Sew Blue February

A blogger's godsend - a vintage car!

If you are on Twitter you will know that there are monthly sewalongs and every other month is a colour theme.  I made this dress for Red October, skipped Green December (my colour palettes will show that I never wear green!) and here's Blue February (oops, bit late in posting).  This was a total no brainer - another look at my colour palettes will show that I wear blue a lot.

I was a little tight for time this month as I was finishing hubby's jacket and making a dress for N but luckily my planned garments already included a couple of blue items (no surprise there!).

Both fabrics were bought extremely cheaply from Norman Lyons, a fabric shop that doesn't look like a fabric shop not far from my work in Central London.  I think both were £2 a metre!

I am always in need of more long sleeved T-shirts so the striped jersey was destined to be another Renfrew.  I have made this pattern before (here and here) and apart from a bit of lengthening it fits great out of the packet.  I made the round neck variation again.  Given that the stripe is so dominant I made my first real attempt at stripe matching, using this tip from Lauren at Rosie Wednesday to line up the underarm points on the same stripe.  I think it worked pretty well on the side seams and underarms but maybe I should have paid more attention on the sleeves.  Or is it not possible to match across a sleeve head?

Matchy matchy!

 I lined up the cuffs and waistband on the same stripe so they are consistent and cut the neckband on the broad navy stripe.  Not perfect but I'm pretty chuffed with it.  Should perhaps have used my walking foot to make sure the fabric didn't shift but I'm still getting used to having one!

The second garment is a Megan Nielsen Kelly skirt.  Again a pattern I have used before (here and an unblogged version) but this one is a bit different in that I omitted the button closure on the front.  This is really simple to do.

Instead of the buttons you'll need a zip and a side closure (I used leftover buttons from my Blackberry dress but you could use a skirt hook instead).  I used an 7" zip from my stash but to be honest it could be longer, so 9" might work better!

 - Cut the back and waistband as per the pattern.  Instead of cutting 2 fronts, line up the fold of the fabric with the placket fold line market on the pattern and cut in one single piece.
- Mark the pleats and staystitch them as normal.
- Mark the length of the zip on the left side seam and sew it up to this point and the right side seam as normal.
- Sew in the zip with your preferred method.  I sewed it by machine.
- Attach the waistband with the front edge overhanging the zip edge by 5/8".  The back edge will stick out further past the back zip edge but don't worry -  this is where you will put the closure/ buttons.
- Finish attaching and top stitching the waistband and hem as per the pattern instructions.
- Make the buttonholes in the front waistband and sew buttons to back waistband (or attach your closure) and you are done!

These are 2 bargain items - £7.50 in total for fabric and stashed buttons and zip.  I had both patterns already.  Love it when sewing actually saves you money for a change!  And it matches my square necked Alma perfectly!

Meet FiFi!

 

 If you follow me on Twitter (@jolittletime) you'll probably know that I bought a new sewing machine!  I inherited some money recently and decided that rather than be sensible and save it, the person who left it to me would much rather I spent it on something I'll love!

I went into my local sewing machine shop (we are lucky enough to have 2), primarily to look at Berninas (cos we all want a Bernina, right?).  The extremely helpful and knowledgable sales person talked to me about what I wanted and planned to use it for and recommended a Pfaff if I didn't have my heart set on a Bernina.

She is a Pfaff person and thought the Ambition 1.5 had all the features I was looking for:

- a drop in bobbin I could see (running out of bobbin thread half way down a long and fiddly seam is the worst)
- option to finish with needle up (to avoid the top thread whipping away out of the needle on the next seam) or down for pivoting
- pretty 1 step buttonholes
- good length of warranty
- speed control on the foot pedal (I have a heavy foot on the pedal!)
- good lighting (my dining room doesn't have the best task lighting)
- adjustable presser foot pressure

It has all of these and more!  Specs can be found here.

It has 195 stitches - I'm sure I'll never use most of them but N LOVES them!

The drop in bobbin is easy to thread and to see when it is running out, but it also has a "bobbin empty" warning that appears on the touchscreen quite a way before the thread runs out.

As it has a touchscreen, the front is very clean with only essential buttons:

The buttons you can see are the needle up/ needle down toggle, permanent reverse, the speed slider, start/ stop button and automatic tie off.

It also has a built in walking foot called IDT (Integrated Dual Feed) which you can pull down from behind the shank and engage with just about any foot or stitch.

Much as I liked it, I decided not to rush into a big purchase.  I came home, canvassed options/ experiences on Twitter (thanks to all who shared!), checked out online reviews and booked a trial for the following Saturday.  I tried it out and loved it.  I also tried the Bernina at the same price point (the 350 I think?) and the one above (the 380 - about £300 more expensive) and to be honest, the stitch quality on the Pfaff was on a par with the more expensive Bernina!  I was sold and brought her home that day.

Things I love already:

- she goes through anything - 8 layers of folded thick denim as easily as a single layer of chiffon

- the stitching is gorgeous!

- the bobbin empty warning

- the low noise compared to my Brother

- the speed control - it feels like I have so much more control

- the automative tie off - I had no idea i needed it til I had it but it is so neat compared to my previous reverse stitching!

- those automatic buttonholes - love love love!

Oh and really stupid thing I love:

Bobbin and foot storage! So neat and tidy!

 On the suggestion of the lovely Vicki Kate, I have called her Fifi (much to the disappointment of N who wanted to call her Vanilla - who knows the workings of a 5 year old's mind?)

I think the moral of the story is - make use of your local sewing machine shop if you are lucky enough to have one.  They can really help.  Mine also offers free follow-up sewing lessons if you need them.