Tag Archives: sewing

Tropical Jeans

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Unlike most of my sewing projects, these tropical jeans never actually entered the UFO (unfinished object) stage! I’d originally purchased a metre of this fabric to make a t-shirt, but then realised that all my t-shirt patterns required either horizontal and vertical stretch, or 40% stretch as a minimum. This fabric only had 20% horizontal stretch, so it was destined to turn into a pair of non-denim Real Deal Jeans* (can you guess this is my favourite trouser pattern at the moment?).

I will admit I fluffed the buttonhole completely – I started far too close to the edge and once I’d opened the buttonhole, I realised it just wasn’t going to be practical to use.

So, to save trying to somehow redo the waistband with the bit of fabric I had left, I decided to just zigzag over the failed buttonhole (I’ll probably add some ribbon or something over that at a later point), and add poppers instead!

Unfortunately I didn’t put the popper over far enough, so the zip is visible (oops!)

The poppers still make the waistband nice and comfy, and although I haven’t (yet) added any belt loops, I might wear a belt with these trousers just for added reassurance that the poppers won’t suddenly unpop while I’m wearing them!

I do love the way I was able to be creative with my fabric placement for the back yoke – given this was all squeezed out of a metre of fabric, I didn’t think I’d be able to be quite so picky with my layout!

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Pattern:  Real Deal Jeans* by WinterWear Designs*
Fabric: Cotton Elastane from Fashion Fabrics

Owl Button-up (finished)

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I’ve finished my Button-Up shirt! I will admit that sewing the bias bound hem on the sleeves was a bit of a nightmare….

….it caught up at points, and refused to lie flat, but it’s still wearable so I wasn’t going to unpick it all!

You wouldn’t know that shirt had poppers instead of buttons, would you? 

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Pattern: Button-Up Top*  by Winterwear Designs*
Fabric: Fashion Fabrics

Jumbo (finished)

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Do you remember ages ago when I was working on the Jumbo bear pattern by Emma’s Bears? Well, I’ve finally got him finished!

Jumbo lives up to his name – he’s so big, he takes up the entire chair! So at the moment, he’s sitting on the floor, looking out of the window. 

I didn’t have the right size eyes, so his eyes are a little smaller than intended, and I think I was a bit stingy on stuffing as his head really could do with a bit more padding in places. But for my first time sewing such a large bear (and having to hand stitch some seams because my sewing machine struggled), he’s come out really well!

Pattern: Jumbo by Emma’s Bears

Owl Button-Up (UFO)

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I’ve been wanting to make myself a shirt for a while, but the thought of all those buttons was putting me off!

Instead of tackling the buttons for my first attempt at the Button-Up Top*  by Winterwear Designs*, I decided to cheat and use poppers instead!

 

So far it’s looking suitably shirt-like – hopefully the collar won’t be too challenging to sew!

 

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Pattern: Button-Up Top*  by Winterwear Designs*
Fabric: Fashion Fabrics

Too Hot to Sew!

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A typical British Summer is a combination of relatively cool temperatures, cloud and rain. So when we get blue skies, high(er) temperatures and no rain, we don’t seem to know how to cope!

At the moment, it’s far too hot in my sewing room to actually work on any sewing…. so I’ve taken a week off from making things. Hopefully this week the weather forecasters will be right, and the temperature will be more like the average for this time of year!

Sea Pancake

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I’ve been following BeeZeeArt on social media for a while, and loved the Stingrays she’d made, and was especially taken with the Mini Sea Pancakes she’d sold at a convention. Up until that point, I hadn’t realised that Stingrays are known as Sea Pancakes, but once I saw those, I knew I wanted to try making some myself.

Some brown minky fleece works really well for Daddy’s Sauce on top of the (sea) pancake, with a pat of yellow butter on the top of that.

I had a play around with different shades for the ‘sauce’, ranging from a deep brown Daddy’s Sauce style, to a more pale caramel shade (seeing as I thought the brown minky I’d ordered was going to be darker than it actually was!).

The larger Sea Pancake just has some pats of butter, with no sauce – after all, not everyone likes sauce drizzled on their pancakes, do they?!

A relative has already suggested some colour variations, so once I’ve got the right shades of minky fabric, I can get sewing!

Pattern: BeeZeeArt

Zen Chameleons

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Not content with my unfinished jeans, I decided to start another pair of trousers this week…. this fabric is the same type as the penguins, polar bears and astronomy designs and has just about the right amount of stretch to make a pair of Zen Pants* by 5 out of 4 Patterns. I bought a metre and a half this time, just in case a metre wasn’t enough, and picked out a vibrant pink for the top stitching.

I played around with the back pockets, making them a hybrid of the Zen pocket, crossed with the Real Deal Jeans pocket.

And what better way to try out my new smiley face poppers, than on the cargo pocket? This is the first time I’ve tried adding a cargo pocket to a pair of trousers, and it went surprisingly well.

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Pattern: Zen Pants* by 5 out of 4 Patterns
Fabric: Cotton Elastane from Fashion Fabrics

Real Deal Penguins!

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Ok, I know I haven’t finished my first Real Deal Jeans yet, but I spotted this penguin fabric in town the other day, and couldn’t resist seeing if it’d work for another pair of jeans.

This is a stretchier fabric than the pattern calls for, so I’ll be adding in some elastic to the waistband, just to help it keep its shape.

I didn’t do any decorative stitching on the back pockets this time, as the penguins are really all the detail it needs.

These should be really comfy to wear – I just need to get on and finish sewing them now!

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Pattern:  Real Deal Jeans* by WinterWear Designs*
Fabric: Cotton Elastane from Fashion Fabrics

 

Making my own Jeans (UFO)

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I’ve always wanted to be brave enough to make my own jeans. In fact, this year I added the Real Deal Jeans* by WinterWear Designs* to my 9 to Try in order to persuade myself to pluck up the courage to attempt them!

I decided that denim was going to be tricky on my Janome 525s – I’d struggled with it not feeding through evenly if there’s a bulky seam, and felt that denim would be a step too far as a first attempt. Instead, I found some lightweight cotton elastane fabric which looked like it might work well. I bought a metre, expecting it to be enough for a pair of shorts, seeing as the pattern says you’d need 3 metres.

As luck would have it, being petite in height and a smaller size, meant I could actually fit an entire pair of jeans on this metre of fabric!

Top stitching isn’t my favourite pastime, but I’ve made a special effort to make this as neat as possible…. even though most of it isn’t visible against the patterned fabric!

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Pattern:  Real Deal Jeans* by WinterWear Designs*
Fabric: Cotton Spandex from Sewing Studio