Tuesday 22 September 2015

Navy Linen Shirt Dress


I am trying so hard to make more wearable garments for myself. Bright, patterned cotton is super fun to sew with, and pretty fun to wear, but it is not really what you would buy in a shop. Solid navy linen, however, is a classic. A linen dress: sleeveless, cool, classic, easy. Just in time for Winter.

Yes, my last planned make for the Summer dragged on. It was difficult to find the motivation to finish when I knew I wouldn't be wearing it any time soon. Not to mention needing to sew it in bright light and photograph it in full sunlight, scarce to be found at this time of year. But it will be lovely to pull it out on the first nice day next Spring and have it ready to wear.

This is actually a knock off of a dress I saw in a shop window, from a bus. I went back to the website and found it in cream. A very simple, sleeveless shirtwaist with a tie belt and no shaping.

Uniqlo S/S2015

I immediately thought of my last make, Simplicity 2447. I lengthed the hem by as much allowance as I had fabric and ended up chopping off about 15cms. Views A and D are so long, that I only needed to add about 10cms to the length to get a dress. I flared out to a slight A-line shape. I couldn't manage the shaped hem, so I hemmed it straight instead. The Uniqlo dress doesn't have shaping and this pattern has princess seams, so it is different in this respect. I also left off the pocket. I didn't trust myself to work with the linen well enough to do a first class job on it. Patch pockets are one of those finishes that can give away a home made garment. When in doubt, leave it out.

Which brings me on to the fabric, the linen. I went looking for this when on holiday in Vancouver. I had to pay a visit to Fabricana and I spent a wonderful two hours browsing the entire store. I could have spent longer, and I definitely could have spent more money, but I was very happy with what I got. Considering it has taken me two years to work through my previous Vancouver stash builders, I consider the 4 fabrics I left with to be plenty. They had about three different navy linens, so I chose based purely on price. It is quite heavy and has a lot of drape. The warp and weft appear to be black and a bright blue to make up a navy with lovely texture. 2 meters was the perfect amount for this dress.  


I must confess that I didn't find this fabric terribly easy to work with. It moved around a lot. I had to re-cut the yoke because it was so badly off grain that it was completely unusable. It frayed a lot too. I zig zagged the princess seams and french seamed the side and shoulder seams. I got the flat fell seam wrong for the back yoke seam, so I just folded the ends under and stitched them down. I stabilised the shoulder seams with a section of grosgrain ribbon. I changed the pleat in the centre back to a gather. More dress, less shirt.  I pieced the belt and added two belt carriers.

The buttons came from an old shirt, I love the look of the brown with the navy. I seriously considered large, white buttons, but decided that it was far less classic. Fun, but not classic, not in keeping with my primary goal of RTW-type garments. The dress does have a moderately serious boo-boo. The collar stand is seriously off grain. I didn't notice until I had finished it and couldn't get the collar to sit evenly. It is even, but the collar stand pulls it to one side so the one is higher than the other. It is still wearable, but not perfect.

I have never owned a shirt dress before. Whenever I have tried one on in a store, I believe they don't suit me. But I was still keen to make one. I was so pleased with my yellow top, that I didn't mind having another try, in a dress version, and I wear navy more than any other colour. I think the sleeveless version is more suited to me than the traditional shirt dress style with short sleeves.


It is not perfect, but I am pretty pleased with it. It does exactly what I wanted it to do: knock off a RTW linen shirt dress.

Costs:
Linen: £13.00
Pattern: used previously, £0.00
Interfacing: medium £3.60
Ribbon: used previously, £0.00
Thread: stash, £0.00
Buttons: stash, £0.00
Total: £16.60
Compared to: £39.00 for the RTW version.

Monday 21 September 2015

Turquoise Hearts


Two years and two months! That is how long it took me to get around to making this dress and skirt out of knit jersey from Girl Charlee.

The width was really generous, about 150cm, so I easily got both out of just a 1 yard length. The dress, for the 6 year old, actually fits the 8 year old better, but it was a gift, so it's owner must wear it first.



For the dress, I tried Simplicity 1584 again, attempting to make a drop waist dress that pulls over the head. I cut a size 5 and lengthened the shoulder seams to make a sleeve cap. I didn't realise how much I would have to lower the underarm so she could get her arm in. I had to unpick loads of the side seam to make it happen. I added a ribbon to stabilise the shoulder seam and made a neck band on the straight grain. I was planning on making a sleeve band, but I just hemmed it with a twin needle in the end.

The fabric was better at not skipping stitches this time. The spots and hearts are painted on, so that adds significant stability and thickness to the knit. I used my walking foot and I had no problems with skipped stitches. I didn't use a stretch stitch at the neckline, so I had to add a single button and loop closure at the top of the centre back seam. The skirt is cut from a continuous length of fabric and hemmed with two rows of stitching. My twin needle was not co-operating.


The skirt was made from the remnants of the dress. I had a decent size piece left over, at the side of my yard. Once I cut it into two 1/2 yard pieces, they were slightly different widths, so the two side seams are not actually on each side, more like 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock. The 1/2 yard length was getting a little short, so I used some 20mm wide turquoise elastic as the waistband. I actually think the skirt has come out nicer than the dress, but that probably has a lot to do with the fit.

Costs (both)
Fabric: £5.13
Button: stash
Thread: £2.12
Elastic: £2.00
Pattern: used previously
Total: £4.63 each

Sunday 20 September 2015

Matching Doll Dresses



Some doll clothes, made to match dresses previously made for the birthday girl.

I imagined a cute photo shoot: the girl and the doll in matching outfits, perfect hair, inspiring scenery, gorgeous lighting. Not going to happen. At least, not on this blog. This blog is my quick and dirty posting of finished projects. Get it done, release it on the internets. My own public archive of what I’ve made. 

In that vein, the finished objects are: a Popover Sundress, a “regular” doll dress and a Top-Down Doll Cardigan. My three favourite doll patterns. Dolls were willing to model, but only after I brushed their hair. Why, oh why, does their unbrushed hair bother me more than my own children’s unbrushed hair?


The Popover Sundress is the free pattern from Oliver & S, which I have made three times before (Apple Dresses and Red & White Flowers). No changes to the pattern. This pattern is perfect for showing off a really pretty fabric and/or using up a tiny amount of scraps of fabric. Both of which applied here. The fabric is the scraps from the single yard piece I used to make her a self-drafted dress for her 4th birthday – which still fits! This is one of my all time favourite fabrics and she still gets compliments when she wears is. I managed to get both the front and back pieces with butterflies lined up and centred. I still have a tiny piece left and I am contemplating making another by piecing a butterfly as the bodice with the accent plain as the skirt. Maybe the other pattern would work better for this. The yoke and straps are cut from a man’s shirt, of which I have a bountiful stash. Any colour, as long as it’s blue. I like this bright blue though, and this girl has it as her signature accent, featuring as the lining in her Oliver& S sunhat, teddy bear carrier and scooter basket. I think I’m out of stock of this now.


The “regular” dress is designed to match the first dress I ever made her. It is half of the pair of daisy dresses. Which also still fit. Either I am not feeding my kids properly, or I make their clothes enormous. These dresses are also super cute and still turn heads. Being the smaller size, and significantly shorter than her sister, there was quite a lot of orange fabric left from the dress. More than enough for the doll dress. I even had some leftover orange bias binding to make the piping at the waist seam. This is my go-to doll dress pattern. Modified originally and made up 5 times before: lame dress, pink floral (twice), pink ballgown, and on, anon.


Finally, a knitting project, my favourite pattern, the Top-Down Doll Cardigan, also made three times before. Here and here. I made this one up with no decoration at the hem, and long sleeves, also undecorated. I found the sleeves much easier to knit flat and then seam afterwards. Doll sleeves in the round are an exercise in frustrating knitting. The yarn is from my Ruby Tuesday cardigan but it is the button that really makes the cardigan special and much more American Doll-like. It’s a Scottie dog, which happens to be one of the AGD dogs. I think it came from the button stash that my mother picked up from the nature strip during a council rubbish collection! (Side note: I have re-worked Ruby's button band to include buttons down the whole front, also salvaged from the council pickup! That was a great haul.)

Unlike adult patterns, where I tend to make new things most of the time, it appears that my doll ambitions are completely lacking and satisfied by being rendered from these same TNT patterns. I wonder if it is because I am usually trying to either match something, use up the last of some fabric scraps or refashion something so I don't need the extra excitement of a new pattern?


Costs:

Butterfly Doll Dress
Main Fabric: used previously.
Accent Fabric: upcycled.
Pattern: free
Thread: Stash
Total: £0.00

Daisy Doll Dress
Bias binding: used previously
Pattern: free
Thread: stash
Velcro: stash
Total: £0.00

Navy Doll Cardigan
Yarn: £2.30
Pattern: free
Button: free
Total: £2.30

Tuesday 8 September 2015

Rope Bowls


Inspired by SouleMama's rope baskets, I ordered some cotton rope and sewed up these bowls.

They are a quick and pretty easy craft project, perfect for instant gratification. Case in point: this rope arrived in the post yesterday evening, and here I am 24 hours later posting a finished project.


I ordered 4mm thick cotton cord because my sewing machine is a basic model and not suitable for denim. It handled this thickness fine, but I found it a little frustrating. Firstly, the lovely rope coils are squashed, and almost entirely flattened out of being by the stitches; and secondly, because as the bowl grows larger it gets quite floppy. A 6mm rope would be nicer. And sew up quicker!

I got unbleached rope because I wasn't planning to dye it and I like it looking more rustic. My home also has cream decor, not pure white.

I used white cotton thread and a stitch length set at 2, with a zig zag setting two notches less than the widest setting (yes, that is a scientific description of my zig zag settings!) It was harder than I realised to get the needle catching both sides of the coils. There are a lot of places that have air holes between the coils. I also had to do a LOT of lifting the presser foot and pivoting. This would be much faster with a machine with a needle up/down setting and a more automated presser foot. But I found the pivoting essential if I wanted to get a good size base to the bowl. If I pivot, I can make relatively flat coils, as soon as I let the machine run, I find the coils to curl upwards really fast.


Witness the first try, the smallest bowl. I curled the end around a few times and figured out which way  I needed to hold it to get the loose rope to join, then just went for it. It turned into a half sphere very quickly! Diameter is 6cm, height 3cm and the base is completely rounded. I think it might have to go into the dolls' picnic set.

Second bowl is my favourite, it feels the right size for this amount of rigidity. It is firm and stable and holds its shape when picked up. It is 13.5cm diameter, and 4cm high. There is a certain amount of shaping you can do to make it taller or flatter, but it mainly holds on to the right shape.

The final bowl was a test of a few things, I wanted to see how much rope they really used, and I timed myself to see how long these really took. The bowl took me 45 minutes, and this was the slowest one by far. I pivoted manually for pretty much the entire time, aside from the last 3-4 coils when I just let it run. 18 cm by 6cm, depending on how much you squash the base down.

I'm pleased I gave it a go, but I will have to put these into rotation, and find them useful, before I go making up hundreds.


Supplies:
20 meters cotton cording: £4.60
1 large spool cotton thread: £0.40
Total: £5.00 for 3

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