It’s been a busy weekend what with the Great British Sewing Bee show up in London, so I’m a little late sharing my most recent make for the Minerva Crafts blog: my version of the Colette Patterns Crepe Dress. Head on over to their blog for a blast of summer, to read all the deets, and to find out what I’d do differently next time. Looking at those photos makes me long to be back in the South of France!
Oh, and by the way, that’s Nice dress as in the city, not nice as in… well, you know. It is nice, but that just seems like damning it with faint praise, and my English teacher told me never to use that adjective if I could possibly help it 😛
As promised, here’s the link to my latest make for the Minerva Crafts Blog, which I’m calling my Rockabilly Pirate Top, for obvious reasons! You can find my full write up of Simplicity 8342 here. It’s such a cute jersey top, and perfect for anyone with a little experience with knit fabrics who’s looking for a slightly more challenging make than a simple t-shirt. I’d love it if you could pop on over to the blog and let me know what you think, and whether you’d make one of these yourselves 🙂
This year I was determined to get myself a pair of trousers that fit me properly. Now, I don’t know if my experience of buying trousers is typical, but I’ve never had much luck finding anything that was comfortable, let alone that fit well. It made me decide I was a die-hard skirt wearer, as they were so much more comfortable. Not as great for going on zip wires and climbing trees, admittedly, but hey, I liked skirts and didn’t want to wear that typical mum uniform of jeans and a tee.
But I love zip wires and the lure of making my own jeans began to grow. I was all set to leap in and make a pair of Ginger jeans, and then late last year I managed to find myself a pair of RTW skinny jeans that were reasonably comfortable and a pretty good fit. You’ll find me wearing them in heaps of blog pics here, but most recently the ones for my Baby Leopard Kimono  (they’re the high waisted Red Herring Carly jeans, should you be interested).
So, the idea of making my own jeans took a bit of a back seat after that. Okay, so there were things about the Carly jeans that weren’t ideal (like the quality of the fabric and stitching), but they were still way better than anything I could imagine making myself at the time.
But I still wanted to tackle trouser fitting. I had a go at it years ago when I was a good few dress sizes larger, and I managed to make myself a pair of needlecord trousers that were really comfy, but that I never wore out of the house due to an unfortunate lapse in attention when cutting the corduroy. There’s a reason they tell you to cut it with the nap all in one direction, and this became blindingly apparent when I looked down at my trousers–the front was about five shades lighter than the back! I never did make another pair of trousers with that block.
I definitely have Tasha from By Gum By Golly to thank for inspiring me to get going with my trouser fitting mission. Her Cigarette Pants are things of beauty, perfectly fitted to her body and she has detailed her many pattern adjustments at length in a series of blog posts. I began to see that it wasn’t necessary to get things perfect first time, and that it was possible to make a pattern time and again, gradually refining the fit.
This summer I decided to try again, using the Cigarette Pants pattern from my latest sewing bible: Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. Read on for more of my fitting escapades…
Summer is over. Boohoo! Okay, so autumn has its good points: pretty colours, misty mornings, golden sunshine, conkers, etc, but I’m really going to miss summer. Summer sewing, in particular. I didn’t get everything made I wanted to this summer (here were my ambitious plans for August), but I suppose in the UK the window for wearing summer clothing isn’t nearly as long as the one for wearing autumn/spring clothing, so I should really be turning my attention to the cooler months now. Sigh.
In other news, I had a lovely family holiday to the South of France this August. Just one week, but sometimes that’s as much as you want with small children in tow! And I’ve moved the website over to a self-hosted account. Come to think of it, it’s a wonder I got anything sewn at all 🙂
Oh, and something else I did that’s vaguely sewing related. I tidied the loft. Okay, so that might not sound sewing related, but I do store my fabric and pattern stash in the loft. It’s pretty easily accessible as it’s right next to the hatch and we have one of those cool ladders that comes down when you open the hatch, so it’s not as inconvenient a storage area as you might think. Anyway, here are the before and after pics of my sewing stash area: Continue reading “August round-up and September’s sewing plans”
Hi peeps! I’m writing to you all from a brand new blog/website, and I’m really hoping that all you subscribers are still getting notifications, as normal. Please, even if you don’t normally comment, I’d really appreciate a quick comment on this post to let me know you’ve got it okay.
What I’ve done is moved my blog over from a WordPress.com account to a self-hosted one, with the new site address of AnnaJoSews.com (way more catchy than AnnaJoSews.wordpress.com, don’t you reckon?!). All posts have transferred over, although I’m having a few issues with missing images in galleries. Luckily I’d only recently started using the gallery function, so in the next week or so I should have had a chance to go through all the affected posts and update the images. I also know some of the headings in posts look odd, so I’ll do my best to fix those too.
If you do have a moment to look around the new site and let me know what you think I’d really appreciate it. I will eventually have a pretty header which my sister is designing for me as she has mad graphics skillz which are sadly lacking in me. I’d particularly appreciate knowing if there are any problems with navigating the site, or anything that looks plain weird. Don’t be afraid to let me know–if I don’t know about it, I can’t fix it!
Anyway, that’s enough of all that boring techy stuff. Believe me, I’ve been up to my eyeballs in it for days now and I really need a break.
So, I have big plans for tomorrow. Mum has the kids, Andy is back at work (he’s a schoolteacher, poor love!), and I’m going to be indulging in the following:
Yep, that’s every single one of Craftsy’s classes with free access for one day only! I have so many sewing classes on my wishlist, and I’m going to be using this chance to check them all out, and I’ll probably have a peek at a few more while I’m at it. I’m particularly keen to find the best jeans and shirt sewing classes there, as they are two garments I want to tackle before the end of the year.
Anyone else a fan of Craftsy classes? I’ve learnt so much from them over the last few years, particularly when it comes to fitting, couture sewing techniques and sewing with knit fabrics. I can’t wait to continue my online education!
Right, I’ll be back on Tuesday with an update post on August’s sewing. Until then, Â happy sewing!
Anna x
PS, that’s an affiliate link in the Craftsy ad above, so if you purchase a class after following the link I will get a small commission, at no extra expense to you. Hope that’s all right–it’s the only way I can fund my sewing habit at the moment!
This is one of those rare occasions when I seem to have jumped on a trend bandwagon (last seen with the Cleo dress). Kimonos are everywhere this summer, and I’ve been growing increasingly annoyed with my selection of summer cardies. In the past I’ve always gone for bolero styles, often with a tie front, but they don’t necessarily look right with the clothes I’ve been wearing this year. Or maybe I was just bored with them. Anyway, I’ve been hankering over something loose and flowing to go over my close-fitting clothing. Hence the kimono. And you know what, I reckon it’s exactly what I was after! Read on for more…
In a Nutshell:
A versatile summer layering cardie, which can also be used as a beach cover-up. That was the idea, at any rate. And it’s kind-of animal print. Abstract animal print, at any rate. I’m calling it that, anyway. It’s my kimono so I can name it whatever I like 😛
Pattern:
This is a self-drafted kimono, following the instructions in Portia’s excellent tutorial. Those who’ve followed this blog for a while might remember I made one of these last year, using a striped hacci knit. I do still wear that one but I’m always wishing for a bit more width at the front to wrap it around me, so for my second version I widened the body piece by 2″ at the back and 1″ on each front piece. This extra 4″ in width allows me to wrap the kimono fully at the waist, which in my mind is a must for a beach cover-up! Continue reading “The Baby Leopard Kimono”
My wardrobe was in serious need of a really lightweight sleeveless knit dress for the summer (and autumn/spring when teamed up with cardie and leggings), so this project jumped all queues and demanded in no uncertain terms that I MAKE IT NOW!!! And you know what? I wish I’d made it earlier in the year to get even more use out of it. What a perfect dress!
NB: the title comes from the extra verse to Sing a Song of Sixpence which I found in a nursery rhyme book for my daughter, which goes like this:
She made such a commotion that Little Jenny Wren
Flew down into the garden and put it back again.
I’m not sure if this is a modern addition because someone feared small children would be traumatised by the idea of the maid having no nose (I never was!), but I thought of it while making this dress as I was effectively giving myself back a favourite dress that’s now too big. So yeah, Little Jenny Wren put it back for me. Although it’s not a nose. It’s a dress. Because having a nose in my wardrobe would just be weird 😛
So it’s come to this. Me, sharing pictures of myself in a bikini online. A leopard print one at that! But you know what? I’m more proud of this make than any other so far, despite it still needing a few tweaks. Read on for more about my first (but definitely not my last) plunge into swimwear sewing…
In a Nutshell:
A retro-style, halter neck, high waisted bikini. In leopard print pulled from the stash. What’s not to like?! I should just stick a bone through my hair and go full on cavewoman glam 😛
So, I set myself a pretty ambitious sewing list for July, but I did well with it and have enjoyed trying some new-to-me patterns, and getting some more summery clothes in my wardrobe. I’m scheduling this to go live while we’re chilling in the south of France, hopefully wearing some of my new makes! Anyway, here’s what’s been going on with me lately, sewing-wise:
The blouse blog was my first guest post for Minerva Crafts, and I also wrote a guest post for the Sewcialists blog, and gave a six month update on my Make 9 plans.
Sewing done in July:
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Leopard print bikini (Seamwork Reno and Dakota), Colette Crepe Dress, Animal print Hacci Knit Kimono, Colette Wren dress.
I did pretty well with my planned makes for my holiday, although I have had to bump a couple of patterns to this month instead (Simplicity 8342 top and the Pedal Pushers). Not all the holiday makes are completely finished, but I reckon I can get the thread ends dealt with on the plane over to France. #lastminutesewing
I needed this to be a thrifty sewing month, and it was. All those spends were for my bikini, which was much cheaper than buying a RTW bikini. August will need to be a budget month too, although I might let myself buy a little bit of fabric while on holiday as a souvenir 🙂
August sewing plans:
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I know I should probably be thinking ahead to the cooler months of autumn, but for August I’m still all about the summer makes. But hopefully summer makes that can transition into autumn, with the addition of a cardie and shoes rather than sandals 🙂
So, this month I’m definitely going to get the Pedal Pushers from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual made up, along with the Simplicity 8342 Rockabilly top (I have a great navy anchor print jersey for that one–thanks again, Minerva!). I’m also thinking about making a cropped blouse, and have the now out of print Butterick 5895 in mind. It’s another Pattern by Gertie, so it should be a good’un. I’d also like some woven exercise shorts and am wondering about the Seamwork Nantucket pattern as a possibility. Finally, I’d like to make that shirtdress I’ve been threatening all summer. Maybe it will happen this month. If not, I suspect it will have to wait till next summer!
What are you planning to make this month? Are you getting into autumnal sewing yet (or spring if you’re south of the equator!)?
This is one of those projects that was so simple to sew it hardly seems to warrant a blog post of its own, but hey, it’s my blog and if I want to blog the super-easy makes as well as the complicated ones, I absolutely can. And I seriously love this skirt, so there’s that 😛
Also, I’ve been meaning to blog every week and clearly that didn’t happen last week. I’m not going to apologise because I don’t believe in feeling guilt for no good reason, but I felt like I owe an explanation. Life has been busy and time got away from me, plus I’ve been sewing rather than writing about it–oh, the pressure of an impending holiday deadline! You’ll get two blog posts from me this week, though, as I’ve got one scheduled to go live on the Sewcialists blog tomorrow. I’ll post a link here when it does 🙂
Okay, you know the weather must be hotting up in England if I’ve made a pair of shorts. I mean, I haven’t even owned a pair of shorts for…. I don’t know, a decade? Before kids, I’m pretty sure of that. Anyway, it would appear I still have legs 😛
The location shots are at our local river, where it widens into a lovely paddling spot in the woods. It was Andy’s idea to take them there. Thanks, Andy!
Gabriel was seriously unimpressed by getting his feet wet at first, but it didn’t take long for him to join in!
I’m really getting into the swing of blogging regularly now, and am getting things up pretty promptly. Yay, me! Here’s last month’s round up if you’re interested in seeing how I did compared to my overambitious (as always) plans.
Phew, lots of makes blogged last month! I also wrote a post all about my current sewing set-up at the end of our main living space (living room/dining room) in the hopes of inspiring anyone else struggling to sew in a limited space.
Hey everyone, I’m absolutely thrilled to finally be able to share this project with you, as today is my first post over on the Minerva Craft Blog!
It’s the B6217 Vintage Style Blouse by Gertie, and anyone following this blog knows I’m a Gertie fangirl, so this was bound to be a winner. I made it up in a gorgeous cotton voile kindly supplied by Minerva. Unfortunately, the colourway I used is currently out of stock, but there are two other colourways, both of which would make gorgeous summer clothing. Continue reading “The Vintage Flowers Blouse”
Time for an update on how my #2017MakeNine challenge is going. Here’s the current state of play, with original images replaced with my makes:
However, although I’ve tried out some of the patterns I originally planned to make, my actual goal was to find a TNT pattern in each category so I could keep making the same pattern in different fabrics and colours. So this is more like the actual situation right now: Continue reading “#2017MakeNine challenge: six month update”
I have to admit, I’ve been sticking my head in the sand when it comes to Bloglovin, as I went over to Feedly when Google Reader disappeared, and I really didn’t want yet another social media app to steal my time. But while I hesitate to commit myself at such an early stage (having been on Bloglovin for all of ten minutes) I think I might actually prefer it to Feedly. Anyway, I’m hereby claiming my blog–and bonus, it appears a few of you are following me on Bloglovin already. Cheers, me dears!
Normal blogging will be resumed next week, when I’ll be sharing my progress report on my MakeNine challenge–and hopefully a new make too. Just got to put the finishing touches to it with a bit of hand sewing…
NB: the title comes from the extra verse to Sing a Song of Sixpence which I found in a nursery rhyme book for my daughter, which goes like this:
Check out my first post on the Sewcialists blog, where I was forced to narrow down my sewing heroes to just five inspirational women:
