Casual Wardrobe Follow Up.

I haven't had a chance to do quite as much sewing as I had hoped.

I spent a couple of hours replacing a zip on my son's school bag. The way the original bag was made, meant there was no way to put the new zip in without a lot of swearing. The bag did not fit on my machine. While the result is functional, it's not pretty. I suppose I can just file it under 'Experiences I would prefer not to repeat. '

I finally managed to finish my red shirt and I am very pleased with the result. See below, and my latest YouTube video: where I am wearing it.

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I thought the collar was going to be really difficult - it was my first one and the instructions weren't very clear - I think they assumed the person making this would have made a collar before. I really like the fabric, it is 100 per cent cotton with a sort of linen look. It never irons completely smooth - it gives it character. I think the fabric would make a lovely pair of shorts, too - maybe a tailored cut.

I am looking at my lined up projects and I am torn between the scuba dress from Burdastyle from my blog on my formal wardrobe and the casual hoodie in scuba.

The hoodie won out. It's going to be very loud! I have cut it all out and started assembly. It is proving harder than I thought. The hood just wouldn't go together without wrinkles all over. The finer inside fabric moves all over the place. See my pictures below to see how I solved the problem.

I had to take pains to make sure that the patterns lined up to the left and right - note that the pattern has mirrored elements with small differences.

As you can see, the two panels for the left and right front hoodie are similar. Boy, is it going to be loud! I think the pattern is growing on me. It will definitely stand out! Who says that our casual wardrobe can't be whatever we want it to be. Roll on dress-down Fridays in the office!

I centralised the pattern on the back panel, the pattern if you notice runs one up, one down, so the front panels are cut one up and one down - I couldn't do it for the back.

I cut the main sides of the hood so they are mirrored.

Sewing the lining into the hood was an absolute nightmare, I could not get the fabric to lay flat. So I had to make a plan...

I thought, the problem is that the foot pulls the thinner lighter lining forward as I sew, causing an awful crease, so I tore strips of paper and clipped it to the seam.

This is such an excellent result!

I think I will resew the zip using the same technique. It also wrinkled more than I expected. At least I picked a relatively easy pattern to learn on. Sweatshirt fabric is much easier to sew. 

I hope to finish this hoodie this weekend - I think all the scuba on scuba seams will go together quite quickly. I just have to unpick the zip first...

Luckily, I just bought myself a task light for close work - now I wear glasses, I can't focus well enough on close things to see the stitches to unpick them - I was straining my eyes unpicking the hood - all 3 times! The light arrived quickly and it set up quickly and easily and the springs are well balanced, the light can be set to any angle, like an anglepoise lamp, meaning your hands are free to unpick... I really should have bought it sooner, I can also use it to light my work area when not using the magnifying lens. I also have my jumpsuit zip to unpick - I just cannot unpick it without light like this.

If you know of handy tools like this that have made your life easier, please leave a comment below and share it.

I will update you with some pictures when I finish it. I also have some window shades to make - as our house bakes in Summer - it gets to 35 degrees inside the house, as we have no shade and the sun goes down, literally over our rear fence. It is absolutely lovely except for the hottest five or six days of the year and we don't have aircon. Shading the patio doors with a black sheet makes a noticeable difference. I am going to make sunshades for the rear side upstairs windows of the house. Double glazing is good for keeping the heat in - just far too good in Summer. when paired with solar gain. I will update you on that project, too.

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