Linden Sweatshirt Dress - Paisley Vintage Jersey

Hi all,

It feels like an age since I have written a blog post! I have been so busy with birthdays and the like that posting has been put on the back burner. Well I am back today with a super quick sewing fix!

I have been doing a lot of sewing recently some of which I hope to be sharing with you guys in the coming weeks, but I kind of overloaded my self and needed a bit of a break. So I have had a week without sewing pretty much, which for me felt kind of crazy! But this week I gave in and decided I needed a quick simple project to get me back at the sewing table. 

Firstly let me explain, I have a 'to sew' list which changes on occasion but mostly I work my way through it and am pretty happy, but the weather has kind of made that a challenge recently. I had planned my next batch of sewing to be vests, summer tops, dresses, things for my holiday. In fact I had a whole post based around it ( but lets not talk about that shall we) but when the weather decided to stay wet, grey windy and well, very cold I decided, all this summer sewing just won't do! 

I got out my Linden Sweatshirt pattern from the ever faithful Grainline Studio and decided, I NEED more sweatshirts. So that was that, I cut out a lovely grey knit sweatshirt from my newly modded pattern and thought this will be my sewing fix. For some reason I wasn't quite content with that, so I went back to the fabric cupboard and sought out my Vintage paisley cotton jersey. 

I feel I must explain, this is stuff of legends, it is 100% cotton and so thick it could keep you warm in winter like a blanket, it is wonderfully stable, sews like a dream and.....is over two meters wide!

Where did I find such a magnificent piece of cloth, well like most of my snazzy prints it was handed down to me from my Aunty. Back in the day when there were multiple fabric shops on the high street, my Aunty would go and buy amazing fabric so cheaply it now makes me feel a little queezy just thinking about it. She would not only buy for herself but for me when I was a kid, so she has amassed a rather large stash of pretty rad 70's, 80's and 90's prints that she very generously donates to me when I am looking to make something super snazzy.  

Okay, sorry, getting back to the point, I got a little off track there with the whole 80's fabric shopping nostalgia. I  have saved this particular piece of fabric for about eight years, yes, that's right, eight years, I love it that much. I decided it was time to cut that 80's fabric up and have myself a new dress by the end of the day. I wanted a dress that would see me through the pretty poor weather we have been having, something I could wear with tights and a shirt underneath, but equally just on its own in the summer. I wanted to make myself a t-shirt smock dress and decided that the Linden Sweatshirt pattern was the perfect place to start.

I wanted a smock t-shirt style dress, so I set to shortening the the Linden bodice, adding some shaping and then cutting two rectangles to give the gathered skirt I wanted.

Here we have it, I think it fits the purpose I made it for, it is perfect for layering, but also great for when the weather gets a little warmer. I purposely made it just long enough so I could go bare legs if it ever gets warm enough here and the wind drops.... this is not a dress for a windy day...

I have to say I finally had some success with the neckband on this Linden, I feel super happy with the finish on it. ( I was getting a little jealous over here of everyone's wonderful Linden necklines)  I have had a little trouble with this in the past and thought it was perhaps just me being a sloppy sewer.... but as it turns out it was my fabric. My previous two Lindens were out of crazy unstable knitted fabrics that laddered when stretched so adding the neckline had been a challenge. I feel it looks neater this time around, yay for stable jersey!

Here I am laying up my dress because as predicted by the time I had finished my dress it was still mighty cold and I needed my shirt and tights to keep me warm. 

And here is how I hope to wear it if the weather gets a little warmer, however by that point I hope that my legs won't quite blend in to the magnolia colour on the walls quite like they do now.... lets just say I need some sunshine......

I am pretty happy with my quick sewing project, I think I will be making a few more, possibly in a woven next time just to make things a bit cooler for the summer.

I would love to know if you have tried any hacks out with the Linden Sweatshirt pattern. If so please let me know in the comments below!

~HJF~

Tartan Linden sweatshirt view B - and a tale of badly printed knit fabric woes....

Hi all,

Today I am back with my second Linden sweatshirt by Grainline Studio. I received this pattern for christmas and was pretty quick to whip up a first edition that you can see here. When I made my first Linden I was so eager to make it I just decided I would make the biggest size as that seemed right according to my measurements I did not however account for the HUGE amount of stretch my knit fabric had, and I mean huge. My first Linden could keep me and seven other people warm all at the same time!! So second time around I decided to be a little bit more cautious, and plan a little better. I do try and plan my my makes really well, but I think I always let myself down when it comes to stretch and knit garments, I tend to forget there are equal if not more fit issues with a stretch garment than with a woven.  

I worked out that my new tartan knit fabric had no where near the amount of stretch my last fabric had but I still felt that I needed to come down a couple of sizes. I was making view B sweatshirt with the intention of it being layer over a shirt so I didn't want it to be too baggy or too long. I opted for a size 14 and kept the original view B length. 

One thing I also noted on my first linden was that the neckline came out huge on me (think over the shoulder, audition for FAME, do you need some leg warmers with that, wide), so I decided to grade the neckline down from a 14 to a 10. I know this might seem like a huge jump but I wanted a much closer fit around the neck than last time. (I am under no illusions I am a size 10 here folks, have no fear!) 

Ok so the after all the grading and tracing I was like, yeah, awesome, the fun bit, cutting out! I had bought me some lovely drapey tartan knit from Abakhan sometime last year. At the time I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it but then I got the Linden pattern as part of my sweet christmas haul and I figured they were a match! So I buy quite a lot of dressmaking fabric from Abakhan, it means I can buy ends of bolts at very reasonable prices for the most part. I also like to shop there because they have a lot of imported prints and It is my ONE and only local fabric store if I don't want to venture into the depths of Manchester which right now isn't an option for me on a regular basis. 

My tartan knit is not my usual colour scheme, because well, there is colour in it, but I liked the shades and I guess the thing that swayed me was the GOLD, it has a metallic gold printed check in the tartan pattern, and I completely blame my magpie eye here, I feel metallic prints on fabrics are still emerging and It fell into my basket with few questions asked. I did not however anticipate the hassle this fabric would give me. 

I decided I was going to be a good seamstress, pattern match all my side seams, pattern match my raglan seams and step back in sheer wonderment at the gold tartan joy I had just created. Yeah, well, that really didn't happen did it, I knew as soon as I lay my fabric out on the counter top to cut it out we were not going to get along. The print was so badly off, and I mean so badly, I had to make a decision. Do I go with the vertical stripes running vertical to my body and all of the other horizontal stripes being off, or do I go with all the horizontal stripes perpendicular to my pattern centre front and the vertical stripes being off. Well I went with the first option, I decided that the bold black vertical lines that ran down the tartan would look much more obvious if they were running all crazy across my body, so this meant my horizontal tartan lines are all kinds of crazy (see bottom hem) but there was literally nothing I could do. I am not happy but I had the fabric and I wanted that Linden. If there was something I missed I would love to know, please comment below :) 

So that kind of meant pattern matching my side seams was near impossible and pattern matching my raglan seams was also going to be difficult. If I am honest here I decided it wasn't worth it, in order to get any sort of match I would have had to completely throw off the one way stretch of the knit and I just wasn't willing to do that and compromise on fit and drape. So no pattern matching for me, but you know what, I think I am ok with it, because in the end, this sweatshirt is all kinds of crazy. 

First photograph please.....

You can barely see the metallic gold here, and I feel I need to justify my fabric buying boo boo, so here is the GOLD......

I had a couple of problems with the neckline on this sweatshirt, I cut the band to a size 12 even though I had graded the neck to a 10. I hoped that the extra length would stop the fabric over stretching and making the neckband too thin, but I think next time I will go up even another size to a 14 neckband so it comes out a little thicker. I know this is mainly a problem when using the same fabric for the neckband as the body of your sweatshirt, when I did a little research other people seamed to have had similar experiences. 

Ooh look at those non pattern matched raglan sleeves ha ha... Shocker!! 

One slightly unusual choice for me on this sweatshirt was that I have decided to keep the hem raw, now I may live to regret this (or not regret it but just put it under my cover stitcher and hem it) but that is my choice for now and I kinda like it! I think that this fabric has a wonderful drape and just lends itself well to being left raw, but we will see. 

 

 

This is pretty much how I hoped to wear this sweatshirt with a shirt underneath, nothing too fancy.

 

Today however Is the hottest day yet and after snapping these pictures the weather was warm enough to warrant shorts and t-shirts.... should you so wish!

 

Thanks for stopping by guys, I will be back soon with more details of my pledge for Me Made May.

 

~HJF~

 

 

 

 

90's Floral Dungaree Dress

Hi all,

It's been a while!! I have been out with a virus and tonsillitis, but I am back (almost) ha ha. 

I have a favourite denim dungaree dress, it was a super bargain from a high street store last year and ever since we have been inseparable!! 

It is a dream to pair with thick tights and long sleeve stripey sailor tops and brogues, my favourite. 

My RTW version is a very soft drapey denim, which falls beautifully. I have had so much wear out of it over the winter season, I decided it was time to crack out the pattern paper and get drafting a pattern for it.

I have issues with doing this, tracing a pattern from a RTW garment, it doesn't feel right, as I normally draft my own from scratch, but I NEEDED this to be the same as my Denim Dungaree dress I love so much, ha ha. 

I decided to use a stretch floral twill for my toile, in hindsight the stetch element turned out not to be in my favour so much. All in all it became a wearable garment and I learnt a few tips for the next one!!! 

I bought this fabric to make myself a pair of floral trousers from, I was happy to have found a floral print I liked with some stretch in it, perfect. I did however think this fabric was black, (naughty shop lighting!) and only realised when I got home it was a very dark brown (although my family have done their best to convince me it is black....) 

One thing I love about this dress is the button fastenings on the straps, so fun! 

This toile also gave me the oppertunity to practice my top stitching, I have a twin needle ( I am just too lazy to get it out, there I said it!) I think it went ok, aside a few wobbles due to my machine not liking the thickness of the fabric and it stretching slightly, I think it isn't too bad. 

The dress has three buttons down the side, intended to be there to help you get it on and off, but the dress just pulls over my head so I could eliminate them if I felt I wanted to.  On the original they are lovely denim metal buttons, but I opted for yellow this time round. 

And finally here we have it, me with my awkward posing again, this time on the stairs, in the hope those lovely stairs will distract you slightly.......

I am happy with the overall fit, I did have some problems with the fabric stretching around the armholes and neckline due to the stretch in the fabric plus the cross grain, but the future versions will not be in stretch fabric and I am hopeful a quick stay stitch will rectify that. 

I am not sure this was the wisest choice of fabric for a larger lady like myself, but I will go with it for now.... Plus I have a lovely navy twill version ready and awaiting to be sewn up, so hopefully that will be a winner!

P.s. I was once told I looked like a childrens T.V. Presenter in an brightly coloured outfit I had on, and I once again feel like I am channelling that vibe...... (All those bright colours just are not me...where is the grey!!!!!! ) Haha 

Thanks for stopping by,

I would love to hear any comments you have, or if you know of any awesome denim suppliers you would like to share, don't hesitate to get in touch! 

~HJF~ 

My first Linden!!!

I was recently a very lucky girl at christmas and received a lot of amazing sewing patterns! But the first one I wanted to try out was my Grainline Studio-Linden pattern. I love sweatshirts and jumpers, let me tell you! So I jumped at the chance of a homemade, raglan sleeved cozy sweatshirt. I have made sweatshirts and hoodies a plenty before but I really wanted to see what all the hype was about! 

When I am sewing jersey or knit garments I like to make one straight out of the packet to see what it sizes up like...... Here lies my error.......

Baggy jumpers are my thing, but well I hadn't quite anticipated this amount of, well.... Slouch! Ha ha 

So here below is my first ever Linden sweatshirt in all it's bad fabric choice, slouchy, loveliness. 

I really like the sweatshirt pattern, I honestly think it is great and I can't wait to make another in some more suitable fabric. This was my toile, hence the rather questionable choice of fabric.

I did encounter a few problems, mainly because my fabric was a lightweight fairly unstable knit. 

I cut the neckband piece according to the pattern but due to the nature of my fabric when I attached the neckband it stretched virtually to nothing, leaving me with an unsightly looking thin neck band. Urgh!!!!

So I ripped out all of my overlooking for the neck (favourite job) and recut the neck double the depth. Second time around and the neckline was much better. 

If you would like to check out the pattern for yourself head to http://shop.grainlinestudio.com/collections/tops/products/linden-sweatshirt

I will definitely be making another, I have some rather nice grey and navy stripe fleece backed jersey that I think will be an entirely different story.

I wouldn't call this a complete disaster, but I have learnt my measuring lesson... I am pretty sure I have learnt that lesson before! 

And here is me in it pre yoga class because it is just perfect for that!