McCalls M7575 x M7980, Cowboy Shirt

Vinted fabric skort all ready to go for our last gig, I came a bit unstuck as to what to wear on top. Cue contents of wardrobe exhumed, and bedroom floor looking like I'd been burgled. In the end, a quick trip to the charity shops in Hillsborough found me a perfect stretch tee with cinching side ties (see previous blog post for combo), but the crisis left me wanting to be better prepared for next time. 

This got me thinking about what features my perfect gig shirt should have, and I came up with the below:

• Shoulders-> because as much as I love a strappy vest, when you're halfway through your set and sweat-sticky, guitar strap and sweaty shoulder can lead to increased friction, and this can make guitar swinging less effortless. In general, Shoulder + Fabric + Guitar strap = Reduced friction (+ better dance moves)
• Sleeveless -> Less sleeves = More movement + Less sweat
• Cropped -> Because I don't work out every day to hide my waist, and as much as I love tucking in a shirt for work, I don't want to have to be worrying about my shirt hem escaping my waistband mid-way through a track. Also less fabric, again = Less sweat
• Easy to get off-> Because after the show I'm sweaty, and don't want to have to wrestle my way out of my outfit 
• Black -> Because I've tried wearing other colours on stage, and regardless of how good I think they look at the time, whenever I look back on the photos I think 'Why on earth did I wear that?'
  
  
  

So with this in mind, and fabric left over from my Vinted re-fashion, I started to dream up a gig shirt that would team up with my skort and tick the above boxes. 

I had enough Vinted fabric left over for panels of some kind, and with this Aztec-type embroidery, it made sense to utilise it as a statement yoke on a cowboy-style shirt. With no front-yoke or piping expertise in my arsenal, I knew I needed the help of a good pattern. I chose the McCalls M7980 as I have good experience in the past using McCalls shirt patters, and this one had the double whammy of being both suitible for men or women. I got the pattern for my birthday and began tracing it off soon after (wehay for Birthday annual leave). 

Once I'd traced the pattern pieces, I thought it a good idea to compare the size to a shirt pattern that I know fits well. Come to the stage M7575, my trusty old friend. What became very obvious straight away was the M7980 was much larger, and featured no bust darts. The plan all along was to knot up the front at the waist so it sat cropped on me, and the extra length would be helpful for this, but the bagginess would lead to likely gaping arm holes (I planned to finish the arm holes with bias-binding instead of inserting sleeve so that I could be sleeveless as planned). 

The resolution for me was clear, I would cut the M7575 pattern, omit the sleeves, draft front yoke pieces by using the M7980 as reference, and extend the front piece so that the placket could be better tied at the waist. Without any real plan for how long to extend the placket, I made the shirt front pattern piece 10cm longer, adding a curve to omit extra fabric and make more of a tie-shape. I extended the placket pattern piece by 10cm to match this, and will admit it was by total fluke that the front piece of the shirt graded out to a point so nicely. 

I made a slight change to the collar piece, making the collar points a little more, er pointy. I have had these collar tips in my stash for how long?! Feels good to finally install them onto a well-deserving shirt. 

All my life, I have thought that the front yoke on a cowboy shirt was attached to the bottom half (like a traditional back-yoke) of the shirt via a seam, NOT that it was a piece installed over the top like a patch. It all makes perfect sense now after thinking about it, and reading some hand hints on the Sneum Shirts Website, which explained the yoke was to reinforce and add durability to the areas of the shirt likely to get worn out when yipikaye-ing your way around the wildwest on horseback. 

So with yoke pieces cut perfectly symmetrically (utilising the centre back seam of the origanal skirt on the back yoke piece), it was time to investigate something else new to me: Piping. 

I bought this silvery piping from my go-to stall at the Sheffield Market (is there nothing they don't have?! I don't think they have ever let me down!). Initially I was looking for something more of a satin-sheen grey, and was a little worried this silver was going to look a bit fancydress, but I think it's come out really well, adding just the right amount of pizazz to link up the silver collar tips to the buttons, to the white embroidery and the glammy beads in the matching skirt. 

I enjoyed applying the piping. I was nervous, but with the use of the zipperfoot and the changeable needle position on my machine, I was able to get the stitch line really close to the er, pipe(?) and the result looks really effortless. The back was a little harder, as the back yoke is faced with another piece of fabric, and when you attach this you can't see the edge of the piping at all. The machine does a lot of the hard work though, with it naturally using the raised edge as a guide. At least it was a nice straight line- the front pieces did take a little more concentration to get around the curves, especially while trying to ensure complete symmetry! 

I used the exact same linen to make the plain areas on the shirt as I used on the skort. I found out at hem time that linen hems curves like an absolute dream! The hem is quite curved at the side seams, and the new front tie piece I drafted also curved, but linen has magic powers and seemed to enjoy being told what to do. 

It behaved nicely when attaching the collar too. I was slightly worried the interfacing in the collar and placket would make the shirt a little tooo sturdy and not relaxed enough, and it does feel a little more bulky than other shirts in my collection, but I think this was required to help support the weight of the heavier, embriodered yoke pieces. With a bit of wear any rigid areas will loosen up nicely. 

I added bias binding to the arm holes and slipstitched this down by hand so the seam line wasn't visible from the inside. I managed to buy the exact amount of binding, down to the millimeter (hmm someone measured the raw edge of the arm hole not the stiching line before going to the shops....), which I think stressed me out a bit when attaching the second band and maybe caused me to stretch it into the arm hole more than I should have. The back armhole kicks out a little bit. I think this gape could have been avoided by taking a little more of the seam allowance off before attaching the binding (I took off 1cm, allowing for the 1.5cm seam allowance which would have been used if inserting the sleeve). I think due to the sturdiness of the fabric, when I first put the shirt on this gape was a little more noticeable than after I'd had it on all day on one of the hottest days of the year and the fabric had started to relax into my body. 

I wondered if the buttons were a little understated against the jazzy silver binding, but there was nothing with any more character grabbing my attention at the market stall. Once they were on though, I thought they worked quite well with the yoke pieces, adding a bit of a nod to work-wear style (or practical wear for lassooing cattle on your ranch if that so happens to be your line of work). 

The buttonhole function on my machine played nice, I had my heart in my throat as this was the final hurdle and arguably the one most likely to cause unreversable damage. It was essential the button at the bustline lined up exactly with the start point of the piping either side of the placket... the most central and visible area of the shirt! It was a pretty hot day in the studio, that got increasingly hotter during buttonholing! Hey, my fray-stop glue dried pretty quick though! 

The shirt is a winner. I had toyed with the idea of making the back piece shorter so there was less fabric to accomodate when the front is knotted, but in the end I kept the length, as when the front is not knotted, the shirt can still be tucked into jeans and function as something slightly more formal. The additional length I added to the front for ties also doesn't look too weird if I'm wearing it buttoned up and untucked either. Options! 

I was absolutely delighted to get this combo all stitched up before the Chris Isaak gig in Manchester this July. The man himself is known for his western style tremolo and his fantastic suits, so it absolutely made sense to debut the two-piece at his show. It seemed to do the trick - I was invited up to dance on stage with him for Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing!!! He is my ultimate fave, so it was a total honour to dance with the king in a me-made that had so much 'me' and considered design in it. Check out the Youtubes below and see if you can spot me! 

x

Location: Holme Lane, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Loser, Tame Impala

Self-drafted Cat Cushion

Instagram followers may remember my ultimate thrift shop find a couple of years back, when I fell in love with a spooky-looking mid-century plush cat-shaped door stop. He was moth eaten enough to look like he had a few tales to tell, formed ears that looked a little like horns (enough to make him look slightly demonic if you were a burgler breaking in at night), but the cutest little cheeky face that made me know he needed to come home with me (before you say it, yes we're still describing the doorstop, not all my ex-boyfiends, OK?). 

Since the cat doorstop became part of my life, I have found myself idly doodling that little face, the almond shaped eyes with the square pupil, the lush embroidered eyelashes and whiskers, and of course those pointed ears. The character had already become part of an applique design I added to a calico cushion for my sofa, my first attempt at an air-dry clay model, and preliminary drawings for a future sticker design, but on sorting out my fabrics in the studio, I had a great idea to use that cat shape to use up some of this black fake fur. So the 3D cat pillow was born! 

I started by taping together 2 sheets of A3 paper and filling the space with my drawing. I made this deliberately oversized as I needed to take seam allowance into account, as well as the 3D-ness when he was stuffed. The shape is sooo satisfying to draw, though the ears always take me a few attempts with a tendancy to over exaggerate! I drew on the facial features so I could use this as a template for the felt face pieces. 

I also cut the face pieces out of interfacing to add to the back of the felt before attaching, to ensure they kept their satisfying shapes! 

Browsing my thread stash, I found the only creamy oloured thread I had to attach the facial disk was was a tiny, low quality thread that my machine practically spat out. I was aiming for a perfectly placed zigzag stitch all the way around the face, but the machine kept skipping stitches! Soooo I ended up having to turn the hand wheel all the way round, and then go backwards to re-stitch every time it skipped! This was super infuriating, as the applique was the bit I was most looking forward to, and it turned into a bit of an ordeal! BUT that said, The result is exactly what I wanted and I am proud of how neat each stitch turned out. 

Once the face was attached, the square pupils, eyelashes, nose, mouth and whiskers were embroidered on. One slight wobble and you can seriously affect the cat's entire personality! I used the original cat for close reference, especially on the eyelashes, though the features on mine are all generally a little larger than the orignial. 

The front and back cat pieces are then just sewn right-sides together, turned through and stuffed! The little stuffing hole then hand stitched to finish. 

Making freinds has never been so easy 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

x

Location: Junk Photography Studio, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Charmer and the Snake, Velveteers

Thank you to Chris @Junksheffield for the spooky studio shots!📸

Simplicity 8513, Bodysuit into T-Shirt Hack

I think the pandemic has bought out a thrifty side in lots of us. I have seen an increase in the amount of people making patchwork trousers or mixing and matching old sweaters to make new colour block combos.

Never one to want to miss out, I decided to put some leftover fabric to good use by making this cute little tee out of rib fabric remenants.

By now I have perfected the fit of the Simplicity 8513 bodysuit pattern, sadly there wasn't enough black rib left to make the full bodysuit, but I thought it would be easy and fun to combine my rib fabrics and make a half-and-half fitted tshirt.

All I had to do was not cut the front piece on the fold and instead add a 1cm seam alloance to the centre front, and then make the decision of which colour way I wanted the sleeves to be. 

There was frustratingly little fabric left - so not enough to add a sensible hem! The bottom of the shirt is very much 'here's what I had left!' which is a bit of a shame but I kept as much length as possible so I could tuck it into my jeans.

The red fabric has a little bit more stretch than the black so the centre seam does like to creep towards the black side a little but I don't think it's too bad if I keep an eye one it.

Another simple stash buster for making cute basics! 🙌 

x
Location: Little London Road, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Tutti Frutti, New Order 

Simplicity 8513, Bodysuit

You're thinking this pattern rings a bell; you're right. This isn't my first bodysuit, in actual fact I think this is the sixth time I've made one of the variations of this pattern. 

I had some of this burgundy rib fabric left after my Eilidh dress, it's sooo comfy and stretchy and soft against the skin. The bodysuit pattern doesn't really require a lot of fabic, especially if you opt for short sleeves. It made sense to whizz together a tried and tested pattern with the fabric I had left!

I used the straight sleeve pattern but made them loads shorter so they were just t-shirt length and stabalised the shoulder seams with a little bit of lightweight interfacing. I used a 1.5cm seam allowance on all the seams as the fabric was sooo stretchy in all directions. I stitched everything with a zigzag stitch on my machine to allow for stretch and decided not to overlock anything (no matching thread on my overlocker, didn't trust it not to stretch out the fabric, fabric wasn't going to fray anyway).

I had some burgundy picot elastic I'd actually ordered by accident a while ago, so this finally came in for finishing the leg holes! Is there anything more satifying than finishing edges with pretty elastic and a zig zag stitch? I didn't apply to much pressure on the elastic, just stitched round keeping it taught but not stretched if that makes sense? I wanted the elastic to grip the body but not dig in at all. 

The neckband was the final and also the riskiest stage. I think it could have gone on neater if I'd used an overlocker I think but would have also run the risk of stretching the neckline out as the headhole was so prone to stretching!
I love the outcome. Such a simple basic which I know will get loads of wear. A great little scrap buster and so comfy... win win win ♡ ♡ ♡ 

x
Location: Barmouth Road, Sheffield
Curretly listening to: Colours, Hanni El Khatib

Sewing Leftovers, Stretch Skirts

Weather is weird, and being prepared for it is hard. I just about tore my wardrobe apart looking for the perfect thing to wear for my trip to Manchester I'd planned just before my Birthday. I was meeting a boy, naturally I wanted to wear something memade, casual, but not too casual. The forecast said hot, but also rain. I'd decided I wanted to wear a skirt, but suddenly they all seemed too short to wear without tights.
I had one day to go, so decided the best thing to do was raid my fabric stash and knock something together that ticked all my boxes.

That's where #SewingLeftovers comes in. The lovely Shauni over at Magnificent Thread has set up this great little challenge that really helps us to be more considerate with what we are throwing away. #SewingLeftovers is about thinking creatively to make the most out of every last scrap, making memade fashion both more sustainable and more economic. I have had this red and navy stretch fabric in my stash for ages. It made its first appearance on my Tilly and The Buttons Megan Dress and since then it's been sat there teasing me.

I have a few go-to stretch skirts that I've found in charity shops that I've been wearing more and more for work, but also add a bit of class to a night out. With my leftover fabric I drew around my two favourite stretch skirts, one just above knee length and one just below. The great thing about these is no darts or shaping needed! Just a nice hip curve and an elastic waistband and you can't really go wrong. Make sure you add a bit of seam allowance on. The front and back of both skirts is the same pattern piece so you could cut on the fold, but instead I cut singular so I could make sure the pattern of the fabric all lined up perfectly.

I wanted to attach the elastic straight onto the top of my skirt, no folding or tucking or faff. To do this I marked down 1cm from the top of my skirt then lined up the bottom of my elastic with this line and stitched with a twin needle right the way round. EASY.

To hem I just turned up the bottom of the skirt so the diamonds all lined up in a straight line then twin needled around the bottom. So super quick I was able to knock together both skirts in a morning. I'd covered my bases, the shorter skirt with tights if it was overcast, the longer with bare legs if it was sunny. A very satisfying use of leftovers and a little bit sexy for my trip.

Anyone else got the hots for geometric patterns?

Ps, update! It was hot as hell and I went with the longer length and tightless. Neither skirt could prepare me for the massive downpour at 2:00pm, but he was a gent and he gave me his jacket ;)

x

Locations: Quantum Leap, Shrewsbury

Hillsborough Walled Garden, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Cactus, Teleman