The Sewing Place

Poll

Who gets your vote?

Tamnymore's Special Shirt from Silk Scarf Pieces
7 (70%)
Bodgeitandscarper's Sparkly Tartan Coat
3 (30%)

Total Members Voted: 8

Voting closed: January 12, 2018, 12:15:50 PM

Official 'Winter Glitz' Sewalong voting

Francesca

Official 'Winter Glitz' Sewalong voting
« on: January 05, 2018, 12:15:50 PM »
Apologies for the long awaited Winter Glitz Sewalong. Unfortunately we had only a handful of entries but we will still do voting! Apologies for taking so long to put this up. We will be changing the way we handle sewalongs in the coming months to aid this...

A little different from last time... this time we will have instead a secret poll with the winner being announced in one week from now! We'll see how this goes this time and we can always revert to the old way if we prefer it.

So please vote above!

Tamnymore's Special Shirt from Silk Scarf Pieces

"Adamley is one of the last silk printers in Macclesfield, the town which was once the centre of the silk industry in NW England. Every year they hold a sale and it's an opportunity to pick up wonderful pieces of silk for a song. Because the colour and designs of these pieces are so vibrant they tend to languish in a cupboard until one finds an appropriately glamorous use for them. The Winter Glitz sewalong provided a perfect opportunity to put a number of these silk pieces together for a special outfit. I chose Butterick 6138 for the pattern as I'd used it before and I knew it fitted, wasn't too difficult and, most important, it is constructed from lots of pieces (I added sleeves from another pattern and just managed to get them cut from the bottom piece of a scarf panel as you can see).  The buttons are heavy 'gold' and were a whole £1 for seven of them from a local charity shop.

I chose predominantly orange and blue pieces of silk, with some yellow. I had to move things about a bit to make the pattern fit onto the silk  pieces. The fabric was easy to cut but it frays! I overlocked all the pieces but had to stretch the overlocking out a bit as it tends to bunch. I used a ballpoint needle (a 70) and this was fine. I did have to  unpick a few bits - it's very easy to catch in slippery silk, but, luckily, the needle didn't leave holes in the fabric. The hem was tricky although it looks better now it has been ironed (it was easier last time round as I was using a stretchy fabric). Now, I have a confession to make. I didn't have time to finish the buttonholes so I just sewed the buttons along the right hand side and pinned the garment together but having got this far I wanted to send in my entry!"




Bodgeitandscarper's Sparkly Tartan Coat

"After a little pondering, and rejecting one pattern cos there's no way it would go round my hips and bum, I chose a tried and tested Vogue 1494.  I'd bought blue and red lining, but decided to go with the blue, as I want it to be a mainly blue coat.  The lovely blue tartan has red glittery bits in the red checks, so more red may have been too much.

Cutting out and pattern matching went well, and a bit easier as I did away with some princess seams and the centre back seam.  I cut the back yoke and the under sleeves on the bias for a bit of variety.

I did wonder why I sewed red buttons on with blue thread, but then realised that it's a "design feature"!

Hopefully the finished article will be judged on the coat itself and not the lumpy, fat body modelling it :-)"