Purple stripe jumper

Or: how I learnt that it's sometimes best to show restraint when making things

This is my new favourite jumper. I adore the colour, neckline and fit. I made it in an absolute frenzy after spending a few successive weekends with some amazingly creative people. I came back to the cutting table ready to be slow and methodical, but must've caught something because this is the result of some frantic design, pattern cutting and stitching.



















 The top is broadly based on a traced t-shirt pattern, which has been the base for a lot of my knit tops. The original has cap sleeves that I had traced out, but I sort of improvised full length sleeves based on my wrist measurement and arm length from shoulder. I changed the shape of the sleeve head to be a bit more narrow. Not sure why.

The original tee

The neckline is based on a favourite boat neck t-shirt where the band overlaps and also forms part of the bodice and the armscye. I tried to recreate that with this top and think it turned out okay. The front was a little wide which causes the back to dip further than the original. Something to be corrected in the next version. I also thought it would be great to recreate a twisted neckline effect, but it looks a bit sloppy with the stripes. It's still wearable but next time I'll stick to fewer design details.

My version

The fabric was earmarked for my brother's Christmas present, but when it arrived we saw how sheer it actually was, there was no way  he would wear it. It's also far too sheer on its own for me, so I underlined it twice. Once with self fabric and once with some black jersey lying around in the stash. The result is a top that's warm enough to wear on its own in the british spring (always good), comfy for lounging and also able to survive a few washes. I think the underlining also adds a bit of oomph to the colouring, instead of it getting washed out in the light.

 So there you go!

In other news, I've been trying to work out a plan to use up some of the fabric pilfered from the epic swap, but am so far lost. There are plans for jackets, tops, skirts and a funky dress sewing dare. No clue hot to carry it all out. A little overwhelmed...

The Barenaked Collection: One Week

This will be the first in a sporadic range of projects that called the Barenaked Collection. With each project I'll try and crowbar as many Barenaked Ladies references into the project as physically possible.

You may have noticed my earlier panicked post about an upcoming social event for which I needed to complete two projects in one week, and the appropriate reaction would be to throw your arms in the air and say you're crazy. But hey, this year's event would be different in terms of projects: for the first time I knew what to do...though it was a case of the worst timing I ever knew.

So this is the Pinch Me bag.

I'm happy enough with the final product. I feel fine enough, I guess, considering everything's a mess on the inside*. Still, I don't yet see any problems with the bag. It holds stuff, it's solid and it's waterproof. If it breaks, there's plenty of supplies to fix it.

I drafted the pattern based on the dimensions backpacks and some of the Cath Kitson line to get a gauge for good sizes. It turns out that they varied a lot in capacity.I think mine ends up holding about 35L.

It got towards the end of the make and things weren't matching up. I'm not sure of the geometry involved but the length of the two rectangles didn't equal the perimeter of the bag front. I had to do come serious fudging and take some pleats in the pattern because of time pressure, and I'm hoping it doesn't make the bag look too amateurish.

The lining is also quite messy. I'm not sure why things matched up even less in the lining than they did on the outside, but it's a distinct possibility that I might rip it out and start again. I had high hopes for pockets, loops and things on the inside.

A lot of attention has been paid to the structure of the bag though and at some points I was going through about 8 layers of thick fabric. I'm planning on dragging this bag on flights and trips so it must support <=15kg, plus shocks. The outer is underlined in waterproof/ripstop and then some sort of burlap/sacking fabric. It's very sturdy and will hopefully take some of the stress off the textiles and seams. I had hoped to make the shoulder strap removable, but after looking at the rings and clips available I worry they'd break quite easily.

*I'm sick of the Barenaked puns now.

The second item in the Barenaked Collection will appear all in good time...

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Christmas in July (almost)

Aaaaaah!

The non-Christmas event of the year is coming up. Someone obviously needed a new dress and bag for the occasion. In one week.

 I'm using all hours outside work to get them done. Dad's Army plays on the radio in the background and I try to concentrate as Lance-Corporal Jones screams "Don't panic!".

Wish me luck...

Don't get shirty with me!

I decided to do a bit of a Robson & Jerome today so here are some pics from up on the roof.

Possible future picnic location...

I decided to test out the Twist & Drape Blouse from Natsuno Hiraiwa's Shape Shape. I love the stuff in this book, partly because I'm hoping I won't need to adjust any of the patterns, falling squarely into the S category.

Front - bad choice of undershirt...but hey

Back

I love the fact this can be worn both ways around too.

Back to front

Front to back

All the seams are flat felled, with a little bit of blue topstitching too. Part design feature, part thread shortage.

I tried a new interfacing with this shirt, which is a lot lighter and softer than the one I've used previously. It's absolutely fantastic, definitely going to be used in a lot of facings because it doesn't distort the drape so much. I've heard a lot of people go on about using the right kind of interfacing but  this is the first time I've actually understood why.

The fabric is an embroidered polycotton I got in a swap with Lisa at Small Things. It has been sat in the stash for a while but since the wrong side is on show a lot for this blouse, it works really well.

Instructions in the book are minimal. One BIG thing I'd draw attention to is the instructions for finishing the raw edges. I think they're overly fiddly and really didn't lend themselves well to my style of finishing. It would be a lot easier to bind/finish the whole edge before adding facings. I got a bit lax and fudged it, thinking it would be fine. Unfortunately the dodgy area below is slap bang in the middle of the drapey bit so it's going to pay to be a lot neater next time.

Now, the question is...how on EARTH do I style this? Colours? Jacket/hoodie? Grey's not my strongest colour so what can I do? Ideas please...

Right, now to take some finishing work and tea to the park

K

(Yesterday's meetup was fantastic, but I'm suffering a bit of a fabric hangover...more comprehensive post to follow! Massive thanks to House of Pinheiro for organising, we met so many amazing people!)

Chic Expectations - Muslin the Second*

I've spent a fair amount of time in the past couple of weeks around some amazingly creative people and it's been a bit infectious. Last weekend I sat down to  make steady planned progress on two projects I've been working on for a while. Instead I drafted a new pattern and blitzed up two tops over the course of a day and a half. One's not quite done and neither have been photographed yet but they'll surface in the near future.

One of the things I managed to catch last week was the end of A Bigger Splash at the Tate Modern. I think the objective of the exhibition was to illustrate how artists came to place value on the process of creation rather than just the value of the final product. It was a pretty enlightening exhibit and I've decided to shamelessly use it as a springboard to talk a bit about the progress on the MW dress. That way, if it does ends up accidentally looking like a piece by Kazuo Shiraga then the value in the process of this garment will still remain.

So what progress has been made? I had drafted a whole post at the end of December about a second muslin I made incorporating the changes from the first one I pinned out. But I don't even have any pictures of it, it went so badly. Nothing at all matched up, it strained and bagged, the neckline was wrong and a couple of the seams were so fudged I was going to wrap the dress up into a Thorntons gift box.

The picture below doesn't look like there's a big difference between the pieces, but the modifications were based on accidentally sewing it in the wrong way up, then applying modifications upside-down.

If only you had asked in January where the waistline was on this piece...

So I totally fell out of love with the project. It ground to a massive halt because I also couldn't decide what it should actually look like. I still don't know. But for some reason it's got to get done. It was a New Year [res]Sewlution, considering some of the other pledges in that jar, making one measly dress should be easy!

I've done the only sensible thing and started all over again: retraced the pattern and graded everything down to a 34 and a 32 just in case. I've prepared a muslin "properly" according to Linda Maynard and spent time pinning and adjusting the new one.

I've also tried to be more methodical with the flat pattern adjustments. On the first pattern I knew it was a basic bodice where the panel seams incorporated the darts, and I still wasn't sensible in how the pattern got altered.This time I've tried to reduce chances of getting confused, so I taped pieces back together, did the modification, and then separated them again.

So here's the partially altered new muslin. The opening is pinned in my right side rather than the centre back (where the zip will be), and having a pinned kimono sleeves is a right PITA (armpit), so excuse the odd arm sticking out.

The horizontal pleat above the bust has completely disappeared, and I don't think I need to adjust the waist position. I've still got to take a horizontal wedge out of the upper back and a vertical one out of the centre back. Looking at this, I could stand to put a little bit back in to the side seam, but we'll leave it at that for now.

The skirt still hasn't been properly adjusted, but it definitely needs more room. The side seam is tilting forwards. I'm not sure why, but all the extra room they've placed on the pattern is in line with about halfway up my forearm, so I've had to pinch that out and will have to add a lot of room at the level even with my wrist.

I still have no clue how to tackle the lining, facings or design but it'll get there. Slowly.

See you next time,

K

*No one else gets the Bleak Expectations references, do they?

Baby It's Cold Outside - Part 3 of 3

Chunky wool knit is the fabric that keeps on giving! Somehow even after the poncho, I managed to get this hat out of the remaining wool. Six-pieces, lined with elastic all the way around. It's altered from another hat pattern I've made...but for some reason have never worn.

I've named this my rasta hat because it can be properly poofed up to achieve fantastic volume.

In reality, it gets worn to work on a regular basis so it's normally a bit more conservative and acceptable as a slouchy beanie. Plus, if I wore it poofed up at work, people might ask how I got it to look like that. Then I'd have to show them the secret:

Baby It's Cold Outside - Part 2 of 3

In making T's gloves, I bought about half a metre of the blue wool, which was luckily just enough to make this sweater vest too:

It's supposed to be a v-neck but I don't think the scoop looks too fudged and I'm actually really happy with it! The pattern is an altered version of my favourite t-shirt. The innards are a little untidy but I'll tidy them up once the vest has been worn a bit.

Just as a comment on how tight it was to get this out of the scrap piece: the whole thing is cut without seam allowances and the banding is pieced to high heaven. It's great though and will hopefully remain a good barrier against the ongoing winter!


On a side note, there's a load of cool cultural stuff coming up:
- Steptoe & Son at the Lyric theatre. Kneehigh are coming to the end of their tour, but there are still some shows coming up
- ROH broadcast day! Royal ballet's Alice in Wonderland being broadcast live around the world on the 28th March (including at my beloved Regent Centre)
- And The Rest Is Noise at Southbank Centre. American weekend coming up...
- Andrew Nemr....
- Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Albert Hall

And of course, end of the month Fridays in museums!