Tailors Ham 101

You guys - I made ham!

Okay, I made a tailors ham. But it was still delicious to make. Simple and I used up some fabric scraps to boot.

I used this free pattern from Chance of Rain (bonus, it also has a kidney shaped ham and a sleeve roll, all in one) and also mostly followed her tutorial.

Since I didn't have any sawdust to hand, I did some research on whether I could just use poly-fill, and found that while you can, if you want to be fancy and do it like the pro's, sawdust is the stuffing of choice. Fabric scraps are widely regarded to be just as good, but your ham may need re-stuffing in a few years since they squash down over time (have any of you had any experience with this?).

I also ended up using 5 layers of fabric in total. The inner layer is calico/muslin, the bottom layer is a scrap of vintage rosey pink wool left over from this skirt and the top is a scrap of floral fabric left over from this dress, as well as the underlining from it. The scrap I used still had the under lining attached so I just went with it and thought that it would give some extra smoothness to the finished ham.

I managed to find my sawdust from a pet shop, but the smallest bag they had was 1 kilo. I still have enough to make a sleeve roll and a several more hams from it I think.

Also, just a quick note when stuffing your ham with sawdust, it's best to do it outside. I ended up with it all over the courtyard, myself and Monty, who was innocently snoozing in the sun. To be fair though, it was windy...

xx
Jen

Patterns and Spots

So, something quite exciting happened a few weeks ago. I was asked to be a pattern tester for a new indie pattern company that Abby was starting called Blue Ginger Doll. I was quite chuffed to be asked really. I've never done any pattern testing before (except for my own adventures in pattern drafting) and so I jumped at the opportunity to be involved.

I received a lovely big package in the post a few weeks later that turned out to be the pattern for Abby's first dress, the Billie Jean.

It's a truly lovely pattern to work with. I didn't really need to make any alterations besides the ones I normally have to make to most patterns.

I did end up pinching a bit of excess out of the neckline though, probably about 3cm all up. The dress straps are designed to sit off the shoulder but I wanted to be able to wear the dress as an 'every day' dress and so needed to be able to wear a bra without the straps showing.

This is really very easy to do - simply cut out the front pattern piece in a muslin, place it on yourself or your dress form and pin the shoulder straps where you would like them to sit. Pinch out the excess on the neckline evenly on both sides, iron the excess down so that you have a flat pattern piece and redraw. Do the same for the back pattern piece so that the shoulder straps line up. You will need to slightly true up your pattern piece around the neckline after that, but it's really very minimal.

I made version 2 of the dress but made the skirt less full. My version is made from a light cotton black and white polka dot fabric and is lined in the same fabric.

The Billie Jean dress is Abby's first pattern and is available for pre-sale at the moment in both downloadable pdf and paper variations. Check out her website for other variations of the dress, you'll see that it's really a great pattern for mixing and matching different fabrics and styles.

xx
Jen

Me Made May - Week 2

Time for my weekly Me Made May round up! Follow along daily on Flickr or Instagram.

Day 7 -
Simple and comfy for a day of running errands. I actually wear this combination a lot in real life (not just Me Made May life).

Wearing my self drafted blue circle skirt.

Day 8 - 
Blending in nicely with my background.

Wearing my 7 Bloggers 1 Dress Burdastyle dress.

Day 9 - 
I'm still mad at the plaid, but I really like this dress so can't stay mad at it for long.

Wearing my Mad at the Plaid dress.

Day 10 - 
Felt very uninspired today.

Wearing my 60's McCall's Rose Wool skirt with self drafted belt tabs.

Day 11 -
Ahh, nothing like freshly washed hair and a sunny, warm Sydney autumn day to get out of a rut. Also, my first repeats of the month.

Wearing my Sleeveless Jasmin Blouse and Self-drafted Red Circle Skirt.

Day 12 - 
Sundays are for sewing (and making gluten free lemon meringue pie!!! Major sugar overload...).

Wearing my first Afternoon Blouse and Self-drafted Black Circle Skirt.

Day 13 - 
Feeling uninspired again today and my face looks weird in all the photos that were taken.  Below is the best one. Maybe this is what it always looks like on a Monday?

Wearing a Self-drafted Floral Circle Skirt. (I'm thinking about cutting my hair that short again too. I am in major need of a hair cut!)

How are you doing so far in Me Made May? We're nearly half way through, can you believe it?

xx
Jen

Tutorial: Replacing Facings with Bias Binding

I've mentioned before that I love bias binding. I especially love using it in place of facings on arm holes and where appropriate, neck lines. It moulds nicely around curved edges and leaves you with a lovely clean finish on the inside (and outside!) of your garment while reducing the bulk that facings can sometimes leave. 

I have a tutorial on how to make your very own bias binding here. 

Supplies:

• Bias Binding (the required length depends on the facing you are replacing)
• Pins

Optional - Needle and thread (if you are not going to machine topstitch your binding down)

*Note - in the pictures below I am replacing the neck line facing but I did also replace the arm facings on this dress.

Steps:

1. Right sides together, pin your binding along the closest ironed line to the facing area you are replacing. Pin all the way around and leave about 1 inch loose at each end (ignore the fact that I didn't leave said inch in the photo below!).

2. Once your binding is pinned all the way around, pinch the loose ends of bias binding together (right sides together) and pin. 

*Note - I forgot to take photos of steps 2 & 3 on the dress and so recreated them later. I just realised the binding is pinned to the wrong side of the fabric on these though! Sorry!!

3. Sew ends together along the pin. Trim seam allowance and iron flat.

4. Machine stitch your bias binding in place following the folded line you have pinned down.

5. If you don't want any binding showing (as in the headline image), fold the binding all the way over your raw edge, iron and pin in place. You can then either invisible hand stitch the binding in place or top stitch using your machine.

*Note - As I used an underlining on this dress, I hand stitched my binding to my underlining using a whip stitch instead.

OR

If you want to make a feature of your binding, fold it down around the raw edge of your garment so half of your binding is exposed. Hand stitch or machine stitch as desired. An example of where I have done this is here.

And, that's it!!

xx

Jen

That's a {Violet} Wrap {Dress}

Please don't ask me how I come up with those post title gems...

This pattern has been sitting in my pattern stash for at least a year (probably longer). I fell in love with the violet dress on the front as soon as I saw it, but the only problem was that I just couldn't seem to find the right coloured fabric! It needed to be a violet wrap dress. No other colour would do.

Needless to say, I found the right fabric a few weeks ago, but guess what? It's actually cotton quilt backing! I know, I'm such a rebel.

I firmly believe that you can go ahead and use quilting cottons (and backings!) if they fit with the style of garment you are making. If the garment calls for a stiffer fabric, then go ahead and walk straight over to those quilting cottons and gush as much you like! 

Also, the best thing about buying quilt backing for a project? You get twice the amount of fabric for the same price because it's folded over double on the bolt. You really can't lose folks.

While the dress itself was relatively simple to make up, I spent so much time on hand sewing I could cry. I really really didn't want to lose the clean lines down the front of the dress by top stitching my facings in place by machine, and so I did it all by hand. If I didn't know how to do an invisible hand stitch before, I sure do now. But just look at that hand stitching! Oh wait, you can't...

I also added some purple hem lace to the front line of the skirt. This was actually lace left over from our wedding and I still have a bunch of it in all sorts of happy colours. I really love the result and think my next few garments will probably all have lace detailing of some kind on them. Need a tutorial on how to do this? Let me know in the comments.

Last but not least, I swapped out the arm facings for bias binding. I have a tutorial on how to make your own bias binding here and will have a tutorial on replacing arm facings with bias binding on the blog on Friday!

So, tell me, have you ever used quilt backing or quilting cottons for a garment? Did it turn out well?

xx
Jen

Me Made May - Week 1

Okay guys, here is the first round up of outfits for Me Made May. You can follow daily on Flickr or my Instagram!

Day 1 -
Off to a good start. A polka dot wrap blouse and self-drafted black circle skirt.

Day 2 -
Hmmm - realise that taking photos everyday is going to be hard when your photographer needs to leave in the mornings. Hence, a lesser number of photos was taken than necessary resulting in a uni-foot in all head to toe shots.

I thereby declare all Thursdays to be renamed 'Uni-Foot Thursday'. Now there's a theme for #MMMay13!

Wearing my sleeveless Jasmin blouse.

Day 3 -

A bit chilly this morning - vintage cardi's were at the ready. Then a beautiful afternoon, thanks Sydney!

Wearing this floral 50's dress made back in October for spring, but it's actually the perfect autumnal dress. Still love the colours in this floral cotton lawn.

Day 4 - 

O Hai Unifoot. Fancy seeing you here again, it's not even Thursday...

Wearing my self-drafted red circle skirt.

Obligatory sunnies shot - where you can't even really see the sunnies...

Day 5 - 

Finally finished my 60's Vogue violet wrap dress last week and wore it on Sunday (will be blogged this week!). I love this colour, must add more violet to the wardrobe!

Day 6 - 

Sleepy Monday eyes this morning, but I've made it through my first week of Me Mades!  This dress is the first version of the Simplicity floral dress I wore on Day 3, but with added pleats!

How was your first Me Made week? 

xx

Jen

Tutorial - How to Make Bias Binding

I love bias binding. I use a lot of the stuff in my garments so therefore, I make a lot of it.

Making your own bias binding is easy as pie and it's extremely useful for all sorts of things. I tend to use it in place of arm facings on sleeveless garments a lot. I think that using bias binding reduces bulk around the sleeve and leaves you with a lovely clean finished edge (and check back next week for another handy tutorial on how to do just that!).

As I am just finishing up making a 60's violet wrap dress, with which I am predictably replacing the arm facings with binding, I thought I'd photograph the steps I used so that you can make your very own.

So first up - what is the bias?

The bias is the diagonal line that rus through the cross and length wise grains in your fabric. The bias is nice and stretchy, making it perfect to mould around circular edges like an arm hole, without bunching or pulling at your fabric.

Supplies:

• Large square of fabric cut on the grain (mine is about 30cmx30cm however, it doesn't matter if you can't make yours that big as we end up sewing our bias strips together to make one long one)
• Fabric Scissors
• Ruler or seam gauge
• Marking utensils
• Iron

Optional - An awesome bias binding thingy (this is what I'm talking about! You can get them in a bunch of different sizes). But you can make bias binding perfectly fine without one and I show you how to do this below as well.

Steps:

1. Fold your square in half on the diagonal and lightly press.





2. Your lightly pressed centre line will be the line that we will base all other bias strips off and it will become the centre of your first (and biggest) strip of bias binding.

At this stage, you need to decide how big you want your finished binding to be. I personally like a binding that ends up being about 1cm when it's all folded, but you can make it any size you need. The rule is, if you want 1cm showing at the end, times that length by 4 and that is the width you want to mark out.

Measure out your widths using a ruler or seam gauge using your centre line to base off all measurements.

Note: for this binding, I wanted it to be slightly smaller and measured out 3.2cm so my finished binding ended up as 8mm.


3. Draw in those lines that you've marked. You can then mark the rest of your bias strips right next to each other, there is no need to leave a gap. Now you are ready to cut your strips!




4. Once you've cut your strips, square up the ends of your binding to make it easier to sew them together.



5. Place your strips, right sides together, at a 90 degree angle. Sew across the 'square' they make along the diagonal.



6. Trim your seam allowance and press open. You have now joined your strips together.

7. Continue joining them together until you have your desired binding length. Now you can use your handy dandy bias binding thingy to pull your bias strip through and iron as you go.



OR

If you are using the iron, fold your binding in half (wrong sides together) and press lightly. Then fold your outside edges in, lining them up with the centre crease you made earlier. Iron them down.





8. Once your outside edges have been folded in towards the centre (either by using your bias binding thingy or just your iron), fold your binding in half again and iron flat. Ta da! You have just made your very own bias binding. How clever you are!

Now you can wrap your binding around a piece of card or on to an old wooden bobbin (that would look cute!) ready to use when you need it.

Making your own binding is a really great skill to have. You can mix and match colours to make neat details on your garments, use it in place of facings, make bunting, use it to make pretty twirly patterns on dresses...the options are endless!

You can, of course, buy your bias binding, but why would you when it's so easy to make?

xx
Jen


Note:
Don't be afraid to mark your fabric on the underside in a more permanent way when marking out your binding (I used a ball point pen in this tutorial so that the lines showed up in the photographs).

I used to be petrified to mark my fabric with anything more permanent, but the truth is, if you do it correctly, nobody will ever see it. I find that chalk rubs off too quickly and easily for my liking and I would rather have accurate markings that stay where I need them to than have them rub off half way through ending in me 'winging it'. Just remember, if you are using a light/sheer fabric, choose your marker accordingly.