Twinkle Sews: 'On the sidelines' top

I loved this top as soon as I saw it in Wenlan Chia's book 'Twinkle Sews'.

I have been so busy lately making other things that this top was put on the backburner. Then, last week, I finally set aside some time to make it. And, I have to say, it was worth the wait! I'm thrilled to bits with this.

Now, this is not a quick project. The book classes this top as 'Advanced' and it was certainly time consuming and fiddly, although that was partly due to the fabric I chose. I used an unstable, lightweight, cottony, soft knit (can you tell I'm not sure what it was?), which looks and feels lovely, but stretched horribly out of shape at every cut edge. There are 14 pattern pieces used for this top which ends up being 22 pieces once everything is cut out. You need your wits about you to keep track of all those, I can tell you!

This gorgeous front pocket was a work of art in itself. It was made with five pieces, two with the scalloped curves, that needed to be joined and topstitched (and, in my case, pressed and pressed to shrink those stretched-out edges) before attaching the rivets. I used a little kit I'd found at a jumble sale with little silver and diamonte rivets that were very simple to apply with a plastic tool. I imagine craft shops would have these. So fun :)

Then it's straight into the interesting neckline/shoulder panels with button detail at the front. I had one pattern piece left over from this that I never did find a use for! The sleeves have several sections too, which I changed slightly to increase the length of the sleeve. I added long cuffs so the sleeves were full length for winter.

The instructions were slightly lacking for this top and I had to feel my way and check the picture to work out quite a lot of the construction. However, the pattern pieces are well drafted and I love the attention to detail in the design and the addition of the buttons and rivets. I just took my time and enjoyed the ride. By the way, I've mentioned before that the size chart is odd in this book, but I went with my measurements again and made a size 8. The fit seems right to me.

I loved this so much when I put it on that I wore it two days in a row, despite getting a bit of lunch on the pocket that I had to Photoshop out of these pictures! It is a bit sheer, so I have a cream top underneath. Next time I'll look for one with a higher neckline to match.

So yeah, a new top that feels very designer to casual old me. Lots of work, but so worth it.

I think so anyway.

Sk8tr bois (Burda 9592)

After much pestering from my boys, I finally got round to making the 'leather' jackets that I'd promised them last year.

I used Burda 9592 (now discontinued) that I picked up for $5 at the shop where I was having my sewing machine serviced. Some time later I found this dark, chocolate brown pleather for 40% off in Spotlight. I bought it and it sat in my cupboard for several months, through the long, hot summer, while JJ (seven) periodically asked when I was going to make his jacket. When the weather turned cold I ran out of excuses, so I set to work on View A (times two).

The pattern I had was for age 10-15. That was fine for LJ (ten), but too big for JJ. Some down-scaling was in order. To do this, I used a very handy method from SewStylish.com that I had found ages ago and saved for just such an occasion.  

Source

The method involves drawing lots of radiating lines on each pattern piece and applying simple maths to work out where the lines on the smaller (or bigger) pattern should be drawn. The resulting, scaled-down pattern seemed to go together well, so thumbs up for this method.

The next obstacle was that the pattern specified shearling-type fabric (leather with sheepskin backing) for View A as this view is styled with raw edges to show off the wool lining. Well, even in sheep-rich Australia I don't know where I would find such a fabric, much less afford to buy it for children's jackets! And besides, I'd already bought this pleather so I had to make it work. In the end, I used some brown polar fleece to underline every pattern piece. This gave the jackets warmth and allowed the raw edge design detail to be utilised. 

Suffice it to say that the pattern re-sizing and cutting out the pieces for two jackets in pleather and fleece took a blinking long time!

Raw edges on cuffs, pockets and hem.

I have to say that JJ really helped the process (not) by popping into the sewing room at regular intervals and asking when his jacket would be ready!

Raw edges on collar and yoke.

Once I started sewing, these jackets went together reasonably quickly. I treated the fleece and pleather together as a single layer for each piece, which worked fine.

I like the contrast provided by the fleece on the inside of the collar and on the raw edges of the hem, cuffs, pockets, collar and yoke.

The boys are very pleased with their jackets, so Yay for Mum-sewing! I wanted them to pose by this graffiti wall for the pictures, so I had to bribe them with a visit to the adjacent skate park. 

I had to take these photos in 2 minutes flat, before they raced off to do this:

and this:

That's my boys :)

Beyond belief

Well, amazingly in the last few days, the universe with all its stars and moons must have somehow aligned and pointed in my direction. A truly amazing thing has happened...I have won two sewing competitions!

I won the 'Accessory Competition' on Sewing Pattern Review with my Divine Dinner Dress by Savage Coco Patterns.

There is a lovely write up about the contest here, which also shows the beautiful creations by the second and third prize winners. I can't wait to receive and try out my prize of a very special, fitted ironing board cover with felt pad and pressing cloth. My ironing board is in dire need of a makeover and this will be most appreciated. Even better is that these covers are made to the highest standard by disabled workers in Australia. Thank you to Pattern Review for the competition, Interface Australia for the lovely prize and to the fab Coco for the pattern. 

I also won the 'Copycat Challenge' on Erin's blog 'I heart fabric'. Erin writes a lovely blog about her sewing adventures and was recently featured on the Burdastyle website. I don't know how she manages to make so many amazing creations. She has a good eye for fabrics and variations on a pattern and is able to produce many beautiful and unique dresses from one pattern. Her challenge involved copying a ready to wear (RTW) item as closely as possible, which is always good fun.

I made this copy of a Roksanda Ilincic dress. I used the pattern for the 'Elegant Escape Dress' by Savage Coco, which I painstakingly cut up into the shapes required to make this dress. You may have noticed that both wins involved Savage Coco dresses. I can't rate these highly enough for style and general fabulousness. It just shows that if you want to win a competition, you can't go wrong with Coco!

The entries in this competition were just fantastic. I particularly liked the Gwen Stefani pants by That's Sew Amy and Erin's beautiful Royal Lace Dress. The prize of 'The Burdastyle Handbook' and a voucher for Megan Nielsen Patterns is beyond awesome and I can't wait to receive them. Thank you Erin for this super-fun challenge.

And if that wasn't enough, I received two nominations for the Leibster Award from Maud Made and That's Sew Amy. Unbelievable! Thank you both for liking my blog and choosing me for the award. I'm just ecstatic that a few people are reading what I put out there!

This award aims to find out more about the blogger by asking questions of her (or him as the case may be). These are the questions posed by Lucy of Maud Made (I will keep my answers brief as this is already a long post):

1. What got you to start sewing your clothes?
My mum sewed and I just naturally began sewing from a very young age. I remember sewing clothes for my doll that no amount of pulling could get over her arms and head...until Mum taught me the important lesson of seam allowances!

2. What do you most want to make in the next 6 months?
I have had fabric for ages to make a copycat pair of Sass and Bide jeans with white panel detailing. I want these!

3. Fabric or pattern first?
Nine times out of ten it's fabric first. I can't resist buying something when I go to the fabric shop and, even better, are the unique (and cheap) finds at the op shop. Then I peruse my favourite pattern books (like Drape Drape 1, 2 and 3) for inspiration.

4. Which part of sewing your own clothes do you like best?
I love to get started on the actual sewing and see an item come together. I always try it on at every possible stage and sometimes sit sewing in my underwear ready to try it on yet again!

5. Which part do you like least?
Cutting out.

6. Your favourite sewing blogger?
It is very hard to choose, but probably Carolyn of 'Handmade by Carolyn'. She actually lives down the road from me and sometimes I spy her looking fabulous and walking with her gorgeous dog. It's like spotting a celebrity (we've never properly met)! I also have to mention Daniel of 'Manhattan Nest' for a great read every single time. He can make a new light fitting hugely entertaining.

7. What other big obsessions have you had in your life? (real life love affairs not included).
Apart from family, that would be my first car, a classic Holden Torana, my windsurfer and hip hop dancing.

8. What's your day job?
I'm a research scientist who stays at home and makes custom cushion covers for money!

9. What's the most daring thing you have ever done?
I moved to Montreal, Canada from Australia when I was 27 for my first proper job, a postdoctoral research position studying the inner workings of parasites. I knew no one in the entire of North America. It was lonely at first but ended up being completely awesome.

10. What are your secrets for a happy life?
Keep things simple. Time is far more important than money so work less. Stay positive. Laugh with people you love. Create.

Thank you to the effortlessly cool Amy and the warm, funny and stylish Lucy for this award. I am touched.

I'll leave you with a picture of me (middle), my sister and my cousin on Southwold Beach, UK a very, very long time ago.

Floral skinny jeans

Here I am leaping into the floral jeans trend (not into the river, although Truffle did have a dip).

I bought this bright, stretch woven fabric a few weeks ago in the Textile Traders sale. I got one metre for only $5. Cheap pair of jeans hey?

I am not thrilled with the t-shirt, which I didn't make, so a bit of thought is needed on how to style these pants. Suggestions welcome!

Now, I had planned to use McCalls 6404, a leggings pattern, for these. But after the mediocre denim pants that resulted from my first attempt with this pattern I decided against using it this time. Instead, I drafted a new pattern using a great-fitting pair of RTW (ready-to-wear) pants and my tried and tested Jalie 2795 jeans pattern.

I traced the RTW pants very carefully, then compared the result to my Jalie pattern.

The shaky black line shows the outline of the Jalie pattern (pants back) and the even shakier yellow line is the RTW tracing. There is quite a difference in the shape of the back crotch curve. There is also a difference in the waist height, but this is partly explained by the fact that the Jalie jeans have a yoke (not seen here), while the RTW pants do not. Hmmm, interesting. The other notable difference was that the seams of the RTW pants were placed differently to the Jalie jeans, particularly the inner leg seam which was significantly further forward on the RTW pants. I don't know that this affects the final fit. I suspect probably not much.

Out of curiosity, I decided to just make the RTW pattern and compare it to my previous Jalie 2795 efforts.

So here it is. I only had a metre to squeeze this from, so I eliminated all pockets. I had just enough fabric to do a fly front and separate waistband. I think the fit is pretty good.

I should have made them longer though. I'll buy 1.1m next time!

Here is a picture of my denim Jalie jeans for fit comparison.

I think the less scooped back crotch curve of the floral jeans is more flattering than the deeper scoop of the Jalie jeans. The fit at the front is similar, although the Jalies are higher waisted (these denims were made from the higher waisted version of the pattern). The inner leg seams are just visible on the floral fabric but don't seem to impact the fit. On a plain fabric the forward-placed seams would be more visible and could be top-stitched in a contrasting thread for additional detail.

I think I like these and, once I work out what to wear with them, I'll wear these a lot before the fashion changes! The comparison of patterns was an interesting exercise (for a sewing nerd like me) and I am very pleased to have improved the fit at the back. Yay!

Denim leggings or are they the 'J' word? (McCalls 6404)

J....J....Jeggings!

Love 'em or hate 'em, you can't deny they are comfortable. Perfect for a weekend afternoon at the skateboard park. Don't worry, I just watch and read the paper...or a sewing magazine if I am lucky enough to have one. I am so cool.

Source

Anyway, back to the jegg skinny jeans. These are made with McCalls pattern 6404. The pattern stipulated 'two-way stretch knits only' so, as usual, I ignored this and did my own thing. I had some denim that has been languishing for ages in my stash. It is nice and stretchy, but definitely only a one-way stretch woven. I chose 'View D' from the pattern and decided to highlight the curved seams with some light brown piping I found at the op shop many moons ago.

Reading some reviews of this pattern, it seemed that the sizing of this pattern runs rather large. However, I decided that, since I was using one-way stretch, rather than two-way, I should err on the side of caution and go with the size based on my measurements. I made a Medium. It turned out that I should have thrown caution to the wind. The reviews were right, these were too big. Next time I will cut an extra small (my pattern has XS, S and M). I took the side seams in around 2-3cm below the piping at the hip to mid calf. They could probably do with taking in further.

The other adjustments I would make next time would be to add at least 10cm to the length and cut the centre back about 3cm higher at the waist, tapering to the side seams. I am not terribly bootilicious, but the centre back dips at the waist, which is not ideal.

I quite like them though. The curved seams at the front are quite nice and the piping is ok. BTW, I added the piping using a sewing foot with grooves in the base. I aligned the piping into a groove, adjusted the needle position to sew where I wanted and it went on like a dream. I sewed it to one panel first, then placed the panels right side together. The piping could be easily felt through the top layer of fabric and still slotted into the groove in the sewing foot.

However, I'm not too sure about the curved seams and piping at the back. I had my first ever 'does my bum look big in this?' moment. So much so that I don't know if I can put the back view on the blog. Just look at the side for a minute while I decide.

Well, OK just a small picture of the back...but only have a very quick look.

Oh dear. A long, butt-covering coat is required with these I think. Still, they're good for relaxing and I do think I'll wear them a lot on casual days. I had thought I would make some printed skinny pants with this pattern, but now I'm not sure. I wonder if I could modify my well-fitting Jalie jeans pattern (made many times as skinny jeans) to close-fitting pants instead. I thought of changing the front fly to an invisible side zip. Has anyone done anything like this? Any tips greatly appreciated.

A cosy jacket for my mum (Burdastyle 12/2012, #140)

My gorgeous Mum turned 70 last week! I know, neither of us can believe it. She certainly doesn't look her age.

Anyway, as usual I headed to the sewing machine to make the majority of her presents. This jacket, Burdastyle Magazine 12/2012, Jacket #140, was a request Mum made while she was flipping through my magazine. She wanted something warm that she could use as a jacket and a dressing gown when she was on holiday in cooler places than our hometown of Perth.

Burdastyle Transform Jacket

The pattern suggested 'fulled loden' fabric should be used for this jacket. I have been informed by a helpful reader that this is quite readily available in Germany, but is difficult to find here. It's also apparently a bit scratchy to wear. I wanted something cosy and soft, so I chose this grey polar fleece.

The majority of the vertical seams are sewn wrong sides together so the seam allowance is exposed on the outside as a feature. I carefully trimmed the seam allowances after stitching so they would be neat on the outside. The edges of the hood, hem, pockets and cuffs are left raw. I finished these with pale grey grosgrain ribbon, which was a nice detail.

I like the way the cuffs fold right back.

I made the jacket a size smaller than I would usually wear as my Mum is a little squirt. The jacket is quite snug on me, but fits her well.

The hood is very roomy and forms the collar when it's folded down.

This jacket is super warm. I nearly expired taking these photos!

As well as the jacket, I made this tea towel. It has hand prints of all the grandchildren, done in fabric paint. I used free motion sewing to write the names of the children and to applique '2013' on to the bottom corner. I made bias tape to bind the edges.

This basic idea for this came from 'Make it Perfect', but I changed it a bit.

There were a couple of other 'bought' presents. But I think mum appreciated these - and the hand made card and birthday cake :)