Maria Denmark Kirsten top turned into a Renfrew

This is a free top from Maria Denmark when you sign up for the newsletter. The lack of seam allowances actually kept me from making it for so long!  It's a two piece tshirt, and then you just pick how to finish the neck and seams.

I made a size M from this amazing Art Gallery knit.  I love this fabric and got it as a scrap from an etsy seller.  It costs 35 franks per meter here, just to give you an idea.  I LOVE this fabric.  I totally thought it would be a simple and great top.  I put it together and I hated it.  It was loose over the bust and tight over the belly, kind of the opposite of what I generally aim for in tshirts.  

The evidence: I promise it looked much worse than it seems.

I backtracked.

I checked the scraps.

And I turned it into a Renfrew.  My classic, like this: size 4, 1'' waist shortening - it's longer than most of my other ones which I shortened 2", and no change in the shoulders.  I managed to squeeze all the pieces onto my scraps although the waist piece had an extra seam.

The way Renfrew nips in at the bust and out at the hips suits me way more and now I am happy.  Although I would have preferred it shorter.  I have retraced my Renfrew pieces as they were disintegrating, and somehow the lengths don't all match so I accidentally ended up with the longer one. 

As for Kirsten - bigger size?  Drapier fabric?  Maybe, but I think I prefer more fitted tshirts and now I don't have a lot of interest in exploring this further.  

Knit Extravaganza: Ondee Sweater by Deer and Doe

I went fabric shopping in Paris.  Enough blogs have listed how to do this so I won't unnecessarily repeat.  I also happily got all the patterns on my list without having to order online, hurrah!  I found the fabric shop employees generally helpful and willing to speak English if one asked politely.

So after about two days of total sewing-planning-washing overload, I settled down to sew some easy projects.

A few Ondees! First in truly amazing, luxurious navy sweatshirting.  So fuzzy.  So soft.  I cut a 38.  No changes.  I read the instructions and then put them away.  This is an easy project.  My only gripe is that the neck binding has to be really tight - using self-fabric it was being pulled as tight as it could go.  I needed a center front snip.  I have added that to my pattern pieces now, but I think it should have been marked on the pattern.  The bottom binding is also that tight, which I am a bit self conscious about.  Do note: this sweatshirt hits at exactly the bottom of my ribs, about 1.5" above my waist, so in normal-length torso people it will barely cover the rib cage. I love this sweatshirt but I think something this short has truly limited utility in my life.  Despite that I notice that I pull it on every day after work because it's so soft and amazing.

Version 2: stripes. This is double knit but is still pretty light compared to the sweatshirting.  I added six big stripes in length (about 2") and widened the bottom band so it wouldn't be tight but would function like a shirt extension. I went crazy with the doubleness of the knit but hesitated before alternating the bottom bands - I think it would actually have looked great. As for the length, I'm on the fence!  I was so sure I wanted it longer but I think it becomes a bit more boring, like just any old knitwear.  Also it's really obvious I need to get on with that swayback fix.

You can see how the stretchier stripes made a much looser top

Tissue Jersey Renfrew:
The rules with such fine jersey seem to be to touch it as little as possible.  I might note here that, contrary to mainstream and despite various knit issues with my new Pfaff and its IDT, I have always sewn my knits with a straight stitch, and finished them with a zig zag.  I still find this to work out fine, even on this jersey.  On some machines (the cheap Singer) it didn't go so well but most of the time my stitches don't strain or break.  I use a microtex stretch needle.  So for this Renfrew I didn't sew on a bottom or sleeve bindings.  I also didn't measure the length very closely so it's not the same but I reckon for a distressed look item it doesn't matter.  I will cut it at least even soon!  

And to round out the knit craze, I pulled out the Undercover Hood and made another one.  The fabric is a nubbly outside and sweatshirt inside, super lush and warm - about 1 meter, the last piece from the Berlin market.  I cut a S, removed 1" from center front on the fold, 1cm from center back on the fold, and shortened it 2".  I put all the bindings on, and then put the sweatshirt on and chalked myself a new, lower neckline.  Once I was convinced I made a binding almost exactly the length of the neck, because I didn't want it to pull very much.  No Hood in this Undercover Hood : )  It is clearly much nicer than the blue version I made earlier this year but I still struggle to turn it into the magic perfect sweatshirt.  It's luckily perfect for Francesca though.

Vogue 1408 jersey dress

So in keeping with my fast-fashion muslin making of late, I decided to overlook the fabric recommendations and make this seamy dress out of a single layer of jersey.  I reckoned it would be a distressed look and easy and would give me an idea of whether it was worth buying some expensive stretchy wool stuff to make a more serious iteration.  The pattern calls for "medium stretch" fabrics.  Plus a "medium stretch" lining - could get expensive... 

I cut a size 10 but didn't prewash my fabric (hm, does fabric shrink in an irregular way?? This could become interesting.)  I assumed it would be a bit too big because my fabric is stretchier than a thick ponte, but I don't love the pattern enough to trace it so I wanted to make the same size as I would in a less stretchy material.  The fabric is a soft viscose jersey from the market in Berlin, and cost something like 5 Euro.  At the end I had to take in about 1cm at the shoulders, and 1cm at each side seam.

I found attaching all the pieces to be very easy, although of course I was not stabilising the edges of every piece like the Vogue instructions advises.  I did one row of topstitching on all the seams, not two.  Unlike the other Vogue top of late, 1247, the jersey means that most seams can be convinced to match without a lot of effort, especially with my high-stretch jersey.  Without trying at all, every single seam matches perfectly except one.  My 2 meters was enough for this dress, but I didn't have a lot left over.  I don't make dresses with wide skirts very often and I think it's because I'm weirdly stingy about how much fabric they require.  I did forget that jersey is heavy!  I realised early on that the dress needed the support from the arm and neck bindings.  I just barely had enough fabric left over to cut some strips which I sewed into loops, folded over, and sewed it on like making a Renfrew.  I cut each of them short enough to have some stretch, especially along the neck as I wanted it to stabilise all this fabric.  I was happy with the result.  Hemming was terrible.  My new Pfaff sewing machine seems to be bad when it comes to knits, and especially when it comes to using the stretchiness of knits to advantage - the IDT pulls the knit fabric against the direction of sewing, and creates huge bubbles.  So, ugly hem.  Not too obvious. 

By avoiding the lining and the zipper and the extra staystitching, this was a pretty quick but still interesting jersey project with a nice set of lines.  It took some effort and I think it looks cool!  I also reckon you could do some pretty neat colour blocking with all of the pieces.  It has been a reminder to me that more effort is sometimes worth it.

As for fit, I think this size would fit me better in a less stretchy fabric.  I do feel like the body is too long - the skirt starts at my butt.  With so many pieces and no shorten-here lines, I wouldn't be tempted to shorten the torso length, so overall I recommend this pattern for longer torsos. 

Vogue 1247 Skirt

I expected to love this skirt, but as I perused online versions I became a little nervous about the shape.  It is not A-line, but quite straight cut, and it has this funnel at the waist that I imagined not being my thing at all.  I strived ahead in some owls from the market in Berlin, treating it fully as a muslin - I didn't do any bias taping.

I cut a size 12 based on my waist measurement. Even though I have never previously cut the size that Vogue recommends.  I had a bit of a depressed moment over this, silly how we fixate on the numbers sometimes, isn't it?

It is simple to make, but the Vogue instructions are probably good to follow - you sew the front panels together with gaps for the pockets, and THEN sew the pockets, instead of doing a continuous line.  I think best is to pull a bit of tension as you sew those bits, and also maybe add some seam tape along that pocket edge.  If the pockets aren't quite tight, they can gape at the front.

I thought at first that it is terribly too small and just overall terrible.  I did a dance around my flat in it.  Then I thought that really it's only terrible because the hips of the skirt and my hips are not in the same place.  I think if I take a 1"cut out right above the pockets, around the whole skirt, that it will flow from my hips instead of hanging up on them and getting baggy.  As for the slightly funnel-waistband - yeah, I really need curved waistbands!  But on skirts that just hang off my hips, they end up sliding all over the place, like up to my waist, which sadly is also my ribs, because of how I have a micro-length torso.  I am not sure if the only answer is elasticated waist skirts.  I still have at least one skirt pattern to go before I take a break from perfect-skirt hunting.

high waist, it actually hits my belly button.

I am facing how I need to get on with some sewing education.  Instead of complaining about how things don't fit, I need to start putting in the time to making them fit - and the hardest step - creating that list that skilled sewists have of their required changes from pattern--> person.  I have become slightly better about not making projects just because they are on my list, and also allowing my list fluidity with my mood, but I still suffer from a desire to make every project once just to see what it will look like.

Lately I have a few great friends willing to benefit from my sewing dependency!  I can't call it selfless sewing, because I think it's the ultimate in SELFISH sewing - I sew whatever I want (more or less) ...and give it to friends so I don't have to deal with the stress of owning more things : )  And my friends get to wear my stuff and they report to me that it is amazing.  (Possibly just gratuitous ego-petting.)