Pages

Monday 30 June 2014

Delphine Skirt

The Delphine Skirt - from now on should be named 'The First Item of Clothing I Made Myself!' but that is a bit long....


Introduction

As I am sure all of you know the amazing blogger and Great British Sewing Bee contestant Tilly released a sewing book a couple of months ago, Love at First Stitch, I was lucky enough to get this free with a subscription of Love Sewing Magazine (which I also thought was awesome) last month. After spending a good few nights of bedtime reading with my new book I decided to have a go at making something. I had plenty of a stretch denim (think it could be like a poly blend of denim) it is not brilliant quality and was left over from sewing my nieces' christmas presents, but thought it would at least make a toile if nothing else. The fabric is a bit stiff and really stretchy and a dark grey/black in colour that I bought from the local market here in Sheffield.

Black stretchy denim

Methods


I traced and cut a straight size 8 in this pattern. I left out the zip as this material is so stretchy it wasn't needed. I also didn't interface my facings, I did this originally without realising it would stop the stretch on the waistband - which was admittedly pretty stupid! I removed the fusible interfacing pretty easily so no harm done. 
I don't own a overlocker but I did buy an overlock sewing foot off of Amazon that seems to do a really good job, and at less that £5 it is much cheaper (and I am guessing much slower) than an overlocker.
I used a 1cm seam allowance on the side and centre back seams as I was worried would be on the tight side. I also took the A-line bottom in by 5cm on each side seam, after trying it on mid construction it just was a bit too pronounced for my personal preference.

Seams with overlock foot
Results

These are my first photos of myself for my blog and with a self timer (handy little free app) so apologies that they are not the best! I also should have moved the fan and wire in the way.



This skirt fits well! It is meant to be high on the waist but due to my apple shape I REALLY do not suit that so I am really glad its quite loose and therefore sits lower on my hips. I also love the length on me. This skirt pulls on and off easily and is nice and comfortable. 
I am shocked that the drape on the skirt doesn't look too stiff in these pictures, I am glad its wearable.

Discussion

I am really happy with this skirt. It has really boosted my sewing confidence. I enjoyed the whole process which took about 5 hours in total from tracing the pattern to everything packed away.
The A-line is not too wide for me, the skirt is not too tight and I think it is actually quite flattering. I don't have many skirts in my wardrobe, to be honest my wardrobe is pretty lame at the moment for reasons discussed in my first post, but this is something I am hoping this blog will help with!

Further work

I have made the alterations to the traced off pattern and stored it away for future use. And you can be sure there will be future use of this. I have already been eyeing up plenty of fabric for this but these two are the top contenders:


The first one has just been ordered from Minerva and I really want to buy this flowered lovely from Fabric HQ, I never wear prints, I don't think I can pull them off on my top half but I think this skirt could be a way of wearing them. I will wait until I have made the gingham version first as I think this will get more wear. 

Thanks for reading 
Kristy x

Thursday 26 June 2014

Scientific Sewing – An Introduction

Introduction
A bit about myself…
I am Kristy, a 29 year old biologist with a passion for sewing. I live in Sheffield with my amazing boyfriend and originally from Leeds (I am trying to find a job to enable me to move back). As I am getting older (the big three zero looming ever closer) I am finding that I want to go out partying much less than I did even though I do enjoy a nice cold one every now and then.
A few  facts about me:
·         I am desperate to be a dog owner; I want a big fluffy cuddly dog. Unfortunately I am in rented accommodation and working full time, it is just not fair to have one at the moment. I have even offered to do my boyfriend’s ironing for a full year if he buys me a puppy but it’s not to be…yet.
·         I love Elvis. A bit too much.
·         I am not happy unless I have a holiday booked.
·         I love summer but the summer hates me – ginger moley skin and really bad hayfever means going outside in summer isn’t actually that fun.
·         I love Pinterest - follow me here



Me and sewing so far…
I got a sewing machine roughly 5 years ago from my sorely missed, gorgeous Grandma but it lived in the box scaring me for two years until I took a sewing class at The Bowery about 3 years ago and loved it. My passion for sewing so far has been limited to crafty things; I have made quilts, wall art and kids clothes for my gorgeous nieces. Even though I have amassed quite a collection of clothing patterns for myself (see pinterest) I have not actually started making anything for myself as of yet. And there is a reason for it. Here goes, the personal bit: I am not happy with my body shape and haven’t been for quite a while and the will power around the cakes/pies is not the strongest – I just love food! In high street clothes I am a size 16 and I am pretty top heavy, with a real apple shape. I want to look at sewing as a way to dress comfortable, learning a craft I really enjoy and celebrating the outcome of working hard at something rather than looking at the size of the dress or the measurement on the tape measure. And this is where this blog comes in…

Aims
The aim is to blog my makes, my mistakes and my learning outcomes. I am not the most creative of people and certainly not the best at writing so I want to stick to a style of writing I am comfortable with – scientific report writing. Hopefully each entry will follow a set style; introduction, methods, results and discussion. I currently follow (according to Bloglovin) 137 blogs, I love reading everyones posts and enjoy learning new things and seeing how creative people are, Bloglovin is my favourite app and it gets read a few times a day so want to add my little input to help me and my sewing, hopefully I will meet some new friends along the way too.

Materials and Methods
Nothing much to cover here this time.

Results
Again, nothing to be seen here, keep moving.

Discussion
I think that is enough from me for a first timer. I hope I have covered everything for a first timer and not put you off of reading more from me. Fingers crossed I keep up to this blog and my sewing.

Kristy x

EDIT - sorry, I need to add this part so I can be added to Bloglovin apparently!
<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12475845/?claim=8s3b5acxuy5">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...