Tag: top

Not quite a pillowcase top

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Still feeling inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee, this time the alteration challenge to create something from a pair of curtains. I’ve done a fair amount of fabric recycling in the past, from curtains, duvet covers, and end-of-roll fabrics. The tunic dress above was made from a gorgeous brand new vintage bed sheet, and I was able to use the border print along the hem.

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I was suddenly inspired to make a little cropped layering top, that I could fit onto just a pillowcase-sized piece of fabric, so I opened up my pattern drafting software and came up with this. Sadly it doesn’t fit onto a pillowcase, because I hadn’t taken into account the actual size of a pillowcase when I was working on the design. Oops. It does however fit onto a single metre of fabric, so it’s a very economical little top.

This prototype version is cut on the bias and has a seam down the centre front and back. The only reason for that is because the pieces were cut from the skirt of a dress that I made years ago, and never wore, so it’s still fabric recycling in that sense. It would definitely look better without the seam, and in this type of fabric I don’t think having it on the bias really makes all that much difference.

IMG_4931I’d originally envisaged wearing this with trousers and a long-sleeved t-shirt, or maybe over a camisole top in the summer. When I had a rummage in my wardrobe though, I spotted this empire-line dress and thought they’d go really well together!

The top is designed to be reversible, with the v-neck at the front if you have a pretty necklace to show off, or at the back if you have, say, a lovely tattoo, or perhaps you just prefer the higher neckline. This one is finished with some vintage nylon lingerie trim, but I can also imagine it with very fine organic cotton lace. In fact it would look lovely with some deeper lace around the hem as well.

10406953_10152469716633829_8661130960669008137_nIn fact, way back in May, I bought a little pile of organic cotton fabrics, most of which are about a metre in size. The bicycle print and the matching spots have been turned into a tunic for a friend, but all the others are still sitting in my stash. I think I might have just discovered what to do with them!

 

 

 

An unexpected venture.

Oh, good grief. It’s a month since I last posted here, and I haven’t made a single one of the buttonholes I mentioned in my last post! I have made four in this blouse, though I accidentally made them on the left instead of the right. I decided it didn’t matter too much, as the blouse was for me… but then it didn’t fit, and now the blouse is sitting in the Etsy shop, waiting to find its new home. What you may or may not be able to tell from this little snippet, is that the print is covered with My Little Ponies!

I made the executive decision to split my Etsy shop into two, although at the moment they’re both selling a mishmash of the same things. Once the listings start to expire in one place I’ll re-list them in the other, and hopefully it should all be sorted out over the next couple of months.

The eternal magpie Etsy shop will sell bits and bobs that I’m clearing out from my stash, organic cotton clothing and zipped pouches as I make them, and the more “everyday” styles of felt hat. Oh, and my own sewing patterns, more of which in a moment.

Mr & Mrs Magpie’s Inexplicable Emporium has become a little bit too explicable lately, so I want to have a bit of a tidy-up. This is where I’ll be offering some gemstone jewellery pieces, some of the more complicated-to-make styles of hat, and some corset belts and felt work, once I get around to making them.

So, I mentioned sewing patterns…

A little while ago, a customer who I’d made one of these tunic dresses for (way back in 2009!) got in touch. She wanted to know whether it was possible, as I no longer made these tunics for sale, for her to have a copy of the pattern. I thought about it for a minute, said yes, and set about writing up the instructions.

Since sending off the pattern, Maria has already made not just one, but three tunics – and in the absolutely most fantastic choice of fabrics! And proving that word of mouth is absolutely the best way to sell things, Maria has been very kindly sending everyone who’s admired her tunics over to the eternal magpie Etsy shop, where you can now buy the pattern!

It’s a bit of an experiment at the moment – I’m drawing out the patterns by hand onto brown paper, as I don’t quite have the technology to get them into the computer. I drew them by hand in the first place, and haven’t yet managed to replicate them accurately with my pattern drafting software, which is very frustrating. Also, my greatest bugbear about printing out patterns is having to spend ages sticking all the pages together, so I thought that sending out the patterns complete would be a nice way of saving other people from having to do that.

So, I’ll see what kind of feedback I get about the patterns – whether they’re the right sizes, whether people can understand the instructions, that kind of thing – and decide after a little while whether this is something I want to carry on with or not.

I seem to be pulled in so many different directions these days… I’ll have to see what starts pulling me most strongly.

Test Vest

Kwik Sew 3524

This is Kwik Sew 3524, a simple-looking strappy vest top. It’s made from two of Paul’s old t-shirts. It looks okay, but there are a couple of things I’d change. The join of the straps to the body is a bit bulky, I’m sure there’s a better way of putting that togther. And the neck is just a little bit wonky, which a line of top stitching would fix, no problem.

Kwik Sew 3524

This is the inside, which is lined with a shelf bra. Again, it’s okay, but I don’t like having that inch of nylon elastic directly against the skin, when it could be hidden between the two layers of nice soft cotton. And I need to join the two layers together at the side seam, otherwise it takes a certain amount of faffing about to make the two layers line up neatly. And who has time for faffing when they’re trying to put their vest on in the morning?

Anyway, thanks to our impending house move (have I mentioned that yet? I’m not really on top of what’s going on around here lately), Paul has pulled a big pile of surplus-to-requirements t-shirts out of his wardrobe. His clear-out is my gain, because I now have plenty of nice soft jersey to have a couple more test runs at this.

Hopefully the eventual result will be a nice soft, comfortable vest!

Vogue 1202

Vogue 1202

This is Vogue 1202, a designer Donna Karan pattern. I’ve had it in my stash for about a year. I kept unfolding it, looking at the size of the pattern pieces, folding it up and putting it away again. The piece above is the front, and it measures 140cm wide by 160cm long. Which is much larger than my cutting table.

I folded away my cutting table and made enough space on the floor to cut out the pattern. But before I did that I had to use my psychic powers to figure out which size to cut out. Obviously the size of the bust doesn’t matter at all in a draped pattern like this one. But the waist does matter, and the finished waist measurement isn’t given anywhere. Yes, there are measurements on the pattern envelope. But anyone who’s been sewing for more than five minutes understands that those are nothing more than a guideline at best.

Vogue 1202

I plucked a number out of thin air and made a size 12, which turned out to be at least two sizes too small. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to find this out until the top was finished and I could try it on. Thankfully the fabric is stretchy, and once I’ve managed to wriggle the stupid thing over my shoulders it does (just about) fit around my waist.

You can see the lovely draped effect around the waist, which is sadly lost on me. I’m so short-waisted that the main body of the top simply folds right over it and covers it up. The sleeves aren’t as long as they look, by the way. They’re very narrow, so they fit very close to your lower arm and then the upper sleeve billows over them. This works something like a straitjacket, ensuring that you can’t move your arms despite the voluminous nature of the top.

Vogue 1202

Here’s the back, which is the main reason I wanted to make this top in the first place. I have a selection of brightly-coloured vests and t-shirts that I think would look great underneath. (I also have a sparkly-backed bra, if I’m feeling particularly adventurous.) You’re supposed to sew nine tiny snap fasteners to the back of the very high neck, but I think I’m going to go with four big ones.

I was hoping to feel very glamorous and sexy in my new designer Donna Karan top. Then I tried it on, and realised that it looks as though I’ve been to the hairdresser’s and forgotten to take the cape off. Oh dear.

I wouldn’t recommend this pattern for anybody who wasn’t very long-waisted, or willing to take a gamble on what size they needed to cut out. I’m sure Donna Karan’s very clever, and I’m sure this top would look great on the right person… unfortunately that person isn’t me. In fact, I’ve already scrunched up the pattern pieces and thrown them away so that I don’t try and make it again in a different fabric, in the hope that it might somehow magically fit differently a second time.

Somewhere in the stash I have some fabric that I’d earmarked to make the matching skirt. Given that the skirt pattern doesn’t come with any finished measurements either, and has a very similar construction, I’m not entirely certain that’s going to be a good idea.

Maria’s Rose Tattoo Tunic

Maria's Alexander Henry tunic

This is my usual raglan tunic/mini dress pattern, in Alexander Henry’s “The Rose Tattoo”. It’s hand bound with black bias tape. Simple as that!

Maria contacted me after I’d made Chloe’s cupcake dress, originally asking for a dress of her own in the same style. I don’t take on custom dressmaking any more (and the pattern’s been discontinued), so I would have had to say no, but in the meantime I’d started making these tunic dresses. Maria decided that this was the perfect style, and sent me a piece of fabric that she’d been hiding away in her stash.

The fabric turned out to be this Alexander Henry quilting cotton in one of my favourite prints – The Rose Tattoo. Perfect!

I’ve also had an order for a top-length version in another novelty print quilting cotton – this Beatles Yellow Submarine print. I might have accidentally ordered enough of the Sea of Holes fabric to make a little something for myself as well. While I wait for it to arrive, I just need to decode what it’s going to be…