Sundress

Last but by no means least, here is the most recent garment that I have made, and very possibly the one that I’m proudest of:

Alas I have finished it a little late – as the temperatures are dropping and the colds keep sniffling I fear that I will have to wait until next summer to wear it properly. Essentially it’s just a simple summer dress with casings for drawstrings (which are actually principally elastic) and large pockets. But I love the shaping of it – the way that it’s loose but not too baggy, the neckline, the proportion of the pockets.

I also love the middle section where the ties come out through stitched buttonholes. You can’t see, but I satin-stiched a rectangle around this section. This was in fact due to the fact that my Mum’s buttonhole foot was over 25 years old and had lost all grip, meaning that when I tried to sew buttonholes into the original dress foot the fabric tore and mangled: so that section is basically an appliqué, four beautifully easy holes stitched with the aid of a visit to our local sewing shop and a new foot. The middle bodice panel which you can probably just see (especially as I failed to wash out the blue magic marker pen before taking a photo) was the result of an Unfortunate Incident with the scissors; but again I really like the way that it’s turned out.

What you probably can’t see in the photo is the fabric itself. It’s a medium-weight white cotton but it has tiny little white flowers printed all over it, just adding some texture. White fabric is so hard to photograph in detail.

Pattern: BWOF 05-2008-111

Pinafore

Last autumn/winter, I came across this lovely needlecord on my all-time favourite stall in Durham market:
I think that this is one of those fabrics which are not so alluring in detail but work well as part of a larger garment. That said, I do love all of the circle patterns, and how they’re all slightly different to each other. Although actually that wasn’t my first reaction. My first reaction, visions of a pinafore* forming in my head, was, “You know what that needs? That needs some a deepish, bright pink to set it off!”

And hence this dress was sewn: worn here with tights and a long sleeved top as I suspect will be done for most of its life
The bodice has a bit of a story to tell, albeit not a fantastically long one. Beginner sewer attempts gathering. Beginner sewer misses a key feature of the steps involved in gathering and so beginner sewer ends up with pleats instead. But the said pleats are sufficiently symmetric that they can be a feature of the dress without going through the hassle of taking them out and re-sewing again.

Here’s the side view. It’s pretty fitted – that is to say very fitted due to a rather overenthusiastic swayback alteration on my part. The lump that you can see at the bottom of my back is where the zip ends and the surrounding material doesn’t hang quite properly. I should probably stop making clingy dresses now but it’s just the novelty of being able to make and wear something without the ability to fit a large swimming towel between the back of me and the back of it!

I’d quite like to make the other version of this pattern with a more flared skirt and a different bodice. I do like the gathers (/pleats) but it isn’t that flattering on the bust – again maybe a bodice that would work better without the need for an FBA!

*British ‘pinafore’ = American ‘jumper’
*British ‘jumper’ = American ‘pullover’. I’m still getting used to that one.

Pattern: New Look 6750

Graduation Wear

So this is the skirt and the top that I wore to J’s graduation.

The skirt was made first, at Christmas. It is a wrap-skirt, but it has a proper waistband and a generous enough wrap that it is quite possible to twirl around in on a windy day without fear of exposing oneself – and it does twirl wonderfully, especially with ruffle down the front. I didn’t want a tie at the side so I followed the suggestion of someone else who made this pattern and simply did two sets of buttons on the waistband, which worked really nicely.

The top, then, was essentially a free pattern in a book that I got given for Christmas. I altered it a bit, transforming it into an actual-covering-corset-style top as opposed to a tits-out-bustier and used one of my magazine patterns to work out how to add the gathering in the front. The standard fitting alterations are all there, needless to say, and instead of acutal boning at the vertical seams I merely added support with strips of interfacing (because quite frankly I’m not that masochistic!). I wish I’d got a photo of the back now – it’s just a straight backline with a cream basque zip, but it goes quite well with the shape of the skirt.

The material for both is silk dupion, bought from the market for £4 a metre, and the top is lined with cream polyester. After some comments on Facebook, however, I have a question for all of you: what colour is the silk?

Top Pattern: from Wendy Gardiner’s ‘The Complete Book of Sewing’ (altered)
Skirt Pattern: McCalls 5430

Cross Top

So this was the first of my unrecorded garments, in fact made in September of last year – a whole year ago!  It was my third ever garment and my first with a knit (stretchy) fabric. Knit fabrics are much harder than wovens (non-stretchy fabrics) I find, because basically you’ve got to get the tension of the material right when you’re sewing it otherwise it’ll settle wrong once you’re finished. That, and the fact that in my experience the cloth stretches all over the place when you’re trying to cut it out accurately!

Anyway, here we are: It was the criss-cross design which really drew me to it in the first place. This is quite a popular pattern and I had seen other versions which used piping to show of the construction. (In fact, if you make it from stretchier material and don’t sew up the very final seam, it can act as a wonderfully discreet nursing top! I got quite excited about this at the time – not, to add, that I planned on using that particular feature. It was just really clever, OK?!)

I’ve slightly fallen out of love with the fabric, I’ll be honest. At the time I bought it because I wanted something green and weren’t the flowers pretty?! In practice, though, the only occasion where I have actually worn this top sans-cover-up was at a jungle party. What I’ve realised is two things – one, that a pretty design on a flat sheet of fabric does not necessarily a good clothing fabric maketh, and two, that nice knit fabrics are flimmin’ difficult to come across in this country. If I ever go to America again I am finding a fabric chain and stocking up big time! Sewing’s clearly just more popular there (especially amongst those under the age of 65).

As for the pattern? Well, it was certainly nice and simple to get my head round, and is the closest I’ve ever come to something fitting just as is (in a size U, as it happens). If I recall correctly I didn’t even have to do my normal length additions, and the only significant changes that I made were stylistic – taking 3/2″ off the overall length at the bottom, and widening out the neckline curve (to a size X). I also did a swayback adjustment – incorrectly as I now realise. See all those wrinkles at the back? I should have created a centre back seam and done the adjustment there, rather than thinking that I could get away with it at the sides, but that’s experience for you.

If I’m honest as well this top would work better on someone with a flatter bust than I, as it doesn’t lie quite right on the front either and there’s no obvious way of compensating with an FBA (full bust alteration). But maybe I’m just looking too hard now!

Pattern: Jalie 2787

Stash

The problem with me and projects (of any description) is that I’m terribly good at starting them enthusiastically but considerably less good at actually managing to finish them, even when the said projects really don’t require that much finishing. As such I have one lot of bodice facings and two hems to sew before I consider it worth persuading my brother into donating some of his time to a small photo shoot. Excuses excuses. I know.

In lieu, then, and in the spirit of Fi’s latest post, I am going to show you some photos of fabric which has recently come into my possession because it makes me happy, at least!

The first set of fabrics were passed on to me at the start of the summer by a neighbour whose mother was clearing out her attic in preparation for moving into a home. The neighbour knew that I’d taken up sewing, so very kindly passed it on in the hope that it would be put to good use.

Here’s one lot. The colours are mostly darker than that in reality but they are clearer to photo like that. With the exception of the black suiting material (second from bottom), they’re all thick, wool-type material. I say wool-type ‘cos I don’t know exactly – the chances have got to be that they’re polyester composite or something of that variety. Even the suiting material is thicker, albeit a bit coarser than some, and if there’s enough of it then I envisage making a skirt out of it for when I am required to look smart In The Real World. Either way they’ll probably all end up as outer garments because as well as being of a more suitable weight for that, most of them would be pretty itchy next to the skin.

The other bag contained much lighter weight materials. There were two or three white/ creams cottons, which while fairly unremarkable will be useful nonetheless, if only with which to make muslins (tester garments). There was some beautifully soft stretchy cream stuff, texture not dissimilar to that of flannel, which may become a top in its own right but which is probably destined to provide a lining for something else.

And then there were the three fabrics pictured on the left. From top to bottom: a cream polyester, with sheeny lines in it; a cream/ off-white textured material which feels a bit like linen; and some simple, printed cotton in a pale grey-blue. I envigase making shirts/ blouses out of all three of these. Provided they work out, of course, I’m quite looking forward to actually looking smart in something for once! I’ve realised that the reason that I never do is that my clothes don’t fit properly – the waistline, bust darts etc. are always in the wrong place so it looks worse than if I had tried to wear something looser and more casual.

Then finally, for the minute, are the following three absolute beauties which I picked up from the remnant basket (!!!) for a total of £11.80 at my new favouritist shop ever, the UK branch of an Italian fabric business. What you can’t convey about fabric through photos or words alone is how it behaves – its weight, its drape, its precise texture. That’s the difference between fabric qualities, and that, I’ve come to realise, is what sets expensive clothes apart from their cheaper imitations.

Well let me tell you, these fabrics are divine. Absolutely divine (, darling)! The brown stripy one (colours closer to the lower shot) is medium to heavywweight cotton, and has textured stripes going across at about 30° to the grain, giving it a lovely ridged feel and creating slight colour variation in the stripes. The cream backing is incredibly soft to the touch, and I should have enough to make both a skirt and a suit jacket from it, should my skills ever progress that far!

The cherry-coloured fabric is cotton. It’s a soft, thick, close-woven cotton with its grain on the bias, making it ever so slightly stretchy in one direction, as is the third fabric, the pale peach and baby soft knit which I have my eye on for converting into a jumper dress if I can modify some patterns accordingly.

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What I really love about fabric, along with its textures and colours and shapes, though, is its possibilities – it’s potential to be sewn and crafted and all manner of things created from just a flat sheet of material. My Dad has rather patronsingly remarked that this new hobby of mine must be rather theraputic. Even though I slightly resent him putting it in those terms, perhaps he’s right :-)

Orthoses

Those who have known me (or indeed ‘known’ me) for a while will know two things about me – that I have a long-term back problem, and that I have real difficulty in finding shoes to fit.

The former of these issues has been ticking away in the background over the past few years. Every so often I find something that improves my day-to-day flexibility and pain threshold, which on the basis that prevention is better than cure often turns out to be well worth it. Such an inspiration came a few months ago when, as seems to be the case with so many such inspirations in life, I was standing in the shower – on this occasion, observing my feet.

My feet have always been a source of frustration to me. They are longer than average (as one might expect given my height) and narrower than average, the combination of which makes it nigh-on impossible to buy shoes at all, never mind nice shoes. They are funnily shaped. They pronate when I walk and point in when I stand still, something which my parents have loosely commented on for many years now.

But it was while standing in the shower, on a day when my right hip was twinging and my whole spinal cord seemed to weigh down on its base, that I experimented. I deliberately changed the angle at which I was standing, first turning my feet to point in a outward V shape, and then slowly rolling onto the outsides of my soles. The difference to my posture was palpable (, especially once I’d moved the shower head out of my head’s way in the new, taller posture).

Anyway, to cut a long story short I finally visited a podiatrist last week and have been told (after a rather amusing session in which I was required to change into shorts and walk barefoot for aeons up and down a waiting corridor) that I need orthoses – i.e. moulding supports in my shoes. Alas there is not room for them in my current trainers (having had to buy a size 8 and that), so I was bid to go shop!, and come back with something suitable. Needless to say my heart sank at this… until I came back with these:

I love them. Put simply, I love them! I am praying and praying that they will be deemed suitable for medical adaption. They certainly fulfill all the criteria on the checklist I was given. They’re made in black and brown – I was already to buy some brown ones when the customer service assistant informed me, “Oh, we don’t do the brown ones in size 9.”. Typical. But they are beautiful nonetheless, have lovely soft furry stuff at the back of the heels, and are exactly the style of shoe-boot that I have been coveting for some time.

And you know what? They currently don’t fit because they are too deep, and too wide for my narrow, pronated feet with high arches. But hopefully the orthoses will take up that extra room as well as providing support – and will do in future pairs of shoes. I may have killed two birds with one, very efficient stone. Fingers crossed!

Absurdity

I would like, ladies and gentlemen, to present you with an absurdity of the highest order. The background is thus:

After just over 18 months dedicated service, my trainers have fallen apart. As in, there’s rubber dangling off one of the heels and the entire inner sole came out when I tried to remove my insole. Oh, and they’ve had duct tape holding together the inside of the heels for a while. But they’ve been excellent, comfortable, supportive trainers which I have certainly got good mileage out of, and the uppers are absolutely fine still so it seems a shame to chuck them out. Unfortunately, though, today’s development (the rubber heel) means that I really can’t wear them any longer.

Mindful that this day was going to come sooner or later, I’ve been half keeping my eye out for some new ones. The problem, though is this: I need supportive, comfortable trainers in a narrow-fitting women’s size 9.

And they simply don’t exist. I’ve been into every shop I can think of. I’ve dealt with the normal rude reaction from customer service assistants who just don’t get why their paltry choice of ugly, ‘fashion’ trainers aren’t suitable for six miles a day on Durham’s hills and why I’m frankly insulted that that’s all they have to offer for long feet. I even bought a pair of ‘walking trainers’ from Millets which were fine in principle, but in practise their phenomenal depth meant that tying the laces tight enough to make them stay on seriously hurt my ankles after about half an hour – so they’re going back.

After the final blow was dealt this morning, then, I went net-searching in earnest, and came across a pair of hopefuls. They were on a manufacturer’s site so I called the number in order to find out where stocks them, particularly hopeful because the manufacturer in question had been identified by a shop assistant as producing women’s size 9s. Brilliant! I phoned them. Next (of all places) will be stocking some size 8s in a couple of weeks, hopefully. They don’t make size 9s in summer, only in winter.

Read that again.

This company doesn’t make women’s size 9 shoes in summer, only in winter.

What is wrong with these people??!!

( I have gone through this shoe-problem of mine many times in the past. Does wonders for your self-esteem, that your feet are too BIG to get shoes, particularly nice shoes. God, what would somebody with such BIG and UGLY feet want with nice shoes?)

Cami

Because I sewed this up at the start of the holiday and finally got round to getting someone to take photos of it! Note to self: iron garments before attempting to show them off….

(In fact, this is the third as yet undocumented garment of mine. But the other two shall have to wait some longer.)

Pattern: BurdaStyle Jane
(altered)

Day Whatever The Hell It Is Now

….because I really can’t be bothered to work it out at this time of night.

It must be so frustrating to have Parkinson’s. Turns out that accurate tracing with shaking hands is nigh-on impossible, but at least I have the consolation that I know what’s causing it and that it might go away someday (soon?). On the plus-side, though, today has been OK. Not quite a Day 27 (as it shall henceforth be known), but an OK-verging-on-good day nonetheless. Which is nice.

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I’ve just returned from Shropshire, where my family and I spent a few days over New Year. Rather pretty, to say the least :-)

[photos to follow when I've the energy to upload them. But they are pretty, I promise!]

Taste

My sister and I both got our ears pierced for the first time in the summer. Not long after I went back to university in October, then, it was perhaps inevitable that she should challenge me to a wacky earring competition to be held two months later, at Christmas.

We interpreted ‘wacky earrings’ (or “rediculous (but cheap obv) earings”, as I read back from Facebook) slightly differently. I bought her some bright wooden beads

, which at least are on the tasteful side of wacky, I thought. I mean, I could have bought her some squashed plastic hearts that I saw in a truly vile shade of purple, but there’s only a certain level of plastic tat on which I am prepared to waste my hard-borrowed student loan. What’s more, she has no excuse not to wear them, unlike these….

, which tear at your earlobes somewhat with the sheer weight

, as well as feeling rather unbalanced left-right

, not to mention being completely and truly hideous!

In a loving, home-made gift way, of course. I might use them as room decorations!