77: Playing with sequins - blank slate patterns top

 I bought 5.3m of sequin fabric more than a year ago from a seller on ebay. For about £3 in total it was seriously a bargain. It was September and I suppose no one else wanted sequins in September! I just love things like this but simply have not had the sewing confidence to use them till now. Having had a very scary disaster where  nearly took my eyes out when altering a thrift shop top I shyed away from using this fabric. TMS challenge for December though and a little more sewing experience one year on led to this top being made.

I fully lined the top with the same fabric I am using for my coat lining. Mainly because it meant I did not need to spend ages looking in my stash for some lining and also because it was next to me where I am slowing sewing up my coat. More on that later.




The neck edge is smply turned over and hemmed over the lining to keep it all in place. It is my first lined top ever so I am very happy with that alone because its a step towards making "upmarket" clothing rather than just cheap high street copies. All in all a success I think.

Sorry about background cleaning mess. We are still constructing the front room after our decorating.

Thanks for reading

Bracken

62: Gingham-along top

I came across the gingham along challenge by accident. I was just browsing a few blogs in my lunch break and there it was. This seemed a great challenge since I have just finished the Monthly Stitch Birthday challenge so was feeling like I am ready to take on a new and exciting challenge since I actually managed to complete a real challenge in the allowed time.

I have several meters of a lilac stretch gingham I have been wondering what to do with it for ages.  I do not want to make just anything with this fabric. I cannot see me at all in a 1950s style dress or in a school uniform dress or any of the usual clothing that I see around that is made from gingham. I obviously liked the fabric since I bought it. About 5m in fact! 

I already managed to make the top at the start of this post. 

Spider lace

Black satin ribbon edge

 This I actually made before the gingham along happened I just have not got round to writing a blog post about it. I have worn this top probably at least once a week all summer so it must be "me". The lace on the sleeves is cut from a halloween tablecloth. I collect them since the black lace is usually made up of skulls or spiders etc and are my kind of price range at around £1.00 each.

The neck edging is the same black stretch lace that I used on my black pointy-hemmed dress here: 61: 3 Dresses from one pattern - The Monthly stitch challenge August 2016 and the pattern is the same free blank slate top pattern that I made a quick top/muslin from

When I first made this top I did it just as the previous top but I hated it. Too Mumsy for my style I am afraid. But the pattern is nice and fits well having done the shoulder adjustment suggested by Mel so I took out the darts which gives a kind of wider swing effect and added black lace at the neck and wrists. I also added a black satin ribbon at the hem edge. And just changing this pattern made it into a favourite top!

here: 20: Blank Slate patterns High Low top   

                     So then to the Gingham along which you can find out more about here:

https://didyoumakethat.com/2016/08/16/ginghamalong-giveaways/

I decided I just have to go for it. I am not sure how long I will keep my confidence up after the nice comments I got for my 3 pointy-hemmed dresses: https://themonthlystitch.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/3-pointy-hem-dresses/ so best to get on with it. 

My first item ( other than the top I have already made  above but probably could use for this is challenge) is a pair of side panel leggings which are stretch black leather at the sides and gingham for the centre panels. I have made this pattern before here: 38: side panel leggings

My working area is rather small and cluttered so I could not get a picture of my entire leggings without putting them on and have no one available to take the photo so here is the top bit and the ankle bit. The pattern is for knitted stretch fabrics which could explain why I am having some issues because although the gingham is stretchy it may not be as stretchy as is needed. I thought it was else I would not have used it but the pattern was a little big when I used it for stretch knits but the same size seems a bit wrinkly with the gingham and leather. I have yet to add the waistband so hopefully this may get sorted yet. So far I have sewed up the sides and the front and back seams and left them and started to make this to go with them:

I am doing the jacket in view B so the leather version with buckles at the front. I have yet to source the buckels so that could end up changing a bit. Again I am mixing the lilac gingham with stretch leather to get a kind of punk look - or so I am hoping.

 

The jacket is so far going OK. This is the side pockets which have a lilac gingham lining but the side panels are fake stretch leather:

This is the two sides with pockets put in: 

The Jacket has princess seams. The centre front and back panels will be lilac gingham:

Fist I sewed very close to the edge within the seam allowance to secure everything similar to basting since I do not want to use lots of pins since its leather and they will make marks and tiny holes. Then I overlocked everything together cutting off the machine sewed basted line. Repeat for the other side.

As you can see the leather is a bit creased. I am hoping this will hang out since I cannot risk pressing this and melting it.

And repeat for the second side:

Then the pattern says to sew up the centre back seam and top stitch. My top stitching is far from perfect and I do not have a perfect pattern match either!
The top is not too bad but as the seam goes down the back the pattern goes out. It will have to do. Right now I am aiming at making something slightly more challenging but not at total perfection and for me this is turning out very challenging!

Next the lower back panel has a pleated bit. You need to overlock and twin needle stitch the edge first then pin into place. 

Here are the bits so far:

And this is my "TO DO" pile taking up far too much room at the end of my table.

It includes a pair of cut out cullottes which I have left sitting waiting for about a month now, my citrus trousers I have cut out but not sewn so yet to finish here: Life!, my half made summer coat:30: Summer coat, a pair of curtains I need to hem and an IKEA blind that is waiting to be put up. And out of sight are several upcycling projects and a pile of repairs to do! I really need to start to do just one sewing project not several at once!


Anyway thats what I have been up to this week. Next week I will hopefully have some progress to show for the Gingham along challenge since it ends on 13th September so I had best get cracking.

Thanks for visiting

Bracken

20: Blank Slate patterns High Low top

I have decided I need tops. I have made several dresses and leggings but only 1 top and in my wardrobe I have a serious shortage of nice easy to wear tops. I downloaded this pattern a while ago but only stuck it together a few days ago. I decided to follow my new rules and make it up first in a muslin especially since I followed Mel's advice and did the adjustment to the shoulders recommended for my body type. Assuming it does fit I would wear it.

The directions for all of this is in Mel's tutorial.

This free pattern is from Melly Sews of Blank Slate Patterns:
http://mellysews.com/2013/02/high-low-shirt-tutorial-pattern.html
Its only available in a small which I reckon is around a 36 EU size. The pattern is for wovens but Mel does say you can make it in a knit as well. I had knit fabric.

Anyway, I cut it out and sewed the darts no problem.

But due to not having any overlocking thread in white or cream ( my fabric is cream) and only having black, purple and red. I did not even have 4 white normal threads I could use and I did not think it would be a good pattern for contrast since the fabric is transparent in poarts so the coloured thread would show through on seams and not just hems which probably would look ok. I decided to attempt to sew this on a normal sewing machine.

BIG MISTAKE! 

Now I remember why I bought the overlocker!

And seriously big respect to everyone who regularly sews knits on a normal sewing machine. I am rubbish at it. I started sewing the shoulder up using a small zigzag stitch. First the sewing machine ate my fabric.

I had to take the machine appart to get the fabric out. You can probably see the chewed corner above.
Well I suppose I had to learn how at some point but today was not meant to be the time. The top was salvageable especially since I did not yet know if it would even fit and I started again only to have the machine eat my fabric again. I soldiered on. Inserted the sleeves OK and then did the side seams. I try it on and yes it does fit. I do not like it. I will definitely use the pattern again but may stick with using it for wovens because I work in my real life in an engineering research laboratory and generally I prefer this kind of top because its easy to wear and easy to move in so it will make me some very nice tops I think so thank you to Mel at mellysews.com for this freebie. I am very glad to have made the muslin but won't be wearing this one.

Also from now on I am only using an overlocker on knits. I can now cope with twin needle stitched hems but not zigzagging the seams on knits. I did used to do this but I just could not get a good enough finish. Still on the plus side I have made my muslin as intended and it fits so I am ready to go with lots of tops.

So how do you cope with knits?

 Do you use an overlocker/serger? 

Or do you use a normal sewing machine?

Thanks for reading and see you again soon 

Update on this rather boring fabric. Three years after I wrote this I discovered it tie dyes amazingly well  so then I turned the rest of this fabric into this really lovely and very favourite Tshirt.  

 

You really would not believe it was the same stuff would you?

Just proves no fabric buying is a disaster. You must just find out how to make it work!

Bracken