Quickie makes: the Seamwork Astoria jumper and Gertie's mini skirt

My knitting has stalled thanks to a new addition to the family, Dr Jenner, which interferes with my balls of yarn (yes, the rumours are true, cats do have a yarn obsession!) He wasn't exactly helpful with sewing either, but it was a little easier to get him out of the way and sew some quickie projects.

On a whim I signed up to Seamwork, Collete's monthly online sewing magazine that also comes with two free patterns which are meant to be beginner-friendly and doable within 3 hours at the most (a bargain at $6 a month, but I suppose only if you fancy the patterns). Of course instead of making the ones that came with my subscription, I decided to buy the Astoria , a boxy cropped jumper made in knit fabric - still, that was only $5! that's nothing! Especially because I've already made two.

What's interesting is that this is a perfect demonstration in how using different fabrics can give you completely different results. The first Astoria I made using some sweatshirt fabric, as recommended by the pattern and, frankly, because I had some lying around. I cut the size as measured, yet it turned out fairly tight, to the point where its a bit of a struggle to put on and take off. And when I wore it the other day I felt a little suffocated by it (even though it wasn't touching my neck, must have been mostly psychological).

The second one I made using some Hacci sweater knit fabric from Girl Charlee - I had no idea what that meant until my parcel was delivered, but let me tell you, this is the softest, most comfortable fabric ever! It was, however, a bit of a bitch to cut and sew, not because it curled, mainly it stretched a bit too much and the layers kind of stuck together. No matter, its such a joy to wear, and I'm sad that its so thin I'm unlikely to wear it for much longer (weather in London has taken a turn for the worse).

I don't know if you can spot the different when worn (eg, the neckline on the black one is much higher), but here is a close-up of the two together as well.

Oh, and the skirt is another quickie make. This is from the Gertie Sews Vintage Casual book, the pencil skirt modified to a mini A-line skirt, made in a Ponte fabric. To be honest, this is not really my best work, I made it a bit too short (because I didn't read the instructions properly) and so to compensate for that I adjusted the elastic so that it would sit quite low, but I didn't do a great job so its still a little big. Its a cute little cover-up for the days I fancy wearing leggings though so I'm happy enough with it. 

Dipping my toe into intermediate territory - The Pauline Alice Cami dress

I've wanted a shirtdress for a while now (like the Colette Hawthorn and the Sew Over it vintage shirt dress) but they are all intimidatingly tagged as intermediate or advanced.

But when I came across the Cami dress by Pauline Alice, which was very cheap as far as sewing patterns go and involved only printing 14 pages, I decided to give it a go. I figured I could brave an intermediate pattern if I don't rush and just carefully work each step. My fabric was also pretty cheap so it wouldn't seem like such a huge loss if I messed it up.

And it has pockets!

And I don't think my attempt is that bad for someone who has been sewing for only a year! I love the colour and the fit of the bodice from the front - the back has my usual pooling of fabric, which I think I should finally try and sort out next time I make a dress. Its not as bad as usual though because I made the shoulders one size smaller than the chest and waist, which helped a bit. The waist could have been a little smaller too, it was not as fitted as I had hoped so I increased my seam allowances further to tighten it up a bit.

I had to make some crazy, thrifty pattern placement when cutting as I discovered that I didn't have quite enough fabric. I ended up cutting the pockets from a different fabric, but the collar was a bit of an accident. Essentially I was being my usual self and not reading the instructions properly so I didn't see that I had to cut two of each collar pattern piece. By the time I realised, I had thrown away the tiny scraps  I had left over so I had to use a bit of an old duvet cover. We are going to pretend that this was a design decision though!

I suppose what makes shirtdresses not friendly to beginners is the collar and the buttonholes/button placket. But to be honest, they were not that hard. I had already done buttonholes for the Arielle skirts, and although I got a bit confused with what I was meant to do with the collar, Pauline Alice's instructions and a video I found on youtube were very informative, so it all worked out fine.

Where I had real trouble was gathering and attaching the skirt to the bodice. My first attempt was a bit of a disaster, as my gathers were not even so it looked like I had a huge hump on my right hip. I ripped it and tried again, and I am still not 100% happy with them and I can't work out whether it is my technique or the skirt just doesn't really suit me. I like it a lot with the belt but I think it looks a bit weird without it and that's because of the shirt. So next time I make this I think I am either going to make a less voluminous skirt or switch to a circle skirt or an A-line skirt.

Belt-less and a bit weird?

The zipper was another disaster. I haven't had great success with zippers so far, and this wasn't helped by the fact that the zipper I bought doesn't have teeth on the inside, which meant I had to attach it from the outside, and it kept moving around and just being annoying. The fact that this was a side zipper complicated matters further, as I had never done one before. I intend to try and do it again, and possibly even replace it with an invisible zipper (no idea I didn't use an invisible zipper in the first place, definitely next time!)

All in all though I am very happy with it. When I was trying to decide whether to make it or not I looked at all the blogs I could find to work out whether I would be able to do it but all the bloggers were quite experienced (and thus could not offer this info). So if you have come across this post and are an adventurous beginner trying to decide whether to make this, I say go for it!

My Made Up Initiative pledge: Arielle skirt(s)

I am fascinated by the fact that there is such a thing as an online sewing community and delighted to be part of it now, along with my online knitting community on Ravelry and Google Plus. One of the blogs I follow set up the Made Up initiative, relying on the sewing community to pledge finishing a project and raise money for the National Literacy Trust. And as a bookworm myself, I couldn't help but join in, pledging to finish not one but two Arielle skirts.

You see, I realised that I have a ton of dresses, store-bought and now handmade, and a ton of t-shirts. However, I have little to pair them with because I don't have that many skirts and I don't like wearing jeans (even though I have way too many pairs of jeans!) It was time to make some skirts, and the Arielle just seemed perfect.

This denim one  (photographed in Cornwall on its first outing) is the first one I made. When I tried it on before sewing on the buttons I thought it was too small so I changed the seam allowances to 3/8. It turns out it would have been fine, the problem must have been the fabric, which although was tagged as medium weight on the Minerva website, it was labelled as heavy and was actually heavy (the pattern calls for a medium). Making the buttonholes for the first time was also a breeze, although I had trouble opening them up (possibly because of the thickness of the fabric?).

The buttons are super-cute little ladybirds but having worn the skirt now once I think they were a mistake as they have been a pain to slot through the buttonholes! I foresee having to sew them back on several times in the skirt's lifetime.

I also made a black cotton sateen one that creases like crazy and seems to attract all the dust and dirt around - I washed it together with a cordroy fabric I bought at the same time and it picked up a ton of fluff! For this one I left the seam allowances as they were supposed to be and it fits fine. There is something weird about it though, can you spot it? Its the wrong way round! I have no idea how that happened, but anyway, I'm not too bothered about it. Again, the buttonholes are not great (had trouble opening them) but I'm hoping this will improve with practice. At least these buttons are a bit more practical despite also being quite pretty. No fancy backdrop here I'm afraid, just my living room!

Oh, and I made another Lady Skater. Number three is slightly customised, with a sort of pleated sweetheart neckline (following the instructions on my most recent purchase, Gertie sews vintage casual). I also decided that I didn't really like the colour of the fabric I bought for it (I thought it would be a deep burgundy but its more of a rust), so I used some black fabric for the bodice to break it up a bit. I didn't like the join of the top and bottom though and decided to add a belt to cover it up.