Sunny Top from Sew My Style Challenge

I follow several Vloggers and one of my favourite is Jessica Lorraine who lives in Australia. She has recently launched a challenge called Sew My Style 2018 and I was taken by the January pattern.

Basically there are 12 patterns from Indie pattern makers who offer a different one each month at a discounted price.

The first one, January, was the Sunny Top / Dress from Friday Pattern Co.

 

Now you are all aware that I nearly always use my Sure-fit Designs body Blueprint but I have a new goal this year. Don't get me wrong, I haven't forsaken SFD but I need to push my horizons somewhat.

I have spent a lot of time making clothes that fit using SFD and it works. I have trousers, jeans, shirts and tops but I am not a natural designer and looking through my wardrobe I have come to the conclusion that it's boring and predictable, only the fabric choice seems to show any sort of design element apart from the occasional embroidery.

The Sew My Style challenge was supposed to launch me into a direction of using pattern designers instead of self drafting but this first pattern did nothing toward that goal. My first attempt was using a white stretch rib left over from another project to make a wearable muslin. After downloading the PDF pattern and sticking it together, I cut the medium size. 

The pattern had no sleeve notches marked and the method of construction could have been a lot better. This is meant to encourage beginners but I know from experience with knits especially, that attaching the sleeves 'flat', before sewing the sleeve and sides seams in one go is much easier and produces great results but the instructions would have you sew the seams first and then struggle to fit the sleeves in after. 

The pattern itself did not look like the picture. The sleeves were far too baggy and the back neck gaped as you can see in the photo. I took the sleeves in by quite a large amount and they are still larger than I would normally expect a T-Shirt to be. I put a couple of small darts in the back neck and altered my pattern accordingly. I also added length to the main body as I prefer to wear my T-shirts a little longer.

My next attempt was far better and again I used some scrap fabric from my stash yet once more I was falling into the trap of plain old boring so I added an embroidery element to make it my own.

The result is a much better fit [although I'm still not sure the sleeves are right] and matching the navy embroidery thread I used my cover stitch machine to finish the neckband, sleeves and dolphin hemline.

I will wear this when the weather is warmer [a lot warmer!] but I could have made this easily with SFD so I wonder why I bothered with this pattern. Maybe I just feel I'm missing out but have I got this all wrong? I didn't need a badly drafted, ill fitting, complicated method of construction to tell me I could have done much better without it.

Next month the pattern is for a coat but I'm not going to rush for this one until I see what others make of it.

I have a lot of Burda Style and a few My Image Magazines with plenty of inspiration on offer.

Well that's probably one of my New Year Resolutions out the window.... I've changed it to 'Stick to what you know but do it better.' Maybe that'll work!

Fabric Shopping in Lanzarote

It was just a week in the sunshine over Christmas but it wouldn't be a break without seeking out some fabric...

...or wine tasting!!!

I did some research before we left the UK and to be honest I didn't hold out a lot of hope that I'd actually get to visit any of the ones I found listed. We arrived on the Thursday before Christmas and as we were self catering, getting in supplies was our main priority after checking in.

Friday morning was spent planning some trips. The first was a visit to the active volcano at Timanfaya booked for the Tuesday [our boxing day in the UK] and a half day trip to see some local industries on the Wednesday before leaving again on the following day [Thursday].

This is Reys'o in Calle Triana

Opening hours for Reys'o - they were closed

View of Reys'o from through the window - it didn't look too exciting

In between we had Saturday, Sunday and Christmas Day [Monday] so as all shops were closed on the Sunday and Monday that just left Saturday to find transport into Arrecife.

By the time we were ready and walked to the bus stop it was already mid-morning [we were on holiday] and it took three quarters of an hour for a bus to arrive [we were told they run every 20 minutes] but when it did they took a couple in the queue in front of us then closed the doors saying they were full. It took nearly another hour for the next bus to arrive so by the time we got into Arrecife the fabric shops we found were already closed for the day. I had to resign myself that I wouldn't be getting any fabric this trip.

No fabric just a ladies fashion shop in Calle Hermanos Zerolo

Christmas came and went and then our all day trip on the Tuesday which was quite interesting. We got back to our apartment to find a note telling us that due to a lack of customers the Wednesday trip was cancelled. YES!! I couldn't have been more delighted. Now we had another chance to shop for fabric and this time we made it!!

Of the five places I had researched, one turned out to be a RTW fashion shop - no fabric[Gladys], another didn't exist, a third was furnishing and curtains and the fourth [Reys'o] we never actually got to visit when it was open although I did take a photo through the window.

The Aladdins cave however, was El Kilo and although a little difficult to find [Plaza de las Palmas] was totally unexpected. It was full to bursting as you can see by the photos I took. The staff were extremely helpful as well as cutting the inexpensive fabric very generously. If you want fabric or haberdashery of every type imaginable then El Kilo is the place to go.

All the photos below were taken in El Kilo's and if some are a bit blurred it was because my hands were shaking with the excitement of just being there!!

Best fabric shop in Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands.

I have always tried to buy at least one or two pieces to take home as once made into a garment can bring back memories of the place and I end up giving them names like my Alvor [Portugal] top, or Luxemburg T-shirt or Vendorme Trousers [France]. It was much easier when we travelled through Europe in our Motorhome as I wasn't limited by an allowance however, the Lanzarote trip by air meant I'd had to ensure I didn't overpack my suitcase so I had room to spare.

So I came away with only two peices. A navy, pale blue and grey mix cotton that will eventually be a shirt and some unusual printed heavyweight denim with a slight stretch that will be jeans.

Both fabric and garments will be blogged about next time.