Simplicity 1370, Skort

I'm a bit fan of a Skort. The most confusing item of clothing to all men (wow such a short skirt, wow but it has legs, wow but it's a skirt? But it's shorts? No I don't understand), and the most essential item of clothing for any girl in a band (wow, it's such a short skirt, but no you can't see my knickers from the front row and it's not going to ride up against my guitar). 

I'd had my eye on the Simplicity 1370 Skort pattern for a while. In fact it's been in my stash almost a year I think. With summer just around the corner (it's still coming right????) it seemed like a good time to get my skort ready to go. 

This red herringbone was exactly the kind of weight fabric I was looking for in Hillsborough Fine Fabrics. It's sturdy and presses well but doesn't seem to shrink with heat. The herringbone was both a nod to my love of geometrics and a handy helper for lining my pattern pieces up along the grainline and getting symmetrical pieces. 

I think I got this fabric a bit cheaper due to it being 'end of season'. There is something certianly a bit autumnal about it, but with the weather feeling a bit more September than May right now I think we can get away with a bit og herringbone all year round. 

I made no alterations to the pattern sizing! I think I could take a little bit out of the waist or maybe scoop a tad out of the back for a slight swayback alteration, certainly if I was using a thinner fabric, but I'm reallllly happy with the fit of the medium. 

Watching the shape come together is so fun (have I said that in every single blog post ever?!). Flaps!! I decided to line the flaps to give them a bit more stability. I could apply very light interfacing to them next time for crisper seams and points, but I am really happy with the finish of them as they are. Attaching the lining with a 1.5cm seam allowance meant that I didn't have to turn under the hem of the flaps,. If you aren't lining them you can just turn them under 1.5cm like the pattern suggests. I then understitched the seam alloance to the lining as far as I could and stay-stitched the lining to the skirt along the top and side seams so it could be treated as one when attaching to the side seams and waist band.

I swear my herringbone fabric was exactly the same on both sides, which made it really hard to identify the front and back of the flap before I lined them.... and as a result. I. Maybe. Ended up with a mirror image of the flaps on the pattern packet but I really do think I prefer it that way!! No really!! 

I love the sneaky pockets (my Topshop skort definitely doesn't have pockets), they aren't super deeo or spacious but a great feature. I guess you could omit them without altering the pattern too much if you were running low on fabric supplies, or you could cut the side panel piece in a contrast fabric.

I decided to do a blind hem instead of visible hem seeing as I didn't hace a visible stitch line along the bottom of the flaps. The hem would have benefitted from some interfacing for a bit of a crisper finish but thats an easy one for next time! 

I didn't scrimp on interfacing in the waistband though! I interfaced both the waistband and the waistband facing as I seam to remember one of my old teachers sayign you could never add too much interfacing to a waistband. Anyone else heard this one?

I made a little change to the suggested zip style and decided to do a concealed zip instead of a semi concealed zip. The fabric around the waitband just seemed a little too bulky to press an exact seam allowance in to create the lap. Instead I machine tacked the back and waistband where the zip would sit and then placed the closed zipper along the seam and attached to the seam allowances only. Flip the skirt to the right side and then topstitch down evenly through all the layers to get a nice even zipper placement. Unpick the tacking and whoa! One lovely lil zip.

I'm in love with my finished lil skort. It's structural, it's practical, its a little bit sexy and it has pockets!! It makes a fab team with the Simplicity 8513 bodysuit and suspect it will make a great little scrap buster for left overs in the future too. If flaps ain't your thing, there's an option of basic shorts or mini skirt too. 

x
Location: Mortimer Road, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Never Look Back, Night Beats

Pipe Dream Patterns, Eilidh Dress V2

It was actually version 2 of the Eilidh dress that first grabbed my attention on @SeeminglyImmaterial's instagram feed. The twist in the back acts like a knot, pulling in at the waistline and accentuating the waist and hips. This makes the simple front look really classic and elegant. In fact just wearing the dress I feel the slight pressure of the knot really helps me consider my posture too, standing tall with shoulders back and abs pulled in.

The fabric was a lucky end-of-roll find in hillsborough fine Fabrics the weekend after they opened up post-lockdown.

"That's proper jersey that is!" said the shop-man. Sure is! It stretched beautifully and had an air of 'I won't go bobbly' about it. There was just less on the roll than the pattern suggested but I thought with a bit og careful cutting and my on the spot decision to make the short sleeve version I could make it work.

As my Version 1 Eilidh fitted so well I cut a straight medium for hersion 2 too, with hopes that it wouldn't be too big in the bust - and if it was that it would be fixable with a bit of clever seam allowance editing (the joys of jersey!).

The back pattern pieces are such a funny shape, it's hard to visualise how the back twist works until you start playing with it. Using a fabric that's the same on both sides definitely poses construction confusion, so I would recommend marking the wrong side however you can before you start twisting! Once you've worked out the seams in the back (amazing how that funny little half moon becomes the waist to hip seam!!!!) it's all pretty simple assembledge. Sholders (reiniforded with a little interfacing), side seams, try on, sleeves, alterations (I increased the seam allowance from the hem up on each side by 1.5cm {so 2x 3cm smaller all round} then tapered to nothing at the waistline), then the sleeves (I inserted them with a 1.5cm seam allowance as the shoulders were looking a little bit too wide), then neckband. 

The pattern piece for the neckband is for the scoopback vesion of the dress, so the high back version is like, half the length. There aren't really any instrucions on how to attach the neckband so relies on the maker having a bit of prior knowledge. I attached with a zig-zag seam, possibly the most beautiful neckband I have ever seam, then took it off the ,achine to find I'd attached it back to front!!!!! I was SO glad that I hadn't overlocked this!! All because I was a bit too lazy to put green spools on my overlocker aha! I was able to unpick and reattched in relatively little time and without there being any lasting evidence of my silly mistake. It's almost as neat as my first shot haha! 

I finished the neckband with a really narrow zig zag top stitch to hold the band in place and stop the inside from flipping out.

Hem with a twin needle + fin!

These Eilidh patterns but Pipe Dream patterns are so beautifully designed. I absolutely adore the fit of both of the dresses and the way they both lend themselves to being totally customisable to any kinds of jersey to create completely different dresses for different occasions. The design is clever and eyecatching, emitting the perfect amount of sass and glamour to make for the perfect occasion dress. 

What other Pipe Dream patterns have you guys used? I've spied some super cute jackets and pinafores on the website...

x
Location: Loxley, Sheffield
Currently Listening to: Living Dead, Marina and The Diamonds

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