Cats with Mustard - Mmmm!

Today you get a 2-for-1 post! I know blog posts have been a bit slow from Needles HQ recently, but it's not for lack of any production, just life getting in the way. Anyway, today I present to you the Disdainful Cats skirt with a hand knitted 1960's tie-neck sweater:

Let's start with the skirt - it's basically the same design as the one I used for my December Minerva project, which involved taking a piece from Burda 122 and sticking it on to the back of a self drafted pencil skirt:

Apologies for creasing...

Close up of back frill

The fabric is a medium weight cotton I picked up at Fancy Silks in Birmingham while on the SewBrum meet-up. It actually came from the furnishing fabrics department - I suppose it's intended for curtains, cushion covers, etc. The cats have a bit of a snooty air about them, so I couldn't imagine having a room decked out in them. Imagine all that judgement gazing down at you. But I liked the colour and feel of the fabric enough to ignore their bullying and make this skirt.

Here's some details-

As with the previous version, I avoided side seams by overlapping the front and back pieces at the side and cutting it all as one, with just a centre back seam. As if by some miracle, the pattern matched up nearly perfectly at the back seam:

Almost perfect matching - take that cats! 

I put in a hand picked zip, and finished off the waistband with a little black button from my stash:

The skirt is fully lined, with the hem finished with bias made from the lining:

Lining where the frill meets the skirt

Detail of the hem

Mr needles was kind enough to be my photographer for the day, but as we started to take the photos an unexpected storm started to build up:

It started raining about 30 mins after this photo was taken!

But it gave me an opportunity to get some action shots of the frill:

Now the sweater-

I love knitting, but I'm less experienced with it as compared to sewing, and I'm often less than pleased with the results. So I stick to socks and scarves, and little things that don't require much fitting. 

But this pattern, from a 1960's 'Woman and Home' booklet caught my eye as something I could actually do well:

I used a 4ply wool and polyester mix by Drops, which I ordered from Loveknitting (It's only £1.50 per ball!) And even though I consider it an 'ugly' colour, I chose mustard because it seemed era-appropriate and I secretly really like it. The only drawback is that the wool is a little itchy, but after washing it seems to be softening up.

The whole jumper is knitted in plain stocking stitch, and other than shaping and a little bit of detail at the hems it was pretty boring to knit. 

Here it is:

I think it's pretty close to the original!

Some details:

Close up of hem

The hem of the body and the sleeves all have this picot stitch worked about 11 rows after casting on. After it's worked, you fold the hem under, resulting in this pretty edging.

Inside view of the hem turned up

Here's a close up of the neck tie:

It's just a long strip with pointed ends that's sewn around the neck and threaded through a little knitted loop on the left.

And that's pretty much it - see you soon!

Minerva Bloggers Network - a Hacked Burda 122

Hello! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. Personally, I'm kinda glad it's over and now I have time to get on with stuff I really want to do, like sewing! And for my first project of 2015, I decided to try something new, namely a Burda PDF download. I won't make you read through to the end to find out how whether I enjoyed it or not - I didn't.

This is the object of my frustration:

Modell 122 Burda Style 09/2014

That flouncey insert on the front looks really odd to me, but I liked the idea of it and so I decided to move it to the back. I'd done this before for my December Minerva project, which I was really happy with. With that in mind I thought this dress would be a walk in the park construction-wise:

My Christmas tartan skirt

But I started to get a bad feeling when it took a whole afternoon to cut out and adjust the pattern:

SOOO MANY PIECES! And why no seam allowances??!!??

Now this isn't my first experience with PDF patterns, but this is the most complicated and involved item I've worked on. I used the adjustments which had worked well on the skirt, namely lengthening the skirt section, and swapping the flounce to the back. Because the bodice was an unusual cut, I made a partial muslin of the top half to make sure it fit. Glad I did - I ended up adding about 1/2 " to one set of seams over the bust.

Then it was off to cut my fabric, which was a lovely black and gold houndstooth Bengaline from Minerva. 

I've never worked with this fabric before, but I liked how it's quite firm yet stretchy. The stretch was on the length of grain only, which means you have to be careful not to stretch seams that run vertically. It also needs quite a firm iron if you want seams to stay open flat. But the fabric was not the reason this project drove me crazy.

Here's how it came out:

(That's not my house by the way. It's the 100 Club, where we went the other night to see a friend's band play, and it seemed an ideal setting for blog photos)

The part that drove me crazy was the junction of seams from the lining and dress under the arms:

I lost track of how many times I unpicked and re-did this section. And forget about looking to the instructions for any help - 'minimal' is a generous description of the scant half side of paper which were labelled 'instuctions'. 

After loads of clipping and ironing and trimming, I eventually got this section to lay flat. I suppose I can't lay all the blame on Burda - this dress used a method of costruction I've rarely used, where you attach the lining to the dress at the neck and arms before sewing the side and back seams. Then you pull it all through to the back, and sew the side seams of the lining and dress all in one go. Most of my experience is with old patterns, using old fashioned facings around the arms and neck. I got in such a tangle with it all I actually had to walk away from it on several occasions.

But lets not dwell on the negative! Here are some other details:

 The curved seams at the front and back  are really well placed for any adjustments you may need to make. The dress is overall very figure hugging, so definitely check your measurements against the pattern if you do make it.

The flounce at the back works well with the rigidity of the fabric:

Apologies for the creases...

And finally, I finished the hem with bias binding made from the lining and stitched it directly to the body of the dress:

Hem details

   

 I can appreciate the popularity of using downloads for price - I think this one was under £4.00 - and I'm sure many sewists out there have succumbed to the immediacy of purchasing them with just the click of a button. But is all the extra work worth it? I've had great experiences with other PDF's, such as Capital Chic where there was obvious care and attention in the presentation and instructions. But this one left me annoyed, to the point where I can't help but remember this process whenever I wear this dress.

That's me not thinking of PDF's

And there you have it - see you soon!

Minerva Bloggers Network - Christmas Tartan Skirt

Hello there! Well, winter is definitely here - all my gloves and scarves are out and in use, and the light fades at around 4.00 most days. There's a definite need for warm and woolly clothes. And with Christmas just around the corner, what better choice for a project for this time of year than a tartan woolen skirt. 

I found this brilliant wool fabric from Minerva, which was labelled as a 'coat dress weight'. For a moment I thought it may be too chunky for what I had in mind, but when it arrived I realized it was just right - not too heavy, but just that little bit thicker than your average fabric. I wanted a sort of pencil skirt, but with something different about it. I took inspiration from a lovely flouncy skirt that Ozzy Blackbeard had recently made, as well as the trend in the 40's and 50's for floating panels and swing coats and jackets, where fullness and movement were often at the back of the garment. 

I decided to use my own self drafted pencil skirt for the front half of the skirt, then combined it with this pattern from Burda for the back:

Modell 122 Burda Style 09/2014

I actually took the draped panel from the front of the dress, and shifted it to the back of my skirt.

And this is what I came up with:

I think this is the first time I've ever worked with a tartan or plaid. Whenever I've worked with any kind of repeating pattern like this, I usually find it's all about making choices as to which parts will match and which parts just won't, and how much effort you actually want to put in. As you can see from the picture above, I decided to concentrate on just making sure the horizontal lines were level, but there was no way the colours were going to meet up because of the nature of the tartan.

Centre back seam close up

But one thing I did do to make life easier (or maybe because sometimes I'm just really lazy) was to leave out side seams altogether:

No side seams!

 Because the skirt was straight up and down at the sides with no flare, I was able to overlap the pattern pieces at the side and cut the skirt in one piece. There's just a seam at the centre back and darts at the tops of the sides where the front and back pieces curved. No side seams meant I was able to cut down on the amount of pattern matching I had to do - yay!

I also decided to match the waistband where I could at the centre front. What the pattern decided to do after that I left up to fate!:

Centre front waist band

The fabric is pretty soft, not too itchy, but I lined it to avoid any of that scratchiness:

And that's my Christmas tartan skirt, which I think will be perfect for Christmas day. I've already practised eating in it, and can report it can handle quite large amounts of food, so all's good there! 

See you soon!