Monthly Archives: March 2017
Olympia 2017
Mum and I went to Olympia again this year, we went by coach, because of an accident on A13 it took 5hrs to get there, luckily for us we took a packed lunch, the ladies sitting next to us weren’t as fortunate. The coach driver allowed us to stay until closing so we only missed out on about 30 minutes shopping.
This is just a quick post to show off my new stash.
From Bombay fabrics I bought this fabric
They are both clear cut from Fabric Freedom, I have an idea for a dress in the purple and probably a halter neck from the pink/orange.
from Fabric Galore
A Liberty tana lawn ‘baby rainbow pinks’
From Girl Charlee
This is a beautiful Cotton Rayon Spandex blend, I had read about Girl Charlee in various blogs and I must admit I had thought of them as being a bit expensive, some of their fabric is expensive but this was £5 a meter (at show) they were friendly and very helpful.
M Rosenberg and Son
it feels like a cotton Lawn, it has that silky feel to it, I already have this in red but I’m too scared to cut in to it, this is going to be my test version.
These three are all jersey fabric and to be honest if I hadn’t already fallen in love with the last two, I wouldn’t have bought anything from their stall. They seemed more interested in serving their regular customers, and even when I went back later on, with no other customers it was a struggle to get served.
I also bought two more patterns from Sewoverit
Unlike other years I have definite ideas about what I want to make with the fabric I bought.
sewoverit vintage shirt dress
Hello, here is number three in my list for February, the Sew over it Vintage Shirt Dress, the pattern is lovely and very easy to put together, however I was sort of led astray by the gumph in the little booklet and should have gone with my initial thoughts to do a size smaller.
The pattern does give you the finished sizes for bust waist and hips, it also says that the dress had less ease than the big four patterns, looking at them I should have gone with the smaller size, however I am very conscious of ‘design’ ease.
As you can see I changed my mind about the fabric, and you can also see it is a little bit shapeless and that is with taking a extra inch out of the waist.
luckily though before I did my usual 1inch out of the bodice I checked the internet, and discovered that the top piece was quite short anyway, after measuring it I came to the conclusion that it didn’t need to be any shorter.
The instruction booklet was very straight forward and the set in sleeves were some the the easiest I’ve installed. One of the changes I should have made though is a full bicep adjustment, although I can get the dress on I can’t move my arm. The two choices I have is to either make it no/short sleeves or see how much I can get back from the seam.
If I make it again I will make the smaller size do a SBA and widen the sleeves. I’m not sure if the fabric is just a little stiff for this pattern as it makes me think of a coat dress rather than a shirt dress.
At the moment I am toying with taking it apart and making the smaller size. I don’t think that I’ll wear it as is.
next up challenge for March
February round up
I have been stitching up a storm this month, I have managed to get all my goals finished and a couple of bonuses, after finally finishing off the the white plantain, I got the urge to make another two, still with short sleeves and no elbow patches.
I did make a couple of errors on these because all the t-shirt related items I make this month were all on the overlocker and with a 3/8 seam allowance, I didn’t bother checking the instructions, if I had I would have realised it had a 5/8 seam so they are slightly too big.
They have wider neck bands than the previous one as I used the instructions from the raglan t-shirt but I’m quite pleased with them.
so february I managed
Two Monetas
Two Plantains and a Plantain finish
I finished a skirt
the 70s halter neck and shorts
Hey June Lane Raglan
and last of all the vintage shirt dress
Hey June – Lane Raglan
To tell you the truth there isn’t much to say about this, it has a couple of options
Elbow length, 3/4 length, long, or long banded sleeves
Curved or banded hem
A hood
Thumbhole wristbands
Chest pocket
A separate front pattern piece with a built-in full bust adjustment (sizing guidelines are outlined in the pattern)
Needless to say I didn’t need the Full Bust Adjustment 🙂 I used the curved hem and 3/4 length sleeves, this was put together on the overlocker except for the twin needle stitching on the cuffs and hem.
The white fabric was bought from ebay the blue was a t-shirt from Primark.
Raglan sleeves are a doddle to put in, to be fair most t-shirt patterns appear to put their sleeves in flat any way but because the raglan sleeve actually incorporate the shoulders as well they are even easier to put in. Then you do the neck treatment, side seams and hemming took me about 2 hours start to finish.
The one thing I did worry about was the curved hem, but I overlocked it first which brought it in slightly and I ironed it in first. I’m very pleased with it and can see a couple more in my future.
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 