black knit top - kwik sew 2694

On Saturday while my sewing buddies were over, I took out my swap pieces and asked for their opinion on how my SWAP plan was going. The main comment I got was the china print skirt only needed a black knit top.


At the January Pitt Trading sale, I bought this black poly knit as a 'just in case' piece.

Here's how it worked out.

I made sure my face was taken out of this shot because I was really pooped last night when DH took this pic.


Tech note: Sway back, full bust adjustment, neckline gaposis, shortened shoulder length, shortened sleeve, FOE.

Swap tally - The next piece is a basic black skirt (fully lined, zipper, no waistband) that's 1/3 of the way through. I just realised that this will be the final piece.
I'll go back to the purple pieces once the skirt is done so I can but the black out of my sight, just for now.

Upside down maxi dress

Here's my first attempt at recycling a RTW garment.

I love shirring and we've had our end of summer sales. At Tightrope they had stacks of shirred maxi dresses for $10. I wanted a top that had shirring on the hips so I bought a maxi dress that had shirring around the bust, cut it in half, turned it upside down and then created the neckline and armholes.

The shirring is now on my hips.

I played with the armholes a bit to make sure you couldn't get a side view of what's beneath the top. My cousin's who know I'm a dag, found it amusing. Maybe I've now got some design cred? The left over fabric will be used for a top shortly.

Tomorrow I'm cycling training so that's it for now.

colour break - Kwik Sew 2683

As you can see, I'm taking a colour break.

This was the first top I made today. There's no science in the pattern placement and the neckling on the pattern was tight around my neck, so I've dropped it a bit.

When I sewed on the FOE on the neckline, that's when I had used the one step process with a 'few tears' when I had to resew the FOE on the back neckline.

This pattern has my usual adjustments. I got this knit last month when Pitt Trading had their 50% off sale.

By the way, this is a really comfortable top to wear to work with my purple skirt. My work mates have been very supportive as they usually see me in greys and blacks around the office..

Design learning - Kwik Sew 2694

As of last night, DH had no say in the matter when I reminded him that my sewing buddies were coming over today. He had a month of notice but because he's recovering from a boxing injury, he said home. The boxing incident was his ankle and he was dancing around with the pads on his hands while I had the boxing gloves. He's also not drinking alcohol for February as part of Feb Fast. Anyway... we had a good day of sewing.

As you can see, I had to take my own pic and this design was decided by my sewing buddies this afternoon. Girls it worked!

Now I'm really a lazy sewer at heart, that's why I normally try to sew on FOE in one step. Most of the time I have to unpick it so when Alison questioned by I tend to miss sewing the edges, we realised I always try to take short cuts.

These are proof that this time I used a two step process and it worked. No tears. Isn't Alison smart.

The key design suggestion was to use part of the fabric border under the bust. The picture above is the before shot.

This is the after shot and the shot at the top is the finished product.
This pattern has had all the alterations to make it work on me - sway back adjustment, neckline gaposis, shortened shoulder line, lowered back hem edge.

Tonight ACDC is playing and they're not playing as loud as they were two nights ago. I can still hear every word - and they're still good.

Black wrap top - butterick 5328

Here's one of my tops for my dark swap.

The fabric is from Pitt Trading and for a cotton it's quiet fragile.

The embroidery border is only placed on the front panel and I've matched it on both left and right panels. I've used black buttons instead of ties to keep the shirt on, rather than have it slip off.

I've also added detail on the sleeve hem to keep focus towards my face instead of at my hips. The sleeve gathers were also added to create the illusion of a waistline - ha.

I took out the excess fullness in the back by adding in another dart, rather than take the vent any further. The top does have a swap back adjustment, rolled shoulder adjectment, full bust adjustment and additional fiddling with the front gathers to have them where the fullness is needed.

overlocker 0 - velosewer 1

Yesterday I was trying to finish the black wrap blouse with border embroidery and the overlocker kept making uneven stitches. I rethreaded the little terror a few times with no luck. The thread was running out and broke while rethreading the new thread. I have a Janome mylock 534D.

My blouse fabric ripped at the sleeve edge on one of the front pieces while I was trying it on. Part of the challenge of the blouse is getting the gathers to sit on the bust. The rip made me a bit fearful that the fabric was weak, so I decided to overlock the seam edges.

In the end, I replaced the thread on the right lower looper and rethreaded it
Step 1. right lower looper,
Step 2. left lower looper,
Step 3. right upper thread
Step 4. left upper thread.

Now I'm putting the sleeves on. They have gathers at the sleeve head and I'll make them a bit gathered at the sleeve hem too. I might raise the sleeve hem as well.

Better fit - B5283

Ok, so we don't look like twins. Maybe aunty twice removed and niece, and that's where I'm leaving the comparison.

Here's what the back fit looks like. I've done a sway back adjustment but I may need to add some butt room.