Celebrity Dress Death

Posted on 13 June, 2013 by Marianna

My daughter thinks that the woman on the pattern envelope for Amy Butler ‘Lotus’ is a vampire. I think it’s actually Amy Butler, laughing triumphantly at having got the whole world sewing again. I first became aware of this company a few years ago when John Lewis began stocking their fabrics in an otherwise tired and drab haberdashery department. Since then, this section of the store has enjoyed something of a revival and I always imagine that Butler’s inspiring fabrics and zingy marketing are to some extent to be thanked for that.

Last year, a friend made a beautiful and flattering version of the Lotus dress and, thinking I’d get similarly lucky, I asked to try out her pattern. It came with two warnings. With the cold summer that we’d had in 2012, my friend said she hadn’t got to wear her dress that much. Also, she warned that at the corners of the neckline, which are slightly less than 90°, the lining had a tendency to roll outwards. With these in mind, I drafted longer sleeves and put corded piping along the neckline so that the piping keeps the lining hidden away (the idea for the latter came from one of the Lotus reviews by 3 Hours Past.)

I found a very fine Liberty needlecord at Classic Textiles (44 Goldhawk Road, £5.50 a metre) and some matching lining which feels velvety, silky and cotton-like all at the same time but what it is I don’t know! It came from Unique Fabrics (28 Goldhawk Road). This dress was gonna be perfect for those days when it’s windy and cold but there are flowers everywhere (so it must be summer….)

The dress was easy and quick to make till I decided it needed a series of nip’n'tucks at the princess and waist seams to make it more flattering. I’m not sure all that adjustment has helped. The header picture is the best of at least a hundred photos I had taken. Some were so bad that after I downloaded them onto my laptop, it died. “It’s the dress, it makes you look twice the weight you are!” my husband said. I had to pause and think awhile, wondering if the comment was as insulting as I’d first thought! I put the dress on over some jeans and Converse - the kind of practical, mummy way I’d intended to wear it - but DH’s slow head-shaking made me jump out of them PDQ!

So what went wrong? Well, you tell me. Did I draft the sleeves bad? Is the fabric/lining too thick? Is the trapezium-skirt shape a no-no on me? Shall I wear it, dammit?!

BTW, when a gust of wind knocked the dummy in the dress down, I actually smirked:

Replacing a Coat Lining

Posted on 31 May, 2013 by Marianna

I knew it was time to replace the lining of my coat when I stood in the pouring rain outside my door and, fishing for the keys, realized that they’d slipped through a hole in the pocket to end up swimming in the hem somewhere

I’d imagined the job would take days but it turned out to be simpler and quicker, for three reasons:

1 Unpicking the old lining:

Using the seam ripper to remove the old lining isn’t the careful, slow process it would have to be if you were unpicking a mistake that you had to re-sew. A slapdash slash will suffice and you’ll be done in 30-60 minutes.

Tip: once the lining is off, you may discover that the inside of the coat has deposits of fluff, dust, grains of sand from historic visits to the seaside: all kinds of rubbish that dry cleaning didn’t expel. Give it a vigorous beating, followed by a going-over with a lint roller. Then, press seams open if they’ve flipped, fix shoulder pads in place and carry out little satisfying bits of maintenance that will help keep the coat in shape.

2 Creating the Pattern

Unpick the pieces that make up the lining, press them and you have a template for the new lining, seam allowances included. You only really need to do one half, i.e. one sleeve. Pick the pieces that are in better condition, usually the left side if you’re right handed. Unless your lining is complete coleslaw, you’ll be surprised how even the more destroyed-looking pieces look fine once pressed. But (tip) do leave your iron on a low heat or else the lining will melt onto it

3 Sewing

No need to finish off the seams when sewing the lining together: just press flat (to get rid of any puckers) then press open.

Further Tips from an Observant Newbie:

Pockets

The pockets will be the first bits that you’ll sew. If you’re new to tailoring (like me , unpick only one pocket to begin with. Make new pocket pieces and use the original to copy from.

Bagging a Lining

Until I asked for your help at the start of the month (thanks for your comments!), I had no idea that this is the name of the easy method of attaching the lining to a garment. Jen of Grainline has a clear and well illustrated bagging tutorial here but there are others. My favourite bagging tip is to sew the garment and lining together inside out then slash open the underarm sleeve and turn garment right side out through the hole. This way, you have two perfectly pressed edges to slipstitch closed. This is a trick I’m going to apply on everything lined!

Lining Fabric

I’ve heard a few complaints that there isn’t enough choice in lining fabrics. We dream of silks in interesting patterns then find that they wouldn’t go with the clothes we wear under the lined garment. Silk is in any case expensive and not durable enough for an everyday coat worn under a heavy bag. Acetate is cheaper but snags and can be sweaty. I took this complaint to Jeff and he immediately offered me Cupro: again, a new discovery. It cost £8 a metre and I needed 1.5m though would recommend 2m. Cupro is tougher than acetate, it’s apparently breathable and I found it easy to sew. More on Cupro and an interesting discussion on lining fabrics in men’s suiting can be found here.

And in case you’re wondering, yes I probably will be wearing my coat this summer

Cobbler’s Children

Posted on 31 May, 2013 by Marianna

I used to work on customer satisfaction surveys and once remarked to a (US) colleague that our agency never carried out market research with its own clients. He agreed, saying, “Cobbler’s children wear no shoes.” The expression, with hints of wretchedness and medieval-style child neglect, amused me no end. Though it’s not in use here in the UK (that I know of), I’ve thought of it every time I’ve had occasion to wear my old leather jacket but couldn’t bear the risk of friends who know I sew glimpsing its shocking insides. Which, once removed, looked like this:

Yes indeed, nice bum cheeks…

But the jacket itself is going strong. If truth be told, it’s acquired that slightly sickly whiff of leather in thrift shops but we have a history, my jacket and I, and never will I tire of its petrol-slick shimmer.

I gathered the courage to make a new lining for it after seeing this article. I didn’t need to follow the tute too closely, as my jacket is very simple. I was mostly spurred on by this promise from the contributor Cal Patch: “once you learn to reline your coats, you’ll never again have to carefully fold your coat over restaurant chairs so no will see the tattered lining inside.”

Good grief, so I’m not the only one?! Meggipeg recently commented that she rarely has time for making her own alterations so I was wondering if you too have a shaming equivalent to “cobbler’s children”?! Are you perchance a hairdresser with inches of roots? An IT specialist with years’-worth of photos dumped in hundreds of incorrectly dates folders?! Or do you also remove your coat with stealth!?

Tips for Sewing with Leather

I have no wish to teach granny to suck eggs here (to use another favourite expression), but I’d like to finish with a few tips I picked up from sewing leather for the first time.

1. Buy a pack of leather needles. I broke the first one immediately when it got caught in the glue with which the pocket welts were stuck to the inside of the jacket.

2. Keep stitches long, slightly short of the basting stitch. Your machine will seem to advance in leaps as a result, so if you can, keep your speed slow for control.

3. Keep the lining on top. When sewing leather to lining, keep the lining on top if you don’t have an even feed/walking foot. Otherwise, the leather will advance more and the lining might stop short of the jacket.

A Quick Alteration

Posted on 25 May, 2013 by Marianna

My mother asked if I could shorten her Liberty Lawn dress to make it less swamping. The original (top left) was nearly floor length. The fabric is fresh and the colours very much classic but the voluminous, dropped waist style…. With shoulder pads?? I didn’t dare whisper the embarrassing question: “Mum, is it from the eighties?!”

We agreed to slice off 20cm which would have been a 15 minute job had I just taken them off the hem. But that would have made the dress unbalanced, with a long waist and a relatively boxy skirt. Instead, I took 10cm off the bodice and 10cm from the hem, a more time consuming job which involved:

1. Basting the skirt pleats in place

2. Unpicking the bottom of the zip from the centre back bodice

3. Separating the bodice from the skirt, trimming off 10cm from the bodice, creating a centre back seam in the skirt and re-attaching the zip to run into the skirt

4. Shortening and hemming the skirt

I’m not sure if the alteration (top right) is a particularly flattering improvement as I haven’t yet seen the dress on, but I hope that it gets a few outings over this summer, something this dress hasn’t had in a while.

The job took 2.5 hours. Ok, so I did stop off for at least one dreamy tea break during which I wondered how much I’d charge for this kind of job had it been for a client rather than mum. “Twenty quid? For shortening a dress? I can get a new dress for that,” I imagine the indignation.

When I came back from the kitchen, I found this:

And this:

Me-Made-May & Giveaway

Posted on 1 May, 2013 by Marianna

“I, Marianna of Sew2Pro, hereby pledge allegiance to the worthy cause that is Me-Made-May. Each day in the month of May ’13, I shall wear at least one garment made by myself. And should the skies curse us with the same cold and ceaseless rain as we bore almost every day of May ’12 (grits teeth), I shall be covered; for I shall finally sew replacement lining for my old RTW coats and one leather jacket. It’s my most procrastinated project ever!”

To kick off M-M-M, I’m wearing the latest Laurel (review here) with which I’ve entered the Laurel Contest. Have you seen how many entries there are!? They’re an imaginative, creative bunch, these sewists who favour independent patterns. In other words, I don’t stand a chance of winning! But I love my new dress. The fabric, Zen Charmer from Alexander Henry, is from 2008, a stash treasure, and I hope I do it justice even as I currently wear it with flip-flops, horrendously neglected winter feet and leggings ….

Are you taking part in Me-Made-May ’13? Others’ outfits can be seen on this Flickr page.

But you’re here for the Giveaway! Wow, that one was complicated. Here are the results:

Laurel: Patty

Lily: Janey

Jasmine: Caroline

Clover: Sophie

Guys, I’m emailing you for your addresses. Everybody else who commented on my previous post, thanks. I’ve never had so many compliments.

Oh, and if anyone has any good tips or links for sewing lining replacements, please pass ‘em on!

Laurel Giveaway

Posted on 28 April, 2013 by Marianna

Ever fallen in love with someone who at first sight didn’t appeal at all? Well, that’s the story of me and Laurel! A month ago when the pattern was released, I was decidedly underwhelmed. “Hang on, that’s not a pattern, that’s a block!” I thought. But of course, Sarai, who thinks of everything, had foreseen the reaction of sceptics such as myself and produced not only a booklet with tempting ideas on how to vary the design, she’d also thrown in a challenge in the form of a competition to see who can come up with yet more creative interpretations. Which got me thinking along the lines of: ”but it looks like it’d be really quick!“ And: “those sleeves are so feminine.“ And: “I could do with a dress that’s practical… where’s that credit card?”

Having already garnered a few compliments IRL on my muslin, I can now safely declare Laurel to be my feelgood dress of the summer. And I want to share it with (one of) you. For a chance to win my used but respectfully preserved pattern, leave a comment below. Worldwide commentators welcome!

I’ll also be drawing for three other Colette patterns from the stash:

- the Clover, which I sadly made into pork. But you’d be luckier!

- the Sophia Lauren-inspired Lily, and

- the versatile Jasmine.

You may specify which draw you would, or wouldn’t, like to be entered into. If you don’t, I’ll enter you into all 4. The draw is on May the 1st.

The Laurel Muslin Review

I used a 1.5m of a full-width, light cotton to make Version 3 with the following adjustments/modifications:

1. French Seam: as my fabric is perforated and I didn’t want the seams to show, I used a French seam throughout, including in the sleeves.

2. I shortened the length by 5cm (or 2″ in Colette-speak) so as to wear as a tunic or to the beach.

3. I widened and lowered the neckline. Since these photos were taken, I’ve lowered it again by another 1cm so as to cut out the hook and eye at the back (I didn’t like how this sat). The new lower front also works better with this lapis lazuli necklace brought back by my mum from her travels in Chile.

4. I made bias binding twice the specified width

5. The waist seam: narrowed and made more vertical than out-curving.

Time taken: most of a day, not including the reworking of the neck. Would have been quicker if it wasn’t for the French seams.

Next time: I feel a slight pull towards the back so on my pattern copy I’ve moved the shoulder seam forward 0.5cm at the neck and 1cm at the shoulder.

And, oh look what indigo beauty I found browsing round Hobbs! My version cost £20: pattern, fabric an’ all.

Stuart Skirt

Posted on 23 April, 2013 by Marianna

So, tonight The Great British Sewing Bee reaches its final only 3 weeks after the show’s start. 4 episodes! Is that all we get?! How apologetic! Did the commissioning team have doubts that anybody would watch?! Oh, how I wish I’d been on that commissioning team. I’d have demanded that the show based its format on the worst excesses of the Roman Empire, with an exit policy straight out of the song Hotel California, so that each contestant, after counting themselves lucky to get in, can never leave, not unless a self-sacrificing member of the audience volunteered to step in and proved a like-for-like replacement. So, for example, a handsome amateur tailor of Matrix-style costumes could take the place of Mark, a fellow-blogger could replace Tilly and as for the lovely Stuart, he’d only be allowed to leave if some kind of sewing equivalent of Paul Hollywood could be found.

But enough of my sick fantasies.

Daughter and I had the idea to design this skirt after the Tulip Pocket Embellishment made by Stuart in Episode 2. I was curious to see how long it would take: as somebody who’s thinking about sewing professionally, I try to keep in mind how long a project takes so should I get a commission, I’d know to charge more than the minimum wage.

Here’s the breakdown of the Skulls as Pockets applique, a total of 1 hour 40m not including the making of the skirt.

Design of skulls: 10 mins

Making and attaching the skulls: 1 hour

Sewing the ric rac bodies on skirt: 30 mins

I did also spend some extra minutes looking for bits, blaming the kids for taking my stuff, coaxing Blogstalker off my work and lint-rolling the residual hairs….

After I finished, daughter immediately named this her “Funnybones Skirt”. And then I remembered that the skeletons in the book had a dog. How brilliant it would have been to have the skelly dog on the back of the skirt!? But that’s the sort of idea you get when you have the benefit of time. As Ann said, “I like having time to think.”

I made the pattern for the A-Line skirt by first making a Basic Skirt Block and then adapting it. I’ve been asked if the formula can be used for a child’s skirt and having now tried it, I’d say yes, but it helps if there’s a real difference in waist and hip measurements otherwise the skirt will be more of a tube and will slide off! The other thing to bear in mind is that the dart has to be shortened: here I made it 7cm. One advantage of sewing a girl’s A-Line skirt is that it’s so quick: this one is lined and it took an hour!

My Mini Betty

Posted on 18 April, 2013 by Marianna

Mad Men first arrived on UK TV at the same time as I was learning to sew. I had no idea what I was doing so rather than spend money on expensive fabrics, I’d cut up my husband’s worn work shirts and use the big pieces to make dresses for our daughter. These would be typically toddler in style, with voluminous skirts and puffed sleeves. We called them her “Betty Draper dresses”.

Five series of the show later and dear daughter hasn’t seen a single episode, yet she knows all about the stylish Mad Men ladies, thanks to Julia Bobbin‘s Mad Men Challenge. Many times I’ve found her studying last year’s copycat creations, so when she asked if I would make her a sixties-style dress and Julia very wisely initiated a second Mad Men Challenge, it seemed a heavenly match!

This print with its ‘mid-century-modern’ colours struck me immediately as a perfect fabric for the job – it’s actually a quilting cotton from Jeff Rosenberg. But we struggled to find a dress to copy. Sally Draper’s wardrobe is rather frumpy compared to her mother’s: collars seemingly inspired by Oliver Cromwell; dull fabrics as favoured by religions that forbid frivolity in dress. What to do? My daughter knew what she wanted: a full skirt, none of that Swinging Sixties Psychedelia, and – here she was adamant – “no collars”. I was insistent that the dress had to be for parties and play, not merely for a photo-shoot. In the end, I designed a pattern with a tentative link to the series and took most of my inspiration from this blogger lady in her beautiful dress from Shabby Apple.

Everyone loves the results. I’m mostly proud of the pleated waistband: the colour is a vibrant contrast to the grey and the pleats just beg to be played with. If you’re wondering how such a waistband is constructed, my trick was a strip of interfacing fused at the back and hidden by the bodice lining. The sleeves were made quickly and easily with casing and gathering elastic. It’s a good little girlswear technique I picked up from Akiko Mano’s book. Tutorial below.

Tutorial for Short Sleeve with Casing for Elastic

1 If your sleeve has a gathered head, begin by sewing two (or three) rows of gathering stitches. If you’d like a fuller sleeve, you can add height to your pattern and easily gather the extra: just remember that adding a height of 2cm to the pattern will give you only 1cm extra since the top of the sleeve is folded in half, as it were.

2 Stitch the underarm seam. If you’re using 0.7cm elastic, stop stitching 2cm from the end, leave a gap of 1cm and stitch 1 cm to the end. Edge-finish and trim. Press open.

3 Fold under 2cm. This has now formed an opening on the inside of the sleeve.

4 Fold seam allowance in half and stitch 1mm from edge. Attach the sleeve to armscye as per your usual method.

5 Thread the elastic through the casing with a safety pin and sew the edges together. If you allow an extra centimetre or two of the elastic, you can let out the sleeve later when the child has grown.

6 Slipstitch the opening closed.

♥

The Great British Sewing Backlash

Posted on 12 April, 2013 by Marianna

For an oversensitive creature like myself, the downside to The Great British Sewing Bee is that our gentle pastime is attracting attention outside our circles and provoking derision and sneers! Oh yes, what the world right now needs of its women is delivery from nuclear perish; perhaps one brave volunteer could ensnare into a honey trap and disarm the-not-as-cute-as-we’d-thought Young Kim? Not – as my favourite radio show mocks - sit sewing with programmes about retro midwifery on the bleedin’ telly!

And you, Punt and Dennis?

Whilst I rarely wish to take part in Guardian-bashing, I’m bristling (a bit) at its treatment of TGBSB. In his TV round-up, Andrew Collins skims over the content and whines ”I don’t care!” And the Guardian’s TV guide previews the programme with an incredulous: “Who still has time to sew?!”

Er, I do!

For the past two weeks, I’ve been looking after a varying collection of 8 to 13-year-old children, some of them mine. It’s a nice job, requiring not much more than checking for blood, providing meals and a daily airing. During this time, I was faced with the usual conundrum of what to do when a child has a friend’s birthday party coming up: do I buy or do I sew?

Option 1: My Usual Stand-by

What do you buy a child who has everything? Well, more of everything… A packet of Moshi monsters and a novelty pen from my most-adored stationers.

Total cost with card and giftwrap: £7.50 to £10, depending on whether the Moshis are on sale.

Advantages: quick, easy and once the gift is bestowed, you can forget about it, unless… you’re the type to be guilt-ridden about adding to the plastic toy reject mountain. Catholics and hippies are particularly prone here, and I’m a bit of both…

Option 2: a Personalized Cushion Sewn by Someone with Too Much Time on Their Hands

Total cost: slightly cheaper than option 1 if you don’t count the hourly sewing rate. You need to buy (or make or reuse) a cushion pad. I’ve also used an old concealed zip but you wouldn’t need one for an overlap design like on this Space Invader cushion. For the fabric, most of us have stash, though I found that the Guitars remnant I’d set my heart on simply didn’t provide a good enough contrast (see right). Instead, I bought half a metre of a “dragster cars” print from Rolls and Rems.

Time taken: 3 hours, half of which was spent planning and unpicking the concealed zipper from an old dress.

Advantages: unique and useful.

Disadvantages: the uncertainty. Will Sonny like it? My kids reckon yes and strangely, I find I care less than I would with the plastic toy mountain.

Option 3 would be some money in a birthday card, but then the question would be how much money? I wouldn’t hesitate to give a tenner to a child of 12 or older (so they could treat themselves to some fags and alcopops ) But turning up to a-nine-year-old’s party with money seems like handing in an entrance fee. What do you think?

My New Favourite Font

I’ve made personalized pressies many times before but one thing I’ve learnt from planning this project – which will speed things up if I make a cushion like this again – is to adapt the design to the age and gender of the kid. Out went the rounded letters, in with the Collegiate Border font. It’s a good one as it won’t use up much of your printer ink. The free download is here. For 7cm tall letters like mine (on a 41cm square cushion pad), select a font size of 200, print and cut out to make templates.

Back Pleat with Lining

Posted on 29 March, 2013 by Marianna

Very rarely do I look for something on the internet and don’t find it, but that was the situation when I needed a tutorial for a kickback pleat with lining. I eventually worked out what to do by staring intently at a RTW dress of mine and scratching my head.

Here’s the tutorial. Enjoy (no need to hobble in that pencil skirt no more)!

How to Sew a Back Pleat with Lining

In this demo, I’m using scraps but on a dress or skirt, you start here after you’ve attached the centre back zip but not yet sewn the seam below. The lining is loose and should be some 4cm shorter than the outer fabric.

1 Apply fusible interfacing to the pleat seam allowances of the outer fabric and lining. With the lining, you only need to interface the seam allowance, not the body of the pleat (this is why it’s a good idea to keep scraps). Use light to medium interfacing.