A Near Disaster

29.6.12

Some projects are just doomed..... I think everything that could go wrong with this did go wrong but I got there in the end.

The fraying collar

The original shirt

With hole

With prominent oil stain

 I bought this shirt in Warehouse in Liverpool in about 1989. I remember going to the theatre after I'd bought it to see a play about John Lennon, and one of the cast members was wearing the same shirt, but in black. I loved the shirt and wore it a lot- to the point of fraying, in fact, so I thought it deserved to be reinvented in a new and wearable form. I decided on Simplicity 2059, partly because I wanted to use it as a trial to see if a dress with gathers at the neck would suit me or not, and partly because I'd recently made the top with the gathers at the back and the pattern was still lying around in the sewing room.

I carefully cut the shirt apart and sewed up the two fronts to make a piece big enough for the back. I was thinking of having sleeves at this point but the shirt sleeves had mean little sleeve heads and it was going to be more trouble than it was worth. This was supposed to be a quick, quick project after all. Ha! I decided to put a little frill around the hem as it was looking a bit short. Fraying, piecing, gathering.... extra time. As I was applying the frill I pressed the front and noticed a hole near one of the patches. I decided to iron some light interfacing on the back to see if I could stop the decay in its tracks. Extra time. I decided to edge the neck and armholes with black bias binding. I only had enough to go half way round the neck, so more finding (my black fabric was hidden in the wool room for some reason), cutting, dragging through a bias binding maker, pressing..... extra time. Then because the fabric was fraying as I looked at it, I thought French seams would be best. It's not automatic to me to sew the first seam with WRONG sides together and I ended up having to  undo one side seam and one shoulder seam and do them again. Extra time for stupidity. And then, disaster. As I was snipping away some of the fuzzy threads that had escaped the second seam, I snipped the front of the top. So I then had to redo the side seam, taking a little detour to incorporate the snip into the seam. More extra time.

Finished. With exasperation.

The bias binding of the neck and armholes was time consuming but all seemed to be going ok until a blob of sewing machine oil landed in the most prominent place- high on the chest. At this point I felt like throwing it into the bin but finished it anyway. Who knows if it will ever be worn. Maybe the stain will come out with some effort but at the moment it feels like this top has had enough time spent on it.

There are aspects I like. The last few things I've made have all gaped at the back neck so on this one, I cut the neck binding in a smaller size and gathered the top at the back neck a bit. I'm much happier with the fit. I like the fabric, floaty and drapey but not too light. I like the contrast of the black bias binding and the way it ties in with the edges of the patches. I don't like the faff and the trouble and the OIL!

Recap of Me-Made-May

As I said in my last post, I participated in Me-Made-May but not officially and I actually did quite well! Much better than last year's half-hearted attempt anyway. I even took some pictures although that's obviously a skill I need to work on. Scroll down and you'll see what I mean..

I found it quite easy to put outfits together as I did sew a lot of things last year. It also gave me a chance (i.e. forced me through negligent ironing) to wear things I have worn either rarely or, in some cases, never before. There are obvious gaps though. I spent a lot of the month making a patio out of bricks and concrete and wore ancient sweats and baggy T-shirts picked up on my travels. But on the other hand, I don't think I want things I've made to be subjected to building materials anyway!

I didn't even often have to resort to knitted items. I used to work as a Rowan knitting design consultant and made a lot of garments as they give you the yarn to make 2  per season. I think I counted 70 hand-made jumpers and cardigans at one point but I gave quite a lot away as I couldn't fit them all in my cupboards.

The weather was varied enough to bring out cotton dresses as well as long sleeved T-shirts and the couple of days I failed to wear Me-Made things completely were hardly my fault as I was unexpectedly away from home without adequate (or any!) planning.
So, for next time I will:

• do it properly and officially sign up
• sort out the Gorilla tripod thing so I can take better pictures of myself
• make some trousers (I have no Me-Made trousers except some "comfy pants" made out of an old flannelette sheet)
• sew outfits rather than random items and maybe make some things to go with specific items of knitwear- I have several cardigans I haven't worn because I have nothing they go with

The evidence

This is an outfit I'm not really sure about. I feel a bit like a principal boy in a pantomime.  Or wearing the corporate uniform of a person-centred business. The top is Vogue 8546 made in some lovely but not very stretchy eco-cotton jersey my daughter gave me. The skirt is Simplicity 2211 made in some ancient Provencal cotton which might have been more suited to tablecloths. It's taking a long time to soften up! 

This was the first time on for this blouse (see what I mean about the rubbish photography!). It's polyester and I have to be pretty sure it's going to be a cool day for me to risk it! I hate sweaty polyester and don't know why I ever bother making anything with it! Except I liked the design of the fabric. The pattern is Vogue 8120 and it actually worked better than I thought (compliments even!) but I didn't dare risk putting my arms backwards in case the tiny press stud holding it together and preventing me from showing my all popped! I don't like clothes I have to think about. I really want to just put them on and then forget about them.  

This is a terrible picture of my Vogue 1250 which I love! I wear it more than anything else I think. I don't even have to iron it. See, it's the only picture I'm smiling in. 

My sewing room is tidier than this at the moment. I could have moved the chair.

This is a Simplicity 2599 made out of an old embroidered bordered skirt of my daughter's. It took a bit of judicious cutting to get it out but I love the very pale yellow colour and the fact that it's already soft and worn in. I think I need to pair it with something that's not as severe as black though. 

The jury's still out on this one. It's very, very summery and creases quite easily but it is definitely a put it on and forget it dress. The fabric was some really cheap stuff from Ikea (and I've just cut out a Simplicity 2059 from the leftovers) and the pattern is McCalls 2401. I attempted a FBA on it last year and it all went horribly wrong so it languished in the basket until April when I finally tackled it and kicked it into shape. I don't think it's going to get a lot of wear but I do like the feel of it when it's on! 

I think this is the outfit I was most pleased with (of the ones I photographed!). I wore this on the hottest day of the year so far and felt good in it all day. The cardigan is made of Rowan 4 ply cotton, the top is Simplicity 3751 and the fabric is Liberty cotton. There used to be a factory near here that printed for Liberty and they had a sale shop where I picked up lots of bargains. This piece of fabric had a ticket in the corner reading £1! If I'd known they were closing I would have bought a lot more! I miss it a lot! I love the colours in this fabric and the cotton is beautifully smooth. It doesn't get a lot of wear though. British weather. 

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......

Ancient pyjamas

Today I finished something that had been languishing in the UFO zone for about the last 17 years! I was making a pair of pyjamas for my son when he was a teenager. I think I finished the trousers but never got around to making buttonholes or sewing on the buttons on the jacket. That was all that was needed to be done! Well, I finally did them and I now have a comfortable and warm, dark- turquoisey shirt for slobbing around the house in or maybe for putting a belt on and wearing for work. I'm quite pleased with it anyway and it's very satisfying to finish something that has waited so long to be completed. I also finished a scarf, which has waited five years to have its ends sewn in- a mere stripling compared to the shirt!

Then I went on to give myself backache by making great inroads into the Prague skirt, as it will always be known. We spent a few days in Prague this summer and loved the place. I have lots of pictures and memories but I'm not big on souvenirs (there was a lot of tourist tat there) so I bought a remnant of purple/green wool mix boucle fabric from a department store (which had run out of things to sell by the fourth floor). The skirt is looking good with only the yoke to finish, zip to insert and hem to turn up. Maybe eventually I'll get around to putting up pictures and doing proper reviews!

It will be my last free Monday for a while (apart from next week which is half term!) so I thought I'd make the most of it but now I need a soak in the bath and maybe some Ibuprofen.

Catching up

Well the party in Zwickau went very well although it was the hottest day of the summer. Emily and I did our singing bit with Marcel and Marcus's help but it was in an Anthropologie dress not the pale yellow linen one I had intended to wear. (Just me in the Anthro dress, not everyone- that would just be weird!) I did finish the yellow dress when I got home again (I made Simplicity 2648 in the end) and I'm quite pleased with it- it fits well and seems to look good with every cardigan I possess (that's a lot of cardigans, by the way). It is thin enough to count the polka dots on my knickers though so I now have to make a slip to wear under it. Grr.

I have done quite a lot of sewing recently that I haven't written about here and I'm determined at some point to organise pictures and proper reviews of patterns. I finished a skirt (Butterick 5566) today that I started 4 months ago from fabric left over from making my mother a skirt about 27 years ago! I am always surprised by fabric's ability to transport you through time. I remember her trying on the original skirt and her positive reaction to it. Mine doesn't suit me as well as hers suited her but it will remind me of her when I wear it anyway.

Birthday dress

I had a lovely weekend with the house full of family. Now Monday seems grey and cold and too quiet, apart from the wind whipping through the trees that is. But it did bring it home to me how soon my holiday to Germany is. I'm going to my son-in-law-ish's father's birthday party in Zwickau in a couple of weeks and so a posh frock is called for. My daughter with whom I will be doing birthday singing is wearing yellow so I've just preshrunk a piece of lemony lineny type fabric ready for making this. http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v7762-products-4349.php?page_id=855.

Unfortunately, the piece of fabric looks much smaller now I've washed it (I don't think it shrank much, I think I just overestimated how much there was of it- it's been in my stash for at least ten years). I might get a sleeveless one out of it. Or I might have to have a complete rethink and make something out of the white and bright Ikea cotton I bought cheaply recently. But whatever I do, I need to get on with it!

It's curtains!

I made curtains yesterday (remade actually)! I know in the great scheme of things, sewing a few straight lines hardly constitutes haute couture but I do now have curtains for my dining room window. It only took 20 years. Actually the fabric is even older than that. When we lived in the States in the lovely old house in 1982-3 these curtains graced the library (we had a library but not many books). I remade them for the dining room here (lots of books but no library).

I have made some clothes too and am participating in me-made June but didn't join officially, being new to these things, and scared. It's fine when the weather's chilly as I have half a billion me-made sweaters, but more difficult when the weather's good. Some things are getting worn A LOT! There will be pictures eventually. I might even get around to working out how to do reviews!