12 months, two dresses

For Christmas 2020 I gifted my mum some fabric that I knew she'd like and the promise to make her whatever she wanted.

The first was easy; The red fabric should be a Gallery Dress

Ages ago I gave her this one that I'd made and she liked it enough that she wanted another just the same. Very straightforward. 

The fabric is a lovely midweight jacquard cotton/linen that feels like a heavy double gauze. I bought both fabrics from Potter & Co in Perth and was very pleased with them.

Having bought, and gifted 3m of each I did get to keep the remnants and so A has these shorts to match.

The second garment required a few months deliberation. My mum knew she wanted it to be a pull on dress, with sleeves, but not much more than that. We looked at various patterns and eventually I chopped  up some bedsheets and  made muslins of Butterick 6567, The Liesl + Co Cappuccino dress and the Style Arc Hope dress

None of them were right, although I'm tempted to make the Butterick one for myself (and am I the only person to have sewn a Hope dress and not liked it?). And so I set to the task of turning the block of the Gallery dress into something with the visual appearance of the cappuccino dress.

There's a blog post over at Oliver + S where I show, roughly, how to do just that. Here's the link

A full twelve months later it was nice to see the dresses on my mum.

Kensington Knit Skirt Variation - part B

I'm over on the Oliver + S blog doing a little Sew + Tell for another Kensington Knit Skirt that I made.

Not much to say except that it's shorter and much more seasonally appropriate. Check it out with this link.

Details:
Patterns: Kensington knit Skirt and Metro Tee - both from Liesl + Co.
Modifications: Shortened the skirt, View A.
Fabrics: Vintage double knit from the great destash, a few years ago, of a friend's mum - who sadly passed away just at the time I was sewing this skirt. Yoke is a rib knit
Top is a stretch velour.

Kensington Knit Skirt Variation - part A

I've had a ready to wear skirt for about 8 years now that I really like and I've always thought I should copy and recreate....

After I sewed the Kensington Knit Skirt for the first time I realised the yoke was exactly the same. All I needed to do was make the skirt more straight or almost A line and I'd have my summer-jersey-skirt-pattern-of-my-dreams. There's a little round up of adding flare to the Belgravia knit dress and the Kensington knit skirt on the Oliver + S blog currently.

This is the Kensington skirt, in size 10, view A (without the wrap and ties).

I cut the yoke with an extra 1/2" of length to match my rtw favourite. Then I cut the skirt with a whole lot of flare added by splitting the pattern piece vertically and spreading it.

There's no front or back centre seam, so to get the flare to spread nicely and not be all weird angles at the side seams, it's necessary to slash and spread like this. 

How much flare I got was determined by the width of the fabric. Each of those gaps is about 1" and I added the same amount at each side seam, tapering up to nothing at the top. The top edge ends up the same size as the original pattern and so construction doesn't change at all.

There's a bit of flare when I twirl!

But mostly it just creates some ease such that this skirt is now the bottom half equivalent of a t-shirt. Comfy, easy to wear and something I'll reach for over and over again (in summer).

The fabric is a lovely quality Art Gallery knit that I had deep in the stash from back when Brave Fabrics was an operating shop.

Now I know I've got a 1m knit skirt pattern I might spy other knits I like. My favourite RTW one has a solid yoke and painted skirt. Maybe I should design my own fabric for the next one...

I made another Kensington skirt variation which is more suited to our current weather. I'll share that one soon.

Jalie 0969 - That Sewing Blab podcast

I did something a bit fun and different today and joined a live crowdcast conversation about sewing swimsuit patterns.

That Sewing Blab is a weekly video conversation hosted by Maria and Dawn and this month has been all about swimsuit sewing. Maria invited me to join in and I immediately plumped for reviewing a Jalie pattern.

Here's the video link if you want to see me being awkward :)  That Sewing Blab: Episode 151
I come in around the 18 minute mark - My sound quality is a bit ordinary as I only discovered after agreeing to join in that our PC has no inbuilt camera. Luckily I could do it live from my phone, but I probably should have hunted up the ear buds and microphone attachment.

At least my sewing was ok!

I'm a big fan of Jalie patterns. I find their drafting is excellent, they come together perfectly and the instructions are, for me, the perfect combination of illustration and clear, concise language.

I figured the offer would be for a PDF pattern and since I always prefer paper patterns when I can get my hands on them , I decided I may as well choose one of their older out of print patterns that is now PDF only. Enter Jalie 0969

I emailed the pattern to Creffield Digital Print and picked it up the next day and got cutting.

Let's begin with View A, the one piece:

It's a nice simple shape but with a lovely back cutout and enough shape to keep it interesting. I didn't get modelled photos but it looks cute as can be on. A complained of a little bit of wedgie action at the back in swimming lesson but personally I'd rather risk a bit of wedgie than have those low cut leg holes that I feel make me look frumpy. I should try this one for me!

Using some of my big stash of Carvico VITA recycled nylon fabric it was always going to be a plain suit, so I added the seahorse! (PSA I think there's a tiny bit of this awesome fabric left at Sew Active Fabrics and she's selling it way below cost price - go snap it up)

The seahorse came from an Ottobre swimsuit pattern but this kind of thing is so easy, you could just make up any image. The shape is drawn onto fusible web which is then bonded to the lycra scrap and the outline cutout. The shape can then be fused to the swimsuit by ironing and stitched around the edge to keep it in place. I've used my sewing machine's triple stitch and a rainbow variegated thread. 

The seahorse's fin was stitched with decorative stitching lines and then only attached to the swimsuit with the stitching line adjacent to the seahorse body. I thought I had some iron-on diamantes for the eye but found a sew on sequin instead.

As per my daughter's measurements I made size N with an extra inch of torso length added. This is one of the only Jalie patterns I've sewn that doesn't include the torso loop body measurement. However, it did have a back length (nape of neck to waist) and so I could tell that I'd need the usual addition of body length for my long torso'ed kid.

Size N is the first size that includes the lining shelf bra, which I thought was kind of redundant for my eight year old, but knew she'd like it so I did it anyway.

At this point I hit a hiccup as I couldn't work out which elastic length to use where. On the pattern sheet there were lots of elastic lengths marked and each was given a number. Yet nowhere in the instructions were those numbers referred to. I fired off a quick email to Jalie before going to bed and had my answer promptly the next morning. In moving the pattern from print to PDF the page which held the key for which elastic to use where had been accidentally left off. 

Apparently I was the first person to point this out ?! how anyone had sewn the pattern without this key is crazy. If you have the pattern in your megabit stash then be sure to contact Jalie for the missing bit before you try and proceed. Anyone buying it from this point on should get the full package!

Of course I had to make a second suit with the same pattern:

This was A's request version. She wanted the View B bikini top and View D shorts. The coral fabric is also Carvico VITA but the navy is the last of something I picked up ages ago at Rathdowne Fabrics. it's been interesting to see how the different fabrics hold up to use. 

This navy fabric has been much shorter lived than the VITA fabrics. Of those, the lighter colours such as the pale pink don't handle the chlorine so well, but most of the VITA fabrics are still looking good after more than 12 months of regular chlorine pool use. The kids are outgrowing swimsuits, which is almost unheard of!

These shorts would make great gym shorts and I think they'd work well as boys swim trunks too.

The crop top is cute and worked pretty well in the pool - perfect during swimming lessons and only coming a bit awry when wrestling with her big brother afterwards. The straps are turned tubes of fabric without any elastic. They're cut ont he bias which makes them more stable, but if you were sewing this one for yourself and had any boobs to speak of you might find the support a bit lacking. No probs for the kid!

I had a little Jalie label and figured that would make the suit look a bit more "pro". I even bothered to change out the thread colour when stitching down the elastic.

The Jalie technique of zig zagging right on the edge of the elastic, then folding to the inside and zig zag stitching again works perfectly. The elastic always lies nicely and it looks every bit as good, if not better, than a twin needle or coverstitched hem.

If you haven't sewn swimwear before, it's really not as tricky as you might think. This suit is only a couple of seams (overlocked) then elastic edging. Simple and super satisfying and with such little fabric outlay when making a kid sized suit, there's nothing to lose.

Details:

Pattern: Jalie 0969 (gifted, thank you Jalie) views A, B & D

Fabric: Mostly Carvico VITA xtracycle, navy generic nylon lycra.

Notions: Bikini clasp from GJ's fabrics and elastic from stash

Maaidesign: See You At Six sweater dress

One of only three pieces of new fabric that have found their way home with me this year was this exquisite remnant of See You At Six French Terry from Maaidesign

I'm over on the Maaidesign blog talking more about the fabric. Follow this link for the blog post and then all the lovely/dangerous links to the new batch of See You At Six fabrics! The moral of the story is don't delay. These fabrics always sell out super fast, and for good reason

Using a remnant limited me somewhat with my pattern and I almost considered a hoodie for my daughter. But once you've felt this fabric then there's no way you're not going to claim it for yourself. And those colours are so absolutely me (even if floral prints usually aren't me!)

I settled on Butterick B6494, a raglan sleeve dress pattern that I'd bought when I was one my hunt for a good raglan pattern (just before Liesl + Co released the Neighbourhood Sweatshirt which I could easily hack into a dress)

It was a bit tricky fitting it onto the fabric (sorry I don't know exactly what the cut was - maybe more than 1m, but less than 1.5m), but doable thanks to the six, narrow panels of the dress and the fact that I didn't have to match my print, and the fabric is a generous 150cm wide.

Too lazy for a proper muslin I hit up Sewing Pattern Review for tips. Based on that "research" I sized down one size from my measurements - after all, I knew with this fabric I could get away with figure hugging. The other change was to leave off the pockets. 

The pockets are normally set into the princess seams at the front and would end up overlapping each other by an inch or two at the middle. That puts five layers of fabric, two for each pocket and one for the centre front panel, right on one's belly spot. No thanks! - and I adore pockets... I toyed with the idea of a kangaroo pocket which would give me a three layer thickness evenly across the centre, but I actually didn't have enough fabric leftover even for that.

Since Flipper is particularly fond of this dress I have no need for pockets as he seems to magically appear whenever I put it on, and so I can simply hand him things to carry! 

So there you go, make cuddly pajamas to get more hugs from your kids, and sew a tight dress for a more helpful and attentive husband! All the lifestyle tips on this blog :)

You're welcome.

As I was sewing I basted the side seams and tried it on several times before overlocking the seams. I reduced the side seam allowances down to 1/2" from the pattern's 5/8" to give myself a bit more breathing room, but then had to take it the shoulders and arms by an enormous amount. I think I ended up reducing the upper arm circumference by almost two inches.

It appears to be drafted for a much larger upper chest/back and upper arm than the waist/hip size. The sleeve length is also generous. I took 1cm off before cutting as I just could not eke it out of my fabric remnant any other way, and even with my long-ish arms they're a great length.

I'm almost looking forward to colder weather now. Bring it on!

Details:

Pattern: Butterick B6494

Size: 12

Modifications: Sleeve widthe reduction

Fabric: See You At Six french terry from Maaidesign

Simple elastic waist skirt tutorial

Hello, I've got a lovely, quick, easy tutorial over on the Oliver + S blog.

Click on the picture link below to check out how simple it is to sew a nice, twirly, neatly finished skirt with an exposed elastic waistband

Here we'll keep it real and talk about what didn't work so well, right?

I ordered a few 1 yard cuts of fun, wide elastics from Strap Crafts, a Hong Kong based store with a huge range of interesting wide elastics and very reasonable shipping to Aus.

Rummaging around in the fabric stash for what would work well with this 2" wide, glittery silver elastic I found some of Topbike Physio's mum's stash fabrics that was perfect. A lightweight, breezy, summery synthetic knit in blue with tiny silvery white dots.

There was just enough to cut this part circle skirt using the Building Block Dress Book pattern (the size 6 width, 7 length already traced off) and a little singlet based on the size 8 School Bus T-shirt.

To turn the t-shirt into a singlet I reduced the shoulder width back to the point where the notch is marked on the pattern. I raised the underarm by about 1/2" - which it turns out I shouldn't have done. then I sewed a band just like the neckband to finish the edge.

The armpits are a bit high but she's hasn't complained and has worn it a few times already. For next time, I'd leave the armscye depth alone, but shave a bit more width out in the upper chest. It's not helped in these photos by her accidentally wearing the top back to front. That doesn't change the arm line but the front neck, which I lowered by 3/4" would look better at the front.

But here it is at the back, and a demonstration of the lovely twirl of the part circle skirt.

This outfit has proved to be a real winner and since it was so easy to make I can see a few more two piece spectaculars using exposed elastic and stash fabric being made this summer.

Bring on the warm weather!

Ballet Wrap Top with Oliver + S

This was a fun idea that came out of the Oliver + S Facebook group and a request for a tutorial to create a wrap tie cardigan.

I had a good long think about this one as I knew I wanted the bottom band and the ties to be continuous and cleanly finished. It worked really nicely in the end and the full photographed tutorial is up on the Oliver + S blog now.

Click on the image below to go to the tutorial:

The first version I made was with a remnant of some of the "maille merveilleuse" I bought from Mamzelle Fourmi a few years ago. It is lovely, thick, squishy cotton knit.

I cannot, for the life of me work out how the bottom band and the ties all seem to be one piece. The fabric is simply not wide enough to allow that, yet it certainly seems to be the case. Some bit of cutting magic that with the passing of time since I made it, I absolutely can not explain. Shrug.

Edit: In adding the Mamzelle Fourmi link above I noticed the fabric is a "tissu en tres grand largeur" measuring a whopping 185cm wide. 

I gave A the choice of whether it should tie at the side or the back and she chose the side, telling me that it would be uncomfortable in the car or sitting in a chair if the bow was at the back. Fair enough.

Yet since I've made it, she seems to want to wrap it crazy tight around her so that it's almost like a strait-jacket and then ties it at the back anyway. That's irritated me and we've ended up bickering about how it should be worn, hence it's not getting worn all that much. Silly me.

The second one that I made for the Oliver + S tutorial used the final colourway of the retro double sided knit that I found at Fabric Deluxe. (previous makes with this fabric are here, here and here)

I haven't any modelled photos of this one yet, but they'll come I'm sure as winter seems to be sticking around for a while longer.

Both tops were based on the size 8 School Bus T-shirt. The first version has sleeve cuffs added as the fabric length was insufficient for the required sleeve length.

It was a fun exercise to nut out the tutorial. They're great tops and I know, once I start ignoring how she wears them, they'll get plenty of use. If you're curious about turning a T-shirt into a wrap cardigan, check out the tutorial.

Tried and True T-Shirt Pattern

I've sewn a lot of T-shirts for myself but there's only one pattern that I've ever felt really worked for me. Other patterns have had curious features that I thought at the time were worth paying for, but they let me down in some other regard. Ultimately I've decided I'd rather play around with a well fitting T-shirt block and make my own changes.

And so it's the Metro Tee by Liesl + Co for me. I have seven of them now, and the first five have all featured here previously. You can see them all together on the Oliver + S blog or just stay here to check out the latest two...

Of the first five only one was made straight up as per the pattern. I thought it was time to go back to the beginning and sew another regular, straight up Metro T.

I sized down to the M, which is just below my current measurements, in order to get a tight fit, and made myself a long sleeved T-shirt out of some great stretch velour.

Please forgive the crappy modelling - I'd give excuses but really, I'm just crap at it. I took these pictures and cropped my grumpy face and/or closed eyes out of each of them before writing the Oliver + S post, and while I've worn the T-shirts since I can't find any motivation to rephotograph them.

This lush midnight blue stretch velour came from the remnants bin at Rathdowne Fabrics. It's pretty glam and while this is just the straight, crew neck t-shirt the fabric makes a lot of difference. Worn with black trousers and heels it could easily be a night out kind of top.

I think I was nervous that the long sleeves on the size M may prove to be a touch short so I added 1/2" when cutting. But it's obvious I didn't really need to. This pattern has a lovely generous sleeve length, so I guess that's a warning to the short arm blog audience.

When I was rummaging through my bag of thrifted vintage fabrics from Topbikephysio's mum I rediscovered a couple of cuts of vintage, semi-sheer, slubby cotton. I immediately wanted to make one more t-shirt so I could have seven, one for each day of the week!

I was interested to have a go at binding the neckline with a strip of woven bias binding. Much like this ready-to-wear t-shirt that I wore here

It turned out to be crazy simple. I cut the V neck to the depth I wanted but also so that the tip of the V would finish on a stripe. I managed to cut the front and back to get the stripes perfectly aligned at the side seams, but the fabric remnant was only small and there was nothing I could do to match the sleeves to the body. Curiously they match very well at the back - but I didn't get a picture of that. I guess you can have a sleeve head that suits stripes, or a sleeve head that suits my chest, arms and back, but not necessarily both.

This bias strip is only about 3/8" wide when double folded. To work out the length I simply layed it around the neckline from centre back to centre front under a little bit of tension. I marked the centre front point. To create the chevron requires a little mountain range looking thing that I really should have photograped - next time I promise. Then the bias strip is folded and pressed. If you press it so that the underside is fractionally wider than the outer then it's easy to stitch it on from the outside and be sure of catching the underside perfectly.

Size-wise, this one is back up to the size L and I think I cut the sleeves on the lengthen/shorten line - that may, or may not, have been intentional ;) The body is about 2 inches shorter than the t-shirt usually is due to fabric restrictions. All up I think it worked really well and I'll have to play around with some other quilting cotton scraps and bias bound V necks in future. I'll be sure to take pictures and write it up, it's a lovely finish to a t-shirt.

Seven T-shirts all very different but all from the one pattern. It's definitely my tried and true T-shirt pattern.

Happy Birthday Oliver + S

Oliver + S are celebrating 10 years and the release of their 50th sewing pattern!

I own every paper pattern (except the latest release which is yet to make it's way into my collection) and I did a round up of every pattern and found one picture to represent each unique view. Of course there have been many multiples sewn of quite a number of these patterns and lots of mashing and variations which aren't included here. Get your scrolling finger ready...

2+2 Blouse and Skirt

After School Shirt

After School Pants

Apple Picking Dress

Art Museum Trousers

Art Museum Vest

Badminton Skort

Bedtime Story Pajamas

Birthday Party Dress

Book Report Dress

Bubble Dress

Butterfly Blouse

Butterfly Skirt

Buttoned-Up Button-Down Shirt

Class Picnic Blouse and Shorts

Croquet Dress

Fairy Tale Dress

Family Reunion Dress

Field Trip Cargopants

Field Trip Raglan Tee

Garden Party Dress

Hide and Seek Dress

Hopscotch Skirt

Hopscotch Top and Dress

Ice Cream Dress

Jump Rope Dress - View B

Jump Rope Dress - View A

Library Dress

Lullaby Layette Set

Lunch Box Tee and Culottes

Music Box Jumper - View A

Music Box Jumper - View B

Music Class Blouse - View B

Music Class Blouse - View A

Music Class Skirt (with Family Reunion Tunic)

Nature Walk Knit Pants

Nature Walk Pullover

Parachute Polo

Parachute Sweatpants

Pinwheel Tunic and Slip Dress

Play Date Dress

Playtime Dress and Tunic

Playtime leggings

Puppet Show Shorts

Puppet Show Tunic

Roller Skate Dress

Sailboat Pants

Sailboat Skirt

Sailboat Top

Sandbox Pants

School Days Coat and Jacket

School Photo Dress

Seashore Sundress

Secret Agent Trench Coat

Sketchbook Shirt

Sketchbook Shorts

Sleepover Pajamas

Sunday Brunch Jacket and Skirt

Swingset Tunic and Skirt

Teaparty Playsuit

Teaparty Sundress

Teaparty Bloomers

 Did you spot the missing patterns/views?

The only ones I haven't made are the Carousel Dress and the Top/Dress view of the Badminton pattern as well as the new Girl on the Go Dress

Then there are the digital only patterns (not counting the singles which were originally released as paper pattern)

Forest Path Cape

Hula Hoop Skirt

School Bus T-Shirt

And the one that I'm yet to sew out of that little group is the Firefly Jacket

There are also a great collection of free patterns available as downloads. Like these:

Sunny Day Shorts

Lazy Days Skirt

On Stage Tutu

Reversible Bucket Hat

Felt Bow and Bias Covered Headband

I still haven't made either the Ruffled Halter or the Popover Sundress from that collection of freebies.

Finally, there are two Oliver + S books. The book Little Things To Sew has 20 projects for toys and accessories, and in October of 2013 I set up the challenge to sew every project in the book : Cover to Cover Challenge

By August of 2014 I made it and was interviewed by a Bear bath mitt on the finish line.

The newer Oliver + S book is the Building Block Dress Book which is an absolute gem of a resource for altering patterns to create whatever you want.

Here are two of the dresses I've made using the book so far...

Over at Oliver + S, Todd crunched the numbers and worked out there are 60,481 different permutations on the basic building block dress. So, no, I won't be going all the way on that one.

But maybe this year I should finally make the Firefly Jacket, Carousel Dress and Badminton Dress and break out those as yet untouched patterns. But then I look at some of those old photos and just want to revisit the old favourites as well. Sigh.

Do you have an Oliver + S pattern you own but haven't yet made?