Tuesday Tee

This is a lovely relaxed fit tee.  It is a dolman tee with fitted elbow length sleeves and it tapers towards the waist.  The fabric is cut on the bias and the back is blocked to make a nice seam detail across the back.

 You will need:

• 1.4m of 140cm wide knit fabric
• Matching thread
• Twin Needle (optional)
• Rotary Cutter and Cutting Mat (optional)

I have used my overlocker to sew this Tee but you can easily sew this using your sewing machine.  See my ‘Beginners Guide to Sewing with Knits’ if you need more guidance. It has a lovely scooped neckline, just wide enough to fall off the shoulder occasionally but not wide enough to gape.

As before please note that this pattern is completely untested by anyone except for me and the pattern pieces are in one size only (small).  Click on the image below to download the pattern pieces.

Sewing Instructions:

Print and Cut Pattern Pieces.

Click the image above to download the pattern pieces.  When printing be sure to print at 100% or set scaling to 'None'.  There is a 1" test square on page 1 which you can measure to check that your pattern has printed at the correct size.  Pattern pieces can be printed on A4 or US letter paper.  Once printed they will need to be trimmed along the dotted lines and taped together.  Do this following the diagram on page 3 and matching notches.

Pattern pieces are to be cut on the bias.  Take your 1.4m by 1.4m piece of fabric and bring 2 diagonal corners towards each other, folding the fabric to form a triangle.  The fold will run along the longest edge of the triangle.  Place your pattern pieces on this fold, pin in place and cut (ideally with a rotary cutter and cutting mat to prevent stretching of the fabric as you cut.)

Join Back pieces:

Take the upper and lower back pieces and place right sides together, matching notches.  Pin together along the long edge and join with a 1cm seam. Press seam towards neckline.  There is no need to use a zigzag stitch here, a simple straight stitch will do as the fit here is loose.

Join Shoulders:

Lay tee front and back on top of one another, with right sides together.  Match and pin shoulder seams and then join with a 1cm seam.  Once again, straight seams will do.  Press seams towards the Tee back.

Hem Sleeves and bottom of Tee.

Press 1cm to the wrong side, then fold over again, pressing another 2cm to the wrong side.  Pin in place.  Sew hems using a twin needle or a zigzag stitch, sewing 1.5cm from the hemline.

Sew Side Seams:

With right sides together, align side and underarm seams, matching hems.  Pin in place and join, using a single seam.  Begin at the ends of the arms and sew towards the bottom hem.

Finish the neckline.

I'm afraid that the method i've used for finishing the neckline is very unscientific, which bothers me greatly - being an actual real life scientist.  I'll come up with better instructions and update this soon.  But, for the time being, cut a strip 4 cm wide and approximately 100cm long. 

With right sides together and matching raw edges, position one end of your binding approximately 5cm past the mid point of the centre back of the neckline. Join with a 1cm seam sewing right around the neckline, stretching the neck binding slightly as you go. Stop 5 - 10 cm from where you started your line of stitching.

Lay the ends of the neck binding flat and trim them so that they overlap by 2cm.

Align the ends of the binding so that the right sides are together and join with a 1cm seam.  Take care to keep the rest of the Tee out of the way of your stitches.

Press seam open, pressing binding flat against the neckline as you do.  Complete the seam that joins the binding to the neckline, sewing across the seam and the seam allowance and backstitching at the start and end of your stitches to secure them.

Press the binding to the right side.

Using a steam iron, press 0.5cm of the raw edge of the neck binding to the wrong side.  Press another 1.5cm to the wrong side and pin in place.  The neck binding should extend slightly past the seamline.  Take extra care to make sure that you have done this accurately.  You will be glad you did! Pin in place.

Working from the right side of your Tee, 'stitch in the ditch' right around the neckline.  Your stitching should be almost invisible from the front and should catch the neck binding on the back:

And that's it!  We're done.  That's 2 of 7 Tees complete and i'm already beginning to feel that i might have bitten off more than I can chew with this challenge I've set myself! Oh well, I do love a challenge, but right now I'm off to have a long, hot shower, put on my PJs and snuggle up on the sofa to watch GAME OF THRONES!!! Whoop!

Goodnight. x

Monday Tee Tutorial

I'm really pleased with this tee.  It's such a simple style, but I do love the shape.  It has a lovely neckline, dropped shoulder seams, tapered waist and perfectly cosy long sleeves.

First of all, let me please state that this pattern is untested by anyone except for me!  It is also a single size pattern, approximately size Small.  The bottom is quite tightly fitted and will fit those with a high hip measurement of approximately 92cm / 36".  The rest of the pattern is quite a relaxed fit however so if you wanted to have a go and just increase the width at the bottom a little to fit then I think it would probably work pretty well.

Download the pattern pieces by clicking on the image above. Printing Instructions can be found on page 12.

For tips on sewing with knits click here

Sorry for some of the poorly lit diagrams below - the only time I really get a chance to sew is once the kids are in bed!

You will need:

• 1.4m of knit fabric
• Coordinating Thread
• Twin needle (optional)
• Rotary cutter and mat (optional)

Monday Tee Sewing Instructions:

Hem Pieces:

Hem the sleeves and the bottom edge of the front and back pieces.  Fold 1cm to the wrong side and press.  Fold another 1.5cm to the wrong side and press again.  Pin in place.  Stitch the hem with a zig-zag stitch or with a twin needle, sewing 1.2cm from the edge. 

 Join the front and back:

Lay the Tee main front and back pieces on top of one another, with right sides together and align shoulder seams.  Join with a 1cm seam.  Press seam open, or if you have serged your seam, press it towards the back of the Tee.

Join the sleeves:

Pin sleeves in place, placing sleeve and body of tee right sides together and aligning centre notches of sleeves with shoulder seams.  Join with a 1cm seam. Repeat to join second sleeve.

Sew Underarm Seams:

Fold tee so that right sides are together and join the underarms and sleeves in one long continuous seam.  Pin in place first and make sure that the wrists, hem and underarm seams all match.  Begin stitching at the wrists and sew towards the bottom hem. 

Finish Neckline.

To finish the neckline, cut a piece 67cm long and 4cm wide.  Fold along it’s width, aligning short edges and placing right sides together. Join the ends with a 1cm seam. Press seam open.

Fold the neck binding in half along it’s length this time with wrong sides together. Press.

Pin the neck binding to the neck of the Tee, right sides together and placing the seam of the binding at the centre back of the neck.  You will need to stretch the neck binding slightly as you pin to make it fit.  This helps the neckline to sit nicely without puckering.

Join (sew or serge) the binding to the neck of the tee, sewing with a 1 cm seam.  Fold binding over to the right side and press. 

And you're finished!

I hope you have had fun with this tutorial and that you love this tee as much as I do.  Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions - I always love to hear from you!

A Beginner's Guide to Sewing With Knits

I am going to be doing a lot of selfish sewing this week and am hoping to be able to get a couple more free patterns up for you at the same time (yay!).  But since most of them are going to be Tees I thought that it might be helpful to write a guide to sewing with knits for those of you who would like to try these patterns but are just TERRIFIED OF SEWING WITH KNITS!

Okay?  So here we go:

The first point to make about sewing with Knits is that it is NOTHING TO FREAK OUT ABOUT!  I used to have such a fear for sewing with knits until one of my lovely friends who has taught me a lot about sewing, gently pointed out that this was a completely irrational fear and very kindly guided me through my initial panic.  I have to say that she was right and knits are now one of my favourite things to sew.  A few simple techniques are all you need to get started and the best way to learn is to just go for it!  Buy some cheap fabric that you are not scared to ruin and just start sewing.  It won’t take you long to figure it out and it is so worth investing the time to learn because once you feel confident you will find a whole new world of sewing opens up to you.  (That was my experience anyway!)

Second important point: YOU DO NOT NEED A SERGER  / overlocker to sew these tees.  I am lucky enough to have one so I often use it but it is definitely not compulsory.  You can easily sew every one of these tees with a sewing machine and they require no specialist techniques. 

One thing you do need however is a STRETCH OR BALLPOINT NEEDLE.  Stretch needles have a slightly rounded tip so that they will slide into the gaps between threads in your fabric, rather than cutting through the threads (as a sharp needle could do) which can result in runs and holes in you fabric (exactly as it would in stockings / pantyhose).

Cutting Pattern Pieces:

When cutting out pattern pieces from a knit fabric it is best to USE A CUTTING MAT AND ROTARY CUTTER  if you have one.  Using a mat allows you to lay your fabric flat and ensures that it will not stretch and become misshapen as you cut it.  This can easily happen when using scissors as you have to lift the fabric in order to be able to cut it.  

TIP:  A rotary cutter with a smaller diameter blade is useful for cutting around tighter curves or corners.

When sewing with knit fabrics, often the SEAM NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO STRETCH along with the fabric.  If you just sew a straight seam you run the risk of either not being able to put on your garment or of the seam thread snapping. There are several ways to achieve a seam which can stretch:

1. USE A STRETCH STITCH: Many sewing machines have a stretch stitch. The one on my sewing machine looks like this: (#6)

2. USE A ZIGZAG STITCH: If your sewing machine doesn’t have a specialist stretch stitch then you can use a simple zigzag stitch.  If you don’t need a lot of stretch in your seam then you can make your zigzag quite narrow.  If you need it to stretch a lot you will need to use a wider zigzag. 

3. USE A SERGER / Overlocker.  If you have a serger / overlocker you can use it to sew these seams.  Serger stitches allow some stretching of the fabric and have the added bonus of tidying up the seam allowance at the same time.

Take a scrap of the fabric you are going to be working with and have a play with some of these stitches.  Try stretching your stitching afterwards to see how it reacts.

HEMMING

There are 2 main ways of hemming a knit garment.  The simplest way is to use a zigzag stitch like this:

If you’re feeling a little more adventurous you could try using a twin needle which is the finish traditionally used for Tees, it looks like this:

Using a twin needle is nowhere near as complicated as you would imagine.  Twin needles look like this and fit onto your machine in exactly the same way as an ordinary needle. 

The only difference is that you need two spools of thread on top.  On my Janome sewing machine I place the second spool (a bobbin) on the bobbing winder.  I have used 3 different colours here for clarity.

Thread your sewing machine as usual, with both strands of thread together.  When you get to the needle you will need to pass one thread through the usual guide and thread the left hand needle. Pass the second thread through a second guide to the right of the other, then through the second needle. 

Set your sewing machine to an ordinary straight stitch and sew! (I usually increase my stitch length to about 3mm as I find it gives a neater finish).  Your finished stitches will look like this from the right side:

And like this from the wrong side:

 And I think that's pretty much all you need to know for the time being.   I hope you have found this guide useful. If you need any more help then feel free to ask questions.  There is also a lot of information out there on the big old inter-web so go and have a look around, then take a deep breath and JUST BEGIN.  It'll be the best thing you ever did... (or one of them anyway!)

A Handmade Birthday

My little boy, my baby, turns 3 on Saturday.  I almost literally cannot believe it. So I have been trying to distract myself this week by pouring my love for this little man into some handmade birthday presents for him.

I've been meaning to make a duffel coat ever since I found these amazing wool remnants in the bargain bin at my favourite fabric store on Brunswick Street.  I struggled to find a pattern for a while but settled on this Oliver & S one in the end.  It's their Schooldays Jacket / Coat.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  It's going to be much too big of course - as everything I make generally is - I seem to live in fear of spending lots of time and effort making something only to find that it's too small.  I'd much rather it was too big and could be grown into.  In this case I had to make a size 4 because the pattern is sold in 2 sizes and I opted for the 4+ size so that I would be able to make more in the future.  

I originally had my heart set on lining it with a brown fabric with big white polka dots, but of course I couldn't find exactly what I had imagined so went with this Rupert Bear fabric which is actually really cute and Jacob will probably love it more than he would have liked brown anyway!

The Elephant is from a RicRac pattern that I spotted in my local fabric store.  I think he's rather lovely don't you?

Free Feeding Bib Pattern

I'm still working on getting my e-book ready for download, but I thought that in the meantime I would put up some of the projects in it as free tutorials.  This feeding bib is one of my favourites; It's such a lovely way to use up scraps of your favourite fabrics and is really quick and easy to make, even for a beginner.  The pocket at the bottom is very handy for catching spills and when you're finished you can take it off and use the towelled backing for a quick face wipe!

Click the link in the image below to download your free copy.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial, I'd love to hear your feedback and if you've made a bib then why not upload a picture to the Willow and Stitch Flickr pool or use the hash tag #willowandstitch on instagram, it'd be great to see what you've made.  

If you liked this pattern then sign up to my newsletter to get notifications of new pattern releases and special offers.  I'll only email when something new and exciting is available.  I hate having my inbox filled with unnecessary emails!  Having said that, feel free to email me if you have any questions about this or other patterns - I never get sick of emails from readers!

willowandstitchdesign@gmail.com

Lavender Wheat Bag Tutorial

I love wheat bags, they are a wonderful, natural way to soothe away aches and pains. I was first introduced to their magical properties when I was expecting my first baby because they are great for easing back pain during pregnancy, and also work wonders on early labour contractions and post-partum cramps. Since then I've found that they are perfect for relaxing tense shoulders caused by feeding or carrying a baby for hours on end. Also very useful when you're in pain from carrying preschoolers who are really much to big to be carried, or from spending 20 minutes on your knees trying to pick up all the lego which has been evenly distributed over the entire house.

These wheat bags contain dried lavender which has a soothing and calming effect. Lavender can be used to treat tension, depression, exhaustion, headaches and migraines – making it perfect for new mums and not so new mums alike.  I think these also make really nice gifts - for mums, grandmas, aunties, teachers - you name it.  They also have the added bonus that they take about 5 minutes to sew - perfect for last minute!

Warm your wheat bag by heating it in the microwave with a glass of water for 1-2 minutes. 

You will need:

•  Two 42 x 18cm (16.5 x 7") rectangles of fabric
• 900g (2 lb) of wheat
• 2 tbsp dried lavender.
• A funnel

You can buy wheat at most wholefood stores or even at some of the larger pet supplies stores. Dried lavender can also be bought in wholefood stores, online, or perhaps you have some lavender in the garden? Cut the stems and hang a bunch upside down to dry for a few weeks. 

Directions:

Place your two fabric rectangles on top of each other, right sides together. Join the pieces, sewing with a 1cm (1/2") seam allowance, right around all 4 edges. Leave a 5cm (2") turning / filling hole at one of the short ends. Remember to backstitch at either side of your turning hole.

Snip off the seam allowance at the corners, taking care not to cut through your stitching.

Turn fabric to the right side using a knitting needle or chopstick to push out the corners. Press with a warm steam iron.

Topstitch 5mm from the edge along both long sides of the wheat bag and along the short side without the turning hole.

Mix 2 tablespoons of dried lavender with 900g (2 lb) of wheat and use the funnel to pour it into the wheat bag through the turning hole.  Pour until the bag is about half full. Taking care not to spill the contents, pin and topstitch the remaining short edge to seal your turning / filling hole. 

The Best (And Easiest!) Burp Cloth Tutorial.

There’s nothing that says ‘new mum chic’ like milky stains on your shoulder, and while we wear them like a badge of honour, it’s sometimes nice to have your clothes stay clean for more than 5 minutes; and it’s always nice to cut down on the laundry a little.  Protect your clothes and add a touch of beauty to your day at the same time with these lovely (and very functional) burp cloths.

This project is so, so easy. In fact, given that they are made from old-fashioned cloth nappies I’m not even sure it really counts as sewing, but I’ve spent a lot of time trying out different designs and I’m convinced that these are the best. They’re big enough to protect from largish pukes, super absorbent and soft for wiping little chins. The fact that they’re so easy is just an added bonus.

You will need:

1 packet of cloth towelling nappies (you can buy these online or from most baby supplies stores)

1 62cm x 20cm piece of printed cotton fabric per towel

Note: These measurements work for standard sized cloth nappies: 60x60cm. If your nappies are a different size then calculate the size of fabric needed as follows:

The length is the length of your nappy plus 2cm.

The width is the width of your nappy divided by 3.

Cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler (optional)

Before you start:

Use a 1cm seam allowance unless otherwise stated.

Remember to wash, dry and press all fabrics (and the cloth nappies) before cutting.

Directions:

1. Cut your decorative cotton rectangle(s). It is easiest to do this using a rotary cutter and cutting mat as you can ensure that your edges are straight and your corners are right angles.

2. Using an iron, press 1 cm to the wrong side along each edge of your fabric. Measure and mark the midpoint of each short end with a pin. Fig 1.

3. Find and mark the midpoint of 2 opposite sides of your cloth nappy.  With both pieces right side up, centre the fabric rectangle on one of the cloth nappies, aligning the middle of the fabric with the mid point of each edge of the cloth nappy. Pin in place right around the fabric.

4. Using a complementary coloured thread on top and a white thread underneath, topstitch a few millimetres from the edge right around your decorative fabric to secure it to the nappy.

A Quilt for Baby Olive

This is the playmat / quilt which I made for my new little niece, Olive. I'm not a quilter and they usually turn out full of 'rustic charm' (i.e. slightly wonky and rather uneven) but I'm really pleased with this one.  I LOVE the colours, which I chose because I thought they would go well with my sister's house and because we didn't know if she was having a boy or a girl so it needed to be pretty gender neutral.

I chose a very simple design for obvious reasons!  The finished quilt measured 140cm x 110cm wide (so that i could use a single piece of backing fabric). I pretty much just cut strips of my fabrics in 3 different widths - I think they were 8, 10 and 12cm (approx 3, 4 and 5").  I sorted the strips by width and sewed all of the same ones together, then cut the strips up into pieces which ranged from about 70 - 90cm (2-3 feet).

I played around with the arrangement of my strips until I was happy with them (all the while trying to fend off the cat who seemed hell bent on sitting on my fabric as usual! Does anyone else have this problem? - it happens EVERY TIME!).  I then cut some strips of white fabric in the same widths, sewing them to the ends of my patterned fabric to make each one the right width (or wider). I did this very imprecisely and then trimmed them afterwards.

I bought the bias binding (because, quite frankly, I HATE making bias binding - it's like the bane of my life! OK, well that might be a little bit of an overstatement, but I do find it very annoying.  It's worth it sometimes of course, but still… if you can buy a lovely one like this then why bother?!)

It's hand quilted, because any time I try to quilt on my sewing machine it just ends up all puckered. Also, I wanted to be able to sit in front of the TV with my feet up, re-watching episodes of The West Wing while I did it (I may be a little obsessed with that show…)

I can't remember the name of the backing fabric, but I do love it so! Can anyone enlighten me?

Kids Clothes Week

Well, Kids Clothes Week is over for another couple of months and I have to say that I had fun, although the theme this time (upcycled) rather threw me.  It's a theme that is close to my heart and something that I'm usually very enthusiastic about.  I even have an entire box full of old clothes that no longer fit, no longer get worn, are past mending, or which I bought from charity shops because i just loved the fabric! A box that I keep purely for upcycled sewing projects!  The only problem is that this box currently happens to be in storage - it got packed away a few weeks ago so that we could knock down a third of our house and rebuild it. I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for not being more organised and checking the Kids Clothes Week theme more in advance so that I could have kept that box handy!

Ah well.  I may not have been able to full embrace the 'Upcycled' theme, but I did have a lot of fun sewing this week.  I took this opportunity to create a pattern for a dress for Ella that I've had in my head for a long time now.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  

The dress has a very comfy knit top, a circle skirt that is perfect for twirling and huge drapey pockets for storing treasures.  Ella is VERY pleased with them. (She's particularly pleased that she got 3 new dresses in a week while I was tweaking the pattern!)

I'm working very hard to get this pattern digitised and graded and into a downloadable pdf file.  Bear with me while I try to juggle this with my day job and two often times very demanding children!  If you would like to be notified when the pattern is available then be sure to sign up for my newsletter.

I'm thinking that i will make this dress available in sizes 1-5 to begin with - what do you think?