Author Archives: Tracy
Simplicity 8833 pt 2
hi, this should have been posted Sunday but had camera malfunction, i forgot to charge the spare battery oops.
I was so impressed with this, that I actually finished it, no, I hear you say that never happens 🙂
apart from adding the sleeves, I also added a couple of long fisheye darts to give the front a bit of shape, it totally changed the look of the dress from ‘meh sack’ to ‘ooh not quite sack’.
Here are some pictures of me wearing it, another rare sight…..
When I make it again, I think I will remove an inch from the back and front, I might have to add some of that back at the hips, but it is definitely too big across the top half.
Looking at these pictures I might need to increase the back waist shaping as well, the arm sync also needs raising, I run the risk of cutting myself in half with the shorts every time I lift my arms.
More soon
Fares no 4 UFO no.2
I’ve finally finished my fourth pair of Birkin Flares, I cut this pair our the same time as the last pair which were finished and taken on holiday with me back in May.
There were no surprises in the making of theses, however there was a surprise when I put them on.
Considering they were cut out the same time as the last pair from the same fabric, they feel completely different. I’m not sure why, they feel softer and some what roomier.
I decided to go with the red top-stitching which I think looks really good, on this pair I decided to decorate the pocket which I have decided that I prefer.
As the previous pair seems to have shrunk some what, I decide to put a teeny tiny hem on them, I do like my trousers to practically drag along the floor. At the moment they are doing fine but I’m not sure how long they will stay long so the next pair that I make will probably be cut longer still.
Bye for now…..
Simplicity 8833
Hi, I didn’t mean to have a month off blogging, it just happened, to tell the truth i haven’t done anything much since the last post, but here is a brand new stitch, this is in the muslin phase and not what I was expecting when I made it.
Simplicity 8833 is classed as a mini-pant dress, I suppose what it is, is a playsuit with two skirt flaps, I managed to get hold of a pattern in my size, I shortened the top by and inch and the skirt/short pieces by an inch, I think I should have shortened the top by another 1/2 inch.
The top half of the dress would be good just as a simple summer top to wear with jeans or shorts.
The major issue I have with this dress is the ease in the top half and the fact you have to take it off to go to the toilet, also these ‘minis’ never turn out as short as they look on the packet, even allowing for at the fact I’m just over 5 ft 2 inches.
This pattern goes together very easily, you stitch the top together, then you stitch the front shorts together and attach them to the front skirt flap and do the same with the back, attach the front to the back then sew the whole thing to the top.
As this is just a test run I haven’t done all the finishing off or attaching the sleeves.
I love the idea of this ‘dress’ I can have it short without the risk of showing everyone my knickers, but the practicalities might just outweigh that peace of mind.
This is the first time I’ve used the trouser part of my dress makers dummy, it is quite a faff because the support post goes up inside one of the leg parts, you have to straighten the stand, feed it through the leg hole on the garment, then put the stand back into the outwards/support position.
sorry for the state of the photos, but I was worried if I took the time to tidy up and get my camera sorted out I might lose the posting momentum…..
New Dress For a Funeral
Denise had some definite ideas for our funeral attire, black with a teal or pink accent colour. I didn’t actually own any totally black clothes, if you read to the end of this post I still don’t.
I had a general idea what I was going to make, then I went to Mood Fabrics and came away with a totally different idea., while browsing the aisles I came across some black eyelet fabric and with that a dress was imagined.
Black eyelet fabric over teal for the bodice and plain black skirt, I only had a week to make it so I wanted something not too complicated. So I pulled out Gertie’s Ultimate Dress book pattern sheets and tape measure so that I could work out what size I needed to go up to on the waist, it appeared to be the next size up, so I traced out a new bodice pattern and did the SBA on it and I traced off the new skirt pattern, originally I had decided on the same skirt as for Liz’s dress circle skirt with box pleats but I didn’t have enough fabric for that so I went with the three quarter circle skirt instead.
Simon found the ‘Teal’ fabric it was probably the most expensive fabric I bought in Mood, it was silk Crepe, at this point I was thinking about lining the whole dress with it so got 3 yards, I still have just over 2 yards to do something else with.
I knew silk was notoriously hard to work with and also ‘luckily’ realised I couldn’t line the dress with it because of the bodice darts so I interlined it (thank you Gertie)
I cut out the eyelet fabric first then used that to cut out the silk, it worked quite well that way.
I basted the two together and put in the darts, and the side and shoulder seams.
Enter a caption
I attached the skirt, there was still something missing the skirt and bodice seemed like two seperate entities, and I wasn’t sure how to bring them together, after discussing it with Simon I decided to use the skirt fabric to bind the neck and armholes.
With a 22inch zip in the back and a small hem done on the sewing machine it was finished with 2 days to spare. I’m assuming that with the holes the islet fabric stretched out of shape as the top didn’t fit as well as the muslin, but I was very pleased with it.
To finish it off I wore my pink and teal shoes. It could probably have done with being taken in at the waist a bit and the front darts could have been more dartier.
more later…..
New rain coat for Charlie
Charlie is our dog you have probably noticed him photo bombing a few of my recent pictures, he has a heavy winter coat, to be honest I don’t think he needs it to keep warm, as he has his own quite heavy fur coat, his winter coat is to keep him dry in the rain, he doesn’t like to get wet and runs around like a mad thing once he gets indoors.
His store bought coat has a waterproof outside and fleece inside, I had to put an extra hole in it as we use a harness instead of a lead and collar.
Charlie’s new coat has a waterproof outside and t-shirt material on the inside, I didn’t bother with the collar, as Charlie doesn’t appear to be keen on it.
Basically all I did was to fold charlie’s existing coat in half and trace round it. On both sets of fabric then I cheated a bit and using Pritt Stick stuck both pieces of fabric together, I stitched reflective tape around it, then realised I had to undo parts of it as the elastic to go round his back legs should be stitched into edging tape and used my button hole foot to make the hole for his lead to attach to.
This has been sitting cut out on my table for about 3 months it was surprisingly easy to put together.
New York, New York
I’ve just got back from a trip to New York, which is why I’m a bit late in posting, withe Florida I had time to sit back in the evening and take total advantage of the free WiFi, so I could post as I went along, the WiFi in our hotel was a bit slow and not free!!
We flew out of Heathrow, the Premium economy isn’t as good for New York as for Florida, I assume it is something to do with the size aeroplane, it seemed smaller and more cramped. we were driven over to Manhattan in a cab with the smallest amount of legroom ever.
I should have taken some photos on the way over but I had left my camera in my carry on, which was in the boot of the car. This is my 4th/5th trip out and I always smile on seeing the ‘spaceships’ from Men in Black (1965 worlds fair observation decks)
We stayed in a hotel near Central park and we had a few things that we had listed to do. Number one was go and get pizza at Angelos, which we did on the first day and fourth and fifth days.
day 1, it was raining, usually when we go to New York it is dry and sunny for most of the holiday and rains on the last day, this year it was the other way way round. It was forecast to rain the whole time we were out there but we were lucky it just rained on the Friday.
We walked down over to Macy’s, stopping at Gap on the way, Simon likes their Jeans. Because of the poor exchange rate and the fact we had already spent quite a bit of money earlier in the year, we weren’t planning on spending too much.
I did however go to Mood fabrics, wow!! I have never seen so much fabric in one place, it is on 3 floors and the fabric is floor to ceiling, there are a lot of staff, so you find the fabric you want and they cut it for you and price it up as you go along, then once you are finished you take your ‘pile’ of fabric to the front desk on the 3rd floor and they tot it up and Simon hands over his credit card, obviously he wouldn’t do that for just any one, only me. 🙂 that trip I bought some denim and a piece of silk crepe, I did have something in mind for each bit I bought.
For dinner that day we went to Red Lobster, we had discovered a liking for crab legs while in Florida and Simon found a Red Lobster just off Times Square, yippee!!
More later….
Sad News
I debated about not doing this post, and to be honest I’m not one of those, ‘lets put all our feelings out on the internet’ type of girl, but Denise has been such a big part of my life in recent years and we have known each other for over 20 years.
Last Sunday, Denise, my sewing buddy for the last three years and before that my card-making buddy, and before that my very dear friend lost her fight with Cancer. Denise had suffered with ill health her entire life.
She had to give up work in 2006 due to pulmonary hypertension, and had a very successful Liver transplant the following year. Three years ago she was diagnosed and beat cervical Cancer, earlier this year they found another growth this time by her lungs, she was told this was a totally unrelated Cancer to the first. After treatment for this they found another lump, which was hiding behind the other one.
Feeling better but unable to walk far, we made our plans, Denise had wanted to go to the Knitting and stitching show at Olympia this year but had been feeling too unwell to go, so I checked with Cooks Coachs and we could go to Alexandra Palace in October, we would take her wheelchair and Denise announced this meant we could buy more ‘stuff’ because we could hang it on the chair and not have to carry it.
In and out of hospital over the summer with pneumonia, she was still looking forward to our trip in October, then while on holiday in August she lost the use of her legs, they found another tumour, this one pressing on her spine, she then spent a couple of weeks waiting to be transferred back to Southend from Chichester.
Once back in Southend, I visited, the trip wasn’t mentioned, I think we both knew it wasn’t going to happen. she was in a lot of pain but still showing a brave face now talking about plans for having a real Christmas tree set up on her decking, Denise loved Christmas practically the whole of December her house was an obstacle course of Christmas Trees, I’m sure last year there was at least 5 and that was just downstairs.
13th September I bought her some books and we talked Lynsay Sands and Argeneau Vampires, she was having difficulty concentrating she said, so wanted something not too brain tiring, she was also worrying that she wouldn’t get home to see her cat Poppy again. I arranged to come back to following week.
The following day she text to say they were sending her home, but she wasn’t happy about it as the Respite Team had said maybe the following week. The Hospital changed their mind, when I asked the following day if she had gone home, she was still in the Hospital.
She passed away on Sunday, she had fought so hard and overcome so much that I suppose I thought she would come back from this, that she was indestructible.
The beginning of the year she had so many plans, we had so many dressmaking plans, we were going to complete some fitting classes on Craftsy, she had just found the Swallow fabric that she had been hunting for, and we were going to dress up for the Knitting and Stitching Show – Big Vintage Sewalong.
Denise had a large circle of friends, a passion for life, Star Wars, Harrison Ford (not sure if those two are related :-)) and she was always making plans, doing something, going somewhere, she wouldn’t have been happy being bed-bound, but she would have got on with it, she would have been there with a smile and a positive attitude, and I would have been there trying to keep her amused and maybe make her laugh.
Good bye Denise I will miss you.
Tanya Whelan – sew many dresses
Just a quick post to show you the equivalent dress from Tanya Whelan’s dress book so you can compare it with the one from Gertie’s Ultimate Dress book
Here are the two back peices Tanya’s one is on top it has an extra shoulder dart, which Gertie’s didn’t it is also drafted without the seam allowance which is why it is over slightly. After wearing both dresses I think that the arm holes and back neck fit better on Gertie’s but the rest is better on Tanya’s.
Here are the dress pictures, I bought the fabric from Olympia earlier in the year, it was a lot heavier than I thought it would be.
Kenneth D King – Craftsy
Simon, asked me if I could copy a pair of jeans for him, he has finally found a pair of jeans that he likes the fit on, they are Gap and of course, not only are they the most expensive pair Gap does they are always sold out in his size. Initially I said no, not without taking them apart, but I was browsing through craftsy where I came across Kenneth D King jean-ius! :reverse engineer your favorite fit.
Before depriving Simon of his favourite pair of jeans for at least a couple of days I thought I would try it out on a pair of my jeans, as I said on my previous post I have this very nice pair of low rise Levi jeans, I have no idea on the model number (do jean even have a model number) but I have been trying to replace them from ebay but if you don’t know what they are called it is a bit hard.
I’m not going to go too deeply into the actual class, just a brief overview, if you want any more detail you’ll have to get the class, (on sale it was £16.99). Kenneth D King is very easy to listen to, the explanations are easy to follow and he is a very able presenter. After walking you through the getting of the pattern he then goes on to take you step by step to test the fit of the muslin and make changes and on to creating the finished article.
One thing that I don’t remember him mentioning is that you should probably give your jeans a quick iron, just to get the pocket edges and the crotch seam to lie flat. You trace your pattern off on to organza and from there to paper, where I discovered this amazing gadget a double tracing wheel, if I’d have known about these when I was dabbling with Lutterloh and Haslam it would have made life a lot easier!
I do have a problem with the inseam, it wasn’t as noticeable with the first pair and I only had a problem with one leg of course I assumed that the leg that didn’t have the problem was correct, apparently not 😦
I discovered that if I pinched a bit of fabric out by the knee this straightened up the lines, what also made it a bit better is if I stretched out the back, it also pulled the seam round to the back, luckily I had already added an inch to the bottom so it was alright to lose an inch, this obviously is a cheat, I’ll correct it properly on the next draft.
So after unpicking the side and in-seams, and redoing the stitching and top stitching I tried them on, the top stitching isn’t totally right, but right enough that I won’t mind wearing them, I tried them on, disaster them struck, I obviously hadn’t tightened the stops at the top of the zipper enough as one of them popped off and the zipper tab with it, while I unpicked the fly facing and cursed Kenneth D King, I decided for my next attempt I would stick to the Lauren Dahl method of zip insertion which I did, the zip went in beautifully and there was no chance of zipper failure.
I just have the waistband to finish belt loops and button, maybe rivets ( I have to tackle them sometime.
There is one part of the class that I have a problem with, let’s say conservative estimate 85% of people taking this class do it to copy ‘blue’ jeans Kenneth seems to have pickup a pair of nondescript ‘jean type’ trousers, there is probably a copyright issue on actual ‘named’ jeans, however the construction method that he uses makes it impossible to put some of the top stitching in. He tells you to stitch the out seam before the inseam, we have several makes of jean in our home and they all have top stitching on the inseam and a tiny bit of top stitching over the hip on the out-seam. I must admit that once I had the pattern, 90% of construction was from my baste and gather Birkin Flares. If it works why use something different.
Bye for now
Two Projects – craftsy
I’m working on two projects at the moment, both craftsy classes and both ‘trouser’ projects.
The first class is Kenneth D. King – jean-ius Reverse engineer your Favourite Fit the second is Pattern design – the pants Sloper with Suzy Furrer.
This is just an overview of my two projects, I’ll do a review of both classes at a later date.
I have a very nice soft pair of Levi jeans which are getting so thin that they probably don’t have much more wear in them. When I saw this class I thought it might be ideal for copying them. The first thing I did was to wash the jeans to make sure that they had ‘shrunk’ back to size. I decided on which side to copy, I went to the side without the knee hole :-).
You stitch around the seams and copy on to organza, from the organza you then copy to paper, and then from the paper to fabric.
here is the first version of my jeans.
I have quite a few of the Suzy Furrer Craftsy classes, I haven’t yet finish one but I keep trying. So far I have created my first ‘pants’ sloper and made it up in an old sheet, this might be too thin to get a correct reading on the pattern but i’m relatively happy with the fit, here is the first version of the Trousers.
I don’t know about you but I feel the trouser sloper has a very 80s vibe, Simon thinks it is the high waistband.
I’ve managed to take a whole load of photos, so expect some more posts coming your way…..
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 