Boat print shirt

 

Here's my latest make, a long sleeved classic shirt in the boat print fabric I bought recently on holiday in Whitby. I used blue buttons from my button drawer as they matched well with the pale blue in the print.

The cotton poplin was lovely to work with.

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

Dark Denim Stretch Pull on Jeans - Itch to Stitch Mountain View

 I decided I'd like some dark denim stretch jeans without contrast topstitching which could be a bit smarter.

This is the Itch to Stitch Mountain View Pull on jeans, altered slightly for fit. It needs a stretch woven with 20-30% stretch. My denim had plenty.

I generally omit the seam down the back leg (I've taped the pieces together).

When I was cutting out, I didn't cut the back pockets, instead I saved 2 chunks of fabric large enough for my embroidery hoop so I could have embroidered back pockets. This time I chose a sewing theme. I kept the stitching to shades of blue to keep it subtle.

I drew the outline of the pocket piece on the denim with a soap sliver, then hoop and stitch.

Remember to flip the pocket piece over as its not symmetrical!

After stitching I use this see through template I made from a damaged plastic folder and a sharpie pen.

As it is clear I can adjust until the motif is placed where I like it. In this case it was where I had marked it, so I didn't have any issues.

If you want to avoid the risk of puckering, interface the embroidery area for stability before stitching. I wanted to maintain as much stretch as possible so I didn't do this and seem to have got away with it.

Being plain dark denim I hope these will get plenty of wear in my wardrobe :-)

Navy lace top

 

By careful cutting I was able to get a navy lace top for me out of the stretch lace and fine jersey knit fabrics I used for my friend's dress.

I used my TNT knit top pattern - New Look 6735 - I cut the front back and sleeves in lace, using the finished edge of the lace as the hem. Then I cut the front and back again from the fine knit and used it to make a lining for the body section. I finished the lining with a rolled hem.

I omitted the neckband, instead cutting the neckline slightly higher, then stitched some narrow elastic into the seam once the lining and body were sewn together.

Navy lace dress

This is a fancy dress for my friend C to wear as a wedding guest or similar event.

I've used stretch lace for the outer bodice and sleeves and a thin jersey fabric for the inner bodice and two layers of skirt.

The neckline has narrow elastic stitched inside it. I've used the edge of the lace for the sleeve hem and a rolled hem on the skirt hems.

The pattern is Simplicity 9473, altered to fit C.

At the moment I've done a machine basting stitch between the bodice and skirt as we may have to alter the dress when C tries it on. To make it easier to unpick I used a royal blue bobbin thread in the basting

Palazzo Trousers for a friend

 

Just finished making these super wide leg trousers for my young friend C. I did a toile a while back in an old duvet cover, but only just got round to making this pair up.

C bought the fabric from Pound Fabrics. It's 100% polyester but pressed well, should keep the vibrant colours and be easy care.

This is based on the Simple Sew Palazzo Trousers, heavily altered. I've altered the fit for C, changed to an elasticated waistband and redrafted the pockets so they have a front scoop (like the picture) rather than inseam (as the pattern really is). About the only thing that's the same is the width of the legs!

The fabric has a visually strong vertical print, but didn't seem to be directional, so to get this placement the fronts are cut in opposite directions to get the mirror of the print. I've done something similar with the back. The waistband is cut from one of the floral strips. I think its worked out really well.

I needed 1 3/4 inch (4.5cm) elastic for this casing but only had 2" (5cm) in my elastic box. So I ran it through the overlocker to cut off 1/4" and it fits neatly.

Sparkling Stars Quilt - Aquamarine Block

 Yes I'm still working on the Sparkling Stars Quilt.

I've managed to finish one Aquamarine Block

And have components to do the others.

Here's  the link to the Aquamarine Blocks on The Sewing Place.

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Updated to add here they are completed

Sewing Purchases

I'm adding some photos of recent fabric purchases so you can enjoy them, but also so I can search for them later and find out when I bought them!

First up is one from a little while back (21st May). It's 1.5metres of cotton batik from Boyes in Arnold, Nottingham (fairly local to me). I'm planning to make a simple summer shirt from this and will probably use emerald green thread.

The next purchase was from the fabric and haby sections of the Singer Sewing Shop in Whitley Bay on 25th June 2024.

A tracing wheel, some machine oil, 5 spools of Chocolate brown Moon thread (from my upcoming Autumn collection!). Also 2 metres of polycotton with a strawberry print, for a travel shirt and 3 metres of navy blue polycotton to make some walking trousers (and maybe some shorts).

Then I managed to pop in Boyes when I was briefly in York on 29th June. There I picked up some more batik fabric. This time in a muted purple. It's the end of the roll, just over 1.3 metres with a yellow mark on it. I bought this to go with another fabric (which I didn't have with me), but I don't think it does really (sigh).

The last purchase was when I went to Boyes in Whitby on 1st July.

There I bought 2 metres of a fun cotton poplin printed with colourful sailing boats on a pink background. A matching spool of pink thread and a loop turner.

The fabric is for a summer/travel shirt.

Earlier I said I'd bought the purple batik to go with another fabric, well see what you think?

The peacock fabric came from Auntie Joy's stash, but I only have 1 metre of it, not enough for a shirt. So bought extra to augment it.

Here's the peacock fabric with other batik fabrics, but none seem quite right. Happily the top two go quite well together so if I need some little extra for the batik shirt I could use that.

That's all for now. I hope to be back with something new to show you soon!

Updated to add a few photos of the peacock fabric with plains.

Medium blues

Turquoises

More blues

Greens

Purples

This seems to work the best colour wise, but its a poly-cotton and the peacock print is cotton.

Thoughts?

Trio of turquoise tees - No 3

 

Again a slightly different shade of aqua/turquoise.

This is my own pattern traced off a RTW which had a shape I liked.

here they all are together

Trio of turquoise tees - No 2

I am on a roll with the t-shirts. This one is a similar colour only slightly greener. The jersey has no elastane so I picked a different TNT pattern, the Closet Core Patterns Core Tee. It is a looser boxier fit so can cope with the lack of stretch.

This is between the long and cropped lengths and with the 3/4 sleeves.

Trio of turquoise tees - no 1

I rethreaded in a sort of pale aqua and made one of my three quarter sleeve tees from my heavily altered version of New Look 6735.

This a lovely stretchy jersey so works well for a more fitted style like this.

Floral Culottes

 

Culottes based on New Look 6438 view D though with an altered crotch curve, elastic waistband and side pockets. I stitched through the waistband elastic to stop it flipping.
The fabric is a lovely charity shop find. 2.5 meters of 45" (115cm) wide crepe from Rose & Hubble's London Collection. I think its polyester so wanted a loose and floaty style.

RTW rework

 

I've now changed over to navy thread. I took a RTW half zip fleece and removed the short zip, cut down the centre front and added a longer open ended one, then tried to get the binding to cover the top of the zip neatly. Its not perfect but its OK.
Then added zipped pockets into the front of the same fleece jacket. Hopefully I will wear it more now.

I was hugely pleased with myself at getting the zipped pockets to work. Pockets in everything going forwards!

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".

Here's what I did
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" 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.

Palazzo Trousers New look 6438 - version 3

 I also cut a pair of trousers from the same fabric. These ones seem more PJ than Palazzo!

It is fabric choice of course - cotton lawn in a print.

Adapted from New look 6438 as before.

Love Notions Rhapsody Blouse

The Love Notions Rhapsody Blouse is a very popular pattern, and I picked it up recently on their Friday $5 special offer.

I printed out the size XL which matched my bust/high bust measurement. I used the layers feature to turn off all the other sizes, also turned off Letter and had the A4 page marking. When printing in A4 its not truly trimless, but not a lot needs removing on each page.

I made the view with 3/4 sleeves with cuff and kept the 'strings' on the neckline.

I used a very fine cotton lawn which the sewing machine didn't want to sew. I need to get some sharp/Microtex needles, but until then I used tissue paper and spray starch to tame it which improved thing a lot.

I struggled making the bias tape, but this was before I'd got going with the spray starch so I'll try to remember that for next time.

The instructions in the pattern are good and very thorough though I also watched videos on You Tube.

Other than working with the fabric, my only other issue was that the cuff didn't fit onto the sleeve as per the diagram. I thought that this was because the pattern pieces for XL didn't match up, however it turns out I was confusing the 3/4 length Bishop Sleeve with the 3/4 length sleeve, so my error. (The cuff prints out with the Front body piece, so is a bonus you don't need for the bishop sleeve).

As I'd already cut the cuffs out, I altered construction, ran a basting thread around the bottom of the sleeve and eased it to fit the cuff which I folded over and topstitched rather than folding up.

I have a couple of queries on the style. 

First of all I'm not a strings person and I don't know what to do with them when I wear this blouse - loose knot, flying free, twee bow? - so I think for future versions I'd skip that and have the view with the neat neck.

The other style query is that the shoulders are quite set in (more apparent on some of the tester blouses than others) and I'm not sure if this works with my shoulders, the shoulders feel too narrow and my shoulder is sitting in the top of the sleeve instead. 

What do you think?

Updated to add, I didn't like the way the sleeves were hanging so I unpicked them, recut them with a really tall sleeve cap and reinserted them.

I've not re done the overlocking yet....