Merry Grinchmas, have some Christmas cats…

Well it’s April now so I guess I better blog my Christmas sewing from 2016 😉

I decided I wanted to make a Christmas themed dress this year, to wear to my work Christmas party and on Christmas day. I spent way too long trying to find the perfect Christmas fabric online and suddenly it was mid-November and way too late to order anything.

While in Spotlight for something unrelated I noticed all the Christmas themed fabric was on special. There were a lot of options but nothing really jumped out at me. I eventually spotted some ridiculously “me” crazy cat themed Christmas Fabric and I decided that would do. I grabbed 2 meters which was not enough for the dress pattern I eventually decided on (another Sew Over It Betty Dress) and so I had to go back later in the week for more.

Nerdy Husband accompanied me on my second trip and I while I was frantically digging for more Christmas cats he was quietly deciding he needed a Christmas shirt and handed me a bolt of Grinch fabric. I finally found the cats and another meter came home with the Grinches.

For NH’s shirt I dug out an old Vogue pattern I’d made about 10 years ago.

Super trendy! It required many alterations.

The super huge collar is one piece so I drafted a new two-piece collar from that. After comparing the body pieces to a favourite shirt I removed 1.5cm width from both front and back pieces and added 6.5cm in length.

I didn’t buy enough fabric…again. The envelope said 2.6m of 115cm and I only bought 2.0m of 112cm so I played the hardest game of Pattern Tetris ever which included adding 3cm to the front piece so that I could self-face the button placket instead of cutting a separate piece. I also had to find room for a pocket piece  reshaped to be more pointy in place of the original late-90s curvy one.

Front…

Back + first attempt at sleeve placement…

Rotated sleeve is more efficient…

Second sleeve – yay for non-directional fabric…

Last fabric scrap left! Collar…

Aaaand pocket! Phew!

I did it! And as tough as it was there is something quite satisfying about tiny scraps of expensive fabric. Now please enjoy these two obviously not-modeled finished photos.

And now for my dress and it’s much less dramatic sewing journey:

It went much easier since I’ve made a million Betty Dresses (1, 2, 3) and so to lift the excitement I also ordered a new red frou frou from my favorite swing dance store in Napier, Let’s Jive, a mere 2 days before the party…spoiler: it arrived in time.

This version is fully lined in a lemon poplin and has the all important and endlessly useful pockets.

Oh and do you like my cardigan? I realised I would need one for when it got chilly later in the evening…did you think I could find a red cardi in my size in any of the 20 odd shops near my work? Nope.

So the day before it was required, with my dress still needing to be hemmed, I lunched with Nikki and Kat who told me to stop my complaining and just make one. So we cut lunch short and wandered up to The Fabric Store where I bought the perfect red merino for a cropped Muse Jenna.

I washed and dried the merino while I hemmed my dress and then I cut and overlocked my heart out! There’s nothing quite like a tight deadline…

You might have noticed the lack of closures and if not I’m pointing that out right now…I might add some hammer-on snaps sometime…or maybe not 😉

I wore my dress to our work festivities, on the last day at work for 2017, on Christmas day with my in-laws, and to my families late Christmas. The Grinchmas shirt was worn on the last day of work (I potentially have orders but good luck with that guys!) and on Christmas day as well.

But my dress wasn’t the only cat sewn up for Christmas Day – I also made a cushion for S, my cat-mad sister-in-law, from this huge cat panel I found on the Spotlight clearance table. There were three identical cat heads across the width so the cushion is double-sided and I have absolutely no idea what to do with the remaining cat…look out for it on mu table at the next Fabric-a-brac 😀

S loved it but Tora isn’t too impressed…

Phew, Christmas sewing blogged!

THE DEETS:

Patterns – 

• Vogue 7094 OOP
• Sew Over It Betty Dress, size 14
• Muse Jenna, variation A with 3/4 sleeves, size 38

Fabric –

From Spotlight, Porirua

• X16 Merry Grinchmas Cotton, $29.99/meter (-40% on sale),
• X16 Kitty Xmas All Over Cotton, $19.99/meter (-40% on sale)
• Lemon Poplin Cotton, $5.99/meter
• Random cat panel fabric, $4.00/meter clearance

From The Fabric Store

• 100% New Zealand Merino

Other notions – Buttons, invisible zipper, interfacing

#notmycat

 

Time Machine Sewing, episode 4: Summer Robes

It’s baaaaack!

Because if I don’t blog it, then it never happened.

I made Nerdy Husband a summer robe for his birthday at the start of the year and because unselfish sewing must be balanced I also made myself one.

Then we wore them all summer long…and last summer, it was loooong…don’t worry, I washed them occasionally. But basically unless we were at work or sleeping, or they were in the wash, we were in our new summer robes. So I just never got around to photographing them.

When winter finally showed up we swapped back to our winter robes, fluffy warm rtw robes that are next on the sewing hit-list…it’s long list, don’t hold your breath…and so I gave our summer robes a final wash, pressed them, hung them in my sewing room to be finally photographed and blogged about and then promptly forgot.

Winter is on its way out again, Spring is here (well, it will fade in and out for a few more weeks yet) so I thought I’d better get these on the blog before we start to live in them again!

So, NH requested his robe and we went to Spotlight where he picked out some dinosaur cotton that was on special and I also grabbed McCall’s 6231 – the first envelope pattern I’ve purchased from Spotlight in a looooong time.

I cut out view B minus the shorts and because the robe is unlined I decided to flat fell the shoulder seams and then I used Hug Snug seam binding on all other seams and hems.

I also used Hug Snug to finish the inside edge of the collar.

And that’s about it – here are some finished photos, courtesy of Scarlett:

It has pockets, remember this for later…

The sleeve pattern piece looked really short and I couldn’t find any finished measurements either in the instructions or on the pattern tissue. From the line art the sleeve looks like it sits right at the edge of the shoulder so I was convinced there was an error in the pattern.

So to be safe I added some ridiculous amount of length (I can’t remember how much) and as you can see in the photo below the excessive shoulder width means that the sleeve ends up halfway down the upper arm. I checked my pattern and I’ve removed the yellow paper and stuck the pattern piece back together as per normal so I’m guessing I must have chopped all that extra length off during the first fitting!

Anyway, I’m pretty proud of it and Nerdy Husband loves his robe so here are some close ups:

The only pattern modification: a handy hanging loop at the back of the neck 🙂

My robe is the Named Asaka Kimono and I shopped my stash for fabric. I bought some Michael Miller “Children at Play” cotton in July last year and instantly regretted it. I mean, I love it, but it’s far too light for me to wear everyday, I’m such a grub!

However it is perfect for this and Harri agreed. She has such good taste.

I only had 3 yards and the pattern called for 3.9 but I love a good challenge…and yeah it didn’t fit! That’s ok, I managed to piece the collar front on the outside and for the inside collar I use a contrasting colour, left overs from my Tangram Bleuet which made me very happy.

I might have managed it if my fabric didn’t have such an obvious print direction and what annoys me is that the cutting layout shows the two piece sleeve cut upside down and yet in the website sample photo they clearly have been cut right way up with the pattern…

Anyway, I really shouldn’t complain, I managed to get my robe out of 25% less fabric than recommended 😉

I didn’t lengthen the pattern at all despite reading a few comments online about it being super short. It looks pretty short on the Named model but a quick tissue fit check and then with the fabric and I thought it looked ok.

I really liked the long sleeves with the split so I made them up as per the pattern to begin with and then I realised they were going to be a pain. I run around in my robe after I get home from work so I’d probably catch myself on fire while making dinner or something equally unbelievable but highly likely. As well as being a grub I am also a klutz! I tried sewing the split shut but the end of the sleeve is huge…so finally I lopped them off just below my elbow and sewed the split shut up to the crook of my elbow. Now I have the best of both worlds: shorter sleeves that I won’t set on fire and sexy arm split 😉

Scarlett’s turn!:

More flat felled shoulder seams and Hug Snug on the other seams and hems. I own many colours of Hug Snug 🙂

I also got hanging loop at the back of the neck and remember those pockets? I used the McCall’s pattern piece and added them to my robe too. They hold a surprising number of clothes pegs.

Pockets on everything.

What’s that Nikki? Oh you want to see me wearing it?

Oh alright then! 😉

Dirty cell phone pics but at least my toenails match…

THE DEETS:

Patterns –

• McCall’s 6231, size L
• Named Asaka Kimono, size 40

Fabric –

• Random dinosaur cotton fabric from Spotlight, Kaiwharawhara
• Michael Miller “Children at Play” 100% cotton

Other notions – Hug Snug seam binding

“You see these eyes, they’re old eyes. And one thing I can tell you, Alex: monsters are real.”*

To be read in the voice of David Attenborough:

New Zealand is a small nation of islands with a short but rich history of strange and unique creatures. Many readers will be familiar with this countries flightless national symbol, the Kiwi, and maybe even its extinct ancestor, the giant Moa.

Amongst the more interesting and sometimes frightening looking specimens are Tuatara, living fossils who lived alongside dinosaurs 220 million years ago, and the completely harmless, although it doesn’t look it, Wētā.

Even with all this native strangeness few ever imagined that New Zealand could also be sanctuary to Gru novaezelandiae, more commonly known as Domo-kun, and up until recently this was the only known photograph ever taken of one in the wild.

Little is know about this mysterious creature but in the last few months we have been lucky to travel deep into the New Zealand bush to investigate the possibility of its existence and we were fortunate to get a glimpse of what was previously thought only rumour.

We followed this shy creature for several hours, gradually getting closer as it grew more comfortable with our presence.

It was as curious about us as we were of it and eventually it grew bold enough to show itself in the open.

Fascinating!

This is of course Domo-kun, official mascot of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, and I am very proud of him.

He was a requested project by someone who wishes to remain anonymous but let’s just say said person likes to watch nerdy things on YouTube and in one such video there was a giant furry Domo-kun in the background and a plan was formulated.

The initial idea was to find some faux fur, or perhaps a chunky fleece but the colour was just as important as the texture. Domo-kun’s pelt is very specific.

The hunt began at Spotlight in the city and then The Fabric Warehouse next door which both had nothing suitable. Next stop was Pete’s Emporium in Porirua, a large store of ridiculously random and often surprising merchandise. They had a lot of fur but nothing quite the right shade of Domo-kun brown.

As a last resort we went into the Porirua Spotlight which is planned such that the shortest route to the fabric (one must ALWAYS take the shortest route in a Spotlight store) is via Manchester and its various discount bins…where I was immediately drawn to some hideously textured towels in a hue that could only be described as Domo-kun Brown (Spotlight called them “Espresso but “Poo Brown” if also accurate). My accomplice also stopped, staring at the towels (which I was now petting) and we exchanged a grin.

We had found our Domo-kun pelt.

We added some red and white felt for the mouth, the biggest black plastic eyes we could find and a bag of hobby fill. We were ready to bring Domo-kun to life.

Back at home we selected a good Domo-kun outline from the internet and used the eyes to scale up as a pattern.

It was not quite as big as my accomplice wanted but big enough far as I was concerned.

I winged the construction so I’ll mostly let the photos speak for themselves:

I started with the mouth, attaching white felt triangle teeth to the red felt, then self faced the mouth opening with extra towel.

Domo fur gets everywhere!

The thickness was an issue to begin with but top-stitching around the opening created a subtle “lip” effect which was actually perfect…I did break two brand new needles doing it.

I added the eyes next, reinforcing them with small squares or towel behind.

Harri helped a lot as usual.

I was initially going to insert the pre-stuffed arms in the front side seam but my accomplice convinced me I had to find a better way so I split the side panels horizontally above and below the arm placement and then split the center portion vertically.

It was a lot of fun to sew all these seams with fully stuffed Doro arms flapping about but in the end it worked really well and made the arms more expressive and posable.

Attaching the sides was really easy except for between the legs where I broke a third needle while trying to maneuver the thick toweling and machine foot in the tight, erm, crotch area.

I left a small opening in one side for turning and we were ready to stuff.

He didn’t look like much after I turned him through but as I began to fill him with his fluffy polyester guts he really began to come alive and my accomplice was getting very excited.

I packed him quite densely so that he could stand up alone and then hand stitched the opening closed.

And that’s the story of Domo-kun who is highly prized and, weirdly, of everything I’ve made, is the creation that I have to defend the most. This blog post will hopefully help me convince people with the photographic evidence that I did actually make him!

I feel like something’s watching me…

THE DEETS:

Pattern – My own

Fabric & Notions – 

• 2 x “Luxury Combed Towel – Espresso” $9.88
• 1/2 sheet of red felt $0.82
• 1/3 sheet white adhesive felt $ 1.09
• 2 x eyes $ 0.82
• 2/3 bag of Hobby Fill $6.58

Total cost: NZD$19.19

*Night Terrors – Doctor Who (S06.E09)

“In which aisle can I find your kitten-proof rubbish bins?”

I had a super busy weekend but I did get to do some sewing…and some of it was even for me!

Nerdy Husband is so happy with his merino top that he has requested more. At the moment he is working outside for his job and since it is winter it means he is wearing it everyday. I made him a second one in charcoal grey last month but that still means I have to wash them both every 2 days so on Saturday I was taken fabric shopping (squeee!) and more merino was bought. Global Fabrics had it on special at $20 a meter which means I can make his merinos for about $30 each, that is super cheap!

Then we went rubbish bin shopping.

I know right! Fabric shopping AND rubbish bin shopping in one day? I am a lucky woman 😉

The problem is that Harri thinks it’s hilarious to jump into my open-topped rubbish bin in my sewing room and then play in it. Sometimes she just tips it over to play with the contents. Just that morning we were in the kitchen eating brekkie and she trotted in with a paper scrap in her mouth that looked distinctly sewing related.

This is OK if it’s just paper but, as we have already discovered, she really likes thread. She munches on the offcuts and scraps from my overlocker catch bin and I worry she will swallow some and that would be bad. It also means I have nowhere to throw away sharp things like bent pins and old rotary blades. I’ve been putting them in the kitchen bin but one day I’ll forget and she will jab or cut her paw when she jumps in! So the kitten-proofing of the sewing room continues and a pedal bin (green with white polka dots) was purchased and success! It is kitten proof…but not the box it came in 😉

Rubbish bin box, not very kitten proof!

I swear I did not put her there. I turned around from unwrapping the bin and she was looking out at me, true to the Scottish Fold breed, she loves her boxes!

I spent the rest of Saturday cutting out my top secret project:

Then on Sunday the merino tops began, I bought enough fabric for three of them and whipped them up production-line style because I knew that if I made them one at a time I would get halfway through the second one and be super bored and want to stop. So instead I cut all three out first, then attached all the arms.

Next came the decorative top stitching (faux-coverstitch). This is the part that takes the longest, after racing along on the overlocker, switching to the Elna feels so slooooow! To make that stitch formation it feels like 1 stitch forward, 2 stitches back! But I did it!

Then arm/side seams followed by collars and finally hemming, phew!

NH was impressed with his instant merino wardrobe, his next request?

Hey you know this hoodie I’m wearing…

Sigh! 😉

Before I could move onto some me-sewing I had to give my cutting table a good clean:

Argh, Merino fluff! Everywhere!

And then finally! I got to work on my Lady Grey, with Harri’s help of course.

This is actually a really good photo of the wool which is black but with a chunky weave that’s hard to photograph:

We loves watching the bit that goes up and down

So this is as far as I got before it became too dark to sew black (must address the lighting in my sewing room!)

Look at all that fraying!

The shell is assembled, seams top-stitched. No sleeves yet but I am already really excited for the final garment. I love the vintage feel to this pattern and I think it will be super flattering and girly with the big lapels and twirly bottom.

Tonight I will make dent in the top secret sewing project stitching. I have to dig out the appropriate coloured thread and then remember how to set my overlocker up for rolled hems. I want to get some tricky and potentially monotonous finishing done first, then I’ll begin to assemble the rest.

Make sure you pop over to Kat’s blog next and check out her interview with indie pattern label Sinbad and Sailor.