By Hand London Polly top and summer sewing list

Have you seen By Hand London's newest pattern, the Polly top? It's lovely and it's also free! When I saw it I instantly knew what I'd like to make it in, a fabric I've been saving forever, but thought I'd better make a muslin first...

But I ended up liking the scrap fabric muslin, so I finished it off and it's now a wearable muslin :-)


The fit is a little off so I'm adjusting it for the proper version, though I will still wear this.

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More on the Polly top later but for now, before Kids Clothes Week starts tomorrow I thought I'd share my thoughts on summer selfish sewing, for us here in the Southern Hemisphere.

I'm considering these patterns:

By Hand London's Anna dress. This pattern is taking the online sewing world by storm, if you haven't noticed already. I fell in love with the Anna instantly thought the shape would suit my figure. I particularly like this and this version.

 

Sewaholic's Saltspring dress. The only pattern I've sewn of Tasia's is the Minoru, which is my sewing pride and joy :-) But apart from that I find Sewaholic patterns a little girly for me. When I first saw the Saltspring I wasn't tempted at all, but, as often happens with us sewing fanatics, all it's taken to convince me otherwise is seeing a few amazing versions, like this one and this one. I love the thought of the maxi version in a lightweight silk like this one or jersey like this one (complete with beautiful plaited straps). And I think keeping it in a solid will make it less girly.

Victory Patterns Simone top. I love all the details on this top. If my patience could hold out and I chose great fabrics I can picture it looking good. I love my Ava tops, so I'm thinking this would be a winner too.

Grainline Studio's Maritime shorts. Shorts. Hmm, I've not been a fan of shorts in the past. I find them not very flattering at all to my leg shape (shapeless, and I have lots of post-pregnancy spider veins, def not my best feature). BUT I can see how practical they are. So maybe if I make them a little longer and in a chambray or light weight denim to keep them low-key. I like this and this version.

What's on your list for summer sewing? Or if you're on the opposite side of the world, what were your favourites last summer? I'd love to know.

Victory patterns Ava in silk

Finally it stopped raining long enough for me to take some pics of my Ava top. Yikes - our back yard looks like a swimming pool!

As I mentioned in my last post about the muslin for this, I love the Victory Patterns Ava pattern. And even though it had its trials I was pleased with this version, which I wore to a friend's birthday party recently.



It was my first time working with such fine and slippery fabrics and I found them pretty difficult to work with, so it was quite a frustrating sew. The main part of the top I made by cutting up a silk sarong gifted to me from a lovely friend. She had found it in a charity shop, and the tag said 'Akira' - what a find! It moved around and seemed to stretch in a weird way - the side panels of this pattern are cut on the bias, and they dropped a lot. Maybe this is typical of silk but when I went to hem it the hem was extremely wonky and I ended up adjusting it by eye.



I'd wanted to use a sheer fabric for the top part, and grabbed a piece of what I think might be organza from a local shop, not having time to go looking elsewhere. This was a real pain to work with! all those little seams that need to be perfect as they were all on display drove me mad! Not only could the fabric not be pressed but also it just didn't roll well. I ended up with sore fingers from overworking the synthetic fabric and very grab that it would be night time when I wore it so all the imperfections wouldn't be seen!!



I swore that next time I had something special to sew I'd take the time to find a natural fibre fabric, especially when my main fabric was so lovely. Then on the afternoon of the party I was looking for a scarf to wear with it and found not one but 2 garments in silk that I'd reserved for repurposing - and either would have been perfect!! So that's a lesson to me to always check my stash first. I'm hoping to one day unpick the awful organza and replace it with the cream silk. I made the this little scarf from the 2 fabrics, just joining them with a seam and then hemming it.



And just as an aside, something I love about going out somewhere special is being able to get out some of my old favourites - I never get tired of my origami earrings, my ankle strap heals got an outing and wearing my old black satin trousers is always fun :-) How about you, do you like dressing up now and then? And does working with sheer fabrics make you crazy?!

Upcycled Victory Patterns Ava wearable muslin AKA the 'never say never' top

What a convoluted title!!

I recently had a special event on the horizon - a birthday party for a lovely friend - and couldn't let the opportunity for a bit more sewing slip by ;-) I was planning on fixing up my botched Belladone dress, but when I tried it on again I just wasn't feeling the love... then I stumbled upon Victory Patterns Satsuki, hmm, could work in the lovely silk gifted to me by a friend, BUT then I thought about using the silk on the Ava pattern and was smitten. I asked the opinion of the Mr and big girl between the two patterns and they both voted for Ava. Done!

The gifted silk was so precious that I knew I had to make a muslin. I'm usually not patient enough to do this but I really didn't want to stuff up the silk (I'll show you in the next post) and thought I could repurpose the skirt I bought recently into a nice wearable muslin.



The skirt turned out to be just enough fabric for the top, which takes quite a lot of fabric even though it looks quite simple - the side panels are cut on the bias which adds to the quantity required. You can't see from the pic, but the skirt is lined in a solid green voile, which I used for the bodice, sleeves and also the side panels - I would have liked to use the poppies print for this but ran out of it.

The Ava pattern comes as a downloadable pdf. I like these for the instant gratification of getting it straight away and being able to start immediately rather than going to the shop. I really loved using this pattern, and found the instructions all very good, though I did get stuck on how to get the V of the sweetheart neckline to sit flat. The instructions said to snip the V and pivot the needle to change direction but I still couldn't get it flat so I'm just going to live with it. I'm sure some extra practice and patience would do the trick.



I am glad afterall that I made a muslin, because I did adjust a couple of things: I'd made the right size according to the pattern but it was gaping a bit under the arms so I just took the side seams of the bodice in about a centimetre. Also in the silk version I extended the bodice by about 10cm as firstly I have a long body, but also I don't think a 'baby doll' style is particularly flattering on me and with the high waistline that's what its ended up looking like. I think the pattern is intended to sit just above the natural waistline but this was way too high for me. Having said that, it will not stop me wearing this as I love it overall :-)

And the reason it's a 'never say never' top is that I always thought a sweetheart neckline and peplum were definitely not me, but somehow in this pattern I love them. I love the swishiness and it just sits beautifully, which I think is down to it being a really well designed pattern.

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In other sewing news: I saw for the first time last night the Amelia dress pattern from Green Bee. Do you know of it? I am seriously considering buying it after seeing this lovely version. Oh, the temptation!!!
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Next post I'll show you the silk Ava. Have a lovely weekend!