The GAP cami and my new version in stripy black

And here’s the GAP one which I pressed before making the pattern.

The GAP camisole which is a bit to tight around the hip

And here’s how I drafted the pattern and sew the cami, step by step:

Step 1: Put on the ‘master’ camisole and mark where the natural waist is and decide how the extent of changes required. I need to add 1/2” to the side seams and extended the hem by 1”.

Step 2: Press the ‘master’ camisole and fold it along the centre front with the bodice front facing out.

Step 3: Place the folded ‘master’ camisole onto a piece of paper, aligning the centre front to the paper’s straight edge.

Placing the folded master cami onto the pattern paper’s straight edge

Step 4: With a pencil, trace around the camisole and mark the waist.

The pink mark shows where the waist is so I know when to flare out in the new pattern, blue marking shows the extent of the cami

Step 5: Use rulers (straight and curves) to true the pattern and make the pattern adjustments. This will create the bodice back. Add 3/8″ (1cm) seam allowance to the side seams (or you can use wider seam allowance if you’re not sure about the fit).

The back pattern piece with the pattern changes

Step 6: Make a copy of the bodice back then use pins to mark the front neckline.

Use pins to poke through the cami and mark the front neckline onto the paper

Hopefully you can see the pin marks

Step 7: Use pen or pencil to complete the front neckline.

The front pattern piece, be sure the square off the armhole / side seam corner

Before moving onto cutting the fabric, do check that the fabric you’re going to use have similar crosswise stretch compared to the ‘master’ cami. If the fabric you’re using has less stretch then you might want to widen the pattern  along the centre front and centre back.

Step 8: Cut out the bodice front and back on the fold, I used rotary cutter when cutting knit fabric. I also cut out long stripes of fabric on the crosswise grain which will be used as binding for the armholes, neckline and straps. The width of the binding depends on the look and width of straps you like, for reference, I cut the binding 2″ (5cm) high.

The bodice front and back pieces ready to be sewn

Step 9: Before sewing the side seams, I serged the hem allowance as it’s easier to serge flat than in the round.

Step 10: Sew the side seams. I used a small zigzag (0.5 wide and 2.5 long) to sew the seams and serge finished the seam allowance.

Side seam sewn and serge finished

Step 11: Sew the binding the the armhole. To explain this, it’s much easier to show it with the diagram below:

Binding sewing sequence

I hope this diagram makes sense. Basically you use the binding the finish the raw fabric edge and create the shoulder strap in one go. Take a piece of the binding and put it right side against the bodice’s armhole seam. Sew 3/8″ (1cm) from the edge and stretching the binding slightly as you go. Changing the needle position will give you a narrower or wider strap, it’s totally up to you.

Sewing the binding while stretching, notice I didn’t use pins here

Step 12: Fold the binding to the wrong side and pin. I used ballpoint pins.

Pining the folded binding

Step 13: Stitch in the ditch along the armhole, this will secure the folded in binding.

The binding after stitching in the ditch

Step 14: Sew the binding along the neckline, again it’s easier to show it with a diagram. The sewing method is the same, i.e. slightly stretch the binding as you sew, fold the binding over then stitch in the ditch from the right side.

Sewing binding to the neckline

Binding sewn to the neckline

Here you can see where the binding overlaps at the back strap

Step 15: Use scissors to trip off the binding from the wrong side. I used appliqué scissors which makes trimming easier.

Trimming the

Here’s the trimmed binding when viewed from the wrong side

The finished binding!

Step 16: Hem the camisole, I used the fusible hemming web method which I mentioned in my last post.

So here they are the finished camisole in stripy black. The hip flares much more than the GAP one which eliminates the bunching problem.

The finished camisole

I hope you enjoy the post. I’ll definitely make more! Lastly, I need to announce the winner of the Sewaholic Robson Coat giveaway and the lucky winner is Cottonheiress! Congratulations! I’ll email you separately to get your details and post the pattern to you shortly.

Burda 7340 short version

Burda 7340 Line Drawings

I used a  viscose jersey with black and dark grey stripes from Tissu Fabric. The fabric only costs £3.99 a metre and was delivered promptly.

Stripy viscose jersey – The black stripes are semi-transparent while the grey stripes are opaque

I’ve now gotten into the habit of pre-washing fabric after buying it so my stash are mostly ready to sew when I’m ready. I would highly recommend this to people who want to jump into a project straight away without waiting for the fabric to be washed and dried. Here’s my finished garment:

The finished T-shirt – front

The finished T-shirt – back

As the back and front are cut as one continuous piece with a ‘cut out’ for the neck and the right shoulder seam, the T-shirt was super fast to make and it only took an afternoon to make from cutting out to finishing.

The neck opening and the open right shoulder seam

As the fabric is quite lightweight, I used 1/4″ Steam-a-seam Lite 2 to baste the fold temporary. This is a trick from Sandra Betzina’s Power Sewing TV (I don’t remember which episode though as she uses Steam-a-seam in many situations). Firstly the tape was positioned over the bodice leaving 1/2″ hem allowance.

Positioning the tape to the bodice

Then the tape’s paper side was peeled to reveal the fusible web. The hem allowance was finger pressed along the edge of the fusible web.

Folding the hem allowance up along the fusible web

Iron press the finger pressed hem gently to secure the hem and then top stitch using a tiny zigzag (0.5 width, 2.5 length).

The iron pressed hem before top-stitching

Using the fusible web definitely helped to eliminate puckering and also it was convenient to sew without pins! When I started the project I didn’t quite visualise how the stripy fabric will look and was worried about not being able to match the strips on the side seams but it turned out okay.

The side seam – matching stripes!

It’s not possible to match the right side seam due to the bust dart but the strips matched near the hem

The fabric ripples a bit along the black semi-transparent stripes, this is probably caused by the different weights of the black and grey stripes. I’m not too fussed about this as it’s only a T-shirt but will definitely pay attention when buying fabric in the future for a ‘higher investment’ project. All in all I’m quite happy with the outcome since it’s cheap and quick! The stripy fabric also creates interest to a simple design T-shirt.

Burda 7340 T-shirt

The stripes drape with the left sleeve

I also used the left over fabric to make a camisole based on an existing one from GAP. I’m hoping to blog a step by step post later this week. Oh and thank you all for commenting on my Blogiversary post. If you’re interested in entering the lucky draw for a free Robson Coat pattern by Sewaholic please feel free to reply to the Blogivesary post. Happy sewing!

I counted 38 completed projects in total plus one crochet shawl and one wool dress which I didn’t manage to finish. The most worn items are the peony dress, the vintage suit dress and the double faced knit jumper. To thank you  for the ongoing supports I’m giving away one Robson Coat sewing pattern from Sewaholic.

Sewaholic’s latest sewing pattern – Robson Coat

The Robson Coat’s fabric requirements

I chose this pattern as this is such as classic style and is designed for pear shape ladies like me. I’ll definitely be making a mac coat this year, the question is which fabric to use! To enter please reply to this blog post, please feel free to share your ideas on fabric choice / design alteration for this pattern. The winner will be announced on 1st June and I’ll post the pattern to wherever you are. Look forward to hearing from you!

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“This is a silhouette with a rather wide hem, appearing straight from the hipline to the hem. Because they follow the lines of the body from the waist to the hips, and then have some room for movement from the thigh to the knee, straight pants have a beautiful silhouette when viewed from the side… Because straight pants have plenty of overall volumes, use fabric such as light-weight wools that conform themselves to the contours of the body and drape well, producing clean-lines that will move beautifully when worn…”

The fabric is a cheap linen cotton mix which cost about £4 a metre from Ebay. In order to fit the trousers I’ll need to see the front and back crease lines, the hip lines and the knee lines so I hand basted along these lines with cotton basting threads.

Thread basting the crease lines and hip lines

The first fit seems to be okay although I wasn’t sure whether the trousers style is too loose fitting (I don’t own ANY loose fitting pants prior to making this…). You can see that the trousers is wrinkled already as I sat with it on for a while to make sure it’s comfortable. In the end I decided not to make any pattern changes to the trousers and see how it will turn out so here it is and please be warned that there are photos of my lower body coming up!

Finished straight leg trousers

And some more photos showing the front and back. Please feel free to comment on fitting issues! It’s very difficult to see the fit in a small room with a mirror that’s only 1 foot away. It seems easier to take a photo of the trousers from a few steps back and see the fit.

The fabric seems to work well with the pattern.

You probably can see that I sew a pin tuck along the front crease line which helps me to see whether it drapes properly. The lines also help to break down the wide trousers legs visually.

Straight leg trousers side view – The trousers has a simple lap zipper on the right hand side. The hem is sewn by hand invisibly.

And the most scary bit – my back side!

Straight leg trousers – The back view

Overall I’m happy with the first attempt but I do think the front crotch is a bit long. I’ll be double checking my crotch length measurement in the next run to see whether there’re any rooms for improvement. I’ll also try lowering the waist line and add side pockets so it’ll look more modern. I did, however, wore the trousers to the park yesterday and did some gentle walking. It’s really comfortable to wear especially in warmer weather.

Straight leg trousers in the park!

First wearable trousers completed!

There are two other trousers style in the book (slim and wide leg) which I should try as well.

In 2013, I’m going to try something new with sewing – trousers!  Ok I made muslin in a trousers fitting class before but I haven’t done actual trousers sewing with zips, pockets, etc. Since my hip is way bigger than my waist, I decided to draft my own trousers pattern. I followed the Garment Design Textbook by Bunka Fashion College. ‘Skirts and Pants’ are one of the 5 pattern drafting / sewing textbook and after much deliberation I bought the whole series from Amazon.co.jp. The books are much cheaper there but be prepared to pay for high shipping cost as the only international shipping choice is express. I recalled the books were delivered about 3-4 days after I placed the order though which is amazingly quick!

Bunka Fashion College’s Garment Design Textbook – Volume 2 Skirts and Pants

I understand that Japanese sewing publication such as Pattern Magic (also published by Bunka) uses the same pattern block. If you’re interested in designs in Pattern Magic then you might find Garment Design Textbook – Volume 1 useful as it talks in great length on drafting bodice and variations to the design.

I really enjoy following this book’s instructions. Although the text on pattern drafting does not describe every single drafting procedures, the diagrams are very clear and easy to understand. You can click the photos below and see the text better.

Straight leg pants pattern from Garment Design Textbook

Typical text and diagrams from the book – there are more detailed diagrams to explain the tricky areas such as blending the crotch lines between the front and back pattern pieces

I didn’t have a calculator with me but since the formulas were pretty straight forward I was able to do the calculations by hand on spare bits of the pattern paper. I used dot and cross pattern paper which worked well since I can draft the back piece opposite to the front piece, i.e. no need to remeasure some of the key dimensions. The metre ruler (aka yardstick) and L-ruler made drawing these long lines much quicker. I also used a Vary Form curve ruler to draw the curves at the crotch, the inseams and the side seams.

My pattern drafting tools – metre ruler, L-ruler, vary form curve ruler

For smaller areas, I used a 30cm long transparent gridded ruler from Muji (I found it in Hong Kong). I also used it to mark the seam allowances (25mm (1 inch) on the long seams for fitting, other seams have 15mm (5/8″)).

My Muji transparent gridded ruler

The pattern took about 2 hours to draft (most of the time I was reading the text from the book and analysing the diagrams!) and here’s the finished pattern:

The finished trousers pattern

I’m going to use some cheap linen / cotton mix in the stash to make a wearable mockup instead of a muslin version this weekend. By then we can see whether a custom draft pattern will fit better than the commercial ones. Wish me luck!

Cuddling a lion cub

We also walked with two 18 months old lions called Samuel and Michael (Michael is the white one).

Samuel and Michael

Walking with lions is a pure observation activity, two experienced keepers walked the lions at the front while a small group of visitors follow a few steps back. The experience is really amazing and the lions really seem to enjoy the 45 mins walk.

Samuel the lion running

We then flew to Mozambique where we visited an island. I can’t share the location with you due to confidentiality reasons but I can say that the sea water is amazingly clean and the landscape is beautiful!

Flying over the ocean at Mozambique’s coast

When an island meets the sea

During the trip we spent a lot of time indoors (no less than 12 hours a day!) on meetings and presentation preparation but the occasional glimpse of sea water kept me going.

One of the many very pretty beaches

The turquoise water

We didn’t have time to visit any other areas but I managed to buy this beaded horse at the airport on the way back. This horse (and many other animal shapes) is made by disadvantaged people in a township in Cape Town. I think the colour and details are gorgeous.

Beaded horse

The beading detail

On the day before the trip I did want to sew a quick pair of knee length pants but I ‘sensibly’ decided against the idea and focused on preparing for the meeting instead. Fortunately UK’s weather turned warmer so it wasn’t too much of a shock when I came back earlier this week. On my next post I’m hoping to show you how I draft my pants.

Iknit or dye yarn – both are lace weight. The one on the left is 80% merino and 20% silk. The one on the right is 100% swiss silk

The knitting was straight forward and the pattern instruction is very clear. The design is mainly chart based with a garter stitch edge. I learned to make a garter stitch tab at the beginning.

Shawl in progress

The shawl took about 1 week’s evening TV time to finish and here’s the shawl before blocking looking scrunched up and curly.

The shawl before blocking

I soaked the finished shawl in lukewarm water with Eucalan for about 30 mins.

Soaking the shawl in lukewarm water

After the yarn absorbed the moisture, the lace texture started the open up.

Lace in water

I used one towel to absorb the excess water from the shawl.

Taking out the excess water with first towel

Then the shawl was pinned to foam board for drying.  I used a metre rule to measure the shawl’s radius to produce a more or less half-circle shape.

Pinning the shawl

I used two pins at each tip of the shawl this time but I might try flexible blocking wire in the future as it took forever to pin out the edges.

Pinning the shawl’s edge

Here’s the finished shawl. I chose this pattern because of its simplicity, the way the eyelets flow diagonally in one direction at the top and in an opposite direction at the second band.

The finished shawl

The finished shawl – side view

The shawl’s scallop edging

The diagonal pattern

I never had a half circular shawl before but I gather this shawl can be worn pleated over one shoulder.

Another way to wear the shawl

Another way to wear the shawl – back view

I thoroughly enjoyed the knitting process and have started knitting another one with glass beads already!

1. Cutting – This part was easy as the fabric laid really flat on the table. As the fabric has a loose weave, I pulled a few horizontal threads to find the cross-wide grain and cut along the space left by the pulled threads.

Cutting along the cross-wide grain

Here you can see that the horizontal weave is parallel to the cut edge.

The cut fabric edge

2. Marking – This was the tricky one! I tried carbon paper with both smooth and serrated tracing wheels, white tailor chalk, coloured tailor chalks and none of them worked. I used tailor tacks in the end which was quite time consuming but the thread tacks stayed in place throughout the whole sewing process. Here’s how I made the tailor tacks.

Forming a thread loop using double threads of basting cotton

Cut through the top loop above the pattern paper

Pull out the pattern carefully – try not to pull the threads out

Cut the threads between the fabric pieces

Here’s the shoulder darts marked

3. Interfacing - I used a knitted lightweight fusible interfacing from English Couture called ‘Multi-stretch light‘ to interface the centre back where the zipper will be installed and also fused a small patch further down the centre back to reinforce the skirt’s slit. The tweed fabric itself has no give horizontally but has a lot of movement on the bias so I think a knitted fusible would give some support without making the tweed too stiff. Here a comparison of the fabric’s ‘stretchability’ before and after fusing.

Multi-stretch light fusible interfacing from English Couture

Fabric before fusing – you can see how far my index finger is away from my thumb

After fusing, I can still stretch the fabric but less than before

The centre back with fusible interfacing strip – each strip is about 1 1/2″ wide – yellow chalk lines marked the waist line and end of the zipper

4. Stay Tape / Staystitching – When I did the muslin I realised that the bodice front (where the fold in detail is) will require reinforcing. I used some straight grain fusible stay tape which I got from Japan and fused the tape along the seam lines. I also did the same to the front bodice’s side seam as it’s designed to be off-grain there.

The Japanese fusible stay tape – you can also get bias stay tape as well

Reinforcing the bodice’s inset corner

5. Invisible zipper – First of all this is the first time I interface a centre back before putting in a zipper and I’m glad to have done that. The zipper installation process was very smooth as the fabric is stable. I learned from Power Sewing (Episode 61) that ironing the zipper’s coil will ensure that the zipper is truly invisible on the right side and have done that a few times with success. Here’s how I install the zipper.

The zipper tape on the left was ironed using wool setting with press cloth, the one on the right has not been pressed

I used my fingers to press down the zipper coil before feeding it into the invisible zipper foot. The needle should hit the ‘ditch’ of the zipper tape.

After installing the left fashion fabric piece, I pinned the remaining zipper tape to the right fashion fabric piece and make sure the waist lines and the top matched.

The installed zipper – this was then gently pressed on the right side

Lastly, a standard zipper foot was used to sew the remaining centre back seam

So here’s how the dress looks like before the sleeves were sewn.

The in progress dress – front. The fabric was really difficult to photograph from far!

The in progress dress – back

The bodice front detail

Looking back I wish I had fused interfacing to the armhole edges and sleeve caps!!! The fabric was fraying so much I had a really hard time putting in the sleeves. I also know that the armhole had grown by about 3/8″ even though I was really careful when handling the fabric and stay stitched everything before seaming. That said the fit seems to be okay so I’m putting that behind in my tiny dark sewing corner…

Turning my head to the brighter side I looked into my little collection of vintage buttons and there are some potential matches here. The large one on the left is plastic but the rest are glass.

My vintage glass buttons!

My next sewing post will be on making the full lining which will be in a contrasting colour. The fraying was so bad I though a full lining could be a good solution. See you soon!

After my attempts on baby knitting I started knitting my first lace shawl. The pattern is Kaw Valley Wrap from Blue Sky Alpaca and the yarn is their Alpaca Silk in ‘Ice’ colour which I bought from Loop London during sale. This lovely yarn shop is just two tube stops from my office so I do pop by sometimes just to look at the colourful yarn display in the shop.

Kaw Valley Wrap

The pattern is mainly chart based. The main body of the shawl is knitted in two separate pieces then grafted together. Although I did check my gauge before knitting the whole lace piece seems really short and small which worried me a lot. Having consulted the internet I realised that it’s quite normal for lace to crumble up before blocking so I knitted on.

Two shawl pieces prior to grafting

The crumbled lace stitches before blocking

I followed instruction from Knitter’s Book of Finishing Technique on grafting. I love this book because the author explains the pros and cons of each finishing method and both the diagrams and text are very clear. I would recommend this book to knitting newbies like me! After grafting the two pieces together, I wet blocked the shawl body using blocking wires and T-pins.

Blocking the shawl’s body panel

Wetting the knitted fabric completely transformed the fibre (I think it’s close to a miracle to be honest). The lace panel grew much bigger as well which is relieving as I was wondering why my shawl is so small.

An overview of the shawl’s body panel

The trouble with blocking is that my cats showed great interest in the blocking wire (they try to catch the other end when I was threading it through the lace). Mr Skyline also decided to sit on the lace to keep it warm…

Skyline loves sitting on lace

I want to fall asleep now – don’t move me!

After blocking the shawl’s body panel I picked up tonnes of stitches along the edges. I found it quite challenging as the picked up stitches need to be even. The lace border was knitted on perpendicularly.

Knitting on the border

The finished shawl was wet blocked again and I totally underestimated the time required for pinning out the edging. I pinned and re-pinned for almost an hour and here’s the finished shawl.

The finished shawl

The scallop edging

Nice to wear in Spring and chilly Summer days

The opened up lace fabric

The yarn has a nice fluffy feel while its silk content gives a gentle sheen. I enjoyed lace knitting a lot because it has a calming rhythm and as a bonus I learned to read my stitches during the process. I’m sure there will be more lace knitting to come!

Burda 12/2012′s retro dress

Modern interpretation of the retro dress

This pattern is FREE to download on Burdastyle.de. You just need to sign up with a email, add this dress to the shopping basket and click checkout (I used google translate most of the time but soon you get the idea on which button is yes and which is cancel). There should be no need to put in any payment details.

I chose this dress purely because of the bodice detail. It reminds me of the Knot Bow Dress and Flip Turn Dress which I made last year using the Pattern Magic books. The fabric I’m going to use is this wool / silk mix tweed which I got for half price during the Christmas sale.

My half price wool / silk tweed fabric

This fabric’s white specks are randomly distributed so there would be no need to match checks! I’ve chosen a size 36 for the bodice, blended the bodice to a size 38 waist and a 40 hip.

Adjusting the bodice’s side seam from size 36 to 38

After adjusting the pattern, I made a mockup to test the fit and also to understand the bodice construction better. When making the mockup I often use serrated tracing wheel to transfer the stitching lines to the fabric. I found that the serrated tracing wheel often cuts through the pattern paper and punctures the carbon paper behind so I switched to a smooth tracing wheel this time and voila pattern paper is now intact and solid stitching lines are transferred to the fabric!

Switching to smooth tracing wheel helps to preserve the pattern and carbon paper

After making the mock-up I’ve taken a good 4 1/2″ off the hem and pinched out some fabric on the side seams at the waist.

The mockup – front view

The skirt’s side seam was pointing towards the back as well which was fixed by securing the bodice’s inset waist detail with pins, i.e. pulling up the front waist seam. I’ll need to think about how to secure it properly when sewing otherwise the front will look droopy.

The mockup – side view. You can see that the side seam is not pointing straight towards the floor which will need to be corrected

I’m glad that I made the mockup as this gave me a better idea on how the bodice will be constructed. There’s an obvious weak point at the bodice which will need to be interfaced and reinforced to prevent fraying.

The weak point is where the two ‘wings’ meet at the centre front. You can probably see a tiny hole there.

I might have show this to you already but couldn’t resist including a picture of my trusty Singer 201K which I used to sew the mockup and will be using it to sew the dress.

My vintage 201K Singer sewing machine

It feels right to use an old machine to make a retro style dress!