Two new tops

It feels like a long time since I made any clothes for myself.  When I checked on my blog I discovered that it was indeed a long time ago - May 2012, just before I applied to University and started my nursing course.  Dressmaking takes time - even the simplest piece of clothing is a challenge to make in one day when you've also got to cook tea, take someone to ballet, clean out the chickens, draft an essay and read a couple of articles on diabetes.  I used to set aside whole days at a time to making new clothes, but I just can't do that any more.

So I've approached it differently.  I took my time, did a bit of pattern tracing one day, and had a happy few hours choosing fabrics the next day.  Then I had a couple of days at University and some more studying at home, before I spent another few hours pinning and cutting the fabric out.  The next weekend I sewed everything together, and finally finished the hemming as I waited at the station to pick up Olivia a few days after that.  Of course I can still make clothes when I am working or studying.  It seems obvious now I write that, but having been given the luxury of staying at home the last few years, it took me a while to understand how.

Over the past few weeks I've made myself two cotton tops.  I used the Lisette Market Dress pattern, Simplicity 2211, which I just discovered is now sadly out of print.  I bought the pattern when it came out and just hadn't got round to making it.  I made the first version exactly as the pattern directed, except that I left off the strange fake button placket down the centre front.  When it was finished and I wore it for a day, I had a number of issues with it.

• it has rather a boxy shape on me - snug around the hips and too roomy around the waist.
• the puffed and gathered sleeves look too babyish on a woman of 41
• the interfacing I used on the contrast fabric around the neck and sleeves, left the top feeling a little too stiff at these points.  The neck is very high anyway, and the interfacing in it made it sit very awkwardly on me.

Version 1 - not bad, not great

Hemming the first top, waiting in the car to pick up O

So, I embarked on version 2.  This time I left off the interfacing, left off the cuffs at the bottom of the sleeves so that they were no longer puffed, and took the side seams in at the waist and out at the hips.  I also bound the bottom edge with ribbon rather than hemming it.

I am delighted with this version.  Leaving off the interfacing made the process of putting on the neck much more sweary, as the fabric really takes some serious manipulation in order to lie nice and flat.  However, my patience (and swearing) paid off as the resulting neck is still neat and clean, but much softer to wear and somehow a little more casual too.

Version 2 - much better tailored to my shape, and with more grown-up sleeves

Thick, richly embroidered Swiss ribbon

For both tops I used fabric that I absolutely love.  The first one uses a wonderful spring-fresh quilting cotton from Amy Butler and the second one is an insanely patterned printed cotton which I bought in Switzerland in 2010.  It has little scenes of Switzerland on it, including my favourite - a tiny fondue pot!  The ribbon on the hem is also something I bought in Switzerland - a traditional Swiss, floral, embroidered ribbon.

There will be a third version too - incorporating all the changes I made for the second one.  I am just dithering over fabric choices at the moment.  A home made top deserves distinctive and beautiful fabric, and one of the reasons I love making clothes is that I end up with something you would never be able to buy in a shop.  I wear jeans a great deal, and their plainness is off-set nicely by a fancier top. 

This term at University we've been talking a great deal about how we will cope with the stresses of the job once we qualify, and one topic that keeps coming up is that of hobbies and interests outside nursing.  Mental wellbeing is something I wrote about a little bit on this blog back in October last year, and I now consider my mental health much more than I used to.  I am beginning to realise that although I love having new clothes to wear, I actually love dressmaking just as much for the creative challenge it provides.  All the measuring, adjusting, fiddly lining up of notches, pinning, overlocking and stitching requires just enough concentration to take my mind off whatever else is going on around me.  And now that I spend my working hours in a uniform with a high polyester content, the importance of beautiful, well-made clothes in natural fibres becomes even more significant.

The best tailor's chalk in the world, ever

Ready to set the sleeve

A tunic for Spring

I wanted a new top, so I sat down and made one.  Sometimes the simple, non-dithering approach works well for me.  I started cutting out the fabric at 8pm, and finished the last stitch of the hem at 1am.  G was away so I had rubbish tv and some good podcasts for company.

This morning I am incapable of taking a decent photo.  I am sporting dark shadows under my eyes but also a funky, slightly psychedelic, new tunic top.  I'm happy.

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Sewing notes:

The pattern is the Portfolio Tunic from Lisette (Simplicity 2245), which I have made twice before.  This time I left the collar off and finished the raw edge with bias tape, because the collar comes out very high.  I much prefer the lower neckline this way.

The fabric is quilting cotton from Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms range, and I think the colours and swirly flowers are very reminiscent of the 1960s.  The relatively heavy weight of quilting cotton works very well with this pattern.  The previous two versions I made were from much lighter cotton lawn, which are cool for summer but crumple more easily and don't hang quite so well.

10 things

There is a great deal happening around here at the moment.

• I finally finished the remaining clothes for O's boy Clothkits doll (renamed Bob, by O.  Love it!).  He now has this wonderful hat, a man-bag and a very natty pair of bright red, owl-festooned pyjamas to go with his jeans, check shirt and waistcoat.
• Thank you all so much for the good wishes for Cam's and Graham's races last weekend.  They read all your kind comments and were delighted.  They're planning to do another parkrun this Saturday.
• I made a lightweight summer outfit for Livvy (hoping for some seriously hot weather in France and Switzerland this summer) using two favourite Simplicity patterns.

The top is made from Simplicity 2986, using a really luscious (and precious) metre of Amy Butler Belle fabric, and the cropped trousers are based on Simplicity 3669 (modified quite extensively), using linen from IKEA.  Both the top and trousers are hemmed with thick velvet ribbon that my Grandmother gave me.  I fully expect these to get worn and worn all summer long.

• I'm finally reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - she is one of my most favourite writers.  I love it, and am racing through it far too fast.  Up next will be this one, or maybe this one.
• I have really enjoyed considering all your suggestions for small, portable sewing projects.  Currently on the go are small bits of embroidery, sewing suffolk puffs, and little felty projects,  How could I have forgotten about felt?  And my favourite felt book?  Great fun.
• I've been baking biscuits, using a delicious recipe in Rachel Allen's Bake.  I have written about this book before, but it really is excellent, and I keep going back to it.  The recipe I used was the Basic Cookie recipe, with added orange zest.  A lemon version is on the cards for this weekend.
• I got Debbie Bliss's book Simply Baby out of the library last week, and I am knitting the two tone baby socks, which are just too sweet for words.

• I have such a large stash of Debbie Bliss's Baby Cashmerino yarn that I might have to buy this book and start up sock production for all the babies I know.
• This weekend I am planning on making my own bagels.  I've been meaning to do this for months and it is time to stop promising to do it and have a go.  Any tips?
• The other thing happening this weekend is a return trip to the quilt exhibition at the V&A with my sister.  Very exciting!

The Anna tunic by Amy Butler

There is another summer top around here - an Amy Butler Anna tunic for me, rustled up yesterday evening, when I should have been sewing for other people.  Yes, I really do need more summer tops.  Honestly.

I've made Amy Butler patterns before, and I like them.  They are involved but straightforward, and the way she constructs things makes sense to me.  I am starting to think that with sewing patterns, an ability to think like the person who is writing the pattern, is important.  The Oliver + S Ice Cream dress pattern just seemed unintuitive to me - the way the pieces are not cut on the fold, the stitching along seam lines, the extreme avoidance of hemming.  And I have problems with Butterick too - the order of the different steps in their patterns always seems illogical to me.  Whereas Heather Ross patterns, Amy Butler patterns, and most Simplicity patterns just make sense to me, and they always come together quickly.  But other people are different.  Most reviews of the Oliver + S patterns can't praise them highly enough, and many people have struggled with the patterns in Weekend Sewing.  So I guess, like so many things, it comes down to personal taste.  If you find a pattern you like, and you find straightforward, chances are that you will enjoy other patterns in the same range.

I didn't check my measurements terribly carefully before I started this - just dived straight in and cut out the pattern pieces in my usual dress size.  Now it is made, I am in two minds about the fit.  I like the length, I like the fit over my hips, and I love the whole 1960s style, but it feels a bit too small around the bust.  G maintains that it fits me pretty well and has suggested that I am just not used to wearing such a fitted style of top.  He could be right.

The yoke does come up pretty high though, and I think this may be because the top is just a little too tight around the bust.  Next time I'll go up a size and see what happens.  Or maybe I will redraw the yoke pieces to be shallower.  In the photo below I am leaning my head forward so that you can see the buttons, but you can also see that the back yoke does come up terribly high.

It doesn't feel tight, and is very comfortable to wear. I love it for being nicely funky and different (especially is this outrageous William Morris print from Rowan, which I bought from John Lewis to make house trousers for G but didn't get enough of).  The dress is fully lined, which I probably would not bother doing if I used quilting weight cotton again - I wonder if without the lining, the fit would be a little looser?

The pattern comes in four different lengths.  I made this using the second longest, which is the mini-dress length.  There is no way that this would ever work as a mini-dress on me - it would be thoroughly indecent.  But I am a tall 5'10", so I often have this problem with dresses.  I wanted to wear it as a tunic over jeans, and it has ended up the perfect length for that, so I'm happy.

And because it feel more like February than May outside at the moment, it has been worn today with a green, lambswool cardigan which tones down the enthusiastic pinkness of the yoke.

On balance it is a hit, but there are modifications to be made next time.