Monday 30 August 2010

For Me!! (lets face it, thats what this is all about)

love this pattern (it was free) – its really simple and quick to make. this is my second project and I’m learning as I go along. the material i had was exactly the right length for the medium size pattern but I possibly should have used the large size for width as its a bit tight at the hips. I wasn’t quite sure that I was doing with the neck (neck lines are definitely a problem area for me. initially the neck band stuck up like the ring of a cake tin (much smaller than a cake tin but you get the picture), Perhaps this was because it was not a stretchy material. I overstiched the hems with zig zags (not sure i did this right-see photo) and this helped a little but it still wasn’t right so then i doubled the neck piece over and stitched it down so it was half the size – I am relatively happy with it now – its still a bit cake tinny – just half as noticeable. At the lower hem the material got a bit wayward and did not want to lie the way it was instructed too. in the end i won but not without a few creases hear and there. I have since discovered a tutorial on burdastyle.com that would have helped with this. I made the tie longer so the ends show – I quite like the way that looks. All in all I’m pretty pleased with this – its wearable even if its not quite what it could have been – I will make it again soon. Its called flowers at midnight as I always sew late at night when my wee boy is asleep ( he loves to play with the presser foot whilst I sew – not helpful), hence the dark circles round my eyes by the time it was finished!

Saturday 28 August 2010

what i made first

I made these short linen dungarees for my wee boy to wear this summer. I had trouble finding patterns for boys clothes that i likes so i made this pattern from a mixture of ideas from dungarees he had been given and some projects from burdastyle. I tried to make then as simple as possible. I was not totally happy with the way the straps joined to the back section – there has got to be a neater way of doing this, also the back section gapes very slightly – perhaps i need to increase the overlap between the back and front sections or take a tuck somewhere . I thought the little tucks at the back of the waist might look a bit girly, but I think they look pretty good on
i used linen because i thought it would be cool in summer also its really easy to sew. I bought 1m and used a little over half of that. the 2 buttons are the only decoration so far but i might add pockets.
if anyone has any advice on how to improve on this?.

how and why I got started

I think i'll put up all my work so far for the sake of completeness - a frustration with the cost and quality of clothes for sale in local shops lead me to get the sewing machine serviced - I dont think that they make clothes for people like me anymore - searching on the internet for patterns I came across the burda style website, there is so much on there to be inspired by, I use it a lot. An expedition to Mandors up in Glasgow yielded a satisfying pile of interesting and cheap fabric. Im going to attempt to make things that will be useful - the temptation is to make swirly floaty dresses that i can pose in front of the mirror with but will never wear outside - I am going to try not to.

the first thing I tried to make was i copy a nice top my mum had got for me from white stuff . It was more complicated than it looked - especially the neck line - I just can't get my head around how to fit the pieces together. I used some fairly minging shiny cotton because it was cheap and i knew my experiments were likely to be unwearable - I have 2 versions of this piece - both with different and unfinished necklines - some kind of sewing textbook would be useful, i will keep my eyes peeled. anyway - a learn a lot - about the materail, seams, the machine etc from making these - time to attempt the good stuff i think!

hello!

I have just started sewing and am not a natural talent. nevertheless i hope to keep banging out slightly misshapen but ultimately wearable projects and learn fast from my mistakes and almost mistakes. my machine is my mother -in-laws NEW HOME 535 - it has 'temperament' ,oh yes indeedy, but it also does zig zag stitch (!!wow!!) so all is forgiven. you have got to love technology.
apart from my sewing machine I also have james, my wee boy, Mr Midnite, my hard-working other half and laika, my space dog in my life. hope fully all of them will soon be sporting my creations and gracing the pages of this blog