Winslow Culottes in crepe!

Two firsts for this project! First some kind of trousers, with a gusset and pockets and everything, also first type using a slippery material like crepe.

The beautiful Crepe was from Sew Crafty Online and the flow on it is lovely. There are so many beautiful colours on the fabric I had too many to choose from for my jacket! Please excuse hubby's stupid face! Doh!

I really enjoyed this pattern though as it has minimal pieces and I am beginning to love PDF patterns as I don't have to trace them out and they seem much easier to store than rolled up grease proof paper!

There are 4 pieces for the 'legs' and a waist band, two pockets and a zip. So a nice easy sew really. I've never really made trousers before that have looked suitable for wearing outside the house!

I struggled with the fabric really as I have never used crepe, it seemed to creep a bit whilst sewing as I think my tension was a bit too tight. After I had done a few seams I changed the tension and it seems to ease off a bit. I used my normal foot for this but I'm told a roller foot may have been a better option for me, so that's one to try next time!





I love these culottes as they were so comfy all day at the wedding, I could dance and move around not worrying about skirts exposure, and they still looked formal enough for the wedding.

I think I am going to make myself a long pair of these for the summer as the waist band hit me at a really nice 'high wasted' point perfect with baggy tops. Made in crepe they will lovely and floaty for the summer too. I think I may experiment in a thinker cotton too for some for work as the shape really suits the shape of my body.

I really do recommend trying out the Winslow culottes!

By Hand London Victoria Blazer, with extra sleeve space

My most recent make is quite possibly my favourite yet, and I haven't really stopped wearing it since it was hot of the sewing machine! This A-MAZ-ING fabric is from the lovely people as Sew Crafty Online as part of my design project working with them. It's a lovely fabric as it's quite light but sews easy like cotton, though it's a nightmare to get a matching thread colour!

I changed the fit of the sleeves in this jacket because I was worried they wouldn’t be wide enough for my arms, and then would leave the jacket looking a little odd and the style is so loose and relaxed. This is the first time I have altered the fit of anything I have sewn so with the help of the ‘Curvey sewing collective’ I managed to edit my pattern piece.

I found the pattern sizes on By Hand London’s website and I wrote my measurements in the book like it asks, which is quite a nice touch, so you can remember what sizes you have made. As usual I’m all a strange shape compared to the pattern but the only bit I was worried about was the sleeves so I made it in a straight size 20 (apart from the sleeves)

For the sleeve alternations what I did was trace the piece of pattern as you would normally, then I found the centre point, and cut all the way down the middle leaving about ½” at the top should seam. I then spread the gap out so it increased by 1.5” along the cuff. Then I taped a bit of scrap paper in the gap of the pattern piece making my newly shaped pattern piece. If you pattern has cuffs like mine does down forget the cuff pieces will need to be lengthened 1.5” as well so that there is enough cuff to go around the sleeve.  It is so much easier that it seems and a lot less scary!

I made a toile of the jacket shell just to check the sleeves were going to fit into the arm hole after my alterations. I made this out of left over duvet cover from my Simplicity 8085 so it’s super light and almost lineny. The toile worked great and the sleeve fitted perfectly. Rather than pinning all the way round as you need to pin regularly to get the sleeve to fit in I used the quilters clips as I often do to save me stabbing myself as I was sewing round the circle. Without the lining you do have to have the collar a little bit, I use French seams to attached the lapels and collar on so that the seams were hidden but on the final product it was much easier as the lining removed the need for French seams.

Once I had made my toile I made the real thing! I cut my fabric outside as it was a beautiful day, if a bit windy for fabric but by that point I was outside! The pattern shows you the pockets on both sets of layout pictures, lining and shell, you don’t need both sets of these which it does say in the instructions but I was clearly too excited to get started and didn’t read that bit! Also if you want a contrasting cuff like I did, don’t forget to cut that out in the contrasting colour while you are cutting the lining fabric. I cut one of each because I couldn’t decide which to use!

The instructions are quite basic on this pattern but the’ sew along’ on By Hand London’s website is fantastic and very easy to follow. I got a bit lost when attaching the lapels and collar and the website saved me with the multitude of pictures for me to follow.

The darts are really easy on the pattern too as you don’t end up having to make out the lines etc the darts are cut out and you just match the pieces up and sew it along the edge to create the carts. I like how few pieces it took as well as it only took me an hour and a half to sew everything together (in between stopping for a cuppa!) and then I was out wearing it for my dog walk that evening!

It’s a perfect jacket for this time of year as made in cottons it is quite cool but gives you that extra layer in the cooler evening. I have even road tested it at the day job and it’s a perfect level of just smart enough but made out of some very me fabric! I think I’m going to make one in a light wool fabric for the autumn and maybe lengthen the sleeves but who knows what will entice me to sew by then!

All in all a very good pattern with lots of help and support around on the internet so don’t get put off by the intermediate skill rating! If you fancy checking out my Timelapse video of me making this have a look on my instagram @roodles_runique

Another wedding gift, with hearts and a single this time!

This quilt was made for my beautiful pretend cousin, who was sharing her wedding day with her even more beautiful daughter and her christening. The brief was she wanted a blanket for the sofa to snuggle under, the more colours the better (my kind of blanket) and she likes cath kitseny type fabrics.
 

I saw a picture on pintrest of a blanket with hearts all over it and pinned in, then she liked it too so I thought we must be on to a winner! As i'm still practising with shapes and applique I thought I would do some kind of paper piercing as another challenge for myself. I wanted the hearts to be large so I made each square 30cm tall. I used the table to size my squares up on the blog link here.

I picked which fabrics I wanted to use and set about cutting the shapes out. Cutting is the bit I hate the most so I cut everything out at once. I had one large rectangle of patterned fabric, a large square of plain fabric and two small plan squares. The sizes for these are on the blog link above.







Once the sections we all cut out I set about making the heart panels. You need two sets of what's in the picture above. if you place all the squares right side facing the patterned fabric you can then sew a straight line across the diagonal of each one. Once they are sewn you can fold the fabric over and iron it leaving you half a heart as below.

You repeat the process for the second half but make sure your diagonals go the opposite way say they match up and look like a heart together. You can then sew down the middle of the heart and iron that seam open at the back so it lays flat.

I then repeated the process I uses for the other quilt as I then had a square panel ready for joining together. In order to make the hearts stand out I used mostly plain fabrics so that it really became the focal point of the quilt. It also meant that I didn't need to make as many hearts as I could bulk out the quilt with plain fabric.



Once the topper was all complete I quilted it together with one piece of backing fabric. I free motioned quilted the patterns onto the plain fabric pieces using Guttermans thread that changes colour as it goes through, you can't really see in the pictures but I gave the free motion quilting a nice edge to it as it all changed shades of purple. The pattern I used had hearts in it too. I didn't draw the pattern on as this made it too hard for me to follow the plan, so I just quilted as I went along. I also did their initials in quilting on one side for a bit of a personal touch. I binded the quilt with some extra wide hessian floral print, which added even more floral patterns on and I think really finished the blanket.

After I managed to finish the final touches the morning of the wedding I made them open the blanket while I could see them and I think they loved it!

Poppy covered oven gloves

So I made these as a gift for my poppy mad Grandma, but now she thinks they are too pretty to use! Typical! Anyway i made them like this...


First I laid the patterned fabric out on the table and measure it with my current over gloves for width and length. I bought a meter of this poppy fabric and I have plenty left to make Grandma the apron to match she so subtly hinted about for Christmas.

So once I had two of those, I cut out the special heat proof wadding I had bought to be sandwiched between the two at the same size. I then with my matching thread just run straight stitched down the length of the sandwich and at four points side to side to quilt it all together.

I then used 1 fat quarter of red fabric and made the pockets. I copied again the size of my current over gloves but made the corners square. What I did was I doubled the length required of red fabric so I could fold it over the wadding and not have a seam at the opening. So I cut two sets of the red and sandwich that with heatproof wadding again. I'm not sure if you needed to use heatproof for the pockets but as it was for my Grandma I wanted to be safe. I quilted these together with a row or two of the fancy stiches my machine does which hopefully you can see on the top picture.
Please note a basted these with the spray glue left over from my quilts but there wasn't much left so it got a bit gloopy and left marks on the fabric where it settled. I won't use it near the end again as it left greasy marks on my red fabric.

I then sewed the two pockets on by doing a square all the way around the pocket attaching the pocket to the poppy sandwich I previously made.

I the trimmed the edges and put red bias binding all the way round to finish it off, and popped it in the post! The best bit was when the post office lady asked what was in my parcel... oven gloves! What a funny look I got!

The infamous 'Walkaway dress' Butterick B4790

After seeing this dress on The Great British Sewing Bee I instantly fell in love! My personal style is very retro and flared dresses like this flatter my curves well.
I bought the pattern on a whim when it was half price thinking I'll get round to it when I'm a bit more skilled, but no I decided to go head first on this one!

I was a bit daunted by the amount of fabric I needed to make this, so I thought if I mess it up it's going to be a huge waste of money. So whilst in Dunelm I saw that their plain block coloured duvets and sheets were on sale! I bought a bright pink and a bright turquoise double duvet for the grand total of £9! Perfect for messing things up I though!


I started by Ironing out the pattern pieces as this was my first go with a proper pattern so I was following all the things I had learnt watching plenty on YouTube! Once I have ironed them, I taped them to our living room floor then taped tracing paper over it. I copied out all the lines for my size then cut it out. I carefully folded my pattern back away and from then on only used the tracing paper and the instructions that came with the pattern.

Now as I was using a duvet the normal pattern placing on my instructions didn't quite work as my fabric wasn't the usual width or length. I made sure the folds were in the right places and I cut out enough of every piece.

Tia wasn't very helpful in this stage!

So after I cut all my piece out. I followed the instructions in the pattern to the letter, and I ended up with something that resembled a dress! Please keep in mind I am a beginning so I didn't move any of the darts or change the pattern in any way and I have since learnt it definitely needs to be done on this dress as it's a vintage pattern which doesn't fit modern bodies as well.

I then had the task of the miles of bias binding! I decided rather than buy a specific amount which I would probably end up messing up and needing to source more, I bought a 20m roll from ebay as the fabric was very plain I bought some polka dot bias binding to jazz the dress up a bit. I bought extra wide binding, half because I wanted to make life a bit easier and less fiddly and half because I wanted it to stand out.


I watched a tutorial on ebay about bias binding on clothing as I have only put it on quilts so far so there is much more of a sandwich involved. The video suggested ironing the binding in half reading to be slotted over the dress edges already ironed in place. I ironed about 4m of binding and started to put it around the dress starting on the corner of the piece that is at the back and covered by the skirt. I used my quilting clips rather than pinning it as it stopped it from being a bit too fiddly. This also helped me just keep moving the clips further down as I went the whole loop around the dress. make sure you leave extra binding along the back to tie the back panels together. I let about 20cm on either side which is enough to leave a small bow under the skirt.

I started by putting buttons in the front, but because I hadn't tweaked the pattern at all it didn't quite close properly in the middle and it wasn't very comfortable. So instead I took the buttons off and replaced it with some extra bias binding which I tie in a box at the front making it much more comfortable, and perfect for going out for a meal and overeating as it expands!

Ta daa! A very awkward looking me in an unruly looking garden!! As you can see the top it really baggy about my boobs and you may not see by under may arms is quite low and shows my bra so I would need to tweak the darts next time I make this. I'll have to learn how to do that first though! ;)

Poofy skirt with elastic waist

Another make from a sewing mag this time Love Sewing!

I followed the instructions in the mag for this one, which was issue 15. It basically involved 2m of fabric and some wide elastic.

I drew round the pocket template in cream and sewed one on each straight edge of fabric. I then put the straight edges together and sewed the up either side, going around the pocket edges also.

I hemmed the whole thing up in a loop. Then I zig zagged the whole top of the skirt, then did a long stich all the way around which I pulled on the bobbin end to gather it.

I then attached the elastic without stretching it.

If I did it again I would use less elastic so that it needs to str3tch to fit and it will lie much nicer.