#2017makenine update

The #2017makenine Instagram initiative (or in my case #2017makesix...) is the only sewing challenge I've signed up for this year, and it seems to have gone to plan so far.

Of the six patterns/fabrics I selected in January I've now completed four of them:

Sew Over It Heather dress

Plus a bonus second version here!

Capital Chic Sangria dress

Sewaholic Granville shirt

This was a substitution for the Deer & Doe Melilot shirt, using the same fabric I'd already earmarked for the project.

New Look 6123 dress

Of the two remaining projects on my list, the Pattern Runway Kimono Sleeved dress is still waiting patiently to be sewn, but the Grainline Maritime shorts have fallen by the wayside. This is because we're not having a beach holiday this year, and as that's when they'd get 90% of their wear, I couldn't really justify making another pair. There are a couple of other patterns that have sneaked into the queue though....

Last year, whilst wandering around the posh 'Village' area in Westfields Shopping Centre I came across this dress.

I really loved the design - a simple kimono shape with an integrated tie belt - but not the price tag. I can't remember where it was from (either Whistles or Max Mara I think) or the exact price, but it was definitely over £200. I knew I could make my own version. After a bit of online sleuthing, I soon had a copy of the Tie Belt Dress pattern by Sew Different and two metres of red luxury crepe from Sew Over It in my paws.

Yay! I have high hopes that I can replicate the 'Village' dress for a fraction of the cost.

And the final pattern to elbow its way into my sewing queue is the Closet Case Files Kalle shirt and shirtdress. After eyeing up lots of denim shirts on Pinterest recently and then spotting Sallie's gorgeous shirtdress version, I'm now desperate to add one to my summer wardrobe.

The looser fit is a departure for me, but I've been finding very fitted shirts heavy going in the warmer weather, so I think it's time for a change. I can't wait to get started!

That's it from me, how are you all getting on with your #2017makenine challenges?

Nautical print Granville shirt

My lightweight #2017makenine pledge is actually going rather well (lightweight in the sense that mine is actually #2017makesix...). I've made the Capital Chic Sangria dress and two versions of the Sew Over It Heather dress. My latest finished garment takes the tally up to three, although it's a slight deviation from the original idea. I'd planned to make a Deer and Doe Melilot Shirt using some nautical viscose twill from my stash. Well, the stash fabric got used, but I decided to use an old favourite rather than starting from scratch with a new-to-me pattern. The pattern I used was the Sewaholic Granville shirt which I've sewn three times before (here, here and here). It was already adjusted to fit, so my plan was to just cut out the fabric and start sewing. It didn't quite work out that way though...

I have no qualms with the pattern: I love using it and always get good results. No, the baddie in this particular saga happened to be the fabric - it was an absolute nightmare. The culprit was a viscose twill with a lovely drape and slight sheen from Fabric Godmother (no longer in stock). The problem was it had so much drape it was barely usable. The first sign that all was not well was when I tried to iron it after pre-washing - it wouldn't stay on the ironing board and kept sliding off. I then sprayed it to within an inch of its life with spray starch. This stiffened the fabric sufficiently for me to cut the pattern pieces out, but it was still slippery as hell. The texture was horrible to work with too, a bit like having an entire garment made from grosgrain ribbon. I put the finished shirt through a rinse cycle in the washing machine, but I'm not entirely convinced all the starch has been removed as the texture is still a bit weird. Hopefully it will settle down after another wash.

Spot the sailor boys...

The reason I'd fallen for the fabric in the first place was the design: from afar it looks like a ditsy floral, but it's actually a nautical theme. Anchors, yachts, flags and, wait for it... sailor boys! Adorable as those sailor boys are, they're not cute enough to make me want to work with this fabric ever again. I was actually quite resentful of it by the time I'd finished, which was a shame as I loved it when I first bought it and it certainly wasn't cheap (£17 a metre).

On a brighter note, having made it several times before, construction was a breeze. The only time I ventured away from the instructions was to construct the collar - I used the Four Square Walls method which I prefer. If I were to make this shirt again (highly likely), the one thing I'd change would be to increase the size of the full bust adjustment as it's a tiny bit snug across the bust.

After grappling with the fabric for what felt like months, I knew any kind of buttonhole mishap would nudge me over the edge, so I got the buttonholes made at D M Buttons in Soho. I added a couple more (well why not, if somebody else is making them?!) which was a sensible move. All my other versions have had to have secret buttons added to the inside to prevent gaping but this one seems to be fine so far. I personally don't think there are enough buttons specified in the pattern, so if you're thinking of making it I'd recommend adding a couple more. The buttons are lovely metal ones from the button shop in Berlin - I like how they pop against all the red, white and blue.

The shirt has already had its first full day's outing: a meeting with sewing pals to welcome Tasha and partner Mel to London last weekend.

Outside Sew Over It

With beautiful Roisin

Looking slightly crazed with a cocktail

It was the perfect choice for walking around visiting fabric shops and sitting in the pub, but still felt just about dressy enough for cocktails later. I almost forgave the fabric for being such a bitch to work with. Almost. Happy Sunday! x

2016: The Hits And The Misses

2016 has been a good dressmaking year for me. I haven't been as prolific as in previous years, but that's because I've been a bit more considered in what I choose to sew. I've concentrated more on fit and fabric choice and this has definitely resulted in fewer failures and unworn garments! 

So without further ado, let's look at my favourite makes and a couple that didn't quite work...

THE HITS 

New Look 6217

The pattern that has without doubt, been the biggest hit of my sewing year has been New Look 6217. It may be a plain, unprepossessing little pattern, but it always seems to magically come up with the goods for me. The top and skirt both fit me straight from the envelope and are very easy to sew. My favourite of the five tops I've sewn is still the first one, made with black satin-backed crepe. It goes with everything and always looks classy. There's a round-up of all my other versions on my OWOP post here.

My NL6217 polka dot denim skirt should also get a mention as it was such a wardrobe staple over the summer. The fabric has a great stretch to it, so it's both comfortable to wear and a flattering fit.

Big Vintage Sewalong Dress

This Vogue reproduction pattern (V8875) has only been worn once as it's very dressy, but I still want to include it as I received so many compliments when I wore it! It's made from a gorgeous luxury crepe, so it hangs beautifully and has a very polished look. I also worked really hard to perfect the fit and feel really fabulous in it!

Vintage Shoulder Tie Top

Made using a Woman's Own vintage pattern, this has been a surprise hit as it's more of a boxier fit than I'm used to. The cute shoulder ties are a lovely vintage touch and I found myself reaching for it again and again over the summer. The lush Liberty fabric doesn't hurt either!

Ginghamalong Top

This was made to replace a much loved, very similar top and is a big improvement on the original. It's made using the Sewaholic Granville pattern, which is a great fit on me, and the 100% cotton gingham is a lovely quality. In fact I'm wearing it as I type this (underneath a jumper)! 

THE MISSES

There are only two, neither of which has been an outright disaster. 

Karen Drape Dress

Despite me falling for the draped style of this Maria Denmark pattern, it's still a bit too grown up and slinky for me, hence it's only been worn once. I do really like the side pleat detail though, so may well just shorten it into a top. Teamed with a plain skirt or jeans, I'm sure it would get worn a lot more frequently. This can be a nice easy job for the New Year!

Clara Bow Blouse

I've worn this pattern a couple of times but the fit has never been quite right. It's a nice pattern (original pattern review is here) but needs a bit of tweaking to get it to fit me properly: I'd need to do an FBA (Full Bust Adjustment) and lengthen it considerably. 

Only two minor fails then, which I consider pretty good going for a whole year of sewing!

What have been your biggest hits (and misses) of 2016? And which patterns have turned out to be unexpected gems?!

In other news, I'm working away on my red coat and may get it finished before Christmas. If I don't, it will make a good project to welcome in the New Year! Happy Monday! x

One Week, One Pattern 2016

The past week has seen me wearing different variations of New Look 6217 each day as part of OWOP (One Week, One Pattern) 2016. The challenge was run this year by Hannah at Cinderellis Sews and I had a lot of fun mixing and matching garments made from my current favourite pattern.

I cheated slightly as I've made both tops and skirts from the pattern, so it wasn't actually much of a stretch. But considering the pattern also includes trousers and a kimono jacket I think I was actually quite restrained! What I like about the top and skirt patterns is the fit: they have a fair amount of wearing ease but still skim the body to show off your curves. I already had three versions of the top and two of the skirt, but just managed to squeeze out another last minute top to give myself a bit more choice. Here's what I wore:

Day 1 - Red Swiss Dot NL6217 top and Gap jeans. I was visiting the Undressed exhibition at the V & A museum with Scruffy Badger. 

Day 2 - Denim NL6217 skirt and 1960's Shoulder Tie top (without shoulder ties!) I was at the allotment pretending to help, so this combo was actually really comfortable, although a white top probably wasn't the wisest choice for picking raspberries...

Day 3 - Liberty print NL6217 top and denim Arielle skirt. I hadn't tried this combo before now and was surprised how much I liked it.

Day 4 - Denim NL6217 skirt and Gingham Granville shirt. The Ginghamalong went live today so I wore my new gingham shirt with my New Look denim skirt. It's a bit of a polka dot/gingham clash but I think they look good together! This photo was taken outside my local boozer, complete with splendid old tiles.

Day 5 - Ivory Crepe NL6217 top and Liberty Carline Delphine skirt. This is a new, unblogged version of the top made from a 80cm remnant of prestige crepe from the Fabric Godmother sale. The drape is perfect for this pattern and I loved wearing it on its first outing. Being off white, it's also useful for pairing with garments that are difficult to match things to (like this skirt!) 

Day 6 - Black crepe NL6217 top and Bamboo skirt. Suitably smart attire for visiting the Buckingham Palace state rooms with my mother-in-law!

Day 7 - Black Crepe NL6217 top and Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers. Here I am meeting the lovely Mark from Girl Charlee UK at the Handmade Fair in Hampton Court (more on my visit in the next blog post).

A few reflections on the challenge:

• I'm sooooo pleased I chose this pattern, everything I've made from it feels like such a natural part of my everyday wardrobe. 
• The top is a simple shape and easy to make, but I think fabric choice and colour are key to wearing them often. The fact that I had three solid, neutral colours tops meant they could be paired with anything. Plus the lovely quality of the fabrics made them feel just a bit more special than a T shirt or cotton top in the same colours.
• I love the slim silhouette of the skirt and the quirky little side split - I'll definitely be making more of them.
• I'm still not very adventurous with accessories!

Thank you to Hannah for hosting the challenge and I'm looking forward to seeing what everybody else has been wearing for the past week! Have a great weekend. x

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Gingham Granville Shirt

Behold a new gingham shirt - my last minute entry into the Did You Make That? Ginghamalong. It's simple, classic and very wearable and I don't need a crystal ball to predict that this will be a much loved item in my wardrobe for its entire life. I made just the one gigantic error during construction (see below for the full blood and guts horror story), which I'm hoping will fade from my memory over time... Other than that, everything went to plan!

The gingham I used was 100% yarn dyed cotton which I snapped up for the bargain price of £6.50 a metre from this eBay seller. The seller advises a cool hand wash, which I promptly ignored (the only fabric that's ever hand washed in this house is silk) and it washed beautifully in the washing machine at 30 degrees. It presses well and is lovely to work with - a really nice quality cotton.

Because of school holidays I knew I wouldn't have long to make this shirt, so I used a pattern that's already been adjusted to fit me well - the Sewaholic Granville shirt (previous versions here and here). The thought of trying to pattern match the gingham didn't exactly fill me with joy, but I did want the checks on both sides of the bodice and the button bands to line up horizontally, so that's where I concentrated my efforts. It worked! I used a combination of Tasia's tutorial and just simply lining up all the underarm seams as shown here. The gingham on the collar seems to line up with the bodice gingham too, but I can't really take any credit for that one, pure fluke!

To further save time (and also because my buttonhole foot is still playing up), I used snaps on the front button band instead of buttons. If you have a pair of Prym pliers, snaps are super quick to apply, but I still find positioning them a little nerve wracking. They're almost impossible to remove without damaging the fabric, so if you get the position wrong you've well and truly pissed on your chips. The relief when they were all in (and the right way round!) was pretty huge. I do like the look of snaps on this shirt, they give it a cool, ready-to-wear feel.

Anyway, about that gigantic error… As per last time, I used this tutorial from Four Square Walls to attach the collar and under collar as I prefer the construction order Andrea uses to the pattern instructions. All was going swimmingly until I realised there was a massive amount of ease in the collar. Now I know there should be some ease in that area to allow the collar to be turned back easily, but this was ridiculous. I eventually resorted to easing the collar in with gathering stitches like a sleeve, but I wasn't happy and was gutted that my planned classy shirt was going to make me look like Harry Hill. Luckily, I had a sewing epiphany... in my sleep! I literally woke bolt upright one night after sub consciously working out what the problem was. Yes, your friendly neighbourhood sewing moron had only gone and attached the collar to the shirt upside down. Ahem. God I felt stupid, but at least I actually worked out what was wrong before wearing it out in public! I promptly cut out another set of collars/ under collars and attached them the right way round. It took about an hour to sew the collar and this time everything matched up perfectly, making me realise just how well drafted Sewaholic patterns actually are.

After all the eleventh hour drama, I couldn't be more pleased with my new gingham shirt. Yes, I know it's a sleeveless shirt and we're heading into autumn, but I can guarantee it will get plenty of outings underneath cardigans and jackets. In fact I think I'd like to wear it forever.

Thanks to Karen for hosting such a fun sew along. Let's face it, she was never going to have do much arm twisting to get me to join in, but I'm glad I did nevertheless. My gingham Granville is officially my new favourite thing! x

   

Thoughts on Gingham

Hoorah for gingham! It's so fresh, so crisp, so perfectly ordered, it's definitely one of my favourite fabric patterns. I've always loved it, so when Karen announced she was running a Ginghamalong at Did You Make That? I was onto it like a shot.

The big question is, what kind of gingham masterpiece shall I attempt to make? I have a gingham board on Pinterest which is chock-a-block with inspiration. I've also sewn a lot with it over the years, making tops and blouses (here, here and here), dresses (here, here and here) and skirts (here and here). But the gingham item I've worn most by a million miles is my 1950's sleeveless blouse, now sadly deceased. 

I loved that top and it had a good life - I literally wore it until it fell to bits! There's just something about navy gingham that seems to work for me. 

With my gingham twin Scruffy Badger

I've been making a concerted effort recently to only sew things I know I'll actually wear, so a classic navy gingham shirt seems to be the way forward. It's not the most exciting choice in the world but it's certainly chic.

Image from Pinterest

Image from Pinterest

Image from Pinterest

I love the fit on the Sewaholic Granville Shirt, so that's the pattern I'll be using. I'll probably keep the sleeves short or even go sleeveless as I find long sleeved shirts are a massive pain under fitted cardigans. I've ordered my fabric (½' yarn dyed cotton) and can't wait to get started!

That's what I'm up to gingham-wise, how about you? Are you taking part in the Ginghamalong? And, more importantly, what are you making?!! x

OWOP is back!

Hands up who remembers OWOP (One Week, One Pattern)? Of course you do, it's the group sewing challenge where participants wear variations of the same pattern, every day for a week! The original challenge was created by Tilly in 2012, I resurrected it in 2014 and now Hannah from Cinderellis Sews is hosting a new challenge for 2016. Hoorah! 

My favourite part of both challenges was working out all the different mix and match combinations with my chosen pattern. In 2012 I chose the Colette Ginger skirt, a high waisted A-line skirt that proved to be endlessly versatile. For the last challenge I went for a vintage pattern - Simplicity 4238 - a 1950's button up blouse that's become a real wardrobe staple.

The big question is, what to choose this time round? You may have noticed I've been more than a little obsessed with New Look 6217 of late (I have three versions of the top and two versions of the skirt), so that's currently the strongest contender. However, I also absolutely LOVE my Sewaholic Granville shirts and although I only have two versions (here and here) they're both solid colours, so they match absolutely everything. The Granville shirt would certainly be a greater challenge, but may be a bit too similar to the last pattern, what do you think?

If you'd like to join in, One Week, One Pattern 2016 will run from Saturday 10th September until Friday 16th September. You can sign up and find out further details about OWOP on Cinderellis Sews. There will also be a series of exciting guest posts on her blog over the next few weeks (including ME on August 6th!) and fabulous giveaways for every day of the challenge. Wahay! x

My sewing in 2015

Helloo! I hope you've all had a wonderful few days and that Father Christmas aced it with the presents this year. I'm still in recovery from the annual turkey overdose, so decided to take the opportunity to look back at the past year on the blog before the next onslaught of pies….

On the dressmaking front, my boiled wool coat was probably my most successful garment of 2015. 

There are a few things I'd do differently if I was given my time again, but overall it's been a huge success and has had a LOT of wears. Other garments that have been worn to death this year include my Barkcloth Skirt, 

Granville Shirt, 

Walkley Top (a surprise hit). 

and my Little Black Dress

In fact everything I've made this year has been worn, proving that I'm finally getting better at diagnosing which wardrobe gaps actually need to be filled!

I had the pleasure of seeing two of my favourite gents guest starring on my blog this year. My pal Joe and his beautiful Liberty print ties proved to be a big hit (here and here). 

He's still optimistic about sewing his own seven-fold-tie, so look out for a re-appearance next year. My son Louis also popped up, proving he's a chip off the old block by sewing his own waistcoat. He's a genius I tell you!

On the blog front, I was very, VERY proud and delighted that my blog was nominated for Best Sewing Blog in the Sew Magazine British Sewing Awards 2015. I still can't quite believe that one, thank you again to everybody who took the time to vote for me! I also wrote two new tutorials which were published in Love Sewing Magazine - one for a Chequerboard Baby Blanket 

and one for a Tooth Fairy Cushion

The project that took the longest time and energy this year was without doubt making a memory quilt for my Aunty. I was a bit wrung out after it was finished to be honest, but I'm so glad I did it as I know it brings her a lot of comfort.

2015 was also the year I joined the 21st century and opened an Instagram account - I'm @janemarland if you're interested! I surprised myself by how quickly I got used to it (much quicker than Twitter, which I still struggle with to be honest). 

Apparently these were my nine most popular Instagram pictures this year

Instagram won't replace blogging for me because I still love reading sewing blogs and writing my own, but it's a satisfying quick fix in the meantime. I've also discovered lots of new sewing bloggers to follow which can only be a good thing.

All in all it's been a fab year, probably my best dressmaking year to date. So thank you to everybody who has followed along, commented on the blog and offered advice and feedback, it's all very much appreciated. Here's to another happy sewing year in 2016! x