Hey all!
How you are all doing? Are you ready for 2021? It seems so strange that a year has passed already yet it has been a very peculiar one indeed!
The lovely Jayne aka Loopymabels_closet and Sarah aka Rosysewsmodernvintage ran this sewing challenge last year and it was so popular that they decided to do it again this year! But what IS #swapsharesew I hear you cry? Well, in short it’s a swap challenge…you get partnered up with a fellow sewist and send each other a swap parcel which you then incorporate into a sewing project. Plus you get to get to know a liked minded sewist and become friends. Also up for grabs is some lovely prizes from @emporia_patterns @felicity.fabrics @patternunion @mavenpatterns
My partner was the lovely Lynne aka Chadders1965 who is a very busy lady with a heart of gold. I received this lovely package from her… the chocolate buttons was devoured by the kids but made use of the face mask and foot mask right away!
The little zippered pouch is perfect for keeping my little tools safe in one place while working on a project.
For our project, we decided to use the Tilly and The Buttons Indigo Pattern and we chose different fabrics but decided we would send each other the pockets of the fabrics we was making so we had snazzy pockets.
This beautiful Pink Dalmatian Print Viscose is from Sew Anonymous and was an absolute bargain at ÂŁ5 per metre!! If you haven’t seen Aimee’s beautiful array of fabrics at great prices before, where have you been?! I really would recommend you give her online shop a visit.
The alterations that I made to mine, was the usual sleeve adjustment of shortening the length of the sleeve by 1.5″ and I made a straight size 6 in tunic length. I still draw lines on my fabric to make sure I get them straight when I sew!
To minimise the *Maternity* look of the indigo (*in my opinion it does have that feel to it) I put in some waist ties to bring it in at the waist a bit more which has done it a lot of favours. Otherwise, I’d look like a sack of spuds!! So I made the ties 🙂
I cut out two rectangles of fabric – 20″ length by 1.5″ wide. then sewed one end shut then continued along the length to make a tube. To turn these bad boys out so easily was the prym turning tools and made it a breeze!
When it comes to gathering I use dental floss as I try and use the normal method of gathering with 2 or 3 rows of stitching but always end up breaking the threads when pulling…Grrrr!!!
All I do is set my machine to a zig zag stitch and place a line of dental floss at the centre of where the stitch would be leaving an extra “tail” of floss at the beginning and end of the fabric.
Start the zigzag so that it stitches on either side of the floss, but doesn’t pierce it. Then pull the fabric along the floss to gather it. You can knot one end of the floss to keep the gathering tight if you prefer. Et Voila, easy gathers!!
Also you can not have a biccie or two when getting rid of the gather stitches once you’ve sewn it in place eh?
With making this I did retreat to my bedroom to sew in peace but being a mum you don’t get that luxury hahaha the kids followed me.
I was adamant to keep the pockets even though I’ve made the Tunic length, so all I did was shifted the pocket notch up by an inch so no sneaky show of the pocket plus it fits me better this way for my short arms!
Here is my Indigo with a little video, I’m trying to get technical hahaha!
Plus, no garment isn’t complete without a Kylie and the machine label, especially one of her new sweary sewist ones!
I really enjoyed this little swap as I got to make new sewing buddies and such a lovely touch to have swapped fabrics, with wearing my Indigo it will remind me of Lynne 🙂
Has anyone else been taking part with any of Instagram Sewing Community swaps/projects?
Happy Sewing, All the best for 2021!!
Sal
xx
