Sewaholic Granville No. 4

January 22, 2016January 22, 2016 | Hila

Hello everyone,

For me few things look more together than a quick pairing of jeans (preferably clean) and a well fitting shirt. Having discovered a shirt that suits my lifestyle, I may have made a 4th Granville shirt :-).

The floral fabric was purchased from Ebay over a year ago and I cant say what sort of fabric it it. Its definitely cotton – not fine enough to be lawn and not heavy enough to be quilting cotton.

I have already regaled with the details of fitting here and made 2 further ones in paisley and floral so there is not much else to add.

Perhaps construction wise I made it a lot faster. I can’t imagine making a shirt without using flat felled seams. There is an almost meditative joy in flat felling for me. For the buttons I used repurposed Crew Clothing Co from an old old old shirt.

Some pictures taken a while back.

I quite simply love the Granville.

In other news I have realised that sewing is one of my favorite ways to refresh. When I am not doing things that I love, that feed my soul then…….well I’ve learned from experience that when I am depleted, I’m not the wife, mother, or friend I want to be. The more I feed my own soul, the more I have to give out.

The only problem is time. Since I can’t clone myself a la Multiplicity ( a great movie if you haven’t watched) or simply wish for more hours in a day – I must make the time.

We all know that doesn’t happen automatically. It needs to be planned, especially if you are responsible for the daily care of kids among other things. I find these stages of constant giving can be draining. I haven’t yet quite figured out how I will do it but my thinking hat is on. Just the realisation was a huge shift for me. I now know I dont have to feel guilty about spending money on patterns or fabric or time in my sewing cave. Because it actually makes me a better person. On that note many thanks for reading this far into my ramblings.

Happy Sewing

Hila

XoX

Alder Shirt Dress No 2 finally bum ruffle dress

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016 | Hila

Hello chums!

I am super excited to share my second Alder shirt dress. Since making my palm trees & flamingos Alder in summer, it made me realise how much I ~~like~~ love this pattern. Ergo I also made the bum ruffle version. My bust, waist and hip measurement fitted squarely into Size 2.

I didn’t change anything. At. All. Initially I considered bringing it in at the waist to give more shaping but I am so glad I didn’t get round to doing that. I love it exactly as is! Its so comfortable. The material is a John Kaldor I bought from Minerva Crafts on a whim. I fell in love with the teals, sea green and mustard on a deep navy background. It works layered in fall and winter as well.

The buttons were a true labor of love of me. Self covered buttons are nice to look at but not as easy to make! I used 11mm Pymm metallic ones and I doubt I shall repeat that experience any time soon. Were it not for that tedious section this dress would have taken less than 3 days to complete. But since my mind had fixated on self covered buttons and would not accept a substitute, I was stuck desperately pushing myself to complete one button a day. I rarely managed more than one button due to the frustration and sense of futility after 30 mins of wrestling with teeny bits of fraying fabric and only having a single button to show for it. There were 8 buttons………

I digress. Seriously though – as with the first one – this was so much fun to make (till the buttons). I followed the sewalong on the Grainline website which is excellent!

On the horizon – I am quite excited about going to the Yorkshire spoolettes meet up in a few weeks. Ali who blogs over at thimberlina.wordpress.com has arranged it so click on over to see details and maybe if you are free you could come along too :-). I am reliably informed that the more the merrier. This is going to be tricky since I am avowed (loosely) to only add 1 to stash for every 4 used. SO I guess I need to be cutting out a lot of projects in the next few weeks. Cutting out counts as used right?…..Right?……………….It DOES!………Right!?!……….<looks for support>……….

Thanks for stopping by!

Hila

A Christmas 2015 outfit featuring McCalls M6844 and M6886

January 5, 2016 | Hila

Hello everyone!

I do hope you all had a lovely Christmas and happy holidays. In the post Christmas slump I have infused enough energy to post about my Christmas outfit – all made by moi 😉

I had been wanting to try out Mccalls M6886 for some time. As a long term resident of my pattern stash – I was glad to finally get it on with this pattern. Its a good’un people. Simple but chic. I cut a straight size 8 and for a first go I am very happy. The embossed red scuba fabric has also been in my stash for a long time – I gave myself double points for double stash busting :-). I also made a M6844 cardigan in black to go with the dress. Having made one before here in red, there’s not much to say about except that it took me less than 2 hours to make from cutting to snipping last thread.

Construction wise I used my overlocker throughout except for the hems – for which a 2.5mm twin needle worked a charm.
One thing I would advice on the M6844 cardigan is to not interface the collar unless if you are going for quite a stiff look. I did not interface the collar band as it is double faced. For reference I used ponte fabric (again from stash :-).

The outfit came together so nicely. I felt very chic and elegant on Christmas day, which helped given how much chaos entails hosting Christmas for 13 people (one of them a vegan with a few food allergies).

As always thank you for stopping by this little bit of my interwebs! Did you make a Christmas outfit as well?

Happy sewing !

Hila

Oh and I have made a few loose goals for the year as follows: