The “Anne” Blouse

Guess what? I finally made something! OMG!!! Yes folks, it’s been a while. Far, far too long. Over a month. And not for lack of inspiration or desire to create. Nope, I’ve got lots of plans, lots of patterns, lots of fabric. Just not a lot of time. But hey, my new rule – 5 minutes sewing a day. Eventually, things get completed. Eventually.

So here it is – my first creation for the WSBN Burda Sew-along – the ‘Anne’ blouse!

Which also happens to be my first-ever creation from a Burda magazine. Yes, when I unfolded the pattern sheet, I got scared. And when I looked at the (pathetic) instructions, I got even more scared. But I pulled on my big-girl pants, stepped up to the tracing challenge, and you know what? It really wasn’t that hard! Not hard at all, in fact. (Once I discovered that the numbers down the bottom of the sheet show you where to look for each correlating pattern piece, so you don’t have to sift through all the text on the pattern sheet trying to spot pattern piece number 8 and so on. Wish I’d discovered that a bit earlier on in the tracing journey, but hey, now I know for next time.)

In fact, it was so not-hard, I’ve already traced out my next pattern to make up. And have plans for more. (Seriously folks, if you’ve been putting off sewing from a Burda magazine for fear of the tracing, fear not. It’s no where near as hard as it looks. Go on – get brave and give it a go!)

So, this blouse, It’s pattern number #122 from the October 2012 edition of Burda Style. And here’s where I’d like to give a big thank-you to Anne, who sent me this magazine as part of a swap we did. Thanks Anne!

I choose this blouse because of the yoke – it’s rather interesting. I found it hard to tell from the image (and even harder to tell from the instructions) but the yoke is hanging free on two sides, and stitched in to the shoulder and sleeve seams on the other two. It’s also not quite the same shape/size as the neckline, so you have a subtle double-layer effect where they overlap. (I had to go hunting for made-up versions of this over on Burdastyle to be sure about this, the instructions were that poor.)

There are darts in front and back for shaping, and with no collar either it’s a very easy blouse to make up. (It still took me a good week-and-a-half to make, but hey, like I said earlier, 5 minutes sewing a day will get you there. Eventually.)

The original design is about 6-7 inches longer – I shortened it so I can wear it out over skirts. I also shortened the sleeves, simply because I didn’t have enough fabric for long sleeves. (*cough* design decision *cough*) Now here is where things got a bit frustrating – I made this up in the right size for my measurements. And it was far too big. (Except across the shoulders, where it fits fine.) I’m wondering if this is because I’m used to sewing with vintage patterns, and modern patterns have far more ease? Those of you who sew from Burda magazines – do you find they have far more ease than you need? Or is it perhaps just this one pattern?

(Now I look at the picture again, it does seem to be intentionally a bit loose. Hmmm…. Should look more closely at that next time.)

Anyway, I took it in by over an inch on each side seam at the waist, tapering up to the sleeves and down to the hem. I think it’s still a bit loose, but I’m not 100% sure – it feels loose, but my Other Half is of the opinion that it fits fine. I’d like a second opinion here folks – should I take it in a bit more, or leave it as it is? Be honest here!

I made a couple of changes in the construction methods as well. When it comes to the free-hanging yoke, the instructions don’t ask you to sew up the section that lies next to the neckline. Instead, you’re just meant to turn the seam allowance under and leave it. Um, what? I ignored that. Rather, I folded the yoke pieces in half, right sides together, stitched up that seam, turned them out the right way again, and then went back to following the instructions. Nice and neatly stitched together, and no visible stitching. Easy as.

I also choose to use domes instead of buttons. Because sewing with a hammer is fun. And I get to feel like Superman when I get changed at night. The fun in feeling like Superman at the end of the day cannot be underestimated. I urge you all to sew with hammers, make a top that does up with domes, and give it a try. Seriously, go and do it!

So, there we have it. The Anne blouse. My first ever Burda magazine creation. I’m rather pleased with it, even if I’m not yet convinced by the fit. And on that note, excuse me – I’m off to trace another pattern. Happy sewing, folks!

Covert tea cozy

A while back, I spotted a new swap thingy happening via the sewing interwebs. The Covert Robin swap. It sounded like fun, so I went and signed up.

After a fair bit of cyber-stalking my swap buddies blog, I finished off my gift and sent it off to them this week.

Wanna see what I made?

Yep, it’s orange and yellow and white. Can you guess what it is?

A tea pot cozy!

I used this tutorial over here. Lots of fun to make up, I’m thinking I may have to make myself one. (Except I have a couple of fabulous knitted ones my mother-in-law made for me, so I don’t really need another. Maybe I need to make a few more as gifts….)

Since my swap buddy likes vintage linens and doilies, I figured she’s probably be a tea drinker. (I don’t know about you, but vintage linen and tea kinda of go together in my brain.) I carried through the vintage inspiration by using a vintage cotton for the outside, and some vintage braid for the loop on the top. (The inside is a craft cotton leftover from a dress I made a couple of years back.) There’s batting sandwiched between the two layers, and bias binding finishing it off around the bottom.

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. It fits snugly over a teapot, and the colours make me happy. Hopefully the girl I made it for will like it…..!

The “Melissa” Dress

Check it out – I made another 1940′s garment for Sew For Victory!

(And yes, I did actually finish it in time. Just. But then I didn’t get a chance to post about it. Oh well.)

Anyway, I now have another 1940′s dress in my wardrobe, which makes me happy. I do love me some 1940′s style.

This one is Hollywood 805, from 1942. I love Hollywood patterns – the images of movie stars, the styling. Something about it appeals to me a lot. I’m slowing building up a collection of Hollywood patterns, although this is the first one I’ve gotten around to making. (Of the grand total of four that I own so far…. I did say I was building up a collection s l o w l y…!)

So, one thing about Hollywood patterns. Or at least this one. The instructions are really rather sparse. Looking for guidance on which way to press darts or tucks? You won’t find it here.

The details, on the other hand, are lovely, in that 1940s way. The shoulders are interesting – the back extends over to the front, and joins as though it’s a yoke, so there is no shoulder seam. The neckline in particular is interesting, with it’s points. The sleeves are dart-fitted at the sleeve head. The bodice is gathered into the waistline at front and back so it’s fitted around the waist, yet gives a blousey effect. The pockets have notched details at the top and are sewn so they jut out at the top. (And the inset belt is lovely, although I omitted it so I could ‘future proof’ the dress with the side seams.)

There are a couple of things I’d change next time. I forgot to lengthen the bodice as part of the grading up in sizes, so the waist sits a bit high at the back. A belt disguises it, but I’d rather it was about another inch lower at the back. (The front, however, is fine.) The sleeves are a bit tight as well – I didn’t bother grading them, but next time I will. They’re not too tight to be uncomfortable at all, but a little bit more ease wouldn’t go amiss. Oh, and I’d lengthen the shoulders by about 3/4″ as they’re a little bit narrow, which results in the neckline pulling a bit.

But none of those are stopping me from wearing this dress, and enjoying it!

(According to Steve, I look “like a cross between a punk and a granny”. I have no issues whatsoever with this description.)

The Facts

Pattern: Hollywood 805
Year: 1942
Fabric: blue Ikea cotton, acquired from Mel at a Wellington bloggers meet-up swap (thanks Mel!)
Notions: 8 vintage white buttons from my great-aunt’s stash
Alterations made:

• Graded up to my current size
• Future-proofed by attaching the skirt to the bodice on the flat, and sewing the side seams last
• Removed the inset belt (in order for it to be future-proof-able) and added 1 inch at the top of the skirt and bottom of bodice at the back so back waist seam matched front waist seam
• Added interfacing to the button placket and the inner necklineK
• Rounded the corners of the inner neckline (because the pattern had already been altered that way. Next time I’ll re-alter it back to pointy corners)
• Drafted a new back neck facing as that pattern piece is missing
• Moved the top corners of the pockets out by 1 inch on each side so they don’t stick as far out from the dress

First worn: for a walk around the zoo on Monday 1 April
Wear again? Already have. It got worn to work this week, and got a couple of compliments from people who didn’t know I’d made it. Yay!!
Make again? Yep, I likes this pattern.

The photos were taken on a walk around the zoo. This gorgeous lady came up to say ‘hello’:

The “Johanna” Shirt

My poor little blog, it’s been suffering a bit from neglect lately. Why is that? Well, I started back at work two weeks ago, full time. Turns out that juggling a six-month baby and a full-time job doesn’t leave much time for, well, anything else, really!

I have been managing to eek out a little bit of sewing time here and there though, although finding time to blog about things is proving harder! But hey, it’s only week two – I’m sure we’ll get this whole finding-time-for-life thing sorted out sooner or later.

In the meantime, here, finally, is a shirt I made a couple of weeks ago! I finished it off just in time for the last Wellington sewing bloggers meet-up on 17 March. (And yes, I do mean “just in time” – it got finished the morning of the meet-up. This seems to be becoming a habit of mine. Must try and break that for the next meet-up….) (If you want to read more about our latest meet-up, here’s a lovely post that Nikki wrote about it. As per usual, I forgot to take photos, so go look at her lovely ones instead.

Every bloggers meet-up I go to, I seem to walk away with a new sewing goodie or two. And then I resolve to make something using one of them for the next meet-up! This month, it was the turn of this lovely black floral cotton/(something?) fabric, which I got from Jo back in January. My original plan for this was to turn it into a shirt. And since there’s a 1940′s Sew For Victory sew-along happening, a 1940′s blouse it ended up becoming!

Since I’m still working on losing weight around my waist, I did some rough on-the-fly alterations and added a bit to the waist on both side seams. (Hoping that one day, preferably not too far in the future, I can take those seams in once again. Hopefully….. Must stop drinking so much hot chocolate, then that day may come around a bit earlier….. Oh who am I kidding – hot chocolate is just far too tasty to give up!)

Anyway…

This pattern was interesting to make up. The instructions left quite a bit to be desired – no call for interfacing, no indication of overlap on the front, general randomness. But I got there in the end eventually, with only a couple of seams needing unpicked due to a misinterpretation of the vague directions. And I do like this pattern once it’s made up – there are a couple of lovely small folds either side of the button placket, released tucks for shaping at front and back, gathers at the front yoke, and top-stitching detail on the collar. (Sadly though, most of these details are hidden in the busy-ness of the fabric. But hey, they make me smile, even if no one else can see them.)

(Something about released tucks for waist shaping really appeals to me….. I’m not sure why, but it makes me happier than standard darts. Hmmm….)

Just for the fun of it (and because I was running of out time to get this finished <- shameful confession, folks), I used snap fasteners as closures instead of buttons. Nice, shiny black ones. Which means I feel like Superman whenever I take this shirt off. Oh yeah! Let's face it – snap fasteners are fun! (Even if they are completely not 1940s in style.)

(Plus, you get to sew with a hammer, which is always a good time.)

The Facts

Pattern: Academy 2842
Year: unknown, circa 1940s
Fabric: unknown blend, from Johanna in the first Wellington bloggers meet-up swap (thanks, Johanna! And look – I named a shirt after you in appreciation! )
Notions: completely period-inaccurate hammer-on snap fasteners in black
First worn: to the latest Wellington sewing bloggers meet-up on 17 March
Wear again? Already have!
Make again? Yep, next time in a plainer fabric so the details stand out more

The “Lovebirds” Dress

The Facts

Pattern: McCalls 4185
Year: 1953
Fabric: craft cotton, gift from my mother
Notions: 8 buttons and a snap fastener, all from my stash
First worn: to my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary celebration
Wear again: yes, after I make a couple of adjustments
Verdict on the pattern: Reasonably easy and fast to put together. Pleats at the skirt waistline do tend to make one look a bit bigger around the hips, sadly.
Adjustments made: Extended the front button placket and removed the side zipper.
Anything I’d do differently next time? Probably convert those waistline pleats into darts to reduce some of the volume.

Back in early February, we had a pretty fabulous excuse to travel down South for a big family get-together. It was my grandparents 60th wedding anniversaary! Seriously, how gorgeous is that?!?

Last year, my grandfather told me about when he met my grandmother. They both attended a community dance – my grandmother was on holiday with her friends, and my grandfather had traveled there with his friends, so neither of them were from the town where the dance was held. My grandfather spotted my grandmother from across the room, wearing “a pretty lemon dress” and the rest, as they say, was history! (I love that my grandfather has such fond memories of a yellow dress, over 60 years after seeing it.)

Naturally, I had to indulge myself and make a dress to wear to their Diamond anniversary dinner

And since my grandmother was wearing a yellow dress when they met, I made a yellow dress to wear. My lovely mother bought this fabric for me as a surprise, especially to use to make a dress for the anniversary dinner. (Thanks, mum!)

They got married in 1953, so I went hunting through my pattern stash for a dress pattern from 1953. (And can I just say how incredibly useful it was at this point, having a lot of my patterns recorded? All I had to do was search for ’1953′ and I immediately discovered which patterns I had and could choose which one to use. Brilliant!)

My original plan was to make the full skirted style, but there wasn’t enough fabric, so I deviated from my usual style (eek!) and went with the straight skirt version. It’s odd, but I feel so much more ‘formal’ in a straight skirt! (Who would have thought a bright-yellow-dress-with-pink-birds would be considered ‘formal’?!?) As a result, I’m struggling a bit with trying to figure out where to wear this one – I love it, but it doesn’t seem casual enough for a weekend dress, and I’m worried this may even be a little bit too OTT for the office…. (Not that that’s stopped me before, but hey.) Anyone got any suggestions for how to style it/wear it??

Please ‘scuse the slightly damp-looking top of the button placket. It got chewed on by the Little Man during the speeches. Hey, whatever keeps him quiet, right?!

The pattern itself was reasonably easy to put together. I graded it while cutting to my current measurements and just went for it. I was, however, very short on time (I may have sewn this up the morning of the anniversary dinner. In fact, it’s entirely possible that those buttons got sewn on after I was meant to be out there with the rest of the family. Oops.), and as a result I didn’t get a chance to make a couple of alterations before wearing it. The main issue? There’s just too much volume at the hips. The skirt is tuck-fitted rather than dart-fitted, so it poofs out a bit around that area (heck knows why you’d do that intentionally as part of the design?!), plus I added a bit more ease than I think I needed. But that’s easy enough to fix, and it’s now in my ‘to adjust’ pile. (I also need to finish them hem. Due to time constraints, I managed to overlock it and that was it. Yep, I wore an unfinished dress to a Diamond anniversary dinner. *sigh*)

Even though it’s not my usual colour or style, straight skirt and all, I rather like this dress. It’s bright and cheerful, and the little pink birds make me smile.

(Now I just need to figure out if I can get away with it for work…. Hmmm…. Maybe I’m just out of practice at wearing bright dresses since I haven’t been able to fit into mine for ages…?!?!)

I made a quilt top?!?

Remember that quilt-along that I started back in January? Well, guess what. I just finished the quilt top!! (A bit late, but hey, I’m still rather impressed with myself for making a quilt top! Just a few months ago, it was the sort of thing I never would have pictured myself making. And yet, here I am, officially a quilt-top-maker. If one can be called that after finishing a grand total of one quilt top, that hasn’t even been turned into a quilt yet.)

I’m pretty pleased with myself for this, actually. It took quite a long time, longer than it would have taken me to make a dress (or two), and there was a lot of pressing involved. But I persevered, and here it is!

I surprised myself even more by enjoying making this. There’s something quite relaxing about sewing lots and lots of straight lines, one after the other. And no fitting issues needing to be taken care of. Almost a bit like meditation, in a way.

I made the middle size in the quilt along, a 76″ by 76″ square. Which, once completed, should (hopefully) be a good size for spreading over my bed and snuggling under with a book in winter.

Can I just say – it’s kinda hard to get a photo of an entire 76″ square. Firstly, I hung it on the wall between us and the neighbours. Which wasn’t quite high enough, and then the wind caught it….

Yeah. So, we tried the washing line. Which also wasn’t high enough, so in none of these photos do you get to see the top. I’m sure you can imagine what it looks like though – it’s the same as the bottom. Just an off-white border.

I think the thing I like most about this quilt top is that each of the fabrics I used have memories – they’re all scraps left over from other projects I’ve made. When I look at it, I’m reminded of those projects – the inspiration behind them, the fun of sewing them up, and (in most cases) how much I enjoy wearing them. (And will enjoy wearing them again, just as soon as I fit into them again. Huh.)

This one uses fabric from my Leaves and Hats dress for the centre star, with pink fabric from the edgings of my March dress, and brown from my Bookish Willow dress (which is still one of my favourite dresses, I really must make that pattern again sometime, it’s so easy to wear….).

The next ‘starburst’ has a centre star made from leftovers from my All Buttoned Up dress, and the surrounds use pink floral from my March dress and yellow-with-birds from a dress I made for a friend.

And these next two use the same fabrics as before, in different combinations:

Since I was using scraps from other projects for the quilt (and a length of off-white cotton that has been lurking around for ages, heck knows where I got it from or why, for the background) I only used six different fabrics for the quilt designs, rather than the twelve different ones that the pattern called for. I like how the fabrics are repeated in different ways and combinations here. (I also really like that they go well with my bedroom walls, which are a soft buttery yellow.)

(My piecing isn’t all that perfect though, but hey – first time trying it all out. Plus I didn’t have a quilting ruler – I went and bought one after I’d finished the quilt top. Guess I’ll need to try another quilt, just so I can compare using one vs not….)

And here’s one just to give you an idea of the size. Spot the cat down on the bottom left there? (That’s Roxy, checkin’ it all out.)

Next up, I’m going to try my hand at free-motion quilting. I went and bought a free-motion foot for my machine the other day, so here’s another new skill to learn! Fun! (Although I must admit to being somewhat nervous about navigating my way over such a large item on just my little domestic machine. Hmmm.)

The “Beatrice” Dress

Meet the “Beatrice” dress. Otherwise known as the Wellington Sewing Bloggers dress. I originally planned to wear it to the January bloggers meet-up, but had issues with the buttonholes and had to give up, with only the fastenings to go, half an hour before the meet up. Argh!!! (Sometimes, you just have to call it quits. I’d sewn and unpicked two buttonholes as the thread wasn’t catching down one side for some reason. Frantically looked around for an alternative and sewed on a length of snap fastener tape. Then added more snaps to hide the white tape that was peeking through. Then realised that since I was in such a hurry, everything I did made it worse, so reluctantly set it aside and wore something else, while trying to overcome the feeling of shame at failing a self-set sewing deadline. Anyone else do that??)

Anyway, there it sat for a month, until the evening before the next Wellington bloggers meet-up in February. At which point, I picked it up, added a second layer of interfacing to the button plackets, and left finishing it until the next day. (Which naturally resulted in a frantic rush to finish and being half an hour late to the cafe to meet the others. Oops. One day, I’ll learn this lesson. One day.)

But now, here it is! And it got it’s debut with the Wellington ladies, over tea and cake at the Centennial pop-up cafe in the Wellington City and Sea museum.

The other reason it’s the Wellington Sewing Bloggers dress is that I made it with fabric from Joy and a pattern from Mel, both of which I acquired during the swap at the first Wellington sewing bloggers meet up. So, thank you ladies, you’ve helped extend my wardrobe!

The pattern was Simplicity 5040, from 1964. This was my first time using one of the Simplicity “proportioned sizes” patterns, with different pattern pieces for short, medium and tall girls. (I used the “tall” ones.) It fits quite well, actually, with no adjustments needed outside of the standard grading at the waist.

I did make a few changes though, as I barely had enough of this burgundy-with-blue-pinstripes shirting fabric to eek out the dress. Rather than making a pleated skirt, after I’d cut the bodice and sleeve pieces I took what fabric was left, cut it in half to make two rectangles, and used those as a gathered skirt. The sleeves are also shorter than on the pattern and without the cuffs – the sleeve length was determined by the amount of fabric I had.

As per usual at the moment, I sewed the bodice to the skirt pieces on the flat, then stitched up the side seams last, to make it easier to take in (in that theoretical day in the future when I finish losing the baby weight. One day…..)

The pattern came together nice and easily. (Admittedly, I did get rid of probably the most time-consuming detail by not doing the pleated skirt.) I love the slight puffs on the shoulders, and the cute-but-completely-useless front breast pocket.

As for the name? Well, I’ve decided I may as well work my way through the alphabet when I can’t think of anything more inspired, so I was up to the letter ‘B’. (Plus, since we were in the Centennial Cafe for our meet-up, it seemed a regal-type name was appropriate!)

The Centennial cafe is all about Britannica – there’s a display of replica British crown jewels, a green screen where you can “get your photo with the queen”, and crowns made of all sorts of things around the cafe. One must wear a crown when visiting the museum, don’t you know?

The Facts

• Pattern: Simplicity 5040
• Year: 1964
• Fabric: burgundy shirting (with a bit of stretch) with blue pinstripes, gift from Joy
• Notions: 4 buttons and two snap fasteners, along with a bit of interfacing for the button placket
• Adjustments made: gathered skirt instead of pleated; shortened sleeves and removed sleeve cuff; shortened length (all due to restricted amount of fabric). Attached bodice to skirt in the flat, and sewed side-seams last to allow for easy taking-in in the future.
• Verdict? I like it! It’s going to be a good work staple as well. Oddly satisfying making something that’s not in my usual somewhat crazy prints and colours…. May try that again. Sometime.
• Make again? sure, why not?!

Here we are at the meet up, practicing our royal wave with the queen. Aren’t we all grand?!

Top row, left -> right: Joy, Mel, and myself.
Bottom row, left -> right: Trees, Jo, Nikki.

Naughty royals however, they do indulge in a bit of bum-pinching now and then! Tut tut!

(Thanks to Mel, Joy and Nikki for the photos, and the Wellington City and Sea museum for the black-and-white pics.)

Friday Night Sew-In

For a while now, I’ve seen mentions around of this thing called a ‘Friday Night Sew-In’. The idea of having a sew-in on a Friday night seems pretty much perfect to me – I don’t know about you, but spending a Friday night alone with my sewing machine for company seems like a great way to spend the evening.

Now, I must admit that I didn’t see the sign-up for the February Friday Night Sew-In until Saturday New Zealand time. Conveniently though, I actually spent my Friday night sewing – showing a brilliant clarity of foresight, maybe? (Or just habit. Hmmm.)

Wanna see what I made? I was a little bit naughty and ignored everything on my work-in-progress pile(s) and made a gift for someone instead. It was nice to pick up a small project – something I could start and finish in one sitting – since all my other current projects are taking aaaages due to the difficulty in finding sewing time.

Anyway, here’s my Friday sewing result:

It’s a mug rug! (Otherwise known as a giant coaster.) They’re meant to be the right size for a cup of tea and a biscuit. (And yes, that biscuit was tasty. A 1950′s recipe for Cherry Gingers. Yum yum!)

I used up some of my scrap stash of quilting cottons – one side has fabric from a dress I made for a friend, and some Kowhai flower cotton print (used in the Something Floral Something Blue dress).

The other side has fabric from the Journey dress and the January dress.

There’s quilt batting in the centre, to soak up any drips of tea and protect surfaces from hot cups. Double-fold bias binding around the edges. And I randomly stitched all over it rather than using lines for quilting. (I then went and bought a free-motion quilting foot on Saturday afternoon, so I may have to make another mug rug or two so I can try free-motion quilting for the first time.)

So there we have it – a small but satisfying project for a Friday night, about to be heading off to an unsuspecting friend! Hopefully it’ll get lots of love (and tea), and if not, hopefully they’ll pretend it does anyway. (I must admit it’s not all that perfect – the pink fabric just wouldn’t square up for some reason *sigh* and my quilting is, well, pretty basic (I’m at the very initial section of the learning curve for that!), but hey, I had fun making it, and that’s the main thing, right?) (Also, it’s a lot more rectangular than it looks in the photo – I foolishly took the photos at an angle, making it look like a trapezoid. But it gave me a chance to write ‘trapezoid’, which is a rather awesome word, so once again, that’s all ok.)

(Right, enough rambling! I’m off to bed, have a lovely week everyone!)

The “Amelia” Shirt

Prompted by the current BurdaStyle Vintage Modern contest, I decided to try making up one of the patterns from their book. (Not that I expect to get anywhere with the contest, but I tend to use contests and sew-alongs and anything with a constraint to work in and a timeline as a way to help me decide what to make next. There’s just too many possibilities otherwise, in my overflowing stash!) After flicking through a copy of it I borrowed from Nikki (thanks, Nikki!), I settled on the Amelia shirt. The Amelia shirt is a 1930′s inspired design, with a shaped yoke, cap sleeves, princess lines on the lower half of the bodice front, and a tie at the neckline. It’s a cute style, and I figured I could easily adapt it to a shirt to match current lifestyle requirements.

Since some of you wanted to see more about construction and fitting and the overall process of how I make things, I’m trying out documenting-as-I-go with this. I’d love to know what you think – too much detail? Not enough? Want to see something I didn’t show? Whatever your feedback, let me know so I know what to show next time for those of you who are interested. (Also, a little disclaimer – I’m pretty much entirely self-taught, and from the school of make-it-up-as-I-go-along, so please don’t look on this as the “right” way to do things at all! It’s just my way of doing things, for this project.)

Anyway, onto the shirt….!

This was originally meant to be my project for Sew Grateful Week, but it took a bit longer to make than I expected. (No surprises there – everything takes longer than expected these days. I’m looking forward to one day once again being able to drink an entire cup of tea while it’s hot….)

After choosing the pattern I was going to make up, I debated about which fabric to use. There are two shirt-worth fabrics in my stash that were gifts from people – I decided on using this lovely pink-and-white floral lawn that was a gift from TJ. (And the best part? There’s still enough of it left for a dress! Yippie!) Since the Amelia shirt has a lovely shaped yoke, I wanted to make the most of that by making it up in two contrasting fabrics, so I went hunting in my stash to pull out some suitable ones. Here’s what I came up with:

Choosing fabric

AFter a bit of debate, the brown cotton drill won out.

I used a tip from Oanh and traced the pattern onto interfacing, which worked brilliantly – it was easily to see the markings through for tracing, you can easily write on it in ballpoint pen, and I used heavier interfacing so it stays nice and stiff and lies flat easily when placed on the fabric.

Laid out for cutting

(Yes, I use cassette tapes as pattern weights. One day I intend to make some ‘proper’ ones, but in the meantime, what else am I going to do with old tapes?!?)

I made the adjustments I wanted by drawing them directly onto the fabric before cutting. I first made the top longer as it was quite short. I added 5cm to the length, and allowed for a 2cm hem. (Side note: I only ended up using a 1cm hem, as it was still very short even with the additional length. It’s now a good length for a worn-untucked shirt, but if you want to make one you can tuck in, I’d recommend adding a good 10cm to the length, plus your hem allowance.)

Lowering the hem

I then extended the darts in the back of the shirt down to the new hem, tapering them down to nothing at the base. To allow turnovers for buttons down the front, I cut the front as two pieces (rather than one piece on the fold) and measured out 6cm from the centre front to allow turnings. I used a 1cm seam allowance everywhere, which is something I learnt years ago at a pattern drafting course and always use if using self-drafted patterns.

When sewing up, I used different thread colours for the different fabrics, so they were as subtle as possible. I pressed the seam allowance for the yoke downwards and top-stitched it in place, so the brown fabric wouldn’t show through the more-transparent lawn.

The main thing I fitted was the placement of the centre front and the buttons. I wanted this to be a reasonably fitted shirt, so after darts and seams were sewn up, I tried it on inside out and marked the centre front by pinning it together and marking with tailors chalk.

Marking the centre front

After marking where I wanted the centre front to be, I measured out from here by 1.5 cm (towards the side seams) to allow for the button turnings. This gave me a total of 3cm wide overlap in the centre front – plenty of space for buttons and button holes. This new line is the fold line – everything from there to the centre front got turned under.

Measuring the fold line for a 3cm overlap for buttons

The markings of the fold line then got transferred to the other front half of the bodice, by putting pins straight through them and marking the pin exit points with tailors chalk.

Transferring markings to the other side of the bodice front

I then checked that I had the placement correct, by trying it on again and pinning closed 1.5cm away from the centre front (thus having it as fitted as if there was a 3cm overlap in the centre).

Checking the button overlap

Once I was happy with it all, I choose some buttons, and stitched up some button holes. (I stitched them horizontally, as I’ve found having to unbutton and re-button a shirt multiple times during the day for breastfeeding puts extra strain on buttons, and they slip out of vertical buttonholes a lot more easily, which has resulted in a wardrobe malfunction or two. Oops.) I also interfaced the button strip, for added strength.

Choosing buttons

To add a touch of fun to the inside, I faced the button plackets (both buttonhole and button sides) with a strip of the floral lawn.

A touch of floral inside the shirt front

For the tie, I measured the neckline, then added on how much I wanted to hang downwards. I cut out a straight strip of fabric (once again, with a 1cm seam allowance), and attached it to the neckline. The armholes and hem are simply turned under and stitched, so it’ll be easy to unpick them to take the shirt in in the future (still working on losing the baby weight).

And there we have it – the Amelia shirt, a variation of the Amelia top from BurdaStyle Sewing Vintage Modern!

Anything I’d do differently next time? Well, I’d be a bit more careful how I was standing for photos so I didn’t pull the bottom of the front out of alignment and make it look like the hems don’t align! But in general, I’m pretty happy with this top!

For lazing around on summer days

Something I’ve been meaning to make for ages (and ages, like around 3 years now) is a picnic blanket. In theory, it’s one of those things that I won’t need all that often. But when you need one, and don’t have one, it’s a bit of an annoyance.

Finally, I corrected this lack! I am now the proud owner of one picnic blanket. And not just any picnic blanket – one I made from tea towels and a single bed sheet. Yes indeed. Here ’tis:

Ain’t it purty? I spent a while deciding which tea towels to use on it. (Yes, I raided my tea towel drawer. I briefly contemplated going and buying some tea towels, then remembered I have far more than I need so sacrificed some of them to the picnic blanket cause.) (I did need to go and buy a single sheet to use on the back though, for the princely sum of $3 from the second hand shop on the corner.)

I’m really pleased with how this turned out – I like how it looks, it’s nicely functional (I added pockets to the corners on the underneath so we can put stones or the link in them to weigh the corners down on windy days. Which is pretty much every day around these parts), and it’s super easy to wash and dry. Win all round!

It’s already had a couple of outings in the half-a-week since I finished it, which is far more than I was expecting. It’s turning into one of those things that you don’t think you have much need for, then when you get one, you use it all the time. Funny how that happens sometimes.

It’s also the perfect size for our tiny little front garden. Which makes it perfect for hanging out in on warm summer evenings with a baby. (Please ‘scuse the state of that lawn – it’s horrendous. I must admit that I have done virtually no gardening for about a year now, and it shows. Pregnancy, baby, well, you get the picture. *sigh* Just as well we now have a picnic blanket to cover it with, isn’t it?!)

And here’s my Pieces of Us project contribution for this make – I’m please to introduce you to Peter.

Yes, he’s a rabbit. Peter rabbit. I couldn’t resist the name, cheesy though it may be.