Voila: Briar Top with Tiny Spots

Yay! So happy to show you my sewing today! Last week I had a little window for sewing (I’d traced the Briar Top Pattern - size S - the week before) and so I jumped quickly into cutting & sewing this Megan Neilsen Pattern...

If you look through any of my sewing creations from 2009, you’ll see how much I love sewing with knits! Peak Knit Sewing Year for me, 2009 when I sew-ed and sew-ed all the stretchy things. They are SO quick! And while I’ve never sewn this Briar Top pattern before… I just knew an hour of cutting and sewing would be enough and I was spot on with the estimate! LOVE a quick project.

So the Briar Top is definitely a popular pattern and I've seen SO many great results with it, but I only bought it last year after thinking about sewing with knits again … I’m a little stranded without my sewing books here in Shanghai (however maybe I gave the Sew U Stretch away? Can’t remember what’s in storage anymore!), so bought this pattern to try out for winter… and as always, the season passed quickly… so now it’s a springtime top.

The fabric is a Taobao purchase, and feels lovely and healthy cotton… the cotton I used to sew my Venus Bay Kimono has a synthetic mix and I get a bit hot while wearing it! This black cotton was a punt (ordering fabric on Chinese websites can absolutely be a gamble!) but it’s lovely!

Great to sew with, great width, so I got most of this top in under a metre of fabric… it was quick to cut and then SUPER quick to sew up. Thank you Meg for the best tip: IRON a lot… because the clean finish on knit tops (especially the neckline) is all in the pressing… I pressed every seam after overlocking. The hems were finished with my twin needle, and while aren’t exactly perfect (so many missed stitches on the right needle.. have no idea why?), it’s not that noticable. I didn’t stitch the neckline down just the armholes and hem.

I love the curves of the hemline! I definitely need to wear a top underneath, for it is short... but might be nice over a tight dress? I’m on a Megan Neilsen Pattern kick (my last sewn up skirt was the Brumby Skirt) at the moment, and will probably make another Briar Top … maybe even try a dress version next?

BUT, before I dash off, I’m so happy I finally found a friendly photography spot near my house. The sun came out yesterday and I was wearing the top for the second time - just in case the weather turned! I packed my tripod just in case, and turned around the corner behind my house into another apartment block’s garden… and voila! A lovely little spot where the sun came through at a lovely direction. AND amazingly, no one was around! In Shanghai there’s ALWAYS people around! SO happy!

But MAN! Now I have to find a remote control clicker for my camera, because it looks like I’m completely phone obsessed, but actually I’m trying to see the ‘shoot’ button on the screen! So daggy, but I’m happy to find a nice outfit spot in a nearby garden in case Husbie’s not around.

Voila: Pattern Testing Lilith & Eve LE201

My first sewn up thing to show you this year! And very unlike me, it’s a top... that’s woven! It’s also not my best effort but oh well, it’s wearable!

I saw online that Lilith & Eve needed pattern testers for their second pattern, released last month, and thought I’d volunteer… mainly because it’s a woven top, and I wanted to sew something like this for something different. I always sew stretch fabrics when I wear tops and t-shirts, I'm so boring! The Lilith & Eve patterns are pretty new, I don’t know much about them, but I like the idea that they offer two versions (a Lilith and an Eve one) of their patterns and had some time in November so volunteered to sew their second release LE201, a long maxi dress or a casual top, both with the raglan sleeve/neckline.

The positives for this top is all the Lilith & Eve design, it’s cute and relaxed. The pattern is really clear, and I didn’t have any major concerns with the pattern pieces, or the instructions. (The girls had sent me a paper pattern version, it’s lovely and large packaging, A4)

BUT, you’ll see it’s different than Eve’s version because I choose ridiculous cotton silk and anything with a curve was stretched out in the wrong way because of my cutting. The top version has a loose peplum (a petal skirt) and should be lovely instead of wonky like my hem. I dove into the project but a little gungho without really checking what I should be doing. The fabric market here is very vague with any silks, and I wanted more cotton so I wouldn’t stuff up but wanted it to be drapey as well… but oh well… next time I’ll definitely cut with one layer (instead of folding it) if I do use this kind of fabric.

Anyways, I like the rest of it, of course I didn’t iron it to wear out though as our iron broke before Christmas! Luckily Santa brought me a new one which hopefully will last a bit longer, hey!?

Notes & Summary:  
Pattern: LE201 by Lilith & Eve
Fabric: Completely unknown silk cotton with a floaty light drape. Purchased from 168 Dongmen Lu, near Zhongshan Dong Er Lu, 东门路168号，近中山东二路  
Size: Size 4  
While Sewing: Complete noob with this fabric, but you gotta try it sometime!  
Will I Wear It? Yes, I like it! I should probably have sewn the buttons on, but who's got the time to sit still over the festive season!?

It was FREEZING as you can see from the face expressions but really wanted to show you something I’ve sewn because I’ve gone a bit crafty lately and not really making any clothes… I have some patterns to print up (as usual with me now) so really wanna get some things for winter and springtime sewn before it’s summer!

Happy first week of January! And thanks so much for all your lovely comments on my last blog post! You’ll start to see some changes on my name here and there.. for did you know Veronica Darling is my sewing superhero nom de plume?!

Talk soon, xoxo

Voila: Pattern Testing the Daisy Chain Top

Being in Shanghai, on one income, our family has a modest budget. So I’m welcoming the time to sew & be a pattern tester on the odd occasion for the independent pattern designers around the world. Plus, I’ve always been thrifty! This week, the Daisy Chain Top 06 was launched by Debbie for her Lily Sage & Co pattern collection and last week I finished it up for a play date in the park!

It is just WONDERFUL and completely quick to sew up. When sewing kids things, I want a pattern than is super quick but is really good looking and this Daisy Chain top is that kind of style for me. I love the shape and if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember I tried this kind of hemline (with great wearability as I wear it ALL the time) a few years ago. Love it!

Debbie describes it as "a loose fitting, swingy, baby doll top that is perfect for Summer days. It has a fully covered, button up back, little sleeve ruffles, a flattering hi-lo bodice, and a gathered midriff skirt section.” I love the coverage it gives, for sun reasons and just aesthetically, I don’t really like spaghetti straps and halters on small children… covered up shoulders and back is great for everyday wear, and the breezy fit of this style means you can still keep cool.

The top comes in sizes 3-10 and for Elvy I tested the 4, but - oops - serged the wrong seam allowances and Debbie has since made it quite clear in the instruction it’s 13mm or 1/2 inch (and also includes both imperial and metric in her pattern notes which I find a great help because I tend to use both in my sewing for some reason). But I’m pleased with the fit.

I chose this cheapie Panda quilters cotton for my test because PANDAS are totally cute, but also Elvy looks good in charcoals and greys… she’s also a No Frills kinda child, so I made the version without the frill sleeves.

It was a dream to trace and sew, I love the shapes of all the pieces and I made the bias with my Chinese Taobao bias makers (all the colours here are super cheap, so I got them all) no trouble and I tried hard to stretch the bias tape around the curves because often I have problems with my bias… I should have used grey thread to topstitch but it still looks neat enough.

Everything went SUPER well including my BUTTONHOLES. I have not sewn buttonholes since maybe… this dress? It feels like five years, so I’m pleased my machine still can make them smoothly… I recall if you have the speed on fast they mess up more… and if you have thicker seams it has to go over behind the foot, it’ll get stuck as well. All of them were fine, and the only 4 matching buttons I had were these big ones, so they’re a little larger than the top perhaps calls for, but I like them.

So I have no idea how long it took to sew, but it was great in short little bursts of sewing (like the time I have these days around children and admin/life stuff) because it’s an easy project to pick up and put down. I hope to make more for other children, and can probably add a bit to the length of the skirt to make it a proper dress. I'd like to try some different fabrics too, I have some sort of rayon cotton (I think it is) that I'm sewing with today, and if there's leftovers I'll make up a Daisy Chain Top ... I reckon you could squeeze this into leftovers. I have 3 metres for an Anna dress, so probably won't need that much (I'm going to make a circle or half circle skirt for the International Anna Party!)... maybe!

Elvy is two years old and good friends now with my Felix (he’s 3 in September), and they’re a good match for personality and energy. Now they’re in little school together (a French run, English & Mandarin speaking kinder-type centre) they’re very fond of each other, and I’m happy because I quite adore Olivia, Elvy’s mum! Olivia is a photographer, and you can see her Shanghai blog (and she's part of the Shanghai Bloggers group too!) but find her photo collections here.

So cute!

The fabric came from the Dongmen Lu Fabric Market, but since I returned there last week, the whole shop is different. Plus the woman sold me some fabric with lots of imperfections - luckily this panda one is ok - so I don't really want to link to her shop! For testing this pattern, I am not under any obligation to blog by Lily Sage & Co and opinions here are entirely my own. Debbie gave me the pattern to test for free, and has sent through the updated version that you can now find in her shop. Happy Weekend to you guys! xoxo

Voila: A Deer and Doe Plantain

Last week, I posted my Holly Palazzo Pants and I'm wearing a Deer & Doe Plantain tshirt... yes... a tshirt pattern that is NOT a Built by Wendy one. Back in the day (2009-2011) I started sewing stretch fabric like the world would end and we needed supplies... it was so easy and fun and once I got the overlocker all was well... the Sew U Stretch Built by Wendy was my main inspiration and I used those patterns as blocks and created my own versions for dresses mostly for me and all my friends.

Lately, of course, I am in Shanghai without my usual supplies (no BBW books!)... but I actually think that's a good thing, because now I can try other patterns instead of the same ones... AND test what works for my current body shape... instead of attempting something that suited me 5 years ago. I have seen oodles of Plantain patterns made up, so considering it's a free pattern, it's a quick & cheap one to try. But it's not a cheaply put together pattern in my opinion!

The pattern is pdf, and as we don't have a printer at home, I waited a while for Husbie to grab it for me and it was a quick one to put together... but I think the work printer drags on one side as it was just out by 2 or 3 mm. So annoying! I'll have to find a place in Shanghai that prints, but maybe can print the full A1 or A2 or whatever as well. Other than that, I traced it to balance out the print and it's probably the best pattern in the world for knit tshirts... especially for the larger bust size as that scoopy neck is quite flattering.

This is my second version, because like Elena at Randomly Happy, I don't think you can stop at just one... I had a bunch of knit fabric to test out and I've made (at the time of writing) 4 versions already - one for my Housekeeper even, I'll show you soon! So this black knit is light, feels rough though and I think my knit guy said 'LINEN' but who knows... it's definitely stretch, and definitely slightly see through in parts. The fabric reminds me of a H&M top I got in LA which was lovely to wear, and that's why I kinda cut it differently along the hem... it's about a hand size shorter. My hand size!

The pattern is completely easy to follow, and a little similar to the Built by Wendy stretch way, but you sew both shoulder seams and then sew the neck binding together and attach... the sleeves are sewn in the flat, which I like the best anyways, and then the side seams all together. It's a great way to sew tshirts!

My changes for this version were to shorten the bodice, I folded the pattern pieces to shorten by about 5 inches, making the front piece a little shorter... and I also scooped the sleeve by about an inch... I did that in the pattern cutting as that's how I used to get a mock cap sleeve (or maybe it is a cap sleeve? I have no idea) when I did my Built by Wendy dresses. Back in the day, mate, back in the day.

So yeh, the top is completely casual, and I like the shape overall. It'll be great with my short shorts and I quite like it with the Holly Trousers. This fabric makes it floppier and MORE casual than the other versions I've made, but it is so comfy to wear. It *is* a little booby, which I don't mind... but if you're going for a looser fit, remember that with the scoopy neckline and I'll remember not to bend over in public.

Hope you're having a great week so far! I'm trying to toss up which dress pattern I'll sew up next, I'd like to try Sophia By Hand London - the full skirt version - but also I have the Kim By Hand London to try as well. It's raining so much this week in Shanghai - but super humid - so it's hard to feel like wearing fitted dresses. I'd really love something floppy... maybe a wrap dress? I like this Maria Denmark one!

15/31 Refashioned Tshirt for the Toddler

I made a little toddler tshirt from my Mum's hand me down tshirt:

A refashion!

Mum bought a couple of tshirts recently from Target, and this blue stripey one was just a smidge too small... knowing I'm on a sewing saga, she left it on my machine and I had to turn it into a little boys shirt. It's lovely soft cotton stretch, so I kept the sleeve length and BeeDee can wear it when it's super sunny, and it'll be cool to wear but cover his little porcelain skin from getting burnt!

I cut the side seams of the bodice and the sleeves, and the sleeves at the shoulders/under arm bits, and then lopped off about 2 inches of the shoulders and just graded down the underarm bits of the bodice. Using the overlocker, I did the shoulder seams first (a bit dodgy below, but not really noticable on the boy) then re-attached the sleeves at the armholes (I did grade them down a bit on the shoulder making it a more toddler length) and then I finished by sewing the sides together from bodice to sleeves. 

I used the original sleeve hem, but made my own (dodgy) bodice hem... don't you hate stripes when it's hard to keep the topstitch even steven? I DON'T REALLY CARE, actually! No one will ever look this closely at my baby's hem... plus he'll only wear it for this summer as children grow!

I LOVE speed sewing for kids, so easy! xoxo

8/31 A Floppy Longsleeved Top

It's hard to photograph a black knit top... without looking funny and angular.

So here's another selfdrafted pattern (this week it's been non stop DIY, man) that I used with the tshirt in the first photo here, because it's floppy and lovely in the warmer weather. I got some cotton knit stuff (maybe a Japanese fabric actually) from Spotlight recently, and just copied the neckline and the width from the grey tshirt, but I wanted arms... so this tshirt is pretty much a wide rectangle, with little holes for the armholes, but instead at the underarm/shoulder, I made them just above the elbow (as you can see in the awkward/angular photo above).

URGH, hard to explain, but I think you get me, right? In ode to Megan Nielson and all the Briar tops, I made it short at the front and long at the back. I'm sure Meg's pattern is far more gorgeous, but hey, this works for now!

Hooray. Those leggings are just too good, I wore them two days in a row!

Happy Sunday to you as well! We are catching up on a few things, I'm working a couple days in a row this week and then going on a HOLIDAY with my baby and mum! I'm excited but I have realised I should make a bunch of things so I can feel good in new clothes instead of daggy Mamalyf duds. I wore my blue dress last night to a Christmas party and it was AMAZING.

xoxo

Sew Weekly: Sports & Pink

Hey and good morning Monday early birds (if you're in Melbourne right now) or good evening night owls! The most recent Sew Weekly theme was pink, and I'm not too crash hot on pink as a colour. I don't HATE it, but I don't like a lot of it... on me. So here's what I came up with:

It's a sprinkle of pink! The 1970s polyester tshirt is a total remnant that I only had just enough fabric for (story of my life) and the leggings are from a pattern (that you can read about on the Sew Weekly post) and made from thrifted stretch knit (one day I'll learn what all these stretch knit things are, and what the difference is between them all!). I also don't like a lot of sport, so here's just a smidge of me "playing" tennis, but now that I have an oufit to wear, I'll surely go down to the courts all the time right. Right? RIGHT? One day.

Here's my most favourite photo from the courts:

Totally 70s and totally awesome. Do you see I have matching sweatbands. SWEATBANDS!

See ya and have a great start to the week gorgeous!

xoxo

Handstitching is a piece of cake*

* through gritted teeth, I write that.

I'm not a super fan of handstitching, and totally go for the machine each time. BUT, I made this short dress/long tshirt a while back, but the neckline kinda got pulled as I topstitched it, and it got weirder when I ironed i. So I wanted to stick a bow on it, to cover it up!

But, I couldn't find my needles anywhere, they were still packed somewhere in a missing box (after the move to Melbs!), so luckily over the weekend Husbie found the rogue sewing room box, and there I also found the good scissors! Phew!

I stitched the bow on today, but even though it looks cute, I'm still not 100 % in love with handstitching. B-O-R-I-N-G!

Thanks for your comments on yesterday's post! I think I'll get some good photos of the finished dress for you tomorrow! YAY

24/7 - Day Twenty Six - AKA Outfit #92

Oh, before I duck out, here's my little baby tshirt! Yay!

As I've been using those Built By Wendy Stretch patterns, I'm starting to get a feel of how tshirts go, and thought (now that I have a new 2 day old baby friend in Melbourne) I'd make her a tshirt for Outfit #92 of this fun time (but busy) challenge. I used the same material as this dress, cause of the softness and it's so light as well. Perfect for baby.


Perhaps I need to fix that hem up a little... but otherwise it's perfect, and it was MUCH easier to sew that I thought! I took the measurements from a vintage baby jumpsuit pattern I had (google was no help), so I'm not sure how it'll fit, but I did manage the scoop neckline ok, so hopefully it'll fit over her darling head.

But the best bit? My gathered sleeves, they are particularly girly, and so cute!


Ok, ducking off to op shop now! I did a LOT of work early today, and will spend a large chunk of my day tomorrow at work, so I got home at 10.30am, and have been pretending that I 'work from home' like a few of you lovely readers... And it's GREAT!

xoxo

24/7 - Day Seventeen - AKA Outfit #83

A while ago, I was on a Muumuu Collection phase:


Big mad patterns where my fave, and certainly lots of material in the muumuu was required. I still have a lot stashed away on my crafty shelf, so I pulled one of these out yesterday and studied it for yonks, and then decided I could make 2 things, so first up, the obvious:



A baggy beach throw mini dress. Well it's a mini on me, that's for sure, but it may be a long blouse on someone of normal size, or perhaps even a summery floaty maternity top.

I cut the frill off the dress, and reattached a thinner frill, that's it. But I'm not sure if I should leave the sleeves or gather them and put a band on them? Perhaps I should have taken a photo of me in it too, so it looks less mumsie.

Oh well! Anyways, it was an easy refashion for me, and now I'm up to 83/100 for my 100 Outfit Challenge! Woot!