Category Archives: Simplicity

Christmas sewing

xmasgifts

Phew, it’s all over for another year, and I can show all the things I made for gifts now they’re with their recipients! I was pretty sly with my project choices – making gifts gets a rep for being a stressful undertaking but I really enjoyed it. Basically I see it as an excuse to buy (or stashbust) fabric and to sew a lot, but for selfless ends – win win! I also went for either quick/fun knit projects or things i wouldn’t normally pick for myself, so it was fun to try some new types of garment out.

Christmas sewing
Christmas sewing

I made Simplicity 1620 top for my aunt Mandy out of a gorgeous John Kaldor viscose jersey from Stitch Fabrics. A nice quick project all on the overlocker – I just removed a wedge from front and back neck (narrow shoulders and hollow chests run in the family) and sized way down as I was using a knit instead of woven and the ease is typically ridiculous. I also self-lined the yoke burrito-style to finish the neckline and arms; the pattern doesn’t specify that but it made sense to me. The pattern is the cover gift on Sew magazine this month if you’re interested.

Christmas sewing

My mum got another version of a dress I made for her birthday back in September (I didn’t blog them at the time but here’s a photo). It’s a self-draft rub-off of one of her favourite dresses that she gave me to copy. It wasn’t a very complex shape to reproduce – separate waistband, slashed-and-gathered neckline and front skirt, yoked pockets – and the fit turned out bang-on so it was just a case of making it up again. The fabric’s a rather nice snuggly knitted-effect jersey from Abakhan. She loved it and it looks fabulous on her – I’ll try to get a photo as I bet she’ll wear it for new year’s and you can’t see the shape on the hanger.

Christmas sewing

I also made my mum a Love Notions Trendy Tunic using more John Kaldor jersey from my stash. I was disappointed with this pattern though; nothing seemed to line up properly and the drafting is pretty wack, with the arms being very tight and a load of excess fabric pooling in the back. I should have stuck with self-drafting as it ended up not fitting/suiting her unfortunately. In fact my recipients ended up having a bit of a switcheroo – this top ended up with Mandy (who wore it Boxing Day and it looked great on her), and Mandy gave her 1620 top to my other aunt Christine who it suited better. Hey, if everything ended up with a happy recipient I don’t mind! I probably wouldn’t make so many ‘surprise’ garments again though as I learned it’s pretty hard to predict someone’s sizing and taste, even close family.

Christmas sewing
Christmas sewing

For my little sister I made a Dixie DIY ballet dress from some Liberty jersey – I happily grabbed the very last 1.5m of this while it was on sale in the store itself. (If you recognised the Shavings and Sharpenings print, I’ve used the same print in tana lawn to make myself a dress too.) I’ve made this pattern for her before so knew it’d fit, and she immediately wore it for the rest of Christmas Day so it was definitely a hit.

Christmas sewing
Christmas sewing

At last minute I also made her a set of Pauline Alice Turia Dungarees out of two quilting cottons I bought with her in mind (she loves foxes, remember?). I had the pattern and notions all ready from early Dec but thought I’d run out of time to make them. Turns out they were a fairly quick sew, even with my decision to fully line them and try to achieve a semi-reversible finish. I kind of winged the construction order/method but ended up with quite a clean result – don’t ask how! It luckily fitted perfectly and I’m sure we’ll make another pair for her sometime, it’s a fab pattern. I quite fancy a corduroy dress version for myself actually.

Christmas sewing
Christmas sewing

I was incredibly touched to receive a beautiful handmade gift back from Natty. She’s been learning to sew over the last few months, taking two courses at Ray Stitch and suffering my very poor tutelage occasionally in between. She made me this stitchy-themed holdall bag, and I seriously couldn’t have done a nicer job myself. Her piping and topstitching are totally on point and I was so touched that she pushed herself to make something like this for me when she’s still a beginner. I nearly cried!

Christmas sewing

Finally, a few other sewing-related gifts I was delighted to receive. Dorky stuff: a mini iron! Thread rack and stock of threads, Chaco chalk pen, double tracing wheel, new zip foot! Fancy brass scissors and a kitty tape dispenser to make PDFs more fun. And fitting and pattern drafting books which I had my nose buried in all Christmas day. Sewing honestly brought me quite a lot of extra Christmas joy, both in the giving and receiving of handmade gifts. I can’t wait to get back to the machine now.

Kitty Dreams Dress

Kitty Dreams dress

Yeah. This dress is a bit off-piste from my recent makes, and not exactly adhering to my ‘sewing an everyday wardrobe’ guideline. But I think my face says it all. KITTEH DRESS!

Kitty Dreams dress

This fabric, man. As soon as I saw it I knew I needed a frock out of it. It’s Lizzy House’s Kitty Dreams: her entire collection of cat-themed cottons is adorable, but I thought this dark green print was the most wearable. I bought half of my fabric from Etsy and realised I didn’t have enough for a dress (damn you, narrow quilting cotton), so quickly bought another 1.5m from Backstitch to finish up the skirt. This fabric is clearly a poular choice for frocks as Lizzy House ran a competition with some really cute entries.

Kitty Dreams dress

I just love this pattern, too, though I would never have guessed from the traditionally uninspiring envelope styling. It’s Simplicity 1610 and features a princess seamed bodice, pretty neckline with boat front and V-back, cute square-pleated sleeves, and those brilliant single-piece yoke pockets that I ripped off on my trousers. The instructions are good, though I would have liked a bit more guidance on how to finish the bodice lining to leave a minimum of raw edges showing.

Kitty Dreams dress

Fitting went fairly smoothly. I tend to choose the size just above my measurements for woven dresses as it’s easier to take in than out. I basted together the bodice lining first to check the fit and found I just needed to sew at 5/8″ rather than 3/8″ seam allowance to get a good fit. Unfortunately the final dress gapes a little around the neckline and feels too loose across the shoulders, although it’s not showing too much in the photos except this profile angle. I find it’s really hard to diagnose fit issues around this area with a zipped-up dress as you’ll never know how it’ll sit until the end! Next time I’ll pinch a dart out of the front neckline pattern piece before cutting the fabric. Is there any way to retroactively fix this without having to take my bodice apart? Maybe a liberal bit of steam-shrinking would help.

Kitty Dreams dress
Kitty Dreams dress

I made a proper effort to make this frock as beautifully constructed and finished as I could. The bodice is lined with white cotton, and I even ‘invented’ a slightly OTT method to finish the armsyce with all the raw edges tucked inside (basically doing the burrito method but with the sleeves tucked into the seam, too – quite fiddly, wouldn’t recommend).

Kitty Dreams dress
Kitty Dreams dress

The back has a lapped zip, which I inserted using the really simple instructions in the Christine Haynes book I received for my birthday. It does have a hook and eye at the top, but I can’t reach it on my own! Also, yeah, I didn’t pay any attention at all to pattern matching as the repeat is really big and I didn’t fancy investing in extra yardage. I think it’s sufficiently random that it’s not a huge deal.

Kitty Dreams dress

I decided to not use my overlocker at all, so all the raw edges are pinked. I’m interested to see how this holds up vs overlocking after a few washes.

Kitty Dreams dress

I think the cat even approves…

Kitty Dreams dress

Though maybe not.

Kitty Dreams dress

This dress is also my first entry into the Sew Dolly Clackett competition! It probably won’t be my last, but I think this one had enough Roisin-appeal for me to consider entering it. I’m even wearing matching kitty shoes here for extra points, but I wasn’t brave enough to pose outside my front door so the mucky back garden will have to do.

Feather tunic dress

Feather dress

Zzzz, it’s another elastic-waist knit dress. This is what happens when I resolve to sew things that I’ll wear a lot, ha ha. I stitched this pretty thing up last week and wore it on Saturday for a cultural day of museum visits: first to see the Cheapside Hoard at the Museum of London with Kathryn and Julia, then to the TFL Museum Depot in Acton, where these pics are from. Antique bling and transit nerdery in a new dress = a big Saturday win in my book (Scuse the asymmetrical sleeves here, not part of the look.)

Feather dress

The fabric is part of my haul from Mood in New York. It’s the most beautiful knit: I think it’s rayon jersey because it’s super slinky: thin yet heavy and extremely drapey. There are so many patterns it’d be beautiful for – wish I’d bought more yardage – but I went for quite a casual tunic dress so I could get more day to day wear out of it. It was a bit tricky to cut and sew, but worth it as it feels sooo good to wear. Like I’m wearing nothin’ at all!

Feather dress
Feather dress

It’s a bit of a Frankenpattern. The bodice is Dixie’s Ballet Dress, shortened to empire line. This is basically my knit bodice sloper now because it fits really well and is so adaptable. The skirt is based on Simplicity 1800 with its cool yoke pockets, but I gathered the waist with elastic all around rather than do darts and pleats.

Feather dress
Feather dress
Feather dress

I was nervous to finish and hem this super-stretchy fabric, but a few ninja techniques made pretty light work of it. The hem is a machine blind using a walking foot which turned out satisfyingly invisible, although the dress wound up a little shorter than I was planning. It’s fine with leggings as a tunic type thing, though. The sleeve cuffs are pressed back twice and twin-needled – I can also wear them rolled up since the wrong side of the fabric is a lovely mottled grey colour. The neckline is Megan Nielsen’s technique again.

Feather dress

I love this dress, so I’m sure it will see many more London adventures. And I’m off to google for more rayon jersey to buy now as I want many more copycats.

Midcentury Mashup dress

Midcentury mashup dress

I think my favourite part of sewing is matching fabrics to patterns. When I clapped eyes on this beautiful print I knew exactly what it was destined to be, and even better, no new pattern purchase was needed as it’s a Frankenpattern of two already in my library.

Midcentury mashup dress

It’s a mash-up of Simplicity 1651 and 1800, used previously here and here. The twist front bodice is a variant of 1651 and I reckoned its Fifites style would be a good match for the print. Gratuitous close-up:

Midcentury mashup dress

It was really fun to put together, with an ingenious method for attaching the shell, lining (yes, it’s lined! Sewing bucket list tick) and centre piece with no visible seams. As I was sewing it I thought that it would make a really cool back bodice piece too, even without the centre piece for a cut-out look.

Midcentury mashup dress

Having sewed both patterns before I knew to make a couple of fit modifications. I shortened the bodice by an inch to hit my natural waist, and took about 3 inches off the top of the skirt so that the pockets sit higher up.

Midcentury mashup dress

It was super easy to merge the two patterns since the construction is the same: I just made sure that the width of the skirt and bodice matched up when I put in the darts and pleats. It’s just maybe an inch too large on the waist, but I’d rather play it safe with woven fabrics.

Midcentury mashup dress

I’m generally pleased with my workmanship here for once. Look at that tidy invisible zip!

Midcentury mashup dress

The fabric, ah the fabric. I’m in LOVE. It was another £2.99/m Minerva bargain but this time the cheap fabric wheel of fortune landed in my favour: it feels so lovely, sewed up well, and oh my the print and colours. Midcentury heaven with a hint of Cubism? In my head, if I was ever on Project Runway (all sewists imagine this at one point or another don’t they?) this would be my final collection’s signature print. It feels so very me.

Midcentury mashup dress

This dress also got me thinking about something that Tilly touched on in a recent post regarding curating a personal style via the items you sew. It’s something I find difficult because I’m so drawn to lots of different fabrics and patterns right now – I’m just a kid in the proverbial and I want to sew all the things. But once my technique is better and I learn what I actually wear regularly I hope I can start curate a sense of cohesion in the items I sew, and create a pulled-together ‘look’ for myself as a result. I’m in admiration of bloggers who seem to have this nailed, such as Tilly herself, Ami, Anna and Andrea amongst lots more.

sewstudio

To help me stay on track, I made a Sewing Studio page of all my makes. I love seeing these on other sewists’ blogs to get an idea of their personal style and I think it will be helpful for me to shape my consistency. I feel like this dress is a good step in the right direction: its sludgy tones, graphic pattern and interesting details are a good basis for a checklist of ‘What Katie Sews And Will Probably Wear A Lot’. Does anyone else try to curate a personal style via their makes?