Hey peeps, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and Monday has been gentle with you. Somehow another three months have whizzed by and it’s time for another quarterly round-up thingy. I’ve spent the whole three months trying to come up with a name for it and had nothing but The Stitch Rep (like sit-rep), which is a bit rubbish. So I put the Manfriend on the case and he just came up with bits and bobbins, which tickled me so I’ve gone with it.
Projects finished
I’ve been a wee bit more productive than last time so I’ve split this part into the months.
April
Just a Tilly and the Buttons Bibi skirt this month.
May
- Scoop neck ballet tee – this has already become a firm favourite
- Knit New Look 6217 tee – this was a bit of a wadder. I added a bit of ease as I was cutting it out and it turned out huge. It’s fine for bumming around the house but I’ll never wear it outside.
- Striped pencil skirt – another new favourite. I think I need to alter the pattern slightly (shortening it between waist and hips) before making more but I’m still really happy with it.
- Hey June Union St tee – I made a right pig’s ear of the v-neck but I don’t think non-sewers would notice.
June
- Tilly and the Buttons Joni top – I don’t like this. I have a slight issue with Tilly and the Buttons patterns as I think because their target market is beginners certain things are done in the easiest way, rather than the best way. I don’t like the way the neckline is finished in this pattern and I know if I wear it I’d constantly be adjusting the twist as one side likes to try to turn under and the other side flips out. I’m going to see if my mum wants it as it’s purple, which she loves and her bigger boobs might pull the fabric more taught and stop some of these issues.
- Sew Over It Eve wrap top(/toile) – This isn’t technically finished yet as I still need to add a waist tie but I’m still counting it. I made it with fabric leftover from this dress and I think it’ll look good with my striped pencil skirt.
- Sew Over It Eve dress – I made this to wear to a wedding and for #sewtogetherforsummer and I love it.
Projects in waiting
It’s mostly the same ones as last time. These are the ones I hope to sew soon though.
- Grainline Archer shirt – in progress, just sleeves, side seams, cuffs and buttonholes/buttons to go. So loads. Part of me wants to leave it until the autumn now as it’s flannel so I won’t get to wear it but I also want to check the fit so I can make a chambray version as I think that’ll make a great cover up for cooler summer evenings.
- Red Ogden cami – I really want to get a wiggle on with this one because I made some fit adjustments and I need to know if they worked before I can make any more Ogdens (and I have a lot of Ogden sized scraps).
- Named Kielo wrap dress – I’m making it out of this floral viscose jersey and I probably should have made my first one out of something I like less but the fabric I was going to use for a wearable toile turned out to be directional.
- Chi-town chinos – I cut these out last year and still haven’t gotten round to sewing them yet.
- Deer and Doe Reglisse dress – This has been in progress since last summer. I messed up the collar and put it on hold until I could face unpicking and redoing it. Then summer disappeared and I haven’t got back round to it yet.
Stashbusting stats
Fabric in (this quarter): 9.1 m
Fabric out (this quarter): 9.2 m
Stashbusted (this quarter): -0.1 m
I just squeaked in under the wire here when I cut my Kielo out on Wednesday. I hoped to get it sewn up as well to wear on Friday but I didn’t get time on Thursday night.
Fabric in (year to date): 20.1 m
Fabric out (year to date): 22.7 m
Stashbusted (year to date): -2.6 m
I may not have gotten rid of a lot of the stash but I’m really pleased with how little fabric I’ve bought so far this year. I’ve been making much more sensible purchases and I haven’t been swept away by pretties I have no immediate need for.
Pattern buying
I fell foul (afoul?) of the sales and bought a load of New Look and McCall’s patterns. The list is in the order I bought them.
- McCall’s 7320 evening dress – as a potential pattern for my Make Nine big nonsense gown.
- Measure Twice, Cut Once Charlotte knickers – for scrapbusting random bits of viscose.
- New look 6231 blazer, skirt and trousers (but I bought it for the blazer)
- Sew Over It Lulu dress
- New Look 6000 dress – I’ve wanted this since I started sewing. I’m going to make a red ponte version E for Christmas.
- New Look 6271 drawstring shorts, trousers and skirts
- New Look 6346 skirt
- New Look 6449 shirt dress and knit dress
- McCall’s 7745 wrap dresses – sadly I’ve since seen a few people say the bodice on this is not good.
- McCall’s 7683 knit dresses – I nearly made the off the shoulder version for the wedding I went to put it had some seriously odd construction that put me off. Instead of just sewing elastic into the waist seam, it has you sew the waist seam and then sew the seam allowances together and thread elastic through it.
- Named Kielo wrap dress
Things I’ve liked
I bought some Heat n Bond Soft Stretch fusible hemming tape after seeing people rave about it on Instagram and it really is great for hemming knits.
This blog post isn’t from the last three months but I just rediscovered it in my Feedly saved posts. It’sa great post by Charlie of This blog is not for you about making our hobbies stressful, which is definitely something I cab be guilty of.
I can’t really think of any other sewing related things I’ve liked. Me and my hangover very much enjoyed Set It Up on Netflix this weekend though. I’m not generally much of a romcom gal anymore but I thoroughly enjoyed it – and think I would even if I wasn’t so delicate.
That’s probably enough list bombardment for one evening. I hope to be back with a finished garment post or two soon.