Getting By

Maybe it's just me, but since I started teaching myself to sew three and a half years ago, I've noticed a certain amount of snobbery in some parts of the online sewing community. I'm sure we've all seen the odd sewist who claims to feel physically nauseous at the thought of sewing with anything other than natural fibres, or to not understand why anyone would ever buy tools that weren't top-of-the-range. I've read advice to beginning sewers that suggests setting aside a sewing room and, while I love prying looking at others' sewing spaces, as someone who learned to sew as a student and is now an impoverished intern, I've never even been able to have a sewing corner, let alone an entire room. Let's face it, ours is a gosh-darn expensive hobby. Even basic machines will set you back £100 and the amount you can spend on tools and paraphernalia can be mind-boggling before you've sewn a single stitch.

To some extent, I've always had to make do with whatever tools and space I could afford. Like I said, I learned to sew as a student and student accommodation typically does not have space for a cutting table and dressmaker's dummy.* Now, however, I've recently moved to London and am being put up by some incredibly wonderful people who - through no fault of their own - have never even heard of a tailor's ham, much less own one. Since I can't fit much of my stuff where I'm currently living, I've only been able to bring a bare minimum of sewing supplies. Here's a list of everything I have with me/was already in the house:

Sewing machine - very basic and infuriatingly unreliable**
Fabric shears
Embroidery scissors
12 pins (only 11 of which I can locate at any given time)
Seam allowance guide (this little magnetic thing that sits on the metal plate on your sewing machine - really helpful when your machine doesn't have notches to show you where e.g. 5/8" is)
4 hand sewing needles
A tiny pincushion
A seam unpicker
An iron (no ironing board)

Case in point

Sewing with just these things is tricky, but by no means impossible and, lots of the time, the restrictions lead me to be more creative. Without pattern weights, for instance, I've learned to use my sewing tools/my boyfriend's bookbinding stuff instead - it works just as well! I also wouldn't have found out that normal pencil drags less on the fabric and works just as well as fabric pencils, unless I'd found myself without access to things I used to take for granted. That's not to say everything can be worked around - pressing drives me mad, and sewing with my old machine takes ages because it keeps jamming, needs super-complicated threading and all the bobbins have to be wound by hand (I was so pleased to get rid of that thing). But, you know what? You can't tell when you look at the finished garment. Sure, it takes longer and it's more stress, but it's doable. I could even probably get rid of the embroidery scissors, seam allowance guide, pincushion and 3 of the hand-sewing needles if I had to.*

I've seen a lot of sewing guides that say never do this or always do that, when never or always doing this or that can be really expensive! I saw we start adding 'if you can afford it' to a lot of our sewing 'rules'.


*They never listened to my suggestions, dammit.
**Two years ago, I gave my old sewing machine to a good friend of mine when I traded up. It's only through the greatest stroke of luck and poor judgement that that good friend is now my boyfriend, meaning I can use my old sewing machine while he lets me stay with him.
*But please don't start a petition or anything, because I'd rather not.

P.S. One series that's great at recognising this problem is Wendy Mullins' 'Sew U' series of books. There are always three options for sewing supplies - 'getting by', 'recommended' and 'pro' - and the first book is full of loads of tips on how Mullin herself managed as a student.

Sorbetto Top

So, pattern number one in my Colette Challenge is the Sorbetto top! This is a free pattern which you can download to print at home here.

The first challenge with this one was assembling the pattern - something I've always been far too lazy to do in the past. Technology not being my strong point, I somehow managed to print the pages so that they were 1/16 smaller than they should be. Rather than trying to figure out how to resize the images, I decided it would be much simpler to do some algebra and see if I could use any of the already printed pattern lines. Luckily, it turned out the 10 was exactly the size I needed so I was rescued from having to wrangle with any machines! Aside from all the maths, putting the pattern together was actually much simpler than I thought it would be, and not quite as time-consuming as I'd feared.

The pattern, after printing and assembling.

As I'm currently staying with a particularly charming gentleman friend of mine, I don't have all my sewing equipment with me, so actually making the top was something of an exercise in creative problem solving (thank goodness I gave him my old sewing machine when I traded up several years ago!). Without an ironing board, I had to do all my pressing on the floor, which actually worked surprisingly well when pressing my fabric. I used a green 100% cotton poplin that I got from Cloth House in Soho (which I highly recommend). The pattern calls for a yard and a half of fabric for all widths and garment sizes but I found that by folding the pattern in on itself so that the selvedges meet at the centre, I actually only used about half a metre. I'd been meaning to try out pattern weights but, since I didn't have any to hand, I used the two sewing books I have with me and they worked a treat! I used a standard drawing pencil to draw round the pattern pieces (a step I must admit to usually skipping) and transfer the markings - I find it drags the fabric much less than chalk and it often transfers onto the bottom half of the fabric so you only need to make each mark once, plus it's much easier to remove than you might think. 

When making up the pattern, I followed all the instructions laid out in the pattern, except that I also staystitched the armholes and finished the raw edges prior to sewing any seams. I also stitched a couple of rows of some lace I had to hand down the centre of the pleat inbetween staystitching the curves and sewing the darts. Since it's such a simple pattern, I just did a basted fitting and didn't need to make any adjustments. I do have to admit to somewhat rushing the bias binding facing, as my sister and charming gentleman friend turned up just as I was finishing off and I was characteristically impatient to have a completed garment to show them. It's the only part of the top I'm not happy with but I'm told it isn't noticable. Having noticed how easily everything else came together, though, I think I may have learnt my lesson. One thing that really struck me when making this top is how much easier the actual sewing part is when you prepare and cut your fabric properly. In the past, I've always been very eager to get straight to my sewing machine and I think it's been my downfall on numerous occasions, so with the next few garments I make, I'm really going to concentrate on all the pre-sewing bits of garment construction.

Please remember that I have no ironing board or decent camera with me. Once I'm reunited with my belongings, I'll hopefully be able to post some less crumpled pictures. The skirt in this photo is from Silence & Noise, the bracelets are Primark's finest and the whimsical butterfly was a gift from the wonderful Hannah, who was also my kind photographer.

Overall, I'm actually really pleased with how the top turned out. I was curious because I'd seen some fantastic versions online, but I wasn't sure if the shape would make me look lumpy. As it is, I think it's surprisingly flattering, plus it's super versatile. 

I'd love to hear stories of your own Sorbetto Adventures!