Author Archives: Marianna

A Quick Alteration

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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?!”  8O

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

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“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 8O …. 

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

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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?”  :roll: :-)

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

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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

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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

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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? :cry:

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

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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. 

 

2 Hem the lining

 

3 Apply tailor tacks at the point where the vertical and the diagonal stitching lines intersect

 

4 Clip to 2mm of the tailor tacks

 

5 Pin lining to outer fabric, wrong sides together, matching seams and tailor tacks.  

6 Press under seam allowances of fabric and lining on left side of pleat only (i.e. right side of garment)

 

 

7 Pin and stitch

 

8 On the right side of pleat (left side of garment) flip fabric and lining right sides together and stitch down from the tailor tack 

 

9 Clip corner and turn right side out.

 

10 On the inside, place both extensions to the right (garment left) and stitch along the diagonal through all thicknesses.

 

11 On the left, hem so the fabric fold meets the lining.

 

12 Finally, hem the right side taking care when pinning so that the final fold faces down (out of view) and not to the left 

 

13 Done And the outside:

Adding Seam Allowances

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One of you emailed me with a question that got me thinking: how do you add seam allowances?  I wonder if it’s one of those things so simple that everyone assumes they know how everybody else does it.  I hope some of this looks familiar!

Method 1 With a Sewing Gauge

Adjust slider to the desired SA and place along the stitching line.  Draw little lines against the edge of the gauge.  Repeat at regular intervals and join with a ruler.

For curved areas, draw smaller lines at shorter intervals.  To join up, I go freehand: a good method if you haven’t a fashion curve (or prefer not to use one).  Turn the pattern so the line curves in towards you (i.e. not away from you) and with your elbow pivoting on the table and your hand still, turn your forearm in a smooth arc with the pencil skimming along the little lines.


Method 2 Using a Fashion Curve

Align the desired seam allowance with the stitching line and draw along edge.

As before, on curves such as the armscye, keep realigning and mark lines a little and often.

 

So far so simple.  But there’s more…

 

3 How to Add Seam Allowances to Darts

Draw seam allowances up to the dart (on both sides).  Pin dart closed, folded in the direction you want it pressed on the garment.  The seam allowances and stitching lines should now meet. Cut along the seam allowances.

Remove pin and the pattern looks like this:

Try not to skip this step or you may have a shortage of fabric in your dart when you come to sew the seam.

4 Adding Seam Allowances to Angles

When two stitching lines meet at a right angle, no problem: the SAs are also right angles.  It gets trickier when the angles are sharp, large or curves, for example in the neck to shoulder corner, or waist to side.  If you serge your seams, what follows is perhaps less of a concern.  If you press seams open or don’t trim the allowances much (for example, if you might need to let out a garment later), you may want to add the following to your method:

Step 1 Draw the Seam Allowances up to the corners but don’t cut.

Step 2 Fold the pattern back along the stitching line then cut along the seam allowance on fold.

Do this on all curves and angles that are not L-shaped: i.e. fold back at stitch line, cut on fold along seam allowance edge.

The opened up piece will have pointy bits like this:

When the seam allowance is pressed open after stitching, there is enough fabric to align with the fabric of the cross seam.

 

So, any revelations?  Did I miss any tricks?! How do you add yours?

 

 

Pattern Making Equipment

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Here’s the equipment I use in drafting patterns: some essential, some items less so but I find that they help.  Most of these you’ll have already.  Please add to the list with your own favourites or suggestions.  Tips on favourite brands welcome!

1 Pattern Paper – Of any kind.  In the past I have used parcel paper, newspaper, greaseproof paper (great for tracing) and gift wrap.  Then I splashed out on 300m of the proper stuff which is tough and, given sufficient light and a decent eyesight, can be used as tracing paper.  I consider it one of my best investments: I save so much time by no longer faffing with scraps! 

Blogstalker mistrusts it.  The roll is like a big, heavy pillar.  Soon as it arrived, he peed on it like a doggy on a post!

2 Glue Stick for when paper pieces are not large enough or for mistakes.

3 Sticky tape – Two tips here.  Buy the frosty, “magic” tape that you can write on, not the shiny kind.  Also, get a dispenser as it’ll save you time when you need a piece in a hurry and your other hand is busy!

4 Paper Scissors – Tips again! A) with long scissors, you’ll be more likely to cut straight lines accurately. B) If your fabric scissors look like your paper ones and you get them mixed up, tie a strip of bias or ribbon to the fingerholes of the fabric scissors and wrap some papery masking tape (painters tape) around the paper pair.

5 Long ruler

6 Mechanical pencils – a.k.a. propelling pencils.  I was sceptical but my tutor persuaded me to buy these so as to always have a sharp line (important for fine detail like darts).  Along with her recommendation for “frosty” tape, this is one recent adoption that I’m never going back on.

7 Rubber – otherwise known as an eraser!

8 Set Square – not an essential, but if you don’t have a fashion curve, this is great for drawing accurate right angles and parallel lines (tutorial soon).

9 Tracing wheel – tbh, my plastic one leaves hardly an impression.  If you need to buy one, a Toothsome Tracey is a better alternative.  Or, place two layers of fabric between paper and the table and the teeth can sink in.

10 Sewing gauge - for marking seam allowances.  Useful if you’re not yet up for the commitment/expense of buying a fashion curve.

11 Bradawl – you can also use a pin, the point of a pencil or a compass.

12 Tape measure

13 Calculator – good for calculating dart width , e.g. when making the Basic Skirt Block.

14 Fashion Curve - this does many things: mine has a 50 cm ruler, seam allowance markers, bias markings, curves for neckholes and armholes.  Not all fashion curves are the same (mine’s from Shoben) so think what you would like to use it for before you buy.  One feature I particularly like is the centring scale, e.g. for finding the centre of a dart, you place the crosshair in the approximate middle then slide it until the measurements are equal on both sides of it.  Quicker than a ruler and calculator!  This is another purchase where I had to bite the bullet, hoping the expense wasn’t an indulgence but I quickly decided it was worth it.

Finally, if all this looks interesting but scary, check if there are any classes at an adult education college near you.  If there isn’t, phone up and ask for one!  You never know, somebody else may have done so too and interest in all things sewy is on the rise.  I’m currently voting for a tailoring course!!

  

Indian Pink Dress

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If it wasn’t dripping in healthy colour, I’d call this my “Frankenstein Dress” as I’ve stitched it from 3 tutorials and in the spirit of experimentation.  The Sleeves I made back in October (don’t worry, I’ve kept them in the fridge!), the Bodice is from Pattern Magic 2 and the skirt is based on Adele Margolis’ “Pegged Skirt” instructions in my favourite drafting book. 

A pegged skirt is wider at the hips than at the hem, the shape of a typical clothes peg.  A tulip skirt is a more fashionable term for pretty much the same.  If you’d like to create the tulip effect using darts for shaping and if you want to ensure that it fits you well, it’s easy enough to draft with the Basic Skirt Block as your starting point.  Tute below. 

Pegged trousers could presumably be drafted by a similar method, with the darts changed to pleats.  It’s a very eighties look though, best avoided by the less than willowy!

The fabric I used is calico, dyed Powder Pink with a tiny pinch of blue (a gloved pinch, I hasten to add: this stuff isn’t good to handle).  I was aiming for a dusky pink but got a richer, deeper shade I’d like to call Indian Pink, or maybe Honeysuckle.  I had no luck finding a matching concealed zip but eventually settled for a lapped one.  To me, lapped zips are a bit of a forgotten skill so I referred to this great tutorial.

The dress was a pleasure to make and soon as I realized I was happy with the fit of the pegged skirt, I adapted the pattern to make a full lining.  The sleeve lining was stiffened with interfacing to help retain some rigidity in the square shoulders.


Tutorial: Drafting a Pegged Skirt

Step 1 Begin with the Basic Skirt Block (make a muslin to make sure it fits you).  Draw a straight line from dart point to the corner of side and hem.


Step 2 Cut along the line and close dart.

 

Step 3 Draw two new dart lines in the area between the centre front and the original dart.  They should be about 4-6cm in length, depending on your size, with the inner line being longer of the two.  As for their exact position, it’s up to you.  You could draw them and place the block against you to see what looks ok in proportion to you.

 

 

Step 4 Cut out the area between the lines drawn in previous step.  Open out the two parts of the block by hinging them at the side-hem corner.

 

 

Step 5 Place pieces on a larger sheet of paper.  Separate the two major sections by a distance of 4.5cm (or 5cm for bigger sizes) in the area of the original dart point.  Place the smallest piece in the gap and draw two new darts on each side of it.  This is the fiddliest bit, but you can move the middle piece about till each of your darts has equal leg lengths.

 

Step 6 Fold darts toward centre and redraw the waistline, keeping close to the original and smoothing out any jaggedy bits.  Draw seam allowances and the hem allowance (notice my rubbish short hem allowance?  I ran out of paper!  Don’t do that!).  Draw a fold line to complete the pattern and cut out.


Step 7 Repeat all of the above for Skirt Back, remembering to add the centre back seam allowance in the final step (if that’s where your zip will be).