Welcome
Well after years of baking egg free (and dairy free) my son is now free of egg allergy - although the blogging slowed down well before then thanks to the fact that I noticed with all the cooking going on I was getting a little round around the edges :) It was time to put the cooking blog away and find a hobby that didn't affect the hips quite as strongly - especially as I am unable to exercise as I once used to due to a number of surgeries on my core.
It also helped two of my colleagues also sew, they have been an inspiration, and really helped when I get stuck - or just to complain about the third time I have had to unpick something, or when I cut the corner off some material that was needed (oops! - my only binned project) Anyway, due to positive feedback from my step dad (now also passed away) and friends I have kept motivated to try to get things right and I have now been sewing for nearly a year! I have spent more than I intended on patterns and materials - especially as mum left some wonderful vintage patterns and materials for me to experiment with - mainly as my journey derailed from woven to jersey fairly early on thanks to Tilly and The Buttons two books, and my brother for giving me Amazon vouchers for my birthday last year, which has resulted not only in the purchase of the two books but more Tilly patterns to experiment with.
I am now getting my pattern addition fed from Burda Style magazines with the odd purchase from other independents (Deer and Doe and Republique du chiffon I am looking at you). Nearly all my makes need to be adjusted at the top of the shoulders/ neckline at the front and back. One day I will consider doing smaller sizes and doing an FBA but at the moment I have managed to get away without them, my first attempt was a massive failure so I have put off trying again. One dress I really need to do that on is the https://www.burdastyle.com/pattern_store/patterns/flared-dress-042019 - with this dress the first time I had to put darts in the front to stop it from being too big, the second time I tried redrawing the neckline but it bought the arm holes up tight so I really do need to redraw the pattern out a size smaller at the front and then do a FBA :(
Anyway I thought this blog would be a good place to show my learning as I go....I will try and retrospectively add blogs about work already undertaken too, as I have created a spreadsheet journal for all my sewing history so I should be able to remember what I did - well that's the theory. I may well share this with you too if it should be of help to anyone.
So why sewing?
In early 2018 my mum passed away, leaving me two very nice Janome machines and knowledge for sewing from 30 years ago. It was a difficult time and I needed to throw myself into something, so that on top of not being one to throw things away, nor to ignore the fact that whilst she was alive she was always trying to get me sewing, I picked some of her left over material and tried to make my first dress for my daughter. It did not go well, I tried a PDF pattern that came up way to small and I had to modify the heck out of it. I can't remember the pattern, just the hell as I realised it would never fit in the style that was planned. So with a bit of muddling through I made her a dress. She wore it and I felt emboldened into making myself one from the left over material. It was an experience on many levels.- Don't assume a pattern will fit just because the measurements match yours on the back of the packet
- Pin, try on, re-pin, try on again, baste stitch, try one are all important steps,
- Forget your ego and RTW (Ready to wear) sizes, I had to go big for the pattern to fit
- I don't have a standard figure. Now you would have thought I knew this already, tops were tight across my chest and baggy at the back, material bunched across the top of the bum etc but until you try and put together your own outfit I think we just skim over these issues as oh it's the style that doesn't suit me etc. I really noticed my sizing when I bought Doris, my body form, which ended up at the smallest size for the back/ chest, and the biggest for the hips, in the middle for my waist and wearing an old bra of mine padded out. Doris is my saviour now.
Inspiration
It also helped two of my colleagues also sew, they have been an inspiration, and really helped when I get stuck - or just to complain about the third time I have had to unpick something, or when I cut the corner off some material that was needed (oops! - my only binned project) Anyway, due to positive feedback from my step dad (now also passed away) and friends I have kept motivated to try to get things right and I have now been sewing for nearly a year! I have spent more than I intended on patterns and materials - especially as mum left some wonderful vintage patterns and materials for me to experiment with - mainly as my journey derailed from woven to jersey fairly early on thanks to Tilly and The Buttons two books, and my brother for giving me Amazon vouchers for my birthday last year, which has resulted not only in the purchase of the two books but more Tilly patterns to experiment with.
Where I am now
I am now getting my pattern addition fed from Burda Style magazines with the odd purchase from other independents (Deer and Doe and Republique du chiffon I am looking at you). Nearly all my makes need to be adjusted at the top of the shoulders/ neckline at the front and back. One day I will consider doing smaller sizes and doing an FBA but at the moment I have managed to get away without them, my first attempt was a massive failure so I have put off trying again. One dress I really need to do that on is the https://www.burdastyle.com/pattern_store/patterns/flared-dress-042019 - with this dress the first time I had to put darts in the front to stop it from being too big, the second time I tried redrawing the neckline but it bought the arm holes up tight so I really do need to redraw the pattern out a size smaller at the front and then do a FBA :(
Anyway I thought this blog would be a good place to show my learning as I go....I will try and retrospectively add blogs about work already undertaken too, as I have created a spreadsheet journal for all my sewing history so I should be able to remember what I did - well that's the theory. I may well share this with you too if it should be of help to anyone.
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