Creative Camp Day 3

Today was the day for finishing the grey Cambie dress with modified neckline. Late yesterday I’d taken a little nick out of the fabric when repositioning the invisible zipper. Last night I thought I could rescue it, but this morning I looked at it in the daylight and decided to replace one side of the back skirt – I had plenty of fabric so it was a sensible decision. As the fabric has some horizontal stretch the front neckline stretched out woefully so I hand gathered the seam allowance and then stitched on some ribbon as stay-tape. I had to bring it in about 1 1/2 inches in total! With a bit of steam the main fabric eased in nicely and stopped the impressive gaping.

In a brief break in the rain we had a photoshoot on the deck. Despite the sleek A-line, there is still enough room in the skirt for a bit of silliness.

Some magpies joined us for lunch. They came yesterday too, so I’d saved some steak trimmings for them after watching them wolf down the moths that had battered themselves to an untimely death against the uncurtained windows.

I’ve also been sewing some underwear, but I am sure the internet can cope just fine without seeing that! I’ll wear it tomorrow and see if it’s comfortable.

Me-Made-May report: Worn this morning – newly minted grey trousers, purchased top. Then the even newer Cambie dress to a retirement party back in town, covered with a Renfrew top because it was so freaking stormy and horrid. And a polar fleece jacket whenever outside too.

Minoru: Nearly done

Over the weekend I made and inserted the lining and completed the zipper packets. Tuesday night I topstitched around the collar and down the front. I also pinned up the hem ready for pressing before sewing it in place.

I’m now nearly done. This morning before work I topstitched the hem into place.

This morning I woke up before even the cats thought it was a reasonable time to be awake. I call it ‘stupid o’clock’.

I caught up with my regular reading including sewing blogs and was tickled pink to see Tasia had highlighted my welt pocket addition to the Minoru [insert excited squeal here] I’ve been very proud of those pockets, now even more so. Although I would strongly recommend inserting them on the front pieces before you sew anything else. I did it after doing sleeve and side seams which meant a bit of faffing about getting the rest of the jacket out of the way while sewing. All credit to Sherry’s wonderful welt pocket tutorial at pattern-scissors-cloth.

Another tweak I have done is add an underlay to the zipper in deference to my plans to potentially wear this while bike riding; if the rain is hitting my front, the non-waterproof zipper is a weak point. Finding a waterproof zipper or waterproofing one was off the cards. Adding the placket underlay would probably be overkill for a regular fabric jacket though.

Zip underlay

I cut a fifth placket out of the main fabric, folded it in half and made a little rounded end to it for folding over the top of the zip. Blatantly copied from my son’s rain jackets again. It will also stop the zipper getting caught in clothing underneath which is something that seems to happen quite a bit to me. I’ve discovered it also makes a nice little tab of fabric to hold onto while pulling up the zipper to start with. To attach it, I sandwiched the zipper between the underlay and packets, having finished both ends of the underlay already. It should be roughly an inch longer than the placket to allow for the turnover.

My first attempt at a useful sewing diagram

I also made one of the internal pockets longer so my wallet would fit in there. The key step here is putting your wallet on the fabric and drawing around it.

Internal Wallet Pocket

click for larger original

 

What’s left? The sleeves adaption I have planned.

This has been one of the beauties of Tasia’s pattern – it allows you to really make it your own if you want to. I’m thinking I’ll need one in a simple fleece for early morning gym trips… That’ll be a nice simple one.