Studio 54 Gold Top

After lots of enjoyable research and a very wearable practice run, my disco-style gold top finally went on its first outing this weekend. 

The event was a friend's 50th birthday party and the dress code was Studio 54/disco inferno. There was lots of metallic on display and a fair few three-piece-suits, so we blended right in. Jon even grew a moustache especially for the occasion! 

Taking inspiration from images of a disco-fabulous Farrah Fawcett dancing at Studio 54, I used the self drafted Anita Tie Top from the Sew Over It Vintage book as my starting point. I made a few changes from my practice version, but not as many as I'd envisaged. I lowered and widened the neckline slightly, lengthened the top and straightened the side seams for a more voluminous effect. I ended up keeping the bottom band that I'd planned to discard, as it does give the top a nice shape. 

The fabric is a Viscose Foil from Ray Stitch. There is a slight stickiness to it when you press it, so I was very careful with the iron. Apart from that it was surprisingly easy to sew with. The seams are unfinished (the fabric doesn't fray) and the neckline is simply turned under and top stitched. There's a tiny bit of neckline rippling going on, but I figured the gold blingy-ness would distract the eye! The fabric is reasonably wide (150cms) so I managed to make the entire top from just one metre, yay!

Me and my beau, suited and booted and ready to party….

…and a bit of a blurry one of me with the birthday boy, giving John Travolta a good run for his money. Have a good day! 

Trousers from the block

Behold - my first pair of trousers using my trouser block! I made the pattern during a one day trouser fitting course at Ray Stitch last month, but it's taken me a while to get round to making the final adjustments. Nothing too complicated, just tapering in the width of the legs considerably as that's the style I wear most. On a side note, I've come to the reluctant conclusion that as much as I love them, very wide legged trousers really don't do me any favours. I'm short, and however well fitting around the hips and bum they are, wide legged trousers just make me look even shorter. So it's slim legged trousers from now on, preferably teamed with a giant heel!

Having got my trouser block sorted, what I should have done is use a nice, ordinary non-stretch fabric for my first attempt. That would have been the sensible approach. Instead I used a lovely, but extremely stretchy houndstooth poly viscose I bought at Ray Stitch during my course. It has great drape, washes well and barely needs an iron, but frays and unravels like it's going out of fashion. I had to overlock all my edges straight away. It also has about a billion percent stretch in it, in fact there's so much stretch it's almost like a knit fabric. Unsurprisingly, this meant that the trousers came out way too roomy. Undeterred, I painstakingly unpicked them (I know, I'm amazed too!) and recut the pieces with the following changes:

- Removed a 1.5" wedge from the back seam 

- Removed a 1" wedge from the front seam

- Made an additional large tuck in the back thigh as there was a lot of excess fabric (this was an adjustment Alice made to my original block too)

They're still not perfect - there's a bit of bagginess in the front crotch - but that was as much fiddling as I was prepared to do and I'm happy to wear the trousers as they are. The ridiculous amount of stretch meant I could almost get away without a zip. Almost, but not quite! The zip is positioned up the back seam as that's how we made our toiles (easier to adjust) and I decided to keep it in that position as I like how it looks.

In the interests of science I've included a back view. 

I was worried that the waist would stretch out over time, so it's finished inside with a simple piece of strong elastic. It works like a waistband facing - I just zig-zagged it to the top edge of the waistband, turned it over then stitched in the ditch at the side seams to keep it in position. I cut the elastic a couple of inches shorter than my waist measurement so it keeps the waist nice and snug!

I'm pleased that the trouser block actually works! I compared it to what I'd always thought of as a well fitting pair of trousers - the Ultimate Trousers pattern. Amazingly, the crotch curves were completely different, which was interesting. It also reassured me that the course was money well spent!

I'll have to slightly tweak the block pattern for different fabrics as they're all so changeable. So for my next pair, I'm quite tempted to see how they'll turn out made with a stable denim. I'm unite pleased with how they turned out for a first attempt though. Have a good weekend! x   

  

My weekend in sewing

And what a fab weekend it was! On Friday I went along to the Handmade Fair at Hampton Court - this is on my side of London, so an easy one for me to get to. I was delighted to hook up with Jenny from Cashmerette and her lovely mum almost as soon as I walked through the door and we were joined a bit later by Rachel from House of Pinheiro. Look at the ridiculous differences in height - remind me to take a box to stand on next time! 

These girls are ACE!

I really should have booked into a workshop or gone to see a demonstration, instead I spent most of my time eating, drinking tea and chatting, I have no regrets. I still managed to pick up some lovely pieces of fabric from the fabulous shopping village. All of them are very summery and totally inappropriate for winter sewing - I'm sensible like that!

The top piece is a length of vintage gingham from Simply Vintage Designs. This stand was a complete treasure trove and I spent ages rummaging around.

The other two fabrics are vintage chambrays from the Fabric Godmother which I can't wait to sew into cool, summery shirts. Despite drooling over her fabrics for years, I'd never actually met Josie from Fabric Godmother in person, so it was lovely to have a quick chat with her.

I might have to make a direct copy of her Linden sweatshirt!

Absolutely GORGEOUS wools

My pledge for next year is to arrive super early and have a thorough look round the stands before I get distracted! It's probably just as well I didn't have more time this year as there were some seriously talented makers exhibiting. 

The fun didn't stop there though. On Sunday I legged it over to Islington with Winnie from Scruffy Badger Time to attend a one day Trouser Fitting course at Ray Stitch. Ah I'd been looking forward to this course for ages and it didn't disappoint. It was based on the same principles as the pattern cutting weekend I blogged about here, where we made bodice and skirt blocks based on our measurements. Our teacher - Alice Prier - is extremely knowledgeable about pattern cutting and was a great advert for the course in her perfectly fitted trousers! She'd also brought along several pairs of her own trousers to show different ways of finishing waistbands etc. This gave me lots of ideas for trouser construction, my favourite being the hidden elastic waistband! 

Everybody concentrating hard...

…and smiling, yay they look like trousers!

The aim of the course is to create a basic trouser block that can then be used on its own and/or as a starting point to adapt other trouser patterns. After taking measurements, working out our front and back pattern pieces and sewing them in calico, in no time at all we each had a pair of trousers to try on. 

Alice, adjusting the fit on Zoey's toile

I don't have any photos of my own toile (I'm useless, sorry!), but I can tell you that the fit wasn't too bad at all for a first attempt. I had to take a wedge out of the back thigh as there was a bit of excess fabric, and add an extra wedge to the top of my back piece to accommodate the curves around my 'ahem' arse area. The trouser block was for quite a straight leg so I also made amendments to the pattern for a narrower fit as that's the style I think works best on me. I'll be making my first trousers using my new block very soon and I promise to take lots of photos this time. 

Trousers really aren't that difficult to construct, it's getting the fit right that's the tricky bit. If you're keen to make trousers then I'd definitely recommend this course next time it's running. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am filled with confidence for future trouser making. Thank you Alice!  x

Herringbone Kelly skirt

I was decidedly on the fence when I made my first Kelly skirt, but it's since become one of my most worn me-made separates. Who'd have thought it?! In fact I like it so much, it was the starting point for my latest skirt. I say 'starting point' because it veered totally off piste during its creation, but the bare bones are definitely from the Kelly pattern, so the name stays.

A lot of the changes were purely down to necessity because of my fabric choice. Well, not necessarily my fabric choice, more my lack of yardage. I bought a metre of this Organic Cotton Herringbone from Ray Stitch during my pattern cutting weekend thinking it would be perfect for a simple A-line skirt. However, between buying it and gearing myself up to cut into it, I changed my mind and decided it had to be a Kelly skirt. The trouble is, the Kelly skirt pieces are quite wide because of the pleats, and the pattern requires slightly more than a metre. I managed to cut my first version out of a metre by placing some of the pattern pieces upside down, but the herringbone design is directional, so that wasn't an option.

In the end, I decided to keep the pleats in the front of the skirt, but not in the back. I also couldn't be bothered with all the buttons and buttonholes, so decided to lose the button placket and add a central back zip instead. To do this, I followed Busy Lizzie in Brizzy's tips from this post. I cut the front piece on the fold, using the buttonhole markings as the centre front seam and the back as two separate pieces, adding a seam allowance to the fold line for the zip. Behold, no buttons or placket!

I didn't have room to cut the pocket facings in the same direction as the rest of the skirt, so they face the opposite way. I'm calling it a design feature.

I even managed to include some scraps from my Chambray Bow Blouse for the pockets, yay!

The herringbone fabric is pretty heavyweight, which is great for holding a pleat, but also means it's quite scratchy against the skin, so a lining was needed. I used navy satin left over from my Lace Laurel top for the lining using this tutorial. When adding a full lining, you can often get away with not finishing seams as they're all hidden away, but not in this case! Both fabrics frayed terribly, so all seams were overlocked to within an inch of their lives.  

I did make quite a major error at the cutting out stage - I folded the pleats in on the the back pattern piece, but really should have added more width for my backside. The back is now very slim fitting across the bum - almost like a pencil skirt. In fact, the finished skirt looks more like Simplicity 2451 than a Kelly skirt - the A-line shape has totally disappeared!

Back view…ahem

Because of this, it's not quite the skirt I was hoping for, mainly because it's so tight fitting across the bum, but that's my own fault for lack of foresight. It's not a total win, but definitely not a fail either. It's still a lovely, cosy skirt for winter and the blue and cream colourway seems to go with every conceivable top and cardigan in my wardrobe.

I did try to get some shots of me without my hands in my pockets but was continually photo bombed. Ah well, Happy Monday! x

I couldn't resist him, he's too cute! 

Pattern Cutting Weekend at Ray Stitch

I've been sewing for five years now and would like to think that my dressmaking skills have improved a teeny bit during that time. One thing I still don't have much of a clue about though is fitting. I've never been properly taught how to fit patterns - everything I've learnt has been cobbled together from reading sewing blogs and books or by following sewalongs. Yes, I can more or less tweak a pattern to fit me, but I don't really know how and why I'm manipulating it. I've always wanted to be able to make a sloper or block to fit my proportions exactly, which I can then use to adapt other patterns. I don't want to become a designer, I just want somebody knowledgeable to explain the basic mechanics to me. 

So when Katie posted this excellent review about the three day pattern cutting course she'd taken at Ray Stitch, I was on red alert.  I knew that this was exactly the course I'd been looking for and booked in for the October Pattern Cutting Weekend. During the weekend I would create a skirt and upper body block and learn how to use the blocks to adapt commercial patterns and even create my own!  I. Could. Not. Wait!

The course was taught by Alice Prier, a super-stylish pattern cutter and designer with a ton of knowledge and experience to share. Alice was also very engaging and funny, which really set the class off on the right foot. This was a world away from the soul destroying needlework lessons at school! We started by taking 'accurate' measurements of each other. It was reassuring that Alice could take one look at our pattern paper and know immediately if we had an incorrect, or, in some cases, physically impossible measurement (ahem!) We each created an upper body and skirt block joined together at the waist to form a dress, which we then sewed up in calico. After trying them on, we all needed only minimal adjustments to ensure a perfect fit. Honestly they all looked great, and that's saying something as calico is notoriously unflattering (see photo below…) I achieved a good fit across the bust (hallelujah!) but needed to add an inch across the stomach and bum area i.e. the widest part of me, as the toile turned out a bit tight. I also had to pin a small chunk out of the front neckline as it was slightly gaping. Apart from that it fitted. Perfectly!

Any pulling you see is just the way I'm standing - it actually fits like a glove

This all happened on the first day - the second day was devoted to learning all about darts. Now I've done the odd FBA (full bust adjustment) and gaping back adjustment in my time, so I had a rough idea about what happens if you pivot or spread a dart.  Having it explained properly really did cement it into place for me - this was definitely my lightbulb moment of the whole weekend! Alice slashed a bodice into sections and then showed how a different fit/look could be achieved by pivoting the darts around the bodice.

This is the block we started out with. It has darts at the top and bottom

Once a bodice block is created, there is a set amount of shaping within the darts - so as long as this total amount of dart area remains the same, the darts can go anywhere. It can all go into one dart.

It can be redistributed between two different darts.

It can be joined together to form a princess seam (forgot to take a picture of that one.). It can be an underarm tuck.

Or, if you want more ease, you can simply choose not to sew the dart up at all.  This may be obvious to a lot of people, but it wasn't to me, so to finally understand it was well worth every penny of the course fee. These basic principles can then be used to create patterns for whatever you like. The possibilities are endless and I came away bursting with ideas. I've now transferred all my scribblings to my 'fitting' notebook', just in case I forget anything, which is highly likely. I've also decided to take Alice's advice and trace my block onto card to preserve it.

Obviously you're not going to learn everything there is to know about pattern cutting in just one weekend, but I felt that I learnt more than enough for my purposes.  I also met some lovely new sewing pals and a very inspiring teacher. Plus we were constantly plied with chocolate cake, which didn't hurt. Thank you to Ray Stitch and to Alice Prier for an excellent weekend course. x

Sewing conversations...

Earlier this week I weaved my way across London to visit the lovely, shiny new Ray Stitch shop.

After reading two great reviews of the shop here and here, I was desperate for a visit, so on the tube I hopped.  Straight away, I realised to my horror that I'd forgotten my book, so resorted to reading the instructions from a sewing pattern I just happened to have in my bag (Vogue 8409 if you're interested). This is not an unusual occurrence for me as I love reading sewing patterns. What was interesting though was the reaction of the two women sitting opposite me.  They stopped their conversation and watched me greedily as I worked my way through the instruction sheet.  Within minutes, we'd all started chatting and were soon swapping notes on fabric (of course), sewing machines and their respective feet, and the trials and errors of sewing on the bias.  We even managed to swing the conversation round to who we thought would win Strictly Come Dancing (Jason Donovan for me, Harry from McFly for my new pals).  When it was time for them to disembark, I bid them a cheery goodbye, along with detailed directions on how to get to the Goldhawk Road.

Now, I've lived in London since 1994 and not once, in all that time, have I ever had a conversation with a stranger on a tube before.  It could be any number of reasons but I like to think it was a mutual liking for sewing which brought about this happy exchange.  I've always found it pretty easy to chat to people, but I've noticed that having a passion for a hobby has made me even more likely to witter on.  By and large people seem to enjoy hearing about it too - if you're passionate about your subject, it makes for a more interesting conversation.  How about you?  Has your love of sewing opened up new friendships.  Is sewing like dog walking, in that it allows you to start up conversations with complete strangers?  I'd love to hear your views.

And what of Ray Stitch?  Well, after a quick coffee with Karen, who'd very generously used up her lunch hour to come and meet me, my purchases were remarkably restrained.  In a nutshell, Ray Stitch is a fine little hidden gem and I'll definitely be visiting again.  This is what I restricted myself to:

Pins for fine fabric, pricey but worth it to avoid unsightly holes on occasion.

A sewing gauge - I've wanted one of these for ages.

Colette patterns Peony.  How could I resist with so many gorgeous versions doing the rounds?

And a metre of this lovely print which I have plans for.....

Have a great weekend everybody. x