New Skate Set Up

 

I've well and truly caught the skating bug. When I was looking to get back into skating, back in March, I wanted to make sure I bought a good pair of skates that I wouldn't need to upgrade quickly. I bought the Chaya Jump 2 skates. These are designed with park skating in mind and while I didn't really intend to do park skating, I've found I really enjoy it and it's allowed me to make lots of new skate friends.

I'm really happy with my park skates on the whole. I do find that my feet get very, very hot in them as they are mostly synthetic, with this in mind I started considering a second pair. I knew I wanted a leather boot that would mould to my foot and then had to decide what style of skate I wanted.

 

I want to continue to enjoy park skating, do some jam (dance) skating, cruise the streets and give Roller Derby a try. My current skates suit the park, but the wheels are a little soft and I could do with harder ones, especially for the indoor park. I could also do with some slideblocks to enable me to progress in the skatepark. With some harder wheels my current skates would also do for basic roller derby training. so they are staying.

As for dance skating, my current skates are flat and for some of the moves I need my weight to be further over the toe so I knew I needed a boot with a heel. I considered the Bont Parkstar as it has a small internal heel, but ruled it out as I already had park skates. I started looking at Moxi Lolly skates, which are a similar price to the Bont, the Moonlight Roller - which is a bit cheaper and Luna skates, which were out of stock everywhere.

 

After doing some research I discovered Wifa Skates. Wifa are an Austrian Brand that have been making Ice figure skates since 1920. Recently they have developed boots suitable for rollerskating and the come in a range of lovely colours. The boots are firm but comfy and much more sturdy than the Moxi Lolly. You can buy the boots directly from Wifa and have the option of boot only or two different plate set ups that use a plate designed and made in Italy. I opted for the orange boot only. Since I ordered mine, you can now buy them from Roller Girl Gang and they have a full fitting stock in to try.

My plan was to take my boots with me when I visited my sister in London and visit Double Threat Skates to sort out a plate and have them mounted. However, due to the broken arm, we didn't go to London. Instead I called DTS and had a conversation about a suitable plate and plate mounting. I sent off my boots to them and they fitted my Bont Prodigy plates.

 

While they were away being mounted, I started to consider wheel options. I knew I needed something big and soft for outdoor skating and something harder for indoor. I managed to get a set of Moxi gummy wheels and bearings on facebook marketplace. These are 78a wheels, which means they are soft and will be great for rough terrain outside. I also bought some Grindstone Smokeshow wheels from Be Good Skates. These are harder at 92a and will be better for skating on smooth surfaces, especially indoor. I wanted something that will work for both skatepark and roller disco, and possibly roller derby. This will be my first time using a harder wheel, so i'll see how I get on.

The final touch is some coloured laces and new skate socks which I got from Roller Girl Gang. I just need to make a new skate leash for hanging them up and carrying them.

 

By the time they had arrived and were set up my arm was pretty much healed. Unfortunately the weather has taken a turn to the worse and I haven't had much of an opportunity to try them out. I managed a short blast along the prom, but then with Storm Arwen, lots of rain and dark cold nights I haven't been outside in them again. I did notice that the Moxi gummy wheels are brilliant outside, they are as soft as my Chaya wheels, but much bigger so made short work of the rough pavements. I only got to try the Smokeshow wheels on Thursday as I managed to get 1/2hr in the sports hall at work (normally there are loads of clubs on). Short video on insta. They slide a lot more than my other wheels, but I soon got used to them. I'm still getting used to the heeled skates as the weight distribution is different to a flat boot, but it does allow me to get much lower. Hoping to get out some more on these in the next few weeks.

My Heart Will Go On Dress

 

I love a quirky fabric and when I saw this one by Little Johnny on Minerva I knew I needed to make a dress in it. The pattern is the Saraste dress from the book, Breaking the pattern by Named Clothing. I have made the sleeveless version of this dress a couple of times so I knew it fit pretty well.

However, after making the shirt version I noticed some strange pulling on the shoulders. I did a bit of investigating and made some alterations. I made a square shoulder adjustment, which meant raising the armhole by 2cm and adjusting the slope of the shoulder to match and a 1.5cm broad shoulder adjustment. I used a straight sleeve from the Solina dress from the same book. I also drafted my own inseam pockets - I mean a dress with pockets is defo the way forward and I miss having them in my other Saraste dresses.

I knew that matching the pattern would be important with this fabric, so that meant some careful cutting out. The repeat isn’t too big so 3m was ample to match the key areas. I worked hard to match the centre front on the button placket and the yoke on the back - I think I’ve done a pretty good job with those. It’s harder to match the princess seams, but I tried to keep the pattern flowing as much as possible here. I did not try to match the pattern on the skirt sections - as they are gathered It’s pretty impossible to see any mismatch and it would have taken yards and yards of fabric and I hate fabric waste!

I’ve dubbed this dress ’my heart will go on’ dress. The pattern is lots of lovely heart shapes and as someone who doesn’t often do florals, It fits well with my likes. It’s a beautiful smooth fabric, presses well, It doesn’t crease particularly. The photos were taken after a full day at work and it’s still fairly crease-free. I have already worn it a few times to work. I am a natural fabrics person and don’t enjoy sewing or wearing synthetics on the whole, so having a long sleeve cotton dress to wear during the cooler months is a bonus. It saves me shivering in my classroom when the heating isn’t on.

I had hoped to get some photos outside, but what with storm Arwen and then torrential rain the next weekend. It’s had to be in the evening when I got in from work - Hate the dark nights - bring on the long days and sunshine!

Upcycled Tees

Ever since I started my sewing journey I have tried to upcycle/ refashion existing garments. Over the half term holidays I spent a day doing just this. I had several of my hubby's t-shirts that didn't fit him, so I had a look at them to see what could be made, rather than ditching them.

3 of them I made into t-shirts for me. I had to choose a pattern carefully so that I could fit the pieces on the existing body/ sleeves of the t-shirts. I considered both the Stellan T-shirt pattern and the Basic InstincTee.

Both of these are free patterns, but I found that the stellan pieces were a touch too wide so I used the size small of the Basic InstincT tee. This fits my frame well and the shoulders are a good width, which is always my issue with T shirts!

The Blue and Black Tees had a graphic print on, so I had to be careful to place the front in a good position to have the print placed well. I cut self bands from the T shirt hems to create the neckline.

The grey Tee was plain and I used some contrast ribbing from my stash to add a neckband and sleeve bands.

These are already getting some wear with my new wide legged Dawn jeans.

The other couple of Tees were desitined to be made into underwear. I used my TNT Watson pattern by Cloth habit. I thought I had nailed the fit on this, and I have with the regular band, but the longline version fits very differently. The hook and eye is very low at the back and this means there is not as much underbust support, which is where fitting is key in a bra. The longline version is wearable, but the fit is not great. I really like the back version though. Lingerie is fab to make from t shirts as the pieces are so small.

All the elastics and hardware I had in my stash. I lined the cups with mesh and used cotton for the inside of the front band, making it stable.

I enclosed all the seams so it looks pretty neat! I really should have different colours in my bobbin thread to ensure that it matches the elastic - but life is too short.

The knickers are also the watson pattern, but the waist is raised by 2cm. I do need to find a good source of suitable elastic for knickers as my options are not the best here.

Megan Nielsen Dawn Jeans Review

My jeans making journey continues with the Megan Nielsen Dawn Jeans. Way back in 2018 I made my first pair of Closet Core Patterns Ginger Jeans, which you can read about here. I'm actually wearing these right now, which is a testament as to how well they have held up. I went with a stretch jean as I thought it would be easier to fit. And that first pair was easy - however every denim I've used since has had different amount of stretch which has meant lots of alterations for each version!

I've been loving the wider leg jean that has been so popular recently. I decided that I'd like to make myself some. Now with a 90's resurgence in fashion at the moment low rise is what many RTW style are going for. I still have a pair of low rise demin from the 90's (now cut into shorts) which get plenty of wear dueing the summer - BUT - I have a LONG torso, which can make my legs look short in comparison (I'm quite tall at 172cm). The low rise seems to accentuate the length of the torso, so I decided I wanted a high rise jean - the Megan Nielsen Dawn Jeans are certainly high rise. They hit right at my natural waist - which I love!

So, why choose the Megan Nielsen Dawn Jeans over other jeans that are out there? Especially when lots of folks have had fitting issues with these - simply this  - Lots of super versions out there. All trousers will need some fitting. 4 different views, so lots of bang for your buck! I made the wide leg version, full length.

Right then - Fitting! 

I made a toile up on some firm cotton I had in my stash. I cut a 12 at the hip, graded to an 8 at the waist. I had seen Liz Grylls (sewing bee 2020) had some fitting issues with the Dawn jeans and has documented these on her instagram highlights. After making my toile I realised one of the alterations she had done I needed to do too. In order to eliminate wrinkling and odd little pleats on the inseam. I needed to add some width to the inseam at the crotch. I added 2cm both front and back. This solved the issue.

I also found that I had some pooling of fabric just above the butt. so I took a 2cm wedge out of the centre back seam, graded to nothing at the side seams. As I have a small waist I still needed to take a bit out of the centre back width - I do this A LOT! About 1cm from the back piece = an adjustment of 2cm in total.

Construction

Once I was happy with the fit I prepped my denim. The denim is a medium weight rigid fabric which I bought from John Lewis with birthday vouchers. I prewashed it, pressed it and then cut the pieces out of a single layer. I had 2.2m and it was 150cm wide. As I was making the tall full length version I really did need the 2.2m and it fit perfectly. I did manage to leave a very good chunk of fabric left - theres enough for a skirt or bag or maybe evern the shorts version of the pattern - it won't go to waste!

As I made a zip fly I used the construction of the Ginger Jeans - I cut the front pieces with a cut on fly extension in order to do this. The zip I had bought was too small, but I managed to find a long metal zip in my stash and used that.

As with my Ginger jeans making I basted everything together without the waistband to check the fit and see if I needed to make any other alterations, but it was all good! I had my new overlocker set up (Jaguar 099) and it handled the super thick layers brilliantly with absolutlely no issues. My Pfaff select 3.2 was set up for the construction seams and My vintage Bernina 707 Minimatic was set up on the dining table for top stitching. I used Guttermann extra strong thread for this. Having two machines really helps with the process as you don't need to keep swapping threads during construction. The only top stitching I did on the Pfaff was the buttonhole as my Bernina doesn't have a buttonhole function.

I was going to use the Ginger Jeans waistband method, but I thought I'd give the Megan Nielsen technique a shot. It was actually very effective and It does mean the belt loops are secured very well. It's a good option as long as you don't have a super thick denim. I pressed all the thick bits light mad and gave the super thick areas a bit of a bash with a hammer to help compress the fabric and make topstitching easier. Both of my machines handled 8 layers of denim easily and the Bernina even managed 12 layers -where the belt loop sits over the centre back seam.

I thought I was going to need to lop a lot off the length of these, but once I tried them on with my boots I realised I only needed and extra 1cm off the length, so I just made the hem a little deeper. After the first washing they do seem to have shrunk a little more - and yes, I did pre wash the fabric.

Opinion

I LOVE THESE. They make my legs look long due to the high waist. They are super cool and will look fab with a fitted graphic tee and cardigan. I can't wait to wear these and I'm already envisioning a needlecord version and a linen pair for the summer - not to mention the shorts version. I think this is going to be a staple pattern that will get used a lot. The only minor additional alteration I will make is to reduce the height of the side seams by 1cm, grading to nothing at the centre front/ back. I think it will give a smoother line. I love that these will need minimum alterations to fitting for different fabrics rather that the whole massive alteration, depending on fabric stretch that the ginger jeans need!

Teenage Tartan

My daughter had expressed an interest in a short plaid dress. I had set about raiding my pattern stash to find something suitable and when I saw this fabric on Minerva I knew it was perfect and my daughter agreed. This fabric is perfect for transitional pieces like this dress. It definitely says autumn/ winter to me.

Just a day after the fabric arrived, I broke my arm, so over the last 4 weeks, my daughter has made this dress. She’s done all of it, with supervision of course. There was a deadline as she wanted to wear it to the theatre on Tuesday and she is off to uni next week, so it had to be completed. It was done with just an hour to spare!

The pattern is from Burdastyle Magazine 05/2017 and is pattern 112. We lengthened the sleeves to be full length and made the skirt shorter. We cut the size 38, but in retrospect, the 36 would have been a better fit.

Bethan is generally confident with the sewing machine and has made a few small projects over the years, but has never made a dress. This probably wasn’t the easiest of projects for a beginner and it’s not perfectly sewn, there was also rather a lot of unpicking. She handled it really well all things considering. I felt rather frustrated at times, where I wanted to help, but couldn’t.

As with all Burda magazine patterns, the instructions are, well, Burdalike. So we freestyled it. If I had been sewing, this would have been fine, but for Bethan, the order of construction meant there were a few tricky bits and misaligned seams, not helped by the nature of the fabric - it's synthetic, need I say more!

Bethan struggled with the fabric a little as it did fray rather a lot, which meant matching edges was tricky. It’s also easy to get the right and wrong sides mixed up, so we used masking tape to mark the wrong sides.

This sort of design really does benefit from some serious pattern matching, but for a newbie sewist, we didn’t really focus on that too much. Plenty of this design is on the bias, so it’s not a massive detraction if there are some bits that are not perfectly matched and it is still better than most RTW.

I’m not sure if Bethan really enjoyed the process, but she undertook it with determination and can proudly say ‘I made this.’ (and it’s way better than the first garments I ever made). It's already packed into her case ready to take to University next week.

Skate Progress

 

So I was just starting to feel cnfident in the skatepark. I'd started to relax and really enjoy it, when I fell and broke my arm - 'really confident' I hear you say!

I was actually stood chatting, turned around and landed awkwardly. When I'm skating, I'm aware of keeping good balance and falling to my well padded knees first, and squatting to avoid massive impacts. Because I wasn't 'skating' I wasn't paying as much attention to my body position. Lesson learnt!

Anyway, this is just a little montage of my skating progress since the end of March. I know I'll be taking a step back once I return to it, but that's ok. Progress is never completely linear anyway.

Mid-year Musings

Out, Out for my birthday meal

Yes I know that it is way past the middle of the year, but at this point, just before school returns, I often find is a good time for reflection.

As ever, the summer term was crazy busy, COVID19 played a part in disruption and some of our leavers had to isolate at the end of term, which was sad for them. The last day of term was spent on the beach with my year group, which was really nice.

Finished casted hand

I also had the opportunity to attend an art teacher residential in Leeds, which was amazing and left me with a lot of ideas for teaching my subject over the next year.

Alginate Cast

 

As part of the course I took part in a sculpture workshop and we cast our hands! great fun, but not something I can do with a co-hort of 150 children.

casting the Jesmonite

I was truly ready for the summer holidays. The first weekend was hot and I even ventured into the Sea, in a bikini no less. Something I haven't done since I was a teenager.

I enjoyed the relaxed pace of life, walking the dog, sewing and skating. All in all just chilling out.

Out out and John is pulling a silly face.

It was my birthday at the end of July. It was quiet, my mum and Ian came up and we headed out for a lovely meal with the rest of the family. 

The boys at my birthday meal

My husband bought me a new overlocker and with the birthday money I had I new skates, which are currently being built!

My new skate boots, ready for mounting on plates

John and I spent a lovely weekend with friends in Cheshire. We also had some work to do in the bathroom. so started with that on our return. 

Superb job done.

The flooring had been bought 7 years ago - yes 7! We bought a new sink and cupboard as the old one was damaged. cladding was replaced, sanded and repainted by me. John did pretty much everything else, helped by Bethan. 

Bethan Helping

We had some leaks, but they were finally sorted and new bathroom furniture is in. There is still more to do, but it will have to wait.

New flooring down

A couple of weeks ago John and I were at our regular skatepark session, when I slipped and fell, breaking my wrist. I wasn't even doing anything impressive at the time. 

Broken!

A&E took x-rays and decided that my wrist needed reduction and an operation the next day. Once the wrist had been manipluated and a back slab put on, I was allowed home and told that that I'd be in the next day for surgery.

The clinic called in the morning and let me know that they had decided not to operate as the reduction was in a good position. I went back on the following Tuesday for another x-ray to check everything was fine. It was. Follow up appointment for Wednesday. I went and the x-ray showed that the joint had begun to collapse and now required surgery.

Pre Op

I was given a covid swab, sent home and told to isolate. The consultant expected the surgery to be on Tuesday, which would mean isolating for the whole of the bank holiday weekend, but I got a call on Thursday telling me I would be having surgery on Friday. Friday came and in I went. The hospital is close by so it was a quick journey in. I was just a day case so was home by 5 ish. I had a nerve block and light sedation rather than a general, which meant I was up and about very quickly after the op. However my arm was completely numb for some hours. If youve ever seen Hary potter, where he loses the bones in his arm? then this is how I felt.

Post Op

I didn't sleep well on Friday night due to the pain, freqntly waking and clock watching for when I could take the next lot of painkillers. I pretty much spent Saturday in a painkiller induced haze! some of which made me feel quite sick! However, I did sleep much better last night. I'm hoping to get out for a little walk today and get some fresh air.