New Look 6071- a purple patch

 Ooh the sewing room is messy, isn't it!

It was "Paul Temple and the Lawrence Affair" today and a sudden urge to make a top. I chose this one to try out the pattern, New Look 6071, to see if I would risk the beautiful Liberty pattern jersey that I bought in November at Shaukat in London. It was £17 a metre! I know that's cheap for Liberty jersey, but it's a lot more than I usually pay for fabric! This fabric, on the other hand, was about £2 a metre from Abakhan in Preston. I bought 5 metres of it so I expect there'll be a few more practice garments with wavy purple checks.

I cut a straight size 12 although my measurements would probably have led me to the 14 but I like my tops to be close fitting. I made slightly narrower seam allowances at the low hip because it seemed to be getting stuck on my skirt and much wider seam allowances (I probably ran them in by about 2 inches) at the bottom of the sleeve so I now have nice tight sleeves (pet hate- flappy sleeves or anything falling over my hands). I did get slightly confused over the twisty bit but only because Paul Temple's wife Steve was being shot at and I wasn't concentrating on the instructions properly.

It is quite low cut and I would probably wear a camisole under it for work but it doesn't gape. I stretched the neckband facing much more than suggested to tighten up the edge and I'm pleased I did. Because this was just a practice, I didn't bother with twin needle hems- just zigzagged the edges after folding the hem in place.

The fabric has plenty of horizontal stretch but no vertical stretch AT ALL which made putting the sleeve in a little trickier than usual. I still did it flat and didn't gather the sleeve head but probably should have done but I really like the shape of it. I narrowed the shoulder by about half an inch- a standard adjustment for me.

Cheap and quick and wearable- what more can you ask?

This looks as though one sleeve is longer than the other- it isn't, I just constantly push my sleeves up!

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So where did the last few months go? My lack of activity here seems to coincide almost exactly with my taking on new responsibilities at work and I think it's sapped my energy more than I thought it would do. I have done quite a lot of sewing- I've even had weeks in which I've made several things- but I didn't get round to blogging about them. Maybe I'll have a day and rope someone in to take pictures and spend all day trying on outfits of things I've made and then put them up here. 
I was also kind of participating in Me-Made-May although without actually signing up to it and definitely got further than last June's attempt. I made it to last Friday wearing something that I'd made every day, then a combination of bad planning and being away from home (and reluctance to iron) led to two days of wearing bought clothes only. I feel a slight sense of failure but it's not as if I'm going to lose any sleep over it. I'm back on the bandwagon now and only missed a couple of days.


In the last few months I have:

• bought a lot more patterns than I should have or needed to.
• made several things I have worn a lot and which are now thoroughly embedded in my wardrobe (particularly a Vogue 1250 and a Simplicity 2599 that I added 3/4 sleeves to).
• made several more things that I have worn only once or not at all!
• made nothing from the three and a half year stash of Burda magazines.
• become the very proud owner of a fabulous sewing room. It's also the guest room but is generally known as "the room of loveliness" and is my go-to place for succour for the soul.
• thought about sewing and planned projects and drawn little pictures of garments and written lists of patterns and fabrics for much more time than I've actually spent sewing.
• still not hemmed the curtains blogged about in August. Hemming is so boring.

So this is my new determination to blog more frequently and perhaps even get around to putting up some pictures of things I've made! Eventually......