PR Challenge Contest: One Pattern Wardrobe, voting has begun

Hi, the voting has now begun for the 'Pattern Review Challenge : One Pattern Wardrobe'

Click here to go to Pattern Review and see all the entries, and then I'd really like it if you clicked on my entry and voted for me, though I understand if you love another entry even more.

My entry looks like this (you have to be a Pattern review member to vote)

Thank you, RuthieK :D

New Look 6735 One Pattern Contest: Wearing all the pieces

Here I am wearing all the pieces.

New Look 6735 One Pattern Contest: All the pieces

Here are all 7 pieces from the New Look 6735 pattern.
I have two dresses, two knit tops, a skirt, a pair of pants and a cardigan jacket.
They all mix and match with each other and I am really pleased with how it all came out.
I have been trying them on and do still need to do some photos to share how cute they are when being worn.

New Look 6735 One Pattern Contest: Tweed Cardigan

Here's the tweed cardigan finished. Its made from a soft woven with the front band cut on the bias. I used the fringed selvedge for the hems. It needs a little press but I really like it and it makes a sweet suit with the flippy skirt.

New Look 6735 One Pattern Contest: Black Knit Pants

I wanted to add some more bottoms to the wardrobe so far, so have made up the knit pants in a plain black knit (v similar to the enevelope pattern). I have done invisible machine hemming on these and zigged elastic to the waist and turned over, as I wanted to avoid them looking to sporty. We'll see how they do in reality.

In other news I have shortened the lining of the skirt, hemmed the lining and hemmed the skirt.
I've also completely recut and resewn the black rib knit top.
Next I am going to have a go at using the cardigan pattern to sew a tweed cardigan. This time with the bright side out. Watch this space!

Singer: Sewing with Knits Book

I ordered a used copy of the 'Sewing with Knits' book from the Singer series. I have a few of these books, but not the knits one, and thought it would be good to expand my knit techniques a bit for the SWAP contest.

It was published in 1992 so is a little bit dated, but with more modern fitted shapes the techniques would still work, so I hope to try out a few things like plackets, pockets etc on future knit garments.

New Look 6735 One Pattern Contest so far

Here's where I've got so far.
Quite a lot still to do
1. Remove elastic from skirt, take in about 5 inches and reattach for a snugger fit.
2. Hem the dresses and the drape sleeve top.
3. Recut the black rib top to a neater fit and resew from scratch.
4. Model everything instead of hanger shots.
5. Write a review

Inspired by Desigual

My local department store carries some Desigual brand clothing. I'm quite inspired by the way they mix fabrics together, espeically in their knit tops and dresses.
They are quite careful about their brand and I can't find anywhere where you can save their pictures, but you can see the styles here on the Desigual Website.
One of the KnipMode magazines I have tries something similar to their styles, and in the spirit of using leftovers of knit fabrics I have been thinking about this for a while.
Basically you need a number of different fabrics - at least 3 - which have a common base colour. They are often dark or a strong colour but don't tend to have light backgrounds. I fancy one using black based items, though I think it would actually be quite tough to find enough suitable fabrics from my already existing scrap box. I think also that Desigual have some large graphic prints which are not found elsewhere. I must say I love the idea of all different fabrics used for front, back, each sleeve and the neckband. A lot of their tees have one sleev in a different print than to the other. I think it has to be done very deliberately though or else it ends up looking a little crazy.

Red Boiled Wool Jacket

I cheated and bought it!
I already have a very similar jacket in spring green and also in purple, and they really give a POP of colour :-)

SWAP 2011 Official Rules: Thoughts

This year the twist in SWAP is
Every garment should be made with a technique or feature that you haven't tried, or haven't mastered.  

It seems to me that this is about construction rather than embelishment and I see why improving technique is the goal this year, its about using SWAP sewing to move on to the next level in your own sewing. Its a good aim, because I have no trouble churning out volumes of simple items in different colourways and prints, but I'm only pushing myself there in terms of colour selection not the actual underlying skills.
Interestingly original SWAP was about the sort of sewing I do in my capsules, co-ordinating but fairly quick and simple.
I managed last year to do a simple 10 piece wardrobe in a month for a PR contest where I missed the start, and as it was all knit tops, a simple jacket and faced waist pants this was quite doable. For a newcomer to SWAP and a person with relatively beginner skills thats the sort of thing that would be ideal for them for SWAP this year.
But the SWAP contests have been going for a few years now, and some of us have done quite a few of them, so I can see that DL wanted each of us to develop from where we are at now. Its very clever in that means new stuff for all of us.

BUT, and this is where I am struggling with my own personal challenges, I can clearly see how I can move on in my sewing with tailored pants, jackets etc. I obviously have to learn a lot there, and those are garments I want to sew and wear. Over the years I've moved from elastic waist pants with plain machined hems, to faced waists and invisible zippers, and now on to curved waistbands and front pockets. The next logical step for me is to add in welt pockets. (I am loathe to add fly zipper in becuase I have a little fat belly, and avoid front zippers to reduce the bulk in this area).

Jackets similarly I have a lot ahead of me in terms of techniques to learn and improve, and I wear jackets for work all the time, and cardigans/soft jackets/casual jackets at home and the rest of the time. So improving my skills in those areas also makes sense.

Shirts and blouses have been stymied a little by fitting problems, but some recent discoveries about forward head alterations (which came out of the London sewing weekend) may help there. I don't wear a lot of shirts and blouses, and I'm not sure if this is just becuase I've had so much trouble getting a nice fit, or whether even of they fit I would choose knits for comfort and my own personal preference.

I am planning on adding at least one structured shirt style blouse and a more drapey tie neck style blouse into the SWAP. Again lots of opprtunities for improving skills in plackets, collars, cuffs, plackets etc.
However I am still going to want to have the majority of my tops from nice knits. And because I've already seen a lot of improvement in my knit sewing, and I do a lot of it, its harder to find technique improvements in this area. Maybe they can be small things like new neckband finishes, working out how to add a buckle to a knot front top, adding an integral cami to aforementioned knot front top etc. And of course mastering the coverstitch machine, since she and I have a tricky relationship still.

Fitting and embellishments don't seem to be in the spirit of the 'new techniques', though for me the fitting problems often block improvements in other areas. I have had a few revelations in the last year or two which seems to show that due to my 'S' spine, where I am tipped forward or backwards instead of being straight, almost all of my alterations imvolve adding or removing wedge shapes rather than simple length or width alterations. Interestingly I have not lost any more weight recently but a few people have asked if I've lost weight, I think my clothes just fit a little better!

Apologies for the long post, but I am thinking as I type :-)

PR Challenge Contest: One Pattern Wardrobe, Tweed Skirt

Obviously still needing further work - hemming, shortening of lining, securing of waist elastic, this little skirt is cut from tweed on the bias instead of the intended knit specified by the pattern. However I think its going to work out fairly well once I've sorted the lining so it doesn't show.

PR Challenge Contest: One Pattern Wardrobe, Camo dress

Not sure whether this will go in the contest as well as its yet another scoop neck t shirt dress. I just love these so much at the moment, they are great with boots and a cardi and you are off.
The print is a sort of green camo on black, with tiny gold dots on the sections between the green areas.
This also needs coverhemming. The fabric is poly so we'll have to see how comfortable it is to wear in reality.

 

Please note the previous two posts NOW have pictures due to readers requests!

And yes I know they are hanger shots, but folks come on, its still better than nowt right?

PR Challenge Contest: One Pattern Wardrobe

You may recall I decided to take part in the PR Challenge Contest: One Pattern Wardrobe. This is atwo week contest from 1 to 14 November to sew 3 items (or more) from the same pattern. I chose New Look 6735 as my starting point.

So far I have cut out and partially sewn up 3 items from this pattern, the first is a dress in a black print with green flowers. This is the knit top lengthened and flared out a bit. I used a scrap of plain black for the neckband, and am pretty pleased with it. Still needs lots of coverhemming.

 The second item uses the leftovers of the same print fabric, also with a black neckband, but I wanted to change things a little so although I used the lower part of the sleeves, I overlayed the sleeve cap from the draped sleeve from Simplicity 2956. I think doing this invalidates the use for the contest, but I wanted something fresh, and these draped sleeves are a really current look here and I wanted to incorporate them.
This is wonderful, though slightly costumey, but I think its a very wearable look. This also needs coverhemming.

The third item was made assuming the first would be disallowed, so this is the classic knit top made in a black rib knit. I'm a bit disappointed with this as its come out loose and bulky not sleek and figure skimming, so I might see if it shrinks up a bit after a hot wash, if not I might have to recut or donate it. The fabric was from the bottom of the stash when I bought stuff cheaply and isn't a great knit fabric hence the issues so if it does turn into a wadder I can live with that, except I would then have only one piece for the contest which would be a bit of a shame.

Next up coverhemming the top and dress, and then cutting out and sewing up a black cardigan and a bias cut lined tweed skirt. I have some black poly charmeuse which would make a delectable lining for the skirt.

New Patterns and Fabrics

My 'about to be discontinued Simplicity/New Look' patterns arrived today. I'm very happy with them. I also went to Leeds market at lunchtime and bought some fabric from Jacks Fabrics. So whilst not exactly sewing I am indulging the sewing whims.

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For those wanting pics, click on the grey words above to see the patterns, and here are the fabrics I bought.

Left is a nice stretchy cotton knit printed in mid blue, turquoise, aqua, lime and spring green on white.
It is a really mad Ruthie print, and whilst I bought it thinking to make a top to wear with blue jeans I am very very tempted to make it into a summer knit dress. Its pretty loud though! This does however seem to be ME and I am exploring more at the moment what I actually like and makes me happy.
Centre is a black linen/viscose woven printed with white. This is lovely though apparently not colourfast. I was recommended to wash it with salt, which I have done, though whether this will have fixed the colour I don't know. This says drapey summer skirt to me.
Right is an emerald green crinkled knit printed in a similar colour. The stretch goes the opposite way to the crinkles/pattern stripes though, so this would have to have the stripes going horizontally around the body which is visually less than ideal. This also says summer knit dress to me.
So although I bought these in November, they are really summer fabrics and will go away in the cupboard for another day.

November dawns

November dawns and for the next two weeks I am going to try to mentally park the SWAP and instead do the PR Challenge Contest: One Pattern Wardrobe which lasts from November 1st to 14th, 2010.

I decided to make a dress (lengthened top), top and skirt from this pattern (New Look 6735) as my starting point. If I have time I might add the jacket as well. I had other plans beyond that but they might just morph off into the Pattern Review Endless Wardrobe contest which follows on straight after becuase actually 2 weeks is not very long and I'm away a couple of days a week both weeks.