Completed: Fairfield Shirt

Hello again! I took a break from Instagram this month, which has got me back into reading blogs, which in turn has apparently got me writing again. It's something I've been thinking about recently, but the writing and the photographing all take time, that I often don't have (and let's be honest, if I have time I prefer to prioritise actual sewing!). I'm not promising anything here. This year is going to be a busy one. I'm at threat of redundancy again, and I don't know what that's going to do to my work/life balance, but let's go with it for now.

I discovered I have 3 unfinished, unpublished posts that I wrote in June/July last year, plus many other projects finished but not documented, but rather than attempt to pick up where I left off, I'm going to crack on with the first thing I've made this year, a shirt.

I made this for Paul's Christmas. I know it's late, but I had other stuff to sew before Christmas, and I can't sew in secret from Paul anyway, so instead I made him a gift voucher, promising him a shirt. He's been asking me to make him something, anything, for about 8 years!

We chose the Fairfield shirt by Thread Theory - it was the only pattern I showed him, but he liked it, so that was good and he chose the fabric, with some guidance and only one rule - no checks or horizontal stripes that would need matching. I had a gift voucher for The Dress Fabrics Company, that I didn't actually win, but acquired at Edinburgh Frocktails last year (Joann won it, then gave it to Judith, who then gave it to me), so we had a look there and he found this shirting cotton. It's navy with a white pattern, which is reminiscent of a Sashiko wave pattern, although on a much smaller scale. Paul chose to have mountains rather than waves. I wasn't overly convinced about the print on him at first, it's quite different to what he normally wears, but now it's made up, I love it. It was also a dream to work with, a lovely stable change for someone who regularly tortures herself with drapey, shifty, frays like mad fabrics.

I loved making this shirt. The fabric probably helped. That plus it's just a great pattern, with excellent instructions. Shirt making is so satisfying. I've always enjoyed burritoing a yoke, but I also loved the tower sleeve plackets on this. My only previous experience of shirt making is the Archer, which has a bias binding placket and I do not like that at all. I will always do proper plackets now that I understand them, although I did cut them upside down. A stable cotton allowed me to be pretty precise, as there are some very small SAs on this pattern. This was also my first experience of flat-felled seams which were fine and slightly more straightforward than I expected, although that could be because the pattern is drafted to have them, with SAs offset in all the relevant places.

There were a few things I found odd about the pattern. Some notches that didn't match anything, for instance and I also found one of the notches on the button placket to be wrong - the pattern says it's a X seam allowance, but the notch is at the Y mark (can't be bothered to get up and check, sorry). I just ignored the notch and measured it myself.

I also didn't like the constantly changing seam allowances. I understand why the pattern is written like that, and have no alternative suggestions, but I find it hard to switch back and forth and as a result sewed more than one seam with the wrong SA, which then had to be ripped out.





In terms of the pattern, he chose the darts at the back, but no sleeve tabs. He did want the sleeve tabs, and I made them and attached them, but they didn't look right, so I persuaded him to remove them. They would be better on a summer version, I think.

I made no fit adjustments to this, and it's not bad at all. Paul has narrow shoulders, so I do need to alter the pattern here a bit, but its no worse than a RTW shirt. He must also have slightly short arms, as often shirt sleeves are too long, but he was happy with the length of them on this shirt. The collar is too tight, even though the measurements of the S matched his, but he won't do the top button up anyway, so no biggie. We made the size Small.

I had some real pattern matching wins on this. I made no attempt to match them at all (other than the breast pocket), yet the sewing gods were clearly smiling on me, with the collar matching the yoke, which in turn matches the shirt back!

Look at my pattern matching!

I added a few design details, in the form of a red button hole and the button also attached with red thread. It's a nice touch, which I stole from RTW and also Jen.



A success! Paul loves it, and I can't get over how much it looks like an actual shirt. I do realise that's a stupid thing to think and write - I make my own clothes all the time and they look like real clothes - but, and I don't know if it's the fact that this is a shirt, or if it's because it's for someone else, this is somehow different. I might even make him another!

Handmade Holiday Part 1

Our lives have been dominated by 2 things over the past few months: our kitchen extension and my brother's wedding in Turkey. The extension is still rumbling on, and I think I will blog about that once it's finished, but the Turkey trip is now just some lovely memories.

Our trip to Turkey was a 2 parter. 4 days with family in Istanbul for the wedding, then a further 4 days, just the 4 of us in a resort in Oludeniz on the West coast. Two very different experiences, but both fantastic in their own way. 

I did think I would post about my handmade holiday. I took a fair number of self made items with me, but I didn't take photos of my outfits because I was either too busy doing stuff or too busy doing nothing. Of course I made my dress for the wedding, and also my niece's dress who was one of the flower girls. I also made a couple of other garments specifically for the holiday, and I will blog about each in turn, starting today with my niece's dress. I didn't think to take lots of photos, though, so apologies. I also now can't remember many of the details, so this'll be a short post!

I didn't intend to make my Annie's dress initially, and my sister didn't ask. I kept telling myself to keep my mouth shut - I had enough to be getting on with - but clearly didn't listen to myself. I came across the Made by Rae Geranium dress on Instagram and it was pretty much what my sister had described as having in mind. I sent her the photo and before I knew it, I had offered to make the dress. 

It was very straightforward to make. There are quite a few options (there is now an expansion pack with even more options available!), but we went for the plain round neck, the flounce sleeve and the gathered skirt. I suggested we use broderie anglais as it's pretty and quite dressy, but still cool enough for the Turkish heat and not so dressy she won't wear it again. My sister chose a circle broderie anglais from John Lewis. I told her to get cotton lawn or voile to line it but the fabric the woman sold her was more like muslin - very thin and it frayed like mad.

I did a quick and simple toile in an old sheet to check for size. The pattern comes in 2 age ranges. Annie was between the different size ranges, but it made sense to buy the larger range, so we could use it again in the future. It was a little big for her, so I just took some width out at the sides. I can't remember how much.

Strike a pose

Due to the transparency, I decided to use 2 layers of lining fabric to line the bodice. As I went along, it occurred to me that I could underline and line the bodice, which meant no visible seam allowances in the "holes" in the broderie. This actually worked really well. The bodice is very satifying to make, with all raw edges enclosed. The broderie anglais didn't fray, so I left the edges of the flutter sleeve unfinished. 

I did plan to double line the skirt, but I felt there might be too much bulk with the gathers, so just underlined it instead. The length was ideal as was, so I overlocked the hem and finished it with some lace trim from Hobbycraft. Finally, I handstitched on some peach coloured ribbon at the empire line (waist) to tie in with my sister in law's flowers. The buttons are flower shaped, again from John Lewis.

And that's it. With a flower crown, her outfit was complete! She looked absolutely gorgeous and did a fabulous job as a flower girl, along with her partner Betul (I have definitely spelt that wrong), my sister in law's cousin.

Completed: Hand printed cushions

Technically I should win Worst Sister of the Year award with these, but I think I managed to redeem myself. My brother and his girlfriend got engaged in May this year, and moved house in September, and I only just gave them this, their engagement/new house present on Christmas Day. That's the bad sister bit. The good sister bit, was that I made the effort to hand print, and sew them their present, which they did at least get in the same calendar year.

I don't think my brother reads my blog, but he does follow me on IG, and has a tendency to ask me to make him a version of whatever I've made from time to time. One of these days I'll call his bluff and make him dinosaur PJs, but in the meantime I made him cushions inspired by a sweatshirt and a dress. If you read my original sweatshirt post, you'll see that the inspiration for that was a cushion, so it's all got a bit meta.

 The stencil is the same as that used on my sweatshirt - not the exact one, I don't keep them, so I  had to cut a new one - and the cross is that which I used to block print my Scout dress. They are both printed with black ink onto white soft furnishing fabric from Remnant Kings. It has a slight texture, which keeps it interesting, and it was really cheap at something like £7/m. I wanted some colour, and so used a turquoise cotton velvet from Edinburgh Fabrics (which was something ludicrous like £20/m) to back and pipe them. This is only the second time I've sewn piping and my first sewing velvet. It was OK, but I wouldn't rush to do it again. There are quite a few mistakes on these, the most noticeable being that I sewed the piping onto the back of the cushion, meaning the zip is now on the front. I put the zips to the bottom, and my brother will never notice, but that's one to remember. I also made the zip opening too small, so I did actually think I wasn't going to get the cushion pads in there for about 5 mins. That was fun. (It wasn't). 

Regardless though, I really like these. They look nice and contemporary, but also look unique and handmade (in a good way. I hope). I love the turquoise colour, and the velvet is gorgeously, strokeably tactile. I am seriously considering making velvet cushions for our house. Possibly not piped though. 

I don't yet have photos of the cushions in their new home. My brother and his girlfriend live in London, but were heading straight off to Turkey yesterday (she is Turkish) for New Year. So these photos are all taken in our house. 

And yes, I've already started wondering what I'll be sewing to wear to a wedding in Istanbul in July! ;)

Completed: Dog Shorts (Woof!)

I made Small Boy another pair of shorts. This was the fabric he first picked from my stash. It's by Cloud 9 and is from the Small World collection, designed by Rae Hoekstra and it's a really fine organic cotton cord. I love it. I bought it from John Lewis at the same time as I bought the fabric for this cushion. Is it ridiculously childish to admit that I was thrilled when Rae herself commented "LOVE" when I posted the below photo on IG this week?

I have learned recently that my memory plays tricks on me - or perhaps the staff at the cutting table do - and I have a number of lengths of fabric that are not nearly as long as I thought they were. This is one of them. I could have sworn I had 1.5m of this but it turned out I only had 0.8m. Odd length, so either I bought a metre and it shrunk significantly during pre wash, or maybe this was all they had left. The latter rings a bit of a bell.



The original plan was to make trousers for Baby Boy with this, but I never got round to it. Somehow I couldn't imagine them as shorts and I didn't know what else to make. I thought the print would be a bit too babyish for Small Boy, but he decided otherwise and actually his vision was spot on. The fabric is fabulous as shorts.

There's a pattern matched back pocket in there somewhere, I swear. 

The pattern is the Sunny Day shorts again, pretty much made as last time. This time I used one pattern piece for the pocket facing, and I did no top stitching, other than at the pocket opening. I also only did one back pocket and the drafted one piece waistband. This all made for a much faster make. The front pocket lining is recycled from one of my husband's shirts. A nice touch having Daddy's shirt in there, and he was proudly showing that off to his Granny today.

I pattern matched the pockets front and back, but that was all. There wasn't enough fabric to do any more. The waistband is pieced for the same reason, but it all looks fine. You need to take my word for the pattern matching, as I have no flat photos. These shorts are either on him or in the washing machine.



I'm really happy with these. The colours are so vibrant and although I worried that they might not go with many of his t-shirts, he has proudly been rocking them with an orange Star Wars t-shirt. Colour clashing and print mixing FTW. I guess you might need to be 6 to pull off all the colours.

No posey shots this time. These photos were taken on my iphone at Hoggenfield Loch in Glasgow, which is near where my Mother in Law lives. My sister in law is over from New York at the moment so it was nice to see the cousins catch up and play so nicely with each other.

Completed: DIY pocket shorts & bonus birthday t-shirt

Small Boy is in desperate need of some shorts. Most of the shorts he is currently wearing are age 3-4, and he turned 6 last month. To be honest, they do still fit, but I felt that he probably was due some new ones.

We had a look through my stash, and he chose a fabric. This is not the fabric he chose. The pattern required a few changes to meet his specifications and I wanted to make a wearable muslin pair to make sure I hadn't messed it up. And then I kind of got carried away with details. I didn't have time to make both pairs before we went on holiday.

The pattern is the free Oliver and S Sunny Day Shorts, which I've made before as PJs for both boys. They are a very basic, elasticated waist pattern. The changes I made were to lengthen them to below knee length, and to add front and back pockets. The back pockets are patch pockets and I copied the size from another pair of shorts, changing the shape slightly. For the front pockets, I drafted pocket pieces and bags and made it slightly more challenging by adding a 2 piece facing - I don't know the proper name for this, sorry. It's like the pockets you get in jeans, where the exposed top part of the facing is denim, but the lower portion of the same piece is the pocket lining. Do you know what I mean? I did this because by then I realised I had just enough of this denim for the shorts, which I knew would be too bulky for a full pocket facing.

This is what I mean

The denim is left over from this Inari dress, and I had to cut it all on the cross grain to fit it in. The pockets and waist band facing (yeah, I "drafted" that too, again to cut down on bulk) are made from chambray left over from my midi skirt. As I was cutting it, I was thinking it was a pity I didn't have any cool boyish fabric to use, when I came up with the idea of letting him design them himself. I cut the pieces and then let him draw on them with fabric pen. Of course I forgot to tell him which way up the pieces went, so some of the are now on their sides, but that doesn't matter too much. For info, each piece is themed. We have Tom & Jerry, Star Wars, Edinburgh Zoo and Dragons of Berk. The waistband says his name and then From Mummy and Daddy, Thank You. 

I finally managed to use the selvedge on this denim, on the back pockets and I sewed them on wrong side out for fun. All topstitching is done in turquoise thread, although as it's normal thread it's pretty subtle, which is a shame, because it's pretty good! I did bar tacks at the pockets to strengthen them, which turned out well. I also did a fake fly, which I free handed, because without it, the shorts looked a bit meh. It's subtle, but I think it makes them.

The fit is quite a bit baggier than he usually wears, but it works. I could slim the legs down, but I'd also need to start fiddling around with the crotch curve and I'm not prepared to do that for boy's shorts. The thing about boys is that they grow, so any changes I make, I'll only have to make again in a year or so. It would be easier just to buy a different pattern.

The boy is delighted with these and I am too. He wore them 3 days straight on holiday, where these photos were taken. We went to Dunoon on the West of Scotland for a week, and these were taken at Inverary Jail, where we spent a day. He is wearing the shorts with his birthday tee, which I have realised I haven't blogged. I didn't make the tee - it's M&S - but I did the stormtrooper stencil using my usual method. I think birthday tees are becoming a tradition. This one I made in good time, so the ink would have plenty of time to cure. I found the stencil on Pinterest, here. He also loves this. Double win!!!

He takes his modelling very seriously. To a point.

And then his brother wanted to join in.

Coincidentally, he was wearing his Milk t-shirt under that fleece! Home-stencilled tees FTW!

Cuties steal my heart every time!