The evolving crazy Pendrell

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This started with a men’s shirt that I tried to refashion into a women’s shirt. I put darts in, moved em up, moved em down, took em out… took the sides in little by little by… too much. I finally had to accept it was too small, and needed a dose of extra fabric.  How about… roses?

The check print and colour of the shirt put me in mind of gardens, and trellises – and therefore - tumbling roses.  I think princess seams are one of the best ways of mixing fabrics in a garment, so over to the tried and trusted Sewaholic Pendrell pattern.

It was pretty experimental, so I didn’t take pictures, but basically I cut the front and back centre panels as one complete piece (so I could keep the collar of the original shirt).  Once I’d worked out where the natural shoulder seam should be (by hanging it on a wire coathanger and marking the line) I folded down the shoulder seam allowance on the pattern pieces, lined them up and cut them.  Then the rose sections were just cut as per the pattern.

I had enough fabric to do the ruffly bits, but once I’d started sewing them in…

… it looks a bit like a frilly apron, doesn’t it?  Argh.  It went in the UFO pile (that was back in June 2011 – yes, it was supposed to help me out with Me-Made-June!) and didn’t come back out again til April 2012.  I ripped out the ruffles, and this time I kept the seamlines clean.  And added the pocket back on, to cover the little hole I made when I over-enthusiastically ripped it off in the first place.

So it’s a little crazy – those roses hit you straight in the eye – but I’m pleased.  And hah! I reclaimed something from the UFO pile at long last!  I will eventually be victorious, and conquer all of those sad half-projects loitering around…

MMM’12: Week 1

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First week done: target of 9 handmade items achieved (with one repeat…)

Tuesday: Roses skirt and spotty Pendrell top

Wednesday: Bicycle Pendrell top

Thursday: Snowflake skirt (am); Sodalite top (pm)

Friday: 2-become-1 dress

Sunday: Sew Grateful skirt with new Pendrell restyle

Monday: spotty Pendrell

This week I’ve learned:  I need a haircut.  I’m rather struck by the boring-ness of that repetitive daily pony-tail… 

A me-made (and minimally consumerist) May

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Photobucket

It took me ages to add my pledge for MMM12, and I only requested to join the Flickr group today… maybe because I’m so ridiculously pumped about this challenge, I’m forgetting to publically acknowledge it?  Anyway: I, Amy of Diana & Me, sign up as a participant of MMM’12. I endeavour to wear 9 me-made items per week for the duration of May 2012.

This being my 3rd go at a me-made-month, I’m pretty sure I have enough handmade clothes to manage.  But I like to be quite flexible, so I’ve gone for a weekly, rather than daily, total… which also means on some days I’ll have to include more than one me-made item.

But I’m adding my own little challenge to the mix.  I admire how Zoe’s attitude to sewing and fashion reflects bigger ideas about sustainability and consumerism.  (Did you read the post on cashmere goats?  Fascinating!)  This is something I feel quite challenged about: does my lifestyle actually reflect my convictions about recycling, sustainability, and generally being a good ‘caretaker’ of the physical resources I’ve got access to? 

So, for the month of May, I’m radically cutting down my spending and consumerism.  This means no non-essential spending.  In other words:

  • I can buy groceries from a supermarket – but won’t buy lunches at work, I’ll bring my own.  Ditto, toiletries like shampoo and toothpaste are allowed – but not non-essentials like nail polish or eyeshadow.
  • No fabric buying!  Or notions buying!  Or even (sustainable as it is) buying second-hand from charity shops – I have enough potential restyles backed up to last me a lot longer than a month.
  • Buying birthday presents is OK, but not ‘little treats’ for myself / the house / Mr B.  That includes books / magazines (I’ll use the library).

I am giving myself 3 get-out-of-jail-free cards – basically, if I totally forgot to bring my lunch, I won’t go hungry for the day.  But the plan is not to use those unless I really have to.

I know all of this is a tiny drop in the ocean, but I’m interested to see if it changes my mindset longer-term – not needing that instant gratification of see-it-buy-it, but thoughtfully considering how and what I spend money on.  Planning my meals for the week should cut down on food wastage, and save money on M&S sandwiches.  Not buying new material means I’ll have to use up my stash.  And so on.  Here’s to May – see you on the other side!

Mmm, yellow

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My last Sew Weekly post started off with a paragraph about my warm feelings towards the colour yellow:  I can’t get enough of it.  Right now I’m filling up my Pinterest boards with yellow loveliness: 

Source: gettyimages.co.uk via Amy on Pinterest

 

Source: tumblr.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

Source: jcrew.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

At work the other day, a colleague and I happened to be talking about colour in the context of classrooms (as a Speech and Language Therapist, I work in schools on a consultative basis, so I see a lot of different classrooms.  Some of them are so visually cluttered that I find it hard to focus – I have no idea how the kids cope).  So my colleague then emailed me a handout she’d been given about emotional response to colour.  Apparently, yellow is: “recognised by humans faster than any other colour, evokes spontaneity, is joyful, optimistic, warm and signifies communication”.  It’s even greater than I thought! 

Just as well I’ve got some more yellow fabric waiting for my attention then.

Fabric says sew.

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Sometimes, a particular fabric tells you pretty clearly what to do with it – it bosses you around about design, pattern choice, other fabrics, everything.  This one even reminded me how expensive it was (trying to be more financially responsible, I only bought a quarter of a metre) and how that meant I’d better use it wisely.

I know bunting is pretty ubiquitous these days, but I think this fabric manages to freshen it up with those scallops and little shots of bright bold colour.  And yes, I know that big smiley face on the selvedge means it’s for kids.  (But it’s spring time, and I’m feeling childish.)

First, the bunting fabric demanded the ‘Chloe’ dress by Victory Patterns - I remembered seeing a make by Lizz over at the Sew Weekly, showing the potential for showcasing a special fabric on those sleeve and pocket welt pieces.  So far, fairly subtle.  But by then my mind was pinging along a bunting train of thought, and I got to thinking about these little bags:

I had so much fun with the technique (the stitching’s supposed to be a bit scribbly and freehand) and now I come to realise it, I’ve perhaps been quietly looking out for another project to try it with.  I scaled up the proportions of the fabric bunting triangles (2/8″ by 3/8″) to get a big bunting triangle template (2″ by 3″), and got thrifty with my fabric stash to find similar colours:

Ironed a bit of interfacing on the back, arranged them around the neckline, and happily meandered around them with slightly wonky stitching:

Then bias binding round the neckline (unintentionally wonky, but I’m rolling with it). I’m chuffed with the way the big bunting overlaps the sleeves!

When the fabric says so, it’s best to go with it, don’t you think?

Simplicity 2406 tutorial: Sleeves, part 2

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Part 1 down, on to part 2.  This next bit is possibly the most confusing in terms of instructions, but it’s actually quite straightforward.  Open out the seam you’ve just sewn, and flip the whole thing over so the open seam is face down:

You’re going to sew that long side along the bottom of the sleeve, but you need to get the rest of the sleeve out of the way.  So starting at the neckline seam, roll the sleeve down past the cut-out part, as far as you can go:

Holding that rolled part in place, fold the long edge up and over the roll to meet the corresponding long edge on the other side.  Pin in place:

See?  That rolled section is hidden inside, out of the way of the seam line.  Sew the whole seam.

Next, turn it right way out (a little like we did in one of the steps in part 1).  Get hold of the rolled up part in the middle and pull it through one of the ends:

 …til you get something like this:

Nearly there!  Just one more seam to sew, to turn it into the 3D sleeve.  Open it out at either end of the seam you’ve just sewn:

 Pin and sew the seam, and you’re done:

Done!  All beautifully finished – the only remaining raw edge will be sewn on to the bodice (see pattern instructions).

Hope the photos were helpful – let me know if anything wasn’t clear, or needs more explanation.  Or even just if it helped you with the 2406 (it’s always nice to hear nice things).  Happy sewing :)

Simplicity 2406 tutorial: Sleeves, part 1

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Have I ever mentioned how much I like Simplicity 2406?

1. Fairground Dress / 2. ‘Check and Check again’ top / 3. ‘Experiments with colour’ top

In fact, I’ve gone on about it so much that it’s attracted several comments along the lines of ‘how on earth do you do the sleeves?!’  Yes, the instructions aren’t the most helpful, and you need a good dose of sewing intuition to figure it out.  I’ve wittered on in replies, not particularly helpfully, as it’s one of those things that’s much easier to see… so, here it is, step by step. To stop this post getting ridiculously long, I’ve assumed some sewing knowledge on the part of the reader – but let me know if I’ve glossed over anything important!

First, sew each front sleeve piece to its corresponding back sleeve piece at the shoulder seam (the shortest seam).  My pieces are very slightly different as I’ve played around ith the proportions a little, but it should look something like this:

You’ll need to do this four times – two outer sleeves and two for lining.  Remember which bit is which: they can all start looking the same!  The outer sleeve and lining should be mirror images, so you can lay the right sides together to sew the next seams.

So here are the outer sleeve and lining sleeve pieces, right sides together (the shoulder seam’s been pressed open).  I’ve sewn the next two seams in navy thread – there’s one at the top, which will form part of the neckline, and then one seam running right round the ‘cut-out’ shape in the middle (starting near the bottom, then up and pivoting at the shoulder seam, and back down the other side).

Trim the seams and clip them so that the curve will be smooth later on.  Then turn the whole thing the right way out - you need to pull one half through the little gap where that pressed open shoulder seam is (in between the neckline seam and the cut-out seam).  Does that make sense?  Here it is after pressing:

Right, now we’re going to close up the lower bit of the cut-out shape.  Open it up:

…and lay it flat.  Pin those two edges together, matching up that seam in the middle (the bottom of the cut-out seam).  You’re essentially sewing the front pieces to the back pieces for both the top sleeve and the lining sleeve, in one go.

Press the seam open, and it looks like this:

Looking good! On to Part 2 for the second half…

OWOP catch-up

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Hello!  A little different from usual, I’m typing this post from an Alpaca farm near Lake Windermere.  Honest!  And the Wifi is a little ropey, thus my reflections on OWOP are a little late.  And, extra honest – getting ready for the holiday took over last week, so I only have pictures for 4 of the 7 days… but I did faithfully wear my Simplicity 2588 creations (while grinding my teeth in frustration that I seem to have lost my purple Sew Grateful skirt…)

My blue roses skirt (using the ‘flared skirt’ part of the pattern) took centre stage, worn on four days.  Here’s Sunday and Wednesday:

And my Cheryl-Cole-Chevron skirt (using the ‘Slim skirt’ pattern) came out twice.  Here’s Saturday’s outfit:

But the most successful OWOP day by far was Tuesday, the one-off outing of my Apple dress.  Almost everyone I met commented on it – from a colleague who said it looked like an Orla Kiely (I copied it from Orla Kiely! I whispered excitedly in the meeting) to the man in the corner shop who asked for an apple (but not in a creepy way).  I chickened out of asking one of them to photograph it though, so this is the best I could do by myself:

I paired it with a thrifted jacket I found for £5 in a charity shop:

(Ok, so the prints don’t really match, but I felt I could carry it off with a ‘hey, I’ve deliberately clashed some prints together’ rebellious shrug. No-one pointed or shouted anyway.)

Thanks again Tilly for organising OWOP – it forced me to wear this dress to work, and I actually liked it!  It was nice to have a bit of back-up when people said “ooh, don’t you look nice” with surprise… I could explain about the challenge, and blogging and making my own clothes.  But now I’ve had that little push, a lot more dresses are going to feature in my work wardrobe from now on: I just felt well-dressed, pardon the pun.  And yes, that means plenty more outings for Simplicity 2588.

At last, my V8667 has come along…

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I bought the V8867 last spring after seeing Karen’s gorgeous wool version, and I think I got as far as making half a half-hearted muslin, but must have gone chasing off after some other project, as usual.  So I’m glad that Scruffy Badger recently made a classy knit version, racheting this pattern back up into the leaderboard of ‘things I must make NOW’.

Having just gone back to look at Karen and Scruffy Badger’s posts, I realise I’ve been wearing this wrong all day: the cowl should be folded over, so it’s half the height.  I obviously completely missed step 39 of the instructions.  But I kinda like it all big and in-your-face… two ways to wear it, perhaps?

The fabric is something vintage off eBay.  Normally I take ‘vintage’ in an eBay listing with a giant pinch of salt, unless there’s an actual year on the selvedge, but I think this is genuinely something older as it’s only 80cm wide, from edge to edge.  I don’t know much about the history of fabrics, but haven’t seen any modern stuff this skinny…?  Anyway, it has a lovely slubby finish, and I don’t know exactly what it is, but nor do I mind, so that’s ok.

I ended up with a lot of excess around the bodice, and my now-familiar dowager’s hump gap at the back… so thank goodness we’re working with princess seams.  I just pinched out half and inch or so from each one, tapering towards the waist, and adjusted the curves of the armholes.  Sorted.

Oh, and of course I shortened the whole thing, so it’s a long top, not a dress.  Partly because I wear long tops almost daily, and dresses maybe more like quarterly.  And partly, because I am raring to go for Rae’s Spring Top Sewalong 2012!   

 
This was really fun to enter last year, and I even made it through one of the rounds, so I’m back for more.  See you there?

Calling fellow print addicts…

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(Quick aside: I love the pre-washing fabric stage.  True, it’s really annoying when you have a brand new project and are desperate to get on with it, but mostly I enjoy this gentle warm-up before hitting the cutting sprint and stitching marathon.)  But as I was prewashing my fabrics this sunny Sunday afternoon, I finally realised how far I am from this year’s re-sew-lution to use more plain fabric:

 …and looking back at my 2012 makes so far, there’s a similar story going on:

You can see I’ve tried to go a bit plainer here and there, but those prints keep on elbowing their way in and shouting for attention…  And so, two months on, I’ve decided to stop fighting it, and give in gracefully.  (Maybe some plains will sneak in when I’m all relaxed and off guard.)

On to the actual point of this post, then: I’d like to do a blog feature celebrating all this print and colour - big, bright, busy, whatever!  So tell me, is it just me?  Or does anyone else also struggle with print addiction?  

You do?  Would you like to join in and get some pics featured on this blog? 

YOU DO?  Maybe I’ll give it a snazzy name and make a button for it, then?