sewing – Page 3 – Christina Hopgood

What happened to me??

November 28, 2013January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

So my last post is from the end of Frocktober! That’s quite a while ago. I ended up making $641 for Frocktober, which is pretty good! So why haven’t I posted for like a month?

Firstly, Frocktober totally burnt me out. I haven’t taken any photos of myself in this whole time, no photos of my projects, no instagrams! I’ve just been going along doing my normal work things and home things. After sharing so much I just wanted a bit of privacy, you know?

Then Charles went away to America for 2 weeks to go to PASIC – a percussion convention. During that time, I had one good night’s sleep. I don’t know what came over me, it was stupid. Also he’s my photographer, so even if I’d wanted to take photos I couldn’t!

Last Saturday we performed at Voices in the Forest, a huge opera pops concert at the National Arboretum. Right now it’s more like “Voices in the Saplings” because of course the trees all burnt down 10 years ago and are still little. It’s a fantastic place though – high above the rest of Canberra, you can see for miles and miles. It’s spectacular. The concert was good too!

Then on Sunday I woke up with this terrible pain in my stomach. It was so bad I couldn’t get out of bed. On Sunday night Charles took me to emergency at Calvary hospital and I stayed overnight for observation. It’s pretty traumatic staying in Emergency because everyone’s so terribly sick. People were much sicker than me. And gosh! Hospitals go through a lot of sick bags. Everyone was so spewy (except me). Charles left around 1am, I felt so bad for him, he had to get up at 6 for school!

The entire time I was in there I was hooked up to this heartbeat monitor, which beeps annoyingly when your heartrate either stops or goes too high. Because I was of a slightly nervous disposition (i.e. totally flipping the heck out) my machine was beeping pretty much all the time, the nurse had to set it to a higher tolerance! My heartrate was almost always over 100, and in the day almost always over 110. For musicians, that’s a fairly moderate march tempo.
Mum and dad came to be with me first thing in the morning. Everyone thought I had appendicitis, but some things didn’t fit. I wasn’t nauseous or feverish and I didn’t have reboud pain (more pain when you release pressure than when you press on the spot), and I was hungry. I just had pain. They put several litres of water in me via a canular so I could have an ultrasound on a full bladder (they press so hard in the ultrasound I’m surprised I didn’t wet my pants, sorry TMI).
So they were about to operate on Monday afternoon when the radiology report came back from my ultrasound, saying that I have an inflammation in my terminal ileum. So your terminal ileum is close to your appendix, it’s the last part of your small intestine. And mine was all swollen and tender. So they said “go home and come back if it gets worse”. With some assisstance I walked out of there. They don’t know why it was sore.
I took two days off teaching (which is a total pain in the butt when you’re self-employed) and now I’m mostly back to normal. I’m pretty tired still from the ordeal, and my tummy hurts a little still.

I have been doing projects – I made another Miette cardigan (this time in black – which attracts every piece of dust in my vicinity), I’ve been working on another jumper, finished my two assessment garments for CIT… and haven’t blogged any of it. Here are some dodgy phone photos of my projects!

Hope you’ve been having a good month! Bring on Christmas!

buttons, dress, sewing

Completed: Colette Hawthorn

September 27, 2013January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

Breaking news: Christina has sewn a garment that is not only pretty, but also fits comfortably!

I present the Colette Hawthorn dress, view 3 (sleeveless)!

My fabric is a lightweight seersucker which is a vintage gift from a church friend. She was getting rid of lots of fabric she hadn’t used in 30 years. I only had about 2 metres!

I was so careful making this, since my last attempt at making a dress was a total disaster. I made a toile, pressed after every step, and even made a copy of the pattern so I didn’t cut into the precious tissue. I laundered my fabric first:

I was so careful doing all the marking. The only issue I had was that this fabric pattern does have a right way up, and I didn’t have enough fabric to cut it all out the right way. I had to cut the back skirt pieces upside-down, but you totally can’t notice unless you scrutinise the thing, and you’d have to look at my butt to do that. So my issue isn’t an issue at all!

My toile worked out pretty well, a shame it was a) covered in paint, and b) completely see-through. It had a pretty pink floral pattern, very subtle.

I was so frightened of doing the buttonholes, as I have never done them on my machine before. They turned out pretty well! I didn’t get them quite in the same place as on the pattern, but it was pretty darn close! I spent a long time making sure I was putting the buttons in the right place too.

Looks cute with a belt. I’m thinking of making a waist tie with the remaining fabric (which is scraps, I’d have to sew a lot of them together).

All these photos are with a very small petticoat which has lost most of its poof.

My only complaint about the pattern is that the armholes are way small. I made a size 0 with no alterations and I have very slim arms. Not slim enough! They’re not uncomfortably tight, but I could use a slightly looser armhole so that I can, you know, reach for stuff.

The collar was kind of difficult – not the collar itself but the facing and all that bulk at the shoulder seams. I just pressed the heck out of it to make it sit flat, but I can still feel the bulk.

My bias binding on the armholes is a cute striped one my mother in law gave me. I love the subtle contrast!

As you can see it hangs pretty well!

So I’m thrilled with this dress. It’s actually my first dress to work really well. I’ve made other dresses but they’ve all sucked in one way or another. I can’t wait to try view B (elbow length sleeves) as well!

dress, sewing, WIP

WIP Weekend – Colette Hawthorn

September 14, 2013January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

I’m finally making the Hawthorn dress by Colette Patterns!

Here’s what I’ve done that is different and GOOD:

I traced my pattern pieces onto butcher’s paper instead of cutting the tissue;

I’m making a TOILE you guys!

The blue flowery seersucker is what my final dress will be made from.

Here’s my toile eall cut out, it’s an old fitted sheet mum gave me for this kind of thing! It’s got quite a pretty pink flower pattern, so if the toile works out I might keep it! It’s only got a few paint stains on it.

dress, finished, monday, pyjamas, sewing, underpants, underwear

Monday Musings… recent makes: a disappointing dress, and a nice nightie!

September 2, 2013January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

The first thing I’m about to show you was a massive fail, in my opinion… please don’t judge! Scroll down for the WIN!

You all know how much I love the Luck Be A Lady dresses on Modcloth… I own far too many and they’re all amazing and I wear them almost every day. So I wanted to make my own. I spent ages finding a pattern and finally got one!

This is (supposed to be) New Look 6184. Here’s the pattern envelope:

Looks like a simple dress. It has the key feature, which is neckline pleats. It probably is, if you use the right fabric! You can either make it a pencil skirt or a full flared skirt. I wanted to make a circle skirt, which was SO DUMB, why didn’t I just follow the pattern srsly.

My fabric… I don’t even know? It said it was “suiting”. This fabric has a tartan pattern on it, which is supposed to be STRAIGHT, as it is woven and not printed. I could not get this sucker to lie straight no matter what I did! The pattern just warped every which way. So cutting was the first problem.

My second problem was that the iron-on interfacing wouldn’t adhere to this fabric. As such my neck underlining keeps popping up to say hello (I managed to keep it down for the photos).

This is the bit I’m happy with – it’s the first time I’ve used bias binding for underarms. Even this didn’t quite work out, because the fabric also frayed like crazy making it hard to enclose the raw edge.
So I tried making a half-circle skirt instead of using the pattern pieces for the full skirt, which ended up being the dumbest thing ever. I was trying to match up plaid and it wasn’t having it.

Hooooly crap my darts were bad, the fabric was just SO NAUGHTY.
Aaaaaand then I cut the skirt too short while hemming. Now it’s JUST A BIT too short to be comfortable with, and also it’s see through which I didn’t notice when I bought the fabric.

This is the most I’ve ever stuffed up anything. I got pretty down about this, especially since I’m doing garment production at CIT and I should be good at this by now. I guess in class we only ever used calico which is extremely well-behaved, and we’ve never actually made a dress. Nevertheless I’m pretty upset since I had such high hopes for the pattern. Should I try again? I think the pattern is probably fine, I just royally stuffed up!

Ok the next thing worked out very well, thank you!

The next thing I made was a nightie, because recently I’ve been wearing a really daggy singlet and shorts to bed, very unattractive. This is the same pattern I made my undies from recently.

I made a hybrid of both petticoats, the top from view B but the body from view A. (the difference is that view is less full, and I wanted as few seams as possible).

This blue stretch satin monstrosity is only my toile, so don’t panic! The satin was not stretchy enough and I didn’t have the correct type of lace, so it didn’t work out. I learnt a lot from my toile and my actual garment turned out wonderfully:

No you can not see me in my nightie. This top falls to just below my bottom, so I think it will be good for summer coming up! But recently it’s been cold so I’ve worn it with pyjama pants.

I’m so happy with how the lace turned out. You have to stretch at the underarms and at the middle front so it doesn’t sag.

My fabric is a lovely soft poly/cotton knit (I don’t actually fully know what’s in it, but I did the burn test and it is flammable, yaaay flammable pyjamas). It’s got a pretty sparkle through it!

The back is just one seam down the middle, and I find it doesn’t bother me in bed at all.
Knitwit patterns are SO EASY! I don’t have a stretch machine but my domestic sewing machine is working fine. I just stretch as I sew, as it says in the instructions, so that the finished seam is still stretchy.

I still have a bunch left, so I’m going to make some more undies! All the undies I’ve been making for myself are so much more comfortable than store-bought ones, it’s insane. I just want to wear them all the time but I only have 2 good pairs (and one fail). Or I could make the opposite nightie, view A bodice with view B body…
Have you ever sewn a KnitWit pattern? So good!

modify, pattern, sewing, underwear

Make your own underpants! Pattern!

July 31, 2013January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

In this post you will learn how to make your own underpants from an old stretchy t-shirt (or fabric)!

I am terrible at throwing away old clothes, particularly t-shirts. I get attached to them. This t-shirt was a cheap buy from H&M in December 2011 (Sweden). This is what it looked like new:

Such bright colours!

I wore this t-shirt essentially nonstop for almost two years. It started out fitting tight and looking flattering:

And then more recently I had to wear it tucked in…

And even more recently I began wearing it under a blouse! But it was such a comfy fabric and a pretty design. So when my friend lent me a pattern for underpants, I KNEW WHAT TO DO.

This is what it looked like yesterday:

Such dull colours! And this is what it looked like today:

Undies! Undy-chundies! Underoos!

You Will Need:

An old t-shirt, or some stretch cotton fabric. PLEASE NOTE your fabric needs to be pretty thin! A brand new t-shirt probably will not work unless it’s a super cheap thin one. The more worn out the better. You’ll be doing a seam on the gusset which will be annoying if it’s too thick.

Underwear elastic. There are three types of underwear elastic: normal (just soft elastic), lace (stretchy lace), and lace-edged (normal elastic with one edge lacy). Pictured here is two lace elastics, and two lace-edged elastics.

This pattern:

The first two images are either half of the pattern, and the third is the entire pattern. Print the third image on A3 or print the first two on A4 and stick them together. I included a test square on each page to make sure you’re printing it the right size.

(Please let me know if the pattern doesn’t print the correct size, I’ll try to reupload a better size.)

Size, based on hip size (18cm below waist): 6 – 76; 8 – 81; 10 – 86; 12 – 91; 14 – 96; 16 – 101; 18 – 106. I made a pair from thick-ish jersey in a size 10, but my t-shirt fabric was super stretchy so I went for a size 8, and it fits perfectly.

There is an included seam allowance of 6mm, which is foot width!

Got it? Let’s go!

First, cut out your pattern in the correct size and lay it out on your fabric, following the grain and maximum stretch guides. I had to unpick my entire t-shirt to get it to fit properly. You should have three pieces: a front, a back, and a gusset lining.

Next, you need to sew in your gusset. This is tricky.

Place the long end of the front together with the centre back, right sides together. They curve different ways. Now pin the gusset “back seam” to the other side of the back. This needs to go on the opposite way than you want it to face. I wanted mine to be the wrong side facing up, so I put it right side up. So the back is sandwiched between the front and the gusset. Pin it all together, matching the centres and edges, and sew across. Opened out, it should look like this:

Now sew down the gusset. Pin in place on the sides and front and sew across using a zigzag or other overlock-type stitch. (Not an actual overlocker though because that’ll cut your undies in half).

Now sew up the sides, right sides together. I also like to stitch down the seam allowance on the sides, using a zigzag stitch.

Now you should have what looks like a pair of un-elasticised underpants.

If you have lace-edged underwear elastic, follow these instructions. If you have lace elastic, scroll down!

To determine how much elastic you need, wrap some elastic around your waist and thighs and try to match it to how tight your actual underpants are. That’s what I did and it worked out well! When you pin it on, make sure you pin it around evenly, and the halfway points match, etc. Or else it’ll end up bunched up in one place.

Pin the elastic to the edge of the openings, with the lace edge on the inside, as shown:

Sew it right down the middle of the elastic, S T R E T C H I N G as much as you can as you go. Seriously, stretch lots. Then turn the elastic to the wrong side and sew it down again, stretching. If you don’t stretch, when you put on your undies they’ll feel tight.

Here’s what it looks like from the outside:

And from the inside:

Now to do lace elastic, you simply pin it to the outside of the pants, and sew 2 – 3 rows of stitching, stretching as you go. You can see the two rows of stitching here: