Here’s what I did last night. Today was my niece’s birthday lunch and it’s now growing cold (14C)and I bought this fabric in November from Dots N Stripes UK. I loved their service. They were quick to fix up the postage for my order.
I love wearing dark printed cord outfits in the winter and this piece was just waiting for the right temperature before I could attempt to make it up.
I’ve used McCalls 2113 which I’ve used before with a border print. The pattern had the correct adjustments so last night I cut out the dress, found a matching satin bias binding tape and pulled it together without the sleeves. I needed to know that it would fit over my curves, before I went to sleep last night.
I’ve used an invisible zip in brillant red and as the print was everywhere, there wasn’t much need to match the print pattern.
I opened the sleeve by 3cm, so it would fit over my arm, while wearing a woollen knit long sleeve top and tights underneath. The other adjustment was I lowered the neckline by 5cm and put back the gaposis and turned this into the pleat, making the neckline square. If this is going to be just a dress, I’ll add 8cm to the hemline. This is definitely a weekend dress.
When we got to the lunch, everyone was in their winter greys and blacks, so as bright as I was, I didn’t feel uncomfortable.
Yesterday I attended the first of two chanel jacket workshops with the Rhodes sewers so my next post will be about the pattern and the bright chunky silk woven left over that’s been waiting for this opportunity. OMG.
Category: overlocking
overlocker 0 – velosewer 1
Yesterday I was trying to finish the black wrap blouse with border embroidery and the overlocker kept making uneven stitches. I rethreaded the little terror a few times with no luck. The thread was running out and broke while rethreading the new thread. I have a Janome mylock 534D.
My blouse fabric ripped at the sleeve edge on one of the front pieces while I was trying it on. Part of the challenge of the blouse is getting the gathers to sit on the bust. The rip made me a bit fearful that the fabric was weak, so I decided to overlock the seam edges.
In the end, I replaced the thread on the right lower looper and rethreaded it
Step 1. right lower looper,
Step 2. left lower looper,
Step 3. right upper thread
Step 4. left upper thread.
Now I’m putting the sleeves on. They have gathers at the sleeve head and I’ll make them a bit gathered at the sleeve hem too. I might raise the sleeve hem as well.
Cycling + elastic
I finally brought out my winter cycling gear and low and behold, the waistline elastic died on me. Unpicking overlocking/serging is painful but I didn’t want to buy another pair of longs.
These longs are now back in my cycling wardrobe and they still keep the wind off my short little legs.
Now to get back to some real sewing. I have a couple more brown outfits to come…
