FO: OMG its 1993! Top

Pattern Used
The Scout Woven Tee, a downloadable pattern from Grainline Studio. It is a short sleeved t-shirt without darts or shaping.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I was very influenced by the lovely version(s) of the pattern made by Shivani of Pins & Needles. I really need a good basic top pattern and have some nice woven fabrics I want to use before I delve into the world of sewing with knits.

I like the bias faced neckline instead of facings. My top tip is to iron and steam the bias tape into shape before sewing it on - this really helps. I also liked that the sleeves were easy to set in since there wasn't loads of excess ease. I always dread setting in sleeves but these were a breeze.

Fabric & Notions

This is technically a wearable muslin as I wanted to try out the pattern before using my final fabric. For this I used a cotton (and possibly linen) blend that I got from a charity shop a couple of years ago. I previously used it to make a Sencha and it has a lovely drape.

It wasn't until I tried on the final thing that I realised just how 1990s the finished item is due to the combination of fabric and fit. What do you think? But hey, I still like it.

  

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made

I added about 2 inches to the length, being a tall lady. I cut a size 4 and then slimmed down to a size 2 at the sides. It is a loose fitting top so actual sizes are pretty immaterial.

Would you sew it again and do anything different next time? 

Well......It's ok and I think I will wear it but I'm not sure I want to break out the good fabric just yet. I can see myself wearing it at the weekend with jeans and maybe if I wear it a lot I'll make another.

Did you use any new techniques?

None
 

Would you recommend the pattern to others? 

Yes, but make a muslin to see how you want it to fit. Don't be put off by the lack of darts or other shaping in the pattern but bear in mind that a fabric with a bit of drape is vital. 

Cost

£4.18 for the pattern, plus home printing costs I suppose (no idea of £), and the fabric was from my scrap.
 

Conclusion

I'm going to see how much this gets worn before I decide if it's worth making again. I'm looking for my perfect pattern that I can make over and over - this is not my dream top but I'll be bookmarking it for the future.

Onto the search for my dream top pattern - next stop, Alma

K x 

 

How to Make Heart Shaped Elbow Patches

 
My latest tutorial is on the Herald blog :

How to Make Heart Shaped Elbow Patches

This one is a nice mix of practical and pretty, as I used them to cover up a hole and huge run that had developed in the elbow of my cardigan. If you have some fabric scraps (and who doesn't?) you won't need to buy anything new for it.

Enjoy!

K x

Look! I'm Tweeting!

I caved in to the pressure and have joined Twitter, after reassurances that it was much better than Facebook.

Here I am if you want to be kept up to date with the very latest excitement:

Follow @kestrelmakes


Or if you want to wait for me to make a hilarious Twitter faux pas like threatening to blow up an airport (probably not that exact thing though). Fun times!

I'm also looking for some people to follow too, so identify yourself and I will follow you. I'll probably say something brilliant soon.

K x

Some Sewing Finds

I've been lucky with some charity shop finds in the last few weeks. I've found patterns......

 

Patterns at 29p each, some unused

.......And a great selection of buttons:

This ice cream box was sitting under some shelves in a local charity shop I hadn't visited for some time. It was labelled as 'Small Buttons 5p, Large Buttons 10p'. After a discussion with the person in the shop about what classified as a small or large button (well, it's all relative isn't it?), I decided it was easier to buy the lot.

I got a fantastic selection of gorgeous, quality vintage buttons for £5. Most of the best ones were in sets too - it wasn't your usual button box full of single buttons that don't match. I wish I could have met the stylish lady who carefully kept all these buttons. I hope I can do them justice with my own makes.

K x

 

Pattern Monday #33

The 1970s were not Barbie's best fashion era.

Pattern for sale here

FO: Big Apple Skirt

These are bad photographs. Terrible photographs. Aside from the fact that my face was not cooperating and so was cut out off the pictures, the fabric of this skirt photographs so badly. It has a strange glowing quality about it when photographed that I cannot explain. None of these photographs really show the true colour and you can't even see the nicely shaped pockets! Sigh.... Still, you can see the shape of the skirt (which I love) and get the general idea.
 

 (My hand is on the door knob in the photo on the right, that's why it looks weird)

This is the first item made with my fabric bought in New York, as blogged here. I used it to make my go-to skirt - Simplicity 3983:

 

I made view 1 of Simplicity 3983 with shaped edge pockets. 

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I love the pockets, the shape and the fact it has one seam.

Fabric & Notions

Textured red corduroy from Mood Fabrics with a scrap striped craft cotton for the inside of the pockets. I lined it with a pongee fabric in a similar bright red.

The cord is quite soft and the cut edges shed little pieces of bright red which have migrated throughout the house and stuck to all my clothes. It's a slightly strange fabric, with a soft but ridged texture that reminds me of the material used to make the seats on buses. I really like it though. 

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made

Took a few inches off the length to make it fall just above the knee. Made the pockets deeper by adding 4" to the pocket piece. I also lined it as I knew I'd be wearing it a lot with skirts this winter.

Would you sew it again and do anything different next time?

It's the third time I've made this pattern so I know how I like it. That said, I need to make the waistband a little bigger.

Did you use any new techniques?

Nope.

Would you recommend the pattern to others?

I already have - I even inspired the stylish Handmade Jane to make one! 

Cost

Fabric £13, lining £3, zip 20p (stash), £2.50-ish pattern (as it's on its 3rd use), other fabric is scrap. £18.70 in total. 

Conclusion

Love the pattern, love the fabric, it's a winner. I've had compliments the few times I've worn it. Here's a secret though - the waistband is too small and I need to make a loop for a button above the zip to allow extra room. I haven't been bothered to do it yet though and I'm just wearing it anyway, with a gappy waistband at the back.....ssssshhhhh....

K x

WIP Wednesday

Manu Cardigan in New Lanark DK - the end is in sight. Garter stitch edging and i-cord bind off remaining.

K x

How to Make a Reversible Peter Pan Collar

 

This is a link to the tutorial I put together on the Herald Scotland website for a reversible Peter Pan collar, as part of my new guest sewing blogger gig:

Peter Pan Collar Tutorial

Do have a look, I'm quite chuffed with how it came out. As I'm not getting paid for writing these (yet!), even clicking on the link to have a look will let them know that people are interested in reading about sewing on their website.

I'll be back later in the week with some finished object photos

K x

My Sewing Plans are....

...No plans!

Yep, after going through numerous ideas and looking at lots of other peoples' sewing plans for Autumn/Winter, I have decided not to make an Autumn/Winter sewing plan.

You may remember that back in June I posted 10 Tips for Planning Your Sewing. In my infinite wisdom, the first tip was 'Do You really want to make a plan?" And after I thought about it, I decided that just now I didn't want to make a plan.

I definitely have an idea of a few patterns I want to make, and I have a good few fabrics stashed away. But pull that together into a plan? Not just now thanks! I can't explain exactly why - maybe because I've been quite busy but also because I've been feeling quite inspired to make so many things I can't pin it down. Just today I was inspired by a colleague's new dress and am hoping to put together something similar myself. I'm off to rifle through my pattern collection just now, so you will be hopefully seeing some new finished objects from me soon.

K x

FO: Travelling Dinner Lady Dress

 

I really wanted to make a shirt dress this year. It was in my sewing plans, set out in April. However due to time constraints I didn't get around to it until I returned from holiday at the start of September, when summer was essentially over - in Scotland at least. Despite knowing that I would get very little wear out of it before it was too cold, I decided to make it to wear to the Knickerblogger Glory meet up in Bath a few weekends ago.

Here's the breakdown:
 
Pattern Used

View 3 of Simplicity 6700, a 1960s pattern. I won this in Handmade Jane's giveaway. Jane referred to it as 'Dinner Lady Chic' (view 2 definitely is!) which is pretty funny. I hope I've gone a bit beyond that though :)

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I liked that it was similar to the infamous Lisette Traveler dress as I'd been thinking about buying that pattern for some time. Some vintage shirt dress patterns can look a little fancy for everyday wear, but I liked the simplicity of this pattern.
 

Fabric & Notions

Cotton chambray with vintage red cats eye buttons from my stash. I had intended the dress to be a neutral basic but couldn't resist adding the button, and I love the colour combination.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made

It was a 35" bust which fitted me perfectly across the shoulders without adjustment (always my problem area). I had to take in a chunk at the side seams from the underarms down to the waist as the straight shape was a little too straight to be flattering.

Would you sew it again and do anything different next time?

I would make it again and would probably not interface the collar pieces to make it a little softer looking. As it is, it looks a little uniform-like (maybe like a dinner lady's uniform?....). I might put side seam pockets in it next time. I'd been thinking of adding patch pockets to the front but I think it looks fine without. 

Did you use any new techniques?

None

Would you recommend the pattern to others?

Yes, but watch out for how straight it is. 

Cost

Pattern was free, fabric about £12 and buttons about 20p I think.

Conclusion
It's a great, wearable shirt dress pattern that I can see myself making more versions of. I wanted to make a 'wardrobe basic' item in a plain colour that would be easy to wear. I think this dress achieves that - I do wonder if it is a little uniform-like, but I don't mind that too much.
 

 Please excuse the weird dreamy faces, I was positioning myself so that you couldn't see my ginormous spot, that can be seen from space. On the plus side I only took 4 photos of the dress to get these, a big improvement from my usual 40. I'm not sure if I'm getting better at photographing myself, or if I just care less.

 K x
  

The Return of Pattern Monday! 70s Detective Special

I feel I should apologise for being lax with Pattern Monday. When I started it last year, I had loads of patterns in my collection to use. As time went on, I was also sent patterns and images of patterns and links to websites (for this - thank you!). However my image stash has been dwindling and I dropped from every week to every other week to....nothing since August.

My Current Husband commented that I would be disappointing my readers and if any of you have been missing the weekly feature, I apologise. I was also feeling the pressure of adding a caption to each one - sometimes as amazingly terrible as some pattern pictures are, I couldn't always find the right caption - I know, I know, poor me,  my life is very hard.

But then! A comment from a reader (EWeber) pointed me in the direction of some more images and I was hooked once more. And so, the feature returns and I hope to do it every other Monday. I might not always feature a caption but please feel free to suggest one in the comments.

In the meantime, check out some pictures from this pattern book:

This is the second time I have featured a Spinnerin pattern booklet and they go to a real effort with their photos. This one seems to be inspired by a pair of detectives in 1970s New York City

Running!  (or rather, they look like they are jogging rather than trying to catch criminals)

More running!

Standing still. Perhaps rather conspicuously observing some criminal behaviour

Just looking cool

Er, dancing?

 And the best - larking around behind a yellow cab

K x

Found: Charity Shop Scarves

I had a successful week of charity shop finds this week - two 1950s scarves.

First up is bright red mohair wrap, about double the width of your average scarf:

It's in great condition, no stains, pulls, holes or smells, just 100% soft. It cost a whole £1, from a charity shop that I never normally find anything in. You know those high street one where everything is a bit too expensive for what it is? I like to browse anyway as you never know what you'll find, as this proves. It was among a whole bunch of boring acrylic high street scarves, and I pounced on it immediately.

 

It was hand woven in Scotland by Sandisons under the range name of 'Thulewarm'. I haven't been able to find out much about the company online, which is a shame as I like to know more when I buy vintage things. I think Sandisons was based on Shetland, which would make sense given the Viking boat on the label. I found another scarf on eBay with a similar label and an additional one to say the item was made in the Coronation year 1953, so that helped to date this wrap.

My second scarf is a rayon printed Marks & Spencer (St Michael) scarf:

I'm guessing a 1950s date for this by the design. I love the colour of the roses and I think it's quite unusual to have a design that is off-centre rather than centralised or a border print.

This was £3.49 from the local 'vintage' charity shop. I get quite a few things from there so I often pop in on my lunch.

Have you made any good finds recently?

K x

Watching & Reading

Another week nearly done and I still haven't shared two recently made garments! I promise to get them photographed this weekend so I can get them up here. I've been noticing that the evenings are no good for photography now as it's getting darker - ah, the seasonal curse of the blogger!

On another subject - Have you thought that you'd like a TV show to reflect your love of sewing? If so (or 'sew'), hop over to Miss P's blog and give her your thoughts about what you'd like to see. Miss P has the ears of the TV execs, so this is your chance to put forward what you'd like to be watching!

I also have an invite to share for the launch of a new book by a talented author friend:

Classic Hollywood Style is the perfect reference point for vintage sewing fans so perhaps a good one to add to your Christmas list? You can see a list of the films included on Amazon here. Plus, the launch combines vintage clothing and cocktails, so what's not to like?

Have a good weekend everyone!

K x

A new Blogging Venture

I'm really excited to report that I have a new blogging venture on the the go, for the website of the Herald Scotland newspaper. My first post went online today and you can read it here:

Fashion DIY: How to stitch on a button

I was delighted to be asked to contribute blog content to the site, and will be writing a new piece every fortnight. What I write for the Herald will be different to what appears here, so I don't expect that it will take ideas away from my own blog. I'll post the links here so you can hop over and have a look if it sounds of interest to you. 

Please do have a look, as it's a new thing for their fashion pages to have a DIY element, so the more people who look at it, the more the Herald will see that people are interested in sewing. Plus it'll make me look good :-)

I decided to start with the basics for my first post as you can see, but am planning some more 'How To'-type posts in the future.

K x