My second Lamazi blog post

Much as I’m a big fan of sewing and wearing dresses, I do love separates too, especially tops. I think this version of the Amaya shirt by Made My Wardrobe may just have gone to the top of my favourites list! [Full disclosure, Lydia offered me my choice of one of her patterns as a PDF with no expectation of a review and I selected the Amaya with its gathered neckline, raglan sleeves and full floaty cuffs] I printed it off but then didn’t start it for a while until the ‘right’ fabric came along.

As a Lamazi Fabrics blogger we each volunteer for a number of slots throughout the year but Liana was short of a post for early August so I offered to do it. I thought the Amaya would be a good option as it’s not complex and I could probably sew it quite quickly to meet the deadline. When my eyes fell on the beautiful printed Broderie Anglaise I knew I had my perfect match! 

When the fabric arrived it was absolutely gorgeous, so soft and pliable. Broderie Anglaise can often be quite stiff and crisp, which may be what you want, but I’ve also found it to be a disguise for a cheaper quality cotton fabric with lots of dressing or starch in it so do be slightly wary of very cheap Broderie Anglaise. This version is a printed soft cotton lawn which is then embroidered, there are lots of eyelets so personally I’ll probably be wearing a plain-coloured RTW camisole underneath as no one needs to see my undies or midriff thank you! This specific fabric does not have an embroidered edge which some Broderie Anglaise does, and also be aware that the embroidered part of the fabric doesn’t run right up to the selvedge, this is normal with this type of fabric. On this particular fabric there’s a wider gap down one side than the other so you may find the useable part of the fabric isn’t as wide as you would think. In other words, don’t scrimp on the quantity of fabric when choosing Broderie Anglaise for a project because you could find yourself a bit short by accident.

I opted for a UK size 14 with no modifications according to my measurements but I think I will go down a size when I make another, the fabric you choose could make a significant difference to the finished look so a soft and floaty georgette or silk crepe de chine for example would look divine with plenty of volume but a firm linen, or a cotton poplin could give you the appearance of a ship in full sail! (that may, of course, be the look you’re after!) 

This fabric has a one-way design but I chose to turn the upper sleeve pattern piece to interlock better and make it more economical to cut out, I really don’t think it’s that obvious on the finished garment, always worth checking though! 

It’s pretty well impossible to see snipped notches or even triangles on this fabric so, in order to tell the front of the sleeve from the back, I marked the single and double notches with long thread tacks and this seemed to work well.

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I used a French seam finish on the cuffs but found there wasn’t any particular advantage to doing this, for the rest of the construction I sewed regular seams and overlocked them together. 

The pattern calls for interfacing to be attached down the centre front seam to stabilise it but I chose not to do this as it would show through the eyelets, I simply neatened the edge of the self-facing with the overlocker. I had a rummage through lots of the miscellaneous trims and ribbons I’ve had from past projects and tried a few ideas out with them but in the end I only used a white cotton trim down the front and simple edging lace on the sleeves, I would have used this on the hem too but there wasn’t enough, more on that later. 

I added a triple zigzag stitch to embellish the sleeve ruffle seam too.

The neckline is gathered up into a bias-cut band but instead of cutting it on the bias I used a straight strip of the printed lawn from near the selvedge. I did this because a bias strip of such holey fabric wouldn’t have worked well at all, the one drawback of the tie being cut on the straight is that it doesn’t curve around the neckline quite so smoothly but it’s fine. The tie is topstitched close to the edge so, to match the sleeve, I used the triple zigzag stitch again. 

Finally I had to finish the hem, I could simply have turned up as per the instructions but I wanted some kind of pretty finish to echo the cuffs. As I didn’t have enough of the sleeve trimming, or any other edging lace which I felt worked alongside what I’d already used, I opted to try out one of the satin stitches which my Pfaff machine is capable of. 

I’d never tried this before so I did a couple of experimental tests with a few stitch designs that appealed to me, I used Vilene Stitch N Tear as a backing behind it to stabilise the fabric.

This seemed to be satisfactory so I sewed the whole hem by this method a few millimetres away from the edge. The Stitch N Tear is then carefully torn away to leave the actual embroidery and then finally, as accurately as possible, I snipped away the excess fabric to leave the pretty scalloped edge.

I’m very happy with this finish on the hem BUT it’s just possible that it might not be very durable in the wash, I’m half-expecting that it might start to come away in places. If this happens then I’ll have come up with another idea but for the moment it looks nice. 

I hope you’ve found my tips for working with Broderie Anglaise helpful, and things to look out for with it. It’s certainly a fabric that is having a ‘moment’ at the moment, it’s timeless and feminine and I’m looking forward to wearing my Amaya for a few years to come. 

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Thank you as always to Lamazi for providing me with the fabric to be able to write this, and thank you to Lydia at Made My Wardrobe for generously giving me the pattern. 

Until next time,

Happy sewing

Sue

Two Minerva makes in one go!

I originally wrote this as a review for the MinervaDotCom blog but I’m not actually sure if it ever appeared. Rather than waste my efforts I thought I’d publish what I wrote here instead.

I’m sure it was a combination of an over-generous stated fabric requirement, my just-to-be-on-the-safe-side ordering and then super-stingy cutting out means that I managed to get not one but TWO sweatshirts out of my Minerva fabric choice this time. At the time of writing last autumn, Minerva were introducing a collection of textured jerseys made in a polyester/ viscose/ spandex mixture which came in a wide range of colours and textures so I opted for a geometric design in lilac to try out. I would suggest that this fabric is not as firm or thick as some jerseys suitable for sweatshirts, it isn’t fleecy on the reverse for example but it has reasonable drape, is soft to the touch and has a fair amount of stretch but not in a ‘really difficult to control’ kind-of way (it isn’t like lightweight jersey for T-shirts for example) it’s actually pretty stable so manipulates well into armholes or cuffs. 

I already had a pattern I wanted to try, the Maxine sweatshirt by Dhurata Davies that has interesting diagonal seams across the front which have pockets in them. This actually made cutting out a whole lot more tricky than I anticipated because the ‘check’ design of the fabric I had picked turned out not to be square but rectangular so matching the lines was a real challenge. In some areas I’ve failed so my advice would be “don’t choose a pattern that has too many intersecting seams or style lines” because you could end up tearing your hair out when you can’t get it to match! Once I’d committed though I decided to press ahead and settle for ‘almost but not quite’…not my usual route but there we are.

When it became apparent that by folding and cutting really carefully I’d have oodles of fabric left over I pulled out a very simple sweatshirt pattern Simplicity 8529 and cut that at the same time. You might recognise this pattern as the Toaster sweater by SewHouseSeven if you think it looks familiar. If you fold the selvedges in towards the centre so that you have two folds then it’s often possible to get more pieces out of less fabric, any sleeves, yokes or facings can be cut out of what remains.

I currently have a Pfaff Coverlock 3 on loan to me so I used it to sew up much of the two tops on it’s 4-thread overlocker setting but you can easily sew this fabric on a regular machine, just use a ballpoint or stretch needle and set your machine to a very elongated zigzag if you can (regular stitch length and a narrow width) or a ‘lightening’ stitch if your machine has it. Unlike some jerseys or sweatshirting you’ll definitely need to neaten the seams though because I found the fabric frayed and went fluffy at the cut edges quite badly as a result of the woven nature of the surface design. Use a zigzag stitch on the edges if you have limited options, or pinking shears. 

the cut edges fray like this a little bit.

the Pfaff Coverlock 3.0, it’s been a fantastic machine and the quality and versatility of its stitching has been superb.

The ‘Maxine’ is a great design which stands out in a crowded field of many other sweatshirts and the well-written instructions and diagrams are very clear and simple to follow. The tricky area could be the point at the centre where the seams intersect, I simply made this more complicated for myself by choosing the geometric design! And of course it has pockets! I’ve made another version of it since the lilac from a remnant of linen/wool which you can read about here.

Maxine sweater in linen/wool mix from Merchant and Mills

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  the finished Maxine sweater

this is a slightly truer version of the colour

The Simplicity/Sew House Seven pattern has a very simple ‘grown-on’ collar and self bands on the cuffs and hem. I cut and made this one up in less than two hours and it shows off the textured surface of the fabric very well. 

Simplicity 8529 with cuffs and hem band finish, I like this top so I think I’ll make another next winter but do the longer straight version.

You’ll notice that neither top is long but I’m happier to be able to make two shorter but perfectly wearable tops rather than one longer one with fabric left over which wasn’t enough to use for anything else.

I would suggest that this fabric will make very comfortable loungewear like track pants, tees, sweatshirts, dresses and children’s wear. I don’t know what the other designs in the range are like but if you are pattern match averse then this particular one might not be for you! I thought at the time it would be interesting to see how well a fabric with a raised surface texture like this wears and now that several months have elapsed I’ve found that it catches quite often and has started to pill quite significantly which is disappointing given the price per metre.

My thanks to Minerva for providing me with the fabric to write about, this is a significantly different version of the blog post which may, or may not, have appeared on their website. I did try to find it but their search function doesn’t make it very easy to find specific posts.

Until next time,

Happy Sewing,

Sue