Still keep the me- mades coming.....

I really must put that hose away before it gets much colder! Ignore the swing frame. Its waiting for a tip run to get rid of it. If you can see any broken flowerpots thats because Hugh, the dog with a white paw eats them and destroys any plant in them!

In all honesty today I am feeling somewhat depressed. Not in a serious medical sense but just an every day frustration type of depression. In a sewing way I am depressed.

My needle hex screws never arrived. I have since found an identical set on Amazon prime for £2 more. If tge original (Ebay) order doesn't arrive this week I shall buy them again from Amazon.

So no overlooking yet. I dare not sew the fur backed sweatshirting with my Janome overlockers. They near enough died last time and thats why I bought the Brother. They will come eventually one way or another.

In the meantime I have traced 117 and 118 10/ 2023 Burda Style tracksuit. I have not cut it yet but I have cut out a dress in sweatshirting so I feel I have done something useful this week. 

I have also finally finished two dog coats I have been making half heartedly for about a month. They were sewn on a sewing machine hence I got round to them. They are essentially free as well since I had the fabric left over from the dry robes I made last summer and I already had elastic for the waistband strap and leg straps and the clips for closure.they are the best dog coats I have made so far. 

I made a silver reflective waterproof version of these for the old dogs but those coats were always a little small for these current boys.

The waterproof outer is heavy waterproof canvas. Water drops just bead on it.

The fleece inner is, well fleece. 

I added inside leg straps though the current boys are quite old now and the coats don't seem to shift much when they walk. Of course if we are lucky enough to get some snow then these old darlings will become puppies for an hour or so and the leg straps will be needed. I had not in fact realised how old they are until we don't need the leg straps!

Their other coats all have them except the denim jackets I made for the very old dogs I had previously and which were simply an extra warm layer for cooler days (or when our heating broke in the winter for them to wear indoors.

The leg straps got nuddy first wearing! 

And these coats fit my current dogs better than the coats they inherited from their predecessors. Until now they just had cast-ons. Thats not actually so bad. Most dogs don't have 3 decent coats each but it is nice to make some to fit them better and these will last into their old age. Both dogs are over 7 now so they will enjoy coats I think. They seemed to like them even when I got them to try them on several times during construction to check size and fit.

Otherwise, all I have done this week is knit some of my jumper which seems to be taking forever, and also a bit of sock knitting. I am almost at the heel flap now of sock 2. Again thats also taking a long time. I am a slow knitter!

Not the most productive week but then, like most people I lead a busy life, let alone its nearly Christmas.

Have a great week and see you soon,

Bracken

Setbacks and trials just never stop coming do they?

 

This week I had great intentions to get some of the large pile of To-Dos done. The childs tracksuits age 4-5 have been on the to-do list for ages. When I bought this fabric said child was 6 months old! Well they do grow quick as they say!

Luckily, I bought 2m of each colour of this fur backed sweatshirting so I have enough even now and really I think its better used for a 4 year old than a baby anyway. This particular child likes playing otuside even in rain and ice so this fabric will be perfect in the next few months in the UK. Its hardly even winter yet so plenty of time thought me. It should work well under salopettes and even under snow gear if we get lucky!

I was doing OK and sewed one top ( except for the hems) and half sewed another top and two pairs of trousers. I tend to treat this kind of sewing like a factory sewist and do loads of similar seams and then finishing at the end for all garments. The second ( grey) top will be a hoody so there should be some choices with these items hence I had thought to mix up the fabrics.. 

AND well here the machine breaking its needle did do me a favour I think, though the subsequent loss of the hex screw that holds my needle ( in my Brother overlocker) has been a serious setback. 

These hex screws are tiny. I dropped the needle inside the machine. Its a "clever threading" thing where the whole of the bottom threader moves in theory to make threading easier. I prefer the more fiddly older style it turns out, because when you do something like drop a needle inside, its easier to access the older types. 

Not this model. Even a magnet would not get the needle out. I ended up turning it upside down to get the needle out. Then of course the threads went everywhere and tangled - so now I also have to totally rethread it. But more upsetting I never did the hex screw up right. I work in a university chemistry lab and some of the equipment ( for safety reasons) does up the wrong way to usual. I must have gone into lab mode and undone not done up the tiny hex screw. Disaster. I lost it and cannot find it anywhere. 

I completely cleaned the room ( well overdue!) looking for this. Cannot find it anywhere. It turns out both Amazon and Ebay sell them. Ebay are slightly cheaper and come quicker so I went with them. Both sites sell the exact same item from the same manufacturer so hopefully the things will fit. It is actually surprisingly cheap and £8.99 for 10 sets of screws and a tool. At least if I do this again I will have spares!

So having started this I am now stuck. I do have two older overlockers but I actually bought this Brother because this particular fabric which I previously made a dress from, sent the blades out of line as well as blunting them, so I do not want to use the older Janomes to sew this fabric. Not for the sake of waiting a week for the spares anyway. The Brother handles far heavier fabric and wonderful though this fur backed stuff is its very thick and heavy in weight.

Anyway, always one to look on the bright side I had decided to mix and match the two fabrics (so green pockets as in the grey trouser leg above and the top at the start of this post has contrasting sleeves, but since breaking that needle and getting stuck, I decided the items look better in just one or other fabric. The pockets on the trousers will remain and the almost finished top will too but I intend to cut a new body for the green hood and sleeves, and new sleeves for the grey ( and maybe a hood?) and do the trousers with matching legs now. I had intended to do green one side and grey the other on the trousers. 

Luckily, I still have enough fabric left to do this. The child these are intended for will end up with the one shirt with two coloured fabric, but they rest of the ensemble will be more conventional because it will look better. So, I expect to end up with 3 tops and two pairs of trousers. Possibly I may yet squeze a third pair of trousers out, but I don't know yet. I need to cut some new bits for the one colour tops first. If I do get a thrird pair of trousers then they may in fact end up in opposite colours rather than waste the last bits of fabric. I will show you some time soon when I get these spare hex screws. 

You know all my life its always been a worry I may lose a needle screw but until now I never have so maybe I should rejoice it took me around 45 sewing years to have this happen. Thats not so terrible when you think of it that way. I started sewing at primary school so have really been sewing all my life. And now I should have spares assuming I bought the correct size.

So I have not actually not sewn anything whole this week but I have had to take a sewing break due to unexpected problems. Never mind I should get the new hex screws by Friday so I can carry one then. I might in the meantime hem the one top but the rest will wait. 

The top is hoody Jacob from Made By Oranges B Trendy which comes as a download and the trousers are B Trendy B1965 which you need to trace ( though you can buy a PDF). I made both before though never blogged about the trousers but they should work out ok. 

Have a lovely week and thanks for visiting,

Bracken

Fixed, repaired and upcycled - my me-made tartan skirt.

 

I made this tartan skirt from very expensive hand woven scottish tartan a long time ago. Or at least it feels so long ago. I never made it fit right. Really the fabric was very expensive and I was so scared I would wreck it so I cut it two sizes at least larger than I was and since then I have dropped 1-2 sizes more. I ended up trying to get the skirt to fit by adding side adjusters in the form of faux leather straps. Did not work well. The garment was just far to big for me so raely got worn and being a very warm wool skirt that's very sad.

It does not look so different but in fact its now much smaller. Below is the original skirt:

Around this time last winter ( 2024) I decided to take it apart and put it all right and make it fit. But because of the fabric again I hesitated. Then summer came and it went on my UFO pile.

But having just upcycled my very old River Island skirt I have decided I should really have another look at this one because in the end whats the point of making clothes if nothing ever fits and you are too scared to sew them to make the do so?

It took quite a long time of pinning unpicking and unpinning, folding and sewing then resewing to make this right. 

You can see from the back its not quite even pattern-wise. My original pattern matching is slightly out but I am more skilled at that kind of thing now ( or so it would seem) and I did my best with what was available. I am not unhappy with the result. I actually removed excess fabric from the two side back panels rather than the sides because the pattern worked better there, so this has a different shape to the original Burda pattern. That does not matter. It works and the pattern is not too far out to get away with:

I then had to also take in the lining of the basque and make it match the tartan outer. 
It's come out a bit shorter though I think that is the length its meant to be on the Burda pattern and I prefer it. I had to lose a few cm from the skirt peplum (?). I also moved the CB peplum back seam to the side where its actually meant to be, but I messed up when I originally sewed this up. This makes the front (virtually!) the same pattern on each side of CF. Thats how I cut it and something that's annoyed me for yonks. 

And it now fits!

This is as close to perfect as I can currently make. Especially given I originally cut it pattern-wise slightly ( only slightly though) out. Its lined n the basque part. 

I finished the inside with overlocking and rehemmed the skirt where I needed to unpick and make it slightly smaller. I am happy and it's wearable and just in time I would expect for the cold weather to arrive. We have had a few cold frosty days but it's really just begining so I now have a warm skirt to wear and it's even in fashion. And I am enjoying upgrading/ upcycling my own me-makes. Much better than just giving them away though it does not help my rather large fabric stash which has grown recently due to me being unable to sew. Ah well. This skirt is a win and thats what I am focussing on.

These are the same photos but worth seeing together I think to get an idea of how this actually has worked.

The green polo top is here if you want to know more about that one.

Have a great week, thanks for visiting,

Bracken