More sleeveless shell tops

My Sleeveless Shell Top has been such a hit this summer I promptly made myself two more. Taking on board my own advice from my first version, I made a couple of tiny adjustments to the pattern: I lengthened the front curve to match the back and eliminated the centre back seam. I also used this method to attach the all-in-one facings by machine and it worked like a dream. Now that I know what I'm doing (it only took me five years to work it out...) it actually takes me less time to attach an all-in-one facing than it takes to attach bias tape and you get a lovely clean finish. I'm a complete convert!

First up is a Liberty lawn version in my all time favourite print - Carline (only available in pink at the moment). I had just one metre of fabric, which was lucky as that's all you need for this pattern! I made it during a sewing afternoon over at Tilly's and am amazed I managed to sew it without any mistakes as I was more than a little distracted by the sewing chat. It's such a lovely, colourful top and looks great with all kinds of solid coloured garments: jeans, skinny trousers, red skirts, the lot! 

The second version is made from Swiss Dot cotton*, this time in turquoise.

I used the same kind of fabric for my Malia top and it's a really nice weight for a sleeveless top - it has a lovely drape. I only had a 60cm remnant, (snapped up for £2 from Fabric Godmother last year) and it was just enough to cut out the front and back pieces. I love it when I get to use up smaller pieces from my stash like this! I cut the facing pieces from white silk cotton.

This top will probably get even more wear than the Carline one as it's a solid colour so can be paired up with virtually anything.

Three is probably my limit for this pattern this summer - I dread to think how many I'm going to make next year though! I love this pattern. x


*Every single time I type this fabric name I think of Dot Cotton from Eastenders...

La Maison Victor Malia Top

I'm delighted to be part of a world blog tour to help launch the English edition of Dutch sewing magazine La Maison Victor. Until now the magazine has only been available in French or Dutch, so this will come as welcome news to its many fans. Bloggers in the launch countries (UK, US, Canada and Australia) have each been asked to make up a pattern from the magazine and blog about it. Today it's my turn!

I have to say, I fell heavily for the magazine as soon as I received my copy. It has a modern, stylish feel to it and the projects are beautifully photographed and designed. It's packed full of content too, with eight sewing patterns to choose from: three children's patterns, four women's (two dresses, a skirt and a top) and one men's pattern. There's also a knitting pattern for a short summer sweater.

I chose the Malia Top purely because it looked the easiest to sew and I didn't have a great deal of time to spare. It's a simple, sleeveless tank and as I'm currently on a roll with this style I thought it would be good to add another pattern to the mix. 

Patterns are included in a separate pull-out section in the middle of the magazine and need to be traced as there are several pieces on each sheet. There's a handy information box for each pattern which highlights the pattern pieces needed and the sheets they're printed on. I found this really helpful when tracing the pieces. Seam allowances also need to be added, but as I only had two main pattern pieces (the bias strips for the neckline and armholes didn't require them), this didn't take long to do. Instructions are comprehensive and detailed - refreshingly different from Burda instructions which have always made zero sense to me.

For fabric I wanted something light and floaty and this navy Swiss dot cotton in my stash was perfect. I deliberately chose a solid colour as I wanted to accentuate the bust gathers. The fabric is very light and delicate so I used French seams throughout.  

The only shaping on the Malia top are the bust darts which are gathered underneath. This is a really pretty and unusual feature but I'm still undecided about whether I like it or not. The darts also sit a little too high on me which doesn't help! The jury's out...

The sizing wasn't too bad (I made a size 10), although I could probably have given myself a bit more room at the bust. The neckline and armholes are finished with self bias strips, which fit exactly. This doesn't leave any room for error, so next time I'll be adding a couple of centimetres to both these pieces. Other than omitting the hem seam allowance I made no changes to the pattern, so overall it was a very quick and easy top to sew.

I'll definitely be looking out for future editions of La Maison Victor as the patterns are easy to work with and the designs very wearable. The magazine should be available in WH Smiths and major supermarkets from this week or can be ordered online from this site along with fabric kits for each project. 

That's it from me, in the meantime don't forget to check out the other UK participants blogging their projects this week:

5th July Katie at What Katie Sews
6th July Clare-Louise at The Thrifty Stitcher
8th July Laura at The Petite Passions

A copy of La Maison Victor was given to me free of charge to review. All views my own. 

Quest for the ultimate sleeveless top pattern

Tank, shell, singlet, cami - there seem to be many different descriptions, but what I'm essentially talking about here is a simple, sleeveless top made from woven fabric. With such a straight forward design it's all about getting an excellent fit - and once you've nailed the fit, this kind of top really will become a wardrobe workhorse.

Easier said than done though! I can't tell you how much time I've wasted recently sewing up toile after toile in the hope of finding the perfect pattern. This week I came as close as I was ever going to get, so I'm going to formally adopt the pattern I used as my go-to sleeveless top!

Apologies for the chopped off head - I looked like a lunatic in Every. Single. Photo

The pattern in question is the Sleeveless Shell Top from the GBSB Fashion with Fabric book (reviewed here). Now I'll freely admit I'm rubbish at utilising patterns from sewing books, and would never have even considered this pattern if I hadn't seen Bea rocking a gorgeous version recently. So thank you Bea!

I made a straight size 12 and the fit is just what I wanted - comfortable but still fitted enough to be worn loose. Plus the neckline curve and shoulder width both adhere to my fusspot standards, which is an added bonus! The only adjustment I made was to sew the side and centre back seams at 1cm instead of 1.5cm. I basted the seams together mid-way through sewing and they seemed a bit tight at the bust, hence the adjustment. One additional change I'll make next time will be to even out the curve of the hem. As drafted it has a high-low hem which you can see in the picture below. This gets a bit lost on my version and just looks like it's riding up at the front. Once I've lengthened the front to match the back I'll have my perfect pattern, yay!

The neckline and armholes are finished with a lovely neat all-in-one facing and a button closure. Now usually I'm completely flummoxed when it comes to turning an all-in-one facing through, but not this time. The method is very clearly explained in the instructions and I'll definitely be using it again, it's so clever! The top actually fits over my head buttoned up, so I'll be cutting the back piece on the fold next time and eliminating the centre back seam to make it an even quicker sew. EDIT: As a wise commenter has just pointed out, if I cut the centre back piece on the fold I won't be able to use the all-in-one facing as it needs a back seam to turn through, duh! Thank you Anne for pointing that out! 
EDIT AGAIN: It CAN be done without a centre back seam, hoorah! This excellent video shows you how. Thanks Katie! 

All in one facing - back view

The fabric is a John Kaldor poly viscose from Remnant Kings, bought with a voucher I won during the #VPJuly Instagram challenge last year. It has a very nice drape and because of the high poly content, it barely needs ironing, hoorah!

Now that I've pinned down the perfect pattern I'm going to make several of these tops for the summer, probably in plain colours. They're so light and cool to wear. What's your favourite sleeveless top pattern? And more importantly, how many have you made?! x

Progress on the Made Up vintage blouse

The Made Up initiative seems to be going from strength to strength. The good news is that at the time of writing, the total has just skipped past the £2,000 mark, which is almost double the initial target! Hoorah! The slightly less good news (for me, anyway) is that we've also skipped past the halfway point to the deadline. Hmmm, I think a bit of a progress report is needed….

Considering I have to fit my sewing in between fairy cake making and regular trips to the swimming baths (shudder), I don't think I'm doing too badly. Everything will rev into gear soon when the boys go back to school, but in the meantime, there's plenty of prep work to be getting on with. 

The one major change I've had to make to my plans is that my 1930's blouse will now be sleeveless. This is partly down to me stubbornly insisting to myself that one metre was enough fabric and partly because of the fabric itself. It was only after washing and ironing the fabric (more on that in a minute) that I realised there was a sizeable chunk missing from one corner - a 7" x 5" rectangle to be precise. It took me ages to work out what this was, then I remembered - a couple of hours before I'd actually purchased the fabric I'd asked for a sample, and the hole was the sample I'd been given. I wouldn't have minded if I'd been given a bit more to play with, but my fabric still only just measured a metre in total. In fairness, this may not have been intentional, but all the same, it was bloody annoying and meant I had to omit the sleeves. 

Whinging aside, the pattern pieces have been cut from the fabric, so the fun's about to begin! I got to use my razor sharp serrated edge scissors for the first time and they were fab, they made the cutting so much easier, thanks Alex for the recommendation! I had to make a couple of tiny adjustments to the yoke and to the front and back bodice pieces to allow for lack of sleeves. I used this tutorial, the same one I used to convert my Granville to a sleeveless version, and it worked fine. I also decreased the back width slightly, which is an adjustment I made on my other versions. 

As I didn't want to take any chances with silk crepe de chine i.e ruin it in the wash before I'd even taken the scissors to it, I did a bit of research on how to launder silk. This involved asking my regular laundering guru - my mum, Lily. Lily's advice was to gently wash the fabric in lukewarm water with a very mild soap, no rubbing or squeezing, just swirl it around. Then rinse it well, smooth it out and lay it between a towel to dry flat. This is more or less the same advice given on the Til the Sun Goes Down website, so I knew it was sound. It washed beautifully, but it was a bugger to get the creases out of. I pressed the fabric whilst it was still damp, but they were still pretty stubborn. It's definitely NOT going to be an easy care garment!

I've now underlined the front, back and yoke pieces with white silk cotton to brighten the colour and make the silk less transparent. Even with the underlining, the fabric has still retained its silky hand and slight sheen, which is encouraging. My next step is to interface the under collar and front button band with silk organza to add a bit of crispness. I'm using silk thread to underline and to sew the actual blouse, along with a sharp needle and Entomology pins. If you're interested, my silk thread came from here, which offers a much wider choice of colours than Gutermann silk thread. I also have some vintage silk thread in exactly the right colour (see photo above), but sadly, not enough. Aren't the old thread bobbins so much more attractive than the modern ones?! 

I've given myself until the end of this week to finish all the underlining and interfacing. Then all I have to do is sew the blouse together, which should be straight forward (nervous laugh). How are you getting on with your Made Up pledges? Started? Finished? Still thinking about it?!  x

A Summertime Granville

My springtime Granville shirt has become a real wardrobe staple these past few weeks - it's such a classic style and I really like the fitted, yet comfortable shape. Key word here - comfortable! Everybody knows I'm a giant fan of a super-fitted, collared shirt (if you need proof, see my five versions of Simplicity 4238), but I have to admit, the trillions of darts around the waist do feel a bit restrictive as the day moves on and more and more cakes are consumed. The advantage of the Granville pattern is that there are no waist darts (as opposed to eight in Simplicity 4238!) but you can still achieve a lovely fitted silhouette thanks to the shaped side seams and princess seams on the back bodice. So I decided to make a lightweight, sleeveless version of the Granville shirt to wear during hot, summer days.

The fabric I used was a white Swiss Dot Cotton from Fabric Godmother, which Josie kindly sent me to review. I deliberately chose a very lightweight fabric as I wanted this version to be suitable for hot weather. The fabric is beautifully light, but the flip side is that it's also totally transparent. I'm not a camisole wearer and don't like having a visible bra on display so I knew I'd have to underline the whole shirt. Initially I planned to underline it with silk cotton, but the white silk cotton in my stash is just slightly off white. The Swiss Dot fabric is a bright, brilliant white, so I underlined it with a layer of light cotton muslin which was exactly the same shade. 

The bottom yoke piece is underlined, the top one isn't

You can see from the photo above what a difference there is between a regular pattern piece and one that's been underlined. This solves the transparency issue and because both fabrics are so light, the garment still feels very drapey and breathable.

My scissors struggled a tiny bit cutting through some of the raised 'dots', so make sure yours are nice and sharp if you're working with this fabric. I could also feel the needle going over the dots as I was sewing, but the stitches didn't distort which I was pleased about. I used Entomology Pins throughout, which are great when working with fine fabrics. They are quite long and sharp though, so be careful you don't prick your finger and drip blood! I'm only saying this because as I was completing the final few stitches on this shirt and congratulating myself on avoiding a pricked finger mishap, I realised to my horror that I was having a nosebleed. A nosebleed!! The last time I had a nosebleed was about forty years ago for goodness sake! By an absolute miracle, I managed to avoid dripping blood all over the shirt but I'm not quite sure how. I know it's only a matter of time before I spill a whole plate of tomato sauce right down my front - just you wait!

Back to the sewing - if you're planning a sleeveless Granville yourself, you'll need to make some slight modifications to the armhole and yoke pieces to convert the original pattern to a sleeveless version. This was very simple to do and I used this excellent tutorial from Grainline Studio, which Tasia recommended when she made her own sleeveless version. Sewing this shirt was pretty straight forward and I took my time sewing it which was a good thing - sewing shirts shouldn't be rushed! The step that really flummoxed me last time was sewing the collar, so this time round I tried a different approach and followed Andrea's collar tutorial at Four Square Walls. She constructs the collar in a different order to the instructions, and for me personally, it made a lot more sense and gave a neater, more professional look to the collar. Thanks Andrea!

As the fabric is so lightweight, I spent a bit of time making sure the finish of this shirt was really neat. The side seams and princess seams are French seamed and the armholes are finished with vintage white bias binding - no raw seams on display! I even slip stitched the armhole binding to the underlining so there was no show through on the right side of the shirt. Yep, you read that correctly, hand stitching, through choice! I think the heat was getting to me by this point!

Inside view

Easy to tuck in - yay!

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that this version of the sleeveless 1950's shirt is also white, so why did I need another? For a start, the two fabrics couldn't be more different - I used a thickish cotton pique for the Simplicity version, which is as stiff as a board. It's a nightmare to launder and get creases out off and is really bulky to tuck in - I noticed this especially during OWOP last September when I was trying to pair it with different garments. I did note then that I needed another white sleeveless shirt in a different fabric, well here it is! I love it - and it's turned out exactly as I hoped.  Happy Wednesday! x

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

A toned down bow blouse

I recently had a couple of precious mornings all to myself i.e. no children to entertain. This was my last chance for garment sewing until September, so I chose what I was going to make carefully. I wanted an easy top for my holiday, it had to have minimal fastenings (ideally no zips or buttons), a fitted shape and be made in a lightweight fabric for wearing at the beach.

I trawled through my pattern collection looking for inspiration, before finally settling for Simplicity 2154 - a sixties style bow blouse which I first made here.  Now, you may think something Miss Moneypenny would have in her wardrobe would be highly unsuitable for holiday wear, but stay with me. As a casual holiday top, there's a lot to be said against using this pattern: it's quite high necked, it looks formal, it has a ginormous bow and if you're not careful, you could end up looking a bit too 'Dog Toby'. Looking like 'Dog Toby' is an expression my mum and I use if something looks a bit too frilly and ridiculous around the neck, named after the fine, ruff-wearing dog from Punch and Judy. Moving on… you'll be relieved to know that I never intended to keep the original bow on the front. I might have a thing for bow blouses, but even I realised that a giant one would be just too Dog Toby for the beach!

Let's talk about what was right about the pattern instead. What drew me to it was the fact that I managed to get away with not inserting a side zip the first time I made it. It has bust darts and contour darts to the front and back, so although it's roomy, there's enough shaping there to still make it look fitted. It also has cute keyhole details at the front and back neckline which I thought would be a nice feature for holiday wear.  I wanted it to be a quick make, so as well as the bow, I also decided against including the collar - it would just be a simple shell top with added keyhole details. 

It sewed together like a dream but when I tried it on, the neck was too high. It wasn't unnaturally high, just not as casual as I'd hoped. I decided to lower the front neckline and have the front fasten with a thin bias binding bow - I'd still get a bit of bow blouse action, just not of the Mrs Slocombe variety. I lowered the front neckline edge by about an inch and drew a curve to join it up with the rest of the neckline. Because the neckline is finished with self bias binding, I simply cut out double the amount of neck binding and let the remainder hang loose from the centre front edges. This extra neck binding became my bow. Simple!

Back detail: fastened at the neck with a  button and handworked thread loop

The fabric is a Japanese cotton lawn from the same selection at Abakhan that my lemon lawn came from. I was delighted to receive a gift voucher from Mr Will Abakhan himself as a thank you for inadvertently helping to shift copious amounts of lemon lawn fabric! The voucher burnt a hole in my pocket for all of five minutes before I blew the whole lot on….more cotton lawn! I couldn't resist, it's so soft and lightweight, absolutely perfect for hot weather clothing. I chose two metres of a gorgeous red and turquoise rose print, and as the blouse only requires a front piece, a back piece and a few strips of bias binding, I still have nearly 1.5 metres left to make a dress with next year. Woohoo! I didn't bother underlining it this time as I deliberately wanted it to be as light as possible.

It took me one morning to cut out and sew the blouse together, and another to fiddle with the neckline, so it was still a quick, easy make. It teams up really well with my vast collection of red and denim skirts, shorts and capri trousers too, hoorah! Thank you for the generous gift voucher Abakhan - last minute holiday top sorted!  

I'd quite like to plan ahead next year and make a few more holiday tops or camisoles. I've got my eye on the new Silk Cami pattern from Sew Over It, which looks promising, plus there's some great inspiration in Katie's recent Camisole Crazy post, but if you know of any other suitable top patterns (preferably without zips or buttons) please share them in the comments. Happy Monday! x