I suppose that I’m either lucky or stupid but I don’t have a fear of zips, and never have. Practically the first thing I made was a cushion cover with a zip. I didn’t know that it was supposed to difficult and therefore it wasn’t – well, eventually. The method that I ended up with for cushions is very similar to the one for inserting the zip for the Sophia, and so step 8 was one I was looking forward to.

The secret with zips is all about stability. They have a habit of flopping about all over like fish gasping for breath, and even when you pin it down everything still moves – the fabric gapes, the zip slips, and before you know it you’ve been pinning and re-pinning for several hours and feel no closer to actually putting your foot down.

The biggest hand you can give yourself is to baste the two pieces of fabric together to create a seam, whenever possible: a zip is simply a seam that opens after all. You can then easily centre the zip onto the seam and pin it in place. Then crucially, you hand baste it in place. I’ve tried doing without, but believe me there is no short cut to hand basting for the neatest possible result, plus it has the added bonus of producing the least swearing from the sewing room…

Where the Butler method differs is in dealing with the zip tab, and I think I’ll adopt this wherever possible. Instead of keeping the fabric in the machine, and lifting the foot to tease the tab out of the way, she advises that you take it out, remove some of the seam basting and move the zip tab. Then onto take two – finish off the top end of the zip, easily and without tears.

All that’s left is to open up the basting, tidy up and admire your perfect zip. Now, if only the rest of it would go so easily…

I must confess that lately my sewing mojo has left me, which is partly why this bag is taking so long. I don’t know why, but I haven’t been truly inspired to sit down and cut, sew and play. Does this happen to everyone? I hope it comes back soon.

And if you were wondering about the cats, and I’m sure you’ve done little else, they are getting on better, although the very early morning chase growl hiss is still going on, so I’m still not sleeping well. I invested in a Feliway diffuser which arrived yesterday and there’s been rapid progress to include a bit of head rubbing, so if you do intend to introduce a new kitten to an older cat I’d recommend investing in it before you bring the kitten back.

And now, because it’s late and I’m tired, I’m going to sit back and watch my favourite movie about writing, Wonder Boys, adapted perfectly from the book of the same name.

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Or piping hell? Pinning it to the main panel was fairly straightforward, although I could tell that it didn’t much like the curves. The pattern tells you to trim the excess before you sew, but I wasn’t sure this was the best idea, especially considering my use of non biased casing for the cord, so I left it dangling and only cut when I’d finished sewing.

And into the machine we go. The trick with attaching the piping is to sew to the left of the original line you made when you made the piping. This may well be the moment where you find yourself wishing you’d made it perhaps a couple of millimetres to the right. But take a deep breath and squeeze it round. Because the piece is mostly curved, I took it fairly slowly and tried not to rush.

There are a few wobbles here that I could be happier with, but then I’m not very happy with the fact that my fabric is so off centre. I am pleased with the way the piping looks againts to fabric though, so next time I’ll definitely contrast texture as well as colour for the piping.

And then the bottom panel. With corners. Now if only I’d read the instructions instead of just looking at the picture. Do not do as I did, and pin the piping all the way round, like the picture above. It made my life just that bit harder, and my corners more rounded. Instead, according to the written instructions you should sew the piping up to half an inch from the end and only then clip and turn the corner.

It’s done, and it’s ok, but it’s certainly not as neat as I’d like. That’s probably a combination of my fabric choices and my increasing frustration at the same. Lessons to learn, self: don’t sew with a heavy heart. It is what it is, and you never know how it will turn out in the end.

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Yes, according to the pattern that’s where we are. Step five is simply sewing the handles together, so I’ve saved you the photos of me squinting over my sewing machine.

Step 6 is attaching them to the main panel. And it’s here I realise that my centering wasn’t quite as accurate as I thought, so the handles will be slightly off. Never mind – this is exactly the reason I’m making myself one of these first. (Amazing what defects I will put up with when it’s for me.) The other thing is that, although I love this velvet, with the fleece and interfacing on the back, plus the folded over handles, it’s getting a bit bulky, and needs a bit of a shove to get it moving. I think next time a home dec weight will be easier to work with, especially considering the limits of my machine.

Isn’t it amazing what a bit of sewing can do? All I’ve done is attach the handles and sew this strengthening cross and suddenly I can see how the bag will be when it’s finished.

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After a Saturday full of London boats, and food at Wagamama and going to see No Country for Old Men, Sunday turned itself into a perfect crafting day.

On the Sophia bag I only had to do the final preparations of the fabric – I bet you can’t wait for something to actually happen.

Everything went smoothly, until I began to attach the fleece. You might remember that I only have double-sided fusible fleece, and I decided it was worth trying a tip from Lova, who used a sheet of paper to shield the other sticky side. It would have been nice not to have to cut more interfacing, but sadly half of the fleece came away when I pulled back the paper, firmly welded to its surface. Back to the interfacing then…

Then all I had left to do was a little bit of trimming – I’m never particular about cutting my interfacing straight, so it makes the sewing easier if I trim now. Finally I’m ready to sew…

And after that I had to put it down to make a different bag for my mum – no photos since it still gets dark at 4.30pm – because I’m off on a day trip to see her on Tuesday. Wooo! Train ride! All by myself! I’m so looking forward to it – seven hours of nothing to do but sit down and read books…

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All the work for the week is finished (hoorah!) and I can get back to being my usual aimless flit from this to that. I think I always have been an aimless flit, which is probably why I have so many wips in a special box in my cupboard.

In an effort to not add this I decided to cut the lining before my dinner guests arrive (I guess I should really be cooking…). I’ve been bothered ever since I saw on the pattern that it need more fabric than the exterior – 1 and 5/8 yd – and seeing how much fabric I had left over from that I was feeling fairly sceptical that the bag would turn out to be a tardis.

But first things first, I had a read through about the pockets and how to attach them to the lining, and it seems like a very good idea to do the pockets in a contrasting fabric to add a bit of life to the inside. I had a little look through my stash and came up with something perfect:

I only had half a yard of the damask pattern, which came from Purl. It’s by Anna Griffin for Windham, part of the ‘Dorothy’ line and it’s for sale here, or if you want something similar from the UK Lisa has a nice damask here. I’m such a fan of this kind of pattern at the moment. Anyhoo –

This is all I had left from my half yard after I’d cut the four pocket panels. I considered briefly making the false bottom cover out of it, but I think there might be enough here for a little cosmetic bag or purse so I’ve set it aside. Like I’ve set aside a hundred other small scraps and just get them out to gaze at.

The main part of the lining is all in unbleached cotton, which I always seem to have stacks of. In the interests of my experiment I measured the length of the bit I used and it came out at 57”, which my dodgy maths makes just over 1.5 yards.

And this, dear readers, is what I was left with:

Helpfully sat on by Miss Charlie, and no – not a sign of David Tennant. The bit that was completely untouched at the end measured just over 18”, and I think there’s certainly enough room to squeeze the pocket panels on.

Which means that you could more than likely do the lining out of a yard if you’re clever with your placement, but perhaps add an extra quarter or eighth if you want to be safe. Of course you’ll need more if you’re doing pattern matching but if the fabric is plain there’s little point in having an extra half yard floating around.

And for us Europeans who buy in metres I think a metre will suffice, given the extra 9cm we get versus the yard.

Naturally, ignoring the suggested layout is a personal choice, and if you want to follow the pattern then by all means don’t heed my penny pinching ways in the slightest.

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(Easy access to the project here: Sophia Carry All)

Following on from Lisa’s post about designing bags, I thought I’d follow my own particular process of making a bag from a commercial pattern, just to see what I learn.

The very first bag I tried to make was a self-drafted pattern, for a messenger bag that could hold A4 (this is something of a theme with me) and although it was good it wasn’t great. I’ve self drafted other bags since, and recently I’ve decided that I’d like to try to make another messenger, but with the benefit of actually having some bag-making experience. This Sophia bag is something I want to make for myself (for a change :) so here we go.

First things first: trace out the pattern pieces and cut them out. I think it’s good practice not to cut your original pattern: should your scissors or cutter ever slip or slide while you’re cutting then you won’t ruin the original pattern piece. Tracing tissue is cheap – patterns are not.

And here they are, all seven of them:

You’ll notice that most of them are simply rectangles or squares. This is why I love La Butler – she makes the construction and cutting out as simple as possible. Remember to mark onto your pieces which ones they are!

Next the trusty notebook: I make my own notes for all the bags I make, including my own designs, in this here notebook. That way any problems I come across won’t be problems the next time. As long as I remember to read the book. This is where I make a list of what I need to cut out of each material. I’m just doing the exterior fabric tonight so let’s begin with the main panel.

My problem is that the fabric is a lovely velvet from Moda. When it’s wrong side up you can’t see through it, but I want to centre my main panel on one of the floral patterns. Solution: take a long ruler or yardstick and line up one edge along the vertical line you want for the centre of the main panel.

Fold the fabric over the ruler and pin in place. Slide the ruler out carefully and pin on the pattern piece. Cut out and –

Ta da! Now repeat for the second panel.

What you might or might not have realised is that I am completely ignoring the suggested layout given in the pattern. There are two reasons. Firstly – thrift: when I made the Madison Bag I found I had a lot of fabric left over, but because I’d followed the layout a good swathe of it wasn’t large enough to do anything else with. Secondly – the self-bias: the pattern calls for making self-fabric bias strips to encase the cording. I am not convinced that this is the right solution with this fabric, so if I do decide not to use the remainder for the strips I’ll have enough left over in a large enough piece to do something with.

This is why, after checking the fabric over, I found that I had two nice pieces for the end panels from the fabric in between the gaps left by the main panels, which wouldn’t have found a use otherwise.

And so to the rest of the pieces, which are all cut on the fold. The pieces that will make the biggest inroad into your fabric are the handles. I turned the fabric around so that I was still using the same side I’d been cutting from. Cutting close to this top edge means that I keep more fabric ‘whole’. I work down the folded edge of the fabric withe each piece, using the bottom edge of one as the top edge of the next. This saves time (excellent, because I’m lazy) and also fabric (ditto, but because I’m thrifty).

And this is what I’m left with: lots of spare fabric. I think that if you are not going to need to make the bias you can definitely get away with a single yard. Sometimes bag making for me is making the most of what I’ve got, and then saving some for later.

So that’s the exterior fabric – now there’s just a mountain of interfacing, fleece and lining to do…

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Ah, my bialetti. Sweet little pot of darkest brown liquid joy. I think I can do anything as long as I have coffee. Back in the summer my friend gave me an old Krups espresso machine and it became something of a morning ritual to heat up the milk, fill up the tank and have lovely espresso punched out into a cup in mere seconds. Then it broke and so did my heart. I’ve had to use the stove top pot ever since but it’s not quite the same, nor, crucially, as fast.

But it doesn’t matter so much when it’s Sunday. I cranked myself out of bed this morning and set to with my cutting implements until i had this lovely pile of stuff. Fabric and interlinings ahoy, enough for three Tinas. (That’s the name of the bag I’m making, and also my friend, and yes the two are connected. Her mum is Finnish and chose the name Tina because apparently in Finland it’s a very classy name, but she says that she hadn’t realised that in England it’s a name only given to ‘barmaids and dogs’. Not a classification I would have made but Tina’s mum is very decided about it. I’ve digressed.)

Strangely, although I hate the cutting out, I love the ironing part, and I detest ironing at all other times. It was when I realised that you can do an awful lot of your sewing with the iron and make things sooo much easier for yourself with some sharp creases that it began to become pleasurable, so today I took a good couple of hours over it. Nothing to do with the fact that I had put Northanger Abbey on the TV while I did it. No, nothing to do with that.

Which leads us to this. Which is a wip. And it’s been so long since this place had a wip you must have decided that I did not intend to have one ever again. But there it is. Shell complete, tab complete, clippy line complete, pocket almost there. I decided to stop at this point because I was tired and if I try to put it together when I’m tired the seam ripper becomes my best friend, and that would have been altogether too much for a Sunday evening. So it’s to bed with me and back to this in the morning. Nice to have the old girl humming along at last.

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It sounds like a call to arms, doesn’t it? Batiste! For England and St George!

I’ve found some on ebay. It might not be authentic batiste proper, but it is a cotton and linen mix, which I imagine will feel nice against the skin. The description says it is almost transparent and suitable for ‘re-enactment’. I don’t think I am re-enacting anything, just enacting. Is that a real word?

It’s coming from Germany, plus I have to email and request the amount I want, wait for a price, then paypal it, so I think I’ll have to wait until next week before I can show you. In the meantime if any of you have decided to join me in this foolish quest you can find your batiste from Diana’s Fabrics

And now I can turn my attention to the fabric of the main dress. I want something heavy-ish I think, so that it hangs well. That’s as far as I’ve got to be honest, because I’ve started to worry about what on earth I’m going to do with my bosoms. Will a bra show? Will I need to make stays?

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Coo! I had no idea i would get such positive reactions to my plan to play dress up – thank you! I feel so much better. I don’t feel any more sane, but I am more than happy to be slightly mad.

I spent some time last night going over the pattern envelope and reading the construction instructions. This view, with the overlay, is rather sweet, but has one huge flaw: button fastenings. Buttons I can do, but the corresponding holes are a great hole in my sewing repertoire. I simply cannot get them right, and I am not enough of a seamstress to be fiddling with the pattern. Naturally I blame my machine. So that is one thing against it. Another is the overlay itself, which, while lovely, no doubt needs to be made in some kind of floaty light fabric which will cause me untold nightmares. Finally, it has short sleeves: it’s winter, and I don’t want to ruin the look by having to resort to my sweatshirt.

So to view B. Numerous things in its favour: long sleeves, a drawstring fastening, can be made out of something sturdy and robust. It’s also got a sash – how can I not? But on reading through the requirements I found that in addition to the metres and metres of fabric it also needs almost 3 metres of batiste for the lining of the skirt. What on earth is batiste?

Well, apparently it’s a dry shampoo, which is what most of my search results came back with. But it is also ‘the softest of the lightweight opaque fabrics’, according to Wikipedia’s Batiste entry. Presumably this is the kind of fabric that was once freely available for undergarments, slips and linings, but I’ve never seen it anywhere. So I continued my internet search to find a stockist.

I found hankerchiefs, a christian doll in a nightdress, a roller blind with jewels and then finally batiste by the metre at Cottonpatch. It doesn’t say what colour it is though, and there isn’t a picture, so I think my next move will be a trip into MacCulloch and Wallis to see what they have to say.

And this is before we even get to the main part of the dress. I hope you realise this could take some time.

permalink | The Regency Gown · WIPs | comments? [1]