Sewing on Sundays

Every year we have about a month of Sundays here, with public holidays falling on Mondays and Fridays -  and Tuesdays and Thursdays (further freeing up Mondays and Fridays, obviously). I was determined to use the time well.

A few years ago I stumbled across an amazing fabric shop somewhere in Montague Gardens, and bought 6 pieces of fabric. Starting with my least favourite piece, I slowly started butchering the stash, trying to make clothes 'quickly' and 'easily'. Miserable way to do things.

Now down to the last pieces, the ones I really liked, I sorted through my vintage patterns, cleared the decks, and started cutting into my least favourite of my favourite fabrics. The first dress, on the left, took 3 weeks of weekends and evenings, unpicking and adjusting. I set the sleeves in 3 times - and no, it doesn't get any easier. But the other 2 dresses took a day each!

I had to do a 'narrow shoulder adjustment' to the pattern (dress made, try on, sulk, research online for hours, mark adjustment, redraw pattern, unpick entire dress, recut pattern pieces, sew it up again) and it made all the difference. This is the tutorial I used - sheer genius, concisely explained.

I also sewed the zips in by hand, because it's quicker than doing it twice with a sewing machine and still it's wonky. Genius tip (from Ruth Singer) for a straight stitching line: masking tape!

What else have I learned? Transfer all the markings, every single one of them, from the pattern, and draw the stitching line on to the sleeve cap. And 2 metres is just about enough fabric for a dress. These are the length they are because that's exactly how much fabric I had; I barely had enough for the sleeves.