BWOF 06-2009-101 Pleated front knit dress

Thank you to the Sydney people who suggested lovely shops to visit and invited me to meet for coffee. Unfortunately only my children are having a 10 day holiday in Sydney (with their grandparents). My husband is accompanying them for the first weekend, then my in-laws will bring the children back after the following weekend. I am staying home to work, but am planning an intense remaining 3/4 of a weekend spent on sewing. I will subsist on a diet of chocolate and ginger and do no housework. It is lucky my husband will only be away for 2 nights!
I will be in Sydney for a long weekend at the beginning of October, and again over Christmas, so maybe I can take advantage of the shopping (and coffee) later on.
Due to a full day, instead of a half day at work on Saturday, I did not finish the BWOF dress in time to wear to the drafty party last night (I wore last year's wool jersey SWAP dress instead) but I was easily able to distract myself from the urgent calls of camo pants and long sleeved t shirts, and to sew the dress today. I am hoping to go out to dinner with my husband whilst we are temporarily childless so I have an excuse to wear it.

 

I am much happier with this pattern as a dress than as a top. The fabric is a lovely teal wool jersey from Michael's Fabrics. It looks a bit too green on my monitor, in real life it is a beautiful colour. Although the fabric is thin, the pleats seem much better behaved in the wool jersey. However, I did not trust them at all, and topstitched them for a few centimetres, top and bottom before pressing them with lots of steam. They drape quite nicely IMO. Maybe lycra is not such a good thing for pleats! There is still a slight poufy tendency. I did cut the pleated bodice 1cm shorter than the lining to encourage the pleats to pull in against the body, and I think this has helped a lot with the fit.

 

As Elizabeth pointed out in the comments on the last post, the t shirt length version seemed to ride up a bit in front. In the dress version, the weight of the skirt pulls the bodice down, so the dress fits better. However, I did need to shorten the back bodice a little after construction.

 

After my experience with the shoulder seams showing at the neck in the t shirt version, this time I sewed both the front and back shoulder seams by sandwiching them between the front and back pieces and their linings. I like the enclosed seams on the inside.
The dress is rather plain at the back. My daughters like the dress with this wide purple belt, but I am not so sure.

 

Jalie 2795 Hoodie

Sewing just lately has been a bit mixed up, with several projects waiting in mid stream due to missing parts. This hoodie Jalie 2795, was waiting on a 60cm open ended chunky zip. I had a difficult time sourcing the zip.

 

As far as I can determine from speaking to Birch, Leutenegger and Sullivans, this size is not available in Australia. Instead I ordered 3x 56cm zips in purple, (as in 56 cm many colours are available), and 3 x 61cm zips in grey, there being far fewer colours available in 61cm. 3 was the minimum order I could make, but I am sure to use the extras for something, one day. This is why I have a large notions stash!
I ended up using the 56cm zip. It is a little too short at the neck end, but my daughter much preferred the colour, and it is not so cold here that 5cm of missing zip will make her neck freeze.
The fabric is Polartech300 with a sherpa face and a smooth face. I bought it from Seattle Fabrics last winter, and it has been lurking under the bed in my son's room for the last 12 or so months. I did buy some zips from Seattle Fabrics when I bought the fabric but seem to have used them up on something else! There is still a lot of polar fleece under the bed. I am really hoping to use most of it over the next 2 or 3 months, as I am sure I could fit a lot more yardage of other fabrics in the same space!
Uta commented on my jester hat post that
she was suprized that it is cold enough for polar fleece where I live. Where I live in Australia is officially the subtropics, so it does seem a bit strange to need polar fleece, but we are about 80km inland, so in Winter, we have some very cold nights, evenings and early mornings. It may not seem very cold to someone in Germany, but if it hits 0 degrees, we really layer up. Of course by 10 am we can wear shorts and a t shirt, but that is just boasting :. I will be making more polar fleece jackets soon, as my children are visiting their grandparents in Sydney in a few weeks, and will also be visiting the Blue Mountains, where we even have snow occasionally. My daughter has requested mittens to match her jacket.

 

I am happy with the pattern for this hoodie. It is a properly technical cut garment with a high neck and close fitting hood that can be worn under a waterproof shell. My daughter will be able to use this for hiking, not just as a casual jacket. (I made a Gortex jacket last year, so I am off the hook for the outer layer)

 

The sizing is true to the measurements. I made my daughter size R (European 34) which approximates her bust, waist and hip measurements and the only fitting adjustment was to the length of the sleeves. These were a little too long. My daughter is 168 cm tall, which is pretty average, and I do not usually need to shorten sleeves for her.

 

The only design change I made was to line the hood. I think this looks nicer when the hood is worn open, and it adds another layer of fabric for warmth. Due to the bulk of the fabric, I should have allowed a little extra room in the outer hood for the space taken up by the lining, but I don't think the hood has suffered too much from my omission.
Jalie has added their own label as a zipper pull tag. I liked this idea, but don't have a label, so cut a scrap of cotton print on the bias, sewed a tube, then hand sewed it through the zipper pull. This will make it easy to use the zip, even whilst wearing gloves.

Jester Hat

Last year my daughters made jester hats from polar fleece. They really enjoyed it, but a few weeks afterwards, my son complained that he did not have one, so I started to collect scraps for a boy version.
Being a bad and neglectful mother, I did not get around to finishing the hat, (I did not start until the end of August) and the warm weather beat me. However, in an attempt to redeem myself, I finished this off on the weekend.


I did not use a pattern for the hat, just 8 long strips with a triangle end sewn together to make 4 peaks. Each of the peaks has a few strips of polar fleece sewn in. The hat is reversible, with as many colours as we could squeeze in. He is quite happy with it, and it is lovely and warm with all those layers of polar fleece.

Below is a sneak preview of my next post. I started making BWOF 06-2009-102. I am not happy with it in this state, but (after dark - therefore no photos) I made some improvements. I am keen to make a second version with further adjustments, it is an interesting pattern. The ultimate plan is to make the dress version 101 in wool jersey for a dinner we are attending next Saturday - held in an unheated heritage listed building with 15 foot high ceilings, very drafty. I am hoping to be warm and reasonably dressed up, hard to pull off both at once!

Lin gerie Sewing

I guess you were expecting frillies or pretties with that title, no, we are in shed territory.

I do not want to use the wires from my kit for my practice bra, so decided to work on some retrieved wires from an old bra. I had to clip them to make them a comfortable height, so then I needed to coat the ends to stop them piercing me. My husband suggested this electrical wire coating stuff. It is nasty, toxic stuff, so I had to wear a respirator and work on the shed verandah, very rustic.

I wanted a little extra coating on the inner side of the wire, so used clothes pegs to sit the wires up to dry.
I did progress in the bra sewing this weekend, but as I kept sewing until after sunset, I do not have any good photos. I do not think the first one will fit, but I am learning a lot.

Jo Sharp Knit 5 - tank

I love this top. I would love it 100% if I did not sew and knew nothing about fitting.

I have just finished knitting it from Jo Sharp's book Knit 5. It is knit in 8ply soho summer DK cotton in colour currant 234. I really like the yarn. Some people on Ravelry have complained that it is splitty, but I found it beautifully behaved on bamboo circular needles, only showing separating tendencies if I happened to un-knit a few stitches.
You can see here, however, that the soothing round and round rib knitting seduced me into fitting errors. The top is too long in the middle section, and too short in the bust section. I did slip in a few short rows across the bust to try to fix this, but I was too late (and not keen to un- knit)

I tried two different methods of attaching the straps to the front, mattress stitch and back stitch. To my surprize the back stitch seemed more messy, so I put some buttons on this side rather that unpick. I was feeling very lazy, and I really like the buttons. There were only 3 left, so it is a perfect use for them. I used garter stitch on the edges of the straps so that they would not roll inwards due to the rib.


I will have to remember to keep pulling this down when I wear it to disguise the rolls. Perhaps I will just have to make another one in a different colour. I am tempted!

June Capsule, Marlene pants (again)

I am participating in the June Capsule Competition at Stitchers Guild, where the challenge is to make a 4 piece wardrobe, and an accessory, which co-ordinate with a wardrobe orphan.
My orphan is a lace wrap top from Witchery that I bought to wear to a party. This was several years ago, and the garments with which I originally wore the top belonged mostly to my sister. I did wear the top later over some beige linen pants, but was not really thrilled with this as an outfit, and the pants have since been retired.
Today I finished a pair of BWOF 08-2008 105 Marlene pants. Only Beebee has more pairs of these pants than I !

I was quite happy with the sewing of these pants. As the tropical wool fabric is quite thin, I lined these pants with batiste. After 4 pairs the construction is becoming straightforward, although still rather slow. This may be due to my delaying tactics when faced with a welt pocket (my sewing cupboard is remarkably tidy at the moment)


Unfortunately, I do not like these pants at all worn with the orphan top. I think these are now work pants, and the top is not suitable for work.

Additionally, despite desperate attempts to develop a TNT selection, I do not think I am a good candidate for this form of sewing.
1. My weight, size and fitness fluctuate. These pants (and all the other pairs) are now much too big.




2. I find sewing the same pattern rather boring if it occurs too soon after a previous attempt. I made one pair of these pants with different pockets, but it did not improve the boredom factor. I have sewn them from cotton gabardine, linen and now wool, and different fabrics did not improve the boredom.
3. I have some perfectionist tendencies. If I have one garment made from a particular pattern it seems possible for me to excuse the faults. With 4 pairs of these pants, I am unable to excuse the faults common to all pairs, and every time I wear any of these pants, the faults annoy me a lot.
4. I am unbearably tempted by new patterns and have a BWOF subscription.

I guess I need to become very, very quick at alterations!

More BWOF 05-2009-137

I am finishing off a few things before I start working on a June capsule for myself.
Here is my weeknight sewing this week.

 

The next two pairs of BWOF May 2009 pants 137 for my son have been very quick to sew, as there are only the normal number of pockets (still missing the coin pocket) and much less topstitching. I cut these out a fortnight ago, and having previously sewn the camo pants, the navy pairs went together without a hitch. I am becoming quite speedy at fly fronts and am busy patting myself on the back about it. Watch this space for a major sewing disaster......

 

The fabric is a left over navy cotton twill (gabardine) from last year's Michael's fabric bundle. I used the majority of this fabric for my super wide Marlene pants last September, and knew the largish scraps would make nice pants for my son. The fabric is beautifully soft. It was lovely to sew after the coarse canvas camo! I had to piece the remnants in order to squeeze in the full leg length of the trousers, but thought this made quite a pleasant topstitching feature on the lower leg of the trousers

 

I used different topstitching on each back pocket for fun. I am not thrilled with the back elastic treatment. This time I topstitched the upper border of the waistband after the elastic was applied, but think it could do with a few more rows of stitching. I will probably not do anything more to this pair, as my son mostly wears shirts and t shirts untucked, but am pondering a few ideas for a neater finish next time.

 

The lucky last scraps of the Michael's gabardine made a pair of shorts from the same pattern. I made these just below the knee in length, with no contrast topstitching, so that we can pretend they are school uniform shorts if necessary. He is modelling them with his uniform shirt this morning (this shirt is supposed to be worn tucked-in, with the official school shorts having a fully elastic band (ewww!)). As shorts, you can really see that these pants are too wide for my son, but he is not getting any smaller!

BWOF 05-2009-137 Children's trousers

I had grand plans to participate in RuthieK's Wardrobe in a Week challenge at Stitchers Guild. During the preparation phase, I cut out 2 pairs of trousers and one pair of shorts from BWOF 05-2009-137, planning to clothe my son for cooler weather.
Today, only 5 days after the finish line, I finished sewing the first of these trousers. The BWOF version has back patch pockets, front jean style pockets with a coin pocket, an elastic back waistband and a front fly zip. I would show you a technical drawing, but the May BWOF archive is not up yet.
I added extra pockets over the side seams, added a few carpenter loops, left off the coin pocket,embellished with a chain embroidery stitch from my Janome and made size 104 for width, 110 for height for my 114cm tall son. The pants were still a little too wide, but 104 is the smallest size, and I was feeling rather lazy about scaling down.

The fabric was a gift from a friend of my mother whom is no longer sewing. This lady sent me about 4 metres of cotton canvas camo print, 4 metres of cotton knit camo print and some khaki ribbing. I had no immediate plans to use this, camo not being my print of choice, but my son caught one glimpse of the fabric and begged me for "army pants" with "lots of pockets". I had no idea he wanted army pants, but apparently these are the height of fashion for 6 year old boys.
Naturally, given that I was making a sought after garment, I expected some great photos.
Here is a view of the back pockets with chain machine embroidery. You can sort of see the added bellows pockets and ruler pocket on the sides.



However, when the child in question was actually asked to face the camera, there were a lot of views like this.
I do not think he should consider a career as a model.