Prototyping

I've been testing out a few blouse patterns. I haven't sewn many blouses. My friend Flo once remarked that blouses are sometimes more work than dresses and only half of you is covered at the end. Nevertheless, I don't like the way RTW blouses fit. Or rather, don't fit. They are usually too tight in the biceps and too tight across the back so here starts my testing.

First up, Maria Denmark's Edith. The simplicity appealed to my tired brain.

Edith blouse, sans collar.

 I made the first one to test the fit and left off the collar. The fit is a little snug across the back so I added about 3/4" to the next one (currently under construction) . I also lowered the front darts slightly tho' you can't tell they are high here due to the busy print.

The arm holes are touch tight so I added a quick-and-dirty (pronounced 'lazy' vent and lowered them in the next version.

In this photo I missed the neckline but the shirt was in the washer when I realized.

 The back neckline was a little high and pressed uncomfortable against the back of my neck.

Back neck.

 Adding the 3/4" may help that for the next one but I scooped out a bit to make this one wearable.

Gape prevention.

 I interfaced the facings but that made the front a little stiff, so I added a 'secret' button to keep things together. I picked this trick up from Jane (an "of course!" moment) so I have now totally justified my blog reading.
Wow! Now that I've written this it all down, that 'simple' blouse was a bit more complicated than I first thougth.

Cropped Renfrew.

 I've made the Sewaholic Renfrew many times. This time I cut if off just below the waist, raised the neckline, and widened the bottom band. I didn't pull the neckband tight enough so it has a bit of a ripple and the fit is a little tighter than I prefer, but it is a good experiment.

Oakridge

 I am mostly happy with the fit of the Oakridge tho' I'm wondering if I should have gone one size smaller. It is a little bit wide in the shoulders.

Facing sticking out on the left side. I should be more careful when getting dressed.

 I added facings as I have not had good luck with bias tape. This is somewhat full in the back. Maybe I'll take the 3/4 inch I added to the Edith out of the back of this one.

 It also might look different out of a drapier fabric. This cotton is a bit stiff and may soften up after it is washed a few times.

The print is of skeleton keys and the buttons were in my stash. I think I got them from an estate sale a few years ago.

Belcarra

 Sewaholic Belcarra I made last year as summer's last gasp. I like it a lot and will make more. Like the Oakridge I'm going to take about 3/4" out of the back as it gapes a bit.

And a gratuitious shot of my tomatoes which were newly planted last time I posted. The whole garden is growing like mad, in spite of the gloomy weather we've been having. The huge rain we had last night, almost an inch, will definitely keep things growing.

Renfrews With A Twist

This is a very sloppy post. The camera batteries are dead, so I took these pictures with my cell phone and they are topsy-turvy. (Thankfully I have no aspirations of being a fashion blogger.)

I have been doing a bit of sewing, and some knitting. I am a very slow at kniter but I wanted to make my friend K an infinity scarf for Christmas. A project that would take most people one day took me close to two weeks. The project was easy enough, but I am easily distracted so there are several 'design features' to make the scarf truly original. However she likes it so all is good.

But I digress. Bring on the crazy pictures of some easy Renfrew modifications. All the sweaters are a lovely wool jersey I had in my stash and finally worked up the nerve to use. (It's taken me a long time to cut the 'good fabric'. I don't know why; it's not good for anything laying in a box somewhere.)

The first one is from Modellina November  (I think) 2013. I saw this magazine on sale once at McNally's and promptly bought it. I have never seen the Modellina in stock there again. Such a pity. This one contains some very interesting patterns so I would think others would be the same.

Modello 34. I'll wait while you turn your head, tho' it may not be necessary to look at the pattern layout sketches. This was a very easy idea to adapt to the Renfrew; I just made the Renfrew's neckline smaller and traced off the curved collar piece to fit.

 

This off-white-but-soon-to-be-dyed-because-some-colour-ran-onto-it sweater was made using this
split cowl collar tutorial. I like how it turned out and plan to make another, and not wash it with anything brightly coloured.





The tie front sweater is a modified with the neckline and tie from Butterick 5859.

I like how the simplicity of the Renfrew lends itself to so many other neckline styles.
And I can stay warm on my way to work and in my drafty office.

The Renfrew-Kimono Tee

 May proved I have very few made-by-me tops. And very few print tops.

I tried the Kristen kimono tee and liked its  quick, easy construction. And because I put in a back seam, it took about 0.75 m of fabric. Hmmm

I also like the renfrew tee. So I combined the two. You can see the extra width thru' the hips on my mash up below.

I ordered two one-meter pieces of Laguna knit from Hawthorne Threads. They are very nice knits and I've read they wear well.

So I now have the Pinwheel tee and the Cochlea tee.  Bonus: I figued out what I was doing wrong with the Renfrew neck binding- hooray!

I hope to move on to the Balcarra blouse this weekend.

The Last Half of May

This is going to be a long post. Feel free to simply look at the pictures or bail altogether; I won't be offended.

May 14. 0 degrees.  Black stretch denim Vogue 1247 (unblogged 'cuz I already have a couple)  and my orange renfrew.

May 15 It's even colder at -5. What kind of lunacy is this?!? Hence my being dressed for winter in OOP Vogue 2339 made in about 1998 and a thrifted skirt.

May 16; Friday again. Jeans and a wool t-shirt with a thrifted corduroy 'jean' jacket and scarf.

 May 17; A slightly warmer Saturday in the Simplicity 2444 Crayon Dress.

 May 17 -no photo of my yard-work wear.

May 18 -I'm on vacation and on my way to the farm to visit my parents. Jeans and (unblogged) Kristen kimono tee. I need to do a slight FBA when I make this again. I was too lazy to add a seam allowance so I just cut a size bigger and sewed with a narrow seam allowance.

 May 19 & 20. At the farm wearing 30 year old farm clothes consisting of surplus Canadian Armed Forces work dress trousers and a sweatshirt my cousin gave me.

May 21; still on vacation and going to the retirement party of my office partner. It's still a little chilly so I have on a thrifted wool sweater, wool t-shirt and a Hollyburn made from Ikea decor fabric. I cut this out months ago but only completed it that day. The Geek told me it looked like a chesterfield cover (which it may well do) but my co-workers found it to be a very happy print.

 May 22; Thursday: Sewaholic Cambie in raindrops. A lovely day and I'm going for a massage. Vacation luxury. I also ran some errands, one of them a stop at Artsjunktion where I picked up a couple of vintage patterns. Lucky me!

May 23 Friday! but I'm on vacation anyway!! I spent the afternoon with my three year-old nephew playing in the puddles. I forgot to take a picture, but I am wearing the red Kristen kimono tee with a pair of old purchased shorts.

May 24 & 25. Yard clothes. I didn't go anywhere but a greenhouse and I got my garden in before it rained.

May 26; Back to work Monday. McCalls 6708 sweater, Kristen kimono tee (eek! a twin-set), and the Ikea-print Hollyburn. It is much easier to dress in top-to-bottom me-mades when it is warmer. I'm glad I can bike to work -it's so much faster than driving. And isn't my rhubarb huge?

 May 27; Raindrop Cambie. And sandals -the weather is heating up!

 May 28; Shorts than once were trousers and McCalls 6708 muslin.

 May 29; Sailing vacation dress. The temperature, with the humidex, was 38 degrees.  Tons o'kilometers put on the bike today so I was both relieved and vexed that we had a strong wind. We have magically jumped into summer.

 May 30. I forgot to take a picture but I was wearing my denim Hollyburn with a white t-shirt with red earrings and red sandals. My new work partner, Shamrock, was dressed the same. We wanted to see how many of our colleagues would notice. They failed miserabley; only five of about 35 people made the connection. Good thing they aren't undergoing any cognitive assessments themselves.

May 31: Saturday. Grocery shopping and other errands. The Geek cut the grass yesterday but I still have to do the trimming. Wool t-shirt (short-sleeved for a change) and Ikea Hollyburn.

And there we have it.

Sewing With The 'Good' Fabric and Some Scraps

It was so cold New Years Eve day that once I got home from work, I felt no need to go out again. So New Years Day was spent inside sewing.

I've made three cowl neck sweaters from Sewaholic's Renfrew pattern. The cowl necks have turned out much better than the summer band-necked ones. I can apparently manage the cowl but not the neckband.

This is version number 2, a rayon/wool blend from Hart's Fabrics. It isn't as fluid as version 1 and I didn't quite get my swayback adjustment right, but I am still happy with how it turned out.

This is version number 1. A very drapey merino from the Fabric Store USA. They don't have an online shop, but they will happily mail you swatches and fabric. I dealt with Allison and she was great. I feel kind of guilty ordering from the States, but I can't find any local wool knit. Sorry, Mitchell's Fabrics carries brown, but I need colour even more in the winter than in the summer. Gala Fabrics in BC is also rumoured to carry wool knit, but they don't have an online shop yet, and I haven't gotten around to telephoning to see if they'll do mail order.

laundry wrinkles

 And version 3 of the same rayon/wool from Harts.

 I made the cowl and neck opening a little smaller and it pulls slightly above the arms because of this but the sway back adjustment is better and I am happy with it as well.

And I think I may have figured out how to work with the Renfrew top neckline. Barbara has this link in today's post. I like the wrap collar so I may try that next.

In other news, The Geek spent New Years Day creating things too. Her hand would get cold while using her computer in the sunroom so she made a mouse pogie. You can see it hanging on the door knob in the pictures of tops 1 and 2.

This is the pattern. She used a 3-d modeling softward to turn a 2-d image into something you can draw flat (sorry about the crappy explanation. I don't understand it, which is why she is the Geek and I am not.) She plans to post the instructions on Instructables so you may want to watch for it there if you are curious. She goes by the name 'berserk' on that site.

This is the paper mock-up. I think it looks kind of like a horseshoe crab.

And her is the fabric prototype. She used a two-sided scrap of fleece I had in the stash.

I think it looks more like a mouse house, so that is what I call it.

I have no idea how well it works since she managed add water to the boiler (there is a problem with one of the auto-flow valves) and bleed the radiators so the house is actually quite warm in here at the moment. Yay!!!

I also made a dog boot for a friends dog from another fleece scrap. He had lost one of his red-with-black-trim mittens, and since my red fleece bits did not match the originals, I decided to make it out of fake leopard.

This may be my only contribution to Jungle January as I am trying to sew from my stash, and it's still too cold to venture out of the house on any frivilous ventures.

This is a rather dry post, but I am a little under the weather and all the snow shovelling is getting me down.
Keep warm!!

Testing the Renfrew

 Many moons ago, when I was a sweet young thing,  I used to sew a size 12 straight out of the envelope. Ah, those were the days. I was a runner then, and my body shape was different (I also suspect the Big 4, which is what I sewed exclusively back then, has also changed their fit models, but I have no way of checking). Then I did a number on my knees and I started cycling instead; not competitively, but I was on the bike a fair bit for long distances. Enter a truck/bike MVA and some damage to my neck so the mountain bike was not so comfortable anymore. I still ride a bike, but mostly commuter cycling.
However shortly before the the accident I started rowing and my shape has changed again. I am broader thru' the shoulders and more muscular across the back. Good-bye straight size anything; I am now a vexing mish-mash of sizes, as you will soon see.

Behold Renfrew I. The picture is less than optimal, as are my construction techniques. I don't remember what size I cut out and I am waaaaay to lazy to go all the way downstairs to the sewing room to look. In this size it is too narrow in the shoulders and too small in the bust but fits well in the waist. I find the length a little long for my taste and the neck doesn't sit quite right, but I think that may be due to said construction techniques.

 Renfrew II: cut two sizes larger in the shoulders and bust but the same size in the waist. Those areas fit well, but the neck gaps even more. That is not constuction problems but my own structural quirks. I like the length on this one better and I left off the bottom band.

Plans for Renfrew III? The same as R II but I am going to cut the neck opening smaller. I haven't decided if I am going to use the smallest size, or just two sizes down from R I.

Wish me success!