Miette Number Two

Since finishing my first Miette Cardigan a little under a year ago it has been in heavy rotation in my wardrobe. It was an incredibly successful knit and very quickly I knew that I wanted to make another version of the pattern. Thank you to everybody that chipped in with an opinion of which colour yarn to use when I asked, I ended up choosing the "Flourite" colour.



Most of the cardigan was knit while I was on my holiday in Europe. I cast on while we were waiting to leave Melbourne Airport, and had got quite a lot done before we even got on the plane due to a 4 hour delay. I was impressed how much I was getting done and started worrying that I hadn't packed enough yarn in my carry on bag, only to find that my stopping factor was that I had packed my extra cables in my checked luggage, so when I got to the point where you have to split for the armholes I was forced to stop.

I made some alterations to the pattern, based on my last version. The first alteration was to start the bust decreases about an inch lower than the pattern states, so that the 'dart' starts just below my bust, rather than higher up (similar to the principle you would have with darts on a sewn garment).



I also lengthened the cardigan by one pattern repeat This was so that it would finish slightly below the waist rather than right on it, allowing me to wear the cardigan with skirts that sit on the waist without getting a gap between the top of the skirt and the bottom of the cardigan.



However, as this would mean that the ribbing would sit below my waist, and as the ribbing was quite tight on my first version, I added some increases in at the side to bring the lacework around the bottom of the cardigan and the ribbing up to the next size in the pattern so that it wouldn't ride up or be too tight. These increases aren't ideal as they actually start slightly above my waist, but that was necessary to get them in before the lace and ribbing started, as I didn't know how to do the increases once I got to that point.



The last change that I made to the pattern was to lengthen the sleeves to be full length rather than 3/4, as I thought that this change would make the cardigan more wearable as it would be that little bit warmer. To do this I just kept knitting, and trying it on intermittantly kept decreasing the sleeve as I thought I needed it, making sure that I ended up with a number of stitches that worked with the lace repeat.



I've said it before, but I'll say it again; this pattern is really well written and it yields a fantastic cardigan! I really want to knit some more of Andi's patterns, the problem comes with choosing one! Have you seen her newest pattern, the Hetty, it's just as gorgeous as all the rest, making the decision even harder.



Anyway, now I have stopped cheating on my Parcel Sweater with this Miette, I need to get that finished too! So much for getting it finished before winter is over. I don't think I'm cut out for having more than one knit on the go at a time... but then I think I used to say that about sewing too...

Thurlow Shorts Revisited

I am pleased to inform you that I have managed to use one of the pieces of fabric that came home with me from London, a scrap of lovely suiting type fabric that I picked up in the swap. I don't know who donated it to the swap, but whoever you are - thank you! I love it!! (Please own up if it was you!)

 

As soon as I saw this fabric (which was a little less than a metre, plus a bit due to the cutting done by the previous owner) I knew that it just needed to become a pair of thurlow shorts. And I was incredibly happy when I managed to fit all the pattern pieces onto the fabric with very little difficulty:



I didn't make any further alterations to the pattern, as per the pair I made for the pattern testing these are a straight size 10, with a 6cm increase in length to make the cuffed version the same length as the uncuffed version. I had marked on how far in I'd taken the centre back seam last time, so I just cut that out ready to go as I knew the other pair are spot on in fit (which saved a little fabric). The only difference between this pair and my first pair is the addition of the back pocket facing that is in the final pattern but wasn't in the pattern testing version (the only tissue piece in the above picture!).

I managed to find some solid brown fabric in my stash to use for the pockets and facings that matches the dark brown fibres in the weave of the fabric, I had a button and slide in my stash to use, and cut down a larger zip to size, so that I could make the whole thing from the stash, which was good!



Another quick thing, the t-shirt that I'm wearing in these photos is one of the many t-shirts I've made and haven't blogged. This particular one is made from some absolutely lovely merino jersey that I got at The Fabric Store. I love my merino t-shirts so much, they're great in cold weather, great in warm weather, and they get less smelly. Win, win, win really.

(PS: Thanks to Mel for snapping these photos for me)

Social Sewing - Reminder for September and dates for 2014

Just a quick reminder that our next social sewing is this coming Saturday, the 21st of September. If you're in the area and don't have other plans then you should come along, it's lots of fun! I believe this month has a somewhat unofficial theme of 'swimwear', as a few of us are going to dive in to bathers sewing and give each other some moral support. Of course, you don't have to sew bathers to come along, as always bring whatever you want to work on.

We have sorted out our dates for 2014, so make sure to visit the social sewing page and mark down the dates in your diary: http://www.mymessings.com/search/label/Social%20Sewing
Or, if you use Google calendars and want invites to all of the social sewing dates, let me know and I can add you as an attendee so they're automatically added to your diary.

Looking forward to hopefully seeing you next weekend!

One Pattern Seven Bloggers - Revisited - The Reveal

Welcome back everyone. Today is an exciting day, as today we are sharing with you our finished Macarons for the 1pattern7bloggers project. We showed you out inspiration and fabric last week, and today, the dress! (Apologies in advance for how picture heavy this post is)

I am really happy with the way my dress turned out. I could have picked an easier lace to work with, but at the time I couldn't find any other laces that I liked (although have seen some since). The lace is quick a thick (and heavy) guipure lace so it was quite tricky to (wo)manhandle the seams into place.

To make the dress the way I wanted to, I had to change up the construction slightly because I'd changed the bodice. I changed the pieces so that the lace for the bodice was all one piece, and then I had the green satin underneath in the style lines of the macaron (although changed slightly, as they were a bit low on me as drafted).

I stitched along the top of the satin underlining and the lining to finish that edge, and then hand basted the satin underlining to the lace (shown above).

After that I stitched up the darts and then treated it just like a normal bodice piece.

The bodice underwent some quite substantial changes to get it to fit. What I ended up doing was actually basically the same as my last 1pattern7bloggers dress and a few dresses since, kind of merging the pattern with my bodice block. I then made up a muslin of the bodice and altered the sweetheart style-lines so that sat in the right spot (ie they covered my bra). This last bit was done with the highly technical technique of drawing on the muslin with a biro while I was wearing it.

The last change I made was to alter the sleeves so that they had a straight hem and I could use the edge of the lace at the sleeve hem, along with using it along the hem of the dress.

I included the skirt as drafted... including the pockets inside one of the pleats, not that you'd know by looking at it...

 

Isn't that just really clever!! It's a sneaky trick I think I'll be using on future projects, that's for sure.

I finished off the hem of the underlining with my new rolled hem foot, isn't it just perfect?? Such a revelation, I can't believe I took so long to get the foot.

I'm still not entirely convinced by the shape of the skirt on me though, I'm not completely sure it's the most flattering silhouette.

Although partly I think that's because I could have nipped the waist in a little more than I did. However that was a deliberate decision not to, as I'm planning on wearing this to Frocktails next weekend, and since we're going out for a delicious dinner I thought a tight waistband would be a rookie mistake!

I finished the seam allowances of the lace and the neckline with black silk organza to try and make the lace that bit neater. It's the first time I've actually used silk organza and I'm very happy with how well it turned out.

And the last construction detail I wanted to share is the hand-picked zip that I added. It's definitely not the best I've ever done. But it's heaps better than a machine stitched zip would have been. It was a bit too tricky for me to try doing a lapped zip with the lace (as I've had less experience with them), so I stuck with a centred zip. It's a little gapey in spots, but it's down the side so it's less visible anyway, right?

I'd like to say thank you to Sarah for taking these photos for me, and wanted to make sure to include this shot of the back of the dress, as she wanted me to share it so you could see the perfectly symmetrical top edge of the underlining...

Anyway, I'm sure you're all just waiting for the announcement of the winners of the massive combined giveaway!

Firstly, another enormous thank you to all the generous sponsors of the giveaway:

 

The winners are:

• Lill wins the  Macaron Pattern thanks to Colette Patterns 
• Josephine wins the Macaron Pattern thanks to Guthrie & Ghani 
• Macinic Macaron Pattern thanks to Stitch 56 
• Elizabeth wins the Pattern of your choice thanks to Sew Squirrel 
• Kathleen S wins the Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to Indie Stitches 
• Joanne wins the Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to The Haby Goddess 
• Amy wins the $20 gift voucher thanks to Fabric Worm 
• Sew Charleston wins the $30 gift voucher thanks to A Fashionable Stitch 

The winners should receive an email from one of the 7 of us in the very near future to organise getting contact details for your prizes.

             

I hope you've enjoyed our revisiting of this project, and remember to head on over to see how the Macarons of the other 6 talented ladies turned out, I know I can't wait to see them:

• Marie from A Stitching Odyssey
• Reana Louise from Reana Louise 
• Kat from Petticoats and Peplums
• Jen from Jennifer Lauren Vintage
• Amy from Sewing Through the Motions 
• Sam from Buckingham Road

Of awesome meet-ups and new fabric

Before it gets ridiculously late to write about this, I wanted to put together a quick post about the awesome meet-ups and fabric shopping that happened on my recent jaunt to Europe, and even more recent trip to Queensland.

First up my trip to Europe. While I was there, on a drizzly afternoon in Birmingham I met up with the lovely Sabs for a little bit of fabric shopping (more about that later) and lots and lots of gossiping. It was a very enjoyable afternoon, although I'm a little worried that I talked a bit too much, as I had a sore throat afterwards! Sabs kindly showed me her favourite fabric haunts in the centre of Birmingham (although we had unfortunately scheduled our meet-up on a day the markets were closed), and as well as the pieces of fabric I purchased I came home with a lovely piece that Sabs very generously gifted to me.

Me and Sabs

Next up was the enormous and overwhelming meet-up in London, on Goldhawk Road to be exact. There was a massive 35+ people that came along to the meet-up, which in all honesty was a little overwhelming. I only managed to speak to a handful of people.

We gathered outside the tube station, and then split into groups to hit the shops all along Goldhawk Road. After that we all went to 'Liz Cafe' for lunch, where the staff were incredibly accommodating to our massive group. And after lunch there was the swap to beat all swaps. Wow everybody had brought stuff to swap! There was a massive table of fabric, another of notions and another of patterns.

 

It was an amazing day, and sadly I didn't actually get any photos of me with any of the fabulous ladies that I met. However, here's one I've stolen from Roisin of me with Emmie, Alison, Roisin, Vicki Kate, and Amy:

(Pic stolen from Roisin)

I'm sure by now you're just wanting me to get on with it and tell you about the fabric. Ok, ok, I shall oblidge...

This is the almost embarrassingly large stack of fabrics that came home with me from our holiday. From the top:
- Gorgeous almost Liberty style lawn from Macclesfield
- The lovely fabric gifted to me from Sabs
- Green floral chiffon from Birmingham
- Origami cranes chiffon from Birmingham
- Rayon from Birmingham
- The softest voile in the world from Paris
- Another lovely voile from Paris
- Some Liberty Lawn that I got in the London Swap(!!!!)
- Some Liberty Lawn bought on Goldhawk Road
- A stretch sateen from Goldhawk Road (I went halves with Roisin as it only came in 5m pieces)
- An unknown but very soft fabric from the London Swap
- A purple floral voile from Goldhawk Road
- HOT AIR BALLOONS! Poplin from Goldhawk Road
- Some Jersey from the London Swap
- Some textured suiting from the London Swap

It's a really good job that I'd taken across three quilts, so had that space spare in our bags and just about squeezed everything in.

I also mentioned a trip to Queensland at the beginning of the post. I went up to Brisbane for the weekend to see the Quilts 1700-1945 exhibition (which was really interesting, well worth the trip if you're in the area) and see my Gran. However while I was there I met up for afternoon tea with the three lovely ladies pictured below:

Steph, Myself, Liz and Reana-Louise

I had a great afternoon, and the conversation just didn't stop until it was time to go home... and even then it didn't stop as Liz and I ended up going out for dinner too since we still had heaps to chat about.

So that's the wrap-up of the meet-ups I've been to in the last month or so. And I can't believe it's only a week until Frocktails, where I will be joining about 30 other sewcialists for some delicious dinner, yummy cocktails and beautiful frocks. I can't wait!!!

One Pattern Seven Bloggers - Revisited - Inspiration

The reception to our revisit of the one pattern seven bloggers idea has been a little overwhelming. Thanks to everyone that stopped by and commented on the post last week. Remember that the giveaway is still open, so head on over to that post and comment before the 31st of August to be in for a chance of winning one of the 8 prizes.

Today I'm going to talk a little about the inspiration for my dress...

As soon as the Macaron pattern was chosen I knew that I wanted to make a lace dress. Working with lace has been on my wish list for a while now, I was just waiting for the right inspiration for it, and I decided that this is it. I would be guilty of a massive omission if I didn't say I was heavily influenced by Liz's gorgeous lace Macaron in deciding that this would be a good project to try lace with. You can see all the details of her dress, pictured below, here.

The last added bonus to choosing to use lace, was that I decided that my Macaron could hopefully become my dress for Frocktails, and I thought lace could make a fantastic cocktail dress.

Liz's Gorgeous Macaron | Source

So, with that in mind I visited a few local stores looking for lace. Originally I was hoping for a nice coloured lace, that I could then put a neutral (probably black) behind. Sadly fabric shopping luck was not with me, and I was really struggling in finding some lace that I liked. Then finally I found this lovely black lace at GJs during a Social Sewing day:

I auditioned quite a few colours for the underlinining, but the sheer number of options was a bit overwhelming for my poor little indecisive self. Thankfully the lovely social sewing ladies were happy to weigh in with opinions on which to choose, and this olive green colour won, almost unanimously.

So that's my inspiration and fabric choices for my dress. Be sure to tune in next Monday to see the finished thing, and check out the blogs of the other ladies to see what their inspiration is:

• Marie from A Stitching Odyssey
• Reana Louise from Reana Louise 
• Kat from Petticoats and Peplums
• Jen from Jennifer Lauren Vintage
• Amy from Sewing Through the Motions 
• Sam from Buckingham Road