Chemisier B by Tonje Thorensen

This is another stash busting project. I had some black and white printed cotton and an inexplicable need to mix my French language lessons with my sewing. Hence, I give you "Chemisier B" by Tonje Thorensen or rather as she describes it "Chemisier à col rond et manches à revers". (Blouse with round collar and reversed sleeves)

Thoresen, Tonje, and Catherine Guidicelli. Couture Vintage. Paris: Hachette Pratique, 2013. Print.

This pattern book, as with all my French pattern books and magazines, assumes you know your way around the haberdashery store, the sewing room and your fitting skills. There are no lengthy explanations or hand holding with these patterns. They are guide lines only. Your success is up to you skill depth. Now, having said this, I did have very good success with this pattern book and I'd be willing to try again.

This is a simple cotton blouse with a self-facing button front. It has set in cap sleeves with a reversed cuff finish. The collar is banded with a simple rounded collar. The bodice is fitted with a shoulder dart and waistline tucks in the front and back. Sizes in this pattern book range from EU 36 to EU 44. All sizes are shown on the pattern sheet for each pattern piece so that grading between sizes would be very easy to do. I traced the EU 44 size just as the book drafted it, before doing a pattern pin fitting. I decided to go ahead with the 44 without changing the pattern.

There were two things that I had to very aware of with this pattern. The seam allowances had to be added to the pattern and they were not the same width everywhere. I had to toss out the 5/8'' everywhere rule and remember the different widths for different purposes system.  I can see getting very used to this and automatically knowing where to cut larger allowances for better fitting. The second smaller problem was that the front and back of the sleeves and cuffs were very, very similar in shape. Careful marking and careful organization will save mix ups in this area.

Here's the finished garment on me. This photo was taken between gusts of freezing rain. I was not a happy camper for most of the March in terms of the weather.

Garment Finish: The fabric was a printed cotton and I serge finished the seam allowances and hem edges. I also used an iron-on interfacing. The cotton pressed easily and gave the blouse a crisp finish. Grade: A-

Fit: Good fit and easy adjustment with the waistline tucks. Grade: A

Material Choice: Printed cotton is always a winner for ease of construction. Grade: A

Style and Wearability: I love the print, but I'm not so crazy about the sleeves. Grade: B

Overall: A-

Next time, I think I'll try the Blouse à col Cravate in a silk print.

Shopping Bags or Something from Nothing

Today's post is about this kind of sewing that must be done, rather that the sewing that we all wish we could be doing. It's about the utilitarian sewing that fills most of my sewing days. Although, I'd much rather be dreaming up a brand new cocktail dress, what really needs to be done is the mending, and the hemming, and the remaking of worn clothing and the making of utility shopping bags.

My shopping bags get used and abused and they wear out. I needed new ones before I began losing my weekly shopping in drips and drabs through holes that had become too big to mend. 

This is a stash project; a perfect excuse to use fabric that just wasn't right for the original purpose. I had some brown denim-like material, that didn't wash well and was too stiff to use as a winter skirt. That's the brown stuff. I also had miles of leftover bias-cut quilting cotton from a mistake I made in arithmetic when finishing a quilt. That's the green stuff. Finally I had a good handful of stitch witchery left over from my Ikea curtains that was the exact width of the bias tape. That stuff is unseen on these photos.

I measured up my old shopping bags before tossing them directly in the trash. I simply transferred these measurements plus a seam allowance to the brown fabric and cut on the straight lines. I first hemmed the top of the bag front and back as well as the piece that was cut for the sides and bottom.

Next I estimated the strap length as twice the bag height plus the handle length. I cut four of these for each bag. I then used my stitch-witchery to "glue" two of the straps together. I edge stitched each strap before attaching it the bag. This produced a strong, sturdy strap with not much stretch. I top-stitched each strap the the bag from and back

After the strap was in place, I sewed the continuous sides and bottom piece to the front and back. To make this as easy as possible I placed wrong sides together and sewed leaving the seam allowance showing to the right side. This gave me a finished interior to the shopping bag. Finally, I used some more bias tape to enclose the raw seam on the outside. This second stitching of the bias to this seam gave me a strong seam and a finished look to the bag, both inside and out.

So, two shopping bags and some more space in my stash. Is it time to go fabric shopping again?