Summer swimmers OMG OMG OMG!

Sun, sand...

Feet (mine)

... sea, surf....

Son and sister (also mine)

No prizes for guessing where this is going!

I MADE A BOMBSHELL!

Let's play "Insert your favourite Bombshell blogger cliché here": OMG I made a swimming costume! OMG it totally wasn't as hard as I thought! OMG Heather Lou is a genius! OMG this is the simultaneously the most covered and most sexy I have felt in any swimwear ever and OMG it beats the pants off literally everything to be found in any shop anywhere!

Delete as appropriate: NO NOT DELETING ANYTHING IT's ALL TRUE.

Fully water tested at one temperature extreme in a hot tub (family holiday fun!) - and, at the other, in the North Sea.  Yes, I swam after we took these pictures.  It was... refreshing. The suit holds up really well when wet, despite the enormous amount of fabric it contains, and although I have to admit I was sceptical about the actual swim support it'd give, it was fine. Which is not insignificant - my small back-band and large cup bra-size combination means that I have never in my life been able to find a satisfactorily wearable bikini/swimsuit. And, while wearing this does not feel as 'solid' as wearing an actual bra, it's nonetheless feels pretty darn safe.  In turn rather impressive, as to achieve this I only made a couple of tiny adjustments to the pattern.  For those who're interested,  the lowdown is below.

But in the meantime.

OMG OMG OMG I MADE A SWIMMING COSTUME!!!!!

• Pattern: Bombshell duh, size 38 (I think. Maybe it was 40. Anyway: straight up, no FBA or grading between sizes).
• Fabric outer: cotton/elastane from the Chien Vert. Fairly heavyweight for swim fabric - my only complaint about this suit is that because of this, it dries slowly. But, the stripes make me think of ice cream, which is good.
• Fabric inner: cheap-as-chips matte lycra from Berger.
• Swim elastic: I ordered some from Fabricland UK (bad website but great phone service) and it was really good quality. However, I am an idiot and didn't order enough. To compare, I got some more from Lijfgoed (in Holland). Sadly this was much flimsier and broke easily. Particularly if you want to stretch your elastic to prevent gaping, I wouldn't recommend it.

:: :: ::

What I did: tips for adding support if you too are blessed with large bosoms

Heather Lou mentions in the sewalong (here) a couple of ways to add support, one of which is to sew a strapless bra to the inside front at the side seams, hanging 'free' and next to your skin under both layers of the swimsuit itself.  However, I didn't want the extra layer of bra fabric, and I didn't want the bra itself to be visible - I wanted it hidden between the lining and outer. I also didn't want to go and buy a strapless bra specifically in order to cut it up (plus, I've never liked them anyway, so).

Attempts to just add a line of elastic under the bust quickly demonstrated that this would not keep the girls where they needed to be, so in the end I took the scissors to an old bra - in the process fully vindicating my hoarding of all old items of clothing, worn to death or not, in case they ever come in handy. IT WAS HANDY so take THAT obsessive-clear-outer husband!

Um, anyway - so I turned the suit inside out and sewed the bra's side elastic to the side seams (I'd already cut off the back straps). The middle of the bra was left hanging loose between the lining and the outer, but at the very end I stitched through the centre part when I sewed down the tab over the bust ruching. This keeps everything exactly in place where it needs to be.  For the bust ruching itself I had extended the gathering line by about an inch, to make sure the ruching ended up between my bosoms rather than sitting on top of them. And that was it! Here are some (badly lit, indoor) pics in case it's helpful.

Overall placement - I put the suit on and wriggled till I'd got it about right.

Sewed on at the side seams. After finishing the top edge, the bust-ruching tab holds everything in place at centre front.

Does that all make sense?? Comment or shoot me an email if not!  Hope it helps, fellow busty ones :-)

Follow

Fitting for slouch: No-dart Full Bust Adjustment

This feels like quite an embarrassing confession, for a sewer, but here it is: I DON'T LIKE DARTS.

I don't mean the sewing - I don't even mean the looks. It's the wearing. Darts are about structure and fitting and woven fabrics, and what I actually wear, a massive majority of the time, is casual and slouchy and, frequently, knit.

And if, like me, your bosoms are larger than the pattern-standard B-cup, you may recognise the fit problems that come with wearing that sort of thing: the t-shirt that drapes nicely in the line drawing, but stretches across your real-life chest in a kind of ugly mono-boob. Or the sweater that slinks in a casual "why yes I have cleavage under my jersey" kind of way - while hanging off your shoulders and making you look about 5 sizes larger everywhere else.

It is, of course, possible to adjust your pattern to avoid all that. Durrr Jo well yeah - the internet is full of excellent tutorials on adding or increasing bust darts for precisely this reason. Strangely though, it's less full of tutorials on how to do a full bust adjustment without darts. Which given the popularity of things-without-darts (like most stuff with knits, or many of the fabulously casual and rightly-beloved Grainline patterns) is slightly surprising.

So, here's my method for a no-dart full bust adjustment (FBA).  There are a couple of pretty good no-dart FBA tutes out there already, particularly here and here - but the way I do it is different. And as it's good to have options, here we go...

First, grab your supplies. Here's a fairly pointless picture so you all know what supplies means in this case, like you couldn't have guessed:

That's a pattern piece, an ruler and a pen. You'll also need some scissors, tape, and spare scraps of paper to stick everything together with.

Time to draw some lines!

The first line goes across the bodice front, at right angles to the grainline, halfway between the armhole notch & shoulder seam. My red pen was running out, but it is drawn in red here - I hope you can see it ok:

Draw your second line parallel to the first, 5-10 cm (2-4 inches) below the armhole:

You third third line connects the first two, and extends down to the bottom hem.  It should go through the bust point - I never bother working out where this actually falls, as I don't think it matters as much for a non-fitted garment. In this case - Grainline's Archer shirt - I lined it up with one of the shoulder seam notches. About a third of the way between the neckline and shoulder seam is usually a good idea.

So that's your drawing done. Get your scissors!  And cut along the lines you drew, as shown here:

At this point it's useful to slide some spare paper under your pattern piece, so you can stick the pieces down in the right place as you go and don't risk shifting them around unintentionally later on.

First, we're going to add width to the bust area.  Slide out the piece you just cut, by a maximum of 2 cm (3/4 inch). You can then stick it in place already if you like.

Next we're going to add length, so your shirt/tee/etc doesn't ride up at the front.  So, slide down the centre front part of your pattern piece by a maximum of 5 cm (2 inches):

Stick it in place, and you have something that looks like the next picture.

Now all you need to do is true up the lines. If you haven't got a French curve for this - get one! So much easier!  Draw the armhole curve so it connects again with the shoulder:

Then re-draw the side seam, connecting with the original hem length.  And finally, draw the new hem line, from the lowered front piece up to its original level at the side. ALERT - I like my tops long so I didn't do this! And only realised afterwards that it made for a less clear illustration of the whole method, oops...

So, to be clear! : if you don't want to add to the original length of your top, just keep the hem length where it is at the side seam, and draw a new hem line joining it to your lowered centre front section.

Tadaaa!!!! No-dart full bust adjustment!

Not so hard, right?

Now, to wrap up, a word about how much to add to your pattern. Obviously this will depend on the size of your boobs - and equally obviously, with this method of adjustment, you can't add huuuuge amounts of extra ease.  The maximum amounts are there to stop your pattern going totally off grain.

For reference, the difference between my high bust (which I used to pick my size) and my full bust is 10 cm (4 inches). Strictly speaking, the 2 cm width I've added to the pattern here isn't 'enough' to accommodate all that extra. I find, however, that combined with the extra length, this usually is enough to get a much better fit. Remember, we're mostly talking about clothes that are stretchy or designed for a fairly loose fit to begin with. This adjustment is a pretty easy way to put enough extra fabric over my chest to make the garment drape, rather than hang unflatteringly. I've used it on so many makes and am always really happy with how it works out.  Like on my Archer, for example, which I'll be showing you next!

(Credit/disclosure: I did this tutorial "on my own" from memory because I've done it so many times, but basically everything I've ever learned about fitting came out of this book. Highly recommended!)

Follow

Twirly maxi popover sundress hack (+tutorial!)



I couldn't let a Kids' Clothes Week go by without making anything, now could I? And as it turned out, this dress was such a hit, I had to make two.  It's the Oliver & S free popover sundress pattern, hacked with a maxi-length half circle skirt instead of the original A-line. The above twirling speaks far more eloquently than I ever could about the result!

I uploaded this first version on flickr the other day and there were a few enthusiastic reactions, so I decided to photograph the making of the second one in case anyone's interested in doing the same.

So, here we go! Drum roll please...  my Twirly Maxi Popover Sundress Hack!



Before we get to the nuts and blots, a word on sizing. I drafted the skirt piece in exactly the same way as you would draft a half circle skirt, but using my daughter's chest measurement rather than her waist. As you can see in the picture above, because of the way the armholes are scooped out later, this gives a pretty loose fit. This dress will fit her for at least two years! So if you want a closer fit, I'd suggest taking an inch or two off the chest measurement and working from that to draft your half-circle.

I'm not going to explain how to draft a half-circle skirt, because the link above does it perfectly :-)  The thing to remember is that you want to cut it in two identical pieces, a front and a back.

For the popover sundress pattern pieces, cut the size that most closely corresponds to your child's measurements.

OK, ready? 

1.  Cut out your pieces: two each of your half-circle skirt (i.e. each piece is a quarter-circle plus seam allowance), the popover sundress yoke, and the bias straps. 



2.  Staystitch along the top of the skirt pieces, just inside the seam allowance. Mark the centre front of your circle skirt and yoke pieces.

3.  Align the centres together, with the right side of the yoke facing the wrong side of the skirt.

4.  Carefully notch the skirt seam allowance for approx. the length of the yoke. This will enable you to pin the straight yoke piece to the curved skirt much more easily. (I can't take credit for this excellent idea, it comes from Megan Nielsen's Tania pattern.)

5.  Sew the yoke to the skirt and press the seam allowance up towards the yoke.

6.  Following the popover sundress pattern instructions, fold over the other raw edge of the yoke, then fold the whole thing in half and edgestitch down on the right side of the skirt. This will cover your previous seam and staystitching. As the skirt edge is quite curved, I found it helped to very slightly pull or hold down the fabric as it was going under the needle - it kept everything flat.

7.  This is what you now have: the yoke attached to the top of the skirt.

8.  Grab the popover sundress skirt/bodice pattern piece (you only need the top part) and place the armhole between the yoke edge and side seam of your dress. You'll need to change the angle a bit compared to the original pattern; don't worry, this is just because your skirt is a different shape. Just make sure that the edges of the original armhole line up with the edges of your skirt piece.

9.  Using some chalk or whatever drawing instrument you have to hand, mark the armhole on your dress.

10.  Like so. (But perhaps you will be less messy about it?)

11.  Cut!

Cut the other armhole, then repeat the whole process for the other dress piece. You can now sew the dress together following the original popover sundress instructions, sewing the side seams and attaching the binding to make straps.

And you're done! Now TWIRL, girl!

Or, when it gets too hot for twirling, beat a hasty retreat to your local city beach for some ice cream and water pistol shoot outs.

Anyone else sewing along for the new summer KCW? Whatchamakin'?

Follow

DIY snow warrior!

Or, as this post could be but definitely isn't subtitled: how you too can look like a jihadist in fleece.

Truly and honestly, the slightly unfortunate nature of this pose did not occur to me until I was on the other side of the camera, downloading - I was just trying to show off all my cold weather defences at once. And then the first thing that sprung to mind was the rather beautiful traditional dress of the Tuareg - the "blue men" of the Sahara.

The hot-weather version - click for source

But then - war in Mali, hostages in Algeria. I don't know what to say (or actually even think) about these things, and I could just not mention it, I suppose. But although this is and will remain my little sewing bubble, it would seem a bit wrong not to acknowledge where that whole thought process went - ignoring such things does us all a disservice. However, for the moment I shall not be stepping, well-intentioned and ill-informed, into current affairs. I suspect I may be of more use to humanity in sharing my tips on how to sew yourself some maximum wind-chill protection. Would you like details?

Oh, I'm so glad you would! :-)

The mittens were what started it. Two Saturdays ago I went out with T and got very cold hands, and came home and looked up a tutorial for fleece-lined mittens and had them sewed up in less than an hour, and then went out again, this time with much less cold hands (to begin my search for a serger - but that's another story!) By the time I got home again, I had already designated the first mittens a trial version, and these little beauties are my second, victoriously successful pair:

And once I had the fleece out anyway, it was but a small step towards a matching hat and cowl.

Further adventures out of the house demonstrated that the cowl was too draughty to be sub-zero effective, and thus there followed something that I believe gets called a neck gaitor, but what I shall glamorously call a fleece neck tube, to go underneath (because a gaitor is for your legs, and sounds silly besides).

With the fleece neck tube worn up over your nose, this get-up is warm. Warm like, I took off one glove for 30 seconds on Sunday and my hand hurt with the cold for 10 minutes afterwards - while the other one was too hot. I start sweating on the short walks in the snow, without exerting myself in the slightest.

Having pulled together this lot over a week of 15-minute sewing here and there, I figured I would quickly round up the tutorials and techniques I used, because if you're organised and have a free couple of hours I don't think it would take much longer than that. Which could be helpful for those in colder climes (sorry, Antipodeans! Hope you're enjoying your summer!)

 

 Materials:

• Lining and neck gaitor: fleece! For all of these items make sure to cut your pieces with the stretch going from side to side, not lengthways.
• Outers: for the hat and mittens (blue fabric) I used an old sweater, not felted because it wasn't wool and wouldn't shrink :-)
• The yellow mittens outer piece is a shrunk piece of boucle wool.
• The blue side of the cowl is cotton jersey. Feels nice and cool, in contrast to the fleece, but adds an extra layer of warmth.
• And finally, ribbing for the mitten cuffs.

Depending on the size of your stash, you may or may not already have this at your disposal. I did (the shame! I shocked myself with the contents of my 'leftovers' box!)

Mittens

• I first used this tutorial and free pattern: a very quick sew because there's no cuff. I found this to be a disadvantage, so...
• My über-successful mittens are based on the purl bee's free pattern. The shaping of these is lovely.
• I cut a slightly increased seam allowance of 1 cm (3/8") around the outside, i.e. a 1/8" increase, and added a full 1.5cm (5/8") seam allowance at the wrist.
• Sew the outer and lining according to the instructions in the first tutorial (purl bee's mittens aren't lined so the tutorial doesn't include instructions for that).
• The cuff: sew a tube of ribbing twice the length you want your finished cuff, plus a bit for the seam where you'll attach it to the glove (I stretched the ribbing around my wrist to decide the width of it). 
• Sew the ribbing to the outer piece, right sides together, and then stuff the glove part inside the tube of ribbing. Sew the other end of the cuff piece to the fleece lining, leaving a 2.5 cm (1") hole.
• Turn the glove right side out by pulling the entire thing through the hole between cuff and lining.
• Sew up the hole by hand.

Look how cosy! And no-one will ever see just how rubbish my hand stitching is!

Hat

• I used this pattern, cutting the same shape for the outer and inner fleece hats.
• But, I sewed the sides together instead of knotting them, using a slightly smaller seam allowance for the outer hat.
• Just like for the mittens, wrap the ribbing around your head to decide how tight you want the band to be, then cut a piece double the finished length you want.
• Sew the short ends of the ribbing right sides together to make a loop.
• Sew this loop to the outer hat, right sides together, then to the fleece lining, also right sides together and leaving a 1" gap.
• Pull the hat right side out through the gap, and hand-stitch it shut.

Cowl

• Cut two identical lengths of fleece and jersey (or other desired outer fabric - but it'll work best with a bit of stretch in it). Mine were one fabric width (150 cm) by about 30 cm.
• Sew it into a looped cowl like this (and don't again end up sewing it inside out. Yes really, again).

Fleece neck loop thing (otherwise known as a neck gaitor)

• Cut a piece of fleece about 30 cm long. The width should be about the circumference of your head (over your ears) plus a bit. Fleece does stretch but mine's a bit tight and it's a little fiddly to get on. However, too loose and it'll be draughty and thus not fit for purpose.
• Sew it into a loop along the 30 cm sides, right sides together.
• Hem the raw edges if you like - I didn't!

Done! Now get out there and attack that snow!

Cold weather don't bother me, oh no. I sewed myself some warm.

Follow

Recipe: oatmeal & lavender bath soak

In the end, what with having an apron, two bathrobes and a tablecloth on my to-do list, I didn't get any other Christmas sewing done. That was already enough, and so much for the fabulous ideas I came up with in November. My #1 rule of sewing: know your limits, and by that I mean, know that your time is not limitless :-)

Anyway, I couldn't bring myself to actually go and buy presents for my friends, because that would have felt a bit heartless after all that hypothetical handcrafting. In the end, they all got a jar of peppermint bark, and a jar of this:

It doesn't fizz, or explode in bubbles, or do a spectularly soothing song and dance. But: the nights I bathe in this are the nights I sleep like the proverbial baby (not like a real baby, obviously).

It's easily made, and in quantities that let you give a little bit of homemade love to even your very widest circle of friends (but really, much much love, any reading recipients!). Or to yourself of course.

Ingredients

• 1 kg porridge oats
• 500g Epsom salts
• Lavender essential oil - a few drops
• Dried lavender flowers, 150-200g

Put the oats in a blender or magimix and mix them for a good long time until they're as floury as possible. There'll still be some bigger bits of bran and such but that's ok.

Pour the oats into a bowl and use a metal spoon to stir in the Epsom salts and dried lavender. Once they're well mixed, shake in a few drops of the essential oil and stir again; begin cautiously with just a few drops, and repeat until it smells as strong as you would like.

Pour into sterilised jars, screw the lid on tight, and that's it.

To use, sprinkle a couple of spoonfuls in the bath and then soak yourself in it. You'll need to rinse some bran and lavender out of the bath afterwards, but as long as you do it straight away it's very easy (I suspect the oatmeal would stick hellishly if you left it to dry).

May you be as soothed by it as I am...

Follow

Geometric coasters: tutorial

I made coasters.

I happened to have a lot of neon pink bias tape, and my desk needed brightening up. Coasters to the rescue! Grey, mustard and neon pink is a pretty unbeatable combination, isn't it?

I'm willing to bet that you've got a surface of some kind, somewhere, that wants some geometric fun adding. Right? Yes! You know you want to...

Supplies

You'll need:

• woven fabric in two colours, for the top of your coasters. Large scraps will be fine.
• Pleather (or real leather, if you want to be fancy :-) for the backing. A fat quarter-sized piece will be plenty. In fact a fat eighth - is that a thing? - would probably be enough.
• double-sided fusible interfacing: a small-ish piece, about as much as your pleather.
• bias tape: 50 cm / a half yard will do it.
• a square thing and a round thing to draw around - see tips below - or a compass and set square/protractor.
• a ruler.
• a pencil or pen.

All set!

So, get your round thing and square thing, and draw around them to make your coaster templates. No seam allowance needed: the shape you draw will be the finished size of your coasters

As you can see, I used an oversized mug and a coaster.

My finished templates were an 11 cm square and a 12 cm diameter circle.

At this point in the photos you need to start ignoring the fact that I considered experimenting with triangular coasters too. Short version: they don't work, unless you know a magic way of attaching bias tape around that kind of angle (please share!), and don't mind having to make a very big pointy triangle to get a surface big enough to sit your mug on.

Lay out your templates on one of your woven fabric pieces and cut/rip it to a size they'll all fit on. You need to leave a scant seam allowance at the long sides. 

Use your first cut-to-size piece to cut an equally-sized piece of your other woven fabric.

So you have this:

Now cut/rip one of the pieces in half:

And we're going to sew them together like this:

I found this was a good point to iron my pieces, especially as I'd ripped rather than cut them. A quick press got them in good shape to be sewn!

With right sides together, place the side fabric pieces on top of the main piece, aligning the edges:

Pin:

And then sew them together with a quarter-inch or 5 mm seam allowance:

Press the seams open from the wrong side...

... and then press them nice and flat on the right side:

And that's your fabric prepped! Do take care to sew in a straight line and press the seams out nicely - the fabric joins are the feature that pops out in the middle of your coaster, so you don't want them to be wonky!

Now, get your double-sided fusible interfacing and trace your templates on to the paper side (still ignoring those experimental triangles!):

Draw a line across the centre of your shapes. For the circles I folded the shape in half and pinched the edges - drawing between these pinches gave me a nice line right across the centre of the circle. For the squares I drew diagonally between opposite corners.

Now iron your fusible interfacing to the WRONG side of your prepped fabric piece, i.e. seams facing up, with the lines on your shapes aligned exactly along the seams.

Cut your shapes out...

... and peel off the paper backing:

Now iron your shapes to your (p)leather, wrong sides together. As you can see, the back of my pleather is black:

Use a fairly low heat on your iron so the pleather doesn't melt or get burnt.

Cut the shapes out:

Your coasters are taking shape!

On to the binding... I won't lie to you, this part is a bit fiddly. But it's totally do-able, so don't let that put you off. Mine would have been much less fiddly if I hadn't used satin bias tape.

So, take your bias, which if you're using shop-bought will look like this (if yours is homemade, iron it accordingly :-).

Iron it in half along the length of the tape, but not exactly in half: one side should be slightly wider than the other. I'm afraid I forgot to photograph that bit...

Before we start: I'm going to show you how to do the square coasters, as you'll need to mitre the corners. The principle is the same for the round shapes, but you have no corners to deal with. I am no great expert on mitring, and I suspect those who quilt will have much more experience and better results on this. I learned how to do it with this BurdaStyle tutorial. There are photo and video tutorials available if you google it, which you may well find clearer than mine!

So to begin, open out the folds in the tape along the narrower side, and align it with the edge of one of your coasters. Leave a good 'tail' of bias tape (3 inches or so) before the point where you're going to start sewing.

Starting about three quarters of the way down one side, sew the tape to the coaster, exactly in the fold nearest the edge:

Stop just before the corner. The distance to leave should be the same as the distance between the line you just sewed, and the edge of the coaster.

Then fold the bias tape across by 90 degrees, so that the folded-out edge is aligned with the next side of the coaster. The tip of the fold in the tape should meet the corner of the coaster. I hope this picture is clear enough...

Starting a small distance along from the corner, at exactly the same level that you stopped sewing the previous edge, sew the bias tape along the next side of the coaster, exactly in the fold as before.

Again, stop before you get to the corner. So the second side of your coaster should now look like this:

Repeat for all sides. When you've done the last corner, sew about a quarter of the way down the side and then stop. Cut the bias tape, leaving a length free after the stitching. You will now have this:

Align the tails of the bias tape along the edge of the coaster, pinch together and mark where they join:

Sew the end of the bias tape together, with the marks matching up. You'll need to wrestle your coaster around a bit here - just take your time and don't panic! Trim the seam:

So you now have this:

And then sew the remaining bit of tape down to the coaster, along the fold:

Here's what you get:

And then you flip the bias tape over to enclose the raw edges, at which point the corners mitre themselves! Well OK, you may need to manipulate them into place a bit :-)

Also, as my pleather was quite thick, I trimmed the edges by about 2 mm as otherwise my bias tape simply wouldn't fit around it. If your (p)leather is thinner you may find you don't need to do this.

Make sure that your bias tape is folded nicely down neatly, pulled taut over the edges, and reaches to cover the sitiching which you'll currently have visible on the back of your coaster.

Once you've done this, stitch the tape down from the front side of your coaster, very close to the folded edge (if you're any good at stitching in the ditch, you can do that. I'm not :-).

Sew all the way round and - ta da!! Finished square coaster!

Here's the mitred corner from the front:

And from the back:

But just to reassure anyone who might be cursing me and my fiddly bias tape thing right now - I also did some that look like this:

It's the back, no-one will know :-)

But - this is the reason that I decided not to give these coasters away on Giveaway Day. More than good enough for personal use - I love them, in fact - but my perfectionist tendencies wouldn't let me offer such shoddy handiwork to anyone else. But really, that's just me - who said homemade homewares really had to be perfect?

Anyway, repeat this on all your coasters, and then sit back and congratulate yourself!  With some coffee.

Or tea. Or other beverage of your choice.  What lovely mugfuls would your coasters hold?

Whatever it is, I hope the tutorial's clear enough, and that you like it!

Follow