Saturday 1 August 2015

Jersey experiments, part one

I've decided to post the things I make as I make them, because that's when I'm all excited and want to put them out there. I still have a bunch of pre-blog clothes which I'll post whenever there's a gap (either because I'm being slow at making new things or because I'm delaying the fight with my laptop to upload photos). So with that in mind... jersey!

For my first attempt at a jersey garment, I got myself Sew Over It's cowl neck dress/top pattern. A short-sleeved top seemed like a good first project: not a huge amount of sewing to do, nothing hugely complicated, and not much fabric wasted if it all goes horribly wrong.

I picked this piece of fabric out of my stash:



I got it for £1.99 in the Rolls and Rems remnant bin. Not too much of a waste of money if it went wrong, I figured. I liked this fabric enough that I'd wear a top made of it, but wouldn't cry if I ruined it.

Challenge number one: assemble my first ever PDF pattern.



This wasn't too bad, actually. I'm not in a rush to do it again because I don't have a printer and it's a bit of a faff getting it done, but once I was sitting on my floor with 40 sheets of paper and season 4 of RuPaul's Drag Race, putting it together was pretty straightforward. I decided I wasn't going to bother tracing it, so in case I do want to make the dress at some point, I cut the whole thing out and just ran my rotary cutter across the fabric where the top ended. I'm liking this rotary cutter thing a LOT, but I probably need a bigger cutting mat than the one my landlord left in the top drawer of the desk for some reason. I don't know what that guy's up to.

My ballpoint pins haven't turned up yet, so I used my regular pins in the seam allowance and the world didn't appear to end, so that's nice.

I changed to a stretch needle (first time changing a needle - turns out, not that scary), put my zig-zag stitch on, and attempted to sew up the seams. They aren't the straightest seams I've ever sewn, and my seams aren't parallel line precise at the best of times, but within about ten minutes I had something that looked very much like a sleeveless cowl neck top. I briefly considered not bothering with the sleeves and calling it a day, but that wouldn't have been much of an experiment, and I'm a scientist. Well, I know some scientists, anyway.

This was my first time inserting sleeves. There was a lot of easing to do, and it was pretty fiddly, but once I'd got it pinned to within an inch of its stretchy little life, it wasn't that difficult to sew up (at least to my low standards). I went to bed, satisfied.

The next morning I attempted to do some hemming. That was less fun. I don't know how much of this is me and how much is my machine (which is quite basic and doesn't do stretch stitches but assures me it can handle stretch fabric), but this thing was a bitch to hem. I bought a stretch twin needle but decided against using it - I'm currently using my bobbin winder for my thread since it keeps falling off my main spool holder for no apparent reason, and I decided I wasn't up for trying to rig my machine just yet. I hemmed the back of the neckline and the bottom edge, but decided not to bother doing the cowl or the sleeves because I was getting a little bit grumpy. I let it sit for a few days, then bought some ballpoint needles and finished the cowl and sleeves by hand. It was actually quite therapeutic.

I ended up with this:





I think this looks pretty OK, quality-wise. I've already worn it a few times despite not having a love-at-first-sight connection with this print, which I think is a pretty good sign.

A day or two later, I discovered that the three-and-a-half metre black fabric remnant I bought for £6 because it was a lot of fabric for not a lot of money was actually quite a thick jersey, and I thought I'd have another go with that.




I did plan to put sleeves on this version, but consensus was that in this fabric, it looked better without. The fabric is also way too thick to do anything drapey, so when I first sewed it together it looked enormous and I had to take it in several inches at the side seams. I hemmed and finished the whole thing by hand, because I've decided that's a thing I like. I've not found the right way to wear this one yet, but it's simple enough that I'm sure there's a match in my wardrobe somewhere.

Both of these were uneventful enough that I've decided I'm confident enough to take the plunge with the wrap dress. I've bought the pattern and have a couple of different fabrics I can choose from for my first attempt. Next week: a happy Jen with multiple wrap dresses, or a sad sobbing mess of a Jen and a pile of ruined fabric...

No comments:

Post a Comment