Girl Charlee ginghams

I'm sure you're aware by now that Girl Charlee recently set up a UK branch and have been spreading the word about their awesome knit fabrics throughout the land. They contacted me a while back to see if I'd like to try out something from their range and I was more than happy to oblige! 

They have a really interesting selection to choose from, including some lovely ponte de roma knits and cotton jerseys. I finally settled on two of their cotton jersey gingham prints in Paloma Grey and Classic Blue. I chose gingham as it's midway between a solid colour and a busy pattern, plus it's a nice change from stripes. My original inspiration was this picture of a simple Diane Von Furstenberg top from my Gingham Pinterest board, not the matching shorts though!

I decided to pair the fabric with the Tilly and the Buttons Agnes top, which Tilly very kindly gifted me when it was first released. 

The fabric is a nice quality cotton T-shirt fabric from the Modern Air Collection. It has 25% stretch and good recovery and the cotton content gives it a bit of stability so it doesn't misbehave and curl up all over the place. It's also quite wide (142cm), so I only needed a metre to make the top.

I chose the plain neckline and arm options - I thought the ruched neckline would get a bit lost amidst all that gingham and ruched arms are just not really my style. Based on reviewer feedback on the tight fit of this pattern, I cut a size 5 all over, which is one size larger than I'd usually sew for a TATB pattern. This was deliberate - the Agnes top is designed to be very close fitting but I didn't want mine to turn out absolutely skin tight and look like a leotard! The fit wasn't bad, but I needed to make a few tweaks to the hips and shoulders, next time I'll grade down to a size 4 in both those areas. Once I'd cut the fabric out, it only took me one episode of Desert Island Discs to sew it up on the overlocker. I then changed to my regular sewing machine and finished the neckband, sleeves and hem with a double needle. I took 2cms off the length of the full length sleeves (T-Rex arms) and that was it!

But let's back peddle a bit, at the beginning of this post I mentioned that I'd received two gingham prints -  grey and royal blue - so what did I do with the grey? Well I actually had the same intention for the grey gingham, which was to make an Agnes top. At the eleventh hour though, I rashly decided to abandon my original plan and make an Agnes dress instead (with 1.5m I had just enough fabric). I used this tutorial from Tilly's blog to make it, but used the half circle skirt from the Lady Skater dress instead of the gathered rectangle from the tutorial.

The colour of the grey gingham is lighter than this in real life

Alas, once I'd sewn it up, I realised it was very much a summer dress - I think this was because of the colour. I chose the grey because it looked like charcoal grey on the website, whereas in reality it has a much lighter tone, more like a dove grey. And when seen as a whole dress (rather than a top), it was just far too light and summery to wear in autumn. So I've decided to save it for next summer instead - I haven't finished the hem and the arms yet, so I may well end up making it short sleeved. For what it's worth, the Classic Blue gingham is exactly the colour as it appears on the website - a bright, royal blue.

So I did get two garments out of my fabric in the end: one to wear now and one to save for next summer. I really like the top - it's already proving useful in this in-between weather. It's a close fit, but still comfortable and the cotton jersey feels lovely to wear. I've worn it a few times already - with jeans (see above) and with a cardigan and red denim skirt.

If you'd like to try out some Girl Charlee fabric of your own then you're in luck as they're very generously offering one winner two metres of their choice of fabric!  Hoorah! To enter, simply leave a comment on this post telling me which Girl Charlee fabric you'd choose if you're the winner. The full range can be found in their online shop here. The giveaway is open worldwide and closes at midnight GMT on Sunday 4th October. The winner will be chosen at random. Please make sure you leave your email address if it's not linked to your Blogger profile so I can contact you if you're the winner.

Fabric was given to me free of charge for review. All views my own.

Kimono sleeved polka dot top

This is the kind of knit top I'm a bit short of in my wardrobe: one that's comfortable, but can also be dressed up when necessary. I don't know what it is about this pattern, (maybe it's the kimono sleeves?) but it definitely feels like it's a notch up from a plain old sweatshirt. The pattern I used was Burda 09/2011 108A  which I've used once before for my striped kimono top.

This is so, so easy to make it's ridiculous, even more so if you're not pattern matching stripes. It probably takes about half an hour maximum to sew together. Well it would have if I hadn't encountered a few neckband issues along the way. I'll spare you the gory details but in short, I ended up having to unpick the neckband I'd overlocked in place. I then went back to my original plan, which was to turn under the neckband and stitch. The result was plain and simple (although admittedly, a bit baggier than when I started) but it looks absolutely fine.

I made a few other small changes to the pattern from last time. I lowered the neckline slightly, took a chunk of about four inches off the length (the top is very long in its original state) and lengthened the sleeves by two inches to make them wrist length.

The fabric - a white jersey knit with large black polka dots - is quite a bit stretchier than the striped jersey I used for my first version. I used the same size for both tops (size 38) but this one came out a lot baggier, probably because the fabric wasn't quite as clingy. I shaved about ⅜" from the shoulder seams and around the sides and this improved the fit. I sewed the whole top on my overlocker, apart from the hems and neckline which were topstitched with a twin needle.

This top is my December make for the Minerva Craft Blogger Network. If you'd like to make your own version, Minerva has put together a kit which you can buy here, comprising 2m of white polka dot jersey fabric and matching thread. Two metres is probably quite generous, but I always err on the side of caution with kimono sleeves as the pattern pieces eat up a lot of fabric.

Despite the misbehaving neckline, I really like this top. I've been wearing it for the past couple of days and because it's such a neutral palette of black and white, it teams up well with any colour of cardigan. Hoorah! x

The kit was given to me free of charge as part of the Minerva Crafts Blogger Network. All views my own.

Guess what I've made?

Both my boys are back at school today and I can now sew in peace! Even though I'll miss my little dudes, I can't tell you how pleased I am to be back at the sewing machine. I've had a productive morning so far...

I've overlocked all the edges on my lining fabric, ready for my Abbey coat. I wasn't sure of the sewing etiquette for finishing edges on fabric that will be enclosed, so I've made up my own rules : 

If the fabric frays whilst you're handling it, then it's probably sensible to finish the edges.  
If the fabric behaves itself and doesn't seem to fray much, then leave it. 

My wool is perfectly behaved so I've left it alone, my lining fabric, although not as badly behaved as some I could mention, still frays and sheds fibres everywhere, so all edges were overlocked to within an inch of their life.

What else have I been up to this morning? Oh yes, (she said casually), I made five bound buttonholes..... 

The light was playing tricks today, the actual colour is more green than blue

YES!!! I finally made them and they're lovely. I did all the fiddly work (making the welts, thread tracing the button placements etc) last week, in between wrestling and playing football, so today's task wasn't too arduous. Still, it's probably the most pleasing morning's work I've done in a long time.


And just as my day couldn't possible get any better, look what arrived through my letterbox this morning.

Happy Thursday everybody. x