Easy Tee Sew-A-Long: Part 2, cutting out

After preparing the pattern yesterday, tonight I cut out the various pieces of the Easy Tee and pinned the front and back pieces together ready to sew tomorrow.

To do this step I used my rotary cutter, cutting mat and pattern weights.

I use some pebbles I collected last year, they are all slightly heart shaped as I had thought about using them as place names for my wedding, but in the end finding 80 suitable ones was too hard.

I laid out the fabric, folding the shelvedge over just far enough to allow me to fit the pattern piece on, then cut iron the fold.  As my fabric is quite thick, this was a struggle.  I think in sewing more than anywhere, you get what you pay for with tools.  My rotary cutter was very cheap, and I struggle to cut more than a thin layer of cotton.  It's definitely one to replace as soon as possible before I ruin fabric by having to keep going back and forward.  Do you have a rotary cutter, what brand will be a good one?

I did the same layout to cut the back piece and then pinned the two parts together.  The instructions also say to cut a strip of fabric 28" by 1.5"; as I had lowered the neckline, I increased this to 30".  I actually made a pattern piece for this as I wasn't convinced the fabric would stay flat if I tried to mark the strip straight on it.  I also cut out my collar pieces from my darker fabric, you cut 4 pieces, I did them double thickness so I only had to use the cutter twice, and turned the piece over for the second batch.

So, that's me ready to start sewing tomorrow.  How are you getting on? If you've not started yet, there is plenty of time to catch up, these two steps have hardly taken any time.

You can see some finished tops at the sew-a-long event page here

I really like how this is looking, what do you think?

I'd also like to thank Autumn for her great pattern, check out all her great ideas here. 

Comic Maxi Gathered Skirt

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After my weekend of disasters last week, I decided to do a quick and easy gathered maxi skirt this weekend.

My guide was the wonderful tutorial on the Simple Bliss Blog and have to admit, it was fairly straightforward.

To make the skirt you need a piece of fabric which is at least as wide as you are, the wider it is the more gathers you will achieve.  It should be as long as you want the skirt to be, a bit longer if you want to add a hem.  You also need a piece of waistband elastic long enough to fit around your waist with a seam allowance.

I ordered material from ebay which was a jersey knit fabric, and 50mm wide black elastic for the waist.

The steps are fairly easy.

1. Loosen the tension a bit on your top thread, and stitch along the top.  Break this in to sections, I would suggest quartering your fabric and marking each quarter.  When you get to your mark, stop stitching, cut a long tail of thread, then start again for the next section. Don't secure the ends of your stitching.
2. Repeat step 1, but do the stitching just below the first line.
   
3. Tie a knot in the threads at one end of the first section, then gently pull on the bottom threads at the other end of the section.  This will cause your fabric to start to gather.
4. Do this for all the stitches, you are aiming to have the material the same width as your elastic.
   
5. Once the fabric is the right length, even out the distribution of the gathers, and secure all the threads
6. Pin your fabric to your waistband and then sew it together.  I attached it so that the bottom row of threads was about 1/4" above the bottom of the elastic.  I also used the elastic stitch on my machine which will allow the thread to stretch.  As you can see, mine was anything but perfect, but the wide waistband hid a lot of sins...
   
7. Now pin both long edges together and sew that up.  You shouldn't need to use a special stitch, but I went with a zigzag just to be safe.
8. Finally, you need to sort the hem.  Pin the skirt to the length you want it to be, and either cut off the excess, or use your preferred method of hemming.  I chose to hem it, but I would suggest you use a zigzag stitch, I used two parallel rows of straight stitching which looks lovely but has no give and is constricting when I walk.

And there you have it, a fully completed gathered maxi skirt.  The wider your fabric compared to your elastic, the more gathered your skirt will look.

If you make this skirt, please pop a photo on here, I'd love to see your versions.