MingMakes Newsletter

March 2022

My Stella effort

Hello all you spectacular subscribers and welcome to my March newsletter. The weather is glorious here as Spring finally arrives. I am well on my way with the Stella Hoodie from Tilly and the Buttons, and look forward to cosying up in this in the evenings which are still cool. I have been using my overlocker for much of the construction having picked up the courage after a workshop as mentioned below. I'll share the finished result and MingMakesMistakes post in next month's newsletter.

As usual, I made a toile or three and did a decent amount of fitting adjustments. I detailed these all in a post here, with photos of my toiles, which adjustments I made and why. I built on what I learnt when fitting the Freya Dress, adding a sloping shoulder adjustment but just to the front piece. Here is my before and after photo.

Overlocker course

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a brilliant overlocker workshop for beginners at Guthrie & Ghani and this t-shirt was the result of my efforts which I was so pleased with. I have an overlocker which I only use to finish seams but this workshop gave me the courage to sew a garment with it and I was super pleased with how the neckband worked out in particular. I was also chuffed that I could get away without any further fitting on the t-shirt and plan to churn out another couple of these basics to add to the wardrobe. I used their Navy Basics Organic Cotton Jersey for this one.

Something I don't think I would have tried if I hadn't gone to the workshop is to sew a neckband on the overlocker without quartering and pinning. We essentially cut the neckband piece about 10 cm longer than needed and stretched it as we stitched. Only one shoulder seam was sewn to make this easier. I liked that we were encouraged to get a feel for how much to stretch the fabric, rather than getting a fixed length to fit. Similarly, we were encouraged not to pin the pieces but just to hold and guide the fabric. In addition to learning skills, the confidence I gained was so valuable.

After posting this in the Fold Line Facebook Group, several people were interested in what t-shirt pattern it was. It seemed like it was drafted just for the workshop, and only consisted of 3 pieces - front, back and neckband. However, someone helpfully suggested the very similar Kirsten Kimono Tee by Maria Denmark.

Read previous newsletters here.