Sunday, May 13, 2018

Sorbetto top - another beginning

I think it's important to blog about the hassle of sewing and the "why" that it doesn't happen so easily. I WANT to sew. I WANT and NEED to make my clothes. So why amn't I?

So here I am again... bought fabric for Sorbetto top at my recent visit to London and The Village Haberdashery.

Pattern: https://www.colettepatterns.com/catalog/sorbetto
Fabric: https://www.thevillagehaberdashery.co.uk/sewing-patchwork/fabric/shot-cotton-grapemist
So today, I set about printing out the pdf pattern for the top... and my printer ran out of toner.
That's it! Hiccup. Obstacle. Shopping for clothes is so much simpler - just one stage kinda - purchase garment. I believe in making clothes but there are sooo many more stages involved. So much more room for hiccups.

Monday, April 16, 2018

Grainline Patterns - Morris Blazer - The beginning

I finally made it to the bricks and mortar shop The Village Haberdashery. I've been buying fabric online from them. They stock such beautiful things. But actually my last purchase was a few years ago... like my last post here I suppose.
I need new clothes, I am about to start a new career, and I'd like to be making and designing my own clothes. So I stocked up on some practical patterns and fabrics.
I have a mock job interview tomorrow and wanted to get cracking on a workstyle jacket. I'm not a power dresser so the casual, comfortable Morris Blazer from Grainline Studio seemed a good option.

And this wool fabric from Lady McElroy design, 86% wool and 14% polyamide.
A few days ago I started on this project
* washed the fabric
* cut the pattern pieces.
I took my bust measurement and cut the pattern to size 14.
And of course I discarded the leftover pattern edges.
Oops.
Now that I'm placing the pieces on the fabric and checking some key measurements, I note that my biceps measurement is way too big compared to the pattern piece. I need to add 2.75 inches. So either the pattern is for teeny arms or I just have giant arms (I know I have large biceps).
I looked up some good tutorials on biceps adjustment but they mostly suggest a maximum adjustment of 2" added so I don't feel I'm ready to tackle this right now as I'll have to alter the sleeve head, the armhole etc.
Disappointed.
TBC...

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Wind-sock

I had this coloured light cotton fabric cut up from a summer dress.

And I turned it into a wind-sock simply by sewing a square shut at the side, hemming the top and bottom. I inserted a wire coat hanger into the top hem. And attached scraps of matching fabric at the bottom. Light fabric that could billow in the breeze.

Then I simply got a thumbtack and stuck the fabric on to a stick!

Friday, March 3, 2017

Large-sleeved Bolero pattern drafted

I did a pattern-drafting course in Róisín Cross Silks in Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin under Sarah Foy. It was very good. I designed a pattern for a bolero. A large-sleeved bolero.

I made copies for all the ladies in the class and posted them to them as Christmas presents!
 I made it up in a colouredy silk but I found it hard to match anything to the bolero and I never actually wore it; I put on weight and it no longer fit. So I gave it away without taking a photograph.
 All I have are these pictures of the pattern! And the pattern itself.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Sewing Machine Cover

My sewing machine came with a light plastic Singer cover. I cut it up at the seams and used that as a pattern to make a new cover in a sewing-themed fabric.

The fabric is not my style really at all! I'm not a particularly pattern-friendly person. But it's a bit fun and fits the task...
I french-seamed it, and did it backwards on the side seams but that didn't matter.
And I made a really basic flaap for the handle-hole.


It keeps the dust off the top of the machine!
Nice little job for an hour on a Sunday.


Friday, February 10, 2017

Messenger Bag #2

I've made this project previously. I loved it. Pattern information etc in the previous blogpost.
I also made a Beignet skirt from this fabric before but haven't blogged about it and gave it away to a friend who wore it with pride :)

Red Tweed Messenger Bag

Thanks to my middle bro for modelling!
I used two different fabrics for the lining. A plain red and a coloured fabric for the pocket!
I love fun linings
I can't remember where this bag ended up. Maybe the middle bro got it; although probably not with the girly pocket.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Fabric Stash Audit - Jersey/Knit

I recently learnt about "Stretch Factor" in knit or jersey fabrics. I use the term knit/jersey pretty much interchangeably in this blogpost.
As per the tutorial instructions, I made myself a "gauge" for measuring the stretch factor in fabrics.
And I methodically went about analysing the "stretch factor" of all the jersey fabrics in my stash using this gauge.
One by one, I numbered each fabric, measured how much I have and then I placed two pins 5cm apart on the crosswise grain (doubled-over, perpendicular to the selvage) and stretched the fabric along the gauge. Then I did the same on the lengthwise grain (again doubled over).
The photographs really highlight the "knit" of these fabrics which I don't think I'd ever noticed before.

Stable Knits

I have two "stable knits" in my stash. Stable knits are treated like woven fabrics. They do not require the pattern to be adapted to accommodate for the ease or stretchiness of the fabric.
 Grey/black crisscross pattern.
 
Turquoise-green colour sweater fabric with furry texture on reverse side.
From the most stable to the most stretchy...

Super-Stretch -100


I nicknamed this category "super-stretch-100". Knit fabrics with a stretch factor of 100% in both directions (crosswise and lengthwise) are a category unto themselves! I just have one of these in my stash: white with navy stripes which used to be a t-shirt... and which has suffered slight pink discolouration from a washing machine adventure with something naughty and red.
Knit fabrics like this with 100% stretch in both directions require a 10% pattern reduction; usually the reduction is taken from the side-seams.

Super-stretchy

I have 7 super-stretchy fabrics. Some of the fabrics, however, are equally stretchy in both directions, albeit not quite as stretchy as "super-stretch-100"!
This fabric, a deep tomato red which used to be a dress, has 100% crosswise stretch and 85% lengthwise:
Whereas this light grey fabric has 90% crosswise stretch and only 10% lengthwise:
The light grey fabric is woven in a tube! There is no selvage edges - I'd never seen that before. Actually, "woven" is completely the wrong term... because of course we're dealing with "knits" here. So the fabric was knit in a circle.
I think it's fascinating what a big difference there is in the crosswise stretch of each of these fabrics. The red fabric is definitely a "two-way-super-stretchy" knit whereas the grey fabric is simply a "super-stretchy" knit.

More Two-way Super Stretchy knits

 Cerise pink. 87% stretch factor in both directions.
I have made baby hats from this green-with-pink-dots fabric and they have worked out very successfully. I only have 60x60cm left. It has stretch factors of 75% and 85%. Because I have so little left, I couldn't guess which direction was crosswise and lengthwise. The tutorial I was taking recently recommended that stretch fabrics are used with the direction of greatest stretch across the body.
I really like the feel of this fabric. But I don't like the pattern! In general, I'm not good with pattern. I try to introduce more pattern to my life, but invariably I don't like the item! I made a dress from this in my very early days of dressmaking but I never wore it. Was it the pattern? The fabric? The fit? My analysis now shows it has 80% / 50% stretch factor.

More Super-Stretchy (but not two-way)

 This off-white fabric has 90% stretch in one direction and 32% in the other.
This is a baby pink colour fabric with gold dots. It's not really a fabric I like but I think it would make a great garment. I bought it a week or two ago at a dressmakers closing down sale, she advertised on facebook that she was clearing her studio. I paid €3 for a metre of this fabric, 128W. It has 90% crosswise stretch and 20% lengthwise.

Stretchy

This is the beautiful Nano Iro printed knit fabric. I only have a teeny amount of it: 81x60cm. It has 65% and 20% stretch factors.
This fabric was bought about two years ago to make a dress for a friend but I haven't had the courage to tackle it. I feel I need to be better at drafting patterns and making blocks that fit etc. She's a very patient friend! The fabric is quite thick so it's appropriate for a winter dress. It's much less stretchy than I thought: 57% crosswise and 18% lengthwise. So only stretchy in one direction really.
I bought this light-brown fabric in Penney's. It was sold as a scarf. It is 90x180cm. Stretch is 60% and 10%.

Moderate Knits

This is my newest fabric! A bright multi colour stretch. This is the fabric that I want to make a t-shirt dress out of; the reason I undertook the tutorial on knit fabrics which has led me to doing this analysis on all the jerseys in my collection!! This fabric has 50% stretch on the crosswise grain and 35% lengthwise. It is therefore a "moderate knit" and would require pattern reduction of 2%.
This is the fabric I used to make my beloved "t-shirt dress". It's a two-way moderate knit: 48% crosswise stretch and 45% lengthwise.
I'm calling this "geometric autumnal". It's actually quite a light fabric and I don't know what to do with it! I bought it a long long time ago when I first wanted to make something with knits. Maybe it needs to be lined? I think that's why I bought the off-white fabric! This geometric autumnal knit fabric has a stretch factor of 47% and 20%. At one stage, I made a scarf from a quarter metre of it, it's 150W but it was awful!! Now, having done this stretch analysis, I know that the off-white fabric would not be suitable as a lining because I think that ideally linings and main fabrics have similar stretch factors. The off-white is coming in at 90/32.
This grey marl is a cut-off from a job I did on a friend's summer dress. I don't have much of it, 30x80cm (x2). It has 35% and 32% stretch factor.
Although the picture looks grey, this is a black fabric. It is slippy and shiny which is probably why it came out greyish or silvery in the picture. Dunno if it could be silk, I bought it in Róisín Cross Silks in Dún Laoghaire. Stretch is the same in both directions: 40%.
This pink/salmon coloured knit is quite light and has stretch factor 35% equal in both directions. I used it to make a Sewaholic Renfrew top. It wasn't really appropriate for that fabric as it was too light and the recovery was quite poor; although the recovery when I tested it just now was coming out fine.
Recovery is when the fabric "bounces" back to it's original shape - in the test I'm doing the pin placed at 5cm which had been stretched would either bounce back to the 5cm mark quickly (="good recovery") or would be slow to unstretch. As a rule of thumb, fabrics with poor recovery should not be used to make clothes - they become saggy quickly.

Job Done!


So am I any wiser?
This has definitely helped me to understand knits a bit better. I'm not sure yet how to put the information into practice but it is good to have the knowledge to hand and to have got "stuck in" with knits in this way.