My latest Minerva blog post is up for you to read now and it’s a jacket that nearly didn’t make it. I chose the fabric based on the image on screen but when it arrived both the background colour wasn’t what I expected and the design was larger than I thought it would be too. The lesson to learn from this is to order a swatch whenever possible to make sure the fabric is exactly as you expect or want.
That said, the quality of the loop-back jersey I used was absolutely lovely and it made up-eventually-into a really nice Jalie Charlie bomber jacket. I haven’t used Jalie before but I must say I was very impressed with the HUGE size range each pattern comes in, the quality of the instructions and illustrations (in both English and French) and the sizing is spot on.
The next problem I had was matching ribbing to the multi-coloured fabric and also finding a suitable open-ended zip. Eventually I found a gorgeous raspberry pink plain jersey from Sewisfaction instead of ribbing, and I got a zip from MacCulloch & Wallis in London.
Trying to out-pink Zandra Rhodes!!
Anyway, once I got everything together it all sewed up really well and I was pleased with how all the colours eventually came to form a unified whole. Subtle it isn’t so it definitely needs to be worn with plain garments but it’s a bit of fun and I know I’ll use the pattern again too.
As always, you can find the full rundown of my making experience over on the Minerva blog now, I hope you find it useful.
I thought in this blog I’d take a look back at some of the things I’ve been up to over the last twelve months and it’s made me realise what a wonderful varied collection they are. As well as sewing multiple garments from numerous patterns (which I’ll look at in a separate blog) there have been several meet-ups including the Stitchroom Sewcial in June and the now-famous Sewing Weekender in August, plus one I organised myself in November. I’ve visited quite a few exhibitions, some of them more than once, read lots of books and written reviews of several of them in case anyone out there was interested in knowing more if they fancy a visit or a read for themselves. I’ve been back to the Knitting & Stitching show, and The Handmade Fair for the first time too.
In January I made my first coat in decades, the Butterick 6423 and was pretty pleased with the outcome overall.
My first meet-up of the year in February was a return visit to Balenciaga at the V&A organised by Alex (Sewrendipity) where I met a number of lovely fellow dressmakers in the flesh for the first time. It was so nice to go to an exhibition with like-minded people and then we all went for lunch together afterwards-very civilised!
Also in February Gabby Young invited me to become one of the Simple Sew bloggers so I embarked on a year of wrangling their patterns into submission, they are nice designs but aren’t always faultlessly accurate in their drafting or instructions. I took on the role on the understanding that I’d be honest (although never rude) but informative and constructive. I’ll leave you to be the judge of whether I achieved that.
I had the opportunity to visit the Fashion Technology Academy in April which was such an inspiring place. You can study many of the technical aspects of clothing production there and we also had the chance to try out a taster session of TR pattern cutting with the supremely gifted Claudette Joseph while we were there too. If you, or someone you know, wants to go down the technical route into garment manufacture then this place in North London could be a good place to start looking.
Amy and Nikki from Sewalicious, Rachel (House of) Pinheiro, Emily (Self Assembly Required, yours truly and Kathy (Sew Dainty)
Also in April I returned to the Fashion and Textiles Museum in Bermondsey, London to attend their fascinating ‘Inside couture’ afternoon. I’ve been once before but it’s so enjoyable, and such a treat to get the your hands on real couture clothes (with white gloves on, natch). I highly recommend a visit if you’re in London but you do need to book for these particular events, the museum itself is open most days.
Theresa Hewlett, Claire-Louise Hardie, Amy Thomas and yours truly.
The first London Stitchers meet-up was held at the beginning of May and although I’m not technically ‘London’, as has become obvious, I go up a lot. These are organised by Ana Cocowawacrafts and Georgia One Stitch Forward and they vary in their locations between north, south and central London. Anyone is welcome and it’s a great way to meet new people and know that you all have at least one shared interest! It’s like speed-dating for dressmakers!!
Me Made May was also happening on Instagram and for the first time in ages I managed to post every single day for a month-long challenge even though I was out of the country for some of it. Lots of garments I shared weren’t new and box-fresh, in fact quite a few of them were old favourites, which is as it should be. We made a trip to Assisi in Italy during this time so that made my backdrops a bit more interesting for a few days!
I tried something a bit different in May by going on a course to learn how to make and print my own etchings. I’d done this once a million years ago when I did my Foundation Course at college and have always found the medium fascinating and beautiful. [Go and check out Rembrandt’s work in particular if you aren’t sure what they are] I’d met a lovely lady called Chrissy Norman on the first Sewing Weekender two years ago and it turns out that not only does she sew and knit, she’s a super-talented printmaker too. She has a separate IG account for her prints and I admired a print she posted on it early in the year. It transpires that she teaches courses a few times a year at Sudbourne Park Printmakers workshops. Long story short, I signed up and joined her in Suffolk in mid-May. It was soooo interesting and fun, plus I made some pretty respectable prints based on a photo I had taken of the Maggi Hambling sculpture on the beach at Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
The summer saw the first of several visits to the Frida Kahlo exhibition and Fashioned from Nature at the V&A museum. I also loved the retrospective of the work of Azzedine Alaia at the Design Museum, I didn’t write a review though because by the time I went there wasn’t much left of the run sadly. It was spectacular though and I’m very glad I made the effort. That same day we went to see the musical Hamilton which was absolutely stupendous, Mr Y normally doesn’t go for that style of music but even he has raved about it ever since-highly recommended!
Azzedine Alaia
at the Design Museum
Frida Kahlo sculpture in the courtyard at the V&A this summer.
In June I was one of the lucky attendees of the first Stitchroom Sewcial event organised by Anne ‘New Vintage Sewing’ and Lucy ‘Sew Essential’ at Anne’s workplace in the University of Loughborough. They had excelled themselves with activities for us all to try including visiting the print and weaving workshops, computerised machine embroidery, an individual photoshoot AND time to sew and use the industrial machines Anne has in her classroom. I really hope I’m lucky enough to go again in 2019…
I took a road trip with my ‘local’ sewing friends Alana and Helen to visit Sewisfaction on their first Big Summer Stitch-up which was great fun, even though it was a steaming hot day.
At the end of July and beginning of August I posted two blogs which seemed to light the blue touch paper that rapidly became Sew Over 50. When I wrote them I thought no one would read them, much less agree with me, so I was stunned by the response to say the least. My now-friend Judith was amongst those who read them and was feeling the same way so she went one step further and created a new Instagram account called @SewOver50 and everything went a bit nuts from there on. As I write this post the account has gained over 5,300 followers since mid-August which is phenomenal. It’s become a place of inspiration and encouragement for thousands of women (and the occasional man) who sew but felt they, we, are being overlooked or dismissed by the burgeoning home-dressmaking market because of our age.
One thing that some people misunderstood about the whole idea wasn’t that we wanted to be separate from any other age group, like some kind of exclusive club, not at all, we just felt that some people-magazines, pattern companies-were overlooking the opportunity to tap into a market and a group who had cash to spend, had styling ideas, skills and experience to share, originality, fun, empathy, quirkiness, style. For a lot of the people who started following the account they had very little experience of using social media to broaden their horizons in sewing terms, and for connecting with like-minded people around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US, as well as Europe. Suddenly there was an identifiable hashtag to follow which took you straight to the heart of this community. In fact it isn’t only sewing that members are supportive with, many face health challenges, a changing body with the menopause, dealing with elderly parents or caring for grandchildren so there have already been lots of conversations that have strayed away from sewing completely, and that’s OK too.
It’s been gratifying to see that a number of sources are making a big effort to be more diverse in who they feature in articles or as models. There is still a long way to go though because we’re conscious it might appear that it’s mostly white middle-aged women who sew, but we know this isn’t the case because there are many women of colour who sew too, maybe they don’t engage as much with Instagram or other social media though? I don’t know the answer to this one except to say that all are welcome because that’s the whole point. It makes me very happy when much younger dressmakers comment to me that they also follow us to get inspiration and advice, which is also the reason that I follow younger sewers myself!
Onwards, there was another amazing Sewing Weekender in August which was quickly followed by SewPhotoHop on Instagram in September organised by Rachel ‘House of Pinheiro‘. I didn’t keep up with this one so much and dipped in and out a bit [the same happened with Sewvember as well] but it’s a good way to find new people to follow and be inspired by if all this is new to you. I’ve just remembered there was MIYMarch (Make it Yourself) but that passed me by completely this year.
In September I became a Minerva Crafts blogger so I’m provided with fabric by them to make up into my own choice of garment and then write a comprehensive review for their own website. I’m enjoying this and it’s another string to my bow.
October saw me return to Birmingham for the SewBrum event which is magnificently organised by Charlotte ‘English Girl at Home’. It’s a chance for dressmakers from all over the place to come together in Birmingham, shop for fabric, visit Guthrie & Ghani and generally hang out together.
I was really chuffed to be invited by Amy Thomas, editor of Love Sewing magazine to contribute an article about the Fashioned from Nature exhibition to the magazine in November. It was a really big deal for me to write something specifically to appear in print. I’ve been lucky enough to write pattern reviews for Love Sewing and Sew Now in the past but this was a new departure. I’d love to do more like this in the future. There’s definitely a little something coming up early in the new year but I can’t talk about that yet…..
My name in print!
I organised my own meet-up at Walthamstow Market in east London in mid-November which fortunately was a beautiful day as it was well attended and we nearly all went for lunch afterwards, to continue chatting! It was the first meet-up for quite a number of the attendees but I think everyone enjoyed themselves and were delighted to get the chance to chat together in real life and not just in a comments box!
Loving all the fabrics in Saeed’s, Walthamstow
Hasan, better known as the Man Outside Sainsbury’s!
There was a lovely pre-Christmas sewing day in Cambridge called SewCam organised by Jen Walker ‘The Gingerthread Girl’ which was a delightful antidote to festive fever, and a final London Stitcher’s meet up the following weekend to round everything off nicely!
getting started at SewCam in December
When I look back at everything in this way it makes me so happy to realise the sheer quantity of wonderful opportunities that my love of dressmaking has brought me this year in particular. I continue to teach my lovely group of ladies locally-they think all this Instagram nonsense is ridiculous in a good way! I’ve met so many awesome and inspiring women in real life for the first time and I’ve deepened some of the friendships that started last year, or longer, ago. Many people think that ‘friends’ on Insta aren’t real but that just isn’t true. Of course there are those people you should give a wide berth to and we are continually plagued by nut-jobs who think women who sew will be interested in their guns, or love of God, or whatever but if we all continue to report them then so much the better.
Wherever you are in your sewing ‘journey’ I hope you find it relaxing, fulfilling, inspiring, empowering, distracting, whatever you need it to be. I’ll never stop learning and being creative is so good for us ( we knew this all along but science is finally realising it too!)
I’ve already got some ideas for next year but, to be honest, much of 2018 just unfolded one thing at a time without too much planning in advance. I’d like to expand my own skills in 2019 and not necessarily in dressmaking terms, I have always enjoyed art so perhaps I should get my pencils and paints back out again.
There’s always an element of me hoping you enjoy what I write and find the reviews helpful or informative although, in truth, I’d write them anyway as a record. Thank you for joining me on the journey and Happy New Year, and here’s to lots more sewing adventures, maybe we’ll meet ‘in real life’ in 2019?!
I’ve recently realised that Burda 6914 has become a bit of a favourite as I’ve just made it for the fourth time so I thought I’d write a quick review of it here. It has 3 variations; sleeveless cocoon dress with hem darts, cocoon dress with a hem band and short sleeves, and a sleeveless top. They all feature the double pleat at the neckline and a visible bias binding neck finish. There’s no zip, it just goes over your head.
I got my copy quite some time ago with Sew Magazine but it’s still available to buy . My first version was the dress with darts at the hem and I added the sleeves. I had some wintery fabric of unknown origin or fibres in a dogtooth check so I didn’t want the short sleeves. The sleeves have 2 external darts which is an interesting feature but I wanted them longer so I increased the pattern to below elbow length simply by continuing the seam lines down to the length I wanted (sorry, it was ages ago and I didn’t take a photo at the time) make sure that the 2 seams are the same length as each other, it will gradually increase the width the longer they get. I then created new darts on the outside to absorb the fullness I had added, 5 in total.
the finished external pleats
The dress goes together very quickly, make the pleats in the front, join the shoulders, add the binding watch the instructions here as you’re told to trim the neck edge before adding the binding.
With a striking design like a dogtooth check the bias binding at the neck will add a nice touch.
I’ve added pockets (of course) which aren’t part of the pattern. The darts at the hem are quite diddy but they give the skirt a nice shape. It’s been one of my favourite winter dresses.
Following the success of this dress I made another a few months later in a striped poly crepe from somewhere or other.
I added pockets again but as a single layer that was stitched directly to the front.
I cut the sleeves on the cross grain so that the stripes were diagonal.
I love how the binding looks on this one but it does make your eyes go funny!
I liked this dress but I didn’t like how it looked on me. The sleeves made my arms look chunky and somehow the length didn’t feel right either-odd, because I didn’t do anything different to the pink/black dress. I wore it once and then it languished in the wardrobe for ages. Eventually I unpicked the sleeve darts and re-hemmed them and I cut off some of the skirt to the bottom of the pockets. I thought about unpicking the pockets too but that might have left holes in the front plus it would be quite a bit more work.
I’m wearing the top with my Megan Nielsen Ash jeans.
Much happier with this! I made a split hem detail and the sleeves are so much better.
Version 3 was made with 1 metre of viscose fabric which had been donated by Stoff & Stil in the second Sewing Weekender goody bags. Because it was 150cms wide I managed to get a top with short straight sleeves to which I added a short frill.
I hemmed the frill using the rolled hem on my overlocker so that it lost barely any fabric. The neck has a button and loop closure.
The latest version is made in a lovely 100% organic cotton lawn which I bought on impulse at the Sewisfaction Big Summer Stitch Up in July. I’d earmarked it for yet another Camber but changed my mind.
I tried out the ‘fork’ pleating method on the sleeve hems this time. I made a long strip of fabric gleaned from the leftovers and neatened them first with a rolled hem finish again. It’s a really simple method and I don’t know why I haven’t used it before. I think some people use the fork to create the pleat first and which they pin in place before sewing but I did it directly in the machine, just needing to be very careful that the needle didn’t hit the fork!! In truth the strip I made wasn’t quite long enough and I ought to have added a bit more but I’d already hemmed it and couldn’t be bothered. It just meant I had to juggle the pleats a bit to get them relatively even, it really isn’t that noticeable (I hope) If you’re good at maths you might be able to work out the ratios for this….I’m not and I didn’t…
I used two buttons in similar colours to the print, one on top of the other. I always make a hand-sewn loop, it’s usually the last thing and I find it quite a soothing, peaceful way to finish a make.
There’s an option for a double binding at the neck which I used this time. I think I like it but it doesn’t sit flat like the usual method.
It has a pretty hand-painted look to the design, the background colour is a little more Eau-de-Nil than it looks here.
Knowing me this probably still isn’t the last of Burda 6914. One thing I keep forgetting is that there’s slightly too much ease in the sleeve head and I have to adjust the armhole so just watch out for this.
Have you got a favourite quick pattern that you go back to time and again? This isn’t a taxing make and there are times when I think I should push myself more with more complex makes but this is a satisfying garment to wear which is why I keep returning to it.
Susan Young Sewing 