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