Its a sickness! I’ve made another blouse.

I bought 3 more metres of this gorgeous fabric from M&M, in the hope that I would be able to get 2 blouses out of it. As the fabric is just a mere 110cm wide it takes a bit of juggling. As you can see the back piece of the bodice is overhanging the fabric a bit, this doesn’t matter as I don’t have the button fastening down the back so usually end up cutting off several inches down the centre back seam anyway. I thought I might have to put the sleeve piece on sideways in order to fit it all in but happily using the shortest sleeve pattern piece I was able to get it on right way round. The picture shows the cuff piece (top left hand corner) in the sideways position but I actually managed to get that on right way round too. It is a bit of a tight squeeze with the bodice pieces but they do all fit onto just under 150cm.

How to get two tops out of 3 metres of narrow fabric!

Now, I don’t have an overlocker but I am so far getting away with just zigzagging the edges. I have also gotten better at this each time I make a blouse. Getting pretty neat now.

neck facing

centre back seam. Looks better in real life than it does here!

I really like the inside of my blouses, the finish is quite lovely. Even if I do say so myself.

It is very similar to this one except the sleeves are shorter now.

The sleeve cuffs gave me a bit of trouble on this one, but only on one sleeve. I just couldn’t get it to attach nicely, in the end I did what Anne from the first Great British Sewing Bee used to do with tricky fabrics and situations, and I talked very firmly to it, and it eventually went on OK. Not perfect but OK.

I have more fabric for more blouses, probably another four I think (and I’m thinking about buying some more of the white cotton eyelet), but I might need a bit of a break from making these for a little while. Lets see what I come up with next.

I have to confess something, something I’ve sort of been in denial about. I made a bit of a sewing mistake when I made my coat, yes I did. I touched upon it in the post about the making of the coat but I sort of brushed over it. its the 2cm I cut off the bodice. That was really and truly a mistake, although I did it intentionally, I now know I really really shouldn’t have. I thought it was the right thing to do, right up until I was attaching the bodice to the skirt piece. Thats when I realised that the bottom half was wider than the top.

Like so.

A close up.

Now, I can live with it, and I even quite like it. So what is the problem you might ask? Well I’m admitting to myself that its not supposed to be like that and that I MADE A MISTAKE! I don’t think I will ever wear it to visit Merchant & Mills, or to a “Strand” coat convention as they might laugh at me for making such a mistake, but elsewhere I think I can get away with it. I feel it lends a certain design element to the coat and I’m certainly never going to see anyone else wearing the same coat.

I wore it out Saturday evening and nobody laughed at me (that I could see) so I think I’ve gotten away with it. Yes it might be better if I hadn’t cut off the 2cm, it would mean that the edges of the front bodice would meet in the middle but thats all. I’m still debating about whether to cut off 2cm of the skirt part, I probably won’t but its always an option.

Anyway there you have it, I’ve got it off my chest and thats all I wanted to do. There will now follow some pictures of me wearing it to justify to myself that it does in fact look OK…

It just looks so right with hands in pockets.

I really feel like I’ve come a long way from the rectangle tops I was making last year. I still love them, but I’m so happy that I’ve moved on a bit. I know I have a long way to go before I’m anywhere near as talented as half the sewing bloggers out there, but at least I now know I’m not scared of curves and sleeves or facings.

Anyway back to the subject in hand. After making the Liberty fabric dress, I wondered if I had enough of the Merchant & Mills black dress weight denim to make another dress. You might remember that I’ve attempted to make dresses with this fabric twice before, but that was in my rectangle days and they never quite worked out and would end up as tops. I was not daunted by having another go, now knowing the possibilities that the Mathilde pattern opened up for me. I checked my fabric stash and sure enough I had enough fabric to make a dress.

I then had the idea that maybe I would make the bottom section in a contrasting colour. Basically turn the fabric over. The other side of the black denim is a gorgeous light grey. So this is what I did.

Nice pic of the bust dart.

After doing that I started having ideas that maybe the sleeves should be in the contrasting colour too. But I was also thinking I could be getting carried away and it might just look horrible. I ran the idea past a friend and drew her a little sketch, and we both agreed it could look really good. So I went for it.

Oh yeah, looking good!

Loving it! Please excuse foot & PJ’s

Bottom panels don’t match up exactly, but I think I can get away with it! May & Patrick wouldn’t approve i’m sure…

So loving the sleeves.

Modelling pic.

I am so pleased with this dress. Looks fab with jeans or tights and boots. Love it love it love it! When i first finished it, it didn’t look quite right to me. I felt it was just a bit too long, so I took off about 2cm and now its perfect.

Even looks good on the hanger

I know its only the end of March, but I want to reflect a little on the turn my sewing has taken so far this year.

In January I made my first Mathilde blouse which was also the first thing I’d made using a proper pattern. First time I made sleeves too. I was so damned happy and pleased with myself.

I might not look it but I am.

Then came another one in a different fabric.

I got a bit carried away with myself after that and thought I could make a coat!

Here it is on me.

And that was January…

February saw me back to making Mathilde blouses and variations of it. I wanted to make it longer, so I just added 5cm to the bottom of the front & back bodice pieces.

Like so.

Perfect length, I love it.

Then came another one the same length.

Really is the perfect length for me. Thats what I love about making your own clothes, you can adapt things to suit yourself. So you get what you want.

Next up comes the Liberty dress. Which is the dress version of the Mathilde, my style ;0)

Modelled by Gerti…

And that was February. Its now nearly the end of March and I have another three garments to share. Coming up soon…

Went to Liberty a few weeks ago and as a treat bought myself 2metres of this totally gorgeous fabric

So pretty, and so many lovely colours in it. I love the background colour, which is a sort of khaki green. Think this will go with nearly everything.

I was going to make another Mathilde blouse, but once I’d cut the pieces out I saw I had a quite a bit left over. Not enough to make another garment but enough that it felt like a waste. I decided to see if I could add the fabric to the bottom of the back and front panels and make a dress.

Yes I can.

I attached the bottom to the top using french seams. I’m really pleased with it and felt it worked well. I remembered to  graduate the side seams outwards. Gives the dress a bit of an A-line shape. Now for the pictures and as usual there will be lots.

I love that you can barely see the join. I think I managed to pattern match quite well.

I just adore french seams, and look at that lovely dart.

The inside is almost as pretty as the outside. So I had to take some pictures.

Back to the outside.

Can’t see it too well but I have a daisy on the cuff on both sleeves in almost exactly the same place!

Modelled by Gerti…

Modelled by me…

One more, just cos I love it so much.

I”ve done some of my best sewing so far, on this dress. I didn’t rush it, took my time. And made it as close to perfect as I could. I’m really happy with the gathering on the sleeves at the cuffs.

I can never manage to get all the creases out of my fabrics, think I might need a new iron.

I bought something else whilst I was in Liberty. These gorgeous Baby bow scissors, by Merchant & Mills. I look at them every time I go to M&M but wasn’t sure I really needed them. And then I saw them in Liberty and decided I had to have them. They are the best things ever. They sit on my sewing machine whilst I’m sewing, so are within easy reach for snipping any annoying threads and such like. Means I don’t have to keep my larger pair next to the machine all the time.

Aren’t they cute?

Close ups of the set in sleeves. Here ya go. Aren’t they lovely? I’m really rather pleased with these.

As far as sewing goes, 2015 is proving to be a pretty good year so far. I started with the Mathilde pattern and now have 3. And now I’ve made a bloody coat! So, it doesn’t have a lining or button holes and buttons or any kind of fastening, but it does have pockets! Yes you heard, pockets. Four of them to be precise. Although two are mainly decoration or something as the only things you can put in them are small coins and they’d probably fall out! I bought The Strand coat pattern from my favourite Merchant & Mills  . Although my finished coat looks nothing like theirs.

I had a long discussion with a very helpful person in Merchant & Mills, who was so patient with me, answering all my silly questions. I ended up choosing a boiled wool in navy, after hearing that you don’t need to finish the seams and therefore it would be quicker and easier to make! Yeah right…

The pattern packet says Intermediate level, which I now know means, you know what you’re doing so we can get away with not telling you much. After using the Tilly & the Buttons pattern and having all her useful hints, tips and pictures on blog as well as the booklet, you feel like she’s there holding your hand guiding you through every step. And then suddenly I’m on my own, completely and utterly on my own. I knew what some of the stuff meant but for a large part it was guess work. I had to re-do a few things through trial and error, as to me anyway it was not at all obvious what was supposed to go where and what was to attach to what. Thank the lord for pins and my new best friend Gerti, without whom I don’t think I’d have completed this.

I was told that I’d be able to make this coat from 1.7m of fabric as I was using boiled wool and wouldn’t need facings and could go easy on the seam allowance. My first panic came when I was trying to place the pattern pieces onto the fabric. I just couldn’t get them to fit without a couple of pieces overlapping. Oh this isn’t good, I thought. Then I remembered I wanted to make it shorter in length than the actual pattern. So I measured and cut off about 5cm I think, I can’t remember the exact amount, from front and back. And this allowed all my pattern pieces to fit correctly. Panic over. Four and a half hours later and I had all my fabric cut out. I am learning to be really really slow and methodical. Its worth taking your time and redoing things if need be.

Bit of a tight squeeze! Doesn’t look it but trust me it was.

That was enough for one day, I had become really tense around the neck and shoulders and knew I shouldn’t do anymore.

Day two: This involved marking out the notches and darts and marking out pocket placements. This  was one of the things that had me scratching my head and frowning a lot. I ended up doing what I thought was best and luckily this turned out to be right. I did this a lot. I marked out the darts with tailor tacks, which I’d never done before, so after a quick Youtube tutorial I was ready to have a go

Can just about see it.

A whole dart marked out with tailor tacks

Can see them here too. This is Gerti by the way.

Next came pockets, I used Liberty print fabric in navy and cream to line the pockets. After much frowning and thinking and doing it wrong to begin with I finally worked it out. and I’m very pleased with them.

A little peek…

I think all this took me about six and a half hours. I stopped there and picked it up a day or two later.

Day three: Now it was time to join the side seams together of the top bodice pieces . This was when I found out I’d done my bust darts wrong, as the pattern didn’t make it clear where exactly they were. Well wasn’t clear to me anyway. I might find it a bit more obvious next time I work with a pattern with few instructions. I just couldn’t get my side seams to fit right so worked out that the it must be the bust darts. So I had to unpick them, re-attach the paper pattern piece and mark out the bust darts with the tailor tacks again and sew them. This time the side seams went together better.

Now I had to join the top half to the bottom half. This was fun. I pinned it where I thought it should be and it didn’t look right to me, so I did it again and it didn’t hang right or sit right and looked down right awful. I was not happy. So I figured the first way i did it must be the right way. So I pinned it again, using lots of pins. Hung it on Gerti and felt it looked better. Just to be on the safe side I baste stitched it and baste stitched the shoulder seams so I could hang it again and see how it looked. This time it was better.

1st attempt front.

1st attempt back.

Doesn’t look like I’ve uploaded the photos of the second attempt. Oh well. Once I felt I’d got it right, I stopped. It took me ages to figure out if I was happy or not.

Day 4: After looking at it for a day or two I decided I was happy with it and now I had to properly sew the two halves together. I had to do a little hand stitching through the side seams as where the top met the bottom there was an awful lot of fabric and I couldn’t get it through the sewing machine. I knew this from the baste stitching exercise and I was a little worried that my hand sewing wouldn’t be good enough, but it appears to be OK. Next I did some top stitching at the side seams and the side pockets.

You can see the bust darts quite clearly here, and just about see some top stitching.

Time for sleeves. I was a bit anxious about this, but it had to be done. I first sewed the elbow darts, then joined the sleeve seams together. Next up was to sew the couple of rows of ease stitching. The pattern said to secure at one end only, I wasn’t sure what this meant but thought it might mean do some back stitching so they don’t come out. I wasn’t entirely happy about this but its what I did. Not sure if it made things easier when putting in the sleeves or not, but I managed it. all in all the sleeves went in quite easily and I was pretty happy with the results. I love the fact that the minute you attach sleeves to something which should have sleeves the garment looks hundred times better even when its not finished…

Sleeves in, too long but I’ll sort that. Bloody hell, looks like a coat!

From the back

I was amazed at how quickly I was able to put the sleeves in, took me just under two hours. Then I spent an agonising amount of time trying to decide what to do with neck line. I wasn’t happy with it as it was, and as I wasn’t going to be doing a facing it might well have ended up staying like that. I decided to try just turning over a little bit of the neck line and pinning in place to see how it would look. It looked good I thought. Then I sewed it in place. Was happy with it till I tried it on, and the inside of the neck wanted to bounce back out. Hmmm, what to do? I deliberated and thought about it and ended up cutting off the excess fabric, and luckily it worked. No more bouncing. YAY!

Lovely lovely neckline!

Then I had to decide how long I wanted the sleeves to be. They were too long as they were, so I pinned them at various length till I hit upon the right length for me.

Just about see the pins here…

Day 5: My next problem was what to do about the excess fabric at the waist seam, where the bodice joins the bottom. I had this mainly due to the fact that I cut off a 2cm allowance on the bodice that was to accommodate a hook and eye fastening, but didn’t take it off the skirt section. I was thinking about cutting off the extra 2cm allowance but wasn’t convinced I could do it evenly. I pinned it first to see if I it would look any good, It looked OK but I still wasn’t convinced I actually wanted to cut it off, I kind of liked the extra fabric, felt it gave it a bit of a design element a bit like a Marni  coat. So I kept it. And i love it. And now I think its finished.

See the way the fabric extends beyond the top half.

Top stitching on the sleeves.

Here it is on Gerti

Here it is on me.

side view

I can match my pockets to my outfit!

I think thats about all for now. My Husband thinks its odd, but he doesn’t always get fashion. I don’t know if this is fashion, but I do love it. I wasn’t sure about half way through the make that I was going to like it, but i do, I love it! Its not a traditional coat and I’m not a traditional girl. So i think it suits me.

All in all i think this took me about 25hrs to make. So far the most labour intensive item I’ve made.

I’d like to add that I love the position of the side pockets on this coat. They are in the perfect place to just casually slip your hands in and be really comfortable.

Finished my 3rd Mathilde blouse. Did I tell you I love this pattern? I made this one 5cm longer though and I’m much happier with the length now.

lengthened bodice front & back, and also made cuffs and facings a bit deeper. Makes them easier to work with.

No pics of me wearing this yet as I haven’t got a decent one. As soon as I have I will post it.

Made this one from black 5oz dress weight denim. Love it, think it worked really well. I was a bit worried the fabric would be too thick for french seams, but happily it was just fine.

3 Mathilde blouses all in a row!

And I have the fabric all ready and waiting for Mathilde blouses 4 & 5…

Well you know me, if I like something I want it in multiples! So here is my 2nd Mathilde top and stay tuned for a 3rd, 4th…………

I really really love this pattern, this pattern seems to suit everyone. Its lovely to put together too. Very satisfying to make.  I’ve included some pics of the gather stitches that I forgot in the last one. And one of inserting the sleeve, just to give a rough idea of how its done.

The pieces…..

Top of the sleeve gathering stitches.

Bottom of the sleeve gathering stitches. Not very straight, but doesn’t seem to matter once you’ve gathered them.

Showing the pins in the shoulder after gathering the stitches. This is quite fun to do actually. Although the actual sewing is quite fiddly!

Cuff went a bit wonky on this sleeve, but I really couldn’t be bothered to unpick and do it again. Don’t think it matters too much. I’m really pleased with the gathering on this blouse though, at both the shoulders and the cuffs.

What do you think? I love this fabric.

Another pic of me wearing the 1st one. I can see me making lots of these, as this is perfect for me (sorry for my weird face again).

Ok lets try and catch this up shall we? I’m just going  to post the rest of my makes from 2014 now. Here we go!

September, bag for Nona.

Denim lining.

Other side.

Trying to line up the pattern. I love the bottom right corner.

Sept/Oct, Black dress weight denim top. Started as a dress, didn’t work!

October, another one. Loving the contrast hem.

October, Love this black and white top.

November, made another black dress weight denim top. I do like multiples. Again I’d tried to make a dress with it! Just can’t get it to look right!

November, afternoon tea in London.

Wore one of my tops. CHEERS!

November, altered one of my jersey tunic tops. Think I like it at this length. Tough if I don’t really…..

November, this is the last thing I made in 2014. Liberty fabric top.

So there we have it. That was 2014. I made a lot of tops and quite a lot of bags. I thoroughly enjoyed my sewing. And learnt some new things. It was also interesting to see how different my very simple tops could look using different fabrics. Don’t think I ever need to buy another top again!