Boilersuit Bandwagon

Here I am chanelling my past in a vintage jumpsuit.

So, I sold out. I made what I thought I wouldn't. Jumpsuit, flightsuit, boilersuit, coverall - whatever you call it, it's certainly a trend right now. I'm not one for following trends, but I do love an item of clothing I can throw on and just wear, without much thought. The nearest I have ever got to making a jumpsuit is making the Burnside Bibs, which I managed to complete just after Christmas and I really like them. The photos were taken very hurriedly by my daughter as it's blowing an absolute hoolie out there today.

Back in the late 80's I worked for a hair salon franchise and the uniform for the juniors was a white boiler suit with short sleeves and red ties. Other memebers of staff wore either black or grey suits in the same style. It's safe to say it put me off! So i'm a little bit surprised at myself with this make.

There are so many patterns out there, every pattern company has one and the latest offerings are from the Alexa Jumpsuit from TATB and the Blanca flightsuit from Closet Case Patterns. However I had a secret weapon. A free to me pattern and free to me fabric.

As part of a stash of patterns I recieved from a lady on freecycle I scored this 1984 Brooke Shields inspired pattern. I was 13 then, and probably wouldn't have worn this at the time. It's McCalls 8926 and it also comes in a childs version 8927 so you can be all matchy matchy if you wish. The pattern was size 14/16 and aready cut to the size 14.

Now I'm a bit wary of excessive ease in 80's patterns and in the big 4 in general, so before cutting into the fabric I did a lot of measuring to check the size. The previous owner had already folded out a couple of centimetres from the width of the front and back body pieces. I measured carefully and decided that the same adjustment would work for me. I have a long torso and after more measuring of pattern pieces and myself. I knew that I needed to lengthen the body and added an inch to the body, just above the waist. This turned out to be the perfect amount of length to add. The rest of the pattern I left as it was.

I hadn't realised at first, but the fronts overlap on an angle, this seemed a little odd, but I went with it.

Some of the construction seemed rather unusual and left me scratching my head on occassion, as there are far better and easier ways to construct some parts of the design, for example using the burrito method for sewing the yoke.

The only part of the instructions that was dreadful, was the collar construction. To start with, sewing anything with a tight curve and a 1.5cm seam allowance is a nightmare. I hadn't realised how I have become used to much smaller seam allowances.

I followed the instructions and was left with an unsatisfactory finish in the inside of the neck edge on the front bodice piece where raw edges were visible. I ended up carefully unpicking and reconstructing it in a slightly different way to fully enclose all the raw edges. As I'd already trimmed these, this was not easy and not perfect. In the process I'd also stretched out the top collar edge and it's ended up with a few puckers in it.

However the rest of the construction went without incident and the edges are all finished well. I really like the top stitching at the bottom of the front opening -really neat, in fact, collar and facing apart, it's actually a fairly easy sew. I made the short sleeve version and included patch pockets on the front.

I also top stitched the sleeve seam onto the bodice, which gives a lovely professional finish to the seams.

The fabric came from a fabric and pattern swap locally, sometime last year. I love the colour - it's perfect summer colour. It sewed beautifully and needed very few pins to keep it in place. I have sewed a self coloured belt to go with this, but need a couple of D rings to finish it off, so it's being worn with other belts at the moment. The belt loops are made in the same way you might make bias binding, but in the straight grain. I positioned them as directed, just above the pocket openeing, forgetting I'd lengthened the pieces and really needed to attach them a touch higher, but I can live with it.

I also raided my stash of buttons to find something suitable, but I didn't have anything that would match. however I had 3 self cover buttons of a good size and used those instead.

All in all this is a virtually free sew, as the fabric was gifted to me, as was the pattern, The thread and notions were from my stash.

So am I loving the boilersuit trend? Well that remains to be seen - lets just see how much wear this gets over the summer? I'm looking for ways to style this - so hit me with your ideas. I'm also interested to know if you are jumping on this trend.

Going Wobbly - how I'm getting my head back together (and a new top)

It's been quite a week. I don't know about you but I thought I'd got settled into a new routine in lockdown and a new way of working. I spent mornings working, from early until anout 12.30-1pm. Then I'd have lunch; walk the dog; do a bit of housework/ garden stuff; do another hour or two working and finish by tea time. It was all working fine up until Monday.

I'd had a productive weekend. I painted on the bank holiday - out in the garden as it was so nice. - working on a big 120cm square canvas for my painting based on Newbiggin bay. Saturday I pulled out weeds and took it all to the tip, Sunday was church and a long walk with the dog and Boris' announcement!

I didn't sleep well and woke in a poor frame of mind for Monday. I worked - starting at 7.30am and I don't think I really rested from it until tea time. I didn't become a teacher to sit all day at a computer, and by the end of the day my back hurt and I was still left not really know what was going to happen with schools. Many questions and very few answers.

Tuesday was much the same. Worked to the point where my back hurt and the lack of sleep made me completely ineffective. Still no news on how schools would return. I decided that on wednesday I would work on exemplar material for my students and did a bit of painting and designing for some of my modules.

As the week has gone on, it's been harder to keep my chin up. I have felt demoralised by all the teacher bashing going off in the press; the arguments and lack of clear plan. It's become apparent that children and teachers are just subjects in the goverment's latest Covid19 experiment - guinea pigs if you will. I want to teach - I am a professional and do a good job. The children make me laugh, and I love seeing them grow as individuals. I want them to be safe and all our staff to be safe. I just don't think the plans in place are safe. I could feel a level of anxiety creeping in. I even had my work stress dream - you'll laugh at this one - I dream all the kids have left unwashed pallettes, paintbrushes etc in the classroom sink and I have to clean it up. It's stupid I know, but it's what I dream when I'm stressed about work.

I decided to stop reading, listening to or watching the news as it was seriously affecting my mental health and late in the week I started a couple of sewing projects to boost my mental health.

I had a piece of spotty viscose left over from my Solina dress. It was from Minerva. I decided to make my ever faithful top. I have made so many of these I have lost count - It's Burdastyle #116 07/2012.

I've made a few changes to the pattern over the years. I joined the shoulder pieces together to make one piece for each side. It's supposed to be a double layered top, instead I make this a single layer and bind the neck and armholes with bias binding.

Add caption

To make it super easy I lust leave long bias strip ties at the opening and tie in a bow.

I also made a button necklace. I had a supply of craft buttons in bright colours, so I strung them together interspersed with smaller buttons, the bright colours make me happy.

I've also started on a vintage pattern. It's a Brooke Shields jumpsuit pattern from 1984 - watch this space for more on that one.

How to create Flat Felled Seams

I'm making a denim wrap skirt, it's the perfect place to use flat felled seams. They are neat, easy and look good inside and out. (Apologies for using black fabric, which makes some of the stitching tricky to see here, but I was midway through a project.)

First sew the seam with wrong sides together. I like to use a wide seam allowance for this - I used a 1.5cm (5/8 inch) allowance here.

Press the seam open.

Next trim one side of the seam allowance to about 5mm wide (sorry blurry photo here).

The other side of the seam allowance should be folded in half and pressed.

Press the folded side over the trimmed side enclose the trimmed edge in the fold if you can. and press into place.

Now topstitch close to the edge of the fold.

You should see two lines of stitching on the oustside of the garment and one on the inside.

There you go easy peasy.

#NHSfundit

Image ©ClaireCooper2020. Image may be used for non commercial purposes. Not for merchandising.

I have a bit of a rant and I want to share this with you as I think it's important - so please bear with me

Over the past few weeks of lockdown I have been amazed by the kindness of people and horrified and the way the goverment have treated people as a commoditiy that is just not that valuable and have made decisions solebased on capitalism rather than the health and wellbeing of people - (before you say it - I know the economy is important. This post is not about that).

Our NHS workers have been right at the frontline of the pandemic and rightly deserve our appreciation and rounds of applause. However they are not just heroes, they are well trained professionals who care for the health and wellbeing of our nation. Free at the point of need (paid for by your National Insurance contributions).

The goverment have systematically broken up and sold off sections of the NHS until it is barely recognisable as the organisation ot was envisioned to be. We have seen through the pandemic how pitifully underfunded the NHS has been and it's time to stop the craziness and fund it properly. Not the lipservice and stealing from one pot, to make it look like funds are being increased. No, not that. Listening to the NHS workers - what do they need to provide our national care? they should be the ones saying - yes we have enough, instead of, I don't know how we are going to cope!

Many of my fellow sewists have made scrubs for the NHS. People have been fundraising to support the work that has been going on. While I admire these acts I am also horrifed. The funding should be from the goverment and not charity. The pandemic should have been prepared for and the supplies in place for those in most need.

It's time to stand up and make a change. If we learn nothing else from this pandemic, we should learn how important our NHS is. So let's get this out there - whatever your political background- let's lobby our MP's to get the NHS properly funded. Don't let them off the hook! Don't forget when all this pales into history. Don't let them get away with it.

The hands that clapped demand NOW FUND OUR NHS

#NHSfundit

Please feel free to share the image. I've posted this to my Redbubble shop - any proceeds from these sales will go to charity.

Almost Perfect

An African wax print pencil skirt - yes please!

I bought this length of wax print from Abakhan in Liverpool last August. It was a pre-cut piece and was not very wide or long. I knew that I wanted a pencil skirt in this print, but as with all my makes it sat washed but uncut for months. I finally got around to cutting it out at our monthly Crafternoon back in December and it sat in one of my project boxes until March, when I finally made it up.

I used the pencil skirt from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. I made the size 6 without alterations. This is my go to pencil skirt pattern. When I started sewing back in 2011 I was an avid reader of Gertie's blog and bought the book as soon as it was released. I've made a few things from the book and do keep revisiting it - so it was well worth buying and is a great resource, especially when teamed with Vintage Casual. I also have the Ultimate dress book, but use that a little less. At one time I was very into vintage styling, but I think my style has changed. I love the full skirts, but don't always find these styles practical for day to day living. Anyway I digress, back to the pattern.

This pencil skirt is long. It sits mid calf and looks best worn with a pair of heels. It has 8 darts. Four in the front and four at the back. For me, the back darts are essential to help fit a small waist and large booty. However, I used to find I needed the front darts, but they seem to add extra fullness that I don't need. I have a fairly flat abdomen and need less shaping here. I think I might have to alter the depth of the front darts or even omit them altogether in future versions. The waist band is fitted and sits at the natural waist, which can give a really nipped in look. There is a kick pleat/ vent at the back, which is necessary so you can walk in it. The skirt is closed with a lapped zipper and a button.

This is a quick sew, especially with the waxed print. It's sturdy enough not to need interfacing and still keep it's shape. It presses well and the darts went in beautifully. due to the nature of the fabric, it is less prone to fraying so I simply used my pinking shears on all seam and hem allowances, pressing them open. I did line this, as there is a high probability that I will wear this with tights in cooler weather and unlined skirts and tights just don't mix! I used what I had in my stash, which was a plain black synthetic lining, left over from another project.

As ever, with a fitted pattern I basted the side seams togther before stitching to check fit. I ended taking a little from the hip area and pegging the skirt towards the hem to give a better shape.

So why is almost perfect and not actually perfect? Take a look...

...yup, pattern matching is just not happening - nope, never gonna work. Actually I didn't even try. There was too little fabric to allow me to get a good match so I just went with it. No matchy match here, and do you know what - I actually don't care. I'll wear it. I love it and if the pattern matching police want to call me out, well let them! Gonna throw my hands in the air 'cause I just dont care.

via GIPHY

So I'm interested, what have you sewn, that you know isn't perfect but you just dont care?

Artist Support Pledge

Dark Skies

UPDATE: Many of these work are now available as open edition fine art prints from £40 from my Saatchi gallery profile page with world wide shipping.

I'm a self-confessed Instagram fan. As an artist, I love the visual interface for sharing and admiring the work of others. Over the last weeks, I have been made aware of the artist support pledge. This was started by artist Matthew Burrows, who encouraged artists to support each other and sell affordable artwork during the Covid19 Lockdown.

Abstract Landscape II

The premise is simple. Artists sell pieces of their work for less than £200/ $200 (not including shipping). When an artist has made £1000 from sales they pledge to buy another artist's work for up to £200.

Blue Seas, Blue skies

I've decided to take part in this pledge. These pieces are all available framed (until I run out) at £120 including UK postage. Each of these pieces are approx 20 x 20cm mixed media piece on paper and are part of my Seaspace collection.

Abstract Landscape I

Seaspace is a body of work that celebrates the coast of North East England, where I live. These pieces represent the Sea and local landscapes that bring me joy and life. The sunlit sparkling water or the dark stormy sea and sky. It's a place I call home.

Abstract Landscape III

Abstract Purple Landscape

Blue Skies Over land

Storm

I breathe in the sea

Burdastyle Waistcoat - Looking swell.

Ever since I made my wide-legged wool trousers back in the winter. I had wanted to make an accompanying waistcoat. I'd thought about a jacket, but there wasn't enough fabric for that.

So off I went, hunting through my stash of Burdastyle magazines until I found this pattern. It's #134 from 12/2012. The only image I can fin on line is for the pattern that includes sleeves - which is #135. It's basically the same pattern though.

Unusually for a waistcoat, I cut the outer back piece from the main fabric rather than from lining fabric. I made the size 38 - which is my usual size in Burda and the fit was pretty good. I have a small waist and often need to adjust patterns here, so on this pattern, I increased the width of the darts to give better back shaping - but that was the only alteration I made to the pattern. It's lined with lining fabric from my stash.

It was a good job I had some spare fabric as I made a massive mess on the welt pocket first time around. I followed Burdstyle's (rather sparse) instructions, but due to the fabric being prone to fraying and that I tried to rush and didn't interface properly the welt turned out to be a real mess.

So I recut the front pieces - just enough fabric left. I then used a tried and tested way of making welt pockets - using a similar technique to a bound buttonhole. This gave a much better finish and I've pleased with the result.

I have a bit of a buttonhole sewing session and then photography session the other week. This was done apart from the buttonholes at the start of lockdown, but as I had a few projects to sew buttonholes on I used the one-step buttonhole function on my Janome. I was a little concerned that the fabric would be too thick for the machine, but it handled it well. One buttonhole went a little awry, so the stitch unpick got a bit of use and it was not easy undoing stitches on this fabric.

Overall I'm very pleased with the effect and I like the waistcoat. I can't see it getting much wear at the moment though. as even when I'm at work we are dressing casually and it will be too warm to wear soon. Wearing will have to wait until the autumn I feel. It has a long line and I think it will look great with long dresses. It does emphasise my long torso and It might have been a good idea to make it a little shorter.