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Home Alone!

Well my son has been at his Dad's this week and I have turned the house into a sewing studio. I did some boring but necessary sewing jobs that made me really satisfied as they needed to be done and I wanted to do them before I "treated" myself to sewing for me!


 Firstly, I cut some depth out of the crotch of two pairs of  pants - one jean and one cargo - for my son. These were so long that they would have fitted me! What's with kids bought stuff - so wrong in the cut. In the photo above you can see the extra depth - the jeans on top fit him nicely.

 This is sewing up the jeans. I took these photos to show if you have a big thickness to sew through it is good to put a small 'block' under the foot (as you see in the first photo) to help keep the foot level. This usually is for the beginning of the sewing - I don't seem to have a problem at the end. The bottom photo shows it without. I've found when I don't have it, the bobbin thread bunches up and I get frustrated. This block is just from the holder of those cheap Sullivan's sewing needles and it is just perfect.


The next photos are of a very nice quality cardi that I bought in the UK about 6 years ago. It had nice sparkly buttons and batwing sleeves. I loath batwing sleeves on me (makes you wonder why I bought it doesn't it) so, to make it useful I cut the batwing part out of the sleeve and bought some new cute buttons (yet to put on) and now I will be able to wear it! Yeah another job done!

Finally I put in elastic in some fleece pants I made from a piece I bought at the op shop for $5 recently. It is very nice quality so now I think I should have made a nice fleece top. These are for lounging at home at night - not for public view for obvious reasons! Very warm and comfy however!
Finally I have  made a knit top. The fabric is a loose weave cotton that I got years ago at the famous fabric sale I go to. I think it was $2 a metre and it is really nice and warm and soft.  I bought a Burda pattern at a sale at Spotlight a couple of years ago and as it is winter I 


 thought I'd make it up. On the envelope it looks like the neck is snug and the model is pulling at it but on making it - it is obviously quite a wide neck. That's not a problem as I don't like
 a tight turtleneck. Sorry about the photos - my camera washes 
everything out with the flash for some reason. Because of the loose weave it looks kind of sloppy but it is a good fit but I will make the armhole smaller for the next one. I sewed it up with my overlocker and finished it with a twin needle. All the details get lost in the weave. I did a good job (but not perfect) of stripe matching considering I wasn't trying too hard. I read the very timely (and incredibly good) advice from Karen at Kbenco's blog about sewing with knits, and my top could have benefited from clear elastic at the seams but of course I couldn't find it at the time so I just put some ribbon at the shoulder seams and sewed it up. Ok for a test run.



Next time I'll show you the skirt I'm nearly done with and the jacket I've cut out and the new (not needed) fabric purchases.

Comments

kbenco said…
You are so virtuous doing mending and alterations. I was completely overcome by guilt at the size of my own mending pile until you rescued me with some new sewing for yourself at the end of the post. Whew! Your top looks great, and I am going to that fabric sale next time, you have some great pieces showing up here and there.Hasn't it been cold?Your warm lounging trousers are just the thing for this postively Melbournian weather.
02 July, 2012 22:58
MushyWear said…
You had a productive sewing week here! How satisfying that is. I like the striped turtleneck. I'm like you, and don't like my turtlenecks too tight, so it's good it worked out and looks great too.
05 July, 2012 18:22
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