Kimono Sleeved Jacket...Buttonhole Nightmare

What a nightmare it was to do these buttonholes! I'm going to stay clear of pattern requiring lots of buttonholes for a some time, since last night I almost lost the plot doing these.

I started at the bottom and my machine had no problems doing the first three buttonholes. But then it changed the buttonhole size completely. The difference wasn't huge so I continued but the remaining two were disastrous. One of the other things it did was to complete the buttonhole programme stitch without having stitched the hole thing. Have you ever tried to unpick a black machine sewn buttonhole on black corduroy? No, not possible. I tried but ended up ruining a bit of the lining inside. 

I fudged it and managed to have a finish garment that is usable.

I can honestly say I'm a bit traumatised with buttonholes and would rather insert invisible zippers for future projects. But button looks so lovely and I definitely don't want to go off them, just because I had a bit of trouble.

So what is your experience with buttonholes/ buttons? Have you had any problems? Do you have any techniques, tips or hints that help make it easy? I look forward reading them.

In Construction:Kimono Sleeved Jacket

I am half way doing the kimono sleeved jacket from Vogue 8604 and this is what is looks so far:

I'm using the left over from the black corduroy fabric I used for my Winter Dress. The jacket has 6 buttons at the front (which I confess I'm not looking forward to sew) and is fully lined. The shell was pretty quick to assemble and I could have finished it last night, but I paced myself so as to distribute the different tasks between my different projects. The last thing I want is again having nothing to sew but 4 patterns to trace. I will probably have it finished by the weekend so will share the finished thing then.

This jacket and the next 4 or 5 projects I have going under the sewing machine are all part of my plan to use my existing pattern, fabric and habby stash. Not to say I won't buy anything new but I do want to get rid of some existing fabric remnants, etc.

Tonight I will trace!

Trousers Sewalong: Conquered

I am over the moon for having finished my trousers as part of The Cupcake Goddess Trousers Sewalong. The sew along is still ongoing but as I was working on a different pattern I decided to crack on and finish them off.

They are super wide which, with this pattern, doesn't look too bad. They are also very hight waisted, which was one the main reasons I picked this pattern. I spent yesterday hemming and opted by mid high suitable length. By the way, don't you find annoying that you always have to choose beforehand, if you going to wear high heels or flats with your trousers?

The corduroy I used (purchased from the great The Fabric Loft) is very soft so bulk wasn't an issue for most of the part. The only part where it gets a bit bulky is where the waistband (with facing) meets the pocket and the outer fabric. Using my newly found and already much loved overlocker foot I treated all my seams that way. It takes a whole lot of thread but it looks so pretty.
I mentioned in my fitting post I wasn't 100% happy with the zipper length but because the trousers are quite snug waist wise and high, I couldn't put a shorter one. I don't have a photo os my back but it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would.

I really really love this trousers and will definitely do a summer pair, with a few alterations:

• I like them wide but for the next pair I will try to remove some of the wideness. Not much though, as I do believe this style suits wide legs.
• I am quite petite so will probably cut one inch off top/ waistband
• I have already cut the smaller size for these but will try and reduce that for my next pair. These are great winter trousers and fit perfectly with a jumper tucked inside. But if I'm to wear a thin summer blouse, they are not so snug.  

Corduroy Winter Dress finished

"The hills are alive with the sound of music..."

That's what I thought when I finished this dress and saw myself in the mirror. Actually it was more like "Hello Julie Andrews!" I was also called Dorothy at work! What can I say, I wore it with a blue turtleneck and some cute wedges and a ponytail so the entire outfit was a bit more The Sound of Music.

I do love this dress though and see myself wearing it quite a lot through winter. Being able to wear chunky knitwear underneath definitely helps. If it wasn't for that I doubt I would use it much in cold weather.


And that's exactly the reason I decided to do a sleeveless version. The pattern was taken out of Sew magazine issue 17.
I enjoyed working with corduroy and think I will very soon be adding another corduroy project to my immense To Sew list.
My only issue was lining the armholes. I ended up just pressing and sewing. Not gorgeous inside but it doesn't look bad either.In terms of fitting the only issue is the fact the bodice is a bit to loose, as you can notice on the photo on the right. I usually have that problem with bodices. Definitely need to learn how to fit a bodice but hey, that's one of the reasons I decided to join Gertie's Crepe sewalong!


Photos were done by my gorgeous bf who also did my hair! Am I not a lucky girl ;)

Progress on Winter Dress

Working on my Winter Dress Project and now stuck and in need of help! Started last week by cutting all my fabric pieces but couldn't start sewing as I ran out of black thread. Placed an order online and I'm now stocked so started sewing yesterday. Was very anxious as it's my first time sewing with corduroy but have to say it hasn't been bad. I had to zig zag all the raw edges because corduroy ravels like crazy. It also sheds some "fluff" which is now everywhere. I decided on some design changes. My initial though was to insert sleeves, after all it's a winter dress. But when I gave it a bit more thought I realised it wouldn't make a difference as even with sleeves the dress wouldn't be warm enough for me to wear in winter. So I decided to do the sleeveless version and use it with a nice close fitting jumper underneath. Because I want to keep it simple I'm not doing the collar either. The princess seams were fairly easy to sew. They are a bit of a nightmare but with care and attention it works out fine. I also had to chop off 11 inches from bottom as it looked like I was out of the Little House on the Prairie 80s TV series.  This is what I have so far:

I've constructed most of the dress, attached the lining, finished neck seams and have the back seam and invisible zipper to do plus finish the lining in the armholes. And this is where I'm truly stuck and in dire need of help. I have found several tutorials on how to attach lining to sleeveless armholes but a) they are all in fabrics less bulky than corduroy and b) all have the side seams still open. I have thought of a way to do it but would love to finish it the right way, if that makes sense. Below are Sew Magazine instructions for the armholes and it's gibberish to me. I have read it countless times and have not yet made sense of it. I am sure it means something very simple and once I crack it I'll be like...duhhh!! But for now I'm truly stuck, so if someone knows about this or can make sense of the below please leave a comment or email me at : suzysewingblog[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk. Thank you!