so that is where I went wrong…

Tags

minoru, pattern, renfrew, revelation, sewaholic, sewing, sewing school

… Wednesday night is sewing school here. Every week a group of friends come round for a few hours of sewing, usually with a break for soup and cheese at some point in the evening. It all started about 6 months ago when a friend asked if I could teach her to sew, another friend decided she wanted to learn too, and a couple more friends decided to come along. We started off with simple A-line skirts, elastic waisted then zip and waist band, and then moved on to dresses, each person choosing their pattern and me guiding them when they need. Since then they have made baby blankets and baby clothes and pyjamas and tunics… it is always a wonderful way to spend an evening.

… but this week no one could make it, so I found myself with an unexpected free evening. I decided to finally have a go at the Renfrew top. I bought the pattern ages ago, and I have a couple of pieces of fabric that I have picked up with it in mind.

… after the trouble I had with sizing the Minoru, I was a bit worried about what size to make, so I measured myself, and remeasured myself, then I measured the pattern pieces, before finally settling on a size. I traced the pattern and cut out the pieces and was laying them out on my fabric when it suddenly occurred to me that maybe the pattern included seam allowances? I read and reread the instructions but it wasn’t really clear, I went on to the Sewaholic website and looked at the photos from sew-alongs from other patterns… and it seemed like the patterns were being cut out without adding any extra.

… the reason for this confusion? For the patterns I generally use, from magazines, you have to add seam allowances, and on the old “packet” patterns I have from my mother’s collection the seam allowance is drawn onto the pattern as a second outline…

… so now I know why the Minoru ended up quite so big – not only did I chose a wrong size, I added 1.5 cm to every seam! I still haven’t decided whether to unpick the coat completely and start again, or whether I might be able to fit it to myself…

… anyway, in the mean time the Renfrew sewed up quickly and really is a nice fit.

taking liberties…

Tags

cowl, jersey, liberty, minoru, scarf, sewing

… sew, unpick, sew, unpick….

… all has not been going well on the Minoru front, I am hugely disappointed. A couple of weeks ago I finally put my head down, and decided to get on with making my coat. I settled on a size, traced the pattern, cut the pattern, cut the material, prepared the pieces with tailor tacks and nips, and started tacking and sewing…

… I made modifications along the way, lined the hood, made lateral pockets, put the pieces together, recognised straight away I don’t have the hips for the size I chose, I adapted a bit, I sewed and top stitched, interfaced and added the zipper, slipped the outer layer of the jacket on, zipped up and realised I could have a friend or 2 over and we wouldn’t need to open the zipper… I have made a tent, not a coat!

… I called a friend and trotted over to hers, coat and pins in my bag, tried to work out where I could nip, tuck, take in and adjust… I came home, undid seams, resewed, modified and worked on it… and tried it back on… it is better… now there is probably only room for 1 guest at a time… still a long way to go…

… now I find myself in a dilemma, either I take all the pieces apart (all that top stitching on wool…) and try and cut a new smaller model from the pieces, or I give up… I am stuck on a fence of indecision… and to add insult to injury, the fabric I chose seems too fragile for so much coming and going, the beautiful “embroidered” patterns on the material are falling off, so I look like I have been lying in a plate of black spaghetti, with dark noodles of embroidery thread dangling from my back. If I rework it all, I am going to need to re-embroider the material too!

… the Minoru lies in a sorry ball, taunting me while I try and keep busy doing anything but sewing.

… today a friend needed help shortening some curtains, I had to acknowledge there is a sewing machine on my living room table, so I decided a quick, easy and fool proof project was needed to reconcile me with it… what else but an infinity scarf.

… a job interview in deepest rural southern England last month (no news yet, but they told me thery would be taking their time), a morning in London before I caught the Eurostar home, and I decided to go to Liberty, a friend told me fabric was much cheaper there than the Liberty prints you can get here… maybe! But as I had gone all that way, I didn’t feel I could leave empty handed, so I took 1/2m of jersey material on sale to make myself another infinity scarf.

… I hate the cold, am always cold, spend about 8 months a year wearing scarves, a girl can never have too many, and I especially love jersey infinity scarves, they are cosy without too much bulk or itch, and can spruce up an outfit instantly, especially in a pretty Liberty print!

… I love that these take 10 minutes to make … now if only the material wasn’t so expensive, I could have made a bunch! Just a couple of seams and a few top stitches to close the hole needed to pull the inside out scarf right side out…

… maybe sewing isn’t that frustrating after all!

a light bulb moment…

Tags

challenge, inspiration, minoru, sewing

… everyone who has been reading my posts recently must be sick of hearing me talk about how I have great plans to make a coat, and I keep turning in circles around it…

… this weekend I traced the pattern and cut the material, and didn’t get any further – I had 2 whole days to sew, I made a baby snow suit in less time… what is holding me back?

… last night I was thinking things through. It is not like I have never made a coat before, one of my early projects, when I was in high school, was a “fabulous” fashionable carpet coat (forgive me, it was the 80s). Later, during my university days I made a reversible fleece for my boyfriend’s sister, then I made myself a reversible rain jacket with a cosy fleece lining and I made a smart lined woollen blazer… there may have been others since, I can’t remember right now…

… so what is holding me back?

… I have always sewn alone, never really known anyone else who sews except my mother who guided me for my first steps, and a friend’s mother who worked on some of my early projects with me (including the carpet coat) and my best friend who has always been far away in another town, on another continent…

… I used to buy patterns, or burda magazine, buy my material and work my way through the instructions until I had a finished garment. Later I stopped buying patterns, used existing clothes, or ideas and drafted my own patterns, made things as I imagined them…

… the Minoru is very, very different. It seems everyone on the internet has already made it, already blogged about it, posted photos of their finished product… there is so much information available about it, every time I take a step towards starting it, I get lost in researching what someone has to say about some specific detail, I worry that mine won’t compare to all the amazing examples out there… and I lose a day, or two, stumbling from one blog to another, and not making progress!

… this morning I decided I need to shake this, and just go for it, as if it were my own design, something from a magazine, something I have no idea how it will end up – like everything else I make that turns out fine!

… and then this evening a post popped up in my reader, on the sewaholic blog – about “a little less inspiration, a little more action”… timely!

… so I am off to yoga, and when I get home I am going to take the first Minoru steps!