Playtime!

After another day spent in bed feeling poorly, I decided at about half past three that I was going to BE BETTER, darn it! I phoned school and told them to expect me in tomorrow. And of course, if I'm going to work tomorrow, that means I'm allowed to get up and play this evening!

What playing looks like these days

I had an idea for (yet another!) garment I wanted to make, this time out of some purple fabric I got from St Albans market last weekend. I bought it despite the fact that Noah doesn't like it at all (shock!) and I see it as a challenge to turn it into a garment he admires. (Well, at least, a garment he approves of). I also want to make something I know I'll wear a lot. About my favourite kind of garment ever is a hoodie, so without further ado I shall attempt to create one of my very own design.

Here's the fabric:

I think what Noah doesn't like is the flowery print. I kind of like it, but mainly bought the fabric because it's such a good purple colour (slightly darker than in this photo, in fact). I've decided to try using the fabric back to front for the most part, just highlighting certain parts of the hoodie with the flowers facing out. I'll have to choose where I cut carefully!

To be honest it's more a hooded t-shirt than a hoodie, but I'm hoping it will be big enough to wear with a layer underneath. This evening I've been re-drafting my basic t-shirt pattern (from Cal Patch's most edifying book Design-It-Yourself Clothes, which guides the reader through simple steps to create well-fitting versions of several basic garments). I made it a bit bigger (so I can wear a layer underneath) and have also added a yoke (which will be flowers-out) and separate cuffs. And, of course, a hood! I used Suzanne's tutorial over at Beau Baby, tracing around a couple of hoods I already own to get the shape right. I'm thinking of lining my hood with the same fabric (but again, flowers-out).

I just need to make a decision on the question of pockets (yes? no? two small or one big? patch or side seam? what shape? topstitched or not? flowers-out or flowers-in?) and I can start cutting!

Today's question: Are there any other grown-ups out there who love to wear tops with hoods? Have you ever sewn a hooded garment for yourself?

My First Sew (and a question)

I'm not feeling very well today. Or yesterday for that matter, when Noah and I ventured into Hemel Hempstead in the hope of finding suitable Christmas presents for various relatives. Because we've had Thanksgiving now, and Noah says that's when we're allowed to start thinking about Christmas. Good thing too, as we'll be leaving for Florida in less than three weeks!!

But today all I feel like doing is sleeping. No sewing all weekend!

So here are some old photos of my yellow skirt. (Notice the crumbs...? Noah took this when he was messing around with my camera after a picnic lunch in the garden one Sunday!)

It's the first garment I ever made, back in September before we got the sewing machine, so it's all done by hand. I also invented the pattern myself by copying from a skirt I liked. I didn't really know what seam allowance was so I added way more than I needed to, then couldn't work out where I should sew my seams. In short it's a miracle that I can wear it at all! But I do, even though the waistband is way too wide at the top and some of the stitching is starting to look a bit old already. I wear it because it's such a lovely bright yellow colour. I wear it because it's a skirt with pockets (yay!) - and mainly I wear it because I made it myself, darn it, and I'm proud of that :)

Me and Noah just after his Christmas-present-trial-aeroplane-flight... just as proof that my entirely hand-sewn skirt is game for all kinds of adventure!

And one of those classy 'proof it has pockets' pictures that you always see on pattern envelopes. (I made the green stripy t-shirt too. Definitely got the sewing bug!)

So here's the question: do you wear stuff even if it didn't turn out very well? Does creating something for yourself make you oh-so-proud even if it's not perfect? Or does it have to be just right before it gets taken out into public?

Funny Old Weekend

Noah's been away in Eastbourne at a youth work conference this weekend. In fact he's not even back yet (silly old M25 traffic) but I'm expecting him any minute (yay!)

It's been a strange weekend without him. On Saturday I tried going round our local charity shops - something we often do together - but it wasn't much fun without him. Which is odd, because when he's there I usually feel like I'm being far too slow and must hurry up. Maybe having a limited amount of time makes it more fun?

I messed around, wasting away the whole day, feeling kind of poorly and not at all like doing anything (not even sewing). Until about 7:30pm, when I suddenly decided that actually I did want to make something. A few pattern pieces later, and... I have a half-finished jersey dress. I didn't get time to finish the neckline or put the pockets in (new rule: I must stop sewing when I start shouting at the machine!) but if I get some time tomorrow evening I reckon it'll be done. The thing is, I don't even know whether I like it or not... it's a very bold stripe, which I've placed right down the middle of the dress, but it looks much better at the sides where the stripes kind of chevron together.

Oh... and a question (just in case any sewists chance to read this blog post): how do awewome sewing people attach side seam pockets? I cut them separately and at the moment I've stitched along the seams leaving a hole to sew the pocket in. But I'm sure there must be a better way!

On a completely different note, this morning was pretty interesting. Our church* does this 'Seminar Sunday' thing once a term, where instead of everybody sitting in for the same sermon you have to think about which one you'd prefer to go to. I went to a talk by a lovely lady called Janice about her project, The Living Room, an addiction treatment centre in Stevenage. They're thinking of setting one up in St Albans. I was pretty interested - I'm always interested in in-the-community stuff like this - but I didn't really see how I could possibly be involved, since I don't have any experience at all with addiction or counselling. Then... Janice mentioned that as part of their service they run an OFSTED registered creche... of course it's all very new at the moment and I don't know whether or not I'll end up being involved. But I've always hoped that this teaching thing would lead to a different kind of service with young children... Exciting!

*Apologies for the cheesy website...

Pyjama Party

So last week my class voted to have a pyjama party as their marble treat (you know... they get a marble in the jar each time they do something good... when it's full they choose a treat). I promise that I did not influence them in this. Not at all. Even though the next thing I knew I wanted to sew was a pair of pyjamas. I've been planning them for ages - I even made a practise pair out of an old sheet - but it took the inducement of being permitted to wear the pyjamas not only outside the house, but at work, for me to finally get started on them.

Here they are. It's surprisingly difficult to take good photos of one's own pyjamas, particularly when you're inside and it's dark, and your husband has gone to the seaside without you and so cannot hold the camera for you. I tried to go for some fun jumping-off-the-bed shots, but as you can see it didn't work out perfectly...

Things I learned
- Measure carefully before you make buttonholes. Like, really carefully. (I managed to put them in the wrong place not once but twice, by which time I was so fed up that I left them where they were).
- Bias tape is AMAZING!*
- Sewing to a deadline when you feel kind of poorly on a Monday evening isn't nearly as fun as messing about making interesting looking pockets on a Saturday afternoon.

I got extremely cross with the sewing machine whilst I was making these. Particularly those buttonholes... so much frustration... and the pyjamas don't even have any buttons! Noah was in the room at the time and witnessed my grumpiness. I don't think he'd realised before what the actual process of making stuff looks like... he was kind of surprised. And understandably so: regardless of creation frustrations, I'm always insufferably delighted as soon as I finish a garment!

*Seriously amazing. Just put that stuff anywhere near an iron and suddenly you can transform it into whatever shape you like!

Purple Patchwork Dress

This week I finished making my sixth item of home-produced clothing (if you include pyjamas... which I definitely do). Anybody who knew me during my look-like-a-boy phase (that is, between the ages of about 4 and maybe around 16) would be astonished to discover that two of these items are skirts and that the sixth itself is, in fact, a dress.

A dress!

Now, I'm very excited about this dress. So excited that I'm choosing to disregard all the probably quite shocking sewing techniques I employed, instead boldly and gleefully posting photos on the internet. I'm finding that it's hard not to be proud of an item of clothing you've made yourself - even if you know it's really messy on the inside, or the waistline is wonky, or it only has one pocket because you forgot to include them in the original plan and couldn't work out how to add one to the side that doesn't have a seam.

Technically I believe this is what they call a 'refashion', because I made I the dress out of an old patchwork skirt I bought ages ago (on a college chapel weekend away in Sheringham) but didn't wear very much - partly because the waist was actually rather tight, and partly because full-length skirts don't get on well with bicycles. In fact I wore it so infrequently that I couldn't really find any old photos of me in it - this was about the only one, taken on Northern Cross in 2010.

Anyhow, I decided that the skirt had gone unworn long enough (and my sewing craze had gone on long enough) for me to try turning it into something else. I wanted to try making a dress anyway. So I got my t-shirt pattern (drafted with the help of Design-It-Yourself Clothes by Cal Patch), found the best parts of patchwork at the top of the skirt and chopped away. Now, this pattern was drafted for use with jersey fabric (nice and stretchy). My old skirt was made of a woven fabric (not stretchy at all). My clever solution to this discrepancy? Add an extra centimetre or so and hope it'll still go on over my head! This I did - I could get it on (just) but it looked very shapeless. So I improvised some darts (no idea if I put them in the right place) and could still, just, get it on. So far so good... I had a bodice part, unfinished, without sleeves. Never having made or used facings before, I decided to try them. Using a pencil (shock!) I traced round the neckline and armholes of my front and back bodice onto an old white sheet that my mum gave me... a bit of cutting... a bit of sewing, clipping and pressing... and hey presto, facings! I don't know if I did it properly though: the armhole facings always stick out when I put it on and I have to tuck them back in.

Next challenge: join the shoulder parts together. If I had planned in advance I could have made the strap parts longer than they needed to be and fastened them with a button (making it easier to don the dress). If I had cut and sewn extra neatly, then the straps would have been the same width and I could at least have sewn them together neatly. But no... I pondered for ages (overnight in fact!) before realising that I could sew a curved end to each strap (with the strap/facing combo inside out) then join them together with zig-zag stitching on top. What can I say? It... works. I'm too impatient too spend ages getting it to look perfect, but it holds together.

All this and I still only had the bodice part. It was getting quite late on Monday evening when I suddenly decided that I had to finish the dress in time to wear it for work on Tuesday. Why, I'm not sure - I guess I knew I wouldn't really get any more sewing time until the following weekend. So I took the bottom part of the skirt, with hem still intact, and cut it in half (it was very wide). I made my first attempt at gathering (only partially successful, because of the patchwork catching too much on my threads), sewed a side seam and joined the skirt to the bodice. Yay! Finished!

Except, oh, what about the pockets? I hate not having pockets in my clothes - and especially when I'm at work, where my classroom is separate from the rest of the school and I need a key fob to get in or out of anywhere. So, now truly hurried as it was already past my bedtime, I ripped (and ripped really is the word) an original pocket out of one of my remaining skirt scraps. I (slightly more carefully) ripped open the single side seam of my skirt, spent quite a while puzzling how to place the pocket so that I could access it; so that no stitching would be visible from outside; and so that no holes would be left in the side of my dress. Finally I sewed it in, adding extra stitches for security at the top and bottom. Amazingly, it worked!

Trying my new dress on with delight, I completely failed to notice that the waist (and consequently the hem) was extremely wonky - I'd say there was a couple of centimetres difference between one side and the other. I noticed as I lay in bed that night, looking at my lovely new dress hanging on a hook on the door. "I don't think the waistline is quite straight," I said. Noah's reply: "Oh, I thought you knew that. I thought it was meant to be like that. You know, like a kind of fairy dress."

I've been wearing it anyway - and feeling very happy indeed :)

What's New

So... I haven't exactly been making frequent blog posts over the last year...

There are a couple of reasons I'm starting it up again. Here they are:

- I've recently got interested in making my own clothes. I've started reading a few sewing blogs and I feel like I want to be part of the conversation! I have a lot of questions to ask...

- It's pretty fun. Me and Noah aren't always that great at keeping in touch with our families (let alone close friends) and it's a good way to let people know what's going on.

- I've hardly written anything at all since I started teaching (apart from notes and comments in the children's assessment folders). I even stopped writing my diary when we got married (because I used to write it in bed just before going to sleep, but that seemed kind of weird with someone else there). I miss it.

That's all for now. I'll come back later and tell you all about St Albans.