Pattern Review Jeans Comp - Runners Up!

Well low and behold - it would seem my Turquoise Terror Jeans have landed runner's up in the Pattern Review Jeans Competition! To those who voted for me - thank you so much for support!

They even were the most viewed review on PR for a short time!

It would appear I've won a $50 voucher over at Fashion Fabrics Club. This definitely brought a smile to my face - who can turn down an offer of more fabric? Totally stoked!

A big congratulations to the talented seamstress sfshaza of Communing with Fabric for her win with jeans pattern from French pattern company Au Bonheur des Petites Mains :)

The Marfy SS 2012/2013 Collection

via marfy.it

I've been stalking the Marfy website at least twice a day for about 3 weeks now, and finally it's here.... yay! What I mean is - Marfy have been kind enough to grace us with pictures (and the ability to order them without having the catalogue) of a small selection patterns from their Spring Summer 2012/2013 collection.

The themes are 'minimalism' and 'romanticism', which suit me fine. I would say I was a bit concerned at the reference to the 80's... but I've recently acquired a few patterns from this era that I really like (one coming very soon to a blog post near you!) so I'll keep quiet on that score...

F2748

2748 - A sheath dress with a cross-draping motif. Looks like it would be rather low cut, but I still adore it!



F2827

2827 - A dress with cap sleeves and some draping at the waistline. Depending on your fabric choice - this could be something rather dressy or casual.


F2422 (dress) and F2745 (jacket)

I am absolutely purchasing that pleated jacket pattern. and the sleeveless dress looks gorgeous as well - I've got a bit of a thing for square necklines at the moment!

F2758

This sweetheart neckline dress (2758) is fabulous and the second I saw it I thought it would be perfect for Natalie! (of Splatastic fame)

F2745

This is actually the first time I've see a loosely styled jacket from Marfy, and I'm loving the aesthetic (although such a thing would never suit my shape). Both the dress and raglan sleeve jacket look very art-deco inspired, don't you think?

Both of these two dresses (F2803 and F2852 respectively) have interesting design features with folds and panels. Probably neither would be worn by me, but lovely none-the-less.

The pictures above are my personal favourites from the patterns released online. Unfortunately - if you want to see the whole collection you'll need to purchase their catalogue, which is 18 euro plus postage and always comes with a few freebies.

If you're lucky like me and live nearby Tessuti, you can browse the catalogue which they carry, and then order as you please directly from the Marfy website. I only just recently found this out though, so the other day I went in an spent a very pleasurable lunch time browsing the 2011/2012 catalogue. Here's a few not featured online that I'm in love with (please excuse the dodgy iPhone photos):

F2470 - A form-fitting asymmetrical dress with a loose skirt that has crossed draping, creating a sash at the waistline and which comes together at the side with an open vent at the bottom. Definitely my favourite - this would look stunningly slinky in a drapey jersey.

F2559 - I particularly love the art-deco-esq detail at the front of this loose blouse and the loose sleeves - although I'd probably change it to be more form-fitting to suit my body shape. 

 

F2570 - Check those awesome semi circle lines on the coat! I was planning to make a trench coat this winter... but I could easily be swayed to to do this instead! Especially as I'm seeing potential plus for colour-blocking. I've got a khaki coloured canvas stashed away safely for the trench-coat-to-be - and now I'm seeing this matched with some gem-toned fabrics to make a big feature!

F2606 - Cut it out! Another fabulous foundation pattern for something that could be either simple or spectacular, depending on the fabric choice. Especially when you consider that divinely shaped back neckline.

I'm off to do some pattern ordering :)

When life gets in the way of your sewing...

The stunning coastline of northern NSW

.... I get mad. But sometimes it just can't be helped! For the last week and a bit I've been stuck interstate for work, which means I'm over 1000km's away from my beloved sewing machine (and Mr. poppykettle, of course). 

The only good thing about this? I'm at least somewhere nice. With beautiful beaches!

So I'll be back to regular programming next week...

But in the mean time - the gorgeous Natalie from Splatastic has awarded me the Leibster Blog Award! Aw, thankyou!

"The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it means favourite or dearest to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers." 

And it comes with the following ‘rules’:

1 - Thank your liebster blog award presenter on your blog. 
2 - Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you. 
3 - Copy/paste the blog award on your blog. 
4 - Present the liebster blog award to 5 blogs (with 200 followers or less). 
5 - Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment.

So, who to pass this onto? The easiest five decisions I've made, fo' sho.

Firstly - the ever-beautiful Mary of Idle Fancy. I'm addicted to your Pinterest feed and your blog is a constant source of visual loveliness. I just adore your creations and your aesthetic :)

Secondly - the lovely Zoe of ZoSews. She's only been blogging for a short while, but as a fellow sewing classmate - she's one of the small few people who share my love for sewing that I've actually met in real life!

Thirdly? A blog I've only just come across. But I know already I'm going to love checking back on it. Welcome to the fold, Sue from Sewin' Steady!

Fouth(ly?) - Evelyn from Hand Sewn Home Grown. Apart from acknowledging everything made by you always looks so well made (and you have such a gorgeous garden!), I love popping into Tessuti on my lunchbreak to have a chat. 

And Fifth! - Clio from Clio & Phineas. Always a kickass creation - that colour block dress was totally awesome. Love your work (and your blog).

And a big thank you to everyone for making blogging such a wonderful thing to indulge in :)

101: Fagotted Seams

Fagoting is the term used to describe the technique where two fabric panels are joined together with a 'gap' in between them, either using a sheer panel or displaying some fancy needlework (you can always add a backing of an opaque skin-coloured fabric if this isn't for you!).

This technique was used a lot in vintage nightwear and lingerie. Alberta Ferreti's Spring 2012 RTW (via style.com) collection had some shining examples of fagotting:

If your machine has some fancy stitches, then you can choose to do it the quick way. Have a look here for a useful resource on sewing a fagotted seam with your machine.

I've chosen to do it by hand - I'm travelling for work a lot a the moment so it's nice to have something soothing like a bit of hand sewing to do in the evenings!

1. Firstly, you'll need to secure the two bits of fabric you will be fagotting together equidistant apart. I've done this by drawing two lines (0.5cm apart) down a piece of paper, then sewing my fabric to the paper with the folded edges aligned with the drawn lines:

You sew these down right sides up - with your seam allowance underneath (this will need to be either sewn down mechanically or using a blind stitch to secure the seam allowance).

I'm planning to sew this detail in between some pleats, which is why you only see a small amount of fabric.

2. Down the middle of the gap, I've added in dots at 0.5cm apart - this will be used as the template to make sure I get the stitches the same distance apart. 

On one side the needle will line up with the dots, on the other side it will go between the dots. I found this easier than having dots for each side - which gets confusing if you're dealing with a fairly compact threading pattern!

3. I'm using embroidery thread as it's nice and thick, which I've split in half (3 strands instead of 6):

4. Thread and secure to your fabric. I'm using the same style of fagotting used in vintage pieces - it looks little complex but is really very simple.

If you're doing something more geometric, just work your way on down the seam. The trickiest part is maintaining a regular tension to keep your pattern looking homogeneous.

4. To do the vintage stitch I'm using, insert your needle from the underside of the fabric, taking a little 'bite' of the fabric fold:

Before you pull it through, make sure the 'tail' of the thread is underneath the needle. When you pull through, the threads wrapped around each other will give you the fagotted pattern.

5. Do the same on the other side (like a mirror image):

You'll need thread at least twice as long as the seam you're sewing, unless you don't mind securing off and starting again halfway through. 

This is a great little thing to do when you're watching Downton Abbey... this stitch is ever-so reminiscent of this era! 

That could possibly be fagotting on the waistline of Livinia's Dress...?

VOTE ONE: poppykettle

If you've been a Pattern Review member for 3 or more months, and you thought the pair of jeans I recently made for the Pattern Review Jeans competition:

 - were sewn nicely
 - fit well given the style
 - my review was helpful (you can read it here)

Then I'd love to gain your vote. You can click here to do so. 

You know you want too! Thanks a million fellow blogerette's :)

S1201: Renfrew and an experiment with dye

After travelling from the top of the northern hemisphere to the bottom of the southern hemisphere - please welcome Sewaholic's Renfrew top! 

This pattern makes mince meat of the simple knit tee we all love to purchase, rather than make ourselves. I feel like Tasia and I are on the same wavelength as we both like to use bands to finish off our hems and the like! This top will be fabulous for relaxing about chez poppykettle. If and when I come across a funky knit print, I'll definitely make it up again.

This one is made up in a rather boring cream knit pulled from a dark and foreboding stack of fabric bolts at Lincraft. I'm calling this a wearable muslin because whilst I like the top, I ain't in love with the fabric. But that was the point of this exercise - as I was intending it to be a bit of a canvas... I've seen on Carolyn's and Dixie's blogs their recent foray into the world of iDye - and like a 3-year-old who sees another 3-year-old with a lollypop - I wanted to try too! Grosgrain also has a fab post on fabric/notion dying.

Every single craft/fabric shop I went into didn't have iDye, but instead Rit Dye or Dylon. I'll admit, I was sucked in by Dylon's pretty packaging. They also come in small quantities (50g and the larger 100g). I ended up purchasing the washing machine dye 'Intense Violet':

Problem with this fabric is... I had no-idea what it's content was. So a recon mission back to Lincraft it was. Turns out it was a cotton blend (97%) knit, and according to the dye instructions, non-natural fibre blends (they recommend at least 65% natural fibre) would come up slightly lighter than indicated on the packet. I was willing to deal with that.

This 100g sachet says it can dye 500g of fabric to the intended colour, or 1kg of fabric to a lighter shade of fabric. As my little Renfrew only weighed 150g, obviously I needed a lot less dye, requiring a small ratio calculation:

100g of dye   =      ?g dye  .

500g fabric        150g fabric

?g dye = [100g / 500g] x 150g

?g dye = 30g

So I needed just 30g of dye. The result? You'll see it matches the little colour circle inside the 'O' on the front of the packet (There's a bigger colour chart on the back):

Next time I make it, I'll probably widen the upper bodice piece a little, to account for my b-r-o-a-d shoulders (at least, they are according to every pattern I make). The dyed result is nice, but it's not something I'm going to climb a mountain to scream about from the summit for all and sundry to hear. I'm not sure it's possible to get vibrantly bright colours from a homestyle dye. 

You can see that the colour is ... flat? One dimensional? Either way, the colour my cotton tee turned is all but identical to the colour indicated on the back of the dye. You could get a darker result by increasing the ratio of dye to fabric weight, or by re-dyeing again. 

Not surprisingly, the polyester white thread I used to overlock the seams (after I'd basted them together to check for fit) didn't turn violet - more a dirty off-white. So if you're wanting to dye a synthentic, make sure you choose from the non-natural fibre dye range. 

You'll be pleased to know that there was no dye fallout in my washing machine - it all washed away!

Like my new steampunk brass bits necklace? Then check out Urbandon's Etsy shop. Or his blog. Either one is equally cool.

V8774: Turquoise Terror Jeans

Say hello to my Turquoise Terror jeans! I'm head over heels for them, and whilst I can see plenty of room for improvement (both in technique, skill and knowledge) in the future - I'm deeming these entirely wearable. 

I went shopping last friday after work, and was sad to see all the autumn and winter stock that's out and about - black, grey, dark brown and everything not in between. Adding salt to the wound is all the spring colour palettes popping up on the blogs of your northern hemispherers. This is yet another winter season I will blatantly disreguard the non-colours shoved down our throats by clothing retailers. I simply refuse to bow down to lack of colour in yet another upcoming Melbourne winter!!! How about a bit of fluoro yellow and brilliant turquoise to brighten the day?

You can find my review and competition entry over at Pattern Review here, and whilst you're at it, you may as well check out the fabulous entries by others in the competition gallery here. There are some totally talented people out there - I'm flabbergasted at the shear number of self-drafted jeans entries! My personal favourites are these amazing green jeans by velosewer of Clever Thinking 99, also using Vogue 8774.

The fabric is a turquoise denim from Gorgeous Fabrics. I can't believe I actually grimaced when I originally pulled them from their package - back then I lumped the fabric as being something for future toile's. But over the weeks, it just grew and grew on me. It certainly fits in nicely with my 2012 promise to myself to start wearing more colour on the botton half! Although, I prewashed the blasted stuff 3 times and the dye is still coming out.

The rise of the jeans is a lot higher than any that I own - but I'm finding I really like this. I have a naturally long body, with most of the length between my waist and hips, so this additional coverage appears to be quite flattering, especially at the back.

I'm about 80% happy with the fit, even after the numerous changes made to the pattern. I think this is because whilst I made my toile up in a woven, the actual fabric I used has some stretch. The changes made to my woven toile didn't fully translate into stretch - I would have needed to exaggerate the darts I put in to reduce excess fabric and bagginess to achieve the same look I think. 

Pretty Liberty of London leftovers for the pocket lining :)

As for the Vogue Pattern? Well, it has quite a few positives, but I had expected that a jeans pattern from Vogue would have the same features as a pair of RTW jeans - such as flat felled seams. Top stitching gives the look yes, but it isn't a flat felled seam! I did the real thing (you can see my 101 on Flat Felled Seams here). Although, the jeans fly was practically identical to all the shop-bought jeans I own.

Topstitching makes me nervous, so these jeans helped me overcome a bit of a personal demon :) I decided to go with a self-fabric design on the back pockets, which was completely, utterly and unashamedly copied from one of the numerous pairs of Sass & Bide jeans already in my cupboard. Imitation is the highest form of flattery?

I was wanting to try putting in a shank style jeans button (I even bought two different types) - but at the last minute caved in and went with a hook and clasp - like the pattern suggests. I've yet to try a buttonhole (other than a bound button hole) and was a tad nervous at the idea of trying for the first time with a finished garment. I'll target learning button holes at a later date I think!

Some of you might recall I was originally going to try and use a favourite pair of jeans that were no longer wearable as a pattern. Thankfully, I came to my senses. But then I got an email just a few days ago about a new Craftsy course...

Jean-ius Reverse Engineering Course by Craftsy - click here

Thank you, Kenneth King. I'm so totally in!

Pants Fitting Politics

 vs

I've been doing a humongous amount of reading up on pants, their construction techniques and fit.

A particular comment on the Pattern Review Jeans Competition thread really struck me - asking about whether or not there is an official definition of 'good fit', as this is one of the criteria the contest will be judged on. Also, that she was worried people would vote based on the type of jeans that the younger generation prefer, rather than what was appropriate for the person wearing them.

When it comes to dresses and tops, I think we'd all be able to agree on what a good fit consists of, regardless of the style. But when it comes to pants (and especially jeans), I think it's very easy to get 'style' and 'fit' mixed up.

Pants fitting is such a personal issue in the first place - we're dealing with a pretty busy part of the body - the legs, hips, abdomen, and in some cases, the waist as well. Some of these body parts can be sensitive topics for some. I'm fairly blasé about this area on me - but only because other areas take higher priority for worrying about :)

Not to mention that pants need to allow us to actually move about comfortably and normally. Compared to a dress or a top, there's a lot of functionality going on there!

True to my generation, I prefer my jeans to be snug, have some stretch, be straight-legged and they absolutely must be 'drop-waisted'. This is what I've grown up with, so you could say I've been conditioned into thinking this is the style for me. I remember when I first started wearing jeans at the hips in my early teens - my mum would say I'd end up with kidney problems later in life because my lower back was exposed to the cold when sitting down! And true to her generation, my mum feels most comfortable in jeans that sit at the waist.

So I've been hunting the www (as I've yet to obtain any definitive books on the subject), and the best 'definition' of a good fit for pants I found comes from the New Mexico State University, which you can read here. In summary? Pants should:

"... fall smoothly over the hips and thighs..."

I take this to mean no ripples, wrinkles, 'smiley-faces', bagginess or bunched excess fabric hanging about. And:

"...the lengthwise grain is perpendicular to the floor..."

This statement about grainline was what helped me out when modifying the paper pattern to take into account the darts. In the past I've been confused about what to do when darts change the straight line indicating grainline. Problem solved - the grainline stays straight (and perpendicular to the floor) down the leg. 

So why is it that more of us aren't making our own pants? I saw a chart on Patty the Snug Bug's blog at the beginning of the year that caught my eye:

Patty's 2011 Year in Review Tally

Do we make less pants because it's easier to get excited about dresses and skirts? I'll admit, since starting to sew, I've been wearing HEAPS more dresses and skirts. In fact, Until about 2 or 3 years before sewing, I'd never even owned a dress. Sewing has definitely brought me back to a more 'feminine' form of dressing. 

The recently released 'Best Patterns of 2011' on Pattern Review are to me an eye opener as to what the majority of pattern reviewers like to sew best - mostly simple, flowing dresses and tops:

No. 1 - Vogue 1250, 
via patternreview.com

For DIY pants, I think there are two (very) major stumbling blocks. Firstly, you really do need another person to help you fit them - whilst you're wearing your test version. Secondly, the adjustment minefield is large and uncharted. Trying to imagine how four bits of pattern tissue in 2D convert into something as 3D and as complex as pants is mind-boggling!

Pants Cutting Layout from the Fashion Incubator

The Coletterie blog did a fabulous series of posts on pants fitting for their Clover sewalong, as well as a great resource on some pants-fitting-basics. As handy as these resources are, in a way the sheer volume of options and modifications just compounds the thought pattern that pants are difficult!

Have you sewn a pair of pants? If so, how would you describe your experience compared to other garments you've sewn?