Stitch and bitch thread #3 Sewing is harder than it seams

[NutellaEllaElla]

And i'm very glad to have you clever sewists to selvedge what's left of my dignity .

Sympathies PickAChew .Dodgy instructions drive me mad.

I've finally finished the toddler clothes! Fiddly things.

Fiddly but gorgeous, kitty

I'm experienced enough to work around the shortcomings but I would hate for a relative newbie to pick up the pattern on a quest to improve their skills.

I just googled the Brome pattern and it's 19.99 on the Minerva website for the paper pattern - ouch! I guess you could get it cheaper but it's a lot of money to pay for something that isn't correct.

They are really sweet @kittykarate.

I'm going to get my toile of the Davenport dress finished hopefully in the next couple of days. The elasticated neck has lost it's elastic unfortunately so I am going to have to unpick it to secure it. It's goes into a yoked bodice though so a real pain to fix properly.

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Yeah, I bought it for £18 at a physical shop and it's a shame it's so shoddy as it's a nice design with lots of variations, which makes it more worth the money than some patterns. I bought the sew house seven tea house top and dress at the same time for the same price and that has variations AND is beautifully drafted and put together with amazing online pattern support. That one was worth every penny.

Haven't been here a while, work has been crazy busy!
I've cut and prepped 6 wallets today, ready to sew them over the next couple of weeks.
Halfway through cutting out a Ring Sling bag for myself out of gorgeous yellow vinyl, perfect for the spring and summer seasons I'm about to go through. Excited to see how it turns out! Waiting on the hardware for it though

Just picked up a few metres of mid-blue thick cotton French terry for £7/metre as it's seconds. Going to do the Sinclair Nova sweater in it, though I might go up a size as the rough version I made from remnants was a little snug on the bottom band.

Also wondering if I'm prepared to fork out £24/m for some beautiful Merchant & Mills quilted cotton jacquard for a hooded top, inspired by jessamyb on Instagram and a hack of the TAL hoodie dress I've already made. Maybe if I don't eat for the rest of the month??

I haven’t been on here in ages but am going to attempt to make a kimono jacket and Pietra shorts from this lovely palm fabric. I had forgotten how much I hate cutting out pattern pieces.

@dubyalass

Just picked up a few metres of mid-blue thick cotton French terry for £7/metre as it's seconds. Going to do the Sinclair Nova sweater in it, though I might go up a size as the rough version I made from remnants was a little snug on the bottom band.

Also wondering if I'm prepared to fork out £24/m for some beautiful Merchant & Mills quilted cotton jacquard for a hooded top, inspired by jessamyb on Instagram and a hack of the TAL hoodie dress I've already made. Maybe if I don't eat for the rest of the month??

I was going to say for for it until you hinted that it was ore than you can afford. Maybe something for santa to bring?

I've spent the afternoon attaching the bloody collar to my top and swearing a lot. My birthday is coming up and I've sent dh a link to a dress form, as that would make the job so much easier. I'm not holding my breath

Of course, the task was complicated by Ds2 coming downstairs every 10 minutes and turning the bleeding lights off. I had to stop half way through snipping the curves and pressing because it was too dark to make out the stitch line, by then.

I love my second hand polystyrene dress form and it’s made a huge difference to successfully fitting around shoulders and bust. It’s a bit wider on the hips than I am but close enough.

I definitely occupy the lower end of the price scale for fabric. I haunt Abakhan and get quite a bit from poundametre and poundfabrics. Most of my projects are in woven fabric so it’s less risky. Buying stretch online can be more hit and miss.

@PickAChew I'm going to do a toile first and see if I can get away with 2m rather than 2.5. That said, it's likely to be something I'll wear loads so the investment feels justified just got to get the size spot on.

I am usually a FabricLand gal!

I'm FabricLand and Poundametre online, Abakhan in person. I love a rummage in their 'by the kilo' section.

@kittykarate and @dubyalass I'm with you on all of those. I discovered Abakhan on holiday and bought loads from the 'by the kilo' section. And I love Fabricland as their delivery is so quick. Poundametre, I've had good and bad, but so cheap!

I’ve never bought from fabricland but I’m on my way for a look. I need a dark coloured jersey with a small pattern

Fabricland were my go-to when I lived in Hampshire because the Southampton and Basingstoke shops were an Aladdin's cave. Just so much choice.

I was hoping to head down to the fabric shop in Darlo tomorrow but the forecast is hideous, so I think it's going to have to be Wednesday. I already put off going last week because I had an upset stomach. The result is that my shopping list is getting longer!

See I’m lucky in that my nearest Abakhan is 3 miles away and I can get to their main location in 30minutes. I only bought fabric online through necessity during lockdown and poundametre and poundfabrics have met my needs so far. Having said that my needs are generally drapey viscose and there’s a good range in both.

I’m still feeling my way with stretch fabrics. Some projects have been really successful yet a second version has been disasterous. I’ve learned that I need to buy stretch fabrics in person as descriptions aren’t good enough

Can’t go wrong with gingham, polycotton scrubs fabric, viscose and ponte online though. I have a lot of the above that I didn’t know I needed but the deal was too good

@PickAChew the shop in Darlington is so lovely! She's really helpful and there is just so much choice! She's posted about the possibility of workshops on FB, so I'm hoping she does some good ones!

Having said that, I need to book my tickets for the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate! There are some really interesting sounding workshops there.

My lovely fiance told me he has too many PJs and if im going to make him clothes, he wants to be able to wear them out in public. So I made him more PJs. He loves them though, TMNT are his favourite everything.
Currently working on a pair of Summer Pants by Wardrobe By Me and my lack of top stitching skills is killing me 😅

This month’s Prima pattern.

I’m 110% not going to make this.

No pics

@Jins is there no shaping or darts to it at all? I can’t say I’d be rushing to make it.
That’s going to be 3m of cotton sack on anyone with boobs. The samples don’t look particularly well fitted to me, the blue one looks like there’s a lot of excess under the arm and the yellow seems a little wide across the shoulder?

@SBAM. No shaping, no darts. Recommended fabrics are linen, rayon and crepe so it’s relying on the drape in the fabric.

It would do nothing for me at all

I like loose and unstructured, even with my bit of a boob shelf, but that one would be a no from me.

On the plus side, it looks as if it would be easy to make; the downside being it's not going to flatter many people's shape! That would be a no from me too.