I’ve been slightly in the doldrums creatively for the last little while. I’ve been dealing with some changes at work as well as a poorly-timed spell of post-viral fatigue. I have done a few bits here and there, most notably completing my Jessica dress, but my evenings are mostly spent watching things passively with nothing to occupy my hands. I started to make a swatch for the cardigan project on my 2022 make nine a few months ago, but wasn’t really feeling it. I didn’t even measure the swatch for ages.
As I was clicking around Ravelry I was reminded of some other ideas I’ve researched in the past. I started contemplating a denim sweater project back in the first lockdown in 2020 but was scuppered by a lack of availability of yarn. However I still feel a big cabled sweater could be a fun addition to my wardrobe. I’ve ordered Fishermen’s Sweaters by Alice Starmore to add to my small-but-perfectly-formed knitting library. I had intended to try and make a version of something from Indigo Knits, which I ordered five years ago during a period of feeling uninspired. I actually I think the Mystic sweater from the Starmore book might do the job for me.
Totally separately I was scrolling Instagram and came across a rather lovely cardigan pattern. I’m sure I’ve saved other patterns by this designer before without connecting the dots, perhaps because most of her patterns are only available in Norwegian. I love the shape of the cardigans she designs with a very close and neat fit. It’s also not that common to find fair isle designs made in light fingering weight yarns. No sooner had I saved the design than I had a light bulb moment. Could this be a good use for the Wishcraft cowl kit I treated myself to last year?
I’m going to start doing some research and planning but I think a Wishcraft cardigan might be in my future.
It’s so funny how the creative process works. The seeds that were planted by that Tom of Holland blog post five years ago clearly took root. They nearly blossomed a couple of years ago but the conditions weren’t right. I think the conditions may be right soon.
I think it feels good to know that I don’t need to rush projects. Although I have felt a bit lost about my personal style as I’ve been out and about more in this stage of the pandemic, the fundamentals of what I do and don’t like to wear haven’t changed all that much.
I finished my Jessica! Overall I made hardly any changes to the pattern, which is notable as initially I had planned to make quite a few. However, after reading a few blog posts and surveying projects on Instagram, I decided to lean into the dress as designed. The only thing I did was widen the straps to give myself more bra coverage. This wasn’t totally successful as my strap placement isn’t perfect, so I’ll probably just lean into having visible bra straps. Sometimes there can be a lot of feelings around bra straps, which to me seems rooted in shame around the female body. The reality is that I am a woman with large breasts and I am pretty much always wearing a bra (which in itself is worthy of examination, but not here).
Although I had done most of the substantive making when I published my last post about this project, there still was a fair bit to do. I got really paranoid about the dress being too small and spent ages taking apart the back of the dress to let out the centre back seam. I think this added about 3mm of extra room so totally was not worth it.
I also couldn’t find enough fabric for both pockets to be pattern-matched, so one of the pockets is made up of two pieces. Again it took me a ludicrous amount of time to line up the pattern but I just about got there in the end. Prior to starting this project I had thought that I would replace the patch pockets with in-seam but I decided to fully embrace the summer dress vibe for this make. However, I’m still not sold and will likely convert the pockets on future versions.
The Jessica pattern doesn’t give too many instructions about finishing. As I mentioned in my last post, this fabric is extremely loosely woven so I was very careful about my seam finishes. I mostly used French seams and finished with bias tape where that was not possible, such as the waist seam and the edges of the facings.
Due to the fabric, sewing the buttonholes was a nightmare. I think I must have sewn 20-30 test buttonholes because I was having sewing machine issues as well as fabric issues. If you think I’m exaggerating check out the picture below. I was so determined to crank these out that I was on the machine until about 1am so the real victims are my neighbours. JK the real victim is me.
I also had to undo so many buttonholes. In places they go over quite uneven areas of fabric and my machine was not into it. Undoing each buttonhole was awful because I was scared of making a hole in the fabric. My biggest mistake was undoing the top, and therefore most visible, buttonhole because it was a bit untidy. I must have had to re-sew it four times. What helped in the end was adding a little piece of iron-on interfacing to the damaged area of the fabric, which stabilised it enough to convince my flighty machine to sew.
I also used vertical buttonholes on the skirt to get past the problem of having to sew across the skirt and button band. The pattern specifies horizontal buttonholes, which is important on the fitted bodice but less so on the skirt. I will say I’m amazed that the buttons don’t gape. The bodice of this dress is tight. Perhaps I did need those extra 3mm. If I make another Jessica, and I think I will, I think I’ll either upsize or do a FBA (or both) because I prefer to have a bit more room in my clothing.
You may be able to see that the dress pulls a bit across the top. I think this is due to a combination of the size of the facing being slightly off because of my seam finishes, and it being on the small side.
Anyway despite the many trials and tribulations, I am very pleased with my dress and I truly think it does justice to the beautiful fabric. I spent a lot of time researching what to make with my African waxed cotton and I’m glad that I did. I’m pleased with my choice. A lot of dress patterns absolutely wouldn’t work with a fabric with no drape, but Jessica does. Since the fabric is so delicate I’m not sure how long a life the dress will have so I’ll just have to love and appreciate it all the more while I am able to wear it.
I particularly love the detail of the buttons- another element that I’d considered omitting prior to starting this project. If you follow my Instagram stories you’ll know that if I had had my own way, I probably would have got little tennis ball-shaped buttons. Fortunately the selection of buttons on offer in Soho curbed my wilder impulses. I wasn’t totally sure about the button placement- you might be able to see that the buttons appear curved- but I have a feeling that this is yet another consequence of the fit. I’m going to pretend it’s meant to look like that.
Costs
Buttons: £17.70
Notions: £5.50
Although many sewists would consider this a cardinal sin, I don’t normally prewash my fabrics. It takes away the newness. I actually don’t wash any of my clothes that often- particularly my handmades. I’m not an especially sweaty or smelly person (as far as I know) and I live in a temperate climate so most of my clothes can be worn many times without needing to be washed. I just air my clothes between wears.
Perhaps one day I’ll have a catastrophe with one of my makes shrinking in the wash and reevaluate, but (fingers crossed) this lack of prewashing hasn’t caused a problem for me. I made an exception with this waxed cotton because I have never worked with it before and I’d read that washing can improve the handle. There are also a couple of little holes here and there. I have a feeling that this fabric changed hands quite a few times before I bought it in Zimbabwe. I had to be judicious with my cutting.
I decided to make a toile of the bodice to help me decide whether I needed to make a full bust adjustment. According to my measurements, I should be a straight medium. I used some denim scraps as it seemed the closest to cotton from my limited stash. I’m glad I made the toile because I might not otherwise have noticed that this pattern uses 1cm seam allowances rather than the more typical 1.5cm.
Since this is a large and bold print, I decided to do my best to pattern-match. Doing this meant that the cutting out took far longer than for other projects. Not only is the pattern bold and quite odd- it’s not symmetrical and not totally regular- but I didn’t have much of it. The cotton was very narrow at 109cm and I had 2.7m. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that one of my pet peeves is that patterns consistently recommend far more fabric than is actually required. For the size M dress, the Jessica pattern suggests 3.6m of 115cm wide fabric. It even suggests that more fabric is needed for directional prints! I do like that the pattern suggests laying out the pieces for the individual sewist to determine how much fabric they need, but I really think it’s outrageous to suggest nearly a metre more fabric than is actually needed.
For my Jessica, I had to cut every single piece bar one as a single layer and spent literal hours trying to map out placement of the seams. Given that my hands were tied by the the fabric I had, I think I did a good job. The only places where I didn’t have the fabric to match as I would have liked in an ideal world were the front button bands.
I think I did a decent job of finding pieces that were good enough but a little bit of extra fabric would have allowed me an even more precise finish. I also had to add a centre seam to the back panel of the bodice, rather than cutting on the fold, as I simply did not have the fabric. Again I don’t think it’s especially detrimental to the finished garment.
One thing I’ll near in mind for future makes is to take the time to use the same seam finishes for the toile as I intend to use on the final garment. I planned to use French seams throughout my final dress because the waxed cotton is very loosely woven and prone to fraying. However, I didn’t bother using French seams on the toile. The final bodice ended up a bit tight. There are a lot of seams and a couple of millimetres here and there adds up across a garment. Realistically I probably ought to have done a slight FBA and may do on future Jessicas depending on how this dress wears.
The final steps for this project are to add the pockets and sort out the buttons. I’m really excited to wear this dress once the weather warrants.
Costs
Pattern: $12
Printing: About £6 and worth every penny
Fabric: I have absolutely no recollection of how much I paid for this fabric that I randomly spotted at a small women’s market on the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls. I can’t think that it can have been more than £20.
Notions: £ for buttons and some bias tape to finish seams. Thread was from stash.
I actually finished my Kelly anorak several weeks ago, but it wasn’t quite the weather to wear it. I vacillated about whether to shorten this jacket and I’m very glad that I didn’t. An anorak is designed to hit around the mid-thigh and I’m happy with the look.
The coat is pretty fitted. I made a straight size 10 and it’s close to being a little tight on the hips- a problem I have literally never encountered in my life before because I do not have hips. I suppose that the quilted lining makes it a bit snugger. The sleeves in particular are a very slim fit- and I didn’t line them.
I lengthened the sleeves by about 2cm and I’m happy with the result. While making up the jacket I started to second-guess myself as it seemed like sleeves were going to be too long. I did mess up slightly by just bunging in the extra length as I saw fit. Apparently on a two-part sleeve you are supposed to add length just below the armscye, whereas I added it below the elbow. Fortunately I got away with it but it’s just a reminder for me to take the few minutes to research little things like that in advance.
Another mistake I made was that I sewed the second half of the zip slightly further out than indicated in the pattern. I was a bit scared that the coat was going to be too snug- which I needn’t have been. Having a half-centimetre extra in the front caused me headaches down the line, particularly with the hood. A reminder not to make wildcard decisions partway through a project. And yes, in my world as a sewist, moving a zip by half a centimetre is very much a wildcard move. Oh the life I lead.
Some things I learned on this project
- I am rubbish at topstitching. Yes it was my first time doing it but I was still surprised at how difficult it was. I suddenly found myself questioning whether I can actually sew in a straight line.
- Insulating material and heat/steam do not play together well.
- A light-coloured coat lining will start to look dirty after about five minutes
- It’s probably worth investing in a tool to insert snaps. So many get bent if you use a hammer. I just about correctly inserted twelve snaps out of 20, but then one pinged off when I put the coat on for the third time!
Some things I learned for the millionth time:
- Perfectionism is a bitch. In my last post I wrote about the flat-felled seams saying that they look crap on the inside.
They don’t look perfect but actually with a bit more critical distance I think they look pretty good. In fact, I lowkey prefer the inside of this jacket to the outside.
I have to say that I think underlining the Kelly gives a really beautiful internal finish. I contemplated buying the lining extension to the pattern but I’m glad that I didn’t. I imagine they have instructions for creating and bagging out a separate lining, but I’m not sure how much that would improve on the finish I achieved. I suppose the pocket stitching would be hidden under the lining but actually I think it looks quite sweet. And, for a quilted lining, I think the additional structure from the stitching on top gives more stability.
Overall I think I was slightly bonkers to choose such a difficult project when I was just coming back from an enforced three-year sewing hiatus. Perhaps I had underestimated the difficulty level. I’m sure I’ve read people saying that Kelly would suitable for a confident beginner. I’m happy that I didn’t attempt this back in my confident beginner days or I may have smashed my sewing machine to pieces with a big hammer.
When I made my red coat, I swore that I would never make a coat again. I found making Kelly less stressful- perhaps because I was working to my own pace without the pressure of weekly classes. I encountered lots of difficulties but somehow I never panicked or got too stressed. I was better at putting the project down when it got hairy and coming back to it in a calmer headspace. I’ve definitely moved from being a more or product-oriented maker to more process-oriented. Of course the final outcome is still very important to me. It’s the reason why I’m so incredibly painstaking with my process. However, I’m definitely learning to appreciate and enjoy the process rather than just rushing through it. And I kind of love that for myself.
Costs
I lost track over the 3+ years it took me to realise this project. However, I’d estimate around £200.
My Carolyn pyjamas came together pretty quickly! And I am over the moon with how they turned out.
My one worry is the insertion piping that I used. While I love the way that it looks- I think it really elevates the garment- it is very delicate and I’m not sure how well it will stand up to regular wear. I already had issues with it looking frayed on the couple of occasions I accidentally went through it with a machine needle.
In the end I really enjoyed making this cotton version of the Carolyn pyjamas. After complaining about the lack of back neck facing in my last post, I have to say I love the style of this shirt- I think it’s the camp collar. In fact, I am pretty tempted to incorporate this shirt into my wardrobe as daywear.
Perhaps what I’ll do instead is make a Carolyn shirt without piping out of some lovely viscose. I made a straight size 10 with no modifications. According to my measurements I should have made the 12 but I looked at the final garment size and decided I didn’t want that much positive ease. I’m very happy with the size and there is no gaping.
Total cost: £72.54
I’ve known for a while that I wanted to make some pyjamas from the precious purple batik silk I brought back from Indonesia a few years ago. As I familiarised myself with the pattern instructions and looked up tips for sewing silk, I started to get concerned. A few people had mentioned in reviews and blog posts that the pyjama top has a tricky construction. I was feeling apprehensive about approaching a new construction with an irreplaceable and slippery fabric. Especially when also working with piping for the first time.
I cut out (most of) my purple jammies and the feeling didn’t go away. While searching for my rotary cutter, I happened upon my small stash of cotton lawn. Five years ago I bought four 2m lengths of various Liberty prints. One thing I have learnt in the subsequent years is that tana lawn is not my favourite fabric for garment sewing. I like my clothing to have drape. The other thing about Liberty prints is the scale. They tend to be pretty ditsy, where I prefer a large and bold print.
Despite this, I have been drawn to the siren song of a cute print twice more since. As a result, I have a few lengths of lovely fabric languishing in a box. I cut out the Carolyn pyjamas in this ‘truly scrumptious’ print almost immediately.
My impulsive cutting meant that I had to go to a haberdashery YET AGAIN. I think I’ve been ten times this year alone.
I was able to cut my pyjamas out of 2m of Liberty tana lawn, which is 1.33m wide according to their website. I totally ignored the cutting guide in the Carolyn pattern but I didn’t really do anything fancy to get the pieces out of less fabric, even though I was using a directional print. I kind of understand why pattern companies overestimate the recommended fabric requirements, but it is a bugbear of mine. Producing fabric is very resource-intensive, so I think it’s unethical to build in such a high level of redundancy- especially when most companies go to the trouble of providing a cutting diagram. Why not make it so that the diagram is as efficient with the fabric as possible? At least offer that option for customers. Sewing can be an expensive hobby, so even if you don’t care about the environment, you’d think you would want to help your customers save money (especially when they have just spent $19.20 on a PDF of your pattern).
I bought some bias binding to finish the seams. I got a bit carried away on the shorts and bound nearly every seam. One thing I did learn is that the binding adds bulk, so I’ll need to be careful with it on the silk jammies.
I did have an issue with the notches not being right on the waistband. I just fudged it but I’ll look out for it again when I make my silk jammies. My stitching in the ditch is also pretty janky so I will hand-stitch my next waistband. I will also hand stitch the hems inside the leg cuffs.
I’m glad that I decided to do this trial run because, as my research had suggested, the construction of the pyjama top is a nightmare. Apparently it’s constructed that way to eliminate the need for a back neck facing, but I can’t help but think it would have been a lot easier just to include a back neck facing. Even with the stable cotton lawn I had to unpick the under-collar in a couple of places so I will have to be very careful with the silk.
Costs
Fabric: £22.50
Notions: £22.16
Buttons: £5.88
Pattern: £14 + £8 printing
Soon after building my desk, I got my sewing machine back up and running. The project that spoke to me the most was this Kelly anorak, which I had done a bit of preparation work for nearly three years ago. I’m just going to jump in with my thoughts.
My Kelly is inspired by Lauren’s from Guthrie&Ghanie. She used mock flat-felled seams for her version. Her blog post is a very helpful resource so I’m not going to repeat things here that she already wrote. Since I don’t have an overlocker, mock seams would have looked really messy so I decided to go big and attempt full-blown flat-felled seams. I made myself a little swatch to test out some of the techniques. One thing I’ll say is that what worked on the swatch did not always work when sewing the garment.
Part of it is probably that I improved my technique over time, but I also think that the fabric behaved quite differently over longer stretches. On the swatch I found that it didn’t work to grade the seams too much as they could bunch up. However, when doing the seams on the actual coat, I found that the only way was to grade the seams almost to nothing, including trimming the thermal layer away from the quilted lining.
The waxed cotton doesn’t press especially well so I pinned the seams to within an inch of their lives. Throughout the project I sometimes stitched down my pressed folds to save myself headaches, for example on the hood facing and drawstring casing, where I knew that the extra lines of stitching wouldn’t really be visible
Like Lauren, I had issues with skipped stitches. I used a walking foot throughout this project but my machine simply struggled with the multiple layers of different fabrics. Perhaps I should have done more adjusting of the tension, but I am quite stubborn about leaving my machine on the automatic setting. Lauren recommends using a stretch needle as a workaround, but my jersey needles looked identical to the jeans needle I was already using. I couldn’t find a solution so I sewed the seams as well as I could and then went back and hand-stitched over the gaps in the line of topstitching. While this looks okay on the outside, it looks a bit rubbish on the inside- basically defeating the whole purpose of the flat-felled seams (sigh).
I could live with this on the inside of the coat, but not on the hood. I decided to hand-stitch some ribbon over the seams on the inside. Overall I’m not sure I’d recommend doing flat-felled seams if you are sewing this jacket with a quilted lining.
I sewed some steps out of sequence because I was waiting for my final bits of hardware to arrive. I couldn’t find the recommended 6-7mm grommets anywhere. After a lot of agonising, I ordered 5mm grommets. I think this is the correct choice as 8mm holes would be far too big. I installed my drawstring before sewing the casing because I think changing the drawstring will be a bit of a rigmarole due to the smaller-sized grommets.
I would definitely recommend buying the pre-made packs of hardware rather than finding your own- I’m sure this would also work out cheaper as well as saving a lot of bother. I’d already bought some of my snaps- I think back when I was first gathering the materials for this project the postage from the States was prohibitively expensive- so I bought all of my hardware separately.
If you’re using waxed cotton, you will certainly need punch pliers to install the snaps. I had a go at making holes using the little tool that comes with the snaps and it didn’t even make a mark on the fabric. I’m sure I would have smashed my hands to smithereens with the hammer if I had persevered with this method. I don’t think you need the special tool thingy for putting the snaps on. I managed to do it with the plastic tool that came with the Prym snaps, though I did bend quite a few in the process – perhaps using the proper tool means that you destroy fewer snaps.
I somehow ended up playing the sewing equivalent of yarn chicken with my thread. Since picking this project back up, I have visited three haberdasheries for materials (and bought bits online that weren’t available) so it was a bit of a pain to have to go back again. Overall I will have used three spools of regular thread and three of topstitching thread- plus what I used for the quilting. I did have to re-do a lot of the topstitching because of the skipped stitches, which is probably what ate up a lot of the thread.
In my previous post I totted up that I had spent nearly £150 on this project. The total will be quite a bit more since I also had to buy thread, extra hardware and bias binding. I used a shoelace for the drawstring and some grosgrain ribbon from my stash. I still need to purchase the cord stops but I haven’t managed to find any I like despite visiting what feels like every haberdashery in London and scouring the internet. I can’t be bothered calculating the exact amount but I would say it’s around two hundo, which is quite expensive.
Another project I took on following the building of my desk was finally finishing and framing this gold work embroidery project. About a year passed between completing the stitching of the bird and doing all the final bits and bobs.
As I was framing the snow bunting, I nearly forgot that I hadn’t added the sequins that I think really finish off the piece. I ended up stitching them on using the decorative frame, which worked fine. I took my time with the sequin placement and I’m pretty happy with it.
As a word of warning, if you follow the instructions in the kit, this is what the back of your embroidery will look like. I know that this isn’t my error because I’ve had exactly the same result on a different kit. The kit states to trim down the backing to 5cm and then take a 1-2cm hem. This will leave you with too much excess fabric. I actually contacted Becky Hogg on Instagram and she told me the exact same thing that had caused the problem in the first place. I have to admit that I was quite annoyed. I think for my next kit I will trim to 4cm. Some other kind followers suggested that I put another circle of felt over the back, but I can’t be bothered at the moment. No one is going to see it anyway.
2021 was my least prolific year since I started making my own clothes consistently. This was partly a reflection of an intentional plan to make more consciously, but also a reflection of the busy-ness of life. I took some much-needed annual leave over Xmas, and I spent it at home. Now that I’ve finished decorating my bedroom, I have finally bought a desk, which means that I can sew!
When I was fantasising about being reunited with my sewing machine at the back end of last year (yes, nearly a year ago!) I started thinking about dream projects using some of the gorgeous fabrics I have in my stash.
The ideas I had at the time are still really exciting me a year later, which I think is a great sign. I’m going to make a summer dress with the tennis print cotton and I’ve settled on the Jessica dress by Sew Sew Def Magazine. Not sure whether I will bother with the buttons down the front. I may make a toile of the bodice to start out because I love this fabric and don’t want to take any risks.
I got both patterns printed by a copy shop. Life is way too short for printing and taping the pages together myself. I used this helpful post from Sewstainability to help me choose which one to patronise. In the end I went for Fabulosew because I liked the idea that the tissue paper would have a marginally smaller environmental impact. The patterns arrived super quickly even though I ordered them just before Xmas day.
For the purple jammies I wanted a proper old school pyjama pattern with piping and the whole nine yards. The fabric deserves it. I decided that the Carolyn pajama set by Closet case patterns fitted the bill.
I also looked further back at the craft plans I’d made in anticipation of the reunion with my sewing machine. Once I got her back up and running, I felt up for getting started on a project and that was my Kelly anorak. I spent around three solid days of my break at the machine so I imagine Kelly will be my first completed project of the year.
I have some non-sewing plans too. I was lucky enough to get to visit the Handknitting Association of Iceland when I was in Reykjavík in October, and I got some beautiful Lettlopi. A lopapeysa is definitely in my future, likely inspired by this cardigan that I spotted on Instagram many moons ago.
Thinking about conscious making, my wardrobe is starting to reach saturation point for knitwear. Several of my jumpers and cardigans are in regular rotation, but even in dreary old England there is a limit to the amount of handmade knitwear that one needs. I also have quite a few finished items that I no longer love, which I’m not quite sure what to do with. I really enjoyed the approach I took with my Mermaid Humboldt– unravelling two old unloved sweaters and using them to create a new super-garment.
At some point I will also decide what I’m going to do with the Wishcraft kit that I ordered ages ago. I’m not really a cowl wearer so we shall see what comes to mind.
Becky Hogg, the embroiderer who designed the four gold work projects I’ve attempted in the past couple of years, has also released a gorgeous new kit that my dad got me for Xmas. Hopefully I’ll be able to add it to my wall this year.
I’ve been quiet on the blog lately because life has been so busy. Since buying my flat in August and then getting Covid, I’ve only just been managing to keep the many plates of my life spinning. It’s strange to think that I really haven’t had any time for craft. All my creative energies seem to be taken up by trying to create a home in my new place. Oh, and doing a pottery course.
Although I wasn’t thrilled with what I made, the items have been useful and are in regular rotation in my kitchen.
2021 was such a strange year. Yes I know that literally everyone and their dog has said that but I think it bears repeating. It’s hard to believe it started under Tier 4 restrictions, which are as close that England came to a proper lockdown. The beginning of the year was such a slog. In fact, pretty much the whole year was.
In 2021 I completed just two projects. However, these were probably the two most complex knitting projects that I have attempted.
I absolutely love my Katherine of Aragon and she is in regular rotation in my wardrobe. I had to leave quite a few of my jumpers in Folkestone since I have had to bring everything I had in my year down there to London by train. Sheshader was one of those jumpers, but I collected all of my woollen children in December and I know that she will find her place in my wardrobe as well.
Having my own flat has been such a massive life upgrade for me. This is the first time in my life that I have had the opportunity to make a living space truly mine. Since the house is over a hundred years old, inevitably there are things that need doing to it, which has taken up so much of my time and energy. However, I’m finally in a place where I have one room nearly as I want it and the rest is good enough for now. I can move on to the more fun aspects of decorating.
I think that considering the challenges of the year, I managed to achieve a lot. It definitely felt like I was surviving and not thriving, but surviving was an achievement in itself. I’m hoping that we can all make some meaningful steps towards thriving in 2022.
The Crafty Crusader 