Datcat

I am part of a fantastic sewing community Artisan’s Square, which is part of the Stitchers Guild Sewing Forum. Its a lovely group, not only because there is a wonderful mix of sewing talent and tastes, but because mostly the members are focussed on producing great quality, well fitted and stylish clothing. I am a member of other forums, but its at Artisan’s Square that I really feel like I am surrounded by adults. Children’s clothes, nappies, craft and quilting are all lovely, but my focus at present is making clothes for myself, and so I appreciate this wonderful community of lovely people (gents as well as ladies) who are happy to provide considered critiques, honest opinion and helpful advice in equal measure.

So, one of the topics I am part of is a stash busting one. I realised that I should transfer it to here, to keep tabs on exactly what I need to do for the next couple of months. I keep seeing projects in my mind, adding to the stash, but not sewing. Part of the problem is that I have invested in a couple of StyleArc patterns, and I am suffering with classic “new pattern” nerves. But …. there are a number of items I really must get finished.

1. Cotton lawn peasant style top (wearable muslin) ……………….. all made, post to follow
2. Same top in my good super soft japanese fabric
3. turquoise cord skirt …………… finished, you can see it in a previous blog post
4. alter my favourite t’shirt pattern and then a smokey blue/green shirt to go with skirt ….pattern altered, wearable muslin cut out, sewn and showed off, blue/green shirt made, post to follow
5. 3 more t-shirts for summer, …….  1 shirt made, post to follow
6. xmas sewing, 8 sets of xmas bunting
7. 5 sets of pj’s ………………………….. patterns traced off for 2 sets
8. a longline garter belt
9. bag to swap for the pattern for the garter belt …………………….. traced off pattern, not in love with it, so may have to look for another
10. fit and flared summer dress.
11. modesty piece to a top I finished ages ago …… done, and I may wear it tomorrow.

Wow …… thats a serious list I think. I will edit as I complete various bits.

…….. the need to tweak.  (as in patterns …. not body parts)

Ready to wear clothing has a distinct advantage in the design stage, in comparison to home sewn clothing.  The design phase usually has many many steps, where a design is pattern developed, tested, more development, and more testing …. before the finished style hits the shops.  This means that mistakes, unbalanced points, and stuff that just plain doesn’t work is all weeded out before we see the ready to sell product.

Home sewing doesn’t have that luxury.  The lack of local milling means that we don’t have access to inexpensive fabric, and generally, can’t afford to throw away good fabric on experimentation.  So while we rely on pattern makers to have a error free product, there is the need to adjust designs to allow for individual taste and body proportions.

I made up a design recently, which due to the complexity of the pattern, and google-centricity (new word made by me) of the instructions……. took me 3 times as long as I usually did to make.  I referred to it as Satan’s Own Pattern.  Now despite the troubles I had with it, the top actually fit really well, and suited my figure.  But, there were aspects I hated ….. no idea if the instructions included seam allowances, rolled edge hemming instead of turned up hemming is a fast sewing technique, but not a neat finish.  And a floaty, large width sleeve is not my natural choice.    And so …. I tweaked the design.  Replace the floaty sleeve with a gathered one from another pattern, lower the back collar height, add seam allowances all around to give me some more ease, and add hem allowance to the sleeves and hem to give a more professional finish.    And overall I am very happy with the result.  This is definitely a top I will wear to work.

Now the problem I have, is that I feel the need to tweak the design more. A dart along the top of the shoulder will take up a lot of the “puffy” effect, meaning the sleeve would sit better. But, tweaking means I would have another version of the same top …. not exactly the most style conscious thing to do. hhhmmmm ….. maybe I will wait for a fabric to call out for it, and try it then.

…… not that there is anything wrong with it.   🙂

I have never felt the quilting love.  You would think, that with my tendency to being a perfectionist, and my obsession with detail, that quilting would be a great hobby, but I have just never felt the love.    I do appreciate the work and artistic skill quilters have, and I am sometimes awed by the items they produce, but I just don’t have the artistic flair to take a couple of kilos of little tiny bits of fabric, and then sew them together into something that would look lovely.

Although I don’t quilt, I do dabble with the techniques occasionally.  Last year I made some simple mug rugs.  This year, thanks to a tutorial I found on
http://gogokim.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/cathedral-window-pin-cushion-tutorial.html

I have experimented with cathedral windows. I quite like this single window design, but I am not sure I have the dedication to make it in a full quilt type fashion. This will do me for now …… its simple, but quite cute.

Otherwise known as the purple cross over blouse.

Really, the signs were all there, but I didn’t listen to the universe, and so I was punished. The pattern was a generous freebie, the design was one that appealed to me, and the fabric was unusual. And so I descended on my path to hell.

First tracing off the pattern. Not a task to be attempted with a light heart.

After reading the magazine from front to back, I still don’t know if seam allowances are included. Luckily is doesn’t seem to have made any difference. The fabric is an unusual piece, which I picked up at a garage sale. It was only 90cm wide, which created a challenge in layout. It behaves like cotton, but has a micro-crepe like texture. It doesn’t seem like it crushes, so that is a good thing. Reading the instructions was like trying to follow a frog on speed. It hopped from one aspect of the shirt to another, often with no discernible reason why, and in one instance, actually had to be followed backwards. Boy …. that was fun. I had to alter slightly at the underarms, because while my girls are lush, my chest wall isn’t deep, so I ended up with an excess of fabric under the arms. I might possibly hate the sleeves …. we shall see.

Overall its a lovely design, but the journey to get there took an eternity, and involved an excessive amount of unpicking. I probably won’t make it again, but it does tell me that a cross over design is good for me.

Time to get working on the next step. This one isn’t xmas fabric, but its a tutorial on creating your binding strip. Have fun.

Creating a Xmas Banner – part 4

Today’s tutorial covers finishing the edges of the flags for our banner.

Creating a Xmas Banner – part 3