Panel Sorbetto Blouse

This is my latest version of the Sorbetto blouse. I am off on holiday next Saturday for a week to Pisa, Italy and then to Nice, France. I am only taking hand luggage, as i refuse to pay stupid prices for cheeked in luggage. Therefore, i am going to have to pack lightly, so this Sorbetto blouse and the Floaty Sorbetto Blouse, will mean that i have at least two light weight tops. 

The Sorbetto blouse is a free pattern available form Colette Patterns you can find it on there blog. I cut a size 6, i found this sizing a bit strange. I measure 34" at bust but i had to cut for a 36", and even now i could probably get away with larger. The changes i made to the original pattern were, that i inverted the pleat at the front, lengthened the hem and i added a panel at the front. 

I bought the fabric at my favorite shopping haunt, Birmingham's Rag Market. I can not remember how much i paid, but it was not much. I am a cheapskate:) I was so cheap i only bought the minimum amount that i though i would need do the job and grossly underestimated it. So i added the panel in the front. The panel fabric was left over from one of my first sewing projects last year. I actually thinks it looks better like this. 

Both fabrics were impossible to press as they melted before the iron was hot enough to crease them. This means that i don't have the neat polished look that i would like, but it still looks good. I remember when i first took an iron to the patterned one last year, i lost huge amounts of the material before the iron even touched it. I've been very wary ever since, testing each bit of fabric before pressing. 

I did french seams on this top for the first time, instead of my usual plain seams, which is why there are pictures of the inside of my Sorbetto. It looks and feels so much neater. This is something i am going to keep doing in the future, because it does make your clothes feel that much more high quality, even if you are buying the cheep fabric. It also mean that my sewing is moving on, and i am learning new stuff.

I now only have a few days left before i am off on holiday and they are all work days. I really need to do my laundry and clean my flat so i have somewhere reasonably clean to come back to. But i am also very tempted to see if i can make another Sorbetto before my flight leaves on Saturday. We'll see, the fabric washed and ready to go.

Floaty Sorbetto Blouse

The sun has come out at last, and now i want summer clothes. It was so hard to get in the mood for making summer stuff, as only last week i was contending with sleet and snow. I really don't know how professional clothing designers can design a summer collection in the wrong time of year. If it was up to me the shops would be all full of woolly mittens and grey wool dresses right now.

So this is what i am wearing right now, shorts (at last) and a Sorbetto blouse.

I made the blouse using the free Sorbetto pattern from Colette Patterns. I have made a few changes to the blouse, i added cap sleeves, lengthened the hem and inverted the centre pleat. 

When i decided to use this pattern to make summer tops, i was always going to make a few. I had planned out what fabric i was going to use, black and red with daises (below), blue polka dot, and a white and blue stripy one. Then it got warm and sunny and suddenly my chose of fabric seemed a bit dull and inappropriate.

But a good hunt through my fabric draw and suddenly this one surfaced. The fabric is one that i bought over a year ago, before i even started sewing. I had the idea that maybe one day i would use it to make a bag. When i did eventually started sewing it went to the bottom of my fabric draw, and i decided i did not like the print. Then the sun came out to play and suddenly its perfect.

The flower print top is actually the second Sorbetto i have made this week. The firts one....

came out a bit small, but it did give me a chance experiment. So i added caped sleeves to it using my less than professional approach...

1. cut out a piece of fabric that is roughly sleeve shaped and attach it to bodice.

2. hack away at it with a pair of blunt scissors.

3. rip it off, cut down the centre, spread it apart and recut it out. 

4. reattach to bodice, to check shape.

and i had my cap sleeve pattern piece.

I new this would happen, i have been trying so hard to follow proper established sewing methods, so i don't fall in to bad habits. But i have a personality type.

And then Timbaland, The Way I Are, came on the radio and i could not resist...

I embarrass in night clubs.

Burda Blouse 5/2012 with Tie Collar

This is another item i found in the 5/2012 addition of the Burda magazine. It is pattern no: 103, but i have attached a tie collar instead of the plain collar. I actually liked the tie collar blouse that is pattern 134, but it was a plus size pattern, as seems are most of my favourite Burda magazine patterns. So i made 103 and attached the collar as described in 134.

This pattern was pretty easy to follow. At the first glance of the diagram i thought it might be more complicated than the skirt i made last week. But the instruction were quite simple and straight forward to follow. Though you still need to know how to sew so it is not a pattern for beginners. 

I did not cut the fabric on the bias as recommended for the tie, as i did not have enough in my stash, but the end result is still pretty good. 

My photos are not very clear, and it really hard to make out the tie at the front in any of them. I was trying to take them when it was raining yesterday afternoon, so the light coming into my flat was very poor. The black polka dots really make the tie bow blends into the shirt. I think is a good thing, because it is there, and it is big, but understated at the same time.

I am going on holiday soon and will need some new summer tops. My original plan was to making a bunch of heavily modified Newlook 6807's. That did not worked out, due to not finding enough suitable jersey fabric. So now i am working on making the Sorbetto top, from Collete Patterns. I have seen many versions of this pattern appearing on the Burdastyle website, but have never really thought much about the pattern until recently.  Now there have been several versions of this pattern that have caught my eye, so i am giving it ago.

Burda Skirt- 5/2012

Normally this time of year i wear brighter, lighter summer clothes, and i want to be in summer clothes making mode. But the weather it just so far from summer at the moment; this skirt is very appropriate. I actually had to cycle to work in heavy sleet and snow on Tuesday, the weather is horrid. Where is summer?

I made this aubergine skirt from the May addition of the Burda magazine using pattern number 118. I cut a burda size 38 grading to 40 at the waist. I also cut the skirt to the same length as the 119 skirt. The skirt has come out really well, although i usually say that and then change my mind. This is one item i can see my self wearing all the time. I feel so comfortable in it. 

  

It was quite challenging to make; as i really struggled with the instructions and i spent a lot of time seam ripping. I have read a lot about burda magazine patterns being hard to understand and now i understand why. They assume a lot of sewing knowledge, there are no diagrams as with paper patterns, and the written instructions just did not explain in enough detail how the pieces were to go together.

 I missed off the welts on the back skirt. I cut them out, read the instructions about how to apply them but just could not comprehend what they were saying. So after a long search for instructions in books, internet and on the Burdastyle website i found nothing. So i ended up leaving them off. I also found it really hard to understand their instructions for the zipper, but after studying an old pair of jeans and reading up on it i eventually figured it out.

 Well that was a long rant about the instructions, overall i think the pattern is great. and maybe with a bit more practice ill become more proficient at using burda patterns. I am making a shirt from the same issue. So far i have found the instructions for that to be quite simple. 

Well that's all for now..... off to work on my shirt.

Loads of UFOs

I have not posted for over two weeks, now i feel kind of obliged not to let my blog stand idle; as i cant see my self posting a finished project for about a week.  I have not been lazy, its just that i have not quite finished a whole project, yet. Hence i have loads of UnFinished Objects. A lot of this was down to riding my bike with a fever. I cycled 13 miles on Friday morning and spent Friday afternoon being scarily dizzy and sick, trying to contact a doctor. However loads of rest over the weekend at my parents house and i am now fine.

So here is a project update. 

I have started a new Cable Knit Bag like my grey one. I was in B&M and they had this perfect chunky 100% wool yarn, that i just knew was put there for me to make this bag.  The first time i made this  i drew a diagram of the bag and knitted it from that and what was in my head. That was two years ago now so i have been thinking i need to make another one for a while and write the instructions down properly, before i completely forget how i did it. So this is what i have been doing, its harder than i thought. More on that later.

I have my first UFO. Its official. I can't see these short being finished in weeks, if not months. Maybe never. I am being brave and using this paisley fabric. I cut 121 view C from the May addition of Burda Magazine. I read the instructions and thought that they looked simple enough to make, so i cut out the fabric and then realized that i missed an invisible zipper in the recipe. I am going to buy an invisible zipper foot for my sewing machine, when i get around to it. But for now its been put away. There is nowhere in town that i can by invisible zippers let alone a sewing machine foot.

The May addition of Burda Magazine has loads of great stuff in it. So i picked it up to see what else i could reasonably make. There are quite a few things i might try. When i first saw this skirt i thought that would be perfect in an aubergine fabric i bought last year to make a dress. I had convinced myself that i had used rest of the fabric lining a skirt. So brilliant surprise for me when i found enough of it in my fabric stash to make the knee length version of this skirt. So this is cut out and is waiting next to my sewing machine for me to stitch it together.

Well i did finish something! Its Burda 119 from the March issue. I actually really like it on, but i will have to layer it, because it is made from that horrid fabric i used for the Peter Pan Tee that i swore i would never touch again.

P.S. I stole the pics from the Burda magazine straight from this blog: http://sewingandstyle.blogspot.co.uk/. I don't know where she got hers from.

Not Meant 2 Be - Peter Pan Tee NM2B

Feeling Grumpy..

I struggled from the outset with the fabric, it was just so thin and cheap. It took nearly two hours to lay it out flat, so i could cut it. I realized early on that the fabric was going to be too thin to wear with out a layer underneath, but did not really care, it was still quite pretty. It was going to be a plain cream tee, made in exactly the same way as the Yellow Flower Tee, with Newlook 6807. But had this flower print fabric in my stash, so decided to pretty it up with a collar and tied cuffs on the sleeves. 

I spent what seemed like ages making the sleeves, but it was not until i went to attach them that i realized that i had made two left sleeves. I cut another one, making sure that i had the pattern piece the right way up. But when i tried it on i realized that i had forgotten to lengthen the sleeve like i had in the first place. At this point i just gave up. I attached the collar, with out any care or attention, and i am not going to bother to finish the hem. 

The plan was to make another cap sleeve tee-shirt out of the fabric and then maybe Burda 119, issue 3/2012 out of the left overs. But for now i have grabbed the whats left and stuck it at the bottom of my fabric draw, probably forever. I never want to see it again.

Yellow Flower Tee with 1/2 Length Sleeves

I've had to abandon my usual spot for taking photos out side my flat, as the empty houses opposite are now occupied. Its hard enough trying to take picture of yourself, but just plain embarrassing when you have got a audience. More worryingly at least one of these new people work in the same building as me and i don't need any more rumors about my strange behavior at work. So today i went for a long walk to find somewhere realtively lonly to take photes, i eventualy found this pile of logs to hide behind. 

This top is almost identical to the Yellow Flower Top that i made last. I used my highly altered version of NewLook 6807.  I made the same alternations as last time, only this time i added 1/2 length sleeves. I did not use the 3/4 length sleeve in the pattern because i did not want overly baggy sleeves. Instead i traced the cap sleeve pattern piece. Then i cut it along the middle stopping towards the top of the paper and moved the two sides so they were parallel. I then extended it by drawing two lines straight down from the sides. I also then added tied cuffs at the bottom of the sleeve to make the top more interesting.  

and a more practical photo of the front....

and the detail on the sleeves.......

Yellow Flower Top - NewLook 6807

This is the first in a series of T-shirts i am making with NewLook 6807. I have used this pattern three times before to make the Grey New Years Top and two other which did not work out so well. I was worried when i started this project that the knit i chose would be too stretchy (it has 4 way stretch), but actually it turn out to be just right. This top is the perfect casual summer t-shirt, i shall be wearing this lots and lots.

Yellow Flower Top - NewLook 6807

I have deviated quite a bit from the original pattern this time. I raised the neck line at the front by cutting along the size 18 line instead of size 10 and got rid of the centre back seam and the neck tie. 

Yellow Flower Top - NewLook 6807

I also made a massive changes to the body by widening the front towards the bottom and narrowing the back towards the bottom, then putting elastic through the hem. I did this by copying a RTW top that i bought a few weeks ago which is constructed like that. I have had a few tops with this kind of construction and find it really flattering. I have no idea what this technique is called i have tried a Internet search but came up empty handed. Any ideas?

Yellow Flower Top - NewLook 6807. The front is wider than the back.

I don't own a serger/overlock machine, so i did this on a regular sewing machine, using zig zag stitch. The seams seam stable and strong so i don't really get what the whole fuss about doing knits on a serger/overlocker is all about. 

Summers Up Next - Variations on New Look 6807

This is what i am working on next. I am planning to make some blousey summer T-shirts, with the yellow flower knit fabric and the cream knit fabric, i bought in Birmingham a few weeks ago. I have two meters of each. So i am hoping to get three or four T-shirts out of this at least.

Cream knit fabric with yellow flowers.

I've been really inspired by the One Week One Pattern challenge on Tilly and the Buttons blog. However the time frame to get started was always too tight for me, but i plan something similar. I am going to use New Look 6807, as my basic pattern. I know that the pattern is a bit boring but i plan to play around with the neck line, sleeves and bodice. 

New Look 6807

A-Line Skirt

Well for £1 i have managed to squeeze out two half decent skirts, not bad as i am on a budget. First with my pencil skirt and now with this A-line skirt. I reused my skirt sloper; following the tutorial on the Burdastyle site to convert it to an A-line skirt.

A-line skirt

Cable bag.

I've really been on a learning drive recently, reading my Simplicity Sewing Book that i picked up last month, trying to learn how to sew properly and actually practice what i am learning. I really like the Simplicity book its easy enough to understand, but some times i wish it would go into more detail. The chapter 1 is awesome, is all about fashion and clothes to flatter your figure, it written in the 80's, so all the clothes are horrible and not flattering at all. But the sewing stuff is good. When i am knitting or crocheting, i have a tendency just to cast on 20 stitches and hope after a few rows i know what i am going to be making, and make the pattern up in may head there after. This method has produced some really awesome stuff like this bag. But mostly i just have just spent a lot of time knotting yarn into a big mess. I really need not to get into this habit with my sewing.

A-line skirt

Before making this skirt, i read up on seams and knit seams. And also tried out a blind hem, which worked great in my practice pieces, but failed on the skirt. So the skirt was unpicked and i just did a single turn up on the hem. It makes the skirt longer, which is an advantage because i forgot to add a hem allowance to my pattern pieces. Oops.

A-line skirt