Most overdue post ever

Several thousand years ago, I participated in the Men's Shirt Sewalong at Male Pattern Boldness. I made all sorts of rash promises, like making a final shirt in Liberty Tana Lawn.
I made a muslin.
I made a test garment, which has been worn a couple of times.
Then I made the (final shirt? second test?), but not in the Liberty. I finished this three months ago.
At last I have persuaded Andy into the shirt in photo-worthy light.

check that pattern matching! there is even a pocket on there... can you spot it?

I'm pleased with it. After the photos, he took it off and changed into something else.
Folks, unless this one sees some significant airplay, the Liberty will not become an Andy shirt.
To be fair, the Colette Negroni pattern I used is seems best on tall, lanky body types. I made significant fit adjustments but I think a different pattern altogether would be a better solution. Eh, but to be honest, I should stick to sewing him things he actually asks for.
Now, back to sewing clothes for people too young to make their own decisions....
I did make another top after the neck band debacle, and I will send both for my friend's baby boy's future wardrobe.

Thanks to my cooperative plant-model.

- Jane x

almost vanished in a world of tie-dye

This weekend, along with the ridiculous number of other festivals trying to squeeze into one month in our fair city, Womad has come to town. This stands for World of Music, Art and Dance and I seem to remember it having something to do with Peter Gabriel in its inception. It's a delightful, massive, family-friendly event in our grassy, tree-filled Botanic Park.

Mobile phone pic of people I don't know, waiting for a band to start. Clem thought the curvy bit above the stage must be a train track. This is just one of multiple stages through the park.

Not too long after you wander in the gate, a henna tattoo might seem like fun. Then you go for an organic juice. The kids make stick sculptures in the dirt. You admire some Papua New Guinean singer/dancers. See a man riding a giant chicken. Then browse the stalls. Ooh, look at that yak-wool hoodie! That basket made of recycled... something! That hand-knitted string headband!

At Womad, regular people let their inner hemp-lovin, Combi-drivin', hula-hoopin', dreadlock-wearin' hippie hang out.

I did, at least, wear my Birkenstocks.

It's a lot of fun with the kids. But if they weren't there, we might actually get to see some music, like back in the good old days. Oh well.

Meanwhile, progress has been made on my next Negroni. Snail's progress, but progress nonetheless.

This Denyse Schmidt fabric is a gorgeous cotton voile from the 'Greenfield Hill' range. I think I will still get around to the Liberty fabric, oh yes. Let's call this wearable muslin #2. I have used Peter's instructions to turn the Negroni pattern into a shirt with collar stand and button placket.

I'm proud of my pattern-matching across the front.

I so loved this fabric online and I still think it's a fabulously cool print. But can you see how the pattern goes in perfectly vertical lines, and mildly sloping horizontal lines? Agh... a nightmare for cutting and pattern matching.

The back yoke is cut on the true bias, which looks a bit like a cutting mistake.

If you cut on the 'true bias', it looks wonky. But then, the whole shirt looks slightly off-kilter.

I simply won't bore you with how many times I've had to fiddle, unpick, re-sew, re-cut etc to get this far. I sort of get cocky when I've done something before, and then it ends up taking twice as long. But here I am.

Agh, my eyes, my eyes!

Pockets? This was my loose attempt to see what bias-cut pockets would look like. I think, unfortunately, I will need to pattern match, to avoid the whole thing becoming one complete optical nightmare. One pocket, perhaps? I think pattern-matching two pockets, plus flaps, would be out of the question. Any thoughts?
- Jane x

faux chenille blanket and friends

Finished objects post! Early in the year I joined up for a 'pass it forward' handmade pledge on Facebook. I receive something handmade from a friend, then I have to make things for five friends, who in turn have to make things for five friends and so on.

Two of the friends who joined up for my offer have baby girls on the way. Naturally, I was excited to make their gifts first, since I only have boys. Our floor has been awash with teeny scraps of fabric in girly hues never before seen in this home.

Ever since I saw this tutorial I had been keen to try one of these faux chenille, or cut chenille, baby blankets. I am so thrilled with how it turned out. It hasn't fully fluffed/frayed yet but I've only washed it twice and we don't have a dryer, which probably speeds the process. I think I'll just leave it to keep fluffing in the hands of its intended owner.

Would that be more Anna Maria Horner fabric? Bingo.

pink, frilly, eek, girly!

It was a fair bit of work. As others have said, probably 4 hours worth of sewing lines. Maybe an hour of snipping. Not to mention, the way I did the binding meant I had to hand-sew the final edge of it down. But sometimes I find that sort of repetitive manual work rather therapeutic. There's something very real to show for it in the end. As opposed to say, cleaning the house which returns to pigsty state depressingly soon. Or paid work, which so often seems to be full of compromise or never even sees the light of day. Yes. Simple, repetitive, soft and cuddly can be very good.

I used an Anna Maria Horner quilting weight cotton for the back, and four layers of Kona cotton. I only cut through three layers for the chenille, leaving two layers intact for extra strength.

I bought the Kona cottons online, which was a bit of a gamble on colour matching. They were a bit more icecream-ish than I expected. In the end though I'm delighted with the result. Here I've fluffed it up a bit more to show the layers. Sorry I keep saying 'fluffed'.

fluffed, fluffed, fluffed, fluffed, fluffed

Moving along, I made some bibs for another little girl-on-the-way. More of the AMH print and some pink baby cord and yes, more chenille! Bought variety this time.

using some of my pretty old button stash

Finally, this was finished a couple of weeks ago. It's really still the 'test garment' and I must get my butt into gear for the final shirt. Anyhow, this is Andy about to head off to work today, actually wearing something I made him. Yay!

my sweetie, bravely tolerating the homemade floral shirt

Have you finished any pleasing projects lately? Do you find repetitive manual work can sometimes be soothing?
- Jane x

Negroni take 2

My dear one had just arisen from a nap so I'll leave his sleepyface off the interwebs

For my second attempt at the Negroni for the MPB Sewalong, I cut a size M but laid the size L neckline over the pattern and traced that, like so:

It really hurt my brain to figure out this alteration, which seems so simple

I kept the L collar pattern piece I already had, and changed the front facing neckline to match as well.

I used the Japanese cotton lawn. Andy expressed grave concern over its floral-ness at first but I think he's coming around now it's taking shape.

I am learning so much from the sewalong. There's helpful advice from Peter and other participants, learning by looking at the photos and notes of others on Flickr, and simply the trial and error of ploughing through it all at home. I'm thrilled to be getting the hang of sleeve plackets and edge-stitching:

I have been using my zipper foot to allow me to do a far more accurate and narrow edge-stitch

and between a few of us we have identified an apparent error in the pattern (which is nonetheless awesome), when it comes to putting together the sleeve cuffs.

The instructions have you make the outer cuff side 1/8 inch shorter than the inner when it should be that much longer, in order to cover the stitching you see here

One of the other sewalong-ers told me that Liberty lawn can be really tough on machine needles, so be prepared to change over once or twice during the final shirt making. I noticed that with this Japanese lawn too. I guess it's the very tight, fine weave. Difficult to get pins through, too. Before the Liberty shirt I will equip myself with more fine machine needles and maybe a set of fine, sharp pins.

I need to put buttons on this shirt and hem it. I would also like to figure out what's going on with the creases running from shoulder to under the arm.

I am becoming more and more fond of this faux-Liberty lawn as I go along

I am hoping for some group advice! I don't know if I have it in me to make another actual muslin before the final shirt. I have a lot of actual, um, 'real' work waiting for me. We'll see.

- J x

The Musloni - Negroni progress

I was becoming panicky since Peter has been setting a cracking pace with the Negroni sew-along. However, between Friday night and Sunday night I managed to trace off, cut out and assemble enough of my muslin to give a pretty good idea of fit.

admire ye all the fabric from old disintegrating Ikea quilt cover

Andy's measurements were in between sizes M and L and the advice is to go for the larger. However, it looks like he could easily fit a straight size M, except perhaps in the neck. I'll have to look very carefully at the pattern to see how I might adapt an L collar/neckline to an M everything else. I will shorten the sleeves, for sure.

Some more pics:

I'm... a... dingle dangle scarecrow

general consensus is that the yoke is too wide

fair bit of bagginess all over... the shirt I mean, honey

the very soft old fabric does not approximate the drape of Liberty lawn!

Peter has been super-helpful with hints and suggestions for fit and technique, via the Flickr Group. His photos and instructions on the blog are excellent. I was keen to get his comments on my muslin early in the piece, before he becomes tired of giving free advice to the hundred-odd sew-along-ers!

My plan now is to do a second muslin, well, test garment really, since I hope it will be wearable. I bought some reasonably-priced Japanese cotton lawn. It's really quite nice if I can forget it's a Liberty rip-off from Spotlight. (I think I'm a fabric snob.) I intend to make it up in full detail. After that I should be truly ready for the real-deal Liberty.

- Jane x

Spot the difference

I made my soft toy for Monkeymoomoo's Queensland Flood Appeal Dolly Drive today. These come together so quickly (especially when I don't have any small, er, helpers). Yet I'm constantly amazed by how much my boys love them.

Today's (and cool, I just discovered how to make the photos bigger!):

Charlie's that's been slept on for about a year, washed many times, and was mostly made by him:

The eyes on today's bugged me a bit, they are just embroidery thread, and I felt they needed something more. I tried some little eyebrows but spent ages unpicking them because they looked too messy. I think he'll do. Simple can be good, right?

Also just wanted to say, I love chenille. Love it. And this here is good quality chenille, which I didn't realise until I saw some rather thin, crappy stuff at Spotlight. Love a quality novelty fabric :-)

I've been procrastinating about the Negroni sew-along. I haven't measured Andy up yet so I couldn't even start tracing off the pattern today. I hope to make some big progress on the weekend. It's been stinking hot here, although I shouldn't complain because at least we haven't had floods or cyclones in my part of Australia. I feel like I ought to be making about a thousand pieces of smiling chenille comfort to send up north right now.

Negroni sew-along plans + gratuitous kitty shot

For me, the scariest part of the Male Pattern Boldness shirt sew-along is "will he actually wear it"?

I'm talking about my husband who is quite excited about this project, but is notorious for picking one or two things in his wardrobe and wearing them to death, while everything else languishes unloved.

I bought this Liberty tana lawn (yeah, that again) on eBay without a specific project in mind. But it was beautiful, I think there's 3 metres of it, and it was going for a very reasonable price.

I was sort of thinking dress for me. I showed it to Andy as a potential candidate for the Negroni. "Yeah, I like it," he said. Oh. However, it does save a potentially long and frustrating search for just the right fabric. And he has mentioned quite a few times how much he is loving his tana lawn pyjama pants. Yes, love of my life, take this exquisite fabric, and keep up the encouraging comments.

He's opted for the long-sleeved version. Not sure whether we'll go with the two pockets and pocket flaps yet. Any thoughts? This fabric might be better unadorned, or, the pockets might give it a casual touch that relieves the formality of the print.

I'm also hoping to add a collar stand as per Peter's pending instructions. Andy finds the collar-with-stand a better look on him. He's also requested, and I think I can manage, tabs inside the sleeves that button up when you roll the sleeves up. Do you know what I mean? Do those things have names?

I'm very keen to get started. Oh and here's the gratuitous kitty shot. Don't cats just love walking all over fabric that you're trying to do something with? Not her best angle. (Devon Rex, in case you're wondering.)

MPB Negroni sew-along - I'm in!

Peter at Male Pattern Boldness is hosting a sew-along for the men's shirt pattern I wanted to try anyway, the Colette Negroni.

Yay! I've just ordered the pattern. The sew-along doesn't start for a few weeks so there's plenty of time to think about fabrics (that I'm excited to sew with and Andy might actually wear... a tricky combination).

I have made one men's shirt before and it turned out okay. Andy has even worn it a few times.... Trouble is, it was before I learnt to trace patterns off, and I cut out size L, which matched A's measurements. However, a quick pin-together showed it was enormous, so I had to try to cut the pattern pieces down to size M. But then I'd lost the little overlapping parts of the pattern, where the M pieces went outside the L ones. So, the shoulders and yoke didn't go together quite as neatly as they should have, and I've really ruined that pattern for future use. Oh well, lesson learnt!

Peter has created a cute button thingo for participants to put on their blogs, but as a total novice blogger I can't work out how to use it. Anyone reading, and able to help this techno-phobe?

In other sewing news, I have two (successful!) finished garments I need to photograph and write about. Back soon!