Notions Of Fabric

Leading into last summer, I made my toile of the Sirocco as a romper. I really liked it and it became my staple wear for those hot days when I didn't leave the house. Now, i've finally go around to making the real deal! This is the jumpsuit pattern, including the pockets and getting the pleats the right way around this time! I also sized down to to a 42 based on the fit of the toile. Constructed entirely on the overlocker makes it fast and quite easy. This is 2 different knit fabrics from Girl Charlee, the last of the fabrics that I won in my bundle at Guthrie and Ghani during the SewBrum raffle in 2019. I didn't have enough to make the jumpsuit all in one fabric, so I used the floral for the top and solid for the trousers. I ended up using the floral for the pockets as well as I didn't have enough of the solid. Luckily they coordinate together really well and look good together. The floral knit is quite a lot lighter than the solid navy though, so it's not ideal fo...

When I made my Plantain tees, I was intending on making some making changes to the pattern. Well, this is the first iteration of them - as pajamas. My favourite pajamas to wear are from Primark. They're a long tee style that covers the butt and they're made of jersey fabrics. I decided that I wanted to try making my own! I used the short sleeve version of the pattern again. I compared the length of my favourite RTW pajamas and lengthened the Plantain pattern 7.5" to match the length. I also compares the waist curve (based on my original adjustment) and realised that it was almost exactly the same which is great because I didn't need to change that at all. I used this John Kaldor viscose jersey in both mustard and black. This was to be the first part of my me made pajama wardrobe and will match with the bottom half fabrics I bought which are Robert Kaufman Mammoth Cotton Flannel. I ordered them from Minerva and these are the first pieces to be finished because the flann...

Happy Saturday! I have discovered over the last year or so that I have not very many handmade tops (my handmade tops are pretty much exclusively Ogden camis), and that combined with the fact that May was coming up and I had some fabric remnants kicking around in my drawer, it was time to try making a tee shirt! It made sense to start with a free pattern, and my love for Deer and Doe is well documented on this blog, so it made total sense to try the Plantain tee. I made the size M as that lines up closest with my measurements - and it’s a nice fit but relatively loose. It looks great tucked into high waisted jeans or shorts but I think I might try the size down next time. I did lay down my favourite RTW tee on the pattern to compare the sizing and I noticed that heather Plantain had a lot more flare at the hip, so I adjusted the side seams. In the end I took them in 2 inches total at the bottom, going to nothing at the top. As these were essentially wearable toiles for a future planned ...

This make is the last from batch 2 of my photographing technique. This was one of the dresses I made in lockdown #1, actually, in May of 2020. I got a tipoff from my fabulous sewing friend Chloe about some amazing fabric she had seen online. It was from 1st for Fabrics, and it was a UV reactive fabric! This sounded really interesting, so I jumped online a bought this fabric (which is not the same print, but another very cool one). I wanted to get something lighter in colour for the spring and summer months, as I don't actually wear very much in cream or white that isn't a plain tank top! This is another Colette Moneta, but rather than the 3/4 sleeve for a more summery look. This meant I needed to reprint the sleeve  piece in the short sleeve length (as I had 3/4 printed previously). I made the same size M (8-10) as usual and made the same adjustment to the sleeve as on my other sleeve piece by removing 1" out of width of the sleeve head. Really there's not much to say ...

This garment is another product of my SewBrum 2019 raffle prize win. While the colours in this fabric aren't bad, I just didn't feel they were really me. However, in the bundle was also a dark blue and a complimentary dark blue floral, and when I saw them I immediately imagined them as an opportunity to finally make the Deer and Doe Sirocco jumpsuit. But, would I wear it? So I decided to use this other fabric from my bundle to make my wearable toile of the romper version. It's a really light jersey in this sage green pineapple print. As you might be able to see, I made a few changes and they were all simply to make it fit on the fabric. Firstly, I left the sleeves off! I also taped the pocket and front pieces together so that my version has no pockets. This meant that I could fit it all on the approximately 1.5m piece I had, although I couldn't be particular about where the print ended up. I cut a size 44 all over, which is my usual size for D&D patterns. I ended up...