I Made This - Anna Maltz

June 9, 2015 thecraftsessions

I Made This is a weekly blog series that features makers from around the world and aims to talk about the things we are proud of; of the objects we make that have meaning to us and the journey we take to make them.

This week's amazing guest is Anna Maltz from the UK. I first came across her on instagram and if you don't follow her already you really should. She has an eye for sweaters and I find her feed inspiring in a think-outside-the-box kind of way. And I love that! And her project today is a perfect example of that - one-of-a-kind genius.... and so with that, I'll hand over to Anna.

This is the dress I wear when I teach knitting classes – it simplifies the dilemma of what to wear and puts my money where my mouth is. It’s an odd uniform in that there isn’t anything uniform about it. Each sleeve is different, ‘cause why not? In fact, I knitted it for myself in 2013 as a reward and respite from knitting the same handful of accessory patterns I had designed and used to teach the 25 amazing women with whom I formed Ricefield Collective. http://ricefieldcollective.org/.

Though I am often asked, there isn’t a pattern for this dress and there won’t be. I made it up as I went along. I say ‘often’, but not as frequently as people point out that knitting colourwork in cotton (which has less stretch than wool therefore requiring more tension regulating on the part of the knitter) is the preserve of wizards, crazy people and the anally retentive (cheers). The luxury of this dress was to make a one-off thing for me. An interlude from the responsibility of planning and keeping track that is necessary when preparing a pattern to be published.

I did do a little maths before I started. The body is 260 stitches round, which, beyond fitting me, divides by 4, 5 and 10. By decreasing 1 to 259, it’s divisible by 7. By adding 1 to make 261, it becomes divisible by 9. By decreasing 2, to 258, it divides by 6. By adding 4 or decreasing 4, it is divisible by 8. Using a number like that allowed me the flexibility to insert all sorts of patterns as the mood took me. It reduced the need for advance planning, because chances were, I could make whatever motif I fancied fit. The same went for the yoke: I used 384 stitches, because that is divisible by 4 and 6 and is 1 away from a multiple of 5 – you get the idea.

Knitting in the round avoids needing to sew anything together or do colourwork from the purl side, both of which I am not overly fond of. It’s worked from the bottom up, because I prefer decreases for yoke shaping (as opposed to increases which you use when working from the top down). I made up a cast on involving 2 colours. I was on a 12hour flight from Manila to London and wanted to get cracking without access to how-too videos or my extensive library of knitting books. It wasn’t totally what I’d imagined, but it was something else good. I cast on 520sts - double the number I wanted for the body of the dress. I thought that would be enough stitches to create a big ruffle at the bottom. It wasn’t, there’s just a little flurry. Quadrupling the stitches would mean each round taking an obscenely long time to knit – well over an hour, so I won’t be casting that on any time soon.

Shaping? There isn’t any. Why add a whole other layer of calculations and risks? Looking at the majority of amazing coloured and patterned clothing from around the world – saris, sarongs, huipiles, dashiki, kobo blankets, you name it; they are basically right-angled shapes with minimal sewing, often even using uncut lengths of cloth. The pattern is the focus. Enough shape comes from being draped on a body. If I feel the need to prove I have a waist, I put on a belt.

The 4ply/fingering weight cotton came from my stash and my mother’s (so potentially also my grandmother’s). Between us we have so many nice crafting ingredients, I try not to buy more. When I design, I have to use current colours and yarns, which means my personal stash really languishes. It was an extra treat to work from it. Since it felt like I was winging it with no pattern or plan and therefore no guarantee of success, I picked my least favourite colours: ones I wanted to use up first. It’s scary committing your favourites to a project – once used they lose all their amazing potential which is a big part of their beauty. The funny thing is, I really like how it came out. The palette has now been working its way into other parts of my wardrobe and life.

Anna's new pattern Solja for kids and Solja for adults.

Projects like this are so important for me – they are experimental playtime, all about practice and learning. Who knows where they lead. In this case the floral yoke became the yoke of my Solja sweater, first published in PomPom Quarterly magazine http://www.pompommag.com/ last year. And now I’ve added kids sizes too http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mini-solja

Simple Sewing 101 - Part 5 - The Mashup.

June 3, 2015 thecraftsessions

So I forgot to post yesterday. Blame the time zone thing or the fact I'm on holiday. My apologies!

So let's get to it. Many of my pattern alterations are mashups. I like the top of one pattern but the hemline of another. Or the neckline of one and the shoulder of another. Because I'm not a pattern drafter, I generally leave that stuff up to those that are, and so I pinch the bits I like from different patterns.

Where do I do the alteration?

I often create the pattern for the mashup while drafting the pattern onto the interfacing - by this I mean that I trace the parts of the mashup onto my pattern interfacing to create a new mashup pattern. Generally I use patterns that I have already previously made but I also sometimes just use my measurements (we talked about this in Simple Sewing 101 - Part 4).

For example for today's pattern I would trace the neckline and shoulder line of the Hemlock, and the hemline of the Wiksten Tank along with an altered side seam, onto my interfacing . The reason for doing this is that when I come back to use the pattern the next time I can recreate it exactly.

That is not what I did here. Partly because I was being lazy. But it turns out this was a brilliant move on my part, in terms of this "tutorial", in that it means when we are looking at the photos we can clearly see what's what.

Which bits do I not fiddle with?

Generally I don't fiddle with the fit of the shoulders if a garment has sleeves. Getting the fit of a shoulder right is a super tricky thing and not something I know how to mess with. And getting the fit of the shoulder right is the one of the keys to a good looking top.

I will alter a neckline, a side seam, the amount of fabric something has in the back of a neck, the width of the straps of a tank, and hemlines. I love to alter hemlines. And necklines - practically all of my Scouts have altered necklines.

Woven Hemlock Tee/Wiksten Tank MASHUPS

So here is the mashup. Super simple but it has resulted in two of my favourite, most wearable tops. Simple to make, joyful to wear. Can't beat that.

The Hemlock Tee pattern is the paper pattern. The Wiksten Tank pattern is the pattern on interfacing.

The difference between a woven Hemlock and this mashup pattern is simply that I used the hemline of the Wiksten Tank as my hemline. As the tank hemline is about three cm wider at the bottom than the Hemlock then the new pattern has more of a swing shape to it. This is made easy by the fact the Hemlock actually has no armhole to contend with (the pattern side is just straight) so I simply cut a the side seam line from the outside shoulder edge to the hemline edge.

The other thing that I needed to do with this pattern in order to get a good fit is to alter the sleeve ever so slightly. This pattern is written for knit fabrics which have a lot of stretch and as such the sleeves are meant to be fitted. In the check version above I cut the sleeves on the bias which gave them stretch as woven fabrics often have stretch inherent in the bias of the fabric. In the floral version I needed to cut the sleeves with a little more width so they didn't make the arms stiff. I describe how I did that below also.

This whole thing is best described in pictures so here goes.

Step 1. In this picture you can see the Hemlock pattern (ignore the markings on the paper - I used scrap paper) which is the paper pattern, and laying on top you can see the Wiksten Tank pattern which is the interfacing one. The interfacing one is scrunched up on top of the paper one to give you an idea of my plan.

I measured from the shoulder seam next to the neck, down to the hemline using the measurements I know I like for the length of a top. I made sure to include my seam allowances - 1/2" for the shoulder and then 5/8" for the hemline - into this length. I got this right this time but often I will get it approximately (making it a little longer rather than shorter) and adjust while I am making it.

Step 2. The first cut I made was the neckline of the Hemlock Tee. The pattern piece was held on the fold. My scissors need sharpening which is why the cut is jaggedy.

Step 3. I then cut the shoulder seam line to the corner. I don't muck with the shoulder line!

Step 4. I then cut the hemline of the Wiksten Tank pattern piece knowing the right position to put it in as measured in Step 1.

This just shows you the cuts made so far. The neckline, the shoulder seam and the hem.

Step 5. Holding the outer shoulder seam point in place, I pivot my pattern piece so that it creates a straight line between where the Wiksten Tank hemline outer edge is. I create a straight line as I am effectively following the style of the Hemlock Tee pattern here because it is where I am getting my shoulder line from.

Note: If this pattern had an armhole I would cut the armhole out first and then pivot from the bottom of the armhole. What I did for this mashup creates a top with more swing AND more fabric in the chest area. If I didn't want the chest area to change I would figure out where on the side seam line the shoulder finished (problem around the letter P in POCKET on the pattern above) and pivot from that point.

This photo shows the front of the top cut out.

Step 6. Now to cut out the back. First we need to get the length right by laying out our pattern pieces. The curve on the back hem of the Wiksten Tank is slightly different to the front, so the first thing I did was to lay the back piece of the tank down on the fabric. I then added the front piece that I had already cut out and sat it on top. This gave me the length of the side seam by matching the hem outer corners (in the top right of the photo). Mark the shoulder outer corner. You can see in the photos that the scissor tips are showing you where that is.

Step 7. The outer shoulder corner is now marked with a pin.

Step 8. Cut out the Wiksten Tank hemline before removing the pattern piece. Note the pin in place for the outer shoulder (near the tip of the scissors).

Step 9. Lay the Hemlock Tee Back pattern with the pattern edge on the fold and the outer shoulder edge meeting the pin.

Step 10. Cut out the neckline and shoulder line. Tilting the pattern piece as you did in Step 5 and finish cutting out the pattern back.

Step 11. To add width to the sleeves is simple with this pattern as there is no armhole to contend with. Instead I simply moved the pattern piece away from the fold about 1cm. Next time I would only move it about 0.5cm as these sleeves are a little sloppy.

A couple of companies that love a mashup/alteration are Made By Rae (who is about to come out with a great simple shirt pattern called Beatrix which is similar to the Scout), Colette, Grainline and By Hand London. They have a gazillion amazing tutorials on each of their websites - using their own patterns but there is a load of good things to learn on each site regardless of whether you are using their patterns or not. I particularly love the mashups by By Hand London - it's like their patterns were made for it.

Next up in the series we will cover my two super simple favourite alterations. They are super dodgy but I use them on practically everything I make.

Felicia x

Simple Sewing 101 - Part 4 - Pre-Alterations

May 29, 2015 thecraftsessions

In the post next Tuesday I'm going to describe how I made this woven Hemlock/Wiksten Tank mashup.

I'm so excited to have seen your tops popping up on instagram - thanks for pinging me with your successes! Makes me glad I got around to posting this little series. If you feel like being inspired yourself then go have a look at the hastag #simplesewing101.

Many of you have been asking about alterations and there is quite a bit to say - so much so that I got stuck writing this as it felt too massive. And I really wanted to have good pictures for you and I haven't had time to take them. So I've finally decided to bite the bullet, use what I've got, and split it up into some more managable pieces. I just saw that I actually started to write this post two months ago so apologies for the wait.

I'm wanted to start with the woven Hemlock alteration I do as that was the first top in the list and go from there. But I found there were a few things to say first. The mashup will be posted on Tuesday.

As I've mentioned before (but really want to stress again) these are not proper dressmaking or drafting alterations. However this type of alteration fits into the spirit of Simple Sewing 101 - the idea that you can make beautiful wearable garments with very few skills. And complicated isn't necessarily best.

Pattern drafting material

I draw all my patterns up on light interfacing that has no stick on either side. I call it Vilene but I think that is a brand name. I just ask my local sewing store for interfacing for drafting. I often get something slightly different each time but that is totally fine. I purchase about 10m at a time and get them to put it on a roll. It lasts me a year-ish. And is super inexpensive.

The reason you want to draft on this stuff (rather than say paper) is that it is more easily manipulatable. You can fold up the bottom, fold to take out width, etc, without having to redraft the pattern or dealing with the stiffness that is paper. Once I've stuck my pattern pieces together (if it is a pdf) then I draft off the pattern onto the interfacing. It might seem like an unnecessary step but will save you time if you make the pattern more than once. You can fiddle around with your alterations on the vilene before you cut it.

The interfacing is what you see in this picture. Remember to write the pattern name, size, piece name, and then cutting instructions. AND any alterations you have made. I then keep these pieces in A4 envelopes.

Make a Muslin ;)

Look I am totally lazy about this - my muslins are always wearable rather than just muslins. Each time I make a pattern for the first time I do so out of a less precious fabric. I then use the result a. as a garment, and b. as a learning tool.

Use your existing clothing to figure out your measurements

Measure similar tops you have in the wardrobe. Measure the width of the bust, the width of the hem, the height of the armhole, the width of the hip of a tunic (if you are looking to make something like a dress Tova or Wiksten Tank), or even the depth of a neckline that makes you happy. Write these measurements down and refine them each time you make a garment. I know for example that I need at least 4 inches of ease at the hip of the Tova or Tank or anything that goes over my behind so they don't stick to my bum in that super middle-aged nana kinda way.

Another useful measurement is to take length. I use this measurement all the time for both sewing and knitting. I measure from the shoulder point next to the neck down to the bottom of favourite tops, tunics, frocks. For skirts I measure from my natural waist to the hem length I like. Again these measurements are taken from my existing clothing. This saves time, fiddling around and fabric as you have a better idea of whether you need to adjust the pattern before you make your muslin.

The important thing is that you write them down. I think I will remember and never ever do. These measurements will become more useful in time as you have more practice and make more things.

And remember your seam allowance. In many patterns it is 1/2", whereas in others it is 1cm. You need to make sure that your pattern has the width/length you want PLUS the seam allowance. I have screwed this up so many times it has become automatic. One thing I have learnt from much experience is never redraft at night. Unless you have some kind of freaky brain most people are too tired at night to for the logic required to redraft. And no wine.

Redraft

Use your the measurements you took from your existing clothing, and then your muslin, to figure out what you want to change.

Is your Wiksten Tank flashing too much boob for your liking - then redraw it so that the neckline is higher. Is the hem too high at the front and low at the back - then redraw them. Don't like the width of the straps - make them thinner. You can do it. Easy peasy…..

The key to the redraft is the intersection with an edge - generally you need to make sure you intersect the pattern edge at a perpendicular 90degrees. Say you redraft the neckline of the Wiksten Tank you need to extend the centre line up towards the shoulder and then redraw it an inch or two higher making sure you intersect the fold line at 90degrees. If you don't do this you will end up with a point or a chunk out of the fabric. *

Before you redraft, note the angle at which the pattern intersects the centreline or shoulder line and choose the same angle.

The only thing I would say is that you will make mistakes. Mistakes are OK - expect them and don't worry when you do. I make them regularly and each time I learn. I have been known to throw something half made in the scrap bin. Perfect the pattern using cheaper less precious fabrics first and then make it up in the special stuff.

You can do this for hemlines, necklines, armholes (of tanks), sleeve widths, sleeve lengths. There are good tutorials about. Check out Grainline, By Hand London and Colette as good starting points.

Tuesday's post will be the woven Hemlock/Wiksten tank mashup post.

Felicia x

* I'm not sure I'm explaining this well so please ask questions if I've confused you.

Why we dress how we dress.

May 26, 2015 thecraftsessions

I'm reading Women in Clothes. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do at some stage.

I saw it doing the rounds of instagram a few months ago and couldn't for the life of me understand how the topic could be interesting enough to warrant the raving reviews, and it's sheer size. On a whim I purchased it, and have been joyfully dipping in and out for two months now. It sits on our dining room table and I peruse it while having my mid-morning coffee.

The premise is that three women, Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton, sent a questionnaire to 639 women asking them a list of more than fifty questions about their personal style.

“It is essentially a conversation among hundreds of women of all nationalities - famous, anonymous, religious, secular, married, single, young, old - on the subject of clothing, and how the garments we put on every day define and shape our lives.”

— from the cover of Women in Clothes

This book is totally inspiring. On more than one occasion it has taken my breath away with that feeling of recognition you get when something rings totally true.

Here is just one of those quotes.

“I hate it when people say they don’t care about clothes, because it’s a lie. It’s like when writers say they don’t care about plot. Lie. We are always asking for something when we get dressed. Asking to be loved, to be fucked, to be admired, to be left alone, to make people laugh, to scare people, to look wealthy, to say I’m poor, I love myself. It’s the quiet poem in the waiting room , on the subway, in the movie of our lives. It’s a big fucking deal. ”

— Leopoldina Core in Women in Clothes

I'd love to hear your take on this... The quote might strike you as it did me - or maybe you just think it's total rubbish.

For me - I realised that after having my kids I've often dressed to hide. Hide the fact that I didn't quite feel like me. Hide the fact that I weighed more than I did and that my body had changed. Sometimes dressing as an unconcious way of conveying my exhaustion. Dressing to be invisible so I didn't have to chat because I didn't have the energy. The whole nursing top and baggy pant stage. It's almost like me as a person disappeared into the mothering and that was reflected in what I wore. Not everyday but often enough.

And there was another thing. It was almost like when I came out the other side of the early days I wasn't sure who I was, and that was reflected in my dress. I wasn't the same person - the pre-motherhood, working in pencil skirts and heels, jeans and tshirts on the weekend kinda girl. And yet I was. Everything I put on felt wrong. Too slobby, too dressed up, too whatever .... and that felt awkward.

That awkward stage of dressing and mothering ended a few years ago but I'm not sure it's left me completely. As my kids are getting older I can feel things changing and I've recovered my idea of "self". Dragging it out from under the all-consuming getting-through-the-days of early parenting into something where I recognise me in me. My clothes are reflecting that - reflecting the fact that most days now I remember to have a shower and look in a mirror on my way out the door. That there is the brain space to engage in the self-care and self-love involved in dressing in a way that makes me feel good. And that in itself feels pretty good.

The quote made me think that maybe it is partly a chicken and egg situation. Maybe by consciously dressing to convey my me-ness I'm encouraging my me-ness to return. And around it goes?

Any thoughts?

Felicia x

Simple sewing 101 - Part 3 - Independent Sewing Companies.

May 22, 2015 thecraftsessions

Little bit of a diversion today tigers. I wrote the Simple Sewing 101 - Alteration posts as I promised you ages ago, but they need a good edit and I don't have the brain space at the moment. So rather than confuse you with a long scattered ramble I've put this together till I can pull it together.

Simple Sewing 101- Tops and Simple Sewing 101 - For Beginners are the two previous posts in this series.

Below are an extended list of independent pattern companies that are worth having a look at if you are interested in sewing your own clothes. The list in the previous Simple Sewing - Part 2 post was aimed at beginners due to their excellent instructions.

I've tried many of these pattern companies. Of the ones I haven't tried, there is at least one pattern in their range I want to try. For this wider list I can't guarantee that each company writes well-written patterns (I know most of them do!) so do a google search first for bloggers reviews, and check the relevant instagram hastag for patterns you want to try. There you will get some honest feedback about issues, sizing and things to look for.

At the bottom of the post I've included a list of patterns I have sewing crushes on just to give you a place to start if you think we have similar taste.