Category Archives: The Monthly Stitch Challenge

We’re all different…especially him. But there’s something kind of fantastic about that, isn’t there?*

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My second dress for The Monthly Stitch Frocktober was a Deer & Doe Reglisse.

This is my 4th Deer and Doe pattern and I feel qualified now to admit that I’m not a huge fan of their instructions, however I’m confident and experienced enough to get by. The fit on the models on the website isn’t always the best representation but if you squint past all that then the patterns themselves are cute and have interesting details.

I went a bit outside of my usual colour palette this time around. While looking at fabric on the internet I fell in love with Patty Sloniger’s Socks the Fox and after it arrived I picked up some plain grey cotton for contrast to try and tone down the cuteness. It still ended up way too cute overload for everyday wear but I do feel super girly in it and who doesn’t like to feel super girly occasionally?

The website I purchased this fabric from classed it as a quilting cotton, but it is very light weight with a soft hand. Perfect then for a floaty dress, however I struggled to get the skirt pattern pieces on the narrow width, especially after adding 5cms in length.

I had the same issue with my first La Sylphide but this time I decided to try piecing a small triangle onto each outer corner instead of altering the angle of the side seams.

It worked really well. The cotton was easy to keep still when stitching and while this photograph makes the the joins look quite prominent you can hardly see them when the dress is being worn, lost in the pattern and fullness of the skirt.

The instructions for this dress are quite good except for the collar where they suddenly become very sparse.

I knew there was a sew along on the Deer & Doe blog but I tried to get through as much as I could without it but truly I was stumped. A lot happens with very little detailed text and not enough diagrams. There is no picture of the bias being sewn onto the collar so I had no idea how much I was supposed to unfold my bias tape.

So I jumped online and found the Reglisse sew along. It’s all in French (you could translate it through Chrome) but really the photos are all you need. As soon as I saw them everything clicked into place.

It’s a bit tricky to find the posts but you can read the collar section here.

The dress is finished neatly inside, even the elasticated waistband but I am not entirely convinced on the finish at the center front, it feels a bit rough.

It would also be nice to encase the seam on the short sleeve version with bias or perhaps attach one side and then turn them over with the raw edge folded under and stitch in the ditch to sandwich them over the arm hole.

Being a pull over style dress with elastic waist, the fit is very different to what I usually sew but it makes for a comfy wear. This is the fullest skirt I have ever sewn and despite the cuteness overoad I really quite like it.

If you’d like to see more construction photos you can look at my “Sew with Us” posts on The Monthly Stitch.

THE DEETS:

Pattern – Deer & Doe Reglisse, size 42, lengthened 5cm

Fabric – Socks the Fox in Aqua from Patty Sloniger’s Les Amis range

Other notions – Elastic, me-made bias.

*Fantastic Mr Fox

Colette Rooibos the Second

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It’s taken me so long to finish this dress that I’m not really sure what to write about it anymore 😉

After making my first Rooibos over two years ago I always knew I wanted to make a second but like usual I got distracted by other new pretty patterns. When we decided to challenge our contributors on The Monthly Stitch to “Sew Double” in April…oh my, it’s worse than I thought, APRIL?!…I decided it was the perfect time to push a second Rooibos up the sewing queue.

I got it most of the way finished and then I stalled, distracted by other projects and pattern testing. More recently, as evidenced by this poor neglected blog, my sew jo has been sadly depleted so it sat on Scarlett (my dress dummy) awaiting side seams, zipper and a hem all this time…

This month at The Monthly Stitch we are celebrating our 1st birthday (yay, go us!) and so it is fitting that the challenge is “Let Them Sew Cake”, a celebration of all things cake, birthdays and anything else awesome that you can associate with, well, cakes!

Kat, Juliet and I decided we needed our own Editors celebration so we planned a little Yum Cha lunch (Little? Ha! We all know there’s nothing little about a Yum Cha lunch session!) this was followed by an urban photography shoot, cupcakes and a TMS planning session.

That was all planned for last Sunday (August 3rd) and one week prior I KNEW I had to get my Rooibos completed for photos and really just to get my sew-jo back on track. So of course I didn’t sew at all that week, or on Saturday!

On Sunday morning I got up a 4:30am to drive NH to the airport. I got back home at 6:30am and went back to sleep for 1.5 hours. At 8am I threaded up my machines and got to work, I had 2.5 hours, lots of time right?

The side seam was quick and it felt good to be sewing again. Then after I had the invisible zipper inserted it decided to break which made me mad. Despite reading about this happening to others it’s never happened to me until today. I kept my cool, prodded, cried and begged and eventually got it closing properly. Thank goodness the hem was always going to be a simple topstitched job and I was done! I jumped in the car 15 minutes late but it’s ok to be late for lunch if you are wearing a new dress that you just hemmed.

Anyway, yay, a new dress and I love my second Rooibos which is both my own celebration of dusting off my sewing machines and completing my TMS Sewing Double challenge.

I stitched this up in a cotton sateen from my stash, originally purchased from the now closed Arthur Toye (Sandra bought some too), and I piped the seams in a black cotton exactly the same as my first Rooibos. Except this time I cut the piping internals shorter that the stitched seam line so that there was less bulk for the zipper to deal with, a lesson learnt from my first Rooibos. I need to do one final tweak, it’s a little bit big at the waist, so I will bring in the side seams an extra 2cms.

These photos were taken in a random carpark by Kat who also suggested the blue wall would be the perfect backdrop and she was right!

Also orange 🙂

And that’s it, yay for sewing!

THE DEETS:

Pattern – Colette Rooibos dress, size 10

I need to take in the side seams, next time maybe grade it to an 8 or 6 at the waist/hips

Fabric – Cotton sateen from Arthur Toye

Other notions – Me-made piping, black cotton from Spotlight

PS: Hello to the lovely lady who said ‘hi’ to me while I was hungrily topping up my fabric stash at The Fabric Warehouse sale today 🙂 The first time anyone has ever recognised me from my blog, it made my day! I’m embarrassed that I didn’t ask your name, but I hope you snapped up some gorgeous fabric too xx

Happy sewing everyone!

A winters Dream about Midsummer

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A little while ago Kat and I put up a vote for our next twinsie make and you chose the Colette Rooibos. Unfortunately Kat and I took our sweet time and when we finally got around to it we realised that Kat wouldn’t be able to fit into it anymore! Our carefully curated Twinsie Sewing List got a new (albeit) temporary heading: Maternity Friendly Patterns 😉

I do have a new Rooibos in the works, that I cut out for Sewing Double…and queued behind Miss Bossy Patterns, which is still on the work table…as you can see, I am a little behind 😉 but these will be completed soon…I am excited about my new Rooibos and I hope it will appease the Goddesses of Bossy Twinsie Sewing.

Luckily however the second most popular choice from our vote was the Papercut’s Midsummer Night’s Dream which, being a wrap dress, is maternity friendly and we decided to rope Juliet in too for Triplet Sewing with the excuse of launching the Dresses competition during Indie Pattern month over on The Monthly Stitch.I should point out that the current season in New Zealand is winter…

There may have been a moment, while attaching spaghetti straps, snuggled up in my Crazy Pants Anima’s on a night with the temperature gauge was reading 3ºC, when I grumpily wondered who’s silly idea it was to put this summery dress pattern into the vote…and then I realised that it was MY silly idea.

 😉

That’s ok, because I have loved this pattern for a while and while I was hoping to sew it “from the stash” nothing suited. Luckily The Fabric Warehouse craftily announced their 40% off sale night (swooping in 1 day before The Fabric Store) and I went straight after work with the crush of very other sewist in Wellington.

It was really busy and after I grabbed fabric and lycra for 2 more Pneuma tops  I was ready to leave…until I spotted something black and pink near the door.

The fabric is a Viscose crepe and has the perfect drape for this style, I am so happy I saw it, it really is perfect.

Due the narrower width I bought 3.0 meters and used almost all of it. There was a kind of boarder print to one selvedge edge where the black print was more concentrated so I made sure that ended up on the open edge of the skirt pieces, otherwise I would have had a strange black triangle on my bottom. I had to play with the layout a little, cutting some pieces perpendicular to the grain but the fabric was stable in both directions and I like to live on the edge.

The pattern calls for 4.4 meters of binding and I had already decided to make my own “bias” tape…except not cut on the bias. The curves of the design are subtle and I imagined a whole lot of headaches with stretching and fraying so I cut my strips perpendicular to the grain and had no trouble attaching them. After I cut my strips I did briefly consider trying out the new bias feeder I recently bought for my coverstitch but when I saw how easily the fabric held a crease I decided to make the bias tape using my bias tape maker and the iron.

I really love these things! I own three but I use the red one the most. It creates a finished tape width of 18mm (9mm when attached) and they are so easy to use. I have read a few grumbles about them online but I don’t really know why. After you cut and join your strips you run then through this little guy, ironing as you go, and then fold it in half and sew it on. Maybe if you quilt you’ll want to buy it premade or one of those fancy feeder things but if you just need a few meters for a garment, making your own bias tape doesn’t really take that long and opens up a whole new world of colour and fabric possibilities!

We took these photos at Otari’s Wilton bush, one of my favourite spots. I think the green shows off the hot pink nicely 😉

I am looking forward to summer so that I can get this dress out again and take a stroll along the beach in it 🙂

The dress itself sews up really quickly and the order that you attach the binding is carefully thought out to give a beautiful clean finish. If you haven’t sewn a Papercut pattern before this is a great ‘rookie’ pattern to try, I highly recommend it…And I know, I’ve recommended every Papercut pattern that I’ve sewn but…well, just try one 😉

There isn’t much more to say 🙂 except that you may be wondering where the other two girls are:

We had everything planned, Triplet Mid Summer’s to launch The Monthly Stitch Indie Pattern Month 2014, and the Dresses competition AND the added bonus of Juliet (we haven’t done a triplet TMS launch post since our very first cape post) and then it all fell apart.

But that’s ok, because I still love my dress and the girls look fabulous too 😉

Now, speaking on dresses, I’d love it if you would pop over to The Monthly Stitch and vote for your favourite dress, there are some gorgeous entries and they deserve some comment love.

THE DEETS:

Pattern – Papercut Midsummer Night’s Dream dress, size S

No changes next time, maybe lengthen the ties.

Fabric – 3.0 meters of 116cm wide 100% Viscose crepe from The Fabric Warehouse, $16.00/meter (-40% discount, $28.80 total) purchased specifically for this make

Other notions – Self-fabric made “bias”, Thread

Oh pants!

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February’s challenge for The Monthly Stitch was Smarty Pants.

Pants shopping for me is pure torture.

Here is an old post where I vent after one particularly distressing pants shopping expedition, if you are interested.

In my filing cabinet I have a few pant/trouser patterns but I love a good bootleg/flared pant  – I don’t care what the “fashion” people say, bootleg/flare is always “in” in my books! Since Kat and I both have the Sewaholic Thurlow pattern we decided to make those up together for another Twinsies shoot.

Oh, yeah! We made Twinsies Pants!

We’ve both been super busy so we took these photos during lunchtime at Frank Kitts Park where we found one of Wellington’s many awesome sculptures. This one is Fruits of the Garden by Paul Dibble.

Pants are kind of hard to photograph…but it’s easier with a friend…and fun backdrop 🙂

Fun waistband lining? Check!

Back pockets? Check!

This was my first Sewaholic pattern from the envelope. Previously I have printed off PDFs for pattern testing only so I was really surprised at how thin the tissue paper was, probably the thinnest I have ever encountered. I am on Team: Trace All The patterns and it wasn’t the easiest to work with.

Since I had high hopes for this pattern I copied on to thicker tracing film for durability – I am hoping I can tweak this to become my “go to” solution to my pants shopping woes.

I selected some poly/viscose/spandex suiting out of my stash, bought with trousers in mind way back in March 2010. The pattern envelope stated 2.30m would be required for my width of fabric but I only had 1.60m, oops!

I am always up for a good pattern layout challenge so with Harriet’s help I did a test layout:

Harri’s face says it all, “2.30 meters? ‘sif! It totally fits!”

She loves hindering helping!

I cut all my the lining pieces from a cute quilting cotton that I picked up from one of my last trips to AT, it has teeny tiny fruits on it!

I really like the final result, they fit quite well (although a little tight at the moment since I’ve been slack in my gym attendance 😉 ) and give me the professional look I was after. I can see myself making up a few more pairs and maybe even the shorts version.

The back waist band is in two pieces which lets you stitch a snugger fit, no gaping, yeah! I also like the generous back extension and the sewing order makes it easy to adjust the whole fit as you sew.

I do feel the rise is a little low so next pair I will try to correct this.

The instructions are good, I haven’t made pants in ages and I managed fine with them however I do wish the right and wrong sides of the lining pieces had been marked on the diagrams. This slowed me down a little because I wanted to make sure the printed side of my cotton ended up inside the pockets.

Imagine if I’d gotten it wrong? I wouldn’t be able to show others the awesome hiddeness of my pockets! But I worked it out eventually and marked my instructions for next time.

Welt pockets, so sexy!

The back welt pockets instructions and fly construction were really clear but I found some of the waistband diagrams a bit misleading, more notes added for next time 🙂

I chose not to “stitch in the ditch” to secure the inside of my waistband and hand stitched it down instead. I find that machine stitching can often look messy in this instance. It didn’t take me very long and between this and the hemming my hand stitching is really improving.

Make sure you check out Kat’s awesome denim Cat’s Meow Thurlows over on her blog too 🙂

THE DEETS:

Pattern – Sewaholic 1203 Thurlow trousers, straight size 8

Fabric –

  • 1.60m of 148cm wide Poly/viscose/spandex suiting from Fabulous Fabrics, Perth, purchased March 2010 for AUD$22.95
  • Quilting cotton from Arthur Toye, Wellington

Other notions – 1 button (from stash), metal pants slider thingee

Big thank you to Sandra for playing photographer, you rock 🙂