Fibre Mood Mika sweatshirt

Hello everybody! I'm back to blogging after a little hiatus. Sometimes life just gets in the way but now I have more time and energy to focus on some sewing, craft and blogging.

I am excited to say that my first make in quite some time was from Fibre Mood magazine. Fibre Mood magazine is a fashion forward bi-monthly pattern magazine based in Belgium. You can see what it is all about by following this affiliate link here: Fibre Mood

I was invited to sew the The Fibre Mood Mika sweatshirt by Kate from @timetosew and I can genuinely say that since making it I have worn it pretty much everyday since (yes, I have washed it!).

It is exactly what you want out of a sweatshirt pattern; the perfect length, raglan sleeves and perfect neckline. Unlike the wider neckline of Grainline Linden sweatshirt pattern, the Mika neckline is smaller and I much prefer this silhouette to the Granline Linden! I can see many more Mika's in my future.

Even more of a bonus, is this make is entirely from my stash #makeyourstash. A soft black sweatshirt fabric which I think may originate from waaaay back to Sew Brum 2015 when I won a ton of Girl Charlee knit fabric in the raffle!

Onto the construction of the Fibre Mood Mika sweatshirt. I wanted to share a rookie error, in my haste to sew this up as quickly as humanly possible, I didn't fully read the instructions before cutting out the paper pattern. I DIDN'T add the required seam allowance onto the paper pattern before cutting out and additionally didn't notice until AFTER cutting out the fabric. I'm sharing this detail so you don't need to make the same mistake! Luckily, by using minimal seam allowances when constructing the sweatshirt it actually fits really well!

On my next Mika, (because there certainly will be another one), I will extend the raglan sleeve. I realised after sewing the sleeves onto the bodice that I would be a good 4cm too short for my long arms. I typically have to extend the sleeves on most patterns so I wasn't surprised that this would be the case here. I had a decent amount of black ribbing in my stash (purchased from Ray Stitch moons ago) so I created the design feature of a deep cuff so the sleeves wouldn't be too short for my taste.

To achieve the 'deep-cuff' I doubled the depth of the cuff and then followed the construction instructions as per the pattern.

The Fibre Mood construction methods and instructions are really clear and easy to understand (it was completely my fault that I didn't notice the seam allowance issue). The aesthetics are clear and focused and the step-by-step guide is extremely user friendly.

Overall, I absolutely love my new sweatshirt! Follow this affiliate link to get your own Mika too!

The One Metre Moneta

What can you do with one metre of knit fabric?
The obvious choice would be to make a t-shirt or long-sleeved tee.

I had one metre of lovely charcoal grey four-way stretch knit fabric in my stash - one of the lovely Girl Charlee UK knits I won in the raffle at Sew Brum in October 2015.

After completing the analysis of MMM2016 I realised I have a LOT of me-made tops which got me to thinking.... could I squeeze a Colette Moneta dress out of one metre of fabric?

The answer is yes!

Yes, if you don't line it or add pockets and forget the sleeves too!

It was a very satisfying quick make and I really wish I had made one last year when I bought the pattern. The softly gathered skirt looks really flattering and the bodice is a lovely fit.

I made a few amendments. I had to add a patchwork slither to the skirt side seams on the back due to fabric limitations. I cut a size small as my waist and hips fitted into this size but ended up adjusting the bodice to probably what is now a size x small. I also lengthened the skirt by about 4cm.

I used a Prym elastic rather than the suggested clear elastic (mostly because I had it in my stash) and sewed it together with a regular foot, a stretch needle, stitch length 2.5cm, width 1cm.

It is currently un-hemmed at the neckline, arms and skirt which I love. Part of me thinks I will totally wreck this when I try to twin-needle the hem or try to sew it with a small zig-zag so I am just going to rock the unfinished look in a fashionable de-constructed meant-to-be way.

I am definitely going to make more of these!

Here are some poor quality selfies of me wearing my new dress. I will get better photos when the weather improves.

Pattern: Colette Moneta = £13.50

Fabric: Girl Charlee UK Charcoal knit = free (won in the SewBrum raffle)

Gutterman Thread: Grey from stash

Elastic: Prym extra soft elastic from stash

Total = £13.50

Olive Grainline Linden Sweatshirt

2016 is the year of the knit for me. After winning the stash of Girl Charlee UK knit fabrics at SewBrum in October 2015 it has been my mission to overcome my rather irrational fear of this comfortable to wear stretchy fabric.

The Grainline Linden sweatshirt has been in my PDF patterns inbox on my laptop for a good while so I knew that the olive terry sweatshirt fabric would make a fantastic sweatshirt. I purchased a walking foot in January from Weaver Dee in the 25% off sale on sewing machine accessories. In addition I bought some ribbed knit and some stretch needles from Ray Stitch in Islington.... all this preparation for a basic sweatshirt! Seems crazy doesn't it?

With my new walking foot this was lovely to sew. I set my machine to stitch length 3 and stitch width 3 which created a small stretchy zig-zag stitch that worked well for this weight of fabric. The only issues I had with construction was when sewing the cuff and neckline on - ideally I always like to match the seams but to avoid dodgy sewing I offset the cuff and sleeve seam / neckline seams to reduce the bulk of 6 lots of knit fabric going through my machine.
Normally my Bernina would be able to deal with this amount of bulk but since coming back from her service last summer the handwheel / bobbin-winder has been slipping and then cutting off power to the needle (something I will have to look into at a later date). Overall I now feel much more confident tackling knit fabrics!

Well judge for yourself. I am very happy with the final Linden. It is not 100% perfect but I am not going to point out any of the slight mistakes as they are pretty minor.

Here are some close up shots.

Here she is out in the wild today when I visited the fantastic Newport Street Gallery at Vauxhall, South London. It is a free art gallery owned by Damien Hirst to exhibit his vast personal collection of art. The current exhibition is by the painter John Hoyland whose saturated canvases were the perfect backdrop for the Linden! Thanks to my friend Nao who took the photos for me. 

Pattern: Grainline Linden = £14.00

Fabric: One metre of olive knit from Girl Charlee UK won in SewBrum raffle = free

Ribbing: 1/2 metre from Ray Stitch = £6.00

Gutterman Thread: Grey from stash

Total: £20.00

Grainline Scout tee in Knit!

Yeah! This is my first ever successful knit garment and I am now beginning to wonder why I was so worried about sewing with jersey fabric. I can only put my nervousness down to some not-so-fun experiences 'trying' to make garments with knit fabric in the 1990's.

Back to my new top. The success is down to the lovely Girl Charlee UK fabric which I won in the raffle at Sewbrum in October and secondly down to the great TNT pattern that is the Scout tee from Grainline. If you are familiar with Jen's Grainline patterns this simple tee shirt is originally designed for woven fabrics but I cut it out in the knit and sewed it with a generous seam allowance.

So how did I overcome my aversion to knit? Every month I attend the Freestyle session at Ray Stitch and the lovely tutor Moyna gave me a few easy pointers about how to sew knit with confidence:

1. Use a ballpoint needle
2. Use a small zig-zag (setting 2)
3. Use a 2.5 stitch length

After experimenting with scraps of fabric I realised I had to just dive in. In terms of construction as this was my sixth Scout tee I knew what I was doing. As I was sewing with a knit I chose to sew the sleeves flat.

I free-styled the length of the sleeves and also added a cuff to finish the hems. I also widened the self-bias neck binding so it created a deeper cuff. I top-stitched using a zig-zag (I'm not 100% happy with). Overall I love it!

Have you ever overcome a sewing nemesis?

I have not hemmed it because I haven't decided on the length yet

The neckline with a deeper cuff and top-stitched with a small zig-zag stitch

The sleeve cuffs - I managed to aline with the sleeve seam perfectly - what a fluke!