Makes for Me

What do you know it, I never post pictures of myself- who like doing that?  And then two posts come along together!  I made this skirt a few weeks ago from the Amy Butler Barcelona pattern.  I just knew the shape would fit and the 4 panel raw edge effect is simple and breaks up the block of fabric on a  long A line skirt.

The linen was a lucky car boot bargain, there was just enough to make this! The lining (I know you can't see it but it is there and makes the skirt hang nicely) was a lightweight navy cotton from a charity shop and the vintage lace trim finishing the hem was another thrifty find.  I have worn this a lot.  I am technically capable of drafting my own clothes patterns- I did an HNC in fashion 10 years ago- but it is a faff, I don't have a big enough surface apart from the floor and now I have this I can trace off the pieces and make variations on a theme.  A table cloth version is next.

I have been sitting on this unbelievably lovely Yuwa kitchen print for an age, waiting for inspiration to strike.  I decided that a bag would be the best use of it-  I'll use it a lot and thus I will get to see this print frequently, it will feel like a close companion.  The print is still available at this European store.

I only had half a yard and it is a heavier weight so along with a bit of old Parker Knoll upholstery fabric, some polka dot cotton and tea dyed vintage lace it quickly came together to make a good size bag/purse- depending which side of the pond you are on.  The shape was largely based on a Pochee (Vol 9) pattern.  I don't like fussy bags and I am not keen on interfacing, this has none and is an easy user friendly shape.  I added the darted pockets which make for good storage and I always add a key fob to any bag I make.

Next time I make a bag I'll do a tutorial on the pockets, they are not hard and they are handy for storing mobile phones and granola bars.  

Another double bank holiday coming up in the UK, this is my kind of working week x

Japanese Sashiko

Last Saturday we visited a Japanese Sahiko exhibition in Plymouth which has been traveling around the UK.  It was a rather dimly lit room and no photos allowed but I managed to find enough publicity materials to illustrate and whet your appetite!   Sashiko means 'small stitches' and at its simplest is when layers of cotton- normally indigo dyed and often recycled from other clothing- are stitched together with a simple running stitch horizontally for strength.  It was traditionally used for work clothing - it is hard wearing and warm- and the exhibition featured these garments alongside designer pieces influenced by the process.

Sashiko is seen as an example of Mingei where everyday items-ceramics, kitchen utensils, practical clothing- made by anonymous craft people  are "beyond beauty and  ugliness".  I love this, makes me think of the growth in handmade crafts today, people making potholders and tea towels etc for family and friends.   It was the domestic and smaller items that interested me rather than the coats and jackets made largely for men but the little things were not displayed as well and had less information.  There was even a dish cloth made of scraps of indigo cotton clothing and stitched sahiko style.  These are leg protectors.

Pre 1955 Work pants with lots of patches for repair and strength- it seems trite to say lovely checks but they are very decorative

You can read all about the hard lives of the women who stitched these garments and much more in a pdf from the  exhibition curator and look at great pictures of hand protectors, tabi and more.  There is a very quirky picture of pins and needles stuck into a piece of tofu like a pincushion!  This is for Hari Kuyo, a special thanksgiving memorial on 8th February for worn sewing needles and pins.  As well as laying needles to rest in tofu the user takes time to thinks of secrets buried deep and "too personal to reveal".  Fascinating.

A week of book posts is coming up, I have found lots of lovely vintage sewing and children's books and I have some new sewing e-books to review. All coming this week! 

Holiday clothes, sun, sea and sand

Sun, sea and sand are three words that  don't always sit happily together in the UK but this weekend was all of those.  I finished my Pochee tunic just in time (I won't mention the lace underdress/petticoat that I made but couldn't wear as it was too weird and needs more work)

A bit posey, this is more like it

The Anna Maria Horner Little Folks voile is I the nicest fabric I have ever sewn with.  It is soft and silky, cuts well, doesn't slip and is a pleasure to sew.  This pattern is Diamond Mine pattern in Sky.  It feels just as lovely on and was great for keeping lily white skin covered on the beach.  I buy Pochee magazine from ebay and etsy seller pomadour24.

We stayed at Challaborough bay which looks on to Burgh island.  The hotel there was made famous by Agatha Christie and is a beautiful Art Deco building.  As England were playing on Saturday night we had the beach to ourselves

Damian taught Lula how to skim stones

All of us restored, rested and home.

Pochee Progress

I finished my toile for the Pochee tunic.  It looks a bit like a ghostly one armed Victorian night dress but it does the job and the fit is good

The Little Folks voile is cut and ready and I have been tailor tacking to put all the marks for matching up and  sewing the tucks.  I will post a bit of video after this as a tailor tack tutorial- if I can work it out.  I'm using the Sewmamasew June make it wear it thing to give me a kick up the backside.  Pochee 9 arrived a couple of weeks ago and I've been meaning to post pics

There are even more things I want to make in here than in the other one

I have already cut put the pattern for this, I am going to make it from the lacey cotton table cloth I found a couple of weeks ago so it will be a petticoat dress to wear under the tunic, but there's more...

Definitely going to make this dress

The full skirt crosses over at the back like an apron or wraparound style

Too many to choose.

Essentials for Pattern Tracing

I have been doing a lot of tracing recently, I am making a bag alongside the tunic- I cannot work on one thing at a time, sometimes I feel my head will burst it is so full of what I want to do, the rest of me can't keep up.

The fabrics for this are cut and interfaced, almost ready to make.

Back to tracing.  I have found these tools to help:

Dura-bac board, a large folding grided cardboard mat, I picked this up years ago at the car boot but I sometimes see them in charity shops, great to put on the floor or a even a bed if you haven't a large table to spread out on.  You can also pin and cut fabric out and use it to layout quilt ideas.

The layout pad is great for pattern paper. You can get these at any art suppliers- look where the art students go. The pieces are small at A3 size but more manageable than a roll or big sheet, I tape them together as I go along.  You can see through the paper- ideal for tracing but a lot less slippy than greaseproof and tracing paper, also easier to rub out mistakes.  Talking of which, a propelling pencil keeps sharp and draws a steady removable line.

And a grader's set square is great for adding seam allowances- metric, all my quilting rules are in inches, no good for Japanese patterns.   It moves easily on the paper and the diagonal is great for bias binding.

Pochee Waistcoat

Finished!

I had no idea how hard it is to photograph yourself in a mirror.  All our mirror are car boot treasures with many imperfections.  When I cleaned them they looked smeary and it took me a while to work out - turn the flash off duh!  I did have doubts making a waistcoat, it is a borderline style item but I hope I'm on the right side of it.  My mum liked it and she is  a critical judge!  It was great to make an easy item just to get to grips with the instruction style.  I did make a toile (a faff but always worth doing before you cut into the good stuff) and it was massive so I took it in about 2 inched each side and altered the pattern.  This is made in a linen blend byFrench General for Moda - dream to sew with unlike 100% linen.

For the neck and armholes, I cut my own bias binding from an old Liberty skirt.  It is far easier to pin the fabric out flat, draw the diagonal lines for the binding using a graders square (big pattern cutters set square- invaluable tool) and a pencil and cut out with scissors than to use a quilting rule and a rotary cutter as the bias distorts so easily.

Thank you to commenter Lark who posted a great website ref  Japan Couture Addicts with lots of pics of Pochee and other Japanese pattern books and mags that other folks have made, handy for seeing if it will suit your size and shape.  There are also lots of translation lists and other helpful tips.  

How to ....Tracing Japanese Magazine Pochee patterns

I am just getting to grips with deciphering the instructions in Pochee Vol 7.  I am breaking myself in gently by making a waistcoat, mainly as an exercise in understanding the diagrams and pattern pieces   before I start one of the tunics.

This pattern is one size.  The other patterns are M or L and there is a box with measurements so you know which you are.  They are based on a relatively slender Japanese frame.  Height is 160cm for all sizes, I am 164cm so for other garments I may need to lengthen hems/ sleeves etc.   The magazine works in the traditional Japanese way which for a western reader means from back to front and the instructions and diagrams scan right to left.  The first pages show the main feature garments in the mag, beautifully styled and pics/info about the designers.  There are detailed colour photo instructions how to make of a basic version of the main design of that issue and some key techniques that feature in many of the designs.  The instructions are all together in the middle and the pattern pieces are on big fold out sections ready to be traced off.  At the back there are more pictures of garments.   The photos of garments you can sew will have a How To Make caption and a page ref which will take you to the right page for instructions, pattern layout etc. 

In the instructions  there is the page refernce for the photo of the garment in a shaded circle (top left).  you can see the shape of the pattern pieces in the layout diagram in the bottom left.  On the far right there is info about fabric quantities although this is easier to read in the layout picture.  There is also a number in square brackets, in this case [20]  which will identify the pattern pieces on the fold out section,  and a number preceding it, to identify which fold out section to use.   Each fold out section has a key printed on it:

Look for the fold out section with your number in square brackets e.g. [20] and the pattern pieces will be printed on that sheet.  you might have to look at it for a while to find it- there will be the number next to the pattern piece.  You can see it in pic below half way down the right edge.

I tape layout paper over the top secured with little bits of masking.  Japanese patterns have no seam allowances so you need to add these.  I added 1cm for shoulder and side seams.  Instructions for the size of other hems, seams etc are on the layout.

On the waistcoat pattern pieces there are numbers 2 and 3 in circles with a line pointing, these mean add 3cm or 2 cm when you trace the pattern on these sections.  Sorry if I am stating the obvious but sometimes you need to spell it out!

In the layout pic above there is also a diagram for cutting bias strips, 2 strips 4cm wide 29cm long for the waistcoat ties. Two strips 3cm wide 65cm long for arm hole binding and 2 strips 3cm long which will join together to make a 120cm strip for the long neck edge- I think that is right!

I will cut these out and assembly a toile version over the weekend.  I'll post more on this next week as I get to grips with it.