Starting a New Shirt

I have started cutting out a new shirt today with some of the fabric I bought last week, now I only bought a metre so I have been stood scratching my head as to how to force this shirt out of a small amount of fabric.  Craft cotton too so not even very wide, well it wasn't going to beat me so after moving things around a lot, folding pattern pieces and deciding to omit a couple of the pieces I got there.  I will finish this up in the morning and share more on this tomorrow but here it is in mid jigsaw.

I have used this pattern a few times and I am sure I will use it many more, I make it slightly different each time I make it up and it has also been a dress you can see that version here.

There were a few treats for me when I went food shopping as I bought myself a couple of magazines, I don't very often buy them so this was a change I bought Sew and a gardening magazine because it had four packs of seeds in it.  I was pleasantly  surprised with Sew, quite a coincidence there was an article on repairing patches just days after I had done a post on that, also the free pattern for a dress is almost identical to one I am about to do a post on for Minerva.  There wasn't much gained there but I may give both the patterns a try anyway ( the other one was for a top) just to see how they turn out compared to what I would usually do.

Looking at the pattern for the top the only real reason I can see for the centre seam at the front is if you are going for option A with the ruffle which is what I'll do.  I don't think the other versions need it. Thoughts on that anyone?

We are going to watch a film as Netflicks offered films on a special deal for one month, we mistakenly chose one titled Mother the other night, what a load of disturbing rubbish. The synopsis stated psychological thriller what it turned into near the end was sick horror I ended up not watching all of it.  So if you have this deal I would say give that one a miss.  Nobody needs to have that film in their head.

Drop Shoulder T-shirt (Scrap busting)

As today is my day off I had a look through my oddments of fabric to see what I could do with them.  I had seen an image of a white top the other day with broderie  anglaise at the top and I thought I should have a look how much fabric I have left that is similar.   I made a red dress a while ago  and my fingers were crossed that there was a big enough piece to do the back and front top.   There was just enough red broderie anglaise and a big enough piece of jersey for the bottom, but only just!

I cut around a t-shirt so just two pieces, and I used my overlocker today which I don't often use, actually the blades are playing up so it was more of a joining exercise using it today there didn't appear to be any trimming going on.  A blade is out of place and no amount of faffing will seem to get it cutting, new blades as well.  I need to have a bit of time looking at that tomorrow. 

Here is my quick top, I like how it has turned out.

I had to put lots of pins in the jersey when I was stitching it together, it is extremely springy, I noticed that when I made the under dress for the dress I made.

A bit more ironing required on the front I think, I quickly ran the iron over it to take these shots, the fabric had been crumpled in a drawer. (It didn't get sorted into the tidy fabric box!)

Now that top was so easy I am going to see what other combinations I can put together from leftover fabrics to make more.  A few contrasting colours might work and may have to depending on what I have left.

There has been more repotting of lettuce and Kale today, I am also a bit disappointed that the pansies and violi have taken a beating from the wind, they were doing so well.

 The greenhouse is starting to look like a jungle, here is a peek through the window...

  I don't know where the tomatoes are going to go now they will just have to grow up along the slope of the roof and down the side!    Also I  hope the winds hold off now I don't want anymore plant casualties. 

Patching Jeans

Everyone has those favourite jeans that they like to wear the most and in my husband's case they are much worn and patched.  He has other pairs we are not short of things to wear it is just that he likes the fit of this particular pair and when he bought them they already had that distressed look with a couple of strategic mock patch areas.   The trouble with that feature is it has usually been stressed during manufacturing to get it just the right shade in certain areas, these areas are then of course weak and will not last under any strain.  That is what has happened with these, this will be the third time I have patched these and today I did three areas.  It is worth doing though as once they are done and ironed the effect is only the same as on the ones you buy in the shops.

This is where the legs off old discarded pairs of jeans come in handy, they don't have to be the same colour as it is going underneath.  Sometimes I use the right side of the fabric and sometimes the reverse.   The first job is to undo the seam down the side, I find it is just so much quicker to do this than try and force a large area of leg under the machine.

 It will be a quick job to just run that back in again it is only a straight seem after all.

Next I cut the piece of scrap denim a bit bigger than the area that is damaged and pin that in  place.

I used the wrong side of this fabric as it was a bit darker.

I then make sure that the hole is together and lying flat then I stitch forwards then reverse using a straight stitch, the effect you get is random criss cross, I concentrate more on the areas where the fabric comes together but up to the edge of the patch underneath.   The threads you can see in this image are just places where I moved it back by hand to line it up again, they are trimmed off afterwards.

Then when all the patches are complete just turn it through to the wrong side and sew the seams.

This is a finished patch near the pocket, I used a light blue cotton to go with the denim but you see some jeans where a contrast has been used to make the patched area stand out.  I think I prefer it less visible. 

Does anyone else have different ways of doing this?  Do you like to see the patches or make them blend in? Let me know in the comments section, I always enjoy reading the comments.