A No Sew Refashion

Hello again! First things first - here are the results of the Sew Grateful Week Giveaway:

The winner of the Victoria Blazer pattern is Mary Maryall from Maryall Made.

And the winner of the Swarovski stitch markers is Chrystal McKay from Seams like Chrystal

Congratulations, ladies! May they bring many happy hours of creative satisfaction :) If you can email your postal details to daniellekrivan@gmail.com I'll send your parcels to you asap.

I've got a pretty basic refashion to share this week, with no sewing involved at all. Last year a friend of mine started up as a consultant for a party plan clothing company and I hosted a party to help out. Now, I normally haaaaaaaate these kind of things, and so does every one of the friends I invited (I invited people who were fun and who would still speak to me after receiving said invitation). But to my amazement I ended up with a free pair of jeans out of the deal, because Consultant Friend is a born saleswoman.

They actually fit really well. But they were a pale neon yellow. I make no claim to being a fashionista, so can comfortably say I'm not personally on speaking terms with the whole neon trend at all. And I didn't know you could have pastel neon colour (an oxymoron, surely??), but there you are.

They were quite hard to photograph actually; imagine a bit more fluorescent than that.

Even though it's not a great colour on me, I really do love golden yellow. It'll never be a staple in my palette, but every now and then I like to inject a bit of it in there. And you may remember in my list of goals for this year I mentioned I wanted to start experimenting with natural dyes. So since these were already a light yellow, I thought I might give turmeric a try...

I'd seen a tutorial on using turmeric to dye fabric here. I didn't take photos of the process, but basically:

1. Wash and dry fabric/garment
2. Simmer garment in large pot on the stove top in a mix of four parts water to one part white vinegar. (This acts as a fixative for the dye.)
3. Fill pot with fresh water and add turmeric (I used two 25g packets). Let dye bath simmer for ten minutes then add fabric/garment.
4. Ensure fabric/garment is completely submerged and simmer for 15mins, stirring occasionally.
5. Turn off heat and let garment sit in dye bath until it reaches desired colour (bear in mind it will be lighter once it's dry). I left mine about an hour.
6. Remove from dye bath and rinse until water runs clear.

So how did it work? Well, here's Attempt One:

In parts, they were the exact deep yellow I was hoping for. But I was hoping even more for a solid colour. And that was too streaky a result. Since the colour (in parts!) was what I was after, I wondered if a second attempt would even up the saturation...Below is Attempt Two:

Better, but still streaky. I think possibly a few more dye baths would achieve the solid colour I was after, but I have to confess I caved at this point. :/

 Enter Rit powder dye... I just followed the instructions for dyeing in a bucket or basin (I can't quite bring myself to use the washing machine - I keep imagining the rest of our clothes turning shades of the dye colour forever after...)

Even though I really wanted the natural technique to work, I have to admit I LOVE my new jeans!

Especially with my Rowe top...

So, the evaluation? Turmeric does make an effective fabric dye. But I think it's best kept for deliberate variegated effects like tie dye (which is how the original tutorial used it). And I'd actually really like to try it on spun wool, where a heathery effect looks beautiful. (Incidental Aside: I have attempted spinning! I'm somewhere between Absolute Novice and Extreme Beginner, but I've made a start. And I think I'm going to love it :)  So that's two more 2014 goals underway, hurrah!)

This project got me thinking. I've been really enjoying the Wardrobe Architect series, and think it's a fantastic way to make sewing more efficient, personal and less "hit and miss". Now these jeans only go with about three other things in my wardrobe...but I love them and feel happy every time I wear them. It made me realise that while I love to sew to a plan and genuinely aspire to sewing a complete wardrobe rather than disparate garments, every now and then I should make room for a "just because" kind of project. Just because I love it. Just because it makes me happy. Just because I want to!

How about you? Do you have any stand alone projects like that? Do tell!

Some Ugly And Unselfish Sewing

Hello! A quick word of warning before we begin: if you're looking for a glamour fix, this is not the post for you. In fact, this may be the ugliest sewing project I've ever done! But it also may be one of the most appreciated, which is why I'm dedicating a post to it.

As any Australian will know, and especially any Victorian, September is Footy Finals Month. And if you're not into footy....well, tough! It's everywhere. The rest of my family are diehard Geelong Cats supporters (Except for one son, who now barracks for Hawthorn. Suffice it to say, Gary Ablett's departure cut deep). Today at their school, where my man also teaches, was Come Dressed In Your Team's Colours Day (or something less wordy), and my man and my girl both wanted a Geelong onesie to wear.

Now normally I don't really condone onesies for anyone over the age of, oh, eighteen months or so. But it would seem that in the name of Team Support, all such rules go out the window. Plus, after a few weeks of wedding sewing, I think I was ready to sew something frivolous!

I used an old pattern that used to belong to my mum - Simplicity 9810. I've no idea whether it's still in print or not, but it's an animal suit pattern. I ignored the hood-with-ear-options, feet and mitten pieces, and just cut bands of the same fabric. If I'd left myself enough time I would have maybe narrowed arms and leg cuffs, but Blind Optimism plus Night Before didn't leave any room for finessing... I'm not too concerned, although I wouldn't mind fixing up the neckbands a bit; I think they'd look better if they curved down at the opening to meet the front zip. I only got one shot of the front view (including a third, grumpy supporter - no time for face-painting, I'm afraid, and blue hair was only a part consolation.):

And that's because these onesies are all about the back! (There you are, Nessa!)

I'm pretty happy with the way those logos turned out. Since I don't know how to screenprint, and can't embroider on my machine, I went with a kind of applique. I have no idea whether this is an official technique, but it works, so that makes it valid in my book :)  On the very slight chance that anyone will someday want to reproduce a logo/image, and be in the same (lack of skills) boat as me, here's how I did it:

Print out logo onto A3 sheet.

Pin contrast fabric to pattern piece (here, the back) with paper template pinned over the top.
(NB. Unlike me, do this before you sew any other pieces together, eg. sleeves, fronts. Seriously.)

Machine sew along outlines. Stop and swivel/reposition fabric as necessary. (This is time-consuming, awkward and fiddly. Be aware you will probably gouge yourself on the pins repeatedly) 

 Once all outlines have been sewn over, carefully tear away the paper. Then, using very fine scissors - small embroidery scissors with sharp outlines worked beautifully - cut away the sections that should be the background colour. I found it easier to cut chunks away, then go back and do a finer, closer cut afterwards. (No photos of these two steps, sorry. I can only beg the excuse that it was 2am by this stage. I haven't done 2am for a very, very long time.)

The end result comes out like this:

And a close up:

So long as the contrast fabric doesn't fray, you can get in really close to the stitching without any worries. Like I said, it may not be an official technique, but it does do away with cutting out lots of tiny shapes and trying to position them ...I can remember the misery of that from Year 8 Textiles!

They really are ugly, there's no denying it! But, both are being worn right this minute in the other room to cheer on Geelong in the Preliminary Final. (Against Hawthorn, so it's going to end in tears for one family member at least...) I keep hearing howls of outrage / yells of jubilation from the other room as I'm typing this... I kind of wish I'd made them earlier in the season now! Never mind, I'm pretty sure they'll get plenty of wear in years to come :)

For anyone not interested in sport-related sewing - if you're still with me - look (look!!) what I just got in the mail from Sarah at Fabric Tragic! I won one of her giveaways ( the day after my birthday - how's that for timing!), and just unwrapped this bundle of wonderfulness:

It was really too dark to take proper individual photos of each piece, so this is just a being-excited taster. I'll post some proper pics once I have some daylight to go by. But in the meantime, have you ever seen anything more fabulous than those glow-in-the-dark knitting needles?? I think not :)

What are you working on at the moment? Any frivolous projects in the pipeline?

Have a wonderful week :)

Danielle  oxo

Completed: Audrey Jacket

It's been a little longer between posts than I planned, sorry, but I haven't had proper internet access for a good two weeks. In the meantime though I finished my coat/jacket (Style Arc's Audrey Jacket pattern) I was going title this post, "A Fail Or Not A Fail?", since that was my question, but we'll get to that! Here 'tis:

(Huddled under the eaves in this shot - the rain and wind were evidently competing to see which could be the most energetic...)

And a back view for Nessa! Wish I'd adjusted my top first... :(  And for all of you lovely people who commiserated with me on the Buttonhole Debacle (and thank you, by the way - I would take you all out for coffee and cake if we lived nearby):

Hooray! Bound buttonholes sewn AND positioned correctly! So why was I thinking Fail? Well, it all went together fine (eventually...) but when I tried it on, I didn't like it on me. Painful moment! I loved the slightly retro shape of it in the pattern picture, but it's not a style I've ever worn before, and it just felt wrong on. I didn't make a muslin, so I guess that's my own fault. If I'd tried it on in a changing room I'd have rejected it immediately. Can you call it a successful project if you don't end up wearing it?? Has this ever happened to you?

The collar bothered me too. It still does. It's supposed to sit up like this (back view below):

(That looks uneven in the photo - I promise it's not!) But at the front it collapses in on itself a bit. If I ever make it again I'm going to fuse the collar - at least the front sections - twice. It's fine around the buttonholes, which have the extra fabric patch sewn in to make the welts, and that's what suggests to me that the front collar needs a bit more reinforcement. It just doesn't seem to be holding the weight adequately. I'm wondering too whether buttons with a shank wouldn't be a better choice, as much as I like these red ones. I have some dull gold ones in the drawer - might give them a go. Any thoughts???

So it sat there for a week or so. And, because I really do love the fabric, I tried it on every now and then. And slowly, it began to grow on me. I still don't think it's a perfect style for me, but I don't think it's the unmitigated disaster I thought it was at first. It is wearable, and having worn it to work yesterday I can attest that people don't point and snigger. It fills a wardrobe gap. So, I'm calling it a cautious success.

Although I don't consider myself remotely qualified to post tutorials, I am going to show step by step below how the hem lining went together, mainly because I would have loved to have this two weeks ago! Not sure if it's the standard procedure, but it worked. That's the thing about Style Arc patterns - I love their designs, but the instructions given do assume you know what you're doing. I've decided to take that as a compliment.

All was going fine till I got to the point of sewing the lining to the jacket. (Aside: I really wanted a striking print for this, a la Claire's Lady Grey jacket, but couldn't find anything that looked right. And then this silk lining went on sale. Couldn't resist. And that's another reason I kept trying the thing on - wool coat with silk lining....) The instructions said "Sew lining to jacket continuing around hem." Looked down at this:

Thought I'd cut it out wrong at first! Checked. Hadn't. Reread instructions. Didn't help. Googled. No love. So I went to the wardrobe and looked at the way other wool coat linings had gone together, and worked it out from there. This one has an overlocked edge on the front facing - mine's folded under. The lining is sewn at hem and folds down over itself. It started to make sense.

First I had to unpick 3cm of the front facing/front lining seam. This allows for manouevering room when you sew the lower edges.

 Then I sewed the jacket front/front facing seam, stopping directly above the right angle where the jacket front extends downwards. After that (not pictured, oops) I pulled the lining down to meet the jacket's lower edge and sewed them together. Imagine another finger pointing to the edge below - that seam.

This left a 'hole' where these two horizontal seams don't quite match up. The photo shows the reverse side of what's pictured above (i.e. the interfaced part you see below is the jacket facing - imagine the jacket in the above photo has been lifted up towards you.) My thumb is on the jacket front/facing seam, and my first finger is on the lining/ lower jacket edge seam.

When you bag it out, it looks like this, with the lining folding down over itself, hiding the actual seam.

 Hope that makes sense!

In wedding sewing news, we've had the bride's first fitting, and it seems to be coming along nicely. Which is making me rethink my "one sewing challenge at a time" rule.... All of a sudden there seem to be all these online sewalongs and challenges I really want to have a go at! I would love to be part of Thread Theory's Jedidiah Pants Sewalong. And the Sew Weekly Reunion Challenge is waking me up o' nights (Can you be part of a reunion if you weren't there the first time around??)... I know I have a tendency to take on too much at once though. And I think I really need to ensure that wedding sewing is as stress-free as possible. On the other hand, I planned to make a dress to wear to it anyway, and the colours of the SWRC are sublime. Think I'll leave it to chance - if I find suitable fabric next time I go shopping I'll jump in and go for it!

Are you taking part in any challenges or sewalongs at the moment? Do tell!

Have a wonderful week :)

Danielle oxo

Hmmm.... Links don't seem to be working, sorry. Will fix ASAP