"Matilda" Coat

I was inspired to make this coat after watching the BBC drama "Requiem". The central character "Matilda" is seen throughout wearing a light blue, full length wool coat which reminded me of one I had when I was a teenager. I loved the look of it whenever I saw it and wanted to make one.

I finally found a pattern after looking at 100's of coat sewing patterns online - the Burda 6845. It is a full length, semi-fitted coat with flap pockets, sleeve vents and a walking slit at the back.

I knew I wanted a blue wool for the outer but was not quite sure what I wanted for the lining. While browsing online for wool fabrics I came across a little shop called Holm Sown which had the most beautiful felted merino wool fabric - not too light, not too dark, similar to a French Navy. They also had this amazing loud and very colourful viscose that immediately caught my eye as being the perfect surprise lining fabric.

I made a start sewing it together very slowly and carefully, mocking up every stage of the construction before sewing it together and finally after 3 weeks of head scratching, watching hours of sewing tutorials on youtube and nearly wearing out my seam ripper I had me a "Matilda" coat which I am quietly rather proud off.

Make Nine Sewing Patterns

As I said in my last post I plan to make a mini capsule wardrobe I can wear to nights out.  I think the colour palette is going to be navy and white with a hint of pink thrown in - nice and classic. The fabrics will be a mix of cottons, linens and viscose. The patterns I am working from are some Colette patterns I got about 2 years ago.

So the items in the collection will include some lightweight blouses

 2 pairs of trousers, 1 wide leg and 1 slimfit.

2 coats, 1 winter jacket and 1 summer 3/4 length jacket.

and finally 1 dress as I am not much of a dress person.

I have started making fitting muslins for the tops to gauge my sizing for these patterns and ordered some fabrics.  Will leave the winter jacket to last as it is the most complicated piece so if I do not get it done I will do the top variation from the dress pattern. Hopefully it will all go to plan and by the end of the year I will a capsule wardrobe that will be suitable to wear to any occasion.

Sewing Challenges 2018

So this year I thought I would take part in a few sewing  challenges to up my sewing skills and work with some different fabrics I have not tried before. Some of the challenges have set patterns and some you can choose yourself. There are also prizes to be won.  The ones I have chosen to participate in are sewmystyle2018 and  # and #2018makenine.

The sew my style challenge has a different pattern choice to make every month for the whole year. The items are posted on instagram monthly and a random winner is selected to win a prize.



This is my first make for the challenge.


It is the sunny top from Friday Pattern Co and is a knit t shirt.  I found the pattern and instructions hard to follow so ended up re-drafting the top half from another pattern I had and looking at tutorials on working with knit fabrics on line. In the end it turned out fine for my first time sewing with knit fabric.  Looking forward to the next pattern which is a full length winter coat so that will be a challenge.

The next one I decided to take part in is the #2018sewnine.  In this one you pick your own 9 patterns to sew up by the end of the year and post in instagram.  I happen to have 9 Colette patterns that I have had for several years so have decided to make a mini capsule wardrobe from them.  There is 1 coat, 1 jacket, 1 shift dress, 1 slim leg trouser, 1 wide leg trouser, 3 blouses and 1 shirt.  I plan to try and co-ordinate them to mix and match into a mini wardrobe of going out clothes - dressy but casual.  I will start with choosing a colour pallette  and fabrics then making muslins of all the patterns before sewing them up.

I will post pictures of my progress for both challenges throughout the year. I may or  may not complete them but we will see how far I get.

Makes Update

Hi, it has been a while but I thought I would post a little makes update.  But first up I have added these 2 new babies to my sewing room.

This is an upgrade to my  last Janome.  It has a scissor function which makes makes a very satisfying sound when it cuts.  It also has an alphabet and a few more fancy stitches than my last one.

I may have shown this one before but worth another look.  I am getting to grips with it for finishing seams but I really want to try sewing knit fabrics with it, hopefully in the near future.

Anyway here are some garments I have made using my new sewing machine and overlocker.

This is the Camber Top from Merchant and Mills.  The basic construction and fit are very good but the double gauze fabric was a bit tricky to work with for the first time.

 

This is also from Merchant and Mills, it is the Top 64.  Again a fairly straight forward sew and I opted to do the topstitching.

And yet another Merchant and Mills pattern.  This time the Union Dress made into a tunic without pockets.  I just like the style of their patterns and they have plenty of scope to make them in different fabrics and are styles.

I have also been busy making some little characters for xmas -

This little lady is a pattern from Mandy Shaw.

These cheeky two are from a Tilda book -

 This rockin' reindeer is also from Tilda-

 This little chap is ready for his bed -

 This little angel is keeping him company -

 These two pixies are warming up santa's sleigh-

 This little snowman also needs his bed as he stifles a yawn-

I also did some redwork decorations and hung them on this branch-

And finally this little robin wreath made of felt hangs on the back of the door.

Well I will finish there and I will see you next year with some more updates and makes. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everybody.

Catch-up

A lot has happened since my last post.  I have got married and have taken time out to go to college to study fashion design and manufacture.  I have still been sewing and have a few pieces to share with you.  First I made this shirt from a Debbie Shore pattern

Next I have some xmas decorations that I sewed from Debbie Shore's Xmas book and cd

A couple of bags in the mix as well.  These were all donated to the local primary school to help raise funds for them.

I have also invested in a couple of new toys that I cannot wait to start playing with namely an embroidery machine

 and an overlocker.

 Finally got round to making thisand

my doll has a new dress for spring.

Dressmaking

I thought I would try my hand at a little dressmaking.  I had been looking for sewing books on Amazon and came across some Japanese sewing books.  The clothes appealed to me as I like that loose smock kind of thing.  They come with full size patterns but you have to trace off the size you want.  Through trial and error I found my size and stitched up four easy tops suitable for wearing with my jeans.

You can't see from the photo but the third one down has nice little patch pockets on the front of it.  The top one is open at the back and fastens with ties.  The books contain plenty of patterns for fairly easy tops. dresses and jackets which I will be trying out in the future.

Colourful Crochet

A while back I ordered some Drops Paris cotton yarn and it has been laying idle ever since.  I came across it the other day and decided to do something with it.  I started off with a cushion and ended up with three cushions a throw and some bunting.