A skirt and a sale

Here is the skirt I drafted and sewed back in August. It has been worn quite a lot -- both dressed up with a blouse and pearls as well as dressed down as you see here with a black tee and slippers.

Suck in tummy - check! Angle the body to look slimmer - check! lol :-)

Back view.

I need to make more of these skirts -- they're quick to sew up and best of all, FIT! I think I'll practice drafting and sewing one of these for my 12-year-old niece ... or skinny sister who is built like a 12-year-old (no, no, there is nooooo jealousy in my tone here ... LOL!)

OK, now for the sale news -- the Spotlight sale catalogue arrived today and there are some tempting goodies which go on sale from Wednesday 6th October to Sunday 24th October:

• Butterick patterns are buy 1, get 1 free ... and VIPs get an additional 10% off
• Knits are marked down ... SGD$8.99 - $13.25 a metre (from $12.99 - 18.95 a metre)
• All printed cottons (poplin, sateen & voiles included) from $6.96 - $12.56 a metre
• Adjustable dressforms @ $439.96 (usual $549.95)
• 100% cotton stripes and dots - $6.95 a metre
  

There are Christmas prints and panels too. Guess which mall I'll be valiantly trying to avoid for the next few weeks? :-)

Rulers and oilcloth

I had always wondered how people drafted things from scratch and I'm sooooo thrilled to be a little in the know now. LOL! One of the tools which fascinated me as I embarked on the drafting adventure were the rulers.
They're like toys! BUT they help you draft things on a smaller scale first. And they're relatively cheap. A set of two like the above pic costs SGD$1. I bought mine from the teacher, but they're also available in Chinatown.

Speaking of Chinatown, Malin Textile has brought in some oilcloth! Oilcloth is useful for things like bibs, purses/bags, diaper changing pads and things like that.I bought some to make a daycare shower bag for the little monkey and some cosmetics pouches (getting started on some Christmas gift sewing).

The oilcloth is available only in polka dot prints, but in a huge variety of colours, including chocolate brown, lime green, beigey white, dark blue and the rich black and deep black which I bought. Cost is SGD$35 a metre (slightly cheaper than Golden Dragon) and the minimum cut is half a metre.

Now I need to read up on oilcloth -- ie. needles to use, what presser foot to use, etc. Good thing is, it doesn't fray, so there is one less thing to worry about.

Edited to add:

• Here is a good link about oilcloth -- its uses and general machine sewing suggestions. And here is another decent link.
  
  
• Here are links to tutorials on how to make:
  - a simple oilcloth wallet
  - coin purse
  - grocery bag, another grocery bag, yet another grocery bag
  - backpack bag (from u-handblog, one of my favourite blogs on bag-making)
  - man's toiletries bag
  - garden tool caddy (VERY cool for someone who loves gardening)
  - baby bib
  - Collapsible travel dish for a pet (CUTE idea for someone with a cat or dog!)
  - book cover
  
  

Still ....

Just a quick, picture-less post to say:

1. I'm STILL quilting the fairy quilt. Oh boy, this hand quilting thing sure is taking up a lot of time; but there is something oddly and immensely satisfying about pushing needle through fabric. That said, though, I'm NEVER hand-quilting again. Or at least I'm NOT going to do it again in the near future. Sewing machines were invented for a reason. LOL!!!

2. I'm still enjoying drafting. In addition to the skirt, I drafted a simple top and have just about finished sewing it up. In the works is another skirt which I will draft as time permits.

Will take a few photos soon and show them to you :-))

Adventures in drafting

Sorry for the delay in updates. I caught the sniffles, but am better now :)

So as mentioned in a previous post, I took Friday (20th August) off to attend a drafting/sewing class at Stitch & Craft Corner (Eastpoint Mall, Simei). It was FUN and I'm going back for more lessons.
The first thing I learnt was how to take proper measurements, a vital first step, said the teacher, and of course that makes perfect sense. Having used paper patterns all my sewing life, it was an eye-opener for me to learn about the many vital measurement points.

In addition to the usual bust, waist & hips, we also measured things such as shoulder, bust length (distance from shoulder to bust), hip length (distance from waist to fullest part of hip), front waist length, back waist length (my measurements for front waist and back waist are dramatically different, but for some people, it's the same), etc.

First, we measured the mannequin in the shop and then, I attempted to take some of my own measurements and that of the teacher's (in the pic below, the teacher is in the red top; wonderful Ati is the person in dark blue):After the measurements were taken, we began drafting a basic bodice and skirt. The drafting was first done in a sketchbook, using itty bitty rulers.

The drawings look mighty complicated, don't they!At first, it was a bit overwhelming, but the teacher was really patient and explained things logically ... eg. add xx inches to the waist measurement and then take xx off for the darts.

Then, after walking me through the first draft, she made me draft the basic bodice and basic skirt by myself in the book.

Then it was time to do the "proper" drafts on paper and cut out the fashion fabrics. First up, was the skirt. And I was so engrossed in the process that I forgot to take pics, sorry! But here's a pic of the bodice back and all the red lines are the teacher's corrections.
The interesting thing (to me) about drafting is that you don't add seam allowances to the draft. That is done directly on the fashion fabric before cutting it out. So you place the paper on the fabric, mark out the cutting lines (and there are different seam allowances for different parts of the garment) and then cut out the pieces. In the pic above, the "outline" is where I cut.

Then, after cutting out the pieces, you mark the sewing lines/seam lines. That makes for rather accurate sewing, I think! And it makes fitting easier too, in my opinion. In the pic below, you can see the skirt yoke cut out and the tracing wheel and carbon paper I'll use for tracing out the seam lines. Thank goodness for marking the seamlines because as you can see, I didn't do a good job cutting. Hahahhaha!

Then came the sewing. I've completed the skirt (simple yoked a-line with invisible zip in the centre back) and am currently working on the simple top.

Stay tuned as the adventure continues!!