Showing posts with label New Look. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Look. Show all posts

Sunday 5 January 2014

The T-Shirt Project - Part 2. The Cross Your Eyes T . New

New Look 6405.

 The second of the Ts as a result of the T Shirt Marathon Project .
New Look 6405 combined with what I call the hypnotist* fabric or the I am going cross eyed fabric.
I have wanted to sew this pattern for a while - obviously quite a  long while because this pattern is 10 years old ( and here I thought I was sewing up a modern pattern and being trendy for a change )
Whatever - I really like the result .

I used some poly knit from the opshop , a scrap of red ribbed knit and to tart it up a bit and use up some of my BABLE ( Button Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy )5 black buttons at the left neckline .
According to other reviews of this T shirt it is very close fitting and short so I went up one size and added 6 cm to the length after comparing the pattern pieces to my other Ts. Thankyou so much to people who do reviews of patterns otherwise I would have ended up with another fail .
I reckon the fit and length are just right . I like the little cap sleeves and high cross over style. It is a very easy project to sew as well.

Verdict- SUCCESS - complete. ( And I will definitely sew this pattern again ) .
(* I have an evil plan to wear this top   frequently thus hypnotizing my family into doing whatever , probably I will only end up tormenting them though. )


Saturday 4 May 2013

Happy 80th Birthday Mum! -- New Look 6009 Top.



After doing a suck-up - I mean some sewing for  my MIL I needed to be fair and do the same for  my own Mum. She has just turned 80 years young and still sews most days - most of her own clothes and  patchwork and machine embroidered quilts. She can also do that thing with knitting where she knits really fast without even looking and doesn`t make a mistake - totally jealous and hate that but then again I am not a knitter so there.

Just when I was wondering what am I going to make Mum this year  I found 3.6 metres of Thai hand woven  silk in the op shop for $8.00!  In a background colour of mauvey, browny I don`t know what with blue and brown diamonds it was perfect . Talk about lucky - I just wish I could find that winning tattslotto ticket .

So I nicked - well borrowed - a pattern from my Mum`s stash - which is only fair really since it was for her ( and I promise I gave it back too - except I might nick it again to sew up for me ) -New Look 6009.
It is a simple drop shouldered top . The cute part of this pattern is the keyhole in the front with a loop of fabric above which gathers the  material into a sort of a bow look. The back is done up with one button / loop  .




It is a REALLY easy pattern - with only the front , back and facing pieces and a small rectangle for the loop.
The only tricky bit was because I used fabric with such an obvious pattern it just took a bit of  care to match the diamonds . I found some matching bias binding to finish the facings and a cool vintage button for the back from  my stash ( bummer that I only had one ) .






End result - one happy Mum who loves receiving ( and giving ) home made gifts. ( And the other best bit is that there is heaps of material left over for me .)

As Jen S said in her blog - yesterday was sewing group. One lady was doing a toile for a red lace dress for a wedding, someone else was sewing a self drafted dress , another was completing a chanel style jacket  impeccably  fitted mind you, another perfecting a toile for a shirt which already looked  well  perfect , another was making a lined coat , Jen cut out her houndstooth jacket and what was I sewing - a plastic fold up shopping bag - I am all class I tell you. Our new group is called From Tshirts to Couture - but perhaps it could be changed from plastic bags to couture :)  .

Cheers . Janine.

Sunday 14 April 2013

The Ultimate 61 Year Old Stash Bust.

Hello there . I have been debating do I , do I not ?  Not sewing of course but blogging. Without sewing I would probably be locked or hidden away in a small dark place( Ha Ha this probably describes my sewing room anyway ) . But then I read another blog about blogging for herself  , a kind of sewing diary and I thought exactly so.



I have been informally sewing along with other stash busters and this I believe must be the ultimate in stash busting. This fabric has been in a cupboard for 61 years ! Not mine , I`m not that  old  thanks ! I will make a long story short , my mother -in-law has a friend who apparently has a lot of fabric and was thinking about giving it away . Well in a nutshell she is not quite ready to let go ( yet - I still have hope ) but this led to my MIL telling me about the time she pleaded with her mother to buy her some fabric to sew when she was 17. Her mother did so with the promise she must actually sew it -hmm fast forward 61 years .

After a good and gentle ( and a lot of trepidation ) hand wash the fabric came up pretty well. There was one small stain and a few moth holes but pretty good for being a senior( heck I hope I am that good at 61 myself ) . My MIL wanted a kimono style  robe so I used New Look 6928 - a unisex pattern for sleepwear . I have made the robe once before - size Small and it is huge but very simple to construct  . I had just enough fabric - 3 1/2 metres at 90 cm wide. I managed to avoid the worst patch of moth holes but could not avoid the stain . There wasn`t even enough fabric left to make even one pocket. The fabric was lovely to sew with and ironed beautifully ( it wrinkled beautifully too ) . It was marked in one spot on the selvage  -Anglosheen -British fabrics- and I wish I knew more about it  .

Well my MIL is very pleased and says her mother will be looking down at her from Heaven happy as well. I should have offered to sew this up 20 years ago when I first started going out with her son ( not that I knew about the material until this year )because I think my approval rating has gone up a couple of notches  .

Cheers Janine.

PS I am soooo enjoying The Great British Sewing Bee. I don`t think the smile left my face the whole time watching it.

Friday 2 December 2011

The ultimate Sewing Experience (for me ) .

The Ultimate Sewing Experience - sewing a wedding dress for myself or one of my DDs?  sewing a bias cut silk chiffon evening dress ? sewing a couture technique fitted jacket?  Nah !  For me the ultimate sewing experience are PJ shorts.
Cheap and Cheerful Polyester Satin remant.

Sewing PJ Shorts are quick. easy and brainless sewing - like sewing meditation or yoga - it is totally relaxing.


Japanese cotton -only 40cm wide fabric but the roll had over 12 metres on it ! ? traditional Kimono fabric. Brought home from Japan by my daughter - a gift from her host family.

You can use up small remnants of fabric not big enough to sew anything else with but too big to discard. I also get to use little bits of ribbons , even almost empty bobbins and spools of threads that have been  hanging around forever.  


Polycotton remnant - white with small navy stars. Very soft !

                     Best of all they get used heaps of times. ( Also alleviates sewing guilt for not sewing for significant others and can be used for future  bribes - I sewed you some PJ shorts so you should take the dog for walks  for the next month etc etc . ) ( Not that the bribes work but worth a try .)

Liberty of London Tana Lawn - I got this from my mother - she bought this in the 80s for only $5.00/metre when Buckley`s and Nunn a department store in Melbourne was closing down.

I used New Look 6928 an OOP pattern for sleepwear. A pretty standard one seam pants pattern. I took off several cms from both the waist and the leg length - my daughter`s preferences. This pattern has both an elastic waist and a narrow tie inserted in the waist - helps to tell the front from the back and looks a little bit more upmarket !
Overall I find sewing PJ shorts VERY satisfying.
 Anyway all of this sewing `meditation` has helped me decide on the pattern for my next project. Until then Cheers Janine.