craftsy the ultimate tee shirt 1

I'm very proud of actually finishing watching all of this class. I have yet to complete watching the "couture dress" (because really when am I going to spend that much time on something for me). Teh craftsy Kennith King "Jeanus make your own jeans" denimn material is now cushions which shows how unsuccessful that class was. (Maybe if I had actually made a pair of trousers before that may have helped)

I have cut pattern out then reviewed the instructions which I forgot had added in about 4 inches to the sleeves as you omitted a lower sleeve band. So it will be a 3/4 length sleeve. 

 This is me pin fitting the sides. Which were huge. I should probably have ripped out the neck band and resewn but kept thinking it had pressed out. Also had to add in back shoulder arm darts to stop the material being too bulky, but in reality once sewn they looked a bit strange (it can still be worn with a jacket). Also, managed to put the bust darts in too high, so it only looks good if you slouch your shoulders and pull the bottom tight.

 I liked the one inch hem and this was the first time I had used sewing adhesive, but it looks really good. I learnt a lot from the class, tried to make notes as I went. Next time I will make it short sleeved and try and perfect a tee shirt block from this.

cape motivation

Themonthlystitch.files.wordpress.com
 are  having a cape sew along this month. I'm planning on makjng oliver and s red riding hood cape for my niece.  I got so excited about it that I think I have bought the material about three times now, wanting to get the perfect material. In part because said niece wanted a green cape not red. so I think I am going to go for red on the outside with green lining.

Red knit dress

I made this dress to see if doing that knot thing in the front was as complicated as it looks. It wasn't but the arms look a bit funny on me - neither one thing no another. I put this back in my sewing pile to add sleeves to, and came across it when I was unpacking. Forgot about why it was still awaiting repair and wore it with a black top underneath. It didn't look too bad as I folded back the sleeves. Looked better the next time I wore it as I wore it with a black shrug so you couldn't see the arms at all. The front seam doesn't sit quite right, probably would have been good to try some sort of flat seam, but will try and press it before I wear it again and see if that makes a difference.

The problem with moving house

The problem with moving house, is that not only does it cut into your sewing time when you look for a house, when you find one you actually want to buy, you also suddenly find yourself needing to urgently do up your current house to put it on the market so you can afford the new house. Yes sensible people would look ahead and notice that second step and do something about it earlier, but I wasn't one of them. Which explains why I have been a bit slack on the sewing front. I did have a couple of project set aside so I could still do my monthly Sunday sewing, but in reality was too tired to actually sew, so just took along a sewing magazine and some trousers to hem. Now that we have actually moved, I've hit two issues I hadn't planned upon - the first being that after a month we have yet to find the camera battery chargers, and my sewing machine power cord. So I can't download any pictures, or make anything that can't be made on an overlocker with white thread (one day I will be brave enough to change it to black and curse for an hour afterwards...). I did find a couple of photos on the camera, so here is the pink nightshirt. For some reason I chose to follow the sizes on the pattern back/or read them wrong, but I ended up making a size 14, with a bad feeling all along about sizing, and I was right. It looks okay, but I really wanted something with a bit more movement in for sleep time, so this has now been gifted. I'm making this the next size up in blue, and have only the button holes to go (and a power cord to find)!

Refashioned Burberry Skirt

Note the very cool pocket and n-zip side entry to this burberry skirt

This was an ankle length pleated skirt I picked up in a high end second hand clothes store that had some moth holes in it. I should have taken before pictures but I basically cut out two bands around the middle of the skirt, cut out the sections with moth holes, rejoined the bands and then gathered them and reattached to the bottom of skirt. I sewed down the pleats to make attaching the gathers easier. I was most impressed by the very cool side zip hidden in front pocket - and made sure I kept the Burberry label and buttons on the skirt.

Vogue 1120 blue china silk dress

This dress was over a year in the making. Any anything that could go wrong with it did. I think I did everything except the hem at least twice! The issue was more with my choice of fabric - a lovely china silk, but I kept forgetting which side I was planning to use as the front and pleated the wrong way (or thought I had pleated the wrong way, unpicked, redid and then realised it was right the first time....) I had a choice of shiny background and matt flowers, or shiny flowers and matt background.

This was the first time I had attempted pleats, and that and the raglan sleep meant it was too hard (and I was over it) to make any fitting adjustments round the neck. I was glad I followed the pattern review suggestions and left out the back neck opening.

I moved the ties up to be more of an empire line to suit me better.

First Cowl Neckline Kwiksew

I like the cowl neckline of this top, but it could have done with some bust darts. Have also discovered that the material isn't colour fast which isn't that great. I think I bought three meters of this, so will have enough to make a dress as well!