Hi everyone,
I’m back on the Lamazi blog with my latest make: The Sew House Seven Burnside Bibs made in Mind the MAKER ‘Line Flow Charcoal’ viscose twill fabric.
When thinking about sewing projects for myself currently, I have to think carefully about what patterns can accommodate my changing body – I am pregnant, expecting our first baby at the start of July. Although I’ve been dressmaking for around two years now, I don’t have a huge amount of experience when it comes to pattern hacking or pattern drafting, therefore I wanted to find a pattern that would require little, or no, alterations to work for my pregnant body.
I also had a head start with this project, in that the fabric type – Viscose Twill – had been voted for by my viewers in the last ‘How To Sew With…’ YouTube video. So I headed to the Lamazi website to browse the fabrics in this category – I would highly recommend that you do the same as there are many beautiful fabrics there! Straight away, my eyes were drawn to the striped fabrics as I knew they would make a gorgeous pair of trousers or overalls (Items that I feel were missing from my maternity wardrobe).
So, with my fabric selected – the Mind the MAKER ‘Line Flow Charcoal’ viscose twill – I just had to finalise my pattern choice. I thought a pair of overalls would work well, something with a lot of room around the middle but that could be given shape by the use of waist ties or a belt. The
Sew House Seven Burnside Bibs came to mind – it’s a pattern I’ve made successfully before and I’ve also seen a lot of gorgeous versions on Instagram (Fellow Lamazi blogger Marie springs to mind here – her pink linen bibs are just lovely, check them out over on instagram).
Making the Burnside Bibs is a pretty straight forward process and the instructions are really clear and easy to follow. It is definitely an achievable project for an adventurous beginner sewist, especially if you make Version 2 like I did (Version 1 includes a couple of slightly more advanced skills, like a side zipper and darts). The most time-consuming part of the process was constructing the shoulder straps and waist ties, as these are super long!
The fabric was a dream to work with throughout – from cutting, to sewing, to pressing. I love the handle of viscose twill as it has more body than a standard viscose and results in a beautiful drape. The quality of the fabric I used is really high and I would recommend purchasing a fabric in the same range. The striped design actually made the cutting out process easier as I was able to use the stripes as the grainline to place my pattern pieces correctly. The only pattern matching I decided to do was on the front pockets (I omitted the optional back pockets) and I’m so pleased with the result. To achieve this, I pinned my pocket paper pattern piece down in the correct place on the corresponding front leg that I had cut out of the fabric. I then used a pen to transfer some of the stripe markings on to the top and bottom of the pocket pattern piece, so I was then able to place this correctly on to my leftover fabric, lining up the stripes carefully, and cut out my pocket pieces. When it came to sewing the pockets on, I used A LOT of pins to make sure my stripes lined up as I was sewing and I worked slowly so as not to move the pocket out of position. I hope you’ll agree that the result was pretty successful!
Although I tried on the bibs a few times during the construction process, no fit issues were apparent until the very last moment. Upon completion of the garment and trying them on, I noticed a couple of things:
- There is a lot of excess room in the back. This is a feature of Version 2 of the Burnside Bibs anyway, but it will also allow me to continue wearing these as my pregnancy progresses and my bump continues to grow. Therefore, I decided not to make any changes to the fit here.
- There is gaping on each side of the bib. I think the main reason for this is that I am wearing the bibs higher up than the pattern intends, as I want the waist ties to sit above my bump. Therefore, there is excess fabric in the bib that needs to be removed. After seeking advice from my fellow (highly knowledgeable) Lamazi bloggers, I have decided to remove some fabric by adding in a couple of darts.
This make and blog post goes alongside my YouTube series, 'How to Sew With...'. In this series, I focus on giving information about different fabric types with lots of sewing tips and pattern recommendations. So for more information about Viscose Twill and my tips for sewing with it, head over to my You Tube channel to watch the corresponding video.
I hope you have enjoyed my latest blog post and make,
Thanks for reading,
Tamlyn (Sewn on the Tyne) xxx
