Repairs- it’s almost like magic!

This is a mini bonus post to tie in with the Monthly Stitch theme for the month ‘Slowvember‘.  Since the arrival of Toby my sewing has naturally had to slow down a little.  Gone are the days where I could spend a whole Saturday sewing.  With that in mind, it’s even more important that my handmade clothes are made to last so that I can get as much value and enjoyment from them as possible.

This Archer shirt is the first one that I made, and has already been repaired once before with some Sashiko stitching.  This time though it is the sleeve plackets which are in need of repair so I took a slightly different approach.

I’ve used some ordinary sewing thread to stitch around the hole to hopefully prevent it from spreading further and the same embroidery thread as before to satin stitch over the damage.  I’ve also fused a little bit of interfacing over it from the wrong side to help prevent any further fraying.

To celebrate an item of clothing which will hopefully now go on to be worn for a couple more years, I’ve added an embroidered flower to commemorate each of the repairs so far.  I think this was inspired by Elisalex from By Hand London who was doing the same to a pair of jeans to create a ‘jeans garden’.  Perhaps I will eventually end up with a whole garden of them celebrating each time that It would have been easy to give up on this shirt and let it go to be recycled or into landfill.

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Darling Dungarees

This is my latest baby pattern attempt, the dandelion dungarees by Poppy and Jazz which is an offshoot of Sew Over It.  I thought the promotional photos were all super cute, and I love dressing Toby in dungarees so this seemed like a great pattern choice.

The pattern is reversible so you get two looks in one which is lovely.  I really like cuffing the ankles so that you can see the contrast fabric from the inside.

The instructions were really clear, and I think this would be quite a good first knit sewing project because the seams don’t actually need to stretch and get sewn with an ordinary straight stitch.  The only tricky part is ‘bagging out’ the legs, but the instructions do explain pretty well.

 

I did make things rather trickier by hacking these dungarees to have poppers between the legs.  It does make it much easier to change nappies, but I can see why they didn’t include it in the instructions because it did make construction considerably more awkward.  I’m really pleased with them though, and even chose a few different colours of snaps to close them with.

The straps also have two sets of snaps so that I can change the length as he grows.

I’m definitely going to have to make some more of these dungarees.  I’ve been eyeing up all the cute printed jerseys in my stash and working out colour combinations.  Even with all the snap setting they were a pretty quick sew.  Plus, they were another of my ‘wildcard’ entry make 9 patterns so I’m really onto a win there!

More nursing layers

I am enjoying my previous Agnes and Amber pattern mash-up, but I wanted to try another method of getting breastfeeding access with a t-shirt. My previous hack works great, but variety is always nice, and I fancied a long sleeve tee with a neckband because my upper chest/neck keeps getting cold!

This is based on the Tilly and the Buttons Agnes Top and is a much simpler pattern hack than the previous one because it involves modifying fewer pieces. I would detail the changes, but Zoe from SoZo what do you know already has a great tutorial and I didn’t really do anything different.  I think the overlap would be less obvious if I had found a better thread colour match for the topstitching, but I found this fabric difficult to match and it will probably be hidden under my layers anyway.

This option is quicker to construct and does give a sleeker silhouette for layering, though I think my other hack is easier to use. I will definitely be using both options, and will probably make some more too. I have some lovely peacock blue cotton spandex which would look great.

One of the best things about this top is the way it has helped me to reconsider and start wearing a few clothes that had been slightly forgotten. Here it is layered under my Bridgetown Backless Dress as a tunic, and worn with the crossover at the front.

Slightly different styling from wearing it to the wedding I made it for.

I also made Matt another Metro tee to match! It doesn’t really deserve its own post as I’m pretty sure I’ve already said all there is to say about making up that pattern. It’s probably one of the best value patterns I own though for the number of times that it has been used (closely followed by the Agnes and Amber patterns too!)

Lovely Lucia

This is actually the first thing that I managed to  sew after the arrival of little Toby, but it’s been waiting for the collaboration post on Minerva crafts to go live.  I decided to start off with something simple to ease into sewing in small doses- the Sew Over It Lucia.  This was made with some soft touch jersey from Minerva Crafts, so you can see the full blog post over here.

I’m glad I chose something with so few pattern pieces.  This has just 3- a front/back, the sleeve and the frill.  Cutting out is my least favorite part of sewing so having just a couple of pieces let me get on with the sewing, rather than spending lots of time on the parts I don’t enjoy so much.  I think the finished top will serve me well into the autumn and winter too.

It’s also great to be fitting some of my other clothes again! I’ve been wearing this top with my Moss skirt which will also be a good year long combo with tights and boots.

Coming soon…

No new post today I’m afraid, but I do have a sneaky preview of a collaboration post coming on Tuesday.  This is actually the first bit of sewing that I did after Toby was born, so I’m glad that I chose something really simple.

I do have some thoughts on sewing in a more limited time frame, so hopefully that will be a blog post on it’s way soon.  I have to say though, it is so lovely to have some time to just be me, rather than ‘mum’.

Breastfeeding Friendly Layering

In the autumn and winter, I usually layer up long sleeved t-shirts, shirts and cardigans, but this year my clothing needs to be feeding friendly.  Currently none of my long sleeved t-shirts really facilitate that, so I’ve needed to come up with a pattern hack solution.  This top is my first attempt at creating a slim fitting layering t-shirt which I can feed in.

I’ve hacked together the Megan Nielson Amber, with my usual layering top- the Tilly and the Buttons Agnes.  Both of these are tried and true patterns for me, with multiple iterations (For Amber see here and here, Agnes here and here).  I’m using the front bodice piece of the Amber, and the modesty panel, but I’ve raised the centre front on this panel about 5cm to keep me warmer.  Then I’ve attached it to part of the front bodice of the Agnes.

For the back, I’ve mostly used the Agnes bodice, but tweaked the armscye to fit the Amber sleeve.   The sleeve has been slimmed down a bit too to make it fit under layers more easily.  This is how I’m most likely to we wearing it on an everyday basis- worn with jeans and an Archer Shirt.

I’m pretty pleased with this as a first try.  I do have another hack in mind to try so hopefully I will be able to show you that one too soon.  Like Matt’s recent Metro tee, this is made with the Girl Charlee solid cotton spandex in Sage Green.

I’ll be wearing this all winter I’m sure.  I’m really glad to be able to keep warm and cosy in my layers again!