SNYPH review

January and February, it's your turn!

1. Cordova

I cannot wear this jacket with anything except this pair of jeans. It really annoys me, because I love the black and white with the bright blue SO MUCH, but I hate the way it looks with everything because it's so boxy. I do get a decent amount of wear out of it with this one pair of jeans, though. 

2. 1940s wrap dress

Love the idea, dress is too static to wear. 

3. Appleton

This is so goddamn useful and I love it. The one problem I have is that it doesn't wrap over quite far enough because my hips are so much bigger than my waist, so next time (and there will be a next time) I'll probably change the shape of the skirt a little. 

4. Holly

I'll be honest with you, I've already got rid of these - for some reason they never quite felt right when I tried to put them on. I don't think this is my wide leg trouser pattern. 

Best: Appleton

Worst: Actually difficult to say; a case could be made for any of the other three (Cordova: pattern, 1940s dress: unwearable fabric, Holly: already thrown out)
Remake? Definitely the Appleton, probably the 1940s dress, almost certainly not the other two
Biggest problem: Fit and finishing

SNYPH part three: Appleton

So, I may have mentioned that I was hoarding some abstract aubergine-print jersey. I bought it last year, and it was basically the first time that I spent more than a few pounds on a piece of fabric. I waffled for nearly a month about whether I could justify dropping £36 on a bit of jersey, until it was pointed out to me that if I saw an aubergine-print dress in a shop for twice that much I'd have bought it without a second thought (I would then have spent a month dealing with the guilt, but I really like aubergines).

I wanted it to be a wrap dress. I'd not long made my Sew Over It wrap dresses, but I hesitated about using the pattern again. While I still wear the second dress fairly regularly (I wore it last night, in fact), it doesn't lend itself to everyday wear. Even after adding length to the pattern it's still quite short, and the neckline is low and a bit gapey. It doesn't bother me if I'm going out, but it's not a day dress. I tried another wrap dress, the test of which was not particularly successful, and the fabric continued to sit in my cupboard. It almost became a Moneta or a Wren, but I held back because this fabric had always said "wrap dress" to me. So it continued to sit in my cupboard. Then last month I decided that any fabric not used by August would get thrown out, and that was enough of a kick up the bum to get me cutting into the damn aubergines already.

Presenting the transformation of my long-unused jersey, the Cashmerette Appleton dress.

This pattern ended up being the chosen one for a few reasons: one, it was specifically designed for bigger busts so I assumed it would have a less revealing and therefore more versatile fit; two, I'd seen a ton of other versions and it appeared to look amazing on everyone; three, I panicked at the thought of having to get rid of this fabric and just started ordering stuff. Sometimes ordering in a panic really works; I think this dress is great. Worth dithering over.

When I first started making this dress my new sewing machine was misbehaving (hey, I broke the thread! hey, I broke the thread again! hey, I did it again! look at what I can do!) so after sewing up the shoulders and part of the neckband it sat untouched for a week. When I went back to it, the Gnome was in a better mood, and I got the dress completed in a few hours. I've now used both Cashmerette patterns and they are incredibly user-friendly. Beyond the Gnome throwing a strop - which is hardly the pattern's fault - I've not had even the smallest stumbling-block with either of them. The instructions are great, the patterns are simple but well-designed, and it's really easy to get a clean finish. Overall I think this is my preferred pattern of the two; it fills a need and I can imagine having a million of them. Well, maybe not a million. Four, maybe. If nothing else, I will definitely be making a black one as soon as I find some really nice black jersey.

It's funny - even though I loved this fabric so much I was too afraid to cut into it and ruin it, I'm still surprised that I like this dress as much as I do. To me it looks more traditionally feminine than I will ever usually go. Looking at the fabric close up I just think "aubergines!", but looking at it as a dress, especially in that first shot, it reads as a white and lavender dress with quite a delicate print and looks a bit like I'm preparing to host a garden party. I would never have thought of that as an aesthetic I would ever like on me, but I do think it works. It's nice to expand my own perceptions a little bit. I'm not saying you're going to start seeing delicate pastel ditsy florals here or anything, mind. 

This is a really easy thing to throw on when I need to look presentable. Work, dinner, visits to relatives, when I'm hosting a garden party (which I may end up actually doing now, even though I'm sure I don't want to). Thumbs up for the dress, the pattern, and finally using this bloody fabric. Three thumbs! 

But this still happens when you get hit by a gust of wind. Oh, how I love you, lycra shorts. 

SNYPH part two: 1940s wrap dress

In the latter half of 2014, I started to consider taking up sewing. There are loads of places in London offering beginner sewing classes, but I went with Sew Over It basically because they dangled this dress in front of me as something I could learn to make. I took their introductory class in January, their beginner dressmaking class in May, and just as I was starting to consider wrap dress-level skills within my sights, they removed it from the website entirely. I got a bit cross.

But then, in November, they put it back up and advertised a class for January.

Me: They're doing the class again! But's £150 and I just quit my job.
Boyfriend: Yeah, but that dress is basically why you started sewing in the first place.
Me: ...good point. Excuse me while I go and give them my money.

The pattern is based off a vintage 1940s pattern, so it has lots of little details - back neck darts, shoulder tucks, puffed sleeves, gathers at the collar and small gathered points along the waistline. Most of the things I've made so far have been pretty simple in design, so even though sewing these details is well within my skill set, it felt like quite a departure from the norm and I really enjoyed it. It's even made me consider busting the Vintage Vogue dress pattern out of my stash.

I made a size 14, grading out slightly at the hips. The dress is fastened with two poppers along the waistband, so there wasn't a whole lot of fitting to be done, but the one criticism I have of the class is that there wasn't enough time to get the poppers positioned correctly. It's actually really hard to do by yourself, and though the way I have them now still isn't quite right, I'm not going to attempt to re-do it until I have some help. The fabric is a crepe I bought in the Sew Over It shop - it drapes really nicely and I love the colour so, so much, but the static is INSANE. I've never come across anything quite like it. It sticks to everything and makes the most horrendous ripping noises when I take the dress off. It's annoying, because I have so many patterns that call for crepe and they sell so many strong solid colours (given the option I would cheerfully sew with nothing but strong solid colours), but I just don't think I can wear this stuff. Gah. I'm going to try running it through the wash a couple of times before I give up on it entirely. I will report back.

The instructions called for hand-finished hems on the skirt and sleeves. I did the sleeves by hand, but decided to try out my new blind hem foot on the skirt. Which sort of worked. I don't think I've got the technique quite right yet, and this fabric really does show stitching, but on darker or thicker fabrics I will definitely be doing machine-stitched blind hems again. I'm not a patient person, especially not when it comes to hemming, and I always feel like my hand stitching isn't particularly secure on longer lengths of fabric.

I will probably make another one of these if I can find a fabric I'd like to make it in, but what I'm more likely to take from this project is that sewing garments with details is actually really great and I'd love to do more of it. I'm not particularly interested in ransacking eBay for vintage patterns in my size (HAH) or spending hours grading them up once I've learned how to grade things (I think it's awesome that people do, but it's not for me), so quite how I'll go about it I'm not sure, but I'll be keeping my eye open for patterns and opportunities.

Yes, yes, I really like this dress. If only the static wasn't so bad. Is there a way to get rid of static in clothing other than rubbing dryer sheets all over it every time you want to wear it? 

SNYPH part one: Cordova jacket, or ARGH

My first project of the year! I've been sitting on this pattern for a while; I bought all the bits for it last year then changed my mind about what I wanted the fabric to be. But jacket making appealed to me, I wanted to make sure I kept making modern pieces as well as vintage ones, and I had an awkward-length separating zip just waiting for me. It seemed like the time.

I've not seen too many versions of this floating around, and a lot of reviews I have seen have been a bit "ehhh" about it. It's unusual, because generally with any given indie pattern you can find at least one blogger writing "this pattern and I are now legally married" posts. Not that I'd expect anyone to be making up the same jacket pattern over and over again, but still. Having considered all that, I decided that I was going to do it anyway because I still liked it and I need to care less about other people's opinions on stuff (life goal!).

Verdict? I like this jacket, but yeeaaahhhh... this wasn't the most fun I've ever had sewing a project up.

The instructions were definitely on the sparse side, which didn't bother me at all until I got to the bit where you attach the facing to the rest of the jacket and I had absolutely no idea what the diagram was getting at. I spent quite some time pinning it together in different ways, and I'm sure what I ended up doing wasn't what the pattern was going for. It's basically fine except for the corners at either end of the zip. I'd never sewn a separating zip before and I couldn't work out how to get a clean finish, so I just tried to get all the raw ends in as best I could. This was especially tricky as some of the pattern pieces seemed to be a centimetre or two short and the fabric was fraying at crazy rate. I was also a bit confused about the front lining pieces, which were shaped the same way as the front of the jacket (the curved neck forming a corner with the straight front) but had to be sewn to the facing, which is curved and doesn't have a corner.

The instructions called for quite a lot of handstitching, but I didn't do any. The fabric hides stitch lines pretty well, so I machined the whole lining and hems in place and topstitched across all the facing pieces. I wouldn't ordinarily sew a whacking great line of stitching across the back of something, but I was somewhat frustrated and cranky by that point. I also found the jacket a bit too boxy, so I took a couple of centimetres out at the waistline to make it a bit more fitted.

Oh yeah, and on the second day I wore this the back seam split. ARGH. I think it was a combination of crappy sewing machine and fabric that frays alarmingly fast, but it made me very grumpy indeed. I was visiting my parents at the time, so I hastily hand-stitched it shut and made plans to buy a new machine as soon as I got back to London. I've been wearing this jacket all week and my hasty hand-stitching has held up just fine, by the way. 

I'm in a bit of a quandary over whether I'll make this again. I would really like a zip-up jacket to use as a casual layering piece (still on my quest to put Zombie Hoodie out of its misery), and I literally cannot find even one other lined zip-up jacket pattern, but I'm in no hurry to struggle through these instructions again. Maybe once I understand how to finish cleanly around a separating zip. Having said all of that, I do really like this jacket. I like the black and white with the bright blue lining, I like the peplums and I like the puffy shoulders. I'm glad I finally got around to making it, and massive troubles aside, the whole thing cost me £7 to make up. Can't say fairer than that.

Sensible New Year Pattern Haul (SNYPH)

Planning! I am full of plans! So full of plans that it's actually a bit overwhelming! Help!

This year I want to approach what I make a bit more deliberately. I'm wearing the things I make on a fairly regular basis, so I'm not just looking for patterns that don't look too tricky and fabric that isn't too expensive. I'm trying to make things that I would buy if I saw them - a combination of things I think I need and things I'd really love to have, filling practical gaps in my wardrobe and making my wardrobe as a whole more interesting. The overall goal is to look attractively put together on a day-to-day basis with the option of going into vintage drag or something more casually interesting if I feel like it, while looking comfortable and like myself the whole time. Which may be a bit of a tall order. We shall see.

I liked the way the Unnecessary October Dress Pattern Haul worked out for me, and I'm planning to try it as a structure for this year. Four or five projects planned at the beginning of every two month period, and if I have the time and inclination to do other things too, then I will. Here are my patterns for January and February. Check it out - a sensible collection of patterns for the next two months AND a slightly less unwieldy acronym that could actually be pronounced like a word! Probably best you don't get used to that.

Sewaholic Cordova jacket

I've had this pattern for months, and I'd bought all the bits and pieces for it before I decided the fabric wasn't quite what I wanted. A little while ago I bought some black and white fabric for a cape and then decided it wasn't right for the pattern, so I'm going to repurpose it for this jacket.

By Hand London Holly trousers

I bought this pattern ages ago all excited about making a jumpsuit, and then when it came in the post I decided I was never actually going to make it up. However, it's also a pattern for wide-leg trousers and I think it might be just right for my swishy trousers. I'm going to make this first pair in black for practical reasons, though I haven't yet acquired fabric of quite the right swish.

Sew Over It 1940s wrap dress

I don't have a photo of this pattern as I'm going to a class to make the dress. I'll write more about it when I blog the finished project, but this dress is basically the reason I started sewing and I've been waiting for months for them to run the class again. I have some bright blue crepe to make it in and I'm planning for it to be my birthday dress (I don't have a birthday plan yet, so it'll probably come down to "where can I wear this dress?").

Cashmerette Appleton Dress

It's time I used my goddamn aubergine print jersey. I wanted it to be a wrap dress when I first bought it, and since all the wrap dresses I've tried so far have given me some gaping problems, it makes sense to try a pattern specifically designed for bigger busts.

These four are my priority for the next two months. I originally had five, but I have several pieces of jersey to make into dresses and I'm not sure which one to put on the list. I have plans for a border print Tiramisu dress, a blue patterned Moneta, a navy floral jersey tea dress, and a grey spotty Vogue 8615, so you'll be seeing at least one of those along with the rest of the list. I know, I know, I probably ought to just pick one. But there is such a thing as too much planning, right?