Road to No Regret

I am typing this in the same room as a large, uninvited spider, last seen scuttling under the desk. Because of this distraction, there may be typos and grammar issues along the way.

My lovely Bernina sewing machine is away for a service so I dusted down my old Singer Melodie 40 to get on with the toile for my 1947 dress. The Singer has been out of use for a while and although this is the machine I use for sewing things I wouldn't allow near the Bernina (paper, plastic, rubber etc), it's working a treat, much better than the ailing Bernina.  

My sewing machines don't have names, but I am quite sentimental about them. The Singer was my 18th birthday present, and a very fine present it still is, because with it I have had the opportunity to experience all sorts of creative adventures - making clothes, hats, bags, curtains for numerous windows long left behind. It took a hot summer of overtime as a chambermaid to save up for the Bernina. However, I discovered last week Mr K has named my dressmaker's dummy after the robot in Metropolis. For the past 23 years it has just been "the dummy" as far as I was concerned, until Mr K needed to borrow it for a work display and then it turns out she's called Maria. 

Mr K asks Maria about her favourite fabrics

There have been occasions over the past 20 odd years where I have been needlessly bored; I could have been sewing or making something. But I just have to push on and make the best use of now. To be fair, in the past three years there has been little time to squander. This year has been a fairly creative period, although I hoped I would have achieved more than I have.  

I now have a bit more time and money for creative adventures as last month, I finally got round to taking my driving test. I had Mr K's dad's driving gloves in the car for luck, as he was a calm, encouraging presence when I was learning to tackle single track roads pitted with potholes on our missions to find good tea and cake around the region. What has this got to do with sewing? Well not much directly, but Mr K's dad also helped me appreciate the value of having a project on the go - which is why I started my year-long project of making a garment a month. I wrote about it in this blog entry. 

So, to the business of actually making stuff. My local sewing shop had no calico so I have had to make up my toile in this poly cotton gingham. The dress is actually quite quick to make and the instructions are straightforward. This is how the toile turned out (this is it straight from the sewing machine so it's a bit crumpled); I eventually settled on the size 12:

Butterick B5209 1947 dress - toile

Initial thoughts: am wondering if pleating might look smarter for the skirt rather than the gathers? Does the front midriff really need a seam up the front or would one piece be better? Or should I just get on with the real thing now? It needs to be a little neater to the body on the side seams under the armholes - it doesn't look so bad on Maria but it's a little flappy on me. 
Maybe I could make more of a cap sleeve... or just get on with it.

Here's the fabric I've bought for the actual dress. I had to buy two lengths from different suppliers but the dyelots seem pretty similar in daylight. This should give me enough to match up the pattern at the midriff and skirt seams.

Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 - Sparrows

It's not the cheeriest fabric for a wedding, so I was thinking a cocktail hat in a plum or deep pink colour and some vintage style shoes might jazz it up. I have been a bit crap at sticking to my garment-a-month rule (so long as I have 12 things by the year end) but I have been utterly resolute in the no-buying-clothes-except-underwear-and-shoes part of the plan. This is what I'm reminding myself as I feel a bit of guilt for buying these shoes online last night. There were some lovely raspberry coloured ones but they had sold out. These are probably more sensible anyway. Will definitely need to add a bit of colour with the hat now.

Fly London Peak shoe 

Buying the shoes online means I shouldn't have to cram in another trip to Edinburgh before Kath's wedding...which is a shame because I was hoping to catch up with my friend (and ask for an invisible zip masterclass) who makes the lovely things that you can see at  Mister Thread's Needlework Emporium. 

My Bernina has since come back good as new! It sounds so much quieter and the feed-dog has been reset - what a difference. I'll not leave the service quite so long next time (16 years - not good). So the Singer is back in its case. Poor old Singer.

The Model

On time at last!  Here it is, a Burda 8281 skirt (view a) completed by Beltane just before midnight:

Burda 8281(a) skirt in lightweight denim

The hem is only tacked at the moment, so am I cheating by defining it as a finished garment? Probably. I did have time to finish it last night within my deadline. But I'm swithering about what colour thread to use and how many rows of stitching (I was thinking two rows, Mr K suggested three). I figured attempting a handsewn invisible hem on denim could get a bit ugly so it will only take a minute on the machine once I've made up my mind.

At some point, I'll add a picture of the skirt as modelled by a real human. It doesn't seem to matter how I adjust my trusty dress form, I can't present finished garments well on it. In spite of the perky conical boobs (unlike any I've seen on a human) it has been a handy item for dressmaking over the years. It was an 18th birthday present and back then, it was set 1" up from the narrowest waist setting to 25". Twenty odd years and a baby later, I've had to crank it up to 28". I had a look at the new version - the fabric's a different colour and the bust doesn't look quite so pointy (maybe that's the illusion of a different colour). I think I'll get a few more years out of my old dummy. 

Supafit dress form

Once, I decided not to bother with the dummy and its pointiness when, two days before my wedding, I thought it would be a good idea to adjust one of the bust seams of my dress. With an 8" mirror tile as the only reflective opportunity in my flat, no one to help or advise on what I was doing, and a pointy-breasted dummy seemingly mocking me in the corner of the room, this turned out to be a really-not-good-idea at all. After hours of a tacking-sewing-unpicking routine and trying to angle that tiny mirror to get a proper view I gave up. Somehow, either the power of the Force or sewing elves working through the night sorted it out while I slept. Whichever way it was solved, it looked fine in the end.

I made such an arse of the last skirt, so I'm relieved that this one has turned out ok. I like the fit. I'd like to do a few more of these, possibly a couple of centimetres longer and with some applique or embroidery on them. It's a quick and easy make (when I can actually get near the sewing machine).

Snazzy Lightning vintage zips

Last time I was at the sewing shop I picked up a few vintage Lightning zips. I don't usually go for metal ones but the packet promised "permanently coloured teeth" with money back guarantee and charmful packaging offering a special offer booklet from their Publicity Dept. for 6p in stamps (bit late for that one). There was a whole box full of them in bright colours. I thought 3 was quite a restrained purchase, but now I know they're there, I'll probably "have" to go back for some more...


In other activities, we have been doing a lot of speedy racing in the dining room. It can get perilous where small cars and busy patterned carpet meet, and there have been a few unfortunate crunches underfoot. So far the Lamborghinis and Porsche have escaped any damage. So we have now introduced a parking system: