Sew Darn Tired

I finally finished my black trousers/pants. I made a muslin of this pattern  made way back here  in January 2014. The fit was pretty good and so I cut out another pair from some aqua and white tiny houndstooth fabric about 6 months ago(non stretch) and modified it by narrowed the legs as I found the bottom of the leg at a shorter length flapped about and annoyed me. Alas, they didn't even come close to fitting and I can't work out why as I cut the 14 like I did with the other pair and this one. They aren't finished and waiting for me to whittle down my bum to fit (ha ha..how long will I wait?). Sorry I just realised I didn't take a photo of the pants on, or a full length photo either but will do that when my photographer comes home. Hopefully I'll have a blouse to go with them!  When I was just about finished, I made the button hole. Firstly I put it vertical.... unpick, then I made another test button hole and went to make on the pants. Doh, what did my...

Actually, these fabrics above are from The Fabric Store a couple of days ago. The coloured on is a lovely lightweight silk that will make a perfect summer top ($18 1.6m remnant), and the other is the merino backed (the lighter colour that is terry like texture) and nylon stretch stuff that was $8 per metre and what I made the warm tights out of, so as there was more there I bought some more. It's very useful, easy care, great colour and won't go to waste. This lovely turquoise and dark gold embroidered border eyelet I got at Metro Textiles (or fabrics or something) in Sydney. I dragged my son there for a morning (under promise he would get some swapping cards he is currently interested in), with high hopes of getting some bra making notions and lots of fabric (that I don't need).  This is a polyester that feels very silk like, is lightweight and really gorgeous. I got 2 metres @ $8 per metre. My experience here was less that enjoyable. The man 'serving' wa...

No I haven't made jeans yet but am planning some. I have some new CK ones I bought at the second hand shop and they are a pretty good fit, and perfect fit for the budget which was $10! They are the only 'nice' pair that I have i.e. decent to wear out so I need more pants/jeans for sure. I know that many people mix patterns and put the curved waistbands from other patterns to straight waistband pants patterns. My question is, do you do anything else to the pants to make the curved waistband fit the straight edge pants? I hope to make Simplicity 1918. It has a curved waistband but I was thinking if I made some jeans (I have a Vogue jeans pattern I want to use) but I'm not sure if it has a curved or straight waistband, so I'd like to use this one as it was a good fit. I'm planning to use some red cotton drill fabric I got from the designer fabric sale about 20 years ago. It is lovely and soft, no stretch and was $4 for the piece.  Below is the curved wais...

Well I have block fused the facings... Yes, I know I should have fused the front pieces but as these are a test run, I didn't worry. I have always done it this way...put the interfacing on the ironing board, place the facings on the interfacing, put a piece of newspaper over the whole lot and iron it on. I just make sure it's grabbed, then I peel the newspaper off and cut around the facings. This works best for me and gives a really accurate fit. Earlier in my sewing life when I cut the interfacing separately, I found it didn't always fit right (not that it makes much difference due to seam allowances, but it's messy). This is much quicker and easy. This is my fly zip. It's been a while since I've done one and I just used their instructions. They were ok but I haven't checked any of the tutorials that others rave about. Personally I don't find them that challenging... but getting clear instructions is the key. These were not perfectly clear but ...

This Vogue Basic Design is in the line up. I bought it from an Op Shop years ago for $1. I think it's View B with the little funnel neckline. It is supposed to be cut in two pieces (you can see the seam in the cow print top on the envelope). I didn't want to do that - I was just making a test garment to see if this simple pattern was a good basic for me. I cut it on the fold out of a dress my sister found at the Op Shop but it is very synthetic (kind of lycra like) so it is definitely just for winter (unless I use it as a swim rashie!) This was in the winter and despite it being just 2 pieces, it is still not done! Why? My overlocker was threaded in white. I fear the black overlocking thread - it always plays up (funnily the overlocker tune up guy told me black always poses a problem - anyone else been told that or have the same problem?)Actually today it chewed up a piece of the fly of the trousers I'm working on.  The black is the skirt part and the green was a ...

I'm making Simplicity 8372. Instead of a shirt though, I'm making it into a shirt dress. I took the skirt pattern and put it on the top section and then cut it out. Made a boo boo though as I have cut the front skirt about 2 cm shorter. I don't need it shorter but will piece a big band on the bottom to make it longer and only you and I will know it was a mistake! Then I straightened it at the waist area to get a smooth edge. I decided that just cutting it longer wouldn't accommodate my hips so I made it a little A line.  This is more stash fabric. This is a left over from when I was making kindergarten sheets. It was bought at Spotlight about 4 years ago and it's just a cotton.    I used  Sherry's turn of cloth tutorial  for the collar. It works out really nicely. because it's just a cotton I used just a small 2-3mm allowance and that was enough. I also used a lime green polka dot fabric for the under collar.(you see the collar here wi...