Purl and Seam

Fabric : Fibre : Family

DIY Oversized Shirt – Vogue

Hello there! I can’t believe that we’re heading towards the end of August and it’s been nearly 3 months since my last post.

Between the dance lessons (all in Liverpool, which is a 2 hour round trip), the ongoing pandemic, fires, earthquakes and Afghanistan falling to the Taliban again, it’s felt so frivolous to be posting in this space. I’ve been almost as sporadic over on Insta too.

Add into the mix the long school summer vacation and almost interminable rain. It’s meant that not a lot has been happening other than keeping small folk occupied and from fisticuffs!

All this means that creative ennui is a real thing at the moment, but I have finished this blouse and a pair of socks. I’ll share the socks next time. Hopefully not in another 3 months, because they’re lovely!

Anyhoo….this shirt!

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DIY Shell Tops – Cashmerette Springfield Top

My sewing of the Cashmerette Springfield Top has, for the first time ever, been serendipitous. This week the weather in the UK has finally changed from the dreary grey and rainy days of these photos to glorious sunshine. We’ve even needed to break out the SPF!

In my quest to a) sew up all the damned fabric in the stash and b) move my wardrobe to more handmade, I needed some basic tops. The Springfield Top fits the bill perfectly. It was also one of the patterns on my TNT pattern wish list spreadsheet that I drew up last autumn. So it ticks another sewing plan box, too. I get to put a ‘Y’ in the TNT column!

The pattern was already in my stash so it’s a double win for using both fabric and a pattern that had been languishing. I’d printed the pattern off a while back, so happily taped it up, did the FBA that I knew I’d need, and cut a toile.

This is what happens when you don’t check your measurements and you add the total amount of the FBA to the pattern piece rather than just the required half!

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Helen’s Closet Blackwood Cardigan

So my first finished garment of 2019 hits it right out of the park!

My perfect daytime ‘uniform’. Cute top, jeans, boots and a cardigan. I live in looks like this for everyday life!

Not only am I thrilled with the garment itself, but its made from stash fabric and a stash pattern, albeit the updated version.

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DIY Dressform Pattern – feedback from the designer

As you know if you’ve been following my most recent posts, I contacted the designer of the DIY dressform pattern I used for Maud with some feedback regarding some niggles I found with the pattern.

This morning I received a reply from a member of the team over at Bootstrap .

Thank you so much for all your feedback, it really is extremely valuable.

Some these concerns have been brought to our attention and we just don’t have the time and team power to address them quite yet. 

We currently have an intensive push to work on our latest project, including our newest Tailornova technology, so that’s where all our time and attention is going. We are still a small start up, so we will be able to refine our dress form pattern in a few months when we have more time. 

I will forward your email to our IT team and pattern maker who can make all the corrections. 

So there you go. Hopefully the tweaks will be made in the not too distant future. But in the meantime, the pattern is perfectly workable to make a good fitted cover for your dressform.

DIY Dressform Cover – The Reveal

This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for….Maud’s new custom cover is fitted and stuffed.

This has been such an adventure. Both because this was the sewing of something completely alien to me, which stretched (pun intended) my sewing skill set, but also in terms of body confidence and acceptance. I think I need to ponder on that a bit more and revisit it in a separate post.

But for today I’m going to talk about the final stage – stuffing Maud’s cover to look like me.

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DIY Dressform Cover – Part Two

If you’re of a nervous disposition I suggest you go and find photos of kittens and cake on Instagram, and come back when I’ve finished this series. Closeup photos of my embonpoint* to follow!

Ok…I got to try on the Maud cover just before Dave and Summer headed out for karate last night, and my first thought was that the fit was really, really wrong. I know that I’m 52 and gravity it working its magic, but the bust line on this was way out!

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DIY Dressform Cover – Part One

Hello! I do hope you’re all keeping warm. Unless you’re in Australia, then keeping cool! As I’m typing this there is snow drifting past the window and actually starting to stick. The small peeps will be beside themselves.

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New Year sewing

We made it to Boxing Day before we started falling, like Christmas tree needles, with the flu.  Dave and I tag-teamed it, and, thankfully, Nana and Grandad whisked children away once they’d recovered.  We’re all on the mend now and trying to keep Dylan healthy before his biggest dance competition to date on Friday!

I haven’t knitted for over a week so it was lovely to do a few rows on Dave’s blue cardigan last night.  Mindless stockinette is perfect for when you’re off colour.  And a clear sign you’re on the mend!

But…lying in bed, scrolling blogs and instagram full of reviews and resolutions got me thinking about where I want to go with my sewing over the next year.VIEW POST

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