January 2022 – THORNBERRY

crochet, sewing

2021 in summary

2021 in summary. What a title for a blog post! 2021 was one of the most intense and challenging years of my life, for many and varied reasons. And unfortunately, with covid-19 infections sky-rocketing in Australia, this year is not starting off as we’d hoped. I’m grateful that our hard lockdowns over the past two years did buy us the time to get well over 90% of the 12+ population vaccinated (so much less likely to get seriously ill) but it’s still so depressing. The entire health care sector is incredibly stretched already, businesses are closed due to staff being unwell or in isolation, supply chains everywhere are interrupted, and people aren’t getting the medical care they need for their other conditions. Home RATs almost impossible to come by and PCR testing is overwhelmed. Aarrgghh.

I’m not going to talk any more about that now; let’s look at the sewing and crocheting instead! I didn’t think that I’d sewn as much as usual during 2021, but it turns out that I did make quite a lot after all! Almost everything in these collages should be somewhere on my blog; if you want more details have a scroll or do a search as I’m not going to individually link to each garment.

So, for me:

Some of these were sewn as ‘work’ clothes, but I’ve barely worked on site over the past year. I tend not to wear my work clothes casually, and vice versa, although of course there are some exceptions. Most of what I made during the year was successful, although there are a couple of items that will be reworked or given away. As per usual, my wardrobe is overfull and I need to remove about half of it. That’s difficult when I like what’s there! I joined Stasia’s Style School during sixth lockdown, and need to continue working through the materials that it included so that I can better refine my style and my wardrobe contents. I started off strong, but there’s still quite a bit to do.

Next, my sewing for others! I am clearly not a selfless sewer, as I sewed much less for others than for myself.

I did make a little more progress on some patchwork/quilt projects, but these have stagnated. Maybe they’ll get finished in 2022…

The crafty highlight of 2021 has been watching Clare and her crochet! She learned to crochet in January 2021, starting with a cardigan crocheted from different coloured squares. I helped her a little with getting comfortable with holding the hook and the basic stitches, then she just went for it! Many of the patterns she’s used were found via Tiktok or Instagram or Etsy. She did also use YouTube for assistance when needed. She now crochets some items without a specific pattern, instead mashing together different stitch patterns and schematics from garments that inspire her. She crochets when watching Netflix or YouTube, or university tutorials! As well as crocheting herself garments, she’s made plenty of items for friends as birthday gifts. It’s pretty impressive! I doubt that these collages include everything she’s made, but it’s a good representation.

And yes, her yarn stash now far exceeds mine. She does occasionally share her creations on Tiktok @dacapitalcrochet if you are so inclined!

I do have some sewing plans for 2022, but as well all know only too well, plans can change. I’ve done some cutting out over the past few days, and hope that I will find my sewjo again soon.

Friday, 7 January, 2022Wednesday, 5 January, 2022 by thornberry

adult's clothing, Friday Pattern Company, sewing, teen

bathers for teenagers – Vernazza plus Etsy

Jeepers, it’s hard to buy bathers in the shops! There are plenty there, but finding ones in the right size and with the amount of coverage that you prefer can be a minefield. After a frustrating pre-Christmas day of trawling the shops, I told Stella that I’d just make her some. The only caveat was that she’d need to choose from my existing swim fabric stash – I didn’t have the time or energy to go out and buy more. And this is what we ended up with!

The bottoms are the Vernazza Two Piece bottoms. I sewed this pattern for Clare a few years ago and she’s still wearing it (the top fits her much better now!). I’ve sewed the bottoms for Clare again since then to match with purchased tops, so Stella was able to try them on and see if she liked the fit. My daughters both prefer decent coverage in their bathers bottoms; they don’t want them going up their bums! I sewed the smallest size. The swim fabric is from Rathdowne Fabrics; as is the lining. I used stash elastic around the leg openings – it’s not swim specific but history has shown me that it will be fine for the amount of getting wet that it will receive.

For the top I used a pattern that I found on Etsy. It came with pattern pieces but didn’t seem to have instructions!

Because I’ve sewn bathers before I had a fair idea of the best order of construction, so muddled it together. In hindsight the Vernazza top would have been better but I thought that the Etsy one would be quicker, and I had very limited time. The fabric is lovely, and the top looked cute on, but I needed to come to the rescue with a needle and thread once it was wet! The neckline gaped far too much with movement and definitely caused ‘nip slip’ so I tacked the cups together a little higher up, which rectified the issue. I probably should have included elastic along the upper edge of the cups to ensure that the neckline would sit closely to the body.

I’ll probably sew another top to go with the bottoms, but am pretty much out of that pretty floral print (much to Clare’s chagrin). Bathers are quite fun to sew once you’ve made them a few times!

Thursday, 6 January, 2022Saturday, 11 February, 2023 by thornberry

adult's clothing, sewing, teen

McCalls 7946

My mum, my daughters and I usually have a new Thornberry frock for Christmas – my husband often gets a new shirt! But this year I lost my sewjo. I did manage a quick tee for Dan in a Christmas themed print, but I didn’t have the energy for anything else. However, the day before we were due to head off to the country, Stella asked what she should wear for Christmas lunch with the relatives. And I found the energy!

I had picked up a large remnant piece of Ocean coloured poplin from The Cloth Shop a month or so earlier, thinking that it might be a colour that Stella would wear. McCalls 7946 had also been in my pattern stash for a little while. I also had a heap of previously made bias binding in the drawer, and plenty of elastic. The planets aligned!

Now, this is a ‘learn to sew’ pattern. It’s not difficult to sew, but it’s not quick! There’s plenty of binding to be sewn on to make channels for the elastic, then lots of elastic to be threaded through. The design is extremely forgiving fit wise though, which makes it more likely to be a successful project for someone who hasn’t been sewing for long. When I googled the pattern there are some people who have chosen to shirr the bodice rather than use elastic in channels. My sewing machine doesn’t like shirring, so the channel method worked better for me.

You can see in the above photo how many areas have elasticised gathering; the sleeve cuffs, the neckline, the bodice, the sleeve heads. I did try the dress on Stella and check that the shoulder elastic was a good length for her before securing it in place.

The insides are very multi-coloured! I used elastic that was about 12mm wide as that’s what I had in stash, so chose the binding accordingly without worrying what print it was. You need plenty of binding!

My phone camera really doesn’t cope well with close ups of blue fabrics; it washes them right out. The outdoor photos of Stella wearing the dress are a more accurate representation of colour. I turned an inch to the wrong side at the top of the skirt ruffle then gathered it using my preferred method of two rows of lengthened machine stitches, pulled up by hand. I secured the ruffle to the skirt with a double row of stitching on the outside of the dress so that it gave a narrow frill above the stitching.

I am fairly sure that I cut out size 6 for Stella, which is pretty much the size I’d buy for her in the shops. I cut the elastic to the lengths specified in the pattern.

There are a few options included in this pattern – strapless, shoulder ties, short sleeves, longer sleeves, plus different skirt lengths and with or without a ruffle. Stella’s dress is basically view C with the short sleeves of view B.

Note the length of Stella’s dress – this is as per the pattern, and Stella is around 160cm tall. Stella chose to style the dress with her favourite corset-style belt and sandals on what ended up being a very hot day. She’ll also wear it trans-seasonally with fishnets and boots, and maybe a jacket. I am so pleased that I managed to sew one member of the family a Christmas dress, and even more pleased that Stella liked it!

Wednesday, 5 January, 2022 by thornberry

Month: January 2022

2021 in summary

bathers for teenagers – Vernazza plus Etsy

McCalls 7946