I got tempted by the new Sewaholic Vancouver range of patterns on their release earlier this year and bought two patterns in the 2 for 1 launch special. I liked the Fraser sweatshirt to make for myself and the girls, and I got the Cypress running cape, definitely only for making for the girls!
On a recent trip to Birmingham and The Fancy Silk Store, I bought a fabulous fleece lined jersey in charcoal. As Daughter No2 was with me at the time I got enough for both of us to have a Fraser sweatshirt. She didn’t want any of the fancy stitchlines, just a plain one please, with looong sleeves. She has rather long arms and battles to find bought tops that stay anywhere near her wrist. Everything ends up looking like it should be 3/4.
The fabric doesn’t have much stretch, it’s pretty sturdy, so I hope it fits…. I made an adjustment to the shoulder width (1.5 cm wider) and lengthened the sleeve by 4cm. She won’t mind if it’s a little long but will be very disappointed if it’s short. I used View B for the front and back and added length according to the sleeve for View A, but used B… Make sense? I started with the size 4 on the top part and graded to a 2 at the waist and hip. Funnily enough, in Burda (and almost everything else) patterns she’s one or two sizes bigger in the hip than the waist, but with Sewholic we need to go down by 1 size.
The pattern itself is pretty easy, especially if you’re doing View B! Basically, think Renfrew in a sturdier fabric. The construction is the same. The only thing I would change about the order of work would be attaching the cuffs to the sleeves. Because I sent down to size 2 on the sleeve (skinny arms) it was nigh on impossible to get the cuff on after the side seams had been sewn. Next time I’ll attach the sleeve cuffs and then sew the sleeve and side seams, turning up the cuff and just attaching with the sewing machine. Although I still won’t be able to get the ends over the free arm. But overlocking it was damn tricky!
I hope that when she comes home after her hockey tour in the Easter hols that she’s happy with it. She’s seen some photos but it still needs to be tried on.
So, riding high on a quick easy make, I decided I’d make another. But not my version. I’d had a little splurge this weekend buying fabric online (I know, I’m supposed to be clearing the table of stashed fabrics) from Ditto Fabrics, Fabworks and Croft Mill Fabrics. Bad. I’m hopeless. Anyway, I wanted to be sure the fabrics all got used up as soon as they arrived, so on Tuesday the Fabworks delivery arrived (as well as the Ditto stuff, but that’s for later). I’d ordered linen, of course, and two pieces of jersey.
The one I wanted for the sweatshirt is blue with circles and flowers, sort of reminds me of delft tiles, and I wanted to use it to make something for my Mum. I decided to go with View A, although I wasn’t going to use a contrast fabric. This time I didn’t need any pattern alterations, my Mum’s measurements put her firmly in the size 12.
Again, construction was simple and straightforward, the only part you need to watch is the triangle point insertion. It was done in an afternoon and I’m pretty happy with it, although on close inspection I know I missed centering the top front exactly, but I don’t think anyone looking casualy will notice, and no, I’m not unpicking it!!
So to round up the pattern stuff – Sewaholic have delivered a quick make with clear, concise instructions alongside plain talking illustrations. I can see a whole stack of these being made, and as you have such a plain canvas, whose to say there won’t be many hacks on the horizon for those so inclined? Already the Renfrew had been hacked into so many different things by enterprising sewists.
Now, Fabworks. I’d spotted them on Instagram, someone I follow had bought something yummy, so I took a look. They have a good selection of fabrics, and lovely, interesting jersey fabrics. The prices are pretty good too. The ordering only lets you pick whole metres, which means for a tee shirt you’re either going to be short, or have too much. So I emailed them asking if I could have a custom order and they were very helpful. So if you like what you see there but don’t want 1 or 2 metres (or more, who’s counting) email them for a custom order. Postage is a flat £5, but it comes the next day!! So for impulsive shoppers, that’s not bad. So far I’m happy with the pieces I’ve ordered, I will see how the fabric behaves in the long term before I can judge the quality of their offerings, but on customer service they’re sitting pretty on my list of online shops.
I have only one purchase from Fabworks left, I made the linen up yesterday, so I need to get the last piece of jersey cut up and sewn today! I also need to allocate patterns to the jerseys I got from Croft Mill and Ditto. I promised myself that if I bought all of it, I’d use it up within 2 weeks – nothing to stash. This might just be a promise I can keep…
If you’re sewing this weekend, have fun!
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 