Monday 23 February 2015

I saw my lovely Cherry material on the Great British Sewing Bee - Series 3 Episode 1 !



I'm a bit late on watching the Great British Sewing Bee, I forgot that the new series was starting and still have no clue what night it's on so I'm catching up on BBC Iplayer.

I say catching up, still haven't finished episode 2, but I have seen episode 1 and there was my beloved cotton cherry fabric in the hands of Alex in the pattern matching challenge.
Alex- Great British Sewing Bee - BBC website

I say my cherry fabric, it's not like I designed it, I bought it in the shop like anyone else, but this fabric caught my eye as soon as I saw it and I kinda knew what I'd do with it  - I made a Summer Frock, so when I saw they were doing the same thing on Great British Sewing Bee - well I became extra interested.

 See http://missjsews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/1950s-cherry-dress-ms-js-flat-pattern.html  for my adventures with cherries.

It's always so funny to see someone else make a garment out of the same material you used and how their vision of what it will become is different from yours.

The challenge was pattern matching, can you imagine pattern matching under a time restriction? This is Alex's creation.

Believe me, - pattern matching and I are.not.friends. I like my plain fabrics me. Call it lazy, unadventurous, cowardly. I'll take all of those, but sometimes you meet a fabric where you have to make an exception.

How do you pattern match a lapped zip?  I dunno.

Let's call this flashback Monday, this is the frock I made.


Would this pass a Great British Sewing Bee challenge?  Hell no! I sew too slow and let's not even talk about the pattern placement, but I feel great when I see it in the wardrobe, feel glamorous when I wear it and most of all, it's my pattern, drafted by me on my dining table.

Always learning and striving to do better......



When was the last time you saw your fabric made up by someone else and what did you think?
 
Also -  Does anyone know why this series is only 6 episodes???










Tuesday 17 February 2015

Goodbye Hawes and Curtis!? I know, it's not half as glamorous as saying Goodbye to Valentino but it it is what it is!


For those who don't know, Hawes and Curtis are a retailer in the UK specialising in  shirts and accessories.  I own about 11 of their shirts and one pair of their cufflinks, so safe to say I got a lot of their stuff that  I'm happy with.


However, after purchasing this red blouse for approx £25, I started to have buyers regret.


Why did I just buy a polyester blouse for that amount of money when I nowadays I don't even buy polyester for my fabric stash, even during the times I can't afford more than £3 a yard material?  So the challenge was on. 

Now, once upon a time, I used to buy polyester. I had a bit of blue polyester left over from a frock that had gone horribly wrong and I've had in the scraps for the last decade. I'm a fan of pussy bow blouses, so I found a use for those polyester scraps.



 

I was in a lazy mood, so I actually used an old 90's New Look shirt pattern as a basis.  I've never made a pussy bow blouse before or used a commercial pattern for many years so there was scope for a disaster here.  So on I pressed without doing any kind of toile!

 I just drafted a long piece of fabric long enough to go around my neck, down past the chest and tapered at the ends. I changed the cuff elongating it so I could have a least four buttons. I recycled buttons from my Mum's long discarded blouse from the late eighties.


I think it turned out OK.  I feel good wearing it and considering the buttons were free, the material was a couple of pounds a yard, and I didn't use much thread, I'd call this a bargain.

Can I make more of my own shirts and blouses and wave goodbye to the retail shirtmakers?.......