Work in progress: New Look 6184 (3)

I've been away for a few days - hence the inadvertent hiatus from blogging.  Before I went, though, I managed to progress a bit further with my dress.  Although it's taking a while, at the same time, I'm pleased with how it's going - and I really feel like I'm learning some new skills as well.

This was another one of those 'new skills' things - the bias binding at the arm holes of the dress.

I have used bias binding before, on my summer top, but as I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear, I was winging it a bit.  That pattern had called for double fold bias binding (although it didn't actually say so, might I add!) and so the single fold bias binding I bought had to be folded again and ironed.  The pattern this time actually said 'single fold bias binding', so I finally knew what I should be looking for! I've actually yet to see double fold bias tape here in the UK - and when I spoke to the girl in Fabricland, she said she thought it was an American thing!

I found this tutorial, which was really useful in explaining exactly how the binding should be used.  I read through this a few times, and suddenly the instructions in the pattern finally made sense!  It was amazing how much more confident I felt in getting the arm holes finished - I just wished I'd done that the first time!

Here's how it's done...

1) Open out one fold of the bias binding, and pin it to the right side of the fabric around the arm hole.  Then sew along the fold in the binding, keeping as accurate as possible on the fold that already exists.

2) Then fold the binding again, at the sewn edge.  The binding will look like a continuation of the armhole.  To ensure it folds under as evenly, under stitch as close to the edge of the binding as possible, stitching it to the fabric below.  This gives the fabric a natural turn, so that the binding can then be folded under.  If anyone is watching the Great British Sewing Bee, May Martin did give a little tutorial on under stitching in week 1 - I felt very pleased that I could do what she was talking about!

Before under stitching

After under stitching

3) Pin the binding to the inside of the armhole.  You can then baste the binding to the fabric from the inside if you want, before top stitching the binding to the fabric from the right side of the fabric.  The basting would allow you to see where the binding actually was, so you didn't go over the edges - although I didn't bother with it.

Ta-dah....!

So, apart from the zip, the bodice is now completely finished!  I'm getting there - soon all I will need it somewhere to actually wear it!

In other news, when I bought my dress form, I also got another few bits to make my sewing life easier...

The rotary cutter and self healing mat were an absolute revelation. I suppose I had been a bit dubious before about how much better than scissors it really would be...but wow. Consider me convinced.  I am absolutely loving them - I just want to cut out stacks of fabric now!  Although I'm sure the feeling will wear off soon!  Lets hope not before the dress is finally finished...!

A new skill - learning to crochet

I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to learn another new skill, and my trip to London seemed like a perfect opportunity to do so!  I knew I'd have some evenings in the flat here, not doing too much, so it seemed like the ideal opportunity to learn how to crochet.

My mum has been crocheting for as long as I remember (and longer, no doubt!), and I remember her trying to teach me to knit when I was really small.  I was quite a reluctant pupil, so it was a skill that unfortunately didn't stick with me.  But Pinterest has helped inspire me - as it does constantly - so I decided it was time to learn.  I was in Hobbycraft a few weeks ago, so I picked up some wool and a crochet hook.  Once I started looking at a various patterns, I realised I would need hooks in various sizes, so in the end I ordered a nice set of 12 hooks on ebay.

As you all know, YouTube is so great for learning a new skill.  I did a bit of cruising around videos, and tutorials, learning various stitches - these really handy basic crochet lessons, this simple double crochet, and this lesson in doing a magic loop were particularly handy.

As well as that, when I got out my new crochet hook and wool, my flatmate Dami revealed that she actually does lots of knitting and crocheting.  My own on-site tutor!  When I got confused, she was right on hand to give me a bit of guidance.  I can now chain stitch, do a single crochet and also a double crochet with confidence.

Now that I sort of know what I'm doing, here are the two of us are sitting in the living room of our flat, like two wee grannies with our knitting!  Dami has just finished knitting this amazing baby blanket - as you can see, I've got plenty to learn before I'm at her level.

Dami and me - both of us hard at work!

All being well, I'll have some new crochet projects up soon, as well as my usual sewing bits!

Purple maxi skirt

One of the reasons I thought learning to sew would be such a good idea is because at five foot nothing, trying to get jeans and skirts at the right length is incredibly challenging!  I usually find that long skirts completely drown me - although on the bright side, a skirt that would be too short on a tall girl is usually knee length and completely decent on me!  The thing that I imagined a sewing machine would be most useful for was taking up jeans (something which I haven't actually got round to doing yet!).  What I didn't imagine was that I would find fantastic tutorials online that would inspire me to actually try my hand at making a skirt myself!

So here it is - the first skirt I've ever made.  Modelled in our back garden, with my husband as the expert photographer...

I really hadn't realise, until I cruised around Pinterest, that there were so many easy tutorials to follow for skirts that I would just love to make.  The tutorial for this skirt came from Sew much ado, and was so simple to follow.  I found some lovely purple jersey fabric in Calico, my local fabric shop here in Bristol, and I was ready for action!

A few new skills that I learnt:

• French seams: these weren't actually in the original tutorial, but I had read about them in my few basic sewing books, and I thought would it would be good to put them along the side seams of my skirt - I'm inclined to be a bit rough with my clothes, so it never hurts to have an extra bit bit of strength!

French seam

• Working with jersey fabric - this was challenging as each layer had an extra 10 inches, so you had to stretch the small piece to fit into the larger one, and then sew them together.  I used a zig zag stitch to do this - it just gave the seam more strength. 

There are plenty of imperfections, but for a first attempt, I was really pleased.  I've now worn it a number of times, and it's a perfect length - exactly what I wanted!

Blue clutch bag

One of my first inspirations for starting to sew was stumbling upon the Elm Street Life blog.  Whitney posts such thorough, detailed tutorials that her bow clutch bag didn't actually seem completely unachievable for a total sewing beginner.

My blue bow clutch

A few things I learnt from making the bow clutch:

1) Check you have everything you need before you begin - I didn't read the list properly, and part way through realised I needed some mysterious product called 'interfacing'.  This was obviously really important to ensure that the bag wasn't just a floppy mess - so everything ground to a halt until I could find a shop which sold this interesting product!

2) 9 inch zips are quite difficult to find - eventually I had to buy a concealed zip to get one the correct length.

Concealed zip on my clutch

3) Pin first!  My first attempt at a zip was wonky (I started off rather recklessly, trying to do it by eye - clearly didn't realise what I was taking on!)....second attempt also wonky (because I was paranoid after having to unpick attempt 1)...third attempt was not wonky but by then I was so confused that I ended up sewing my lining inside out :( !  Never mind - no-one really sees that bit!

4) Picture tutorials are fantastic - if you are a real beginner, pictures can speak so much louder than words!

I've used my bow clutch lots of times now - the only flaw is that I usually use a suitcase sized handbag, so slightly struggle with the limited space, but that's clearly an issue for me, rather than the design of the clutch!  I really recommend you give this little project a go!