Sewing with a sheer fabric

I’ve been meaning to write this post for months…six months to be exact, because that’s when I wore the dress at my dear friend Jenny’s wedding in April! I know it’s a spring/summer dress but I thought the way I’ve used the fabric might be of interest if you’re thinking of tackling a tricky fabric. I’ve used a couple of techniques which could be helpful.

I bought the fabric in Fancy Silks in Birmingham last autumn with the intention of making an Asymmetric Dress TPC2 by Trend Patterns for our cruise but eventually I made that in something else and, as Jenny had set the date for a spring wedding, I decided to use it for that event instead. It’s a challenging fabric which I would describe as being a satin-striped organza which has been overprinted with flowers. It’s exactly the same type of fabric that I used for my Dior-inspired evening gown three years ago. Part of the challenge is that it’s sheer so it needs to have some kind of lining, this could be a loose lining, or an alternative is to mount it onto another fabric first like I did and then make it up into the dress.

By an amazing piece of good fortune I had some very soft satin left from a pair of bridesmaid dresses I made about five years ago and it was a PERFECT match-unbelievable! Better still, I ordered some lining from Minerva based purely on the colour image on my screen and it was also a perfect match-it was obviously meant to be.

Clearly though I had to decide on a pattern, I didn’t want anything too flouncy and there was going to be some serious stripe-matching going on so it couldn’t be in a million pieces. I rummaged amongst my patterns and came upon Butterick 6244 by Lisette which must have been free with a magazine at some point. A couple of the lovely ladies who come to my class have made the coat with great success but, looking at reviews, I think the dress has been largely passed over. It appealed to me because the skirt was a very straightforward A-line and the bodice was Princess seams with a ‘Dior’ dart [this is where a short dart extends to the bust point from a Princess seam] There is also a small shoulder yoke at the front so that was perfect for rotating the stripe.

With the exception of the sleeves I had to cut all the pieces in three different fabrics, the satin and the lining I could cut together but the organza had to be cut separately to ensure the stripes matched properly. I altered the sleeve to make them longer and then I decided to add a pointed cuff to finish them off.

Once everything was cut out it’s a fairly slow process of ‘mounting’ each organza piece onto its satin backing. I began by laying each satin piece shiny side up flat on the table, placing the organza on top and pin the two together around the edges. Then, moving it as little as possible, I tacked each piece together within the seam allowances. This was another reason for keeping the number of pieces to a minimum because this process takes a fair amount of time. Once all the pieces have been mounted you simply construct the garment as normal. This has various advantages, it makes the see-through fabric opaque, it makes a flimsy fabric more stable and in this case it means the hem of the skirt will be invisible when sewn.

I used narrow piping on the neck edge and the waistband to give them some finesse, I had to cover the piping cord with both organza and lining because the cord showed through the organza alone. You can use a regular zip foot to sew on the piping, I have a specific piping foot for my Pfaff which is brilliant because it sews so close and holds it all firmly in position whilst sewing.

piping cord around the neckline.

So that’s pretty much it really because aside from matching lots of stripes it’s a normal dress. The beauty of the skirt meant that I could use self-made satin binding on the hem and then the hand-stitching won’t show on the right side, a truly invisible hem!

satin bias-binding on the hem, understitched and slip-hemmed in position.

the hem is then totally invisible on the outside.

The only sheer parts are the sleeves which I added pointy cuffs to and finished them off with pretty sparkly buttons. I mounted each cuff part onto plain organza before construction to give them more stability.

I cut the cuffs with the stripes running at right-angles to the sleeves.

I hope you might find some of these techniques helpful if you’re tackling trickier fabrics. Mounting one onto another is useful to add interest-you could have a contrast colour underneath lace for example, it gives opacity to flimsier fabrics, stability and support to fabrics like panne velvet and can enable seams and hems to ‘disappear’ with ease. I used french seams in the sleeves but otherwise they are all regular seams. I only overlocked those inside the skirt as there is a separate skirt lining, the bodice is fully lined and enclosed so there’s no need to overlock any of those seams. If you’re using chiffon or georgette which are more fluid fabrics than organza you you should back them or interface them with a similar weight of fabric, preferably plain in colour so as not to show through or deepen the colour of the top fabric too much. Plain chiffon or organza are frequently used in couture techniques for this purpose.

It turned out that April 22nd was a very warm day so maybe I should have dropped the neckline slightly but that’s British weather for you-somewhat unpredictable! It was a gorgeous, happy wedding…

did I mention it has pockets?

So as we head towards winter here in the UK I bring you a post featuring a summery dress! Anyway, you might find parts of it helpful.

Happy sewing

Sue

My Simplicity pattern hack for The Eve Appeal.

How often do you alter or adapt a pattern when you’re making it? By that I don’t mean the usual things like adjusting the fit to suit your height or bust measurement, I mean really alter it significantly with things like changing the sleeves or completely changing the length. 

I’ve always enjoyed doing exactly this because it’s a way of making a garment completely original and all your own even if loads of other dressmakers are sewing and sharing their versions of a particular pattern. These days this process even has it’s own name-pattern hacking. You can read a couple of my previous blog posts where I’ve hacked patterns to give you some other ideas, here and here.

When I was invited by The Fold Line to take part in the Simplicity Patterns/Eve Appeal campaign this year I knew it would be something I’d enjoy and could really get my teeth into. There are a range of patterns you can choose from and for every one sold Simplicity will make a donation to the Eve Appeal. I picked a blouse pattern #8658 to use because I could see its potential for changes, not least because it’s shown in stripes on the envelope and I knew there was fun to be had playing with the directions of them. I chose a really lovely blue striped shirting with a little bit of stretch generously provided by Minerva and while I waited for it to arrive I did some sketching of ideas. The raglan sleeve is in two parts running down the top of the arm to the wrist so my first idea was to have the stripes running in different directions, which led on to having the lower, bell-shaped part of the sleeve cut on the bias. 

I thought the back needed to be a bit more interesting than just a centre back seam with a button and loop closure so I altered it to include buttons and buttonholes. The blouse is over-the-head anyway so I don’t need to be able to open the buttons to get it on. The neckline is finished with bias binding but why put it on the inside when you can make a feature of it on the outside? 

Strangely I never saw it as staying just a blouse, it was always going to become a dress but how to do that? I like long floaty skirts so I sketched out quite a few variations of gathered, pleated and flounced skirts, all with pockets in the seams somewhere. I had decided that the bodice should be higher at the front than the back which obviously would affect the skirt levels but I eventually left that decision until the bodice was made up and I could see it more clearly on the stand.

I thought I’d do some of my initial adaptations and make it up as a blouse first to check the fit. The back is easy to change because it already has a CB seam so I merely added 5cms to the edge to allow for a grown-on button-stand. The original stitching line will remain as the CB and that is where the buttons and buttonholes will get positioned. I traced all the pattern pieces I needed onto spot-and-cross paper although the envelope does include a large sheet of squared tissue paper for you to use to make your own changes if you don’t have spot-and-cross. [You could use cheap wide greaseproof paper if you have it, I used to use broadsheet newspaper taped together when I was a student but that’s getting harder to find!]

Having traced the two parts of the sleeve once I then retraced them again (I didn’t want to cut up the first ones, I may want the sleeve full-length at some point) just the top parts to a length a bit above my elbow, around bicep level, not forgetting to add seam allowance to the new lower edge. Next I pinned the FULL-LENGTH sleeve pieces together along the stitching lines vertically so that I could trace off a new single piece for the lower sleeve. As well as the regular straight grain I added a bias grainline too because I’d be using that with the stripes. You could add extra fullness to this part by cutting and spreading if you wish, it would make a very voluminous bell-shaped sleeve.

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  front and back sleeves overlapped at the seam then the lower part is traced off to form a new pattern piece.

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  3 separate sleeve pieces, the lower section has a bias grain marked as well as the straight grain.

I cut a size ‘medium’ according to both my body measurements and by referring to the finished garment measurements printed on the pattern. Using some lovely printed poplin from Stitch and Knit, a new fabric and yarn shop near me, I made up the blouse. Part of my plan on the dress was to highlight the seaming with topstitching so I did this on the blouse too although I used a fun ‘circles’ stitch in a contrast colour which echoed the design on the fabric. I didn’t cut the lower sleeve on the bias though because it wouldn’t make any obvious difference to the look of the print. I tried out my idea of French binding on the outside of the neck edge and that looked good too. 

Overall I was very happy with the fit of the medium so I didn’t need to make any changes to sizing. This meant I could retrace the front and back bodices to my chosen length which was approximately Empire-line or a few centimetres below my under-bust line. To decide where this was first I pinned the front and back parts together at the side seam on the stitching line and then attached it all to the stand. You can then see more clearly where you might want to draw the horizontal style lines from front to back, especially if you want a sloping line. With these lines drawn on you can trace off the new, shorter parts and check them on the stand and on yourself too. This is important because I thought I’d made the line a little too high so I added some more length to the bottom, 5cms in all I think. 

This might all seem like a lot of tracing off and you could just indicate on the pieces where your various cutting lines are (or wing it!) then transfer your markings direct to the fabric. As I planned to rotate the back so that the stripes were horizontal I wanted accurate pattern pieces. 

The bodice parts cut on the various grains to utilise the stripes.

After cutting the bodice section in striped fabric I first reinforced the buttonstands with iron-on interfacing up to the fold line. Next I attached the appropriate sleeve parts and top stitched the seams, then joined the shoulder seams so that I could bind the neckline. I’d cut a long bias strip of fabric 5cms wide which I folded lengthwise wrong sides together and pressed to get a crisp edge. Next place the bias on the WRONG SIDE of the fabric with its folded edges to the cut neck edge, this is because you will flip the binding to the outside eventually where it will be visible. Once you have pinned the binding in place you will know exactly how long it needs to be so then you’ll need to neaten the ends by turning them RS together and stitching. Fold them back out and pin in place, it should be level with edges of the buttonstands. Stitch the binding in place using a 1cm seam allowance, trim and snip as required then flip it to the right side and topstitch in position around the neck. The photos of the blouse version should make this clearer.

Once you’re certain of the length stitch the end of the bias like so.

It’s clearer in this image that the RIGHT SIDE of the bias is first attached to the WRONG side of the fabric, and that the end is neatened to finish level with the fold.

It should look like this when it’s finished.

You can sew the buttonholes at this stage too if you like or leave them until the end. I’d bought the most gorgeous metal buttons from Duttons for Buttons in Harrogate, Yorkshire, the only problem was that the loop on the reverse of them isn’t central which is why the top button looks a bit off kilter, it had to be sewn like that so that the top band remained level.

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I attached the lower bias-cut sleeve parts next, sewed up the side seams and elasticated the cuffs., as per the instructions (yes I did use them occasionally!)

I still couldn’t decide what to do with the skirt so I tried a couple of ideas out with fabric scraps to mock-up various looks. The shirting is quite fine so it gathers really nicely without a lot of bulk, if I’d used pleats I would have had the complicated task of working out the pattern pieces to fit accurately onto a curved and dipping lower bodice edge and that was a challenge too far-especially as the stripes would have had to match too!  

flat all the way around-too much stripe matching for this one!

gathers all the way around.

Smooth front with side gathers, which is what I finally settled on.

Eventually I settled on a bit of a technical cop-out by using two simple rectangles which gathered onto the lower edge of the bodice instead of making shaped skirt pieces, apart from the central areas where they would be flat. This meant that the hem followed the same line as the bodice, higher at the front than the back, but the side seams will pitch slightly forwards as a result. It isn’t the end of the world but rather that than make the dress too complicated for you to try copying for yourself. And of course I put pockets into the side seams, with the stripes running on the opposite grain. I have a cardboard template for the pockets which I made ages ago and I just draw around it directly onto the fabric as required. (Basically I drew around my hand onto card, plus a bit of extra space, plus a seam allowance and a straight edge on one side to sew to seams) 

I placed the pocket bags 10cms down from the top edge on each of the side seams.

One final twist I added at the end was to insert elastic around the hem to give it an unusual silhouette. I turned up the hem 5mm and pressed it in position then I pressed it up again by 2.5cms. I topstitched top and bottom leaving a small gap through which I inserted 2cm wide elastic about 1 metre long. The casing could double as the hem if I choose to take the elastic out in the future. 

Mr Y and I went to Kew Gardens on a beautiful day in September and I took the opportunity to pop into the ‘Ladies’ and change into my dress for a photoshoot with more interesting backdrops than my back garden!

I hope this has given you a few ideas that you could try for yourself, this pattern is an ideal blank canvas and it has a few suggestions included which you could try first of all. There are so many possibilities you could attempt, and some of the other bloggers involved may have used this pattern too so it will be interesting to compare their own takes on it. I wanted to mess about with stripe direction, this would also work if your fabric has a strong one-way design. You could highlight the seams using piping, ribbon or other trims, what about an exposed zip down the back? you could leave the seam on the top of the sleeves open and secure it at intervals with little buttons? Obviously you don’t have to turn it into a dress but you could play with the length or put straight horizontal seams across, maybe at different levels to each other? It could potentially be a scrap-buster too…so many possibilities! If you’re going to add style lines which aren’t already there don’t forget to add seam allowance to the edges of them, include a notch or two if necessary so that you know which pieces you’re matching together.

You might have tried and trusted patterns at home which would be ideal springboards to new ideas, or by buying this pattern you will be helping raise valuable funds for research and support of those suffering with female gynaecological cancers.

Whatever you decide to try, enjoy the exploring the possibilities, don’t use expensive fabric to start with if you’re not sure you’ll like the result, look in your workbox to see what trims and embellishments you could use, contrast top stitching is one of my favourite, and most simple, ways of making something unique. There’s a whole series of other bloggers who will be taking part in this challenge in the coming weeks and months so why not take a look at what winner of the Great British Sewing Bee 2018, and pattern-hacking queen, Juliet has done for starters, or Abi of @whatabimakes and Rachel @thefoldline have added their spin to patterns in the range now too.

You can find further information about the patterns used here too

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SimplicityMcCalls/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simplicitymccallsuk/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimpMcCalls

and for more information about The Eve Appeal try here

Twitter: https://twitter.com/eveappeal

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eveappeal/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eveappeal/

Think outside the box, what’s the worst that can happen? you’ll ‘waste’ a bit of fabric, or you could discover hidden designing talents, just have fun and do your bit for charity at the same time.

Happy Sewing!

Sue

Tilly and the Buttons Nora top

I’m very excited to have been offered a copy of one of the new Tilly and the Buttons and I jumped at the chance to try Nora, a drop shoulder jersey top with several variations of sleeve, neckline and length. It’s just the sort of top I like to wear, often layered up in colder weather so I thought you might like to know what I think about the pattern.

keeping the design under wraps before the launch.

For once I decided I would trace off the pattern first because I’ll probably want to use several of the variations but this time I wanted to start with the long sleeve, uneven hem version.

Initially I checked my measurements against the sizing chart, and then the very useful finished garment measurements chart too. It’s always helpful if patterns have this (‘big 4’ patterns usually have them printed directly on one of the major pattern pieces) because you can make a much better judgement of the size you want. Take a tape measure and hold it around your body using the finished garment measurements to see how you feel about the fit-too loose? too tight? I opted to go down a size from the one indicated by my body measurements because I felt the finished top would be plenty big enough.

I had some lovely loopback sweatshirting in my stash that I’d bought from GuthrieGhani at last year’s one and only Great British Sewing Bee Live in London. It had been destined for a top based on one I’d seen at the Burberry ‘Capes’ show at the beginning of 2017 but never quite got made. When I clapped eyes on the Nora I knew the Burberry top would rise again.

I love the varied layers and stripes of this look.

In order to match the stripes, take your time laying up the fabric ready to cut. Ensure the stripes on the underneath layer are in line with the top layer by popping a few pins through both layers every so often. Next, I placed the front and back pieces onto matching stripes at the lower edges, double checking that the bottom of the armhole was also the same. I didn’t cut the sleeves out at this time, I waited until I had the front and back sewn together at the shoulders and the neck band attached before doing this. This way you can have your actual garment laying on the fabric next to where you’re intending to place the sleeve pattern, I cut each sleeve separately to make absolutely sure.

Tilly’s instructions and photos are generally very clear and helpful in my experience. I’m not sure if I did the neck band in quite the same way as the instructions but it worked and looks good. Different knits and jerseys have differing amounts of stretch so you may need to adjust the length of the band you use. I made mine shorter in the end as it wasn’t sitting flat at first, the band needed to be more stretched onto the neck edge to sit nice and flat.

I’ll take that!

The beauty of the sleeve on the Nora is that it’s a ‘shirt sleeve head’ so it’s almost flat across the top. This means it’s very simple to sew on because there’s no tricky setting into an armhole to do, you sew it on flat and then join the underarm and side seams afterwards. Incidentally, I sewed most seams using the tricot stretch stitch (looks like lightening in the symbols if you’re looking for it on your machine) You could also use a zigzag that’s very flattened out by reducing the stitch width. Alternatively, you could sew most of Nora together using an overlocker but don’t forget the seam allowances are 1.5cms and an overlocker will be much narrower which could result in a bigger garment than planned if you don’t trim them down first.

Before I hemmed the sleeves I tried the top on and opted to bring the sleeve width at the cuffs in by a total of 6cms [only as far as the elbow though from where I graded back into the original seam] Although the cuffs were a bit too wide for my liking I loved the extended length which comes some way over your hands.

That just leaves the stepped hem. I used a twin needle to sew straight across the hems and a regular ballpoint needle to turn the side seams.

Before I started Nora I’d already decided that I’d wear a shirt under the stripy version because the front is actually a bit higher than I like so, when I make my next one, I’ll lengthen the front somewhat but still keep a ’step’. I’ve been wearing it with my favourite The Maker’s Atelier Holiday Shirt underneath and I love how it looks together. I bought some beautiful Liberty fleece-back sweatshirt fabric from Fabrics Galore at the recent Knitting & Stitching show which I’ll use to make the Nora with the high roll collar instead and the long cuffs will roll back to show the contrast colour, it’s going to be so cosy. I reckon you could make it in a drapey woven fabric too BUT  you’d have to make the neckline larger because you wouldn’t get your head through otherwise!!

No make up selfie in Threadquarters! I really like all the hem interest going on.

Thank you Tilly for the chance to try out Nora, I’m definitely a fan and I think there will certainly be a few versions of her finding their way into my wardrobe over the autumn and winter…and then there will be short-sleeve versions when the spring arrives!

Until next time,

Happy sewing

Sue

 

A year in sewing 2017

2017 turned out to be a very busy sewing year for me. Not only did I make a loads of projects for myself and occasionally others but I wrote two articles for sewing magazines, and did a multitude of alterations (some very complex and time-consuming) to numerous wedding dresses, along with more mundane hems and sleeve-shortenings too.

This is a quick dash through many of the things I got up to although I’m not sure everything got photographed at the time. I’ve included a lot of links too if I’ve written blogs on some of the things I mention.

January saw a couple of self-drafted sweat shirts, I was particularly pleased with the blue one because I made it from a £3 fleece blanket from Ikea!

version 2

There are also 2 Sew Over It Heather dresses, and finally the Grainline Farrow dress, the teal one was the one which featured in the review I wrote for Sew Now magazine.

In February while I was having a week’s holiday in the Lake District I managed to squeeze in a visit to Abakhan fabrics in Manchester and bought fabric by weight for the first time in my life. I also went to a meet up organised by the lovely Emily of Self Assembly Required in a pub at King’s Cross station! I met loads of fellow-sewers there as well as picking up some new patterns and fabrics from the swap including the Holiday Top by The Maker’s Atelier which I’ve made twice over the summer.

Another February highlight was seeing the latest Burberry collection alongside the fabulous capes, each one of which was a stunning one-off! I wonder if there’ll be a similar show this season?

March saw the Moneta party (dress pattern by Colette) so I made my first which I altered to include full-length sleeves, a roll collar and a fake exposed zip (I made a short-sleeved one later in the summer too) I wore it when I went to the spring Knitting and Stitching show where once again I met up with a few fellow-sewers organised by Gabby Young (no relation!) from Gabberdashery vlog.

Collette patterns, ‘Moneta’

One of the new people I met was Juliene from Zierstoff Patterns who gave me the opportunity to try out several of their patterns during the course of the rest of the year.

Another new departure was a fundraising initiative with my weekly sewing group. We all spent an afternoon making little ‘pillowcase’ dresses which would eventually be sent off to a girl’s school in Africa.

our very own Sewing Bee!

Moving rapidly into April I visited the wonderful ‘Five Centuries of House Style’ exhibition at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, made another Holiday top utilising a few fancy stitches on my sewing machine, as well as a Sophie bolero by Zierstoff. Also during April I was approached to teach some dressmaking classes at a local craft shop so I made some sample garments for that including a dirndl skirt and a jersey tube skirt. I made the first of 3 Imogen tops using Sew Me Something’s pattern too, more about those later.

Imogen blouse and Gina by Zierstoff skirt

In May I went on my travels with my good friend Sue when we walked a section of the Camino di Santiago in France which was a fantastic empowering experience.

In June Mr Y and I went on a cruise to the Baltic and it happened to be a Strictly Come Dancing cruise! The company that make all the costumes, DSI-London, were on board along with many of the dresses so I was in seventh heaven being able to see them close up. I had to write 2 blogs about that just to be able to include all the pictures! you can read them here and here.

By July I was teaching in Hertford and one of the garments was a ‘no-pattern’ kimono which was popular and also the ‘pillowcase’ dress (nothing to do with pillowcases other than a child’s version could be made from one) It’s basically two rectangles of fabric sewn up each side, hemmed at the bottom and a channel at the top with ribbon through it.

Also in July I made my first visit to the fabulous Balenciaga exhibition at the V&A in London which was wonderful. I’ve actually been 3 times now, each time taking a different friend, I’ve had excellent value from my V&A membership and I’d urge anyone local enough and interested in the decorative arts to think about joining.

I had hoped to go to the second Sewing Weekender in August but I hadn’t been lucky enough to get a ticket….or so I thought! About 10 days before the event I got an email from Rachel at The Foldline telling me that sadly someone had had to drop out and would I like her ticket? Silly question! So off I went to Cambridge and had a wonderful time amongst so many fabulous sewing people, friends old and new. It was my birthday too! I made a simple top while I was there this time, one I’d made before so it was quick, meaning I’d have plenty of time for chatting…and taking on Elizabeth for a Ninja sewing challenge!

We each got given a copy of the same pattern and some stretch fabric off the swap table and away we went, with one hour to get it done. The results were ‘mixed’ shall we say, Elizabeth left out a section and didn’t notice until it was too late and I only cut one piece where I should have cut two so I had to go back and cut that. It was a lot of fun though, even if we looked like stuffed sofas!

Sewing Weekender 2017 Alumni, photo by The Foldline.

I spent September making the top and trousers that I’d be modelling in Love Sewing magazine! This was certainly one of my sewing highlights in 2017, although there have been lots really.I made a third Imogen blouse from fabric I got off The Foldline’s swap table at the first Great British Sewing Bee.

Another favourite top this year was the Merchant & Mills Camber Set which I also got from the King’s Cross meet up in the spring. It’s been a really useful pattern and I love the neat way the binding and the neck yoke finish off the neck edges, it’s a really clever piece of construction.

neat bias binding on the Camber Set top-my scissors necklace came from the V&A

I also made this top with 1 metre of fabric generously given to us in the Weekender goody bag by Stoff&Stil, it’s Burda 6914 which I’ve used 3 times now although this is the first time as a top. I really like the pleated neckline with a bias binding finish. There was just enough fabric to add slim ruffles to the sleeves which I neatened using the rolled hem finish on my overlocker.

I spent a lot of time during August and September making my entry to The Refashioners 2017, an Alexander McQueen-inspired jacket which I was extremely proud of when I finished it.

Into October and more fabric got purchased at the Autumn Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally (oops) I made my first pair of jeans this month but I can’t talk about them yet as they were a pattern test which still hasn’t been released-I’m really happy with them though so I’ll publish the blog as soon as it’s released into the wide world. (I think the designer needs to get on with it otherwise the whole world will think that Ginger jeans are the only pattern available!)

After literally months of dithering I finally bought a new mannequin, or ‘Doris’ as she’s known to me. Old Doris was falling to bits and only held together by the t-shirt that covered her, I’d had her for well over 30 years so I reckon I’d had good value out of her. I chose the ‘Catwalk’ model from Adjustoform which I bought from Sew Essential and I’ve been very pleased with it. 

Also in October I went up to Birmingham for the SewBrum meet up organised by EnglishGirlatHome, Charlotte where I had a really fun day (apart from the sweary drunk woman on the train coming home!) catching up with chums and visiting Guthrie & Ghani for the first time. I took part in the fantastic raffle while I was there but was unsuccessful….or so I thought (again) About 6 weeks after the event I got a message  from Charlotte asking if anyone had told me I’d won a brand new mannequin in the raffle!!! So now I have New Outdoor Doris who lives in Threadquarters and Indoor Doris who lives…indoors, and I use her to take photos on.

November saw another new departure for me when I volunteered to write some reviews of fabric shops in my area. This was for Alex of Sewrendipity as part of her plan to create an unbiased worldwide database of fabric retailers, available to everyone to use. It meant I visited some new places as well as some old favourites.

I made another entry for our annual church Christmas Tree festival. It was a refashion/upcycle of the fabric I used for the previous year and sadly it was Old Doris’s last outing before she heads for the tip! The net petticoat was a tube of fabric with the baubles and lights inside it.

I had also volunteered as a pattern reviewer for Jennifer Lauren Vintage so I made a really nice Mayberry dress and wrote a blog for that very recently. One other new pattern I tried out but haven’t blogged yet was the French dart shift by Maven Patterns. It’s a lovely flattering shift dress with a funnel neck and a variety of sleeve styles and no zip. I made it in a navy fabric of unknown origin and wore it on Christmas Day.

French dart shift dress by Maven patterns.

The biggest deal of the year in some ways was in December when I finally, finally, decided to buy a new sewing machine! This was such a big deal because I’ve had my beloved Elna 7000 for probably 27 years and it’s still going strong (only the occasional hiccough) and I have a strong emotional attachment to it. Thing is, technology moves on and whilst that really isn’t the be-all-and-end-all for me there are processes and functions that I would like in order to keep (even after all these years) on top of my sewing. In early November I went to a fun jeans refashioning workshop hosted by Portia Lawrie and Elisalex (By Hand London) and we were provided with gorgeous Pfaff sewing machines to use. 

Anyway, I was thinking about it long and hard for a while because it’s an awful lot of money when I came upon a Black Friday (not even a real thing) deal where this model was virtually half-price. Sooooo, after a visit to Sew Essential a new Pfaff Quilt Ambition 2.0 has come home to live with me and we’re getting to know one another…

she’s a beauty!

So that just about sums up my sewing year. It’s been a lot of fun at times, and hot and frustrating at others (sweltering under mountainous wedding dresses in the height of the summer is no fun) I’ve met some lovely new people and been reacquainted with lovely ‘old’ ones too! I’m looking forward to another busy year of sewing, blogging, teaching, chatting, tea drinking and generally feeling connected to sewers all over the world. It really feels like dressmaking is an activity that is worthwhile again and not just some strange little hobby that old biddies do, besides, it’s surprising what you could learn from an old biddy, she may just have made the same sewing mistakes as you have but 30 or 40 years earlier!

Happy Sewing

Sue

 

making a couple of Zierstoff Gina skirts

This is the third Zierstoff pattern I’ve made now, a Gina skirt this time, and I’m really pleased with it. The pattern is just two pieces-the skirt and the waistband, and it doesn’t take much fabric either. I chose to make it in a nice plain Ponte from Backstitch near Cambridge for a first version, there’s no stripe or pattern matching that way., sneaky eh?!

Because the fabric was plain I placed the pattern on the normal grain although if you have a stripe you could also position it on the the bias to get an interesting effect.

I’ve explained Zierstoff’s PDF method previously here and this one is no different. The one thing I’ve changed here is that the skirt is a half piece so you’re meant to ‘flip’ the pattern to get the other half. This is OK if you’re cutting the two pieces [front and back] on the fold but if not-and especially if you want it on the bias-I’d suggest you mirror it into a whole pattern either using spot-and-cross paper, tissue, Swedish Tracing paper or even newspaper.

This was my second version made using the lovely striped jersey from Fabricland in Salisbury. You can see better how I extended the pattern piece using Swedish tracing paper.

There are only two pattern pieces for this skirt (skirt and yoke) so that’s very little printing, you’ll need to cut 2 skirts and 4 of the yoke pieces. At this point I refer to the online instructions which Zierstoff provide with written and photographic plans, I don’t bother printing them off too. I’ll be honest here because I think in a couple of places the instructions suffer a little from being translated from German to English because I found them a bit muddled but seeing as I can’t speak German anyway it isn’t the end of the world-the style is so simple you can probably work it out and the photos really help anyway.

This is a skirt you can put together in no time at all if you’re working in a plain fabric (or a non-taxing pattern) it took me a little longer in these jazzy stripes but not much. Don’t forget to use a jersey, ballpoint or stretch needle if you’re sewing a knit fabric.

I pinned the first skirt piece on top of the second to match it up. Be careful not to pull the piece out of shape though, you don’t want it all wonky.

Join the skirts together at the side seams and overlock the edges (or do it all on the overlocker if you prefer) You could hem at this point too if you wish using a twin needle if you have one. Mine isn’t great and I have to swap to a different machine to do it which is a bit disruptive but it does the job and a good press generally sorts it out.

The yoke pieces are first sewn together at the side seams 2 and 2 and then joined to each other at the waist seam forming a tube.

Cut the elastic to your own waist measurement, overlap and join together. Pin and stitch it to the seam allowance on the waistband. I used a long zig zag to do this. You may need to stretch the elastic a little to fit the seam as you sew.

Stitching on the elastic. I don’t usually have my pins like this but I find it’s better for this process-just don’t sew to fast and go over them!!

Next open out the waist band and stitch through the elastic again as though you’re under stitching it. This will be on the back of the basque and not show on the finished skirt. You can see where the elastic is sewn on here too.

Zigzagging on the reverse and the smooth front.

After I’d finished sewing in the elastic the basque is folded WS together and I machine basted it together along the bottom to hold the two layers together. Simply join the basque to the skirt then and finish the hem if you didn’t do it previously.

So there it is, a super-quick and REALLY comfortable jersey skirt. Although I like this length you could easily lengthen (or shorten) it and because the basque is flat over the tummy it’s very smooth and flattering and other close fitting tops would go over it too.

All finished. I’m wearing the Sew Me Something Imogen top with it. I made this as a wearable toile in a slubbed linen-look cotton which was gifted to me, I’ve made it since their own beautiful coral soft linen fabric too and it’s beautiful-I’ve haven’t blogged about them yet though.

This is last year’s ‘refashioners’ jacket. There’s a separate blog for that here

Back view so you can see the various darts and seam lines on it.

Grey ponte version, I don’t have enough plain bottoms (!!) so this should start to fill that gap.

You could easily buy, print, stick together, cut out and sew this skirt in an evening if you put your mind to it so what are you waiting for? I was kindly provided with the pattern by Zierstoff but the fabric is my own. The opinions expressed are purely my own too. You might be interested to know the pattern comes in children’s sizes too.

Happy sewing

Sue

Strictly dresses part 2!

So here I am with another collection of photos and, I hope, interesting info about how the dresses come together on Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing with the Stars elsewhere but I guess you know that)

With the start of every new series Vicky Gill is given a set budget and from this she has to create every single costume. At the beginning that’s a LOT of outfits because initially there are 16 celebrities and their professional partners, there will be group dances every week on the main show and Sunday night, as well as other dances accompanying any guest acts. Theme weeks like Halloween, Movies or Musicals mean there might be other accessories too which wouldn’t usually be needed. The budget restrictions also means that each week some dancers will get more elaborate or expensive outfits whilst others are less costly. This usually results in a ’swap’ over the following weeks so that everyone gets something very special at some time or another…unless they are voted out early doors. As I said in my previous blog, some of the dresses can cost as much as £2000 so they will almost certainly be reused in subsequent series whenever possible or sold on the DSI website, or on the SCD cruises for that matter.

I mentioned how Vicky might have particular fabrics cropping up throughout a series and Claudia’s two piece featured here is another example of the lace or embroidered fabrics that she used in the last series. It’s also the sort of style that wouldn’t be seen in real Ballroom dancing competitions, they have their own trends going on and SCD doesn’t particularly reflect them, it’s often more fashion-led than competition clothes.

Claudia’s skirt is an example of the use of ‘crin’ around the hem to make it stand out. It’s used in different widths, usually 1″, 3″ or 6″

Theresa told us how this skirt changed shortly before the actual show from being a peach underskirt with navy organza and satin overlay to having a navy tulle overskirt. This was because Vicky decided it was too shiny under the lights in the studio.

 

The dress run takes place on Saturday afternoons and in the 2 hours between the end of that and the live show starting the team will often have to make changes to costumes for lots of different reasons-too long, too tight, too shiny, too daring etc etc. Vicky and Theresa are at the studio in Elstree from Friday evening and take a supply of fabrics so that skirts can be recut, repaired, whatever is needed. The dresses are made at DSI’s base in Croydon but they are then taken by car by a member of staff direct to Elstree on Thursday evening, this is because they can’t risk putting everything in a taxi or a van and then it ‘disappears’ en route-no costumes=no show!. Bearing in mind that the costume designs aren’t usually finalised and started until Tuesday morning that is an incredibly tight turnaround. The machinists are extremely skilled and adept at working with stretch and other tricky fabrics, it isn’t for the faint-hearted that’s for sure. Vicky often watches training footage too to ensure that her designs will work in conjunction with any tricky lifts for example-too much skirt or fancy details at the waist might make it really difficult.

Before the live show begins everyone is sewn into their outfits so that no disaaaasters like straps or hooks coming undone, ties flapping about in the male dancers faces and so on can happen. This is fine unless they need the loo, in which case it has to be redone after they’ve been!

Ed the knight in shining armour swept new dancer Katya off her feet in this dress.

This was an unusually sober dress although it did have some stoning on the polkadots

Ed Balls was a good example of a male celebrity who didn’t want any sparkle to start with but quickly embraced the whole ‘Strictly-fication’ of his outfits!

I loved this dress that Daisy Lowe wore to dance to the old music hall song “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do” with Aljaz. It was so understated with a simple daisy lace trim added to the neckline and crystals on the front. It’s a good example of a less costly dress too.

It had an unusual cowl back too.

Tameka Empson’s Charleston costume was probably one of the least expensive outfits to create in plain navy fabric and very few sparkles. Theresa told us the red trim was an example of a costume getting altered after the dress run because the front was too low and revealing, especially for an active Charleston!

I loved this dance, it’s a shame Tameka didn’t get further in the competition.

 

Green, blue and pink was an unusual combination but it works beautifully. There are a lot of stones on this dress so it will reappear in a future show in a different guise. 

These are 2 of the most unusual costumes to feature on SCD. They were worn by Judge Rinder and Oksana when they danced the Paso Doble and the skirt and ‘moth wings’ were both hand-painted by an artist-friend of Vicky Gill. Theresa was telling us that the jacket didn’t have enough colour on it so they were daubing it with Dylon only hours before the show and drying it with a hairdryer!

Just a few more pictures now and they are some of my favourite costumes, all worn by Joanne Clifton, who won the competition dancing with Ore Oduba.

This lovely canary yellow ‘raincoat’ wasn’t out on display to see close up but it did feature in the fashion show and was modelled by two members of the crew!

The dress featuring in the fashion show on board.

A very different sort of dress, it featured shorts under a long georgette skirt (which wasn’t always georgette, it got changed late on) and a roll-neck top which was stoned. The striped fabric is more usually used for the men’s shirts.

WARNING: Embargoed for publication until 20:10:01 on 10/12/2016 – Programme Name: Strictly Come Dancing 2016 – TX: 10/12/2016 – Episode: n/a (No. n/a) – Picture Shows: **DRESS REHEARSAL – STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 20:10 HRS ON SATURDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2016** Joanne Clifton, Ore Oduba – (C) BBC – Photographer: Guy Levy

This dress worn by Joanne for the Quickstep was one of the hardest to create because of the centre front seam between 3 different fabrics. It also featured heavyweight metal zips from the side and across the back as well as crystals, sequinned fabric and gemstones! The finished result looked amazing but took a long time to achieve.

Old school Hollywood glamour for the Final

So simple yet so lovely, sheer navy over a nude base.

Feathers, multiple godets and crystals-gorgeous!

Lesley Joseph was the oldest person so far to compete in the main series of SCD and she looked stunning in this beautiful raspberry pink heavily beaded dress. Unusually it has a centre-front zip because of the beading details on the back.

I’ll finish up with two more hot pink outfits [because it’s my favourite colour] as worn by Breakfast television presenter Naga Munchetty and  professional dancer Karen Clifton.

WARNING: Embargoed for publication until 00:00:01 on 01/09/2016 – Programme Name: Strictly Come Dancing 2016 – TX: 01/09/2016 – Episode: n/a (No. n/a) – Picture Shows: ** UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL THURSDAY 1 SEPTEMBER @ 00.01 ** Naga Munchetty – (C) BBC – Photographer: Jay Brooks

Karen’s outfit for her dance with singer Will Young to Jai Ho! was made using sari fabric and embellished with Indian necklaces bought in a sari shop.  The gold belt was made using plaited elastic and, like the bodice, it was stoned to make it sparkle.

So that’s about it, I took masses of other photos of the Showcases which the professionals danced as well as the fashion shows but sadly many of them aren’t good enough quality to publish here.

I hope you’ve found it interesting because I certainly enjoyed finding out all about the creation of the outfits and all the back-stage stuff, there’s probably still masses more I could have learnt and I would have loved to chat more with Theresa [it turns out we both went to London College of Fashion at virtually the same time although she went on to work for the Emanuels…. and I didn’t]

As before, the information I’ve shared is as I remember it from the cruise so I hope none of it is incorrect or misleading, and I’ve received no payment either. If you think it is then do let me know so that I can rectify that. Most photos are my own but others were sourced from Google images.

It’s only a couple of months before the whole cycle starts again with lots of new celebrities and we can marvel at what Vicky Gill and her brilliant team create in almost no time at all.

I, for one, cannot wait!

Keeeeeep Dancing!

Sue

Visiting the Henry Moore Foundation

Back in March I made a flying visit to see the Burberry 2017 A/W collection which was being displayed to the public in Soho at the Makers House. It was a wonderful  collaboration between the long-established design house and the Henry Moore Foundation in Hertfordshire which resulted in some beautiful, wearable and covetable clothes. You can read that blog here 

I’d visited the Foundation at Perry Green about 4 years ago with a GCSE Art group from the school I worked in at the time and really enjoyed it so, having been reminded of it in March, I thought another visit on a sunny day was a must.

My friend Janet and I had originally planned to go to the Tate at the end of May for the David Hockney and then whizz on to the newly opened Balenciaga exhibition at the V&A but, in the end, the day promised to be too darn hot to travel into London so we came up with plan B, and I’m so glad we did.

The Foundation is set in beautiful quintessentially English countryside and it comprises of the home that Moore lived in from 1940 until his death in 1986 and surrounding it are acres of gardens and fields where his monumental work is displayed exactly as he’d intended. He had numerous studios and workrooms scattered about the site in which large quantities of the maquettes, tools and preliminary works are on show, much as he left them in most cases. Since I last went they’ve now built a fabulous new visitor centre with a classy  shop and a seriously gorgeous cafe overlooking the gardens which, on a glorious sunny day, was idyllic.

The view from the cafe terrace

In all honesty I’m very far from knowing anything much about sculpture so I’ll just share some of my photos that I took on the day. You could easily spend most of a day here because the grounds are extensive and you’re free to roam around them, you can take a guided tour of Hoglands, the house Moore and his wife Irina lived in which is still filled with his personal belongings of books, ethnic artefacts, paintings and other objects, and it’s where he ran his business from too (he never had an agent so if you wanted to buy a Henry Moore you dealt directly with him) Many influential world figures visited him here. Moore was never knighted, he was the son of a Yorkshire miner and one of eight children so he was a Socialist all his life but he did receive an Order of Merit (OM) of which he was very proud.

There is a large modern exhibition space which features a new show every year, as well as an ancient barn which he had dismantled from elsewhere and reassembled on the site, it now contains some fabulous tapestry versions of several of his paintings.

The Aisled Barn at Perry Green containing tapestries of Henry Moore’s sketches. 

Many of the objects in the workshops were the springboard to the garments within the Burberry collection, especially his blue and white striped aprons which cropped up as ultra-longsleeved T-shirts which I loved.

copy-cat sleeve on my Zierstoff Sophie T-shirt

It’s lovely to wander in the fields alongside the sheep which are so integral to the overall effect of his work-they’ve rubbed the bronze with their fleeces over the decades so that it’s very shiny at sheep-height! Moore loved to watch the sheep from his window and sketched them over and over again. You’re free to touch any of the external sculptures too which makes a refreshing change from “don’t touch!” Incidentally the sheep were a direct inspiration for the Burberry collection in the form of beautifully sculptural Aran-influenced knitwear. 

One of Moore’s sculptures at the Makers House in March

See what I mean about the sheep?

Henry Moore in front of ‘Sheep Piece’ which resembles a ewe and lamb.

Interacting with the art!

This one is inside one of the studios

 

This is the same arch as the bronze one above except this is stone and it’s in Hyde Park, London with Kensington Palace behind….and a stork sitting on it! I took this photo at the end of December 2016.

Far away….

and close up!

Janet is petite but this gives you a sense of the scale of many of the largest pieces.

So that’s a few photos of a lovely day out, and I urge you to go if you’re at a loose end in the area although you’ll definitely need a car as it’s very rural. There’s a pub next door too if a cafe doesn’t quite cut it for you. If you’re a really serious art buff then the archive is on site too although I guess you need to make an appointment for that.

I’m so glad I’ve been because it’s created the link between the show I saw all those months ago and also it’s made a real change from being indoors looking at art!

I haven’t written a blog in ages but there are a couple in the pipeline, I know this isn’t directly about my sewing exploits but I wanted to share my thoughts on this visit because it brings together two of my greatest interests-sewing and art.

As ever, all views expressed are my own and most photos are my own too, the rest were collected from Google images.

Happy Sewing (or not!)

Sue

 

 

‘Sophie’ bolero PDF from Zierstoff patterns

After the success of my first Zierstoff PDF pattern (the Sue which you can read about here) I was keen, as soon as time allowed, to try another style. I opted for an intriguing-looking bolero called Sophie which has a lovely slouchy shape.

This time I didn’t have any trouble printing the pattern either, I simply checked I had it in the correct rotation by printing the first page off, it was right so I printed the rest of the pages. The Sophie pattern only needs 7 sheets of A4 too which is amazing! At £4.80 it’s very good value too.

As I described in the previous blog Zierstoff uses a system of rows and columns which is extremely simple to piece together. You might notice that a few of the lines aren’t quite in alignment but that’s more about my printer than their system I think. There are only TWO pieces to this pattern! The whole jacket and two sleeves (OK that’s three but it’s only 2 pattern pieces!)

I didn’t have any suitable fabric in the ol’ stash so, as I had a Saturday that didn’t feature any specific plans, I went up to Walthamstow to see if the fabled ‘Man Outside Sainsbury’s’ had anything suitable. I actually combined it with a visit to the William Morris Gallery which is a 10 minute walk from Walthamstow station and well worth the effort. It’s the house he lived in as a teenager, it’s surrounded, now, by a lovely public park and has some modest but very interesting and informative galleries about him and his life’s work.

William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, London

Once I’d spent an hour or so absorbing culture I headed back up the road to the by now busy and vibrant market. Walthamstow has, over the years, become a very diverse and multi-ethnic area which means there are a wealth of varied and fascinating shops and stalls selling all manner of things. My primary interest though is the fabric and haberdashery shops and stalls, of which there are several. Karen at Did You Make That? blog has produced a downloadable map here which is helpful. Even though it isn’t that recent I believe most if not all the shops and stalls are still there.

I was quite restrained this time and only bought things I ‘needed’ including plain cotton lawn for lining at £2 per metre from TMOS and a patterned lightweight denim from him too. I got the double-knit jersey for the Sophie bolero from Saeed’s fabrics, and finally I got 5yds of teal polyester with a fan print on it from Classic Textiles for £1 per yard!! [they price in yards and metres, metres is dearer and I wanted a straightforward £5-worth…simple as that!]

Teal polyester crepe, lightweight denim and the double-knit jersey with fine stripes on the reverse.

I got the last 2 metres of the jersey which was more than enough because the main body and sleeves of the bolero fit in a little over a metre (smaller sizes would take even less)

Because the fabric is double-faced I thought it might be a good idea to use a flat-fell seam which would mean that the bolero could be reversible.

On the left, sew the seam on it’s correct seam allowance then trim down one side to approximately 4-5mm. Press the longer edge over the trimmed on folding the raw edge under to enclose it. On the right, stitch close to the folded edge to secure. This is traditionally the seams used on jeans. I used a very slight zigzag on my trial seam but I then used a straight stitch on the actual bolero.

You can only really use flat-felled seams in applications where you’ve got complete and easy access to where you’re positioning it because of the method of construction [if you look at the legs of a pair of jeans the flat-fell seam will be either on both outside legs OR both inside legs, not both]

Sewing the bolero together is a doddle because there are only 4 seams, 2 sleeves and 2 side seams so (even quicker if you’re not using flat-felled seams!) it goes together in no time. I chose to neaten the edges by turning the striped side over to the patterned side to give it a contrast.

I also added a little marker to the CB neck so that I know which way up to wear it! It’s a bit tricky to tell the difference otherwise…

marker to show the top! ‘This way up’

So I’ve finished up with a super-quick, reversible bolero which will be really handy on holiday because it will roll up small and come out largely unscathed.

Stripy side out

Have a look at the Zierstoff website if you’re a fan of sewing jersey because they have a variety of patterns as styles specifically for knits. I’ve been generously given this pattern to test but the opinions I’ve expressed are entirely my own-I always try to be honest about the patterns I try out because I think it’s not in anyone’s interests to make statements which I don’t believe in, aren’t instructive or could be misleading.

Happy sewing

Sue

trying out a new-to-me brand-Zierstoff Patterns

It’s funny how some things come about isn’t it?

I wasn’t going to go to the Spring Knitting & Stitching show at the beginning of March originally but then I saw that Gabby Young of the Gabberdashery blog/vlog fame was organising  a meet up on Friday so I decided to pop along after all…and I’m so glad I did.

For one thing it was lovely to catch up with Gabby (and her chocolate brownies, I accidentally ate 2!) as well as some of the ladies I’d first met at the Sewing Weekender last August including Klarke, Megan and Elle  along with some delightful new sewing peeps. We knitted (!) and chatted for ages before I finally went for a proper look around.

I was wearing my Moneta dress-which I blogged about here-and blowing my own trumpet a bit I had lots of strangers comment on it and ask about the pattern as I made my way around the show, deeply flattering!!

Eventually I arrived at the Fabrics Galore stand (of course!) and quickly fell in to chatting with another lady who was drooling over the fabrics too (again, of course I did, it’s a sewing show, right?!) That person turned out to be Juliene who is the Creative Director for Zierstoff patterns who are based in Germany… I was initially slightly confused because Julie is actually from the US not Germany at all! Now I don’t know about you but I wasn’t familiar with Zierstoff at this point. Anyway chat chat chat and we swap business cards (ooh, get me!) We move on to eventually selecting fabrics and head around the corner to get them cut and who should be manning the stand that day but the lovely Kate from The Fold Line.

Love this picture. It’s Ok, we knew Kate was photobombing us hehe

So, back to the story. Julie invited me to test some Zierstoff patterns, which are all PDFs, to see what I thought of them and this is how I got on….

Zierstoff have a bright and comprehensive website, in English or German, and the patterns are very reasonably priced in Euros, Sterling, US, Canadian and Australian Dollars. The ‘Sue’, which I selected, was just £4.85 [One thing I don’t know is if the prices fluctuate according to exchange rates or whether they are currently fixed prices] They offer a range of ladies, babies and children’s patterns as well as a few bags and home accessories. There are also a variety of free patterns to download too. They don’t currently have any specific mens patterns but because there are quite a number of T-shirt styles I think they could easily be made up for boys or men. I was particularly struck by the super-cute babies and children’s styles, and especially the car seat blanket and bath towel poncho-sadly I don’t have anyone to make these for at the moment (I might have to find a willing baby to try them on!)

The ‘Sue’ is a T-shirt top with two neckline variations and I opted to make the contrast shoulder version.

When you download the pattern there are a number of pieces of information you’ll receive including the instructions HOW to go about it and a test print. There is also an Overview page with an image of how all the pattern pieces should look when assembled. Because the patterns are available in the US as well you get the option of A4 size or US letter.

So far so good….this is where I came unstuck (entirely down to my limited tech ability I think) I printed the pattern off once according, I thought, to the instructions but when I came to try to put it together I couldn’t make head nor tail of it. Ok, back it up a bit…because I didn’t have the settings on correctly each page had auto-rotated instead of being printed landscape so it was never going to work as parts of the pattern were missing off the page!

Zierstoff also use a different system to any other PDF pattern I’ve used so far. They use a system of numbered rows and columns, and the pages are sticky-taped abutting one another exactly so there’s no trimming and overlapping to join pieces. Once I’d printed the pages correctly the sticking system was a breeze although there might be places were the printing doesn’t run right up to the edge of the paper.

excuse my dodgy sticking…

You might notice that the pattern is printed in colour because there are lots of size options. You could decide to print in black and white but you’re advised that not all the lines will show up by this method. However, if your preferred size is one of the darker colours the you might get away with it but I’d suggest you print a single page first to check.

This help I can do without…3 rows and 8 columns, or ‘Still Life with Cat’

Ok, now I’m back on track! now for the sewing…

Once printed, stuck together and cut out the next thing to do is make the contrast shoulder sections. These are clearly indicated and there are instructions for using it. I opted to make new separate pattern pieces for them to simplify cutting out the fabrics. I traced off the front and back ‘yoke’ parts and the sleeve head. It’s VERY important to remember to add seam allowances, don’t just cut along the line!!!

Once I’d got the contrast parts I could fold the corresponding sections on the main pattern out of the way while I cut out the main fabric. The printed fabric was one I’d been gifted recently and there was nearly 1 metre of it.

You can see where I’ve folded down the shoulder sections out of the way. Also, by folding the selvedges into the centre I got front and back and both sleeves out of very little fabric.

I decided I’d lengthen the sleeves to give them a gathered cuff similar to the ones I’d seen at the Burberry Makers House show recently.

I love this look so much!!

To do this I pinned the sleeve pattern onto the fabric and then added 6cms extra to the cuff directly on the fabric. This was simple to achieve using the trusty Patternmaster and air erasable pen. If you try this out don’t forget that the extended cuff needs to remain the same width as the original, if you just extend the sleeve downwards without  maintaining the width the cuff might get so tight that you can’t get your hand through it! 

And so to making….

Zierstoff provide an ebook with each pattern of the making up instructions which you can either print off or follow from your device, which is what I did. It features full-colour photos of each stage so this makes it simple to follow. [There are also a number of videos to follow for various patterns which might make it even easier although I haven’t checked if Sue has one specifically]

I simply joined the contrasting parts together first, then the shoulder seams after which the sleeves go in. The various notches seemed to go together correctly which is always a bonus.

Ta-dah!

So here’s Sue in her Sue! I’m pretty pleased overall but my cuffs didn’t work quite right, they were just too long and dangly, not nicely ruched.

I put this right by sewing some stretched elastic onto the seam which puckers it up much nicer.

Since I’ve got my borrowed Brother set up with a twin-needle I can now have some proper twin-needle action on the cuffs and hem, at last.

Overall I’m very happy with my first Zierstoff PDF pattern and I have a few observations to make about this top-none of them super-critical though.

• I will slightly narrow the chest area when I make another because this one in a little bit broad for me, otherwise the fit is good (possibly even go down a size but I don’t want a T-shirt too tight)
• I had some initial trouble with printing off the pattern. Given my general ineptitude with technology I eventually worked this out for myself without the input of the young (Young?) people so it can’t have been that serious. I wonder if a novice sewer would also have this trouble or was it just me? There’s plenty of help online from Zierstoff though which is very reassuring.
• The system for joining the pattern pieces (when you’ve printed them correctly) is very simple, the rows and columns make a lot of sense and was very quick. However, because there’s no overlap you’ll have to use sticky tape not glue sticks.
• You may not want to print in colour for cost reasons but check your own size ‘colour’ before printing the whole thing because it might be a colour that’s visible in B&W
• If you’re more used to brands that have greater degree of finesse to their PDFs you may not be that keen on Zierstoff but given their inexpensiveness I think that this particular pattern is a good product. It’s simple in it’s design and execution and you although have to do some of the work for yourself (contrast neck pieces) it’s not difficult to carry out.
• There’s lots of information re:sizing, fabric quantities etc on their website as well as provided with the pattern once you’ve downloaded it. The online reviews seem to be universally positive too.

I should say that although I’ve been provided with this pattern for nothing all the views expressed are entirely my own and I’m not receiving any payment for them. I have a couple of others which I’ll be trialling, including a skirt, over the next few weeks so watch out for them too. Have a look at the website for yourself, if you have children you may like to try out some of those patterns, or you could try a free pattern first to see what you think.

I’d like to thank Julie for inviting me to try Zierstoff patterns after our chance meeting at the K&S show, I’m very flattered. I also notice that Zierstoff has recently been added to The Fold Line pattern resource.

Let me know your thoughts if you’ve ever used one of their patterns before, or as a result of reading this review.

Happy Sewing

Sue

 

Sam McKnight and Burberry capes

This isn’t exactly a blog, more of a sharing of the photos I took when I visited the hairdresser Sam McKnight retrospective at Somerset House recently, and the Burberry Maker’s House exhibit in Soho.

Obviously I’m not a hairdresser but I knew that the show featured McKnight’s collaborations with designers, as well as fashion magazines and publications over the last 3 decades. I felt though that the show, whilst interesting and well put together was a little lacking in very much substance. Lots of photos and hair-pieces, part of McKnight’s travelling ‘salon’ kit (a massive number of brushes, rollers, driers, straighteners, hairspray and general hairdressing paraphernalia) The opening section where a number of work stations are set up allows the viewer to feel they are backstage at fashion shows during the build-up which is interesting. This moves through to a section featuring McKnight’s collaborations with Vivienne Westwood over the last 20 years. It’s a good excuse to display a number of her outfits from previous collections.

Vivienne Westwood

Then there are lots more photos, large and small, and Vogue magazine covers. Sam McKnight is well-known as Princess Diana’s hairdresser, it was he who first cut her hair very short and created the ‘wet-look’ style that divided the press and public opinion. He accompanied her on a number of Royal overseas tours and was instrumental in the ‘reinvention’ of her look after her divorce from Prince Charles. 

The next section revolves around McNight’s collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel.

The best bit of the show, for me, was the continuous showing of recent Chanel Haute Couture shows, being shown in their entirety. Each one runs for about 15 minutes and I watched 4!! So that was an hour spent watching exquisite dresses and suits on the runway-the hairstyles weren’t my particular focus though….

I don’t want to sound like I’m dissing the show and I’m really not because there was quite a bit that I enjoyed, and Sam McKnight is clearly a very nice bloke who’s very well-regarded in his field and influential in styling terms but it could just as easily have been a show about Westwood or Chanel.

The show is still running until March 12th if you want to go and I’ve shared the link above, or here

From Somerset House I took myself to the last day of Burberry Makers House which displayed their collaboration with the Henry Moore Foundation. I’d seen a number of people share images from it on Instagram so I wanted to see it for myself and I’m SO glad I made the effort to go.As I arrived there was the opportunity for a guided tour (it was a totally free-entry event anyway) which really enhanced my appreciation and understanding of what I was seeing. I couldn’t understand beforehand how a dead sculptor could be linked with a fashion house (albeit a long-established one) There were a number of Moore’s sculptures on display, as well as many of his tools, maquettes and sketches, most of which had never left Perry Green before. [If you’ve never been to Perry Green and you have the opportunity to visit I’d recommend going. It’s in a lovely rural spot and many of Moore’s most monumental sculptures are there in the settings that he intended for them, with the sheep still wandering happily between them keeping the grass down!]

The tour guide pointed out many of the inspirations and cross-pollination of ideas that Christopher Bailey created for the new season collection. I particularly enjoyed seeing the ideas boards and fabric samples. Ideas such as the elongated arms on the sculptures, the striped apron Henry Moore always wore in his studio, and the sheep that continue to wander around the site at Perry Green where Moore lived and worked for many many years, all found a place in the garments that were presented on the runway in the form of over-long sleeves and cuffs, blue-striped matelot T-shirts embellished with lace and beautiful asymmetric cable knitwear.

There were some wonderful ideas which any dressmaker could easily ‘interpret’ in her own way. I particularly liked the layering of stripes and sweatshirts, and evening dress-shirts with lovely details like pin tucks and bobbin lace, and delicate lace over-dresses. I’m hatching plans with a few ideas around these so watch this space.

The capes were the most extraordinary things! They weren’t capes in the useful, Sherlock Holmes sense, they were more like grand shoulder embellishments. There were 78 of them and there was so much variety between them all.  I’ll just share my photos here with the odd comment by way of explanation….

GIANT cable knit

Lace was pressed into clay to form a ‘relief’ pattern, and then wired together.

beaded and sequined feathers

More giant cable knit and ceramic designs.

This one reminded me of an exquisite Edwardian evening cape.

The cape was made up of multiple layers of silk georgette which was then hand embroidered with Japanese-style ‘sashiko’ stitching. As you can see, the edges have been left unfinished. It took over 400 HUNDRED hours to complete!

Sea shells!

Discs of fabric looking like scales or sequins.

Eye-glasses!

Trimmed feathers and tiny beading around the neck.

Lace, tulle and feathers

So that’s it. One exhibition you can still go to if you’re quick and one that was somewhat ephemeral and all the more special because of it.

It would be lovely to hope that when the capes come back from their travels they could be displayed again somewhere for people to enjoy. It would be a real pity if such beautiful workmanship representing thousands of hours of work couldn’t be appreciated once more.

Meanwhile I’ll be having a go at my own take on some of the RTW collection (I don’t think the capes would to be that wearable on a day to day basis!)

Happy Sewing

Sue xx