ABOUT ME

I am Angela and I love to sew. I started sewing as a child and by the time I was a teenager I was wearing the very latest fashions to go out in. All me-made. I am passionate about reducing the amount of textiles sent to landfill, and encourage you to repurpose fabrics and clothes I started this blog in order to have a way in which to pass on my gained knowledge, and my professional knowledge to you, Sewing is empowering, you can save money by making items, make money by selling then, You can pass your knowledge on to others. What is there not to love? Interestingly I am a direct descendant of the Flemish weavers who came over to England in the 1300's. I find that fascinating especially as most of my family from as far back as I can trace are somehow involved in the manufacturing of fabric . . I have a degree in tailoring with a special interest in WW2 fashion.

Friday 10 May 2019

Palazzo pants and a darted printed top

A short pattern hack 

This is a continuation of a previous blog post Sew yourself Cropped pants and a matching top

The last post was an embroidered pair of crop trousers with a top featuring the same embroidery. I appreciate that some of you have no desire to embroider by machine or hand so this is another idea - Block Printing. 



 Everything is the same as in the previous post
All of the machines, zip, thread and habberdashery etc are from Jaycotts.co.uk Contact Jaycotts







The Simplicity pattern is also from Jaycotts There is a lot of choice Trouser patterns from Jaycotts. I think the pattern I used in this post is out of stock

The fabric is from MinervaCrafts I suggest a linen look fabric Linen look fabric


The first step was to lengthen the sleeves slightly, I just added four inches to the length but some of this was taken up with the hem as I didn't add the sleeve band as previous. Then I did some simple printing around the edge.



Instead of embroidery I thought that I would attempt some block printing. I have never printed on fabric before so I was a bit nervous! The fabric paints have to be ironed with a high temperature to fix them, so make sure that your fabric can stand the heat, and do use a pressing cloth.


These are the blocks I bought from Hobbycraft and some Dylon fabric paints. They are easy to use but do practise first.
I had a comment recently from somebody who doesn't like my placement of embelishments. That's fine, the whole point of sewing your own clothes is that they can be as individual as you are and if you want to embroider yellow flowers all over your red skirt go ahead! We are making things to please ourselves, and so be creative, it's how we learn.
Another point is that I always try to keep my blog posts as simple as possible so that even a total beginner can make something to be proud of. I am a novice as far as machine embroidery goes too, so hopefully we will learn and progress together.




I made an alteration to the neckline of the blouse. Instead of the gathers I measured tiny darts all the way across the front, manipulating them slightly so that they still fit the neckband. I am quite happy with the effect.


The block printing on my trousers was done after I had stitched the side seams and I was careful to make sure that the design aligned on both legs.
My design is rather amateurish, but I am not an artist, you I am certain can do much better! This is the beauty of holiday clothes, they are an opportunity to try something different, new colours, new styles. Things always look different in the sun!


All in all I am delighted with the way this outfit has turned out. Yes, it's in Navy Blue again, but I did have rather a lot of it which needed using!

Thinks just a very short blog post, I hope that it inspires you to have a go at doing some different embelishments on your clothes.

Thank you for reading this

Angela



I made a short video explaining more about what I did to alter the pattern
The link to the YouTube video is here in case it does not open automatically My YouTube Video



Thanks to Jaycotts for the fabulous machinery and sewing equipment and a special Thank you to the delightful Fiona from Hobbycraft.

Angela  x


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