Jenny, I love you!

Yesterday was a super productive day. After a mini field trip to Clegs to buy a zip I finished off my blue Sencha and black Jenny Skirt.

I have to say, I agree with Gertie entirely; the Sencha and Jenny are a match made in heaven!

Despite my initial misgivings, now I've made it up I'm in love with the Jenny Skirt. I decided to buy some cheap black stretch suiting during my trip to Spotlight earlier this week (when I bought the fabric for my trousers) to make a wearable muslin/test garment to check whether the skirt suits me.

After being honest with myself and taking accurate measurements I cut out the skirt pattern... I then measured how long it is and cut at the upper lengthen/shorten line and added 2 inches (although I think I'll take 1 inch back out again for any future versions). As with Gertie and Zoe, I made my own waistband piece rather than following the slightly bizarre instructions of cutting a piece on the bias and stretching it to fit. I just cut a straight strip and used the side and centre back seams to shape it to my body nicely.

I was very under-whelmed by the instructions for the pattern and ended up completely ignoring them and making it up how I felt like it. The instructions also don't really detail what you need to buy, which is why I had to go and buy a zip today as the one I had bought was too short, and also why the skirt isn't lined.

The order of construction of the skirt also didn't really make much sense to me, so rather than follow the instructions I did the following:

- Sew the darts, sew skirt front to skirt back, press side seams open

- Sew the front and back waistband pieces together (x2) and press seams open

- Sew the skirt to one of the waistbands, matching side seams

- Sew the other waistband to the first waistband, understitch and press.

- Sew the back seam between the markings, pressing slit open

- Sew with an invisible hem around the bottom and up the slit

- (Go out and buy correct length zip)

- Add the zipper up the back (matching waistband seam)

- Invisibly stitch waistband lining down along waistband seam and by zip

As I said, VERY happy, my only problem now is to decide what colour to make it in next! Suggestions?

Sencha Progress...

I apologise for neglecting to update you with my progress, but I did (almost) complete my goal for last weekend, to make the blue practice sencha blouse.

Sadly it's not completely finished as I don't have any buttons for the blouse yet. Sadly some not so nice weather in Melbourne this weekend has deterred me from venturing out very far, so no new buttons for me yet.

It was interesting working with slippery fabric for the first time. I was very careful with the cutting and the pinning (using FAR more pins than necessary I'm sure.

Silky Purchase...

Last weekend I spent some time with my sewing machine and made up a muslin of my Sencha blouse and it turned out really well. It was useful in two ways; obviously finding out the fit, but also learning how the blouse goes together so I'm less likely to have any hiccups with construction when I'm working on the real thing. I don't have any photos of it yet , but I will get some. Due to this success I have taken the plunge and bought fabric.

At sewing club this evening I spent quite a while laying the pattern pieces on the fabric to work out exactly how much I needed. I ended up buying 1.3m, which was quite a bit less than the 1 7/8yd the fabric says to buy, which my bank balance is very grateful for! I bought the "Crepe De Chine Silk" I mentioned before (pictured and linked above), and also bought matching silk thread, some lightweight interfacing, the correct type of needles and some silk hand-wash solution. When I got home I hand-washed it and it's now drying so it's ready whenever I am.

I'm still planning on a "practice run" first with some royal blue fabric from my stash so I can get the hang of sewing with slippery fabric on something that I won't be devastated about if I ruin it. We did the burn test on it and concluded that it's definitely something artificial, probably acrylic or polyester. Either way the fabric has a similar drape to the silk so will be a very good practice run.

My goal for the weekend: To make at least the blue blouse

New Pattern Delivered!

As part of my BurdaStyle Sewing Club we are having a wardrobe sew along. I have my plan and will post about it soon, but I wanted to share with you this little bit of excitement that is related to the sew along - my new Sencha Pattern from Colette patterns:

I bought it online for a steal from Modern Retro Textiles, who sent it out to me super quick as I only ordered it Monday night and it arrived in the post yesterday (Wednesday). Incase you hadn't seen elsewhere on the internets, the Colette patterns are super cute in format as they come with the pattern 'envelope' being a little booklet with the intructions on, with a pocket in the back for the pattern pieces.

I'm very excited about this pattern; I think I've even picked out the fabric I want to make it out of; a gorgeous silk crepe that's white with tiny black spots from Tessuti. The plan is to make a muslin of this on the weekend to take along to sewing club next Thursday and buy the fabric. I have some fabric already that I inherited that would be gorgeous for this but i don't think i have enough. Once I have the pattern pieces cut out i'll have a go at laying them out on the fabric just to make sure though!