Cami Adaptation Gallery

As promised, you can see below the gallery of Cami shirts and shirt dresses:

Clearly I'm a bit of a fan of this pattern, it's definitely not the last one I'll be making. I love the SewOverIt new shirt dress pattern, perhaps I'll be able to get as much variety out of that too!

A & A Cami 3: Shirt Pattern

Good day to you all good fellows. I am back once again from another trip away! What was that people say about resting during pregnancy? Ha ha. No, to be fair these trips have been very restful if not a little sore on the hips. I've worked from home again today so I can recover. 

So I'm back with the last of the adjustment and alteration posts for the Cami pattern. Last week you saw my Cami-Washi hybrid, and I will do a post to show you all of the different iterations of this pattern so far at some point. I hope it goes to show what can be done with one pattern and a few changes. 

Chronologically, after my last Cami shirt I made the Christmas dress that you can take a nosey at here. The one change that I made to the shirt at this stage was to widen the lower half of the armhole. You may remember that in the last installment of A&A I had extended the armhole, so this now fitted well. However, the width across the arm was still tight, especially in the non-stretch of the navy cotton I had used. Therefore I made the following adjustment to the sleeve pattern, 

I began by drawing a straight line down the centre of the sleeve pattern:

I then cut through the sleeve pattern piece, leaving a very small amount of the pattern at the top of the sleeve. This was then used as a pivot point, splitting the sleeve by the amount that I wanted. I ensured that the gap was equal on both sides by measuring the amount from the tip to the base of the split. 

I then re-drew the armsleeve, including in these changes, and removing the angle which was caused at the bottom of the sleeve by the pivoting.

This was a speedy fix and probably caused a bit too much at the bottom of the sleeve, especially on the 3/4 sleeve. This may need a little work if I make another longer sleeved version, but it is perfect for the shorter sleeve. 

I'm wearing the shirt here with the maternity version of New Look 6128, unfortunately it no longer fits. I think I could make another one with a bit of extra pleating, but I've only got four weeks of work left now so I'm not sure if it would be worth it. I'm very happy with the fit of the shirt, though obviously I can no longer close it ha ha. It works tucked in though, and I have some floaty skirts I can wear with it. I made this in a plain fabric for once which I'm proud of. I didn't even add a quick spot of embroidery to it. Very unlike me!

Cat bombed! You can see that the bottom of the shirt has been shaped more like a shirt than the previous version. I laid a shirt that I had in the drawer over the adapted pattern piece, and traced a new version with a little more room in the hip, and the curve at the bottom of the shirt. 

The back of the shirt fits well, though as you can see there are quite a lot of wrinkles in the bottom half of the shirt. I assume this is a sway back issue which needs to be adjusted some more, though maybe it's caused by bump so maybe best to wait before making any changes. 

Here's a little picture of bump, though the usual disclaimer applies, I'm bigger now blah blah ha ha. 

Washi Cami Sixties Inspired Day Dress

Good day to you guys and gals! Hope you're all doing well, the past couple of weeks have been a bit crazy with last minute flights, trips to Birmingham and London, and this weekend we're off to Scotland. Who says pregnant ladies need to relax?!

To be fair I have done myself a bit of damage trying to do too much so am working from home today. I can't tell you how amazing the flexibility of my new job has been, I'm not sure I would have survived this long without it. Though sitting on the comfy seat does seem to make baby want to press his head against my rib.

Did you take part in Me Made May? It's all over now... and has been for a while ha ha! I had a fantastic time this year, and actually made it all the way to the end, which is the best I've ever done out of three years of taking part. You can see my pictures on my instagram account. What normally happens is I'm really enthusiastic at the start and then slowly lose enthusiasm for it all and go silent. But this year I managed to stick to the documentation as well as (generally) wearing a me made item a day. That was my only goal, to stick with it so I'm really happy I managed it. Next year I'll try and take a pic a day, but this year I'm just proud to have finished it. No sweeping statements about what I have learned about my wardrobe for as you can imagine the only thing I learned is that my belly is getting bigger and there's not much I can do about that!

So this dress is another Washi make over ha ha. Once I find something that works, it's very difficult to sway from the path, I jsut make hundreds of the same type of thing until I don't want to make it ever again! In this case it's a good thing though especially as it's important these clothes take me through to the end of my pregnancy. This is a hybrid of the skirt from the Washi by Made by Rae and the bodice of the Cami by Pauline Alice.

I used my fully adjusted Cami bodice that you can read about here. I've still got another post to do for that series, but I've covered all the fitting adjustments now, now I just want to show you all the different versions I've made!

Instead of having the bodice its full length, I scooped the bottom of the bodice pattern to the length of the Washi bodice, following the shaped curve. This means that the bodice is now the right height to accommodate bump.

I then used the back piece of the washi pattern, laying over the cami pattern to create the correct neckline and armholes. To ensure a comfy fit I left off the shirring elastic and replaced with fabric ties. It makes for a bit of a creasy ripply back, but it's so comfy and not everything has to fit to within an inch of its life ey? Ha ha. Oops, just spotted a loose thread on the bottom of this skirt. I don't think I've ever made anything where all threads are well trimmed.

Argh! Giant face! I wanted to include this to show off my collar. Every time I make this, the collar gets a little bit better, I'm still not the neatest sewer, but i'm getting better! Also, just look at that pattern match across the seam! So proud.

I think I managed ti avoid the points on this design falling exactly over my nipples, they are pretty close, but they did have to go somewhere, so I'm not worrying about it too much.

I don't often make clothes that fit well into the bracket of a certain decade, but this is definitely sixties, the design of the fabric, the fit of the skirt and the style all come together to make one heck of a sixties day dress. I feel pulled together and yet comfy, so important with Spud getting bigger. I think I'd like a fleet of these for post-baby clothes so I don't feel slobby when I'm comfy. Not that I can slip into the jeans and top routine as I don't own any jeans ha ha.

Again, these photos are from quite a while ago, so you'll have to take my word on the size of the bump, but it's getting pretty big!

What am I up to?
Have any of you got your tickets for the handmade fair yet? I'm going to be doing a workshop! So excited, some of you may remember that I (and my mum) made masses of flowers for the decorations at my wedding. Learn how at my workshop! http://www.thehandmadefair.com/skill-workshop/yarn-textiles/

Hope I see you there, Debs x

Alteration & Adaptation Cami 1: Wide shoulder adjustment

Aloha! Happy Friday everyone!

Well, I'm back to clothing and sewing and stuff. The past week has consisted of plans for the future, mixed with catching up on any of the things I may have lost track of during the madness of the last six weeks. Paul and I have been on the radio which was brilliant, though the 6am Saturday start two weeks in a row wasn't massively ideal. There are also some exciting plans in the pipeline, which I've been trying to keep track of and make sure I don't drop anything, there are so many things I want to do, I don't want to forget something!

No more episodes to review unfortunately, but I've been doing lots of sewing in the meantime, and am planning to do some more in depth posts on my process for sewing. I often find a pattern that has an element that I'm interested in, make adjustments to the fit so that it is spot on and then use that base pattern to make lots of different variations.

I want to show you how to do this from beginning to end. There will be gaps for light outfit posts in between as I don't know about you but sometimes I skip the heavy stuff thinking I'll go back to it when I need it so please feel free to do the same if you don't need this right now. But I thought I'd put my two pennies worth in to the pot on adjustment and adapting.

The first of which I'm doing today. Past readers of the blog may remember my first iteration of the Pauline Alice Cami dress, the Zig Zag Cami. The dress, although fantastically bright and much worn, does have some issues.

The armholes are a little tight, with the shoulder seams too narrow, not hitting the edge of my shoulder. The arms were also a little tight, you can see the wrinkles caused by this tightness across the arms in the picture above. Also, look how awesome the garden was in the Summer! I can't wait to get back into the garden properly again.

So it was time to do some adjustments! I decided to make a shirt, to test these changes, and to fill a hole in the wardrobe. I began by making a wide shoulder adjustment on to the bodice pieces, to ensure that the shoulder seam of the bodice would hit exactly on the edge of my shoulder. You can read fully about the process here. You can see a visual representation of the process below:

1.  To begin, start by drawing the seam allowances on to the bodice pieces

2.  Then draw on one line from the centre of the shoulder line down to the arm hole, stopping at the seam allowance. Follow this by marking a line from the corner of the armhole down to your new line

3.  Cut along both lines, making sure that you don't cut entirely through, so that the pieces can pivot as you can see above. In order to make the longer line pivot, snip horizontally in the seam allowance to the end point, again ensuring that you don't cut all the way through.

4.  Pivot these pieces to reflect the amount that you would like to widen the shoulder by, making sure that the lines match up along the top, and then re-trace.

I'll pause here, as I don't want to swamp you with too much information for a Friday, I mean it's quite obviously Pub o'clock.... what do you mean you're not going to the pub? Bath and knitting is it? Well, each to their own!

This weekend I will be stitching some more Spring clothes, I'm on a complete Washi kick, so that will be the pattern that I tackle next with regards adaptation. Also, if there are any techniques you would like to learn more about please feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to cover it in one of these posts.

Happy Friday!

Bit of a disclaimer: I will be writing about the adjustments I have made to garments as these are the ones I am currently most familiar with. Therefore, unfortunately I have not been able to cover the corresponding narrow shoulder adjustment for those people where the shoulder seam falls off the edge of the shoulder. However, there are so many resources out there, and I will always try and point you in the right direction where possible. 

The Fantastically Generous Bloggers Shirt

I had a week off from le blog last week, sacrilege I know! But as you may know from my previous post, I started a new job and as we are on the countdown to Christmas there is just so much to do! I've been bringing a few things together, including some ideas for my secret santas. I decided to take part in two this year. One by A Krafty Kat, the one that I took part in last year, and have grand plans for my pressie. Also I have taken part in a newer crafty secret santa by Stitched Up from the Start I've got a great person and can't wait to get it all wrapped up and sent away.

How has your week been? Mine has been good, the new job wiped me out for the first week, lots of meeting new people (even though I've only moved down the hallway) and wrapping my head round a whole world of new acronyms. But I'm feeling good about the move, and can't wait to go to my (two!) Christmas parties.

When I got this new job, I started to think about getting some more work appropriate clothing. I would say that work clothes are one of the things that I love most about making my own clothes, I think I might have mentioned that in my Washi post. I want something that shows my personality, can be dressed up or down, and is layerable (because I sit on an air vent... not as exciting as it sounds). The photos in this are terrible, you can probably tell that yourself but I thought I'd mention it, sometimes it's either terrible pics or freezing pics while your neighbours watch you whilst clearing a garden. I went with bad pics.

Enter my Pauline Alice Cami Shirt

I got the buttons, and lovely... especially bad photographed bias binding from my secret santa last year, I snuck in under the line for making this before the next Christmas! This lovely packet came with instructions, I was to make a shirt. I hope I did you proud Santa!

Unfortunately I didn't find a place for the light blue ribbon, but it awaits in the stash for the perfect project. 

The detailing comes from another lovely bloggers de-stashing from the 2013 Birmingham blogger meet-up, unfortunately I didn't make this years... I was hungover (to my eternal shame). But hopefully it will be on again next year and I can tag along because it was a brilliant day. I got the following material from Amy of Almond Rock, in the great de-stash/ swap, and added it to cuffs and collar.

The shirt is a little tight in the back (see slightly unflattering picture below), I did widen the sleeves as per the adjustments I thought of from the Zig Zag Cami, including a wide shoulder adjustment, which did work as the shoulder seam now sits comfortably on the edge of my shoulder. However, I don't think I widened the arms enough and that is what is causing the tightness. On to the next version!

I bought the skirt in this post from a charity shop in Edinburgh when we lived up there, it had weird little tacked on badges of squirrels and owls, which I removed. It's a great skirt for walking up a hill, or going to the office, and is super warm for chilly knees. The lining was recently falling apart so I attached a new lining to the inside of the skirt, using the edge of the old lining to stitch to.

I love a colourful lining, this was another purchase from the blogger meet-up... there have been a few things languishing in the cupboard for a while ey? Feels good to be using up the stash.

Overall I'm very happy with this shirt, this pattern is on its way to perfect, and once it's right I have so many plans for pattern hacking. I'm very excited!... but should get back to making Christmas pressies. Selfish sewer? Who... me? Hope you have a great weekend.

Debs