Dusting off the cobwebs
Originally posted by bretheim at Dusting off the cobwebs
So after a little burst of recent productivity I found myself having altered four shirts for work and three pairs of trousers. After having lost nearly three stone over the last year it became painfully obvious that just putting another hole in my belt just wouldn't cut it. I'd end up looking like I'd just thrown two sacks round my legs, a bed sheet over my head and tied a belt round the middle. It has been a while since I'd done any proper sewing so I was a bit apprehensive, but I figured well either works and Yay!!! Or it doesn't and I'll have buy new trousers and shirts, which at this point where needed.
So after literally dusting the cobwebs off my trusty sewing machine I set to work. The end result worked better than I expected to be honest. The flat felled seems on the shirts worked pretty well since I can't get a flat felled foot for my machine and had to do them all by eye.
So emboldened by the success of this and having caught the bug I decided on started a brand new project from scratch. I love linen shirts and have always enjoyed working with the fabric and set upon making one from scratch. I already had plenty of linen which has been followed me from house to house over the last four years. The main goal was to test flex out those design and crafting muscles again. I tried not to focus on the end product too much and just enjoy rediscovering the process.
I started with drafting out the pattern on some light paper and cutting. This proved simpler than I remembered though I did make one small miscalculation with the arm hole. This is where measure twice cut once comes in handy as a mantra and it was easily fixed.
I drafted the pattern with a curved bottom so that I can use it again for another more formal shirt. If I wanted to do a flat bottom that would be easy to do towards the end on the fabric.
Having marked out the pieces on the fabric and cut them with no incident I moved onto the sewing. The trickiest bit was going to be sewing in the yoke at the back of the shirt. It had always been a mystery how to get the seams on the inside of the double layer. But like all mysteries it's easy when you know how. Here youtube was my friend and after re-watching several videos on the subject it went off without a hitch.
I sewed up the rest easily enough using what I had learned from the yoke to sew in the collar. I chose wooden buttons for the shirt as then fitted in with the theme of natural materials better that plastic ones. The pic below has the completed shirt on the left with a shop bought one on the left for comparison. All in all I'm delighted with the result.
And here's the finished product ready in time for our spectacular holiday
So after a little burst of recent productivity I found myself having altered four shirts for work and three pairs of trousers. After having lost nearly three stone over the last year it became painfully obvious that just putting another hole in my belt just wouldn't cut it. I'd end up looking like I'd just thrown two sacks round my legs, a bed sheet over my head and tied a belt round the middle. It has been a while since I'd done any proper sewing so I was a bit apprehensive, but I figured well either works and Yay!!! Or it doesn't and I'll have buy new trousers and shirts, which at this point where needed.
So after literally dusting the cobwebs off my trusty sewing machine I set to work. The end result worked better than I expected to be honest. The flat felled seems on the shirts worked pretty well since I can't get a flat felled foot for my machine and had to do them all by eye.
So emboldened by the success of this and having caught the bug I decided on started a brand new project from scratch. I love linen shirts and have always enjoyed working with the fabric and set upon making one from scratch. I already had plenty of linen which has been followed me from house to house over the last four years. The main goal was to test flex out those design and crafting muscles again. I tried not to focus on the end product too much and just enjoy rediscovering the process.
I started with drafting out the pattern on some light paper and cutting. This proved simpler than I remembered though I did make one small miscalculation with the arm hole. This is where measure twice cut once comes in handy as a mantra and it was easily fixed.
I drafted the pattern with a curved bottom so that I can use it again for another more formal shirt. If I wanted to do a flat bottom that would be easy to do towards the end on the fabric.
Having marked out the pieces on the fabric and cut them with no incident I moved onto the sewing. The trickiest bit was going to be sewing in the yoke at the back of the shirt. It had always been a mystery how to get the seams on the inside of the double layer. But like all mysteries it's easy when you know how. Here youtube was my friend and after re-watching several videos on the subject it went off without a hitch.
I sewed up the rest easily enough using what I had learned from the yoke to sew in the collar. I chose wooden buttons for the shirt as then fitted in with the theme of natural materials better that plastic ones. The pic below has the completed shirt on the left with a shop bought one on the left for comparison. All in all I'm delighted with the result.
And here's the finished product ready in time for our spectacular holiday