May Indie Pattern Update!

Phew, this has been one hectic month to catch up on! It was Sewing Indie Month so there has been even more fantastic stuff happening than normal. Organised by Mari from Seamster Sewing Patterns this month has been all about celebrating the creativity and hard work of all those Indie Pattern designers out there and they've been packing our feeds with interviews, tutorials and prizes; all this on top of all the usual excitement, so we'd best crack on with the news! As usual if I've missed anything please let me know in the comments below so I can add it in.

New Patterns

• I've long been a fan of Deer and Doe's chic French pattern designs and their most recent release, the Centauree Dress is no exception. It features an unusually pieced bodice providing the ideal canvas for feature piping!
• I was incredibly excited about the release of Papercut Pattern's new collection and I was not disappointed! I'm completely in love with the Soma Swimsuit. The patterns are now available as PDF versions as well as printed and go up to a size XL, hooray! Many of the old patterns have also been updated with more variations which there will be tutorials for on the Papercut Collective blog if you already own the patterns.
• Kate & Rose Patterns (who I only discovered recently thanks to Sewing Indie Month!) also released a whole new collection of patterns this month, the folk inspired midtown collection. Which is your favourite?
• The menswear pattern company Thread Theory released a free PDF pattern to celebrate their first year of business; the Arrowsmith Undershirt. They are also currently running a free shipping sale and have just released free downloadable French instruction booklets to accompany their patterns!
• Amity from Lolita Patterns has just released the new Olive Blouse pattern. It comes with two variations both with a gorgeous peplum feature. 
• Blue Ginger Doll released not one but two beautiful new vintage inspired patterns; a 1950s inspired swing jacket called Ava and the Betsy Pencil Skirt which comes with some awesome looking variations.
• Mari from Seamster Sewing Patterns sure has been busy this month. As well as running SIM she's released the new Honeydew Skirt pattern specifically for beginners and available in plus sizes. Also all her patterns in future are to be available in paper form with amazingly waterproof tyvek envelopes!
• Betsy from Skinny Bitch Curvy Chic has recently released the Reviver Skirt pattern. An ingenious design for knit fabrics consisting of just the one pattern piece it's not only a super speedy make but uses just a metre of fabric!

Upcoming Patterns

Yes a new category for this month's round up! There have been so many little preview pics and nuggets of info about exciting new patterns due for release soon that I just had to include them.

• Kelly from True Bias will be releasing her very first pattern in the near future called the Hudson Pant! She was looking for pattern testers earlier in the month, although I'm sure she will have filled up those slots fairly quickly!
• There will be a new skirt pattern coming from Dixie DIY soon, she gave us a preview on her blog of her test version and it looks about as cute and wearable as you would expect from Dixie!
• Garmenter (the brilliant company who sell block patterns for different garments and then provides you with detailed tutorials on how to change the style and fit of those) are soon to be releasing their patterns for a blazer and trousers! I'm mighty tempted by the thought of a customisable trouser block.
• After the success of the Archer Shirt I'm waiting with baited breath for Grainline Studio's next pattern; the Alder Shirtdress. Jen's patterns are always so versatile and wearable I'm sure this one will make it's way into my wardrobe.

Sew-Alongs

• The sew-along for Deer and Doe's new Centauree Dress began on May 21st. I thought an FBA or SBA might prove a little tricky with so many bodice pieces, but I spotted a couple of great pots on the subject so make sure to check them out. 
• Charlie from This Blog Is Not For You is currently running a sew-along for her first pattern the Fairytale Cape!
• Colette Patterns ran an express weekend sew-along for their recently released Mabel skirt. Don't worry if you missed it, all the posts will continue to be available on their dedicated sew-along site if you need any extra tips or pics.
• Lolita Patterns are not running a full blown sew-along for their new Olive Blouse but are gradually uploading tutorials on the trickier aspects of that make. I fantastic idea as a way of giving extra guidance without the time pressure I think!
• Another sew-along about to kick off is 'Everyone Deserves Pretty Knickers Week'. Measure Twice Cut Once is hosting sew-alongs for both her Charlotte and Jane Knicker patterns over the week as well as other inspiring nuggets of undergarment related inspiration.

Other Exciting News

• There were a few big anniversary celebrations this month including 1 year of Thread Theory, 3 years of Sew Over It and 5 years of Colette Patterns! How fantastic is it that these small companies have developed into such well established and successful businesses?!
• Along with a new vintage inspired swimsuit pattern for Butterick, Gertie announced the upcoming release of her second book 'Gertie Sews Vintage Casual'. It's going to follow along the same style lines of her first book but with a focus on patterns for casual wear. It's available for preorder now and will be out in September!
• As well as a new pattern coming soon Jen from Grainline Studio has been working super hard on paper versions of all her patterns! I cannot wait. Her PDF versions will also be coming with copy shop layouts to save you the hassle of piecing together the PDF pages.
• I know for many of you it felt like a long wait but Tilly's book 'Love at First Stitch' was finally released earlier this month. It's focused on teaching a novice seamstress how to sew by completing the projects included in the book and I know from my Instagram feed that many of you have laid hands on this beautiful tome already! 
• Coinciding with her book launch Tilly also released her PDF Miette skirt and Mathilde blouse patterns in paper form. I just love the packaging and colour photographs accompanying the instructions!
• Sewaholic's most recent pattern, the Belcarra Blouse, has been released as a downloadable PDF as well as the paper version! It's the first Sewaholic pattern to be released in this format and I'm excited to see which other patterns may also be as it means getting my hands on those goodies even quicker!
• Pauline Alice shared the massive news that all of her beautiful feminine patterns will soon be available in printed format! That might just tip me over the edge when it comes to resisting buying the Malvarosa Dress...

I have been so inspired by so many of the makes popping up in my reader this month, here's a few of them to get your creative juices flowing!

• The fabric Pauline Alice used for her latest Cami Dress is insanely beautiful and she has used the border print to perfection don't you think?!
• We all know that I love Sewaholic's Robson Trench Coat and Claire from I Want To Be A Turtle has created a stunning duck egg version. I love the little hearts that look like polka dots! 
• Charlie from This Blog Is Not For You wore this floral Elisalex she made to Rachel's huge blogger meet up in London a couple of weeks ago and it was catching my eye all day!
• Kathy (a.k.a. the Nerdy Seamstress) made up this beautiful version of Deer and Doe's Pavot Jacket to wear for her trip to Paris. Parisian chic to a tee!
• Winnie's Flora Dress made me shriek when the picture popped up in my reader. The bold print works so well with the wrap bodice and the piping was a perfect choice to compliment it!

Another Floral Flora Dress

I'm a little late to enter into the competition the girls at By Hand London are running but I made another Flora Dress! I absolutely love my first version of this pattern. When I first received it I was dead set on making the 1950's tank style bodice but after seeing many many more versions of this dress popping up (in particular Winnie from Scruffy Badger's gorgeous version in a bold floral print) I knew I had to try out the faux wrap version too. I also decided to use the other skirt variation which has a level hem rather than a dip at the back. I'm pleased to report I love this version almost as much! The fit isn't quite as fantastic as with the tank bodice but I like the style just as much. 

The fabric is quite unusual and a new type of fabric for me to work with. It was gifted to me for Christmas 2012 by the lovely Evie from Pendle Stitches as part of Vicki Kate's Sew Very Merry Christmas Swap. Sorry it's taken me so long to find the perfect make to use it for Evie! I'm usually slightly wary of such large prints but you've done me a big favour in making me try as I really like how this has turned out. I think the wrap detail of the bodice works great with this style of print as it breaks up the bold motifs slightly, as do the folds and pleats of the voluminous skirt. As you can see I made absolutely no effort with the pattern matching as I felt the print was random enough, it almost appears to continue across that centre back seam though!

The fabric itself is cupro and a fantastic discovery if you haven't heard of it before. I've only seen it for sale once or twice since and then in plain colours so this was a real find Evie! According to a quick bit of research it's a cellulose fibre, similar to rayon and so another good and easy to wash substitute for silk. It also has the magical property of being breathable like a cotton as it's actually made from the leftovers on the cotton plant. This particularly fabric has a nice drape but still some weight to it which makes it beautiful to sew with. It's not inclined to wrinkle and has a lovely soft texture, a little like a moleskin. As it's white is still quite sheer in direct sunlight so I chose to fully line my dress rather than just the bodice as instructed. I lined the bodice in the main fabric (purely due to fabric quantities) and the skirt in some plain white floaty poly I had in my stash. I had bought this to make a summer top with but I'm glad I relegated it to lining as it wasn't the nicest fabric to work with and pulled and puckered like nobodies' business if you weren't careful.

I had 3m of the cupro and still have just under a metre left, I had about 1.5m of the poly lining and those skirt pieces ate up every last inch of it! With only four pattern pieces this felt like an absolute breeze to cut out though after the 17 pattern pieces which I cut from main fabric and underlining for my silk Robson coat!

Construction wise the whole process is pretty straightforward and beautifully explained in the instructions. There's also the posts from the recent sew-along if you want some extra details and photographs of the steps. I used a tip from the sew-along to help stabilise the edges of the wrap front. It's important to do this as these edges are cut on the bias and so are very prone to stretching. I attached some narrow twill tape to the seam allowances along this edge to combat the stretch and it also helps prevent any gaping (although I did pop a little stitch in as a safety measure!) In the sew-along the girls suggest adding the tape immediately after you have cut your pattern pieces, like you might do with stay stitching. I actually attached mine after sewing up the seam so the twill tape was sewn to the seam allowance of both the lining and the main fabric. This meant I was able to get up nice and close to the line of stitching with the twill tape.

The only aspect I did get a little confused over was the lining, purely because I was taking the extra step of lining the skirt. As the front bodice overlaps on this variation it is not possible to finish the lining in the same way as with the tank bodice, which sees you attach the skirt to just the main bodice fabric at the waist and then hand stitch the lining to the waistband. For the wrap bodice you attach the skirt to both lining and main fabric at the same time. I was able to conceal the raw edge here by sandwiching the bodice between the skirt and skirt lining but I still overlocked this seam to keep things nice and tidy. Then, as the lining and bodice are now joined to one another at the waist you insert the zip into both the main fabric and lining fabric as if they are one piece. This means your seam allowance either side of the zip will be exposed so make sure you finish them nicely! I don't mind this finish at all, although I do prefer being able to conceal all the raw edges behind the lining. This all came together smoothly (including another successful zip thanks to interfaced seam allowances!) but then I got a little stuck with the hem. I wanted my lining to hang free from the skirt but at the centre back seam, beneath the zip, the lining and main fabric were joined. Rather than hem them as one (so treating the lining more like an underlining) I made a little snip in the lining at the hem either side of the centre back seam just to free it enough to turn it up separately.

Of course you wouldn't encounter any problems with this if you didn't line the skirt and I see no need to if your fabric is nice and opaque. The good news about this method is that there's basically no hand stitching involved, apart from attaching the hook and eye at the top of the zip! I also eliminated the hours of hand stitching the hem this time, declaring it a dress for casual summer wear so fine to be hemmed by machine!

I (and my boyfriend who has declared this one a miss in his book) think I would like this little number better if there was a bit less fabric across the front of the bodice. I didn't help myself with the fabric choice or the decision to self-line it here as the cupro has quite a bit of body too it but I feel like there's too much room in the dress under the bust, although the waist fits nicely. I'm thinking that perhaps with this style I should have gone for a small size above the waist and done an FBA. I've also noticed on a couple of patterns recently that they seem rather long on me above the bust, I want to lift my shoulders a little to get this one to sit just perfectly. Perhaps taking some of the length out of the area between shoulder and bust should be a standard alteration for me. What are your thoughts?

Polka Dot Silk Robson Trench Coat!

I really enjoyed the challenge of making my first Robson coat last year and had been considering making another for this spring. I spotted this Marc Jacobs Water-Resistant Ecru Dotted Silk on the Mood Fabrics website way back at the start of the year and knew it would be a match made in heaven for Sewaholic's awesome trench coat pattern. It was love at first sight!

I was a little apprehensive about working with this unusual type of fabric but I've been trying to push my fabric boundaries so jumped in at the deep end with my second make for the Mood Sewing Network! I'm so pleased I did as this treated silk is just wonderful. It's got a gorgeous sheen to it and I absolutely love the proportions of the dots; from afar it almost looks like a plain classic trench but move a little closer and you pick up on the added pop of fun!

Being silk it's pretty lightweight and despite the waterproof coating has a nice drape to it. It's definitely weighty enough to make up into a very elegant coat on it's own but I felt in the rather temperamental London climate I wanted a little extra warmth and protection. I chose to underline the entire coat in a mid weight navy cotton sateen to match those polka dots! I love cotton sateen for the vivid colours it is available in and Mood has a great range here. The decision to underline did add a whole lot of work and time on to this project but it was so worth it; the combination of the two fabrics feels so luxurious! With the exception of the pocket linings and the underside of the storm flaps I cut all the pattern pieces from both fabrics and then hand basted each pattern piece together within the seam allowance so I could treat them as one throughout the rest of the construction.

Another bonus to the underlining was that I could apply my fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the sateen, preventing any wrinkling in the silk over time and also meaning I could sandwich the interfacing between the fabrics and completely hide it even though this coat is not lined. I made sure to trim down my interfacing pieces to keep them out of the seam allowance as the double layer of fabric made some areas pretty thick to sew through. I also chose to only interface one of each pair of pocket welt pieces and leave out the under collar interfacing to prevent these aspects from becoming too stiff.

I just love the unexpected flash of rich blue inside and how the ecru and blue look together.

This special silk does require a little extra care and attention when sewing. It's a little bit like sewing with a very lightweight oilcloth. I tried to use as few pins as possible and was careful to keep them within the seam allowances as much as possible as any holes from pins or unpicked stitching will stay put. I used a medium heat on my iron with a pressing cloth as the coating will melt and stick straight to the iron if heat is applied directly. I used a sharps needle in my machine and I would recommend using a teflon or walking foot as a coated fabric like this will want to stick to your regular foot. I don't have either of these so tried out the trick of putting masking tape on the bottom of your foot; it wasn't a perfect solution but still made a huge difference.

I had a few issues when it came to the topstitching as the sateen under layer was running smoothly through the machine but the coated silk was sticking slightly and therefore running through a tiny bit slower. Over the course of a long seam this started to create those dreaded twisted wrinkles. To combat this I lengthened my stitch slightly and reduced the pressure of my presser foot which really helped. I was worried about the fabric sticking when it came to the button holes but they turned out to be the best I've ever done!

Once I'd worked out how to best handle this new to me type of fabric it all came together very smoothly with the exception of the belt loops which were a bit of a nightmare. The double thickness of fabric combined with the sticky top of the silk meant turning through the long skinny loop as instructed was nigh on impossible. After struggling with it for a fair while I decided to go my own route with them! I still used the belt loop pattern piece but treated it a bit like bias binding, except cut on the straight grain as I didn't want them to stretch. I pressed each of the long raw edges into the centre, pressed it again in half so all raw edge were concealed then topstitched as per the instructions which worked out great.

As I've made the Robson Coat before I knew exactly how much I needed to shorten it. This time I shortened it at the 'lengthen or shorten here' markings rather than taking it off the hem. This means the pockets are in a much more natural place to put my hands in. I'm 5ft 3 and took 2.5" off the length and 0.5" off the sleeves. If you are going to adjust the length of this coat remember that you'll need to re-space the button placement markings and notches to mark the belt loop positions as they are both intersected by the alteration line. Apart from this I sewed up a straight size 4 as I did before and the fit is spot on with enough room for a jumper on colder days. I used just under 4 yards of the dotted silk and 3.5 metres of the cotton sateen (although if you cut the belt in two pieces instead of on the fold you could get away with 3m in this size). I also used 14.5m of navy bias binding to finish all the seams and facing, much more than the 12 yards the pattern envelope calls for.

I'm absolutely delighted with the way this turned out and feel a lot more confident about using tricky fabrics in future. I've already tested just how water-resistant this fabric is as we couldn't even get a few snaps without being rained on this weekend. I don't think I'll ever be pleased to wake up to rain but at least it will give me an excuse to wear this beauty!

Floral Tania Culottes

A little bit of sunshine in Britain and my mind races straight on to summer, my favourite time of year! When I made my first pair of Megan Nielsen's Tania Culottes in wool crepe to make them suitable for winter wear I fell totally in love with the pattern. They had a definite place on my list of things to sew for summer and when the perfect fabric came along I couldn't resist whipping them up straight away...even though the temperature is no where near the short skirt and bare legs stage of the year yet!

You may recognise this fabric from my Flora Dress! Susan from Sew Box very kindly supplied me with this beautiful John Kaldor viscose print for my pattern testing version of By Hand London's most recent pattern. It's such great quality, the print is exactly the type of floral I like and it has the most gorgeous drape to it. I remember reading a few posts suggesting that rayon and other fabrics with a similar soft drape were a ideal match for the Tanias (Sew Busy Lizzy's version was particularly inspiring) and when I was cutting out my Flora I suddenly realised that the fabric between my blades was perfect! Luckily the BHL ladies had slightly overestimated the amount of fabric needed for the Flora and the fabric is nice and wide, so I whipped out the Tania pattern pieces and with some slightly creative placement and a tiny bit of width reduction at the hem I JUST managed to squeeze these out of the leftovers.

The amount of fabric I had was so tight I used some plain hot pink cotton poplin to face the waistband which I had left over from making my Sister's Christmas pressie. I also had the perfect zip and matching thread waiting in my stash so considering it was the second time I'd used this pattern (and it was a gift in the first place!) this project cost me nothing! Woohoo!

After wearing my first pair a few times I decided the waistband probably could do with being a little snugger as they tend to slip down around the hips a bit. So this time I cut the size XS but again with the XL length. If you're thinking of making up this pattern it's probably worth pointing out that these are drafted super short! I love them at this length, I feel really comfortable in them, but I don't think I'd go any shorter. I really like the 'just above the knee' pair that Megan's model is wearing on the bicycle in the promo shots so may have to try out that style too. If we're going to get an actual spell of hot summer weather this year I'm going to be living in floaty skirts again, but I got rather fed up last year of trying to keep them down over my bum when walking back and forth over Waterloo Bridge; Megan may have solved all my problems!

For a fabric so drapey the viscose has got a nice weight to it and is also lovely and opaque even in direct sunlight. This meant I could go without the lining I added to my winter version and keep the silky viscose against the skin. I simply overlocked the seam allowances inside. If I had made these without my overlocker I probably would have chosen to use french seams. There are very few seams involved so it wouldn't have been too time consuming and it would have made that crotch seam (which will probably undergo a fair bit of wear between the legs) nice and strong.

As with a couple of dresses I've made recently I used a little strip of fusible interfacing along the seam allowances where I was going to install the invisible zip. This may well be my favourite sewing tip I've picked up this year. Every time I've tried it so far I've ended up with pretty much perfectly matching seam. It basically helps stop the fabric stretching out as it goes under through the machine, which is usually the reason behind mismatching sides which appeared matched when you pinned them. Another great tip is to make sure you sew both sides of the zip in the same direction. I probably should have been doing that from the start but I know on more than one occasion I've sewn down one side then up the other and ended up with less than perfect results.

The construction of these is very straightforward, much more simple than you probably imagine it to be thinking about those pleats at the centre front and back. This pair probably only took 2-3 hours to make from cutting up to the point of hemming. The hem is really the only slightly difficult part to the pattern. When the instructions tell you to leave them to hang at least overnight you NEED to! Because of the circular skirt shape parts of the hem are cut on the bias and therefore the fabric's own weight will cause it to stretch out towards the ground in these areas over time. I didn't really experience this with my wool crepe version (it must be something to do with the way the fabric is woven) but boy did these one's give themselves a nice wonky hem overnight! It took me quite a while to level it off to somewhere close to acceptable. I'm not sure of the best way to do it at all but Gertie has a great little video about levelling the hem of a circle skirt which may come in handy!

The other aspect to the hem is the length of it! You're basically hemming two giant circles. When using this fabric for my Flora Dress I took the time to hand stitch the hem. As this is more of a casual garment and the print masks the stitching line a bit I decided to go with machine stitching. I used my favourite method for hemming a long curved edge which is actually included in the instructions for this pattern. You stitch around the entire hem 1/4" away from the raw edge before using that line as a guide to press up along. Not only does this take away the need to measure each little bit as you press but it tightens up that stitching line making it easier to ease into the smaller circumference you're turning it into.

I'm still completely in love with how this pattern is drafted. I've always loved the look of short circle skirts on other people but never had the confidence to wear them out and about in drafty London town (particularly going up the escalator on the tube!). These are not completely risk free when it comes to flashing as each 'leg' is pretty much a full circle but they can't blow completely up revealing your entire bottom so that's got to be a good thing right? And until you start pulling them about you just cannot tell that you're not wearing a skirt. Genius.

I can't wait for the temperatures to go up a little bit so I can start getting some regular wear out of these. I love them paired with my Swiss Dot Archer Shirt! What are your sewing plans for summer?