Tilly & The Buttons Cleo Dungaree Dress Part 3- In which I sew another version.

I was so pleased with my first version, like so many other sewing bloggers, that I decided to go ahead and make another, learning from my original effort. and making a few changes.
The fabric was a faux snakeskin in a bronze colour with a sheen, purchased about three years ago for a pittance at 34 Market Row, Brixton.  I did away with the centre front and centre back seams, as such seams would detract from the effect of the fabric, and added some length.

To  leave some walking room, as I was making a longer version, I left slits at the bottom of the side seams but rounded the side edges for a shirt tail effect.

 I also drafted new hip pockets with rounded bottoms echo that hem style.

I fully lined the dress and applied the fusible interfacing to the inside of the lining.  Below you can see the inside back of the Cleo.

The lining was from the Sewing and Craft Store by Tooting Bec tube station and was such a gorgeous purpley bronze colour that the photograph doesn't do justice. I would love to use it to make something you can see, it's ex-Jigsaw and so soft and smooth.  The buttons, which have an unusual concave shape, came from Simply Fabrics, Brixton. 

Unfortunately I can't take a photograph of it being worn as I have no "volunteer" photographer to hand today.  I cannot even take one of the dress on my Adjustoform Tailor's Dummy as the shoulders are too wide to get the dress on it.  This just shows that, helpful as they may be, these type of dummies cannot reproduce you exactly, I always have to do a narrow shoulder adjustment to garments I make. The best I can do is below.

I have enthused before, in the previous parts of this particular blog, about this pattern.  Not only is it easy to make and has no zips, darts, gathers or pleats to contend with but it is takes very little fabric and could be a stash buster, especially if you do a short version, - imagine it with contrast pockets and straps, using two fabrics, maybe two different colour denims, and dividing it horizontally, vertically or creating panels.  Let your imagination run wild! One day there may even be a part 4 to this blog if I make another.
Have you made a Cleo?  We would love to see a photograph of it in our Member's Makes Photo Album on The London Dressmakers Club Meetup site.

Sew your own luggage

I am about to fly with Ryanair to Italy with my partner to walk the Grande Anello dei Sibillini
Doing the trek means that I and my partner have to carry everything with us in a rucksack,  a total of two and a half weeks worth of luggage as after, I hope, completing this trek I will be doing some sightseeing and relaxing. We are only taking cabin luggage so we have one rucksack each within the size limit of 40cm x 55 cmx 20 cm. We are not camping, thank goodness, but have booked a place each night in a rifugio or albergo, all of which provide hearty meals. 
Ryanair now allow you to take an additional bag, as well as your main cabin bag, into the cabin provided it is no bigger than 35cm x 20cm x 20cm.  When I went to Italy in 2015, to sightsee with my Canadian cousin, we flew with Ryanair and I made a fabric handbag from some furnishing cotton to these dimensions to use for a day's sightseeing.

It has an outside pocket to the front and back, closed with a snap fastener, and long  straps so that it could be carried over the shoulder.  There is a central tie across the middle of the width of the bag, which helps to keep the contents secure, but it is hard to make them out in the above photograph.  It could easily take a towel and costumes for the beach etc.  I designed it so that it could also be carried in the hand by knotting the fabric straps.

There are two further sets of ties, which are discernible in the above photograph that, once tied, form a gusset at either end of the bag, making it more compact in size.
For the impending holiday I decided to make as the second cabin bag a small drawstring bag that could be worn like a rucksack .  I had some waterproof fabric that I used as the outer fabric. Although this bag is not intended to stand up to torrential downpours I did want it to have resistance to a certain amount of rain.  For the base I cut a square, 20 cm x 20 cm, for the back panel a rectangle 35 cm x 20 cm and for the remaining sides a long strip 35 cm x 60 cm.  A 1 cm seam allowance was added to all these dimensions.  I also cut a large circle to form a flap over the top and strips to form the channels for the drawstring cords to run through at the top and as tabs to hold the cords at the bottom of the bag.
Sewing was very straightforward, joining the panel for the sides to the back panel, sewing the tabs at the bottom of the bag into the seams at the same time, and then sewing the body of the bag to the base.  I made a lining mainly out of some fabric I had abandoned from a failed project but, as I did not have enough of this for the back panel, also from some leftover white toile fabric.  I ironed some stiff fusible interfacing to the back of the lining base and put two pockets, left over from the failed projects, on the back panel lining.  Here's the lined inside of the bag.

I found it difficult to photograph the inside but I hope you get the idea.  Then I sewed the lining and outer together  when I stitched  the channels for the drawstrings over the top edge, I think you can just about see these channels in the photograph above.  The photograph below, with the drawstrings in position and the flap sewn on, should give you an idea of the construction.  Everything used was in my stash except for 2.5 metres of nylon cord at 30p a metre from Simply Fabrics in Brixton.

And now here it is in action.

Want to know what's in it?  I spread the contents out on the table so you can see, the list is below.

 

Goretex hooded rain jacket, purse, torch, mobile phone, First Aid kit,box of plasters,washbag of toiletries, knee length shorts, 2 pairs of hiking socks,2 bras, 4 pairs of knickers, 1 pair of sandals, long-sleeved cotton t-shirt, fine wool polo neck sweater, V-neck pullover and a 2 cm thick book.  I could have squeezed a bit more in even but I don't intend to load it like that in real life.  I just thought it would be interesting to see how much I could get in it.  The measurements when thus loaded are about half a centimetre inside the Ryanair requirements.

When not in use the bag folds up and I have photographed it on top of a sheet of A4 paper.

It is folded into a polythene bag  but, at some point, I think I will make a pouch for it, maybe using some more stash !

Using two types of materials in dressmaking

We are thinking about suggesting a new sewalong with the theme of using a contrast material with the main fashion fabric.

Googling the phrase I just found this wonderful article on the Threads website:

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/28239/combining-fabric-weaves-and-weights/page/all

There are so many very useful and inspiring tips there, with photos that illustrate the subject, that I couldn't ever hope to provide from my own sewing expertise so I thought you might like a link to the article.  I won't attempt a summary of the article either, do have a look yourself.

Our sewalong came out of an observation by Barbara on an element of a Chanel fashion show that had lace filling in the kick pleat of a skirt.

Most of us have some kind of material in our stash that we don't know what to do with - usually a small amount that was meant for some kind of trim or accent.

Here is a skirt I made with a fat quarter of cotton and a Scuba like stretch fabric in black, just as an example:

I basted the black fabric in two lines to the red fabric underneath, turning under as I went. Then later I top-stitched both edges, as below, and then removed the white basting thread:

This is just one example of a garment that was made from two fabrics (I had to interface the hem of the red fabric or it would have been too floppy)


How about we exchange ideas of how to use at least one of these stash items up?

I myself still have a length of lovely scallopy lace or ribbon that I haven't found a use for in over fifteen years. I think it's time I did.

How about you?  Is anything lurking in your stash that could provide a great contrast to a fabric - what kind of garment can you imagine yourself making?

Please share.

Keeping track - the Android way

Barbara posted a wonderful blog post about iPhone apps to help you manage your fabric stash, pattern haul, cataloguing your thread, notions, books and equipment and other very useful sewing applications.

I am incredibly jealous because those unfortunately don't work on my Android phone. I am gutted! I could so do with an app that allows me to list all the dressmaking patterns I own.



I now found one app now that's pretty good at giving you a portable inventory of your fabrics - it is called Clothio.  You can pick photos of your fabric that you have already taken, or snap a new one from within the app (you get a copy of the photo in your phone camera directory).

You can specify the colour or colours present, whether you own it and how much of it (width and length).  You can tick several types of fibres (more than one if it's a blend) although this may not represent all the different kinds of fibres that exist. And select the kind of pattern, or none, of the fabric.

The header section allows you to name your fabric (I like to go with my initial impulse because I can remember it the best - particularly if it's a really silly name. Like Stardust Ziggy, or Wavy Art Deco - or anything equally wacky), you can make that longer by including the colour or fibre content because this name will show in two lines on the screen, though extremely long names would presumably get cut short.

The shop or source option allows you to list a specific shop or in my case just 'Goldhawk Rd', 'Brighton' or 'Walthamstow' because I can never remember the actual name. It'll do just nicely.  This will bring the named option up when you enter more fabrics, so you don't have to retype the information.

The 'Designer' option is a good one: this will show up as a subtitle under the name you've given your fabric, so if you want to use this for other information (like 'sheer', 'non-drapey' or 'feels plasticky' or anthing else you come up with) then add it here.



Clothio allows you to filter your fabrics by certain options, like colour.  It is really useful to do when you have to remind yourself what kinds of fabrics you have when you are looking to match your pattern with the best fabric. Let me know how you are getting on with this if you are also using it! That would be

I will keep looking for more apps to use on an Android but this one is the only one I found so far.

Does anyone else have a tip for me?  Something you use that works well for you?

I have also considered using an app for something like a photo organiser (I think there is Photobook and Picasa?) and see if I can organise fabrics or perhaps my patterns by using specific tags that will make it all searchable and filterable (if that's a word).  And a sewing app review mentioned a database called Memento that could work too - I'll have to check that out.

Please leave a comment if you can think of anything useful!

~ ~ ~

Keeping Track

Some of us have out of control wardrobes and stashes, some have vowed to keep a better record of what they have and acquire in the future.  Below is some information about some sites or apps that I have come across that can help you to do this.  These are just a few and there are others out there.  Also some of you have an efficient manual way of keeping track.  Please share any methods, products and ideas with us by adding them in a comment below.

From The Sewing directory

These below are some apps listed on the Sewing Directory site

Pattern Pal

This app allows you to track your patterns, along with a couple of photos for each pattern, pattern notes plus details of the fabrics and notions associated with your patterns.  It is available from the iTunes store.

Sewing Kit HD 2.0

Taking the Fabric Stash concept a step further this app allows you to catalogue your patterns, fabric, thread, notions, books and equipment.  You can scan the barcodes of products to instantly upload the details.   You can also track the progress of your sewing projects, take screenshots or photos of anything that inspires you and save the measurements of the people you commonly sew for.

It is available in the iTunes app store and you can get more information about it on the developer’s website http://www.vestasoftware.net

Stash Star Fabric App

If your stash is getting so large you are losing track of what’s in there this is the perfect app for you.  It allows you to photograph and catalogue your stash, ideal for when you are out looking for matching notions.  You can also add in a wish list so you will always have a fabric shopping list to hand (not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.....)

It is available on the iTunes store here.

- See more at: http://www.thesewingdirectory.co.uk/sewing-apps/#sthash.8a88HRtf.dpuf

10 apps listed on an American site.

Thought this might be useful

http://appcrawlr.com/ios-apps/best-apps-fabric-stash

 From Coletterie

This site has some great tips, tutorials and ideas.  I’ve selected a few about planning and keeping track of a wardrobe and stashes.

http://www.coletterie.com/?s=wardrobe+architect

http://www.coletterie.com/inspiration/the-wardrobe-inventory

http://www.coletterie.com/fabric-haberdashery/how-to-organize-fabric

http://www.coletterie.com/peeks-in-the-studio/how-to-organize-a-mountain-of-sewing-patterns-

with-your-phone

My sewing Circle

mysewingcircle.com  This is supposed to be the sewing equivalent of Ravelry, but it doesn’t really seem to have got off the ground yet in terms of people using it, despite a change of people running it in December 2014.  However it does provide a way of listing projects, stashes etc and recording your finished projects. 

More about Stash Star Fabric app

A review from I want to Be a turtle Blog  http://www.iwanttobeaturtle.com/

How to ... turn a weekend project into a week's project

Saturday, the weather forecast mentions heavy and thundery rain, hail and frequent lightning. My plans were cancelled, not due to the weather, so I had all possibilities at my fingertips, as long as it didn't include wandering outside. My eyes looked at my famous Ikea bag with fabric, went over to my desk with my sewing machine and my brain remembered the sew-along "A simple item from stash fabric" which was about to start. Still lying in my bed, my weaker self started to nag about closing the eyes and get more rest, but my fingers were already infected with the sewing bug and it finally got hold of the rest of my body, wanting to finish the skirt over the weekend.

I found a white polycotton with red polka dots which I wanted to use as the skirt part of a dress. Since I don't yet have a dress pattern, I work with body blocks rather than with commercial patterns, that fabric had to wait ... or not. I could just turn it into a circle skirt and wear it on a lovely summer day. I decided for the latter and, instead of inserting a zipper or using elastic band, I decided to use some of my buttons. It also helped that I found a similar fabric here.

The fabric itself is rather see-through, so I decided for an underlined skirt and used some of the white polycotton I bought a while ago. I used the half circle skirt pattern which Barbara helped me to make, and cut the pieces. For the back piece, I just traced the pattern onto my fabric. For the front pieces though, I folded the pattern in half, traced it and added some extra fabric for the buttons and button holes, respectively. The width of that extra fabric is the width of the buttons I used, in this case 2 cm. (More explanations on how to add a button front closure can be found here - although that tutorial is for a dress.)

My folded blue half circle skirt pattern on the fabric I want to use, the buttons are next to it. 

I then sewed together my red polka dot fabric with my white underlining, wrong sides up, just a straight line along the edge where the buttons and buttonholes will be, zigzagged it and then trimmed it. Ironing is essential, so I ironed it, flipped it over and sewed another straight line, just for effect than for anything else, two cm (my button width) from the edge. If you want to, you could add another layer of fabric or underlining for the part where the button holes will be. But since my skirt is already underlined, I decided against it.

The front layer

It turned one pm, and the weather forecast was slightly wrong. It rained a few hours, no sign of hail or thunder and then the sun was visible. Quickly sewing the back piece to the two front pieces, and all which was left were buttons, buttonholes and hems. But first it was time for socialising!

Sunday morning, and this is how you turn a weekend project into a week's project: I realised that my back piece is wrong side up, so I had to rip the side seams apart and start again. Important note to myself: You must never rush things! I spend most of Sunday evening to undo the wrong I did to my skirt. And I did the hems.

After I found my motivation the week after, and a very useful hint to start with the button holes from my fellow seamstresses at a monthly meeting, I did the button holes. And forgot to take a picture. But basically, I marked where the top and bottom button hole would be. I then put a mark on exactly half the way down and made this the centre of another button hole. I repeated that until I had no more space on my fabric and marked 9 button holes. After sewing all of them and ripping them open, I marked the middle of each button hole on the other skirt front to know where my buttons should be.

Et voila:

Can I make a Dress in a Day? Part 2. Fusible interlining, amongst other things.

So to continue, there I was with my fabric, pre-washed, spread upon the table.  Looking down at it I had one of those moments and thought "This fabric is not right for this dress because the bold pattern needs a more voluminous style to show it to better advantage".
Thus Hurdle Number 1.  Do I have another fabric in my stash that will be suitable and has enough yardage?  The answer, after a good rummage, was "Yes".
But Hurdle Number 2 .  It had not been washed.  I have learned always to launder fabric in the manner in which the made-up garment will be washed before cutting out and sewing it up.  It prevents nasty horrors, such as finding the fabric shrinks or bleeds.  Into the washing machine the fabric goes and 3 hours later, (no tumble drier so I have to wait for it to dry on the line), I have it washed, dried and pressed fabric on the table.
Just to show those 3 hours were not wasted I used them to finish this dress pictured below, made in a jersey fabric with a silvery thread through the material that gives it a slight sparkle as it catches the light.  Unfortunately the silver thread is so subtle that you cannot see it in the photograph, it needs body movement or shifting light to make it catch the light and glisten.  I finished it with silver ball buttons, taken from an old dress, at the throat and at the cuffs of the straight sleeves.  The pattern is an old one that I picked up for a few p earlier this year.

It is intended to be a dress that I can take on trips away as it doesn't crease or show marks.  However much I may long to wear shimmering pale silk with voluminous ruffles in the evening, in the end I need to have something that fits with my lifestyle and budget (i.e. budget airlines with cabin baggage only and washing and drying in hotel bedrooms)  The fabric came from Brighton Fabricland and the dress cost under £8 altogether..
To get back to the original dress and  Hurdle Number 3.  The substitute fabric came from the oddments bin at "Simply Fabrics"  in Brixton for £4.  There was plenty of yardage to make the dress but it had been cut out to an odd shape, which I didn't realise until I came to spread it out to place the pattern on it.  It took me some time to work out where the straight grain lay and it was a stretchy-stretchy knit that slithered away from me.  Anyone got any tips on handling fabric like this?  Also my old and fading eyesight made it difficult to determine which way the tiny but regular motif needed to be.It took an hour and a half to get it laid out, pinned and cut (not including the inevitable tea break because I got fed up bending over)  Once cut out I could legitimately sit down and put in the tack marks for various features- where to gather, match seams etc.
Then I basted the side seams and did the gathering required on the front of the dress so I could try it on for fit.  And, Boy!, did it fit- like the finest kidskin glove, absolutely skintight.  That was fine because the stretch of the fabric meant that there was no impediment to movement but -Oh!- I shall have to hold my stomach in as the evidence of every cake that I eat during the day will be there for all to see.
So now to Hurdle  Number 4  I had forgotten that the pattern called for Vilene Bias tape or stay tape to stabilise the neck and certain sections of the armholes.  I had tried to buy this from a fairly local store but they did not have it and I forgot about getting it.  However I now thought that probably I could use some light-weight fusible non-woven interfacing instead and that, as only a small amount was needed at each point, I could use some of the little scraps that I can not bring myself to throw away that were left over from other projects.  But it did mean tracing each piece individually from the pattern to fit the required section.. Luckily, as the interfacing was fine and see-through, I could trace directly from the pattern on to the interfacing- fiddly job though.
 The tracing one of the pieces is seen below.

 The piece cut out, the middle line, just faintly visible on the piece of interfacing, is where the seam line will be.

 Applying fusible interfacing

Now many of you will know all about this but, from questions I've had from some of our members, beginners are not always sure about how to use or handle interfacing and how to apply it.  Very basically there are two types of interfacing used to reinforce or stiffen garments or, as in this case, to prevent stretch fabrics from stretching where no stretch is required.  Those types are "sew-in", where the interfacing is stitched to the main fabric,  and the other is fusible where heat from an iron is used to fuse the special backing to the fabric ( and, once that is done, there is no unpicking it!).
So, to apply this fusible interfacing, firstly I am going to iron the fabric to which I am going to apply it.  If you fuse interfacing to wrinkled fabric it is going to stay wrinkled permanently
Next, check that you have the fusible side of the interfacing against the fabric or you will get the fabric sticking to your iron instead of the fabric.  The fusible side looks a bit shiny or has small dots visible.
I've pinned the interfacing in position in the photograph below so I can lay it on the ironing board. Then I remove the pins, making sure the interfacing and fabric are flat before the iron is applied. 

Check whether your interfacing should be applied with a dry iron or using a damp cloth.  Often that detail is written along the "selvedge"  of the interfacing.  Usually you should be pressing down for a few seconds rather than using an ironing motion.  Make sure this is not going to damage your fabric, scorch or melt it.  After doing this check that the interfacing has bonded to the fabric by very gently try to pull them apart.  If it starts to separate then apply some more heat until they are firmly together.
After applying all the interfacing pieces I confess that I gave in  and abandoned the idea of trying to complete it all in one day- failure.  What happened next will be in Part 3.

Sew-along: a simple one metre item from stash fabric

Hello,

Many of you that have met me already through the LDC meet-up know that I love a good sew-a-long. This is my progress on the most recent 'a simple item from stash fabric' challenge.

As soon as this was announced on the meet-up group I knew that I was going to make another version of Simplicity 1884. This was perfect for the challenge for a number of reasons: -

• The top only required 1 metre of fabric (win!)
• It didn't require any additional notions such as zippers, buttons etc. 
• It is an easy pattern and quick to make

One thing that I always have to bear in mind when I am doing sew-a-longs is whether or not I will be able to finish the project within the given time. Not that it matters if I don't finish it by the end of the sew-a-long, being motivated by to start a project is always exciting. However, the timescale is good practice for me when it comes to time planning, and it helps me when I am sewing projects to wear for a particular event, for example a work event or special occasion where the deadlines are more crucial. 

The fabric was picked up from a shop on Brick Lane (I can't remember what it was called but it was towards the Aldgate end) and only cost £3.50 per metre. This fabric had been in my stash for a while and although I knew that I wanted to use it for a top it always got pushed to the bottom of my priority list. I am delighted that this sew-a-long has made me do some impromptu stash busting!

Do check out the meetup page for this challenge to see what other LDC members are working on. It will also be great to hear what other ideas people have for 1 metre projects. 

Good luck with the challenge and don't forget to upload some pics so we can all see your 1 metre progress and projects!

Happy Sewing!