holiday top

Sewing makes of 2018

~ Susan Young Sewing ~ 8 Comments

I think this is a fairly comprehensive album of my makes in 2018, most of them have been worn a good number of times although not all were for me.

When I look back like this I realise what a busy sewing year 2018 was ( and a bit of knitting too!). Also, there seem to be a LOT of dresses and tops but very few skirts and trousers! I think this is definitely as a result of me gaining weight in the last two years and feeling self-conscious so, with the exception of my Megan Nielsen Ash jeans from autumn 2017, I really haven’t wanted to make close-fitting clothes.

I’m addressing this now, with some success so far, but the other truth is that I like wearing looser-fitting clothes anyway, although hopefully I can go down a size or two when I make them in future…time will tell.

Some of the garments you see here have been worn loads since I made them whilst others were less successful. Sometimes this was bad fabric choices, sometimes they didn’t suit me after all, also the weather became so hot that I didn’t wear the heavier items as much as I expected at the time.

  • oops, it’s not meant to look like that!
  • It looks ok on Doris but this dress was a disaster, nice fabric but terrible fit!

I tend not to set myself up for ‘sewnine’ or other year-long initiatives because I’d rather see what takes my fancy as time passes, or whatever gap I feel needs filling. I’ve really enjoyed making a few jackets and coats this year and they have all had a good amount of wear, they aren’t something I’d done much previously. I’ll be making a couple of posh frocks soon because we’re going on a cruise in March which will need a few fancy threads in the evenings, I’ll be taking old favourites like the Maker’s Atelier Holiday Shirt and New Look 6351 trousers, and Papercut Moana to keep cool in during the day though.

Have you got sewing plans already for 2019 or are you more like me and just see what takes your fancy? We’ve got the new series of the Great British Sewing Bee to look forward to very soon and I’m sure that will inspire even more people to take up this brilliant activity with us! Dressmaking is an activity anyone can try fairly easily these days and there is so much inspiration, help and encouragement out there too, in a way it never was when I was first sewing.

I can’t wait to see the two blockbuster exhibitions at the V&A next year, Dior: Designer of Dreams opens in February and Mary Quant in April so there’s lots to look forward to there. It’s well worth considering membership this year I’d say, I’ve had excellent value-for-money from mine these past four years. [alternatively, Art Fund is also worth considering if you don’t live near London because that gives you reductions to lots of galleries and museums all over the UK, including the V&A)

I’m also looking forward to seeing a lot more SewOver50 activity from all over the world too, have you joined yet?

Maybe our paths will cross in 2019 and we can talk sewing together in real life?

Until then, happy sewing

Sue

Holiday shirt & top from Maker’s Atelier

~ Susan Young Sewing ~ 7 Comments

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I made two versions of the short-sleeved shirt by The Maker’s Atelier last summer, I love ‘em and wore them constantly. One was plain white and the other was a Liberty print voile which I embellished with fancy stitches.

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I wore it on the second day of The Sewing Weekender 2017, that’s me with the pink fringe on the right!

I wanted to make the hooded version sometime and originally I planned to make it in linen like the photo but on a recent visit to Backstitch near Cambridge I spotted a nice Ponte with an interesting diamond weave that was a little bit brushed on one side which I thought would work well so I bought that instead.

Making it up was pretty straightforward except I wanted to utilise the rows of diamonds and they proved a bit tricky to match up in the cutting out. Eventually I managed to cut it fairly satisfactorily but there’s one or two wonky spots although I think only I will notice them (I hope)

The inside seam of the hood and the back neck are neatened with tape so I used 2 pieces of striped grosgrain ribbon which had come off a gift bag! You never know when these things might come in handy 🙂 

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Gift bag ribbon in situ!

There’s a casing that runs around the waist with elastic cord through it but after scoring the striped ribbon for the part that shows I hadn’t got anything else suitable for the casing! I knew I wouldn’t be able to get what I wanted locally so I ordered some navy cotton twill tape and some navy and some grey cord elastic off t’internet. The tape was a tad wide but that’s fine and the elastic was just right. Before sewing the tape on you need to make two eyelets for the elastic to come out through so I reinforced the fabric behind with iron-on interfacing and then made two small round-ended buttonholes, you could use metal eyelets if you have the gadget for this.  The buttonholes were actually bigger than I needed them to be so I didn’t cut the whole thing open, only enough for the elastic to go through.

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As I’d bought two colours of elastic I put it to a public vote on Instagram because I came over all indecisive. This is with grey threaded through initially although in the end navy won by a narrow margin.

Before you can thread the elastic though it needs something to thread through! I carefully sewed on the tape on the reverse of the fabric following as best I could a row of diamonds as I went. I’d actually pressed a crease along the line before I started in order to have some idea of where I was heading.

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The casing is only narrow so there’s a bit of excess tape, a narrower one would have been better but on one can see it anyway.

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In the end I went with the majority vote and used the navy elastic so after slotting it through the ends are passed through metal toggles. I got these in Backstitch too, I think they are ‘Vogue’ brand. The ends of the elastic frayed badly so I used doubled double thread in a needle and hand-stitched them to stop any further fraying.

So that’s pretty much it, the hem still has the deep notches of the shirt version but the hooded one has long sleeves. I used the twin needle to stitch up the hem and sleeves.IMG_4757IMG_4730IMG_4733IMG_4731

I think this will be a really useful cover-up, the fabric isn’t particularly thick but I’ll either layer things under it or it will be ideal for a warm summer evening (although they feel a very long way off yet!)

The Maker’s Atelier patterns are not cheap, in fact they are rather expensive, but they are the sort of chic, timeless styles that you can remake countless times.

Happy sewing,

Sue

 

When do you use those other fancy stitches your sewing machine has?

~ Susan Young Sewing ~ 8 Comments

I’d already made a The Maker’s Atelier Holiday shirt recently which you can read about here and I’d got a second cut out ready. This second one was a soft cotton voile (or muslin, not entirely sure) which my elderly neighbour had gifted me a while back and I cut it out as part of my batch-cutting binge. I didn’t realise it at the time but she’s since told me that it’s Liberty which makes it even more special. I asked her why she’d never used it but she said it was “just one of those things”, it just never happened.IMG_1291IMG_1293

I started making up the blouse as before but this time I fancied changing it up a bit by using one of the range of stitches my ancient Elna 7000 machine offers.

Does your machine have loads of these embroidery stitches that you’ve never used? I’m curious to know whether having all these extra stitches was a reason for you to choose a particular model? trying out machine embroidery or quilting perhaps? [and I’m not talking about utility stitches that help with construction and finishing here, purely decorative ones] were you persuaded by an enthusiastic sales assistant, or a bargain price, to go with a more complex machine than your needs or skills warranted? I think it’s so important to be able to test machines and compare them before buying, and the internet makes it much easier to compare reviews than ever before. When I bought my Elna well over 25 years ago I was working in the dress fabrics department of our local John Lewis where we had two wonderful ladies who were employed by Elna and Brother to demonstrate the machines and give individual lessons. This gave me the luxury of taking my time and seeing the different machines in action before I eventually bought an ex-demonstration model which cost me nearly £500 then!! It was money well-spent though I’d say. If you’re new to dressmaking but aren’t sure that it will become a life-long hobby then there are some terrific machines available in the £120-£160 bracket, if you want it to be lifelong then you may choose to buy one machine now for the long-term and up to £500 would easily be enough to spend and get a good quality machine for it. If you have bags of money then you could spend waaay more than that-it’s up to you entirely.

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This is my machine when it came with me to the Sewing Weekender last August.

When my two girls were little I did use some of the stitches, little ducks, flowers etc and when my eldest started school her summer dress featured patch pockets with ‘LEFT’ and ‘RIGHT’ written across the top of them! But that’s 22 years ago so not very much use since then…

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These two rows of illustrations rotate to show all the stitches available.

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I tested a few that I thought would look nice around the collar, in a couple of different shades of blue, to see which I fancied best.

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Initially I liked the little triangles but I wasn’t sure I could get it to fit accurately to turn the corners which wouldn’t have pleased me at all.

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I tried out the blanket stitch on a corner and it was much more satisfactory so I decided to go with that.

Once I’d settled on the blanket stitch I made up the collar and embroidered it, I decided to add it to the sleeve hems too. I made the blouse up exactly as before after that.

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Blanket stitch on the collar

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…and on the sleeves.

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Finished Holiday shirt.

It might not be the most exciting use of embroidery stitches but it’s a start and I think it looks rather pretty. Do you use any of the stitches like this that your machine offers or were they a big lure to buy the machine to start with but then are actually redundant? I’m curious to know.

I’ve got plans to make at least one more Holiday shirt with some chiffon I bought at Birmingham Rag Market last year too, that will have to wait until my next batch of cutting though!

Happy sewing,

Sue

the Holiday shirt by Maker’s Atelier

~ Susan Young Sewing ~ 11 Comments

Since I’ve been able to spend so much of my time sewing among my favourite things to do is get together with fellow sewers and chat endlessly about sewing/fabrics/techniques/tools…you name it really.

A few weeks ago I spotted that Emily of Self Assembly Required had posted in the forum on The Fold Line about organising a London fabric swap in the near future. Eventually Sunday 19th February at The Parcel Yard, Kings Cross station was chosen which is perfect for me because I can literally get off the train, walk along the platform and up the stairs (carefully avoiding the MASSIVE queues for the Harry Potter shop!)

I had a sort through my carefully curated fabric collection (!!) to find the fabrics that I’d never found a use for-I’d been gifted them in the first place but I thought someone else might be able to use them more than me. I also had a number of patterns which were mainly duplicates or free patterns that I’d never use (I know I rarely get rid of anything but if I genuinely have no need or liking for something it’s only taking up room isn’t it?)

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This was a neat pile of fabrics and patterns only minutes before…I can spot @pootleandmake, @kara22jay and @selfassemblyrequired in the midst of it all

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really getting into the swing of it now…

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we needed to drag up a second table for the patterns!

So anyway, when I arrived there were already about 7 or 8 lovely ladies there already and it didn’t take long for us to dive in to the big pile of fabrics and patterns. There was some amazing booty to be had but loads of it seemed to find good homes. I picked up some gorgeous lengths of fabric as well as some fab patterns including a Maker’s Atelier ‘Holiday’ shirt and a Merchant & Mills Camber Set. I think there were as many as 15 of us a one point (plus one lady who I don’t think was part of ‘us’ at all but she had a nosey before she went to catch her train!!)

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my swap haul!

I knew I’d have to try the Maker’s Atelier pattern pretty quickly because I had some lovely Swiss Dot cotton already washed and waiting for the right project at home since I bought it last year at Walthamstow!

The pattern had been partly cut out (luckily still a big enough size for me) although there were no pin marks so it didn’t seem like it had actually been used. In theory I didn’t have enough fabric according to the requirements but by folding the selvedges both to the centreline I got everything out just fine. It’s always worth checking using this method particularly if the fabric is wide or has no distinct pattern, it’s surprising how many pieces which need a fold will come out of ‘not enough fabric’. Some pieces might have to be cut singly but if you really want to make something in a certain fabric it’s probably the only option other than buying more.

The pattern is of very nice quality tissue (more like greaseproof paper in it’s thickness!) and the envelope and artwork are very classy, as is the design itself-very ‘Whistles’ I’d say. That said, I’m not really sure what makes it worth the considerable cost, at an RRP of £22.50 it costs a lot more than almost all other independent pattern brands. Don’t get me wrong, I know patterns cost a lot to create, develop and produce but I wouldn’t say this pattern was significantly better than others I’ve used. Another beef I have with it is that the seam allowances are only 1cm. Why is this an issue? well because most UK or European pattern brands have 1.5cms as standard seam allowances and this British brand chooses not to for some reason. This is fine but I think it’s a fact that should be highlighted pretty near the beginning of the instructions and I nearly missed it. Again, it wouldn’t have mattered on this particular very loose-fitting style but I think it’s worth pointing out. Sorry.

I liked the hints and tips card enclosed, it points out a few things that might not be obvious if you’re fairly new to sewing (the 1cm seam allowance note is in here but quite a way in if you don’t read all of it!) There’s a ‘how to measure’ guide on the reverse too.

Making the shirt up was fairly straightforward although I misunderstood the method for putting the collar so, instead of turning the collar edge under and slip stitching in place, I used some pretty bias binding to cover the raw edges-it looks really pretty even though it won’t show.

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Narrow bias binding on the neck edge.

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I’m not entirely clear if the collar should have a little step as mine does or not. The pattern illustrations suggest not but the photos show it looking like mine…hmmm.

Finishing off the cuffs and hem was also pretty straightforward, I like the split hem detail in particular.

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Yay! the sun came out.

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centre front split detail, the sides have them too.

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So there it is, the Holiday shirt from Maker’s Atelier. I made a 14 and it’s probably overly generous so I’ll make a 12 next time, or even a 10. I’ve got some pretty georgette that I bought at the Birmingham Rag Market last year which I think will look rather lovely in this loose style too. I’ll team this one with jeans or a straight skirt with a vest top underneath as it’s very sheer, it’ll be lovely if it’s hot though.

Thank you so much to whoever donated this pattern to the swap meet, I wouldn’t have paid £22.50 for it myself in all likelihood although it does look very classy. This is a speedy make because there are no buttons or zips to contend with so you could whip it up in an evening no problem. I’ve got some other fabric in my stash that I’ll probably make the pond -sleeve hooded version in before the summer, I’m on my holibobs quite early this year so I need to be thinking ahead a bit really-it’s easy to be making stuff for the here and now and then not have time for things that are a bit ‘out of season’.

Happy sewing

Sue xx