All posts filed under: Tops

The Thea Boho Sleeve Shirt

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It’s taken a crazy shirt to get my fingers flying across the keyboard and to get me to update my blog! It feels good to be back, I just need to make a brew now and have a look at my feed and see what you lovelies have been up to too! So I spotted a new pattern from Liberty on Insta. It was a bit steep at £17 but it was love at first site and it was in my shopping basket before I knew it. I bought it direct from Liberty and was very restrained by not buying anything else! Once I’d got going making it and posted on insta what I was up to, someone mentioned that the Liberty shirt is actually Vogue 9331. So I checked it out and sure enough it is. Not only is it the same as the Vogue pattern, it’s also cheaper. Especially if you buy it when it’s on sale. But the downside of buying the vogue pattern is that you have to choose which size …

McCalls 6612 – A Nearmiss

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Last Monday I woke up wanting to sew. It’s a long time since I woke up with ‘the urge’! I was meeting my crafty friends for lunch and ‘needed’ something new to wear. So after a rummage through my used patterns I decided upon McCalls 6612. A dead easy pattern which I can throw together in an hour or so. It’s actually the first pattern I used when I got back into sewing in 2013, though it took me all day to sew up the first time as I was a bit rusty. I wasn’t 100% happy with it, and it didn’t feel quite right, but I wore it. When I got home after the lunch I had a rethink and decided to finish the sleeves with a band of opposite fabric. I’m a great believer of everything happening for a reason, and here’s proof of that. So thankyou Sewing Gods for my nearmiss and helping me creative something a little bit different which I love. Happy Sewing & Cheerio for now, Thimbers x

Hacking McCalls 6612 – 3 very different Tops

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Following on from the success of my Little Red Dress I decided to use the sleeves I’d cut out but not used,  and some double knit jersey from my scrap bin, to whip up a t shirt. I raised the neckline by an inch and shortened the dress pattern to hip length. I feel a bit like a 5 year old but I’ve worn this loads and it’s been in regular rotation worn with old denim shorts during the last month of what we call ‘summer’. I was thinking of making another when Bea mentioned on her IG feed that she had this gorgeous jersey going spare, I couldn’t believe my luck when I was able to snap it up.  She sent it with a lovely note and some other sewing goodies! As I’m a serial tracer and muslin maker it’s a real treat to be able to whip up a new garment in an hour or 2.  I’ve not really had any TNT patterns in the past but I think I definitely need more …

#GBSBLIVE 2017 & The Japanese Asymmetrical Top

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The Great British Sewing Bee Live was fabulous and just what the doctor ordered!  I’ve been AWOL for the past few weeks, I won’t go into detail but I’m doing ok and hopefully there will be some action on the blog and in the sewing room very soon, and I’ll be back firing on all cylinders. I don’t know about you but the best thing to get my creative juices flowing is having a special occasion to attend.  As the date of #GBSBLive loomed and the days ticked away I was at loss as to what to make, and decided to have a flick through the GBSB books and patterns which accompanied the show. I’d left it to the last minute so I needed to make something quick and easy.  The Japanese Pattern Top from the latest book looked a fairly simple despite the odd shaped pattern pieces. I’d seen on Hila’s Vlog about this top that the pattern pieces were huge, and she wasn’t wrong! Lucky I had some Burda tissue paper which easily …

A Quick Polo Shirt Refashion

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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 …

Molly Top Hack #SOICITYBREAK

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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 …

Keeping It Cosy

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I don’t always take part in a lot of challenges, but there’s a few that’s caught my attention in 2017. The January ‘Keep It Cosy” #dressmakingbloggerchallenge is the first one I’ve managed to complete! I’ve had 1.5m of this ridiculously thick sweater knit for about 2 years. I bought if from Fabworks for £10 a metre with no project in mind. the squishiness just drew me in and I just had to buy it!  I has a thick slightly felted feel so it, and has 4 way ‘give’ rather than a proper stretch stretch. I wasn’t sure if it had been pre washed so I did the sniff test.  It smelt ok so I’m thinking I must have done.  I’ll wash it cold when it’s made up just in case it hasn’t been washed. It’s been in and out of the stash box for ages, and when i saw the challenge was to make something to keep you warm I knew it was coming out for good this time! The pattern choice was a no …

Me and O – The Start of Something Marvellous!

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Here’s a quickie (with quite a few piccies) about how me and my new assistant O are getting on. Anyone who knows me in ‘real life’ will know I’ve a bit of a thing for instruction manuals.  It drives me bonkers to have something and not know how it works properly, and what all the different functions do.  (hence the hubby still can drive me crazy as his mum lost the manual I was supposed to get when we got married!) So when O arrived I was super excited, had downloaded and read the manual more times than I could remember and felt fairly confident that I could jump in feet first and make something. But I didn’t! Instead I cut some strips of fabric and started from the beginning of the instruction book and began working through the different stitches. As I practiced each stitch I wrote on the fabric what the stitch was, but soon thought this could get a bit disorganised so stuck them onto paper using a regular glue stick. I was able to write …

Good Golly Miss Molly

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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 …