Ok, I know it’s not Easter Sunday just yet, but Hoppy insisted on not having to wait another week to be featured on my blog!
Made from the same pattern as his furry brother, Hoppy has a totally different look due to the plush fabric I used instead of faux fur.
The dimpled fabric wasn’t the easiest to lay out without the dimples going flat, but it was a lot easier to sew than the faux fur. I used the same kind of fabric throughout, just changing colours for the paw pads and the underside of his ears.
Hoppy is thread jointed, so he can move his arms and legs. This was my first (proper) attempt at thread jointing, but it was surprisingly successful!
I will admit I actually made this dress last year, but somehow it missed being blogged! I wasn’t too sure what to make from this cotton lycra, but once I saw the Knot Your Average Top* had a dress option, I knew this was what the fabric would become.
Unlike my Polar Bear Knot Top, I followed the pattern exactly for this dress. I do have some excess fabric bunching above the knot on both sides, and I think maybe that could be resolved on a future Knot Top by losing a little of the height between the shoulder and over bust.
I didn’t want to feel the dress was too snug on the hips, so I picked the a-line version. With the way the cotton lycra holds its shape, I think I could actually get away with the more fitted version. I’m considering taking in the side seams on this one, to make the shape a little more flattering.
I do think I could have used a deeper hem, as that would have helped stop the hem from wanting to flip over – since I made this dress, I’ve discovered that a 1 inch hem is a lot more practical.
It’s taken a while, plus some unpicking when I accidentally stitched the sleeve to the neckline… (yeah, don’t ask how I managed that!) but my denim Fashionista* is looking less like a pile of pieces, and a lot more like a jacket now!
You can see the stitching on the left sleeve where I accidentally made a hole in the fabric was I was unpicking my mistake. It’s not visible from a distance though, and nobody should be looking that closely anyway!
The lining was where I came unstuck when I shelved this project last month, but I decided I ought to just get on and try it again. I didn’t unpick the seam where it caught up, but to be honest I don’t think you’d know now it’s all sewn together!
I hadn’t expected to find branded lining fabric, but when I came across this Jaeger lining, I knew it would work really well for a jacket lining. It does make the jacket a lot more structured – the jacket looks like it’s still being worn when it’s on a hanger!
The sleeves need a little hand stitching just to catch the lining into the side of the placket, but other than that they were sewn exactly as the pattern suggested. Eventually the cuffs will have buttonholes and denim buttons, but I want to test using my Prym pliers to attach the buttons as I think that might work a lot better than hammering them.
I decided to stay with just one line of topstitching but deviated from the pattern to top stitch the sleeve seam as well. I thought that would help to strengthen the seam after I had to unpick it.
Although the jacket looks mostly finished, as you can see by this photo, I still have the waistband to attach, and the buttons to add. As with my Showerproof Fashionista, I chose to sew the facing as you would normally expect, rather than adding it like bias binding as the pattern suggests. That was I was able to use my ‘take it easy’ ribbon piece on the back as a label.
I found some buttons which fitted well with the blue, and was planning on using some smaller ones on the cuffs. Unfortunately the bulk of fabric on the cuff meant that my sewing machine thought the one-step buttonhole was meant to be a lot smaller than I was aiming for. Rather than trying to unpick one line of stitches, I cheated and added a popper to the cuff instead. It’s not quite what I was aiming for, but it’s better than risking making a mess with the buttonhole!
I’d already decided I wanted to have a label on the back, and assuming the neckline would be sewn as a regular facing, I added the label and some bias binding around the edge as I didn’t fancy sewing a narrow hem on the curved edge. Then I read down to the next line and realised that the neckline works more like binding than a facing. I really didn’t want to scrap my neckline piece, so I skipped the proper instructions and just attached it as if it was a facing, then topstitched around the bias bound edge to hold it in place.
This has made the neckline slightly lower, but that’s not a problem for me. I’ll have to remember that when I get to that point on my denim Fashionista though, as that bit will come after I’ve added in the lining.
I obviously wasn’t going to try ironing the softshell, so the waistband isn’t quite as crisp as you would expect. But overall, the jacket has a great look, the buttons and buttonholes all line up, the pockets work, and the jacket fits!
Now where’s that rain so I can test out how waterproof this softshell is!
A little deviation from the bears I have been making, this is my first attempt at making Atilla the Bun by Emma’s Bears. The faux fur isn’t the greatest quality, but I wanted to try using a black pen to add some shading around his eyes and on his nose, so I didn’t want to use fantastic fur in case I made a mess of it!
I still haven’t stitched over his nose shading – I don’t know that it really needs that, as I think his nose looks pretty cute as it is 🐰
A tiny piece of white felt gives his eyes a bit of a lift, while his paw pads were cut from some faux suede, just for a different texture to the faux fur.
I didn’t add any toy joints into Atilla so he’s permanently in this waving pose. I think he came out quite well, although I don’t know I’d be in a hurry to use that kind of faux fur again!
Having cut out the fabric for my Showerproof Fashionista Jacket, I wanted to use some of the left over fabric, but wasn’t too sure what to make. I liked the idea of making some kind of showerproof hat, especially as the jacket doesn’t have a hood and as luck would have it, that day I was browsing on Instagram and discovered that From the Studio (Jamie Kemp) has just released the Clovelly Cap pattern!
Whenever I go outside, I always wear a baseball cap so I don’t get caught with the sunlight, but the caps I’ve been wearing are looking past their best now. I don’t know about you, but I’d always thought that baseball caps would be really complicated to make, involve a lot of additional hardware (which no doubt would be hard to find in local shops), and wouldn’t be worth the effort.
I was intrigued to see how Jamie’s pattern instructions compare to some of the other Indie designers’ patterns I’ve been using. The most noticeable difference is that Jamie uses a more traditional style of line drawings rather than photos to illustrate each step.
But the instructions are really well written, and after holding the pieces together and reading the following step, it made sense what was being sewn where – I didn’t even need to unpick any stitches!
I wasn’t brave (or reckless) enough to iron my softshell, so I stitched the seam allowance down instead. Because those stitches were then stitched over to attach the bias binding, that did leave a few extra stitching lines on the crown. If you don’t look too closely though, you wouldn’t notice them.
As for the supplies needed to make the cap, I already had the softshell left over from cutting my jacket. The lining is a black polycotton I had in my scraps box, I bought the bias binding and velcro, and surprisingly enough finding the square buckle-like piece for the back wasn’t as challenging as I’d thought!
The only potential struggle was the brim stiffener – while my local sewing shops have a good range of items, I had a feeling this would be something too specialised for them to have in stock. I had a rummage through my sewing box, and came across some clear vinyl (pvc) I’d purchased for a different project. I cut two brim stiffener pieces from the vinyl, stitched them together around one edge, and used that inside the brim pieces. Even with the heavier weight of softshell as the underside of the brim, those two layers of vinyl seem to be the perfect choice.
I fully admit I’m already starting more projects than I’m finishing this year, but having spotted this softshell fabric in my local fabric shop for £8 a metre, I couldn’t resist getting enough to make a showerproof Fashionista* jacket for the spring!
At the moment, my Denim Fashionista is semi-shelved while I figure out where I went wrong with the lining – I’d already sewn the denim sleeve to the neckline by mistake (don’t ask how I achieved that!), and in sewing the first part of the lining together, I had more pleats and tucks than I should’ve done. So that’ll need unpicking and some careful pinning to try and resew that.
But rather than plough on through a project that wasn’t going all that well, I decided I needed to feel I could successfully make something. Softshell fabric has a waterproof outer, with a fleece backing – perfect for spring, and also perfect because it doesn’t need a lining!
Now I know this jacket won’t be 100% waterproof, because at the moment I’m not planning on using any tape or anything to seal the seam lines. That means that water could seep through the stitch holes along the topstitching. But really, I think for my first attempt at sewing a proper showerproof jacket, I’m happy with it being 95% showerproof rather than aiming for 100%.
I didn’t want to try colour matching the pockets, so I picked out some ‘natural’ patterned cotton for the pocket bags – if I get them sewn in correctly, they won’t be visible from the outside so it won’t matter that they don’t match!
The back is all sewn and topstitched – I’m beginning to wonder if I should have made an attempt to fussy-cut the foxes, but I think this was the most realistic use of the fabric. If I’d fussy cut or tried matching the fox heads across each piece, I think I would have wasted a lot of the fabric.
The neatest front yoke I’ve stitched so far – yes there is a slight catch where the yoke joins the front panel top stitching, but it’s much better than my denim jacket’s front yoke! I did have a bird’s nest of bobbin thread on the pocket topstitching (I hadn’t realised I was sewing that with the pocket flap upside-down), but I’m hoping I can unpick that without too much hassle.
So far so good, although I’m not looking forward to adding in the sleeves – that’s where my denim Fashionista started to go wrong!
There aren’t many sewing patterns out there for penguins which look like they’re sliding down a snowy bank, so when BeeZee Art released her latest penguin pattern, I knew it was one I wanted to try making.
Rather than sticking with the traditional penguin colours, I decided to use some tie-dye effect plush fabric I had lurking in my fabric bag. Of course this means that Percy Penguin looks like he’s been out in the sun for too long, but I quite like the colours on him.
As yet, Percy doesn’t have his feet attached, but because I added some plastic pellets to his tummy, he balances really well without his feet.
It’s strangely tempting to make more penguins in various different colours…. and hopefully make sure that their flippers come out at a better angle next time – Percy’s look like they aren’t quite right somehow.
You’re probably sitting there thinking “what on earth is a Mash Hoodie?”… well, it’s simply a combination of two patterns. In this case, it’s the main body and sleeves of the Hey June Handmade* Halifax Hoodie* with the neckline and hood of the Ellie & MacAround the Block Hoodie.
This is the first time I’ve tried mashing two patterns together, let alone two patterns from different designers, but I wanted to try the hood and neckline of the Around the Block Hoodie without risking the rest of the hoodie being too snug as this French Terry wasn’t the cheapest fabric out there!
I was going to use the hood lining fabric for the cuffs, but it was disappointing in it’s thickness and strength. So instead, I used some premade ribbing fabric for the waistband, and found two premade cuffs that worked really well for the sleeve cuffs.
All I need to do now, is get it finished so it’s able to be worn!
It hadn’t ever dawned on me to try making a showerproof jacket to wear on the allotment, but each time I’m working there, it’s almost guaranteed the weather will be either blazing hot sunshine, or showers. I had considered buying a showerproof coat, but after looking at the prices, they all seemed way too expensive for something which would most likely end up covered in mud after the first time I wore it, and no doubt would get snagged on the raspberry thorns!
I didn’t want to attempt a sleeved jacket, as non-stretch fabric potentially wouldn’t allow me the range of movement I would need to be gardening. However, I’d had my eye on the Aspen Fleece Vest* from 5 out of 4* for a while, and after asking if it would work in a non-stretch fabric, decided that I would try making my own showerproof gilet.
I was advised I could go up a size to allow for the lack of stretch, but after making this one, I think I’d be tempted to actually go back down a size for my next one, as this seems roomy enough.
I used ripstop for the outer, so in theory if it gets snagged on the thorns then the hole won’t spread. The lining (which isn’t part of the pattern itself, but was just made to the same size as the outer, then stitched together at the armholes, neckline and base hem) is a plain microfleece.
I used the fleece for both sides of the collar, so it makes it more comfortable to wear.
The stitching isn’t perfect (the lining seems a bit big compared to the outer on the side seams), and I know I messed up trying to sew the armhole seams…. I really need to learn the burrito method! But the jacket is perfectly usable – it’s really comfy, and all I need to do now is go out in the rain to test out how waterproof it is!
