Sorbetto: the revenge of polka dots

You get a hastily taken wonky image of this one.  Told you it's not a photography blog.  My left hand is being dragged away by a toddler who is in a huff.

I'm not wild about my fabric choice here.  It's a bit Minni Mouse, and polka dots on the binding AND the main fabric?  What was I thinking?  I'll tell you what I was thinking: I like red, and I like purple, and I like them together, and OH LOOK POLKA DOTS.  At no point did I envisage the unholy mess they'd be when placed together on this garment.  In addition, the fabric has too much body for this top.  It would make a lovely dress, but this top would be better in a cotton lawn or something.  If I tone it down with a cream cardigan it's totally good for layering, so I'll still wear it.

I made a bunch more pattern changes after my last post about fitting sorbetto.  I took another 1/2" off each side seam and shaped the CB even more.  In total, this lost another 3" around the waist.  This was because my husband described it as looking like a sack.  I also lowered the arm-holes a tad.  I think I'm finally done with pattern alterations.  It must have worked though; I wore the top for a whole day and didn't feel uncomfortable or self-conscious  in it, the way I do with some of my efforts when the fabric is pulling and the fit is bad.  The first day I spent in this dress was a saggy baggy hell.

Hey ho.  I think I'll make it more tastefully next time.  How about a lace yoke and plain bottom?  Or some nice pale broderie anglaise with a coloured trim?  Or a light chambray with pintucks instead of a centre pleat, and floral trim?

I'm going to bias bind EVERYTHING.

Sewists* of the internet!  For years I have been baffled by your impeccably bias-bound seams.  For a time, I thought it was just the camera angle, but then you started to post close-ups.  Close-ups!  I ask you!  I was despairing in my soddy and wonky binding.  I began to avoid binding.  The thought of a Hong Kong seam made me shiver.

No more!  Your secret is out!  Mwa ha ha.  My husband has bought me perfect bias binding for my birthday (18 again of course, but I won't say which base that's written in).  Now I finish binding with ease.  Take THAT, Sorbetto top!

* I hate the term sewist; I'd say "sew-er".  However, it turns out it's indistinguishable from the the infrastructure that conveys sewage when written.

Super fabric haul, much to sew.

Today, I bring you news of great shopping!  Apart from sharing my excitement at cheap fabrics, I'm going to be helpful (to your heart, but not your wallet) and tell you where to get it.

First stop: if you're ever near Doncaster (oop North), go to Waltons Fabrics in Goldthorpe.  Good times!  There is much spandex and giltter, but some real finds amongst them.  Apparently, many roll ends are ex-designer and almost everything was under £5/m.  I filled my boots with fabric, the likes of which I've often seen in commercial clothes but never for sale in fabric stores elsewhere.

Second stop: if you're more local to Cambridgeshire, there are many fabric stalls at the St Ives market, every bank holiday.  This morning I scored some stripey chiffon at £1/m.  You can't beat that for a muslin cost!  I just hope my first chiffon attempt will be wearable, because I quite like the fabric actually...

In other news, it's been real nappy week and I've used the discounts offered to buy a bunch of absorption fabrics to make more nappy boosters for TButton.  We'll see how that goes.  My washing machine wants me to hurry up and make them, because it's fed up of washing trousers.

Instead of making dull nappy boosters, I've actually been sewing a sweet sorbetto by Colette patterns.  I've done two muslins (out of an old circular skirt I found in my fabric box) and a bunch of pattern alterations.  I'm about ready to sew up in the real fabric, a deep red cotton with cream dots from Waltons Fabrics.  I've got purple for the bias binding.  I must be obsessed with polka dots; I've had the same fabric before in pale blue and navy blue already.

Behold, the fist muslin: a straight-up size 12, just taken in by 1.5" at the top of the straps (as is customary for me).  I just noticed TButton in the shot behind me, grabbing the clock off my bedside table: naughty!

In this first image you can see the sad evidence of a need for a full bust adjustment (FBA to its friends) in the drag lines at the sides.

Hello diagonal drag-lines from bust to waist!  Delighted to meet you!

Here is the sad back of the top.  Delightfully too large across the upper back (see baggy fabric at the armholes), and in need of a slight sway-back adjustment (see fabric pooling over me bum).

I also think the top is a little short to be wearing with my jeans, so I decided to lengthen it a bit too.  Before I took the top off, I marked the bust point by drawing on myself with chalk.  I transferred the mark back to the pattern to help with my FBA.

Sad in front, sad behind.  Sad sad sad.

I got out my scissors and set to work.  Behold how I ran out of sellotape and resorted to masking tape like a trouper.

More tape than paper.

I lopped 1.5" off the straps, did a 1" FBA,  changed down to a size 10 from the armholes upward, moved the bust dart up by 3/8", added 2" length to the bottom, did a 7/8" swayback adjustment and added a CB seam, and finally graded in a little at the waist on the back only.

FBA with a moved dart and added masking tape.

You'd think a simple loose-fitting top wouldn't need much fitting, but you'd be wrong, apparently.  Hey ho.

Hoorah!  Time to sew up a sweet sorbetto!

A birthday dress

Over the third week in April, I made a little dress for one of TButtons little friends, who's reaching the grand old age of 3.  I didn't know what to get her, but then I had a brainwave and realised she'd probably be getting big enough for a pattern from Burda Magazine.

This photo doesn't show the top-stitched box pleats all around the skirt: boo hoo.

I have a couple of issues kicking around from ye olde 2008 (that's 6 years ago, can you believe it?) when I bought them from W H Smiths if they had 2 or more patterns I liked in.  It was pretty hard to find a branch that stocked them.  Since then, the magazine is now called "Burda Style" and it's stocked in my local Tesco: hoorah for dressmaking returning to fashion!

The magazines are still pretty awesome: you get a good range of patterns for your £5-ish, although you have to trace them yourself and add seam allowances.  The instructions are pretty brief too (a few bullet points), so not too great for a beginner.  However, if you've made a few garments before, you'll probably be fine with that.

The dress I made was from the November 2008 issue, dress 139, in the smallest height 98 (roughly age 4).  The charmingly translated German copy next to a photograph of the dress in floral needlecord reads:

"For saucy girls flowers bloom in winter too, e.g. on this pinafore dress!"

With such a recommendation, I couldn't not make it!  I can't believe that this is the first garment from the magazine I've actually finished!  I've made toiles of a few, but never got further than the first fitting.

My mother-in-law acted as my sidekick while I traced and cut out the pattern and fabric and tailor-tacked, while Mr Button and his father put fitted carpets and wardrobes in the shed.  It was fun!  M-in-L suggested I cut the centre back on the selvedges so that I didn't have the bulk of extra overlocking down this seam, which is a top idea.

Buttons!  Hoorah!  More top-stitching!  ARGH!

I used some spotty needlecord and lining I had left from this skirt, and I used buttons from my trusty jar.  I even found a concealed zipper lying around; although black would have been better, at least the pink matches the fabric dots.

Pink zipper: quite cool, actually.  Plus, more top-stitching...

I did the whole double top-stitch thing, even on the lining.  It felt like construction took an age when every seam was stitched three times.  I can't believe I haven't put a zip in for the last 3 years (what on earth have I been up to?) but this one went in like a dream first time.  It helped that I remembered to use a couple of strips of fusible interfacing along the centre back before inserting the zip; I've had problems in the past where the fabric has stretched and looked baggy around the zip.

Can you see the sneaky concealed zip?  No, thanks to Mr Fusible Interfacing!  Cheers, Vilene!

The lining hem is a rolled hem done on my overlocker, and I'm pretty pleased with the result.  I find any other sort of hem is really tricky on the slippery fabric as it stretches and wrinkles when you get to a bias section.

Tasty overlocking on me old hem.

The needlecord presses really nicely and the whole dress feels like it's got reasonable body.  The skirt looks really fun and swingy, so I hope little miss will enjoy wearing it.

I challenged myself to try and make this dress as robust as possible, and as much like a commercially purchased garment as I could.  To that end, I even added a label.

Who knows how well iron-on t-shirt transfer on cotton twill tape will wash?

Happy Birthday, Miss M!

Blackcurrant tea loaf: improved version

I'm waiting for my apple and blackberry crumble to finish baking, so I can't go to bed until it's out of the oven.  Therefore, I thought I'd bring you my updated blackcurrant tea-loaf recipe, previously blogged here.

Regrettably, I note I'd previously misspelled "sugar" on my ingredients list: the shame!

Below is the improved version, as road-tested on my parents-in-law last weekend.  In this version, the quantities of sugar are reduced and the blackcurrants are used frozen rather than stewed.  I think this is much better: the cake tastes much sweeter (oddly) and looks prettier as the fruit remains localised rather than smashed throughout the cake.

I also recommend frozen blackberries in place of the blackcurrants, and blueberries would probably work well too.  Blackberries are fun: the fruit appears to vaporise during the baking process, leaving tasty purple blackberry-shaped voids, but no actual berries.

Sadly I'm almost through the blackcurrant harvest from last year.  It'll be mincemeat cakes after this, to use up the jars in the cupboard.

ARGGH I still can't stop spelling them "currents".  What is WRONG with me?

Servicing your own sewing machine = quite easy actually.

I was going to wait until post-quilt-apocolypse before servicing Able Mabel, but sadly the thread tensioner ceased to tension this afternoon so we brought the date forward.

Turns out it's actually super easy, but in all the excitement I failed to take any pictures.  It only took a few hours.  The thread tensioner was just gummed up with fluff, and quite a few joints inside were running completely dry, so Mabel was feeling a little stiff and arthritic after 12 years of hard stitching.  All she needed was a dismantle and good clean and oil.

In case you also want to join the fun and save yourself £70 excl vat and parts, here are my top tips:

Useful equipment

• Screwdriver set (I needed big and small phillips head, and wide and narrow flat head)
• Blu-tack and pen and paper, for drawing diagrams of casework and sticking on the screws to remember what goes where
• Kitchen roll and lots of Q-tips/earbuds and toothbrush for cleaning
• Torch; ours has a magnetic pokey-thing that comes out of it which is pretty handy for locating screws
• Oil (my machine came with some)
• Suitable grease for plastic to plastic lubrication (I left these parts alone as they looked well greased anyway)

I just took the plastic parts of the bodywork off, as my Janome 423S has some metal casework which doesn't need to be removed.  Then I cleaned well, removed nasty black oil, and re-oiled all of the metal moving joints, including those underneath the machine.  I also cleaned the thread tensioner and bobbin race and feed dogs.  Now she purrs like a contented kitten.

I found small flat-head screwdrivers useful to ease plastic lugs carefully, and I used Q-tips like nobodies business.

If you also have a Janome 423S, here's my recommended disassembly order:

1. Remove the casing on the end above the needle.  (The screw is hidden behind a plastic cover which can be eased off with a screwdriver.)
2. Remove the plastic cover on the opposite (plug) side of the machine and remove that screw too.  You won't be able to take the side off yet, so don't bother with that: you just need the wiggle room.
3. Remove the plastic cover underneath the machine.  There are LOADS of screws here.  One of these (near the front right of the machine) you won't be able to remove through the hole: that's because it's to hold the purple front-plate on.  You need to loosen this screw anyway in order to get enough movement in the front plate to work the bottom cover off.  Janome have probably had to drill the hole in the casework after molding when they found you can't remove the bottom without loosening the front and side.  Whoops!  Once you've removed all the screws, you should be able to take the bottom off by hinging it towards the belt/motor side of the machine: you'll need to wiggle the front and side covers to get enough play to be able to hinge the plate off without snapping the lugs.
4. Remove the top cover of the machine: there are screws under the handle and also one holding a bobbin-winding "stop" on.  There's also one on the side at the needle-end.  There's a plastic lug at the right-hand side, so like the bottom piece, the top needs to be carefully removed by hinging it toward the motor/plug side.
5. Remove the side cover over the motor/plug.  I didn't bother to remove the purple front-plate, as I could get the access I needed without it.

I like having a totally mechanical machine - it's highly likely I'll be able to fix it myself and keep it running for years and years.  I didn't need to take the moving parts to bits on this occasion, and the motor was fine too.  A really quick service this time around!  If you're thinking of buying yourself a mid-range machine, you can't go far wrong with this model and it's still for sale new.  At a glance, it appears to have fewer stitch options for your ££, but that's because it's predominantly metal-bodied rather than plastic.  Mine is 12 years old next month, and this is the first time I've had to touch it.  It's had reasonable use in that time, too.

That's it, my lovelies!  Service your machines now and save yourself more money for fabric!

Whaley good fabric?

Spoonflower is having a contest for the best whale fabrics with a restricted colour palette.  My effort is pictured above (obviously without the watermark).  The contest is open at the moment, so if you feel inclined to wade through a huge ocean of designs to vote for this one, clicky here!

Meanwhile, back on dry land, I continue to make poor attempts at free-motion quilting on a daily basis.  I've also been motivated to draft a bodice pattern for myself: we'll see how that goes...