Clothes for Mum Challenge - Longsleeved Tee

Meh. The fabric is gorgeous but if it stays as is (and doesn't become a tshirt for Hazel) it will be a 'wear under things' top.  The pattern is from Burda magazine 2/2010.

The main problem with it is that it's too small across the shoulders, you can see how the shoulder seam pulls outwards in this photo.

The neckline isn't sitting very well either. In the pattern photo it's quite a wide boat-neck.

And then when I stretch my arm out it pulls again!



To me it looks like the sleeve line needs to come down at a steeper angle.  So I have no idea why this has happened - is it a FBA issue? Should I have made the sleeves a bit wider? I don't know! I'm tempted to go back and get some more fabric and try again with a different pattern because I'd really like a tshirt I can wear on its own!  I've got the Cal Patch 'Design-It-Yourself-Clothes' and Wendy Mullins' 'Sew-U Stretch' and I think I'm going to just draft my own pattern dammit, enough stuffing around with trying to adjust a pattern to fit me when I could do it from scratch and end up with something decent from the word go.  Or at least better than this :P

CFM - Tunics

Hi to everyone who's put their name down and I have to say it's a big thrill to see that button on a few blogs too, it makes me feel all professional at this and stuff :)

I've been doing a bit of looking around at tunics and investigating the Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) idea. It seems like it's what I've been missing from my repertoire!

What I didn't know about patterns is that they are drafted to fit a B-cup (which simply reflects the size differential from your full bust point to your ribcage). So even if you size up to accommodate your larger bust, you will be making a larger size that's still drafted for a B-cup differential. WTF? That's just nuts. I do not know many women who would be making a size 50 for example, who would have a B-cup.  Anyways, this totally explains why tops often don't fit when I've chosen the size for my bust.  It's why the tunic I just made is slightly too large everywhere except across the bust (still).  There are lots of tutorials online about how to do a FBA.  Here and here look like good ones. The book everyone recommends though, and one that's now on my wishlist, is one called Fit for Real People by Patty Palmer. Looks like a must-have if you're planning on making a lot of your clothes. I think I might try making the Summer Shirt again but with the FBA and see how it goes.

I've also hunted down some alternative tunic patterns

The Shearwater Caftan looks essentially the same as the Heather Ross one I made
The Patricia Tunic, the Shana Bell Sleeve and the Tribeca Tunic are much more structured garments
The Schoolhouse Tunic is the most similar to the tunic I have that I'd like to replicate, although it looks a bit boxy - but it might just be that particular fabric. I think I'd convert the box pleats to soft gathers in the centre. The only issue I can see with this one is that it appears there is no shaping through the bust at all, but I found a tutorial on how to do a FBA when there's no bust dart so it shouldn't be an issue.

I haven't done a search through the commercial patterns yet, there may be good stuff - if you have a great tunic pattern, or have experience with FBA let us know!

The Red Quilt

I have a quilt top! I've been slowly making the blocks a few at a time over the last month, adding in a new fabric here and there as I got them.  There were a few false starts, like when I cut several strips 7cm wide instead of 8cm, but I got there! I laid them out last week, swapped things around, pondered and swapped and pondered and swapped and then numbered them and set them aside. But then I thought I could just maybe sew a few together, and then it was all the strips and then suddenly it was all the strips together and there was a quilt top.

It's 6 blocks wide by 8 blocks long (125x165cm), just perfect for snuggling under on the couch.  It's funny looking at in the photo because I can suddenly see that there are some darker fabrics only on the edges and not in the middle, but I guess that kind of thing happens despite your best intentions! You could go mad trying to get all the fabrics not touching another of the same, obviously I didn't manage that in places!  I think if I were going to do it over again I'd put more larger prints with white in to break up the fabrics that are solid orange and red, and put less orange in, but I'm very happy with it as it is, and I LOVE the splashes of aqua.  I was going to back it with more of the red and orange small circle fabric, but Mat commented that it would be pretty busy and I think he's right, so I got some white fabric with tiny red starburst sort of shapes on it and I think that'll be perfect.

Although I knew I wanted to make a red quilt, I got the inspiration for the style from Red Pepper Quilts (and looking at it just now I can see that she did the large prints with more white) and the technique for the block from the quilt-along over at Old Red Barn Co.  I wish I knew what it was called, I think of it as the '3 Strip Block' but the one at Red Barn has 5 strips so obviously you can do different numbers.

I experimented with free-motion quilting for the first time the other night and really enjoyed it, but have sadly come to the conclusion that my machine is not at all good at doing it - at least on such a large scale. The main problem is that the needle doesn't stop in the down position and there is no way to make it do that, so no matter how hard I try I can't stop the fabric shifting whenever I stop sewing. I tried moving it back but it just never started up again nicely. So I'll default the boring old straight lines, although Mum suggested doing diagonal lines which might be quite good.  That's fine for this quilt but I still have the Far Far Away quilt to do for Hazel and I definitely do not want straight lines for that - so if anyone has a good quilter they know of and could recommend I'd love to hear about them!  Now if only my old machine would break down so I could get a new quilting one...

CFM - First item

Summer Shirt from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross.  I've wanted to make this shirt for awhile, although with some reservations because I gather people have had some issues with it. But really, it looks so lovely on this nice lady who could resist?

 Some of the complaints about the pattern have been that that the placket is too long, the sleeves are too long and the body is too short. I thought I'd just leave the placket and sleeves as is - the placket could be sewn up (as indeed the instructions suggest) and sleeves are infinitely hemmable. I added several centimetres to the bottom though (like about 10).

Here I am in mine, looking slightly less adorable and not surrounded by flowers

And I'm really NOT trying to be coy with the camera, do you know how freaking HEAVY a DSLR is to hold at arm's length with one hand, while trying to point vaguely in the direction of yourself? Mat and Hazel had our point and shoot with them while they were away this weekend. I did try to put my face in but they mostly came out like this

Nice shot of the neckline and arm though! The picture looks weird because I have the mirror up on the windowsill and you can see out the window on the left there. :)

So what do I think. Well I think that it's not designed for ladies with larger busts. I'm not huge or anything, but I'm a big C cup and I'd say it's more for the B-cup and below sizes.  I know there is this mysterious thing known as a FBA (full bust adjustment) and I expect it would have helped here, but I have yet to look into it in a practical sense.  Although the top is lovely and airy in voile and I like the long and elegant sleeves and the low placket is all that saves it when you've got a bust (Trinny and Susannah say you must always wear v-necks and it's true!), it's a bit shapeless on the whole. I still like it and I'll wear it, but I'm definitely on the search for a tunic with some shaping. I own a nice one already but I'm not sure how well I could take a pattern off it, it has a lot of pieces and shaping and shirring and I'm not cutting it up!

Clothes for Mum Challenge

Time to walk the talk ladies - the Clothes For Mum Challenge is officially on.  It's official because there is a button and a Flickr group.  Did you know it's distressingly easy to start one of these things up? I must remember that next time I casually mention a challenge thinking no-one would be interested. But no, I'm keen and I hope you guys are too!

The brief is to spend the next month (October 23rd - November 19th) focussing on sewing clothes for yourself.  I know Christmas is coming and there are stuffed toys and quilts and ornaments and kid's clothes to be done (or at least thought about in my case) but darn it, we deserve something nice to wear on Christmas Day don't we? We deserve to have some new clothes for summer (or winter for you Northern Hemisphere peeps)! Enough putting it off to make something quick and easy for the kids that you won't worry makes your bum look big.  It's oh so tempting not to do it I know, but I've got the fabric and the button and the group and I'm doing it so please join me so I'm not at this party all by myself!  Leave a comment below if you'd like to join in, if you have a blog pop in the link too! Anything you've done since I first posted the idea counts - submit it to the Flickr group for us all to admire and be inspired by.  I'll compile a wee list of the people who've put their hands up and I'd like to post links to highly recommended patterns or tutorials so if you have any suggestions let us know - for example I'm interested in good tunic patterns that suit someone with a bit of a bust!

Please do join in at any time if you'd like to! So far we have:

Laura
Deb
Pdxolson4
Heleen
The Textured Leaf
Elizabeth
Maryanne
Lisa
Tracy 
Melinda
Willy Wagtail 
Lin3arossa
DorothyBills  
Bellgirl

Here's the button if you're so inclined (the code looks awful I know but it works!)

<br /> <a href="http://hazelnutgirl.blogspot.com/2010/10/clothes-for-mum-challenge.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="CFM button" height="150" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1218/5106340606_f5ffb0ec8e_m.jpg" width="165" /></a><br />

Playing with the photos

Just recently I've been playing a bit on Photoshop with badly exposed photos where the foreground is darker than background.  It's really quite handy! I found this great tutorial on Pioneer Woman Photography that tells you how to do it - what do you think? The trickiest part is painting in the lighter area along the edges but I've discovered if you choose a very soft brush it works pretty well.

Before

After

Before

After

I bought these little sauce boats last weekend at Studio Ceramics, any guesses what they are in the shape of? Mat had no idea you see and I thought it was blindingly obvious so I'm curious what others think!

Stocking up for a 'Mummy Clothes Week Challenge'...

...of sorts!  But really, I participate quite happily in fun challenges like Elsie Marley's 'Kid's Clothes Week Challenge' but where are the challenges for clothes for Mum to get me going?  Not that I want to get all organised on this, but if anyone else wants to put their hands up for a wee challenge let me know in the comments! Nothing like an element of competition to move things along. Or a deadline...

So here is the pile of fabrics I bought last Thursday when my friend Elizabeth came to visit. Oh it's bad enough fabric shopping on my own but when there's a fellow fabric person there it gets a bit dangerous :) We visited Global Fabrics first and I bought the grey knit (oh so silky and soft and Donna Karan!), the striped knit and the rather virulently pink floral stuff (which is for Hazel natch. It's also not quite as intense in RL!)  Then we popped over the bridge to Nicks Fabric Sale in Takapuna which had come recommended by Heleen at Ruby in the Dust. Oh the marvels! I'm not really used to going to bargain places like that but I'm totally sold now. I'm always a bit grouchy when Americans post about how they don't buy anything over $6 a yard or something because I'm sorry, fabric doesn't come that cheap here. But wait! It does! It comes at $4 a meter which is even longer than a yard. Ahhhh... And there was fusible interfacing for $1/m.  Ok, so the selection was limited, and most of the shop was filled with knits suitable for making polo and rugby tops, but they had some really neat cottons and a table with great off-cuts of posh upholstery fabrics for making cushions etc. I actually recognised some of the fabric as being from Global Fabrics and the guy (Nick?) told us that his uncle owns Global Fabrics so they get their remnants etc. to sell and I can tell you that I paid a LOT MORE for them at Global. Sigh. I hate when that happens! I got the two patterned voiles and the purple knit for 'practicing on' with tops. I've never felt like I could justify practicing on something before!

I've already cut out the green and blue voile for a tunic-style top, have a pattern earmarked for the floral (if there's enough, I need to copy out the pattern and check) and one for the striped knit - all from Burda.  Yay for approaching summer!  I'm hoping to try printing something on the purple knit - has anyone had any experience with doing that on stretchy fabrics? I'm a bit worried it might crack and look awful. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the grey knit, probably just something fairly basic that will show off the lovely drape.  The pink floral fabric for Hazel - not too sure about that. It's fairly heavy and slightly stiff, with a bit of a stretch. I was thinking a jacket but not sure which one. I'm contemplating this pattern, but I need to look through my Burdas and Ottobre magazines as well. Speaking of which, have you all seen the great clothes in the most recent Ottobre?  Lovely and I'm very very tempted. Ok, so I plan to buy it, its just a matter of time and I have to pretend I have some self-control. Actually I'm tempted to subscribe, has anyone ever done that? Is it worth getting them all or a total indulgence?