Category: plaid

big plaid dress – vogue 6879

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There are a few reasons why I rarely buy fabric, but remake instead….

1.  the local fabric store is rather small and limited choice (lots of synthetic blends)
2.  economics, remaking from charity shop buys is a lot cheaper and has some eco-cred.
3.  quality – it is easier to assess quality, wear, and hang of the fabric from something already made

and finally

4.  it seems I lose the run of myself when I get to a ‘good’ fabric store, and buy random crazy stuff, half of which is destined to sit around and taunt me (a certain cream knit with sparkles and a strawberry yogurt number come to mind).  I get rather overwhelmed with stash so never ever like having much of it….

I got this plaid in Murphy Sheehys and as I like plaid, wool (its a wool mix), and turquoise, why not…..I was really questioning why I got it when I got home.

Murphy Sheehys sells fabric bale ends, so the info on the fabric is often not there (have not a clue what this label meant below) but the choice can be fantastic.

I originally wanted enough for a skirt -.75m, as there was just under 2m left on roll –  and they and they gave discount for the full piece, so I got it.  I was unsure of which looked nicer right side or wrong side, and cross grain (longer diamond) vs on-grain (squat diamond).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the skirt I cut wrong side as it had more pixels and cross grain, and I don’t like it.  I made a plain a-line, and it feels neither-here-nor-there, and the pixels side ended up being horrible to match.

The skirt is finished but not photographed, as even though its in the wardrobe, its only until I figure a remake….

The fabric looked well on the mannequin full length – or so I thought so I thought I would try and make a dress – Vogue 6879

 

I had just enough to match plaid, and get the dress to knee length…..I cut cross grain again, as I thought the longer diamond looked better.  The plaid matched up a dream on sewing and the dress went together easily.  I love it, and am currently wearing it with a jade polo neck underneath.

The only drawback, and it really isn’t is that I don’t like ‘working/sewing’ in it. The arm hole and neck are lovely but it often feels a bit restrictive when I am sewing on the machine, but it is the style of the dress, so its a minor thing really.  I adore the dress.  I think its a flattering shape, and currently I think the big plaid is compensating for my three-tone hair (in the final two months of growing out my hair dye!)

Simplicity 3636 – plaid skirt to plaid over blouse

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I have now decided that overblouses are the best ever……… now that winter is coming, and jumpers are beckoning, an overblouse is a lot smarter (than some of my jumpers anyway) and I just love the pockets.  The style of this overblouse is not unlike a ‘kinsale smock’ (or fishermans smock), and its perfect ‘transitional’ wear, when its too warm for a jacket, but too cool to not wear one.  I had hoped to use up a red plaid from stash but there wasn’t enough (but I have a plan for that) so I decided to use the plaid from a pleated wool skirt I got a long long time ago, adored the colours but couldn’t think of what to do with it. 

Plaid is a tricky one.  Its not the hardest to match off once you decide where the match points should be, but when its off – its really off  (the last worst match plaid I saw was ‘Wolf of Wall st’, Leonardo diCaprio’s Prince of Wales suit).  When learning factory cutting, we had to do plaids, and cut them in layers of 20 plus careful laying and planning is key and then it should all work out fine.  I cut this top on the fold, but I can understand some people prefer to cut plaid on one layer only, the reason I don’t is that I am more afraid of cutting 2 left fronts or something by forgetting to turn pattern pieces over.

simplicity 3636 plaid skirt upcycle refashion to plaid blouse



I decided to put the main dark stripe as centre, as this gave the most fabric and I suppose ‘technically correct for plaid’ , however the side seams would be three square sides but it looked fine at that so I cut in. 

So when I was cutting this, I matched my centre front and centre back lines at the same plaid point for the vertical and then worked up from hem lines, checking then, the underarm match lines and the lines at the shoulder each side of the neck.  As this was a simple cut, this was straight forward enough but I had to pin it plenty for sewing to make sure the squares didn’t stray.   

So after all of this, I must have been a bit slap dash with darts and then one of my darts was slightly off, and fixing a slightly off dart is a lot more difficult than fixing the one that is miles off!  (and ironically you could spot the slightly off dart a mile off). 

simplicity 3636 plaid skirt upcycle refashion to plaid blouse


The buttons were from the button tin, originally from black coat …. .  I was going to include a collar, but the collar for this was designed to sit flat, and it looked a bit off, if there was sufficient fabric I may have tried one that stood up a bit, in the end, I used the collar as the facing.

skirt upcycle to long sleeve tee




I made a long-sleeve-tee to wear underneath – its a funnel neck.  I did a basic pattern draft for it, and used a viscose jersey skirt -the weight and drape of this fabric was divine.  Its was very quick, draft, sew, wear and I will be making more of these.