Two-colour Smock

Do you remember my my one yard fabric stash? I was determined to sew something with them so I took 2 of them and made this. The front polka dot is a double gauze, the back is some barely pink, soft cotton blend.

I really, really like this smock because it is so comfortable to wear, never mind if it looks like a pyjama top! The 2 fabrics are super soft, perfect for this smock. 

This is a free Nani Iro pattern that I have wanted to sew for a long time. The instructions for the pattern can be downloaded here: pocho smock pattern but you have to draw it out yourself. If you cannot understand the instructions, Yifarn has kindly made an english translation. While you are at her blog, do take a look at her pretty completed smock.

As for the pattern, my fave part is how the middle of the front is sewed together to form a placket. The worst part was the collar, I had the most difficulty with the collar. First it was the gathers, I couldn't make nice gathers and kept having to re-do them many times to get the right length gathered. Then I sewed that collar on 3 times!!! I think the problem is that I cut the collar on the bias, that's because initially I thought the neck was just bias binding, my mind wasn't working properly. It was only after ripping it out the second time that I realised I should have cut 2 pieces of fabric for it and not just one. On my 3rd try, with 2 pieces of fabric, the collar still looked wonky because of the bias cut fabric. But I gave up! One of these days if I feel up to it, I will rip it out and re-do, but for now, I've had enough :) By the way, the armhole is super big, and gives rise to under-garment exposure every time I raise my arm, and I do intend to move my arms when I am wearing this smock, so I closed it up by about 2 inches. Problem solved.

Inspiration from magazines

This is currently the only magazine I buy. It's a Japanese fashion magazine called Story. I cannot read Japanese but it does not really matter. In the May and June issues, there are over 300 pages each, featuring the prettiest clothes. 

There are lots of inspiring items for sewing, like this jersey top below, the back is lace with a tie knot.

I like the outfit below, the linen shirt with contrast collar and cuffs, and especially the top with the wide lace hem.

There are ideas for a summer holiday wardrobe. These are items I would love to wear, for example, that drawstring elastic waist denim pants. I have some soft denim that I have been saving that would be perfect for making into a pair of pants like that.

In each issue, there are many style features. For example, different ways of styling an item such as this simple blue lace top. Again, these are outfits that I can sew and would like to wear. I think that I can use the sewing pattern from Cotton Friend from my previous post. I don't have blue lace but I do have some white lace that I could use.

Crisp white top

Over the weekend, I sewed a top from an IKEA fabric (by Caroline Abild Jessen 2005) that my cousin bought for me from Japan many years ago.

The pattern is from Cotton Friend summer 2010 vol 35 pgs 18-23. I shortened the dress and made a top instead. The pattern came in only one size and I wasn't sure if it would fit me so I compared it to the size of a linen top I had and it seemed a little snug so I added 1 cm to the width and the sleeves. Fortunately it worked and I like the fit, although the shoulder is a smidgen too wide.

I like the crisp look of the finished top. I think it's because the fabric is a rather stiff cotton. I can make lots of this top in plain colours and wear them to death for work, like a uniform. I can be a very boring dresser. 

My sewing corner

MMM2013 Theme Friday today is to feature our creative space and our me-made item. I thought those of you who read my blog but are not participating in MMM2013 on Flickr might like to have a look at where I sew. This is where I sew. It's a corner of my dining area and that's my dining table. I put my sewing bits and bobs on a tray so it's easy to clear the table for dinner. One day, I hope to have a little sewing corner of my own. Also here is my me-made Sorbetto Dress that I am wearing tonight for a dinner at work. I have trimmed away much of the A-line at the side seams so that it falls better and I have also shortened the length so I look less frumpy in it. 

What will you be doing this weekend? I have started cutting up my fabric for another tunic. Hope to have time to sew it up. 

Whatever you are doing, have a great weekend!

skirt with back vent

It's just an elastic waist skirt (two rectangles sewn together) with a back vent. The only thing I have done is cut a slight curve along the waistline so that the skirt doesn't pouf up too much at the tummy. All this time, I've been sewing elastic waistbands by folding down the fabric at the waistline to form a casing. But that gets frustratingly difficult when the waistline is curved. Finally, this time I had a brainwave. Haha it may actually be quite an obvious solution to you, but it had never occurred to me before. I sewed a matching facing waistband of sorts as a casing for inserting the elastic. Why didn't I think of it before???!!! I will not have problems with curved elastic waistbands ever again.

Fabric was 1.25 yds of 60 inch width stretch viscose that I bought for S$15.

learned how to do the back vent via A Fashionable Stitch's excellent back vent tutorial. Now that I've tried it, I can safely say that back vents are not that difficult and I should get more fabric to sew myself more of these skirts for work. As I have gotten older, it's been more difficult to fit into ready-made skirts. Sewing for myself is seriously turning into a necessity, not merely an option. I will be wearing this for MMM2013 soon!

MMM2013 week 1

Since I am posting everyday on Flickr for MMM2013, I decided to do a weekly round up for my blog.

MMM2013 Day 1 was a public holiday, and a very hot day at that so I wore my linen tunic and shorts. When my daughter was taking this photo for me she asked why my shorts were so crumpled. Well, sweetie, I didn't iron them! After all, it was Labour Day, a day of rest from labour once a year :)

MMM2013 Day 2 was a workday. I wore my my first me-made bias skirt. My goodness, it's 7 years old! Just the day before wearing it, I shortened the skirt by 2.5 inches and it looks less frumpy now than back in 2006. I hardly wear this skirt because I have difficulty co-ordinating it. But this time, I was determined to find a suitable top to go with it, so I opened my cupboard doors and went through all my clothes and found this top - why didn't I think of it before? I really like this outfit and I think I'm going to be wearing it to death from now on. Can you tell that I love playing with my phone photo apps? For this photo, I used a Chinese app called Meitu to blur the background and Snapeee to add the lacey frame and words. By the way, that's me having breakfast at a hawker centre at 7 am.

For MMM2013 Day 3, I wore my handknit Maggie - an old Rowan pattern. I knitted it in 2005 or earlier, in a Katia acrylic yarn, which is surprising cooling for my weather. So this me-made is another oldie, been in my closet for at least 8 years. Have not been wearing it lately, but so glad that it still fits! MMM2013 is making me re-discover my old clothes.

Although my MMM2013 pledge was to wear me-made only on weekdays, I decided to try it everyday, so on Saturday, I wore a crochet vest over my tank top and carried my high tea bag. Both were made in 2006. When my daughter saw the bag, she commented, "nice bag, mum, you haven't used it in a long time!" I carried it around the whole day and realised that it's a great bag for weekends, so I'm definitely going to re-use this bag again on weekends.

For MMM2013 Day 5, I wore my Foxy tank top from Rowan Vol 27. Another old handknit (from 2008) that I have not worn in ages. It was surprisingly comfortable and cooling because it is knit in Sirdar Luxury Soft 100% Natural Cotton 4 ply. However, this fitted type of style is not what I wear anymore these days. So it's unlikely that I will wear it often, but I might wear it again occasionally. I have more old handknits to dig out from the depths of my closet, so see you next week with another MMM2013 update.

Tunic repeat

I sewed a linen version of this tunic way back in 2008. Oh my goodness, that's 5 years ago! No wonder the tunic is looking tired and worn. It's my favourite self-sewn item and I wear it very often on weekends. This new version in made from a checked poly blend from my stash. It is not an ideal fabric for this tunic, but I wanted to sew something from stash.

The most difficult part was sewing the yoke to the blouse. Pattern: Cotton Friend Spring 2007 vol 22 page 22.

Notes to self:

• using the 2 pencils tied together trick to add seam allowance is a major time saver.
• I changed the positions of the start of the armhole and the end of the front gathers. 

I think I should sew another one of these tunics in a better fabric because something tells me that this poly blend version is not going to last very long. The fabric is the type that gets more shiny with ironing.