boring black t-shirt…

Tags

african wax, black t-shirt, renfrew, renfrew hack, sewing

… until you walk away…

… out for dinner with a work friend who was in town for a couple of days, the restaurant advertised “home-made pasta dishes”, we wondered if the plates were the home-made dishes as we watched them pour “fresh” pasta from bright yellow packaging into pans of boiling water…

… after dinner my friend got up, and as she turned around I realised her plain black jumper wasn’t plain at all! The back has been replaced with some bright and delicate material, a beautiful contrast. I admired, she admitted she couldn’t remember which city she bought it in, I didn’t care…

… the idea was filed away in the back of my mind, added to my “to make” list. I just need to get some dark jersey, I knew exactly which fabric I wanted to use for the back. Some beautiful African wax I bought in Paris years ago, for which I have never found the perfect pattern.

… at the stoffenspektakel fabric market last month, one item on my shopping list was dark jersey. I found some gorgeous, soft heavy weight charcoal jersey, I knew it would be perfect. Back home and the first priorities were my two Burda makes for the Burda sew-along. Once they were made, I could think of my boring black t-shirt.

… I used the Renfrew pattern, it fits well and I have worn my three other Renfrews throughout me-made May. I didn’t want to add the bottom and sleeve cuffs, so I extended the pattern body and sleeves and cut out the front and sleeves. I cut the neck somewhat higher as I am not a huge fan of low neck lines, and used the 75% rule to calculate the length of the neck “cuff”. Then I cut out the back. I cut out the top of the back in black jersey, creating a yoke of about 15 cm tall, then I cut the rest of the back out in wax, adding about 6cm to the centre back. I sewed the wax to the jersey, adding a pleat in the middle, then made the t-shirt up according to the instructions.

and a second Burda…

Tags

burda, burda sew-along, jersey, sewing, wrap top

… it should have been a quick sew, but somehow it has taken me a couple of weeks to finally finish my second make in the Burda sew-along.

… the pattern (10/2012-119) was traced ages ago, the fabric was cut a couple of weeks ago, then I noticed the instructions called for interfacing ribbon, so I had to go out and buy that, that was ironed onto the top edge of both front pieces and sewn down. This top uses pleats rather than gathers on the side seams for shape, they were folded and tacked, the two front  pieces were tacked together, the shoulder and side seams were sewn together, and then I tried the top on for fit…

… and the interfacing made the top edge rigid and gapey, so I unpicked a section of each side and shoulder seam so I could unpick the top stitching along the top of both pieces, remove the interfacing, re-hem the edges and sew back up the sides. I also took advantage to move the seam on the shoulder a bit to pull the front in a bit (might this be a NBA (no bust adjustment), who knows, I really don’t know the terminology, I just tweak clothes until they fit me!)…

… then I had a busy week and I didn’t get round to sleeve insertion until this weekend. I clearly haven’t gotten inserting sleeves with ease down to a fine art, as first attempt they ended up lumpy, and I wasn’t happy with them, so I turned to youtube, and learnt about blocking your fabric as you machine baste the ease stitches, making the fabric gather already, without having to pull the threads and end up with puckers and pleats. Apologies if I am the last person to have heard of this technique… I am still using the techniques I was taught over 20 years ago (yes, I still hand tack a lot of my seams before I sew them too!).

… a few trials on scraps before moving to my freshly unpicked sleeves, my fabric didn’t gather as much as I needed, so I still had to tug on the threads a little, but it is so much better than my first attempt.

… sleeves and bottom hemmed, and I have a new t-shirt, now I just have to wait for spring to arrive… I got my down jacket back out today, I had been trying not to wear it in May, but the low low temperature and icy winds and I froze when I was out dog walking this morning…

… planned next is a Renfrew hack I am quite excited about…

classic with a twist…

Tags

chocolate and ginger flapjacks, cookery books, cooking, flapjacks, hiking, powerbar, recipe

… good housekeeping’s new basic cookery…

… preparing to leave home, heading off to university, out shopping with my mother, we stopped to look at cookery books. I decided I needed “Mediterranean cookery” by Claudia Roden, my mother thought I should start off with something simpler. 20+ years later, I still have both books, and the spines are equally cracked and white on both of them from being used so often!

… one of the stained pages that the new basic cookery book falls open at is the recipe for syrup flapjacks… years of trips away caving, climbing, mountain biking, walking, picnics with friends, a rare tin of golden syrup brought as a gift in the days when you couldn’t buy non local things locally and I lived far away from the UK, any excuse has always been a good enough excuse to make flapjacks!

… spring may be shy this year here in Belgium, the past week has been freezing and raining, but a couple of friends and I decided “what the hell, lets go walking anyway”… today we headed off to the hills for a day long hike… seemed like a good enough reason to make flapjacks.

… the basic recipe calls for butter, sugar, syrup and oats, I invariably improvise, sometimes replacing butter with coconut oil, oats with muesli, and adding extras like chocolate and crystalised ginger…

… finally it didn’t rain, we had a wonderful day, and sat and ate our picnic on a church wall, overlooking the lush green and yellow countryside – on the menu: asparagus, pea, bean and feta salad followed by chocolate and ginger flapjacks…

chocolate and ginger flapjacks

(adapted from good housekeeping’s new basic cookery) for about 15 flapjacks you will need:

100g butter or coconut oil, or some combination that = 100g

100g brown sugar

200g golden syrup

100g black chocolate

about 400g oats or muesli

a good handful of chopped crystalised ginger, or whatever else you fancy

• put the butter/oil, sugar, syrup and chocolate in a pan and melt everything together over a low heat
• add the oats/muesli and ginger, mix well until the oats are completely covered in the chocolate mix. I find it easier to add the oats in 3 or 4 batches to get them evenly mixed
• grease a +/- 20x30cm tin (or use a silicon one)
• transfer the oat mix to the tin, distribute evenly
• bake in the oven at 180ºC for 20 min, or until it begins to look toasted on top
• cool in the tray, then cut into even sized squares and enjoy

back on track, slowly…

Tags

burda, burda sew-along, sewing

… after making my yoga pants on Saturday I was on a roll, so I moved straight on to my Burda challenges…

… I decided to go for the turquoise wool cowl sweater first (10/2012-118B), because after a few days of tantalising spring, winter has come back and it is freezing again. Definitely not t-shirt weather!

… pieces cut out, I decided to skip the back zipper as I was making this in knit, so I just sewed up the back seam. I also skipped the back darts, I am not very curvy and the the pattern is already quite shaped. The gathering on the side was straight forward, the body sewed up in no time, and looked great when I tried it on to check for fit. I did notice I had cut the front out back-to-front, so my gathers are on the opposite side to the rest of the world – I have a truly unique garment!

… I attacked the sleeves on Sunday, and got into a bit of a fight with them, I got puckering and puff sleeves on my first attempt, so I took them out and started over. Second attempt is better, not perfect, but good enough, especially as unpicking the knit fabric is a nightmare. I finished off by hemming the bottom and sleeves with my new best friend, the double needle.

… I quite like the top, but it is a bit more formal than I tend to wear these days. At the minute I am working from home (when I can find work), and mainly get out to dog walk or exercise, so I don’t think it will get as much wear in the immediate future as it might have when I was rushing in and out of meetings with ministers and the such like each day.

… so that is one Burda down, I will attack my next top later this week…

slight detour…

Tags

leggings, lycra, sewing, tights, trousers, yoga

… after cutting out my Burda patterns last night I realised I needed to wash the fabric before I could carry on, so I threw all my fabric in the washing machine and then hung it up to dry overnight…

… this morning, out running, thinking about my to-do-list – a few letters needed writing before I should start sewing – and thinking about the upcoming week – I am teaching yoga 4 days this week…

… while I practice yoga in shorts, I prefer to teach in trousers, but I only have 1 pair of trousers that are really suited to the hot room, all the others are too warm (it is 40ºC in the studio), and then I got to thinking how easy it would be to make another pair…

… I still have the leggings pattern I drafted in the 90s, I could pop down to my local fabric shop and pick up some lycra material: I remember seeing it in all sorts of cheerful colours last time I was there…

… post run, shower, breakfast, I brave the rain, jump on a bike and head down town. Fabric bought and the sun came out as I cycled home.

… I seemed to remember the legging pattern was long in the body, I got my running tights out to use as a reference, and cut out a pair of capri tights. I cut them short in the body and added a band of contrasting lycra for the waist rather than adding elastic – I hope they won’t fall down!

… first band installation wasn’t quite right, but as the leggings were still too high in the waist I just chopped it off and started again, it still isn’t perfect. And I almost lost my calm when I ran out of cotton 5cm from finishing the last top stitching… luckily the supermarket across the road from my place sells cotton, so a quick shopping break and I was able to finish the leggings.

… now I need to get back on track with my original plans, and then I might see if I can get some shorts out of the left over lycra too!

living up to challenges…

Tags

burda, burda sew-along, challenge, me made, me-made-may-13, review, sewing, week 1

… my first me-made-May, I pledged to wear at least 3 me-mades each week this month, I started off exceeding expectations, but wavered at the beginning of this week, I am playing catch up!

… I started off instagramming my wears, but that didn’t last long…

… day 1 – I wore my grey cargo pants

… day 2 – I wore the cargo pants again, and added a jersey cowl

… day 3 – I was teaching yoga in the morning, and practised yoga in the evening, so between classes I just wore a stripy t-shirt made last summer following these instructions with yoga pants

… day 4 – my polka dot cowl renfrew

… day 5 – first time out for my hot cocoa sweater (heading to the fabric market!)

… day 6 – my refashioned chopped off little black dress

… day 7-9 – I just managed to add a home made belt and/or cowl to what I was wearing

… day 10 – I decided I needed to start making an effort again, so I pulled on my white renfrew. I also finally got my sewing machine out again (it had been put away at the beginning of the week, and I have been super busy ever since) and made another belt using the fun neon yellow webbing from the market last week.

… and while I was tackling challenges, I have also traced and cut out 2 Burda patterns ready to start sewing for the Burda sew-along. I would have cut them out too except I realised I hadn’t washed my fabric, so that has been thrown in the washer, and cutting and sewing will have to wait until tomorrow when it should be dry.

an extravaganza of fabrics…

Tags

burda, challenge, fabric, madness, market, sewing

… a couple of weeks ago, I read about the “Stoffen Spektakel” market on Beata’s blog Red Point Tailor. She had found some lovely looking fabric, I was curious about the market, I checked their website, who can resist an event that brands itself as a “fabric extravaganza”?

… I saw they hold markets all over the Netherlands, Belgium, the north of France and Germany, I saw a bunch of photos, it really looked like an extravaganza.

… I emailed a few sewing friends, “anyone up for a day trip?”, one friend replied “yes!”.

… Sunday lunch time, the sun was shining, we pointed the car north east and headed to Kortrijk, neither of us knew the town, so the plan was fabric extravaganza followed by a bit of tourism…

… the market was easy to find, the car park wasn’t too crowded, we ventured into the exhibition hall… and took a deep breath! There was a lot of fabric! We started off cautiously, spotting “possibles”, checking prices, noting things to come back to (that we never made it back to!), then I made the first purchase.

… it wasn’t on my list, but how could I resist fish and polka dots together on the same fabric, on jersey? It will be a t-shirt…

… once the ice had been broken, spending became easier, unfortunately we found the discount stalls a bit late in our visit, we were both running out of cash, had crossed most the projects off our lists, we managed to negotiate a discount for the last buy, when we had to pool our coins so my friend could buy some mustard fabric for trousers!

… then when we wanted to leave we discovered we needed to pay for parking, and we didn’t have any money left! Whoops. A frantic search for a cash machine and then a hasty departure before we were tempted by more!

… so what did I find?

… apart from the dotty fish, I picked up some charcoal jersey for a renfrew hack I have been planning for a while; some flowery jersey and some turquoise knit for the two tops I want to make as part of the burda sew-along (10/2012 118 and 119); a piece of emerald green denim for another pair of cargo pants (this is really pushing myself to new limits, I only ever wear jeans or grey trousers!) and a piece of denim for a pair of jeans! I also couldn’t resist some neon yellow webbing for a belt.

… now where do I start?

it started with a knit…

Tags

hot cocoa, knit, sewing, sweater

… I never thought it would come to this…

… a while back, fabric shopping, rummaging around the bargain section, and I stumbled upon the end of a bolt of lacy knitted blue woollen fabric. I looked at it, ran my fingers over it, took it off the shelf, put it back on the shelf, carried on looking, went back for a second look, moved on quickly, but by the third time I found myself holding the bolt I just tucked it under my arm and carried it to the cashier. There was only 1.5m, I was on a renfrew run, I thought I’d just make another cowl necked version…

… I had visitors at the beginning of April, so sewing supplies were put away, then I had a lot of work, I didn’t get much sewing done, just my cargo pants that took quite a while. I completely forgot about the blue knit fabric.

… a moment of procrastination inspiration gathering, pootling from one blog to another and I stumbled across the Dixie DIY hot cocoa sweater. Nice, I pinned it for later reference.

… looking for some fabric for different project, I saw the blue wool. Immediately I knew it would make a perfect hot cocoa. The fabric was washed, dried, laid out, cut and sewn up in an evening and was worn yesterday. The only change I made to the pattern was to add a couple of centimetres to the front and back, I don’t like short tops, but I have a short torso, now it fits me exactly as I like.

and then it was May…

Tags

burda, burda sew-along, challenge, me made may, me-made-may-13, sewing

… and time to start thinking about all (well both) the challenges I have signed up to!

… firstly the Burda sew-along…

… last night I got out both my Burda magazines (I need to ask a friend for my third one back!) and I looked at all the projects. A couple of tops are maybes, but I think they will entail buying more jersey material. I still need to check my box of fabric and double check I don’t have anything I have forgotten about before I go shopping…

… I should also go through the big box of traced out Burda patterns I have from all my earlier sewing adventures through the 80s and 90s. Although I no longer have the accompanying instructions, there may be something I might want to remake there…

… then me-made-May, as I was up late last night finishing off a sewing project (the Dixie DIY hot cocoa sweater – more about that later), and it was past midnight when I finally got to bed I decided I should start with me-mades straight away, so I opted for my cosy flowery flannel pyjamas…

… and then this morning I decided to go with my recently finished cargo pants… so that is one day of success, only 14 more to go (I only pledged to wear me-mades 3x week as I don’t have nearly enough clothes for everyday!).