Wednesday 24 July 2013

Polkadot Jersey Circle Skirt


A post about one of my speediest makes to date today! Well it would have been an exceptionally quick make if it hadn't been the first time I'd tried working with knits...yes I finally did it! I'd read up on quite a few tips from other bloggers (Lauren from Lladybird's post is great) so it didn't take too long to work out the slightly different handling techniques and I think it was quite a success! Plus it's a wearable everyday piece that isn't a top to pair with jeans, so it fulfils my post Me-Made-May aim of creating a more practical wardrobe!

After making my Circle-Skirted Elisalex and drafting my first circle skirt I fell in love with the style and promptly added 'make more circle skirts' to my sewing to do list. I've had this navy polka dot jersey in my stash since my very first big fabric shopping trip to Walthamstow market. I got it in Saeed's for some kind of bargain price and I'm actually really pleased with the quality. Once made up it's not sheer at all, even in bright sunshine as I wore it the other day and it bounces back into shape nicely. Being my first time sewing with a knit it did worry me how small and wrinkled up it looked it the flat before I put it on!


The pattern pieces themselves were very easy and quick to draft and cut (using a combination of Casey and By Hand London's tutorial's again). Then came the assembly. I was all prepared with a ballpoint needle and since getting hold of a copy of my machine's manual had decided to give the special 'stretch zig zag stitch a go. It worked out great! It's basically a basic zig zag so the stitching can stretch with the fabric but the machine automatically goes over each stitch a few times for strength. The different properties of such a stretchy fabric took a bit of getting used to but by the end felt natural; I used a lot of pins to keep everything in place and evenly spread and had to keep reminding myself not to pull it at all as it went through the machine, just use my hands to guide.

'Stretch Zig-Zag Stitch'

It is wonderful that you don't need to worry about finishing seam allowances with knits as they won't fray or unravel, but the perfectionist in me didn't like leaving them unfinished at all! So much so that even though I could have avoided the pretty long winded task of hemming a circle skirt I chose to hem it! I followed Jen at Grainline's tutorial of doing a rolled hem without the special foot as I'm still not much of a dab hand with the foot and I didn't know how much it would like the jersey. I loved the method of stitching around close to the hem first; it really does work to tighten up that edge and make it easier to turn that long curved edge into a slightly shorter one, plus it gives you a nice hem width guide to follow when turning! I just machine stitched it up with a straight stitch as I wasn't fussed about the stitches showing on a casual jersey skirt and it saved me a lot of hand sewing time.

Hem

I guessed a bit with the assembly of the waistband and once it was attached right sides together to the skirt by machine I simply folded it down inside and pressed, pressed the raw edge under and used a hidden herringbone stitch to hold it down. I'm not sure if this was the right thing to do as I'm concerned about the hand stitching holding up to the stretching of pulling it on and off - what would you have done in this situation?

Waistband

I did leave one seam unfinished, which was a seam I hadn't even planned on having! As the stretch of the jersey negates the need for a fastening and I could fit the full circle onto my fabric in one piece I was going to keep it as a full circle and simply attach a waistband. However, after cutting I didn't get round to sewing it up all that quickly and the circular top edge of the skirt stretched out to be much longer than the waistband I had cut for it! I therefore had to cut a segment out of the circle to reduce the size and create a centre back seam. I don't mind it but would have preferred to be able to finish the seam more neatly...looks like I'm going to be saving my pennies for an overlocker then I'll be loving the knits!


I'm definitely going to give knits a try again and try and improve my techniques, I've got a lovely grey marl jersey already cut out for the Coppelia Cardigan from Papercut Patterns!

Sunday 14 July 2013

Secret Garden Elisalotte


I've noticed recently how much more confident I am in my sewing skills nowadays. Just little things like not needing to refer to the instructions so much and feeling like I can play around and try out some new techniques and fabrics. So I've been getting a little bit creative around here and mixing up some patterns!

I made this dress up as part of the Minerva Crafts Blogger Challenge; basically each month the lovely people at Minerva Crafts choose an item/items from their stock and ask sewing bloggers to email them with ideas of how they would like to use that item. They then pick a few of those ideas they'd like to see come to life and send those bloggers everything they need to make up their vision. This month there was a choice between three different prints on stretch cotton canvas. I chose this beautiful dappled print as it's exactly the kind of thing I gravitate to, my kind of colours a random and slightly unusual print. (Do check out Minerva Crafts if you haven't heard of them before, they have a huge selection of both fabrics and notions including some really unusual and harder to find bits and pieces. I've just come across this other polycotton canvas on their site... loving it!)


I basically jumped at the chance to write in with an idea for a make, as soon as I saw this fabrics' properties I knew what I wanted to use it for. After making up a couple of versions of  both the Charlotte Skirt and Elisalex Dress from By Hand London and loving them I knew at some point I wanted to try and mix the two together, using the princess seamed bodice from the Elisalex with the fitted skirt of the Charlotte to create an Elisalotte wiggle dress (much like Rachel and Lizzy). Both of these patterns suggest a heavyweight fabric, even upholstery weight, with a bit of stretch so I had been keeping an eye out for a while for something along those lines which would give it some structure but flexibility for comfort. Then Minerva popped up with 'stretch cotton canvas' described as 'comfortable to wear and forgiving'...perfect!


I really enjoyed making this up, both patterns are challenging without being too complicated. The two patterns fit together surprisingly well, the waist size was an exact match in fact! As you can see from this picture even the skirt darts and bodice princess seams almost line up, I'm very happy with how they sit between the two darts on the skirt. I didn't focus too much on pattern placement when cutting as it is quite random but I'm pleased with how it accidentally turned out as I really like the smattering of white around the waist.

I probably didn't pick the best backdrop to photograph this print against...but good camouflage hey?!

The only changes I made to the patterns was firstly to alter the sleeves to my preferred length, the same as I did with my Circle-Skirted Elisalex. I actually had planned to do the full lengths sleeves this time and did make them up and set them in but in this print it just seemed a little bit too much. I was unsure about what length I wanted instead so cut a bit off at a time, trying out three quarter length, mid bicep, almost deciding to rip them out an go with no sleeves before finally settling on the cap shape I feel comfortable with.


I also didn't include a back vent or kick pleat in the skirt as the stretch of the fabric makes it comfortable to walk in without. I also didn't make it quite as close fitting as my first two versions, choosing not to take it in around the hips down the side seams. The body of the fabric keeps a nice shape in this area and it's still super duper comfy for a wiggle dress this way.



Inside I followed By Hand's instructions for lining the bodice and for this I used a lighter weight plain black stretch cotton for the bodice lining left over from my Lace Scout Tee, total proof that keeping your scraps is a good idea!


I finished the seam allowances beneath the lining by simply pinking them which actually worked well on both fabrics. However for the exposed seam allowances I knew I wanted to make a bit of a feature of them with a Hong Kong bound finish. The generous people at Minerva also sent me two lots of bias binding to choose from and I decided to give this new to me lycra binding a go. It's a great product and I think it would be even better used in sports or maybe even swimwear when that elasticity is really needed. Personally I'm not sure I will use it again in everyday clothing as I'm not loving the shine of the lycra; I tend to work with quite matt fabrics.


I'm so pleased with how neat it looks inside! Looking at these pictures really makes me want to make a little black Elisalotte, think that could be a wardrobe staple!


I'm really loving this dress, the combination of this skirt and bodice with this fabric has just worked out so well. Smart, flattering and comfortable...win!


Friday 12 July 2013

Club to Catwalk - London Fashion in the 1980s at the V&A

On Tuesday I popped along to the new exhibition at the V&A and as it was clothing related I thought it was worth a little mention on here! The fashions exhibited are all at the more extreme exhibitionist end of 1980s fashion so there weren't many ideas to take away sewing wise (at least not unless I'm going to attempt something of a Vivienne Westwood level of construction, which let face it as much as I'd like to be that good, I''m not) but it was still a very interesting and worthwhile visit.

Image Source

The exhibition is in the centre and upstairs level of the fashion gallery (where the ball-gown exhibition was if any of you made it to that) and as always at the V&A is laid out in a logical and thoughtful manner. The only thing that irked me about the layout was the placement of the placards describing each item on the upstairs level. Here you could walk all the way around the mannequins as they weren't behind glass and positioned in the centre of the room (which is amazing, and a big thumbs from me. I think being able to see all angles of a design is important and the next thing I want is to be able to see inside too! Mmm construction!). However, the little placards were generally all down one side of the platform so if you were viewing mannequins from the other side, which was sometimes the front view where you'd expect the writing to be, you'd have to walk around to the other side if you were interested in knowing more.

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Anyway, back to the content of the exhibition. The lower level focuses on the catwalk part of the exhibition, with each case focused on a different designer or aspect of design from that decade, like knitwear for example. A big plus point for the exhibition for me is that men's wear was covered, especially as men's fashion was definitely as interesting and extravagant as the ladies during this decade. There were some amazing and quite iconic designs displayed from designers such as John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, and Katherine Hamnett. There was also some brilliant footage from fashion shows of that era (which was when London Fashion Week first happened) and some classic 80s tunes playing to help you get into the mindset! A little tip for you if you do get the chance to go, remember to look at the heads and feet of the mannequins as along with the clothing there are some great examples of footwear and accessories, including an incredible selection of Stephen Jones hats throughout.

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Upstairs you enter the realm of dressing for the clubs of 1980s London. I found this area more fascinating than the catwalk designs as quite a lot of these clothes were ideas that the wearers themselves had come up with, customised or even made. This part of the exhibition focuses on how popstars, night club owners and everyday people developed fashion by experimenting and creating their own alternative looks, the idea being that fashion allows you to express yourself. The space was roughly divided into areas for the different key looks of the decade, many of which, I learned, developed in association with a particular club of the time such as the goth looks in 'Hell' and the high camp looks of 'Heaven' and 'Taboo'. Traditional punk, new romantic, rave and body con looks are also displayed. One of my favourite parts of the exhibition is upstairs too, a room with various screens displaying fascinating bits of footage from the clubs mentioned.

I thought the exhibition does a great job of conjuring up an overall insight and look into that kind of culture of dress in a specific time. All in all well worth a trip, if just to see some of these extreme creations in reality.

Tuesday 9 July 2013

A Hawaiian Lonsdale (and love of all things sewing!)

Diary of a Chainstitcher Hawaiian Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress Sewing Pattern

I've been sewing up a storm recently so got quite a bit of catching up to do here on the blog! It's feeling surprisingly like summer in these parts at the moment so I've been making the most of it and not only do I have a very summery Lonsdale Dress to show you today but we've finally sorted out our garden so I've got a slightly picture backdrop for you...plus I think the sun's got to my head and I've had my hair cut shorter than it's ever been before!

I got this fabric in my local market in Bromley where there are a couple of fabric stalls once a week. It's totally worth the wait for them as they are ridiculously cheap and get beautiful quality fabrics. Last week there were John Kaldor knits and Henry Bertrand silks. This Hawaiian print I picked up before I really knew what treasures these stalls had hiding. The beautiful texture of it was actually what grabbed me first before the print. I had an inkling that it might be some kind of sandwashed silk but when I managed to obtain 3 metres for just £5 I thought that it couldn't possibly be. However, now I've washed it, sewn with it and worn it's lovely softness on a hot day I am in no doubt that it is indeed silk and I scored a bargain!


This was printed along the selvedge and I was so taken with the hand of the fabric during cutting that I decided to do a bit of investigating as to where it might have been produced, mainly because I wanted to see what else I could get my hands on! Unfortunately I didn't turn up anything in the way of more fabric, but there were business listings under that name based in Honolulu so it's quite exciting to discover that my fabric is an authentic Hawaiian piece!

Diary of a Chainstitcher Hawaiian Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress Sewing Pattern

The fabric sat in my stash a while as I hadn't quite been able to place what I wanted to make it into. Then I saw Lauren's amazing tropical Lonsdale and I knew I had to make a very similar and pretty shameless copy... hope you don't mind Lauren! I realised this perfect combination of fabric and pattern the week before By Hand London's Club Tropicana themed 1st birthday party and knew I had to get onto making this thing pronto! I got it finished in time and luckily it was a gorgeous day so to the party it went! I was glad I did have something slightly tropical to wear as all the sewing ladies attending had made an amazing effort with tropical outfits, you can check out the pictures on By Hand London's Facebook page. The party was as brilliant as you would expect with those girls; there was dancing in Elisalex's kitchen, Victoria was plying everyone with her special home-made punch and Charlotte was modelling their new upcoming pattern! The sun was out, there were 1980s themed party snacks and an amazing time was had by all.

London Spoolettes at By Hand London's First Birthday Party
Me (pre hair cut!) with Karen, Clare and Sally at the party (Photo stolen from Karen's blog!)
Talking about amazing parties with fellow spoolettes. Last Saturday the gorgeous Clare from Sew Dixie Lou very generously let a very drunken group of ladies who sew take over her flat for the afternoon/evening. If I thought the dancing was fun the week before, I hadn't seen anything yet! I didn't need telling, but if I ever needed proof that people who sew are just the best kind of people there are that was it! I'm so pleased that I started sewing and blogging as it has introduced me to so many lovely like-minded friends that I never run out of conversation or laughs with right from the word go. If you ever get a chance to attend a meet-up DO IT!

Diary of a Chainstitcher Hawaiian Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress Sewing Pattern
Interesting face...

Ok. Back to the dress. It's now the turn of Tasia from Sewaholic Patterns to be shown a lot of love in this post! Even though the Lonsdale dress is the only Sewaholic pattern I've sewn up I love it so much it puts Tasia right up there at the top of my favourite indie pattern designers. The thought that has gone into the drafting and construction instructions of this is just brilliant, it comes together so cleverly and you end up with a beautiful finish inside and outside without even having to think about it. My first two Lonsdale's were some of the very first things I made and coming back to this pattern now I've expanded my sewing repertoire made me realise even more what a talented lady Tasia is.

Diary of a Chainstitcher Hawaiian Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress Sewing Pattern
Lovely Insides!

The bodice is self lined and I used french seams throughout the skirt with the exception of the centre back seam where the zip is which I pressed under and stitched. I love how neat it is inside! I think it's probably my neatest make to date. I followed Tasia's tips from her Lonsdale sew-along and used stay tape and under-stitching along the top of the bodice and pocket openings to prevent them from stretching out or turning outwards. Yes this dress has pockets!

Diary of a Chainstitcher Hawaiian Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress Sewing PatternDiary of a Chainstitcher Hawaiian Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress Sewing Pattern

As with my first and second versions I made this up straight out of the envelope in the size 6. The lovely knot design at the front really helps eliminate any fitting issues across the bust as you can tighten it up or let it out as much as you want. The only changes I made were to shorten the length of the skirt (by about 4" I think) as I'm quite short and I prefer my skirts to sit on the knee or above and I eliminated the tie detail for the straps at the back. While this is gorgeous design wise most of the time here in the UK it's not warm enough to wear a summer dress all day without a cardi or jacket and so most of the time you just have a funny lump on your back! If you're interested in what I did I simply didn't add the loops at the back and made the straps up as usual. Then after completing the rest of the dress I put it on, pinned the straps in place at the right length, then cut the excess off and slip stitched the ends inside the dress by hand, turning under the raw edge as I went for a nice clean finish.

Diary of a Chainstitcher Hawaiian Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress Sewing Pattern

I'm really really pleased with the zip. The pattern calls for a normal zip but I chose to use an concealed one as I'm loving my invisible zip foot so much! It went in great and I added a little hook and eye at the top.

I was unsure about how to hem this as the a-line skirt has quite a curved hem and this silk is pretty lightweight and slippy. I started by pressing it up twice and attempting to hand stitch as I didn't want to spoil the lovely silk with a topstitched hem, but I got less than a quarter of the way round and was really struggling to get it to sit nicely. Then I remembered that I'd won some 'steam-a-seam' in a giveaway from the lovely Shelley at Cuckoo Chanel. Thank you Shelley, you saved my bacon on this one! I'd never tried this product before and was more than a little apprehensive so tried it out on some scraps first. It comes in various forms such as big sheets which you can cut down to the size and shape you want but I had a little roll like tape which was the perfect width for my hem. You stick it along one side peel off the backing tape and then stick the other side of the fabric to it. At this point it sticks temporarily and is quite easy to peel off and adjust.  Then you press it down with a warm iron and it sticks permanently, even in the wash! The permanent word is slightly scary I know but I'm really pleased with the finish result. You can't tell that it's not sewn, it was so much quicker than hand stitching and the weight of the tape gives just a little extra body to the hem which I love!

Diary of a Chainstitcher Hawaiian Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress Sewing Pattern
Hem outside and inside

Ooof that turned into a long post, had a lot of gushing to do! I'd best get outside and enjoy the sun while it lasts, fingers crossed it's some time yet so I can get a lot more wear out of this!

Diary of a Chainstitcher Hawaiian Sewaholic Lonsdale Dress Sewing Pattern