Maxine Sweater by Dhurata Davis

I first met pattern maker Dhurata Davies at my friend Sal’s ‘Sew2gether’ event last spring and then our path’s crossed again unexpectedly a couple of months later when I made a last minute decision to go to the Threads textiles fair in Farnham. Dhurata was exhibiting there and she offered me a copy of her Maxine Sweater pattern in return for a review. The pattern is intended as a sweatshirt, and I’ve made one in a jersey fabric already, but it also works well in a woven too. It was the diagonal seam lines with pockets concealed in them that appealed to me. The sweatshirt version was for a Minerva fabric blog review which hasn’t appeared yet at the time of writing but now that I’ve made a second top I can tell you all about the pattern here.

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I had picked up a modest remnant of ‘Woolsey’, a linen/wool fabric in the Merchant & Mills shop in Rye last August, it’s a lovely deep teal colour which is one of my favourites (although it’s a devil to photograph accurately). When I made the jersey version I made a size 16 based on my body measurements and there’s plenty of room in it so I knew I could risk making the same size in a non-stretch fabric. [If you are making anything more usually intended for a fabric with some stretch you will almost certainly need to go up a size or two, especially if it’s in any way close fitting. Measure the pattern itself if you’re not sure and don’t forget you need to be able to get it on, will it need additional openings like a zip or buttons if there’s no stretch to get it over your head, or your hips?] 

Before I cut anything out I made myself a ‘whole’ sleeve pattern piece, it comes as a ‘half’ sleeve vertically so this needs to be placed on a fold in the fabric (twice as you need two sleeves!) but I always prefer to have a complete sleeve. Just stick the pattern to a large enough piece of paper so that you can fold it down the central ‘place on fold’ line, fold it in half and pin in a few places then cut out a new symmetrical pattern piece. 

I knew I would not have enough fabric for the separate collar, cuffs and hem-band pieces but I could lengthen the body so that it wasn’t ridiculously short. I added about 10-12cms to the bottom of the front and back pieces. I had to decide how to finish the neckline instead of the collar and I came up with a combination of piping directly on the edge first and then a band of jersey ribbing. I didn’t know how, or if, this would work but the piping would look fine on it’s own if the jersey wasn’t any good. 

The instructions and illustrations are nice and clear and straightforward and it’s not as difficult as you might imagine to get the diagonal cross in the centre. The seam allowance is just 1cm so I always highlight the pattern when this is the case so that, when I make the pattern again, I don’t sew it up as 1.5 by mistake and it’s all too small! 

the centre cross close-up on the outside.

and on the reverse.

Once the front was complete I joined it to the back at the shoulders and then made some bias binding for the neck. I had just enough scraps to cut 3 strips which were approximately 50cms long and 4cms wide which I joined to form one long strip. I have a specific piping foot for my Pfaff Quilt Ambition 2 which is really useful but you can usually use your zip foot if it allows you to stitch close enough to the piping cord. Not all zip feet are good at this especially if it’s the generic one which comes with the machine but there are usually adjustable ones you can buy which, in my experience, are better. The piping foot actually sits over the top of the fabric and piping cord rather than just beside it so it’s held more securely and stitches much closer to the piping for a better finish. If you want to see another use of the piping foot pop over to my review of the Simple Sew Lizzie dress.

this is the piping foot actually sitting over the top of the band as well as the piping too.

Once I’d made the piping I sewed it around the neck, raw edges together and making a neat join at the back. I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a matching jersey so I opted for a complete contrast. I bought 50cms each of deep red and dark grey tubular jersey from Backstitch and when I put them together I decided that the red made a more interesting garment. Generally when you’re adding a stretch band you work on the basis of it being approximately 85% of the neckline/cuff/waistband measurement that you’re attaching it to, depending on the stretch of the jersey. I’d made things tricky by adding the piping first so the machine had to go through a LOT of layers of fabric. I must say that the Pfaff sailed through it all pretty easily. The only time it was hard work was over the seam allowances on the cuffs. Because I was making this bit up as I went along I sewed the piping onto the cuff first then sewed the under arm seams, if I were using this finish again I would sew the under arm seam first and then put the binding on ‘in the round’ because it would be less bulky where it crosses the seam. I used my little seam-hopper gadget to help lift the foot to help ease it over the bulky seams, this one came with the machine but you can buy something called a Jean-a-ma-jig or even use a piece of thick folded cardboard.

On the left the cuff is folded and stitched and then folded again on the right. I ran a row of wide zigzag around the raw edges to keep them together before sewing them onto the cuffs. The neckband is done the same way.

you can see it’s all a bit of a tight area to work in but the finished effect was worth it I think. The jersey has to stretch as it’s sewn onto the woven non-stretch fabric.

this is inside the cuff, as you can see it’s quite messy and bulky but the little plastic gadget will help to ‘leapfrog’ over the seam. With the needle down to prevent it from moving stop just ahead of the seam, lift the presser foot and slide the gadget underneath the foot with its ‘toes’ either side of the needle (it can be from the front or the back depending which you’ve got better access to) and then lower it back down so the presser foot is resting on the gadget. The foot should now be on a better level to sew over the seam, sew forwards a few stitches until you’re clearing the seam then move the gadget around to the front (if you’ve had it at the back) and place it under the foot there. Come slowly forwards a few more stitches until you’re completely clear of the seam and back on level sewing again, always taking care that the needle doesn’t hit the plastic.

the finished cuff

Having told you 85% is the usual amount for a stretch bands I should have made the neck one slightly shorter than that as it doesn’t sit completely flat even after a good amount of steaming. I left it though because it doesn’t look that bad and it would be a lot of work to re-do it. First join the band into a loop along it’s narrow edge then fold it lengthwise in the same manner as the cuffs and then divide it into 4 equal parts marked with pins. Next equally divide the neck (or cuffs) equally into 4 too. Pin the band onto the neck (or cuff) at the marks and stretch the band to fit and stitch in place. You can see from the photos that this was quite tricky because of the number of layers involved, I graded the layers so that it reduced the bulk as far as possible. All these layers plus the piping cord made it too difficult to get the cuffs under the overlocker so I finished the edges using a simple zigzag stitch. Around the neck I used the Coverlock 3.0 to coverstitch which had dual benefit of neatening on the inside and giving an attractive double row of top stitching on the outside. 

the jersey band is very slightly wavy which suggests it’s fraction too long but it was too much hassle to take it all back off again and, frankly, CBA!

this is the coverstitching from the outside, the piping made it really difficult to get closer as the width if the foot wouldn’t let it get any nearer. Incidentally, I tried this out on a small sample piece first so that if it all went horribly wrong I didn’t ruin the whole garment. I strongly recommend that you make samples of any new or unusual techniques you may want to try so that you don’t spoil all your good work, it’s worth the bit of extra time it takes.

the coverstitching from the inside, it served the double purpose of top stitching on the outside and neatly covering the raw edge on the inside. I’d trimmed and layered all those edges first to reduce the bulk.

To finish the hem I just overlocked the edge, turned it up and stitched twice. So that’s it really, I’m very happy with the finished top, I layered it up with a thin RTW T-shirt when I wore it to go to Brighton recently. The fabric doesn’t seem to crease so much as bend, it’s of a double-weave construction the same as cotton double gauze. 

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pre-crumpling and modelled by Doris

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I’m really happy with the outcome of this top, the fabric has lent itself well to the more smocky kind of shape and although it was bit involved I really like the finished effect of the addition of the stretch cuffs and piping onto an otherwise simple garment. The ‘Woolsey’ fabric does fray a bit because of the loose weave but it’s manageable. Incidentally, this pattern looks great lengthened into a dress or with the pockets left out of the seams if you’re short of fabric.

Thank you Dhurata for the gift of the pattern, in my opinion it’s a goody and if you aren’t adding extras like me it’s a nice quick half-day make. Dhurata has also designed some lovely children’s patterns too which you might be interested in.

Until next time, happy sewing

Sue

Ash jeans, a brand new pattern from Megan Nielsen

Last year I pattern-tested the Karri dress by Megan Nielsen (or at least I did but a bit after the event) I enjoyed the process because I just love and am fascinated by garment construction so the chance to be in at the beginning of a pattern coming to market is great. When I got an email last autumn requesting testers for a new jeans pattern from Megan Nielsen I was really keen to give them a go because I haven’t made jeans before and, this time round, the timing worked for me because I’d finished all my major bridal alterations for the summer and could concentrate on my own projects.

Initially there was a slight delay due to some technical issues before the pattern was released to testers so in the interim I’d bought a quantity of black stretch denim from Backstitch near Cambridge which I hoped would be enough-I guesstimated at 2m based on other jeans patterns I’d seen.

When the pattern arrived it had even more options than we were told it would have originally-there were skinny, slim, flared and wide-leg options. The instructions are nice and clear about exactly which pages you need to print off for the options you want so that you don’t print more pages than needed. Also these days I don’t print off the making instructions, I just keep them on the laptop and read them directly off the screen, I actually find that a little easier to ‘comprehend’ them that way too, maybe it’s because the instructions and illustrations are that much larger than in print? If you have difficulty with making sense of instructions why not try this method with PDFs to see if it works for you.

After initially thinking I‘d go for the slim leg I eventually printed off the wide legged ones-I was concerned that they might be too tight on my legs (vanity) more on this later. 

Ok, so I printed off the wide-leg version but they looked way too wide-I’m only average height and dumpier than I’d like to be so I didn’t want to look like Pop Eye in  his matelot trousers! Rather than reprint the slim leg (stingy) I eventually folded out some of the width at hem level, fading it into nothing by the mid-thigh. One of my observations in the feedback was that the lines became quite indistinct between sizes on the waistband-I feel that they would be better ‘nested’ into groups so that there could be bigger gaps between them, it will be interesting to see if this happens. There’s a wide range of waist sizes included in the Ash so most people are quite likely to be able to use it.

The pattern was very straightforward to piece together, either I’m getting better at this process because I’ve done it a few times now or maybe the first PDFs I did were more complex anyway, this one was simple. Cue cutting, sticking and more cutting. Fortunately for me the quantity of fabric I’d bought was just enough, obviously there’s no nap to worry about on denim so the pieces can interlock well although the curved waistband is all in one piece so it just squeaked in {if it hadn’t fitted in one piece I would have cut it into two at the CB like mens trousers have, this enables a better fit and can be useful on women’s trousers too if you’re having difficulty getting a good fit into the small of your back}

Construction starts with the zip fly. Part of the reason I wanted to try jeans is because it’s been absolutely years since I made trousers with a zip fly and I don’t remember them being a huge success!

I found the instructions very clear and meticulous with helpful diagrams, as I said earlier I followed them on the laptop so I could scroll up and down as much as I needed to so that I knew exactly what to do at each step. Ok, so this is going to sound like bragging but it really isn’t….I didn’t make a single error whilst doing this stage and I give full credit to the quality of the instructions. You could argue that’s because I know roughly what I should be doing but I don’t think that’s all it is, credit where it’s due to the writer.

although it looks like the top of the zip is going up too high because it’s a bit long this isn’t a problem. There are very thorough instructions for the zip insertion, including how to sew over a metal zip-something I would normally never recommend.

It doesn’t look level but that’s just the camera angle. I’m pretty happy with the two rows of stitching-I deliberately chose matching thread in case my parallel lines wobbled!!

After the zip is in you make the front pockets-I lined mine with a contrast fabric-and that was very straightforward. Much as I love my trusty Elna 7000 it’s getting on a bit now and really doesn’t much like topstitching thread so doing the topstitching proved frustrating and problematic. (I’ve bought a new Pfaff Quilt Ambition 2.0 since making these and I’m delighted with it) I fiddled with the tension a bit and eventually I got a decent quality stitch but it isn’t perfect on the underside. Incidentally I used a denim/jeans needle throughout (it’s just occurred to me that there are top stitch needles too so maybe I should try that next time)

Next the patch pockets go on the back. I chose not to do any fancy stitching designs or topstitching (partly because my machine was struggling so much with the thread) and just kept it simple.

certainly not faultless (the top edges peeping out annoy me slightly but they’re at the back so I can’t see them anyway!)

I’ve made a second pair of Ash more recently and I slightly altered the way I did the top of the pocket.

Instead of rolling the top of over twice as per the instructions I folded it like this so that the first fold is WS together and then the second fold is RS together meaning the raw edge is still showing at this point. I stitched it down just inside the seam allowance to hold the fold in position.

Next I turned the folded corner out like this so that it’s nice and neat. I then sewed the patch pockets on in the same way as the denim pair but now there’s no annoying sticky-up bits showing.

the waistband sewn in position, along with the belt loops

After trying the jeans on again I was still not happy with the width of the leg that I’d cut so, because the inner leg seams are double top-stitched, I skimmed in some more from the outer leg seams (this is becoming a habit, see my Love Sewing trouser pattern review here) 

Very indecisive!

Eventually I got to a leg-width that I was happy with and after that it was just a case of hemming them. You might look at the finished photos and think “well they don’t fit that well” but frankly I don’t care because I’ve struggled at times in my life to feel comfortable and confident wearing jeans at all because there are so many idealised images out there of what a woman ‘ought’ to look like in them, they should be tighter here, they shouldn’t wrinkle there etc etc blah blah blah….I’m comfortable and happy in these as they are, it’s my body shape that would have to change drastically and it isn’t going to any time soon. Rant over…

Finally the waistband needs a jeans button and a buttonhole. The instructions helpfully pointed out that the buttonhole should be round-ended (not something I’d ever paid much attention to on RTW jeans) and making such a buttonhole on a domestic machine is usually very tricky because of the thickness of fabric involved. Megan suggests doing it ‘freehand’ with a zigzag stitch so I had a few practices at this. Eventually I felt brave enough to do it on the actual waistband and it turned out passably well. My new machine seems much better at buttonholes-it should do, it cost me enough!

A little bit scruffy but it’s behind a button anyway…

The jeans button is the sort with a rivet or stud behind it so it’s a case of banging them together through the fabric with a hammer! Don’t do it on your best table, put it on the bread board or a towel folded several times.

Ta dah!

I’d been trying on the jeans periodically as I went along and they felt great. Personally I’m delighted with how well Ash fit me! They are snug and comfortable around my waist and hips and I’m really really happy with them.

Sorry about the butt-shots but I’m so pleased with how well Ash jeans fit, particularly in the back waist.

impatient with the photographer face!

still a bit cheesed off but it’s all about the jeans folks…

Teamed with my Refashioners 2017 McQueen-inspired jacket

By the time you’re reading this the Ash jeans will have been released into the wild so you’ll be seeing lots of different versions of them all over the place. I’ve since bought some stretch cord and made another pair, I left the legs a bit longer and a bit wider this time. I’ve worn the denim pair constantly because they’re so comfy, the denim has just the right amount of stretch.

Compare these photos with the previous newly-minted jeans and you’ll see just how much I’ve lived in them!!

I liked the fit of the legs (eventually!) and because the pattern provides 4 leg shapes there’s bound to be one that you’ll like, I like the on-the-waist fit too.

If you’re looking for a new sewing challenge then jeans might be just the ticket, there was a lot of jeans-sewing going on during February and March so there is plenty of inspiration out there. They are definitely a slow-sew which you might need to break down into bite-size chunks, they need concentration at times, and a certain degree of sewing ‘comprehension’ because they aren’t for complete beginners. I felt the quality of the written instructions and diagrams was excellent and there will be online tutorials available eventually too. It’s also worth mentioning that I found 1 reel of topstitching thread isn’t quite sufficient because there’s only 30m on a regular-sized reel of Gutermann, which is what I used.

I was provided with the pattern at no cost but I bought my own fabric and received no payment for testing the Ash jeans, and as such all the opinions expressed are unbiased and entirely my own. I’ve just bought some more blue denim to make a cropped length next!

Happy sewing,

Sue