Notions Of Fabric

After making the toile of the Calvin top which I posted last week, I dove straight in to the actual planned dress! This make was actually totally inspired - you know that feeling you get when you are just idly browsing an online fabric store (The Village Haberdashery, in my case), and you see a fabric - and instantly you know that you NEED it in your life and EXACTLY what to make with it. This is what happened with this Mind the Maker Leo print viscose - I knew as soon as I saw it that it needed to be a True Bias Calvin dress. It is gorgeous - and I've been trying to bring more green into my wardrobe, to great success! I made the size 10 again, the same as my toile. In the making process, I ended up taking 1cm off each underarm. I also took 8" off the hem (pardon my mixing imperial/metric, I work in strange ways, apparently) because it was really long on me! It is a big departure from my usual style, with the lack of a waistband and the wrap, but every time I've worn it I ...

Now, if anyone has stuck around and read most of these blog posts, they have probably learned a few things about me. One of them would be that I rarely make a toile - and if I do, it's a wearable one not a real toile. This garment is a wearable toile. The only reason I tend to make a wearable toile is because it's a style I don't usually wear - and boy is this different from my usual style! Before this top, there was precisely nothing that wrapped in my wardrobe. I always worried that because I am bigger than average on top, that it wouldn't suit me. But one of the things I love about sewing at the moment is trying things that are a little out of my comfort zone, so off I went! This is the True Bias Calvin, made up as a top. I realised when I finished my 'Shelby Rip-Off' dress that I had an awful lot of fabric left, and given it was a rayon (I think, it was from the Birmingham Rag Market in 2019 so I don't exactly remember now!) it was the right amount of dr...

 This was my final make for myself of 2020, and it turned out so well! I haven't had much of a chance to wear it yet, but it is comfy and I can see it being very wearable for work and comfy. This is another Moneta - my fourth (including the striped one, the rainbow striped one, and also one who have yet to be blogged which will be up soon!). I made the same size as usual, M, with the now standard altered sleeve piece (I took 1" out of each underarm seam to make the sleeve less baggy and tapered it to nothing at the elbow). I used the 3/4 sleeve for the most cold weather versatility. This fabric is a beautiful grey and blue plaid knit fabric I got from Fabworks during my weekend away for the Kelly Anorak meetup at the beginning of September. It is a really lovely fabric - thick but not too heavy. I put the plaid on the bias for the skirt, which serves the dual purpose of additional visual interest and to avoid pattern matching! Every time I make a Moneta I forget how quick and ...

I realised as we were approaching last summer that I had denim shorts, and navy blue shorts, but no shorts in black - which was clearly an oversight. So I made 2 pairs! This pair is by far my favourite and I have worn it loads. I am really pleased with the fit on it too! This is the Lander shorts pattern, which I have made once before. I really like the fit on these. I made a size 8, as last time I cut and made a size 10, but then ended up taking it in at the waist. I also made the hem of the shorts a smaller hem this time to give me just a little extra length. For fabric, I used a perwinkle twill I bought from the Village Haberdashery which I dyed black and added to some black remnants I already had from a (very old) Chardon skirt. That made sure I had enough fabric for both these Landers and also the Maritimes I made too (blog post incoming). As these shorts were going to get a lot of wear (and I knew that they would ahead of time due to their versatility), I put extra care into them...

Out of all the things I sewed in 2020, this is easily my second favourite (my first being my Kelly, which has seen almost daily wear since it was finished and has kept my dry at many a drizzly school pickup)! And I only finished it in the middle of November! I very much liked the pinafore craze that was going around, but I tend to like garments with a more pronounced shape than something like the Cleo or Bobbi which were the popular patterns on Instagram. So I jumped on the internet and Googled, and eventually I found Kwik Sew 4138. A lovely full skirt, pockets (duh!), and a nicely shaped bib. It was everything I wanted, so I ordered it along with some mid weight bottle green cotton twill. I thought about going for black (and have since ordered some black corduroy to make a second with!) but decided that given I was using a relatively plain fabric I wanted to go for a more interesting colour. I also have a lot of black and navy in my wardrobe, and the green actually goes with a surpris...

I have recently taken a bunch more blog photos - I think that makes me almost up to date with my makes? Certainly the 16 garments I took today means I have photos of every garment I made in 2020 (which is the most in a year ever, I think). This will be the first of this batch I've posted! When the Shelby dress by True Bias came out, I think almost everyone fell in love with it, including me. I was talking to some of my sewing friends, and Chloe sent me a picture of New Look 6567... This pattern was so close to the Shelby and very hackable to make it the same. It had the (lack of) waist seam, the overall shape - and I was feeling adventurous! So I picked a fabric which I was happy to use as a muslin fabric - a maroon rayon with a ditsy floral print I picked from the Birmingham rag market during Sew Brum 2019. Now, it conspires that I haven't actually made the proper version yet, but it is on the (long) list of things to sew in 2021, and now I know that it will work. I made the ...

This is the last project from my big photo taking session! I took photos of 18 garments all up which was actually quite a good way to get photos, particularly during the new lockdown normal. After this we'll have to see about when this goes up, what life is like, can I go outside? Can I persuade the husband to actually take photos for me again? We'll see. (After originally writing this in April... Well, you know what else happened... Here's hoping we can be back to normal sometime soon!) This is one which I am still not sure about - it doesn't get much wear and I'll explain more in a bit. This is another Lady Skater, in my usual size 5. It fits nicely and I really like the look of this embossed mystery stretch fabric - I found it at a store in Goldhawk Rd (I think) and it was definitely in the single digits per metre. I also bought it at a time where I didn't know better - if I saw this now I wouldn't get it! The colour is perfectly me, but as ...