By Hand London Charlotte Skirt

I have had this stylish By Hand London Charlotte pencil skirt cut out for a couple of months and managed to finish it this week just in time for some warm weather. It could be considered quite an old indie pattern by today's standards and there are some fab versions out there. My favourites are:

This red wool Charlotte skirt by Lauren from Lladybird:

Oona Baloona's amazing floral Charlotte skirt:

And finally Elisalex from By Hand London's amazing tropical Charlotte skirt with back split:

The fabric was a gift from my friend Sophie who lives in Hong Kong. She has an amazing eye for fabric and I wouldn't necessarily have picked this colourful printed barkcloth myself, but I am so glad I paired it with the classic shape of the Charlotte pencil skirt.

I have made a few pencil skirts before here and here with the Simplicity 2154 retro pattern. The construction of the BHL Charlotte was pretty similar so it was a pretty speedy sew.

With only one metre of fabric I had to be careful with pattern placement. I had to cut a second waistband as the first one was way too short (not sure if that was my error or not) so I lengthened the waistband slightly so there was more overlap for a press-stud. I also had to take a little in at the hip area but other than that it is a very good fit.

I finished the seams on the inside with bias binding because the barkcloth frayed really easily. I also hand-stitched the waistband and the hem. I added two press-studs to secure the waistband into place.

The only slight niggle I have with the skirt is my not-so-invisible zip insertion. I am borrowing a sewing machine whilst I decide what to do with mine and it doesn't have an invisible zip foot, so it's a little more noticeable than my usual efforts! I can always re-do it when I get my old machine working (or get a new machine.....).

Overall, I am really happy with this skirt and it certainly added a little colour to what has been a pretty grey week so far here in the UK.

Pattern: By Hand London Charlotte Skirt Pattern = £9.00

Fabric: 1 metre of barkcloth from my friend Sophie in Hong Kong = free

Gutterman Thread: White from stash = free

Invisible Zip: White = £1.00

Bias Binding: Assorted coloured bias binding from stash = free

Press-studs: from my Grandma's stash = free

Total: £10.00

Check out lots of other cool crafty blogs at #handmademonday organised by Julia of Sum of their Stories.

Liberty Laurel Dress

I finished this pretty summer dress yesterday after hanging around in an almost finished state for nearly a year. I started in May 2016 and have only just got around to finishing the bias bound neck and fastening at the back in April 2017! If you are not familiar with the silhouette it is the ever-popular beginners shift dress the Colette Laurel.

I remember cutting out and making the majority of this dress last year but luckily I gleaned a bit more information via my 'project' section of the Foldline sewing enthusiast platform. Foldline is a great online community of sewists where you can create a profile and interact with other sewing enthusiasts. You can also write pattern reviews, create an online visual of your stash fabric and contribute to a forum.

Above is an example of my laurel project as seen on my Foldline profile. I added a few notes about the changes I made. Apparently I have added 6cm to the length of the dress (I had forgotten that detail which is bound to happen if you take 11 months to finish a dress!) and the Liberty cotton was purchased in a 30% off online sale. The Liberty print is called Kinetic from the Spring / Summer 2016 collection. You can get it from Sharkut for £14.99 per metre.

Not much else to report other than I used the same closing technique as my Sew Over It Ultimate Shift dress with a hair-band cheat rouleau loop and a lovely button I had in my stash. I used the reverse side of the button as it had pretty flecks of grey, pink and white in it that picked up on the colours of the Liberty print.

I hand stitched the self-made bias binding into position including around the opening at the back.

It fits well on the upper body but is probably a little wider than I'd like at the hip area as I did my usual grading between two sizes from bust to hips. Perhaps I don't need to do this on my next version as it is a fairly loose fitting shift dress. It does however look nice worn with a belt. When I get a chance I will post some photos of me wearing it.

Pattern: Colette Laurel Dress (I made the top here) = £12 (second make from pattern) = £6

Fabric: 1.1 metre of Liberty Kinetic Tana Lawn = £15

Gutterman Thread: Pink from stash = free

Rouleau Loop: Hairband from stash = free

Buttton: From stash = free

Total: £23

Check out lots of other cool crafty blogs at #handmademonday organised by Julia of Sum of their Stories.

Mending; Love it or Loathe it?

I have always mended my own, family and friends clothes over the years. It is one of those jobs that seems to automatically gravitate towards you as a keen sewer. My usual mindset on this is I don't mind doing these little repair and alteration jobs but I would rather be making something shiny and new. I decided this morning that I should be more positive about mending and see it as a mindful and mediative activity.

Enter two jobs that have been hanging around for a while.

First up a work shirt with a missing button repair completed.

The second item was my Merchant and Mills Camber Set top that I made last year which ended up looking like this after the first wash.

As you can see the bias-bound neck frayed as I must have trimmed back the seams inside the neckband too zealously for the viscose to survive the washing machine. I didn't have any of the ikat-style print left so rather than unpick and re-insert another band I decided to trim back the fraying fabric and hand-stitch some black bias-binding around the neckline.

The original neckline bias can still be seen so I made sure the black bias-binding was an even distance all the way around to create a 'feature'! I really like the finished effect and glad I can put this top back into my wardrobe.

What do you think about repair jobs?

Do you love them or loathe them?

Tropical Fifi

My second Tilly and the Buttons post within the week! When the new patterns were released from T&tB HQ there was a £20 offer for both the Bettine and Fifi.

The Fifi is a cute little camisole and shorts pattern - a summer PJ set!

My friend Sophie gifted me a beautiful metre of this tropical cotton voile from Hong Kong when she came to stay in London in July. As soon as I saw the Fifi pattern I knew it would be a perfect match!

I didn't quite have enough fabric to cut the camisole on the bias so had to stick with the stright-grain

Lovely pleat detailing on the camisole bust area 

The finished camisole set with self-made bias straps and along the hem of the camisole

I am really happy with the final garments but I have to say these are very teeny tiny shorts and definitely only to be worn inside the house! If I had the time to do some unselfish sewing these would make a great present to make for special female friends or family members.

I would like to try a second set but cut the camisole on the bias this time because it would fit so much nicer than on the straight-grain as it's a little snug when getting it on and off.

Overall it was a quite satisfying project with lots of French Seams and carefully considered detailing. Despite the large amount of bias binding you have to make I found it an enjoyable experience. It did make me consider buying one of those bias-binding makers - have you ever used one of those before?

Pretty Polly?

So I've managed to cobble together a new top because:

a) I'd love a warmer weather top to wear with plain skirts / jeans (I live in hope)
b) I wanted another something me-made for next months MMM challenge
c) It's my first foray into the By Hand London indie pattern-istas and I've been meaning to make something of theirs forever!
d) I wanted to incorporate the lovely Designer's Guild fabric (in the centre section) into something and it was too small for anything else

Here is the journey of how this Polly top was born! Free pattern download here. 

Step one - Friday Evening - Cut out all the PDF printed A4 papers on the train from London to Leeds.

Step two - Friday Night -  Stick together all the A4 pages whilst relaxing in a Leeds hotel watching trashy TV in bed with PJ's on - the bliss.

Step three - Saturday Morning - Lay out pattern pieces on fabric and cut out.

Step Four - Sunday Lunchtime - Pin and hand tack the insert panel-piece on return journey from Leeds to London.

Step four - Sunday Evening - At home, got out my sewing machine to whizz up the main seams of the Polly top using a long stitch.

Step five - Sunday Night - Lop off about 3 cm from each side seam and re-pin. When happy, re-sew using French Seams. Then reduce shoulder seam by about 2.5cm.

To be completely honest at this point I was sort of randomly pinning and re-stitching to get it to fit better.

Step six - Sunday Bedtime - Realise I should have cut a different size to begin with but hey, I got there in the end!

The bottom of the top has sort of flared out a touch and it may be to do with my shop-bought stash busted bias-binding (I was too lazy to make my own at the weekend) or that the two different fabrics are sort of not being too friendly or compatiable with each other. Either way I can wear this top with a palin skirt or jeans when (or if) the sun comes out.
I'm also not 100% happy with the placement of the centre panel but fabric restrictions on the grainline were a bit limited... oh well....

What do you think?

The finished Polly top with a Designer's Guild centre panel.
The outer shell is a lovely soft cotton from Samuel Taylors in Leeds.

My Clematis co-ordinates with my new Polly top! 

Black spotty Scout Woven Tee

This is the first Grainline garment I have made (the Archer button-up shirt is next in line) and the construction was made really easy with simple instructions and a visual guide via Jen's blog at Grainline.

I have seen loads of cool versions of the Scout Woven Tee on various blog pages and my favourite versions have to be:

1. Dark grey spot version at Stitch and Witter
2. Black and white geometric print version at When all you need is..
3. Colourful geometric print version at Sown Brooklyn

Back to the Tee. I cut it out yesterday to save me the boring job of assembling the PDF paper pattern and cutting out the fabric so I could go full-belt on sewing duties today. It took me about two and a half hours to construct the Tee because I got a bit confused with the neckline and had to refer to some online tutorials to guide me through. I don't think I did it correctly but it looks OK in the end.
I added my own bias binding to the sleeves to match the neckline.

The size of the bias binding doesn't quite match at the neck
and sleeves so I should call it a 'wearable muslim', right?!

Alterations I made straight on the paper pattern were:

1. I cut the smallest size at the shoulders, graded to the next size up for the bust area and the next size up again for the hips (as an experiment) It seemed to work. I have quite narrow shoulders and it fits beautifully around the neckline and shoulders.
2. I also created the classic Hi-Lo hemline. Next time I will need to lengthen the body to sit a bit lower. At the moment it hangs just a bit too high for my liking.

The hemline isn't wonky a big gust of wind blew it as I was taking the shot.

Although I have seen many images of the Scout Tee I suppose I didn't realise how loose fitting it would be and the back of the Tee has a lot of loose fabric that doesn't hang as nicely as I would like. Maybe it will drape better after a wash... who knows?!

I have tried wearing it with a belt and it looks quite nice, but I think the whole point of this Tee is that its supposed to be a loose fitting easy to wear top. Next time I may try to bring it in at the side seams towards the bottom of the Tee (maybe I didn't need to grade to the larger size for the hips considering the fit is so wide anyway?).

Any suggestions about how to adjust the fit so its not soooo loose fitting at the back?

Summery Sorbetto

I dug out my old faithful Bernina today because I fancied whipping up something simple and speedy. I decided on the Colette Sorbetto (free pattern) and focused on improving the fit and length of the top from the previous version (black and white stripy Sorbetto).

First thing I had to do was adjust the pattern by adding 3cm just below the armhole and above the bust darts to not only lengthen the top but to lower the darts too. On a previous attempt I tried to lower the darts using an online tutorial but it really didn't work so I went with a simpler option.

I then also added 3cm in roughly the same place at the back so the notches would still line up (which they surprisingly did!). I also altered the hemline by curving and dropping it by about 6cm at the back so it is a comfier fit (and will tuck into skirts and trousers better too).

I chose a beautiful cotton voile (Wish by Valori Wells Designs) that I purchased at Guthrie and Ghani a month ago. The fabric has a complex paisley-like design with 16 colours in the repeat pattern!

Here is the finished Sorbetto with purple bias-biding on the neck and armholes. I chose not to apply bias-binding to the hemline because it is quite stiff (I'm hoping it will soften in the wash) and wanted the hem to be more pliable for tucking into skirts and trousers. For a neater finish on the inside I used French seams for the side and shoulder seams. Overall I am quite happy with my new summery top - I just hope we continue to have this lovely weather so I can enjoy wearing it now rather than having to wait until next year!

UFO busting - Simplicity 2154 Pencil skirt

Another UFO (un-finished object) that has lurked alien-like in the wardrobe since July is the Simplicity 2154 pencil skirt. I attended a two-part workshop at Saturday Sewing Sessions in Chelsea which was great fun. There was only one other attendee who was also called Caroline who made her pencil skirt in royal blue fabric.

Back to the skirt.... well the evening sessions happened to be on two of the hottest days of the summer and the workshop was held in a cute little textile studio space with windows that could only open a tiny bit so we literally were in a sweatshop!!

During the cutting out stage I drafted from a smaller size at the waist to the next size up on the hips to fit my measurements more accurately. Despite this I still needed to take quite a big chunk off each side seam (which included re-doing the zip three times!!!). Note to self - always baste stitch in the zip just in case......

At the end of the workshop I 'only needed to.....' hand stitch the waist-band, hand stitch the hem and finish off the side-seam where the zip was located.  Now after the re-sewing of the zip three times I had fallen a little bit out of love with this skirt and was beginning to think I would never finish it but I read Lladybird's blog about 'How do you find the time to sew so much?' which made me re-evaluate some of my spare bits of time. Hence the blitzing of the UFO's X-Files stylee!!

Almost finished pencil skirt

Delightful colours and styling on the Simplicity cover ; )

I applied bias-binding to the exposed seams around the zip area because the zig-zag stitch wasn't sufficiently keeping the fabric from fraying

The finished pencil skirt!

Liebster Award

Emma Jayne from Clipped Curves kindly nominated me for the Liebster Award which is for bloggers with less than 100 followers.

Thank you Emma Jayne! In the expected format I will answers the following questions:

1. If you had to describe your style by comparing it to a fictional character, who would that be and why?
In my head I think I am channelling a bit of Carrie from Sex and the City meets Dana Scully from the X-Files. Carrie for the fun, exuberant aspects of my wardrobe against the no-nonsense work ethic and practicalities of Scully's shirts and trouser approach to the 'office'.

2. Do you have any other hobbies / obsessions as well as those you blog about?
I am interested in keeping fit and I captain a team of 60+ indoor rowers on my other blog: Caroline's Rowing Blog. The team is called Empty the Tanks and I set up the team in 2009 to guide and encourage people keeping fit and participating in Indoor Rowing events around the world.  I have entered a number of competitions over the years and I have achieved the following results:

• 6th place at the World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston, USA in Feb 2011
• Silver at the English Indoor Rowing Championships, Jan 2013
• Bronze at the English Indoor Rowing Championships, Jan 2012
• Gold at the English Indoor Rowing Championships, Jan 2011
• Silver at the British Indoor Rowing Championships, Nov 2009

As well as keeping fit by indoor rowing I enjoy cycling, drawing, painting, etching, printing, DIY and cooking.

3. What is your favourite thing you’ve made / posted about and why? Remember to show us!

I love my Clothkits Trellick Tower skirt because I love the print so much although it has been the least challenging garment to make from my blogged clothes so far!

 4. And the least favourite?

It has to be my crazy Top-Shop re-make dress that is out of this world orange and psychedelic!

5. If you could only make 3 more things and then you had to quit sewing forever, what would you make and why?

1) I would make the Grainline Archer shirt - because I haven't managed to successfully sew a collar or shirt placket yet. It looks like an uber-cool pattern.

2) The next thing I would sew would be the Laurel by Colette Patterns. It has so many variations though and I haven't yet decided which one to go for!

3) The last thing would be a sewing challenge of a fully lined jacket. I haven't yet found a pattern that I would like to try yet - any suggestions?

6. Where do you find inspiration?

I do love a good fashion magazine and will treat myself to at least one a month to get inspired, drool over lovely colours, finishes and ideas. I also check out other sewing blogs, fabric shops, vintage and charity shops. I also get inspired by the general public; there are loads of cool and stylish people pottering around London to 'borrow' ideas from!

7. How do you feel about the whole lining vs facing vs binding debate (I may be imagining that it’s a debate)?

So far in my limited clothes-making repertoire I have sewn things that are relatively straight forward but I do love a French Seam and bias-binding to finish a seam.

8. What is your least favourite part of sewing (and do you do it anyway or cut corners)?

I am not keen on cutting out the paper pattern or assembling the printed out PDF patterns so I like to do this all in one go. I purchased the Colette Laurel last week and have cut out all pattern pieces whilst chatting to my friend : )

9. How do you like your surroundings when you sew? i.e. Do you clean up as you go, listen to music, face the window, watch telly? Basically describe your sewing situation.

I haven't got a designated sewing area at home so I have to drag out my very heavy Bernina downstairs to the dining table. This slight inconvenience  means I am always determined to get all the sewing machine aspects of a project done at one time. I think this is why so many of my UFO's are all incomplete at the hand-sewing stage. 

I like to listen to the radio or some of my Spotify compilations;  I am totally feeling the Yeah, Yeah Yeahs right now and have major style-lust for Karen O!

Karen O, lead singer of Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs

10. If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

I would love to meet Andy Warhol, hang out at the Pop Factory in New York and have a chat about his eccentric style and approach to art. Following that I would also be intrigued to meet husband and wife design team Robin and Lucienne Day - I so love their work!

Lucienne Day textile design circa 1950's

11. Do you prefer to make things for yourself or others

Around Christmas time I make quite a few little stockings, decorations, corsages and bags for gifts for family and friends. I only make clothes for myself but enjoy sewing whatever / whoever it is for!

Christmas Stocking decorations made from felt, hand embroidered with beads and blanket stitch