Finding time to blog my makes (or indeed sew much for myself) has been a struggle for the latter part of 2016. Since The Refashioners in fact. Many things last year took their toll on my sewjo ( What a bloody awful year it was!) and as a result I’ve neglected this blog for the last few months.  I think I’ve been having some kind of  existential blogging crisis. For a while I questioned whether I was just falling out of love with blogging and had my head turned by Social Media. Recently I’ve been more inclined to share on IG. It’s quick. And writing a blog post is not. But I don’t think it’s that….
It’s more to do with my sewing and me personally. Creatively I’ve been in a bit of a rut. Emotionally I’ve felt the need to go into my shell and hibernate for a while. I’m doing a gazillion things….but none of them “properly”. (Which I hate). I have a gazillion ideas.  But precious little time or energy. And when presented with a time window I can use, I’m paralyzed by indecision and procrastination; or worse still, rushing and bodging! So none of them are reaching fruition. I think I just need to regroup.  Take a long deep breath.  How do you clear a creative log jam? Sometimes absorbing myself in simple, mindless tasks is enough for me. Things that occupy me just enough, but not too much. And as evidence of that, right after this little simple refashion, I sewed up something else, that I am really proud of and will share  with you, I promise. But in the meantime….here’s my little icebreaker…
Unmistakable vintage M&S label. Back when it was called St Michael! Oh yeah, and pre vanity sizing! This dress dates from the late 70’s I’d say. LOVE the geometric print and thick jersey fabric. Â Love the button placket and mandarin collar. Not so keen on the frumpy bottom half. A younger sewist with better legs than I, may choose to modernise this little beauty by going down the mini dress route. On the right person that would look ace. I am not that person 😉
So I altered the bottom section to reflect one of my favourite details. A shirt tail hem. Very simple alteration. Lay the garment flat with side seams (in the centre of this pic) pinned on top of eachother. Â (Doing this ensures any alteration cuts you make will be even & centred) Draw out your curves in chalk making sure the lines are at 90 degree angles at the folded edges that are the CF and CB (this prevents a peak or wedge in the centre of your curved line when you open the garment out after cutting). The curves meet at the side seam.
I pinned along my chalk lines to stop anything shifting as I cut. Cut just underneath the line of pins. I eyeballed an approximate hem allowance. I wasn’t feeling the need to be precise, but you could always mark one in. To finish the hem I simply serged the raw edge, turned under and stitched in place. (Where the curves meet at the side seams, it helps to unpick a little of the side seams to give you room to manoeuvre and turn under neatly).
This pic better shows the effect before and after cutting. Apologies for the poor quality. A) It’s winter. B) I totally neglected to take a proper before photo.
A simple alteration which makes this garment much more wearable for me. It’s super warm and cosy too! It’s bugging me a little that I didn’t swap to black thread to sew this hem. It didn’t seem as obvious in the gloomy light I was sewing in at the time. Â I may go back and change that I think. I have a “sewlution” this year. I don’t normally do resolutions. But if I have one sewing related one this year it’s this: ” Sew less, just sew it better”. Â If I’m going to fully break out of my rut, niggles like that are not going to help. Best I go back and sort that hem out then!