I made a top...that I can actually wear!!

After the great trouser disaster my confidence took a bit of a knock but I didn't want to give up on clothes. Not being one to shy away from a challenge I wanted to try something a bit more adventurous. I had found some beautiful butterfly print fabric in the sale at Always Knitting & Sewing and had gotten the pattern free with one of the many sewing magazines I am obsessed with buying. It is a fairly simple style shell top with interfacing on the inside. The first step was to cut out the pattern and transfer it to the fabric. The patterns always come with a range of sizes and styles so this bit needs a bit of concentration. I definitely need to work on my attention to detail when it comes to cutting the fabric, if you aren't precise with this step, it will drastically effect the finished item. 

Sewing the fabric pieces together involved a whole lot of concentration and I ended up googling some things that I had never heard of before. I taught myself some new skills along the way including staystitching, darts, clipping curves and understitching. The internet is a really great resource for this sort of thing and there is always a friendly blogger out there waiting to help. 

Just as I thought I was getting somewhere I realised that I had stitched both armholes the wrong way round so my trusty stitch un-picker came out again. Perseverance won through on this project and the minute I finished the hem I let out a little squeal of excitement. I had made a top...but was it wearable? 

I rushed upstairs to try it on and couldn't wipe the grin off my face when it fit and actually looked pretty good. I was so proud to have produced something that I could wear out of the house, that looked pretty great and that I had made by teaching myself. It got its debut at work the very next day! 

The great trouser disaster

When I first got my sewing machine I had brought some remnant fabric really cheap and wanted to use it for something. I found a pattern online for some casual lounging trousers and thought the dark grey jersey fabric would be perfect for them. 

The pattern gave specific instructions for the waist measurement on the trousers but I couldn't get my head around why the waist needed to be so wide so I might had fudged it a bit....surely it wouldn't matter right? Well yes, it mattered quite a lot actually, more about that later.

So the trouser pattern basically involved 2 front legs and 2 back legs and the first step was to sew each front and back together at the side seams. In my defence, I was pretty tired by this point and I managed to sew two trouser fronts as one leg and two trouser backs as another. By the time I realised my mistake it was too late, the damage had been done I had a pair of trousers that were too tight around the waist and that had one leg wider than the other 😂😂 

Thankfully I saw the funny side of it and after sharing a few photos and laughs, I put them aside and moved on to the next project. 

I am going to make a cape!

Having mastered my first quilts, I decided that I had this sewing lark down and brought a pattern to make myself a cape. It says very easy on the front so it can't be that hard right?...Wrong! 

The first challenge was finding the right fabric, I wanted it to be quite thick and warm, but manageable. At this point I knew nothing about fabric other than what jelly roll is. After a bit of research I discovered a lovely fabric shop in Eastleigh called Eastleigh Sewing Centre. The ladies in there were really friendly and helpful and didn't laugh too much when I got my threads confused and tried to by overlocker thread rather than the normal stuff (who knew they were even different!). 

I walked out of the shop with the right thread and with not only my cape fabric, but some more jelly roll and wadding for another quilt (more about that in a later post). My cape fabric was charcoal grey with a gorgeous silver thread running through it.

When I got home and opened the pattern packet, I was beyond confused. It looked so complicated and anything but easy. Luckily my mum was on hand to answer some really stupid questions...no matter how old we get, we still need Mum's advice 😀

I eventually figured out what the different bits of the pattern meant, how to cut it out and how to cut the fabric, and I even did it all the right way round! 

There is no better feeling than sewing your own piece of clothing, something you made yourself that you will actually wear. I made a few mistakes when sewing it and had to unpick a few seams, but I was super proud of it when I finished. 

It is far from perfect, but it is wearable and I absolutely love it. 

I learnt a lot of lessons along the way, mainly to take my time and be a bit more patient with myself.