Fabric Review by Hazel A Patterns

Hazel from Hazel A Patterns is taking over the blog today.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have a major love affair going on with linen! As soon as it gets warm, I ditch the denim, and get straight into my linen mix trousers, dresses, tops… get the picture? In general, most of Vicky’s fabric is quilting cotton, but she ordered a range from Dashwood earlier this year which is 55% cotton and 45% linen. She offered me a length to sew a garment of my choice, and I decided to make an Allegro skirt, from Love Notions patterns, in Midnight Garden Swirls.

The first thing I do with new fabrics is wash them, and I also tumble-dried this fabric. It kept its shape perfectly, and came out so soft! (I am sure you are not supposed to tumble dry this fabric, but I decided to do it anyway to make future washing more straightforward). I didn’t need to iron it either, another bonus.

The pattern is a casual skirt, with an elasticated waist and a drawstring tie to finish. I had already made a muslin of the Allegro trousers from the same pattern, so I knew I could make a straight size 14. Love Notions patterns are print at home, but don’t need to be trimmed before sticking together, so it took very little time to organise myself, ready for sewing! It does make a nice change, as with smaller projects I seem to spend more time cutting out and applying interfacing than I do at the machine. I spent a bit of extra time fussy cutting the pockets, but from start to finish, including overlocking, was one afternoon. In terms of fit, the pattern has the added bonus of a raised back waist, so that when I wear the skirt the hem is level, an adjustment I would usually have to do myself.

Beautiful pattern matching on the pocket!

I made the skirt at the beginning of September, and have worn it many times since, and washed it 3 times. It is a lovely fabric to wear, soft and cool, and I look forward to using more in the future.

Fabric used: 1 ½m of 54” wide fabric

Pattern: Love Notions Allegro skirt

Notions: ½” twill tape for tie, 1 ½” knit elastic, scrap of interfacing, and I also chose to use two metal eyelets on the waistband

Cost to make: Approx. £26 

Links:

Fabric - Dashwood Studio - Midnight Garden Swirls

Pattern - lovenotions.com/product/allegro

Happy sewing!

Vicky

Boxes of Fabulous - September

October is here and it's time to give you a closer look at the gorgeous fabrics, patterns and accessories which featured in September's Boxes of Fabulous. As all of the fabrics are brand new ranges each month, so are pre-ordered, usually months before, I then choose the bag pattern for the Bigger Box which will look great made from that month's fabrics.

Bigger Box of Fabulous

As well as the fabrics from the Flowerette range by Art Gallery Fabrics, also included was a piece of navy blue leatherette for the contrast, a zip for the interior pocket, Scanfil All Purpose sewing thread, a tuck lock, bag slider, rectangular ring and a piece of foam stabiliser. The bag pattern in the box was The Squiffy Sling by MrsH.

Little Box of Fabulous

For September's Little Box of Fabulous, Hazel from Hazel A Patterns designed an organiser which fits on the back of your chair, where you can keep to hand the sewing equipment you use the most, so very useful! 

Hazel designed this project specifically for September's fabrics, Cotton Couture by QT Fabrics as they are sewing themed! The project card is available to download from my Etsy store, here. 

Inside the box was a seam ripper, two rolls of washi tape which Hazel finds really useful to mark sewing lines on her fabric, Scanfil All Purpose sewing thread and a piece of foam stabiliser.

Want to try one of the boxes?

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Happy sewing!

Happy

Keep-It-Close Organiser by Hazel A Patterns

September's Little Box of Fabulous featured a new project card designed by Hazel from Hazel A Patterns. With a new season upon us, it's time to get organised in the sewing room, or in my case, sewing space!

With this in mind here is the Keep-It-Close Organiser! This is designed to hook over the back of your chair to keep all those important pieces of sewing paraphernalia all together in one place! 😃 

I used fabrics from the Cotton Couture range by QT Fabrics, which you can find on the website here. It's a quick and easy make and doesn't need very much fabric and would make an ideal gift for a sewists birthday or as a Christmas present!

The project card is available to download in my Etsy shop, which you will find here.

Happy sewing!

The Squiffy Sling from Mrsh

Back to some bag making for me! The bag pattern which went into September's Bigger Box of Fabulous was for The Squiffy Sling designed by Mrsh, which is available to buy on my website! My subscribers to this box received fabrics from a new range by Art Gallery Fabrics, Flowerette by AGF Studio. For my bag make I chose to use the whales themed fabric from Dashwood Studio's range, Into the Blue. This is a fun range of fabrics featuring turtles, seaweed, tiny seahorses and jellyfish and goes really well with the Dashwood Twist in Viridian I used for the lining.

The Bigger Box for September also contained some very soft faux leather in navy for the overlay. I have a machine foot for sewing vinyl but it's not the best so I used the walking foot which came with my machine for the topstitching, sew much better! There is loads of info on the internet about sewing with faux leather, and if you've not sewn with it before then sew some samples first with different feet. Tip: lengthen your stitch when sewing faux leather into a seam, this will help to stop the stitches showing too much on the outside.

I made the small size and found that I needed more interfacing than the pattern stated, you will need 90cm not 1/2 yard. There is an errata on Mrsh's website about this error.

If you haven't any double sided tape to use on the top of the overlay to turn the edges over then you could use fabric glue which is what I did.

This pattern is a great starter pattern as there aren't many pieces. What I found unusual was the bag flap came as one piece with the full body of the bag! I've never come across that design before but it works very well. 

You may have noticed that the design of fabric I used for the outside of the bag was a one way design. Because whales and dolphins swim around in all directions I wasn't too worried about how the flap would look! 😉😉 Tip: check if the fabric is a one way design before cutting out the pattern, this could affect how the flap looks from the front of the bag, i.e upside down, or not!

The lock which was in the box was a Prym Tuck Lock. These are very easy to install but if you are unsure then I have found a video for you to refer to. 👇

Happy sewing!