I've been wanting to move my blog away from Blogspot for a while but could never be bothered to actually do it. This week was the tipping point though, and I've now fully migrated over to https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . The blogspot address will remain here but all new posts will only appear at https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . There are lots of reasons for the move but my biggest one is how hard Blogger has made it for people to subscribe to receive new posts via email. It's such a basic requirement but apparently, they think it's too much to offer. I'm basing this purely on how I myself prefer to consume this stuff. I can't be arsed with feed readers anymore and emails are easy and convenient. When I receive one, if I fancy reading it, I will click through to it and, if not, I'll just delete it. Another reason is the spat between Google (owners of Blogger) and Instagram/Facebook/Meta. I don't even know if this is still the case anymore
A few weeks ago I was asked if I'd like to be part of a new thing Fabworks were trying out. They'd chosen a few of their customers to make something with their fabric of the month for May. Along with the letter, there was a sizeable swatch of the fabric they wanted us to use and it was gorgeous. You can probably guess I said yes, otherwise this would be a pretty pointless blog post introduction. 😆
Although I would never have picked it myself, the fabric is incredible and very unusual. It's called Kaleidoscopic Galaxies and it does remind me of a kaleidoscope. The colours are so saturated and vibrant that you really need to see it in person to fully appreciate it. These photos do not do it justice. The fabric is a scuba, which is stretchy but stable, similar to a ponte roma. But it's a bit spongy like neoprene, although much, much thinner. It's not a fabric that I use a lot but it is very easy to sew with.
Since the print is so striking, I wanted to use a pattern that would let it shine. And, let's be honest, I also wanted to make my life easier with as minimal pattern matching as possible. I landed on McCalls 6886 more or less straight away. With its one-piece front and one-piece back, it was the perfectly minimalistic pattern I was after.
I have made this pattern 5 times now (always a straight size 10) and I absolutely love it. It's comfortable, easy to wear and quick to make. Yes, there's excess fabric in the back but it doesn't bother me. Plus, I've looked at how to adjust it and it seems like a lot of effort if there's no centre back seam. It's worth mentioning that although it looks particularly bad in the photo above, I think it's the way I'm standing combined with the heavier fabric. None of my others looks as obvious as this.
Cutting out was a lot easier than I expected. I cut it all out in a single layer to ensure the pattern placement was correct. I centralised the diamond pattern on the front and on the back and that was it. I didn't bother matching the sides because I don't think it matters in this case. I also wouldn't have had enough fabric to do that. I thought I had 3m to start with but when I measured it, my piece was 2.2m which was still plenty; just not enough to worry about matching side seams. My sleeves are identical though. I thought it might look odd if they looked different. The neckband is unintentionally symmetric as well.
I had a bit of trouble when I was hemming this. I didn't want a zigzagged hem and I don't do twin needling 😑 so I went with the straight stitch. That gave me lots of skipped stitches and it made the hem far too tight. I unpicked it all and used the narrow hem function on my overlocker for the very first time. I am thrilled with the result!
I am very glad I took part in this project. I would never have picked this fabric but it is beautiful. My daughter said it was the prettiest thing I've ever made. If you like it as well, you're in luck. Being fabric of the month means it's on offer for the entire month of May at only £5/metre and you can get it here!
*** DISCLAIMER***
I was sent this fabric free of charge in exchange for my thoughts about working with it. Fabworks specified the fabric I should use but I chose which pattern I wanted to sew. All thoughts and opinions in this blog post are my own.