Posted on

Purple Faux Fur Short Jacket

Purple Faux Fur Short Jacket

This luxurious Purple faux fur jacket was made by Pauline using Butterick 6328 pattern, which is illustrated here as overshirts but as you can see works very well in faux fur.

butterick 6328 jacket pattern

The pattern is unlined but Pauline wanted lovely yellow satin inside so she drafted a lining pattern by the following method.

how to make a lining pattern

The neatest and best way to make a lining pattern from an unlined pattern with a facing is to do the following:

Illustration: Piece A = front facing. Piece B = front

First: Trace piece B and cut out.

1. Lay facing (A) over your traced piece (B) matching centre front and shoulder points (red dots). Mark your cutting line onto piece B that will be 2 x seam allowances inside the facing piece (red dotted line), this is usually 3cm (2 x 1.5cm). A tracing wheel or measurement gauge is useful for this job but a simple ruler will work.

2. Cut off the top of piece B beyond the dotted line. This is your new lining piece.

3 Stitch lining B to facing A using the same seam allowance as you used for the alteration.

The same principle goes for whichever piece you want to make a lining for -you need to lay the facing piece on and take off that piece less 2 x seam allowances. It’s a good idea to add a pleat of extra fabric (about 3”) to the back of a coat or jacket, and all linings should be cut fractionally bigger than the outer fabric to add ease.

 

Posted on

Bright Green Laminated PVC Peplum Skirt

green PVC peplum skirt

Back when The Great British Sewing Bee were after applicants for the next show (before they went and upset the BBC) Pauline was rather hoping to get on it, and being the kind of person who will happily sew brown tweed and bunny print cotton most of the time she thought she better widen her horizons in case they made her do something evil.

I think it is safe to say this is about as far out of Pauline’s comfort zone as we are going to get but she did an exceptional job. PVC is not easy to sew as it often sticks to the machine and doesn’t feed properly, various things can help like sewing with layers of tissue, using a walking foot or teflon foot, or sprinkling with talcum powder. It is a good idea to lengthen the stitch too.

Posted on

Floral Viscose Twill Jumpsuit

floral viscose twill jumpsuit

You know those days when you make something and you decide it is a mistake so you hide it away, and then a few days/weeks/years later you try it on again and decide actually it’s fine? This is one of those projects. Pauline came into the shop wearing it and it looks fab (we were too slow to nab her picture), and she doesn’t know why she had a problem with it. It’s not that we women are fickle, we just have varying tastes 😉

The pattern is Simplicity 1355 and the fabric is quite a weighty viscose twill. 

 

 

Posted on

Rabbit Print Cotton Shirt with Concealed Buttonhole Band

bunny print cotton shirt

Pauline made this sweet bunny print shirt with printed quilting weight cotton. It is a Butterick pattern (6324) that has minimal/confusing instructions (it is clearly the instructions at fault and not the readers!), so Pauline came a bit unstuck working out how to do the concealed buttonhole band, but she got there in the end 🙂

The collar and cuffs are interfaced with lightweight knit iron-on interfacing