Susan Khalje Couture Sewing School in Sydney

If you follow the Australian Sewing Guild or Tessuti Fabrics on Facebook you've probably already discovered that Susan Khalje is coming to Australia early next year to run sewing courses in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. And now that I'm safely booked in, I'm sharing it here in case you didn't already know!

Susan Khalje is a very well known sewing expert, particularly for her Classic French Jacket class which I've read lots about from various people who have attended her classes. I think it's a bit of a once in a lifetime experience to attend one of her classes, especially for us not located in the US.

On offer during her 2017 Australian Teaching School are the 7 day Classic French jacket sewing class, a 6 day Couture Sewing school, a 3 day Guipure Lace skirt class and a 2 day Couture Techniques class. The courses are pretty expensive, but I think hands on learning directly with the expert will be a priceless experience that you just can't replicate via on-line videos and books. Plus it's certainly cheaper than flying to the US!

I've enrolled into the French jacket sewing class and the 2 day couture techniques class which means that now I just have to purchase some suitable fabrics! There are so many inspiration photos out there, and I can't just decide whether I want to go with something classic like black and white, or something more colourful.

Since I'm making a classic French jacket I thought I'd buy something from the suppliers to Chanel: Linton Tweeds. I found some beautiful fabrics, but at 26 - 34 pounds per metre plus shipping (and the conversion rate) that is eye wateringly expensive for one garment so sadly I've ruled them out. But they are so pretty!

image via Linton Tweeds

image via Linton Tweeds

image via Linton Tweeds

And so the second part of my public service announcement post: Bewitch Fabrics in Leichhardt (Parramatta Road) is closing down and having a 50% off sale. I've never actually been inside their shop because I always assumed they only sold bridal fabrics based on what I could see in the window  as I chug past in the bus, but I have been told that they have a wide range of high end fabrics. And now I have a solid reason to go hunting - for a change I actually do need to buy some fabric and there's a sale, so it's a win-win situation. I shall report back when I'm successful!

August Burda of the Month: 8/2016 #113 lace dress

Being very late in making this month's Burda project has ironically worked out for the best - the Burda August is always full of summer clothes but that's in the middle of our winter which makes it hard to get enthused about making anything. But since the weather is warming up around here and I have a few Christmas parties coming up late next month it was very easy to pick out a project from this issue.

Burda describes this as a Couture Dress - pattern number 08/2016 #113 - but I think they're using the phrase 'couture' a bit liberally since there's little couture about the construction methods. Regardless, it's a great looking dress:

Image via Burda Style

This is a tall pattern and comes in size ranges 72 - 88. Burda tall sizes are designed for ladies that are 176cm or taller, which I am definitely not! But I am long waisted, which meantt the waist line of this pattern hit me in the right spot but I did reduce the skirt length by 18cm.

I did forget to alter the depth of the armscye though, and you can see that my dress sits quite low under my arms in comparison to the model's picture above. But it's not scandalously low, and I can still wear a strapless bra with this dress without it showing.

I decided not to make the belt that came with the pattern because it involves several layers of fabrics folded origami style and my fabric is quite spongy and would have been too thick to look any good. The fabric is a lace I bought from The Fabric Store a few years ago, which if I recall correctly is a Marc Jacobs fabric:

It has a small amount of stretch which was lucky for me since my dress turned out a bit on the snug side (might be time to retake my measurements after a slothful winter!). The fabric is a bit transparent though, which you can see when I hold the fabric up to the light - that's the seam line running down the middle:

So I decided to fully line this dress instead of just the bodice as required by the pattern. I used a very stretchy polyester knit for the lining which meant I could just sew the skirt as a tube rather than with the split. The wrap of this dress is very deep so it's unlikely to have a wardrobe malfunction, but with this lining there is no chance of accidentally flashing anything at all:

As usual, a fitted dress with a waist seam and darts suits my figure and I managed to get a very close fitting dress without any pooling at the small of my back (the stretch of the fabric helps with that as well).

I made a slight change to the construction at the back. I chose not to run the invisible zip right to the top of the neckband because I thought that trying to get the zipper head past the bulky neckband would be difficult. Instead I stopped it below the neckband and instead sewed on a button and elastic loop to hold the neckband together. It doesn't work so well, as you can see in the photo below the neckband doesn't sit very nicely together, but it will be covered by my hair so it's good enough for me:

Overall, I love this dress. It's a very simple silhouette, a bit sexy without showing too much skin at all and very easy to sew. If I make this again I would use a solid fabric because I love the look of the darts meeting in an inverted 'v' at the side seam, but that detail is lost in this busy fabric. And I'm also very pleased at finally using this fabric - it's another piece in my stash that I've been wanting to use for a very long time but the right pattern just didn't come along until now.

July Burda of the Month: 7/2016 #105 the cut out dress

After a cracking first half of the year with my Burda challenge, I've fallen a bit behind lately - I've only just finished the July project and nearly finished the August project. I am determined to get it back on track though, so it's all Burda around here at the moment.

The July issue landed in my letter box later than usual in July, and it was right in the middle of when I was making all those gold sequin jackets which took all my time and my enthusiasm for sewing. Before I knew it, the August issue then arrived, I was still making other things, the September issue arrived and I was officially behind. Better late than never though - here is my July project:

I picked 7/2016 #105, 'the cut out dress', which looked simple enough but trust me it caused many headaches. This is Burda's version:

images via Burda Style

In typical Burda style, the instructions are very sparse and not very helpful. Usually this isn't a problem for me because I know the order of construction and how to make most garments from experience, but the neckline treatment of the extra shoulder piece on the right shoulder really stumped me. On first reading, the instructions appear to tell you to cut the seam allowance off the right hand side. This is wrong - it turns out there is a little line on the right shoulder and it's the seam allowance for this that needs to be cut off.

Whilst I spent several days trying to figure this out and just getting annoyed, Shannon over at Frogs in a Bucket not only made a great version of this dress but also posted some very helpful instructions on how to make the neckline. If you're thinking of making this dress definitely check out her post because it will save you some tears of frustration! So I had to recut the back bodice piece because cutting off the seam allowance means there nothing to sew the neckline to, and using Shannon's instructions and photos I got through it.

Unfortunately I then tried to race through the rest of the dress, which coupled with sewing late at night meant a few more mistrakes before I was finished. The neckline strap needs to be sewn and turned out like a tube before you sew the rest of the neckline to the front and back bodices - if you don't you'll have to get out your trusty unpicker like I had to!

And then annoyingly my invisible zipper split in half after I had sewn it in perfectly matching the waist seams, which meant another journey to the fabric shop for a zipper (not that I'm complaining about that!) and more unpicking. After putting in the second zipper I realised the neckline was mismatched, so more unpicking and re-sewing:

But after all that, the rest of the dress came together quite easily because essentially it's just an a-line dress with that funny shoulder flap. Thanks to the waist seam with darts I managed to get a great fit in my swayback, and the side and back silhouette turned out well:

I do prefer how it looks with a belt though, it seems to break up the fabric better:

Speaking of the fabric, it's just a cotton sateen bought from Spotlight many years ago that I really liked. Being a sateen it wrinkles quite badly, but the print covers that up well and it was thick enough not worry about a lining. Hopefully the colours don't fade as much on this fabric as I've experienced on other cotton sateens from Spotlight - it's a bit hit and miss with their fabrics sometimes.

So after all the efforts to get this dress done I can't say it's one of my favourites. I like the idea of the neckline, but the neckline band sits very high and feels like it is choking me when I am sitting down. The shoulder piece also gapes open a bit even though the bottom part is stitched down to the bodice but it does remind me to stand with my shoulders back and not slump forward like I usually do.

If you're thinking about making this dress, then I highly recommend Shannon's post for more helpful instructions than you'll find in the Burda magazine and hopefully you'll avoid all the headaches this dress caused me.

Admitting to my mistakes - so you can avoid them!

Not everything I sew makes it onto the blog - I hardly think it's worthwhile sharing all the pyjama pants, t-shirts and track suit pants I make for myself and the kids because I have nothing meaningful to say about them and they're not glamourous enough for just a show and tell type post!

So the tops I'm about to share here almost fall into that category, except that I made a simple mistake on each that I mainly want to post here as a note to my future self, but it may help someone else avoid them too. Plus I'm keeping it real - even experienced sewers sometimes commit simple stuff ups so no one ought to feel bad about that all.

First up, a simple round neck top from Burda 2/2011 #106 which I've made many times before and is my go to pattern for long sleeve t-shirts:

This one is made from a light sweater type knit fabric that I wanted to be able to wear over other layers for warmth in winter so I needed it to be a little looser than the others I had made. Instead of thinking it through properly and slightly increasing the width of the body and sleeves I simply traced out a larger size and made that up. Well that meant the top is too large through the shoulders and the sleeve cap hangs off my shoulder:

I've left as is and happpily wear this top, but it does annoy me everytime I look at it. It's a common complaint I hear about some plus size patterns - that when pattern drafters grade up a pattern they increase all measurments equally, even though shoulder width doesn't usually increase as dramatically as say the bust between sizes. Note to future self - next time fix the pattern properly and don't look for the quick solution!

This fabric is awesome though - it's a polyester knit that I bought recently from The Remnant Warehouse (when I was there buying them out of gold sequin fabric), and the dots are actually flocked velvet. It's very tactile, and I do find that my kids like to touch it whenever I'm wearing it. They also had this fabric in a blue and a brown colourway that I had to restrain myself from buying since I only need so many polka dot tops after all.

Ok, onto the second mishap. In August we went skiing with a large group of friends, and given that I dislike both the cold and doing exercise I was a bit apprehensive. So I sort of went overboard buying warm thermals to wear under the ski gear and chunky wool jumpers to wear when not skiing. I also decided to make a high necked top to wear to make doubly sure that no cold air was going to sneak in my ski jacket when I was trying not to break bones on the ski slopes. Sue at Quilt Sew, Sew Sue had previously recommended Burda 9/2010 #121 (not available for download unfortunately) a while ago, and a quick google search revealed that loads of other people had made it too so I figured I couldn't go wrong.

It is a very simple, quick and easy top to make. Essentially it's just three pieces - the front, back and sleeves and the neckline is formed by cutting out an extra long neckline and then folding it over. My mistake with this one is that my fabric has very little stretch so it's very hard to get over my head (either that or my head is larger than the average German head!). This fabric is also wonderful though, despite the stretch. Another purchase from The Remnant Warehouse earlier in the year it's a French terry knit - one side is smooth and the inside is looped fibres. I've worn this a lot and it hasn't pilled at all yet. I only wish I bought more of it at the time, because sadly it's all gone now.

I find the neckline a bit annoying though - it's only sewn down at the side seams which means that the fabric at the front wants to roll up and it gets a bit bunchy. I overlocked the edge of the fabric hoping that would keep it flat, but I think I really need to stitch it down the whole way around.

The sleeves on this one are also really really long! In the Burda photo you can see it's meant to be worn scrunched up a little around the wrists, but because my fabric doesn't have enough stretch it doesn't stay like that. Note to future self: choose a stretchier knit and reduce the sleeve length.

The final project for this post is made from some beautiful wool fabric I bought from the Tomato fabric store when I was Tokyo this time last year. This was one of those fabrics that I really wanted to use but couldn't decide on the right pattern because I didn't want to waste it. Eventually I settled on Kwik Sew 3915, which is a simple top with a v-neckband that I've made once before:

Regrettably I only bought a single metre of this fabric (it was quite expensive and by that stage I had already bought a lot of fabric!), I had to change the neck band by reducing the width to remove those gathers and the fold over bit at the back of the neck . The v-neck point turned out perfectly, and in fact I like it better than the gathered version:

Unfortunately I didn't think about what changes the back of the neckline would also require. Now that it didn't need to turn over on itself outwards, I really should have angled the centre back seam so that it would sit snugly against my neck, and since I didn't the neckline sags open at the back:

I've been wearing this lots though despite this problem, and the easy fix is to wear my hair down so that it covers it! Note to future self - make this again, but change that centre back seam.

So there you have it - nothing major but I guess what annoys me the most about these is that they were easily avoidable. They are also easily fixed, but since that involves unpicking overlocked stitches on knit fabrics that won't be happening anytime soon!

Perfecting my pencil skirt: Burda 12/2013 #118

Making a new skirt is such a satisfying project because it's so quick to make and usually turns out pretty good (unlike my ongoing failure to make a decent fitting pair of pants!). However, there is always room for improvement so I keep on making further refinements in the quest for a perfect pencil skirt.

For this version, I've used Burda 12/2013 #118 which I made in a floral cotton fabric 2 years ago and is a good simple silhouette to start with:

I found the pattern to be more a straight shape and not as pegged as the pattern drawing suggests, so for this version I took it in quite a bit at the side seams to get a more fitted shape. I managed to get excellent pattern matching horizontally, but you can see the curved side seam vertically:

I also made the waistband slightly more curved than my previous version - the pattern has a straight waistband which doesn't work for my shape at all. The curve of the waistband is really noticeable on the front due to the houndstooth pattern of the fabric. It wasn't until I looked at these photos that I realise I should have cut the waistband the other way around, but I can live with this because that sort of detail is noticed by no one else!

The back view is ok, pattern matching along the zipper is not so great, and the darts interrupt the pattern as well but it fits well and that's what matters most. The changes I made to the original pattern were to put in a mitred vent at the skirt opening instead of just a split, and to finish the zipper below the waistband so that I could instead use a hook and bar on the waistband - I feel that is more sturdy that extending the invisible zip all the way to the top.

I've fully lined the skirt in a bemberg lining, although since this fabric is a very substantial woven cotton it probably would have been ok without it. I bought this fabric from The Fabric Store during one of their regular 40% off sales last year (or the year before? Time flies when you buy fabric for no particular project!) and the fabric is just lovely. One of those fabrics that I wish I bought more.

A pencil skirt isn't hugely exciting or ground breaking but it is a real staple of my work wardrobe - I've been wearing it with the white wool blazer I made last year during the cold weather in the last few weeks. That white blazer is one of the best things I've ever made, it's so versatile and gets worn so frequently.

Hooray for quick but effective projects I say!

Kwik Sew 3531: my new favourite tailored jacket

Kwik Sew patterns are the quiet achievers of the pattern world, in my humble opinion. Most of the pattern envelopes are rather dowdy, and apart from using photographs now instead of just drawings they haven't changed much over the years. But their drafting is solid, they offer the essential basics and every now and then one of their patterns will really catch my eye which is the case with this one. Behold my new favourite work jacket:

This is Kwik Sew 3531, an asymmetrical jacket in two lengths:

I chose to make the shorter length jacket mainly because I like cropped jackets but also because if you look at that photograph on the pattern envelope there are drag lines from the side seam down towards the centre front which I figure had something to do with the length.

The fabric is the real superstar of this project though - it's a vintage wool tweed piece I bought from the remnants table at the Remnant Warehouse earlier this year. The base colour is a beautiful peach shade, with flecks in varying colours. It sewed and pressed like a dream.

The jacket is rather boxy as there are no darts or shaping in the back. I was tempted to add a centre back seam so that I could do a sway back adjustment, but I figured that because the jacket is cropped it would still look ok, especially when worn with a well fitting pencil skirt:

The other feature I used is a vintage button I bought from an aptly named shop called Buttons Buttons Buttons down in The Rocks (a tourist district in Sydney) - I bought three of  them years ago for a failed project (another *cough cough* UFO) but I decided it looks better on this project. It really is the centrepiece of the jacket front, and acts like a brooch so I tend to keep my accessories with this jacket very simple. 

The other feature I really love about this pattern is the inseam buttonhole which you can see in the photograph above. It's such a neat finish and of course saves the stress of doing a neat buttonhole.

The pattern is for an unlined jacket, but I drafted a lining for mine as I really dislike jackets without linings. It's much easier to put them on if the inside is slippery, and I also lack the patience to do fancy seam finishes such as Hong Kong bindings. I found a perfect colour matching piece of China silk in my stash picked up from an opshop a long time ago, it was like it was waiting for this project it's so perfectly matched:

The only other change I made was with the button placement on the front. I chose the button placement when I was wearing the jacket and just where the fronts sat best - my buttons are a bit lower and more towards the centre than where they are indicated on the pattern. And looking at these photos I can see that I've put the outside button on the opposite side to the pattern, oops! I'm sure there's some convention about which side women's jackets are supposed to button up, but since I made this and no one else will be wearing it, it suits me just fine! 

Although my fabric has a weight suitable for a jacket, I used some iron on interfacing on the neckbands, facings, part of the fronts, upper back and sleeve heads for extra structure. 

So overall I can highly recommend this pattern if you're looking for a simple and easy to make jacket. Because there isn't a traditional notched collar needing traditional tailoring techniques such as pad stitching along a roll line or welt pockets it comes together very quickly. I've already worn this jacket several times to work since I made it a few weeks ago and I've received quite a few compliments on it - clearly a winner!

Completed UFO#4: possibly the last sewing blogger to make the Sewaholic Pendrell?

Some long time readers may be a little surprised at seeing me sew an indie pattern given I've barely disguised my disdain for the majority of indie patterns in the past. But this project was a long term UFO, and I didn't even buy this pattern in the first place so I can reassure you that I am not about to become an indie pattern fan girl anytime soon.

Back in 2013, a lovely reader (who in one of those isn't it a small world kind of coincidences lives close to where I grew up) sent me two Sewaholic patterns that she no longer wanted (hi Reona! thanks again!). I had plans to make the Cordova jacket immediately, but couldn't find a separating zip in a colour to match my chosen fabric and then I used that fabric for something else so as result I still haven't made that pattern.

But I thought I could make the Pendrell top pretty quickly - it's a simple enough pattern and a bajillion other sewers have made it and praised it highly. But I did not like it at all - I found the pattern as I originally made it quite frumpy, shapeless and frankly rather ridiculous with those sleeve caps:

Admittedly, a bright yellow colour probably didn't help but this fabric is lovely - a lightweight wool that drapes wonderfully and for some reason I'm really drawn to yellow. This fabric actually came from a maternity top I made back in 2008 that I couldn't bear to get rid of so I decided to refashion it into this top (hence the uneven hem in the photo above).

I really should have known better about those sleeves before I started making this pattern - I have narrow shoulders and prefer a neat and close fitting garment, anything too wide or fussy around the shoulders makes me feel like I'm wearing something too big. So I did what I normally do: unpicked half the seams, got annoyed and stuffed it into my UFO box to marinate until the time was right.

So the first fix was to those ridiculous puffy sleeves. I thought the top looked too plain without a sleeve, so I cut the original sleeves in half horizontally, keeping just two pleats. This way I kept a pleated cap sleeve but without the excess volume.

The second fix was to get a closer fit. I know everyone else seems to like their versions, but I seriously do not understand why a pattern would be designed with princess seams front and back but instead of using those seams to achieve a close fit it instead needs to be loose because there is no opening in it. It may as well as been a single piece for the front and back with a few bust darts instead. Rant over - I know I prefer a closer fit than some other people do.

So I cut the top open along the centre back and inserted an invisible zip. I had a perfectly colour matched zip in my stash but it was a bit too short, so I left a sort of keyhole opening at the neckline above the zipper to make it work. I think it looks deliberate and I quite like it actually:

And now that I had an opening in the back, I then took in each of the side seams and princess seams gradually until I got the closer fit that I was after. I didn't make it too tight though because this fabric has no stretch and obviously I still needed to move in it.

So after all that work am I happy with it? Mostly, but it's not my favourite. I'm not a fan of using bias bindings at the neckline, I think a facing is a neater finish. I also have lots of other closely fitting shell tops that I wear repeatedly but I do like the yellow with black and white and grey outfits so it will definitely get worn. And that's another UFO out of the box and into my wardrobe!