A bit of perfection

Mersea Island is one of my favourite local beauty spots. It's a proper island, but only just, separated from the mainland Essex by a very tiny strip of water called The Strood. It has marshlands and wildlife, houseboats, good sea food, shops including a butcher, two delis, a cafe and charity shops. So basically, it's a bit perfect.

With all the sky and open spaces Mersea is a suitable place to appreciate weather, and we were promised "blood rain" and "Sahara dust" today, according to the Telegraph (echoed a bit too seriously by Radio 4).

I didn't see any blood or any rain, or combination thereof, but check out the Sahara dust in these pictures!

I've got the skirt, now I need the matching houseboat.

Ok, sand, plus some Sahara dust. It was a bit murky I grant, but really not much more than usual.

This skirt was my bank holiday project. It's made from a 1950s panel, one of those do-it-yourself kits which were quite popular then. It was over 2.2 yards long and around 34" wide. It has lots of body which is good for crisp pleats. I think the print is of Hong Kong or another exotic island, so very appropriate to the setting.

These long panels are so simple to make up. You put in a seam in the back, pleat it up (or gather it if it's soft fabric) add a zip and hem it. The end. Even so, it took a day and a half as I hemmed it twice by hand. The first was narrow and it just looked messy, so I took it out and added some wide bias binding to the edge and that added some weight.

I used 2" from the blue border for the waistband. Pleats wise, once I put in the seam, I folded it and marked the centre front and the two sides. I put in 2" box pleat at the front, then added knife pleats, making sure there were the same number of pleats to each side.

Close up of the skirt print.

I have done very little sewing so far this year just lots of dreaming, and some mending. So a simple skirt is the perfect way to start the year off, a year which will be mostly full of separates. There will be blouses, there will be skirts and my first trousers.

And a jacket. The jacket will not be simple at all. Firstly, I have never made one. Second, I am hoping to copy this one:

It is the ideal jacket for me. It's has a nipped in waist and it's short. But it's also at least 3" too small. I decided to copy the pattern, and looking at how the jacket is made I will first add 3" extra width to the front which has 6 pieces, and if that isn't enough I can add more to the back which has only two.

I have copied the pieces onto Swedish Tracing Paper, pinning it piece by piece onto a cardboard cutting surface, with the paper underneath and using dots which were then joined together. If you ever need to copy something, get one of these boards and about a thousand pins. It was tedious but the Swedish Tracing stuff made it easier. It's really easy to draw on and doesn't slip around as much as paper. It's soft and it can be sewn together like fabric, for fitting. But it is hard to get hold of so I use it sparingly.

The jacket front has three panels, a centre one, the one with the sleeves, and a curved piece which goes under the arm and joins to the back pieces.

I transferred the pattern onto normal paper (so I could keep the originals) then I slashed them and added 0.5" to each piece (in red) which will make up 3" across the two sides.

And now I have a muslin of the jacket bodice cut and pinned and placed on my dummy. 

A side view. The vertical seams end where they should.

My dummy is a such a lady she insists on being fully clothed. Actually I am too lazy to take this dress off her at the moment and it's good to have an added layer when you fit a jacket, that's my excuse anyway.

With the original over the top you can see the added width (without a seam allowance).
Next I need to sew it up, try it on and tweek it. It has so many panels fitting should be easy-ish.

As I am making the whole thing up as I go, it may come to nothing, but I am going to learn a lot at any rate.

And to finish, we have Mersea Island's cake shop and second hand shop, which are next door to each other. They should have a connecting door so you can go in through the Cake Hole and out through the Poop Deck. Absolutely perfect.

Linking to Sewingadicta Share in Style, freestyle edition.

That Wim Wenders effect

We headed out to Mersea Island, hoping for an Indian summer type shoot on their lovely beaches. We left our house in blazing sunshine, and arrived all of 10 minutes later enveloped in spectacular mists. 

I love being in Mersea in mist and fog. Sounds are amplified, colours pop against the muted grey, everything slows down to the pace of some art-house film circa 1987. I had a good lollop (you couldn't call it running) in the sand and then we downed some posh snacks from the deli before heading off for a walk.

Grey is good background for my coral red cashmere cardigan.

The dress is one I made earlier in the summer and have worn a lot. The vintage fabric is a fantastic mid-century linen which makes me think of Irish tea-towels. It's soft and sturdy and comfy to wear, washes like a dream and it cost a whopping £2.99 from a charity shop in Harrow! At only 44" wide and 2 yards long I was fearing that it would never amount to a dress, but that was before Christine Haynes came along with her Emery pattern. Thank you Christine.

Long back zipper and crazy wind blown hair.

I changed the invisible zip to a hand-sewn lapped standard one, which worked ok until I realised I couldn't do the "clean" finish lining as instructed. I worked out a way but it was messy. I love "hand picking" a zipper. A pick-stitch is incredibly strong, it's quick, and you have so much control over what you are doing. It's seen as slow, but you are not ripping the thing out three or four times to try and get it right.

The zip finish is one thing, the actual existence of a long back zip is another. Now who invented that? And why are they so ubiquitous? I get them done up to my shoulder then struggle and wriggle the dress up, grabbing the zipper from over my head. What a faff. I am going to have to avoid them from now on. That's what home sewing is all about, you do it all and you do it your way.

I am liking my hair after my latest Henna and Indigo session. That stuff is smelly, messy and takes AGES but my hair is now less stressed than it was with chemical dying. It's not quite covering my grey, as in the grey is a funny brown, but I am going to keep on going with it for now. 

We had the beach mostly to ourselves and after a short walk my hair was dripping with damp. The blurred pics are not just the mist but camera issues with resolution. Strangely apt results, a bit like those pre-digital soft grainy film cameras which are so fashionable again.

I am now properly in the mood for a bit of Autumn outdoor-ness. Time is flying and I have foraging to do and hot chocolate to drink.

Adios for now.

Pink and green should always be seen.

Following my tasteful cool blue post, here's some hot pink and acid green - especially fitting for a nice summer dress.

Vintage shirt dress Simplicity 5124 

I like vintage prints but ditzy florals are not usually my thing. My friend spotted these two prints in our local fabric shop, and it was love at first sight. The dotty fabric is for contrasting collar, cuffs and belt the other fabric is for the main body. I am planning lurid green button holes. I don't want anyone thinking this is not a handmade dress.

My couture class has recently covered collars. I have quite big issues with collars. Everyone has one area of sewing that they dread tackling and collars are, or rather were, mine.

Above are examples one done before the class and one after. I am sure you can spot the difference...

Right BEFORE - Absolutely shocking. It's horrible and that sludge green is not helping.

Left - happily ever AFTER!  Clean, crisp and properly pointy shaped. Although I can't work out which side the interfacing should be on: my teacher says top, some books say bottom, I just read something on a website that said you can do it either way or both! Anyway I will stick with putting it on the top, use good quality stuff and just hope it doesn't go lumpy in the wash.

My lovely teacher Amy studied menswear, which is quite unusual. Her techniques for collars are quite unusual too. A very mysterious, meticulous process and one she partly made up herself. I wrote it all down and tried it at home where I could concentrate properly, it was fiddly but it all worked.

I feel I have suddenly been allowed into the magic circle of people who can make things properly. I have learned so much on this course and we are only half way through.

Distractions and learning to sew properly

Distractions and learning to sew properly...

So, it's May again. This time last year I tried to make this shirtdress.

It was my first ever attempt at a shirt style garment and it stalled at the toile stage. Like many sewers I have quite a few half finished projects lurking, sometimes just because it's really easy to be distracted by new ideas... (parasols anyone?)

This May I am most excited be doing a short couture course. I know completing Simplicity 5124 for this would teach me loads (see the list below). It is a lovely dress and I will wear it. But still something is pulling me towards this girly Vogue 9260.

It has a big collar, button front and a full skirt, but it's less of a challenge. And I know exactly what the big draw is - just look at those sweet pink and purple dahlias on the vintage fabric I am planning to use for it! I am dying to make it up and I have enough of it for a full skirted dress.

Whatever I end up making, I cannot recommend going to sewing classes enough. I am used to reading books, blogs, watching craftsy etc. but finding a good teacher and going to regular lessons has been amazing. Sewing with a group is a treat; you get less done but chatting and learning from other each other more than makes up for it.

For this 10 week course we will cover some interesting stuff which will fit with either of my dresses:

• Collars and cuffs
• Bound button holes
• Patch pockets
• Top stitching and seam finishes
• Arrowhead trims

I am off to give myself a good talking to and hopefully produce something nice to wear at the end of all this. Watch this space.