I’ve used a few Zierstoff patterns now including the Gina skirt which I blogged about here, a reversible Sophie bolero and the Sue T-shirt (I think this one is due a revisit soon actually)
The latest ones on my cutting table have been the Juliene top and the Amy top and I love them both!
The Juliene is a very loose fitting casual top with a scoop neckline and asymmetric hem which I made in a very inexpensive loose knit with a hint of glitter which I bought in Fabricland, Salisbury at the end of last summer. [As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts Zierstoff are a PDF pattern company based in Germany and you simply choose your pattern, pay for it, download and print] Juliene uses just 3 pattern pieces [front/back, long sleeve or short sleeve plus a neck band] It’s the sort of top you can whizz up in no time.
My Juliene looks a bit shabby at the edges now as I’ve worn it so much but I think that’s the sign of a successful make.
The Amy is a similar silhouette in that it’s very loose fitting with a dropped ‘armhole’ seam but it has extra long sleeves which pool in folds around your wrists, there’s a horizontal seam across the back, a high/low hemline and casual roll neck collar. The sizing is suitable for teens age 13 up to UK ladies size 18 although the generous nature of the shape would mean it will probably fit more than that. Mine is a UK 12 with plenty of room. I made my first version in a strange-shaped scrap of a black and white spotted knit fabric that I’ve had lurking in the pile for a while. Because of it’s wonkiness, which wasn’t helped by a printing flaw, it took me a little while and some head-scratching to cut out but I managed it!
Wrinkly wrists
I made this first one exactly as the pattern with no changes and overall I was very happy with it. The slouchy sizing is about right but, for me, the bicep is a bit too tight.
I bought some lovely aubergine jersey with a hint of sparkle from Escape & Create in St Ives, Cambs when I visited them as part of Alex Sewrendipity’s fabric store guide back in November, I had the Amy specifically in mind for it. This time I increased the depth of the collar by about 8cms, lengthened the body and added to the width of the sleeves to loosen them a little on my chunky arms!
Gibbon arms!slouchy collarCB seam and yoke detail
I’m really happy with this one too and get loads of wear out of it, the fabric washes and tumble dries really well too.
My final version (so far) is made in very fluid black sparkly jersey which I picked up at the autumn Knitting & Stitching show. I had another pattern in mind for it originally but changed my mind. This time I decided to lengthen the pattern a lot to dress length so I think I added about 35-40cms, plus some extra to the collar again.
I don’t think it was a total success because in my head it was fabulous and stylish but seeing myself in it was a whole other matter! I don’t think I got the length right for me, it needs to be worn with high heels to carry it off properly and I just don’t wear them much these days. I tried a belt but that wasn’t flattering. I’ve only worn it once on New Year’s Eve so I think I’ll have to take a bit off the bottom so that it’s nearer knee length. Oh well, some you win, some you lose.
My Amys have certainly been one of my favourite tops this winter because I can layer them up with a long-sleeved T underneath. I think I’ll make a short-sleeved version of Juliene for the summer too. I’ll probably carry on for evermore making adaptations to these styles because they are so wearable and comfortable. There’s an element of me which thinks that Zierstoff doesn’t have the degree of finesse that other PDF patterns have. I might be wrong but I think they are all drafted on a computer rather than by actual pattern cutting so there are the occasional clunky joins or edges but then they are a lot cheaper than most so it’s swings and roundabouts. For the price I think they are perfectly serviceable, and the video tutorials seem pretty thorough.
As before, I was provided with the patterns but all opinions expressed are entirely my own. If you want to try a Zierstoff pattern for yourself use my 20% off voucher code Susan Young Sewing at the checkout, it’s valid once so you could buy a couple to make it worthwhile.
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.
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.
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.
Susan Young Sewing 