Still hanging on to summer ....

The weather has turned blustery, the days are getting shorter. The blogosphere is buzzing with plans for fall sewing. And what am I doing? I am looking at my large pile of summer fabrics.


Did I really buy all this fabric?


Where is that sassy sundress I was going to make? What happened to the cute shorts? Why haven't I made those luxurious loose linen pants I decided on? How come I never made ..... oh, never mind. So many patterns, so much fabric, too little time!

As I am not quite ready to plunge straight into winter wools I am working on what I am calling a transitional piece. Here's a sneak peak


Eugenia goes vintage!

I am feeling pretty excited about this one. The pattern is dated 1952, the buttons are also vintage and the fabric is a Liberty of London pure silk (purchased in the sale but still at great expense!)

Although it could very obviously be worn as a 'summer frock' (and I am still hoping for an Indian summer), I think that the subdued colours will allow me to wear it as a fall outfit paired with my black boots and a little cardi.

What about you? Did you actually get to make all the wonderful garments you planned for the summer? Are you sitting there feeling, dare I say it, rather smug as you move on to the new season. Or, like me, are you sadly staring at a huge pile of unsewn fabrics and wistfully thinking of all the clothes you should now have hanging in your wardrobe? I’d love to know …..

Spending time with people who sew!

Have you ever started to talk about your favourite subject, yes, I mean sewing, only to see your companion's eyes glaze over? It happens to me a lot. But not last Wednesday. Why? Lucky, lucky me I spent the afternoon with these lovely people


Helen, Catherine, Claire and Elizabeth



Helen, Catherine, Claire and me

Elizabeth, from SEWN was visiting London from New York (I was very happy to see her again - we first met last summer in her home city). Also in the party were Helen from Sew Stylish, Catherine Daze and Claire from Sew, Incidentally. I was so pleased that Elizabeth's trip was the catalyst that enabled me to get together with these UK sewing-blogging ladies whose work I have admired from afar.

Naturally all of us wore something that we hade made. Helen's stunning colourful top, Catherine's amazing plaid dress, Claire's fabulous Sorbetto top and Elizabeth's super-cool linen pants perfectly showcased their wonderful sewing skills. Oh, and the skirt I am wearing was made by, yes, me!

We shopped at Liberty then trawled the fabric stores of Berwick Street. We laughed at shiny, sparkly theatrical polyesters and swooned over wildly expensive embellished silks. Have you ever cut into a piece of fabric costing £150 (USD 245) per metre? Phew!

We finally settled ourselves into one of Soho's characterful public houses for a well-earned drink, where we were joined by the lovely Karen, from Did You Make That? I am so sorry that I missed meeting Melissa, from Fehr Trade who joined the party just after I had to leave.

There is nothing like spending some time with like-minded people who sew to inspire you and reinforce your love of sewing. Do it whenever you can - I heartily recommend it!

My Liberty print fabric is now a shirt!

My rather expensive Liberty print fabric, that I bought last month, has now been turned into a shirt -

Perhaps, at this point, I should reveal a little bit of my personal shirt history. I haven’t owned a long sleeve shirt since, probably, the late 1980’s – in those days shirts were much looser and, indeed, I was much smaller and, whilst the fit was never perfect, I could buy one RTW that was at least passable. Throughout the 90’s fashion got more fitted and my figure got curvier and I discovered that narrow shoulders and a full bust meant that if a shirt fitted my shoulders I couldn’t do it up and if I could do it up my arm movement was restricted by overhanging shoulders. I shudder to recall the many depressing changing room scenes where desperate sales assistants have attempted to button me into some hideously unflattering garment. Since taking up sewing last year I have been determined to make myself a well fitting classic shirt – the sort of thing that all the style gurus say is a must for any wardrobe.

I chose this pattern

which is pattern number 105 from the September 2009 issue of Burda Magazine. As I mentioned in my previous post, I liked that it was “slightly-fitted” and had a double-layered shoulder yoke, a narrow collar and curved hem. It took me two muslins to get something that I was happy with. I started by tracing the size 38 and making a 1” FBA but eventually decided that this was too fitted from the armholes down (I wanted a ‘relaxed’ fit) and was too big around the shoulders. So I started again with a size 36 for the neck and shoulders, grading out to a size 40 for the body and made a small FBA. I also made a petite adjustment across the front, back and sleeves just above the armhole notches, shortened the sleeves and cut the cuffs at a size 36. See what I mean? That’s a lot of fitting adjustments isn’t it? Next time I might be able to fine tune the fit a bit more but, on the whole, I’m pretty ecstatic that I’ve got a shirt that doesn’t gape at the bust and allows me to actually move my arms.

When it came to making it up I have to confess that the stitch ripper was constantly at my side with this one. I can’t blame Burda because their instructions were fine as far as Burda magazine goes. No, it was me not paying attention to what I was doing – Burda give you a nice way of sewing the outer and inner yokes on to the back and front pieces so that everything is neatly enclosed but I managed to sew the outer yoke on inside out! Or, it was me changing my mind – at first I chose to do the topstitching using a dark, navy blue topstitching thread but after doing the first line of topstitching on the back yoke I decided that it would be too overpowering so I ripped that out and switched to a regular thread in a mid-blue that disappears and lets the pattern do the talking.

Here’s a close-up picture of the neat little collar and, if you look closely you can, hopefully, just make out the lines of the yoke and the topstitching.

The funny thing is that, once I was done, although I really liked it as a garment on the hanger, when I put it on me I wasn’t so sure that this style suited me – I felt that it just wasn’t me! However, Mr Fabulous told me I was wrong, so I wore it out shopping for the day and, you know what, by the end of the day I decided that I really did like it on me after all. So, here’s another, full length, picture of me in my new smart-casual wardrobe basic.

Looks like I’ve found my TNT shirt pattern – thanks Burda!

LIBERTY OF LONDON

Being a London girl I felt that I really couldn't go another week without mentioning that great bastion of British style - Liberty of London

Strolling past last week I felt an irresistible urge to enter and was pretty glad I did because they had a sale on and this was my opportunity to indulge myself with a piece of their Liberty print Tana Lawn fabric. It's lovely stuff, it really is, but it's not cheap! Their regular price is £19.95 per metre (approx. US$ 33.00) - that's a lot for some cotton isn't it? So I was pretty pleased to get a discount. There's a lot to choose from - if you'd like to take a look at their range, here is the link to Liberty's Fabric Department.

After some indecision I went for this one, called Valerie's Garden

Liberty prints have always been popular but, as I'm sure you're aware, in the last couple of years they've been achieving iconic fashion status . Both Gap and Nike have included Liberty prints in their ranges and several designers have used them in their recent collections, including Marc Jacobs -

Now, I'm a big admirer of Mr Jacobs but unfortunately, at my age, I don't think the above dress would be quite right for me! So what am I going to do with my prize piece of fabric? I thought I would go down the more traditional route and make a classic shirt. I did make a shirt last year but, to be honest it was fairly hideous and didn't fit me right so I'm still searching for my TNT classic shirt pattern and I need to be sure the muslin is pretty perfect before I cut into my Liberty print. I'm thinking that I might try this pattern, no. 105, from last month's Burda Magazine
I'm looking for something not too fitted but not baggy and I like the yoke, the shape of the collar and the curved hem of this style. I'm hoping this might be the one!

So, what do you think about Liberty print fabric - do you love it or hate it? Is it too much 'old-fashioned English country garden' or do you see the iconic style possibilities? Can you get it where you live and, if so, is it expensive? I'd love to know ........