Stitch and bitch thread #8. It’s all starting to unravel

[NutellaEllaElla]

Welcome back and welcome for the first time to any newbies. As we go back into autumn/winter mode, sewing days are more and more appealing as the wind gales outside. I enjoyed looking back over the last thread, there were so many beautiful patterns (so little time), such beautiful makes, that thread is an absolute goldmine for inspiration. Also such wisdom from you lovely lot! Thank you. I couldn't do it without you actually as no one around me sews and you have imparted such great advice, hints and tips.

@PickAChew
@kittykarate
@TragicMuse
@SBAM
@pastabest
@Jins
@Blackamericanonosugar
@CrimsonAlligator
@SleepingisanArt
@dubyalass
@Brefugee
@InMySpareTime
@Rosenspants
@rivercobbler
@Karatema
@bookbook
@Sewingdufus
@FletchingStraight
@SideWonder
@CarolynKnappShappy
@Chewbecca
@eldorado02
@PrincessofWellies
@123ZYX
@Storynanny1
@Tinuviel
@Wildernesstips
@Dellabob123
@florentini
@longpathtohappiness
@twobluechickens

It's a relatively quick surgery with a high success rate, @NutellaEllaElla and I'm glad I've had it done, even though I was terrified. Prepping my project drawer was a useful distraction.

I'd take plenty of spare buttons for sewing on the train 😅

Congratulations on the surgery, PickAChew - my dad had it done a couple of years ago and was amazed at how colourful (and bright!) things were afterwards.

Nothing doing on the sewing front here at the moment, although I'm wearing entirely me-made today which is very pleasing. I've just sent off the Atelier Jupe Frida blouse for printing so I think that will be my next make. Also trying to find an old felted blanket to do a test run of the Mood Fabrics Cardoon coat.

Glad your surgery went well PickAChew!

I finally did some sewing again, after getting completely stuck on a previous project. I made a toile of Atelier Jupe’s Olivia. It’s a hot mess, thanks to my rusty sewing skills, but it has potential. Just need to find some nice fabric to make a proper one now.

I’d be interested to know what you make of the Frida @twobluechickens. I have my eye on that one, although I must say I wasn’t blown away by the way the Olivia was printed - some of the pattern pieces were broken up into multiple pieces. Not seen that one before!

I will report back this weekend, @CrimsonAlligator . I did think about trying to recreate it from existing patterns but then saw it wasn't very expensive and decided that it was worth it to save myself some time! Haven't decided on which fabric yet, but I have a few options.

Fabulous news about your surgery @PickAChew. It must be such a relief.

My bralette is in the recycling bag. I decided to try FOE and it went stretched and wavy. There isn’t much scope with a bralette to trim it off and start again

I'm on the fence with FOE. I've tried it, it's useful, I shan't be deliberately engineering an opportunity to do it again. I avoid zips. I always make a mess of something with them. I might try one with the pfaff, one day but I'm not in a hurry to do that and get beeped at.

I nipped into Abakhan on a whim yesterday, looking for fancy elastic primarily. I ended up getting two 2.5m lengths of bargain bucket scuba, one very thick in light grey and one thinner and stretchier in a gorgeous deep maroon. The grey will become jogger style trousers but I fancy making something for paddleboarding out of the maroon. I made some jammers out of swim Lycra but there isn’t enough stretch in the scuba for that pattern.

70% off labels dotted around the store if anyone is interested

I’ve also picked up 3m each of grey bengaline and denim blue dobby at £1 a metre from pound fabrics. The grey bengaline is to fill a wardrobe gap but the dobby was a total impulse buy.

Stash busting was going so well 🤦‍♀️

I wasn’t quite sure which stash fabric I was going to make the Atelier Jupe Frida blouse from. I went to the fabric shop this morning to get some new rotary cutter blades and also bought two completely different fabrics. Which are actually more suitable for this time of year, but still. Fabric addict, moi?

Tangentially sewing relsted: I listened to Patrick Grant's Desert Island Discs today and it made me blub. On a train

I was less than a mile away from Dalston Mill fabrics and didn't go today. I don't need more fabric and DH was not feeling the detour. I'll await my medal in the post.

What was so emotional about it @Brefugee?

He got really emotional talking about how his father died (in hospital at the start of Covid for a routine OP, staff had no PPE)

He's very cross about the govt

I shall have to listen to that one. I've got some of his (Community Clothing) Welsh undies on order.

I'm prevaricating about a Frida top, too. I've decided on a fabric and have now spent half the afternoon trying to find a different pattern for it. I've decided I don't want gathers but I do want a nice yoke so I can play with some stripes but that limits my choice, somewhat 🙄 everything I've seen that is a potential has something I definitely don't want like cut out bits or buttons on the back (ouch)

Paper Theory Olya shirt? That's made for playing around with stripes.

I'm going to listen to Patrick's DID tomorrow while walking the dog.

I have the olya shirt but I'm not wanting something with a collar. It's in the maybe and already have pile though.

This is the actual stripy fabric https://lamazifabrics.com/products/cousette-bobinette-blouse-sewing-pattern

I've stuck with Cousette as the fabric is very much designed to work with their patterns - it's a light, almost crepey cotton. Catherinette, though. OK, it has gathers but they will work better with the fullness of cotton than those on the Atelier Jupe Frida blouse (turns out that there are a lot of Frida blouses out there!)

It's also the simple sew that I need until I get my new glasses (hopefully, this year, which reminds me that was the other job I wanted my laptop for - getting that booked). Good job it's a simple sew, as the instructions are in French. And there is no A0 pdf, so I'll need to get busy with the sticky tape 🙄

Of course, it would help if my printer didn't just spit out 2 blank sheets of paper.

My bengaline arrived and isn’t as stretchy as others I’ve had but looks more like denim than I expected so I may bite the bullet and make some jeans at some point.

The dobby is weird stuff. Lovely colour but quite shiny. It’ll come in for something I’m sure, even if it’s only trouser toiles.

I found a remnant of swimwear Lycra that I used last year and it works perfectly with the maroon scuba. I think it’ll work well as contrast stripes and give a bit more stretch to some paddleboarding shorts. If I’m careful I could probably make a matching top

I shouldn’t really be fabric shopping, but I don’t have any lengths of jersey in my stash long enough to make a sirocco jumpsuit.

Anyone made it before and got any tips? I’m particularly after sizing advice - From the measurements it looks like they draft for a pear shape, and I am more hourglass so some blending will probably need to happen.

@SBAM that’s odd as Deer and Doe claim to draft for an hourglass shape. I’ve not made the Sirocco, but the pattern I did make seemed more hourglass than pear friendly, i.e. I had to adjust the shoulders and hips a lot (I’m a pear)

@CrimsonAlligator - turns out I was looking at the finished measurements, which does skew things 😂 though oddly, the sizes that fit in both their size ranges (46 & 48) have different finished measurements.

That's normal as most pattern companies draught their upper size range for a "curvier" fit. Useful if you're in the overlap.

Well I cut out my weird double sided jersey with the help of both cats yesterday. I’m using the Allegro bottoms pattern as I’ve made the shorts and like the fit. Test stitching on the machine was a bit tricky - my machine doesn’t like it at all so I’ll try again with different presser feet and needles and use the overlocker for the long seams. I’m having to scrap the idea of the back pockets at this stage unless I find a presser foot that works.

The fabric doesn’t even like pins!

I bought some cheap fleece from pound fabrics, so last night I printed out a hoody pattern, and cut out a hoody and a pair of Made by Rae Rosa pants as they are close to jogging bottoms.

It's crackers when you think about it though - my super cheap fleece (featuring unicorns) was about £2.50 a metre, I used at least 3.5 to cut out the bits. I went into primark and got a pair of fleecy jammies for my mam yesterday, and they were £12. Sewing your own really isn't a cheap way of doing things. The only advantage really is you can put pockets in things, I really like my slobbing round loungewear to have pockets, and Primark disagrees.

It’s definitely not cheap! You can get the odd bargain, I’ve made a dress and two tops from an £11 length of cotton lawn from Abakhan for example. Overall though you can get clothes cheaper in supermarkets and primark.

However the clothes I make fit me properly and are finished better. I cut my T shirts straight so they don’t twist after 2 washes. I think you can make decent clothes cheaper than buying the equivalent from middle range stores and you can definitely do better than the high end which are generally just as badly made out of poor quality fabrics as Primark.