Top 5 of 2013 - Inspirations and Goals

Following on from looking back over my Hits and Misses of 2013 as part of Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow's 'Top 5' series today I'm going to look forward to next year by listing my top 5 inspirations and goals for 2014. 

Top 5 Inspirations: What books, people, blogs, trends e.t.c motivated you this year?

I've found this one really hard to pick as I see so many things every day to inspire me but have tried to narrow it down to the things that have spurred me on to improve my sewing skills.

1. After so many of my makes this year made use of their patterns I've got to pick the girls from By Hand London. The contemporary and sophisticated designs of their patterns as well as their own style inspires my sewing in all kinds of ways! So many pictures of ready to wear dresses I see I think 'O maybe I could use the Anna bodice for that?' or 'Ooo that looks just like the Elisalex bodice and Charlotte skirt combined!'  I can't wait to see what these girls have got up their sleeves for next year.

2. There's one other independent pattern company that is going to have to find a place in the list and that Sewaholic. If you read my blog regularly you may have noticed that I'm seriously in love with these patterns. Tasia's amazing drafting skills and instructions have helped me achieve sewing feats I never thought I could. My first ever dress was made with her careful guidance!

3. I've got to count living and working in London as a fairly major inspiration. Whether it be what the lady sitting opposite me is wearing on the tube or the hidden away haberdashery full of beautiful trims I happen to pass, this city is a daily and constant source of inspiration for my sewing. It's almost too much sometimes; my machine and I just can't keep up!

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4. If I was to recommend one place to all of you to gather a bit of inspiration and motivation for that matter when you've got a bit of sewing block I'd have to say Pinterest. 10 minutes browsing that site and you'll be itching to get on your machine I guarantee. Plus this year it has proved so useful to me as a way to collect my inspirations and remind myself of what I had planned next.

5. My final inspiration is simple. Every single blogger in the whole entire world. The whole lot of you. I've lost count of the amount of times my jaw has dropped at your skills, imagination and creation, as well as the amount of times I've thought 'I must pin that later!' when reading posts on my phone. From every single blog comment to every meet up with the Spoolettes, being part of this sewing community and having the support and encouragement of you all is so fantastic!

Top 5 Goals for the New Year

1. This first one is pretty specific and is something I have been procrastinating over for quite some time now - making trousers! I did treat myself to the Sewaholic Thurlow pattern a while back, after hearing rave reviews about it, but as yet it is unopened! I've heard so many nightmare stories about fitting trousers in general, and fitting is something I don't have much experience of so try to avoid at the best of times anyway. Now I've made my Robson Coat I feel I need another big challenge so making a perfectly fitting pair of trousers it is!

2. Following on from this I'd really like to focus on getting the fit of each and every item I make just right. I'm a bit of a naughty girl when it comes to making muslins or even tracing my patterns, I tend to wing it and try to get away with as few alterations as possible...purely because I'm a bit nervous of doing them as I don't know a lot! First up I'd like to try out Sunni from a Fashionable Stitch's tip for using your high bust measurement to select the size you cut and then doing an FBA. I'm definitely going to try this out on the Georgia Dress which I've been having some problems with.

3. This is a big one and another goal I've set myself in an attempt to broaden my sewing skills and make me a more accomplished all round seamstress - sewing with knits. I've done a tiny bit of this with my polka dot circle skirt and as you will know from my last Top 5 post I've had the Papercut Coppelia Cardi cut out for a good 6 months now! However, I still feel like a duck out of water with any kind of knit and would like to feel confident with them by the end of next year. Lucky for me, I must have been very good this year as Santa was lovely enough to grant my wish for an overlocker/serger...I have a feeling playing around on this will give me the kick up the bum I need!

4. My fourth goal follows on from one of my inspirations - I'd like next year to try and recreate some of my favourite looks that I've pinned to my 'Sewing Ideas' board on Pinterest. This year I've played around with patterns a few of times, hacking the Grainline Scout Tee, combining patterns in my Elisalotte and drafting my own circle skirt for a pattern's bodice. I've surprised myself with my ability to adapt patterns to achieve the look I want and part of this has stemmed from trying to recreate my favourite ready to wear looks or garments created by other bloggers. 

5. My final goal is more general - just to keep learning more sewing skills! I'm really pleased with my sewing progress this year and now feel confident sitting at my machine, but the projects I find most satisfying are the most challenging, when I really push myself to try something new. I've ticked off quite a number of items on my 'Technique Checklist' this year and I'd like to cross off a lot more in 2014. I'm endeavouring to pick patterns next year which involve new to me techniques and make use of the tutorials I've been pinning on my 'Sewing Tips' Pinterest board. 

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Well that's it for this year girls and guys! I'm off to set up my serger and get cracking on some of those goals. Wishing you all a wonderful 2014!

Top 5 of 2013 - Hits and Misses

This year I'm joining in with Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow's 'Top 5' series. I loved having a good nose at everyone else's posts last year and I thought it would be a great way to reflect on my sewing over the last year. In case you haven't come across this yet Gillian is inviting bloggers to list their 'Top 5's' from the last year in a number of categories. The official breakdown is Top 5 Hits, Misses, Reflections, Inspirations and Goals and I'm starting by looking back at my Hits and Misses of 2013. In case you fancy joining in too check out Gillian's blog post here.

I'm incredibly pleased with my sewing productivity and progress this year. I feel like I've mastered some new techniques and pushed myself to try new and more challenging products and fabrics. I just wish I had more free time so I could sew more! It's been pretty hard to make my choices but first up we have:

Top 5 Hits: Favourite Creations, most worn or most loved

1. Of course my first hit pick has to be my Robson Coat. Definitely my most challenging make to date, I learnt so much and also really tried to take my time and get everything just right. This in itself was a challenge for me as I can be a bit of a rusher! It's been worn and worn til I couldn't face the cold without being wrapped in wool anymore.

2. Next I'm going to pick my first version of the Anna Dress. This was a happy accident as I picked up the fabric super cheap to make a muslin and ended up falling completely in love with the end result! It's seen a lot of wear through all seasons and occasions despite being a maxi and I feel really great in it.

3. Of course I had to pick my most glamorous creation of 2013, my circle skirted Elisalex which I wore to my boyfriend's brother's wedding. It has only been worn that once as it's such a special dress but I loved wearing it and making it. Plus I drafted my own circle skirt, used horsehair braid in the hem and fully lined a dress for the first time.

4. My most worn make of the year is probably my hammered silk Scout Tee which I adapted to have a dipped hem. This may have been one of my most simple and boring makes of the year but I need to make more like this as it suits my style so well and can be dressed up or down and worn with just about anything!

5. My final choice has proved a bit of a challenge, it was a toss up between my silk Anna Dress or my pleated Scout Tee but in the end one of my most recent makes, the Tania Culottes won out. I've got a new fabric crush on wool crepe because of these and already know from experience that they are amazing to wear!

Top 5 Misses: Sewing Fails, UFOs, worn once or complete disasters

1. I'm going to start with a UFO (unfinished object) which I actually do still have every intention of finishing. It's the Salme Patterns Silvia Sundress which is only unfinished because I ran out of time before the sunny weather left us for the year! I decided there was no point spending time finishing that when I could be working on a winter wardrobe to wear right away. It's all cut out from some bargain Christian Dior silk blend I scored in New York and I'm going to get started on it again much earlier next year!

2. Next up is another summer Salme make, my viscose playsuit. This was in my eyes a complete disaster because it's super unflattering and I feel a bit ridiculous in it. You guys have given me some brilliant ideas for ways to alter it and make it more wearable but again I'm going to wait until summer sewing time to crack on with it.

3. I've never been very happy with my first Elisalex dress which I made up as a wearable muslin. I don't like how the fabric feels to wear and I'm still unsure on the tulip shape of the skirt so this unfortunately falls into the 'never worn' category. I love this skirt on loads of other people though so am tempted to try in another fabric in the new year.

4. Penultimately is another UFO which is actually only at the final stages of a wearable muslin make. It's the By Hand London Georgia Dress and I'm not sure if the fabric I chose it just too thick and heavy or what but I can't get the fit across the bust right. It is a tricky one as it's so close fitting but I'm waiting with baited breath for the sewalong to solve my woes - I'm thinking maybe a size smaller and an FBA?

5. The final choice was going to be my Sewaholic Pendrell but as you may have seen in my recent post I managed to turn that around and make it a very wearable hit! Instead of this I'm going to pick the final UFO I have stashed away; the Papercut Coppelia Cardi which I have cut out in a lovely grey marl jersey. I'm really excited about making this as I love the look of the pattern but I still don't have much confidence sewing knits on my machine and haven't been able to bear the thought of messing this up or doing a poor job...

I'll be back soon to start looking forward with my inspirations and goals for 2014!

Rescued Japanese Crepe Pendrell Blouse

There has been a sewing frenzy going on around here for the last few weeks but I haven't been able to show you a lot of it. Expect a post early in 2014 full of the crafty gifts I've been working on this Christmas! I was itching to get back to sewing some clothes for myself but running out of hours before heading home for Christmas. I cut out a Papercut Patterns La Sylphide dress which has been in the works for ages, determined to make it up in time for the end of the sew along but was forced to admit to myself that it just wasn't going to happen before Christmas. I'm using a rather special piece of fabric too so decided rushing it would be a big mistake. I was desperate to finish one last project before the end of the year though so rescued this blouse which had actually been discarded in a corner as a sewing disaster.

It's a Sewaholic Pendrell made using some polyester crepe I got in UK Textiles on Goldhawk Road a while back. It was pretty pricey for a poly at around £10/m (I can't remember exactly!) but it was just too beautiful to resist. It's gorgeously soft to touch and has a lovely drape, it actually feels very similar to a wool crepe. Plus the print is perfect, simple enough to make up lots of different outfits but still interesting. I attempted to haggle but the shopkeeper was having none of it, telling me it was a Japanese crepe and that's why it was so expensive. If this story is true I may have to look further into these Japanese fabrics, I seem to remember hearing some very good reports about double gauze from somewhere!

Anyway, my disaster had nothing to do with the pattern or the fabric but rather my decision to combine the two and use view A of the pattern with the tulip style draped sleeves. The line drawing of this design grabbed my attention as soon as I received the pattern (it was a gift from my Mum which she picked up in Pins and Needles NYC during a trip she took to the Big Apple in the summer, wasn't it a great choice?! Thank you Mum!). I was delighted with the top all through making and it looked drop dead gorgeous on the hanger as you can see in this pic which you might have spotted if you follow me on Instagram. 

However on me it was a totally different matter. In a fabric with this much body those lovely sleeves had far too much volume and stuck out around my shoulders in a style slightly reminiscent of an American Football player. Plus Sewaholic patterns are drafted for pear shaped ladies so the intention of these sleeves is to balance the width of the hips. It's a genius idea but I'm only slightly pear shaped and have a bit of a chest so those voluminous sleeves combined with my proportions were just all wrong. I think there's a chance the style might work with sleeves in a much lighter weight, perhaps in a chiffon matching the main fabric, and I kind of love that idea!

I actually completed this (with sleeves) back in September but it hung around waiting for it's problems to be rectified for so long purely because I couldn't bear to unpick my hard work! It was fairly obvious to me that the blouse would be beautiful without the sleeves, it's such a flattering pattern with those princess style seam lines over the bust and skims the body ever so comfortably. So all I needed to do was unpick the seams where the sleeves were attached and stitch them back up. However those sleeves with the many many pleats had taken SOME time, probably about half of the time it took to make up the entire blouse in fact! 

Pleating the Sleeves

As I normally do with any kind of darts or pleats I used tailors tacks to mark the tips, snipped a notch at the ends and then drew on the fold lines with tailors chalk. quite the lengthy process when there's 16 of these lines on each sleeve piece. I then took a considerable time pleating these together and making sure the spacing looked even. Don't get me wrong it's totally worth the effort because the finished effect of the draped sleeve is gorgeous, but the thought of unpicking all that was too much to bear!

When the memory of it's making was a distant enough thought and I summoned up the courage to unpick those sleeves it was actually quite a straight forward alteration to make. I had of course made it more difficult for myself by using french seams throughout initially. Although I love the clean finish of the french seams I think if I made this pattern again I'd try another method as because those central seams run directly over the bust any extra thickness in the seam allowance is a bit noticeable, particularly in this fabric which has some body. I think I might also go down a size if making again. I chose to cut a 6 (Sewaholic size) as I came up between sizes and was nervous about getting the top on and off with it's lack of fastenings if it did end up a little snug. I can pull this on and off with ease and think I could probably benefit from it being slightly more figure skimming so will try the 4 next time.

Yet again this is another pretty much perfect pattern from Tasia. The more Sewaholic patterns I use the more I realise at how good she is at understanding and designing for women's bodies and curves. As well as the style lines of the seams I love the extra long body length of this design, great for wearing with low waisted trousers or securely tucking in. The instructions were simple and thorough as usual and I love how the binding of the armholes and neck turned out.

Armhole Binding

I'll definitely be making this pattern up again, maybe even as a base to try out my own ideas. It's such a classic and flattering cut, I think I need many more simple wearable items like this in my hand made wardrobe!

Merry Christmas!

I'm in Sew Magazine!

Just a quick post today to share a bit of exciting sewing news with you! Me and my third Anna Dress are in the January edition of the UK Sew Magazine!

 Apparently I've won a little sewing related prize so I can't wait for that to arrive!

I'm glad to have an excuse to treat myself to Sew this month as there's a great pattern free with it this month...I'm thinking the blazer might be a great make to go with some handmade dresses I've got planned to wear to the many weddings I've got to go to next year!

Winter Tania Culottes

I've had my eye on the Tania Culottes pattern from Megan Nielson basically since it's release. I've always loved this style of skirt but never got on with it very well due to the potential for knicker flashing with the combination of length and flippy fullness, especially considering the amount of trekking around London in all weathers and lifting around costumes I do. Luckily for me Megan has managed to draft a beautiful culottes pattern which looks exactly like a skirt when worn and my lovely boyfriend treated me to the pattern for my birthday!

Considering my birthday is at the very end of August when we in the UK are just about clinging on to the end of any summer weather we are lucky enough to get, I thought making these up immediately in a lovely voile (which was the vision I'd had in my head) might end up being a bit of a waste. I didn't want to have to wait 9 months to wear my finished garment! However, I couldn't bear to wait 9 months to make them either. I started thinking about more practical autumn/winter weight fabrics with a drape to suit the circle skirt design and settled on some wool crepe. I wanted my culottes to be wearable with a lot of my wardrobe so opted for black. I got 1.5m (which is just about enough for the longest length FYI) from my fave A-One Fabrics on Goldhawk Road. It was a bit of a treat at £18/m but it's the cheapest I've found this quality of wool for and I was using some birthday money!

As I wanted to wear these with tights I decided a lining was in order and used a drapey black poly from my stash which I think I picked up in Walthamstow a while back. At one point during the making of these I was worried that the wool crepe plus a lining would be too thick for this style as most other versions I've seen have been cotton or viscose but I'm so pleased with the fullness and drape of the finished garment. The wool crepe has a lovely body to it which gives the skirt bounce. These are going to see a lot of wear over the next few months but I can't wait for the better weather to come around again now so I can make a lovely lightweight pair in a beautiful print!

I've been itching to work with wool crepe after reading so many rave reviews about it from other bloggers like Lauren and I was not disappointed. This stuff is so dreamy to work with, it feels so soft, cutting it with my lovely Ginghers was a delight and the stitches just sink into the fabric almost invisibly meaning a machined hem doesn't look awful (and trust me, you'll want to machine it, there's a whole lot of curved hem involved). However, the rumours are true, as lovely as this is to sew with it is a NIGHTMARE to unpick stitches from! Especially if it's black. Don't even ask me how I know.

As many other sewing bloggers have pointed out it is a very short skirt made up as is. I'm only 5ft 3" and although I cut a size S I cut the length of the largest size after reading that that was what a few other ladies had done. I was worried that maybe I should have gone even further and adjusted them to an even longer length as the potential for revealing one's bum when bending over at work is high for me, but I'm really happy with the resulting length. There is still some potential for some bum flashing in high winds as obviously the skirt is circular but it's impossible to fully expose your knickers so I'm happy! I'm pretty pleased with the fit around the waist, I could perhaps get away with a smidgen smaller and snugger but they're comfy as they are.

Obligatory silly 'You can't see my knickers!' Tania Culottes shot

It was my first time sewing with a Megan Nielson pattern and I've got to say the drafting and instructions are impressive. The pattern is also printed on nice sturdy paper rather than tissue which I really like as I think I'll be making these again and again. The waistband was constructed in a different way to what I've done before and gives a really nice clean finish especially around the zip. The lining and skirt ware sandwiched between inner and outer waistband and slipstitched closed inside as usual. I found putting the invisible zip into the wool crepe very straight forward and all the seams matched up first time. I used french seams to finish the side seam without the zip and around the zip I bound the edges of the wool crepe and simply pinked the lining.

I was dreading the hemming. That hem is LONG. It's basically a circle skirt plus extra on the between the legs pieces, plus I had double that to do because of the lining. I'd also read on other blogs that the hem ends up all kinds of uneven when left to hang overnight, so I was feeling pretty nervous about levelling that off to start with. My culottes ended up being left to hang for about 3 days rather than the required 24 hours while I procrastinated but I finally got on with it as I realised my desire to wear them outweighed how I felt about the hemming.

It ended up actually being pretty enjoyable. My hem was uneven but not majorly and it was easily rectified by a process of comparing front and back and pinning, trying on and repeating. I used my rolled hem foot on the lining which is always a bit hit a miss but I'm definitely getting better! The wool crepe was too thick for this treatment so I followed the method in the pattern instructions and I'm definitely going to use this method for curved hems from now on! The circular style of these means the circumference at the very edge of the hem is slightly larger than the area you are trying to turn it up into so it won't sit flat naturally. Following Megan's tips of sewing a line of stitching to follow as you press I've ended up with a fairly narrow beautiful hem which I had no trouble easing in at all.

A big thumbs up to the Tania Culottes! I think they might even end up being worn on Christmas Day!