Briar T-Shirt and Kelly Skirt!

Now I made my Kelly Skirt AAAGGGEESS ago but I hadn't posted about it so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and post an entire handmade outfit (with muchos lovos to Megan Nielsen who made the two patterns I made!).

So here are the front and back views. I made the Briar top in the short cropped version purely because I only bought 70cm worth of wide jersey (I went fabric shopping with my Mum and fell in love with the colour but not the price!). The original pattern has a deeper arch at the front but I shallowed it a little as I cut it out as I didn't want to bare too much midriff as unlike the Man Repeller I feel I ought to avoid the Resort-full-on-belly-reveal trend! The sewing on the Briar top is far from perfect, but for my first time sewing with jersey I am rather pleased.

The Kelly Skirt is another fantastic pattern! Please excuse the creases and runkled-upness of the skirt - I'd already worn it the day prior to taking these photos and, well, I really hate ironing. I do really love the fabric I made it out of but next time I think a cotton twill or any fabric with a nicer drape would be better as it does rather stick out a bit. I'd also make a smaller waist band because, although you can't tell from the photos, it is tooo big for me! I can tuck a t-shirt, jumper and more into that thing (which to be fair has led to some interesting outifts!). 

Here's a closer look at both of them, and the horrendous creases in my skirt.

Completed Thurlows! (and Exams)

So my latest project has been the Thurlow Shorts from the awesome Sewaholic . And I'm so pleased with them. I'm a major pear shape so finding shorts on the high street that fit my hips while not being stupidly huge on the waist or vice versa is a bit of an issue - luckily Sewaholic patterns are designed for pear-shaped women so getting them to fit was actually pretty easy. I made a muslin (ALWAYS MAKE A MUSLIN) in a size 0 as the finished measurement on the waist matched my own. The fit around the waist ended up being perfect and then I just used the Colletterie's Pants Fitting Cheat Sheet and this chart of common trouser alterations to change my paper pattern, whip up a new muslin just to check and voila! I was ready to go! Turns out all I needed to do was add a touch more room to the inseams near the crotch and at the side seams so I literally only graded those sections out towards a size 4 and back again.

Sadly for a beginner, Sewaholic pattern instructions are a bit sparse in some places so I'd urge everyone making them who's a bit unsure about certain tricky sections (the double welt pockets for example) to read Lladybird's Thurlow Sewalong. The only thing she wasn't that useful with was the cuffs at the end - turns out I don't know how to make a cuff! However after a little bit of Googling I found this tutorial which helped me out.

 

I went for some swish navy blue gabardine because I wanted some nice smart shorts that I could wear with tights in winter too, but they'd work just as well in a lighter cotton for summer!

My lining was pretty standard navy too but I really fancy making a pair in perhaps a beige cotton with a really crazy lining like this:

Como Bright cotton lawn by Alexander Henry

                     

My next project is going to be Sewaholic's Cambie Dress with the full skirt. I have always wanted to have a dress like that so I can't wait to get started!! I was inspired by this fabric which I saw in John Lewis

Charleston Farmhouse Bloomsbury Parchment by Felicity Miller

But I'll have to see if it's still available :( It's just perfect for the shape with it's fifties vibe and really reminded me of Angie Lewin's art (one of my favourite printmakers).

                                 

Thurlow Shorts

Now, I'm very excited (and a little apprehensive) to start my new project - these lovely Thurlow shorts from Sewaholic!! There's a lot of pattern pieces (always something a little scary about patterns with more than, say, 5 pieces xD) and includes making pocket welts AND attaching a fly zipper - something that the Great British Sewing Bee has taught us is a rather hard thing to do. So it'll be a learning curve but with the help of Lladybird's Thurlow sew-a-long, hopefully they'll turn out well!!

I've also recently made the gorgeous Kelly Skirt from Megan Nielsen. The whole internet seemed to be going crazy over this pattern and for a totally legitamite reason - it's amazing! Pictures shall come later :D

Now, I'm off to make a toile D:

A Grasp of the Fundamentals: Final Outcome

So here is my the final Fundamentals dress which came to Tuscany with me. As you can see I made a lace up back (incorrectly as it was a last minute decision and purely involved some buttonholes and grosgrain ribbon!) and in order to make the panels stand out I made some stencils out of freezer paper (so easy!) and printed on a design. It was a lot simpler in aesthetic (and in aesthetic only!) than the other costumes on the trip but I think that it reflects my personal style well and gave me the opportunity to really play around with fabric :D I learnt a lot doing it and I can recommend having a go to anyone!!

A Grasp of the Fundamentals: Part 2

So last post we made the toile and cut it in to what will become the final dress and this week it's time to shape it up xD

I think it's a really good idea to practise with your toile fabric before cutting out your actual fabric and going for it - purely because it is quite tricky and technical. The basic idea is to cut slits into each piece to make it lie flat. I spent a lot of time worrying about where and how many slits to make but I don't think it really matters, as all you're trying to do is to create a bigger piece to ease in and therefore create a bit of shape - just as you would a sleeve.

Can you see how the top piece of fabric has slits in it so the shape created by the darts are lost? And IMPORTANTLY, how I've transferred alignment markings (that are also on the dress!) to my new, larger pattern piece? I've added seam allowance too of course.

Here's toile mark 2 (also awfully awfully sewn together) but it gives a basic idea of what my dress will look like. I've added flares which Nakamichi does give basic instructions on how to do - essentially making slits in your fabric and opening them out so when you cut out your new fabric an extra triangle is almost inserted - as if it's a section of a circle skirt.

Now you're ready!! Ready for the final article :O so unpick your toile, cut out the pieces in your new fabric and go for it! But slowly...

When you insert your design panels into the main dress you have to ease them in, just as you would a sleeve. This I found really hard, especially with the extraordinarily tight corners that you have to sew round but, with a lot of care and fearless use of the seam un-picker I got there in the end!

My (slightly dodgy) easing!

A Grasp of the Fundamentals: Part 1

So the idea of the Fundamentals dress is to make a shaped garment without the use of darts - only design lines. Nakamichi gives you a diagram for the pattern block you need to draft to start off with. This really isn't hard with your measurements, a long ruler and a good understanding of maths. Lots of people I know who sew do hate this part but for me it's the easy bit and a chance to very gently exercise my maths muscles - something that I do weirdly miss having dropped it as soon as I reached 6th Form!

Once your pattern is drafted it's time for you to cut out the fabric for your toile...

Apologies for my appalling photography here

 I hand dyed my fabric for my dress so I had some calico which turned out appallingly that I used for my toile but any plain, cheap fabric will do. I was also very conventional and cut my front piece out on the fold and the back as two - but the lack of detailed instructions means that you're freee to do whatever the hell you want xD

Next step is to whip it up into a dress:

 Here is my toile in all it's inelegant (apparently it's inelegant not unelegant! Who knew? Not the English student...), roughly sewn together glory - you can even see the horrible patchy dying job there. Anyway it doesn't really matter TOO much, although it is best to get it right at this stage so you're not fixing things when it does matter :)

Then...DESIGN LINES. This is when you get to decide where your panels go so thinketh carefully about placement - it may be awkward to have a panel right in the middle of your body or finishing halfway over a boob for example. Make sure you mark the end of your darts and the waistline though as the further away your lines are from these areas the harder it is to manipulate the fabric into the correct shape.

I did a quick sketch beforehand so I knew what I was aiming for - I also decided that I wanted to add flares so hence there are flares in the picture (more on that later). I drew my design lines onto my dress and after that...cut the entire dress up. Nakamichi has some good instructions on the theory behind this part - including adding in the flares. I remember having to take several deep breaths before every step after this one, it's not impossible but it is trickier and requires more experience than your average skirt pattern.

 The idea is to get them lying flat, don't worry about separating the front from the back or anything like that as that's part of the magic of a dartless dress!

Next up: Shaping the toile

A Grasp of the Fundamentals: Introduction

Last year I was lucky enough to get a place on an Art tour for gifted students in Cheshire around the beautiful region of Tuscany. Part of the trip was for us to create our own costume inspired by Gozzoli's Journey of the Magi, one of the pieces we'd get to see!

Just part of Benezzo Gozzoli's amazing fresco

Now I got VERY excited by this opportunity having recently purchased Tomoko Nakamichi's Pattern Magic 2 (which by the way, if you're an experienced pattern maker or, like me, are fascinated by the amazing shapes a few darts and seams can create - this book should be gracing your bookshelves right now!) and long desiring to sew something of my own design.So in a flash of (slightly naive) beginner's confidence I decided that - pfft these things can't be that hard! - and embarked on a journey to make my very own version of her Fundamentals dress. If I couldn't get the Fundamentals, what could I get? Right?

The instructions

In the next few posts I'll guide you through what I did, what I did wrong (mainly) and how you could do it better. The end result is something I was very proud of, with it being pretty much the second or third full on garment I'd made, but it is far from flawless and I hope that if there's someone out there wanting to try it themselves but are feeling a little bit scared or stuck, these posts shall help guide/motivate you!! 

xx