The best ever skirt pattern

I am quickly becoming of the opinion that Simplicity 6862 is the best skirt pattern:
1. It only takes one meter of fabric
2. No darts, pleats, tucks etc, it's incredibly quick to sew up
3. The shape is really flattering
4. If I wanted to, there are some fun pocket pieces and belt tabs
5. You could easily have a whole wardrobe of these, this was my Mum's main skirt pattern back in the 1970s
6. There's a few patterns on Etsy and Ebay, even if they'd be single size, it would be a really easy pattern to resize.

I first made this skirt last year out of some tacky pink wool. I thought it would become a good wardrobe staple, but the waistband was never finished nicely, and Mum, who is thankfully always honest with me, told me she hated it. It was also a smidgen too tight. I wasn't prepared to give up on this pattern yet though. For a while I have been wanting some floral skirts, so found this small length of cotton in the stash. It has a deep brown background, so I think it's from the 1970's, and it's much too stiff for anything other than a skirt.

To fix the sizing I just let out the seams slightly. I sewed the centre front and side seams at 3/8 inch, and kept the back at 5/8. This is an incredibly quick sew, only complicated b the fact I had to redo the zip multiple times. I decided to finally try a tab on my waistband, which worked wonderfully after a few goes of aligning the zipper. I finished it off with tw small press studs. Only tip would be always cut the waistband much longer than you need.

I liked the length of the skirt as is; it falls just below my knee, so I finished with mauve bias tape.

I absolutely love this skirt. Even if it's a bit different from what I usually wear. At the moment it just goes with my white blouses, but I am hoping to soon fix the no plain blouses problem as well. The colour scheme will hopefully allow it to be worn through autumn as well.

On the sewing table

I am planning some outfit photos later this week, but for now I wanted to share the various projects I am working on. My aim to make more blouses is coming along well. I realized the other week I am going to have to get the fit on Simplicity 1692 perfected as I have a lot of small pieces of fabric that will work fantastically with that pattern. In the meantime, I am continuing with the Mimi blouse, and Smooth Sailing. The other week I spent the day cutting out these three blouses to see if this would make the sewing up process easier, as I wouldn't have to constantly be getting out my sewing table. So far I can report the plan has gone well, but the fading marking pen I use had almost disappeared over the course of a few days, so tucks and darts had to be marked back in. The front two blouses are Smooth Sailing blouses cut from left over yardage from these two dress projects. I love being able to stretch out fabric like this. The back blouse is a sleeveless Mimi blouse, cut from a 1980's Liberty Laura Ashley dress. It's one I got a lot of wear out of, but the incredibly full, almost ankle length skirt was a bit too much. I have kept the bodice intact so as to trace off for a pattern, as it was a great fitting princess seam bodice.

 

Here are the first two blouses in varying stages of construction. The first one is very much a summer time blouse, and am hoping to get it finished before Sydney decides that it is Autumn (the cooler weather cannot come fast enough). The Smooth sailing blouses will be able to be more transitional pieces, due to the darker florals. I am imagining them with a pencil skirt and cropped sweater with the collar peaking over the top for winter, but time will tell whether I can find any knitwear like this.

I love the notched collar on the Smooth Sailing blouse. This tutorial is incredibly straight forward. I am enjoying experimenting with new techniques this year. I am still gearing myself to begin my wool suit, but with the weather this horrible this far into March I think I have some time up my sleeve.

 I am also back at university this year! For my fifth year at the University of Sydney, I have started a Masters of Museum and Heritage Studies. So far I am loving it, and am really excited to get the opportunity to do hands on work with sharing my love of history. The only downside to being back into full time study is less time for sewing. Because of this, I am trying my hardest to keep the sewing areas as tidy as possible. I started  by organising out all the cottons. There are a lot. I popped a bit of sticky tape over all the loose ends to stop them tangling, and then combined them all into two boxes: one for white and cream, and another for colours. The ones I use frequently are on the door of the sewing cabinent. I am hoping this is a small start to getting the out of control stash into some sort of order. Also when going through things a while ago, I found this lovely cross stitch I had begun on the train in Germany (and soon realised I could not cross stitch and take in landscapes at the same time!) I love having handwork on the go, and hopefully this will enable me to get little amounts of sewing in

every now and again when I don't have time to set up the machine.












My vintage pledge is coming along well. Simplicity 1459 is half made in this fantasitc rose print, and I have also managed to buy myself some proper vintage patterns. I had a small amount of birthday money left, and then found these 1950's Home Journal Patterns on ebay. Isn't the cover art gorgeous? I am hoping to do a full post soon on these patterns, as they are very interesting

I also want to say thankyou for all your comments on my last post, I really enjoyed hearing all your thoughts on the topic, and hello if you're new to reading the blog. I've finally gotten around to making a "finished projects" tab , as I know I love being able to snoop through people's project archives easily.

Mimi Blouse in Liberty, and some thoughts on 'Love at First Stitch'

In the quest for a nice vintage button up blouse I came across Tilly and the Button's Mimi blouse, from the book Love at First Stitch. I liked the unusual collar, and the gathering at the yoke, and decided I would make it when I found out my local library had the book.

The blouse was a very straight forward make. I cut a size three, as I do with the Mathilde blouse, and found the fit spot on. I quite like how the pattern comes with built in hip shaping! My one minor complaint is with the sleeves. I swapped out the sleeve pattern for M6696, but I think I need to redraft the armhole as the sleeves are a touch tight.

 The fabric is Liberty Carline in red. I bought around 5-6m of this at a fabric market in Sydney almost two years ago. It's the gift that keeps on giving: this blouse, a half finished full skirted 1950s dress, and so much yardage left over I am unsure what to do with it. I used small green buttons from the stash, and sewed them on with red thread for contrast.

Photo credit goes to my lovely friend Miriam who snapped this for me at uni after a coffee date. She calls it "1950's florals meet industry"

 I thought I'd also give a little book review of Love at First Stitch, as what I can find on line is overwhelming positive, and I have some reservations about it. Firstly, I think it's a very decent book for beginners. I gave it a good read through, and Tilly is very clear with her instructions. I also like how it builds on skills with each project. Each of the patterns looks good, and not tacky, though the Mimi is the only one I am going to make.

Now onto my dislikes:

1. The book design. I really hate the cover. The pastels are way too pale and everything looks washed out. There's no strong colour focus and if I'd seen this on a shelf I would not have picked it up. The entire book design is the very dreamy pastels, and feels like a girly art film, including Tilly blowing bubble gum.

2. Tilly's writing style. Whilst I feel it's very clear for beginners instructions wise, a lot of things annoyed me. She constantly scatters French phrases throughout, in a very cutesy "I love French pastries, striped tops and the Eiffel Tower" way. It adds nothing to the book, and comes across as very twitty. She is also not concise. When she introduces French seams, she gives a good explanation, but then every time she suggests using one in construction, she reiterates the entire technique, every single time. I felt this was deliberately dumbing down the book; we are adults, we can flick and cross reference. I also found the "Make it a Lifestyle" sections quite silly, especially "How to behave in a fabric shop". I would assume fabric shop etiquette is exactly the same as other shops, and this is something we learn as children.

3. Beginner mentality. This is not as much a criticism of Love at First Stitch than of Tilly's brand as a whole. Her market caters exclusively to beginner sewers. In and of itself this isn't a problem, there's obviously a market niche, but this often leads to dumbing down, hand holding and "oh my everything is hard" mentality. My dressmaking skills are mostly self taught (though I have been sewing for many more years than I've been dressmaking) and once you know the basics, there are a wealth of resources, online and in books to grow your skills. I feel Tilly's technique is to set herself up as the guru of sewing, and her handholding instructions that she overcharges for is what sets her apart. Case in point, her latest pattern is an elasticised waist dirndl skirt, basically the pattern is a rectangle, for £12.50. According to her it's worth it for the instructions. When these kind of skirts are free tutorials all over the web, and could be made in an afternoon by a six year old girl, I can only think of the saying "a fool and their money are easily parted." Of course Tilly isn't the only sewing related person on the web to cater to the "sewing is so hard" group, but I feel she emulates most of issues with it. There seems to be a general fear of the "Big 4" sewing pattern companies. Yes, their pattern art is awful, and you usually have to size down due to ease, but their instructions are not sparse if  you know how to think for yourself and look up things online.

4.  Lack of substance. The French post modernist philosopher, Baudrillard came up with the concept of hyper reality. This states that what is "real" becomes lost in the modern world behind a facade of marketing and style over substance. I would not have much of a problem with Tilly's patterns if I felt there was substance in them. What she has done is taken the most basic sort of patterns, and dressed them up with pretty pictures, colours and a marketing facade that lets the consumer feel they are buying into a lifestyle. The patterns themselves are basic; in the case of Miette, which is ever 1970's wrap skirt ever; or downright bad:  Francoise, Coco and Bettine seem to be poorly drafted, and often quite frumpy, but for some reason people kept lapping up these patterns. If they'd been released by Simplicity or Burda, no one would have bought them. Tilly's brand has become something people buy because it's "Tilly and the Buttons", not because it's good in and of itself. The other thing that gets to me about Tilly's lack of substance is the dumbing down of her blog over the years. I began to follow Tilly before she commercialised, and enjoyed her personal sewing projects. Then, after she started releasing her own patterns I have barely seen her sew anything that is not part of her marketing; there seems to be one item in the last two years. Part of me wonders if Tilly only got into sewing as a marketing opportunity, rather than a hobby that then grew into a business. (For more dumbing down of patterns see Colette's Seamwork patterns, versus their original offerings). Though I know she caters to beginning sewers, I feel there needs to be more substance and variety in offerings, because developing in a hobby should involve growing skills, and making interesting things, that don't involve hand holding, and move beyond being swayed by pretty pictures and marketing.

What do I want from online sewing resources? I want more complex offerings across the board, I want people who design vintage inspired patterns complete with the amazing details and construction techniques of the originals. I want the decline of fad patterns that everyone makes and swoons over. We sew to break out of the world of trends and styles, but so often I see this take over online.

I'm really interested to know what you think. Tell me what you think about Indie patterns. Is it all style over substance? How do you pick what you sew; does marketing suck you in, or do you use line drawings, and browse online to see what others have made, as I do? What do you want to see more, or less of online?

{I am sorry about the random font changes, I have no idea how it has happened, as it does not show up in the draft}

 

 

Wearing History Smooth Sailing Blouse Wearable Muslin

For a while now I have been on the lookout for a good button down vintage blouse pattern. The success of my Third Time Lucky Blouse is going to mean M6696 is going to be made a lot more as a blouse, but I had also had my eye on Wearing History's Smooth Sailing Blouse for a while. There are so many great versions online, and I loved the notched collar, and the shape: great for tucking in at the button and blousing on top. Some of my favourite versions: Emileigh's V-J blouse and Welmoed's beautiful white version.

I bought the PDF back in November during the Black Friday sales and it sat on my computer for months, until I printed it off at my Mum's place last week. Before cutting into all the good blouse fabric I have stashed, I decided a test run was in order. I used this lovely floral queen sized doona cover I picked up at an opshop a few years ago. It's an IKEA one, 100% cotton, and it's lovely thin and breathable fabric. I also had a lot of it, so any mistakes didn't mean loss of precious fabric.

I cut a size 36 bust with no alterations and the fit is rather spot on (for reference, I am a 34 bust, but my waist/hip measurements are larger proportionally. I didn't have to grade out the hip area on this, but only just.) The whole pattern went together really well. The collar was nice and easy. I used this tutorial which was really straight forward. My attempt isn't 100% neat, but it's on the under collar, and I was treating this as a wearable muslin. None of the seams on this are internally finished either. The buttons are just small clear ones from the stash.

The sleeves are the only things I changed. I originally used the sleeve from the pattern, with cuff. Had it all finished, popped it on, and it looked bad. The shoulder gathers, the large collar, and the puffed sleeves were not doing my shoulders any favours, and my husband thought it all looked really off in the shoulder area. I took out the sleeves, and replaced them with the cap sleeve from M6696. And issue all fixed. These are now my go to sleeve pattern. I just sewed the in using a 1/2inch seam allowance per blouse pattern.

I am so happy with this, it is incredibly comfortable, and very wearable. I was going to get photographs of me wearing it, but it would take a while to get that organized (no good photo backdrops at home) and I wanted to share this sooner rather than later).

And this counts as vintage pledge item 2! I wonder how many I will end up making?

First Vintage Pledge: Simplicity 1587

 I have finished my first vintage pledge make for the year: reproduction pattern Simplicty 1587. I was inspired by Esther's beautiful versions, and when I decided to spend my birthday/Christmas money on patterns I knew this one was making the list.

The construction is quite straight forward, and I quite like how the dress is still a "fit and flare" but with a bit of a different silhouette. I had to grade out the waist and hip area, and that managed to get the fit pretty spot on. The only real change I made to the pattern was to leave off the elastic sleeve ruching.


 
 

                               





I bought this stunning floral cotton in Marrickville about six months ago. It is wonderful to have three super cheap Asian fabric shops within walking distance. Makes zipper and thread buying easy, and then also enables fabric buying!  I had found this fabric one day when out with Mum, and a couple of days later I couldn't get it out of my mind, so back to the shop I went. I love the colours, and feel I am moving towards dark based florals (though one of my current projects is big pink roses).


      




This was a fun venture into 1940's fashion, and I like all the gathered and pleated details; there are no darts in this design. I especially love the neckline. There are blouse plans afoot for this pattern. I will also most likely make it again as a dress, but think I may change out the skirt. I like the gathered point detail, but it also doesn't sit quite flat. Mum quite liked it though, and she is very honest with my about these things. Big thank you to Mum also for the photos. Isn't her garden gorgeous? It's like walking into a lush, green, secret garden.


Decided I am going to start summarising patterns at the end of posts again:

Pattern: Simplicity 1587; 1940's reproduction
Size: Bodice: 12 graded to 14 in the hips; skirt 14
Fabric: Floral cotton from Marrickville; $6/m
Notions: Hand picked side zipper, mother of pearl button on back (may get swapped out)
Wear with: This would look great with pearls (need to find new ones) but it's also a perfect plefor my locket. Could potentially transition this dress to autumn/winter with the correct coloured coat
Make again: Certainly!

Next vintage pledge items are underway. I think most of this years sewing will be vintage patterns.

Third Time Lucky Blouse

 This blouse has been  very long time in the Last year, I found a Liberty 1960's shirtdress in the opshop. Of course I bought it, knowing I could turn it into something wearable.















Attempt one: I detached the bodice and skirt, added some darts to the bodice, as it was a few sizes too big, then I sewed it all back together. I wore it like this for a while, until one day y husband admitted it looked a bit frumpy. I'd been thinking the same, the whole thing didn't fit well, so back to the sewing pile.

 Attempt two: M6696, straight skirt version. The whole thing was a jigsaw of pattern pieces, but I got it made up until the point where you handsew down the button plackets. But I had forgotten to account for hips. My hips are quite large, and I had stupidly cut a 12 all over, where I should have graded the skirt out. There was no way that skirt was fitting down there. So I had to unpick all that work. Luckily I caught it before the handsewing had happened.









Third time lucky: using the skirt fabric, I cut an extension, and attached it to the bottom of the blouse section. Finally, wearable.

M6696 makes a great blouse pattern, and I'm hoping to make it again. I went with a mandarin collar partially because of fabric shortage, and partially for something different. I realise now mandarin collars really only work when the placket is curved to open the shirt at the neck. But I found a little gold brooch and wore the shirt completely buttoned up. It was comfortable, and looked good.

The buttons are from the original shirt dress. I am so happy this is finally finished and wearable. Whilst I would have loved it as a shirt dress, it's going to be a great blouse.

The Results of #ufosewjanuary

SO, now January is over, it's time to reflect on how I went in reducing the UFO pile. I am calling it a success, even though I didn't get through as much as I had wanted. I got through most of the refashioning/mending pile. The pieces that are left are mostly half done projects, which I have motivation to finish anyway. the month was a good time to force myself to do some small sewing jobs that usually get lost in the excitement of new fabric. I was also a bit slow as I did a number of paid sewing jobs over the month. Nothing too exciting; work pants hemming, sewing in labels for small businesses etc. The best thing is now I have more room in my small sewing space, and my mind is running fast with new projects.

So here are my finished projects:

This BHL Anna blouse fits so well, but with a side zip is hard to get on. I did a quick fix so the side zip is now open at the bottom. It's still tight to get on, but I shouldn't now be busting stitches and pulling muscles whilst getting dressed

 My brown velvet skirt. Fixed the hem, and stitched down the top facing to stop the lining flipping out.

 I hand stitched down the facing to stop it flipping out. this is such a good hot weather dress

 No "after" picture, but all I did was take off about six inches from the length to make it easier to wear.

 Halter dress to skirt for my sister.

 Replacing a busted zipper. Once I get proper photos I will do a blog post on this.

 Finally finished my bridesmaid fabric shirt dress. I am getting so much wear out of this

The 'third time lucky' blouse. This gorgeous piece deserves its own blog post

















I decided it was time for a few pieces to go, and also did some button salvaging. One or two pieces also went into "use fabric for other purposes" box.


So there you go! I'm hoping to finish off my other projects this month, as I also start new pieces. I was reunited last week with my cutting table, which I had missed so much this past year. It slots into the corner of our apartment, an I can roll it out when I am sewing. everything is now stored much neater, and I have cutting space. I am in the middle of sewing up a Mimi blouse in Liberty carline, so hope to share that soon.