A little dart here, a little taken in sleeve there…

I’ve finally finished making adjustments to a t-shirt I originally made a few months ago. It’s the same pattern as my fraying top, but in a stiff cotton fabric this time. I followed the same size, but on completion it was clear it was a little bit big. And then after losing a little bit of weight in the last few months, i put it on today and realised it was swamping me. And to be honest it just looked like a big square sack.

so i set to work. With a (very) rough idea about what to do, I put in some darts to give the sack a bit of a shape. Which worked. Huzzah. But now the neck was too wide. So I took in the neck at the shoulder sides – incidentally I am really happy about the facing and top stitching around the neck and I managed to keep this in place with taking in the neck. But taking in the neck gave me weird pumped up leg of mutton shoulders. Which really wasn’t the style I was going for. So I took in the sleeves on the top where the seam was, and ended up taking it in about 6/8 of an inch.

All of this left the sides. The big, voluminous sides. Having the darts did help with the shaping but there was still a lot of excess fabric so I took in the side by half an inch. Which was neater but not enough. So I took it in another half inch which is just about right – it leaves enough space for me to get the top on, but isn’t so loose to be unflattering.

great stuff.

some pictures to go with the waffle. You can’t really tell from the outside out pictures, but there are darts. And top stitching round the neck.

Here’s a close up of the darts

Neat. Darty.

And all the insides with the three side seams and two sleeve seams and the darts. And the neck facing. And all of today’s sewing joy.

This weekend has been all about the sewing

Woo!

I made a little draw string bag for a birthday present. I even made the end of ribbon tabs. And an L for the birthday boy.

You may recognise the spotty fabric from a cushion I made a thousand years ago. I bought about five kilometres of the stuff and have SO much left. I may have to start making clothes for all of us out of it…

but before I do, I made a wee top for the 5yr old. The pattern came from my head and needed a bit of adjustment. Truthfully, I based it on a t shirt my daughter wears which has a bit of room in it. I folded it in half and laid it on the folded fabric and cut out one piece, then copied it for the back but made that two pieces. If that makes ANY sense. It’s the usual three piece top. I decided that as it’s coming up to summer then sleeveless was the best idea (and also…easier. Less pieces, easier. Huzzah).

I stitched it up – shoulders first then the two side seams and the back seam – ably helped by the 5yr old who wanted to help and really, really enjoyed pressing the foot pedal. She nearly took my fingers off, but she enjoyed it. So… You know… Who needs ten fingers?  Anyway, after I stitched it up I thought it was best to try it on the child. And realised my mistake – the top I had traced it off was jersey, this fabric was not. So I had to unpick all the seams. I mean, yes, there are only three, but still. Unpick. But I did it, and then renewed them with minimal seam allowance. And then turned in the sleeve holes a tiiiiiny bit. And did the same for the front neck hole and the hem.

The back was originally going to have a button but seeing as I’d just unpicked the seams, I went for simple and folded the raw edges diagonally and top stitched to make a sort of diagonal detail.

job done.

Will she wear it? I don’t even want to guess.

 

(As always, apologies for the rotten photo quality. iPad plus kitchen floor plus tiredness plus taking picture late at night = what we’ve got.)

I went to the Edinburgh Knitting and Stitching show and bought everything

Or so it seems… don’t ask how much I spent because I am not entirely sure I can face it. But I had SUCH a good time. I loved it. All the fabric!  Ah, lovely.

I went on Sunday, the weather was not promising at all so I felt pretty pleased to be spending a few hours on my own (my own!  The sheer LUXURY of being on my own!) Inside looking at All The Nice Things.

Here we go… I didn’t take many photos inside.  Mostly because in was too busy trying to buy everything. But I did see some truly amazing knitted things

And bought a scone the size of my own head when I was having a breather

What did I buy? 
Two patterns, I’ve been looking for this kind of style for ages

Three fat quarters

Two metres of stars in a grey blue material

Some robots and Japanese dolls, a metre of each

Two metres of this lovely blue fabric with fish swimming on it

Two metres of denim with lime green stripes – I think I’m going to make the tunic from this

And finally from the AMAZING stall from Fabrics Galore some gorgeous material. I got quite over excited about this and I am NOT ashamed because it is BRILLIANT and beautiful

That’s right, Freida Kahlo (apologies if spelled incorrectly) on fabric. So cool. It’s going to be a skirt.

FLAMINGOES. Two metres. YES.

Navy blue with green elephants.

I love it all. I also bought thread, carbon paper and a tracing wheel. All I need now is the time to make clothes…

Who else was there?