not a fan of cuddles, but we have an arrangement: I provide food (and games, and a heated bed, and plenty of pats) and she occasionally, reluctantly, allows a brief cuddle, provided there’s also lots of ear-scratching involved as well.

 

Another jumpsuit?

So I’m still on this jumpsuit-making binge!

This time I’m using a fabric from my Japan haul circa 2016 and a Burdastyle Magazine pattern.

It’s a lightweight woven with a teeny bit of stretch – as usual with my Japanese fabrics it’s a bit of a mystery. I suspect it’s a poplin with a smidge of elastane. It’s a whacky floral-with-plaid that I originally thought I might use for a pair of proper pyjamas, but honestly I have made so many pairs of pyjamas that I didn’t really want or need another pair! So when I realised I would have enough to make this jumpsuit I knew it would be a great choice for spring and autumn.

The pattern is Jumpsuit # 111 from Burda Mag 09/2020. I traced a mix of sizes – it’s taken me a few years but I think I’ve finally figured out the best ways to grade between sizes on Burda mag patterns for my size and shape.

I did make several adjustments as I went along:

• slightly longer leg length – the pattern is a 7/8 length on the super-tall model, so I only needed another couple of inches to make them full-length on me;

• shorter sleeves (this is a winter pattern but this is a summer-weight fabric, plus I didn’t like the longer sleeve on me);

• scooped the neckline lower at the front (boat-neck styles do NOT work on me) and of course re-drafted the neckline facing to suit; and,

• increased the length of the back opening (more on this later)

When I am sewing up a garment, I normally have a think, before I start sewing anything, about what seams will be pressed open and what seams will be finished together. This is so I can sit at the overlocker and production-line as many seam finishes as I can. For example, I worked out that the inner and outer leg seams would be pressed open, as would the crotch seam; but the waist would probably end up being pressed together. Therefore, I could serge along the inner, outer and crotch seams of each leg piece before I start sewing – it’s SOOOO much easier to finish seams when the pieces are flat and not connected to each other. This has been my habit for many years, even before I had a serger and would just be zig-zagging away on the regular machine.

Why does it matter, you ask? Wether the seam is pressed open or finished together? Why not just finish ALL the edges and move on?

Well, it’s not a huge deal, but it saves bulk. If you have finished your seams individually on, for example, the neckline and the corresponding facing edge, there’s more bulk in that seam than if you finished them together – when you go to press the neckline, it’s not going to sit as nice and flat because of that little bit of extra bulk. Also, if you are a fan of grading your seams , you’ll have wasted a bunch of time (and thread) finishing an edge you’re going to then slice off.

Not mention the obsession I have at the moment with contrast seam finishes! I’ve got a pile of fun coloured serger thread cones (some new, some from fabric swaps or purchased secondhand) and I decided that life is too short for boring seam finishes. Unless the fabric is lightweight or see-through, a contrast or rainbow edge is a fun secret detail for you to enjoy every time you wear your garment!

Okay, back to the jumpsuit! Above, I mentioned that I changed the neckline and back opening. This happened during the first ‘fitting’ when I noticed how high the front neckline was, and how difficult it was going to be to get in and out of the damn thing – I ripped stitches in the CB seam the first time I tried it on. So, I folded the front at the centre and used a curved ruler to draw in a new, lower neckline, and then traced that onto paper to re-draft the facing. Then I opened up that CB seam a bit further – probably about two-thirds of the way down to the waist. I used a poppa stud and overlapped the top corners to fasten the back neck – most patterns have a little too much room in the back neck for me, and this was no different, so doing a little overlap there nicely fixed that.

Folks, I love this one almost as much as my romper! I got several compliments the first time I wore it. I’ve decided though that I like the look of wearing it with a belt, and I’ll need to go back and add some belt loops because not only does the belt slide around, there’s the issue of taking the whole thing off to go to the loo….. #jumpsuitproblems

 

Y’all, I made a romper?!?!

Umm, yeah, so I made a romper.

It’s not what I was expecting to make at my age, but sometimes when the mood hits, you just gotta go with it.

But come on. Jumpsuits, overalls, boiler suits, onesies, rompers, playsuits – one piece outfits are so on trend right now! And I have made overalls before and LOVED them, so I figured what the hell. They look comfy, and I’m all about comfort!

Circa 1984.

I’d picked up this cute vintage pattern from a trip to the Acheive Sewing Basket, earlier in the year when it was normal to travel and my mum was visiting from interstate. The paper pattern was already cut to a size that was way too small for me, so I decided to brush up my skills and grade the pattern up. I worked out all the ease amounts, took my measurements, and used the slash-and-spread method to redraft the pattern pieces. Not counting the pockets, which didn’t require grading, there were only four pieces I had to work on: bodice front and back, and pants back and front. I also added a couple of inches of length to the shorts as I like a longer short length. (Did I just use the phrase ‘longer short length’? Good grief. )

Whoops. Forgot to take photos of the drafting process. Sorry! Dunno about you but it often happens when I’m really into the task at hand.

I’d already decided I wanted to use this lovely heavy piece of tencel rayon. I’m not 100% certain but I’m pretty sure I picked it up at a fabric swap. There was only 1.2m and the pattern called for 2.2m! So I had my work cut out for me (see what I did there?)

By skipping the facings, using different fabric for the pockets, piecing the pants back, and squidging the grainlines a tiny bit, I managed to squeeze my main pieces onto my 1.2m!! There was bugger-all fabric left over, which makes me really happy from a sustainability point of view. I even managed to use up that little rectangle in the middle, on the shoulder facings.

This fabric had some marks on it, I’m not sure if they were from an unsuccessful dye bath or storage or whatever, but I kind of liked the way it looked. Sort of like a worn-denim look. Not terribly obvious on the finished garment, in my opinion, but I intended these as a wear-at-home summer outfit anyway, so they won’t go out in public much.

I had some scraps of tencel denim in the stash, the perfect weight to match this fabric – love it when scraps get used up! I also had several yards of home-made bias binding, no idea what I had made it for but it got pressed (haha!) into service in place of facings to finish the sleeves and neckline. I did use a couple of strips of iron-on interfacing and a small piece of fabric as a facing just at the shoulder points, to stabilise the buttons and buttonholes.

Buttons were also from my stash. Sewing on buttons might be a drag, but digging through the button box is always great fun! Pulling out possibilites to lay against the fabric, scratching around the loose buttons at the bottom to see how many matching ones I can scrounge up – what a treat. These gold-and-blue ones were salvaged off a refashion at some point in the past, and I never thought I’d use them – they looked pretty tacky on the original garment. But set against the dusky blue of this fabric, the colour was perfect and the gold just gave it a lovely pop!

It’s still chilly here at the moment, but we’ve had a couple of lovely warm spring days and this romper was the BUSINESS for lazing around on the balcony in my new (secondhand) hammock with a book and some snacks!

Ah, no – I didn’t take any photos of me in the hammock! I’m way too lazy to get that organised.

Oh, and this pattern is from 1984, and I actually finished it in September. Which means it qualified for the #sewvintageseptember challenge! I rarely manage to finish something in time for a challenge!

I’m dead keen now to try some more overall/jumpsuit patterns. I’ve got the Seamwork Lucy all ready to tape together so that’s probably the next one on the list! There’s some knit fabrics in the stash just crying out to get used!

Speaking of overalls, I’ve got another pair of Burside Bibs on the list too, so stay tuned because the fabric I have picked for that is soooo lovely.  Do you love a one-piece garment? What patterns have you tried?

 

Using up fabrics from my Japan Haul/s!

So it has been quite a while since I posted anything even remotely close to a ‘here’s what I made’ post. I’ve been sewing up a storm during the COVID lockdown, but haven’t made the effort to take any decent pictures of my creations. So here’s one that I’m really quite proud of.

This is the Elevation Hoodie pattern from New Horizons designs. I’ve made this once before, and the tricky triangle seams were defintitely easier the second time around. I made the sweater version, no hood, and without pockets.

The floral loop-back knit was from one of my trips to Japan, so this fabric has been in my stash since 2018. I only bought 1m of this, so I’d been waiting for inspiration that would allow me to make the most of the limited amount of fabric. When I was packing up my sewing room (I moved house during COVID, too!) I realised that this rust-coloured jersey somehow went perfectly with the floral print. It’s actually a piece of rayon jersey left over from doing a refashion for my flatmate (dress to t-shirt, so I had a nice long rectangle of fabric to play with.)

Once I worked out that the Elevation sweater’s diagonal pattern piecing would fit perfectly on the floral terry, I was in business! It did involve some thoughtful pattern placement (AKA Pattern Tetris), but that’s actually a challenge I really enjoy.

Meh, I was not paying attention to the lighting when I took this shot, was I?

The rayon jersey was quite a bit softer and stretchier than the terry knit. I was worried about it stretching out when I joined it to the more stable floral, so I interlined it with some white cotton knit from the stash. This worked a treat, and I think it also helped with the tricky triangles too.

I had run out of KATM labels! But I had this cute measuring-tape print petersham ribbon in my stash, so I’ve been using strips of that to identify the backs of my homemade garments. It takes the guesswork out of getting dressed in the morning, amiright?

I used a small zig-zag stitch on the diagonal seams, before finishing with the overlocker (serger). It would have been quite difficult to manipulate those tricky angles through the overlocker! The rest of the seams were done on the serger, and then at the end I used the coverstitch to make that finishing topstitch on the neckline.

I’m pretty proud of my seamline matching at the armscye, too! Not always easy when working with knits!

I made this towards the end of the cold season, but I did get to wear it a few times already. Because the loopback terry was quite stable and not too stretchy, it ended up being a slimmer fit than the first version I made in a fleecy spandex. So it’s most comfortable just worn on its own as a long-sleeve top, as it’s a bit too tight to layer over another top.

(Oooh, I’m actually wearing me-made jeans in this photo too! I may have blogged about them over here. )

Well, I’m gradually wearing down the Japan fabric haul! I recently made a little bag out of one piece from the 2017 haul, which I hope to write a post about as it turned out super cute.

And that’s all for this post! I have several more finished garments I hope to blog about, so I’d love it if you swung by every now and then 🙂

 

Easy Bicycle Seat Cover Tutorial

Easy Bike Seat Cover Tutorial

Oh dear – my poor bike seat has seen better days! The silicon padding is still good, but the lycra cover has ripped beyond help.

So when I dropped off my bike for a well-deserved service, I kept the seat with me and whipped up a funky seat cover to cover up the rip. The result was so nifty I thought I would share it with you in a quick tutorial. It’s also a great way to use up some scraps of stretchy fabric!

MATERIALS NEEDED
– Fabric with 4-way stretch such as performance lycra, spandex or supplex
– Elastic (or ribbon or cord)
– Pattern paper (you can really use any kind of paper!) & pencil
– Scissors, pins, thread, and a ballpoint or jersey needle for your sewing machine.

NOTES
The pattern you are about to draft will include a 1cm seam allowance.
Use a small, narrow zig-zag stitch to sew this item.

STEP ONE – DRAFT THE PATTERN
If you don’t want to draft a pattern yourself, I’ve included a download of the template piece I drafted for my bike seat, which was 28cm long and about 16cm wide.
To draft the seat pattern, place the seat upside-down on some tracing paper.

Firstly mark the centre of the top and bottom points of the seat. Start drawing around the seat at the bottom and top, but don’t go all the way around yet.

 

Roll the seat to one side (I’m right handed, so I used my left hand to roll the seat towards the right so I could draw with my right hand.) Continue to draw the rest of the way around the right-hand side of the seat. This captures the contours of the seat and ensures the pattern piece will have enough coverage.

Move the seat out of the way, and smooth the curves of your pattern (freehand or use a pattern drafting curve).

Add a 1cm seam allowance around the outside of the pattern.

You can do either of these options to complete your pattern:

1. Draw a line connecting your two centre points. This is now half of your pattern. Fold your pattern paper in half along the centre line, and trace through onto the other half of the paper. Open it up and voila – a perfect mirror image!

2. Draw a line connecting your two centre points. Now draw a second line, parallel to that centre line, and add some arrows. You’ve now got a ‘cut one on fold’ pattern!
Whichever option you chose, you can now cut out your paper pattern.

You’ll also need a casing pattern piece. Use a flexible tape measure to measure the circumference of the seamline of your pattern (not the outside edge). Cut a piece of pattern paper that length + 2cm, and 4cm wide. Mark the centre point of the pattern.
For example, the circumference of my bike seat pattern seamline was 85cm, so my casing pattern piece was 87cm x 4cm.
NOTE: You can make this seat cover without the casing piece, and just use the hem as an elastic casing, but you will get a better fit if you use a separate casing piece.
While you’re measuring the circumference of the seat pattern piece, grab your calculator and work out the quarter marks (ie. halfway between the two centre points) and mark those on your pattern as well.

STEP TWO – CUT YOUR FABRIC
Lay your pattern pieces out on your fabric. If you have enough fabric to work along the grainline, great. Which ever option you chose above, the centre line is the straight grain. However, if you are using up some scraps from your stash, it’s actually not going to be the end of the world if the pieces are off grain!
Cut out your pieces. Notch the top and bottom centre and quarter points of the seat piece, and the centre points of the casing piece.

STEP THREE – CONSTRUCTION
Take the casing piece and fold in half. Sew the two short ends together, but leave a 1cm gap in the centre – this is for threading your elastic through later.

Lay this piece out on your table so the seam and centre notch are lined up. The folds at each side are now the quarter points, so put a little notch at those two points as well.

Fold this piece in half longways. If you’re using a slippery fabric, you may want to baste the two long edges together, but you can skip that step if you wish.

Match the seam of the casing to the centre back point of the right side of the seat piece, raw edges together and pin in place. Match the other casing centre point to the front centre of the seat, pin, and then match and pin the quarter points together.
Because you’re sewing some funky curves, you may want more pins than this. It’s helpful to pin halfway between the quarter points as well.
Head over to your sewing machine and start sewing. Go slowly – you may need to stretch your casing piece a little as you sew, because you are sewing a straight edge to a curved edge, but be careful not to pull too much or it will go all wobbly.* If you have an overlocker, you could use it for this step for a nice clean finished look.

Grab a piece of elastic about 40-50cm long and use a safety pin (or an elastic threader) to pull the elastic through the casing.

Once you have it all way through, knot the two ends together. (I had one one of those little aglet-squeezer thingies I’d salvaged from an old tracksuit, so I thought it would be cute to use here!)

Place the cover over your bike seat and tighten the elastic until it is nice and snug, then knot the elastic again. You can trim the elastic now if you want. (You don’t need to use elastic – a piece of cord or ribbon would do the job just fine; you’ll need a piece 10-15cm longer than your casing to get all the way around with some length to work with at the ends.)

And that’s it! You have made a funky new cover for your bike seat. Well done!

TIme to hit the road!

 

Cross-posted from Sew Active Fabrics.

 

 

 

* A technical term for when the fabric stretches out and doesn’t recover. (Different from ‘wibbly-wobbly’, which is a technical term for when time itself stretches out and doesn’t recover.)

 

False pockets? No way!

Does anyone else find it ridiculous when clothing manufacturers go to all the trouble of adding a welt with no pocket to a pair of trousers? Or a pocket flap, with no pocket? I guess it goes back to the old ‘no pockets for the ladies’ trend. Did you know, women in the 1700’s used to wear their pockets like little fanny-packs, on a belt tied on between petticoat and overskirt, and accessed them via a slit in the side seam of their skirt? While the fellas just had their pockets sewn into the linings of their trousers. Mind you, it was a lot hard to pick the ladies’ pockets so maybe it wasn’t all bad!

Anyway, I had this pair of shorts that I wasn’t wearing much over summer, mainly because of the completely useless pocket flaps in back.

Pocket-free interior:

 

So I decided to add my own pockets!

I removed the buttons from the pocket flaps – unsure at this point wether I’ll add them back on.

I cut a couple of rectangles of fabric. I had some scraps of a stretch sateen left over which I thought would work well as these shorts are made of a stretch woven also.

I drew a rectangle near the top of one piece and drew a line along the middle to about 1cm from each side, then a diagonal line to each corner. Then I pinned this piece to the outside of the shorts, just under the false pocket flap, right sides together, and stitched around the rectangle I had just drawn.

I used my zipper foot around the edges as the bulk of the pocket flap made it a little difficult to keep the seams straight.

Then I cut along my lines (sincerely hoping at this point that I had got this right – I had not looked up any tutorials or anything, this was all from memory!) I snipped very carefully into each corner, taking care not to cut any of the stitches.

I pressed it this way first, then pulled the pocket lining through the opening and pressed it again.

Then all I needed to do was add the other side of the pocket lining. I pinned in place and stitched around, using about 1cm seam allowance. I also zigzagged around the edges to stop fraying.

And that’s it! My pocket is no longer false.

It worked so well I did the same thing on the other side. Now I have two back pockets on my shorts, all ready for my European summer holiday!

When I tried the shorts on, I realised they were now a little large on me (all this exercise is paying off, apparently) so I used my favourite method of adjusting the waist with some elastic inserted into the back waistband – more on that in a future post!

Have you ever added pockets to a ready-to-wear garment, or added pockets to a pocketless dress pattern? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

 

 

Sometimes things just don’t work.

It’s deep in winter here in the Antipodes, a season which I endure impatiently. I’m no beach bunny but I much prefer warmer weather. Yeah, okay, it doesn’t snow in Sydney but I just don’t like being cold!

Well, I don’t know if my sewing was suffering from SAD, but several of my recent projects have seemed cursed from the start!

Firstly, there was the merino top. I started this in April, actually, with a plan to take it with me on my trip to Japan. I had this beautiful black merino from The Fabric Store. I wanted to make a long-sleeve henley-style top – you know, with the button placket at the front neckline. I was using a Burda Magazine pattern, but I was making mistakes at every step. The instructions for the placket were, as is normal for Burda Mag instructions, woefully inadequate. When I went looking for henley placket tutorials, although I did find a couple of good ones, I found it really difficult to integrate those instructions into the pattern I was making. I completely wrecked the first front bodice; and so, because I had some spare fabric left, I cut a second front bodice…. but forgot to add seam allowances!! Trying to make the best of that mistake, I used the new-but-wrong front bodice as a practice for the henley placket. It worked really well that time, so I thought I’d try and add some fabric to the seamlines to make up for the lack of seam allowances…. this did not work, and looked pretty sh*t as well. It was at that point I shelved (or, technically, bagged) the whole thing. I’ll come back to the leftovers at some point and find a way to utilise them, but I was pretty disappointed.

Then there’s the rayon twill palazzo pants. I had this lilac-coloured rayon twill that I’d picked up for a couple of dollars at The Fabric Cave on one of their sale days. I’ve been determined to make a pair of palazzo-style wide-legged pants for ages, and I thought I would use this fabric to make a wearable toile. I used an old pattern from my stash, with a couple of adjustments. I spent ages on the zip – honestly, I think it’s literally been YEARS since I sewed pants with a front zip – I got out my trusty Reader’s Digest sewing book and carefully followed the instructions (the pattern instructions being a bit 80’s and more than a bit lacking in detail).

The zip ended up perfect – I was so happy with it. Until I tried the pants on, that is. SO wrong. Too short in the back rise, too loose in the upper hip, too tight in the waist. I’ve since unpicked the whole thing (including my perfect zip) – I intend to use the pieces to make a different pair of pants, either the Terras Joggers from Itch to Stitch or the Moji Pants from Seamwork. But again, that’s been bagged and put aside until I can get it out without being angry.

But wait, there’s more.

As you may know, I make lots of activewear, and I decided I needed a new pair of full-length compression tights for wearing under my karate uniform in winter. And, I wanted to have a go at these new superhero activewear patterns from Simplicity.

Seemed obvious to combine the two! First came a wearable muslin, using some bright blue supplex and making a shortie version of the Batman leggings.

(When I go jogging in winter, I find I get a cold butt, so I often wear a pair of shortie or mid-thigh tights under my long running leggings.) They worked great and I even did a test wear before cutting into my white compression fabric.

This pattern has a couple of panels, so I figured I would use them as a practice ground for some coverstich experiments. Some of which worked okay, some of which… not so much. I did a fair bit of unpicking of the panel seams – luckily they are short seams so it wasn’t terribly time consuming. At the beginning I couldn’t figure out why I was so unhappy with the look of the coverstitching… until I realised I was only using two needles, and it was going to look a lot nicer with three. Out comes the quickunpick again. Once I figured out how I wanted to go with the coverstitching, it went along quite well though. Unfortunately, when I went to do the seams on the overlocker, I was using wooly nylon.. OMG what a nightmare. It took me several go’s to get the thing threaded correctly – wooly nylon catches on EVERYTHING and my fingers get slightly chapped in winter…. so the threads would just stick to my fingers as I was threading the machine. I would thread the loopers with the wooly nylon, but not notice that my sticky fingers had pulled it back out of half of the thread guides! And when I went to do a test thread chain, the looper threads both snapped and I had to start over!! When I finally got the loopers threaded correctly, and started sewing the seams, I noticed the wooly nylon would spontaneously jump out of the upper thread guides as I was sewing. Resulting in dodgy tension. Plus, my needle thread tension discs were super-tight even on the lowest setting, so I just couldn’t balance the tension. Honestly, I was ready to throw the dang machine into the nearest wheelie bin. My neighbors were no doubt wondering what all the shouting was about.

Needless to say, I didn’t take any pictures during this process!!

Well, I ended up going over all the serged seams with a narrow zigzag, using a combination of regular poly thread and the Eloflex stretchy thread. This gave a really nice solid result though so I wasn’t displeased, even though the seams stretched out a little with the second stitching.

However, I did get them finished, and I do like the look of the end result. And even if the compression fabric give me a muffin top right now, it will relax a bit with wear and be a bit more comfortable. Seriously, after the amount of work I put into them, these tights are getting WORN, muffin top or no!!

Well, maybe there were some fails, but there were also some successes – and there are other projects on the go at the moment too which are showing promise. I’d love to see some comments below if you have experienced a series of sewing disasters, and how you work around it!

 

Super tough biker jacket – not!

Okay so this jacket makes me look super-tough – but it wasn’t that tough to make!

This is the Evergreen Jacket from Hey June Handmade.

 

The fabric is from Nippori Fabric Town in Tokyo, on my first trip in 2016 (yes, I bought quite a lot of fabric there, and I don’t regret it!) It’s a heavy stretchy fabric that I am calling scuba because I couldn’t read the tag (it was written in Japanese!) It does have a similar weight and stretch to other scuba knits I have, although the print side has a slightly papery feel, as if it might be water-resistant. (I haven’t worn it in the rain or done any moisture tests thought!)

I bought the long zip online from ZipperShipper.com. I also bought two short zips to match but when I got them, although they were the length I had ordered, they weren’t the right length for the pocket openings – I had somehow messed up the length of the zip TEETH compared to the length of the zip TAPE. The zips from ZipperShipper were a really good price but of course they are in the US so shipping to Australia was not exactly low-cost. So I ended up finding a couple of very similar metal zippers at Lincraft.

Most of the seams were sewn using a triple-stretch-stitch (AKA lightning bolt) and I used my serger on some of the seam allowances to neaten up the inside, as this is an unlined jacket. Most of the topstitching is just a regular straight stitch, although I did use the triple-straight in a couple of places I though might need a bit more flexibility. However I’ve worn the jacket several times since I finished it and had no popped stitches, so I got that right!

The pockets are lined with some scraps of scuba from another project that I haven’t blogged! (A close-fitting active jacket using scuba knit from Spotlight and a 1980’s Burdastyle Magazine pattern – not a complete success, but not a disaster either). I love that little peek of colour as I open the zipper!

(I do wear that activewear number in one of my early Sewing From The Stash videos, but I warn you that it’s from 2016, well before I really had the hang of recording or editing!!)

Party in my pocket!

Although the entire project took almost two years, from buying the fabric to finishing the final details, the actual sewing was not that difficult. The main delay was the zipper length issue – I shelved the whole thing for nearly six months while I sorted that out. The pattern instructions were great as were the illustrations. I followed this one to the letter as it was my first time sewing anything like this, and had no trouble at all. It did take a while – there are a lot of pieces and lots of seams to sew and finish – but it was totally worth the attention to detail.

The most complicated bit was probably the pocket zippers, and they are completed very early on – so once you have tackled those, the rest is pretty much straight line sewing!

The jacket got a lot of wear during the late summer and early autumn – scuba is not an especially warm fabric, but is just the right weight for throwing over your t-shirt on a cooler autumn evening.

Have you tried the Evergreen Jacket pattern, or considered it? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one!

 

Japan 2018 Fabric Haul

It’s that time of year again – my psuedo-annual trip to Japan for a karate seminar, with a generous helping of fabric shops along the way!

Cherry Blossoms in Tokyo.

My trip started with a single night in a capsule hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. If you haven’t tried a capsule hotel they are excellent value for a single night, and a fun experience (in my opinion, anyway!) Japanese hotels are scrupulously clean and this one was no exception.

I was up early the next morning and on the bullet train to Nikko where there are several beautiful temples and shrines in and around the town of Nikko. I’m going to gush about the ryokan I stayed at there – I wish I’d had more than one night! It was a sweet little Japanese-style inn called the Turtle Inn. (The Discworld approves!) My room was furnished with a futon and low table and a washbasin with running water. The fact that the bathrooms were shared was entirely made up for by the fact that both single bathrooms had onsen – ie, a private hot tub!! After a long day travelling and looking around temples, a long hot soak was just what the doctor ordered.

After two days wandering around shrines, temples and underground caverns, it was time to head back to Tokyo and my hotel in Kamata. By happy accident, the hotel I stay at for the seminar is only a few hundred metres away from a big fabric store, Yuzawaya – so that was my first stop!

Yuzawaya (Kamata, Tokyo)

The first time I visited this store – my first visit to Kamata, two years ago – I didn’t have time to really appreciate the size of the store or the volume of products available. This time I made sure I had time for a really good wander, even though I wasn’t intending to buy too many things (I needed to keep plenty of room in my suitcase for shopping in Osaka!)

With three shop fronts and several floors to each shopfront, there’s plenty to look at in Yuzawaya! I was very disctracted by the fabulous range of denims right at the front of the store – and I did end up buying 2m of a really nice dark stretch demin for Y580/m – amazing value!!

But what I was really looking for here was scissors. I had promised myself a pair of Shozaburo scissors on this trip, and Shozaburo scissors I did get! For Y11000 I purchased a pair of 26cm shears which are an absolute dream to use. I have been using them since I came home and seriously they are like magic!! It’s almost as if I can just wave them at the fabric and the pieces cut themselves 🙂

I couldn’t resist that teeny pair of snips with the beaded handles, either. too cute!

Toroya (Namba, Osaka)

I ended up hitting Toraya twice! Overkill? Nah. On my first trip, there was one fabric I couldn’t decide if I REALLY needed it, so I didn’t buy it. But I decided to go back on my last day to have a second look at their denims, and decided I would get it after all!

At the bottom of the pile is 2m of midweight rigid denim. The purple/green print is a drapy twill knit, probably polyester. The whacky chair print is a light knit fabric. The 80’s denim-look squiggle print is a woven cotton, as is the big floral, although the big floral is a heavier weight.

I got some bag hardware here, and some red velcro – they had sooo many colours of velcro! And the little cat-face things are iron-on felt patches. Kawaii-desu!!!!

Otsukaya (Umeda, Osaka)

I was so silly and didn’t check the opening times of this shop, and turned up on a Wednesday – the only day they are closed!! Luckily my schedule was pretty flexible and I ended up going back there the next day. Boy, was it worth it – this shop is so gorgeous!! (There’s a follow-up post in the works with more about the shops themselves, so you’ll be able to appreciate it!)

See how beautifully packaged they are? Each floor was wrapped separately. On the left is some heavy cotton tape destined for a bag project – probably not the bag pattern shown here though!

Fabrics left to right: upholstery cotton in a deco fish print; two-way denim; Nightmare Before Christmas cotton craft print; floral loopback sweater knit; purple geometric athletic jersey; multicoloured athletic jersey.

No, I didn’t just stop at fabric. There were dozens of cute bag patterns, but I really fell for this simple school bag. Why I bought pins, I’m really not sure – seemed like a good idea at the time. The brass ring is actually a thread cutter you can wear – genius! Can’t wait to try that out. I got some more bag hardware here, too – those turtle magnetic snaps were not being left behind!!!

After that it was time for a brief stop in Dotonbori for some okonomiyaki – yum!

Nippon Chuko (Hommachi, Osaka)

When I first walked in here, I was pretty overwhelmed – I don’t do a lot of bagmaking, but there was soooo much hardware it was hard to not be inspired. When I spotted this wood-panel print I exclaimed out loud – it is EXACTLY what I was looking for, for a project that has been percolating in my head for several months. So of course I ended up finding nearly all the other hardware I needed as well!

 

The white zig-zag piping and red linen strapping were actually from Toraya – I got my bags of goodies confused when I was photographing everything!

A red/brown chunky zipper, which will go in the same project bag as the woodpanel print, as will the other brass hardware here. The dragonfly print is a kimono cotton, destined for a gift; the dark green textured kimono cotton is for me. I grabbed some coloured elastic too because I couldn’t resist, and a pre-made bag strap which may work with the bag pattern I got at Otsukaya. The fabric pens caught my eye early on – I’ve been playing with fabric decoration lately, and they seemed like good prices, so I selected a few colours.

Atelier to Nani Iro (Osaka)

This shop was gorgeous, but not as cheap as Toraya! I did buy a piece of fabric which I probably don’t need, but this one is most definitely for the ‘collection’. I don’t own many designer pieces so this was a bit special for me. I was tempted by the pattern book as well but decided I own too many patterns already!

I purchased 1.5m of this green spot double gauze. It’s so soft and lovely! It came with a little lookbook of the latest fabric range, which is a symphony in black and white.

I rounded out my trip with a visit to the stunning Osaka Castle. I found it ironic that this castle is contained within a fortress (complete with moat) that was built to withstand an army; and yet today an army walks through the castle gates every day!

I must also mention a very cool spot in Osaka, for the cool people. One of my Discworld friends recommended to me an establishment called The Hearth Cafe, in Osaka in the Namba area. It’s a gaming cafe, and while I don’t game (although LARPing is still on my bucket list), they do a seriously good cheesecake! I was pretty happy sitting at the bar with these guys:

I’ll be following up this post with one detailing more about the shops I went to, and how to get there should you ever get to go fabric shopping in Osaka! If you have been there and shopped your heart out, leave me a comment – I’d love to hear about it!

Also, I’ve been doing youtube videos over the last year or so (could explain the lack of blog posts…. ) so pop over and say hi:

There’ll be a video coming up where I show off this fabric haul in all it’s glory, so don’t forget to subscribe!

 

 

My #makenine2017

Hello everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

I’ve finally come up with my #makenine2017!

I know a lot of the #makenine2017’s out there have chosen nine sewing patterns, but  I decided to broaden my focus a little bit and include fabrics and projects as well.

Let’s unpack this, shall we? In no particular order:

I’ve got all these gorgeous vintage and retro patterns and pattern magazines, but I’ve only made maybe two or three items. So one of my goals for this year is to actually get in there and make at least one. I have even ‘projectised’ a couple of patterns with the fabric I want to use, so I’ve got no excuses!! To see more of the patterns in my library, check out my flikr album.

The story of sewists everywhere, right? Lately I have been pretty committed and have managed to finish 90% of the projects I’ve started in the last couple of months. (I am a slow sewist, so it’s not a UFO until at least 6 months after commencement, heh heh.) But, seriously, there are a couple of projects hiding out that were started years (or possibly decades) ago. So my aim is to either finish them, recycle the fabric or CHUCK THEM OUT!!

 

As I was trawling through my stash the other day, I came across this incredible piece of fabric. So big I had to photograph it hanging on a clothesline! You know the stash is out of control when you find fabric you had forgotten about. Anyway, after racking my brain, I remembered I bought this fabric in  Thailand, on a trip about 3 years ago. It’s a dreamy lightweight silk that feels like, well, really lightweight silk. It’s doubled over in this photo and you can see the print on the other side, so you get the idea. Anyway, there’s quite a bit of it and it’s obvious it needs to be either a maxi skirt or dress. I definitely want to maximise the print, so I’m going to be looking for a pattern with the fewest amount of pieces. I was thinking of the Gabriola Skirt by Sewaholic, but it does have a lot of seamlines in the skirt, so I might have to shop around. If you have any ideas for a pattern that might work, do let me know!

Okay, if you’ve read any of my blog posts before you will know that I have a deep and abiding passion bit of a thing for sewing activewear. I’m not particularly good at it, but the aim is to improve! I want to try a couple of new patterns and hack some old ones. I have tried making FehrTrade’s PBJam leggings previously, but they were an unmitigated disaster so I definitely need to have another go. If you buy Burdastyle Magazine you’ll know the January 2017 edition had a focus on activewear, so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on that. (It can take a while for Burdastyle to hit Australia, unfortunately!) The Kwik Sew pattern is already on the table – pieces cut for the shorts and top so I can test for fit! And of course the Greenstyle Creations Endurance Bra: while I’m not a fan of zipup bras I want to give this a try, as it looks amazingly supportive.

Which is a nice segue to….

As you know I’ve already had success making bras, so I really want to get into more of it this year. I’ve made the Watson and the BOO3 (from Booby Traps), as well as the Gail which is not pictured here. I also have the Booby Traps Dart Bra and Seamwork’s Florence Bra which haven’t had an outing yet. I’m keen to replace most of my bras with me-made.

The Evergreen Jacket from Hey June is one I’ve actually had my eye on for quite some time. When I brought that black camo fabric back from my Japan trip last year, I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it! It’s a heavy stretch fabric, somewhere between scuba and ponte. (I’ve no idea what I want to make with the blue camo, though!)

A patternmaker I’ve been following for a while is the gorgeous Sally from Capital Chic. I started following her blog years ago when she was doing a lot of refashioning, although I don’t think her old blog is available anymore 😦

Her patterns are glamorous, classy and impeccably drafted.  I’ve always had a hankering for the White Russian Sweatshirt. It comes with a cute fox or lion design to quilt onto the front of the sweater. I got this sweet pony fleece on sale sometime last year, and it’s been languishing in my stash ever since. Match made in heaven? I think so!

OMG you guys. This is my refashion wardrobe. It is literally busting at the seams. I went through a phase a few years ago where 90% of my sewing was refashioning. Some of them were pretty good, too! I bought a lot of garments that I thought had ‘potential’, but sadly I did not have the potential myself to see it through on a lot of them! Of course, there are a couple that I’ve just never been able to bring myself to cut into (did you see the flocked-polka-dot-taffeta dress on my instagram??)

Again we have a neat segue…

See that blanket? I made that. It’s made from recycled suits and skirts, all made of wool. It’s backed with a preloved flannelette sheet (green and white striped, forsooth) and the quilt filler is another flannelette sheet. So it’s not super-thick, but it is totally warm and cosy!

 

That blanket I made for a friend, and let me tell you it turned out so well it was pretty hard to give up. Ever since then I’ve been intending to make one for myself, and have collected a bunch of wool-fabric trousers and skirts from various op shops. On top of that, I have a collection of woolly half-felted jumpers to make into a rug of some kind, plus yet another quilt I want to make for another friend (this one from preloved band t-shirts).  I don’t know that I’ll get all three of them done this year, but I’d like to try for one!!

And, because I want to stay focused, I did this on my sewing room wall:

Yes, my sewing room workbench is always this tidy. *

 

And that’s it, folks! My #makenine2017. Have you come up with a makenine list  for 2017? Do you have a different way of planning your sewing for the year? I’d love to hear from you!

 

*Disclaimer: No it’s not, that’s a total lie.

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