I made this on trend top using Vogue 9242 and a blush pink cotton lawn from Minerva Crafts. I’ve written a guest post over at Minerva if you’d like to read how I adapted the pattern to take advantage of the tonal border detail.
Back in February I joined Slimming World. I’d lost about 10 pounds on my own, well not entirely on my own, I’d been hitting the gym classes with my bestie but I needed a bigger push to shed another 20 pounds. One of the things that spurred me on to loose the weight was the Mc Calls pattern 7577. As soon as I saw this cute little playsuit I really wanted to make it for my June holiday. So as the inches melted away I rummaged in my stash and found the perfect fabric for View A but without the sleeves. I bought this crepe from Leeds Market last November in the first SewUpNorth meet up. Shockingly (for me) I didn’t trace the pattern and I didn’t make a muslin! My thoughts on tracing have changed slightly. Before I used to trace absolutely everything as I was hoping to be a smaller size in the future, now i’m tending to cut straight into the patterns as I’m adamant I’m staying the size I …
I think MeMadeMay spurs us all into action and opens our eyes to gaps in our wardrobe. Last week I was wondering what I could wear for golf, then I remembered a top the hubby had discarded and put aside for the charity bag. It was kinda huge on me but I thought the collar the the zip opening didn’t look too big and once the sides were taken in it would still look in proportion. I measured it and decided to take the side in for it to measure 40″. I measure 39″ so I thought with a little stretch in the fabric 1″ of ease would be enough. I’m still now sure now if i remembered to include a seam allowance as the finished garment is a bit snug (though I could get off my butt and go measure it and find out!). The marks drawn on were with a frixion pen. I recently bought some felt tip style ones. I’d always recommend testing to make sure the heat from the iron removes all marks …
I know there’s a lot of Cynthia Fans out there and I’m quickly becoming one! Here’s 1873 Last year I made the top from this pattern, you might remember it as the ‘save all your kisses for me‘ top! A few weeks ago I was looking to make a denim skirt for summer and stumbled across this pattern in my stash and thought this would be perfect. I frivolously chopped my paper pattern!! Shock! Horror!! This is not something I would normally do, but I’m not planning on being a bigger size anytime soon so I thought what the heck! It’s actually about a month or so since I finished this. There’s not a lot to say about the construction except to was fairly straight forward, including the zip fly. I changed the order of construction. Instead of sewing the side seams then attaching the waist band, I completed the front (inc the fly) added the waist band, but not the facing. Then I sewed up the side seams to get the fit spot on. …
I’d say the majority of the fabric in my stash is in 1-1.5m lengths. As I’m very lucky and surrounded by lots of real life fabric stores I tend to pick up quite a few bargain remnants when I’m out and about. These keep my stash topped up and I can usually make a top or skirt from these shorter lengths. If they’re less than a metre I often have to have a mash up of 2 remnants and let the creative juices flow. Like this cardigan….. boiled wool and a ponte knit….who’d have thought these would have gone together so well: And these 2 pieces of jersey fudged together for a Molly Top: So as you can see I usually have a happy ending when it marry up patterns and fabric. But the Molly Top from SOI has had me almost loosing sleep. The grown on sleeves just make it that little big too fabric hungry for some of my remnants that are just shouting out to be a Molly. Like this wide striped ribbed knit I …
I was browsing through the Lekala website a couple of weeks ago and stumbled across this little on-trend beauty! Lekala 5669….. I just fell for it straight away – the cold shoulder detail was bang on trend but subtle enough for a someone approaching middle age to wear – not that I feel it. So it was downloaded and stuck it together before you could say boo to a goose. Then came the hard bit. I have quite a few jersey’s in my stash. 32 to be exact if I check my Cora App!!! And true to form I fancied making a muslin of this pattern. Mainly because it looks a bit confusing how it’s put together, not because of the fit – when I’m sewing with jersey and using Lekala I generally find the fit to be spot on. So I had a rummage through the app on my phone and decided upon this very stretchy see through mesh fabric. I had bought 5 panels, each being 1.2m, for less than £6 inc P&P …
Back in September I attended my first proper meet up – Sewbrum. I had an amazing day and met some fabulous ladies. Sitting down for lunch outside a pub with lots of women I’d never met felt really strange, but it was stranger that in no time at all I felt like I’d know them all ages. One lovely lady I got talking to was Lucy from Sew Essential. and not long after returning home she got in touch and asked if she could sponsor a post on my blog. Could she!! I was really excited, and it took ages for me to decide what to make. I came up with a few ideas – I wanted to make a casual style jacket but in a dressy up style fabric. I found Gertie’s close fitting button down jacket and thought it would be perfect for me as I’m short waisted and not very tall. Lucy suggested their faux silk dupion. I was sold!! It came it quite a few colours. As I wanted my new jacket …
Last year I made a Holly Jumpsuit in the name of frivolity, also known as Jumping Into June. This time I didn’t need an excuse. I’d been given a gorgeous pair of shoes which just happened to be the same colour magenta as some of the circles on this silky fabric that I recently bought from Abakhan when I met up with Jenny in Chester. This fabric was just crying out to be a jumpsuit! The first thing I did was try on my first Jumpsuit. I knew I’d need to modify the pattern pieces to avoid making a modesty panel like in version 1. I’d also lost a few pounds too, so needed to check if any other adjustments were necessary. I needed to loose 4 inches from the drape at the front. It’s a bit tricky putting into words what I did to the front bodice piece. Do the photos make sense? I basically removed the shaded wedge from the top which then created a side dart by cutting into the fabric and …
They really are that bright!! This colourful fabric, an ITY knit, has been illuminating my stash for over a year. As my gym joining experience has continued and not just been a flash in the pan I thought it was about time I added to my ‘gym wardrobe’ which is over 5 years old, with the exception of the VNA top I made last year. I’ve made leggings before, but not ones that needed to withstand 6 minutes of squats in a Les Mills Body Pump class. But for starters, and for a speedy make I dug out my TNT Sewing Cake custom made Espresso leggings pattern. I’ve made loads of these, about 7 pairs I think, but not for a couple of years. In legs than an hour i had them cut out and sewn up except for the waist band: And then I had a busy couple of days and put them aside. I googled making active wear leggings as the basic elasticated waist wasn’t gonna cut it for these pants. …
Does Molly need any introduction? I don’t think so. There’s Molly Tops everywhere, all over the internet, and probably in a city near you. It’s part of Sew Over It’s new capsule wardrobe for a city break. And whilst it’s not the first of their patterns that I’ve bought (I have a paper copy of the Pussy Bow blouse) it’s the first one i’ve made. I’m a bit of a sucker for buying ‘bundles’ of patterns as even if I only make 1 from the bundle, as a Yorkshire lass I need to have felt like I’ve had value for money. I’m not here to promote the patterns, but in case you’re wondering, there’s a top, stretch jeans, skirt, shirt/shirtdress and cardigan in the collection. Apart from the cardigan, I can see myself making all the garments. And soon! So far I’ve made 2 Molly Tops. It requires 1.6m of 140cm wide fabric. I had 60cm of some gorgeous floral jersey and about the same of a coordinating soft grey. Both were bargain remnants …
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