Cottonopolis

In December I spent a couple of days in Manchester on the way to visit my husband's family in Liverpool. For those who don't know much about the history of the place, it was at the centre of the Industrial Revolution in the UK at the beginning of the 19th century. It was probably the world's first industrialised city, and its growth was driven by the textile industry - at its height, around two thirds of the world's cotton was processed in the city.

The day we were there it was freezing cold, so instead of looking round the city, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, and I'm very glad we did as they have a big gallery dedicated to their cotton processing heritage. As well as artefacts relating to the business side of the cotton trade, they also have a huge set up of the machines used for processing from cotton bale to cloth, which they have demonstrations of twice daily (I think around 11am and 3pm).

Seeing these machines running is amazing. They are huge and noisy, and then you realise that the machines in the mill were six times as large, with hundreds all together. It was a pretty dangerous and difficult life to work in such a place. Many workers ended up with byssinosis (chronic lung disease from inhalation of the cotton dust), and there was grave risk of injury or death from the drive belts and the machinery itself. It also made me wonder about the conditions in modern mills - whilst I'm sure there is some more mechanisation nowadays, the principle of how the cotton is sorted, spun and woven is the same, so has life improved for those who work doing this?

On a slightly lighter note, there were also exhibits of modern Mancunian textile artists, two of which were especially fascinating. Jennifer Collier, who creates art by incorporating found materials into textiles, and Trish Belford, who created printing techniques for designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes in the 1980s and 1990s, and since 2005 has worked on amazing composite materials, with fabric embedded in concrete. Seriously, these things are beautiful.

The rest of the museum is also super interesting, but if you are interested in the history of textile manufacture and find yourself in Manchester, I would highly recommend a visit. And look: I have a piece of cotton woven on a loom over 100 years old!

Happy New Year!

So, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday period, and you didn't have too much of a headache this morning. What did I do for New Year? I made a fondue and then went out into town for midnight - there was a big funfair at Plainpalais and soundstages and bars set up in the street. It was pretty fun and rather un-Swiss! Fireworks at midnight were provided by crazy Genevois. In the street.

Anyway, here's my obligatory sewing review of the year. Nothing as deep here as you might find on other blogs, but it's helpful for me to see all this in one place.

What I've made this year

• Yellow crepe wrap skirt
• Leopard-print Sorbetto
• Kitchen apron (not blogged, but seen here)
• Green and gold drape front cardie
• Green twill flat-front shorts (semi-wadder)
• Lace dartless dress
• Flowery pyjama shorts
• Black doubleknit tube skirt (not blogged)
• First try at mock-wrap knock-off dress
• Snake-print mock-wrap knock-off dress
• Leopard-print batwing top (not blogged, but seen here)
• Beige rayon knit batwing top (not blogged)
• Green crinkle gauze maxi skirt (not properly blogged, but seen here and here)
• Turquoise draped maxi skirt (semi-wadder, not blogged, but seen here
• Grey denim shorts (not blogged)
• Green pocket shorts (not blogged)
• Colette Patterns Jasmine blouse (muslined only, semi-wadder, not blogged)
• Burda narrow trousers (wadder, not blogged)
• Top for hiking (semi-wadder, not blogged)
• Blue rayon T-shirt remake (not blogged)
• V&A Liberty print Sorbetto
• Burda "smart" sweatshirt top, version 1 (semi-wadder, not blogged)
• Burda "smart" sweatshirt top, version 2 (wadder, not blogged)
• Silk Sorbetto (to be blogged shortly!)
• Cowl neck batwing top (not blogged)
• Angora lightweight circle scarf (not blogged)
• Matching aprons for my sister and nephew
• Cable-knit scarf for my sister
• Circular scarf for my dad
• Peplum top
• Yellow jersey tube skirt

What I've learned this year

• If I'm having "sewist's block" I need to just push through and do something, otherwise I can go months at at time faffing about what I want/need/can do.
• It is not a waste of time making myself nice clothes, even if I'm not the weight/shape I want to be.
• Keeping my sewing room tidy is very important.
• I need a forward shoulder adjustment.
• Silk basting thread is my new friend.
• I need to review my New Year sewing "resolutions" more frequently, so I don't forget about them!

How I've done with my plans for this year

• Tidy and organise my sewing room. I've actually done quite well with this. Nearly all my fabric has been sorted and folded neatly, my notions and other materials are sorted and stored and I have sorted out and catalogued all my patterns. There's a few things left to find a place for or to complete, and I have bought new ceiling lights but these are yet to put up - but overall the room is much more pleasant and easy to work in.
• Sew more coordinated garments (in a wardrobe sense). Again, I've done pretty well with this. Many of the items I've made are separates and have slotted into my regular wardrobe very well.
• Blog once a week. Hmm, this one wasn't so great. I managed reasonably well up until July, but then it was unfortunately rather sparse for several months, partly due to a horrible bout of sinusitis, right in the middle of the summer.
• Sew one item a fortnight. Well, although I've had big gaps in my productivity, there are 32 items in my list above, so this has technically been achieved!
• Sew at least one item from each new issue of BWOF. Not done so well with this one - I've actually only sewn five Burda items, and two of those were from a pre-2012 magazine. Oh, and four of the items were wadders. Hmm.
• Finish up each item before starting the next! Not too bad with this again. There were a few UFOs, but all of these were wadders (or on the path to be wadders), so it would have been unproductive to complete them. Generally though, I've been pretty good about finishing up each project and tidying away all the bits and pieces before starting the next one.
• Do some non-garment sewing. Nope.
• Sew a garment for someone else. Do aprons and scarves count?! I'm going to say yes so I can tick this one off. (Although I had been intending this to mean a dress for a friend and a shirt for my husband. Shh.)

What I plan to do in 2013

Several of these are continuations from last year.

• Blog once a week. This is mainly to keep me motivated to keep making things!
• Make an item once a fortnight. Fairly self-explanatory.
• Finish each item before starting something else. I was pretty good with doing this in 2012, so I will keep this up. It definitely contributes to more efficient and satisfying sewing.
• Take pictures of each garment as soon as it's done, and take more pictures of me wearing my clothes. Looking at my list, I realise how many of the things I made haven't been properly blogged, and this is nearly always because I haven't taken pictures of them yet. I will take more pictures of the things I make, including in progress and me wearing them - not least because this helps with my learning process and evaluation of what I'm doing.
• Continue sewing mostly wardrobe-builders. Really thinking about how the things I'm sewing will fit into my wardrobe has meant I get much more wear out of the things I make.
• Make at least one pattern from BurdaStyle magazine each month. Although I made a few garments in 2012, I'm still not making the most of my subscription. There are plenty of patterns I love in Burda, and now I'm getting better at fitting and adjusting patterns, I have no excuse to not make more.
• Declare a moratorium on pattern buying. With the exception of my Burda subscription, I plan to not buy any more patterns for at least six months (preferably the whole year). When I sorted out my patterns, I realised just how many I have (hint: way too many), so there is unlikely to be a reason to buy new ones for a very long time!
• Declare a moratorium on fabric buying too. I have a feeling this one will be much harder to stick to, as although I nearly always buy fabric with a planned garment in mind, I am very good at coming up with a planned garment for most fabrics... I have a pretty good variety of most fabrics in my stash, so unless there is something that is absolutely vital to a make, I will attempt to talk myself down from fabric purchases.
• Get back into swimming regularly. Whilst this isn't obviously sewing related, I want to get back into some semblance of "shape", partly for my own health, and (more relevant here) partly so that I can make even nicer clothes even more flattering for me.
• Non-garment sewing. There are too many things on this list that have been on the back burner for months, if not years. 2013 will be when I tick some of them off.
• Sew for others. I would like to make my husband a shirt, and would also like to try my hand at sewing a dress on commission for someone else (someone patient).
• Complete the finishing touches in the sewing room. There's just a few niggling things that need to be done, after which the room will be pretty much complete: move a filing cabinet and replace it with more drawers, put pictures and a hanging bar on the wall, replace the lights and sort out a couple of remaining boxes that I moved in with (yeah, that was 2 1/2 years ago). I aim to get this done asap (at least by the end of January).
• Check back on these plans throughout the year. Because I have a terrible memory.

Finally

Look what I got for Christmas from my husband - just what I wanted and needed! (almost as if he had some sort of list of handy hints......)

Me-Made-May '12 sign-up

Yep, I've decided to do this again - I participated in MMJ-11 and SSS-11. The first I enjoyed immensely, the second wasn't so successful, so I'm hoping that I will be happier with what I do with the challenge this time round. So here's the pledge, some more thoughts about the challenge afterwards:

I, Dilly, of Dibulous, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '12. I endeavour to wear a minimum of one me-made or me-refashioned garment or accessory each day for the duration of May 2012. In addition, I will endeavour to make/refashion three more "separates" garments to give my me-made wardrobe more versatility.

So, part of my challenge is going to be trying to expand my wardrobe - whilst it's much more fun to be sewing fabulous dresses, it's not terribly practical when trying to integrate items I've made into everyday wear... I'm hoping that the more everyday stuff will also be a bit quicker to make - my plan is to try and get a few "basic" patterns that I can then adapt as I wish - I'm already making progress on a fitted T-shirt pattern (more on that in another post), I have made a basic shorts pattern (again, more in another post).

There's another important part of the challenge to myself (although I'm not putting it in the actual pledge) - if I don't keep to the goal for whatever reason, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. If there's a day when my me-made items are just wrong (I think we all have those days whether the clothes are me-made or RTW...), I'm not going to get upset, but will instead reflect on why they feel wrong, whether I need to make garments to fill in these gaps, what fitting issues I need to improve etc. I think this will really help to improve my sewing both technically and for wardrobe planning.

Things I'm currently loving

Glass-headed pins:

My rotary cutter (also the pinking blade):

Somthing I'm not loving:

Tim has been voiceless for a while, now he's headless. I need to dig out my soldering kit and the hot glue because I'm missing his exhortations.

You know it's time to tidy your sewing room...

...when you buy a basic jersey tube skirt that needs the elastic adjusting because it's easier than clearing a space to make one (which would take about 10 minutes if my sewing room wasn't quite so messy).

I know what my project is for the next week...

Merry Christmas, review of 2011, Happy New Year

Just a warning, this will be another text- and list-heavy post...

Well, the last few months have been manic, to say the least. In the last three and a half months, I have been to Cornwall, New York, London, Liverpool, Reading, London again, and Liechtenstein. Whilst this has been super fun (and I've seen several good friends getting married in various places), it hasn't left much time for sewing and/or blogging. Well, I say not much time, but I think it's more that I have been lacking the energy and focus when I do have a chunk of time. It also hasn't helped that the entire flat looks like a bomb's hit it after several months of rapid-fire packing and unpacking, which isn't very conducive to creativity. The annoying thing is that I have vast quantities of ideas for what I want to sew, so it's been very frustrating!

Anyway, enough whinging...! I hope you all had lovely and relaxing Christmases? My husband and I spent Christmas in Liechtenstein with friends who moved there recently. It was lovely spending time with them, and it felt especially Christmassy as it was very snowy there! We spent the time eating, drinking, watching films, and we also did a bit of snow-shoeing, which was brilliant and took us through a very beautiful area.

I also made a lot of mince pies and Christmas biscuits to take with us...

Despite the last few months, I did a lot better in making things this year:

• Two "infinity" jersey scarves for (late) Christmas presents (not blogged, and I don't think I took pics of them before sending them)
• Vintage pattern birthday dress
• BWOF birthday dress
• High-waisted doubleknit skirt
• Jeans skirt
• Jersey vest top (not blogged)
• Oversized T-shirt top (times two!)
• Jersey rose-print dress
• Refashioned frilly dress
• Gingham blouse
• Gardening apron
• Yellow fabric necklace
• Duster-a-like wrap/waistcoat
• Cowl-neck jersey dress
• Deep-cowl jersey dress
• Jersey mock-wrap dress
• Jersey off-cut necklace
• Chambray sundress (unfinished)
• Disastrous elastic waist summer trousers (not blogged)
• Shorts (muslined only, not blogged)
• Cream pleated skirt (not blogged)
• Silk charmeuse wrap dress
• Cotton underlined wrap dress
• Sorbetto top
• Doubleknit low-back frankendress (unfinished, not blogged)
• Wool BWOF ruffle-front dress (unfinished, not blogged)
• Blue miniskirt (not blogged)
• Yellow knitted circle scarf (not blogged)
• Wool pencil skirt (not blogged)
• Stripy knitted scarf (not blogged)
• Alphabet quilt

Seeing it all written down in a list like that is pretty satisfying, and helps me stop focussing on all the things I didn't do. I think the most disappointing thing was that despite having the opportunity to make many party dresses (several weddings and a ball - terrible film), I didn't finish any. I did wear a dress I made to one of the weddings, but it was one made earlier in the year. The doubleknit low-back frankendress and the wool ruffle-front dress were both intended to be wedding guest dresses, but didn't get finished. The doubleknit one is nearly done, but I didn't allow for the weight of the fabric stretching it, so when I sewed it together and put it on, it needed a vast number of alterations, which I couldn't face at the time (all the seams were serged...). As for the ruffly wool dress, I simply ran out of time to get it finished, but it does fit well and will be finished up to be worn in the new year.

So how did I do on my sewing resolutions?

• Sew at least one item once a fortnight. In terms of numbers I did better than this: including unfinished and wadders, I think I sewed/knitted about 33 items this year! Of these, maybe 1/2 - 2/3 were successful and/or worn a lot, so that's not bad going.
• Set myself sewing projects each month. Meh, this didn't really happen, it was more, "Quick, I have a couple of weeks to sew, let's make something - anything!"
• Blog at least once a week. Blogging was spottier than I had hoped for, I often just found I didn't have the time to write the posts or take pictures. I'm planning to do a few catch up posts in the next few weeks.

In other sewing related activities, I took two courses at the London College of Fashion, saw an exhibition of vintage couture dresses, joined in with Me-Made-June '11 and Self-Stitched-September '11, visited the Garment District in New York, and joined a sewing group.

So, plans for this year...

• Tidy and organise my sewing room - the lack of sewing time and rapid-fire switching between projects over the last few months means my supposedly calm "me-space" looks like a fabric and notions bomb has exploded all over the place.
• Sew more coordinated garments (in a wardrobe sense, not matchy-matchy!), and more basic wardrobe fillers to give my outfits more versatility
• Blog once a week
• Sew one item a fortnight
• Sew at least one item from each new issue of BWOF - I don't think I'm really making the most of my subscription at the moment
• Finish up each item before starting the next!
• Do some non-garment sewing - I have some household and accessory sewing that needs doing, which I've been putting off for a while
• Sew a garment for someone else

I'm not making a list of "must-sew" items (at least not here), as it always seems to change according to how productive I've been, the weather, events coming up, my current mood... Maybe I'll do this at the beginning of each month.

So how has everyone else's year been? Hopefully happy and productive? Here's to a happy and productive 2012 too!

Self-Stitched-September '11 = epic fail

Well, maybe epic fail is overstating it a bit, but my self-stitched month rather deflated about two thirds of the way through, rather like a badly baked soufflé (sorry, I've just been watching the Great British Bake-Off).

So excuses: not enough "transition" items, super busy month with lots of travelling and lots of contrasts (smart wedding followed by hiking in drizzle anyone?), and having time-management issues (hmm, I think I'll adapt a pattern and make a dress to wear to a wedding in three days. Yeah). Oh well, many lessons have been learned, not least that I need to remember I don't do "fast" sewing - if I want to make more stuff, I need to plan more - and knuckle down and do more too!

Having said that I do have a few new things to show you, and a couple of things in progress too - however, these will have to wait, and this post will be sadly photo-free, as I'm busy busy busy getting ready to go to New York for a week! Woo! I really can't wait... (And of course I've printed off my guides to the Garment District :)

Me-Made-June '11: Conclusions

Yes, it's already more than a week into July, but I needed a break from MMJ after thinking about it daily! But I just wanted to record a few observations and lessons for my future sewing and any future challenges.

1. I need to make more things! I'm sure that will always be the case, but specifically I need to make more wardrobe building items: separates and cardies/jackets that I can mix and match to avoid repeats so much. While these aren't necessarily the most exciting to sew, I really need these in order to get by day to day and still wear my me-made items. I definitely prefer to wear dresses, but separates would give me more variety. I read a good sewing plan somewhere a while back (I can't remember where unfortunately - it might have been talking about buying clothes, but it still applies): each piece you sew should go with at least one other item in your wardrobe.

2. Sort of linked to the above, I need more solid coloured items that can be worn with lots of items. I love patterns, but I don't quite have the élan of Vivienne Westwood, D&G, Prada or Mundo to mix them all the time! I noticed some others discussing the same revelation in the Flickr discussion group.

3. Several items have gone into the refashion pile... It's not worth wearing something that doesn't make you feel happy, even if it is something you have put time and effort into making yourself, it just makes you feel enormously frustrated. I still can't quite bring myself to give away these items though...

4. Most of all, it's such fun joining in with a group of like-minded and talented people to do a me-made-month! I don't know many people IRL who are obsessed with sewing like me (or are even interested in sewing), so it's great being able to show what you've made, be inspired by others, and talk about sewing stuff. (I'm thinking of setting up a sewing group so I can do this in real life, but more about that in a later post.)

I'm looking forward to joining the next me-made month!

Musings on fitting

Does anyone else loathe fitting? Nothing else in sewing (or any other craft really) frustrates me as much as trying to work out how to adjust something to make it fit me correctly. Give me a BWOF pattern sheet to trace, or a vast playmat to quilt, or sharp cornered seams to match - just anything other than having to fit something on myself!

In conjunction with trying to work out the actual adjustments needed to translate from a "standard" shape to my very unstandard shape, I've been trying to work out what it is that frustrates me so much about it, in order to see if I can make it a little less painful (as there's really no point sewing clothes for myself if they don't fit well). Not to mention that I find myself putting off sewing as I'm dreading the fitting stage.

So I think my conclusions are:

1. It's really hard to pin out alterations on yourself.
2. It can be super frustrating trying to work out the correct alteration to fix problems, and having to keep taking garments on and off.
3. A fair amount of frustration with fitting stems from dislike of my body.

So, what to do about these? I guess the first one is just something I have to live with (at least until my husband develops a hitherto hidden talent for basic sewing skills), and I'll just have to make better use of photos, and get used to taking things on and off much more to adjust them properly. I actually had a bit of a revelation about this recently, when it was pointed out that if I'm muslining, I can put the opening wherever is easiest for me to pin together - i.e. put it at the front rather than the back!

The second I guess will get better with experience, so for now I just have to suck it up and get on with it. To be honest, it's already better than it was when I started sewing as I have more understanding of how to "read" the toile to work out the fitting problems, and more of a library of alterations in my head in order to fix them. The books I currently use most to help with fitting are Fast Fit: Easy Pattern Alterations for Every Figure by Sandra Betzina, and The Collins Complete Book Of Needlecraft (OOP - I inherited this from my mum) - and also good old Google! There's such a wealth of information out there on the interwebs.

The third is a little more tricky, and is going to need rather more work. I've been making a few changes to my diet and activity levels, so even if I don't change size or shape much, I'll at least be reasonably healthy and know that my body reflects how I should be, rather than be simply a product of something I have done to myself with crap food and a sedentary lifestyle. Oh, and I'm starting to invest in good undies. I've also been looking more closely at other bloggers' pictures (haha how to make everyone self-conscious :) and realised that many of them aren't so different from me - I've realised that two bloggers in particular I especially admire are almost the same size as me (although slightly different shapes), and they both look completely fabulous! Therefore I obviously do too...!

What are everyone else's tips on fitting? What's your bugbear when sewing?

Happy New Year, lists galore (yeah, a bit late...)

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you all had a lovely break over the Christmas period and had time to do plenty of sewing? And, yeah, this post has been sitting in my "drafts" folder for over a month now - where the hell does the time go?

It seems to be pretty popular in the blogosphere to review the previous year and make resolutions for the next, so I'm (sort of) going to do that too! I love following the crowd...

Well, 2010 was a pretty big year for me, mainly because of my move from London to Geneva. Ten months later and I'm still "settling in". When will that feeling go away? So many things about London I didn't realise I would miss so much until they weren't there any more - not least the fabric and haberdashery shops. Haberdashery's not so difficult to get hold of here, but the fabric appears to be INSANELY expensive. Like "44 CHF per metre for plain silk charmeuse" expensive (compared to £6 per metre equivalent on lovely lovely Goldhawk Road). JEEZ. On the positive side, however, I have gained a (almost) dedicated sewing room, plus the time to actually get down and sew. Delicious.

In terms of sewing, my output was depressingly low, but I think that was mainly due to getting stuff packed and unpacked and then getting settled here:

1. Leopard and green Budapest dress
2. Yellow knitted circle scarf (unfinished)
3. Alphabet quilt for my nephew (unfinished)

Is that really all I made???? Well I guess that's motivation to have a slightly more impressive list next year!

I did also do a little Christmas sewing, I will post pictures in a separate post once the items have actually gone to their owners (what? I'm stretching out the excitement of the yuletide period for them).

As for resolutions, well I have some personal ones, which I'm not going to share with the, ooh, positively millions of people who are reading this (ahem), but the relevant ones for here are:

1. Sew at least one item once a fortnight
2. Set myself sewing projects each month
3. Blog at least once a week

And progress so far? Mixed:

1. I'm doing pretty well on this one actually! I'll post some of the stuff shortly that I've been producing.
2. Only informally done so far. January was a bit vague, it was sort of sewing some basic jersey tops (boring, but needed), and sort of sewing a dress for my birthday. February is slightly more solid: sewing a dress for my birthday party (distinct from the birthday this year!). Again, posts to follow, honest. Which brings me onto...
3. Er, yeah, well, this hasn't gone soooooo well! Room for improvement.

A bit more generally on number 2 (snigger), my wardrobe has been a bit in limbo since I stopped work when I moved over here and I want to get it sorted. I much prefer wearing a slightly dressier, "put together" look, which perfectly suited an office job, but isn't always the most appropriate thing to wear for my current life. I also often want to wear more comfy/casual clothes, but I also want to feel and look good, and the clothes I have that are comfy and casual generally don't really fit the bill for looking good...

Items planned:

• Jersey T-shirt tops
• Some sort of pretty tops that fit me (specific there, eh?)
• Big cowl neck jumper (inspired by *ahem* Project Runway)
• Warmer/sturdier revised version of green vintage jacket
• Sweatshirt jacket
• Winter coat (hmm, maybe a bit late for this season)
• Wool skirt
• Sweater dress
• Jersey house dresses
• Shirtdress
• Birthday dress (1 of 2 done and worn)
• - Wide(ish) leg trouser-jeans

Well, watch this space to see how I get on with this...

Bad blogger

There was an article in the staff magazine where I work (a university) about the various staff and student blogs. It featured one of the professors in my group so I took the time to read it, and it reminded me that I haven't blogged for an awfully long time... Six months to be precise!

I've actually done (a little) more sewing since the last post, so will make some time to at least do some brief posts to show what I've made - especially as they've been pretty successful and frequently worn items! A few long-term projects too.

I'm also resolved to post some pattern reviews on, well, PatternReview.com, and have been mulling over signing up to Sew Retro and Wardrobe Refashion.

The other major thing I've done has been to take a course in customised pattern cutting and fitting at the London College of Fashion - taking personal measurements, making a block and pattern, sewing and fitting a toile, and customising the block.

See you soon - honest!

A missing sewing mojo - found?

I'm finding I'm doing a lot of procrastinating lately, I'm just a bit too tired to make the initial effort to start anything - and that's not just sewing, but anything really.

I think one of the problems with the sewing issue is that I've put on quite a bit of weight that I want to lose again, so it doesn't feel like it's worth putting the effort into sewing something if it won't fit me in a little while.

But... then I realised I'll feel better and happier if I have nice clothes that fit and flatter me as I am now, and feeling happier might spur me into doing more things that make me feel even better - like losing a bit of weight, and more sewing.

So, I decided to sew a circle skirt as that would be flattering, requires no fitting and could be sewn in an evening! Yay! Had the day off work yesterday and sewed it over the course of the afternoon, just finished hemming it tonight (all 15 feet of it!) after letting it hang overnight. Total time to make including cutting out was probably 3 hours. Going to wear it tomorrow, probably with the cream jersey blouse I made.

Now all I need to do is find the camera charger so I can take a photo of it...