Showing posts with label pattern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pattern. Show all posts

Monday 24 February 2014

An update on my latest project


I wish I could show you a completed garment, but unfortunately I am still somewhere in the middle of the project (a top with Peter pan collar for my niece).
Sewing-wise, I have done very little this week. It was half term which was meaning full and noisy home all the time, more playdough to remove from the carpet, more glue and spilled paint to wipe. There were a few friend visits, a playgroup, a birthday party and even a visit to a museum. So after all this, I was left with very little energy for something else. And when I feel tired I find that I get easily distracted by almost everything around me.
As always the most challenging and time-absorbing part was drafting the pattern. I used the new book ( 'Metric Pattern cutting for children's wear and babywear' ) to guide me through making the basic bodice, but I must say I wasn't quite happy with the result as armholes were too deep, so I had to redraw them.


Then I made a toile (a test garment). I used plain white fabric for the bodice and another fabric scrap for the collar, which was aimed to outline it so I could properly see the collar shape. This is how the toile looked.



The good thing is that a friend of mine, living nearby, has a pretty girl, who is nearly seven. I popped to her house to see how the toile fitted her. Now I am ready to start the actual sewing.

By the way I actually quite like the fabric combination of the toile. What do you think? I might make one for Eva (and maybe even one for me) when I get a chance.


Sunday 16 February 2014

The first dress I sew...years ago


Has it happened to you to dig in a pile of old clothes and come across some garments that you have totally forgotten you possessed.
That's what happened to me yesterday. I came across that long forgotten dress of mine.


 
It was the first dress I sew. I can't remember how long ago it was, but I estimated it was 9-10 years ago. That's when I bought my first sewing machine and was so happy. I sew a few dresses and then made quite a long pause of few years. During this time I kept buying Burda magazines, but didn't actually get down to sewing. I was just taking the pleasure of looking at the designs and dreaming about sewing some of them.
I still question myself what made me so busy then that I couldn't find time for sewing. And I still can't answer it.

 
I made that dress using Burda pattern. The fabric and the trimming were purchased from a fabric shop in Cricklewood. That was the only fabric shop I knew. At that time I still hadn't heard of Goldhawk road as a destination for buying fabrics.
I remember that at the time of the purchase I wasn't sure how much fabric was needed for a dress, so to be on the safe side I bought three metres. So I must still have some of this fabric left somewhere.
I also remember that when I finished the dress, I was quite happy with the result given that this was my first dress. Ironically I have worn the dress only 2-3 times. I think I find more pleasure and excitement in the process of creating a garment than in wearing it.

 
When I came across the dress, my first thought was "Here is what I am going to wear this summer", but unfortunately after trying it, it turned out it was so tight that I couldn't imagine spending even half a day in it. For my big regret, it will have to continue sitting nicely folded in the pile of old summer clothes.







Sunday 2 February 2014

Kids Clothes Week Winter 2014 - a "winter fairytale" blouse


 As I have wrote in my previous post, I had already moved towards another project of mine - "winter fairytale" blouse. This name popped into my mind when I saw the blouse, maybe because of its white colour and delicate print.



 
This would be my second project during Kids Clothes Week (KCW), which surprizes even me. I started both projects from scratch and actually spent more time on drafting the partern, making toiles and adjusting them than sewing them. For the white blouse I had to make three toiles to get the desired fit. But it was worth it because looking at it now, I can say that I am happy with the result.




choosing which button to use
 
I even start thinking about trying to grade the pattern in bigger sizes. I am thrilled to see whether I could manage to do it.
Here is a little hair accessory which I made from the remaining fabric scraps. Not that any hair accessory manages to stay long enough on my little daughter's head.


 
And that's what my little cheeky boy did with some fabric scraps, while I was busy sewing.
 


Saturday 28 December 2013

From a jumper to a dress


That's the journey I took a few weeks ago when I decided to transform two of my old jumpers into a dress for my baby girl. Maybe you are wondering how this idea came to my mind and whether I am not running out of fabric to resort to that. Well, not really. I still have dressmaking fabrics to be made into something.
What else could I do with two old jumpers (not so old in fact, I think I bought them about 7 years ago when I was feeling comfortable wearing short and tight jumpers). Anyway I don't feel comfortable in them anymore and as one of them had a bit of fading near the neckline and the other one had a few tiny stains I could neither give them to charity, nor sell them. And throwing them into the bin also wasn't a good option. So that is how I started toying with the idea to make something out of them.
And since I had a baby girl I found that thoughts of lovely girly dresses and accessories were circling my mind more than ever. Not that I still don't imagine sewing a fabulous dress or top for myself, but not that often.
Here you can see how the two jumpers looked before cutting them. Nice green colours!


It's very challenging to make something from another garment as it's very restricting in terms of fabric and you have to adjust the pattern pieces according to the grainline.


For that dress I drew a pattern only for the bodice. The rest of the dress was made just by draping the fabric until I got the a look that appealed to me. It's one of these projects that you don't really know what the final look would be until you get there.


 Here I have experimented with different stitches and some lace. The lace detail wasn't planned at first, but it somehow gives the dress a fresh look. And I felt really happy using it, as I had bought it together with four more laces without being sure what I was going to use them for.


And here is the final look of the dress. In fact there is just a tiny bit more to go - to accessorize it with a fabric flower, but I still haven't quite decided where exactly to place it, so I have left this aside for a while.