Me in the Colette Hawthorn

Spring has come on crazy sudden here. It's been 30 degrees the last two days. Cool change blowing through right now. But today was perfect, simply perfect, for wearing my Colette Hawthorn in Liberty Tana Lawn to the shop. I asked Fiona to take a few photos of me betwixt the linens and the hemp & organic cottons.

The hills are alive....

It's so twirly!

My version is a fair bit less fitted than many versions I've seen online, but the Liberty has zero give in it and ... I have probably a little too much give these days, ha. Anyway I think it has shape and comfort in really good balance for my liking.

I made a muslin in size 10 and made a few adjustments to fit: raised the waist, let out the side seams and front bodice darts to widen the waist (tapering up to nothing under the arms) and took a wedge out of the bodice centre back where it meets the skirt to fix where it was scooping down a bit (I guess a kind of sway-back adjustment). If you look at the first photo in particular, I think I should have shortened the sleeves by the same amount as I shortened the bodice (I didn't adjust them at all). They're more almost-full-length than 3/4.

I cut the skirt back on the fold, since my print was directional and there were no fabric savings to be made by cutting it in two halves running opposite ways. I also sewed the collar with a 1/4 inch seam allowance as per comments I'd read from other Hawthorn sewists. It seems the pattern was accidentally made with only this narrow allowance on the collar rather than the 5/8 inch allowance elsewhere. Anyway with the 1/4" s/a it worked just right.

I added a waist-stay of cotton twill ribbon, sewing it to the seam allowance and finishing with a snap closure behind the button placket at the front. This may have been a bit of overkill given the lightness of my fabric, but on my bedsheet muslin, the weight of the full skirt pulled oddly at the waist.

I also added a little hook and thread loop helping stop any gaping at the waist. Buttons, not that you can see with the busy print going on, are assorted vintage clear glass.

I did a little bit of swearing when I cut the front bodice pieces upside-down on the print and there was not enough fabric left to re-do. But, it's such a busy print that you'd barely ever notice. I think it's a William Morris.

I felt great wearing this dress today. It made me feel a bit 'dressed up' but not inappropriate for just an ordinary day. I can definitely imagine another Hawthorn or two in my future... maybe in a plain fabric that would show off the cut a bit more.

I was thinking of making a very plain self-fabric tie belt to go with this one. What do you think?

- Jane x

stuff we've been up to

Busy, busy. Getting the hang of running a shop. Usual family wrangling. Still holding down a part time office job. Husband bouncing from one time-consuming work project to the next. Something might have to give soon but we're all holding up for now!

It's important to me to keep adding to this space as a personal archive of our family's day-to-day and my sewing, and to keep in touch with lovely bloggy friends :) I do so love reading the same kinds of things on the blogs of others so it's up to me to contribute too! And so, on with a bunch of photos - 'random' as Jasper is so fond of calling everything.

That Charlie - not only does he cut his own fingernails, he can now make my lemon poppyseed cake recipe better than I can, and put together Ikea furniture all by himself. Practically a fully-formed human being! 

What else do we have up there... Clem has some new lights on his bedhead thanks to the theatre show Andy has just finished working on. 

Clem built his first real improvised Lego thing, which I was excited about because none of my kids have ever been huge Lego fans, which I admit I find a little disappointing. 

I made a small whole cloth quilt/throw from some gorgeous Nani Iro double gauze, pure wool batting, linen/cotton on the back and perle cotton hand quilting, as a sample for the shop. The cat, and Clem, really rather wanted it to stay at home.

The dress above was made as a sort of shop sample, and also to wear to the opening of Andy's show. I was really pleased with it. My first fully lined dress! Pattern from Ottobre 5/2012, and if you look carefully at the muslin version you can see how I made sure I avoided awkward placement of the dots on the 'proper' fabric (Anna Maria Horner Field Study velveteen). Texta drawn on 'danger spots' while wearing muslin! The only fitting adjustment I made to the pattern was to make the back darts a little deeper and longer. Oh and I omitted the back zip since the muslin went on and off just fine while all sewn up. Win! 

No photo of me wearing the dress... but this post may never happen if I wait for that. Maybe later. I wore it with a skinny black belt on which I attached an old sparkly buckle of my Granny's. Very swish.

Alright, nuff for now. (Crap, with this sort of photos and shorthand commentary seems like I should take up Instagram instead doesn't it! Fortunately I do not possess the technology. I really don't need another internet time vortex in my life. Do you Instagram? Do you like it?)

- Jane x

the muslin that made me go "yeah, nah"

I may finally have to face the awful truth that I am not an illustration of a groovy young thing in the sixties. Boo-hoo.

yeah! hey that's me in the centre with the red hanky isn't it?

nah. I don't hate it but wouldn't buy it, you know?

Let's ignore the one sleeve thing and the safety pin 'buttons' and the random fabric belt for now and look at the shape.

The fit was not bad; I loosened a little into the seam allowances around the hips but that's all.

I was slightly concerned about the shapeless bag potential of this pattern on me and I think, suspicions confirmed. Not dreadful, however not flattering enough to bother with making 'for real'.

And didn't they like their 'short' sleeves long in the sixties? Modesty or fashion I wonder?

There are better dresses out there for my shape. Like something with an actual waist. Lesson learnt!

Yay for doing muslins then, however dull it might be. I think this means I have to muslin up another pattern. Oh well, silver lining: it's a great way to use up odd coloured threads left on bobbins.

- Jane x

stretching myself: the freaky twin needle

Didn't I just say I wouldn't be sewing much for a while? I'd be too busy decluttering and simplifying all about the place? Ah, but it's all about striking a balance. Happy Mama, happy family. Yeah?
Er, whatevs.
(I did just unload another massive bootload of stuff at the Salvos yesterday.)
Now.
I've had Wendy Mullin's Sew U Home Stretch book for a while.

I really want to make that cute purple dress sometime

The first thing I sewed from it, I had so little idea, I got the stretch the wrong way. However, it did confirm to me that the Size M was (or would be) a good fit. Which is lucky, since I had so little idea I merrily chopped those Size M pieces right out of the tissue paper.
I have some lovely classic navy and white striped jersey, and I thought it would be good in the boat neck style (above centre). I tried it in some plain organic cotton jersey (that I was less in love with) first.

Sunday hair (oh who am I kidding it looks like that most of the time)

not in love with this colour, and tempted to embellish somehow, but probably should leave well enough alone

 The basis of this book is three patterns: a regular t-shirt, a raglan-sleeve version, and a basic dress. Then it shows you how to vary each of these patterns for a lot of different looks. 

here you can see the variations made to create the boat neck shape

The end of these instructions suggest you could add buttons on one side of the neck. But if that part of the pattern is only 1 inch wide (including seam allowances), this leaves a maximum of half an inch for the suggested three buttons??

Once I'd made this top up, I curved the sides in a bit for some shape. This pattern has you add two inches at the bottom for this style. I did that, then in the end had to take 4 inches off, due to my own body pattern having clearly been missing the 'waist' piece when I was sewn together.

The book has instructions for 3/4 sleeves but I wanted full length. I altered by lengthening and then narrowing them down toward the wrist.

bottom hem with revolutionary-to-me twin needle stitching

This is the first time I've tried the twin needle thing for hems and... it seems to defy logic but it works! I mean, I understand how the bobbin thread ends up in a zigzag so naturally would have some stretch. But doesn't the top just end up as two straight stitches? Why would they have any more give than two ordinary straight stitches? But they seem to. Can anyone explain this to me?

The book says to serge the neckline then fold under and topstitch. I originally did that with a zigzag and it came out a bit wobbly and stretched. So, putting my patient hat on, I unpicked and then stabilised it with fusible tape. Then twin needled it. So much better.

Here's the machine I used for the twin needle stitching, since they're not available for my Singer 319K.

the red tape on the throat plate was just to guide my hem since it doesn't have any measurements on there

 I bought this on a whim from a disposals store, telling myself I really needed a free-arm machine. Jasper calls it 'his' machine now and to his credit he can use it fairly well. I won't disclose how much I've spent on repairs for this little dear, hmmn. But I will show you its cute red case:

picnic, anyone?

and the original manual found inside:

you can just see the receipt sticking out, for some of that repair work

and the dear little double layered accessories box:

and the back of it with the twin threads in action:

and the front with the flat bed thingy attached:

ah, new camera lens that can blur out the background mess, how I love thee

Anyway, I quite like the end result. The top, that is, after that sewing machine porn digression.

What will I change for the stripey version?

I think the boat neck could be slightly less wide.

I will add a little more length in the sleeves to allow for a deeper hem; it just looks better.

That's it I think.

Although... perhaps I should try the raglan sleeve pattern first to see if that might be my favourite?

- J x

Folklore-Rock? Those crazy Danish.

This Farbenmix Valeska 'Folklore-Rock' pattern came from a favourite online store (Australian store, I must add!). I love their selection of fabrics and patterns, and they ship lightning-fast. I'd been tempted by this skirt pattern for a while, despite its wacky name.

I'd had this gorgeous Anna Maria Horner velveteen for some months.  (Not purchased from Australia, ahem.)

I was intending on making a second 'Proper Attire Skirt" (AMH pattern) with it. I made a denim one (pre-blog), which I love, but it's a bit big and the idea of tracing off another size was uninspiring. You'd think I'd have learnt then, from that experience, that I'm really a size M, not an L. But I don't know, maybe I measure too loose or err on the side of 'I can always make it smaller but not bigger'... I cut a size L in this new pattern. And had to take in in considerably. I guess that's good news really.

feeling silly posing while Charlie takes photos

just act natural

 I made the top, too. I tried tracing an existing top that I love. Word of warning: raglan sleeves are really hard to trace. The neckline ended up far too wide and a bit low, so I added the neck band and fiddled with shoulder seams... it's fine for around the house but you know, I should probably just go buy a pattern.

 I shirred the sleeves because I was liking them over-long but couldn't think how else to finish them. The fabric is some lovely soft organic cotton jersey from another drool-worthy Aussie online store, and was surprisingly inexpensive. I bought a metre to try it out and will definitely be back for more - it comes in loads of lovely colours.
Here are some more details on the skirt.

Cute little gathers, which would come across better in a plain fabric. Also, some got sliced off when I reduced the size. Oh and pockets, an essential. Also reduced by downsizing.

I lined the waistband in a fine cotton (lawn?) rather than the velveteen to reduce bulk.

The pattern calls for elastic through the whole waistband, which is a relic I think of its origin as a kid's skirt pattern that was upsized. Elastic waists are sure comfy but not the most flattering. I only did the back as elastic, and if I made this again, I'd narrow the waist down more, lose the elastic and put in a zip. Having no waist to speak of, I can do without extra pouffiness in that area.
It feels good to have a couple of new things in my wardrobe, and to have ticked two items off my 'to sew' list. I can feel more organic jersey tops coming on.

- 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