Wednesday 23 July 2014

Post-move sewing planning

Ten days later... one completed house move across the Irish Sea! I am back in the UK in my home-town (south Manchester).

When I say my move is "completed" I mean that my possessions and I have made it more or less in one piece from one place to the other. Almost nothing is unpacked yet. I opened up a couple of my sewing tea chests today make sure a few of the more delicate things made it intact, but otherwise it's just a sea of stuff in boxes. Partly that's because I feel kind of blah after the massive effort to get myself moved, partly because it's HOT here (people in actual warm climates may laugh at my definition of hot, but I am not good with even British standards of hot), and partly because alas, my kitchen is so far from done as to render the house presently unliveable: it's basically an empty room without even a water supply! So it'll be at least another week and maybe as much as two before I actually move in properly to my new house.

Sad to say, this does mean my sewing continues to be curtailed by move-related practicalities, but that just means I have more time to make and discard a million sewing plans.

Unexpectedly moved to top of my to make list: another Pauline Alice Carme, with some further minor pattern fixes. I LOVE the black one I made for the mini-wardrobe and I really want another one. After wearing it twice so far I know I definitely need to fix the sleeve length and I think it would benefit also from a small round back adjustment. I have been making so many knits that I forget that that is one of my fitting issues normally in wovens. I've picked a totally different fabric, this time one with a print, that I think will look great with this pattern.

Burda 07-2012-114
The other woven top I am thinking about is one I've had on my list for an age: Burda 07-2012-114. It's an even simpler pullover blouse but I really liked it when the issue first came out. I was put off by the lack of bust shaping previously but I feel like I have that cracked now, plus I have seen several versions on women with similar body shapes/sizes to me online and think it looks really nice. I may make a couple of these as well in very different fabrics.






Ottobre 05-2012-07

And finally, one of my big plans is to make a chambray button-down. Making a button-down is a big goal of mine and I really want a chambray shirt. At the moment I think I am going to start with a muslin of Ottobre 05-2012-07, except without the colour-blocking. I spent part of today reading Shirtmaking by David Coffin and I am quite keen to try out some of the techniques he recommends.


And in addition to all those blouses, I am also keen to make some bags over the next month or so.

6 comments:

  1. I really want a chambray shirt, too! I did a round of visiting all of my local garment fabric shops a few weeks ago looking for chambray, and couldn't find any I liked for the shirt that I envisioned, though. :( (I did find some that I really liked for a shirtdress, though.) One shop even had something like 6 different shades of the Robert Kaufman chambray that everyone seems to like so much, but none were close to the picture in my brain. I do not want a pink chambray shirt, dammit!

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    1. Back in January I slipped and fell on my computer and ordered a massive pile of fabric from my favourite online store, and in the mix was a 3m piece of loooooovely blue chambray. I have been petting it on and off for six months waiting for the time/opportunity to make a shirt with it :D If I have enough left I am also going to make a skirt. (Rest assured, I will never wear them together!)

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  2. I also am reading Shirtmaking right now and looking forward to a block of uninterrupted time to work through his suggestions. It's a great book, isn't it?

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    1. I love it so far! I skipped over some of the detailed stuff on the first read through because it's a bit difficult to make sense of it without a pattern in front of me, but I am really looking forward to trying out the cuff application technique when I make the next Carme (because the way you do it in the written instructions seemed doomed to me to produce inferior results from a finish point of view).

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  3. I'm glad your move is completed. Hopefully you'll be able to get back to sewing soon. Like Michelle, I want to make a chambray button-down as well. Heck, I just want a button-down that fits - chambray or not.

    I've been to Manchester! I have no idea where I was when I visited, but I was there for over a week. I remember there being a stadium or field nearby. And a bridge. And a bus stop. This is not helping! =)

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    1. I'm really keen to get a button-down TNT pattern because I wear them quite a lot autumn/winter/spring. I'm not totally convinced yet that the Ottobre pattern I've picked out is going to be THE pattern, but I think it's worth a try.

      :D As Manchester is a rather large city your description doesn't really help pinpoint where you were! :D Still, I hope you enjoyed my home town while you were here!

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