Les Petits Anglais

How to lose 40lbs in a year

2012-01-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

My New Year's Resolutions last year were to stop biting my nails, to be less shouty with the children and to lose 3 stone (aka 42lbs). Well, my nails are still bitten to the quick but I did manage to shout less (not congratulating myself too much there - having both children in full-time education helped enormously) and, as you may have guessed from the spoiler in the title, I lost 40lbs. Not quite the 42lbs I'd aimed for but it still translates as 4 dress sizes, which is really quite significant. ("Really quite significant" is of course hugely underplaying the pride I feel in this achievement. A more realistic description would be "yyyaaaayyyyyyyyy!!!!! I'm slim! slim, I tell you!)

This weight-loss has not gone unnoticed by friends, family, or anybody who knows me. And do you know what is the thing I am asked most often? It is "Have you been trying to lose weight or...erm...?" The alternative to 'trying' is never vocalised and at first I thought people might be wondering if I had lost loads of weight through some kind of illness, but since they invariably then say "you look so well!" this was clearly not the case. And I finally realised that they are hoping I am going to tell them that weight loss is actually terribly easy once you know the magic secret. So I do tell them the magic secret: hunger + sweat = weight loss. And their faces always drop.

Because the truth is that losing weight is, in fact, really quite hard. The theory is simple enough - you eat less, you move more, you lose weight. Back in March 2011, I tried moving more when I started running (using the Couch Potato to 5k programme - highly recommended by the way). I could see my body changing but I wasn't losing weight. So I moved a lot more - I did hooping, cardio tennis, ballroom dancing. All great fun but the scales still didn't budge.

The penny was starting to drop so I added in some eating less - you know the kind of thing: cutting out sugary snacks; eating less fat; yada, yada. My portions remained the same and .... you've guessed it!... the scales didn't budge. So I eventually joined Weightwatchers and the scales finally started to oblige.

Don't believe the Weightwatchers advertising puff. Believe me, if you do Weightwatchers, you will know that you are on a diet. For the first 4 months I was hungry for 19 hours every day. Truly. But eventually, I got used to eating so much less, and now only feel hungry at the normal times. And I have only 7lbs left to go to reach my ultimate dreams-come-true target.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that losing a lot of weight is a serious commitment to make. It's especially hard to do when you have small children because it involves making time for yourself. This is not trivial. You have to be selfish - even a 30 minute run never takes only half an hour. If you don't want injuries, you have to warm up and cool down. The time all adds up and we all know that mothers of young children do not have time to spare. And this is where I do have a magic solution to offer.... and that is Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred! (NAYY)

This is a flipping brilliant DVD for the reluctant or time-starved exerciser. It takes just under 30 minutes to do, including stretching, and as long as you take the DVD out of the sleeve, put it in the DVD player, and follow Jillian's instuctions, it really will work. Or at least, it did for me. Not on its own - I like to vary my exercise regime so as to reduce boredom and injuries - but when you need a short burst of indoor exercise, Jillian's 30 minute workouts are the business.

Not least because they helped me to realise that exercise can be fun.

I know lots of mums who run. I suppose I can see why - it's free and it's effective, but by golly, it's dull. I never really took to it. The good news is that there are lots of other forms of exercise that are nearly free and much more exciting. For example, I do taekwon-do with James, so we get some family time while working out. It also helps his coordination and confidence so we all win. Zumba is great fun and very social and not hugely expensive either. Ballroom dancing won't get me thin, but it's fun to do so, why not? My husband has lost 3 1/2 stone using a stationary bike. Now THAT is dull, but it's working for him and I think that's the key. Find something(s) that work for you and suddenly, exercise becomes to fun part of losing weight and keeping it off.

So there you go... how to lose 40lbs in a year! But what would any gloating weight-loss post be without the before and after photos? Truth to tell, I don't have many before photos. When I was fat, I hated having my photo taken. By December 2010, I tipped the scale at 'obese' and I wasn't queuing up to have pictures taken of that. But Nigel snuck one in....This is from our summer holiday 2010. As you can see, I'm not slim. But I still managed to add another 8 or 9lbs before Christmas 2010.

Christmas Eve 2010. That's actually a fairly flattering picture by the way - thanks Nigel!

And now for the after. Again, I'm not so photogenic that I like having my picture taken, but in the interests of inspiring other mummies, here goes....
As you can see, still a bit of a way to go - 7lbs to be precise - but I now feel as though I can eat cake in public without people tutting at me (yes my slim friends, people - even some fairly rotund people - do audibly tut when they see fat people eating cake in public. It is not helpful.)
And I finish with a different kind of 'before' and 'after'. The above photograph is of a coat I made in winter 2009/10. It was a fab coat - swingy and flattering, from the Ottobre Salma pattern, and it fit me beautifully and got loads of compliments. It was also size 18 to 22. I hated it. I could now fit two of me in it. So out of the 3 or so metres of fabric, I made this beautiful formal coat for Laura. It's also an Ottobre pattern. Now this coat, I unreservedly love!

Credits Thank you to Maria who dragged me to cardio-tennis in January 2011, thereby making me realise that I was quite frighteningly unfit, to the guy who developed the C25K programme, to Jillian Michaels and Weightwatchers and all those people who complimented me over my hungry journey for the last year. Especially thanks to my darling supportive husband. I couldn't have done this without you. Mwah! Mwah!

Birthday overload (dodgy photo overload, too)

2011-07-01T12:58:00.001-07:00

If you are thinking to yourself "well blow me! Kathryn Driffield's done a new blog post. I thought she was dead!" then I don't blame you. As you can see, I'm not dead, but I have been manically busy. Up to my eyes in birthdays, sewing orders, face painting, summer fetes, and other fun but somewhat draining activities. No time for blogging (though I have rediscovered Twitter and am now a proper fan).

Anyway, dealing with the procrastination sewing first.... a skirt for me. I have since Christmas been exercising hard and dieting reluctantly. With the result that I urgently need some summer skirts that actully fit and have pockets for my phone. When I'm a size 10 I am going to treat myself to a Desigual skirt but since I am still two sizes away I ran up a Desigual knock-off. It's kind of hard to achieve that edgy Desigual look when you mostly have kids' prints in the stash, but I gave it my best shot....
It's comfy, it fits, and it has pockets. Result!

Then onto Laura's pressing need for summer skirt & leggings combos. These are intended for wear at Hatton Country World and other places where protection from fast slides and grazed knees is required. I ran up 4 sets over the course of a day - it's an Ottobre pattern and has pretty much gone viral in the sewing for girls community. I love it!

And now for the birthday sewing... James turned 6 last week and here's his new jacket. Ottobre strikes again! It's in an outdoor wear fabric that was very cheap at Fabricland in Bristol. It was an absolute swine to sew, so I bitterly regretted choosing a pattern that featured welt pockets. It's not my best work, but it's the best I could do and James really likes it.

Though not as much as he likes his new shorts. Also an Ottobre pattern and huge fun to make.

Then came a crochet aquarium for my father-in-law on father's day. Trouble-free fish! He saw the funny side.

Laura's birthday is the last on the list. Believe me, the four weeks from June 9 to July 8 is tough going in this house - five birthdays, one after the other, with Father's Day thrown in just to make life interesting. I hardly have time to catch my breath! But Laura's is the last birthday where I feel the compulsion to sew. This is her birthday jacket. It's an Ottobre pattern (no? really?), which should have been made up in wool but which I did in fleece. Laura does actually need a fleece jacket and I was getting tired of hearing about her best friend's coat which is pink with flowers, so I embellished the fleece with heart pockets and some flowers. And pom-pom trim just for fun.

It even comes with a zip-up hood. She will simply love it!

I'm not so sure about her dress, and I think she'll be a bit 'meh' too. She really wanted something twirly, and this combination just isn't. Also, I screwed up the collar somewhat which doesn't add to my dress-love, but I think the real problem lies in the fabric choice. Both are pretty enough but lack drape, so they somehow don't flow. I suspect the pinafore will get a lot more wear than the dress, especially once I've added the strawberry buttons.

I felt a wee bit guilty about imposing my own dress choice on the birthday girl (I can't tell you how much she wanted a twirly dress) so I painted some faux Lelli Kellys for her. Don't get me wrong - I don't think they rival the real thing, but they cost me a mere £12.50 (and a fair amount of time). I used sequins, fabric glitter and fabric paint from stash, and hoped to keep them secret from her until Sunday. Unfortunately, she opened the box when they were half-finished, and the cat was out of the bag. She liked them then and now they're blinged up, I just know she'll love them.

Speaking of cats, she decided last week she wanted me to make her a kitten costume for her birthday. With claws on the hands. Now that's a challenge I decided not to try to rise to but watch this space for a Halloween post!

The wedding dress of the year... cut down to size (3T)

2011-05-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

You are probably now shaking your head in wonder that any 3 year could be so over-indulged. I have to tell you, I can see where you're coming from but I can justify my insanity by telling you about her most-wanted list, every item on which has been refused by me/her daddy on the various grounds of:

cost (Lelli Kellys)
parental idleness (kitten(s), puppy, rabbits)
lack of space (4 horses)
lack of age (a rainbow car, ballet lessons, a DS)
health and safety (old yogurt, cilit bang (for the benefit of international readers: a hard-core cleaning agent), candles, turning the hot tap on and off)
all of the above (mobile phone)

Some of these things she will get when she has her own money. Others she will get when she has her own house, though I hope she's not holding her breath for the 4 horses. Now I'm not losing any sleep over the rainbow car decision but I do sometimes have pangs over refusing the Lelli Kellys - other little girls in her class have them and, heaven knows, I'd have stepped over my mother to get a pair when I was three. But £50 for a pair of shoes she can't even wear to school? No way!

So when she watched, with open mouth, the Royal Wedding last week and announced that Kate Middleton's dress is much nicer than any of the dresses that mummy had made for her, I decided to really indulge her. It's a dressing up dress, complete with stretch lace overlay, 3/4 sleees, small train and long veil. It isn't quite full-length - something that has not gone unnoticed by Laura! - so she can even scoot in it.

I say it's a dressing up dress because that's what it's meant to be. It's actually a 'going everywhere except nursery and mass' dress. We got a fair amount of attention in Ikea until I shoved her into the Smaland playzone so her brother could get the funny looks instead of me. I understand the nice childcare assistants had a lovely time playing with the veil...

And even I had to laugh when she accessorized it with raincoat and umbrella for going to the library. But we have to pick our battles in this life and you know what?, I bet the Duchess of Cambridge would love to do her shopping in her wedding dress, so I'm going to continue to let my 3-year old mini-Duchess do just that!

Notes for other over-indulgent mummies - I hacked the Farbenmix Olivia pattern for the dress body and sleeves. The train is just a pleated length of satin. The collar is a length of lace sewn onto the neckline. Or you could just buy one from my Etsy shop!

Spring sewing

2011-04-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

Has it really been over a month since the last post? Oh dear, I'm slipping! My excuse is, as it is for all bloggers, that there's not enough time in the day. The nice weather has brought shoppers to the Bentley Heath Country Market and I'm having a job keeping up with demand. This is, of course, A Good Thing.

In between orders and sales, I've been working on a posh frock line. More specifically, a line of communion dresses. It's been great fun sourcing and using beautiful silks and cottons and trying to come up with dresses that will set them off. And then of course I had to find a right-sized model to set off the dresses. My friend volunteered her daughter and we had a lovely modelling session. My two are at the "fixed smile & funny face" for camera stage, so it was so nice photographing a child who looked completely natural. And it doesn't hurt that she is also an extremely pretty girl, so even I can take good photos!

First up was the crochet dress because this was the one I was most anxious about. I kid you not, I made this dress twice - I don't think there's a stitch in it that hasn't been done and re-done at least once. But I finally got it done and made a little viscose slip for under it. To finish it, I made 5 little crochet flowers and put them on hairslides. They looked like little daisies growing in her hair and gave such a pretty organic look to the outfit. I had many a crisis of confidence about this dress while I was making it, but like all good fairytales, it had a happy ending.

Next up: the traditional dress. Well, traditional with a modern vibe, I hope!

This one has a pleated sash over a paperbag waist. I love paperbag waists but no matter how much weight I lose, I'm never going to be able to wear one (there is no diet that can turn a middle-aged apple into a young beanpole) so I'm living vicariously here. The skirt is a self-embroidered lawn, which I hand-beaded to embellish the flowers. You can't see it in the photograph and I did wonder if it was worth doing, but in real life, the little beads make all the difference. There is also a semi-detachable bow at the back. Very traditional, very charming. And since it's getting harder and harder to find all-cotton communion dresses, I'm hopeful it will find a market.

And finally, everyone's favourite: the silk and tulle dress. I found the pattern for this in a Japanese pattern book. I made up a smaller two-colour version for my daughter to test the pattern (photos to follow in another post) but found that the sizing wasn't quite right and so the dress has gone into the shop. She's gutted! I also found that I didn't like the bodice so I played around with another couple of patterns and this is the changeling that emerged.

I knocked up a tiara to match and my model loved both dress and tiara so much she didn't really want to take them off. The dress is lined with habotai silk and it feels so cool and smooth - there is nothing like a silk lining for making a dress feel just sumptuous!

All that remained was for me to actually stock the shop. I've now added an Etsy shop to my stable so I had two lots of stocking up to do, but four episodes of ER got me through the tedium of uploading photos. I'm about to start on some Farbenmix baby clothes using some gorgeous fabrics from Dots & Stripes - it will make a change to use colours again!

Useful sizing chart for children - downloadable

2011-02-17T01:47:00.000-08:00

I know that buying garments for women is a bit of a minefield, what with vanity sizing and all, but sewing garments for children from commercial patterns is no less tricky. Especially if your child is not a 'standard' size - my daughter for example is all round dinky with very short legs (alas! her mummy's genes won through there!) while my son is of average height but super-skinny.

And if you're sewing garments to sell, it's even worse! I never know how to label mine and generally end up erring on the side of caution. I recently bought a Japanese pattern book and want to make a Communion dress from it for the shop but I wasn't sure what size to go for. So... I put together a sizing comparison chart. It might look like a procrastination task but it's actually been very useful. I shall be passing it onto my sewing pupils and thought that you might find it handy too. So here's the link - Sizing Comparison Chart. Now you may wonder why I haven't just included it in the blog post - the answer is I created it as a Word document and can't just paste it into the blog. So I resaved it as a PDF and posted it on Google Docs instead - that way everyone can download and print it, no matter what version of Word they may be running. And it also means that I can never lose it... yes, there really is no such thing as altruism!

The Klimt party dress and reinventing the wheel

2011-01-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

For some time I've been thinking about doing a garment inspired by Klimt's The Kiss. The trouble was, how to recreate those beautiful patterns he used. I dithered over using fabric paints but decided (I think correctly) that I'd just run out of talent. And then I realised that the beautiful little symbolic flowers he used so often could be rendered in crochet motifs. So I started hooking..

Twenty motifs in, and during a brief vacation from the virus that's been dogging me since early December, I started thinking about joining them. I had an idea that I could do it in a laissez-faire free-form way to build them up into a bodice. I used Ottobre's sundress pattern from 02/2002 as the block for the bodice. Once I'd twigged that the easiest way to shape the fabric as I was building it was to pin it to the bodice lining, it worked out great.

I kept to the Ottobre pattern for the back - I love that lace up detail. This is a dress that will fit Laura for quite some time!

Now this post was going to be along the lines of 'ta-dah! look at my wonderful new invention: FREE-FORM CROCHET!!!! And then I googled free-form crochet (kind of patent checking, you know?) and discovered that it's actually been around since the 1970s when it was invented by James Walters and Sylvia Cosh. Go figure! Those gits even stole my name for it!!!

Stolen glory aside, here is the finished dress in all its yellowness. It's actually much more yellow in real life (no, honestly, it really is.)

I'm already planning the next - maybe a nod to Monet? If I'm going to skank from fine art, I might as well skank from the best....

Two useful pieces of information...

2011-01-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

Number 1: Nicole over at Dots & Stripes is having a sale on her Autumn/Winter fabrics. Obviously I have already done my shopping... do you really think that I'd post this if I hadn't???

Number 2: If you subscribe to the Fashion Incubator you will already have heard that there is an Italian pattern-cutting book free for download over on the Library of Congress download site. If not, then here is the link: Il Modellissimo Sartoriale. Fear not: the book is in Italian and English and looks pretty good. And if you don't already subscribe to the Fashion Incubator, then I really recommend that you do so. Kathleen Fasanella knows an unbelievable amount about garment making and shares her knowledge most unselfishly.

Here's to a kinder 2011...

2010-12-31T11:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a ho-hum kind of year... Between sickness & bereavement, I can't say I'm sorry to see the back of 2010. My father-in-law has the right idea - we shut the door on 2010 and face 2011 without fear. He's a sensible man.

So, although I'm not a New Year Resolutions kind of person, we made some resolutions over tea tonight:

Laura - I lobbied hard for her 'using her manners' but she went for 'being nicer to James.' And stopping biting her nails. Sometimes I'm not sure she's only three, you know...

James will 'stop being mean to Laura'. No arguments there!

Nigel will go to bed earlier so he will have more patience the next day.

Me - I will be less shouty (I wish I'd videoed James as he nodded wisely at this one). Oh, and to also stop biting my nails. Laura and I are going to do it together, and as our treat at the end of each gnaw-free day, we will rub a little riotously expensive Neals Yard Remedies nail-cream into our formerly ill-treated digits.

I also need to lose about 3 stone (aka 42lbs) but didn't mention this to the children - they have very healthy attitudes to food and I don't want to give them any mixed messages. I am, however, mentioning it to you to give you a taster of the very dull 'loss/gain' posts that I'll be spewing out in 2011. You may want to switch off your sets now...

But before you do, I wish you all a healthy, peaceful and, above all, kind new year.

Pattern-drafting & scrap-busting

2010-12-13T11:04:00.000-08:00

Farbenmix afficionados will immediately recognise this t-shirt as the Antonia pattern, which I've had in my collection for ages but only got round to using last month when I realised Laura was in urgent need of long-sleeve tees. It is now officially my favourite t-shirt pattern and great for scrap-busting. The neckline runs a little wide which means that you don't need to use ribbing to bind it - always an advantage for UK fabric buyers!

But for the ultimate in scrap-busting, you can't beat dolls clothes! I have a very large box overflowing with tiny pieces of fabric that I just can't bear to bin. On the other hand, my sewing room only has so much space. So I put LiEr's drafting series to work again - it's gratifying to know that it works just as well for 16" dolls as 3 year old girls! At some stage, when I have a bit of free time (so not before 2011!) I'll post my drafted block as a printable pattern.

A few tweaks of the basic body block produced this little blouse...

and a very sweet velour dress that has already found a buyer, despite being made up of different dye lots.

But this is my favourite outfit - a teeny tiny Antonia top and embellished bootlegs. Too cute and another quick sale!

And I'm starting to think if a scrap of fabric is too small even to make a doll's sleeve then the chances are it shouldn't be in the scrap box. What about you? How small does a scrap have to be for you to consign it to the bin?

LiEr made me do it

2010-11-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

OK, so perhaps that's overstating the case somewhat. She didn't actually stand over me and whip me into submission, but what else would you call it when someone does a drafting series that enables you to take a dress out of your head and put it on your daughter?

I mean - what seamstress in her right mind doesn't want their three year old to fling up her hands and say 'let me eat cake!' ?

I have, for some time, itched to learn how to draft a sloper for a child. Winifred Aldrich's excellent book set me on the road but she just tells you what to do and not why. LiEr's series didn't so much fill in the gaps as become a replacement resource. I used it to draft a very snug block and this Patterns of Fashion book helped me to do the rest. I didn't get the fit of the block 100% perfect - the shoulders are just a smidge too wide and I'll have to re-do the block once Laura has got over the trauma of my taking a full set of her measurements.

I think the back came out particularly well. The fit is so snug I was actually quite surprised she could lift up her arms!

Oddly enough, it was the underskirt that gave me the most trouble. But faults aside, I'm thrilled with my first attempt at a posh frock from scratch and I think Laura is too. Now I just need to find her somewhere to wear it...

How to make a mermaid's tail

2010-10-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

I defy anyone to come up with a more daunting request for a costume than: "I want to be a mermaid, mummy!" I Even a novice can see that the challenge lies in making a mermaid's tail that won't send the mermaid to casualty once she starts to run in it.

For once, Google was less than helpful so I had a bit of a doodle and came up with this.

It's a less than spectacular drawing but you get the gist. And this is how it translated into fabric.

Requirements: 1.5 metres of hologram satin or medium weight vaguely fishy fabric

1 metre of satin lining for the fins

1 metre of lame/organza for the fins

1/2 metre of nylon chiffon for the seaweedy trim

1/4 metre of ribbing for a comfortable waistband

1/4" elastic. - about 50cm.

Waistband elastic - as much as you need to fit

1. Take your mermaid's measurements - waist, waist-to-floor and waist-to-knee. On a very large sheet of paper, draw a rectangle where the width = the waist measurement divided by 2, and the length is the waist-to-floor measurement minus the width of the ribbing.

2. Draw another line a few centimetres outside the right-hand length line and attach it at the top to the waist line with a sharp curve. The picture explains this better. The outside line is the side-seam and the curve makes a nice fishy shape once it's sewn. Put in the fold lines on the left-hand line and you have the back panel of the skirt. Cut it out and trace around it onto another sheet of paper.

3. For the front panel mark the waist-to-knee measurement on the fold line. A couple of centimetres down from this mark, do a curved line to join the fold line to the bottom of the side-seam. This forms the scoop of the skirt.

4. Fold the fashion fabric in half along the grain and cut out 2 x back, adding seam allowances as you cut. If your fabric is inclined to fray then do good wide seam allowances so that your stitching will be last longer. Then put the front pattern over one of the (still folded) back pieces and cut out along the scoop line (no need to add seam allowance). Keep the scooped out fabric piece for use later.

5. To make the fins you need to cut out a rectangle of satin lining about 50cm long and the same width as the bottom of the back, seam allowances inclusive. Then cut diagonally across the rectangle like in the picture.

Do the same with the fin fabric and put them and the lining pieces to one side.

6. It's now time to start sewing. First construct the fins. If you are using the kind of nylon/poyester organza that I used, you will need to stabilise it by sewing each fin to its respective lining. Believe me this will make things a lot easier for you when you come to join them all up. Just place the fin fabric face up on the top of the lining, pin them together and do a row of stitching just outside the seam line along the four sides. Do the same for all four of the fins. Then put two fins together RS to RS and stitch them together as normal, leaving the top straight edge unsewn. This is the side you will be attaching to the bottom of the tail. Turn the fins the right side out and do the best job of pressing them you can, given how horrible the fabric is. Top stitch to help them hold their shape.

7. To attach the fins: Finish the curved edge of the piece you scooped out from the front. Sew the fins to the WS of the bottom of the back, with the fins pointing up towards the waist. Press seam allowances towards the waist. Using a 3-step zig-zag sew the 1/4" elastic along that seam allowance, pulling the elastic to its utmost as you sew. This will gather the fins. The easiest way to attach the scoop is to fold over the bottom edge to make a hem. Press in place and then sew it in place over the elastic with a zig-zag stitch, pulling the elastic & fins taut as you sew. Top-stitch the scoop in place along the curve.

8. Hem the front of the skirt. I did it with a narrow rolled hem. Sew the side seams RS together. My fishy fabric frayed like mad so I overlocked the seams first and then seamed them again a good centimetre in from the edge.

9. If you are going to do drapey seaweed, cut four spirals from the nylon chiffon. Cut a circle about 20cm across (I eyeballed it with a rotary cutter). Then cut into the circle in a spiral shape - it dosn't have to be absolutely perfect. Stitch them in place along the top.

10. Attaching the waistband. Decide how deep you want the waistband - it's better if the ribbing casing is just slightly wider than the elastic. Cut the ribbing to (2 x desired depth) plus (2 x seam allowance). If the ribbing isn't tubular, seam it into a tube. Gather the waist to fit. Attach the band to the waist RS together with a zig-zag stitch. Fold ribbing to inside and press. Top-stitch in place catching both layers of rib, leaving a gap to insert the elastic. Push the elastic through with a safety-pin and sew ends together. Sew up the gap. You're done!

I attached a D-ring between the fins so that Laura can carry the tail on a bangle for when she's outside.

For the top I used Ottobre's Floral Top pattern #7 from 02/05. I lengthened it, added a chiffon ruffle and elasticated the back. It's cute and age-appropriate.

If you find this tutorial useful, please consider giving a donation to MacMillan nurses.

In memory of Aileen Driffield, who loved seeing Laura in her 'too many dresses' but missed this one

Two new ventures and the new collection

2010-09-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

First new venture: I'm taking Les Petits Anglais out into the real world, aka Bentley Heath Country Market.

This is both exciting and scary. While it's great spending Friday mornings with people who don't expect me to discus the finer points of Dora the Explorer or follow me into the loo, the responsiblity of producing garments that people can feel and touch and criticise in front of me is weighing pretty heavy on me. Every time I see someone taking one of my garments off the rail I'm sure they're examining it for flaws and will denounce me to the market manager.
I have to keep reminding myself that I can sew, my stuff is nice and people have bought it before and seemed to like it.

And finally I remember that all this agonising is entirely moot since people rarely go to Country Markets to squander £28 on a dress for a child.

For what it's worth, the feedback I had today was entirely complimentary and I might actually convert compliments into sales soon.

Though I say it as shouldn't, I really do love this new collection and I'm only sorry I don't have the time to let Laura have one of everything. I'm letting her choose just one and she went straight for this 'mingoes dress'. Its a bamboo/cotton velour Olivia dress with Juule hood. The mingoes are of course flamingoes with sequin eyes.

All of the new collection is now in my Folksy shop and I only wish I could take better photographs! The denim garments are so cute in real life and look so terrible in these pictures.

The denim pinafore is especially sweet but can I get a good picture of that round yoke? Nope, not so much!

Even the peacock doesn't come out well. I think it's probably time I started looking out for a photography course.

Speaking of courses, this brings me onto my second venture: teaching two people how to sew. My first pupil is a complete novice but she has now made a skirt for her daughter and sewn a button on her husband's shirt. She's hugely enthusiastic (well, not so much about sewing on buttons, and who could blame her?) and is doing well. My other pupil has some sewing experience but her foot-wide perfectionist streak prevents her from setting a stitch in case she does it wrong. Our target is to get her to complete one of her 4 UFOs, and she is very nearly there. I'm proud of them both!

Back to School Sewing, UK-style. Do not adjust your sets!

2010-09-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

In theory, I love school uniform. It looks smart, it's non-divisive, and it cuts out a lot of pre-breakfast argumentation. On the other hand, the only fabric UK school uniform comes in this year is poly-viscose. It looks great, it's easy to care for and it feels soooooo yucky to touch.

So over the last two weeks I have made 5 pairs of grey cotton moleskin trousers complete with pockets and fly fronts. The belt loops fell by the wayside for the last 3 pairs though. I tested a couple of Ottobre patterns before settling on the slim-fit version to which I added back-darts because we don't call James 'Bitzer Moloney' for nothing!

Naturally, the sun was splitting the stones at the start of term and there was just one pair of grey shorts in the house, which were left over from last year. They were a bit tight but did him for a day until I knocked up a pair that actually fit.

Laura's uniform consists of a royal blue sweatshirt and black or blue jogging bottoms. I had every intention of buying these but was foiled by the complete dearth of age 2 joggers. So, out with the Ottobre magazines again. I've done 4 black pairs and have a pair of royal blue ones cut out, just to vary the monotony. There was no finessing on these, I can tell you! Only two pairs have pockets and not one pair is beautiful.

I have now officially had enough of dull sewing and am looking forward to the next couple of projects in which black and grey will definitely not be featuring.

Unclean! Unclean!

2010-08-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

North Devon is a great place to holiday with children. It rains a fair bit but at least there are plenty of wet day activities. There are lots of slightly old-fashioned towns to potter around, and the beaches are just brilliant.

The highlights:

Watermouth Castle near Ilfracombe. Be warned: this is not your usual theme park. Cool 11 year olds will find it all a bit cheesy and embarrassing, but my two were thrilled by, inter alia, the crazy golf, the water show and the Archimedes Screw.

Isn't this just amazing? 15 minutes of lights and water - it was better than Coronation Street!

Diggers! Diggerland in Devon was pricey but worth every single penny. It was such serious fun for James that he couldn't even smile.

There were real diggers to be driven and real earth to be moved. If you have a digger-mad child or husband, then this place is well worth a special trip. Marvellous ....

Blue bubble gum ice cream. This stuff doesn't come out of clothes and is even inclined to stain the skin. You heard it here first, folks.

We returned with several pounds of weight gain, some rather nice hand-painted ceramics,

and... chicken pox. Laura is spotty and we are pariahs. Any other time of year and parents of small children would be beating a path to our door, getting the lurgy out of the way. But school starts in two weeks and who wants their child to miss those exciting first days? So... I'm ringing the handbell, calling out'unclean!' and hunkering down for a lengthy course of cabin fever.

Incidentally, the shop is open again with a range of knit dresses that probably should have been listed in March! Anyway, in between cuddling Bottomley Potts on the sofa, I'm doing some drafting ready for a Christmas collection, including a posh baby dress. Which on my current form, will probably be in the shop for Valentine's Day....

Making a dragon pinata

2010-07-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

What is a knight without a dragon to vanquish? Just a dude with a sword... So I had a hunt online for a dragon pinata and found one for sale that was a) empty b) £12 and c) out of stock anyway. But thanks to this lovely tutorial, I saved my £12 for buying chocolate coins to fill the dragon, and set about making my own.

I made the papier mache glue by cooking 3/4 cup of flour with 3 cups of water and a handful of salt (supposedly this inhibits mould. It didn't get a proper test so I can't verify that.) I used a paper towel tube for the head and some rolled up paper for the tail and lots and lots of masking tape to attach the head and tail to the balloon. Then I applied the strips of newspaper to the balloon using lots of the paste. The first layer took nearly two days to dry despite the weather being very hot. The second layer dried much quicker. Or so I thought! I only did two layers of papier mache because I wanted the children to have a fighting chance of getting to the sweets.

The jury was out whether it looked more like a swan or a dinosaur (votes were cast for both a diplodocus and a brontosaurus, which split the dino vote).

The children and I filled him with several hundred chocolate coins, and then painted him. The jury conceded that he was looking a bit more like a dragon, particularly when his lovely rotund torso collapsed in on itself. I panicked and used the hairdryer to speed up the drying process before it dawned on me that hot air and chocolate coins were probably not a great match. So I let nature take its course...

I cut up cardboard for the dragony paraphrenalia and stuck it on with double-sided sticky pads. It is now indisputably a dragon!

I'd love to post pics of the dragon hanging from the swing ready to be whacked (he looked pretty impressive, I can tell you!) and of the children lining up in age order to whack him. And action shots of the two year olds viciously wielding the stick just to tickle his tummy would have been very sweet. Unfortunately I was too busy shrieking with laughter to operate the camera, especially when the mummies started beating him about the head. A lot of pent up emotions were released that evening and it was everyone's favourite part of the party. Even the little girl who came dressed up as a dragon cancelled her subscription to Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Dragons that day and beat him up with the best of them! Pinatas rock!

Birthdays!!!!!

2010-07-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a very busy month. We've had four birthdays, two parties (still trying to work out how that happened), 8 cakes and a lot of sewing. It's a relief to be able to sit down and go through the photos. And here are the highlights..

James' birthday outfit donned for the school fete. The children are bickering over who should drive the fire engine.

James won the argument but let Laura have a go a bit later. You can just catch a glimpse of Laura in Patty Young! I couldn't resist making up just one dress...

A closer view of the dress, still at the fete.

Ottobre's London polo shirt, complete with an appliqued 5. Just in case any of use could forget that James is now 5.

The first party: James' circus party, shared with his best friend. We had Conk the Clown entertain the children and I can't recommend him highly enough. Laura wore her Chasing Fireflies dress, complete with de-wonked hem and insipid pink ribbon. James eschewed the carefully made birthday outfit in favour of last year's stripey shorts and supermarket t-shirt. Pick your battles, folks, pick your battles.

Laura's princess outfit. It started out life as a blouse and pettiskirt but Laura wears her skirts so low, the bottom of the blouse came nowhere near the top of the skirt. So I added a skirt to the blouse and it looks a good deal less like a weather girl's idea of what Cinderella migh wear.

A better view of the Chasing Fireflies dress. I also made the back loops shorter so that it doesn't gape.

We had a Princess & Knights party for Laura. The children could build a sugar-cube castle,

climb around a cardboard castle,

have tea in Ye Olde Tea Tente,

and generally have an absolutely brilliant time. I also made a dragon pinata, which was hugely popular. I'll post pictures in the next post.

Tag!

2010-06-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

A few week ago, Judy from Everything Just Sew tagged me in a kind of questions and answers game. Three birthdays intervened so I'm only now able to take time out of the sewing room to play along!

Onto the questions:

1. Which pattern/vintage style have you been thinking about lately?
I'm half looking for patterns for tops for me! Yes, you read that right... I'm going to be doing some selfish sewing. There's some Michael Miller knits coming over the Atlantic right now, and while most of it is earmarked for the shop, I'd like a couple of hotchpotch tops. Otherwise, I've been doing fancy dress costumes for the children - photos to follow!

2. What's the one place you want to visit that you've never been to before.
Rome. And Florence. And Venice. In fact, I'd like to spend a good month in Italy in springtime, just touring around with my DH. And the first year the children whine 'do we have to?' when we are discussing holidays, that's just what we'll do!

3. How do you relax?
I sew. Has anybody else doing this quiz given a different answer? Actually, I also watch Coronation Street, which is on absolutely sparkling form at the moment - when it gets some airspace around the World Cup of course!

4. What is your favourite holiday.
For our first wedding anniversary, Nigel and I went to Prague. It was December and the city looked like Christmas card land. It was just wonderful. I understand Prague has now been invaded by lap dancing clubs, which seems to me a desecration too awful to be true. I doubt we'll ever go back.

5. What is one sewing skill you want to learn/try out?
I want to be able to pattern draft properly. Some day, when I have more time, I'll take a proper course. Learning from books and the internet is great but I can only do it in project chunks so I never seem to get a good overview. I'd like to learn the whys as well as the maths - perhaps do a suit from scratch. Or, since I never wear suits, some jeans and a top that actually fits. Bliss!

6. Can you knit/crochet? Other crafting talents?
I'm a slow but good knitter, and a less good crocheter. I always have a portable project in my bag - at the moment it's a tanktop for James for his birthday. Which was on Thursday, so that ship's sailed but James doesn't care and anyway, it's a bit warm for tanktops here right now. On holiday, when I'm deprived of my sewing machines, I start my Christmas sock knitting. I love doing socks because you can really go to town on the patterns without feeling as though you've signed up to doing the same item for the next 6 months.

7. What garment/accessory do you wear the most?
Jeans, t-shirt and cardigan. If it's very hot, I leave off the cardigan. How boring is that?

8a. How much time do you spend reading blogs?
It varies but definitely a good few hours a week. I squeeze it in while watching television. I find if I'm doing something with my hands, I'm less likely to eat. Well, that's the theory...

8b. Your motto/mantra
If it's cut out on the grain, it can always be fixed. And 'don't come in here - the iron's on!'

Now, who to tag? I suspect most people have been done. But I love The Joy of Japanese Sewing and envy Marie and Alison their book collections. Michal from Noni and Looli makes gorgeous children's clothes - I love everything she makes. Millie from Needles & Haystacks combines farming with sewing and that, I think, is an unusual mix in this urbanized day and age. Little Fish Creations is a new discovery of mine so I'd love to find out more about Claire. And Ivey at IveyC95 makes the most adorable clothes - her sewing is impeccable.

Tomorrow we have James' birthday party and next week it's Laura's birthday, so the next post will be heavy on photos. I've made Laura a fairytale princess outfit that inadvertently screams '70's game show host' so I'm guessing she's going to absolutely love it.

The Psychedelic Raincoat

2010-06-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

Pure Carnaby Street, don't you think? I'm not sure what the designer was on when s/he came up with these wavy stripes, but it was clearly powerful stuff.

I have a fairly significant stash of PUL (both solids & prints) left over from my nappying days. They were originally bought to make nappy wraps (aka nappy covers) but Laura's nappy rash precluded the use of any kind of plastic wrap. I had been wondering for a while if PUL would make a raincoat and decided, in the continuing absence of my overlocker, to give it a try.

I wouldn't say that it's the drapiest raincoat you'll ever find but by golly, you'd go far to find a brighter one! I lined it with spotty poplin, also from the stash, and you can see Laura coming from quite some way away. This, I think, is a good thing.

The pattern is Ottobre's #11 reversible coat from 01/05. It is, as you would expect, a really nice little pattern which went together beautifully. I love the retro A-line cut! It is indeed reversible, though I don't think the spotty lining will ever see the light of day.

It hasn't been tested out in the rain yet and I will update this post if it turns out to be anything less than showerproof. But if all goes well, I have enough fabric for raincoats for the next 5 years, which is a thought to keep me warm on even the dampest day.

A tribute to knit dresses

2010-06-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned this before but boy, do I love a knit dress. Not for myself or the boys, of course, but for Laura. And who would blame me? They're an all-in-one outfit (great for husbands who occasionally have a problem understanding that cerise trousers may not go with a candy pink top), they can be folded up small to fit into a handbag (a boon during potty-training). They require hardly any ironing, which is always a plus but especially on holiday. They're cool in the summer, cosy in the winter, and they're very very cute. And you can make them - really quite quickly if you're unfussy about finishing seams - without an overlocker. This is quite important to me at the moment because mine is in the shop. Again. But enough of such misery - let's talk knits.

At some stage I'll post a picture of the second knit Harebell I did. In the meantime, this is a dress I put together using the Farbenmix Zoe pattern as a starting point. I added a hood (from Olivia) and attached a circle skirt to the dropped waist. I see a lot of these knit dropped waist dresses around, and I always think 'why skimp on the skirt?' So I didn't. And you should see this baby twirl!

Laura loves butterflies so I appliqued one to the front. It gives the dress something of an air of 'look at all the stuff I can do!' but I was making it for a not-quite 3 year old so I reckon the fashion police will let me off with a caution.

The skirt of this Ottobre dress is definitely on the skimpy side. I used an adult t-shirt to make it - it was £1.50 in Sainsbury's and I loved the fabric so I happily threw it in the trolley only to discover that it was so badly cut as to be unwearable. There was a fair amount of fabric which I thought would transform nicely into the Ottobre knit dress.

I was ambivalent about this pattern; it's another that I felt I ought to like but didn't quite. I was convinced to give it a go by the gorgeous versions created by Tiny from Tiny's Kitchen Table, but I'm not so in love with my own version to try making another. But it's a pattern crossed off the list and it was, until I introduced her to butterflies and circle skirts, Laura's favourite everyday dress.

Now this dress I am not remotely ambivalent about. I love it. The pattern started out life as a woven peasant top, then became a woven dress, and then I did some slashing & spreading and general hacking about, and it became this Gored Peasant Dress. If I put it in the shop I'll try and think of a better name for it! It's a little more sophisticated than my usual fare and I'm not sure if that's entirely down to the fabric. I'll have a better idea once the Patty Young knits arrive and I can try out all these patterns in those gorgeous fabrics. Until then, I have shelves of knits to clear and birthday outfits to make for my boy so I'm hoping that the overlocker comes home soon.

Ottobre chases fireflies

2010-05-29T23:16:00.000-07:00

Those of you with small girl children will probably have heard of a rather beautiful boutique called Chasing Fireflies. It bills itself as "A magical array of keepsake-quality kid's clothing" and if you replace 'kid's' with 'girl's', then they're not wrong. Mothers of boys may find their offerings somewhat less spectacular, as is so often the way.

Anyway, during my hunt for Laura's 3rd birthday dress, I came across the Fairytale Chiffon Dress on the Chasing Fireflies site.

Isn't it just divine? Of course, at $198 (plus shipping and duties) it would want to be. So if, like me, you'd rather spend your pennies on other things, Ottobre has the answer. (Is there a question to which it hasn't? you may ask, and I would say, probably not.)

I was somewhat underwhelmed by this pattern when I first saw it. I always felt that I ought to like it more than I did and couldn't see where it was missing the bus. When I compared the two dresses I realised that the Ottobre problem lay in the dress's proportions. I find that Ottobre dresses tend to run wide and this one doesn't have the length to make up for that, so it has just a hint of squatness about it. The line drawing illustrates this nicely.

But in its essentials, it is a great pattern for hacking out a Fairytale Chiffon Dress.

My modifications:

grade it down to a size 92 (even though I swore I wasn't going to do this again because I have a large pile of 'biggest-size-is-92' patterns to make 'some day' and since Laura is now definitely a 92, it appears that 'some day' is now here);

lengthen the overskirt and add more width to take account of the filmier fabric;

shorten the sleeves to elbow-length and add flounces;

replace the front flounces with ruffles;

deepen, widen and square off the neckline; and

replace the zip with loops and buttons

So pretty straightforward really. And best of all, given my current stash-busting mission, the only new purchase was the tulle - which I got on Ebay for £3.20, incl. postage. In fact, the entire dress cost me less than £14, which made me wonder how Chasing Fireflies were getting away with charging nearly $200. And then I made the dress.

Folks, if you are the proud possessor of a Fairytale Chiffon dress and are now grinding your teeth at the thought of all those squandered dollars, grind no longer. This dress is seriously labour-intensive. Have you ever tried ruffling silk chiffon? Forget about the ruffler foot - it just makes nasty holes in the fabric. It needs to be hand ruffled. The overskirt also needs to be French seamed and hand-gathered. In fact, there was quite a lot hand-sewing involved in making this dress, including a hand-rolled hem on the overskirt's ruffling. Fortunately I like hand-sewing and I can honestly say that I enjoyed every one of the 17 hours I spent on the dress, but I now realise that $198 is actually a very good price for it. Once you've deducted materials, the cost equates to about $10 an hour - not much more than the UK's minimum wage.

(Glass buttons from MIL's stash, loops made from mercerised cotton from mother's stash,ribbon also from mother's stash which was actually destashed to her by a woman whose daughter worked in a ribbon factory back in the days when Coventry was awash with manufacturing companies.)

And it was 17 hours very well spent, I would say. I love its dreamy charm, and Laura likes it too, though probably not as much as I do. For a start she would prefer a pink ribbon and I will cave on that, even though it will mean buying one because you have to pick your battles in this life.

I will also have to take up the left hand side of the hem quite a bit and even out the sleeve lengths. They're the kind of flaws that would really bug me and I would point them out to everybody who complimented the dress, so I might as well sort them out now. And then it can go into the spare room wardrobe until the day of James' party to which Laura will no doubt decide that she wants to wear pyjamas because they are the only garments she owns that feature Peppa Pig! Maybe I should invest in a Peppa Pig ribbon, just in case... Oooh! Could this be the basis of a new Chasing Fireflies range? Tasteful character-spattered clothing - now there's a thought!

Adding sleeves to a sleeveless pattern. Not trivial!

2010-05-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

In fact, if it hadn't been for the good old internet, I doubt if I'd have managed it. However, with the help of many useful links (all of which will feature in this post), I finished my dress in time to wear it to the PTA summer ball. By way of a reminder, this is the pattern I started with:

It's a DKNY design for Vogue and I fell in love with the clean silhouette, dropped waist and on-trend pockets. I wasn't quite so keen on the neckline - lovely for the day, not so great for an evening dress. And I do not do sleeveless dresses. So I made up a muslin, tried it on Mabel, and used this pattern from Ottbre to re-cut the muslined bodice, which I then used to make the final pattern.

It was a good plan and ought to have worked. But it didn't. This is primarily because I neglected to make up a complete muslin - sleeves and all. So when I had made up the bodice in the silk, all but the sleeves, I discovered that the shoulder seams were much too wide and gave the dress a dropped shoulder look, which did not go well with the high sleeve caps on Ottobre's sleeves. So... off to the internet for some help.

I spent an entire evening wading through Google where I came across some tremendously helpful links but the first real breakthrough came with this Threads article on how to fit sleeves by ensuring that the bodice fits. I went back to Mabel and wielded my tailor's chalk to some purpose.

This doesn't deal specifically with sleeve fitting but is really useful for other fitting issues. The photographs of badly fitting garments are particularly instructive. If only I'd read it before top-stitching the seams of my dress....

This was useful, if wordy, on matching the sleeve and armhole.

Once I'd re-cut the armhole (and then the sleeve), I was able to set in the sleeve. Ottobre recommended the method of sewing two lines of basting between the notches, pulling the threads to gather to size, and pressing to shrink the fullness. I did try this, but my pre-shrunk silk wasn't cooperative. I didn't want to trim any more from the sleeve cap (heck, I wanted to be able to move my arms in the dress!) so, back to surfing...

Gorgeous Fabrics' blog provided the answer. This is an amazingly clear tutorial on setting in sleeves by simply pinning & tacking them in place. It doesn't look as though it will work, but it really does. As these pictures of the finished dress prove. The overall fit isn't great, but by golly, the sleeves are smooth.

Which just leaves the neckline. I wanted it to have some pizazz so I trawled John Lewis to see what was in style at the moment. There were a couple of dresses with pleating so I had a try at a pleated neckline. I used some organza for backing, cut some bias strips from the scraps of silk I had left, and set to work with the iron. It isn't perfect, but it looks effective.

So I would say that I learned a lot from this dress. Not least that a dress that is snug before you add the lining is going to be uncomfortably tight once you've added that extra layer of habotai silk!

(By the way, if you're looking for a UK supplier of nice quality silk at a very good price, I heartily recommend Beckford Silks. Excellent customer service, reasonable price for delivery, nice products. NAYY)

Ottobre - guitars, reggae & wailers

2010-04-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

I sometimes wonder what the sewing mothers of boys would do without Ottobre. In a landscape dominated by ruffles and pretty dresses (and regular readers will know that I have a weakness for a pretty dress myself!) stylish patterns for boys are pretty hard to find. And then you discover Ottobre and suddenly, there's almost too much choice! The most recent issue was spattered with clothes that I fairly itched to make for James. So I devoted this weekend to some serious boy-type sewing.

My recent makes have probably erred on the cute side. James is nearly 5 and my darling DH has started to query whether tab-hemmed turquoise shorts:

with co-ordinating polo shirts:

and hoody tops featuring photos of the wearer and his special bear, each sitting happily in the pockets of the helicoptor applique:

aren't just a bit too babyish for our boy. Now personally, I'd see him in such garb until he's, oh I don't know, 20? But I can't deny that he looks a lot less streetwise than most of his peers and small children can be cruel. So... time to swap cute for cool.

First up: the Guitar raglan sleeve t-shirt.

Thanks to not reading the instructions (will I NEVER learn??) I put the applique in the wrong place. But James doesn't know that, and it still looks pretty good. I love the applique but am not at all keen on the pattern. The neckline is cut very wide and, even though I replaced the cuff binding at the sleeves with a longer underlayer, I think the sleeves are a tad too short. It's wearable and James, despite no interest in music or guitars, likes it very much, thanks to some careful propaganda along the lines of 'your big cousin Joe will really like this shirt because he likes electric guitars'.

Next: the bermudas that feature in about 4 different pattern versions, the differences lying in the pocket styles. I did the Wailers, which have bellows pockets on the leg, and used some Ikea plaid cotton. I omitted the drawstring because the cotton has quite a crisp hand and I suspected it would crease at the front rather than fall into gentle gathers. I used buttonhole elastic at the back to get them to fit properly.

You will notice that the plaid matches in the pocket and across the side seams. I'm pretty proud of this and simply love the pattern! James also really likes them so I'll be churning out another couple of them for the holidays.

And finally, the Reggae jacket, which is actually a retro-style bomber jacket.

Words cannot describe how much I love this pattern. I had difficulty finding ribbon elastic and am wondering if it's a figment of the Ottobre imagination. After experimenting with ordinary 1cm elastic and FOE, I found some stretch binding in the stash and this was thin enough to do the job nicely. I'll check out where I got it from if anybody's interested.

I struggled with the pockets (this was my first time doing welt pockets and the Ottobre instructions were as sparse they often are for tricky techniques). In fact, during the two evenings I spent sewing this,I had to rip out quite a number of seams, so it's surprising how much I enjoyed doing it. When I had finished it, darling DH pointed out that it was lacking a touch of yellow (this can be a deal-breaker), so I knocked up a badge with a yellow rescue helicoptor on it, and told James that I'd made him a pilot's jacket. And James simply loves it!

Ottobre Harebell dress

2010-04-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

My darling DH finds this hard to believe, but Laura needs some new knit dresses for summer. I've given the Farbenmix Olivia pattern a good run (now that he DOES believe!) so although I could just make up some short-sleeved versions, I wanted a bit of a change. But I'm having a bit of a job finding another pattern that's different enough to make it worth purchasing it. I really like Patty Young's new Abigail pattern, but that isn't available to buy yet, so I was thrilled when I saw the Harebell dress in the new Ottobre.

Keen-eyed readers will note that this is a dress for woven fabric, minus sleeves but with an invisible zipper. It also starts in size 98, and heaven only knows when Laura will be big enough for that size!

It struck me that I could make the dress up in a knit, omit the zipper, add some sleeves, and I'd have just the dress I wanted. Being fairly realistic about my sewing skills I tried it out in some very cheap jersey that I wasn't all that keen on. I graded down a size, cut the back in one piece on the fold, and used the sleeve from the flounce sleeve t-shirt in Ottobre's 03/07 issue. I didn't bother with the edgings or back tie because this was only a muslin.

When I make the next version, I'll omit the seam allowances to reduce the wearing ease, increase the width of the sleeve head, reduce the width of the neckline, and use contrasting fabrics so that the effect of two different fabrics isn't completely lost from a distance. I'll also be including the tie-back because that's what gives the back its apron-effect. But flaws aside, I'd say that this is a very successful muslin and I've already picked out the fabrics for the next two, which will also help to reduce the stash in time for the June/July delivery of my Patty Young knits pre-order. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

V8070 review - an easy Vogue pattern. Yeah, right.

2010-04-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

In between daily hospital visits, I've been making a silk dress for my friend to wear to the PTA's May Ball. We chose Vogue's V8070, which I bought used on Ebay and which just happened to be in my friend's size rather than in my own much larger one. I also had some beautiful maroon silk in the stash, which I thought would make up beautifully into this dress. I had tried to make a silk skirt several years ago and it was a dismal failure but I've learned a lot since then so I wasn't expecting much trouble from this Easy pattern. Ha!

If only I'd actually read the back of the envelope before blithely getting out the rotary cutter. All the clues were there: lined, bias cut inset, no provision for above waist adjustment. And the Vogue instructions were less than helpful. I discovered these excellent tips on sewing bias cut fabrics on Threads. And Threads also have a wonderful video on conquering inset corners, something I only realised I needed to watch after I had sewn the lining.

Thanks to the Threads video, the inset corners on the shell came out beautifully. I only wish Threads had produced a video on how to sew an inset cut on the grain into a bias cut dres. I did it three times and there's still a bit of a ripple along the bias. So frustrating! You can't see it so much in the photo, but it's definitely there.

Now I can start on my own dress, which is also a Vogue pattern. Vogue describes it as 'Average', so heaven only knows what a mess I'll make of it! It's unlined but I'm using Vietnamese silk which has a crisp hand but is pretty lightweight, so I'll need to do a lining, and needless to say, I'm doing version B, which is not cut on the bias!

Free Pattern - Crochet bolero

2010-03-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Newsflash! I thought this was free from errors. I was wrong. Oh, so wrong! Anyway, many thanks to Peg for very nicely pointing this out to me. The pattern is now amended, the link has been altered, everything in the garden is lovely. If you have already downloaded the incorrect pattern then I am really sorry. And if you find any more errors in the new version, then feel free to beat me around the head until I agree to find some pattern testers for the next one.

This must be a record! In my last post I promised a crochet bolero pattern and, not a fortnight later, here it is - free pattern for a little girl's crochet bolero! I feel quite giddy with smuggery.

At Christmas I needed something to go over Laura's party dress(es!). There were numerous free patterns available for shrugs, but I couldn't find one for a bolero. So, being far too cheap to part with cash, I set to and created this one. I was in a hurry at the time so I used an edging from my Harmony Guide. Obviously, I can't include that one in my pattern because of copyright and all, so I've come up with a somewhat simpler one.

On the downside, this is not the most professional looking pattern you will ever see. I had to do a chart for the fronts because I got so entangled in turning chains and trebles and double crochets, and I even made a mistake in the chart. Otherwise, I think it's free from errors, and the resulting bolero is well worth wading through the pattern! It's actually a very easy bolero to make, and also easy enough to size up or down because of the small pattern repeat. American readers please bear in mind that it is written using British terminology, so read single crochet for double crochet, and double crochet for treble.

I hope you enjoy the pattern.

Thank you, Lord, for this fine day...

2010-03-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

Today, my mum walked again. OK, so she was gripping two handrails at the time, but it was so great to see her on her feet. Two weeks ago she had a stroke and we weren't sure if she'd even be able to use her left hand, never mind walk. Tonight, I am thankful, and am back blogging again. I even did a bit of sewing last week - James prayed last week that God would make granny better so that I could finish his helicoptor hoody. Don't you just love that 4 year old honesty? I did finish the hoody using the Imke pattern from the Nancy Longdon book, and will post pictures some time.

In my absence, I was surprised to see that the blog got huge amounts of traffic via DailyKnitter.com. It's funny - I consider myself to be a sewer first and knitter second, but most of my visitors arrive via my free knitting patterns. So, by way of paying forward my extreme good fortune in having a walking mother again, my next post will include a free pattern for the above crochet bolero, complete with hand-written chart!

MIA for a while

2010-03-01T23:20:00.000-08:00

Owing to a family illness, I'll be MIA for a while. I'll still be reading other people's blogs though - peering into other people's lives and crafts is a great way of losing oneself for a time. Almost like online respite care! Hope to be back blogging soon...

A sneak peek at the summer line

2010-02-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy few weeks. I've been putting together the samples for the Summer Holiday Fun collection, which is just about ready to go in the shop. It feels very odd to be sewing summer clothes when there's snow on the ground - generally, I do my holiday sewing the day before the holiday packing! I understand it's called JIT (Just in Time) Management.

As you can see, ruffles will be coming on holiday with us. On spiral skirts...

On carnival dresses...On skorts...The peasant top has so far escaped the attentions of the ruffler foot... Not sure it'll last though... But the prairie dress will remain unruffled...Though I can't say the same for the shorts... The boys' collection is, however, forever ruffle-free...

Just a few more garments to make for Pour Les Chaps and some better photographs to take (by the way, if you're reading this, God, please can you make it warm up a bit? The goose pimples are getting in the way of the shop pics) before doing some serious listing. And then I can finally turn my mind to a dress for the May Ball. Which is probably where my JIT time management philosophy will come screeching to the fore again.

Drafting an A-line pinafore - the final, final part.

2010-02-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

For a while there, I thought this post would never come. The pinafores came and went - to friends, or to the wadder bag, or to the back of the wardrobe waiting forLaura to grow a few inches. But here it is at last - a self-drafted pinafore that fits Laura right now. And it's very cute! It combines my favourite pinafore features - back-buttoning with different coloured buttons, round yoke, pleats at the front. Which is, I guess, the whole point of drafting it myself.

There should be a 'modelled' pic but Laura cut her finger not 10 minutes after putting on the dress, and bled copiously all over it.

And since I'm on a drafting upturn, I attempted a rugby shirt for James, with a polo-placket and collar stand. It was moderately successful.

I suspect the fabric choices were all wrong - Killington for the placket and collar (too stiff & heavy) and bamboo fleece for the body (too drapey and fluid). Even so, it came out nice. I was amazed by how easy a polo placket is - you just sew a square of fabric onto the right side of where you want the placket to be, slash the opening, turn the fabric square through the opening to the wrong side, do some folding so that the fabric square looks like a polo placket and top-stitch. Which is probably not hugely helpful. I found a couple of useful sites: this one in particular is very detailed and lucid.

One tip: If you are attaching a woven collar and placket to a knit body, make sure the placket is good and deep to make up for the loss of stretch in the neckline. Go on - ask me how I know...

I'm a blogger, I'm Kreativ and it's official!

2010-02-10T10:50:00.000-08:00

Or so says Millie from Needles and Haystacks, and I'm sure she wouldn't tell lies. Mind you, when I saw the 'Hi, there's an award for you over on my blog' comment on my email, my first thought was 'what are the !*&! spammers up to now...' (I would explain that I've had an absolute pig of a cold for the last 3 weeks, which has impaired my usual sunny positive attitude to life). So now I feel guilty for having unjustly uncharitable thoughts about the spammers.

As part of the award process I have to tell you 7 things you didn't know about me, and nominate 7 other bloggers for the award. Well the latter should be easy - my Blog Stash is going to need a separate room soon. But the former? As any script-writer will tell you - contentment does not make for mass-entertainment. So, having lowered your expectations, here goes:

1. I met my husband online. I like online - it's a nice place and, on the whole, there are nice people on it. My husband is one of those. We got engaged 6 months afer we met and were married 4 months after that.

2. I hate honey, brussel sprouts and celery.

3. I have been vegetarian for over 20 years, as has my husband. As a result, so are the children. I shall however be very surprised if either of my children are vegetarian in 20 years' time.

4. I whinged less when I had sarcoidosis than when I get a cold.

5. I am mildly obsessive. For instance, I dream about sewing. A troublesome garment will keep me awake at night. A very troublesome garment will have me shouting unreasonably at the children and snapping even more unreasonably at my husband. I am very lucky to have such a forgiving family.

6. One day I will make a flawless garment (please see item 5....)

7. Before I had children I worked as a Legal Executive representing asylum seekers and immigrants. That was quite stressful and very rewarding. Excellent training for motherhood, in fact.

Now for my 7 nominees: Katie, Maya, LiEr, Debbie, Cascade Lily, Keiler, Kelly. Extremely creative bloggers, all of you. Some of you may have mantlepieces groaning with Kreativ Blogger awards and if so, just put this one behind the aspidistra - I won't take offence!

Free pattern - Fair Isle tank-top/vest

2010-02-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

This was promised a fair while ago! And finally, here it is - the free knitting pattern for a child's Fair Isle tank-top or vest. It's on Google Docs and you may need to download it before printing it off.

My husband saw a small boy today wearing 'my' Traffic Jam Tank Top in navy and red. I can't tell you how thrilled it makes me feel to think that people actually go to the trouble of knitting up one of my patterns! Chelsie, on my Facebook Fan Page, made up a divine version for her son - the additions are so cute! If the Fair Isle tank top proves even half as popular as the Traffic Jam tank top, I'll be one happy blogger.

Knit & Natter coming to Balsall Common

2010-01-29T00:22:00.001-08:00

I'm starting a Knit & Natter group in Balsall Common. The first meeting is next Tuesday 2nd February at Haig's Hotel starting at 7.30pm. I'm feeling a bit apprehensive because I'm not sure I've done enough publicity and it may well be me, my needles and the barman! Anyway, off today to the local paper shop to put up a flyer and I'll also try John Lewis & Beatties in Solihull, which would be our local yarn shops. Otherwise - watch out barman! you're going to learn to knit...

Get thee hence, puckering!

2010-01-26T14:11:00.001-08:00

This picture might not look like much to you, but it's been the source of serious pleasure to me! It's a picture of cotton interlock finished with rib-knit binding. And not a pucker, stretch or ripple to be seen.

I posted my plea for help on the Ottobre Yahoo! group. And as well as some very sweet comments on the puckersome hoody, I got some excellent advice from Margaret (aka Once and Future Stash Empress). (Side note: If you want to improve your sewing, this Yahoo group is awesome. The members are uniformly polite, friendly and knowledgable. They will pour their sewing expertise over you - you just can't help but get better! And the Ottobre magazines have some of the best sewing patterns around - they're definitely worth the extra step of tracing them.)

But to return to the rippled seams: if you have sufferered from horizontal seam stretching on knits in the past and want to know how to de-pucker, Margaret recommends that you:-

1. reduce your presser foot pressure;

2. increase your stitch length;

3. (for overlockers) reduce the differential feed.

She did so in a beautifully lucid post, which explained exactly why these three steps would work. And they did! I had a happy half-hour this evening playing around with some interlock scraps and making little samples, to which I have attached notes setting out their stitch length, width, presser foot pressure and (for the serged sample) differential feed.

So all that remains is for me to retrieve the hoody and re-do the ribbing. Oh, and come up with another name for the boys' clothes collection. It turns out that 'Les Pets' on the label will set French speakers guffawing because "pets" means - well, I'd rather not say in polite company but here's a clue: it's an anagram of RAFTS. Go figure.

Addendum: Nicole from Dots & Stripes has left a comment on the Hoody post, advising that she reduces the presser foot pressure when she does horizontal seams on knits. And if you check out her blog, you can see that it really does work!

Yay! Snow and cake and tow-trucks!

2010-01-24T11:18:00.000-08:00

We were at a sledging party today at the Snowdome in Tamworth. It's an indoor skiing place, complete with real snow (heaven knows what their fuel bills are like at the moment!) The children really enjoyed it - even Laura , who prefaced every sledging attempt with "I not going to be scared this time".

I made the 3-year old birthday boy a hoody, appliqued with a tow-truck. After last week's pinafore escapades, I was going to chicken out and use an Ottobre pattern but decided to have another attempt at drafting - after all, it's only been the pinafores that have been failures so far. And there must be something about doing boys' clothes, because this pattern came together beautifully, hood and all. It's still on the large side - I am drilling myself to remember that a centimeter on the side makes 4cm of ease, which is a fair amount on a 3 year old. And I have got to work out how to stop the cotton interlock puckering when I sew along the horizontal. I suspect having a fiddle with the differential feed may do the trick. As you can see, I used the round pockets (skanked from Ottobre!) as the wheels of the tow-truck, and experimented with a t-shirt transfer for the little motif, which reads Les Pet's Autos. I'm going to be putting it in the shop once I've cracked the puckering problem, as part of my Les Pets for Boys collection. It's nice to end the week on a high.

I've cut out (yet) another pinafore, and hope that next week I'll be able to post the final, final successful photos in the Pinafore Drafting tute.

Pinafores - 4, Kathryn - 0

2010-01-16T10:22:00.001-08:00

What is it with these blasted pinafores? I've made 4 over the last 6 months, and Laura cannot wear a single one. Not one. That's four separate self-drafted patterns, four lots of fabric & notions (OK so none of it was dear, but even so...) and, most importantly, four wasted sewing sessions. Perhaps not completely wasted - I have learned something from each failure, even though it took the last pinafore to make me realise that it was the block that was wrongly drafted, and not the patterns I took from it. Anyway, I'm going to try once more from a properly fitting block but I can't pretend I'm not losing heart. At times like this, when the sewing amour propre is low and you're wondering if you're the only one out there who could stock her shop wtih pressing hams made from her wadders, it's nice to read posts like the Selfish Seamstress's post on 'Ask me how I know'. Or this one from the Slapdash Sewist.

It's hard to post wadders, especially when you feel as though they're mounting up. For example, I made Laura a pinafore today from the old, dodgy block (I'd already cut it out and thought I could fix it with a snip here and there - boy, was I ever wrong there!). I haven't photographed the pinafore even though it had details that were perfectly executed (handstitched pleats, anyone?). The fact is: it didn't fit her and it wouldn't fit anyone who had a semi-normal shape. It's already in the scraps bag and I expect it'll make a lovely pressing ham.

So tonight, I say "thank you" to the lovely seamstresses who post their failures. You give us all hope!

Drafting an A-line pinafore - Part IV

2010-01-11T03:11:00.001-08:00

There wasn't meant to be a Part IV to this tutorial, but amendments need to be made to Part 2 - Drafting the block.

I couldn't understand how it was that the pinafore turned into Swampy so I thought I'd check my maths against Winifred's instructions because, well, maths were never my best subject at school. So, I got out the block, and my much-used copy of Winifred, and tried to work out where I had gone wrong. And there, in almost the first line, was the problem. "1/4 chest size plus 3cm". 3cm???? That's.... that's.... (time to count on fingers here) 12cm of ease! Genie Mac! A child wouldn't so much move comfortably in it, as move around inside it. So... I have redrafted the block, checked that it fits and have gone back to Part 2 and made liberal amendments.

I apologise hugely if you've been diligently following this tutorial over the last 4 months or so and have come up with your own Swampy (of course, you might have been smarter than I, and made proper alterations to the muslin!) You'll be pleased to hear that the original block doesn't have to be wasted - I am about to make a snowsuit type of thing from mine. I am hoping it'll fit nicely when made up in outerwear fabric, volume fleece and microfleece! It would also be a good block for a loose-fitting sweatshirt or hoody.

Swampy the pinafore

2010-01-10T10:38:00.000-08:00

After a very productive sewing Saturday, Laura got to wear her new pinafore. And folks, they called it Swampy! Remember that 0.75 I came out past the side seam? It was 0.75cm too much!

I put some elastic along the back to try and improve the fit, but it still looks like something made for someone else. From that point of view, it's a failure. However, it will fit her beautifully this time next year! And in the meantime, some parts of it came out very successfully. Like the button placket.
And my day wasn't wasted because I made James a pair of zipped fly trousers. I fumbled the zip a little bit (having read the zipper section in my Threads book after I had completed the trousers!) but you can't tell when they're on. And the rise could do with being lower - the Simon Cowell look doesn't look great on anyone, not even Simon Cowell. But on the whole, they're tremendous! I made the pocket in corduroy so that when James takes his hand out, the pocket bag doesn't creep out, and added buttonhole elastic to the waist. There's a nice deep hem and the cut of the legs really suits my slim boy. In short, I'm thrilled with them! It was so nice going off to Mass today with both my children in completely Mama-made outfits. (Less nice when we had to leave halfway through owing to behaviour of said children but all I will say about that, is that the playroom is now Very Clean.)

Drafting a pattern for an A line pinafore - part 3

2010-01-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

I bet you thought I'd forgotten about this! I'm sorry it's taken so long, and for anyone who hasn't seen parts 1 and 2, the first part dealt with taking the measurements, and the second with drafting a flat body block.

I've been simmering the final part of this tutorial for a while, just waiting until I had time to settle down in daylight with the basic body block and a pencil and draft the patterns for two pinafores. Yesterday's Snow Day proved to be the perfect time for getting them out of my head and onto some paper. I knew I was going to use lots of paper so it had to be cheap. Wallpaper would have been perfect, or even wrapping paper. I had neither! I did however have an unused pack of Tesco's Value Paper Tablecloths left over from James' birthday party. They have a slightly bumpy surface so they weren't ideal but they were all that was available! I must say that they made much better pattern paper than they did tablecloths.

First I traced the flat body block, back and front, onto ordinary tracing paper. Include the waistline when you do this - you will need it. I then traced around the back block onto the pattern paper, transferring over the waistline too.

I did the top of the pinafore first. I used an old pinafore of Laura's for this - I liked the sweep of the curve against the flat top. First I drew in the side sweep and then I squared off the top. There was no measuring involved in this - I just did a shape and size that I thought would look nice. The back and the front are going to be exactly the same so this is a fairly easy pinafore to start with.
You can see that I used a set square to square off the top. I also squared the corner where the side and the top intersect. I hand draw most lines ("eyeballing" it, I've heard it called!) but I can't freehand perfect right angles or straight lines.

Next I lower the sweep of the side (just because I think it'll look better) and bring the line out about 0.75cm past the side of the body block. I want the pinafore to be roomy but not swamping. Remember, when you do this, that every 1mm you add in width will turn into 4mm on the finished garment. So my 0.75cm becomes 3cm of ease, which is quite a lot. I may need to fiddle with this later.

For the side edges, I want the A line to start around the waist - it's going to be pretty roomy without adding yet more width between the armhole & elbow! So I go straight down to the waistline and then come out diagonally. You will probably want to know how far to come out and the answer is: as far as you think! I came out pretty far, as you can see. I do like a nice wide skirt!
I then cut it out so that I can have a quick paper fit on Laura. The verdict? Gosh it's roomy! And the skirt is very wide. However, it's easier to take out than put back in, so I'm going to leave it yet and do any alterations on the muslin.
The problem with a skirt cut wide and in one piece is that the grain lines are going to fall down the centre, and the sides will flop unattractively. Even cutting the hem in a nice arc isn't going to completely solve the problem. So I decide to hack into the dress so that it's cut in two or three pieces. Each piece will follow the grain and help the dress to fall nicely. So I get out the set square & ruler again to create a very simple faux-princess line...

Hacking into a pattern like this really is a matter of pleasing yourself. It took me a couple of goes before I got a shape that I liked. And another couple of goes to get the side front the same width from the top edge to the bottom edge. I don't have a magic formula for how to get it right and I personally think the easiest way is to freehand in your lines lightly and then tidy things up with the ruler & set square. I had to reduce the sweep of the skirt slightly to get the look I wanted.

And this is the time when you need to throw in a few grain lines so that you're not left cursing when you've cut into the pattern. I do at least 3, parallel to the centre front/back line. Make them nice and long too. And eventually, I come up with this. But I'm still not happy with it. The centre piece looks too wide, being just over twice the width of the side piece at the bottom edge. So I sellotape the bottom edges together and draw in another arc about 10cm above the hem, following the hemline.
I then cut along that line, and I have a flounce to finish the bottom of the dress. Everything looks much more in proportion now. I cut some strips for straps and the button plackets, and it's done.

Next, I do the toile. For this I use some babycord I found in a charity shop (4m for £3!). I cut it out (eyeballing the seam allowances) and tack it together. I already suspect that alterations will be required, so I try it on Laura inside out. Sure enough, it's too roomy under the arms.
I pin the excess, cut it off and use the altered muslin as a template for how much to cut from the paper pattern. Again, I err on the side of caution because, as those of us with weight issues can testify, it's easier to take in than let out.

I'm not going to bother machine sewing the toile. The fabric is so hideous I'll never put Laura in it, and I'm fairly confident I can deal with the fitting issues on the good fabric. So I have cut out the pinafore outer in a navy heavyish linen and the lining in a lightweight cotton print. I'll put them together on Saturday and let you know how they look!

It's a new day and a New Year!

2010-01-01T01:35:00.000-08:00

After a handmade Christmas, I had an only slightly less handmade New Year. I have been thinking for a while about doing boys' clothes for the shop and I started the new year by making a shirt for James to wear to a New Year's Eve party. I am so tired of seeing him trot along to parties in t-shirt and jeans, no matter how nice they may be, when the little girls are arrayed in their sparkly twirly finery. His friend Benny attended the last party in a super-smart shirt and tie, and while James wouldn't be persuaded on the tie, he did think he'd like to have a nice shirt. So I got out Winifred and set to work. It's a very simple short-sleeved shirt (both James and I being new to this shirt business). I put my foot down on the yellow theme and made the shirt in a good quality quilting fabric featuring helicoptors! He really likes the print and while it'd look a bit naff on a 10 year old, it's cute for a 4 year old. He doesn't like buttons, in common with quite a few of his classmates (what IS this button thing about? I really don't get it...) so I used poppers. I have a smarter version planned with cuffs, collar stand and back yoke. Time to do a bulk buy of cheap muslin I think!

Anyway, here's a little gallery of the Christmas and New Year makes. Everyone got at least one handmade present, even if it was only a hat, and everyone seemed to really like what they got. So I had lovely holidays too!

Socks for Nigel. The self-striping yarn was such fun to use I didn't even mind making the socks extra long for my husband's extra-long feet. No pattern required because these were pretty simple, but I unfortunately did one sock in 3+1 rib and the other in 2x2 I and didn't notice until I was wrapping them up. Nigel doesn't mind though.

Milo Armadillo for Laura. My first attempt at a soft toy. He looks a bit lumpy in the tummy but that's just the photograph.

Two pairs of socks for my mother in law. She asked me for socks and I thought "Aha!" She is thrilled with them. The patterns came via Ravelry - there are so many gorgeous free patterns out there for socks - the internet knitting community is uber-generous.

Walking socks for my father in law. No pattern required - it was very simple!

Hat for sister's boyfriend - the free Lillehammer pattern found somewhere on the internet.

Beret for my sister (no pattern - it's just a beret with stripes!).

Self-drafted dressing gown pattern for Label Bear, James' special bear.

A fleece jacket from James. It's a much modified Ottobre pattern and is going to be modified more. I lined it with microfleece and so it's a little snug. It could also be reversible if it weren't for the zip. So I am going to take out the zip, add some width with a yellow placket and put on poppers. The blue microfleece is the perfect colour for my boy, so we'll both be happier once I've done the alterations.

Cabled cardigan for Laura. Hold your breath because I actually bought this pattern! Mind you, I did serious searching for a free version first before biting the bullet and parting with the cash. It's Sirdar pattern and was lovely to make and lovely to wear. I am about to start a version for myself using the Cable Luxe free pattern from Lion Brand.

I even made an Ottobre top for myself, which I absolutely adore. In fact, I've ordered 2 more Ottobre Woman magazines on the strength of it.

Hat, scarf and mittens to go with Laura's upcycled coat.

Laura in her Mary costume for the Los Posadas party. Very cute though not exactly a masterpiece of stitchery. I used one of Nigel's old t-shirts for the tunic, which is worn over James' old t-shirt.

James wore his innkeeper costume to Los Posadas.

An experiment in making bloomers. Very cute and practical. Super for soft play! I just embellished an RTW t-shirt to go with them because tempus was seriously fugiting.

Laura's Christmas outfit including the pettiskirt (I had yet another hack at it to improve the proportions... I reckon there's 14 hours of sewing gone into this one skirt.) A fleece hoody from the Olivia pattern, with some fun fur around the sleeve edges. A pair of viscose leggings completes the outfit. It is even cuter in real life - we were mobbed coming out of Mass by people wanting to tell her she was a gorgeous little angel!

Fleece digger romping trousers for James. Self-drafted pattern.

A skirt for my sister (no pattern required - just two skirt shaped pieces attached to an FOE waistband). I made her another one from an old jumper of Nigel's. This is more of a spring weight skirt, in some aqua and orange hearts I got from Nature's Fabrics Black Friday sale.

A Fair Isle beret for my mum. It was a rush job (I only started it on 21st December!) and I made a screamingly obvious mistake in the pattern. But it's still a nice beret and she really likes it.

So that's the Christmas stash. I'm looking forward to a handmade 2010, with lots of ideas for the Spring collection for both boys and girls. I hope you're looking forward to a 2010 filled with whatever it is that you do that makes you happy.

And this is why I rarely sew for myself

2009-12-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

One of the many items on my To Do before Christmas List is "Make myself a fleece jacket". It's been there for a while, and keeps getting overtaken by other projects because, well, sewing for a size 16 woman is nowhere near as fun as sewing for children! I don't have that 'cute' factor that comes in spades with my little blighters, and children's clothes rarely feature such shaping details as darts.

But on the other hand, I need a new fleece jacket and RTW seems to come only in varying degrees of shapelessness. I wear them because I can throw them in the washing machine and they'll dry overnight (something that you only truly appreciate when you have children), and fleece is warm and comfortable. But I never see Yummy Mummies in fleece jackets. I'm not a Yummy Mummy myself, but I dream of becoming one. So when I saw this pattern I decided to give it a shot! The lime green is very cute, don't you think?

You will also note the princess line seams and absence of darts. Perfect!

So, I bought the pattern, got some fleece backed faux suede on Ebay (yes, you can see where this is wadding to, can't you?) and got stuck in. It was pleasantly strange not having to trace the pattern first and had to keep reminding myself that seam allowances were already on the pattern when I was cutting it out.

Well, I didn't like cutting out the fabric, but thought that was just me. My machine didn't like sewing it, and I thought that was just my machine playing up. I was wrong on both counts - the actual villain of the piece was the fabric itself. Stiff, unyielding, absolutely no drape at all. I plugged away, waiting for the moment when it would all come together, the jacket would remove its specs, throw its hair back and I would say "why.... why you're beautiful!". And I'm still waiting!

Yes, it's a wadder. I'm embarrassed to be blogging it, but through our mistakes we learn, and boy did I did learn a lot on this project. The shoulders are too wide (not sure how I'm gonna fix that on a raglan sleeve - cut along the size 14 line perhaps?), the jacket needs to be longer, and I do not like the extremely visible zip detail.

As you can see, I can never wear this jacket undone:

Correction, I can never wear this jacket. Well, not outside the house - it isn't even good enough to garden in. But I still need a fleece jacket and it still needs to be cute. So there's some cerise fleece on the way. I'll cut the right front up the zip placement line so that I can insert the zip with only the teeth are on show, correct the fitting issues and I will, as God's my witness, end up with a Yummy Mummy Fleece Jacket. Though probably not until the New Year. And if the last pattern doesn't work for me, then there's always this one:

Reader, I am On A Mission.

Upcycling is the new black

2009-12-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have decided that I love upcycling! I'm not entirely sure how it's defined but it seems to have more to do with turning something you don't want into something you do want, than with separating your glass and plastics from your tins. And it also seems that everybody is doing it.

Folksy, the UK handmade goods website, have organised an upcycling competition in collaboration with Sue Ryder Care. Sue Ryder kindly provided free goods from their charity shops so that the ingenious Folksy folk could turn them into beautiful items to be sold at a charity auction in aid of Sue Ryder. Since Laura needed a new winter coat, I decided to buy an adult one from a charity shop and hack it down to size. Well, it took me a long time to find a suitable coat (most adult coats have a lot of seams & pockets and they would have seriously got in the way), and in the meantime, I found these... A lilac bed canopy (or mosquito net as my husband calls it) for £2.95 and, from the same shop, an embroidered polyester chiffon shawl for £1.

Together, they screamed 'pettiskirt!' at me.

I wasn't sure if it could be done with the soft net of the bed canopy but it was worth a shot. And it worked! I didn't have the ruffler foot but I suspect it would have been redundant anyway - the net was already fairly tatty and the prongs on the foot would probably have split through the holes. So I gathered the tiers and fluff the traditional way - by stitching a long seam and pulling on the bobbin thread to gather. It didn't take quite as long as I'd expected though I had run out of enthusiasm for tulle long before I had enough fluff. I have also learned my machine is not a fan of sewing net. It did the job fine but it complained and grinded and clanked its way through it. I tried fiddling with the tension but couldn't get it to be happy. If anybody has any tips on this, I'd love to hear them. And if you'd like to see the skirt's listing, then it can be found here.

Laura just adores the skirt and keeps referring to it as 'her' skirt. I have explained that it's going to be auctioned off to help some poorly people and she says 'yes, OK,' but I suspect the message isn't really getting through. Good job there's another one waiting for her in the spare wardrobe! Although even I have to admit that this one is way nicer than the white one I did earlier.

And in case you were wondering what happened about her winter coat - here it is! I had to use two coats in the end, but they made a divine coat for her when lined with some beautiful fleece print I got off Ebay. So even if I don't win one of the competition categories (and I'm aware that the competition is stiff!) the Folksy Upcycle Challenge has indirectly helped keep Laura warm and cute this winter.

And finally, an action shot with the skirt. She's not much good at twirling yet, and I'm still not great at photography, but I think you get the picture!

The Pudsey Pattern

2009-11-27T10:18:00.000-08:00

As promised, I have uploaded a PDF of the Pudsey Outfit pattern to Google Docs. This is the link. This pattern will definitely make clothes for the Build-a-Bear Workshop Pudsey Bear. I haven't compared Pudsey with the other Build-a-Bear Workshop cuddlies, but I imagine that they're all pretty much the same size, so I assume (though do not guarantee) that the pattern will work for all of them. I seem to recall that I had problems printing out my last Google Doc document but that downloading it first enabled it to print out fine. If you have any problems with this, could you leave me a comment and I'll try to sort it out?

The pattern cosists of a Top Front, Top Back, Sleeve, Trousers A and Trousers B (rather unhelpfully, I didn't think to label the Trousers patterns as such...) You will need to add your own seam allowances when you cut out the fabric - I think I used a scant 1cm for mine. The pattern is very basic but easily adapted - I got three very different outfits out of it.

The Top

The Top Front and Back are cut on the fold using a stretchy fabric, although it's easy enough to turn it into a front or back fastening top by adding 3cm or so to the centre front or back seam, and cutting x2 pieces. In that case, the grainline is the centre front or back. I used this pattern to make a sleeveless jersey top, a woven front fastening jacket and two long-sleeved t-shirts, one in jersey and one in fleece. There is a fair amount of ease at the top of the sleeve. I gathered it for one garment and just eased it in on the others.

I also changed the side seam on the boy bears' tops so that there was much less flare. I simply folded the pattern in 2cm or so at the bottom and adjusted the fold along the seam so that there was no fold at the top of the seam. You can add flare and length by cutting and taping.

The Trousers

This is a single-piece trouser pattern but I had to upload it in two pieces because it was too wide to fit on one sheet of A4. You just tape the two pieces together so that the shaded areas overlap each other, and this will give you the single pattern piece required. Cut two of these - I used the back crotch line as the grainline, though it would probably have been better to put the grain perpendicular to the the trousers leg. However, I leave this up to you. On such a tiny garment, it isn't so all-important where the grain falls, especially since your bear is (I assume!) immobile. The pattern looks really odd, I know, but it successfully led to one pair of woven dungarees and one pair of knit trousers, so it does work.

As for sewing the trousers, join the inside seams on both pieces, then turn one inside out and shove the other trouser leg (right side out) down into the inside out trouser leg. You can then do the crotch seam in one go - just as for sewing person-sized trousers. Then finish the waistline and hem according to your fancy.

Pudsey Bear does not have a tail so there is no marking for a tail on the pattern piece. You will have to improvise if your Build-A-Bear cuddly comes with a tail.

Have fun!

Three little bears for school are we...

2009-11-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

Dressed as a little bear well can be! Aren't they cute together? It almost seemed a shame to separate them...

But this morning, I did the announcement of the winners at James' school and gave the bears to their happy new owners. It was such fun and James was clearly proud as could be of his mummy - something that I hadn't foreseen but really enjoyed! And now I have to do another pattern for a dressing gown for James' Label Bear. Something else I hadn't foreseen, but you can't have everything!

This is the winning entry for Key Stage 2 - the little girl actually used real fabric on her design and I was fortunately able to find an exact match for the skirt. For the jacket, the designer had overlaid some red fabric with cream organza printed with stars. I settled for using some red Killington and embroidered it with sequins. The white top is sleeveless, and also sequinned.

This was the Key Stage 1 winner's design. It was so cute, and lovely to make! The Killington dungarees and fleece t-shirt are super-cuddly. This one is my husband's favourite.

And finally, this is the Foundation Stage winner's design. I loved how eclectic it was - is the bear being a Mountie? Or a pirate? Or is he about to go to a pilates class? Who knows! He's clearly having a good time and looks amazing. I used different jersey fabrics for this one. The belt is black elastic and the star is, alas, cardboard. The hat is black felt with white fleece applique. The trousers were a swine to make - you will note the horizontal stripes across the crotch on the original design. I did an orange applique rectangle under the waistband and called it a day!

Apparently the children love their bears and many other children got to cuddle them (the school being big into sharing!) before the bears left for their permanent homes. A successful enterprise all round, I think!

Children in Need Day - Design an Outfit for Pudsey competition

2009-11-14T23:54:00.000-08:00

It's Children in Need Day here in the UK on Friday. For international readers, this is a telethon style charity event, raising money for disadvantaged children in the UK. I like it because every penny raised goes to the charity.

Usually I just give money but I decided that this year I would "do something different" which is the charity's motto. So... I got together with James' school and we have put on a little competition for the children - Design an Outfit for Pudsey. The prize being a Pudsey Bear dressed in the winner's own outfit design. It was £1 to enter and my only worry was that enough children would enter to make it worthwhile. But there were 145 entries, which is just brilliant! And the standard of entry was unbelievably good. You can see a slideshow of them at the top of the sidebar. So far there's only about 50 entries uploaded - it's a slow job!

Three outfits in a week is not trivial, even when they're bear-sized. So I made the toiles last week for a shirt and pants. I started off by drafting a t-shirt pattern just as I would do for Laura. It didn't fit. Pudsey, I discovered, is a very odd shape!

So after a lot of re-drafting and tutting, I went for the Project Runway approach, and did some draping. Even with paper, this worked much better and I moved onto the trousers.

These were impossible to do with paper so I used some calico and put together a very odd looking pattern that actually made up into an acceptable, if snug, pair of trousers. I then made up the top in the calico, and that was fine too.

I've already chosen the three winners and their outfits are completed, bar some hand finishing. They were so much fun to make and I think the children will be pleased with how their designs turned out. I'll be posting pictures on Friday, after the children have received their prizes. I will also be posting a PDF of the patterns - I couldn't find any free patterns for Build-a-Bear Workshop clothes online and I think that needs to be remedied! So watch this space...

The quick & dirty hat & scarf set

2009-11-12T01:56:00.000-08:00

Now the weather has turned colder, James has been using my old red fleece scarf for the school bus run. It's big on me, and absolutely swamps him so I idly suggested this morning that I make him a new school scarf in royal blue. "Oh yes." he said, "And can it be yellow?"

Well, I happened to have some yellow fleece stashed away to make a jacket for him for Christmas (shhhh! don't tell him!) and there was more than enough for a hat and scarf set too. OK, he didn't ask for a hat but, in this house, things match. They might not be beautiful, but at least they co-ordinate.

I used the beanie hat pattern from Ottobre 01/07. I have to admit I couldn't make the instructions out at all (if anybody else had more success I'd be really interested to hear about it) and since I wanted a reversible ear-covering beanie, I did a hatchet job on the pattern. An hour's work produced this set. I can't wait to see his face when he sees it! It's times like this that I love being able to sew.

And now I need to crack on and draft some blocks for Pudsey Bear. All will be revealed in the next post...

Drafting the flat body block - calculators at the ready? Then let's go

2009-11-01T10:23:00.001-08:00

If you fast forward to the end of this tutorial, you will see that the resulting pinafore has been called Swampy because it is WAY Too Big. In Part IV of the tutorial, I explain how that came about and promise to put this section right.

First I'm doing the back body block. The front body block is based on this, with a few alterations for the shoulder slope, armscye and, of course, the front neckline. Just a reminder of what you will need for this exercise:

squared dressmaking paper (or ordinary paper and a set square. You're going to need the set square anyway so you might as well get the cheaper paper...)
a sharp pencil
a longish ruler - I only used a standard length one for this and boy, wouldn't it just have been easier with a metre-long rule!
a calculator
a rubber/eraser
a set square and
tracing paper

Mark point 0 on your paper. This is going to be the top of centre back. Then draw a line across the top of the page from 0 ("square across") and another line straight down from 0 ("square down"). You are going to mark points 1 and 2 on the squared down line, which will be placed as follows:

1 Back neck to waist plus 1.25cm (mark the waistline at the "back neck to waist" point)

2 waist to hip.

then square across from both 1 and 2. You will shortly be marking points 4 and 5 on these lines, but first you have to mark point 3, which is squared across from 0 and is 1/4 the chest measurement plus 1cm for sizes 80 to 116cm, 1.25 for sizes 122-140cm, and 1.5 for sizes 146-170cm. Square down from 3 and the intersections on the lines from 1 and 2 will be points 4 and 5 respectively. And here we need the picture to do the job of 1,000 words...

Line 4-5 is the hipline. Now you mark point 6, which is 1.25cm down from 0. This is the top of the back neckline. Next you put in the armscye at 7. So 6-7 is the scye depth plus (1.5 to 2cm). Essentially, the 1.5 is for the baby sizes and 2cm for bigger children. This is a 'suck it and see' measurement. I used 1.5cm for Laura's. Square across to 8.

Point 9 is the point to which the armscye will slope inwards and it is halfway between points 6 and 7. Square across (you will be drawing in the armscye later on). Point 10 will provide the marker for the top of the back shoulder and it's at (1/4 the scye depth) less 2cm. Square out. Time for another picture I think...

Point 11 marks where the back neckline starts. It is on the 0-3 line, at 1/5 of the neck size measurement. You will shortly be drawing the back neckline in from 6 to 11, but don't do it just yet. I'll explain why shortly.... this is all going to make sense soon, I promise!

Point 12 comes next. This is set on the line you squared out from 7 to 8, at a point equal to (1/2 across back measurement) plus 1 (or 1.25 from size 122 up, or 1.5 from size 146 up). Square up and mark points 13 and 14 on the intersections with the lines squared out from 9 and 10 respectively. The picture will really help here.

You are now going to put in point 15, which marks the tip of the shoulder and is on the line that squares out from point 14. It lies between 0.9cm and 1.3cm along that line.

Now you can start joining the dots. What Winifred Aldrich doesn't explicitly say (although it's implicit in the drafting of her blocks) is that each garment corner must be a 90 degree angle. This is so that you get clean lines across seam intersections. Does that make sense? Probably not. I'll draw in the garment lines in red and this will help me to explain what I mean.

Now this drawing is not to scale so if yours doesn't look like this, then you're probably doing OK. But what is correct in mine, is the right-angled corners. I have marked each one. The good news is that having each corner as a right-angle makes drafting the curves of the neckline and armscye much easier. The bad news is that you're going to need your set square to ensure that the right-angles are true right-angles. Draw in the line from 11 to 15 first and then you can do the line from 6 to 11. Keep the curves as smooth as you can but you must ensure that each line ends up straight so you can keep the 90 degree angle. Have I harped on enough about this 90 degree angle business? OK. Then draw in the right angle at 15 and 8 and join them with a curve, dipping in to meet 13 along the way. And that's it - that's the back body block complete.

Now for the front. I'm doing this on the same sheet of paper, which is how I did the real-life version too. I'm going to do these additional points in red.

The front neckline dips down to point 16, which is 1/5 neck size. When you trace off your patterns, you can put it wherever the heck you like, but it's good to have an 'official' start point.

The front armscye is deeper than the back so point 17 is between 0.6 and 1cm in from point 13. And the front shoulder slopes dips lower than the back (remember that right-angle rule? well this is it kicking in again - you've altered the neckline, so now you need to alter the shoulder line too. I may be mixing up cause and effect here, but the principle is the same.)

So draw a line below the 14-15 line. It's between 0.6 and 0.8cm below the line - again, use the smaller figure for the smaller sizes. I've drawn it as a dotted line.

The front shoulder seam is obviously going to be the same length as the back one so the line 11-18 will be equal in length to 11-17. Mark point 18 and draw the line from 11 to 18. You can now use the new shoulder line to draw in the armscye (which will have to dip into 17 in order to achieve the required 90 degree angle at 18) and the front neck curve from 11 to 16.

And that's the front and back body blocks done. Get yourself a cup of tea because if you've got this far, then you've earned it. I'm sure as I can be that there is an easier way of doing this but I can't quite see it yet. If I ever do, I will definitely be posting it and that's a promise.

Since the pinafore will be sleeveless, I shall leave the drafting of the body sleeve for another day and the next drafting post will deal with turning the block into the pattern.

Well, she needed one!

2009-10-25T11:28:00.001-07:00

This afternoon, DH took the children to the park so that I could dye my hair without one or other of them trying to climb up onto my knee. Now when you're alone in the house, with a headful of brown Nice & Easy, what are you going to do to pass the time? Why, make Laura a new dressing gown of course!

Okay, so I could have tackled the pile of UFOs that somehow built up while I was busy working. Or I could have cleaned the kitchen. But I wanted to sew something quick & easy & fun - the kind of bonus, unplanned frivolous sewing you do when you are unexpectedly given some time. And Laura really did need a new dressing gown. The problem was I didn't have a pattern. Or rather, I had one that was single-sized for a much smaller child than Laura.

With a fair amount of hacking (which would have been more accurate if I'd got the measuring tape involved!) and some very quick & dirty sewing, I produced this fleecy whale robe.

It isn't perfect - I would have been surprised beyond measure if it had been - but it's better than the too-small hand-me-down Thomas the Tank Engine robe she's been wearing for the last couple of months. And it's pink with whales on it, so she really likes it. Job done!

The pettiskirt saga continues...

2009-10-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

My overlocker is sick. It has been kind of sick for a while but last weekend, it gave a cough and a splutter and decided it had had enough. To be fair, I should have had it serviced when I first got it but, well, how could I bear to let it go away for a whole 4 days? Anyway, I've paid the price for that bit of procrastination because it's been in the shop for a week now and it'll be Wednesday at the earliest before it's home. So, making the best of a bad job, I decided I'd sort out the Unsatisfactory Pettiskirt, that being a job for which the overlocker is not required.

BEFORE

AFTER

First I unpicked all the fluff at the hem (fortunately I'd done the gather and attach in one operation so it wasn't as horrible a job as it could have been) and slashed the chiffon from the yoke. Then I reruffled the fluff so it was much fluffier before sewing it back on the hem (I used up a lot more fluff this time round!). I also learned that while doing it in one operation is a lot faster to do and to unpick, you get much more accurate results by doing the ruffle first and then the attach.

I then neatened the middle tier seam with some narrow satin ribbon, shortened the yoke, reattached the skirt to the yoke and hand-sewed on the wide ribbon which ties with a fetching bow. And it's finished! It was, despite the time it took to complete, great fun to sew and I am seriously considering doing a couple for the shop. Now it's out of my head, I can get on with my real work - roll on Wednesday and the Return of the Overlocker!

Drafting an A-line pinafore - Taking the measurements

2009-10-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

There are, as you would expect for a dress, a fair few measurements to be taken for this pinafore - enough to entitle them to a post of their own. And since my children are not hugely cooperative, I am relying upon my beautiful assistant, Hairy Dolly (we go in for literal naming in this house) to demonstrate where the measurements are taken. What she lacks in beauty, she makes up for in willingness.

Bear in mind that we are taking the measurements to draft the flat body block, from which the pinafore pattern will be traced and altered. So although the pinafore does not incorporate a sleeve, you will still need to take an arm length measurement. If you are so inspired, you can always use the flat body block to make a long-sleeved dress, so the measurement won't be wasted.

The measurements we need for the flat body block are

chest,
across back,
neck size,
shoulder,
scye depth,
back neck to waist,
waist to hip and
arm length.

You may also want to measure hip to knee, so that you can include the knee line on your pinafore pattern, even though you will not be using it on the flat body block.

Now for the measurements...

The chest measurement is pretty self-explanatory. Put the tape right around the fullest part of the child's chest, just below her armpit and across the shoulder blades

The across the back measurement is less obvious. This is not just half the chest measurement, as you might expect. Instead you measure from 'armscye line to armscye line'. Helpful? OK, perhaps not. Essentially, you measure from the imaginary line running from the armpit to the shoulder tip. You can see in the photo that the tape is positioned on that imaginary line, taking into account Hairy Dolly's slightly odd shape. The measurement will be just under 1/2 the chest measurement.

Neck size is easy to measure in theory - you just put the tape around the base of the neck, just touching the top of the collar bone. In practice? Well, my son is ticklish and I'd never dream of wasting an afternoon trying to take his necksize. If your child is similarly inclined to squeal, then you might be better off measuring the necksize of a well-fitting t-shirt.

Measure the shoulder from the back of the neck at the side, to the end of the shoulder.

The scye depth sounds more complicated than it is - scye is another word for amhole. So just measure down from the neckline to the armscye line (see above for description of this line).

Back neck to waist - again, pretty easy. You go from the neckline to the natural waistline.

And waist to hip goes from the waistline to the hipline, which is the line around the fullest part of the hips/bottom.

Arm length goes from the shoulder edge to the wrist.

Finally, the optional hip to knee measurement. This is the one measurement I can't take from the standard sizing charts because Laura has inherited my short legs (fortunately, not my nose though so I'm not complaining!) I measure from the hipline to the kneeline, and mark this on my patterns so that I know roughly where the dress is going to fall. It has saved me much wasted fabric in the past - there's not a lot you can do with a two-inch skirt-wide strip of fabric other than ruffle it!

Next we have to draft the flat body block. Another post for this I think....

On second thoughts...

2009-10-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Having slept on (or rather with) the pettiskirt (yes, I hang new-makes up in our bedroom so that I can see them as soon as I wake up - how lucky is my DH?) I've decided it needs quite a lot of remedial work.

My DH pointed out it was too long, and I think he's got it in a nutshell. He meant that it's too long for Laura, but the top tier is actually too long in proportion to the other tiers. So a cut & paste job is required. And the bottom tier needs more fluff. A LOT more fluff. And the seams definitely need finishing with some narrow ribbon. Other than all that, it's pretty darn perfect!

The next post is going to be the a-line pinafore tutorial. Cross my heart. Once I've done some custom orders, that is...

Chiffon, chiffon, everywhere! And still feeling the ruffler love.

2009-10-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

I had my usual Saturday morning sewing-fest today and while the washing machine & Dylon were doing their stuff on some fabric for a custom-order, I got down to serious work on Laura's Christmas pettiskirt. I used the SewMamaSew tutorial and all but finished the skirt. Since I can't give it to Laura until Christmas, I just have to post the pics here!

The waistband is some cheapy satin I had earmarked for making a nappy wrap (don't ask!) and I found the nylon chiffon on Ebay, which was a real stroke of luck. The seller still has quite a bit available if anyone else wants to try their hand at this. But don't even consider it if you don't really, really like sewing!

As you may know, I do really really like sewing and I thoroughly enjoyed making this skirt - the fabric is a dream to work with and at times I felt like a non-dancey Ginger Rogers, surrounded by clouds of white fluff. But I still wouldn't tackle it without a rotary cutter and a ruffler foot - even with these esentials, I've spent 7 hours so far on it. Some of that time was spent cursing the serger and fiddling with the settings on the ruffler, so I reckon I could shave an hour off the time on the next one.

As you can see, I didn't get the fluff at the bottom quite even but after a trim and a wash (necessary to remove bloodstain following Pin in Finger Incident), it's much better. It needs a cool iron and a bow at the waistband, I may finish the seams with some ribbon, and then I'm going to put it in the spare room wardrobe and forget all about it until Christmas Eve. Except for when I take it out to try it with the knitted top I'm making to go with it, of course. And perhaps to have a little stroke of the chiffon every now and again. And perhaps just a sneaky coo over it when I'm feeling low.

That was the week that was...

2009-09-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

My week was a very mixed bag! On Monday James "saved the day" by pushing Laura and her trike out of the way of the electric garage door as it was closing down on her. We had to do several re-enactments at the bus-stop with Laura playing the Hapless Victim, James the Noble Hero and Mummy taking the dual role of Forgetful Mummy and Garage Door.

After such heroic behaviour, it's probably no wonder the children went berserk in our local Co-Op the next day. My children rarely embarrass me - not that they're little angels, I just take the view that if people are tutting then they probably don't have any children of their own and therefore their disapproval is irrelevant. And most parents actually like to see other children misbehaving - it helps us realise that our own children are not demons - they're just normal! But Tuesday evening was on another scale altogether and I did feel a bit embarrassed. At one stage James announced that he was going to build his own house and go and live in it On His Own and YOU (pointing at me) can't come in and YOU (Laura) can't come in either. I was impressed by the lucidity of his argument; rather less so by the volume of expression. (That wasn't the worst incident by the way - it's just the only one I can bear to remember.)

On Wednesday I dropped my mobile down the loo. If this should ever happen to you - and do not mock, it's more likely to happen than you think if you leave your mobile in your back pocket - then the tip of the day is: remove the phone back, the sim card and the battery before putting everything into the airing cupboard and just leaving it all to dry out! I'm not convinced the camera is quite recovered from the ordeal but otherwise the phone is working fine so it could have been worse.

This morning I knocked a hot iron onto a cheap carpet. There is now an unattractive iron shaped hole right by my sewing desk but since the floor is often covered in bits of thread and scrap fabric, I think I can live with it!

But great things happened too - apart from James' heroism of course. A large box of gorgeous destash fabric arrived from Jennifer Miller of Bella*Tessa Designs on Wednesday, and I finished a nice little skirt for Laura this morning using some of the said fabric. It isn't my usual choice, being yellow and pink (I get wa-a-ay too much yellow from making things for James!) but the print is just divine.

I was going to make it into a ruffled patchwork skirt using the Vivi pattern from Mamu Designs, but when it came to it, I couldn't cover up large chunks of the yellow print. So I added a pink ruffled lining and turned a couple of the patches into pockets.

With hindsight (and how often have I posted that!) I'd have done the smaller size because even with using buttonhole elastic, this skirt is miles too big for Laura. But the smaller size is age 12-18 months and although she's dinky, age 2 clothes generally fit her OK. This is an age 2-3 and clearly it doesn't fit her anything like OK! I also wouldn't have done both a yoke and a waistband - in fact, I may just cut off the lower skirt and reattach it to a simple one piece waistband. That would make the skirt shorter too. But I still really like the skirt and Laura loves it.

And I knocked up a hoody for James using more of the digger fabric. This one is (for everything is relative) pretty tasteful, being a nice shade of teal green. It's too big but the colour suits him and he likes the pocket and the sleeves and the hood so perhaps he's not going to build his own house and move into it after all. My mother, however, is keeping an eye out for second-hand furniture for him. Just in case!

The t-shirt's so bright you gotta wear shades

2009-09-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

I finally got round to using the Tyrrell Katz Working Vehicles fabric in a t-shirt for James. It was made to his specification: yellow, a hood, and diggers. I used the #14 reversible raglan sleeve t-shirt pattern from Ottobre 04/09 in size 110. He's at that irritating stage of being in between sizes so the 110 looks enormous on it, which doesn't add to its beauty. I only did one layer for the t-shirt, apart from the hood, which is double-layered so that the reverse of the digger print fabric isn't on show. Otherwise, it's fairly quick and dirty - I wanted him to have something new for a party this morning so I only spent a couple of hours on it.

It isn't my best work (I will have to fix that wonky pocket or it will forever bug me) but James said it was 'fabberooni' and insisted on wearing it immediately. So I'm happy that he's happy, even if yellow is so not a good colour on him!

Incidentally, if you're in the West Midlands with a train-happy child and want to give a party with a difference, then I thoroughly recommend the model trains at Illshaw Heath. They are pull tiny carriages that the children and adults can perch on for a ride. It was one of the best two hours I have ever spent and the children had to be prised away at the end of the party. So hurray for the Birmingham Society of Model Engineers who operate and maintain all the trains and who made the party so special for the children.

Milo Armadillo

2009-09-16T12:07:00.001-07:00

This is just the cutest book by one of my favourite authors, Jan Fearnley. Unlike many of her books, everybody in this one survives right to the end, which is excellent news because Milo Armadillo is completely adorable, as is Tallulah, his owner. They also both have excellent dress sense - very a la Lulu's Clothes (another gorgeous book).

When I saw that Walker Books had published a free downloadable knitting pattern for Milo, I had to have a look at it and as you would expect, it is super-cute. It also looks like a stash-busting project (as long as you've got lots of pink in the stash, that is) and it doesn't squeak or need batteries. I shall definitely be making Laura one of these for Christmas. And if you'd like to make one for your Milo fan, then here is the link.

Sleeping Bag tutorial

2009-09-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

This was meant to be the A-line pinafore tutorial but the wheels fell off slightly when I tried the nearly-finished toile on Laura today and realised it was going to fit her much bigger friend. I thought I was adding ease to the pattern - it turns out I was adding two whole sizes. Whoops! So, back to the drawing board and the tutorial will be posted just as soon as I've tweaked the pattern so that it fits!

In the meantime, I found one of my son's old sleeping bags in the wardrobe yesterday and remembered making one for him a couple of years ago. He was so wedded to his sleeping bags that he wanted to continue using one despite having grown out of the 18months to 3 years version. You can get these bags for age 3 to 6 years, which is the next size up but these are hard to find and harder still to finance. I found a couple of winter-weight ones in an NCT sale and used these as a template for a nice light summer one for him. Which he only used twice but that's another story.

Anyway, if you'd like to save some money by making your own third-size sleeping bags and if you are a slightly-more-than-novice seamstress, then here's what I did:

I drew around the original bag on a piece of wallpaper. You won't need to do this because I have made a rough template for you which you can transfer onto wallpaper using the measurements given. I haven't included seam allowances and the measurements don't have to be completely exact - this is a sleeping bag, not a couture jacket! It is probably easiest to draw the centre back/front line first (118cm) and then draw the rest around that line. I've put both the back and front necklines on the same pattern but you will want to make the back pattern first, then copy it onto another piece of wallpaper (I just cut out the template and drew around it - like I said, it doesn't have to be exact to the millimetre). The measurements are not hugely clear from the pictures so I shall list them at the end of this post.

You now have two paper patterns, neither of which has any seam allowances.

To make the sleeping bag I used one old flannelette sheet for the inner layer (in US terminology, a flannel sheet) and an even older cotton one for the outer layer. By using old sheets you are not only recycling, you are also removing the need to pre-wash and pre-shrink your fabrics (generally a must-do when you are sewing two different fabrics together). For winter-wear, you can use terry towelling for the inner layer, or even have two cotton sheets sandwiching a layer of batting.

Cut out the back first. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise and iron it. Then carefully place the pattern with the long straight centre-back line on the fold. If using scissors to cut out, pin the pattern in place. If using a rotary cutter, you only need to hold it in place with pattern weights or coins. The next picture shows the cutting lines in pink. You don't need to leave a seam allowance on the necklines or armholes. Obviously there is no seam allowance along the fold

For the front, you place the long straight centre-front line along the grain of the fabric. When you cut out this piece you need to leave a seam allowance of about 3cm along the centre-front line. This is so you can insert a zipper. By cutting on the folded fabric, you get the two pieces you need to form the front.

I first attached the zipper to left and right fronts of the bag outer using the centred zipper technique, before seaming down from the zipper to join the outer left and right fronts. I then seamed the same length on the inner left and right fronts and pressed the seam open, right up to the neckline - this was so that I could sew the inner to the zip later on.

Then I assembled the inner and outer bags separately by joining the shoulder seams and then the side and bottom seams in one operation. Do this for both bags. I didn't bother top-stitching the seams because time was very short, but I did press them. I then put the two bags together, with the wrong sides facing each other. I cut some binding for the armholes and the neckline simply because I never have bias-binding around when I need it. I attached the binding going from front to back and then I handstitched the inner to the zipper. The original bag had a small length of elastic sewn to the inner about 12cm under the armholes to gather the bag in around the child's waist. My son wasn't keen on this so I omitted it from my version. I can see, however, that the bag would be warmer with the addition of the elastic so I leave that one up to you. If you do want to add it, cut two strips about 10-12 cm long, centre them across the side seams and attach using a 3-step zigzag.

To pretty it up I cut out some Thomas the Tank Engine motifs from some quilting cotton in the stash and appliqued them onto the bag. This is what I generally do when I am anxious that my son will like something I've made for him.

Measurements (these are all for ONE HALF of the back or front of the bag!)

Bag length - 118cm; width at bottom - 28cm; armscye - 18.5; shoulder seam - 11.5cm; neckline width at top - 6cm; neckline drops 1.75cm at the centre back; front neckline drops 11cm from back neckline to bottom of v.

Any problems or suggested improvements, just email me or leave a comment.

Free knitting pattern for a Traffic Jam Tanktop

2009-09-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

TRAFFIC JAM TANK TOP (Download and print it from http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BysBb2pJoYVwN2ExYWUxYTAtNDdlYS00Y2U0LWEyYTAtYzE2OWRmNDQ1Yjk2&hl=en)

This is a lovely tank-top for a digger mad 4-5 year old. It features an intarsia traffic jam that goes from front to back, embellished with buttons and embroidery details. The garment would look even more striking with a stripy rib at the welt, armholes and neck. If you (or the recipient!) are not much into tank-tops then the 77 stitch/37 row chart is easily adapted for use in your favourite sweater pattern. By using 4ply yarn and 3.25mm needles, the pattern should be suitable for a 2-3 year old, and aran/worsted yarn and 5mm needles will make it suitable for a 5-6 year old. Probably.

I used Debbie Bliss’ Pima (I think it’s been discontinued) for this tank-top. Any DK weight yarn would do. You will need between 150g to 200g of the main colour (I went just over 150g) and one ball of each of the other colours, though you will only use a tiny fraction of each ball. The pattern is therefore hard on wool but you can always use the leftovers in a nice stripy sweater later. You will also need a pair of 3.25mm needles and a pair of 4mm needles. Also a cable needle, though you won’t be doing much with it, a safety pin, a stitch holder and a wool needle. To embellish, you will need a variety of small flattish buttons to use as wheels and the flashing light on the police car.

BACK
*Using 3.25mm needles cast on 77sts

Row 1 k1 (p1 k1) repeat to end
Row 2 p1 (k1 p1) repeat to end

Repeat these two rows another 3 times more

Change to 4mm needles and work stocking stitch (knit a row, purl a row) for four rows. Place chart. Then continue in stocking stitch until work measures 10 ½ inches from the beginning, ending with a purl row

Shape armholes
Cast off 7sts at the beg of the next two rows *

Next row: k2, p2tog, knit to last 4sts, p2tog, k2
Next row: Purl

Repeat these two rows until 49sts remain. Continue without further shaping until work measures 7 inches from start of armhole shaping, ending with a purl row

Shape shoulders
Cast off 6sts at the beginning of the next two rows and 6sts at the beginning of the following 2 rows. Cast off the remaining 25sts

Weave in the many loose ends if you haven’t done so already. Yes it’s dull but this is the best time to do it.

FRONT
Follow instructions for BACK from * to *

Shape neck
Next row: k2, p2tog, k23, p2tog, k2 and turn, leaving remaining stitches on a spare needle. Purl to end
Next row: k2, p2tog, k to last 4sts, p2tog, k2
Next row: Purl
Next row: k2, p2tog, k to last 4sts, p2tog, k2
Next row: Purl
Next row: K2, p2tog, k to last 3sts, p1, k2
Next row Purl
Repeat last four rows until 19sts remain.
Keeping armhole edge straight, continue to decrease at neck edge until 12sts remain, ending with a purl row

Next row: Knit to last 3sts, p1, k2
Next row: Purl

Repeat the last 2 rows until work measures the same as BACK to shoulder shaping, ending at side edge

Shape shoulder
Cast off 6sts at the beginning of the next row. Work 1 row. Cast off the remaining 6sts.

Slip the centre stitch onto a safety pin. Join the yarn at the neck edge to the remaining stitches from the stitch holder. Continue working on these stitches.

K2, p2tog, knit to last 4 stitches, p2tog, k2
Next row: Purl
Next row: K2, p2tog, k to last 4sts, p2tog, k2
Next row: Purl
Next row: K2, p2tog, k to last 4sts, p2tog, k2
Next row: Purl
Next row: K2, p1, k to last 4sts, p2tog, k2
Next row: Purl

Repeat the last four rows until 19 stitches remain. Keeping armhole straight continue to decrease at the neck edge only until 12 stitches remain, ending with a purl row.

Next row: Knit to last 3 stitches, p1, k2

Next row: Purl

Repeast last 2 rows until work measure same as the BACK to shoulder shaping, ending at the side edge. Cast off 6 stitches as beginning of next row, work 1 row, cast off remaining 6 stitches.

NECKBAND
Join right shoulder seam. With right side of work facing and using size 3.25 needles, pick up and knit 48 stitches down left side of neck, knit centre stitch and mark it with a coloured thread, pick up and knit 48 stitches up right side of neck then 26 stitches across back neck.

WRONG SIDE ROW Work in p1, k1 rib to the stitch before centre stitch, slip that stitch onto RH needle, slip centre stitch onto cable needle and leave it at the back of the work, place the stitch on RH needle back onto LH needle and then place stitch on cable needle back onto LH needle and purl all three stitches together. Rib in k1, p1 to end

RIGHT SIDE ROW Rib to the stitch before the centre stitch, slip next stitch onto RH needle, slip centre stitch onto cable needle and keep it at the front of the work, slip next stitch onto RH needle then place stitch on cable needle back onto LH needle, then place both stitches from RH needle back onto LH needle and knit these three stitches together. Rib to end.

Repeat these two rows either twice or thrice more depending on how ‘filled in’ you like the neckline to be. Then repeat the first row once more. Cast off in rib decreasing at the V as before.

ARMHOLE EDGINGS

Seam left shoulder seam and neckband. With right side of work facing and using 3.25 needles pick up and knit 96 stitches evenly around armhole edge. Work 5 rows in k1 p1 rib and cast off in rib.

Join side seams with mattress stitch

Block and press, embroider the details and add the buttons for wheels and you’re done. Try it on child and wait for gratitude or otherwise.

The Charts. These are really easy to knit but they were really hard to create and they're not great yet. But it's the best I can do! The lines for the tow-truck etc are to be embroidered using chain or running stitch. The big circles representing wheels are just where the buttons would go. The yellow tow truck starts on the front and goes over to the back. The crane is going the wrong way, something my son was keen to point out to me. I explained that it was the crane that was causing the traffic jam but he isn't convinced.

BACK

FRONT

This pattern is free to print but the charts print out really badly. However, I have done a PDF, which Blogger won't let me upload. BUT if you go to this very long link http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BysBb2pJoYVwN2ExYWUxYTAtNDdlYS00Y2U0LWEyYTAtYzE2OWRmNDQ1Yjk2&hl=en then I am assured by the kind people at Google Docs that the PDF file is yours to download and print! I couldn't get it to print direct from Google Docs but once it's downloaded it prints fine.

You may also knit up individual examples to sell if you want – heavens knows, I’ll never have time to! But if you do sell them, please include somewhere an acknowledgment that the pattern is mine! A link to this page or http://www.lespetitsanglais.co.uk/ would suffice.

The Olivia set

2009-08-31T01:05:00.000-07:00

This morning Nigel took the children out for breakfast so I could finish an outfit for one of James' schoolfriends. It's her birthday soon and I wanted to make her a dress as a present. I don't normally do this but her mother is a friend of mine and has given us binbags full of clothes for Laura, so I thought it would be nice to return the favour with a handmade birthday outfit. Rachel chose the pattern herself from my collection and the Olivia knit dress with pinafore is definitely her style.

I had some lovely check cotton from Dots n Stripes so I used that for the pinafore and used some self-dyed interlock for the underdress. The interlock came from Specialist Sportswear (an Ebay seller). It's gloriously thick, soft and stretchy and although it isn't listed, he does ribbing to match the interlock. I shall be buying lots more!

I really liked the idea of the pinafore/knit dress combo, but didn't like the gathering of the pinafore at the waist, so I re-cut the pattern so that the gathering was omitted. It's definitely better than the original but now it's made up, I think the fundamental problem with the design is that the knit underdress hangs straight down, while the woven pinafore sticks out. It just looks odd! I'm tempted to take in the sides of the skirts to make it more streamlined but will wait until I've seen the dress on before I decide for sure. It may just be that the when the knit is filled out with five year old girl, the outfit falls into place.

But there have been other problems! I had to hack at the pinafore's armholes because the armscye depth wasn't as deep as the underdress'. Too irritating! And I only realised this when I'd topstitched the pinafore's armholes so I just added some binding to the armhole to cover the hack-job. The underdress was just the right length on my son who is a good 10cm shorter than Rachel, so I added a Geske style flounce to lengthen it. Many of the examples I've seen are worn quite short, almost as tunics. They look lovely, but this is meant to be a party dress, so it really needed to be below knee length. I added some poppers to the pinafore (Rachel doesn't like buttons), and it's done.

All in all, the Olivia underdress is a great pattern - I love it, and will be making another one (or even two!) as cute comfy Autumn dresses for Laura. I also love the idea of the pinafore, but wouldn't be making another from the Olivia pattern. Which is, I think, given how few examples of the pinafore appear on Flickr something that other people have also found!

Not that he deserves it, mind.

2009-08-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

James has been composing a song. I have not yet heard it, but I understand from my husband that it goes like this:

I love daddy.
I love granny.
I love grandpa.

Chorus (loudly and with relish): And sometimes I love my muuummy

I love aunty.
I love Laura
I love nana.

Chorus (con amore): And sometimes I love my muuummy.

Repeat loudly, inserting different people in the verses, but always having mummy in the chorus.

I wouldn't mind, but we hadn't even fallen out!

And finally, something for James

2009-08-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

Regular readers may have noticed that although I mention two children in my profile, the only one I seem to sew for is Laura. There's a simple reason for that: I very rarely sew for James. This is mostly because, if given the choice, he'd rather have a new digger than a new t-shirt. But it's also because it's very hard to find nice fabric for little boys' clothes. It tends to be funky camouflage (which I really don't like) or too babyish for a four year old. But today, I hit the jackpot and won 1m of Tyrrell Katz jersey fabric on Ebay!

I am completely thrilled about this - I actually gave James the TK Working Vehicles card for his birthday this year, which he really liked. I also thought about getting him a t-shirt but balked at the price - £15 can buy a lot of toy-digger-action! At the time, I googled TK fabric but found nothing. And now I have a whole metre which will make many, many t-shirts because obviously I'm going to cut the fabric into squares or strips, rather than squander the lot on just one, or even two, t-shirts. I might even offer one up on Folksy - I can't be the only mother with a digger-mad son in the house. But it rather depends on whether James feels he can spare one....

And by the way, I don't often sew for him, but I do knit, so he isn't really neglected! And every garment I knit for him features - you've guessed it - a working vehicle!

The ruffler foot hokey-cokey

2009-08-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

Many moons ago I made Laura a ruffled Feliz. It took 9 hours, 6 of which was spent making and attaching the ruffles. I loved the dress and didn't begrudge the time but I wasn't going to tackle another one without buying a ruffler foot. So I did.

It arrived, I took one look at the foot, one look at the scanty black & white instructions, and I put both away. The ruffler gathered nothing but dust for several months.

In my recent overlocking enthusiasm, I made Laura a very striking shorter-length Anna, and a pair of jeans to go with it. They didn't 'go'. In fact, my eye was so far out there, it must have been in the next village. So I decided to lengthen the Anna with a ruffle. This was the perfect opportunity to get to grips with the ruffler, so I got it back out. And after trying to work it out for over 30 minutes, I put it away again, and started ruffling by hand. Forty-five minutes of fruitless gathering later, the ruffler was retrieved. The instructions weren't any clearer BUT Google had the answer. Or rather, Carla C from You Can Make This had the answer.

Thanks to her idiots' guide to the ruffler foot, I eventually finished the ruffle and attached it (next time, I'll be confident enough to do it in one operation). So if you, too, are battling to work out which side of your ruffler foot is up, and just what the fabric guide is, then this http://www.youcanmakethis.com/info/free/Free-The-Ruffler-Unruffled.htm is the link for you! Carla, I am grateful.

A peacocky kind of party dress

2009-08-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

As part of the successful UFO & Mending clear-out, I finished a silk dress for Laura this morning. I can assure you that I do not make a habit of giving silk dresses or indeed silk anything else to children, but this fabric was £8.750/m in the John Lewis sale, I had vouchers burning a hole in my pocket and, well, it was sooooo gorgeous I couldn't resist!

Now, I've never (sucessfully) sewn with silk before, and this was tissue-fine, crinkled silk. With spangles. Gorgeous but terrifying - rather like Daniel Day Lewis. So I turned to my trusty friend the internet for help and advice. And it didn't let me down! I wanted something that would be super-simple to make, partly to let the fabric do the shouting and partly because I feared I would run out of skill on a more complex design. So I did a very modified Ottobre 3-way dress (#18 from issue 03/09). With the help of a #60 needle and some fine silk thread, it wasn't nearly as tricky as I'd expected but I still wouldn't fancy doing anything harder than vertical or horizontal seams.

I did a kind of lettuce edge hem because I couldn't think of what else to do with it. I was going to line it with some aqua cotton lawn, but decided that it might impede the flow of the silk. I found a suitable ribbon in the stash but I think a longer wider one might do the dress more justice.

There's two pieces of silk left, each about 50cm long. One is blue and the other is aqua, and I'm not quite sure what to do with them. No doubt the internet will provide the answer eventually!

It isn't my favourite dress - I've never been a huge fan of the pillowcase style - but it's definitely Laura's! I had to prise it off her, which was very gratifying. I think when you do lots of sewing for your children, they are apt to take it a little for granted - human nature, I guess. We have a party early September so she can peacock in it at that. She'll be thrilled!

I have an overlocker, wooo hooooo!!!!!

2009-08-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

So thank you, darling DH! It's a second-hand Husqvarna Huskylock 905, bought on Ebay for an excellent £210 including postage. It even arrived ready threaded. So far, I've just serged the edges of some fabric ready for dyeing but it even made that tedious job fun. I can't wait to do an actual garment with it!

Time to suck it and see

2009-08-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

The skirt itself is a doddle to make. I cut it out, adding seam allowances as I cut. There are two centre panels (cut on the fold), four side panels, four godets and two yokes (cut on the fold). I then cut the same again in some cotton batiste for lining the skirt - I know it's only a toile, but I still like it to be lined.

Then I seam the godets to the side and centre panels. All seams are pressed and top-stitched as I'm going along. I never used to bother topstitching but I have since realised that omitting this just results in a slightly shoddy looking garment.

I then attach the skirt front to the the front yoke lining, and the skirt back to the back yoke lining, feeling mightily relieved that the pieces go together after my hack job on the pattern pieces. I then seam the skirt front to the skirt back.

Next I seam the yoke front and back shells together at the sides, before attaching the yoke lining to the yoke shell, right sides together and pressing the hem of the yoke lining so that I can just top stitch it in place once I've put in the elastic at the waistband

I cut a piece of elastic to cinch in the skirt back and attach it at the top of the skirt, sandwiched between the shell and the lining. I attach it by stitching in the ditch of the side seams of the shell. It would have been a good idea to take a photo of the process, but I forgot.

I then press the top seam where the shell meets the lining, and seam the shell and lining together just under the elastic to form a casing for it. I continue the seam across the front to make a faux waistband. It would have been a good plan to attach interfacing to the front faux waistband, but I thought of it too late.

I do however remember to do another seam across the elastic casing, which makes the casing look neater and stops the elastic from rolling. On the downside, it makes the skirt virtually unalterable if you ever decide you need to replace the elastic with a longer piece to prolong wear...

Finally, I hem the skirt and it's done. It isn't as swingy as I wanted, so next time I'll put in quite a bit more flare either by cutting the panels and spreading them, or by cutting and hacking a half-circle skirt block. But the skirt is fine for everyday wear. And Laura seems to like it!

Hacking the block into a pattern

2009-07-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Once you've made your block, you need to put on the markings i.e. mark the Centre Front/Back and put in any foldlines or grainlines). Then trace the block onto some dressmaker's tracing paper so that you can hack into it.

Using a hard pencil so that I only do faint lines, I mark the yoke. I want to make it about 10cm deep, so I mark 10cm onto the side and centre lines and join them freehand. I then draw a line vaguely perpendicular to the hem and yoke line, to divide the skirt into panels.

Then I mark the grain lines on each pattern piece. The grain runs down the Centre Front/Back of the skirt so I mark the grain lines exactly parallel to that line. While I'm fairly haphazard with most aspects of sewing and drafting. I always measure grain lines very carefully because if they're skew then your garment will never hang right. So measure once, measure twice and check them again before you take the scissors to the pattern. Ensure that each individual pattern piece has the grain line marked before you cut it out.

Then I make the godet piece. There are no instructions for this in the book so I'm kind of winging it here.

So... I measure the length of the skirt from the yoke line to the hemline. It's 21cm so I draw that line on the tracing paper. I then get out my set square - I want to draw the kind of triangle that has two lengths the same - in this case, 21cm. I have no idea how to do this so I decide to take my 21cm line as the middle line of the triangle. From that, I mark two lines on either side of it each 45 degrees from the centre. I extend each line to 21cm and freehand draw a gentle arc to join them. The centre line is of course also the grain line.

I cut out all the pieces and see how they jigsaw together. I trim the tops of the side and centre panel a little so that they are a better fit with the yoke - this is a bit 'suck it and see' but I'm hoping it will work.

Pattern-cutting Part 3 - Drafting a skirt block.

2009-07-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

I guess I should start by explaining that a block is a very basic pattern, from which you trace your own more exciting patterns. I am going to draft a skirt block for my 2 year old, and then trace off a gored skirt from it. There are only 4 measurements to be taken for this - I am using the standard measurement charts from Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Children's Wear and Babywear, but if you want a perfectly fitting garment for your child, then you will need to measure said child!

You will need:

squared dressmaking paper - I should imagine you can do it without this, but it would be very difficult and require much use of a set square [shudder].
A sharp pencil, more like a 3H than a 3B.
A longish ruler.
A calculator - again, you can do this without, but it's easier with.
A rubber/eraser
tracing paper
The following measurements:

waist,
hip,
waist to hip, and
waist to required skirt length.

First step: taking the measurements.

Ensure wriggly child is only wearing whatever she will be wearing the skirt over - whether it's pants or a nappy. Get wriggly child to stand still (I find that CBeebies is marvellous for helping out with this!) Measure her around her waist - this can be hard to find on small children, but if you look at where most skirts come up to on her, this will help you to find the right place. And it isn't the end of the world if you don't get it quite right because the chest, waist and hip measurements are pretty similar on small children.

Then measure her around the fullest part of her hip/bottom. You then measure the vertical distance between the waist measurement and hip measurement , and finally the waist to skirt length - I have used a favourite ready-to-wear skirt to take this measurement.

If you want to use standard measurements, then this link: http://pattern.stringcodes.com/size-std.html is not a bad place to start. Remember though that while these measurements are cut for nappies up to age 2, they are not cut for cloth nappies.

We can now start to draft our skirt block.

Mark point 0 on your squared paper. This is going to be the centre waist of your skirt, so do not put it at the furthest left edge of the paper because you will need to go still further left when you square up to the edge of the skirt. You'll see what I mean when we reach that point! Two or three centimetres in from the edge should be fine. Please note: the drawings that follow were prepared on Paint and are not to scale!!!!!! They are just to give you an idea of what you should be doing.

Then draw a line across the bottom of the page ("square across"). Mark the length of your skirt on this line as point 1. Then mark the ((waist to hip) +1 cm), as point 2. Draw perpendicular lines up from 0, 1 and 2 ("square up").

On the line you squared up from 2, you need to mark off point 3, which is 1/4 of the hip measurement, plus 1.5cm for ease. You then square left to 4 and right to 5. Join the points horizontally.

Next you need to mark point 6, which is on the 0-4 line, at (1/4 waist measurement) + 0.5cm.
Point 7 comes next. This is where we do the waist shaping. You don't quite square across to 7 from 6, it's more of a slight diagonal line, 1 cm above 6. The picture makes it more clear.

We now mark point 8, which is 2cm up from point 5. If you like more flare to your skirt, then you can hack into the working pattern later.

.

Finally, you join the dots. This calls for a degree of artistry that I cannot reproduce on Paint! Essentially, the lines will be straight from 8 to 3, straightish from 6 to 3, and very curved from 6 to 7, and 1 to 7. To put it at its simplest: you want it to look like the front half of a skirt!

And that's the skirt block done. Next post will be how to turn it into a pattern.

Can we fix it? Erm, I think so!

2009-07-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

In the warm light of day, the t-shirt looks no better. I try it on Laura and it doesn't improve. If there were ever a 'just plain wrong' sleeve length, these sleeves are it. And the body is way too short. That should be easy to fix so I'll deal with that first.

I could just sew a strip of co-ordinating jersey to the bottom of the top, right sides together, to create a single-layer longer body, but I think that making a faux two layer top would be prettier. So first I hem the red polka dot, using a narrow rolled hem sewn with a zig zag stitch, and s-t-r-e-e-e-t-c-h-i-n-g the hem as far as I can while sewing it. This creates a really pretty ruffled finish (called 'lettuce edge') for a stretch fabric. I then cut a wide strip of white jersey, join the two ends, and stitch it to the wrong side of the polka dot, about 5 cm up from the hem.

All I need to do is to lettuce edge the white strip as I did with the polka dot, and that will add about 6 cm to the bottom of the top. I do just that and the top already looks much better. But aaaargh! those sleeves are hideous!!!!

So... I could cut them short and re-bind them with the foldover elastic, but I suspect that this won't really help. The armhole is too easy-fitting to attractively accommodate a puff sleeve. So I decide to just cut the sleeves much much shorter, and then do the lettuce edge hem. And all of a sudden, the top has come together. It's feminine, pretty and in proportion. I really like it!

And that is the beauty of sewing with knit fabrics. It's really forgiving and endlessly adaptable. And if you use a stretch needle, and a zig-zaggy kind of stitch to sew it, it's easy to sew too. Go on - have a try!

Next, I'm going to have a try at drafting a pattern for a godet skirt with a yoke. There are only 4 measurements to be taken in order to do a skirt block, so it would be perfect for a draft-and-sew-tute. I hope you agree!

Sewing the t-shirt

2009-07-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

I need to test out the t-shirt pattern so I'm going to 'make a toile'. This is seamstress speak for knocking up a garment from cheap fabric so that you can see if the patten actually works and what you need to do to it if it doesn't. I have some cheapish jersey that is pretty nice so if the pattern comes together the toile will be wearable.

I've cut the pieces out using a rotary cutter and a cutting board. The equipment is marginally more expensive than dressmaking scissors, but much easier and quicker to use. I've added seam allowances to the pieces as I've cut them - about 1cm to all the seams apart from the neckline, which I shall bind rather than seam, and a few centimentres to the t-shirt hem. I'm starting to think that the top might not be long enough, but I'll worry about that later.

First, I iron thin strips of lightweight interfacing to where the back shoulder seams will be. This will stablise the seams and keep the garment looking better for longer. Next I join the back and front pieces, right sides together, at the shoulder seam. USE A STRETCH NEEDLE for sewing stretch fabrics such as jersey or interlock. You can sew the seam using a straight stitch, but the seams are more likely to pucker and end up generally squiff if you do that - I always use a zig zag stitch or, even better, a stretch interlock stitch. The stretch interlock seam is sewn in a 'two steps orward, one step back' movement which keeps the seam straight and even. It sounds slow work but it's effective.

Then I press the seam allowance to the back of the top, and topstitch it with a straight stitch. I do this with all seams - it makes for a much more professional looking finish.

Next I need to bind the neckline. I was going to cut some ribbing for this, but couldn't find any with good enough stretch and recovery (i.e. pull the ribbing across its grain, and see how quickly it returns to its normal position) so I've used some foldover elastic instead. The actual sewing of

this is very different from sewing ribbing or jersey binding, but the technique for working out how much you need and attaching it evenly is pretty similar. So, first I work out how much I need. I measure the neckline - only roughly because I'm using the ruler on my sewing table (can't be bothered to find a measuring tape). I then cut some elastic to 75% of that measurement. I mark the approximately halfway point, and then the quarter points. I do the same on the neckline and pin the elastic to the binding, matching the marks.

I sewed the foldover elastic using the same technique I'd use for sewing ribbing. I sewed the elastic to the right side of the neckline using a narrow-width medium-length zig-zag stitch, stretching the elastic as far as I could while sewing it. I then folded the elastic over to the wrong side of the neckline, and top-stitched it with a straight stitch, stretching both the jersey and the elastic slightly. The experienced seamstress will know that this is not a great technique for sewing foldover elastic - it worked on this occasion, but I was lucky to get away with it. Generally for sewing foldover elastic, I would sandwich the fabric between the folded elastic and just do one seam using 3-step zig-zag. What can I say? it was late and I wasn't thinking properly.

Next I pressed the neckline and was pleased to see that although it looks very odd from the inside - red thread against brilliant white elastic, yuk! - it looks just fine from the outside. I now sew the second shoulder seam (topstitching over the elastic binding as well as the shoulder seam) and then start on the sleeves.

First I attach foldoever elastic to the hem of the sleeves, using the correct 3-step zig zag technique. This gathers the hem nicely into the elastic binding.

I then mark the middle top of the sleeves and sew a line of long straight stitch around the top of the sleeve, starting from and ending at about 5 cm in from the sides. I pull on the bobbin threads to gather the top of the sleeve - this makes the sleeve puff up. I then pin the marked top of sleeve to the shoulder seam of the armhole, right sides together, and arrange the gathering so that the sleeve fits nicely onto the armhole. I do this for both sleeves and then sew the sleeves to the armholes using the useful stretch interlock stitch. This is the most fiddly bit of the t-shirt but it's worth spending the time to get it right.

When I've finished, I seam up the right sides of the t-shirt to the armhole, and keep going to join the two edges of the sleeve. Repeat on the other side of the t-shirt. it's then that I realise a number of pattern errors: the sleeve is miles too long and the body could do with being another 10 cm longer. These can be fixed: what could be more tricky is that the easy-fitting t-shirt style does not lend itself well to a puff sleeve! The sleeves look very odd and I think I'll leave it for tonight and see if I can dream up a solution.

Part 2: Messing around with the sleeve block

2009-07-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

I'm using tracing paper to transfer the sleeve pattern block onto a working pattern that I can hack into. I won't cut out the pattern blocks until I know that they're good to use - that way, I can amend them if necessary. Once I've cut out the traced sleeve, I can start cutting it up.

Here you can see that I've sliced the sleeve lengthwise into four pieces so as widen it ready to be gathered.

And here, I've sticky taped the pieces, with 1 cm between each, to some more tracing paper. I've traced around it, adding 1 cm or so at top and bottom. You can just see the new cutting line.

I can now cut out the three pattern pieces and I'm just about done. I'm not going to add seam allowances to the pattern - the European patterns that I mostly use come without seam allowances so I now prefer to just add the allowance as I cut. I also won't try and make a pattern yet for the neck binding - my plan is to sew the t-shirt together, find some binding fabric, and then working out how long the binding piece should be.

Next step - making the t-shirt! Sewing with jersey fabrics is something that I was scared of doing until very recently, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's easier than I thought. Well, it could hardly have been harder... So I'm going to do the t-shirt as a kind of tutorial.

Pattern-cutting Part 1 - Drafting the block. And it really is easier with a calculator

2009-07-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

I've been setting up a home business making cloth nappies, hats and clothing for children. Although I can sell clothes made from Farbenmix, I want a better range of basics, which means I need to draft my own patterns. So.... this is where I start.

I want to make Laura a crew-neck close-fitting t-shirt with puff sleeves, and I find that I don't have a pattern for one. (How can this be? marvels my DH, eyeing the pile of patterns and magazines in the den).

I've faffed about trying to put together three Ottobre patterns to get the one I want, and was only moderately successful - it took some remedial hand-sewing at the shoulders and even the addition of some poppers to make the t-shirt wearable. A proper seamstress would shudder to see it so please, proper seamstresses, don't look at the picture on the left!

So, now I'm going to have another try, using my new copy of Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Children's Wear and Babywear. It's been my bedtime reading for a few weeks (which is not probably something to put in a first post, but it's best you know the kind of person you're dealing with here...) Now I'm going to see if I can put it into practice.

Winifred tells me that a calculator is a necessity to take the tricky calculations out of the proceedings. Now that's a bit scary hearing for someone with only CSE 1 in maths. But once I've sat down with the ruler (a bit bendy but it'll do for now), pencils, squared paper, pencil sharpener, and make a start, it all starts to fall into place and the calculator is definitely a necessity. After a false start, I realise that it's easier to do the calculations before marking the dots on the paper, rather than doing the maths, making the mark, doing the maths, you get the idea.

Once I've got that taped, I do the close-fitting t-shirt and realise that it's probably going to be slightly too close-fitting for comfort since I'm not going to be using super-stretchy jersey fabric. So I do the basic one next. I'm using the standard measurements for size 92 (age 2) rather than doing Laura's actual measurements. Firstly because it's hard enough getting the child to pose for a picture, never mind taking 7 or so measurements, secondly because size 92 is a fairly good fit for her and I doubt if I could do much better - certainly not on a first attempt, and thirdly because my aim is eventually to sell these t-shirts and I'd rather only cut one pattern block for size 92.

The final pattern blocks look OK. I would have liked more help from Winifred on drawing the necklines and armholes, given that these are where I tend to go wrong when I'm amending commercial patterns, but we'll just have to see.

Tomorrow I'll try to turn the sleeve block into a puff sleeve pattern. Fortunately, Winifred has step by step instructions for that too.