Since my sewing machine has already gone to await me in my new flat, and I am sewing machine-less for two weeks, my mental “oh I’d really like to sew a…” moments have increased (possibly in similar style to the way I now say “oh I wish I’d practised the piano more” to my mother now that I know she can’t enforce practice any more). And since the tailing off of my blogging hasn’t coincided with a tailing off of my sewing habit, I’ve built up a bit of a backlog which I will now try and rectify in one over-crowded blog post to assuage my sewing cravings.
So first up, something I made *ahem* before Christmas: a green Moss mini skirt from Grainline Studio. I had some fabric left over from making the curtains in the van we went to Italy in, it’s a green heavyish cotton something (fabric identification isn’t my strong suit) and I totally ripped off Poppykettle‘s military green with a red buttonhole (although her buttonhole is rather neater than mine).
(It’s hanging wonky because of how I’m standing, not the skirt. It’s boring hard trying to take half-decent photos showing your garment!)
I like the construction of the pockets – the top layer of pocket has a bit of extra fabric in it to give you room to get your hands in (something which we were told off for at school. I remember a teacher threatening to sew up pockets that she found pupils’ hands in)! I bar-tacked the bottom of the pockets to be on the safe side, which you can just see above with red thread (to match the button hole.)
This was the first time I had done a) a fly zip, and b) flat-felled seams. I think they came off fairly well although I pressed (and flat-felled) the front seam in the wrong direction to work properly with the fly. Note to self: when flat-felling a front seam under a fly opening, sew seam first and press to the RIGHT hand side of the garment before pressing over the seam allowances to flat-fell. I managed to bodge it all together with a couple of bar tacks for security (in matching thread this time so no-one will notice). The flat-felled seams on the back yoke don’t match up perfectly which is something I’ll have to think harder about next time round.
Another thing that irritates me a bit (which could be down to my technique, although I’ve also noticed it on other bloggers’ Moss skirts) is that the waistband kicks up a bit on both sides where it meets at the centre front. I’ve cleverly managed to cover this up in the photo of the skirt on me above, but you can sort of see it on the one side in the flat shot below.
I lined the pockets and the waistband with some leftover red fabric to match the buttonhole and zip to make the skirt neat on the inside.
Ok, still here?
Right. Next up is another pre-Christmas quickie which I made just before going home for the holiday. It’s the Back is Back top from Vanessa Pouzet, who doesn’t seem to be so well known in the non-French sewing blogosphere. But I have contacts in that realm who give me inside information. It’s also potentially intimidating to tackle a sewing pattern in French, but the internet is a wonderful place full of translation websites and the like, and it’s not a hugely complicated pattern.(French independent pattern companies are also a LOT cheaper than the English-language indie pattern companies. This is a slightly above-basic yoked sleeveless top, and the cost is 4 euros. #justsaying).
This particular pattern has a plunging v-back in two different depths. I think the deeper v looks really elegant in the pattern picture (much more classy evening-wear than the shallower more day-wear variation) but I wanted to be able to wear a bra under the top without it showing, so I cut the back v to stop just above the back of my bra. I used some black viscose crêpe for this, and for the yoke I used lace as similar to that on the website picture as I could find.
Due to my time constraint and my seriously depleted French (it used to be pretty good… until I started learning German) I didn’t read the instructions properly and botched the finish of the back. I think sewing the back seam after binding the neckline would have been more sensible, rather than automatically sewing the centre back seam as the very first step. Still, under low Christmas party lighting, who’s going to notice?
If you’re still here, well done. This turning out longer than I expected it to.
On the subject of French patterns, here’s another gem: it’s the Trop Top from Ivanne S. A seriously multi-variation pattern for much less money than other independent companies might charge. It has so many add-ons, collars, sleeves, cuffs, button back, peplums (pepla?) that the reams of French instructions are, again, a little intimidating for non-French speakers, but totally worth it if you’re willing to spend a little time on Google (other search engines are available).
I’ve only made two of the same version (jersey, with cuffs) so far, but I really like the button-back, back v-neck version in broderie anglaise at the top of the website page.
Front of one top, back of another.
The last two things I want to put up are two things that I sewed in a panic when I realised I’d agreed to send my sewing machine on ahead of me two weeks in advance of me moving – I dunno, maybe in case something goes horribly wrong in the move and I can never use it again!
The first of the two are Ooh la leggings from Papercut, in some navy blue cotton jersey (I think it’s 100% so I’m not sure how well the recovery is going to hold up in the knee area. I like the seam lines down the front and back, they give the leggings a bit of je ne sais quoi over other leggings. I top-stitched all the seams, not just the ones that the pattern suggest top-stitching because, not having a serger, I want a bit more security than the zigzag stitching provides.
The one thing with these leggings is that the front comes up a lot higher than the back, I think next time I’ll try and cut the front piece a bit lower.
I also made a quick Tiny Pocket(less) Tank which I cut on the bias as an experiment to see how differently it hangs.
I think that’ll do for now.
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