Espritpatch

  I have been wearing my new winter coat for a while now but hadn't posted yet as it is still missing its hood... Years ago, I made a neoprene coat from The Makers' Atelier. I loved it and wore it a lot, so it was time for a new one. I wondered whether to make another one using the same pattern again but I thought I'd like a hood this time. I settled on the Silvia coatigan by Schnittchen Patterns  as I really liked the shape of it. I had a beige neoprene in my stash with a lovely texture that almost looked like a woollen fabric that I thought would work for it and also found a piece of silk that my friend gifted me.  I cut all the pieces in September and made the coat then (minus the hood). I started wearing it when I went to a conference end of September.  I thought I'd made the hood as soon as I'd get back from the conference and although I attempted to I didn't manage to finish it and it is still sitting on my sewing table....  I didn't have much of the s...

 And not just any Barbie, a pregnant one too! My brief was to make an outfit  that would show the pregnancy. Not my usual dressmaking! I started by looking for patterns but quickly decided that I wouldn't anything suitable so I settled on a pair of wide large trousers and a top, long at the back and cropped at the front.  I tried both pieces with some scrap fabric I had at home and cut off the pieces that needed to come off, particularly on the trousers. Once all fitted I was able to unpick and use the pieces as my new papattern. I forgot to keep them or take a picture! All worked reasonably well but the hems ended up to be very fiddly so I decided to stitch them all by hand. The delivery has been accepted (thankfully for me!), a few weeks ago now but it has taken me this long to post it.  At least one finish in July and my  One monthly goal ! Linking to  Midweek Makers ,  Wednesday Wait Loss ,  Needle and Thread Thursday ,  Put your foot...

  I have lost my trusted Lark Tee pattern that I have been using to make nightdresses. Sadly I have searched for it through my sewing room twice but I haven't managed to find it. Anyway I guess it will resurface one day. In the meantime, I decided to try out the free I am Blandine pattern . It is not a difficult sew with just 4 pieces... I had cut it and nearly finished it last month but my overlocker started to play up so I left it aside... until a few days ago. I started out by fixing the overlocker issue by threading at least twice... I used all fabric from my stash. The jersey is a left over from a PJ I made for my daughter last year. The ribbing for the collar is also a leftover. Finally finished, now to see how I like it as a nightdress. Céline

  It seems that I hadn't made a garment for quite a while... The SewAprilBlouse24 challenge on IG was just what I needed to get going. And although I had planned/hoped to make 2 blouses, I finally completed one that I had cut earlier this month.  I found a lovely black broderie anglaise that I have had in my stash for quite a long while and settled on the  Drop sleeve top pattern by the Avid Seamstress , which is a free pattern on their website.  The top comes together rather easily and quickly and the instructions are clear enough. I cut a straight size 4 without any modification. Finished sewing the top yesterday and now all I need is some warmer weather to be able to wear it! And of course, it has a cute label too Linking to  to  Put your foot down ,  Patchwork and Quilt , Midweek Makers . Céline

  Another finish this week-end! I've had this pattern, the Binky panties for over 5 years and I hadn't tried it yet, I don't think. There are quite a few variations, I initially thought about trying a mace overlay on the front but finally abandoned the idea because 1) I wasn't sure to have stretch lace in my stash in the correct colour and 2) I figured out the lace wouldn't quite work with the wide elastic for the waist. Assembly is rather straight forward and well explained in the pattern. All I had left to do for the last week was to sew the elastics. I used the leftovers from the set I made for my daughter and it worked really well. Another piece made all from my stash and another finish for January that had been cut in November... one from my  Fettle those finishes  list Céline

  I had cut the set in November and was hoping to finish it promptly, once I would have received the elastics but my order arrived and everything sat there, waiting to be picked up. I ordered some glitter boxer elastic for the waistband and the bra band, which is really pretty, might need to order myself some! And some cavaliere elastic , which is like a bias binding with the fabric held between the 2 "layers" of elastic and of course some strap elastic too. I wanted to try a bralette for my daughter and found the Tami pattern by Eclipse , which is a free pattern. My daughter doesn't like lace so I planned to use some jersey fabric that I had in my stash, a leftover from a nightdress I made myself a few years ago. I then ordered the relevant elastics from Rascol. I used another free pattern, the Acacia Underwear by Megan Nielsen for the the bottom, using the same fabric and elastics. Sewing both pieces didn't take very long. It took much longer to sew the elastics....

  I seem to concentrate on the easy and fast to sew at the moment. Maybe it is the satisfaction of achieving something even when I have limited time and energy... Anyway whatever the reason, about a week or so after I cut it all up, I finished a new PJ for my eldest daughter. She seems to be growing overnight so everything gets too short too quickly. I bought this bright and colourful poppy fabric over a year ago at a local fabric market but hadn't got around to use it yet. I thought I had enough for a full PJ but I could only cut the top so I digged into my stash of plain jersey and found a lovely black one for the PJ bottom. Once again, this was a quick make as all is assembled on my overlocker. And once again I used the 11th hour gear pattern by Pattern Niche , all in size 16. Another finish for November! Linking to  Wednesday Wait Loss ,  Brag about your Beauties ,     Patchwork and Quilt . Céline

Weather is awful, life is difficult so I could easily hibernate... making PJ is almost hibernating I guess, but at least something come out of it.  This week I picked up the pieces I had cut in October from my scrap box to make a new pair of PJ for my youngest, with leftovers from a PJ made to her sister a few years back. Another game of a Tetris to fit as many pieces as possible on the leftover piece of elephant fabric. Only the back of the PJ top was cut out from a piece of black leftover fabric.  Again I used my tried and trusted  11th hour gear pattern by Pattern Niche   in size 10. Another one finished with self made labels too. Linking to D esign Wall Monday ,  Midweek Makers ,  Wednesday Wait Loss ,  Happy Needle and Threa d ,  Put your foot down ,  Brag about your Beauties ,   Off the wall Friday ,  Can I get a Whoop Whoop ,  Peacock Party ,  Patchwork and Quilt . Céline 

  I had to move most of my dressmaking fabric stash recently as well as my boxes of leftover which I've discovered got wet during one of the cellar flooding... sadly some of the pieces now have stains but I've washed most of them now and went through them to work out what I should get rid off.  I found leftover jersey pieces from PJs I made to my eldest daughter about 5 years ago, too childish for her now but I thought I'd try to make a PJ for her sister (who is older than she was at the time!).    Cutting the 2 pairs of PJs out of the leftovers was quite a challenge but I got most pieces out, but a few. I complimented the pattern pieces with a piece of leftover solid black which I found in the same box too.  I've only managed to sew one of the 2 I cut earlier in the month.  She's slept in her new PJ once and told me it had a hole at the back of the trousers. When I looked closely, I realised the fabric was damaged there and had lots of tiny hole...

  After the girls' summer PJ, I have been meaning to move to the boys' ones. I started cutting one for hubby about 3 or 4 weeks ago but then disaster struck, we had a heavy thunderstorm with lots of rain and the basement where our office/sewing room is got flooded so we spent the rest of the evening mopping it up. By that time, I had cut all but the neckline and the sleeves.   I used a lovely soft cotton jersey for the top that I had bought about a year before at a local fair. I use the Starthcona Henley pattern by Thread Theory in the straightforward T-shirt variation and cut a size L. Massive achievement for this T-shirt was the embellishment I was planning to add but was scared of trying out. Since the fabric is plain, I thought I'd add the Star Trek logo that I could cut with my Cricut and fuse to the T-shirt. I finally decided to try and it was much easier and quicker than I had feared actually! I used an iron flex I bought locally and it worked just fine.  I ...

Finished and worn already! I decided not to stop on my nightwear making adventure to make myself a new night dress with the leftover panda fabric. I used the  Lark Tee by Grainline Studio  with the same alteration I had used before.  This time I cut short sleeves.  The only difference this time is I made the scoop neck for the summer version and also used Again I didn't hem the sleeves or the bottom of the dress but simply serged them. Another finish for July and one that is already happily used.  And last week, I am happy to report that I have spent at least 15 minutes on sewing activities most days, which hadn't happened for such a long time, encouraged by  Kate's challenge . Linking to  Put your foot down ,  Off the wall Friday ,   Patchwork and Quilt ,  D esign Wall Monday ,  Midweek Makers ,  Wednesday Wait Loss ,  Happy Needle and Threa d Céline 

Happy to report that I have finished the 2 PJs I had cut out about a week ago. Those were made using the trusted and reliable 11th hour gear pattern , probably my list used pattern! I cut a size 16 for my eldest, the t-shirt is a little long but that's OK. And I cut a size 10 for my youngest.  No sewing at all the previous week but I caught up on Sunday by making the pandas PJs for my eldest. I used black ribbing for the short waisband which I cut out of tubular ribbing so kept as one piece.  and cut out 2 cute pandas from the scraps for the labels so they are very soft and won't be itchy against the skin. Tried and adopted straight away! I even managed to sew the zebras PJ for her younger sister, which I finished on Monday night. I  used a cute "zebra-style" ribbing for her waistband since the short is plain fabric and again I cut out 2 zebras from the scraps for the labels. I didn't hemmed the sleeves, legs pour bottom of the t-shirts but I serged them all for a...