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.

adventures in jersey…

Tags

cowl, cowl top, jersey, polka dots, renfrew, scarf, sewing, top

… I seem to have been on a bit of a jersey roll…

… after finishing my renfrew last week, and being really pleased with the outcome I decided to carry on, and make up a second version in the first piece of material I had bought for the pattern. The white material was a queue jumper, but it was cheaper, so it mattered less if I didn’t like the result…

… dark beige with polka dots this time, a heavier weight jersey… I went for the cowl neck version, long sleeves again, but this time I decided to skip the bottom waist band. Once again the pattern sewed up quickly and I have another top for when I can peel off a few of my layers, if we ever get a spring.

… sometimes I wonder if my friends do it on purpose… a couple of friends, learning to sew, we arranged to meet in the fabric shop so they could choose some material for their next projects. I came away with more material than they did! I couldn’t resist all the new cheerful spring jersey fabrics that had just come in. I took half a metre of one for another cowl/infinity scarf and a metre and a half of another for one more renfrew! Yes, that will be number 3.

… as I had my machine out all weekend, I pulled together the cowl quickly between renfrews, and then cut out the latest renfrew and sewed it up in an hour or so yesterday evening. This time I raised the rounded neck a little – I am not a low neckline person usually and I went for the 3/4 sleeves…

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.