Leftover Fabric

"You must have some leftover fabric, why don't you sew me a (insert a garment here)".

As I am starting to hear this more and more, I thought I'd address this issue once and for all. I mostly sew for me and my very close family. In other words, if Junior here marries your daughter in 20 years, I might consider making you something eventually.

Also you should stop refering to my leftover fabric as scraps. I don't keep scraps. The pieces left after a project are big enough to line a pocket or a collar, make some bias, a small pouch for Pokemon cards, a muslin and so on. I might not have use for them now, but I will, one day. They are valuable and will not be wasted on you!

Bring your sewing machine, I'll show you how to use it, I'll show you how to follow a pattern, hem your pants, fix your rip but I won't do it for you. Go seek a professionnal if you need one.

There I have said it. The Selfish Seamstress is on to something and I should listen to her.

Quickie : Shirring

Up until last week, I didn't know I could shirr with my machine. I don't know I'll be using this technique a lot, but I am quite happy to have learned a new trick... which I quickly passed on to the lovely young lady who comes everyday to learn. 

I may have created a monster because all day, yesterday, she painstakinly, very slowly made rows and rows of shirring to make a dress like this one, which is really a 2 hour project if you are not a beginner.

There is no pattern to this dress, it's a square. Measure your bust, double the measure, in my case I took the entire 150cm width (where I realised the cheap fabric I bought had been printed on a slant) made a baby hem on top and used this excellent very simple shirring video. I made a side seam, a 4cm hem and I was ready to hit the beach in style. Just so you know, I took off 25cm in length after seeing this picture!

Just imagine this knee-lenght

She was shinning with glee when she finished, I found it extremely moving as I made a Ratatouille-like flashback to being 16 and felt her joy and pride. She has some of the qualities it takes to make a seamstress : extreme patience, some stubbornness, some pickiness and a steady hand. I wish her a gazillion little perfect stitches and hundreds of well-worn handmade garments.

Belted : Vogue 9133

What a difference a belt makes!

Remember this one? I finally got around to take the scraps and make a belt for it. I knew it would make a difference but I didn't expect the dress would become more comfortable to wear!

I am such a procrastinator, it took me a year to make what I made in a half hour before lunch on the counter top! Now I like it so much, I am going to make little belt loops!

In other news, I've been making slow progress on the Burda 7517 dress. I am showing the lovely young ladies next door how to follow a pattern but, I can't really say I am teaching them how to sew as it would be a misnomer, there is very little sewing being done here, lots of unpicking and recutting very shifty material and starching and said dress NOT looking like the envelope and general headaches caused by working with a pattern with no dots and marks. I don't know that they'll learn anything from this experience except patience. I should have made a cotton skirt!

Is there a tutorial for marking a Burda pattern properly? I could use one if I am to use their patterns again. You girls and boys get such lovely results out of them and all I have so far is a raging headache!

Queued : Chloe Vogue 2074

I have had this pattern forever, and I'd pretty much given up on ever making it, due to a complete failure on finding the right fabric and general lack of a social life where one would wear such a pretty dress until yesterday, when I saw this polyester voile in the bargain bin at the local Myrtille.

I didn't know how much I needed, so I took whatever was left of it, about double the yardage, but who cared? It was €1,50 a meter! Don't hold your breath, I will not make it right away, but it'll be ready for the Christmas-New-Year party season, when, no doubt I'll be overdressed once again.