Papercut Patterns

Last week I had a quick trip to Brisbane and I finally got a chance to visit The Fabric Store, where I discovered the New Zealand patterns "Papercut Patterns".  So funky!  I bought a couple of patterns straight away and one of my sisters bought another couple, with plans that we will swap and have a very groovy wardrobe indeed.  I think we bought most of the Spring Summer Collection between us.

Since I am on a knit binge this week, I made up the Oh La Leggings.  These ones are from a thin fabric, so they will be worn under dresses which will not show the interesting design lines, but I will definitely make this one again in a heavier fabric for sportswear.

Since this is a new pattern company, I will post a review at PR and put some more details here.

Fabric:  I can't remember the content of this one.  I think it might be viscose.  Very stretchy.  Doesn't hold stitches very well.  I should have tied off my overlocker threads as all the seams are unravelling!

Sizing:  The size chart is on the pattern sheet.  I would have liked them to be included with the pattern instructions, as I read through these when preparing to sew something.    I fell between a S and an M.  I cut the M, but I took them in at the knees, the ankles and the front waist section, so maybe I should have cut an S for such stretchy fabric.

On the pattern my sister made, she ran into a bit of trouble because the finished measurements weren't printed on the pattern and she is a little on the short side.

Instructions:  The instructions come in a little booklet.  I had no problems with them.  The patterns are printed on brown paper in multiple sizes.  I used an overlocker for the seams and my coverstitch machine for the topstitching.  1 cm seam allowances are included in the pattern.

Alterations: I did have to shorten them a little.  I put cuffs on the bottoms instead of hemming, because I thought that cuffs suited my fabric better.  I took them in behind the knees, which was easy to do because of the seam that ran down the back of the leg.  I took them in at the ankles.  I messed up sewing the fronts.  I marked the fabric but these marks didn't show when I went to sew and I forged ahead regardless.  The seams didn't go together right.  I cut off the overlocking instead of unpicking, but then the seams didn't match because the curved seams meant that the seams lengths changed with this cutting.  I fiddled and fussed and then added a seam to the CF of the waist section, which ended up improving the fit for me anyway.

The only problem I have with this pattern company is that their unique packaging means that the patterns don't fit nicely into my new pattern organisational system.  Sigh.

I also bought a pants / shorts pattern and a top / dress pattern.  Hopefully I will get to these soon so I can share some more of this exciting new pattern company with you!

Coverstitch Machine

My new coverstitch machine turned up on Monday.  I have been sewing up a frenzy since then, learning how to use it, so I have lots of garments to share with you.  Just starting with a quick post.

A whole lot of little "man jocks".  This is how it all started.  I got out my old coverstitch machine, that I bought second hand off ebay a few years ago.  It has always been a bit hit and miss.  I thought that I had better sit down and work out how to get it to perform or get rid of it.  I rounded up my knit scraps for some underpants sewing...perfect for practising technique.  I made 8 samples.  Yes EIGHT samples.  They all worked fine.  Then I went to sew the real thing and it messed up.  So off I went to buy a new one.  I did a bit of google research, as I couldn't find a machine to test drive at any of the local dealers (though I later found out that Spotlight had the machine I bought on the floor, even though they told me that they didn't when I rang them up).  And now I own a Brother 2340cv.

The hems worked perfectly the first time.  And the second.  And the third.  And the fourth, fifth and sixth times.  What a huge relief.  Then I flatlocked all the elastic.  I did line up the elastic so that there was excess fabric to trim after...can't get too cocky too quickly!  Though possibly I would always need to do this.  I reckon that I would need some sort of special foot to be able to line up elastic on the edge of the fabric and sew.

This elastic was fabulous.  I bought it from elingeria a while back.  The grooves in the elastic lined up perfectly with the needles on my machine and the machine foot is clear, which made it easy to sew into the grooves of the elastic.  I even sewed the ends of the elastic together with the coverstitch machine, as I was too lazy to set up my regular machine (sewing on the dining table currently).

Fabric:  remnants from stash, elastic from elingeria
Pattern:  available here

The elastic is gathered more than usual for this style of undies because my 7yo has a tiny, little waist, smaller than the Sz 3 pattern that I used for him.

So that was the start, with more exciting projects to follow!

BTW I have had a few computer problems lately and had to reload my operating system and all my programs.  I don't seem to have the same photo editing capability now in Windows.  Not sure what that is all about.  Hopefully I will sort it out and be able to edit my photos again soon.

Chanel + Swimsuit

"Chanel" and "Swimsuit" are not words that I generally put together.

Chanel:  I'm thinking tweed jackets, little black dresses, simplicity, elegance, couture, French.  Lots of basting and hand sewing.

Swimsuits:  Here I'm thinking Zimmermann, Tigerlily, Hotel Bondi...perhaps even Speedo.  Lycra.  Elastic.  Overlockers.  Summer brights.

Not much overlap, is there.  Well, not until I saw these images last summer. 

I fiiled these away in my inspiration file, but would probably have forgotten about them if it were not for the PR swimwear contest.  I was flicking through the file looking for ideas.  I was a bit late to contest party, so needed something that I could make up with the materials I already had on hand.  Black lycra, white lycra, elastic, lining, buttons.  All in the stash.  I was on my way.

The first step was to come up with a pattern.  I started with a personal swimwear block that Stuart helped me with a couple of years ago.  I used the lower leotard legline from the block, though after seeing the completed swimsuit, I probably should have lowered the legline even further.  I took out a few cm across the bust, to account for the fact that it was basically a strapless swimsuit.  Lucky I walked the side seams, because they did not match properly.  I didn't walk the crotch seam and I need to fix this up next time I start from this block.  I used Corel draw to draw in my design lines and decide where seam lines were to go.  Before I could turn this into a pattern, I needed to know how I was going to construct the swimsuit.  I knew that "V" at the centre front had to be very, very neat.  It took me a little while to work this out. 

Meanwhile, my family suddenly seemed very, very needy.  Could you go for a walk with me?  Well, only if you don't expect conversation, as I am thinking about my Chanel swimsuit.  Could you come to assembly to see me get an award?  Well, only if I can bring my samples with me to contemplate.  I can't find my shoe.  I don't have any breakfast.  Have you paid that bill?  Well, that is hardly important now, is it?  There is a Chanel swimsuit to be made.

Needless to say, I worked it out and family life returned to normal.  I constructed the suit in stints over a few days.

Because this is a competition entry, I will provide a few more construction details than I normally do.

How to overlock corners

Swimsuits are made with negative ease.  Seams need to be able to stretch, particularly in a horixontal direction.  This is why overlockers are generally used.  An overlocking stitch allows for stretch whilst remaining sturdy.  It is not so good for detailed, precision sewing, like starting and stopping at a point, pivoting corners, etc.

I will show you how I handled the corners on this suit.  First I basted the seams.  Basting is generally not used in swimwear, as it rips when the suit is stretched for wear.  I used it here to mark my seamlines and then removed it afterwards. 

 Clip the corner to the stitching line.

 Stretch the corner so that the stitching line is a straight line.  Hold the fabric like this as you overlock the seam. 

 Remove basting stitches.

 Not too bad!

 Bust Darts

My swimwear block incorporates bust darts.  I sewed these with an overlocker.

 Faux pocket flaps

I had to take into account that the pocket flaps were attached in a region of significant horizontal stretch.  I sewed the 2 flap pieces together, around 3 edges.  Clipped corners,  Turned right way out.  Placed upside down on fabric.  Attached to main suit with a zig-zag stitch, to allow stretch. 

 Folded down flap.  Sewed short ends down with a satin stitch.

 The black pocket flap turned out bettern than the white one.

Lining shots

I lined the front of the swimsuit with a nude lycra, as it was more substantial than swimwear linings.  It would not be very Chanel-like to have a see-through swimsuit, would it now? 

From this lining shot, you can see that the top edge is a binding, which I wrapped around a 2cm wide rubber elastic and attached to the swimsuit with my overlocker. 

The "V" has a folded edge.  On the outside, this "V" piece continues down until the waistband contrast piece, so as not to have a potentially messy join in a highly visible area. 

I did not elasticise the "V".  I am thinking that the original suit must have elastic in the "V" area, as the top of the "V" is narrower than the neck width, and I can't see how it would sit in this position and not be pulled out by the straps, unless it was elasticised.  I did not put elastic in the straps, as I am less likely to get a headache from halter suits when I leave the elastic out.  I think it would look better with elastic in the straps, and when I get some more elastic I may take the straps off and re-do them.

On the inside, there is a join below the "V", because I wanted the grainline of the vertical stripes and lining to be in the same direction, and this was not possible with a fold on the neck edge of the "V".

You can see that my overlocking stitches are not that great.  15 years ago I bought a bottom of the range Janome overlocker and I am still using it.  Might be time for an upgrade?

For the back, I used regular swimwear lining.

I attached 1 cm wide rubber elastic to the legs with my overlocker, turned them in and stitched down with a zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine.

 The completed suit

 Perhaps not perfectly neat, but it turned out as neat as I was expecting!  There is a reason why the original suit is priced at $1400!

Finally, way down the end of the post, after disinterested parties have moved on...a modelled photo of the swimsuit.  Only for PR purposes, mind you.

Linen Hand Towels

I've had a hankering for linen hand towels.  It all began with those linen fundraiser tea towels that the kids brought home from kindergarten.    I found myself wiping my hands on them in preference to the hand towels in the kitchen just because they felt nicer.  So then I thought that I would buy linen hand towels.  Only nobody seems to sell them.  Of course, this is not a problem when you have a sewing machine.  My new house spurred me to action because it has hooks for the hand towels and I would have had to sew tabs to my existing towels.

When I placed an order for fabrics from Tessuti, I added 0.5 m of white check to the cart.  It has a lovely texture.  The towels are made from a double thickness of this fabric.  0.5 m was enough to make 4 towels, but I wish I had ordered twice as much as I really should have spares for wash days (or wash weeks...given the length of the washing cycle around here).

The edges and trims were all from my scrap drawers.  When you sew with beautiful fabrics, even the tiniest scraps get used.

I trimmed 2 with entre-deux and brown linen for the main bathroom.  The one below was edged with black satin and grey shirting fabric to match the black stripe in my ensuite.

This last one was trimmed with entre-deux and Japanese cotton.  The buttons were from my Vinnies button jar (last button sewn badly, but I will resew it once it falls off).

Is this what you'd call "champagne tastes on a beer budget"?

New Vogues

Well, before I sorted through my patterns and discovered the false economiy of buying patterns in threes, I bought three of the new Vogues.  I have made one of them up already though.  Vogue 1282 Donna Karan.  I loved this pattern immediately, and got straight online to see if there was suitable fabric available before I even bought the pattern.  In a hugely inspired fashion, I bought grey, same as the pattern envelope.  I tell you, if I could have ordered the model's hairstyle, I would have done that too!

I'll put all the details in a pattern review, so pop on over there to read about it.

I picked up the shoes in an op shop this week for $8.  They are a deep olive green and will perfectly match a dress that I have fabric for and not made yet.  They look never worn and were so comfortable that I forgot that I was actually looking for football boots for my boys.