dovegreyreader scribbles

The GDSB ~ The Fleece experiment

Much as I love a hand-knitted woollen jumper it has to be said that I love Polartec fleece just as much, for its practicality, its washability, its dryability and its many-togs of warmth, so I wear quite a lot of it. This winter two of Bookhound's man-sized jumpers that almost reach my knees thus keeping a lot of me warm, but I also have two favourite fleece cardigans that have been wardrobe staples for longer than I can remember. Bought from American company Eddie Bauer, in the days when they had shops here in the UK, I was surprised to find that the company still exists, though the shops here are long gone. I have always kicked myself for not buying more of the boxy, popper front cardigans and had actually suggested to Land's End, a few years ago, that they might like to make these. I thought it might perhaps give a more varied edge to their collection (we don't all suit a lapel or shawl collar) and I even sent pictures, but they took acute umbrage and I think missed a trick with a very nice, simple design that I would have bought even if no one else had.

So as my two cardies started  to look ominously thin around the elbows I decided to go for it...they didn't look that hard to copy and make for myself... squarish shape, short length (this is their star quality) I'd find poppers somewhere, and surely the Bernina would have a stitch in its armoury that could cope.

Rather than waste new fabric I found an old red fleece that I felt I could spare...it's tomato red, not really my colour any more, and so I set to drafting a pattern from the cardigan and then chopping into a perfectly good jumper. I have to say it is watching the GBSB that has given me the courage to try this...to turn one thing into something else...

Oh ye of little faith... I decided to keep the lower edge hems on the jumper in place for the cardigan and also the cuffs on the sleeves thinking that there was no way this would work...it would probably slip and slide from under the machine foot and be a complete disaster...

There's also the neat addition of cotton facing along the inner popper edges and around the inner back neck edge so the chance for a bit of contrast if I was feeling bold, and by the time I had finished hacking into the jumper here's what was left... a sort of elfin cape

With the Bernina manual to hand I strayed far into unknown territory and stitch No 16... never been there before, Stretch Overlock Seam with a bit of  No 13 Super Stretch Seam thrown in. Well what a revelation... who needs an overlocker when the machine can manage this.

I was whooping and hollering like a thing possessed as this went together, realising both that fleece is the easiest of fabrics to stitch (why on earth did I think otherwise?) and also the most forgiving. It can be eased and stretched into place with ne'er a pucker in sight and the seams are things of unfrayable beauty. almost dare I say professional and proper, which all makes me want to wear it inside out and say ' Will you just look at this...'

Did you notice I said 'wear', because I have actually ended up with an almost exact replica of my original beloveds. The only alterations to the pattern I will make are around seam allowance because an overlocked seam needs a scant 2/8, not the usual 5/8 that I had allowed and I have also figured out the best method for the popper facings (the best one on the left as you look at the picture) 

Once I have sourced the poppers it will be action stations, even if the colour doesn't suit me...the garden won't mind, and I expect we will then have a heatwave, but I am thrilled with the end result. These will only need about 1.2m of fabric so roughly £10 - £12 to make...

Sorted.

 

 

The GDSB ~ The Camber Top

The Great Devon Sewing Bee continues, and still very taken with all things Merchant & Mills my next project was to be the Camber Dress. Fran (lucky Fran) has reconnoitred the shop in Rye and says it's lovely and very kindly went along with my shopping list, picking up this pattern for me while she was there.

Except by now I have learned my lesson and so the really lovely soft denim that I had in mind has been set aside for something else and I decided to start with the Camber Top, also included with this paper version of the pattern. It's the top half of the dress, a very basic, loose tee-shirt style that pulls over the head, and I had a yard of nice soft periwinkle blue cotton from my Barbican Fabrics sale stash and I set to.

It is the simplest looking thing... front with two darts, plain back, a round neck with a bias trim, a lined back yoke, sleeves, no collar, no plackets or interfacing, no buttonholes, nothing taxing, bobs your uncle I'd be done in an afternoon.

All went well with the cutting and the darts and to my complete surprise even the neck binding, I mean just look, though I say so myself, how perfectly flat and even is this...


Having discovered after all this time that my 'swing' needle machine has a needle that 'swings' across in increments, and all at the push of the button that I have failed to notice for the last ten years or so, stitching an edge like this is now a doddle. The only down side is remembering to click the needle back to the centre position when I then go on to a 5/8" seam, or it will come out as 2/8" or 9/8" or something, and it has happened several times....more than several, I am thinking of attaching a flashing light.

So far so good...there's a fall coming isn't there, you just know it.

Right, onto the yoke...

So.... the yoke.

Hmm, the yoke...

There was a yoke/front/yoke lining sandwich going on which required stitching through all layers at the shoulders, no problem there, and then only on the yoke for the curve of the neck. There's a pivotal needle moment at the neck seam allowance and I just couldn't figure it. If I lined everything up I seemed to catch some of that bias and that couldn't be right.

WHOAAAAA!! 

Before I hit fray major, of both nerves and seams I wandered off to the kitchen, the kettle and my iPad. Someone somewhere must have made this.

Isn't this the joy of the internet, because someone somewhere had made the very exact same item... and here's to my new best friend and kindred spirit Roobeedoo.

Roobeedoo had my full attention with this...

I have scoured the web, and haven't yet found another blogger who has made this. Merchant and Mills patterns perhaps appeal to a different demographic:  dare I say slightly older women, who may be less likely to blog...?

Ah well, here I am, smitten, older, been scribbling here at dovegreyreader for ever and all agog for yoke assistance...

"...because despite its simple shape, sewing the Camber is all about attention to detail and achieving a high-quality finish.  I had to put the brakes on and take it one step at a time, because the yoke construction was entirely new to me and I was in serious danger of botching it up by going too fast."

There is some relief to be had in discovering that it wasn't just me... that this isn't as straightforward as it may seem, though I feel sure Mrs McClennan-Smith had us all doing this in Domestic Science circa 1967...

'But I think a complete beginner might get into a grumpy strop tackling that yoke on their own at home.  It is beautifully constructed.  The end result has the potential to be immaculate... but only if you are meticulous with your measuring and stitching and instruction-following. 
Me?  I took two shots at the shoulder pivot before I got it right.  Just saying.'

I'm not a complete beginner and I wasn't in a grumpy strop, more a pathetic I-should-know-how-to-do-this heap, and fired off a pleading heeeeeelp I can't do this comment before heading back to my sewing cosy and wishing my mum was there to tell me what to do.

Pulling myself together I suddenly realised that you have to line these bits up in a particular way, no matter if they don't quite meet everywhere else, there has to be an overlap of yoke beyond the bias seam to allow for the pivot and stitch (are you keeping up...anyone attempting this will thank me) and the pivot has to be EXACT, even one stitch too far is a stitch too many.

In the end, it seemed 'passable', May and Patrick were nowhere to be seen, Claudia wasn't shouting 'You have ten minutes left... TEN MINUTES...'  so I pressed on with clipping seams and corners and turning the yoke and leaning on the iron, all of which upgraded it to 'good enough'. My fall-back position at moments like this is to tell myself that the fabric was really cheap so this can be a toile, can't it.

It can't really, I want to wear it.

After my yolk meltdown it was all downhill in the nicest possible way, stitch the back to the yoke and then finish the yoke lining, join the side seams, in with the sleeves, making sure not to put them in back to front, bit of finishing hither and yon and it was done.

If there's a slight downside to plain light blue I need to be careful what I wear this with or people will think I'm in scrubs and heading into an operating theatre... that said it will make the perfect top to wear over last week's Reading Dress on a cooler day, and it would be lovely in tiny flowery cottons and especially Tana Lawn. These things look voluminous hanging up, Roobeedoo is petite and lovely and models hers with panache, I just seem to look sackofspuds so no me pics, but this is the Size 14... it's roomy but I prefer that, and I have shortened it by a couple of inches because that suits my 5ft 6" proportions better.


Like Roobeedoo I am pleased to have made this as a trial run for the Camber dress because now that I have done the yoke once it is of course very easy, and it all lies down as if steam-rollered but with minimal effort.

Now all I need to do is find the right fabric for the dress, and maybe purloin my new best friend's idea of the different sleeves.

Thank you Roobeedoo!

 

The GDSB - The Reading Dress

So whilst I am busy making Factory dresses with no plans to go and work in a factory unless I can help it, my project for this week has turned out the most perfect summer Reading Dress, which I will defintely be reading in. Loose-fitting enough to be comfortable in a deckchair, cool enough on the hottest day spent in dappled shade, short enough to allow some sun on the legs without being too short...if you know what I mean.

It all began with a Boden dress circa maybe 2000 ish, I can't remember I've had it so long...

A blue, low-calf length, 'v'' neck, loose, sleeveless linen number that I have worn...and worn...and worn.. summer after summer and it is starting to show its age. Thinking I could easily make a pattern from it I spent a whole evening and a roll of brown paper finding out that I couldn't really unless I took it apart at the seams, and I couldn't quite persuade myself to commit the ultimate sacrifice.

All that time spent whingeing that I missed browsing through the pattern books in department stores is a nonsense because now I realise that I can go to sewessential and browse them all sitting up in bed on my iPad, so I hastened me there to clone this summer dress of my dreams and here is the nearest I could find... New Look 6866.

Versatile and very easy. In the end I made several adaptations starting with View E (the yellow one) and adding a few inches to the length before diverting to the lower scooped neck from View C (sorry poor scanning, red flowery dress with the legs chopped off). The sizing at S/M/L/XL allowed for much width variance between top and bottom half as I cut, so having started with a Medium I was busy whittling away the width to Small by the time I stitched the final side seams and hem.

As for the fabric, well I had a nice yard and a half of a 60 inch wide pastel batik from Barbican Fabrics in Plymouth that had been earmarked for a skirt, but morphed readily into a dress.

Batik a bit of a new departure for me in clothes but brilliant for dressmaking because whoever is going to notice mismatched patterns, and this could be treated as if no nap, hence making it out of 1.5 yds. It all went together like a dream in a single afternoon spent tucked away in the Sewing Cosy. My only complaint would be that Radio Four was deeply depressing with a programme about how the amount of phosphorous on the planet is fast diminishing, and as it is essential for life it will be that lack which sees us all off, nothing else. I switched to Radio 3 and sang along to Choral Evensong from Wells Cathedral instead.

To my complete amazement nothing seemed to go wrong...

The facings went in perfectly, especially the 'V' at the back, all laying as flat as a pancake with the understitching in place. They turned outside in as if they wanted to and made themselves right at home exactly where they were supposed to, I could hardly believe it. I will happily make more of these, and can easily add length or mix and match the necklines depending on mood.


When it came to final assessment May and Patrick, aka Bookhound, awarded me Garment of the Week.

Well pleased, but with Factory Dress Mark Two cut out and ready to go, not in the least complacent.

So how is the stitching going over your way...

And for anyone who is watching the GBSB who do you think is going to win...

And did you all know how to 'bag out a hem' ??

I didn't, but what a great idea.

 

 

The GDSB ~ The Factory Dress

The Great Devon Sewing Bee continues with me falling hopelessly for the whole ethos of Merchant & Mills, honestly I am a marketing consultant's dream customer.

Make it look old fashioned... she'll fall for that.

Go back to the old ways of doing things... she was there first time around.

Emphasise the basics of keep it simple, do it well... she might stand a chance.

Send patterns on card rolled up in a tube...she'll love that.

And so to the Factory Dress based on a 1920's working-class style...

The card pattern that came rolled up in the tube and when unrolled slips neatly onto a hanger...

...and which involved me digging out the tailor's chalk and deciding it really is the best thing and much better than ...er... a biro.

The way that I had to then draw around the pattern and mark it all up took me an evening, but the whole process felt time-honoured and traditional, and ultimately much easier than pinning tissue paper.

I ended up with a lovely pile of bits and am definitely up for more of this...

To that end I am really grateful to Karen at Barbican Fabrics who very kindly sold me some of her pattern card along with the hangers, and passed on the tip to stick your tissue patterns to it. 

And then I started to stitch.

Things were going swimmingly, though with a new pattern it took me a while to figure out which side I had to iron the facings onto, and the collar facing dangled unhinged in the oddest way but came together fine once I understand the method.

But slowly I realised that, though seemingly lightweight, the denim I had chosen was going to be a nightmare to stitch in quadruplicate when I reached the collar. Mea culpa as usual, so many layers which the Bernina valiantly stabbed through...and yes, I had even remembered to put in a denim needle, but really it was going to be akin to wearing a neck brace. The facing went in wonky, by which time I realised I wasn't doing this at all well, or even simply, but denim frays far too readily and despite zig-zagging the edges this wasn't going to tolerate too much unpicking. When May and Patrick (Great British Sewing Bee judges) ask me to wheel out my creation there would be plenty for them to get their critical teeth into.

Too late to decide that I should have made a toile ( a calico trial run) but I soldiered on regardless deciding that for the £8 this had cost it wasn't too expensive an experiment, I would be re-learning a few things on this prototype along the way, which I certainly have, and in the end some things did go quite well.

Anyway it's finished and as you can see it's not far off enormous for a size 14, definitely more so because of the fabric. Where a lighter one would drape, well this one sort of stands alone ...hmm... it's like a tent, enough room for a troop of Girl Guides to camp inside ( I exaggerate ... maybe just a pack of Brownies) 

There was only one thing for it, beat it into submission, as in ruin it, on a 60 deg fast spin cycle in the washing machine with those dolly washer balls. It was like being on the Western Front as they hammered around the drum for an hour, but can you believe it, unheard of, the dress came out looking as pristine as the minute it had gone in. Not a crease, not a streak, nothing... you'd be thrilled with this denim if you wanted it to keep its colour and shape.

Undaunted I will now just have to 'wear' it in, around the garden, for which is was built made, and for which it is perfect. Pulls on over my head, plenty of room to move, nice deep slouchy side-seam pockets (another first for me and a succesful moment) and actually very comfortable despite the thickness around the collar.

Even more undaunted I have cut out another one, this time cutting 'within' rather than 'without' the chalk lines which might help the sizing a little, and in a much drapier fabric. Note the can of beans which is recommended for weighting down the card whilst drawing round the pattern.

Watch this space for Factory Dress Mark Two, I've got the hang of it now.

So how's your sewing week been...

 

The GDSB ...The Skirt

I must have made any number of skirts in my time, but shock...horror...never a lined one, and now that I have braved it I doubt I would ever make one without a lining in future. What a difference it makes to the shape, the drape and the feel of the whole thing, and nothing like as difficult as I imagined it might be.

The pattern for this latest endeavour was Butterick 3134 View B...

I have spent an age searching out a basic 'A' line pattern that would work and was hoping this was it.

But at this point I am going to ask who on earth sizes these things??

For those in the US subtract two from these stats but on an average day I am a Size 14. If I buy a skirt from somewhere like Boden I am a Size 12 (love them for it) so imagine my horror, when I arrive at the measuring myself against the pattern stage, to find it tells me I am a Size 18.

This can't be right.

I gulped a bit, swallowed my pride and decided there was nothing for it but to make the Size 18 if I really wanted this to fit, and though I don't often say it I really am delighted with the end result ...18 or not.

This was the 1.5m of cotton lawn (very like Liberty Tana) and I used a plain blue cotton for the lining (all pre-washed) which has turned something potentially flimsy into something much more substantial.

The lining went in like a dream as did the zip given that I have a zipper foot in my box of tricks. Little wonder that without one I have failed with zips in the past, and along the way I discover something else about the Bernina which I really should have known. I knew I could set it up for all manner of swing needle stitches from this rather mesmerising Formula one style dashboard...

..but I didn't know that I can also shift the needle, by degrees, to the left or the right on a straight stitch...

...so that's what this middle button is for..

I'm feeling a right klutz.

My next project is the Merchant & Mills Factory Dress, expect traumas over the collar.

So how is everyone else's stitching going then??

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The GDSB... in response

The GDSB...

The GDSB...The Pattern Box

I think I may have mentioned the box of dress patterns a while ago. This an accumulation of all my mum's patterns and mine, a sort of history of our shared dressmaking lives, as well as a potted history of fashion given that some go back a long way. Vintage would be the word for some of mine so my mum's must be antiques by now. I am hopelessly sentimental about all this, someone else will have to throw it away when I'm gone because I certainly can't...

I had dragged the box down from the loft and decided to keep it around for a while, and have had a fine old time rummaging through it. There is something I love about dressmaking patterns and I realise I have missed them, maybe it is just the thought of turning those pieces of gossamer thin paper into something wearable and useful. Did anyone else see them handing out the patterns on the GBSB and think 'I WANT ONE,' or was that just me.

The upshot of that craving was that I had some Amazon gift money lingering and have bought the book to go with the new series of the Sewing Bee, because as well as lots of very handy advice it is also accompanied by full-sized patterns. 

Delving into the pattern box, I expect my brother looked the business in this little outfit and there is even a little note on the front saying Mrs Chester Paid 26/4/55... he would have been four...

Me nineteen months and in which case probably wearing this...

There can be no doubt that just a few years later I was the belle of the ball in this....

I remember this very clearly, primrose yellow with white flock dots and rustly petticoat lining to make it 'stick out'. I am imagining the parties, because this was my Party Dress, a room full of rustling girls (and noisy boisterous boys) playing Musical Chairs (awful...who invented that scrum)  or Pass the Parcel.

I never won a game of Pass the Parcel or Musical Chairs...did you??

I know this pattern works because I used to make these in winceyette for Offspringette...

Winceyette another of those wonderful words.

And somewhere there is actual photographic evidence that I wore this one...

I remember no sense of anything other than complete pride in each new outfit, nor were there any overtones of 'feeling home-made'  or being in any way inferior. Even at grammar school all my summer uniform dresses were home-made in the regulation material, it wouldn't have occurred to my mum to go and buy one ready-made, and from what I can recall the make-your-own baton was just passed onto me and I carried on. It was the normal thing to do, and looking through the box and the scores of patterns that I used for children's clothes, I can see that I must finally have stopped dressmaking seriously in about 1990, when I went back to work properly when the children were about five, seven and eight.

Perhaps more money, definitely much less time, and far easier and quicker to buy clothes for all of us, leaving behind a skill that has lain dormant for almost twenty-five years.

I am sure, at the time of the Party Dress I was heavily into the contents of another box I found in the loft...

...and there they were, all the dresses that my mum had made for her own dolls, or perhaps her mum had made, which had become mine...

Miniature samplers of old styles and old fabrics, tiny treasures.

But hiding away in the pattern box was a pattern I had never seen before, and as it is for a ten to twelve year old I think my mum must have sent for this from the Girl's Own Paper in about 1936.

It is so of its time, a Girl's Smock Overall, clearly the plan is to wear it when you are gardening, in fact watering your wilting sunflowers. It is termed 'dainty' and suggested fabrics are 'shantung, linen, cretonne, casement and many cottons.' Casement I discover was a medium-weight cotton used for curtains, tablelinen and upholstery, sleeves are 'bishop-shape' and sides are to be French seamed, no messing. I still have my Mum's school needlework books with all her samples neatly stitched in, so I suspect this pattern was bought in that same era, before the war, maybe even to be worn at school.

I'm tempted to make up one of the smock overalls, follow the same pin holes, just to see how it turns out but doubt I would find a ten to twelve year old to wear it. If I am honest I'd quite like a grown-up version, perfect for the garden.

It all piqued my interest in the Girl's Own Paper, apparently established in 1880 by the Religious Tract Society and gradually becoming a guiding light for young girls in a fast-changing world. By the 1930s the 'improving' articles had been replaced by more features on fashion and household management, and obviously dress-making, until by the war years the paper was offering advice and preparation for what may lay ahead. The covers from the 1930s are a delight, it all feels very Chalet School and Angela Brazil doesn't it...

I love to think of my mum reading these, no wonder the comic tradition was so strong in our childhood too.

One of the things I really wish we had done down the years was to put a swatch of each fabric used inside each pattern. I can remember one or two very clearly but not many, so, although it is a bit late in the day to start, I am now going to do for dressmaking what I have always tried to do for quilting and knitting and that is keep a record.

Cue new notebook...

 

 

 

 

The GDSB... in response

Thank you for all your lovely comments yesterday.

For Miriam who asked about the pattern here it is, New Look 6598...

I liked the fitted look and also the shawl-style collar, but made View D (not wishing to push my luck) which only takes 1 & 3/4 yards of 45" wide fabric, though I bought two yards because I couldn't believe I wouldn't do something wrong and need rescuing. In the event, despite Sleeve Two misbehaving, I didn't.

There were a couple of mistakes in the pattern (really, it wasn't me) one about which pieces to use for View D, and the other seemed to be no instructions about when to make the darts. I am using a tip picked up somewhere about not doing a double stitch at the point of the dart, but leaving long tails on the cotton and tying them together. It works like a dream, lovely crisp points. I didn't realise until I looked at the reverse of the pattern properly that the back has ties. These would just annoy me so I omitted them, though I was a bit worried the thing might be reliant on them for taking up some excess, but no worries, I fill it out fine without any help.

Lib572 mentioned buttons...

Anyone who has an all-singing all-dancing sewing machine, especially a Bernina, will be familiar with the box of extra feet...

Moira, you asked which model I have.

It is the Virtuosa 153 'Quilter's Edition,' but one of the things that has bothered me is that I have never really sat down with the instruction book and mastered it all to its full potential. I make the machine go backwards and forwards, bit of sidestepping but I am not sure buttonholing foot 3A and I had ever made each other's acquaintance...

Even with the help of Youtube videos (thank you Bookhound, who couldn't stand the wailing a minute longer) I still couldn't make the machine stop at the allotted point as it straight-stitched its way back down the right-hand side, ready to buttonhole stitch its way back up to meet the perfectly formed left side it had just done. That round 'thing' is apparently a lens which tells the machine exactly when to do so and then replicates the length of the buttonhole exactly each time...but it wasn't playing buttonholes at all. In the end I resorted to bog standard buttonhole foot 3 and a marker pen which seemed to do a good enough job for my first attempt on this machine.

And I added some quirk to the buttons as well. Buttons used to be so boring, the choice now is wonderful and I spent hours in front of the rows and rows of tubes in the shop trying to decide.

In reply to some of your comments...

Miriam, the plaid-matching was pure chance. I wish I could say otherwise. Next time I will be thinking about it so hard it will refuse to work....

Erika, please don't feel shamed to your toenails:-) I am being far too righteous for my own good, it can't possibly last. School has a lot to answer for doesn't it. I still remember the buttonhole we had to handstitch in an exam, and having done plenty I suddenly couldn't for the life of me get the stitch to work.

Another Ruth, I understood your instructions perfectly, thank you so much and I am going to try that method for putting in the sleeves next time. For anyone who missed it here are Ruth's instructions...

There is an easier way to sew sleeves- half way between setting them in and sewing them flat (like raglan sleeves): Before you sew the side seams of your garment,sew the gathers in the sleeve head as normal,then attach to the shoulder, but just sew across the bit where the gathers are. Next sew the bottom seam of your sleeve,then the side seams of the body.Finally, sew the rest of the sleeve cap (I think it's called the armscye-Lovely word). 

I can see how it might make it so/sew much easier. One detail on these sleeves which I love is this little 'V' shape achieved via some nifty stitching on the facing... 

Kate, if we are lucky enough to find a tailor's dummy I will MAKE room. It would be so much easier to be able to work with the garment 'hanging' on half a body:-)

Liz, you won't know yourself once you start using a pizza / rotary cutter. I use one all the time to even up my fabric before I start. I love the accuracy and the clean cutting edge.

Linda- Mae, I think one of the blessings of this time in our lives is to have the time and the patience... except for Erika that is:-) to enjoy the process as much as the end product. And to learn new skills too.

Susan D, you are right, jeans and tee-shirts so easy. I am working towards having a capsule wardrobe of basic patterns that work well for me and one that will enable me to make things considerably cheaper. The average Seasalt or Fat Face skirt is upwards of £45 which seems crazy for a yard and a half of fabric. I am already looking at skirts and thinking 'I'll make that.'

On the subject of  tacking if it will help with accuracy then I shall be using it...my Mum would be so delighted. How many times have I sat and unpicked a well-stitched seam because I had done it back to front...

And Claire, I think I have spotted a potential GBSB winner too... we'll see.

 

 

 

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The Great British Sewing Bee.

The GDSB...

Selvedge

The GDSB...

The Great Devon Sewing Bee of course and in the nick of time, before Series Two began this week (are you watching... loved it) I made the blouse that I felt inspired to make after Series One of The Great British Sewing Bee, having bought the pattern and fabric in John Lewis's last summer (New Look 6598.) Simple, 'V' neck, collar-less, with short sleeves to start with, collars will be in the next module.

For the uninitiated The Great British Sewing Bee is a sort of weekly TV sewing contest to find the best amateur seamstress. Everyone is given the same challenges to make, this week a sleeveless top, a skirt to revamp, and a silk nightdress, and the results are judged by W.I. teacher May, and Savile Row tailor Patrick. Now for many people I dare say this is all like watching paint dry, and it has had some lukewarm reviews, but I love every single stitch of it.

I can see that there will be a time for every purpose in this new regime of 'not working' which has just played out its first year; times when I knit, times when I stitch and times when I dig.... and now seems like the Time to Sew. 

Several things needed to happen before I could really start dressmaking properly again, mainly moving my work table from the Bookroom to my little Sewing Cosy so that I could spread out a bit. The Sewing Cosy is just off the Book Room corridor and was the TV Cosy, but the TV went to the kitchen along with two comfy armchairs last autumn (to take full advantage of Aga heat). To make way for all that the big kitchen table went to Bookhound's Study, which used to be the Big Sitting Room, and previously Bookhound had occupied what became the TV cosy and is now the Sewing Cosy. We've gone round in a big circle, are you keeping up ..do you do this in your houses...change rooms around.

Anyway once the table was in I could set things up properly and leave them out...

this I find is crucial to ongoing sewing projects. Sewing in the kitchen was lovely and warm last winter but clearing away for every meal is not conducive.

While we are in the Cosy here's the other side... I love it. The Tinker's fabulous tapestry surrounded by a riot of pattern and colour to cheer on even the dullest day...

And my sewing cabinet is squeezed in too...

And we might as well do the full 360 degrees...

Never has such a quart been poured into such a pint pot, cosy is the word.

I set too with due care and attention, double checking before cutting out. Check twice cut once Bookhound used to say, back in the day when his chaps were installing someone's expensive kitchen, which he had measured and designed to the millimetre. Then I spent time notching, marking darts, overlocking raw edges before proceeding to TACK!! 

Tack...me, honestly.

The novelty wore off that and I was quickly back to the pins...for a while, but taking my time, no rushing. I am no longer a girl racer and now drive my Bernina well within the speed limit...

But this is all part of the plan, the gospel according to Merchant & Mills, keep it simple but make it well, so I have decided to pay due care and attention to the basics again as a sort of re-learning of detail long ago abandoned. At the age of sixteen I would start making something at 2pm and have it ready to wear by 7pm, and somehow get away with it... well it would hold together for an evening at least.

I managed to pick up a copy of the M&M Sewing Book on eBay for a song this week for some revision, and have already implemented the book's most obvious (but it had never occurred to me) brainwave. Cover the ironing board with striped ticking, not only to make it look nice, but also to have a row of straight lines to press against.

So within an hour I had gone from this, heaven help me, is it any wonder...

To this..

There is hope.

Three things seem to have changed since I last did any serious seamstressing which was probably the 1980s.

....my eyesight.

...the tissue paper used in patterns is thinner by far, one sneeze and the whole lot was on the floor.

...and the tape measure now lies.

But had I ever really read all the printed pattern instructions properly before??

Maybe not because understitching facing seemed like a new one on me and it took me a while to figure it out... but what a difference it makes. No more persuading the thing to lie flat, it just meekly lay down and looked 'finished.' I was quite surprised.

Sleeves, whizzed in with my eyes shut by a younger me, suddenly seemed terrifying, but I have decided that this was all down to the 1960's fashion for puffed sleeves, surely the most forgiving of sewing tasks. It was back to the gathered ease and tacking, and when sleeve one went in with ne'er a pucker I was dancing round the room. I quite expected Claudia to come up and tell me I only had thirty minutes left and I would breezily reply 'No worries, I'm almost done here,'  but was also hoping May and Patrick might just gaze upon my sleeve and be best pleased. My dummy would be wheeled into first place for sure, as it is Bookhound came in and said 'That's nice,' so all was not in vain.

We'll maybe talk about sleeve two on another day when I'm feeling stronger.

Pin...tack...stitch...blast...unpick...fray... stitch...out...in...

Anyway, it's finished and it fits a treat though looks pretty shapeless just hanging.

Finding an adjustable dressmaker's dummy is Bookhound's latest charity shop challenge, please don't ask how many we have walked past in the last twenty years, and I have my next project waiting in the wings so more soon.

Meanwhile, anyone else seamstressing... 

Any good tips...