Stitch and bitch thread #4 I needle the help I can get.

[NutellaEllaElla]

Continuing our supportive little group until we run out of material

My favourite and most used top pattern is the feature Friday $5 pattern on love notions today.
Rhapsody
I’ve made 4 so far and will make more. Lots of sleeve options and bought bias binding works as well as self made.

@Ulysses that sounds brilliant. I love the idea of starting a sewing project and just being able to quickly buy all the odds and ends as I needed them. On the other hand it would be deadly to my bank balance as I would end up buying most of the shop.

Found a new online fabric shop: www.fabricgiant.com they look to have a good range of cotton fabrics, low shipping cost and free shipping on orders over £50.

@Karatema a sewing meet up sounds wonderful. I miss having people to chat sewing to face to face.

My sewjo is all over the place at the moment. House projects and teenage kids and a half hearted search for a new job seem to be using all of my time. I've a gorgeous jersey dress half done on my table abs I've not touched it in a week. My sewing area is a tip and I just can't seem to get it suitably organised.
I'm hoping for an opportunity to get something done over the course of this weekend.

Here's a photo - the stripes are about 4 mm wide.

Any suggestions for sources of swimsuit fabric? Would scuba work if I wanted something a bit thicker/warmer?

Abakhan usually have swimsuit material in their rummage bins if Manchester is anything to go by. Fabricland have some stuff tagged as swim (and I trust their tagging ) fabricland.co.uk/product-tag/swimwear-fabric/ there's a rule that says if a lycra is suitable for swimwear, it's something like it can only contain poly and spandex as they rot less ( please google to check this, I can't remember exactly).I would want it to he heavyweight- I reckon 190+ GSM.

Banged out a pair of calico trousers over the weekend. Nothing special, just holiday trousers. I did use the pinch bodkin which was recommended here. Made putting the elastic in much easier.

Started cutting out the pattern for DH's deckchair striped jacket. Now need to get cracking.

I made some Made by Rae Rosa trousers in denim chambray- super comfy. Would have been a quickish sew if I hadn't made a complete fanny of inserting the elastic.

@Tinuviel that fabric is lovely. I think I’m still leaning towards a dress if it’s lightweight enough. Something with features that would take advantage of the stripes. What about something like McCalls 8030

@dubyalass I got my swimwear fabric from Abakhan. I’m not sure about using scuba as an alternative. I did think about ITY as the composition sounded right but I ended up with swimwear Lycra

@GnomeDePlume pinch bodkins are brilliant aren’t they? I’m glad my suggestion worked for you.

@kittykarate i love those trousers. I’ve been hankering after some chambray trousers or long shorts so it’s a very timely photo for me 😂

No sewing this weekend for me and we’re off to the Lechlade festival on Friday so I may not have time.

Thanks @kittykarate and @Jins - I'll have a look at Abakhan. MyFabrics had a few options too. Noted on the poly/Spandex tip.

Hoping to make headway with the deckchair jacket for DH this weekend. I have the day off tomorrow. DH has decided that he wants a stand collar which will hopefully make the pattern matching a bit easier. The pattern offers the choice of doing some contrasting stitching but I think I will give that a miss and just let the fabric 'do the talking'.

Thanks for all the advice - I reckon the suggestion of making a Jenna top and separate trousers is the best idea.

First though, some kid sewing to finish up - I’ve realised my children have no shorts and so many RTW shorts for girls are made of really flimsy fabric.
I’ve finished this week a wrap dress for my daughter and a wrap tunic and shorts for a friends baby - dress and tunic are from the Twig and Tale Petal pattern, it’s reversible and it sews up so quickly. And the 0-4 size is free (I love a free pattern!)

Those are lovely @SBAM !

I’m back from the Festival and have worn mostly me-made clothes throughout. The Barrett bralette stood up to some fairly energetic dancing as well.

I've got a busy week ahead so can’t see much sewing being done.

lovely outfits @SBAM

I turned my 3m of lycra from poundametre into 3 pairs of leggings of varying length. It's not quite heavyweight enough to be used for 'performance' fit leggings like the Jalie patterns, and also, a slight hint of knicker show through in the white patches. All fine as I'm planning on just wearing them at home but I will be remembering to make sure any future lycra purchases are at over 150gsm. The long and the short ones were the yoga pants with waistband pocket from Sew Your Own Activewear, the capris were from Kwik Sew 3636 (the easiest leggings pattern ever).

With photo!

Great leggings, @kittykarate ! Well my local fabric shop had a 'lucky dip' special offer where if you spent more than £20, you pulled a piece of paper out of a box and got the discount written on it - 10% to 40%! So I spent my Christmas gift vouchers (which sadly didn't count for the lucky dip) but strangely enough I still managed to get one - I must have spent more than I thought! 3 gorgeous fabrics, matching thread and some buttons for my jacket.

I just need to finish my first jacket and see how it looks!

It's been a while since I've been on here. Just catching up with the thread. I hope everyone has been well. Unfortunately I lost all my machines in late Feb in the Aussie floods. I've recently been able to get new ones, but I haven't sewn much because of work and I also don't have power in my house, besides two outlets.

I'm on night shift tonight with my second job so took the opportunity to tape and cut some patterns. Just a few things I want to make over thr next few weeks, if I get around to it!

I'm so sorry you were affected by the floods Gizzy

I spent today making a little jacket to wear over a sleeveless dress I bought to wear to a wedding. Fabric from poundametre.com, cursing about French seams all my own.

Hello and well done on your makes everyone!

I'm finally getting some time and space to get back to sewing. I bought some trim for a dress I made. I've never added trim to anything before, is there anything I should be aware of before I do? You just pin it on and sew over it? Say it were ribbon, would you do 2 parallel lines of stitches?

I also bought some wearable toile fabric to gear me up for a couple of items i've been too scared to cut into. I'm washing them now and am hoping to start the Nina Lee Mayfair dress toile tomorrow. My progress will not be as quick as the sewing bee. I will probably just about cut out the pattern pieces!

@NutellaEllaElla Tracing/Cutting out the pattern pieces always seems like an endless task to me. I much prefer it once I'm actually working with the fabric.

Lovely jacket @kittykarate ! It's a very similar colour to the linen mix I've just bought for my Litmus jacket.

It looks like you're going to be busy @Gizzy93 !

That's a nice jacket @kittykarate, I kind of love doing French seams though 😂😂

The floods are still a nightmare to deal with. Lots of mud in my house still and no walls or kitchen, but, I was able to get a small business grant because I used my machine for business purposes and got a serious upgrade from my Husky E20 to a Juki HZL-DX5. I also upgraded my embroidery machine. Can't wait until I have some actual time to play around with the machines!

So far I've only made my dogs collars and did a quick little embroidery on a jumper that turned out super crooked and not in the middle 😅

Your jacket is very similar to the Suguaro Set top I have been working on today @kittykarate.

I still have to add in the elastic waistband but that will be delivered tomorrow. It's not my usual style but will be nice for throwing over a bikini on holiday. I had left over fabric for a toile and it will need a few tweaks but I'm really pleased with it so far. I've ordered some black double glauze for the top and trousers which I'll probably just have as shorts.

The Mayfair dress is lovely @NutellaEllaElla. I've seldom been able to get an outfit started and finished on the same day. This one has taken me a week between printing and assembling the pdf, cutting out and sewing.

Happy sewing @Gizzy93 .

Suguaro Top in progress.

I like the look of that Sugaro top , really flirty.