Red Gertie Hack

Happy Friday everyone! We've been having a heatwave here, I bet you're bored to death of hearing about it by now. Last night the humidity broke and it poured it down, so today it's a beautiful day with a light breeze, perfect. I've been getting a lot of sympathy due to the heat, which is lovely. However, the office isn't actually that hot it's just walking about that is warm, I am running low on work clothes now which I'm going to have to rectify sometime soon... in all that free time I have (?!)

I finally got a free evening to try and go swimming last night so off I trotted to the aquatic centre to give it a go. Mostly I went to feel the weightlessness of the baby in the water, as it is amazing! So I mostly just floated (whilst trying not to get in the way of the super serious guy who decided to swim fast in the slow lane that me and a lady were happily occupying). I was a bit surprised when I got out of the pool and felt the weight I'd been carrying around, no wonder I'm so slow getting about.

This top... no longer fits. Neither does the skirt! Ha ha! It's under a little bit of strain in this picture, and it only got worse I'm afraid. But I absolutely love it and can't wait to get it out of the wardrobe post-bump. 

The original pattern that I started from was the Gertie vintage blouse. I know there's actually a blouse really similar to the one that I made in the book, but I'm lazy, and as I'd already traced off the one below I just made changes to that. 

I scooped out the neckline, left the sleeves as they were and left out the large darts at the sides. I also left out the button closure at the back as I wanted this to be a very simple top. I was left with a roomy, comfy plain top. 

Construction on this was crazy simple, I followed the instructions for the BHL Anna, whereby you stitch the shoulder seams together first, hem the sleeves, and then hem under the arms. This means that you don't end up with tiny arm holes to hem all the way around on a delicate fabric, hooray!

PGP Update: I overdid it with the holidays (mixed with a bunch of unusual/ uncomfortable beds) which meant I was pretty sore last week. However, I saw the physio on Monday and have been much better since. I had my first full week in work this week, without having to work from home once!! As a note on what happens with PGP, just look at how crazy misaligned I was at this stage!! (This must be over a month ago now) Look at my shoulders! This is me thinking I'm standing straight, no wonder the physio said, ooh yes you are quite twisted ha ha!

Those of you with amazing memories may remember I talked about the embroidery on this blouse in my Sew magazine column a while ago. The plainness of this top made me want to add a little something, as you know I struggle with plain. Instead of trying to make flowers with any fancy stitches, I freehand drew the design I wanted onto my blouse and stitched this in tiny back stitch, sometimes simple is best. 

If you'd like to learn the art of embroidery, then come along to my next class at the ministry of craft, new dates to be published very soon. Ministry of Craft

I reinforced the section to be embroidered with silk organza, which worked perfectly, however I should have zig-zagged the edge of this as it has frayed as you can see here.

The neckline has also been faced with bias binding for a clean finish on the inside. I love bias binding, I know everyone says that but this a true and deep love that dares speak its name. It just makes things like this hack, (where I have drafted the neckline) so much easier as you don't then need to draft a co-ordinating neck facing.

I hope the weather holds for you this weekend, I'm going back to Blackburn for a family do and also going to a Brian Cox stars talk type thing on Sunday, looking forward to it! Though... not sure what happened to 'I'm definitely done with going anywhere' ha ha. Apparently I don't believe in taking it easy. 

Side note: my ankles are massive, that is all.