Sunday, May 22, 2011

Let me introduce you to Gloria


I found her looking for a home on ebay and living in the next suburb to me so I thought "meant to be"! I have made her the same size as me and she is donning my current work in progress - Simplicity 2588 dress. I can't wait to use her but I have exams next week so will have to be strong.

Monday, May 9, 2011

My new sewing space

My sewing space is heaven now I have a sewing cabinet and a wonderful new machine. At the weekend I had to re-hem a winter tunic and sew name tags into 10 shirts - 5 each child - and it was a breeze. Before I close it all away to turn to my university work - neglected last week as I struggled with the trousers - I thought I'd snap it for my blog. The overlocker comes out from underneath and sits on the extension as well. My next project is to get a notice board above it where I can pin projects and inspiration.

I should have listened

I love trousers, jeans, pants whatever you want to call them.  My sewing buddies discouraged me from trying to sew my own pointing out wisely that a good fit is hard to achieve.  It is so obvious when I think about it, how many different pairs of jeans do I need to try on before I find the ones with the right fit even though they may all look the same before I squeeze into them! However, my jeans were all feeling tight and what I wanted was a comfortable, elegant pair of what some people would call, slacks...stretchy material, black of course that fit snugly around the bottom but hang loosely in a narrow drape from there on down...mmmm shouldn't that be easy?.  Some fabulous material from Tessuti was bought and I decided to use The Vogue Woman pattern V8504.  
I made a size 10 - great fit around the bottom.  I cut a zipper to fit and then promptly ruined it by pulling up without a stopper - oops - an invisible zip is seemingly unfixable when you do this.  So, I decided to make them pull ups with an elastic waistband.  The trouble is, they now feel like track pants and I don't do track pants except when I'm on the track.  They did have a lovely drape but were way to wide in the leg for me, I was a bit swamped so I just chopped out about 5cm from each leg. I am wearing them now and they are OK but there was a lot of heartache in getting to this less than perfect point.  Maybe I should have listened?

I have tried to photograph them but it is impossible on my own - support team is at school - so another day.
I haven't given up.  I actually think these trousers in another fabric and without my hacking into them - a sort of palazzo style - would be lovely.  I've also found another pattern that may work better for my everyday pants : Mcalls 5273 but it is out of print. Maybe that is because nobody bought it, they all knew how hard it is to make your own pants and be happy with them!