A few recent projects

Here are some items I got done in the last year

They are both the same octagonal bag. I made another two, I must check where I put their photos.

A skirt I shortened from a dress WIP that didn't work out:

There are more, I just need to take proper photographs. But I have been busy sewing.

Spiral flounces!

Oh dear, I haven't posted in too long. I have been crafting but just not blogged about it. Still, there's lots ot catch up on then!

Just to show you what I'm working on right now, i.e. a little taster:

Spiral flounces!

I already pinned the two layers together. The outside curve is not perfect in so far as the distance between them meanders in and out rather a bit but I don't care.

I reckon they're pretty good for a first attempt. And it wasn't even as difficult as I feared:

This is what spiral ruffles look like when you straighten them out:

The top part will follow the curve of the neckline to begin with, starting from the shoulder yoke:

And the bottom part will then run alongside the blouse's button band:

 

I wasn't able to straighten this out completely for the photo, but you get the idea.

This is traced off the Oxfam blouse that I bought and liked a lot, expect for its pasty light blue colour and the fact that it is rather baggy under the arms. That the bust darts didn't point in quite the right direction didn't help either - all issues I can solve in a traced off pattern!

I will re-visit the paper pattern pieces and check about the outside curve. I hadn't thought to superimpose them to check how they would look one on top of the other. Now that I think about it, that would have been the obvious course of action! But you live and you learn.

I'll adjust the pattern pieces for the event that I want to make this again in another fabric.

I must say that I really adore the shapes that this spiral ruffles make. I wonder how big you could go? Must try that.

UFOs finally finished

I finished two different UFOs in the last couple of days!

I am utterly delighted.

So I knew I was going to post about these two and only had a look through my blog to check what other completed project I blogged about in the last few months.  It seems that I say quite a bit about the process of sewing and ongoing projects, - but not as much about those that I finished?!

How odd is that?

I'll need to go through my completely items and blog about them soon.  Or update my blog about what project I got stuck on and why.  Plenty of material in both these categories.

So here is my silver grey wrap skirt that took me years to get done.

The problem is that this is only the 8th project since I started sewing again after a long gap.  This was a good 5-6 years ago.  I am up to 67 projects now, so it really has been a while.

Which is probably the explanation for why I went wrong with this skirt: I thought a nice bright pink lining was a great contrast to this grey fabric, - and I do love the combination.  Unfortunatley I chose a satin like material that's much too thick for the fabric weight.  I'm not so sure that this will be good to wear.

I am really happy with the shaped ties that I came up with.  The whole skirt is self-drafted - the idea was that a wrap skirt would fit me easier even if my weight goes up and down.

This teal coloured Lekala blouse ran into a huge problem.  The website made this look like a great standard long-sleeved blouse pattern, - except it was listed under 'stretch' fabrics?

Sorry, what?

It has bust darts, a button front and sleeve plackets and cuffs.  All hallmarks of a pattern for woven fabrics and the opposite of what you find in jersey fabric patterns.  Really odd.

Then it turns out that the fit would have been perfect if I were to put a zip in instead of buttons - there is no overlap.  I solved this by sewing a gape guard behind one of the fronts, attached buttons to this seamline and thread button loops on the edge of the other front.  Not ideal though.

Here is the graphic from the Lekala site:

It does look like a great pattern, but the lapels are very, very small.  That makes me think that the pattern was incorrectly drawn without the overlap needed.  It's easy enough to fix so I might make this again in future.  Not in a polycotton though, the sleeves wouldn't go in without puckering.

What I got stuck on was the sleeve plackets that I wanted to put in.  They turned out awful.  I must made a few mistakes cutting out the placket pieces and then couldn't overcome my revulsion at having to fix it.  It just wasn't happening and I'd rather not have this hang around for a few more years.  It's been too long and it was too difficult.  Plus I had to chop off quite a bit of the length because that looked awful on me too.

So today I chopped off the sleeves and made it into a short-sleeved blouse.  It was the quick-fix-solution that I needed.  So there.  Done.

I might now give it away to a charity shop because I am fed up with the thing.

Here's the better news:

Not a long-time UFO, this is a current sewing project that I am delighted to also have finished (SP64).  I also started another skirt, in a reddish-pink heathery wool fabric (SP67), where I only need to deal with the lining then this will be done too.

This isn't as A-line as it looks lying flat.  It is much more straight on me when I wear it - funnily enough.  I really must get someone to take a photo of me in this.

SP stands for sewing project.

So onwards and everything!

Happy sewing.

Project massive blouse 6 January 2017

Even more progress.  I closed most seams though I feel a bit weird saying this, surely these aren't all the seams just yet?  I'll have to check but I do think so.

More photos:

Burda 6230 muslin, in muslin

This shows how thin the fabric is. The back

You can also see the seams on the other side. Cuff in place

Slightly better details

I "just" need to do the buttonholes and sew on buttons.  Once I know what buttons I want to use.  On the other hand I don't have a lot of sewing thread left, do I perhaps want some kind of snap or other closure instead?  I'll need to think that over a bit first.

The other thing I'll have to do before thinking about the proper project is to get photos of me wearing this.  I'll be able to tell how much shorter I want the white blouse to be.

I have the white fabric right here to use but I'm reluctant to jump into carrying on.  I feel that I need to take a little time to consider how I want the white blouse to be. The sleeves do drag a bit funny and seem to twist a little, luckily they are about the right length.  The cuffs fold back on top of them instead of lengthening the sleeves as I thought, but they're still a good length on me.

The cuved baby hems turned out really well, I'm happy I did them.  I also really enjoy how much I could practice my 'accurate' sewing. Looking quite good in most places!

The standing up collar seems a bit tall - it comes up too high and that make me feel a bit 'wedged in', like the collar is some kind of restraining device framing my head.

Problem: I'm not sure that I've got the collar right - it doesn't at all extend to the button bands. That's the complete opposite of the photo on the pattern envelope: the collar extends all the way to their edge at centre front.  How very odd.

There are no notches on the collar to show where it is supposed to hit any specific points, like the shoulder, so no help there.  I did sew the buttonbands on correctly: the instructions show a normal seam allowance, it's not like they mean for you to completely encase the front edges.  The width across also works on the finished article but for some reason the neckline seams too big for the length of the collar.  I might just redraft it and stop worrying about it.  But it is odd when something like that happens.

This is an old Burda pattern where you have to add seam allowance, the pattern pieces do not include them.  I realised when double-checking the pattern pieces: they needed to butt up against each other to fit.  I consulted the instructions (and highlighted that bit!) to make sure.  Newer Burda patterns follow industry standard of including the allowance, but they didn't used to.

I even went a step further than just highlighting the instructions - I even scrawled 'Add Seam Allowance!' in big, fat marker on a few of the bigger pieces so I'd remember when I use this pattern again.  I know how easy it is to forget and just cut out as normal.

I am please with how far I've got.  Now I need photos of me modelling it because the mirror only shows a static view and restricted angles.  Then I'll do some more thinking.

I will want to do more sewing now, to keep my momentum going, who knows I might just carry on with WIP!  Wouldn't that be a novel thing?

New year, new project

I am incredibly pleased that I started to cut out my first project of the new year on the second day of the year.  That's an auspicious start of something I want to do a lot of: to sew and use up more of my fabrics.

I hadn't made up my mind yet about which size I was going to use, the largest might be something like XXXL (size 52).  For some reason I had left all the different sizes on the paper pieces but then didn't notice.  So I needed to change the sleeve curves that had come out a bit too 'curvy'.  It worked though.

The following day I cut out some more pieces and did a first few seams.

The pattern is one that I had to buy again because I cannot lay my hands on the tissue pattern, I have only the photo and instructions left in the envelope.  I checked in currently available patterns (as many as I could bear to look through) but I couldn't find a similar style: Burda 6230 is a very loose shirt, or what I call an 'over blouse' - a shirt you can wear over a heck of a lot because it is so over-sized.

What I like about it is that you piece together the front and the back: there is a horizontal seam line from the yoke that extends into the cut-on sleeves, and they have a diagonal seamline between the lower sleeve and the front/back so you don't have to use extra wide fabric.  See the black and white drawing on the pattern envelope shown above.

The yoke piece that extends into the sleeves ends near the cuffs in a sharp point. I thought that looked very clever.  Not so great for shortening the sleeves: I can't wear the oringal length sleeves, they're 10 cm too long!

My first 2017 project is a muslin of this pattern because I want to check that I shortened the sleeves correctly (that yoke piece needs to be sewn to the united front/back piece and the lower sleeve piece. I can't know if it's right until I've sewn that seam). And I also want to see what the length is like on me. It'll probably drown me!

But seeing how long this is as an actual garment is better for deciding how much I want to shorten it by once I use my actual fabric.  I want to use a white fabric with white machine stitching on it that I bought in a shop clearance sale just before Atlantic Silk in Electric Avenue, Brixton closed its doors for good. Shame, this was a good fabric shop, particularly the back area.  At least Simply Fabrics is still around.

I don't want to cut into this beautiful fabric and mess it up.  I have not seen another fabric like it in all the years in which I amassed my fabric stash - so I've seen a few.  It is pretty thin and looks quite crisp but I haven't washed it yet. It's just so much easier to sew with a fabric that still has that sizing layer on it and I reckon the pattern is loose enough that it can't shrink too much if it even does.

I still haven't decided if size 52 is right for me.  I didn't exactly chose to use that size because I blindly followed the outlines. Oh oops.

But I am sewing! And that's the main thing.  Very pleased.

PS: On the third day of sewing (4 January) I've assembled the front and the back and sewed them together at the shoulder/top of sleeve seams. The button bands are not attached on the inside yet but they are on the outside. I cut and interfaced the colour and will probably attach it next.

PS: I forgot that I blogged twice about this pattern, both in July 2016: That 'over blouse' pattern I've long been looking for and also: What did I do today?

Delving into my sewing patterns: V1164

Following on from my previous post on my sewing pattern stash, I had the sudden urge to look at a Vogue pattern with interesting Dolman-style sleeves.  I am not at all convinced that these suit my figure but I wanted a look.

I didn't find it* and got a bit frustrated until I came across another pattern that I bought because it has raglan sleeves and wraps over at the front.  I thought this would make a great pattern to make up in all kinds of different fabrics.  Unfortunately I failed to see that this is for knit fabrics only.  Darn.  That's not what I was after at all.  I don't sew well with stretch fabrics.

V1164

This looks like it could be a really flattering style and I haven't made anything like this before. I won't find out what this will look like on me until I make it up and try it on.

For my muslin, I found a cheap pink stretch fabric left over from another project (that didn't turn out well, damn) and cut it out. And even sewed it up!  I am very pleased with that.

What I learnt from working with this fabric: there is absolutely no point for me to buy cheap and thin jersey fabrics: I hate working with them and they look saggy and cheap. And they don't wear well either because they wrinkle like mad.

I still have some fabrics that are almost as thin (in purple, grey and light pink) but I think they weren't as cheap and hopefully don't wrinkle as much. I'll have to check.  When I bought them I had visions of making long-sleeved T-shirt style tops as wardrobe staples. But if I don't enjoy working with them, nor like wearing them...

I should try those firmer knits instead. But then again I'd rather work with patterns for woven fabrics and erode my humungous stash of those. So there is no Ponte knit fabric shopping in my immediate future.

I did have to buy something for this project unfortunately: the front pieces of this need to be lined - to finish off the edges and to stablise them. I don't want to try a woven lining because I don't think it'll work and I had run out of stretch lining.  The pattern recommended stretch mesh or tricot. So I ordered a meter of light mesh. Who knows when I'll get that and if I'll still be in the mood for carrying on with this project.

The pink muslin showed that the style is promising: the V-neck looks good on me and I'll have to see how a slightly firmer fabric will behave in terms of fit around my middle and near the shoulders.

If I make this with short sleeves again I will want to lengthen the sleeves at the top by at least 1-1.5 inches.  I have enough fabric for long sleeves for the actual project. I just need that lining fabric first.

But even though I've run into this delay: it is really good to know that I made a start with a type of pattern I hadn't used before. That's exactly what I had in mind when I wrote the previous blog post. 

Brush strokes: mainly pink/purple and dark grey

Vogue 1164: View A in grey on the left has some darts near where the closure sits, View B in yellow doesn't. I tried the non-darted version in my cheap pink jersey fabric. The pattern of my project fabric would look a bit weird if darted so I will probably stick with View B (see 'Brush strokes' above).

Both views use the non-darted front pattern piece (2) for the lining.


*: I found the pattern since: it is V1239, Chado Ralph Rucci. This one:

V1239

I now think that this is also not suitable for me, because of the sleeves. Where they connect to the front and to the back is very odd: as far away from under the arm as may be possible to get. Very odd. Possibly an okay style for someone much less busty than me. So I will give this one a miss.

 

I would like to use this pattern to Frankenpattern the neckline part with another blouse pattern though (at least with rounded edges, not corners near the chin) - that line is beautiful.
 

What did I do today?

I wonder if I can do a really quick post? Just to say what sewing I've done today?

I have a "new" sewing pattern, Burda 6230, I've been looking forever for this over blouse pattern with the most intriguing puzzle-pieece approach to piecing the front and back together.

I cut the pattern pieces out today and realised that this is a really old Burda (yeah, duh) so seam allowances are not included. I then spent a bit of time to tape more tissue paper behind the internal edges because those will be critical.

The sleeves of this are 10cm too long for me. Unfortunately the design doesn't allow to just chop the sleeves off (I'll write about this another time) so I've been trying to draft in a pattern hack to force them shorter and still retain the pattern feature.

I also decided to adapt the front piece a little by including a small bust dart. I then added the pinched out amount to the side seam to keep the seam the same length but introduce a little shaping. This may not work out - I need to do a toile of this area.

I also shortened the length because this pattern must have been designed with giants in mind.

Then I looked at a Lekala pattern again with a really intriguing shoulder treatment, a rectangle that gets stitched down on top of the normal shoulder area, not set in along those rectangular edges - I must post this properly. It is Lekala 4370.

I am worried that this is too tight as well so I did a FBA to allow an extra 1.5cm in each front. That should do it.  At first I thought this was waaayyyy too tight but I had mistaken the add on button band for an inner facing. Makes quite a difference, but not enough of one.

And finally on Lekala 5081 which had turned out to be too tight across the bust (I was thinner when I ordered this. Or is it meant for a zip? It is a perfect fit with one) and there was an issue of whether this is a knit or a woven pattern. It came up when I searched for woven patterns only, but said knit and stretchy on it. A pattern with a front button band AND bust darts AND sleeve plackets and cuffs? Really?
I very much doubt that.

I bought this because it looks the most like a standard blouse. Something that would be great as a design basis. If I can sort out the fit issue...

I adjusted the too long hem by pinning and trying it on several times, and then finally overlocked and cut it at the same time. The rest of this will have to wait. Like the placket and cuffs...

Hey, they are all blouses! Fab.

So I got on with several projects, and now I'm knackered and have sat down for a cup of coffee. I still need to make it because I started blogging! Duh.

Onwards and upwards after a well deserved break!

That 'over blouse' pattern I've long been looking for

I am so excited! This is just fantastic.

I used to have a pattern for a big, over size women's blouse in a very relaxed cut. I just remembered that the blouse on the cover was in a sort of yellow fabric. And that there was something interesting going on in the shoulder area and that this pattern piece extended into the sleeves.

I couldn't remember anything else.  Only that I bought it years and years ago and it was bound to not be around anymore.  I also couldn't find it in my things. And I thought I only had the single piece of paper of the cover photo so it could have slipped in between other papers, or gotten thrown out when I came across it, and got the urge to just get rid seeing as I no longer have the actual pattern tissue.

I even looked through all my sewing patterns this morning to check again.

It doesn't help when you can't remember the name of the pattern brand either. Could it have been Style? Or one of the German brands I used to buy (decades ago), like Neue Mode, or even Ullstein? Which is a very old sewing pattern company, from the early 20th century that I believe is no longer around. I still have a couple of their patterns and you can buy some as vintage.

I spent such a long time looking for this! Today wasn't even the first time - I've been after this ages. If only I could at least find the cover photo with the number on it!

Well guess where I just found it after looking through the whole lot this afternoon while looking for another sewing pattern! Yep, the very thing.

I still have the instructions as well but definitely no pattern tissue. Darn.

The line drawing is shown, this might not be so very difficult to draw up myself - it is quite an ingenious way of cutting up a comfily big top with cut on sleeves - but I'd rather not to be honest.

So back online I went, there are even two US sellers who were parting with their copy! Crikey. Then I found a French seller who wasn't asking for huge amounts for postage - I ordered it!

Here it is, it is Burda 6230:

You can just about see the line drawing near the upper right hand corner, intriguing, isn't it! I am so happy that I found this.  I will make the pseudo pocket flaps a little less high but still with the slanted edge, I'll but it much less long but I will use raglan style shoulder pads (hello 80s!).

I'll start looking for a suitable fabric in my stash, I can't wait to get stuck in!

~ ~ ~

PS: I just remembered, when I bought this white fabric at Atlantic Silks clearance sale (they used to be in Electric Avenue in Brixton), the weight and dainty embroidered pattern made me earmark it for an over sized blouse like this. I think I'll go ahead with that idea!

I love it when a plan comes together...

This fabric has a pattern of white thread stitching

A pattern for knit or woven fabric?

Is a pattern described as 'for knit/stretch fabrics' correctly marked, or is this a mistake?

This Lekala design is marked as "Fabrics: Knit. Is stretchy: yes":

Design 5081 is a long-sleeved blouse with bust darts, plackets and a button band.  I have never seen a knit/jersey/stretch fabric pattern with all these features.  Patterns for knit fabrics usually take advantage of the fabric being stretchy whereas patterns for woven fabric cannot: woven styles need openings along the front as well as in the sleeves, they need shaping in the bust area - knit patterns also don't feature completely flat pieces (the front and back of this blouse) but often include some kind of draping which woven fabric does not do well.

I must say that when I first saw this pattern I just assumed it was for woven fabrics. Assuming is always a big mistake, in dressmaking as much as in other contexts!  I cut out a polycotton fabric and started sewing.  It was by chance that I looked at the pattern again and finally saw the 'knit' reference. Oops. But really?

The website lists this pattern 5081 when you filter on 'woven' - so that seems to point to the knit description being wrong.

For these reasons I think that this pattern was marked incorrectly but I can't be sure.  What do you think?

~ ~ ~

I would perhaps not have noticed the 'knit' claim if it hadn't been for the sleeves:

When I sewed the sleeveheads in I just couldn't make them lie flat - the curved seam around the top of the shoulder is all puckered and distorted even though I applied the normal technique: two rows of gathering and distributing the fullness of the sleeve material very carefully by pinning every centimeter.  No joy.

I also found an issue with the shoulder width that is down to me.  I used some of the Advanced features that allow you to customise your pattern beyond the standard measurements of height, bust, waist, hips etc - unfortunately I didn't realise that my shoulders are a bit narrower compared to their measure.

You can just about see how the shoulders dip down at the seam to the sleeves in these two photos:

   

So I will rip the sleeves back out and cut the shoulders a bit narrower. Only by 5-12mm or so.  That should take care of the sleeveheads being slightly too big and make sewing them back in a lot easier.

At least I hope so. Fingers crossed.

I am also wondering if I marked the correct centre front because these pieces barely overlap - or do I need to do a FBA?  That would be weird seeing as this is a personalised pattern.

The advantage to turning the sleeves into flat pieces again is that I can correct something I forgot to do:  I didn't sew the plackets on when I should have (what a mental lapse) - it'll be good to do that first!  Silver lining...

There's a deadline to my plan

 

Ah, I only just realised: there is a deadline I can aim for - if I want to achieve a certain planned project.  People, this could be good news!

I made a toile of Simplicity 1462 out of an old bed sheet that fit pretty well. It just needs a thin sliver taking out at the top of the front princess seam, then it should be good.

 

It actually fit so well that I almost wish I had used a dressmaking fabric. But it would have heart-breaking if I had messed up, again.  I just can't cope with yet another project that doesn't quite pan out. I've had enough of those, can't deal with it already again. So it's a good thing I found a great pattern, never mind that it won't be a wearable toile, that's just too bad. Phew.  Glad that's off my chest.


I want to make two of these blouses at pretty much the same time.  A bit like a conveyor belt process: just get both fabrics cut out, transfer markings and then sew 'em up.  One of those urges of: 'let's just go for it, churn it out, no double guessing: just do it'.

Imagine my horror when I found only one (plain blue) fabric in my stash that seemed suitable. And no second. Oh God. This is really bad.

Since then I located another one that will do, at a pinch. I don't have the photo to hand, but its very similar to this black and white cotton, just the other way round of the dominant colour:

Just like 'that dress': this is black and white, not blue. I swear.

I'm not sure how princess seams and raglan sleeves will look in this.  Whether the checks will be a complete pain in the butt to try and match or if I'll go for an obvious mismatch?  I haven't decided yet.  I might just change my mind and try to find a third fabric to use instead.

Why is this so hard?  I have hundreds of fabrics and surely there have to be several that I can use to make blouses with?  I thought I had everything and that all the fabrics I own had so much potential.  I am finding the uselessness of my stash quite upsetting to tell the truth.  How can I not have the fabrics that I want to use?  Why did I buy all of these and what for?

-

Anyway, back to my headline: I do have a deadline.

I just realised that there is a fabric shopping trip organised for 13 June.  If I haven't made these two blouses by then with whatever fabrics I can find in my stash, then I know what I'll be unable to resist: more fabric shopping.  Obviously.  For a fabric that I want for this blouse.

I must make both blouses before that day comes round. Once I've got them done, then I'll know if I still want to make a third blouse.  If I don't get them done, then I will add yet another fabric to my stash because I think that it'll be the solution to my "can't find a suitable fabric for this pattern" issue.  Which isn't even true - I should just use whatever is big enough as long as it's half way the right kind of weight. I really shouldn't um and err about this!  But I do want to be able to visualise the blouse and I can only do that when I find the fabric appealing {sticks lower lip out}

This stash-eroding business is stupidly tough. Grumble.


Update 1: I did cut out the sleeves in the plain blue fabric. That's how far I got. I'll post a photo of this soon.
I want to add some more on this point, but it's a bit involved. Enough for half a blog post! Oh well...

I seem to have bought a pattern

I went to this charity shop for a men’s shirt.  I wanted a shirt to upcycle (I just fancied it as a sewing challenge) and not having any men’s shirts to hand, I gave this charity shop a go.  They did have quite a few shirts, but none in a fabric that I liked.

Instead I found this:

Excuse the badly lit photo

Also a cardigan which I got rid off as soon as I got it home because there was a stain I didn't see in the shop, plus the fabric wasn’t all that nice.  So off it went to another charity shop.  Oh well.

This blouse looks lovely: I had not worn any ruffles placed like this before and now I think this works really well with my shape ('apple' as they say. Or 'barrel' shape: wide in the middle, tapering off on either side  - my waist is my problem area).  As a bit of a coincidence, I had decided a short while ago that I do need to add interest to the neckline area and the ruffles here do an admirable job.  I want to explore that element further in future in terms of clothes that I would buy or sew.

Unfortunately I don’t love the linen fabric and its thin weight.  The wrinkled linen look just doesn't look all that great in this particular linen.  Not utterly besotted by the colour either.  I don't hate it but I’m not in love with it either.  A chalky looking pale blue.  It is a bit insipid and puts me off from wearing this blouse.

Then I discovered that the bust dart is in the wrong place: it sits too high, points in the wrong direction and it is too short.  All of this is something that cannot be fixed in an existing garment.

But!

But I can easily adapt a pattern to use the design elements of this blouse and position the dart in the right place.

Now that I discovered the dart issue I am more than happy to get rid of the blouse.  As in: get it out of my wardrobe to never be worn again (I did wear it once, today, so that's fine: I got some use out of it).

I am thinking of taking this blouse apart: this will give me the shape of the ruffles (I suspect that they are circular, with the lower ones cut out of a slightly bigger circle than the upper ruffle) and the main proportions of the blouse: length, width, neckline shape – and also the sleeve pattern.

The sleeves are definitely something that I have to take apart to see what pattern they are based on.

With all that information I should be able to draft a blouse pattern that’s very close to this one. I know that I’ll want to take the side seams in a touch at the top and make a slight change to the neckline: I would prefer a simple V-shape instead of this neckband type facing which doesn't contribute anything particularly clever to the design.  I do like the yoke across the shoulder, I want to keep that.

So its seems that I haven’t so much bought a second-hand blouse as a pattern to use to sew something that I know will fit!   It turns out that this purchase was not a waste but a clever way of getting a wearable muslin – it is exceedingly useful in that function too!

Do you shop in charity shops and what kinds of clothes do you look for?  Something to upcycle or to wear as it is?  Do you ever frankenpattern several old clothes into one new design?  I would love to hear and see ideas!

Green/blue scroll top

Here is another version of my simple top that I knocked up in a couple of days (Version 2 was my black and white linen tunic here and Version 1 my grey damask top here).

Nice to get one item done pretty quickly.

The idea was that I must make inroads into my stash.  It certainly seems to have worked with this fabric.

I bought it together with a pink and also a grey version of the same pattern, and a different pattern but same fibre in blue, from Atlantic Silks in Electric Avenue, Brixton shortly before they closed up shop.  I only paid a total £10 for five metres if I remember correctly.  Another reason why my stash is out of control: I keep finding such great fabrics, great bargains or great patterns and colours.  Or all combined.  I just can't resist any of it.

This fabric irons a lot better than I thought.  I am not wildly in love with the pattern but I hope it'll fill that gap in my wardrobe where a bright and highly patterned item goes.  If there is such a gap...

These colours are truer to life

I'm curious to see how it washes and how often I'll wear it.

The grey fabric might become a summer dress, I got more of it. Let's see how quickly I'll get round to it.  Then I "only" have to get through the pink and the blue fabric for more tops to get back to the stage I was at before the Brixton shopping trip.

Oh actually, I got a lovely white fabric too... Oops, I'd forgotten.  But this one is reserved for a special project because it's beautiful fabric that needs to be used for something like a generously cut big over-blouse that can be worn over trousers or open instead of a light summer jacket... Something like that.  I'd rather use up other fabrics than that one first.

Good thing I already sewed up the petrol fabric from the Market Row stall (I forgot to blog about this top, it's the same cut as the simple black top here), and have used the white calico from the same place on the Dress pattern drawing workshop in Brighton in January that I bought it for. Phew!