Pattern lust - Tania Culottes

Photos taken from megannielsen.com

I very much need these Megan Nielson culottes in my life. They are beautiful.

I think it was lladybird's version that swung me, that and a useless but lovely dress in my wardrobe. Its a navy broderie anglaise baby doll dress I bought from topshop an embarrassingly long time ago. Baby doll is not a winning shape on me and its a little short. However the skirt is nice and full and the fabric is lovely so I think I might try and turn it into these.

However, the pattern appears to be sold out everywhere, I found one stockist in the UK which didn't have a big sold out sticker plastered all over the page and I've placed an order. I'm not entirely sure if this company - backstitch, actually has them in stock or just doesn't believe in out of stock notices. Only time will tell eh?

Tilly's picnic blanket skirt - buttoning it up

Well, I have been busy. I feel a bit like I haven’t been home for ages. I’ve been all over England and a fair bit of Europe, but I’m back at my sewing table and I’m content.

So I’ve returned to the picnic blanket skirt and after it spent so long as huge squares of fabric it’s really taken shape. The side seams are finished with mock french seams, the waistband is painstakingly slip stitched on and the pockets are floral and awesome. In fact the fabric I used for the pockets has come from my Mum’s stash and used to be the curtain fabric for my room when I was tiny.

Many many button options. No ironing.

Next I have to work out how I want to fasten the front of the skirt together. The pattern stipulates buttons, but I'm not sure. With the pale blue/grey colour all the buttons I’ve looked at look too cutesy. Instead I’m envisioning giant snaps, so that nothing shows. However, having never sewn with them before I’m a bit unsure of how well they’ll work, do I use plastic or metal? How big is ridiculous? And will the waistband pop open too easily? I don’t want to be standing up and leaving the skirt behind on a bus seat.

A short sewing update

*Ah-hem*. So after turning my needle round my machine started sewing again. Perfectly normal mistake. Any other numpty could have done the same. 

But I haven't really had a chance to make use of it and finish my picnic blanket skirt. I've been really wanting to sew but work keeps getting in the way. However, as of Friday my crazy fortnight of work is over and sewing resumes in the evenings.

That doesn't mean I'm not creating anything though. Somewhere in-between presentations, posters and most importantly cooking dinner, I'm making fox costumes. Yup. Fox costumes. Bad week for it. I keep finding myself thinking about orange felt when I'm supposed to be thinking about cells.

Pictures to follow. Can't promise I won't look ridiculous.

A stitch disaster.

I am crazy busy. In the words of Kanye, my life is cray cray. I doubt he was referring to endless fluorescence microscopy, but watevs.
Last night I was so tired and annoyed (who on earth dismantles part of a microscope when nobody remembers how to put it back together?) that I just ate beans on toast and read my new running book.

And why couldn't I face my sewing? Well I was avoiding my picnic blanket skirt until my brain was working better. My sewing machine did not like sewing two layers of fabric and a layer of interfacing. It threw a strop and the tension has gone all strange and it keeps missing stitches. Whatever I did Monday night only made it worse. Frustrating.

Anyhoo. This evening I reattempted it. And now it's frankly just a disaster. The weatherman says summer is on the way and dammit I want to wear my skirt, but I can't if I cant sew anything.

This is what it looks like:

You can see missed stitches (on two very different fabrics) and dreadful tension problems. The dark thread (underneath) shows through whilst the pale blue thread on top just lies on the fabric.

I feel like I've tried everything. I've tried different bobbins and different spools of thread. I've re-threaded. I've turned the tension dial from one extreme to the other with no effect. I've removed the throat plate and dusted underneath.

I'm torn between continuing to fiddle or taking it to be serviced. Suggestions welcomed. I'm off to find chocolate.

Tilly's picnic blanket skirt - on my sewing table

I needed something a bit different to sew and this little beauty caught my eye way back when I first started looking at sewing blogs. (The skirt that is, rather than Tilly, because whilst she is very pretty I'm not that weird.)

I stole this photo from Tilly's blog

I've cut it out in a lovely soft denim type material which I bought from the very same man at the market who claimed that thick cotton was lawn, so I shan't pretend I know what this is. I would stop buying things from him, but he's so cheap and apparently so am I. Besides, sometimes a surprise works out just fine and I do like to live on the edge (this is a lie).
Anyhoo, it's drapey and pale blue and rather summery. This weekend I'm off to a family do, undoubtedly in the rain, but next week I hope to be merrily sewing button holes and because I live in the dark ages they'll all be sewn by hand. Excities eh?

D&D Datura - The wearable muslin

Well. To be honest, I'm not that keen. It looks really homemade instead of handmade.

Lots of that might be to do with the fabric. It's too stiff for a top like this really. And I hate it a little bit. You might be able to tell by the right grump I have on in the picture above, that was probably down to noticing it had creased whilst I bent down to fasten my shoes.

But I've also had sizing issues. I made a size 40, but I then cut a lot out round the hips and waist to avoid huge flappy empty bits which has led to some oddness at the back (above). And I reckon the shoulders are too wide. So should I cut a size 38 or 36 and do an FBA? (I would actually need to find out what one of those was).

However, it's not all bad, it looks quite acceptable with a jacket. So I'm keeping it.

(Apologies to my lovely housemate/photographer who was trying to learn about diabetes in pregnancy when I hauled her off to take these at 10pm last night.) 




Whilst I'm not that keen on the finished garment, I can't be rude about the pattern. It is a beautiful thing and it does say it's not for beginners, I just chose not to listen. Some of the instructions had me scratching my head for a while and it doesn't hold your hand through every step. So common sense/imagination or experience is necessary.
The way the yokes are joined together at the shoulders was a bit of a surprise. I can't even think of a sensible way to describe it, however, once I'd worked out what they meant I did think it was rather clever.

So, will I be cutting into my beautiful liberty tana lawn that I've earmarked for a 'proper' version? Eventually yes. I just think maybe I need to get a bit better first, at pretty much everything.

D&D Datura - on my sewing table

Taken from http://boutique.deer-and-doe.fr/9-sewing-patterns-datura-blouse.html

I've mentioned it before, but I really love Deer & Doe's Datura blouse.

I was bought the pattern from the lovely ray-stitch in London town when I was down for my birthday along with many many other things. I was spoilt and I just don't care what anyone thinks.


So far I have

1. carefully traced all the pattern pieces onto pattern paper 
2. ummed and ahhed over what kind of muslin/mock up to make
3. washed and ironed my mock up fabric
4. lost one of my pattern pieces
5. found it in the bin
6. cut out all my fabric
7. made some bias binding
8. started joining bits together
9. been very confused

I will have a finished item to show fairly soon I think. Mind you it will be made in fabric sent by the devil himself. This fabric is awful. It hates being pressed. It hates being sewn. Every pin prick or misplaced stitch leaves a hole. It hates being bias binding. However, at least it doesn't fray.
The man who sold it to me claimed it was a lovely cotton lawn. I think he lied. Firstly as I've mentioned, it isn't lovely. Secondly it isn't much like lawn. Its thick, opaque and not very soft at all. This is what happens when newbies buy fabric from markets, you don't come away with what you expect. Meh.