Tuesday 31 March 2020

Micks Red Hoody



As promised a couple of days ago, here are the photos of  Mick's red hoody. This one is a bit special because I actually bought the black fabric for the top. 
Usually I buy fabric and buy patterns and match them together, as I get inspired.So I do not actually very often go shopping for a specific item. The black fabric is high quality and quite thick performance fabric with 4-way stretch. I am never sure if its really 2 way or 4 way but it stretches really well in all directions so whatever that is is what this black fabric is.


The Red fabric is football shirt type of fabric the same fabric I used for the disastrous red and navy hoody.



Since then I have lengthened the pattern pieces.They fit now.

This top is a success we both feel which is nice. Its the last decent sized bits of my red fabric too. I may manage something with the offcuts but I am not too sure what as yet.
















I did though make a skirt from this as well ages ago now. I will have to find that out because it has vanished into the wardrobe somewhere. Its good when your sewing makes you remember other items you have not worn in ages!













This is again McCalls M6614. This time though I have eliminated the side panels to cut a plain back and front. I just pinned the pattern pieces together for this to eliminate the seam allowances and as usual with this pattern I also removed the darts which are at the top of the sleeve.


The two fabrics seem to work very well because the black is quite heavy and the football shirt fabric which is actually not very stretchy but is kind of waffled is a similar weight.


I hope you are all keeping well in these strange times. I have been relatively busy despite being shut in most of the day. I managed to cut out 5 summer dresses and some bras yesterday so hopefully over the next few weeks I can show you these as well. Keep sewing people.......
Stay safe and well
Bracken

Monday 30 March 2020

Bixa top

 This is the first attempt at the Bixa T shirt top from Mood. Its a free pattern.
What actually caused this pattern is I went window shopping/ investigating current high street trends in New Look. I was struck by the large number of T shirt type tops with lace and net sleeves including double layered tops like the Bixa pattern which I downloaded a year ago or so.

I like Mood free patterns because so far they have all worked without problems which is pretty impressive for free patterns. They also have some very interesting designs. This is one of them.

This top is cropped so as you can see its a bit short. I am wearing it with high waisted jeans from 1997 and a long vest top under the Bixa. The jeans are flares so very on trend despite their age. You cannot see that with me wearing wellies!
I had them saved at the back of the wardrobe for years because I just could not part with them. Anyway recently they are my favourite jeans again.
This Bixa is my test version. so I left the original length, and the double top and bottom sleeve, as well as adding the overlay. Bearing in mind this is made from scraps I think its pretty good. The top is crepe scuba ( reversed to make a plain surface rather than crepe). Top sleeve is also crepe (reversed) but the under sleeve is ribbed cotton mix with the overlay of polyester tulle. I am not a great fan of the short/long sleeve look but I do like the overlay. Having said that its completely impractical as a top. It would make a good wedding party look though.

Other problems:
Its cream (for me not the best colour when I am looking after hens and dogs but could be OK for work I suppose), the overlay is tulle so very weak and not hardwearing at all and the dog claws get caught in it. So far I have managed not to get it ripped but I keep changing into different tops because they keep jumping up.
 
 


Despite its not at all practical yes I do like this top. I am intending to make a second version with a longer body length and make the mesh sleeves without the top sleeve sections so really by sticking the two sleeve parts together and then extending the overlay.  Thats whats in fashion not the double sleeve look. I will let you know if this idea works.

 

 As a RTW copy I think its a good pattern for the current trends though will need a bit of tweaking but I will do that with version 2.


Hopefully I can show you that next week,
Thanks for popping over
Bracken

Sunday 29 March 2020

Black Lydia with mesh

 

Again this is inspired by the high street mesh and lace sleeved T shirts. Istarted witht he Bixa top a few days ago and really that is less wearable than this. Bixa is cropped. To be hoest I have worn it quite  few times now but the Lydia from Burda I reckon will do a similar job but be more me. Its fitted and with the pola dot mesh is really very wearable. It was very cold whe we took these photos so there are not very many of them.

The body is crepe scuba reversed so its flat and the sleeves are polka dotty power mesh. I made a summer hoody from the same fabric.


I think due to the colour it was difficult to get decent photos of this. These were also taken just before a rain storm hence its pretty dark.


To alter the Lydia sleeves into puffed rather than fitted I slashed them twice lengthwise and spread them and compared them to the Bixa overlay width for a guide as to how wide they needed to become for this look. Then gathered across the top of each sleeve and overlocked onto the body.


I overlocked the hems and then turned under and double stitched to make a channel. I added stretch lace to the very edge and then inserted narrow elastic.



This is a pretty simple but very effective top. I think its a good copy of current New Look trends.

I expect this will be a summer favourite because it will go with loads and despite the glitery polka dots its subtle enough for smart work clothing as well as jeans. Its actually worn here with panelled sportswear leggings. I am very pleased with how this one came out.

I have just one more of these tops in the pipeline now. I will show you that in the next few days.

Then I think thats it for this look.
Bracken

Friday 27 March 2020

The slightly wonky multi media T shirt top



As promised here is another of the T shirts I have made for Mick. This is McCalls M6614. This version is not quite as successful as the rest, although he did wear it yesterday. Mick's comments on this are that: Its OK as a lounge top but he is not sure about wearing it outside the house!

He did not see the mistake or problem though.

 He was unsure about the patterned fabric.

 
I did check before making but I think he does not visualise what things will look like after construction. I know this already from decorating the house. he cannot "see" what a roomwilllook like with this wallpaper or those curtains. Where as the fabric alone was OK to him, when made up it is a bit much for his taste I think.

This is made from 4 different fabrics which are all scraps from other projects. Its got a very 90s feel I think. There were many similar tops around then. My aim was to make 6 new tops for Mick because thats going to easily get him through the spring. This was the last one made although I have yet to get photos of some of the other versions so I am not blogging about them in the order I made them.

The navy fabric used on the sleeves and back sidepanels is a solid mesh which seems to be found on a lot of footwhich I used for several other projects:
Mick's blue hoody, my dress and my navy top
Blue Hoody and Mesh dress












Hoody Cowl dress


The black ribbed fabric which is on the front panel was used for a top for me and another top for Mick I think this is a cotton/acrylic/lycra mix. Its quite heavy weight. The black on the back is a very high quality synthetic performance fabric used for Micks red hoody.I have yet to get photos of this one.
The patterned fabric was used for my hoody cowl dress and a top I made for  Christmas work party.





There is a real error with this top. It did not at all sew up right. I think its because to squeeze it out of my bits of fabric the back panel is cut at an angle and not on straight grain.

 
It had more effect on the finished article than I expected. Normally, I just follow the grain lines without even questioning why I do this. Well this is why they are there I suppose. The back did not quite match with the back sides and ended up kind of skewed. So then I hacked it off in line with the other side of the back side that worked but made it very wavy accross the back and shorter than the front. The back now has a straight back and there is a curved hem on the front. Not the end of the world but not really good.

I added a strip to the centre of the hood because I did not have any bits large enough. Mick liked that especially though. I will do this one again because its a very easy and nice design feature. The hood is an XXL whereas the rest is just a Large size. It means the hood is not small as most because he hates that but the strip I added makes it even bigger than usual so in the end its a bit larger than the other tops I have made from this pattern. Its his kind of top tho because of this.




As Mick said, its a good lounge top and he apparently loves the hood but he will not be wearing it in public without another top over it. Its not a good example of my normal standard of sewing. I suppose though its still good experience because despite the problem with the back I have learned when making this so will hopefully not make this mistake again. And in the end its made from the left overs I was going to throw away.

I will show you rest of these tops when I get the photos of them...............

Bracken

Thursday 26 March 2020

Micks warm T shirt top

I made a blue hoodie for my Mick a few weeks back. I needed to alter the pattern for that because it was just too short and after repeated disasters I had to bite the bullet and change the pattern. It was a big success so this time I decided to have a go at making something similar for him. Well no, not at all similar. This is a different pattern and never needed to be altered for fit. It was pattern hacked though, to get this design. Its the same pattern I used for the striped top:
Its based on Newlook 6142 which is meant to have a zip front and be a jacket, but I traced the top to make a yoke and removed the hood. Front the photo you can see how this got pinned onto the fabric. I forgot to add seam allowance on the tracing so I added a guiding line of pins and I did the same with the main part of the front where I just folded the pattern under at the tracing line. Cuting on the OUTSIDE of the pins then gives me a seam allowance so that I do not alter the length. Previous problems with the blue top pattern have proven how crucial a correct length is for Mick's tops.
To be perfectly honest, although this top worked, and would be counted as a success, it is not. I designed it with a collar with the idea the zip would go to the top of the collar. Then I went and cocked it all up. 

The yoke is double thickness.  I did the zip first which was attached to the first layer of yoke, then I attached the yoke facing to give double thickness, then joined the main body piece and then top stitched accross the join. The problem was having put the zip in and sewn all this I realise at this point I should have had the collar on first before the zip was sewn in. That would mean the zip went right up the collar to make a tube necked top. I do not believe I can unpick all this without making holes in the fabric, and I do not have enough fabric to redo the front. If I then added the collar I had cut, it would have had a shirt collar which is not at all what my other half likes so I ended up leaving the collar off all together. What I should have done is sew the collar on as a single layer, add zip and then add facing and second part of the collar. So after having realised all this I then decide to just overlock round the neck and hem it. Its now a zip front Tshirt which is OK, its just not what I was aiming for. I then had a slight disaster with the front neck and cut the edge off with the overlocker unevenly so its not quite right. I actually thought it was going to be scrap at that point, but when I did the neck edge hem its kind of ok and despite the problems is wearable.

I am very happy with my pattern hacking despite the problems because I have made a basic hoodie into a totally different top. I can make another top as I intended because I have the patern pieces for the collar and the yoke and I have marked the pattern where to fold it over with fluorescent highlinghter for future reference.

Mick seems to like the top and has worn it a few times but I keep seeing the mistakes whcn he does. I want to get some more fabric now to make a perfect version of this top as I originally designed it with a collar and a zip.


As usual we got photo-bombed by the dogs!

They do like to be involved.

Originally, I made the sleeves really long - as in I chopped 6  inches or 15cm off them and even now, they are still probably a bit long. Personally I like mine long and Mick has not complained so I have left them.



No doubt about it its his kind of top so at least I made something good.

. I feel I am getting better at making mens clothing now so have cut a few more tops out.  I will show you them once I sew them up.
 Thanks for visiting,
Bracken