Sweet Clover

28th Feb 202029th Feb 2020 yorkiemouseLeave a comment

Melilot pattern

For a while now, I’ve wanted to make a shirt that fits me. Shop-bought shirts tend to be ill-fitting in various places on me but that’s far less of a problem when you can sew!

After reading lots of reviews about the 4000 or so shirt patterns, I settled on the Melilot by Deer & Doe. One of the main attractions was the dropped shoulders, which meant I wouldn’t have to deal with setting sleeves! I wanted a short sleeved shirt and preferred the rounded collar so settled on a combination of the two versions.

I didn’t do French at school so my knowledge of the language is limited to ballet terminology. On searching for “Melilot” online, I discovered that it translates to “sweet clover”, which I think is lovely. This led me down a rabbit-hole of realising that a lot of Deer & Doe patterns are named after flowers and plants – pub quiz, here I come!

Fabric

I had two fabrics in my stash that I wanted to make shirts from. As is often the case, I had wallowed in indecision for a while about both of these fabrics but decided both would pair well with a shirt. Both are on my 2020 Make Nine list as well so that ticks off three to date.

The first is a fantastic cotton-viscose from Lamazi Fabrics that I bought mainly because of the funky pattern – “At the Beach Swimmers”. I spent a lot of time in the pool as a child and still swim now so it felt like an appropriate ‘novelty’ pattern.

The second is a Lady McElroy cotton lawn called “Rainbow Clouds” that I got from Sew Hayley Jane’s outlet shop. It’s so jazzy and makes me smile whenever I look at it.

Fitting

Based on my measurements, I cut a 38 at the neck and shoulders, grading to a 40 on the bust and waist, then a 42 at the hip. I thought that I would need to do a broad-back adjustment because I’ve had to with other Deer & Doe patterns, but I didn’t – hurrah! I did need to shorten the bodice by 1″ but that’s a fairly standard adjustment for me.

Collar and stand

What a palaver! I think it’s fair to say that Deer & Doe instructions are notoriously ‘concise’. I didn’t understand them at all so set about researching. I read a lot of useful blogs and discovered that there are multiple ways to sew a collar and stand…which added a layer of confusion. Eventually I found this YouTube video which made so much sense to me – I’m a visual learner according to some sort of corporate test I took years ago, so videos are great.

After watching the video about 5 times, I started the collar and stand on my ‘Swimmers’ shirt and ended up being pretty pleased with the result. The process on my ‘Rainbow’ shirt was still tricky but I think making them in quick succession helped cement the steps in my brain (and hands).

Finishing touches

Is it just me or does choosing buttons cancel out the impending horror of having to sew buttonholes? I couldn’t decide between white and pink so I appealed to the sewists (and non-sewing friends) of Instagram to help me choose. Pink won and I’m happy it did.

Two buttonhole game-changers that I’ve discovered lately are my gauge – no more tedious maths, trying to figure out what 37cm divided by 6 is – and the fact that my machine SEWS BUTTONS ON FOR ME. Both of these have drastically reduced button-related swearing.

I really love my Sweet Clover shirts and even made friends with the collar/stand.

And finally…

I managed to squeeze an Ogden Cami out of the Swimmers remnants for a pyjama top. I even used the selvage as a label because it’s hard to tell which is the back with this pattern.

Thanks for reading :o)

Liquid Gold Kew

18th Feb 202029th Feb 2020 yorkiemouseLeave a comment

When I opened my Sew Hayley Jane box in December, I actually cooed. It contained this silky, velvety, shimmery gold viscose that I stroked for about 5 mins before even taking it out of the box. It is so light and drapes amazingly well. I knew fairly quickly what is was destined to be.

Some friends of ours got married this month and I knew that I wanted to make something with long sleeves for a winter wedding. I made Nina Lee’s Kew dress in summer 2019 and love the shape and fit. I have also made the Sewaholic Nicola dress twice, which comes with a long sleeve version. The Nicola has a part-elasticated waist, which I didn’t think this fabric would appreciate so I decided to combine Kew version A with the long sleeve from Nicola.

This photo really captures how the light reflects off the fabric in such a scrummy way

Hacking a sleeve pattern piece together

The sleeves took some patience but I’m really pleased that I persevered.

I started with the Nicola sleeve as a base, adjusted the arm scythe to match the Kew and did a full bicep adjustment. I also added some volume in the shoulder – I do love a puffed shoulder. After sewing what I would consider two near-perfect cuffs, I tacked the sleeves to the bodice and discovered the full bicep adjustment wasn’t enough and it was too tight…so the whole thing went on the ‘chair of shame’ for two days (sort of like the naughty step for WIPs).

Refreshed and ready to show the sleeves who was boss, I took the already adjusted sleeve pattern (thank goodness I trace!) and added more volume to the bicep and shoulder then made a toile before committing to the gold fabric again. One of the most frustrating things is that I had measured the original hacked pattern piece and it should have been fine. Anyway, live and learn!

This time it fit and I breathed a sigh of relief. If it had still been too small, I would have had to re-think the whole dress as I didn’t have enough fabric for a third set of sleeves.

Sewing with liquid gold

Quite quickly, I named this fabric “liquid gold” because it was soooooo slippery. It required lots of clips and fine pins to keep it together. I think the fabric moved when I was cutting it as the bust fit is closer than the cotton-sateen Kew that I made in the summer (which still fits). There was a scary moment when I thought it wasn’t going to fit – I had spent so much time focusing on the sleeves that I didn’t really try it on with a view to actually closing the bodice. I had used the same bodice pieces as my previous dress, so why wouldn’t it?!

I had decided against using spray starch as I’ve tried it in the past and didn’t like it. Plus, I didn’t want to risk staining the fabric as it’s so delicate. I think the lesson I’ve learnt it to check the fabric pieces against the pattern before committing to sewing.

As it was a special dress, I spent a lot of time on the details. I used French seams throughout, which have the added benefit of extra strength with a fine fabric. I think that it also looks nicer on a dipped hem, which the dress has. I often opt for self-covered buttons – this approach means I can dig out my old compass from school to draw all the circles! (Nerdy and proud) I know that some people loathe hand-sewing but I find it quite meditative to sit and sew buttons or a hem for an hour or so…which is fortunate because this dress had 17 buttons to attach and a lot of hem!

My final thoughts on this dress are that I loved wearing it. It was comfortable but I felt glamorous in it. There were a few nerve-wracking moments with the fit and trying to create a sleeve from two patterns and a vague idea, but it turned out remarkably close to the image in my head.

This fabric is also the first of my 2020 Make Nine. My only regret is that I didn’t get any decent photos of myself in the dress – this rather fuzzy one doesn’t really do it justice. I wanted to get a better photo but the storms in the UK mean I haven’t been outside much!

This is the only photo I have of me wearing the dress
(Elton overseeing proceedings)

Thanks for reading :o)

Sewing

Anna dresses and a riot of colour

9th Feb 202029th Feb 2020 yorkiemouse1 Comment

Back in 2017 I stumbled up on an Instagram account that filled my eyes with colour and changed the way I viewed my wardrobe. It sounds dramatic but sewvee really did this! Her use of colourful fabric to create amazing frocks that she wears day-to-day as well as for special occasions made me realise that black isn’t the only colour suited to office-wear. Since finding (aka stalking) Vicki’s account, I’ve found out about two other important things – African Wax Print and By Hand London. Actually three things, the third being that these two go perfectly together!

My first Anna

The Anna dress from By Hand London is really versatile, has two skirt lengths and two necklines included in the pattern. I bought the fabric for my first Anna from Empire Textiles, which has a great range of wax prints.

This Anna was one of my first dresses ever and was one of the catalysts for me wanting to build a “me-made” wardrobe. It also made me realise that I needed to work on my “modest face”! I still wear this dress a lot in the summer and am ridiculously proud of it.

Full length Annas

I made my second Anna in a floral viscose which is so light that it feels amazing to wear. The photo hides the thigh-high split that I sewed by hand for a neat finish.

My second full-length Anna was a return to wax print and a more savvy me when it came to fitting. By this point, I had realised that the neckline was a bit high for my liking and also a bit wide. I altered the pattern pieces to take a bit out of the neck and back lines, as well as lowering it slightly at the front. I’m much happier with the fit on this dress. My only mishap with this version was that I tried really hard to arrange the bodice pattern pieces so that the circles were not unfortunately placed – clearly time wasted! Oh well. Despite this, I still love the dress and it’s great for summer evenings.

And finally…..

My final three Anna dresses are all short and one of them was for somebody else! My parents (mainly my Mum) wanted twins and used to dress my sister and I in matching outfits. I should probably take a moment to mention that my sister is 6 years younger than me. As you can imagine, at 12 years old I was less than impressed to be forced into an outfit that a 6-year-old was also wearing.

Fast-forward a few decades and an elaborate “joke” came to us. On Christmas morning, we came downstairs in matching Anna dresses that I had made. My parents thought it was hilarious so it was worth it.

My purple Anna is made from fabric that I bought from Dovetailed. I slimmed the skirt down a bit on this version to play around with the silhouette. With this one, I only lined the bodice and did so with some cotton. I had lined previous ones in full with a traditional lining fabric. This works well for the summer as it’s all cotton but it’s not so great for the winter when the skirt clings to my tights.

I have no doubt that I will make more Anna dresses in the future (there’s wax print in my stash for starters).

Thanks for reading.