Completed: Selfless-sewing birthday bag

My youngest sister (I have three sisters, for I am very lucky!) asked for a weekend bag for her recent birthday, and I kind of jumped at the chance of testing a pattern I’ve had for a few weeks now. I got together with my other two sisters to pick some nice fabrics and notions, then whisked it all away to the UK for some secret sewing.

The pattern I used was by Gingercake, the Make-your-getaway duffle which can be found here. I could have probably drafted my own, but I figured, for $7, I would much rather somebody else did the maths for me

The pattern worked out pretty well – I only made small changes: the handles were a bit longer, I didn’t do any quilting, and I interfaced the parts which hold the zipper (I figured they’ll be under a bit of strain). Also, I didn’t add a lining, but I interlined instead. I wanted to have small bags on the inside, but I didn’t want that to be visible from the outside. So, I cut some lining pieces, added the pockets, and then treated it as one with the outside fabric. I then hid the seams in some polka-dot bias binding. I also added a big side bag for magazines etc., which I just cut like a side panel, but a bit shorter. I even matched the stripes! It was a very satisfying make – the pattern came together well, it looks nice, and my sister loves it. Score!  It’s pretty roomy, but I think still within most european airline regulations for hand luggage, so another win. Without further ado, here are some pictures.

the bag in its entire beauty. You can see the outside pocket here. I used denim for the pieces with a lot of strain – handles and bottom.

Detail shot of the inside: Bias tape at the seams, and bias tape to finish the pocket edges. I figured the orange would make it easier to find the pockets.

Inside and outside of the bag at the same time

And the inside – the bag photographed really well with some sofa cushions inside. You can see the bottom is made of denim – I used some old jeans to reinforce it.

All in all, it worked a lot better than I expected – I already have some materials for another bag for myself sitting on my shelf Oh, and did you notice it’s not a sewaholic pattern? But hey, I still had somebody holding my hand. Babysteps…

Sewing and the PhD

So, last week I got some good news. The PhD I had slaved away at for four years? I passed my viva in January, but I got a few minor changes to complete (very normal stuff – they usually ask you to add a few bits, amend a few things, etc., to make the whole thing even better, haha). Last week, I found out that my changes had been accepted. Woop! They had seriously been getting between me and sewing, and I was not impressed.

But, it has to be said: I don’t think I would be as much into sewing today without the PhD. Sewing blogs have a strong appeal on their own, but when your stuck at your PC all day, every day, by yourself? Then they’re a magical otherworld which promises fun and learning and pretty colours and nice people who don’t tell you to rewrite a chapter. So I would bribe myself: Go on… if you can work well for an hour, then you can read this new post. If you proof-read this chapter, you get to have a look at this blog. I would sew in breaks, or while listening and re-listening to the interviews I had conducted. I madly completed a dress and a jacket for a friend’s wedding while in the last throes of the PhD (they turned out lovely, but the jacket too big, it’s now with my mum). In short, sewing and sewing blogs kept me sane while doing my PhD.

In the last couple of weeks, I haven’t had much time for sewing which made me sad – but I did manage to do a few things: I re-hemmed and re-necklined my first proper make, a pendrell blouse. After reading blogs for a year, I finally took the plunge and started sewing again. Pictures to follow It felt very suitable as it had been my first make during the PhD about a year ago, and now I finished it during the very last changes. I managed to go to my first blogger meet-up, which was a ton of fun, I made my sister a bag and myself a kindle cover (pictures to follow, too!), and I’ve been hording fabrics like mad. I now have stash. And the best news? Hey, the PhD is over! I finally have time to dig into it all, and start sewing. Some patterns are layed out already.

Oh, and the other good news? I get to graduate in summer. We need to wear ‘academic dress’ which is supposed to be has to be black (booooring!). So, I get to make myself a nice black dress/outfit. Yay again! I have two months for it. Stay tuned, since now that the PhD is done, I will actually have time to post about things I’ve made, and make things to post about.

So, thank you, sewing and sewing bloggers all over, for my sanity, in the last years. Here’s to many more sane years.

Resources I used for my Minoru

This post is really just a way for me to put together the resources I used for my Minoru and the inspiration I had. This way, I can refer back to it in the future, and you can stalk some other amazing Minorus.

First of all, there’s the Minoru sewalong over at Sewaholic. It contains very detailed instructions with a ton of pictures for each step, and is like having somebody hold your hand while you’re sewing, which is awesome. Also, this is where I got the tutorial for the side seam pockets I made.

The idea with the extra front placket, I stole from MissJacksonDesigns here - I really liked her jacket, and her pictures at least gave me a starting point for figuring out how far the placket should come across.

A great deal of inspiration, I also got from simply image searching for ‘minoru jacket’ and then reading up on the amazing jackets I found. There’s some stunning examples out there!

Now it’s getting slightly warmer, I’m already considering whether I should make a second one, without interlining, for cooler/rainier summer days, which we’ll no doubt get. For that version, I would like to adapt it slightly so they don’t look too similar – I’m thinking a brighter/lighter colour, with a few changes. Both Mika and Andrea have recently made a slightly different version, with welt pockets and a different collar – their jackets have come out so beautifully that I want another one! And it would look different enough that maybe people wouldn’t spot immediately that it’s practically the same jacket. Maybe next year…

Completed: Minoru!

So, I started writing this post once, then my PC crashed and deleted it. Then I re-wrote it, and couldn’t upload any pictures. Third time lucky? Sorry for the long silence!

I finished my Minoru about two or three weeks ago, but I couldn’t blog about it before because first, I didn’t have any pictures; then I had too much work and too little time, plus I was busy running around and gallivanting and generally being in love with my Minoru, then it was Easter and I had to eat chocolates, and then my PC crashed.

Making a Minoru was my Sewlution for 2013 (see here for Karen’s original post). I dithered for a long time of what material to make it from? Wool? Cotton Twill? Something else? In the end, I settled on a cotton twill, because I wanted quite a heavy jacket that would be perfect for transitioning between summer jackets and my winter coat. It turned out just as I wanted:

Very very snuggly jacket

I found the perfect heavy twill on Goldhawk Road (£3/m), then bought some flannel for interlining for added warmth. It was arctic here while I sewed this – I had a hard time persuading myself I didn’t need to add two layers of interlining! The lining is a silk I had in my stash (I thought it might make a blouse/top, then realized just in time I never wear patterned tops, like, ever), also bought at Goldhawk Road for £3/m. I would love to tell you from which shop it was, but I can never remember the name – it’s the one where the cellar is an Aladdin’s cave, and the top floor has the wools and suiting, and the lovely lady answers all my questions with infinite patience. Classic Fabrics, maybe?

Making it took a very long time, and before making it, I planned it in my head for an even longer time. I started it in February, and then sewed in very small increments. I started with the small things – secret pocket, hood, collar and zips – and had a few small hitches where I waited for different zips and a zipper foot to arrive. My original 18” hood zip turned out too short, so I re-ordered, and then also decided, after much dithering, that I didn’t like the idea of a black and metal zip I’d originally bought for the front.

Zipper time!

Now the front zip is navy-blue that goes with the lining, and opens both ends. Thank you to my friend Ines, who patiently listened to my colour confusion and recommended the blue zip, as well as dispelling my doubts about the buttons.

I did make a few changes.

1. You might have noticed – I added an additional front placket to hide the zip. I didn’t like the idea of an exposed zipper, that was reason one. Also, did I mention that it was really cold here while I sewed this?The thought of a little bit of extra cold air stealing in through the exposed zip was unbearable. On went the front placket. I cut it exactly twice as wide as the normal ones, interfaced it (not sure it was needed – it’s maybe almost too stable now), sewed three sides shut,
   

   Front placket, close-up from the inside.

   and understitched the inside of it to make it behave,which worked a treat – the placket is now very well behaved. Therefore, it also got some top stitching. I then added buttonholes before adding it to the jacket together with the front right placket. It worked perfectly fine – I was just extra careful when putting the lining and the jacket together, as there’s a slight danger of stitching the placket to where it shouldn’t be, but it all worked fine. It also changed the topstitching a little bit, but nothing major.

2. 

   Pocketses!

   There’s pockets in the side seam. They are lined with silk, and make me very very happy everytime I put my hand into them. In the last two weeks, with the cold winds, they’ve been a lifesaver. I used pockets from the Crescent skirt, I think – it was lying around – and just smoothed out the corners. I interlined the silk with cotton to give it some warmth stability.

3. It’s interlined! Flannel at the front and back, and cotton in the sleeves (I didn’t want it too warm). Beyond adding warmth, they also added some body to the silk – without this, the combination of slippery silk and massively heavy cotton twill would have been weird. Sewing the collar pieces together was hard work without the interlining!
4. The seam allowance on the sleeve side seam and side seam to just below my breasts is only 1cm, instead of 1.5cm. I basted it first, and realized there was just a touch of not enough room for my massive shoulders  and arms (hello, swimming). Also, with interlining, I was worried about extra thickness. I’m glad I did this – it still doesn’t look massive at the arms, and I can move.
   

   Bias-taped seam

5. Both pieces of the collar are lined (in the lining and the outside), and the seam stitching the hood into the collar and to the body of the jacket, I finished with some left-over bias tape, so that there is no raw seam in the hood (see also Karen’s words of warning about this, here and here).

There’s a lot of things I learned during this project – for example,

1. I can sew zips into things! My £3 amazon zipperfoot works! I was very skeptical about this when the foot arrived, but it works just fine. I didn’t have to rip out any zips at all. Amazing.
2. Topstitching is really really hard. I do not like it much. Mainly because I’m a perfectionist and get really upset about small irregularities. I cheated in some areas on this jacket, and added a second row of topstitching, so the irregularities would be hidden more. I think it worked. There’s a few detail shots below where you can see.
3. My seam ripper is my very best friend, like, ever. Honestly, it did so many minutes with me… so many seams it became acquainted with intimately. There was a lot of ripping out in this jacket, most of it due to my occasional idiocy. I should really stop misplacing the thing, or at least buy two more.
4. Speaking of which… I learnt that it takes two seconds to mess up a button hole, and half an hour at least to take it out again. I practiced my button holes, to make sure the size was right, and the thread tension and stitch length and overall look… I practised cutting them open, and measured obsessively where they should be. Then, on the first button hole, my machine had a hiccup. The next half hour, my seam ripper and me hung out.
5. Patience pays off. There were many times I wasn’t convinced it was going to be a jacket I love, but I persevered, put it away when all my wonky topstitching was getting on my nerves, and kept giving myself time and not rushing it. It really worked – I’m glad I took the time over it, for now I absolutely love it. And hey, even the buttonhole turned out fine eventually!

The biggest challenges for me:

1. Buttonholes. D’oh. They were my first proper ones.
2. Patience? Cutting out three layers of fabric for ten hours, even though I hate cutting?
3. Putting in zippers. Again, first ones with new foot – I am amazed!
4. Topstitching. It’s haaaaaard, did I mention? I also tried a triple stitch for the top stitch, which felt like my sewing machine was cantering, with the results similarly wonky to me trying to sew on a horse cantering. That also took a long time to rip out!
5. Topstitching curves. My hood almost had me in tears.
6. Stitching in the ditch for the hood – my lining kept getting caught in this. Eventually I topstitched my first collar topstitching again to keep the lining in check, then added the stitching in the ditch. It’s not perfect – I might go back and change it later on, but for now, it’s ok.
7. Choosing the buttons. Man, can I dither about the details. Actually, just make that detail obsession/perfectionism.

Enough lists. Here’s more photos.

Lovely details: Stitching in the ditch and the result of the slight failure, topstitching on the hood, also slightly wonky. amazing hood zip which worked, lining and secret pocket, and the hem, with some beautiful, unintended tucks.

And yes, I love it to bits. When it all came together, it was amazing. I wanted to sleep in it (apparently, that’s not acceptable, said the boyfriend). Also, I’m getting a ton of compliments on it, which is really really nice for my sewing confidence! And now it’s finally a bit warmer, I can wear it without freezing to death It’s perfect for the current conditions.

So, in March 2013, I can say that my sewlution is done, and that I’m very very happy with it! Also, though, I’m happy it’s done. I didn’t pick up a project for quite a while afterwards. I needed to recover a bit

Low-key DIY: two necklaces

Karen over at didyoumakethat has been blogging about lacking the energy to sew. It was really fitting – this weekend, I totally ran out. I had to go to work for a few hours too, and there just wasn’t enough time to build up a mojo. I started Saturday morning with a bit of work on my Minoru jacket; I started with the small bits, such as the collar with the zipper, but made an essential mistake: I cut the zipper-placement too large, and now my zipper is too short for the gap (no pictures, sorry). I ordered a longer zipper, so hopefully by Monday or Tuesday I’m good to go. But, while not a major problem, it killed my mojo completely. I’m also feeling abit overwhelmed by the whole Minoru – there’s so much to do!

Saturday afternoon, after work, I found a small project that would be just perfect to do over a cup of coffee: nothing strenuous, just a bit of playing around. It was two necklaces made of wooden pearls which I discovered in a charity shop. One was colourful, the other blue. I like both, but not in their current style/way they’d been put together, so back at home, I took them apart and re-threaded them. It was really really satisfying:

The blue round wooden pearls from the top were on one necklace with the platlets below. I really liked the platlets, but didn’t like the mixture… two hours later, the problem was resolved. I didn’t have any of the nylon-jewellery thread on hand (I thought I had, but it turned out to be see-through sewing thread and ripped really easily), so I used navy-blue top-stitching thread. The round ones fit in perfectly with the other necklace, and replaced the pearls I didn’t like too much. Overall, a success – now all I need is a bit of warmer weather, so I can wear these out in the sun! That might be a while though.

The rest of my energy was spent making veggie lasagna, and some peanut butter cookies for the boyfriend. He complained at the lack of desert (awwww), and they were the only ones we had everything in for. You can get the receipe here. Apart from using store-cupboard staples, they’re also just the right amount of crunchy, with a mixture of sugar and salt from the peanut butter. Perfect for the winter cold and misery we have at the moment!

Completed: One Alma, one Renfrew

I promise, at some point I’ll make something that’s not a sewaholic pattern. Honestly. But for now, they’re so nice, they fit, and I have so much handholding! I actually finished these a while ago – like, almost a month? I finished the Alma in mid-January, and wore the Renfrew for the first time on Pancake day (ok, so not thaaat long ago, but still over a week). However, it’s been really busy here, and everytime I thought, ooh, I have some time to blog, the little good person in my head said, ‘but shouldn’t you rather do an application/your paperwork/some paid work?’, and off slunk my blogging mojo. Productivity: 1, blogging: 0. Sorry!

Anyway, here’s the Alma. I made it from an (I think) wax-print cotton. The blue colour varies throughout, and looks really nice, and I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out. I made the round-necked version, but without sleeves (I thought it would be a bit much), to check the fit as much as to end up with a nice garment. As I said, I like how it’s turned out – even though there’s a few small things I want to fix next time. For example, I think it could be a good inch or two longer – currently, tucking it into any skirts is not an option (and I only used about 0.5cm for the hemming, too), so the next version will be longer. Also, there’s a bit of excess fabric in the shoulder area, which I’m fairly sure something like the ‘sloping shoulder adjustment’ will help me fix (I know, great name. Way to make us feel better about our bodies!).

The picture on the left is the proof that I finally learnt to install an invisible zip. Boom! It only took me, like, two hours and a few tutorials. The Alma was a breeze until then, when Tasia’s instructions helpfully said ‘insert invisible zipper now’ and moved on, at which point my brain exploded. Colette’s tutorial came to the rescue. After this, I happily proceeded to sew my zipper so it would be invisible from the wrong side. So I ripped it out and put it back in, more carefully and thankfully correctly this time round. I then bought myself a normal zipper foot, as the machine I use didn’t have one (it’s a friend’s), in the hope this’ll make it less awkward next time. I’m not convinced yet (it was only £3 on amazon, hence my doubts). On the right, you can see my superneat topstitching for the armhole, which made me feel very smug indeed.

I already wore this to work once (they actually have really good mirrors in the bathroom – way better than mine at home! – so I can spot and obsess over wrinkles much more easily), and I’m fairly sure it’ll become a summer staple. Maybe with a dark-blue ginger? Based on how much I like it, I got the stuff ready for the next Alma: a grey polka-dot cotton with black cotton for the collar.

The Renfrew is now my fourth, so not too much to say here. It’s quite casual, very soft and snuggly, and fits very nicely. The print is a bit madder than I thought it would be based on the fabric, but that’s fine. Like I said, it’s quite casual, so no danger of wearing it to work anyways. But, so soft! I think the fabric is from Fabrichouse on Goldhawk Road. It’s one of the smaller shops, but I like it for that, and for the fact I can quietly ask a ton of questions, without 50 people walking past me.

Er, and yes, I’m sitting on the dining table. We’ve had doomy, gloomy weather in London for the past eon now, and the dining table actually has decent light during the daytime. So, yes. Awkward photos. Like I said, I’m fairly sure our neighbours think we’re mad, but that’s fine, we spy on them too.

Beyond these two, sewing is currently slow and slower – I have too much to do, lots of work on weekends and in the evenings, and am meant to be writing applications. However, this weekend I finally managed to cut out the pattern pieces to the Minoru – I picked a dark-grey/olive cotton twill, which will be lined and interlined to be the perfect transitory jacket (no pressure, hey?). It took me *a day* to cut out everything. And I still haven’t made pockets, even though I essentially spent most of the weekend with my rotary cutter and some music for company. I might start sewing today with some of the smaller items (pockets, hood, collar) for some instant gratification.

Oh, and the promise I made about sewing something other than sewaholic? I printed off some different patterns today: the dolman sleeve top from Cindy over at Cationdesigns (the pattern has cats on, to ensure you line it up correctly. Cuteness overdose!), and the Ariadne Tunic from Tanit-Isis.  I’m looking forward to making these!

What are you working on at the moment? And how much sewing do you get done during the week? Do you ever feel bad for spending a whole weekend with your fabrics, rotary cutters and scissors?

Completed: Hollyburn skirt!

So, now that Rachel has given us until tomorrow to share our sewalong-skirts, I thought I’d wait until the last minute.

It was actually more or less finished last weekend, but needed hemming, and photographing, and my resident photographer was unavailable during daylight hours… And today, I finally managed to get some pictures!

This is the skirt in all its glory – the fabric came out beautifully, and hangs just right I think. Overall, I’m very very happy with the skirt: it’s exactly my style, and injects some much-needed colour into my wardrobe. It was simple to make, but had quite a bit of detail I could ponder and play with, so it was a nice pattern to work with. I’ll definitely make it again.

I think it’ll work well with quite a few items in my wardrobe – many more than originally thought. It’s definitely cake, rather than icing. My favourite top to go with it so far? The ueber-snuggly jumper I’m wearing above. My mum knitted it for me. It’s superwarm llama-wool, which I really need at the moment. We’ve been in the single digits temperature-wise for the past, what, 8 weeks? I told my mum I’m only taking it off when we’re in double digits again. So far, I’ve stuck to it…

I made view B, with button tabs:

I took much more care over the finishes than I so far have done with my other makes: my lining has French seams, the skirt side seams are folded over and finished that way, and the skirt hem has been finished with some navy bias tape my mum gave me last summer:

Errr, and yes, the skirt lining is inserted the wrong way round. I’m not sure whether to be grateful for the French seams as they look so neat, or to blame them for the fact I didn’t think this through more?

Now, while I’m very happy with the skirt, there’s one gripe I have – my wasteband gapes, quite a bit! You can see it in those detail shots here:

In the picture on the left, you can see the amount by which the waistband gapes – I guess it should lie flat. It also doesn’t help that apparently my rib cage is narrower than my waist, so the waistband has nothing to fill it, the poor thing. I think the amount of gapage is due to a combination of my weird rib cage together with the fact that I really struggled putting in the zipper. I’m not sure exactly what possessed me to buy an invisible zipper! It was only my second invisible zipper ever, and it really fought hard. So, that probably contributed by pulling the waistband out of shape slightly while stitching, ripping out, stitching, turning it over, checking it, stitching, ripping… you get the idea  (I almost took a picture for you guys of the hot mess the inside of the zipper was, but, oh, what a shame, I’d already sewn the waistband down at this stage, so, no hot mess visible. Wahay!).  Next time: visible zipper! I now also possess a normal-zipper foot, so maybe that’ll help, if I ever figure out how it’s supposed to work.

The waistband-gapage means I’m likely to only wear it with tops over the waistband, rather than tucked in, which is a little bit of a shame, ’cause I think the buttons are cute, and I took extra care to put the button tabs in exactly above the side seams. But, they’ll now be my little secret, and make me smile, because I know they’re there, so that’s fine.

Making the skirt was  an interesting experience – there’s been a great post over at yesilikethat about learning to sew, and the associated perfectionism: The more you know about sewing, the more you want what you sew to be perfect. I felt a lot like that with this skirt – it’s a relatively simple design, so I wanted it to be perfect. And of course, it’s not. So the skirt was a really good experience to learn that not perfect is ok, and it’s still a really really nice skirt (I sewed the lining in with the wrong side facing out, for instance, but, because I finished the seams nicely, it’s ok). I also actually really enjoyed the experience of doing a bit of sewing at a time, slowly, and nicely. It’s the first time I sewed in the evenings after work, and even after dinner, and it worked really well. I really enjoyed the small-steps-sewing – I didn’t kill myself trying to finish something. This makes me really glad to have participated in the sewalong (besides Rachel’s awesome instructions!). So, thank you, Rachel, for hosting an awesome sewalong, where I learnt a lot and came out with a lovely skirt!

I leave you with a picture of me and my Hollyburn skirt on the sofa-armrest. In London’s rainy, cold gloom, we were trying to find a spot in the flat where the light was reasonable. On the sofa armrest was ok. I bet the neighbours now think we’re really weird…