Tag: Near Sea Naturals

That’s better.

Vogue 8145 - with amendments.

I find that most dresses can be improved by the addition of a polo neck. If it’s frilly, all the better.

Now I just wish I’d put pockets in it!

The pattern started out as Vogue 8145, with the addition of a modified polo neck based on the pattern piece from McCalls 5924. The dress is the shorter of the two, and the sleeves are elbow length because that’s how much fabric I had left.

The fabric is organic cotton natural pointelle from Near Sea Naturals, and I dyed it “Burlesque Red” using Dylon machine dye. The tie belt is organic cotton shirting from Bishopston Trading, dyed at the same time.

Despite the difficulties I had while making this, I’m really pleased with the end result. I think the frilly neckline is my favourite part.

A slight sewing difficulty.

I’ve been trying for the best part of a fortnight to make a dress. A dress which should be so easy that I thought it would only take me about four hours to make. And then my sewing machine stopped working, so I was going to use the overlocker, and then I didn’t have the right colour of thread, and then I remembered my old sewing machine was still in the loft, and it was all going quite well until I tried to bind the neckline yesterday. And now it’s all gone a bit wrong again.

The dress currently looks like this:
Vogue 8145

It’s supposed to look like this– that is, with a nice flat neckline.

It did look exactly like that, until I tried to add the binding.
The neckline is supposed to be hemmed, but I wanted to add the binding a) because I had a bit of matching fabric left over and it would be a shame to waste it, and b) because I wanted to add stability to the wide boat neck, so it didn’t stretch out and slide off my narrow shoulders all the time.

Except that this fabric is a very heavy ribbed pointelle, which means that it stretches. A LOT. And my old sewing machine doesn’t have a differential feed, or any variation in the pressure on the presser foot, and as a result the neckline has stretched and stretched and stretched.

I’m going to undo the binding and hope that I can stream shrink the ribbing back into place. Then I can do what I should have done in the first place, which is finish the neckline by hand.

The hem and sleeves though, I actively want to stretch! I plan to finish them with a lettuce hem, which basically means that I’ll deliberately stretch the ribbing out as far as I can when I run it through the overlocker. This will leave me with a decorative wiggly edge.

That just wasn’t quite what I had in mind for the neckline. :/

(And yet, as I sit here swearing at my sewing machines, I do still harbour some faint delusion that maybe I could one day be up there with Secret Lentil and Sarah Clemens. If only I wasn’t so… I don’t know. something.)

More Near Sea Naturals

Thanks to a combination of my new medicine and the truly dreary weather we’ve been having lately, I’ve been finding it very difficult to feel inspired by anything much.

Suddenly, thanks to a little visit from the postman, I feel much better!

Near Sea Naturals

(Sorry about the terrible picture – it’s raining so hard that it’s been dark all day.)

Both of the large pieces of fabric are organic cotton pointelle. Three yards of each, in chestnut and natural. The natural piece won’t stay that way for long – I plan to chuck it in the washing machine and dye it Flamingo Pink! After that, I plan to transform it into a pair of leggings and a top.

(The chestnut piece is going to be transformed into a Christmas present, so I can’t elaborate on that any further.)

The swatches… oooh, where to start!

  • The one with the trees (top left) is Enchanted Forest, and it’s a wonderfully soft twill.
  • The one with the ladybirds is Tickled Pink, on the same twill base. I can imagine pretty skirts made from each of these.
  • The one with the aubergines is Eggplants, which is a hemp and cotton blend in a linen-type weave. I adore the colour and the little gold flecks in the fabric, so I think I might have to send off for a skirt’s-worth in my next order.
  • The plain black swatch is a wonderfully smooth sateen. 
The swatch packets are for the woven wool fabrics, and the wool knits.
I’m gradually collecting all of Near Sea Naturals’ swatch kits, so that I can show them at craft fairs, and encourage people to place orders.
All I need to do now is work out what I’m going to make…

Near Sea Naturals

Hooray, my Near Sea Naturals order has just arrived! Eight days from New Mexico to Reading, and no customs fees to pay. Exactly what I needed to cheer me up on such a miserable morning!

Near Sea Naturals order

In the background is a metre of  black and grey stripy jersey. This was intended to be sleeves for a top for Paul, but it’s so soft and lovely that I might just have to hijack it for myself. I’ll see how generous I’m feeling!

The little cone is organic cotton sewing thread, which is impossible to find in the UK. My sewing machine can be a little bit fussy about what kinds of thread it likes to eat, so I’m hoping it’ll get on okay with this one.

On the right is a little piece of organic cotton jersey bias binding – another thing which doesn’t seem to exist over here! I know that I could easily make my own jersey binding, but it takes such a lot of fabric that buying it readymade saves an awful lot of time and money. I’m hoping that this is the right width to feed straight through the fancy bias binding foot on my sewing machine. That would save a lot of time as well!

The two booklets are swatches of Near Sea Naturals‘ “Business Builder” organic cotton jersey fabrics. They’re the ones that they try to keep in stock all the time, and can sell on a wholesale basis. I’m not quite up to being able to buy on a wholesale basis just yet, but it’s very useful to know which fabrics are going to be continuously available.

I’m particularly in love with the pointelle and waffle fabrics that you can see in the picture. Yes, I know they’re most commonly used for thermal underwear, but they’re so soft, and absolutely gorgeous. There’s also a jersey with 8% spandex, which will be great for leggings, and a really interesting herringbone weave, which would make a lovely skirt.

I only wish it was possible for me to convey to you exactly how soft all of these fabrics are. I work in a fabric shop, for goodness’ sake, and I’ve never felt anything as soft as these!

I can’t wait to draw up some designs, and work out what I need to order.