2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

Baileys_Babe said:

PipneyJane said:

Baileys_Babe said:

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Cherryfudge said:

I wonder if I should give the sewing machine a name and embellish it with stickers or something? To build up a positive relationship with it?!

You should definitely get to know it better and make friends with it!  My sewing machine doesn’t have a name, but my overlocker is called Pearl, you can probably work out why. 🙄

I really recommend a little book called “Me and my Sewing Machine” by Kate Haxell. It explains all the basics and gives you really clear examples of different stitches. Even though I had used a sewing machine for years, when I bought an electric one I got this book and it was very helpful. It’s like anything else, the more you use it, the less daunting it seems.

Thank you for the book recommendation @PollyWollyDoodle I have ordered a preloved copy which should be with us within the week.

Ditto.  Even though I grew up around sewing machines - my mother trained as a dressmaker and pattern cutter - I think a good reference book on sewing machine maintenance will be useful.  (I got mine via Abe Books.)

- Pip

Snap - less than £3.50 including postage 😊

So was mine.  Hopefully, they haven’t sold us the same copy, twice.

Those of you living to north of Much Mending, on the road to Northallerton, my friend’s mum sent me a lovely surprise yesterday.  She lives near you and found a new wool shop in Thirsk, Ewe & Yarn.  This is what she sent me:



It was a lovely surprise!

- Pip

MrsCD

How lovely of your friend's mum. What a pretty bag.

Baileys_Babe

PipneyJane said:

Baileys_Babe said:

PipneyJane said:

Baileys_Babe said:

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Cherryfudge said:

I wonder if I should give the sewing machine a name and embellish it with stickers or something? To build up a positive relationship with it?!

You should definitely get to know it better and make friends with it!  My sewing machine doesn’t have a name, but my overlocker is called Pearl, you can probably work out why. 🙄

I really recommend a little book called “Me and my Sewing Machine” by Kate Haxell. It explains all the basics and gives you really clear examples of different stitches. Even though I had used a sewing machine for years, when I bought an electric one I got this book and it was very helpful. It’s like anything else, the more you use it, the less daunting it seems.

Thank you for the book recommendation @PollyWollyDoodle I have ordered a preloved copy which should be with us within the week.

Ditto.  Even though I grew up around sewing machines - my mother trained as a dressmaker and pattern cutter - I think a good reference book on sewing machine maintenance will be useful.  (I got mine via Abe Books.)

- Pip

Snap - less than £3.50 including postage 😊

So was mine.  Hopefully, they haven’t sold us the same copy, twice.

Those of you living to north of Much Mending, on the road to Northallerton, my friend’s mum sent me a lovely surprise yesterday.  She lives near you and found a new wool shop in Thirsk, Ewe & Yarn.  This is what she sent me:

It was a lovely surprise!

- Pip

How lovely of your friends Mum.

Fingers crossed they have more than 1 copy 🤞

Liverpool_Anne

That looks like a very interesting book. I should probably invest in 1 so when I get the machine down from the loft and have had it serviced I will know what I am doing

TwibbleDee

Kate Haxell's Me & My Sewing Machine is $1.99 on Kindle over here.  I have it in my queue now for when I actually get around to sewing again.

PipneyJane

TwibbleDee said:

Kate Haxell's Me & My Sewing Machine is $1.99 on Kindle over here.  I have it in my queue now for when I actually get around to sewing again.

It’s £10.29 here, so we might as well buy the paperback.

To return to an earlier topic that we’ve discussed, I was listening to Episode 148 “The Sandbox” of Cast On earlier this week and the host, Brenda Dayne, has a very interesting rant about sustainability.  In the end, Brenda decides to not send her old/unwanted clothing to charity shops but, instead, to use them as her fabric stash/source of fabric for future projects.  

Personally, I am wondering whether I have the skills/facilities to perform my own “Transformation Challenge” - thank you Sewing Bee - on one of my husband’s suits where the trousers have reportedly gone in the crotch.   (He still hasn’t shown me the damage.). I reckon I could possibly make a skirt-suit for me out of it but I’d definitely need a dressmaker’s dummy which I don’t have.  (Any recommendations?). The jacket is double breasted.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane, you probably don't need a dressmakers' dummy (aka dress form, tailors' form), tbh - it's just easier and quicker and less hassle with one. 
Definitely DON'T try the internet-fave of wearing a sacrificial t-shirt and bra and getting someone to wrap you in layers of gaffer-tape and then cut up centre-back and hey presto, your very own perfect custom-measurement dummy, because a) it really doesn't work and b) the tape goes very gunky and sticky very quickly Ask me how I know... 

I would get a dummy, Freegle, charity shop, send a mass-email round everyone you know because people really do have them in the attic or spare room unused,  and then make it a fitted waistcoat to your measurements using non-stretch woven fabric (mine is furnishing fabric, synthetic and with a strong check pattern making it easier to measure by eye from the midline (obviously I centred the pattern on the midline!)). Stuff the waistcoat with kapok, cut-up old clothes, old tights, anything. 
Mine is only pinned on, but sewing would be neater - my form was Gran's, made for her, and she was far far far slimmer than I am these days, about 6 stone lighter, so the padded waistcoat is essential. 

Basically, there's little point using a form that doesn't correspond to your own body, so even if you bought a new one, you'd need either to pay extra for having it made-to-measure, or pay extra to buy an adjustable one, or make it a waistcoat... so I would just get any dress form, cheap or free, and then pad it up to match you. 

My shorter, less-full green linen skirt made a few months ago has been essential for me this year. I have lived in it, and it looks fine - and that means the deeply unflattering two previous shorter skirts can go: one is dark blue synthetic, from a doomed attempt to buy a dress online which turned out to have the weirdest shape imaginable, so in the end I chopped off the startlingly odd halterneck top, added pockets, levelled he swoopy hem and made the rest into a skirt which never looked right; the other is a black linen-blend skirt bought in a tearing hurry for my late sister's funeral 8 years ago when we all realised all our funeral blacks were for colder weather and none of us had anything we could wear in a horrendous heatwave without seriously running the risk of fainting. So I grabbed a black skirt in BHS and it was wonky and badly-made new, and now it's wonky and badly-made and faded and tatty... so I intend to make the black linen into a camisole top (I have an old long-sleeved top I change into for frying and cooking with tomato sauces, but it's far too hot for this weather so a black cami will be useful, even if a bit faded and tatty), and the blue ex-dress will have its seam-insert pockets removed for re-use, and the pretty hem-tape retrieved for re-use and be dismantled and pressed and put into a box to be used for eg pocket-linings, internal reinforcing repairs, etc. as it's quite strong fabric.

Cherryfudge

Aha - a few things in the posts above to look up when I get home! Meanwhile I’m on my phone at our friends’ house, where the sun always shines and the car boot sales are fantastic.
I therefore have a spend of £3.50 to declare but no coupons at all for an M&S smart coat, two super pairs of upmarket-to-me sandals (that actually fit), a jumper, some shorts and a blouse. I am a happy bunny. ☺️

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

Aha - a few things in the posts above to look up when I get home! Meanwhile I’m on my phone at our friends’ house, where the sun always shines and the car boot sales are fantastic.
I therefore have a spend of £3.50 to declare but no coupons at all for an M&S smart coat, two super pairs of upmarket-to-me sandals (that actually fit), a jumper, some shorts and a blouse. I am a happy bunny. ☺️

Score!  Your friend must have "the gift"!  Lucky you!

- Pip  (I used to work with a girl who had "the gift".  Every time she and I wandered around the charity shops, we'd both find amazing bargains that fitted us and were in good condition.  If I went by myself, to the same shops, I never found a damn thing.)

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane, you probably don't need a dressmakers' dummy (aka dress form, tailors' form), tbh - it's just easier and quicker and less hassle with one. 
Definitely DON'T try the internet-fave of wearing a sacrificial t-shirt and bra and getting someone to wrap you in layers of gaffer-tape and then cut up centre-back and hey presto, your very own perfect custom-measurement dummy, because a) it really doesn't work and b) the tape goes very gunky and sticky very quickly Ask me how I know... 

I would get a dummy, Freegle, charity shop, send a mass-email round everyone you know because people really do have them in the attic or spare room unused,  and then make it a fitted waistcoat to your measurements using non-stretch woven fabric (mine is furnishing fabric, synthetic and with a strong check pattern making it easier to measure by eye from the midline (obviously I centred the pattern on the midline!)). Stuff the waistcoat with kapok, cut-up old clothes, old tights, anything. 
Mine is only pinned on, but sewing would be neater - my form was Gran's, made for her, and she was far far far slimmer than I am these days, about 6 stone lighter, so the padded waistcoat is essential. 

Basically, there's little point using a form that doesn't correspond to your own body, so even if you bought a new one, you'd need either to pay extra for having it made-to-measure, or pay extra to buy an adjustable one, or make it a waistcoat... so I would just get any dress form, cheap or free, and then pad it up to match you. .

Thanks for the advice, @Laura_Elsewhere.  I was considering buying an adjustable one but we'll see what happens.  One of my few regrets is that I let one slip through my fingers years ago...

- Pip