All posts tagged: fp

My Colette Albion #2

Published by

Remember the ARRRHHHHHH moment in the first installment? I eventually pulled myself together, and several deep breathes & days later I had a plan.  Here’s some more pix of the Albion: VERDICT: This is the best casual jacket I own, but also the most expensive.  When I was 3/4 of the way through making it I ran out of thread (soooo much stitching to do – buy 2 spools if you intend to make the unlined version).  I called into Boyes in Brighouse, about 7 miles away, for a second spool.  On the way home I had a bump in my car (my fault) which ended up me paying an excess of £400 to the insurance company!! Hence the very expensive coat. It’s not put me off it though.  It’s roomy enough to wear a thick jumper underneath, but looks equally good withjust a thin top underneath. I’ve lost count of the number of  “No! You didn’t make that!?” moments that I’ve had. Not including the cost of my car, and the pattern, this jacket has …

Deluxe Coco – with sprinkles & cream

Published by

Deluxe Coco coming up! Not quite with sprinkles and cream, but does have lots of topstitching and a smattering of ric-rac. Remember earlier when I was trying to squeeze a coco from just 1m of fabric. A remenant I bought last time I visited Fine Fabrics of Harrogate.  I wanted the funnel neck.  I wanted cuffs on the sleeves.  I wanted more fabric! Eventually I opted to add a colour blocked top after rummaging in my scraps in my stash. Even though this is a simple make I took my time and tried to add the finishing touches to this garment. I’ve made 2 already (unblogged). The first one was black in a cheap double knit.  Its pilled up but I’ve worn it loads and everytime I wear it someones always asks if I’ve lost weight!  Result!  I need one for everyday of the week! I usually use ribbon for reinforcing the shoulder seams, but used this bright blue ric-rac instead:  When it came to the hem I’d already managed to squeeze a couple of inches to …

Golf…… Burda Style

Published by

Last month I bought my first ever burda style magazine and bravely set about tracing these shorts It hasn’t taken me almost a month to trace and sew the, it’s taken that long to update my blog! The tracing wasn’t too bad and I’m getting the hang of adding seam allowances.  I have one of these which really helps.  The shorts came together in no time and I love the contrasting spotty fabric. My only disappointment was that the fabric didn’t have enough body to hold the shape and they were a bit flappy when I was playing golf. They also seemed to get bunched up between my legs as I walked, but my playing partners said they still looked ok from the back and no one could tell. I think they’d look good in light weight denim or a stretch cotton sateen. I cheated a little with the waist band as I wanted to finish them quickly so I could wear them for golf. I inserted the zip but instead of adding a proper …

2 down, 3 to go – Vogue 1353

Published by

As some of you will know we have 5 wddings to attend this year, and Vogue 1353 was made for one or two of the weddings.  It could even be for all 5 as there will be totally different guests at each one! If been putting off blogging about Vogue 1353 which I managed to finish in time for wedding number 1. Reasons being: Lack of photos of it being worn.. Well, lack of flattering photos. Photo top left is of me doing the “…..Y…M…C….A…..” I’ve gone off the fabric a little bit, and am regretting making it in such bold material. I had a few hiccups whilst making it which ended up reducing it’s likeability factor. But, hey oh, it’s finished and I’ve worn it 3 times so I’ll share it with you. Before I carry on, I NEED to show you Cheryl’s, from Redknits Birthday dress a.k.a. Vogue 1353.  It’s gorgous, and it gives you an idea how mine would have hanged if I’d have used the right fabric! Can you see how …

Maria Denmark’s Yasmin Yoke Skirt

Published by

Introducing my new favourite pattern……. The Yasmin Yoke Skirt I’ve made 3 in the last week.  It’s rare I ever make 2 of anything never mind 3.  The last time I made more than one of anything was when I made my Bridesmaid’s dresses almost 14 years ago! I stumbled across Maria’s patterns when browsing the different Indie patterns I’d never heard of after reading various blogs promoting  Indie Pattern month.  The Yolk is designed to disguise “tummy fluff” (as she describes it).  I’m all for that!  Since I stopped smoking just over 12 weeks ago (pat on the back…) I’ve put on about 7 lbs.  This feels to have been distributed very unevenly – bust 1 lb, waist 5 1/2 lbs, hips 1/2 lb. It’s driving me mad – the extra pounds more than the no smoking.  Most of my clothes are too tight and as I’ve joined Goodbye Valentino‘s 2014 RTW Fast I can’t nip out to buy anything new and stretchy to tide me over til I loose these new found inches. …

Ikea Throw Transformation

Published by

Last Saturday was Day 3 of me being a non-smoker. So to take my mind off things I thought I’d sew the current challenge for Stitch Once Rip Twice, organised by Diane over at Vintage Zest.   The challenge is ‘A Simple Top’ so I decided to make SergerPepper’s new pattern which I’d recently downloaded from Craftsy. On a recent shopping trip to ikea I bought a lovely red super soft throw with the intention of turning it into something wearable. Here it is on their website:  The 2 ends of the blankets were hemmed which I thought I’d used for the bottom, but once I came to positioning the pattern piece I thought the hem would be too bulky so used the selvidge which had a nice neat finish. The fabric wasn’t quite big enough for me to use the selvidge as a hem so I lost 2 inches from the back and front pieces (both the same) placing the centre of the top 1 inch past the centre fold.  It’s a loose fitting top and I …

TMS – Pants Challenge

Published by

Phew! Talk about Cutting it fine.  February’s challenge for The Monthly Stitch is to make pants. Or trousers, or slacks depending whereabouts in the world you might be. So here’s my moleskin Manhattan Skinny Bitch Curvy Chick trousers. I bought the PDF version of the pattern for $12 (about £7) as I didn’t want to wait for it to be shipped from the USA. This pattern company designs patterns for petites – I’m 5’4″ so not too small but not tall either. Neither am I a skinny bitch or a curvy chick, but hey ho, I loved the free Tonic T pattern that I made here, and here for my mum in law, so thought I’d given the Manhattan pants a whirl. Sticking together the PDF pattern pieces wasn’t the easiest of tasks. Not sure if it was my printer but I lost some of the lines near the edge of the paper and had to draw them in where I thought they might go….. Once I started sewing they were a dream to put together. The instructions …

Meet Godzilla – a.k.a. Simplicity 2150

Published by

A couple of weeks ago I stayed up late to make a start on my latest project Simplicity 2150.  I bought the black furry fabric last year and intended to use it to make the front and collar part of this Vogue 8757 jacket: I ummed and arh’ed about which other 2 fabric to use and never gotten round to making it.  I loved the black furry fabric and decided to use it to make something more straight forward that would be more useful, so went into town and bought this Simplicity 2150 pattern: I chose view D (top right).  It was one of the only patterns I could find that suggested a fur fabric and the simple style I thought would be purfect! I was between sizes so chose the larger size, tho there was no need to as this jacket has 7 inches of ease!!  This sound way too much, but when I’m wearing it it doesn’t feel so big, and it’s the only jacket I have that fits my favourite winter jumper …

My first Polly Top from By Hand London

Published by

Just a quick short post to introduce you to my first Polly Top from By Hand London.  It’s their first free pattern and can be found here. Here’s some more pix: It was really simple to make, the instructions are well written and there’s even a video tutorial. I usually buy a 14 top (uk) but had to cut an 18. It was too big so I needed to take the seam allowances in another 1.5 cm. the patterned fabric is a peachy poly, and the black is a crepe.  It looks lovely on, and I’m sure I’ll be wearing this loads. Happy New Year Folks! Edited with BlogPad Pro

easy outfit from only 1 metre of fabric

Published by

Here’s one of the first things I made when I recently got back into sewing. I bought a metre of fabric from minervacrafts.com intending to use it to line a bag I was knitting. When the fabric arrived in the post it was much too nice to be hidden in a bag. I draped it all sorts of ways around me wondering how I could make this metre into a dress. It HAD to be a dress! Eventually I plucked up the courage the cut into it………not able to make a dress I opted for a long skirt and ‘boob tube’ style top…… My bust measurement is about 105cm so I only sewed a narrow side seam and adding the elastic to the top just helped hold it in place. I overlocked the top, and turned over the top just enough to fit the elastic. I did the same with the skirt. This had a little more ease and enabled me to be able to walk! On reflection tho’ I wish I’d have made a …