Back to basics - Simplicity 1106 top

Hey guys! I hope you are all having a good week so far! 

After coming down with something a week or so ago, I had spent most of last week at home with a very nasty viral infection. As a real trooper, I managed to work most of the week, but not getting out of my PJs all week had meant that I had effectively missed week 2 of Me Made May! Thankfully I'm much better now, and am getting back into the swing of things. In fact, I'm trying to wear more homemade garments this week to make up for it ;)

Anyhow, I'm back with a new project to share with you. It's completely back to basics, but at the same time really rewarding as it was so quick to knock together. 

The pattern is Simplicity 1106 - I made view D but without the cut-out in the back. 

I had been wanting to find a simple, dartless and loose-fitting blouse pattern for quite some time, and I'm really pleased to say that this is exactly what I have been looking for! I love the neckline, the little sleeves, the shaped hem, and the optional pocket. It's basic, and extremely versatile. 

I need to give that pocket a better press! 

The fabric is a lovely, soft coral viscose/rayon that I have had in my stash for years. It's really comfortable to wear, but does wrinkle up rather easily. 

I finished the seams with a rayon seam binding in a light coral, which I picked up from my NYC Garment District trip a couple of years ago.  

As this top cried out for a narrow hem, I got out my narrow hem foot, and gave that another go. Viscose isn't the most well-behaving fabric for this sort of thing, but I managed an okay hem by turning the speed limit down on my machine to the lowest setting. Did anyone see Jamie churning out narrow hems on his skirt on the Sewing Bee on Monday night?? One round down, I'm putting my money on him to win -- what a legend!

For a quick project, I'm pretty happy with how this top has turned out. I can see myself throwing it on for both dress up and down days, and the colour is perfect for spring. More importantly, I feel like my sewing prayer for a nice, basic woven top has finally been answered. Thank you Simplicity! I am already planning my next version in a beautiful piece of printed silk. 

Enjoy the rest of your week. I'm now off to check out all your week 2 MMM outfits!  

Lottie Blouse Sew-along week 5 (final week!) - neck tie and hems

This is the final instalment of the Lottie Blouse sew-along, which means after today, you'll have a completely finished blouse! 

Today we will be tackling the neck tie and the hems. I have used a different method than the instructions for the neck tie - I'm inserting it more like a collar so that you won't have any unfinished seams hanging about, and there is minimal hand sewing involved. Sounds good, right?

The first thing to mention about the neck tie is that when you were cutting out, you may have cut the neck tie in more than 1 pieces as described in this post. If so, you will need to assemble the neck tie before we go ahead and attach it to the blouse. The neck tie is the only part where I have not used French seams -- my fabric isn't sheer and when sewn up the seams would be enclosed anyway within the neck tie, and I didn't want the bulk that the French seam could bring. I would advise that you judge this and decide whether you need to use a French seam based on whether the seams would show through on the right side. 

I had cut my neck tie in two pieces, so I need to join them together. As I'm doing a normal seam here, I have pinned the two pieces at the joint with right sides together. Sew along the seam with a 1cm seam allowance (or whatever seam allowance you factored in when you cut the pieces). Press seam allowance open. 

The next step is for everyone, whether you have split the neck tie in more than one pieces or not. We are going to mark the back section where the tie will be attached to the blouse. Still with me?  Let me see if I can explain this better with the help of some pictures. 

Fold your assembled neck tie widthwise in half at the centre back, with the pointy ends matching. For me, the centre back is where my seam was from the previous step. Measure from the centre back, and notch at approx. 28cm on one side (both layers). Note that 28cm was a little bit too wide for me, but I did cut a graded down size 6. Don't worry, as you can always fine tune this later on when you are pinning the tie to the blouse.  

Basically we will leave the back section of the neck tie between notches unsewn, so that later on we can use that opening to "sandwich" the blouse neckline in. 

Next, open the tie back up and fold it lengthwise this time. Again as I'm not using a French seam here, I am folding it with right sides together. Pin from the notches to the ends, leaving the part between notches open. Sew from notch to the ends, without backstitching when you get to the end. 

Tie a double knot by hand for a neat finish. 

Trim the seam allowance. 

Open up the middle, unsewn section, and turn in the seam allowance by 1cm on the unnotched edge. Press. 

Turn the tie right side out, and press. 

Next, we will attach the tie to the neckline. Pin the notched edge (without the pressed down seam allowance) to the neckline with the right sides together, starting from the centre back. Pin around until you get to the notches. As mentioned earlier, as it turned out the opening measured at 28cm on each side was a little too wide for me, so when I was pinning, I turned a small section of the tie wrong side out and rectified this by adding a couple more cm of stitching by machine. Do make sure you leave a bit of room to allow for the seam allowance and the bound neckline though. You could also leave this fine tuning until later on when we "stitch in the ditch". 

Sew as pinned, keeping pressed edge free. Backstitch at start and finish. You may find it helpful to use a walking foot here (see picture below with the hem), especially you are using drapy and mobile fabrics (my first experience with the walking foot here). You should end up with something like this:

Trim the seams and press seam allowance towards the tie (i.e. away from the blouse). Fold the pressed edge onto the inside of the blouse, overlapping the first stitch line slightly. Carefully pin on the outside in the "ditch", making sure you are catching all layers. Take care at both ends, making sure that they lie smoothly and cover the previously bound neckline well. There may be a cm or two where the neck tie is not sewn closed, and hanging loose from the neckline - this is not a problem. We can just slipstitch it closed or topstitch it by machine. 

Stitch slowly "in the ditch", over the previous stitching. I find it helpful to pull the neck tie slightly to reveal the stitching, whilst going very slowly on my machine for accuracy. At both ends here I machine sewed it all, since it was only a small section and my thread matches the fabric pretty well (and I was feeling lazy), but you may choose to slipstitch it by end if you want a more invisible look. 

Then all we need to do is a bit of hemming! We have the sleeves and the blouse hem to do, and for this I would definitely recommend a walking foot if you have one. Alternatively, depending on your fabric choice, you may wish to sew a narrow hem. Here's my experience with using a narrow hem foot. Of course you could also do it by hand,especially if you are using a delicate fabric. The choice is yours!

If you are doing this the old fashioned way, as I am, fold the hem in once (I used 1cm but you can decide based on your desired length), press, and then fold again, press. You can probably tell from the picture that I skipped the pressing (not my favourite part of sewing!), but I made up for it by using lots of pins. Stitch from the right side all around for all 3 hems.  

Give your garment a final press and you are done! Congratulations - you have made yourself a little Lottie! 

This is the end of the Lottie Blouse Sew-along -- I hope you have found the posts helpful, and I can't wait to see your makes! I'll take a few snaps of my versions this weekend and share them with you soon. In the meantime, enjoy your weekends wherever you are! 

Navy swallow shell top with narrow hem

I had a tiny piece (60cm x 112cm) of swallow print polyester fabric in my stash, picked up for £2.40 from the John Lewis remnant bin. I've been meaning to make this into a little shell top, and with my recent "diversion" to knit fabrics, I fancied a quick woven project in familiar territory. As someone who really enjoys learning new tips and skills, however, I took this opportunity to try out a new technique - using a narrow hem foot. 

I used New Look 6483, which I have used once previously for the Crazy about Coral top. Unfortunately the shoulders on that top was a little narrow in the end, resulting in a unsightly permanent line across the shoulder, and with the spirit outlined here, also resulted in it ending up in a charity shop. That doesn't stop the pattern from being a good one, though, and this time I made view E in the graded down 2 again. 

I shortened the pattern by quite a bit, to allow for the narrow hem as opposed to the 5/8 hem as called for by the pattern. the other thing I tweaked was to remove the centre back seam, the back button closure, and the side slits. I wanted a simple shell top, with minimal break in the fabric pattern.     

I explored to find the right balance of tension and stitch length for the delicate fabric with my new machine (which I'm yet to introduce to you, or give it a name, but it is a complete delight to work with and we are getting on very well indeed). And the result? Not a pucker in sight! 

As I had very limited fabric, I finished off the neckline and armholes with a Liberty lawn bias binding using this method, and omitted the facing. You probably know by now that this is my go-to method, but I just want to say again that it's wonderfully useful for delicate fabrics like this one. 

Here's this little number inside out. You know, I'm so tempted to wear it this way - I love the subtlety of the blue on this side, and of course the Liberty bias tape. 

Now the narrow hem foot. It took a little practice, but I'm liking the lovely wavy hem. I found this post really helpful when figuring out how to use this little gadget, but honestly if I can figure it out, so can anybody :)

I'm happy to add the narrow hem foot to my family of very useful and much treasured machine attachments. I've always been amazed by how these little attachments work wonders and how much of a difference it makes -- you may remember my first encounter with the overcasting foot (much used until I got my overlocker), my excitement over the gathering foot and the button sewing foot, and my recent discovery over the walking foot. If I had to pick a favourite, at this point in time I would say it's got to be the walking foot - it has transformed my sewing completely and lowered my blood pressure significantly (who knew that "top-layer creepage" was so easy to avoid!), and I constantly find myself reaching for it. The real question is, why did I choose to torture myself for so long before buying one? 

How about you? Do you have a favourite sewing foot for your machine that you wish you bought years ago? Or a recent discovery of a new gadget? 

Mint robe - Vintage Butterick 7056

Hello readers, I hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend wherever you are. If you haven't done so already, you still have one week to enter the Blogiversary GIVEAWAY! What are you waiting for?

It's been a while since I shared a sewing project with you, but I finally have one all ready -- sewn, pressed and photographed :)

It's a "tailored robe", made from a vintage pattern, Butterick 7056. It's fabulous. The copy of the pattern I had (in bust size 30) isn't in "mint" condition (get it?), as the envelope has disintegrated on all 4 edges, but given that it's survived all the way from 1950s, I was pretty happy to just be able to get my hands on it. 

There were a couple of pieces missing, including the front piece, but thankfully the front lining piece was included, which helped a lot. I made view A, the short version, and didn't bother with the pockets. 

I made this in a mint polka dot viscose (or rayon, for those of you across the pond), a purchase from my NYC trip in June, from a store called Fabric for Less in the Garment District, at $5 a yard. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it -- I loved the pastel colours, which are very calming to look at. And as you probably know already, I always have a super soft spot for a super soft viscose. I knew straight away that it would make the perfect robe.   

As much as I love 1) vintage sewing patterns and 2) viscose, I had some trouble with this project. Viscose isn't the most stable fabric, and with the long lines of stitches for the top to bottom front and back pieces, as well as the super long facing at the front, as well as the tie, the fabric moved a lot with the ordinary presser foot, and more specifically, the top layer of my fabric kept creeping forward, wanting to be long! I realise that it is not the first time I'm having this problem, and I did encounter this when making the Giant Baby Blanket, but usually after a few times unpicking and sewing again, I can smooth it out.

But not this time. Not with viscose, or a facing piece that's almost 3 metres long (ok that's an exaggeration, but you get the idea). After painstakingly unpicking, sewing, unpicking, sewing, and unpicking again, I decided that enough was enough, and it's time to invest in a walking foot. And boy, what a difference it makes! I took off the presser foot, the shank, and attached the walking foot, and off I went. All sorted in one go, with no fabric creepage. It was so easy. 

If you haven't discovered or invested in a walking foot yourself, I found this helpful post which describes it well. My advice? Get one now, and it will come in handy some day. I had to wait for mine to come in the post, but it did give me a bit of breathing space to get over my frustration with the facing. 

The other issue with viscose is that it wrinkled really really easily. When I sewed everything up, the end product didn't look very appealing at all. But after a careful press, didn't it sharpen up nicely! Crisp lines, and a beautiful drape, and let's not forget just how wonderfully soft and luxurious it is. No wonder it is also known as the artificial silk. 

So there you have it, my new robe, for wrapping me up in the mornings, or on a lazy day (until it gets too cold!). Look, I even have a bra to make it a matching outfit! 

It's a bit of a departure from my usual makes, as I have only made clothes that are designed to be worn outside of the home. But this project, which I have no intention of wearing outside of the house, has brought me a wonderful sense of satisfaction. What will be next? Pyjamas? Underwear? Only time will tell ;)

How about you? Have you made items that will not been "shown off" to the general public? And do you enjoy making them all the same?

My little Lisette traveller

Before I start showing off my new creation, I thought I would remind you all of my first ever GIVEAWAY that is still open. Remember, all you need to do is commenting on that post before 30th September 2012 for your chance to win (the winner will be selected at random)! Good luck! 

Now I cannot wait any longer to show you my new dress ... voila!

With belt:                                                        Without belt:

So here it is, my very own version of Simplicity 2246, the Lisette Traveller dress. This was a pattern that I've had, and been wanting to make for a while - as it turned out, I was simply waiting for the right fabric. 

The fabric

I bought this gorgeous lightweight cotton (poplin?) from my mini-moon at Paris, from a store called La Folie Des Coupons on Rue d'Orsel, not far from Sacre Coeur. As the name suggests ("coupons" mean pre-cut fabric lengths in French, and typically they come in the length of 3 metres), this was a 3 metre remnant, which only cost me €10 (see proof)! I simply fell in love with the print - it was subtly floral yet sophisticated, and I just had to have it. The good news is, I only used just over 1.5m for this dress, so there should be plenty leftover for another project ;-) 

The pattern

This was my first Lisette pattern, and I loved it! Lisette is a relatively new line designed by Liesl Gibson, who had worked as a designer at a couple of top brands. I seem to recall her designing another pattern brand, but I think that's for kids clothing only. 

The pattern has been standardised by Simplicity, so it has a similar sizing and ease with your usual Simplicity patterns. The instructions were a little bit different though, as they are even more helpful than the usual Simplicity patterns. There are lots of Lisette tips along the way and it reminds you to finish seams after each step. The pictures were very illustrative too, and I had no problem making the collar and the button placket, both of which were a first for me. 

I think this is why a few people on PatternReview have rated this pattern easy and great for beginners. My view is that this is a wonderful pattern, though one that I would not recommend to beginners. Whilst the instructions are very helpful, I thought that this pattern had quite a few steps which may well be overwhelming for a beginner. I remember the days when I started sewing, and feeling nervous about making one single buttonhole (on the Cath Kidston bag from the Sew! book), let alone 10 of them, and not to mention inserting a collar and all the topstitching. 

Another thing I liked about the pattern was that it had a cute name - the traveller dress. 

Pattern alterations

I made a view C (the one with the gathered A-line skirt) and made a few alterations to this pattern:

1. A small bust adjustment - this pattern included a total ease of 5 inches around the bust for a size 6, which I thought was a little excessive. I halved the ease for my dress, by doing a SBA. I'm planning on doing a series of tutorials on how to make SBAs, including alterations on a number of different basic bodice patterns (please watch this space!). UPDATE: see tutorial here! 
2. I made a petite adjustment on the bodice.
3. I also shortened the skirt by 6 inches so that the skirt finishes above the knee.   
4. I also made a self-fabric belt from view A/B but am currently unsure whether it actually adds anything to it (let me know what you think?)

My "new" gadgets!

and some of them not so new actually...

First of all, I tried out my brand new "gathering" foot. Did you know that this existed? I bought a universal one and it cost me less than a fiver! I thought it was an excellent investment given how much I hate gathering. It looks like this:

Although it is not a snap-on foot, it is really easy to attach - all I needed to do on my Singer 8280 was undoing the screw and swapping the shank with the gathering foot. I then set the stitch length to the longest, and increased the upper thread tension to 6+ and off it went! There was no need to do parallel stitches, pull bobbin thread, baste and unpick. All done in one step (unless you wanted to unpick this one stitching line, if it bothered you - yep I am one of those pedantic people!). 

I used this helpful gadget on the waistline of the skirt, and on both sleeve edges! It was really easy and I was a happy bunny. 

Next I used "new" gadget number 2, the button foot. I made the purchase over a week ago, at the same time as buying the gathering foot, making comments like " oooh isn't this just soo clever? I can't believe I have not come across it already!" Guess what, when I was putting all my new sewing feet away after making this dress, I realised that I had one in my toolkit already!!! There it was, sitting quietly in my little zippy bag, only a shade darker than my newly purchased one. In fact, it was a standard accessory that came with my machine. D'oh! So if you haven't done so already, I would suggest checking what sewing feet came with your machine before purchasing new ones... 

Anyhow, it was a helpful little thing nonetheless. The soft blue tip holds the button firmly in place where the buttonhole step 3/4 stitch option does the zigzag stitch without feeding the fabric anywhere. It was rather clever and was so much easier and offers a lot more control than hand sewing buttons into place. A word of warning though, start very slowly by checking that the stitch length and position is right by turning the needle by hand as failure to do so would be rather disastrous. I ended up with one badly cracked button and 2 slightly chipped ones. Oops, I was far too clumsy. 

Where was I?

Have you noticed that the pictures weren't taken on top of our staircase today? No, it's not because I am still waiting for my freshly painted wall to dry, and no, of course we didn't paint it... -- with the weather being 27 degrees (in the UK! in September!), how could we possibly not take advantage of it? ;-) So we went to Mapledurham House and Watermill, which was a 10 minute drive from my house. Isn't it so grand and beautiful? and did you know that some lucky people still live there? 

It was a lovely day/afternoon out, made even better by the fact that my Lisette traveller was ready to travel and see some grand stately home just in time for our little trip. Perhaps next time we'll take a picnic!

My noisy Sorbetto and the new overcasting foot

Those that know me well will tell you that I can never say no to free things... and they are right! So having downloaded the very popular FREE Sorbetto pattern a few weeks ago, I could not wait any longer to make my own version. 

Well, here's what I ended up with...

I'm not thrilled with it... I used a tiny piece of viscose (perhaps more commonly referred to as rayon) and some satin bias tape... This is where I've gone wrong! The bias tape is way too heavy for the viscose (it all seems so obvious now) so it' does not lie flat at the neckline or armholes. It's a shame because I do like the colour of the tape - I thought about making a self-fabric bias binding but decided that the satin tape would really bring out the accent of the fabric! oh well - this is how we learn, right?

Perhaps you could see it more when I wear it:

I don't look very happy there, do I?

I wanted to make this into a wearable toile but I don't think I'll end up wearing this. Maybe my next one will be better once I've adjusted the pattern a little?

I decided to call this the "noisy" Sorbetto because of the print on the fabric. It's mainly blue but it has so much going on! The piece I had was 63cm long and 110cm wide, so it was really quite tiny. I had to cut the pieces like this to fit it all in:

The pattern is a good one. It is extremely simple - there are 2 pattern pieces only, and all you need to do is 2 darts, a box pleat and a bias tape finish. It only took me about 3 hours in total to make it, so you could quite easily do it as an evening project! The instructions were also very clearly set out - this is my first Colette pattern and I was impressed by the instructions. It also takes very little fabric - you could make it with just about any leftover fabric! 

I had to make some alterations though - as with most other sewers, I lengthened the top by 2 inches. Given that I'm only 5'3, (and would consider myself to be fairly proportionate), and the finished top didn't feel long to me (although I did do a wider hem), this pattern was originally designed as a short top. so if you're reading this, please do lengthen it and you won't regret it - of course you could always take that off if it's too long! 

The finished fit was a very loose one. I took an an inch at both sides to improve the fit slightly... I cut a size 0 but it was very baggy. The pattern claims that if in doubt, cut a bigger size but I would suggest the opposite personally. Actually, I think I would suggest making a toile first to perfect the fit. 

Will I make this again? I'm not sure - I know that the bias tape caused the failure of this task (oops, I think I've watched too much of The Apprentice!) but I feel that I have other top patterns that will provide me with a better result without the alterations. But I'm not ready to rule this out altogether - so I will keep the pattern in my stash and who knows? It may just be perfect for some leftover fabric from other projects. 

There was another reason why I was so keen to make this NOW - I bought a overcasting foot for my basic Singer, and I was sooo excited about trying it out properly. It looks quite like a walking foot, but there's a "pin" at the bottom of the foot which acts to keep the edge flat. This is also known as a overlocker foot, as the seam finish resembles that done by an overlocker/serger. 

I made the purchase after reading several blog posts and an article in Sew today - especially as it does more than giving a neat finish to the seams! But I'm sticking with the basics for now - I bought this attachment because I was tired of the zigzagged finish of my seams. 

Here are some photos of it "in action":

Can you see the pin in the middle? 

I used a zigzag stitch, set at its widest, and was so happy with the finish (bearing in mind how much viscose frays!)

The needle goes left and right of the pin, the right being on the edge of the seam. I find that I get a neater result when I position the fabric so that the edge ends just to the left of the pin, with a stitch length set relatively small (but this will probably change when I use it on other fabric).  

I think this may be my best purchase ever! I'll try out its other uses in the coming weeks but for now, I just want to enjoy how neat the seam finish is - who cares if I'm going to wear this top or not!