Paris Themed Mug Mat

 I had an Eiffel Tower/Paris embroidery so made a little mug mat for a friend

Skirt to Top Refashion

 

This top was recut from a RTW maxi skirt - I loved the print on the fabric but barely wore the skirt.

I unpicked the waistband and one side seam, then cut the front of the top out of the back of the skirt. And the back pieces out of the front.

The sleeves were cut upside down and only elbow length. I used the original waistband for the neck band and sleeve bands.

I used my TNT t shirt pattern - New Look 6735 - which I've altered to fit me better.

The neckband gaped a little so I've added a series of tiny darts and pressed them away from the centre.

Steampunk Lady Explorer

Our lovely friend C and her fiancé have invited us to their steam punk themed wedding next April. The dress code says Steampunk optional, but of course I'd like to join in!

Having had a bit of a look at the women's costumes I've decided that I am neither Victorian lady nor harlot so plan something of a Lady adventurer look.

So I thought this would be a great use for this UFO I finished off last year but barely wear

Then add a blouse with some frilly collar and cuff components 

And a long skirt (or culottes/divided skirt) with cargo pockets or buckles or some such

Then practical boots and lots of leather accessories, as well as some sort of hat and goggles....

I plan to customise this bucket hat I made in September 2002 with steampunk doodads.

Any suggestions for accessories I can DIY (I'm fairly crafty) to complete the look.
If possible I'm hoping to sew or make everything, or thrift things and adapt them as I'll enjoy the challenge and have plenty of time to get prepared.

Apparently we'll be in a marquee outside the Papplewick Pumping Station.
https://papplewickpumpingstation.org.uk/weddings.html

Dark teal dress

 This is another one for my friend C

Although the pattern is for a woven I made it in a jersey. I added a neckband to the V necked version of the dress and made the sleeves 3/4 length. We tweaked where the waistline hits slightly to adjust for the vertical stretch, but otherwise the fit was quite good.

We've definitely had great mileage from this pattern

Skirt from a dress pattern

 

This was a very quick make. A skirt for my friend to match the jacket I made for her previously.

I used the skirt portion of her favourite dress pattern (S9473) and added a casing with elastic.

Jackets for my friend

 Just over a month ago I made a navy lace and jersey dress for my young friend C.

I've now made up some jackets which she can wear with it or with other garments.

Floral print jacket

This one is to wear to a friend's wedding

Aqua tweed jacket

Another dressy occasion

Metallic jacquard jacket

Metallic accents so more for festive occasions.

All the jackets are made from the same pattern, adapted from the jacket in Simplicity 9473.

She's coming round tonight for fittings. I hope she likes them.

Red and white pleat neck top

 I thought I'd try out a new pattern - Butterick 5354

I pulled out a remnant of fabric which wasn't quite enough for the long sleeved version so I adapted the sleeve to be 3/4 length. pleated onto a band to echo the neckline.

I used a viscose knit which drapes beautifully but is relatively heavy. I decide to add a back facing as well as the front facing.

I'm not convinced that a facing is an appropriate treatment here. I had to stitch the back facing in place, as well as under stitching the entire neckline and stitching in the ditch through every pleat at the front. 

It still rolls out slightly.

If I make this again I'd put a neckband on instead.

Striped tee

 

This striped tee was made using my TNT New Look 6735 as the basis.

I raised the neckline a bit, added a wider (but shorter) neckband and used the pocket from the Closet Core Tshirt pattern.

The fabric was a strangely shaped remnant from Auntie Joy's stash, which I think she used to make T shirt for her boys in the 1970s.

Half zip to full zip fleece rework

 I've found I much prefer a fleece if it unzips all the way down and has zipped pockets. So in between other projects I've gradually started converting them.

Here's a link to the navy blue one I did first

The second one was a different brand and had a contrast collar lining and partial facing (not binding as the navy one). This meant a lot more unpicking and some fiddling about to correctly get the zip inside the facing. I did have to unpick some of the topstitching.

I'll note down what I did as an aid memoire to myself for the next one!

For the front zip

1. Unpick the old zip.

2. Iron a strip of interfacing to the back area where the front zip will go using a cool iron.

3. Cut the centre front open and overlock each of the cut edges.

4. Place the right side of the zipper tape to the edge of the front and stitch near the edge, being careful both sides of the zip line up.

5. Re-stitch the collar and facing seam (which was unpicked earlier) enclosing the top of the zip (fold excess zipper tape to one side and secure with a couple of hand stitches).

6. Topstitch the entire zipper tape and centre front collar edge

For the pockets

For the zipped pockets I followed a method from Barbara Emodi's book "Sew...The Garment-Making Book of Knowledge" its on page 56 "Easy Zippered pockets".

1. On the wrong side of the jacket lightly iron some rectangles of interfacing (cool iron).

2. On the right side lay a piece of fabric which becomes the pocket (rights sides together). Over this pin a piece of tissue paper marked with a long thin rectangle. In this case the box was 6 1/2" long by 1/4" wide. This matches with the interfacing on the other side.

3. Stitch round the box with short stitches. Cut the box open as normal (long slit down the middle and into the 4 corners).

4. Pull the pocket fabric through the box, they say to press with an iron but on fleece I prefer to hand tack the box opening.

5. Place the zipper behind the rectangular opening, pin or tack in place, stitch round box to attach the zip (being careful not to catch any of the pocket fabric).

6. Fold the fabric round to form the pocket, trim as required, then stitch round the edge of the pocket. I like to hand stitch it to the front zipper tape to stop the pocket drooping.

Another Piece for my Emerald Accents Collection

Teal linen skirt to top re-fashion

 Old skirt

I made this teal linen skirt using OOP Butterick 3972 in 2018. I didn't wear it much and now its too small, so I decided to re-fashion it into a top using the Remy Raglan Pattern.

To new top

I unpicked the side seams of the skirt, and then cut the from and back of the Remy Raglan out of the lower portion of the skirt, reusing the original hem.

I then took the 3/4 length sleeve, shortened it a little and split it along the grainline to make a front sleeve ad back sleeve. I cut the width straight from the underarm to create a loose sleeve. I then cut these pieces out of the remaining section of sleeve.

I sewed the sleeve pieces together and constructed the top. I pieced the bias neck facing from the scraps, sewed it on, unstitched, pressed and stitched and hemmed the sleeves.

I also topstitched as many seams as I could to echo the original topstitching.

I'll wear it to see if I need to slim the sleeves. But I can imagine wearing this top a lot more than I did the skirt.

Green batik shirt

 

This is my latest make, another batik shirt this time with full length sleeves and narrow cuffs. I put the top button on, although I never button up that far.

I bought the fabric in May from Boyes in Arnold, Nottingham. It was the end of the bolt so I was only able to get 1.5 metres of fabric. Lots of single layer cutting, with the odd piece on the cross grain.

I stitched with green thread and added small pink/purple buttons.

As before I used this Prima shirt dress pattern from 2020 as the basis of my shirt, shortening to shirt length, adding a sleeve placket and pockets with flaps.

This one is a lot of fun!

My Emerald accents have come along nicely

Purple and Pink Batik shirt

 

Here's my latest project a purple batik shirt.

I tried to balance the amount of pink showing on the shirt by putting the pink pocket on the less pink side of the blouse.

Although I've made this pattern multiple times before I did have a few issues along the way.

Firstly I had neatly sewed up the collar band, to discover I had not sandwiched the collar in between and so had to unpick it, insert the collar and resew. The stitching was teeny tiny and unpicking took ages.

Then I realised I'd cut the standard cuffs but only (barely) 3/4 length sleeves (due to fabric limitations), and they were going to be too tight if I put them on as is. Fortunately I'd put the scraps in with my quilting stuff, so fished them out and managed to cut two rectangles to extend the cuffs. I've installed them with one seam lined up with the sleeve seam and the other at the back of the sleeve (where a placket might be). Opposite on each sleeve. No one will ever notice of course but I was pleased with my little fix.

The final  annoying bit was just setting in the sleeves as the batik has no give whatsoever, so a lot of adjusting the easing stitch and making little snips to get them in. 

Happily I had suitable buttons in the drawer, though being 4 hole buttons they were quite fiddly to sew on

I used the same pattern as I did for the boat shirt, but as I only had just over 1.3 metres I was only able to get 3/4 sleeves with bands (not long sleeves with cuffs). Even getting this involved a lot of single layer cutting.

I bought the fabric in Boyes in York on 29th June, so another one not in the stash for too long. It had 2 yellow marks on it but I was able to have one on the back of a pocket flap and the other disappearing into the back hem.

This wasn't quite what I intended when I bought this fabric, but I am really pleased with the outcome.

Fabric Purchases

 My lovely sewing friend has been in our area for a few days and yesterday (31 July 2024) we went to 

My Fabric Place

Left - 1.5 metres of pink stretch lace with a paisley design - for a top (can't find on website)

Centre - 2 metres of teal blue viscose floral print - for a blouse - link here 

Right - 2 metres of navy viscose floral - for summer trousers (can't find on website)

Also some lightweight interfacing (no photo)

It'll be interesting to see how long these marinade for before appearing back here as clothing!