Snoods, Strawberries & Skirts

Big softie by name, big softie by nature

I've been crocheting a Christmas present for my younger sister K - it's snood.
Since she asked for a snood instead of a blanket (like I've made for other people) I thought I'd go to town with the yarn.
Sirdar Big Softie is sort of thing you see snoods made out of in shops. It's very soft (51% wool, 49% acrylic) and, as it says, super chunky. I ordered my yarn from Derramores in the end as they had 20% off and carry the full range of colours. Annoyingly this colour, 324 - Fripp, turned out to be much pinker than it looked online. I'd been aiming for purple & should have picked 323 - Damson. However my other sister & I agreed that this colour will look really nice on K so on I went.
I improvised the design and it seems to be going ok thus far. It's a big loop formed by joining the ends of the foundation chain into a sort of giant magic ring. Mindful of a previous loopy crochet attempt that had been horribly twisted, I carefully flattened out the chain before joining it. It didn't work. The snood is a mobius loop. Oops.

15mm crochet hook hehe

I don't feel totally at home working with this sort of yarn instead of my usual 100% acrylic bargain basement DK. I feel a bit like I might ruin it with dirty/sweaty hands or if I have to rip back any stitches. I also don't know if loose stitches will be obvious, my tension isn't really consistent and I have a feeling that big yarn and big stitches won't give me anywhere to hide... Hmm.

Rag market strawberries

In other news the next thing in my sewing queue is probably a proper Sorbetto made of this strawberry fabric from the rag market in Birmingham. I'm still undecided on whether to use plain white bias binding, red with white polka dots, or attempt to make my own out of leftover fabric. I think perhaps I'll cut out my pieces and see how much fabric I have left!

Simplicity 2451, green cotton sheeting and a matching zip!

I'm quite excited to have a go at making Simplicity 2451. I've seen loads of great versions around, especially by So Zo, House of Pinheiro, and  Bernie & I.

Cotton sheeting probably isn't the right thing to be making it from but this will do as a muslin. I've got very little chance of getting everything right first time, especially as I've not inserted a zip or interfaced anything before.

This looks like the stuff, no?

Speaking of interfacing, my mum said I could use some of her stash before she went away. The only problem has been finding & identifying it! I think I've got the right stuff here, guidance would be much appreciated.
Does the "light" in the name have any significance? Will it affect the floppitude of my waistband much? I'm guessing the side with the dots & shiny is the gluey side...

The Shirtbetto or I Finished A Thing!

 This post has been brewing for a while, I didn't get around to writing the post or taking photos for ages. I still haven't worn it yet but I'll try and take the plunge soon!

Almost a year after visiting Birmingham's Rag Market with some lovely sewists I have got around to making a Colette Sorbetto of sorts. Being silly I went and bit off a bit more than I could chew and made it from a button-down shirt I found in a charity shop. The result is wearable-ish and I've learnt a bit about sewing clothes in the meanwhile.

Just so I get the details down I'm going to copy The Sew Weekly's format:


Fabric:  Shirt, fibre content unknown, suspect polycotton.
Pattern:  Colette Sorbetto
Year: 2011
Notions:  Ribbon, thread
Time to complete: Unknown!
First worn:  Not yet
Wear again?  Perhaps
Total price: The shirt was £2ish in a charity shop, the ribbon was from my stash & the thread was Mum's. So £2!

Making:
To make this I unpicked the existing shirt along the side-seams, shoulders and armholes and removed the collar. Then I attempted to cut out pieces to match the Sorbetto pattern from corresponding shirt parts. I did the front in two halves but unfortunately the shirt placket was fairly wonky so it was quite a bodge job. My test patch was more like 3 7/8 than 4 inches square so I cut an American 14 with an inch or two of extra length and it came out alright.

The good: check out that french seam!

I made french seams by hand on the shoulders while I was in Bristol and had made an attempt at the bust darts and side seams but the result wasn't pretty. On Sunday I unpicked my wonky bust, worked out that one armhole was higher than the other, hacked a bit off it, and re-sewed the darts. I used bright coloured embroidery thread to trace the dart lines which I think helped with accuracy.
Since I was now at home I used my Mum's lovely old Bernina to sew up the side seams, luckily she'd threaded it with navy so my wonky stitching isn't too visible. I french seamed the sides too as the fabric was fraying quite a bit and I like how it looks.

The bad: Spot the re-sewn dart and wonky placket

After that came the neck & armhole bindings! I had bias binding but it looked a bit big and clumsy but also too neat. I'd had a glass of wine with dinner and wasn't going back near the machine, so I dug out some navy ribbon from my large stash (I like pretty things & dislike waste...) and set to stitching it over the raw edges while watching 24 Hours In A&E. It was that or the Paralympic closing ceremony and I'm not really a fan of anything Coldplay did after A Rush Of Blood To The Head. Have I Got News For You was on Dave (as ever) and would have been my preference but I have an aversion to Louise Mensch...
Anyway, a few cups of coffee and three fortuitously-sized pieces of ribbon later I had a completed shirtbetto!

If you squint it looks alright

Post-mortem:
I think the size 14 is on the snug side of alright, the back is almost perfect (apart from my sway back), but it's hard to tell at the front with the placket weirdness. If I didn't french seam it there'd be a tiny bit more space, and of course the true Sorbetto has a centre pleat whose width can be stolen to fix tightness. I don't think I need an FBA, I'm not far off the C cup Colette patterns are aimed at.
I'll be making another out of the strawberry fabric I bought in Birmingham but I'll have to find some white bias binding (or brave red & white polka dots) and face re-threading Mum's sewing machine.
My binding is a bit wibbly but I noticed the flat parts are where I backstitched - I didn't bother all the way around because it'd take far more time and thread than I could be bothered with. I stay stitched the neck immediately after cutting out but not the armholes and I think they've suffered from it, I have baggy armpits!

The ugly: oddly-shaped armholes

I'll be investing in some chalk or a fabric pen before I make the next one, I think it'll help with the fit as I currently don't know which issues are due to my having a strange-shaped body and which are wonky cutting. If I trace the pieces then hopefully they'll be more true-to-shape. It'll help with the darts too, I'm not sure how else one is meant to transfer markings and my method wasn't very easy or accurate.

The ugly: mismatched side-seams & trapped raw edges

Anyone know of good tutorials on darts or sway back adjustments?


P.S. I've added Disqus comments to the blog to make follow-up easier. The one thing that really bugs me with blogger is that I have no idea when someone has replied to my comments on their blog. Hopefully Disqus will make it a bit more conversational. Let me know if anything goes wrong!

More Pretty Things

This is the second half of yesterday's epic post, with more of a sewing-y theme to it, but it's mostly just "Look at the pretty things!".
I seem to have had a week of fevered acquisition, mostly blog-inspired. Let's look at the evidence:

I first saw this dress on Alex and immediately opened up People Tree's website, I love bunnies. The dress is a really cute style too, fitted in the bodice with a flarey skirt and tapered shoulder straps with little bows at the front.
I was very happy to spot it in the sale section at £26 (down from £60) and made the snap decision to purchase it. It's good quality, I reasoned, and a very pretty thing from a good brand, so if it doesn't fit I can always put it on eBay. It was only available in one size, and the longer version going out of stock while I was browsing made up my mind about which to get. This version is navy and a decent length (no bending over though) and luckily the 14 fits me perfectly (take that, H&M!).
Oh, did I mention it's got BUNNIES on. Happy, frolicking bunnies! I wore it to frolic happily on my birthday, which mostly involved chasing the cat around the garden and trying to take his photo. The boy took some pictures of me but I'm pulling awful faces and wearing Mum's crocs so I'll refrain from posting them...

I spotted this on a sewing blog and in a fit of self-indulgence almost immediately bought it off eBay. Views C & D look a lot like two of my favourite and most worn dresses so I think this pattern will be a winner. It also says EASY so hopefully it will be...

What's this? A GLORIOUS old duvet cover. This reminds me of my Grandma's house (it's a wonderful time capsule of patterned wallpaper and strange ornaments). This beauty was going free from a table on the street around the corner from the Students' Union. There was a second one in a different pattern but I thought I'd spread the joy by leaving it for someone else to find.
What will it be? Perhaps a (wearable?) muslin for M6503? View A I think. I might end up looking like a sixties housewife but I won't care.

I blame Karen for this. She's trimmed her latest Sorbetto with the black version of this cute polka dot bias binding, and spurred me into buying some for my future strawbetto. I can't decide if it'll look nice or be a bit too strong for the strawberry fabric (which I bought on a sewists' expedition in Birmingham). I'll have to try pinning it on once I've actually got around to making the things. After exams. When I am a "real person" (eek!).
I actually got around to applying for a job yesterday, the process isn't my favourite thing in the world. Covering letters make me feel like a smarmy idiot. Hopefully the kind of companies I'm applying for will want to judge me on my CV and actually meeting me. Hum.
The job I applied for is in Cambridge (as are several others I'm looking at), and that's most definitely Not Bristol. I do love Bristol and want to stay here but Cambridge is also a lovely place and I'm not committing to staying away for ever. Plenty of time to move around yet, I am but twenty-two.

Written to the sound of: The Well-dressed Son To His Sweetheart by Devon Sproule

Birmingham!

 On Saturday I boldly got up early and caught a coach up to Birmingham for a day out with some rather lovely (and accomplished) ladies who sew and blog. After finding each other at New Street Station we descended on the Rag Market with glee, fondling every fabric in sight. There were bobbles and sparkles and lace trims, fabrics at £1 a metre and too many beautiful sari-type ribbons to choose from.
Lists were ticked off and extras added, but I think we were relatively restrained. There was some stash busting in the form of a lunchtime fabric & notions swap, I came home with a really pretty brooch made by Scruffy Badger herself.
Time flew by and before we knew it it was time to compare our purchases over a reviving coffee before trekking back to our various corners of the world. I think it'd be fair to say that a good time was had by all, we certainly bought enough materials to keep us all busy for a while!
Ms Badger has written a far superior account of the day over here so I'll just show you a few pictures I took along the way : )

I'm not sure what was going on over there...

A beady-eyed badger and magpie have spotted a stash of stripey jersey

Rik-rak and lace and sequins, oh my!

£1 a metre!  (and a Colette Rooibos too!)

Magpies love purple as well as shiny things don'tcha know?

The whole haul!

I myself was relatively restrained, I often find myself lusting after pretty things with no real idea of what to do with them, or starting off with good intentions but not finding the time do them justice. I have an enormous amount of ribbon yet I still seem to buy more!
Well, I allowed myself a few purchases:

Hibiscus tea - How could I not for 80p and such a lovely colour?

Strawberry polycotton - 1m at £2 a metre, I'm thinking of a strawberry Sorbetto

More polycotton from the same stall, another metre at £2. Destiny unknown.

Beautiful metallic ribbon/trim - £1/metre

Some for my Mum too :)

All my treasures together

  Thankyou everyone for such a nice day, and to Debbie and Winnie for organising everything. It was lovely to meet you all and see how serious seamstresses shop! Hopefully I'll be able to report some Sorbetto progress in the not-too-distant future, even if it is just that I've printed the pattern!