Friday, 27 December 2024

Skirt fixed

 
So far Christmas has been very quiet and sewing-wise for me very uneventful. On Christmas Eve I did finally manage to fix this skirt which I made a few weeks ago. It kept falling down and I very much wanted to finish this because when I posted last time it was not wearable. I have done no other sewing due to the fact I lose my table ( which is a dining table) every Christmas so there is simply no where for me to go to do any crafting of any kind over the holiday season. 
But I did get this fixed. And it works. 
In the end after sometime deciding what to do I came up with three possible options: 
 
The first is to take off the facings, put the zip back in (that I decided I did not need since the fabric is so stretchy), and make the darts much bigger to tighten the waist. I do not want to cut a smaller size all over because it fits nicely on my hips. I might need a non stretch stabiliser for this option and the having re- stabilized the facings sew yhem back on. It's quite a bit of work.
 
The next option was to simply add 1 inch wide elastic inside the facings so it's hidden but pulls the waist in a bit and then I don't need the zip which I had removed in the first attempt at making this. I made a couple if skirts last winter using the hidden elastic idea which was nicked from items on the high street at that time.  This works on the previous 3 skirts I used it on and it's comfortable.
 
There is a third way. Remove facings and add a waistband with elastic. But this can still be done after I attempt option 2.
 
Well me being a relatively lazy person and I really also just want to wear this and get back into making something else so I have gone with the hidden elastic method in option two. 
 
To do this you need to sew elastic on very closely to the waistband on the facing not the body of the skirt and then sew this down close to the top edge.  It does mean I had to unpick my edge stitching but that was all I needed to do to get this method done so it's the fastest way to make this wearable. Assuming of course it actually works. It did!
 
Now writing this post I actually realise there is another way to fix a problem such as this, but I still think the elastic method is probably the best. I could have made the back darts much larger and thereby lose alot of fabric at the waist but the problem then is its really the stretch in the fabric rather than the skirt being too big so I decided it would probably not work. I would also have needed some serious vilene to stabilse the fabric and prevent stretch. I decided to go with the easier option- add elastic under the facing and then sew it down and I am happy with the result which gives me a very comfortable short skirt that importantly stays where it should and I wore this all day even when making pastry and mince pies etc and it stayed in place so it works fine.
By the way its worn here with a very basic black top I made from just 1m of fabric.

I will be very unlikely to manage any more sewing now until after the holiday is over, so in 2025. That does have some good aspects though because it gives me some time to knit and to go through my huge pile of sewing magazines to decide what exactly I want for my aims in sewing for next year. I do like to do this because I have found I tend to be more productive and also more adventurous than if I just amble along so I am now actively re-reading lots of Burda, Patrones and My Image magazines to decide on what I want to achieve over the next 12 months. 

This usually also means looking at last years aims. I have yet to re-visit them but I do know I never achieved a few of them and one particular dress will remain on the coming years list. Its been 3 years so far on my list I think so maybe 2025 will mean I get to actually make the thing - or remove it from the list completely. More on that once I find that magazine and decide if I really do want to actually make that dress. 

For now I hope you had a lovely Christmas and I wish you all the very best for 2025.

Take care and thanks for popping by my blog,

Bracken


Thursday, 19 December 2024

Christmas stockings - for pets

 


Last year I made lots of Christmas stockings for my familly and friends. I only actually ever put one of them on the blog. They were really all very similar but with different initials.

Anyway it seems people liked them and this year I got an urgent request  to make two more - for dogs. Well I have not so much time this year as I had last year it seems. No idea why really. Work is far more demanding. Familly also, so my sewing time has diminished rather a lot recently, but I did manage to throw together a couple of stockings as requested. They are not the best made and I used the thread I had already in my machines but I think actually they look quite acceptable. The person requesting them seems happy as well so thats a bonus.

I decided, since I have sewn nothing else at all this past week to show you these pet christmas stockings. I have seen worse. They are just made from scraps of curtain brocaide and salvedged ribbon from those ribbons you get tied around PJs when you buy them, and decorated with tinsel but they should look quite good I think alongside the rest of the ones I made last year and hopefully the dogs will be happy to have them filled by Father Christmas. They will be a little better once I cut off the extra thread I can see hanging off one of them in these photos!

I just hope the dogs do not decide to do a raid on them before we all wake up on Christmas morning because the dogs in question can be theives. I suppose it would not actually be stealing since it will be filled by their toys/ food etc (assuming they have been good this last year) but a shame for the familly if we come down to a rather empty dog Christmas stocking! 


Still we will have to see how it goes.

Have a great week,

take care

Bracken

Friday, 13 December 2024

Burda style sweatshirt finished

 

This is the finished sweatshirt that I finally got the zips and neck done last week after months of me faffing around with this make. Its taken me nearly 12 months to finish this. It was one of my January 2024 ideas to make and I am happy to finally finish it in December so I am really still on track with last winter's planning. Also its perfect for the cold winter days we are having right now.


Its actually my first attempt at this top so I suppose this is really a wearable muslin. 

A month ago I would have said its a one off that I will never make again because its been a difficult make but now I finally have it finished I really like it.

Its not perfect - the pockets are sewn on rather wonky. 

But then only me will probably ever notice that and I have seen ready to wear thats worse made so not that bad really. 

I am just very aware I could have done that bit of sewing better!

All in all though I like this top so I am planning to make another one.

I very much like the "funnel" neck that's pulled in with a drawstring to make it fit right.

I like my contrast zips  and pull-cord and  toggles- though I spent the last 10 months wishing I had made my life easy and used matching ones but now finally finished they are great and I like them.

The hem band is a bit wider than the pattern says but that was actually intentional it being the middle of winter and me wanting warm. I think its ok and will be really good for keeping me warm with leggings etc. Next time though |I might use ribbing rather than the same fabric as the main sweatshirt because its quite bulky but it still works. 

And I can finally tick this one off my list of "to-makes" that seems to grow all the time and I seem to rarely actually make much of this wish list of patterns. 

Have a great week and wishing you all the ebst.

Thanks for popping by my blog,

Bracken

Tuesday, 3 December 2024

Weekly sewing update- Burdastyle sweatshirt 121, 02/2016

I have had great trouble getting myself going this week. Maybe it's the dismal weather but I just cannot seem to get any real sewing done. I broke my walking foot. I have since bought a new one but that's not the point. I find walking feet make sewing so much easier. Is it feet? Foots just doesn't seem right to me. Ah the English language!

So this week I sewed a bit of my grey sweatshirt that was started back last January. So its taken almost a year so far - but I may yet add another item to my list of achieved makes I had planned for this year. 

This is the Burda original:

Looking at the original again I seriously messed up on my front pockets too and its a bit late to try and fix them. I will have to think about that one for a bit because I have not yet sewn this up. The original seems to have them sewn on the inside at the top of the pockets. I will have to have a good look and see if that is still possible. I suspect not because of the CF seams. Still one to remember if I do make another of these. I might because I think I will probably like wearing it - assuming its vaguely presentable anyway.

This has been a very slow make and is far harder to sew than I expected. I suspect I have completely cocked up in fact but it will be wearable ( I hope!). There is this facing at CF that I reckon should somehow be included in the front seams but I cannot work out how to sew it with the zips so that its all one seam so in the end I just sewed it down along the overlocking on the inside to catch it in place. Last week this was still a very much just started piece. I feel I am actually making some progress now.



This is the inside of the facing:

Probably I was meant to use that facing to enclose the zips  but I can't quite work that out. I actually ended up sewing very close to the edge of the overlocked seam edge with a normal straight stitch, to hold this down on the inside. Hopefully it will stay attached. Otherwise its got to be a hand stitching job and I hate hand sewing. 

As usual Burda do not  explain so this won't be the neatest thing I ever made. But assuming I eventually make a second one then I will probably make a neater job. Burda is often difficult the first time you make something due to their totally rubbish directions so I should have expected to find this a difficult sew really.

This is the bottom of one of my zips. Seriously I am struggling with this. But I need to get it finished because it will be nice and warm and also I do not think anyone but me will know about my not quite right insides. 

 I sewed a channel for the (needed) pull cord at back neck. This is essential because the neck will gape otherwise since the back has a kind of half funnel shape going on and you have to pull this in to make it work. 




You can see the funnel shaping above although its pulled in a  bit with the pull-cord I added.
.
So I decided to just have a channel. The channel opens at centre side seams at the neck because I do not like rivets. They never stay in when I use them and I always end with holes and the garment goes in the bin so its really rare I use the things. Instead I go for openings at seams or button hole openings because they seem to last longer. This time its openings at the seam on the inside because it will be neater and hardly make any difference when being worn.

Incidentally I spent the last 10 months wishing I had gone for a matching zip colour rather than a bright red contrast because I know my construction has not been great. However I now really do like the red especially with matching red pull-cord and toggles so maybe you really should take this kind of risk rather than playing it safe with matching colours. I think that rather than showing up my mistakes the contrasting colour actually makes them less noticable.

With a bit of luck, and time, I will hopefully have the completed top to show you next week.
Take care and have a great week whatever you are doing,
Bracken