In Praise of Pockets

Pockets!

One of the best thing about making your own clothes is being able to add those things that are inexplicably missing from ready made designs. Like hoods on coats that are actually deep enough to shade your face or pockets on skirts! Designs for women just don't have enough pockets...

This is another self drafted garment - a half-circle skirt. There was a little maths involved but also a fairly large amount of winging it and I think it's turned out ok. It has gathered patch pockets! These were my first and they are completely lined so they should be fairly sturdy. 

What I can't decide is whether I want to keep the pockets plain or add a stripe of ribbon of some kind - maybe a shiny black? What do you think?

In case you needed a demonstration on how to use a pocket...

I already have plans to make a second one, maybe with buttons down the front this time. A girl just can't have too many practical pocketed skirts after all.

I would, of course, need to obtain the bright red petticoat as well. 

The generously hooded coat might have to wait a while though!

What about you? What are your favourite additions and alterations to handmade clothing that you just can't find in the shops?

J

P.S. If anyone has any tips on getting good sewing machine tension, I'd love to hear them. Mine's all over the place and it's driving me crazy!

P.P.S. I recently started using Bloglovin to keep track of the blogs I read. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Port Elizabeth and Lessons Learned

So, here it is! My version of Port Elizabeth, which is a free pattern by Sarah Magill, available to download from Burda.

This is a great pattern for beginners (i.e. me!) - very simple and quite wearable. I made it a couple of inches longer as it's a bit on the short side and I'll be wearing it tucked into high waisted trousers and skirts. I also didn't like how the sleeves stuck out so I gave them a little hand-stitched tuck to pull them in.

I am completely in love with this fabric, it's utterly fabulous.

After Port Elizabeth I had maybe a tiny bit over a metre left. I think I must have been a little high on sewing fumes as I then decided it would be fun to draft my own dress pattern.

Because, you know, that's easy, right?

Yes, I'm completely insane, but actually it wasn't too disastrous in the end.  And this dress certainly taught me some things. Oh yes.

Lessons learned:

• If you are making a dress with a side zip, it will need to pulled over your head. And your chest. And then your hips. This is not compatible with a sexy wiggle skirt. Sorry. Try again.
• You can try and insert scraps of fabric into the skirt seams to make it wider at the bottom. It will work. Sort of. In a bunchy sort of way.
• Hey! Zips aren't that hard! 
• I'm sure zip insertions were far more difficult during GCSE Textiles...
• Darts are cool.
• I hate the zig zag stitch. I hate raw edges on the inside. Everything else I ever make will have french seams.
• Well, ok, maybe mock french seams.
• Maybe deciding to draft my first dress using fabric that I only had a metre of wasn't one of my better ideas...
• Hey! It's a dress! I'm awesome!

• The next one will be better.

J

P.S. I know, the neckline isn't finished. I need to get some more bias binding but I just couldn't wait to share!

Birthday Outing

Yesterday was my birthday so A and I headed up to London for a bit of culture at the British Museum and a bit of, well, stuffing our faces at afternoon tea. I actually got dolled up for the first time in a while and was probably the most coordinated I have ever been in my life:

Even my handbag matches! An extremely rare occurrence - I am a knitter and a reader and I have a long commute. My handbag choices are usually based on how many projects/books/lipsticks I can squeeze into it.

Afternoon tea was the business. Oh yes. 

We had it at The Montague Hotel and it was fabulous. Also a lovely surprise to find that they had very thoughtfully decorated the tearoom to match my outfit:

A and I have eyes bigger than our stomachs, and after having extra sandwiches and extra scones (!) we could only manage to share a couple of the little pastries before calling it a day and heading (or really more like rolling) home.

Before collapsing on the sofa in a sugar and tea induced coma, however, I did manage to get a photo of my new dress!

Possibly a bit high on sugar at this point...

Given that I have just finished another sewing project today I think it's safe to say that I have well and truly caught the sewing bug. But that will have to wait for another post! And I promise there will be some knitting posts coming in the future as well.

J

Success!

Here it is! An honest to goodness hand sewn dress and I am insanely happy with it. Ok, so there was some slightly dodgy sewing of the bias binding (which is just magic, by the way) but it fits and it's beautiful!

I'm just hoping the weather is as beautiful tomorrow as it is today so I can wear it on my birthday trip to London. A and I are heading to the British Museum for some culture and then refuelling with a full on afternoon tea - I think this dress would be most appropriate, no?

Pattern is Butterick 4790 and I am dying to make another one, this time maybe in a sold colour - light blue with red bias? Red with white bias? Grey with purple bias? Endless possibilities!
Unfortunately it looks as though the pattern pieces got lost in the move to our new flat though, so I imagine I'll be buying myself a new copy! (note to self - this is why we don't leave dresses half finished for a year)

Modelled shots to come soon, but I just couldn't wait to share so my dress form had to do. I'm thinking she needs a name by the way. I'm leaning towards Mabel - any thoughts?

J

Sewing Madness

I've been going sewing mad lately. Of course - as seems to be common with me - it's mostly been theoretical sewing up until today. Frantic reading of sewing blogs late at night, impulse purchasing of patterns, that sort of thing.

But I think it really is beyond time to move out of the theoretical and into the practical, don't you? First step, finish this:

Yeah, see that 'dress'? That has been at that stage for a year, because I was daunted by hemming the circle skirt. The pattern says to hang the dress for 24 hours before hemming to allow the drape to set, so 8,760 hours should definitely have done the trick! I seem to have a mental block with sewing that makes everything feel like it is going to be much harder than it actually turns out to be, as I am pleased to say that not only have I now hemmed the skirt, but also began binding the edges with bias ribbon (including some not-so-very-terrible stitching the ditch). And you know what? It was fine! Easy, even! I actually think I might even finish it by the end of the week.

Which is lucky, because boy, oh boy, do I have some sewing plans. First up will be Port Elizabeth which seems simple enough and looks like it would be a great summer top to tuck into high waisted trousers. Free, and only takes a yard of fabric!

After that, I'll be attempting this beautiful dress. I've already downloaded the pattern and am dreaming about how gorgeous it would look in a rich sapphire or emerald. Or red, of course, like this. And a short sleeved floral version? Oh, I think so.

I figure it should be doable, particularly with the excellent series of blog posts on the subject by Casey to give me a hand along the way. We'll see - I can't wait!

One last very exciting thing - I'm doing a giveaway over on the fabulous iMake blog! Five copies of my Zelda pattern are available to win so hop on over and leave a comment!

J

Zelda Shawl

Well, it's been a long and busy year since I last posted (and more on that in later posts), but what better way to kick things off again than to introduce a new pattern?

Zelda Shawl

Flapper girl?

Inspired by the Art Deco movement and flapper dresses, Zelda has a simple beaded body flowing into a  a heavily beaded lace edging. It's available in two sizes, either of which can be done with a standard 100g skein of laceweight. More details can be found on the Ravelry page.

English Rose?

I'm so proud that it's finally up and out there (although I am now resigned to getting nothing done over the next couple of days as I Rav-stalk myself obsessively - anyone else do that?) I am so grateful to my wonderful knitting friends who have given me so much support, especially to my test knitter Kate's Twirl who wrote a fabulous blog post about Zelda, with lots of helpful tips and tricks, and my eagle-eyed tech editor Rachel.

Semmmilla

There are some days when the danger of working in a yarn shop becomes particularly apparent.

Normally, I have a good solid mental filter in place when it comes to all the beautiful yarn we stock at Loop. I had to develop a bit of immunity to the 'ooh, shiny!' to stop myself from sinking absolutely *all* my wages back into yarn. However, every so often something new and utterly gorgeous arrives at the shop, the filter disappears and the urge to possess kicks in.

Ooh...shiny...

Mmm, yarn

This is BC Garn Semilla Organic Lace. The colours are amazing ('I want that one...and that one...that one, too...ooh, and that one!' etc.) and it's 100% wool laceweight, which I've been coveting lately since my stash is full of silk. Naturally, this knitter always wants to knit with what she doesn't have....

Or..didn't have, any way...

...and has very little self control. It's all very well having rules and yarn diets but sometimes a little flexibility makes for a very happy knitter.