Feathery Mabel

I haven't been the best on actually posting about my makes this year (or last for that matter).  I really do appreciate this blog as a record of what I've made.  I've still been making and for the most part have photographed the makes so hopefully I'll manage to catch up on posting them - even if it is rather late!

The Colette Mabel is a bit of a Tried and Tested (TnT in sewing blogger parlance) pattern for me.  However, this is the first Mabel I've made since my pregnancy and its still a good fit (Thankfully!).



The fabric is my first use of a scuba knit.  I love the print and brought the fabric in Mood in LA last year.  There's a nice stretch and no fear of it being see through!  The colours are beautifully vibrant.  Not quite sure what to make of scuba knit fabric in general.  Doubt I'll be making many more things in it though as its a fun fabric to sew, it really isn't breathable.  But it does make a nice, bright warm skirt.



I finished the main bit of sewing up quickly - its a quick make.  But spent ages deciding on how to hem.  I asked the ever helpful sewists of the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network for advice.  As its scuba, I could have left the hem unfinished but I wasn't that keen on the look.

I did have a secret weapon up my sleeve - a new (to me) Coverstitch machine.  But I was a little trepidatious about using it as I keep getting skipped stitches and have to rip them all out again.



I bought the coverstitch machine from the lovely Emma of Emma's Atelier earlier in the year (phew - only a few more hours to actually say that).  She upgraded to a very fancy new machine.  I haven't really managed to get on top of the stitching since - just too many skipped stitches.  The next thing I need to try is different needles to see if that makes a difference.  After that, its off to get serviced.  Though (not so) secretly, I'm really keen on saving up and getting the Janome CoverPro instead.



I used Wendy's (of Sew Biased) tip to use a stretch fabric with more recovery a little sized down for the inside of the waist band.  I didn't use a stretchy enough fabric or size down enough as the fabric relaxes a little too much during my day's wear.  But I'm not in danger of slippage (phew!) - I just wouldn't wear two days running.



Such a pity I'm not on top of the coverstitch machine as it really gives a lovely finish.

All in all: a nice addition to my wardrobe but I really need more tops instead!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Siding stories

Image
We've had a tonne of house projects this year and currently the house's siding is being fixed.  If the weatherboard is cracked or rotten, we're replacing it.  If a lot is coming off we're putting insulation in behind it.  Lots of hammering and sawing and lots of scary pictures! We had a fun afternoon tracking down the colour of the house paint.  As it turns out, its Wattyl's Flemish Blue (Deep Base, Solagard, B 144.0, E 280.0, V84.0, KX 144.0).  I love this colour and need to think about sheen's for when we get the house repainted next year.  For now we just went with the closest to the tin we already had.  One side of the house is done and we've painted a first coat of the blue. We've also had scaffolding up for a while.  Its been hard to get in and out of the house with it though - this is our entrance walkway. This is the other side of the house after a day's work removing the weatherboards.  There's a lot more work requ...
Read more

Merino baby cardy

Image
A quick make but it took me ages to finish!  I was gifted this merino fabric ages ago at a fabric hoarders fabric swap.  The binding is from a local Japanese shop on Cuba street . Cute, no?  I started it so long ago that I've managed to lose the free pattern I used to create it.  oophs!  I like the tie I've pulled together a loop from the binding for the front. I've french seamed the seams.  I really love the finish.  This was one of my first knit garments so its lovely to have it finally finished.  I didn't have a recipient in mind at the time - just wanted to use up the fabric and start thinking about knit fabrics but a friend recently had a baby girl so it'll go in the post soon!
Read more

Painting

Image
My craft room was originally a dark terracotta brown and a deep almost blue navy.   I finally picked a colour for it and spent some of the time over my Christmas holidays painting merrily away.  It really was a pleasurable experience (except when we realised that the skirting boards weren't actually white and we had to redo those too as they had bits of the old colours liberally applied in places they shouldn't have!). The colour of the room was something in between the photo above and the one below.  They really were quite strong colours. (And in case you noticed, yes I did write on the wall with my tester before we painted!) I'm very much a process girl and I thought a photo of the room with my painters tape up and the undercoat would be vaguely interesting for people. Ok, fine, I can't lie.  I'm just too damn pleased with the whole process not to share it all - it is a web log after all :D It was at this stage that I remembered my mother's sage ad...
Read more