Tag Archives: Collins Top

Atelier Brunette Collins Top

Back in August, when it was still kind of warm (though some of October has been unseasonably warm!) I made another Collins Top by In The Folds. I really love this top, and the swingy shape of it. My first one was definitely one of the most comfortable things in my wardrobe when we had a heat wave! I might try the version with sleeves for Winter. Sadly because September went pretty cold, I haven’t worn this top yet apart from to take these rather blurry photos. But it will be waiting for my next Summer!

The fabric is some cotton from Atelier Brunette, from Sew Over It. They don’t still have it in stock, sadly. I had admired Atelier Brunette fabrics for quite a while, though they were always a little out of my budget. The I decided to have a little splurge a few months back and ordered either 1m or 1.5m, thinking I could squeeze a sleeveless top out of it for the Summer. I have to confess I was a little disappointed with the fabric, because it is a little see-through and not as soft as I had expected. Maybe it will soften with repeated washes and wears?

I used a yellow button from my stash and as with my first version, I made a rookie error. I was clipping a seam and cut through the stitches, making a little hole – perhaps this pattern is cursed, even though I love it?! I managed to sew the little hole up with some zig-zag stitches – the hole wasn’t as bad as the overlocker hole I made in my first version!

Love the high-low hem! Speaking of the hem, I just turned this one up, without using the bias tape method I did on my first one. It seemed to work fine, as this cotton has a little give, so there weren’t any massive puckers, as I had feared!

I can’t wait until next Summer so I can wear this top! Or maybe I should move somewhere warm!? Any suggestions? 😉

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August (& September) Makes and October Plans

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I’m back from my blogging break. Thank you to everyone who left me a message on my last post. It’s lovely to know there are people out there who are so nice and caring. Sorry I didn’t reply – I didn’t really know what to say.

I ended up not making much in September – I was working on an embroidery thing for my Aunt, who I made the meme cushion for and I wasn’t at home for quite a few days so I didn’t sew any clothes, but I did have some sewing fun at the Great British Sewing Bee Live and seeing the Balenciaga exhibition at the V & A museum – there will be full posts on each of these things (including my stash from the GBSB live!) coming up soon.

So my makes are from August. You’ve already seen the items that took up most of August – my outfit for the New Craft House Summer Party, including shoes! By the way, they’re throwing a Winter Party on December 9th. You should all definitely book tickets – I’ve already booked mine, to defend my ‘best outfit’ title! 😉

The only other thing I made was another Collins Top – I love my first one so much I made another over the bank holiday weekend……and then the weather went really cold so I haven’t worn it yet, boo!

And now onto my plans for October (and probably November too, to be honest!).

I really definitely want to make my 2 pairs of jeans, which I already have fabric for, made by the end of November. I want to make one pair in October, but I haven’t decided which pair yet.

I’ve had this coral Anderson Blouse cut out for a couple of months, and now it’s getting colder, I do need some more nice long sleeved tops for work, so this is first on my list to make – hopefully I’ll make it this weekend.

I bought this amazing mustard graphic jersey from Fabrics Galore a couple of months ago (they’re sadly out of stock, but they do have it in a grey colourway) and I’ve decided it might be perfect for an Ebony Dress – I’m not sure I’ve got enough, so if not it will probably be a Marianne Dress, with the long sleeves.

If you can’t tell, I’m craving snuggly jersey dresses now it’s getting colder. I got this stripey jersey, which is pretty thick, from What Katie Sews’s destash sale and I’m hoping there is enough to make an In The Folds Jersey Dress as I like my electric blue one so much. I might shorten it a bit, though, as it is pretty long!

The third dress on my list is the Sew Over It Nancy Dress out of this amazing crowd print viscose which I bought at the same time as the mustard jersey above. Fabrics Galore still have this one in stock!

My final plan for the next month or 2 is to at least cut out the Carolyn Pyjamas in this amazing boaty Liberty print fabric my friend gave me a few months ago. Now it’s getting cold, I find I want some lovely snuggly pyjamas – a lot of my ready to wear clothes, including pyjamas, are getting a bit worn out now but I’m reluctant to buy replacements, so I’m going to try to replace the things I still wear that I’ve bought with versions I’ve made.

The one thing I really absolutely must make is my suit refashion for the refashioners. This is my suit. It actually belonged to my dad – I asked my mum if I could have it a couple of months ago, and now it definitely feels more poignant to be refashioning one of my dad’s suits. I think I’ll ‘just’ make it into a suit that fits me as I don’t have one, and I figure I can wear the trousers and the jacket separately at work if I don’t want to be as smart as wearing a full suit!

What are your sewing plans for Autumn and are you joining in with the refashioners this year?

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Pink Stripey Collins Top

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This is definitely one of my favourite makes I’ve made in a while, and certainly one that fits me the best straight out of the packet. As I’m sure you know, I am lazy when it comes to fitting things, and I treated this as a sort of wearable toile – I basically always do that but then I never make any fit changes to the second version! But this fits me really well, and I like how it falls.

I made the size b and used some leftover fabric I’ve had for several years after making my first Banksia top out of it. It was from Goldhawk Road, probably one of the first times I went, if not the first time I went. It’s just a cotton, but it’s really soft. I thought I wasn’t going to have enough fabric, but given that this pattern was made for the stripes to go different ways, I managed to do some expert tetrissing (I know this isn’t a word, but it should be: v the act of squeezing a sewing pattern out of a tiny amount of fabric) and just squeezed it out. I did the version with the facing, which is in some cheap white polycotton I had in my stash. The only change I made to the pattern/instructions was to stitch the facing down to the side seams – I did this as top stitching right in the ditch of the seam line.

If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen that when I was overlocking a seam on this top, I was pulling it through to get a long enough tail to cut and stopped paying attention for a second, which led to me accidentally cutting part of one of the back shoulder pieces. Luckily I cut it along the same direction as the stripes and so I put an odd piece of white fabric behind it and zig-zagged it a few times to secure it. And now you can’t really see it – I think unless I pointed it out, you wouldn’t know it was there! It must be visible in the below photo, but I can’t see it, hurrah!

I wanted a close up of the stripes all going different ways, so here you go!

I think I might be pretty bad at gathering all the supplies I might need for a certain project – I always think about the fabric and, say, a zip for a dress or buttons for a shirt, but I rarely actually check the list of notions needed for a pattern, so when I got to the hemming stage of this make, that was the first time I realised I needed bias binding. I could have maybe done without, but luckily I had this baby pink stuff in my stash – it was literally the only bias binding I had and luckily it sort of matches! I think I might do bias hems more often as I like how it looks and it’s pretty easy!

I feel that with more of these makes I share, the less I have to say about them. I’ve got a few more of these kinds of quick projects, but I do have some ideas about some more involved projects, so then hopefully I would have a bit more to talk about! Jeans are definitely in this category and I want to make a coat (it’s one of my #2017MakeNine after all) and a bag, so they should keep me a bit busier.

I have already bought some more fabric to make another version of this, but given I’ve only managed to wear this one about twice because the weather has gone totally to pot in the last couple of weeks, I’m not sure how much wear I would get out of it. *sobs* I’m wondering about layering them over long-sleeved basic tops when it’s cold, though. What do you think? Would that look terrible? I feel like a white top with this one would look okay?

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July Makes and August Plans

June Makes and July Plans

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Well, another month has come and gone! I made a few things in June; after a quiet May, my sewjo definitely returned. I did spend a couple of weekend days cutting out lots of projects (as I like to do every couple of months) so I’ve got lots of things ready to go when I have time to sew. Yay! Future me will be happy with past me!

I mostly made 2 garments for myself in June, including my black Roberts Collection dungaree dress, which I still love.

The ‘mostly’ part of my finished garments is my greyish blueish melilot shirt. I’ve finished it apart from the buttons, because my sewing machine does not enjoy sewing button holes, meaning I don’t enjoy sewing button holes! I might get some snaps or something instead, as I’d have to buy buttons anyway. Any thoughts?

The final thing I finished this month was a penguin pyjama case for my nephew. After the success of the monkey one for my niece, I made another one!

And now onto my plans for July – these are all things I’ve already got cut out, yay!

The first is for when it gets hot again in the UK – though it’s actually been quite warm since the weekend, which is good! It’s a stripey In The Folds Collins Top. The fabric is left over from a banksia top I made years ago, and required some tetris to get all the pieces to fit. Luckily I wanted to have the stripes going in different directions, otherwise I definitely would not have had enough fabric!

I’ve cut out the lovely Robert Kaufman fabric I bought from Guthrie and Ghani in Birmingham into a Colette Aster blouse. I do have buttons for this one, so I’ll have to suck it up and sew the button holes.

My final definitely plan for this month is a Sew Over It Anderson Blouse from the amazing Coral crepe I bought, also from Guthrie and Ghani.

I actually have a week off later in July, so my main project for that week is to actually finally make a start on making Jeans. I have now pre-washed both my denims, so it should be all ready to go, though I haven’t traced the pattern yet!