More Unselfish Sewing - the Junebug dress

I don't know what's got into me!  Not only did hubby get a jacket, but I also made N a dress!

This is the Junebug dress from Craftiness is Not Optional, which I got as part of the Sew Fab bundle a while back.

N chose this fabric, which is Love & Joy Birds in pink by Free Spirit.  We found it in the sale in John Lewis, and she was determined to have the pink, despite my efforts to steer her towards the turquoise.  I did have my way on the contrasting buttons, which are from Ditto in Brighton.

On measuring I found she was the right size for a 4T, which seemed odd - clearly she is just tall and skinny!  I made a 5 (she normally takes 6-7 in RTW) but with the 6 length.

This pattern was really easy to put together with a simple lined bodice and gathered skirt.  The waistline is quite high and together with the puffed sleeves I think this is definitely a dress for a younger girl.  I'm not sure I'd make it for her in a bigger size.

The skirt is quite a bit shorter than planned, as when i went to sew the hem, I noticed I had nicked the skirt about 2" down from the waist with the overlocker knife and so had to cut the top part off - oops!  So it has a fairly narrow hem.  But it's all good - she often wears dresses with leggings, and it's necessary in this horrible weather we've been having.  It also looks better without the t-shirt but again this was a necessity for the weather!  My fault for making summer dresses in the winter!

Scary Skill Swap - the reveal!

I posted here about the jacket I have been making for Mr Little Time and here it is!

It's been a long time in coming as I got the lining and shell assembled and ready to be stitched together and finished, and he changed his mind about the lining fabric, so it all went on hold while different lining was chosen, purchased and delivered.  Grrrr....

We started with the basic Fairbanks pattern from Green Pepper, purchased from Rocky Woods.  I was concerned that the fit would be very loose - more "hiker" than the look hubby wanted.  On measuring the pattern it confirmed there was about 10" of ease across the chest, which was far more than he wanted.  Comparing the pattern to a jacket with the right fit, we decided on a size 36.  After making a muslin, I added 1" to centre back and centre front to give a bit more space across the shoulders without messing with the raglan sleeves.  I narrowed the sleeves for a sleeker fit and took some volume out of the hood.

Overall the pattern is very good - all the seams matched and the instructions and pictures are very clear, even for the slightly more difficult techniques like welt zippers.

After looking at many different inspiration pictures, hubby decided on a front patch pocket with a flap rather than the welt zip and flap of the pattern or the integrated flap I drafted.  He also wanted the front in one piece without the vertical seams. So I was able to use the front lining pattern piece for the outer (extending it to match the length of the back outer - the lining is shorter).  He also wanted a little mobile phone-sized pocket on the arm.  Both pockets are lined in the navy cotton original lining fabric.  This was the look he was going for:

Kirk Douglas in Heroes of Telemark (Source:  notrecinema.com)

I mocked up a storm flap in lining fabric to get it to the right size and cut it in outer and lining, sewed together and topstitched.  I attached to the inside of the zipper tape before fitting the zipper and it worked (phew!).  He didn't like the drawstring waist so I didn't need to incorporate that.  There was much debate about the hip pockets, but it would have made the front too busy - the Telemark jacket is quite a bit longer.

The construction of the jacket is pretty solid - every seam is straight stitched, zigzagged inside the stitching line, pressed to the side, top-stitched and finally seam sealant tape applied.  I was worried about how the tape would go on given that the fabric couldn't be pressed at more than a medium heat, but it was really easy.  It fixed on securely at a medium heat on the iron and was repositionable until it cooled.  As I was lining the jacket and didn't need to worry how the inside looked, I added extra pieces of tape at the points of stress like under the arms (it was tricky to get the tape to fit nicely round the curve - most of the seams were sealed when the jacket was flat so there was only an issue with the side seams.).

I didn't use the cuff that came with the pattern - hubby wanted a narrower one with a velcro tab fastening to pull it tight like a vintage jacket he has.  So I based the pattern piece on that.  Narrowing the sleeves also meant I could leave out pleating the sleeve at the cuff.

There was a lot of top-stitching so my edgestitching foot got a serious workout!

The new lining fabric is this from Point North.  It's a bit lighter in colour and a lot lighter weight than the cotton (which hubby preferred).  The lining is topstitched around the hood and zip, and finished inside the bottom hem and cuffs.  Rather than using the casing for the drawstring round the hood, I left an opening at the neck edge and stitched parallel to the topstitching to make a channel.  If you do this, a little tip - make sure you make the channel wide enough to get a safety pin through.  It'll make your life much easier! (Ask me how I know).

After much deliberation (turns out having it exactly as you want it isn't as easy as it sounds!), he chose navy buttons from Minerva for the front pocket, navy and white vintage 1960s suit buttons from Ebay for the sleeve pocket, and white cord and toggles for a contrast.  Rather than buy a grommet setter for one grommet at the hem, I did a sort of buttonhole over the side seam to finish the edges neatly for the cord to poke through.

Despite being extremely indecisive and changing his mind throughout, hubby has been massively appreciative of the work and the end result, so he might even get more items made! In fact I have ordered the Pattern Cutting for Menswear book from Amazon so it appears that he will....

Do you sew for your partner?  Is he/ she as indecisive as mine?

The scary sewing skill swap

Try saying that after a drink or two...

This frankly scary looking collection is for a long - promised jacket for the husband.

Earlier in the year he did a beautiful renovation on a vintage Elswick bike for me and in a fit of gratitude I promised to make him a jacket.

It has to be mentioned that hubby is a fussy bugger when it comes to clothes. Everything has to be perfect or he won't wear it so I'm under pressure on this one! Here's my brief:

The pattern we agreed on is the Fairbanks pullover anorak from Green Pepper (bought from Rocky Woods - a treasure trove for this sort of pattern, which is not easy to find elsewhere).  The jury is still out on the inclusion of extra pockets - he likes pockets.  I am making a few amends to the pattern. In addition to a possible sleeve pocket and maybe 2 lower pockets for hands, the main pocket will be a patch pocket on the outside and the flap will be squared off.

The fabric hubby chose is a navy Goretex (the real thing and if you have ever tried to buy this fabric you'll know what a great ebay find this was!). We also got swatches from Pennine Outdoor who are so helpful on understanding this type of waterproof performance fabric. You have to line Goretex as the inside is coated with waterproofing which will eventually rub off as it is worn if left unlined.  He wanted a breathable lining of course so he chose a navy cotton. He doesn't want padding or insulation as he prefers to layer underneath with a base layer rather than wear a bulky jacket.

Fairbanks is a very clear pattern with good instructions on how best to sew the seams (with straight stitch first then zigzag inside the seam allowance and trim) but not so much on sealing the seams other than you have to do it! If you don't, water will drip through the needle holes rendering your precious waterproof fabric next to useless.

I've gathered a few resources on this as they were pretty few and far between - maybe this might help someone else! The choice is pretty much between a liquid sealant or taping the seams.

A post on the Sewaholic blog about making a waterproof Minoru was very useful

This helpful lady tested various seam sealing options

KBenco has sewn with Goretex and various other outdoor fabrics and posted about how to work with it here

This Ebay guide is goodl for understanding the difference between fabrics and has some good tips

 Based on the above, I decided to go for seam tape purchased from Pennine Outdoor which states that it works well for Goretex type fabrics. It irons on fairly easily at a temperature that doesn't damage the fabric (from the test swatches I have done so far) but once it's on, it's not coming off so I'm going to have to be careful! Ripping back seams isn't going to be an option as it will leave obvious holes in the fabric. 

I'm using microtex needles (to make the smallest possible holes when sewing) and standard polyester thread. I also have a waterproof zip.

Wish me luck!

Have you ever done a skill swap where you swapped your sewing skills for something you couldn't do? Any tips for sewing with waterproof fabric?

We interrupt the scheduled selfish sewing...

... to show you a baby gift I made for my cousin's long - awaited newborn baby.

I made a receiving blanket which I originally found in a tutorial from Saints and Pinners (but Handmade Jane also has a good one). 

I usually use a metre of winceyette and a metre of cotton, cut in half lengthwise. This gives a good size for pram or buggy and is also great for swaddling if the baby likes that.

To make the applique letters I found a font in Word that was quite clean and chunky (you don't want fancy curls or serifs for this) and increased it to the size I wanted. I  drew around the letters on the reverse of the paper and traced these off onto the paper side of some fusible Web. I normally have to spend ages thinking about this to get them the right way round! Then I cut the letters out roughly and fused them onto the reverse of some fabric scraps. I played about with the placement to get them far enough from the edge to allow for stitching the layers together and top stitching. Then I ironed them on.

Using a fairly wide zig zag ( this was 4 mm wide and 1 mm long) I stitched around the edge of the letters. No fancy presser feet for this - I used my normal zig zag foot. My machine deals with this fine but if you want to try, go slow and practice on a scrap first to see how much you need to manhandle the fabric to keep the lines straight. I swapped the dot of the I for a button (sewn securely by machine).

Then i placed the top and backing right sides together (you can trim to size if you need to) and stitch, leaving a gap of about 4" for turning. I trimmed the corners, turned right side out and pressed. Finally I top stitched around the edge which closes the gap.

We were staying up in Scotland and managed to squeeze in a visit with them. My cousin was very appreciative but does anyone else get paranoid giving handmade gifts that the receiver has to say they like them even if they don't?

New babies!

My good friend Vicki recently had twin boys, and babies are the best excuse to get crafty!  Especially since all of my mini-sewing tends to be in shades of pink and purple (being all that the small person will consider) it's nice to break out the blue!

I knew she had lots of clothes already (she has another 2 boys as well) so I decided to make some blankets instead.

I bought Cath Kidston's Make book before Christmas and as soon as I saw this vintage style racing car template I knew it was perfect!

As ever, I was short of time (and late with the gift!), so I simplified the template slightly so that i could machine applique these rather than doing it by hand.

The blankets are pram sized and I used cotton for the tops and winceyette for a lovely soft underneath.  The wheels are scraps of brown needlecord with calico for the beige pieces, and the reds and blues are remnants of twill (stashbusting too!).

I'm really happy with they way they came out and my friend loves them!  The twins love to be swaddled and apparently the weight of these are perfect for it.

One down, lots to go!

Finished my first item since starting the blog!

It's KitschyCoo's tunic dress and I have adapted the pattern slightly.  I wanted more of a dress than a tunic top, and the largest size of the pattern is mid-thigh on N.  As I mentioned before, I couldn't find the pattern or pattern pieces, so I had to trace from a previous version and lengthen the pieces.  It was also quite wide on my skinny minnie so I took about an inch out of the centre of the front and back and shortened the neckband accordingly.

I made a short sleeved version from a piece of soft indigo denim and did the neckband and a panel around the bottom in Alexander Henry Tutti Frutti fabric and I'm really happy with how it turned out!  I had to trim a bit from the top of the front panel to make the neckband lie flat but I'm not sure if that was my tracing or the fact that the fabric was stiffer than the pattern called for.  It was a hit with N at least - she refused to take it off for the rest of the day!