All I want to do is sew, all the time.

Over the lockdown I’ve made this:

Here’s the make tally:

Fremantle pants x 1.5

Just the one so far (wonderful Glen Plaid check double knit) but another is waiting to be made up (thats the .5 in the tally count). Dont want to wear any other pants, just these, so I need more of them. The next one is a great Tessuti ponte, its equally soft so things are looking good.

…I went back to Spotlight online & bought more of the double knit, so I’ll be able to replace these fantastic pants when they wear out, because that’ll be soon. Dead set wearing them all the time.

LB Pullovers x 3

One Ochre linen (I love this colour!), 1 x Bone linen & 1 x floral rayon (unexpected, but everything is now). I tried the LB when it first came out but thought it was a bit butch on me, too boxy around the upper arms. Now, I like it…but wearing these tops will be the proof, if they feel like they really do work on me. So far I want to wear the ochre one a lot. The zeitgeist curve on this pattern has clearly flattening to such a degree that I can now step aboard, its so roundly old news that I can just slide up behind it & wear it in obscurity. I cant always be a trailblazer, not even on Wednesdays, which is usually my Trailblazing Day.

Assembly Line Cuff Top x 1

This one is real special! Inexplicably on the bargain pile at Spotlight (this print is so good it did not deserve such an ignoble end) I bought all that remained thinking I’d make a Carolyn shirt with piping but couldnt deal with having to match the print across a button-up. The Cuff Top is ideal as the full width of the panel fits it perfectly! The back is the complimentary print; there are dogs and birds living side by side in harmony. Doesn’t get better than that. This is my fourth Cuff Top & they are so quick to make there will no doubt be another, soon. I really love this design, it falls from the shoulder just so.

Lark T - multiple

Its a classic Tee, no one can have enough of them. I did a little stripe insert on one, a very deep green softy soft jersey with a narrow vertical band running down left of center. The vertical splice is viscose twill remnant from Tessuti in a vibrant, near flouro light red/orange. Theres a Thunderbirdness to it & I like it. So far it hasnt been that wearable because its so memorable. As is, actually, the Dog print shirt, but no one minds seeing that all the time. Also, in a boring but good way, black shortsleeve with a contrast neckband and two more plain black, one with long sleeves. Dont need any more black tshirts right now, isnt that great! Numerous points on the make tally

To make the red flash, I picked a point on the shoulder seam, more towards the neckline, drew a line from there down to the hem. Then, measured 10mm either side of the line and folded the pattern, so I cut one front piece with the pattern paper folded to the right of the line, then cut another with the pattern paper folded to the left of the line. The flash is 22mm when folded and I sandwiched it between the two front halves and sewed them all together with a 10mm seam allowance. Press to the center. Zero fabric is lost from the insertion, the shoulder seam is unaffected and the front is one piece, but better with a jolt of bright red/orange down it. I wanted it as a narrow flap so it is a 3D effect & not a one dimensional stripe.

Twin needling the hem was a matter of leaving long thread tails, starting sewing on one side of the stripe, sewing all around until gaining the other side, then threading the tails through a hand needle & taking them through to the back, to tie them together. No sewing across the stripe, leaving it free. I dont like twin needling my necklines, the tension on my machine is dodgy so if the fabric allows for it (ie, not too fine) I use Steam a Seam. Love that stuff, job done.

Kabuki T x 1 & -1

But oversized with long sleeves. Love it but. The sewing experience: AWFUL. French terry from Spotlight, so off-grain that…dont even…I do have to say, however, that it has survived its first wash, with the sleeve insert seams still straight! That amazes me because it was a two day drama sew, I didnt think the right angles would make it. This morning I mysteriously found myself in the studio, on the oil paint fiddling with an incomplete landscape (they’re all incomplete, all of them) and three hours later: oil paint all over the cuffs. I’m cross about that but really, like its a new thing? Paint accidentally on clothes? After how long? I can count my career in decades now. I doused it with turps and now its soaking in a bucket in the laundry. I hope it makes it, I really do love it. The -1 score on the make tally is for the second Kabuki I was planning, but the two day drama sew of this one (purely from the terrible terry) cut deeply, so its a negative 1 on the Kabuki make tally. If anything I’ll make another grey marle, but with good terry from Maai Design, because thats where the good terry comes from.

Anecdotally I’m hearing that this top is shades of Star Trek & I can see that, but the contrast of right angles with the oversize (of an already oversized designed) top works and is good in my eyes. Love it and love all things grey marle, let it be said.

It survived, very well! Straight off the clothes line, unpressed, look at that! A little bit wobbly but it’ll do!

Free Range Pants x -1

A disaster. Over sized to a comical degree, completely unwearable. The construction is such that the fit of the actual garment isnt clear until you’re too bloody far in. I knew/didnt know this was happening but one grits one’s teeth & forges ahead regardless because on Instagram, everyone else’s Free Range Pants are great. I’m going to put them through a boiling hot wash & thence, the clothes drier set to almost cinders. Then I’ll probably pass them on. Thats a big minus 1 on the make tally. ANNOYING.

Sewing Revival Heron Top x 1.5

The sweetest sleeveless thing which is perfect for overlayering and crucially, looks great with black (crucial). Its a lovely fine cotton shirting from The Fabric Store, with little Tigers & Leopards crawling all over it. Theres a long sleeve version to come next week, which is the 0.5 on the make tally

I’m going to make the long sleeve version soon but I’m undecided on fabric for that. Not sure what colour would work best so close to my face. I’m recently aware that my years are running out & my hair is now a beautifully soft silver with red blondish bits so without my totally red hair, my number one accessory, I’m changed when it comes to high necklines. Then two minuted later I think its fine.

Fantail Top

Another Sewing Revival pattern, in first class and excellent quality jersey from Maai Design and it was a great sew, it came together so easily. A good design. Haven’t worn it much, it feels dressy but I think it just needs breaking in. In making this, I sized up & lengthened it by all of 1cm because the few reviews I’d seen mentioned it being very high at the front & I’m always terrified something will be too tight on me. I hate that so if in doubt, supersize it, as my Mother says, darling, you can always run it in at the sides. That 1cm was a good idea though, just that tiny bit of extra cover can be the difference between wear/not wear much.

You’ll want to stitch straight lines at the front casing detail. I couldnt get it right even when I’d sticky taped the guides on.

Then,

I came across an abandoned thing & rescued the top half of a Page Dress, the bodice with the short ruffle attached as seen above (the ruffle is also my favourite ochre linen) so I have this crop top thing & I’m wearing it all the time so that counts as made on this list. The skirt section of that Page dress contributed to the floral LB Pullover and thus the circle of life is complete.

But my golly, the bitchest of all, the SOMERFIELD COAT. Here are some notes Ive made along the way.:

I WANT TO EMPHASIS THAT THE PATTERN DESIGN IS GOOD! The folly is mine, the velvet a bitch. It is a beautiful moss green printed stretch velveteen but this coat is still unfinished (it’ll never end) but “might be done tomorrow” and will require its own post. Perhaps, tomorrow, enfin, mon travail est fini.

To be fair, the above is a scrap for working things out. The coat is much better/even worse, depending what time of the day it is when asked

I have a Quick Notes page with swatches of fabrics & pattern allocations for what I want right now (as opposed to the entire folder, grouped into yearly sub-folders with all the things I existentially want), its wonderful to muck around with & I look at it a lot. I’ve never sewn continuously, consistently like this, where making a pair of pants is an almost casual commitment, when we all know that fitting pants can be the playground upon which the devil Himself stages a circus.

But what I did undertake, was some late night time wasting. I had noticed in passing, whilst perusing my pants sewing patterns, that these two crotch lines were alike: too alike. So I investigated.

They are indeed the same. I leave this world the richer for having had me.

The need for this critical research is: I love those ponte Fremantle pants I just made, but wonder if they could be a little slimmer down the leg, a tad less baggy, sharper, a bit more I’ve Got Things To Do. Which of course I haven’t, no one has!

That line of enquiry reached its natural end once I had established that they are the same and they most definitely are. But, then, knowing that the Parkers are fairly slim cut, I wondered if I could transpose that slimmer leg shape onto the Fremantles, thus changing the leg width while maintaining the crucial crotch fit of the Fremantles. Because if you know that one pants pattern design works in your arse’s favour, seize it, seize it with everything that’s within you, its like……seize it & keep the devil in your pocket.

This is exactly the kind of theoretical design interrogation to conduct late at night during a global health crisis when everything is in flux and normal is gone and things feel unsafe. I only wondered why no one had done it before.

The results were inconclusive. The scale is out and factors such as ease for elastic waist bands and darts make it tricky to determine the key. I do know that the Fremantle has a dropped crotch & higher waist, which is born out here but the width down the legs doesn’t seem to vary too much even though the fullness of the Fremantle is the thing I want to adjust. But then the scale is out & I dont know the parameters by which to correct it & the drafting is not necessarily faithful to the actual design and so on

Not knowing what to do next, I stretched & compressed the Fremantles until they matched the width of the Parkers, justifying them at crotch point. It was getting really late & everything was looking the same, I was no longer sure of benefit of this exercise so I huffed and gave it up. I may as well just make the Fremantle & grade down a couple of sizes through the leg, I concluded. Night wasted, all happy. If I was a horse, you shouldn’t bet on me.

My sewing room is now in the kitchen, I’m losing ground everyday, the dining room table is now wfh station & the ironing board (in the kitchen) is now the proving ground for mini Ballista, laying siege to an old teak bookend (my clapper)

The global health crisis is having a good run & I know for sure that sewing myself new clothes is keeping this household together. The kitchen is neutral ground & I’m always in it, things feel under control, I am content & it all follows from there. And, new clothes.