A bit of sparkle does you good

Thank you for your kind comments and messages on the previous post. Sometimes its hard to not talk about real life, even when that means veering away from the main focus of the blog. But posting my projects and interacting with other bloggers is a positive thing and this sewing blog is one of my "happy places" so I am going to try to keep it that way moving forward.

Understandably, my Me Made May pledge went by the wayside. I have been following along on the sidelines but I started losing track of outfit photos and forgetting to participate on Flickr after the first week. It turns out I wear something me-made most days without even realising it; when I am not thinking about "outfits", my daily uniform reverts back to jeans, t-shirt (sometimes me-made) and a very definitely me-made handknit scarf or shawl. (Perhaps it's a blessing I'm sitting out from outfit posts, as 31 pictures of jeans and tees would get boring really quick!) I finished my most recent shawlette very recently and it has swiftly become a fave.

Pattern: French 75 by Patricia Martin
Yarn: Knitting Goddess Merino/silk 4 ply in semi solid red. It is knit on 4mm needles which gives it a lovely drape.
Beads: Some old Rowan large clear beads (equivalent of size 6, I think). I used about 150 but they are placed randomly so you could use as many or as few as you wish.

And this is how I wore it. With my navy Sorbetto, to pick out the red buttons. And jeans of course.

When the blog goes quiet it is usually for one of two reasons. - (1) I am spending all my free time sewing or (2) I'm busy with "life stuff" that has little place on a sewing blog. This time around, both are true. A family member is dealing with some pretty serious health issues. As a family, we can't do much except offer support. The Yarn Harlot wrote recently that a blog is not a personal diary, it is "the Internet" with all that that entails.  I agree, and it feels wrong to share too much online. When stuff like this happens, sewing is a refuge that keeps my mind busy and my hands occupied. Craft is comfort. The feel of fabric is soothing and the joy of creating something from it brings some much needed positivity. I have lots of projects that I want to blog about, I just need to take photographs, to sit down and write. And I will do soon.

Twentieth Century Chic

We were blessed with gorgeous weather over the recent bank holiday so I took the opportunity to head up to Sudley House just outside Liverpool City centre to see their latest fashion exhibit - Twentieth Century Chic. The temporary exhibit space isn't huge but there were 12 outfits representing women's evening wear throughout the 20th century.



 Here are two of my favourite pieces - a 1950's taffeta gown and a 1970's print dress. These photos are from National Museums Liverpool's own Flickr stream.





I would happily wear both of these right now! There was also a gorgeous bias cut dress from the 1930's but unfortunately I can't find any professional photos to link to.

As well as the Bedford Lemere photography exhibit which had fascinating shots of local life in years gone by, another attraction of Sudley House for me was the garden. Just perfect for picnics, with views across the rose garden and over the neighbouring field.

Me Made May is almost here

I have been procrastinating as usual but have decided to take the plunge and sign up. At the very least, it should help me see what I should be sewing in order to have a completely (or as much is possible) handmade wardrobe.

So here's goes:



 I, Helen of "Sew Stylish" blog sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear one item of me-made clothing three days a week for the duration of May 2013.

I'm not going to be posting constant outfit pictures, maybe just a round-up each week so that the blog doesn't get overloaded or become repetitive. I find it hard enough to remember to take finished project photos! Confession time - I have actually finished my Belladone dress (LOVE it!) and already moved onto my next project. I will get some pics and update as soon as I can.

Aime comme Must-Have

I seem to have a thing for French sewing patterns at the moment, anyone following me on Twitter will have seen I ordered a couple of lovelies from Deer and Doe. I got Belladone and Reglisse to make lovely summer dresses, and also the Pavot coat because, let's face it, I live in the North West of England and it is going to be needed pretty much all summer. I ordered them on Easter Monday and they arrived with me in the UK on the Friday of that week which was super fast considering the bank holiday. But I was a good little sewist and didn't dive straight into new sewing. I had a current project that had to be finished up first.

The pattern I was working on was a pdf download from another French pattern designer, Aime comme Marie. The pattern is Aime comme Must have which is a simple raglan tee with bust darts for shaping. It is designed for wovens but I wanted to try it in jersey for a relaxed fit. It can be purchased for download here.

First things first - this pattern is in French only. After paying 4 euros by Paypal I was emailed 4 files - the pattern pieces for the front, the back, and the sleeve, and a set of instructions. The pattern pieces are tiled to print on A4 and didn't take too long to stick together (20 pages total). The instructions are not particularly verbose.  They say stuff like "Finish the neckline with bias tape, or hem it, or for jersey just leave it raw." You could definitely ignore them and do your own thing on a simple pattern like this.

What drew me to this pattern was that I really wanted to make a raglan tee with contrast sleeves. I saw this made up on a blog where the sewist had used black lace for the sleeves and satin for the body. I've had this idea in my head for ages and even had the fabric ready to go. I bought some crazy leopard printed sequined jersey on holiday and had an 80cm piece of black poly jersey from Claire (again! Thank you Claire!) at the Birmingham sewing meet up. The top uses 30cm for the sleeves and 80cm for the body (if your fabric is 150cm wide) so it is ideal for using up little leftovers.

Both fabrics were pretty drapey so I used fusible stay tape along the raglan seams to stop it stretching out. For some reason my ballpoint twin needle hated the poly jersey - it skipped more than it sewed. So instead I used steam a seam lite to hem the neckline, sleeves and bottom hem, and just topstitched using the triple stretch stitch on my machine and a single ballpoint needle (which was fine, go figure). Not my first choice of  finish but it worked.

I can definitely see myself making this one again. I never really worked out my fitting quirks with the Sorbetto top and so far I think this raglan style is fitting my small shoulders better. I have worn it all day today and my only concerns are that the neckline finish might stretch out quite easily (not sure if I can go back and reinforce it?). Also I sewed the medium size, and since this is a stretch fabric I could have gone gone to a small through the shoulders and waist for a more fitted look. I think the medium in a woven fabric would be just fine.

I'm considering this my first bit of "sewing for summer" and now I am ready to move onto dresses! I'll be making a toile of Belladone first...

The Great British Sewing Bee

Like pretty much everyone in my Twitter feed and blogroll, I was excited to sit down and watch the Great British Sewing Bee last week. It is so rare for sewing, particularly garment sewing to feature on primetime TV here in the UK. I really hoped the show would work. And I think it did.

There is a nice mix of contestants both in terms of age range and their reasons for sewing. I was particularly fascinated that Mark sews his own pirate costumes - fab! It was great to see Tilly representing sewing bloggers and I have to say I love Ann. I want to be her when I grow up! So who is your favourite contestant? Or are you Team Patrick? 

I really like spotting the patterns and fabric choices. Did everyone notice that Lauren used Colette Patterns Macaron dress while Stuart ran into difficult matching the large print on his Amy Butler fabric? I really hope it does give sewing, and sewing based businesses, in the UK a boost. I love having two or three fabric shops within driving distance and I want them to be there for a very long time. I love online shopping but sometimes, with fabric, you just have to see the colours and feel the drape. Having said that, when I took my sewing machine for a service recently, the shop was full of machines waiting to be picked up by their owners so it gave me hope that there are still lots of busy sewists out there.

A quick sewing machine service recommendation - Affordable Sewing Machines in Moreton, Wirral - they did a great job and had it back to me within a week and a half, despite being rather busy!

I really liked Miss P's post on the subject - if we want sewing on TV more often, we have to watch it and get everyone else watching it. If you missed it, episode 1 is on Iplayer, and for those outside the UK, someone has rather helpfully added it to Youtube. Episode 2 is on at 8pm tonight, BBC2. I'm looking forward to seeing what other challenges the contestants will face over the next three weeks. I'm going to watch it as it airs, with Twitter open beside me so I can see what everyone else is thinking.

As an aside, I was telling DH that the show might make sewing cool again. His response? "Its always been cool, hasn't it?" Good answer, mate. Good answer.

Simplicity 1961

This year I decided I was going to make the effort to sew knits more often, since they fit so well into my casual daily wardrobe. I am about three years too late for the draped cardigan trend, but I figured it would be an easy pattern to sew and so I decided to give it a go anyway.  I used Simplicity Sew Simple 1961 which is already showing as out of print on Simplicity's site. The "Sew Simple" range are a bit cheaper than the main range and include a single pattern option, usually a reissue of another popular Simplicity pattern. In this case it is a reissue of 2603 which appears to still be available.

My only words of warning about this pattern - it is long! I mean I am 5 ft 8 and the front drapes to my knees. The picture on the 1961 pattern envelope is a bit deceiving. In looking at the original pattern no 2603, I wonder if they used the artwork for the shorter version but the pattern pieces for the longer version in this reissue? In fact it would make a great nursing cover for new mums, you could probably fit twins under there and no one would know ;) Also the fact it is so long means that the pattern piece for the front is huuuuuge.

Silly photo. But it illustrates the point pretty well!

My fabric is a lightweight striped knit that I picked up on holiday. The stripes are grey plain jersey and black stretch lace. I was trying my best to match stripes and had literally millimetres of fabric to spare. It says you need a 60" width and it is true.


 Speaking of stripe matching, I didn't do too badly. Here's the shoulder, side seam and armsyce:

The pattern is a knock off of the DKNY cosy cardigan which was supposed to be worn in tons of different ways. Aside from just thrown on, here are some of my other preferred ways to wear it:

There is a video on the DKNY site showing all the possible ways to wear it. I doubt I will sew another one as it is a pretty distinctive trend which I guess is already on its way out. But this one has become a regular in my wardrobe at the moment.