auxetically

Quick Q&A: Laurel Dress #2

2013-05-22T09:29:00.001+01:00

Question: How much fabric does the Laurel dress take?
Answer: I got the sleeveless version in 1m of 1.40m wide fabric(1.20 if using facings).

Sneak peek of my the first dress (phone pic ugh). I do wish I remembered how much of this fabric I bought at Rachel's meet up. I think it was 1.5 or 2 m.

I'll also need to check if the hem really is uneven (I didn't think it was....)

Quick Q&A: Laurel dress

2013-05-20T09:41:00.001+01:00

Question: are the Laurel dress and blouse pattern the same?

Answer: the two are identical in the top, but the dress gets wider starting with the waist.

I tried to look up this information online but could not find it. I ended up printing all of the back section to verify and the bottom three rows of the front section.

I then made the dress and promptly proceeded to removing the extra ease. I took it in 1cm on each side, starting at the waist.

Anniversary Giveaway

2013-05-18T17:12:00.002+01:00

I was going to do a giveaway last May to mark my sew-niversary but they I forgot. But no such forgetfulness this year!

I have been wearing the cape in these past weeks and I decided I like the single leafy "Legolas" clasps. Since I have 3 clasps left, I'm giving them away.

This is how they look on my Legolas cape:

And here's a better picture courtesy of MacCulloch & Wallis. I have the silver ones.

I'm also throwing in some shirt buttons, with polkadots. These are the same as the ones I used on my yellow shirt which I never ended up blogging about:

I have them in yellow, red and blue (with white polkadots!), and the winner will get to choose which color to receive. I also have some more black ones but not as many (since I used them on the shirt!)

This will run until next Wednesday, May 22nd at 12:00 London time, which coincidentally is the same day I started sewing two years ago. I know - I have the Sainsbury's delivery note in my email still!

To enter, leave a comment telling me how you started sewing or if, if you don't sew, what would you use the clasps for! Winners will be drawn at random, will ship anywhere in the world.

New Vogues - and other things

2013-05-14T05:16:00.002+01:00

I usually browse through new vogues and nothing really catches my fancy, but this time I like two things!

Vogue 1349 - sewdirect.com

Vogue 1357 - sewdirect.com

They're quite lovely and I'm in half a mind to order them. But perhaps when I come back from holiday!

Me Made May

I haven't bothered taking pictures or sharing with anyone, but I have been keeping up with this - on average. First week, I wore me-mades 6 out of 7 days. Second week, 1 out of 7. This week has started well with me wearing both the cape and a new top!

New Makes

I now have 3 new makes that I haven't blogged about. Booh. Need to get into gear and get pictures taken!

The Legolas Cape

2013-04-28T18:12:00.000+01:00

It's finally done.

I pretty much balked out of the second row of closures. I still have 3 clasps I can add on but the one I did put on was so frustrating I decided to cool off first. The cape is closed with snaps on the inside. I need to redo one of them I think, the second set pulls a bit:

The top clasp - which gives this cape it's name of The Legolas Cape - I got from MacCulloch and Wallis.

All in all, I really like it. It took forever to finish, but it's remarkably easy to wear. It also has a "novelty" feel to it.

I think this will get a lot of wear, especially if the weather in London remains the way it was this weekend.

The amount of time and effort I put into it has certainly paid off!

Sneak peak

2013-04-28T10:57:00.001+01:00

It occurs to me I have made a Legolas cape. Full blog post to follow tonight

This cape is going to be finished... soon

2013-04-25T15:12:00.000+01:00

I got about 20 minutes of sewing done yesterday while Mr T was preparing dinner. These are phone photos, but I just wanted to show them before I forget.

The new lining is in, and there are no weird drag lines in the back (it does need some pressing though):

All I need to do now is to hand sew the collar facing back on, and to hem. I decided to add what I'm calling a "collar facing" to enforce the collar part:

I still need to hand stitch the center back on, and to add a hanger hook.

This is what the front looks like. I'm really quite excited about finishing this. It only took 3 months (it's also too warm for a cape now, sigh)!

Next time I'll do a post on closures. I chose an interesting method for them.

How to correctly baste fashion fabric to underlining

2013-04-24T16:54:00.001+01:00

So I've been at this cape since February. Last week I managed to sew the lining in wrong and I had to unpick everything (luckily I had hand stitched the lining so it was easy to unpick).

I'm hoping to get back to it today and finish it, but in the meantime here's a video I made when I was basting the fashion-fabric and the silk organza layers together.

The correct way to (hand) baste is as follows:

1. silk organza is traced & cut first, from pattern pieces
2. silk organza is placed on the fashion fabric and pinned in the seam allowances
3. cut the fashion fabric
4. baste the two layers together on the straight: this means the two layers have to sit on a table/ironing board etc and you sew without distorting the fabric more than shown in the video:

Made 2013: plain gray skirt

2013-04-20T08:30:00.000+01:00

I made this in January (pictures taken at the Mountain View Google campus in late Jan), but never got around to posting because my card reader stopped working.

This is my TnT skirt pattern, in an Italian wool with a sort-of-a-herringbone through it.

It's lined in some navy lining picked up at John Lewis. Some form of polyester no doubt. I like the gray + purple option, but maybe this outfit is too matchy-matchy.

I have worn this quite a lot lately, but it is a bit wider than the previous version. I guess that's because I did modify the pattern before I cut it (see what I did here).

Here's a final picture of me next to a cute Android statue:

Tutorial: how to mark stitching lines on patterns

2013-04-18T08:30:00.000+01:00

This is an easy one, and it is the first thing to do before fitting a pattern. I use this method for all patterns (see my previous mini-rant on stitching lines not existing in any modern patterns)

Tools needed:

pattern
ruler
french curve (optional)
pen of a easily-identifiable color

Seam allowances:

Most modern patterns have a 5/8" (1.5cm) seam allowance. However, make sure you check the correct seam allowance every time.

Steps: The idea is very simple: mark the seam allowance length from the cutting line. The marked line will give you the stitching line.

Step 1: Find the 1.5cm (5/8"in) measurement on your ruler. Mine is shown on this picture:

Short tip: the width of a tape measure is usually 5/8". Now, I own two tape measures: a plain one and a fancy one. The fancy one is slightly bigger than it should be, but the plain one is the expected 5/8".

Step 2: Identify the cutting line for your size. I'm cutting a size 2, so I have the dotted line in the picture above.

Step 3: Start marking the stitching line with short lines. If you can do dots, that's even better, especially for curves.

Make sure that each mark you draw is parallel to the original cutting line.

For straight pattern lines, you can just draw the line directly:

Once you're done, the pattern will look something similar to this:

Step 4: Take your french curve and find a curve on it that matches the dotted lines.

Alternatively, you can just freehand the line. Or skip this step altogether.

You're done!

Extra: you can also mark the notches. I mark the relevant notch, then draw a line perpendicular to the cutting line, from the cutting line, through the vertex of the notch through to the stitching line.

Stunning!

2013-04-16T21:00:00.000+01:00

Non-sewing related, but I found this on the internet today. It's stunning!

Me made May

2013-04-16T16:53:00.001+01:00

Most simply:

I, Laura of auxetically, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear a self-made garment at least 3 times a week for the duration of May 2013.

What's on my sewing table

2013-04-16T00:00:00.001+01:00

I am attaching the lining for my cape - lots and lots of fell-stitching! I have gotten quite good at making the stitches even!

I was almost going to finish today but bailed out at the last line of stitching. I did fell stitches for 4 hours straight - it was time to stop. I think I'll only be able to pick this up on Wednesday though. Tomorrow is DnD day.

I also have my next two projects decided already:
* Laurel blouse (initial pattern modifications done)
* burgundy skirt made from my TNT pattern (already cut, but thinking of adding welt pockets so I need to figure out how that's done)

What's on your sewing table?

P.S. The Blogger Android App is so frustrating sometimes. I wrote this 6 hours ago and it failed to publish! Syncing draft posts is also a bit of a mystery to me.

Seam treatment musings

2013-04-12T13:32:00.000+01:00

One couture finish (especially for garments which are lined) is to catch stitch the seam allowances to the underlining. If the garment is unlined, I would use a slip stitch. I am not sure how couture this is - I just wouldn't want the considerable amount of thread used in catch stitching on display (even if on the inside!), so I think a slip stitch would be a good alternative.

But - what happens when the garment is not underlined? Catch stitching to the fashion fabric would work depending on the fabric - for example some fabrics would be too soft for that sort of treatment. For unlined garments, catch stitching is not an option at all, and slip stitching would not yield the desired result.

I have been thinking about this in the past few days for my Laurel blouse. I have a very soft fabric that I'm not sure I want to underline. I think I can solve this problem by using strips of woven interfacing, attached to the seam allowances. I guess both sew-in and fusible would work, but I would try the sew in sort because that could be attached when the seam is sewn in (and would otherwise flow free, which would reduce bulk).

My plan is to go to MacCulloch & Wallis and see if I can buy anything of the sort. Any thoughts on whether this would work?

Colette Laurel Pattern: first impressions

2013-04-10T00:48:00.001+01:00

I got the Laurel almost as soon as it appeared. Not necessarily for the dress part, but for the blouse.

colettepatterns.com

Some more blouses are useful and I figured this would be a good pattern for most days.

With my "couture" dress almost done, I printed the pattern this Monday and am planning to do a full series on what works for me and what doesn't. It probably will take a while, but after all this is the whole point of a series. I'm going to be making version 4, the blouse.

First impressions

As with most modern patterns, this pattern does not mark stitching lines. I do wish pattern companies added these lines on the pattern as well! It's one of the things I loved about couture sewing and I think I will incorporate in all my future project (the jury is still out on underlining), because I like to be flexible with how big the seam allowance is.

The second thing I noticed as I was taping the pattern together was that there are no waist markers. I found this a bit disappointing, although having some experience with patterns I know how to determine the waist line.

Interestingly, the blouse version does not require a zipper. Given the dress versions have (at least on paper) the same measurements, I do wonder if the dresses require a zipper either. If the blouse will look good enough on me I might consider doing the sleeveless version of the dress for summer.

Fitting the muslin

The reason I wanted to have the waistline marked is because I have taken Karen's challenge seriously and I have fitted a pattern for myself. But with such a high neckline on the Laurel and with my very changed shoulder line, I was going to start aligning the pattern from the waistline up. However, I decided to just try to fit the muslin from zero.

When I went to SewOverIt for my two (yes, 2!) fittings, we ended up changing quite a bit in the front, and not a lot in the back, so with a shift blouse I'm fairly confident I can get a good front fit on my own.

I expect the following changes on the back:

let out the back darts
adjust for a sway back
move the shoulder seams towards the back

I don't really know what to expect for the front, I'm hoping that the C-cup design that Colette does will help with some of it. I'll probably need to put some more fabric above the bust though.

Still. First thing first: determining the STITCHING LINES. That will be a fun hour.

Google Reader... gaaah

2013-03-16T18:24:00.001Z

We're all unhappy about Google Reader's demise.

In the meanwhile, I'm giving bloglovin a try. Find me here:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The couture cape: muslin adjustments

2013-02-22T14:04:00.000Z

While I'm getting on terms with fitted dresses, I have made a decision regarding my first couture garment: it is going to be a cape!

More precisely, this cape:

Image from burdastyle.com

I have already made a muslin, which I have fitted (on my own, with the camera!). Let me tell you how much longer this pattern is than that image - maybe 30cms or so? I cut the front pieces at pattern length, which was below my knees! I then cut along a "second" cutting line on the pattern (or at least that's what I think it was) - it's still too long, but I will shorten it further when hemming the finished product.

This is a picture of the wool I'm using - taken by phone, so not great. The fabric is lovely Italian wool I picked up in Romania over the Christmas break. I can't decide if it's green or brown. What do you think?

Regarding other materials, I'm using silk organza for underlining. Currently the plan is to line with Habotai silk, although I might change my mind. It might be that I decide to use something funkier.

I only fitted half of the pattern, and I expect I might need to take the side in a bit more - I'm going to hand baste the pieces and check.

Here are some phone pictures of the muslin. You will notice the first non-couture step I took, in that I did not use calico for the muslin. Alas, I had run out and this is actually a bit better as it is similar to my final fabric in terms of drape.

I took in quite a lot of most sections. The back section, which was cut on fold for the muslin, got the center back pinched out - about 2 cm at the bottom, tapering to nothing at the top. I managed to forget that the muslin was cut on fold (since I didn't mark it) and the final garment will have a center-back seam. It's not a bad thing I guess. I kept the grain straight when I cut my organza pieces.

The front actually looks decent enough, although a tailor's dummy is not the best place to showcase this, as the cape has room for arms and that makes it look weird on the dummy.

The sides had the most taken in. I took in both sides of the side back piece. I also took in the side front piece on the seam that it shares with the side back. I also moved the shoulder seam forward - I used quilting tape to mark where the new shoulder seam should be - that's what you can see in the picture below. I did use a French curve to transfer this, so it doesn't look quite as patchy!

The second non-couture thing I did was to transfer the marks back to the pattern. In "The Couture Dress" on Craftsy, Susan Khalje uses the muslin as a pattern piece, but obviously this wouldn't work here. Baby couture steps... I fully intend to keep a calico muslin for my dress, as that will be reused. Still, for the cape (which I will only make once), I didn't think that was necessary.

To cut the muslin pieces, I traced with a tracing wheel on the stitching line. I then cut generous seam allowances. I am doing the same with the underlining. Seam allowances are at least 1 inch wide, and more in places. They will be trimmed down once everything is stitched together

Next step: cutting the underlining and the fashion fabric.

A foray into fitting: part 1

2013-02-20T09:30:00.000Z

I have taken the plunge and got myself 2 hours of 1-2-1 tutoring at sewoverit for my birthday. Given I want to make something other than skirts, and I have no sewing buddy, I felt it was time to set a pattern into professional hands and fit it for me.

I took the pattern in Lynda Maynard's Craftsy course as a model because the bodice resembles a normal fitting block quite well. I'll try to get a normal fitting block done as well, but measuring one's back is hard :|

Today I spent one and a half of my two hours in the shop. We had to do so many alterations, we didn't even finish fitting the bodice!

I came in with a muslin cut using pattern size 12, based on my bust measurement (34"), as per the recommendation in the Craftsy course. Lynda Maynard recommends to always cut the size based on your bust and adjust the rest.

Here's what we did.

Adjustments we went through, in rough order:
Front Darts:
Waist darts:
* added 1.1cm to center front (throughout) to move darts further apart and get the positioned correctly
* lowered darts by 2.5cm (1")
* removed 1.2cm from each dart width
Side darts:
* lowered by about 1cm to point towards apex
Front waist:
* dropped front bodice by 2.5 cm (1"), above the side dart, tapering at seams; this is the exact adjustment Lynda makes on both Betsy and Dolly in the "Upper body" lesson; the extra 2.5cm went into the side dart - I still need to move the point on that dart
Shoulder seams:
* moved forward 2.5cm.
Back darts:
* unpicked, removed 1cm width (so center back remains on grain); the teacher said she would have just taken the darts out and taken the seam in at the center back, but I preferred to keep the CB on grain since this will give me the option of moving the zipper to the side later.
* moved 1cm towards CB
Swayback:
* removed 2.5cm from center back, tapering to nothing at side seams

These feel like many alterations. I photocopied my pattern before I started transferring, and I will make a new muslin soon. Hopefully the only thing not fitting in that muslin will be the upper back. I'm going back for my final 30 minutes and a new fitting next week.

The only difference to Craftsy that I could see was that the shoulder seams were the last thing to be moved (they were the first thing moved in the Craftsy class). I'm not sure what to think about that, and the alteration was performed differently: we moved the whole seam (front and back), whereas on Craftsy the front staid the same and the back was the only one to move forward. I'm curious to see what the new muslin will look like!

I'll try to get some pictures up as well soon!

Giveaway winners!

2013-02-20T01:09:00.001Z

I can't believe it's already ~~Saturday~~. Tuesday evening. Next Tuesday evening. Work has been pretty consuming over the past 10 days.

The winners are:

... drumroll....

Turkish cotton, Ginny.

The cool colours will be going to Emily C.

Now, ladies, I will do my best to contact you this week. Congratulations!

How to easily keep patterns uncut

2013-02-06T11:00:00.000Z

I recently started watching Lynda Maynard's Craftsy Fitting class. It's a good class, and I will post a review when I get through my bodice adjustments. There was one very intriguing thing about this class: the pattern base she was using for alterations.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that pattern pieces can simply be photocopied together, which will save you the trouble of tracing eveeerything.

I initially thought that an A3 size paper would be enough (at least for me), but this isn't the case. For my bodice needs, I think I could get by with an A2 photocopy - this is why this idea stood on the shelf for about a month. There are no A2 or larger photocopying facilities near Victoria.

Then this weekend I started adjusting this bodice and because it is incorrectly cut there were too many alterations to use the tissue paper. So I brought the photocopying idea back to life and realized that even if a pattern piece won't fit very well on one A3 page, it will probably fit on two.

I did this tutorial using an already cut pattern, but it works well enough that I will never have to trace a pattern again, or to cut a size on tissue paper.

Tools:

A3 (or larger) photocopier; photocopying shops are usually fairly common so I think this will be fine
scissors
tape

Method

Step 1: cut your pattern pieces without cutting into any of the multiple sizes. Just cut roughly around the pattern (1-2 inches around all lines will be fine)

The example pattern in the next pictures was already cut on size, but imagine you are cutting couture sewing seam allowances.

Step 2: Take a piece of A3 paper and set the top of the pattern, right side up on it (you will want to be able to read the writing). Try to use as much paper real-estate as possible.

Photocopy it, then move the pattern piece up so the rest is covered too.:

Note: if you're using a paper size larger than A3 (that would be A2 through A0), you're probably done!

Step 3: Now you need to piece together the copies. Luckily I only had 2 sides on each pattern piece.

The way I did it was to cut one of the copies along the lengthen or shorten line:

Then align the cut part over the uncut copy:

And tape together:

You are done! These are my two pieces:

Some advice: be careful when aligning the pattern piece in Step 1, otherwise things like these can happen:

Pattern was wrong side up (right side facing the white paper)

I didn't align the bottom bart of the pattern carefully and part of it was lost

The couture something. Plus fit

2013-02-06T01:39:00.001Z

I never made a couture garment but I plan to start now :-)

The problem is deciding what to make. I made several successful skirts, and a have a well fitted TnT pattern for them. If the target is couture this seems to me the best option, as at least this is a road I have walked successfully before.

However, my very great desire is to make a well fitting dress. This is difficult because I have a problem with fitting tops.

Getting to terms with upper body fit is my only sewing resolution for this year. The problem is the back and that I don't have eyes behind it. Or a spare set of hands.

My SO has been helping somewhat but he won't go as far as hands on help. I have to thank Lynda Maynard's Craftsy class for getting his help at all: the "lines must be parallel or perpendicular to the floor" mantra was simple to explain and pretty simple to get right. Perhaps an in person sewing/fitting class would work ?

To get back to the problem at hand, dear readers, I would like to have your vote. Shall my first couture garment be:

1: a skirt, which I know I've mostly got the fit right for and where I can concentrate exclusively on couture techniques

2: a dress, which will involve a lengthy process of fitting before starting to concentrate on said couture techniques.

I'll make a decision on Monday, let me know what your thoughts are.

The pursuit of couture

2013-02-05T10:30:00.000Z

Back in autumn, a friend asked me to make a dress for her. While not exactly a wedding dress, it's a dress she intends when going out in the days after the wedding. She had a very clear concept in mind.

So I started looking how how this is done. I guess one could achieve the same using:
- the Colette Macaron pattern for the upper bodice
- something like Simplicity 5006 for the skirt
- a normal pattern (any of the ones in Craftsy classes apply) for the sleeves

The I started thinking about fit. And then I started thinking about how to make everything look amazing. This is going to be a special occasion after all.

So I bought this book:

amazon

And I found it a great read. Just think of all the great things one can make. And how well they must look. And how fabulous they must make one feel.

Last year I had some success with shirts - I discovered that taking my time really paid off in terms of quality. Whereas before I was unhappy with the way my clothes looked, last year I graduated to being unhappy with the way my clothes fit.

At this time, I'm pursuing different avenues. I'm trying to figure out what couture sewing is all about. In truth, the Chanel jacket is not for me just yet, but there are so many amazing resources out there on the blogosphere.

I have to shamefully admit I only discovered Marina von Koenig's blog last week. And while I am quick to add any sewing blog to my sewing feed, this is the first one in a long time that I read from start to finish. Then I went and read the Burdastyle posts Marina wrote. Then I started planning on how I would learn the techniques.

This is my reflection item for this year: I am happy I am able to keep learning; I am happy I found such great resources to learn from; I am happy that this hobby, which I started on a whim like so many others, is still going strong two years later. I am happy the sewing community is so diverse, and there's always something new out there

Sew Grateful... giveaway

2013-02-05T00:10:00.001Z

And a bit more (I have edited this post so many times it hurts).

Back in May, when I kind of stopped blogging due new work commitments, I had promised a proper giveaway to mark my one year of sewing. I never did that giveaway, so I'll do two today.

I'm giving away two sets of fabric. Here they are

In the warm-coloured corner, sporting funky circles and dots and measuring 2m in length is an extra wide Turkish cotton. Around 2.20m. I bought this but then realized it wasn't me, so I'd rather see it to a new home. It was originally going to be one of those pretty 50s dresses, like the one on the latest Threads cover:

threadsmagazine.com

The bigger circles are approximately 3cm in diameter. It's all very pretty really, but that style just isn't me.

In the cool-coloured corner, we have two fabrics: a fashion fabric in an intriguing blue shade with various embellishments and some cream winter skirt lining. I suppose the lining could be used for something else, but it's medium weight so I would use it for a winter skirt. Both are about 1m in length and the usual width. The blue fabric I picked up especially for this giveaway!

I do apologize for the very bad photographs. My SD reader is broken and I cannot find my camera cable.

Giveaway rules: I will ship anywhere, make sure I can find your email address so I can email you if you win. If you prefer just one of the two giveaways, let me know which one. This is open until Sunday February 10th at 23:59 GMT, and I will announce the winners on Monday.*

___
* If you for a certain internet corporation in London near Victoria and you win, not only will I deliver this personally to your desk but I am also offering a "Sewing 101" lesson as well.

Me-Made 2012 and where they are now

2013-01-28T08:00:00.000Z

This post took a while to write, but I'm glad I'm doing it because there seem to be so many makes I never blogged about!

I think these are all my makes of 2012. Let me do a refresher on what happened to them.

Center piece - The HIPPIE SHIRT

La piece du resistance, hands down the most worn item of the year, blogged here.

This is just awesome awesome fabric. Fit not that great, but the fabric made all the difference and it's much better than the Thai silk shirt made from the same pattern. One buttonhole is too long which makes that button become unbuttoned often.

Still, pretty much the first thing I wear out of the washing machine.

And now, clockwise from top left:

The thai silk shirt

Not exactly blogged about, but mentioned several times (1, 2). I wear it rarely because it has fit issues. A killer look when I wear it with a cardigan though.

The British summer skirt

Blogged here, my modified Meringue pattern. Worn only a few times due to very bad summer weather this year. I suspect it barely fits by now, but I'm on a weight loss mission again so it might fit by summer.

The first shirt

Blogged here. I don't wear this one a lot, due to fabric quality mostly: it's difficult to iron.

The lace blouse

Unblogged, worn occasionally when going out as it would look weird at work. A modified Grainline Studios Scout Tee - I added a French dart to it. Unfortunately, it has loads of fabric pooling in the back, which I'll need to fix for my next make, which will be in the Thai silk used for the shirt above. I have many pictures of this in the camera so will blog it at some point.

The plaid skirt

I am not sure this is plaid, but that's what I have been calling it.

It's my modified Meringue pattern, fitting rather poorly at hips. I blogged about the hips issue here.

My second most-worn item of 2012, sadly yet-unblogged except for the pictures above. Maybe I'll do a blog post on it at some point.

The rocker skirt

Pictured above while wearing it at Windsor - blogged about several times in what turned out to be a love-hate saga, first time here. I was quite happy with this one when I made it but it tuned out to be utterly unwearable. It went to the bin.

The almost proper Sorbetto

Blogged here, not worn a lot due to fabric quality. I will probably put it in the clothes donation bins next summer. I had it on at the San Francisco meet-up.

The pijama party PJs

Worn once, blogged here. Not worth the hand washing.

The funky Sorbetto

I'm surprised I didn't blog this one, but at least it's pictured twice in the collage. My 3rd most worn item this year, and just for that I'll offer a better image here:

Fabric I bought over Easter in Romania, Sorbetto pattern. Fit issues around the top, hopefully I'll try to fix them if I make the pattern again.

The little black dress

Blogged here. I rarely get the opportunity to wear it, though I wore it to work once and felt very silly all day long. Less keen to put it on now with 4 extra kilos but hopefully this will change

The bell skirt

The skirt salvaged from my Pastille dress, blogged during OWOP 2012 and also here.

I ended up deciding it wasn't worth the effort, but I'd actually revisit that with my newly found knowledge of fit. I don't think I threw it away so I'll have a look for it when I get back home to London.

The wool Meringue

My first proper skirt, made out of wool houndstooth suiting, blogged here. Worn a few times, but it's unlined and a bit too long. I can't shorten it because it needs to be worn with a slip and the only one I have is too long. I also don't like wearing it with said slip because the skirt rises up when I'm at the computer and the slip shows. Maybe the solution is to make myself a slip?

Conclusion

All in all, not a great year: I made some things I wear often but most of the things I made are not worn. I need to do better in 2013.

One thing to take away though: the quality of the make is very important, and I wore the things I took care in making a lot more. Fabric quality is also a huge deal for me: I think more and more that good quality fabric is definitely worth investing in.

Patching jeans

2013-01-26T16:04:00.001Z

I don't make jeans, mostly because the ones I buy seem to suit me just fine. Whether that's true or just my impression - I do not know. But the desire for me to make jeans is just not there.

I have this one pair of Levi's that has a special "feature": they are threadbare in places for an interesting effect. Unfortunately, one of these places was close to the knee, and due to wear a tear appeared. Then, one day, while getting dressed, I managed to put my big toe through the tear and pull - a huge slit appeared :(

I thought I should fix them, and this is a post on how to mend a tear and add a patch to jeans.

Materials needed

seam ripper
patch of muslin
patch of outside fabric [should be sturdy]
needle and thread
sewing machine
pins
strip of silk organza [optional]
topstitching thread [optional]

Prepare the jeans

Unless the tear is somewhere accessible, you will probably have to unpick the seam. Jeans have two seams - one is flat felled (usually the inside of the leg), the other is stitched and zigzagged. You want to unpick the zig zagged one, because fixing the flat felled seam at the end will be much harder!

Unpick as much as you need in order to get the tear under the machine foot.

Select mending stitch

There will be a setting on your machine for mending tears. Mine looks like the one on top, but you can also use a simple zig zag:

Prepare backing fabric

You will need some backing fabric for strengthening the tear. I used two layers, a layer of silk organza on the inside and one of muslin on the outside. I used the silk organza because it's a sturdy fabric, which is tightly woven, but this isn't necessary. Just the muslin will work as well.

If using organza, sandwich the organza between the tear and the muslin.

Mend the tear using your machine

Use the stitch selected above to mend the tear. You want to see the tear as you're doing this, so keep the jean side up.

Baste around the edges of the muslin

You will need to baste around the edges of the muslin, while at the same time tucking in the raw edges. After basting, take it to the sewing machine and stitch along the baste stitches using a straight stitch.

After I finished basting I also noticed a bit of the original "threadbare" feature which I thought should be fixed, so I applied the same treatment:

Don't forget to machine-sew the basting to the jeans, otherwise it won't hold properly!

Prepare and stitch your outside patch fabric

I used some leather scraps I had lying around for this, but anything sturdy will do. I can imagine jean material, twill, heavy-weight cotton. Any faux-leather will work as well.

My tear was quite big so I needed a bigish patch - to get it to look the same, I folded the leather into 2, then folded that again, and then I cut along a quarter of the fabric - this way, all 4 quarters had the same shape.

Take your outside patch to the sewing machine and sew. Since this is visible, I would recommend topstitch thread and a longer stitch length so it looks pretty: I used a 3, whereas I normally sew with a 2.

If you are using a fabric that frays, you will want to either use fray check or turn the edges in before sewing.

If you are using a fabric that doesn't fray, you can trim the edges close to the stitch line after sewing:

Close the jeans opening

Because you had a stitch line before, you want to closely follow it when stitching the jeans shut. If you don't do that, you risk your jeans not fitting (if you stitch outside the line), or the darker material peeking out (if you stitch inside the line).

I pinned the stitch line down and then sewed the jeans shut. Then, I zig zagged the raw edges, because jeans fray like mad. Overlocking is better, but I don't have an overlocker, so a zig zag was just fine.

Enjoy your new patched jeans!

Grainy photos due to London winter. I'll try to get some better quality pics today :)