I'm back!

I've been gone for about two weeks, did you notice?

Well, I most certainly did. I finally got to go on that vacation I've been longing for.

Just E. and me, with our car and little tent. We went to Schwarzwald (Black Forest in Germany). We didn't book anything because we like to be free to come and go as we like and because the weather had been so unpredictable. We had great weather. Warm, but not too warm and only two serious showers on our last two days there. We came back yesterday and discovered that we had picked just about the only region with good weather within a day's driving distance from our home.

Schwarzwald is well-known for its natural beauty, and to a pair of flat-land-people like us, it's especially impressive. We've done a lot of hiking, taking in all the great views on the way and we've seen a few castle ruins and charming old towns.

We've had a great time and now, I feel like I have to adept to being back home again.

I haven't done anything sewing-related all that time and I've even worn less me-made clothes than usual... But I'm now well-rested and ready to go again!

Random update

Oops, that was another week... As you may be able to tell from my spotty posting, I'm still feeling a bit strung out and I'm still looking forward to a holiday (despite the unpleasant weather in just about all of Europe... and no, I won't be going to any kind of exotic location)

I've been working a lot this past week, I've made progress on E's jacket, written a possibly rather important letter and I've read a wonderful novel (I don't usually recommend non-sewing related books here, but I'll make an exception for this one), The Unicorn Road by Martin Davies. It's an historical novel about a voyage to China in the Middle Ages, but it's nothing like your average historical novel. I thought it was magical, despite the fact that I noticed some inaccuracies about the Chinese society at the time (like the absence of foot-binding). Normally, such thing put me off, but the writing here was just to good to be bothered by little things like historical fact.

But, that's enough off-topic chatter. I thought I would show you some of my recent and a lot less recent creations in a different outfit.

It's my re-fashioned silk blouse, tucked into my new shorts and topped with a linen jacket which I made before I even had this blog. I put this outfit together when I was playing around with my clothes, before I actually got dressed for the day. Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy outside so there was just no way I was going to walk out of the door with those bare legs.

It's nothing yet

... but it's progress.

Last year, I wanted to make a short coat for my boyfriend. Casual, but based on a blazer block. I drafted the block and fitted and fitted and couldn't get it to work. In the end, I buckled and tried a less fitted casual coat block instead. With good result.

In spring, I revived the jacket project, this time with an unlined, casual jacket in mind. And failed again.

This week, with the unreliable weather and remembering the experience I've gained in fitting my own new blazer block, I decided to try again.

I simply started where I had left off (I had stopped cutting into the pattern at some, which was good, it would have been overly tight and useless had I made those last changes I had marked down) and this time around, I wasn't as puzzled with the issues.

I'm now absolutely convinced that Grondvormen (= Basic shapes but the book has only been published in Dutch) was first published in the 80's and the jacket blocks haven't been changed to suit later fashions.

Just like me when fitting my jacket, E in the jacket muslin looked OK at the front, just with way too wide shoulders but had endless pools of excess fabric at the back.

I know now that it's best to deal ruthlessly with those issues. I did so and here on the table is the second version of the muslin. And I think I will work with this one. It won't 'fit like a glove' but I think a (man's) jacket needs ease.

Now, I'll just have to draft a collar, decide on a pocket style and choose between the three different weights of black twill and denim I have in my stash...

Little silk blouse

Yesterday, I spent a lot of words on how much fabric to buy for what project. Today, I'm off in an altogether different direction. Re-fashioning.

As you may know (especially if you've been following this blog for a while), I often make things from second hand leather clothing. No problem there.

I buy second hand stuff more often than I use it. It's like having a double stash. On rare occasions, it will be an item too interesting to pass up but more often it's unappealing clothes which attract the fibre-snob in me.

That way, I have, slowly but surely, built quite a collection of silk shirts. They are all 100% silk, most were for sale at 1 euro a piece and they are all big, blocky and probably from the 1980's (or 90's. A lot of what we think of as typical 80's fashion happened in the early 90's for most people).

At some point, I used one silk shirt for my first draping experiment. Which was interesting and (un)fortunately taught me that Mary has a bit of a posture problem which I don't really share with her. That particular shirt was made of a slightly heavier and more matt silk than all the others.

Now, I have decided to do something about the silk shirt stash. After all, that silk would be great to wear if we are still getting a bit of summer and even in autumn and winter, nice silk tops could make great pieces for layering.

This little blouse is my first attempt. The shape is rather simple, but I thought that between that and its shy nude tone of colour (which is impossible to get right in a photograph), it could use something to jazz it up a bit. And I don't usually do decoration. At all.

The material wasn't easy to work with. Very thin, slippery and very stretchy when used even the slightest bit off grain (like in say, bust darts, or shoulder seams or even just slightly shaped side seams)

Susan wrote a post, a while ago about making a vintage-style chemise, using a double needle as a quick and easy way to make narrow pintucks. That is what I decided to try here.

And I had this narrow lace in my stash which matched the colour of the shirt quite well (bought way back, when I just started sewing and thought decoration was nice). I sewed that on using a small zigzag and cut out the narrow bits between the lines of stitching. I used a zigzag because I did a test in which I could just tear the fabric away if it had been attached to the lace with a straight stitch...

The buttons are mother of pearl and come from a very old card of buttons which I found in one of the little sewing boxes from my grandmother.

I'm reasonably happy with the blouse. The fit is Ok, I think I will mostly wear it tucked into a high waistband and I'll have yet to see how well it holds up with wearing and washing.

One meter wonders

Last week, Lady Tiny left a comment with an interesting question. A question, in fact, which I think is very common for anyone who sews and even more so for a beginner: she will soon have a 1 meter piece of beautiful fabric left-over and is looking for a suitable project.

Now, I think it might be useful to give you my personal tips for guessing how much fabric is needed for what kind of garment, but first, I will attend to Lady Tiny's case.

Her fabric is kashmir (wow!). As far as I know, kashmir fabrics come in lots of different weights, mostly ranging from suiting to coating variaties. This matters when you have to decide what to make from it.

For a coating weight fabric, I'd recommend looking for a pattern for a fairly short jacket with three-quarter length sleeves or, considering the information in your profile, a short cape (Lady Tiny, if you can read even the smallest bit of German, check out Natron und Soda for tutorials for fantasy clothing. It's on my little list of links)

For a suiting weight fabric, you've got plenty of options. A skirt always works, even if your piece of fabric is a bit smaller that 1m. Depending on the length you want for your skirt, you can pick from several styles: 1m of fabric would make a long straight or A-line skirt, a knee-length semi-circle, pleated or gored (I made a tutorial for one of those here) skirt or a short circle skirt. A pair of trousers might be possible, if you are slightly below average height and have a small enough size that you can cut out the trouser legs side-by-side. And there is still the option of a little jacket or cape.

Because you are using beautiful and probably quite expensive fabric, I'd recommend making a muslin: just try out the pattern, without any seam finishes in a very cheap fabric.

A lot of this advice can be applied to any fabric you may want to plan for. Personally, I tend to think that buying as much fabric as pattern tells you to, plus a bit extra to be on the safe side, is a recipe for a huge stash of left over pieces. Of course, that attitude may be strengthened by the fact that I make my own patterns. However, I have quite often heard fabric sellers recommend fairly outrageous amounts of fabric to their customers (sometimes I interfere).

As with everthing in sewing, there's nothing like experience to get your fabric-buying right.

In a lot of cases, you can actually place your pattern pieces closer together than the drawing on the pattern says you can (without compromising the grainline or seam allowances). Also, pattern-manufacturers tend to group sizes, recommending the same amount of fabric them. If you are at the smaller size, you may be able to make do with less fabric.

It also pays off to keep your 'standard pattern changes' in mind when fabric shopping. If you are below the pattern's standard height, you will (with experience) know how to alter it to fit you. Which means you will need less fabric.

If you often buy fabric without a specific project in mind, it is also good to develop a 'rule of thumb' for the amounts of fabric needed for styles you like to sew (there are cards available to help with this but don't have any personal experience with those).

Mine is as follows:

- 70 cm will make me a straight or A-line skirt at knee-length. Or a vest, or shorts, or if it's jersey, a top.

- 1 m will make me a fuller or longer skirt, capri-length trousers or a short-sleeved top. In jersey, it will make a sleeveless or cap-sleeved dress.

- 1,20 m will make me a pair of trousers, a more complex top or a short-sleeved dress

- 1,50 m will make me a blouse, a jacket or a fairly full skirted, short sleeved dress.

- 2 m is needed for a jacket with a big collar or a dress.

- If I'm going to make a true 50's style dress, with a very full skirt, I will need 3 to 4 meters, depending on the design and the skirt length.

These are the rules I buy by, given for fabric which is 140 cm wide (which most are). In all cases, I am refering to basic styles of each garment, added details may require more fabric.

It is worth knowing your leg length (waist to ankle) and hip circumference. You can always make a straight skirt out of a piece of fabric which is of the desired length plus seam allowance and a bit extra for waistband or facing, if it's width is more that your hip circumference plus seam allowance (if it is less, you will need twice the desired skirt length).

For trousers, the calculation is more complicated and only those with the smallest sizes can really place the legs side by side. Keep in mind that, on a fabric without nap or directional print, you can often put one leg up and the other one down. Most of people will be safe when buying 1 and a half times the desired length (and again, twice the desired length for large sizes).

For all tops and some dresses, it's sleeves which take up a lot of fabric. The general rule here is that you will need garment length plus sleeve length.

Ok, that's a lot of text, I hope it is helpful and don't hesitate to ask any questions which remain or are raised now.

Short(s) story

When I was a child, we always went on camping trips during the summer holidays. We would spend several weeks traveling around some nice bit of European countryside, going on long walks, taking in the sights, visiting local sites of interest and sleeping in our small tents on campsites in the middle of nowhere. As long as the weather wasn't too cold or wet, it was great.

Because there were five of us and all our camping gear, including the tents, had to fit into one car, packing for these trips was a special kind of operation. As one would expect, my mother was in charge of that.

She had made special packing list on the computer including all the things we would need. We, kids, were trusted to pack our clothes, books and toys as listed (NO bringing extra toys unless you were prepared to hold those in your lap for the entire trip ;)

The clothes listed would be practical ones. The kind that made sense for outdoor activities and would allow us to cope with unpredictable weather. There would be so many t-shirts, so many sweaters, trousers and shorts...

But shorts were getting extremely unfashionable...

When I was about 14 years old, my sister (who is two years younger) and I were sent to the shop to buy some shorts for each of us, for the summer holidays. We each bought one pair of shorts and two summer skirts. Those were the last shorts I ever bought. They were aqua-blue with a whiter check print. They didn't fit great, I didn't like them and didn't wear them much...

Fast forward ehm... many years, and I've just done the unthinkable and made a short legged jumpsuit. And I like the look.

So, I gave it a go. Shorts.

Made from the same black twill which I used for my boyfriend's bermuda shorts, with scoop pockets at the front and single welt pockets at the back. Vintage-inspired high waistline.

Photographed here at their most vintage-y: with a wide (vintage) silk blouse tucked into that waistband.

I enjoy this look but they work equally well with t-shirts. I may even be tempted to try and style these with tights and a jacket in autumn.

Stripes again

Usually, I'm not that into sewing with obvious prints. But sometimes, a fabric just calls out to me.

This one was like that, and it could only ever be one thing: a dress which is all about the print.

It's a very simple t-shirt dress with a straight skirt and a fairly wide neckline which dips to a shallow V at the front. I made it using my knit sloper.

It's always tempting to keep dresses like these sleeveless, but I'm happy I decided to add the sleeves. The skirt length is a bit unusual for me, but this was as much fabric as I had, when placing the dark bit at the waist. And I really like how it shows the repeat of the fabric.

I tried to match the stripes at the side seams, but I was too lazy to sew them on the sewing machine before serging, so they're a little bit off.

Personally, I think the combination of the longer skirt and sleeves really works with such a fitted style. Modest yet sexy, at least, I hope so.