Tag Archives: Fabric Godmother

Traveller Coat for Winter?

Now that the weather is finally getting warmer, I thought what a good time to share my new Winter coat I made back in February!

I knew I wanted to make a new coat this year as my beloved Honetone coat was really starting to wear out. It was made from pretty cheap fabric from one of the Sew Brum meet ups and there were a couple of things that I didn’t love about it in the end (apart from literal holes in the fabric), like a lack of a full collar – it had lapels but no collar. And the lapels never sat quite right but I’ve learnt more about how to make this happen that I knew then so I was hopeful I could do a good job this time, and get a nice finish!

Also using 100% wool fabric helps with pressing – synthetics do not press as nicely in my experience. The fabric – the wool and the lining – were from Fabric Godmother. I have never been disappointed with the quality of their fabric and since this was a sizeable investment in time, as well as money, I didn’t want to cut any corners.

I used the Bella Loves Patterns Traveller Coat pattern as it had the masculine details and vibe I was looking for in my new coat. It was soooo many pages so I went the extra mile and got it printed at Netprinter (which I think I saw was now closing?!). There are 2 heights for the pattern and since I’m 5’3″ I made the one drafted for exactly my height! I made the size 8 with no fitting changes – since it has a dropped shoulder, I thought that would remove the main place it might look wrong if it didn’t fit properly. Obviously this was a risk since the fabric was expensive and I didn’t want to mess it up.

The pattern calls for a lot of interfacing and I just went for the iron-on style for ease of use and ease of getting hold of it. To help the lapels lay back nicely, I ironed on the interfacing with the lapels in the position they sit in when worn – it was a bit of a head-scratcher to figure out which way that was! I saw this in a Bernadette Banner video from an expert tailor – they talked about holding the fabric in the way you want it to lay when you do pad stitching to attach the interfacing.

Sewing the whole coat from start to finish did take a good while – which was what I wanted to do. This isn’t a quick sew! I started it in January (when I finally got the guts to cut into the fabric) and finished it in February, during a week I had off from work to use up my annual leave. It was nice to spend a good chunk of time working through all the steps.

The pattern calls for quite a bit of top-stitching which helped the fabric to sit flat, since it was quite bulky and spongy in places without it.

I decided to go for a bright yellow contrast lining – because why not! I actually quite enjoy the flash of yellow in the vent as I walk. Speaking of the vent, that was the part of the pattern that was the trickiest for me to understand – I think I was overthinking it. When I actually started to do the steps, it finally started to make sense!

I’m not going to lie, I’m really proud of my coat. I’m glad I invested in good quality fabric and took the time to do everything carefully and I hope it will last me a good few years. I have a bit of each of the fabrics left so hopefully I can do some repairs in the future if I need to. I also feel really cool wearing it. Although I love the warm weather we’re finally getting, I’m also a bit sad that I won’t be able to wear it for a while until it gets cold.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the details on the shoulders and the belt. I really love the epaulettes(?) on the shoulders – I like the little loops they sit through, the buttons, everything!

What’s the most involved garment you’ve ever made? Sometimes it’s nice to take extra time to make something really well finished I think. Obviously quick makes are fun, but slow ones are fun in a different way.

Navy Blue Stretch Dawn Jeans

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This is my final pair of lockdown jeans, so if you’re sick of hearing about jeans, you get a reprieve now! This is another pair of Dawn Jeans – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I don’t see that I’ll really ever need another jeans pattern.

I made the size 4, as with all my other pairs, and took a wedge out of the back seam of 2cm as I have with all the other pairs. I took them in on the thighs, like with the black pair, but I left them a bit looser on the lower legs to make sure I could get them on and off!

The fabric was also from Fabric Godmother but when I pre-washed it there were loads of streaks on the denim – maybe where it had got folded up in the washing machine. I washed the fabric when I bought it a couple of years ago so I was worried it was from sitting in my stash that it had the marks. I washed it again just before cutting the jeans out and the marks were still there unfortunately. But when I’m wearing them I don’t think it’s super super obvious.

As with the black pair I decided to do matching top-stitching instead of contrasting jeans top-stitching as I’ve had various pairs of skinny navy trousers over the years which don’t look like jeans so I kinds of recreated those.

I really do prefer how the dawn jeans look with a zip fly instead of a button fly as they sit more flush and don’t have the gaping issue, even though these are pretty tight! Though the denim has a nice amount of stretch so these are really comfortable to wear.

You can kind of see the streaks in this photo – pale marks on the fabric. You can’t see them from a distance and I honestly don’t notice them when I’m wearing them, so it doesn’t really bother me.

The stretch in the denim means that these jeans, while they look really tight, are still comfortable to sit in! I find my ginger jeans aren’t as comfortable to sit in and they put pressure on my knees a bit to sit in – but these don’t have that problem! Hurray!

I’m still on furlough from my job in a bookshop and I expect to be until the end of the scheme – it remains to be seen if I lose my job at that point! I spent the first few months of lockdown sewing all the things I planned for my wardrobe for years (and I have a few projects still to share) but I’ve kind of run out of steam for sewing for a while! I think I did a year’s worth of sewing in 3 1/2 months so it’s not really a surprise, though I have sewn a couple of things recently – and remembered how much I really do like sewing! Maybe now is finally the time to make my first quilt since my wardrobe is pretty much set for a good while now!

A Pair of Archers

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Ooooh, something new and different for me – more sshirts! And you’ll be pleased to know I’m making more shirts while I’m stuck at home!

These are yet more Archer shirts. I’ve made a few archers in my time (1, 2, 3) and the little alterations I made on the 3rd one make these fit pretty well.

The fabric is a lovely, soft cotton linen mix from Fabric Godmother. I bought it with the voucher my friends at my old job bought me…..back in June!

In my defence, I did make these back in September. I’ve worn them quite a lot since they were finished. Especially as I work in a bookshop which has to have the doors open so during the Winter I was wearing 6-8 layers to keep warm. Shirts are definitely a good layering piece!

I decided to just put one pocket on each shirt, and I changed the direction of the stripes for a bit of interest. I like how it looks – and I couldn’t be bothered to stripe match the pockets so this is a good way of avoiding some pattern matching!

I think these will be great shirts for when the weather is warmer (it has to warm up eventually, right?!). I’m picturing them with the sleeves rolled up, with jeans and sandals. I might be dreaming a lot of warmer weather as this Winter seems to have been going on FOREVER!

I still really like making shirts – the top-stitching is so satisfying! As I mentioned I’ve got a couple more I’m sewing at the moment but then I should probably pause on shirt-making as there are only so many shirts one person needs……while only having one pair of jeans!

Do you like making shirts? Do you have a favourite shirt pattern? I think mine is between the Archer and the Kalle.

Jungle Print Laurel Dress

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I’ve made another Laurel Dress and I love, love, love it! This is also my second completed make from my Summer plans! I made this pattern twice before (1, 2), not long after I started sewing my own clothes but I made them too small. I still wore them around the time I made them because I’d made them and I was proud, but once I discovered more comfortable patterns they soon got neglected and I gave them to a charity shop a few months ago. I made the mistake (I think) of choosing the size closest to my bust measurement, when I know my chest is small so I should choose based on my waist/hip measurement if I want a thing to actually fit, and do an sba if necessary. I previously made the size zero (bust 33, waist 25, hip 35) and this time I made the size 4 (bust 35, waist 27, hips 37) and it’s so comfortable, but still looks like it’s the right size across my shoulders – it was the sleeves and armholes that were particularly snug the last time. For reference my measurements are: bust 32, waist 27, hips 37.

The fabric is some gorgeous cotton lawn from Fabric Godmother, which is sadly now out of stock. I didn’t really realise that cotton lawns are thinner than cottons so this dress is quite thin, but I think layered with tights, a vest and a cardigan, it will work for the colder weather. But it’s also a good dress for this warm weather we’ve been having!

I added in-seam pockets because I was going to add the patch pockets but I couldn’t really face pattern matching the fabric, so I went for the hidden option! I also made no attempt to pattern match across the back – I figured it’s a large enough design to get away with no matching.

I made version 3, which has the ruffles on the sleeves. This pattern is pretty old so I’m amazed it has this option included, since ruffled sleeves have been a trend for a couple of years now! The ruffles are really easy to add, in case anyone is wanting to try it. You could also easily add ruffles to another pattern – it’s just a rectangle gathered into the end of the sleeve. For this pattern there are 2 rectangles for each ruffle which are stitched together to hide the wrong side of the fabric on the inside of the sleeve.

I will say this dress does come out quite short – though it doesn’t look like it in these photos because the camera is looking a little down on me. I’m 5’3″ and it’s above the knee on me so if you’re tall you might need to lengthen it a bit so you don’t end up with a tunic instead of a dress!

I think, as with the Inari becoming my go-to tee/tee dress pattern, I think the Laurel could become my go-to shift dress pattern now I’ve made it in a size that fits and is comfortable. Though I do have the Carnaby Dress cut out and ready to make, so maybe I’ll have 2 shift dress patterns!

I think I was running out of enthusiasm for posing at this point?!

Have you made the Laurel Dress? Or rediscovered a pattern that didn’t work when you made it before but now it’s a favourite? I feel like I might revisit some other patterns I’d written off because they were uncomfortable and see if I made the same mistake with the sizing as I did with the Laurel!

Brushstrokes Scuba Ebony Dress

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This might be a record – I finished my first Make Nine pattern in January! And I love it. As you will have seen from my makes for January post you’ll know I’ve actually already made 2 Ebony dresses, both from amazing scubas.

The scuba fabric was from Fabric Godmother and it is possibly the most expensive fabric I’ve bought, but I had to have it! I think the design was available in cotton or another fabric and I thought about getting it. wondering what I would make – then it was available as a scuba and I snapped some up on pay day a couple of months ago. Since Heather Lou made her Ebony in scuba, I couldn’t get the idea of a copy-cat out of my head. And I’m so pleased with the result!

The pattern is the Ebony tee and dress by Closet Case Patterns and is designed really for drapey knits, probably in a lighter weight, but I Think it works in scuba too, as you get more of an idea of the swingy shape.

I made the size 2 because I figured basing the size on my bust measurement would be fine, as it gets wider as it goes down the body. But I know from other patterns that generally my waist and hip measurements (27″ and 37″ respectively) are a size or two bigger than my bust size (32″) so I maybe should have gone more on the waist and hips size as the sleeves were waaaay too tight and pulled a bit across the shoulders.

Luckily I had sewn the dress on my sewing machine, and then neatened the seams with my overlocker, rather than sewing (and trimming) the whole thing on my overlocker. I generally do this anyway, but particularly when I haven’t made a pattern before. Having tried to unpick overlocked seams I like to stitch with my normal sewing machine – and a zig-zag stitch – first so when I inevitably make a mistake, it’s not such a ball-ache (or such a waste of thread) to fix it. This is a very long way of saying I reduced the seam allowance on the sleeves and under the arms (the sleeve seam and side seam are sewn in one go so making adjustments is comparatively easy) to 0.5cm instead of the 1cm included in the pattern. I think probably if I had used a drapey, stretchy knit as the pattern demands, I wouldn’t have had to make this adjustment, but since scuba isn’t as stretchy (kind of like a ponte) it did feel really restrictive.

I would definitely recommend this pattern if you like swingy dresses and it’s a great pattern to show of a fairly large-scale print as the pieces are so big and there aren’t any darts or anything to break it up.

Handily the thread I used for the twin needle top-stitching was the left over thread from the 2 mini chestnuts I made for my friend’s daughter. I got the fear about making 2 so bought 2 spools of thread and barely used one. But luckily it meant I had 2 spools ready to go for the twin needling!

There isn’t a huge amount more for me to say about this dress, except I love it. And I love the pattern. I might give the other versions a go – once I finally get around to making some high-waisted Ginger jeans, the cropped version might be a perfect pairing for them.

Have you sewn with scuba? I was a little scared but it’s really easy to work with as it’s like any other stable knit. Do you love Heather Lou and Closet Case patterns as much as I (and the Love To Sew Podcast!) do?