Zebra Shirt

This weekend I made another shirt with my burda pattern, it is one of the few patterns I own but as I know it works I return to it.  Each time I use it I try to do something a bit different with it but at the end of the day a shirt is a shirt so I don't really think you need more then one pattern.

I bought the fabric back in November and had thought I would make yet another skirt, however this year I am trying to fill the gaps and make more tops as for the last few years it has been mainly skirts and dresses.  It comes to light when you dress in jeans at the weekend and realise all your tops are quite old and you need  a bit of variety to go with them.

For this shirt I decided to do three quarter sleeves, make it quite a bit shorter than the pattern and also make the collar a bit slimmer.

I also wore it straight away as another theme is not keeping things for a 'best' that never comes and actually get wearing the items.  My only niggle with shirts is I feel they make your bra straps fall down, am I imagining this or is it a real thing?  It doesn't seem to happen as much with jersey tops, maybe it is just me.

Yes I know not great pattern matching down the back but it wouldn't have been possible with the small amount of fabric I had and I really do hate the fact that it can waste so much if you try to do this at every point on the seams.

Things do line up better at the front, the pattern was quite random too, it appears to be three zebras down just below along the row then every fourth row down they are in a straight line.

I also did a little turn up on the sleeves so I folded it to the reverse, stitched it in place then folded it to the right side and pressed.

I always put pins along where my button holes are going to go then a tiny mark for the button once these are complete.

Here is the old faithful pattern if anyone is interested, as I stated I only own a couple so if you are buying a shirt pattern it is good to know one that is tried and tested.  This is not biased in any way it is simply one I have owned for a while.  I bought more fabric today that will become another shirt dress from this but that can wait for a later date.

I also cut out a little slip on jacket from a pattern that came with a magazine, I will share more on this as it progresses.

Shirt Dress

This is a short post today, I have been busy decorating all day and still lots to do.  I have a new shirt cut out and ready to sew up but that has to wait until all spring decorating is done, I do have a shirt dress on Minerva crafts blog this was lovely to make and I will be making more just as soon as I choose the fabric.

The pictures are really badly lit I know but hopefully that is coming to an end as the evenings are getting lighter hurray!

Today as I was moving the bookcase to paint I had the idea that maybe I don't need most of my books, I know it is nice to keep favourites but really there is a lot of stuff on there that I will never read again and to be honest I never really liked the first time around.  So there will probably be another large charity shop donation this week.   Sometimes it takes a bit of decorating to make you realise why do we have all this stuff?  It took a while just to empty the bookcase so that I could lift it, then you think why am I wasting time doing this, are these things needed? When my husband came home I said well it makes you understand the minimalist lifestyle when you have move everything.  He didn't quite get it, he pointed out where I've missed a bit :( . I always do the decorating during half term, I may be off school but it is still work and I know decorators get paid a packet for the hours I put in. A good job love would suffice!

Rant over and more to do tomorrow.

Story Bags

Well I found a use for the printed fabric from the weekend, while I was at work yesterday I had just printed off some images for the children to work with to create silly stories and thought these need to be in little bags.  It just so happened there was enough fabric to make them and one is a bit bigger than the rest but that is ok, I wasn't aiming for perfection with these it was a quick sew up last night so that I could use them today.  The ribbon for the tops came with a throw a while ago, you tend to get a long piece of ribbon around throws, so they are completely recycled and the words I just wrote on an old piece of curtain fabric with a sharpie to make a label.

The children enjoyed using them, so that's good and they can't peek in the bag so it makes their selection more random than just putting the cards on the floor.  I have done similar things before so I must remember for future that even just adding little  bags makes the activity more exciting for some reason?

Yesterday I had another quick blitz in the wardrobe and now have thirty five items for charity shop and six in the bin, it doesn't look that different but I do have some spare hangers now.  How is it even possible to accumulate all this and not notice?  I do have an odd attachment to things at times I feel.

There is a dress in the bag now that I bought from a charity shop about two years ago it has never been worn, I do like it but it's way too dressy so why leave it sitting there when someone else could be wearing it, someone with a more formal life or just has reasons to dress up more often.  I thought it would be nice for a wedding but everyone I know is married or separated and in no rush to repeat, my friend got married four years ago the was the last wedding I went to, before that it was fourteen years!

  So yes I am working hard on this, I read that you shouldn't hold onto things for fear of the future. Well fellow dressmakers you will know it is not fear of the future that makes us hold on but the idea that should you get rid of something the very next week you will have an amazing idea about what you could have made with it.

I have also got things that I have made myself, bags and so on.  Even if I don't use them it seems to be harder.  Here it is not money spent but hours put in and even though the time is long gone there is that silent tug.  It seems more ridiculous now that I put it into words so there is some free therapy right there.