u/Happy_Membership9497

Hi everyone! I come to you for a very specific bit of advice!

I am attending a wedding anniversary celebration from a couple of friends (a Bangladeshi and Portuguese couple). The theme is 100% Bangladeshi and we can wear what we’d like, but I’d love to wear a saree this time around (I bought a salwar kameez set for their wedding last year). I have other sarees, including a couple of pre-stitched sarees that I bought for conscience, in case I can’t manage to properly tie/pleat the regular sarees 😅 but I’d love to try.

Now, this is the one I’m planning to wear. It’s 100% silk and my husband bought it for me during a trip to Bangalore. Looking at saree “anatomy” online, I’ve identified the blouse piece at the end of the Pallu, which I assume is the rectangular piece with the gold flowers. The rest of the saree has paisleys.

My questions are:
- what’s the best way to finish the raw edge? A rolled hem? Baby hem? This is fairly stiff silk.
- in photo 2, is the border below the flower panel part of the pallu or the blouse piece? Where exactly should I cut?
- any tips for cutting the blouse? Do I follow a specific grain? Do I use the border for the border of the sleeves?
- I have a well fitting princess seam pattern that I was thinking of using for the blouse, but it has puff sleeves. I could alter, but are puff sleeves ok for a saree blouse?
- with a woven saree blouse, what types of fastening do you use? My pattern has an invisible back zip, but what would you suggest?
- do you line your blouses? If so, with what fabrics?
- are there specific techniques or patterns that you recommend?

Any other tips are much appreciated! Including any tips for pleating or styling this type of saree. As for the blouse style, most of the community is Muslim, so I’m going for a style with sleeves and not a lot of cleavage or back showing (not too cropped either).

One thing I need to mention is that I know I should have a fall attached to the bottom, but unfortunately I only realised this now and I have no way to source the matching fabric before the event this weekend. So it will have to do!

Thank you so much in advance.

TL;DR: obsessed with adding scallops. Made blouse and tried new techniques. Lengthy post, but detailed description of everything used, including techniques. Hopefully the added images help too.

I think people might start calling me “the scallop lady” soon 😂 but it’s genuinely one of my favourite things at the moment.

I just finished this blouse and I learned a lot from it and tried new things.

The fabric is a light cotton voile, which has machine embroidered flowers in three different colours (rust, green and lilac). I purchased it as part of a kit with surprise fabric and notions, and it came with a plain, slightly heavier cotton for any facings or lining. I used that for the plackets and sleeve cuffs. The pattern I used is the Anna Allen Anthea blouse. I made no modifications to the fit, but I changed the construction of the button placket, cuffs, and shape of the neckline. You can see the planning stage in the last two images. For the construction, I used regular Gütterman thread, but used rayon machine embroidery thread for the machine embroidery (got from eBay).

The final blouse looks like it has two panels for the two fronts, but it was actually constructed as one piece (you can see it in photos 8-9).

I started by tracing one front piece and decide where I wanted the lace inserted. The angle and placement was very much decided based on where the floral embroidery was, and how to avoid it. I marked the top line with a heat erasable marker. I then drew perpendicular lines to that, from the shoulder line to the lace inserted line. I wanted a grid effect (inspired by some Sézane blouses). Once I was happy with the lines, I recreated the same in the second front pattern piece.

For the stitching, I alternated the colours and used orange and lilac here. It was impossible to avoid crossing over some of the flowers, so I made sure I stopped before, backstitch (my machine does a lock in place) and restart after the flower. I wanted a simple line, but very visible, so I used a triple straight stitch and went really slowly. I practiced on some scraps until I was happy with the stitch length and effect.

Once the embroidery was done, I moved on to the lace insert. I started by sewing it in place, lining the top of the lace with the line I drew, using a short (2.5 length) straight stitch and going very slowly. Did the same for the bottom of the lace. I then used a very small zig zag, just below that line, to act as a finished edge. I practiced that a little in some scraps too. It’s barely visible in the lace. Then the nerve wrecking part was to slowly cut the fabric behind the lace. I used a very sharp small pair of scissors and cut as close to the zig zag line as I could. Unfortunately, I did accidentally cut some of the lace in two places, but was able to fix it by zig zagging over it with the machine, and honestly, it’s not even visible, thankfully! There are other techniques for lace insertion, but I felt this might be the one that worked best for my fabric (I say this having never have tried it before though, so take it with a pinch of salt). I had enough lace left to add it to the back too. I used the exact same technique.

Now, I did kind of forget that blouses overlap at the front, and my pieces were symmetrical, meeting in the middle 🤦🏽‍♀️ I had to improvise and just went with a plain placket to break the pattern and make sure it would match either side. I think it actually worked well to stabilise the delicate fabric. The pattern has the placket included in the front pieces, so what I did was take the measurements and create a separate placket I could sew on top.

For the cuffs, the pattern uses a bias cut piece of fabric. I wanted longer cuffs and adding machine embroidery to it, so I didn’t cut it on the bias and just cut rectangles instead. Instead of one piece for the cuff, I cut two pieces for each. This way, I could sandwich the sleeve gathers in between the two pieces of fabric. I then had a raw edge at the bottom of the cuff. But I embroidered it with scallops, so it wouldn’t matter anyway. Once the sleeve cuffs were in place, I chose and practice the stitches I wanted and slowly went around with each colour.

I then tried the blouse on and marked where I wanted the V-neck to end. Reshaped the neckline and cut it, leaving some space to embroider the scallop border not too close to the edge. Because the fabric is so delicate, I used a narrow interfacing tape all around the edges to help stabilise it. I then aimed to have the edge of the scallops on top of that, so the interfacing isn’t noticeable on the right side of the sheet fabric. I then cut as close as possible to the edge of the scallops.

I played a bit with button placements and decided that adding pairs would look cute. I used my button hole sewing gauge for the first time, to decide the placement (I ignored the pattern instructions).

One thing I felt I had to do throughout though, was unpick a lot of the floral embroidery from the edges. With such a delicate fabric, I wanted French seams. It was clear that my machine was going to struggle to sew over the flowers, as they were quite thick, and they’d make the seams wonky. It was A LOT of work to unpick them and took forever, but it was totally worth it.

I hope the details make sense and that I added enough details about the fabric and the process! It was a lot of work, and technically challenging, but nothing that can’t be recreated with lots of time and LOTS of PATIENCE!!

I wore it the next day and received lots of compliments! 😊 so it was totally worth it. I also planned this make months ago and couldn’t make it any earlier. So it was so satisfying to bring it to life.

Hi everyone,

You may remember my green trousers with scalloped pockets from a couple of months back. Well, I had a small (less than a metre) denim remnant in a gorgeous aubergine colour, and decided to make shirts with the same scalloped pockets. But… I decided to take it one step further and create shell-shaped back pockets.

The instructions on how to create the scallops for the front pockets are in my previous post, but I’d share how I created the shell pockets. (Photos towards the end)

1 - I found a shell shape I liked. Then printed it and played with the scale a little until I was happy with the pocket size.
2 - traced the shape into the wrong side of the denim
3 - with right sides together, I sewed the denim and lining fabrics using a short straight stitch (1.5), very slowly. I left an opening of about an inch so I could turn it.
4 - carefully clipped and trimmed the curves.
5 - turned the pockets and carefully pressed the edges. Topstitched all around.
6 - topstitched the vertical/diagonal shell lines. The pocket is then ready to be attached to the back pieces.
7 - to attach the pockets, I topstitched on top of the previous stitching. You can choose how wide the opening is by choosing where to stop attaching the pocket to the back. Depending on your fabric and shell shape, this means it might flip downwards. To prevent this, I added a little popper to the pocket.

These were actually really fun to make and not as hard as I expected. It wasn’t intentional, but I also feel like the colours and shell pockets are a perfect nod to the little mermaid! 🧜🏽‍♀️

*Sorry mods for posting this so soon after my other post. My bad!

You all loved the trousers so much, I wanted to show you what triggered those! There’s a story behind it. You also get to see my unfinished gallery wall, on the other side of the office. This is my usual spot, but the husband was playing clarinet here, so I had to move to the other side.

About a year ago, I fell in love with a multicolour Barbour trench coat (you can see it in my mood board). I believe the original retail price was around £500 (outlet price ~£300). They didn’t have my size anyway and it was completely sold out everywhere.

A few months later, in May, I was browsing the remnants section of my favourite online fabric shop. Remnants are my favourite thing in the world, after my husband and dog (not necessarily in that order 😂). I just love buying remnants, often with zero plans, and very tiny amounts that you’d wonder what the hell I’m gonna be able to make with it. But my passion is to mix fabrics together. There’s so much joy in making unusual combos or putting fabrics together in satisfying ways. When I saw they had a bunch of remnants from Atelier Brunette, I had to get them all. As you can see in the planning, they were different fabric types, so I wasn’t even sure if they’d work together. Some were also very small remnants.

But I’m a woman with a plan! When I saw them, I knew immediately that they make the perfect trench I had been thinking about. It was a challenge to cut all pattern pieces from these remnants. Took serious planning and pattern Tetris.

The pattern is the Taylor Trench by the (now extinct) Rebecca page. I made it twice before and loved it. A floral version for me and a leopard one for my mom. There are A LOT of pattern pieces!

I made decisions that go against all sewing advice, but I don’t care. Some pieces were cut on the cross grain. It was a strategic decision. I regret nothing! I also decided to go with the coat length rather than trench length by the knee. This was so I could have enough fabric for the hood. I wanted this trench to be good for the rain (I live in Wales, UK, after all), since some of the fabric is water resistant (for the rest I used a spray). I added a photo of the bits that were left once I cut everything.

The colours and what pieces ended up being made in each, were purely a decision based on the size of each remnant. Hence the careful consideration and time taken. I tracked the expenses and also the time for this make, and I thought it was interesting that the overall cost, with labour, is more or less the retail price.

“Now, what does this have to do with trousers?”, you’re wondering after the long post… the fabric I used for the trousers is the same used for the sleeves of the coat. As I was making the sleeves and added the loops for the tabs, I was pressing it and thought to myself “this fabric is so soft and the colour is so lush. This would make some really nice trousers”. In true ADHD fashion, this was all I could think about for days, so I tracked some fabric down and found Minerva had some. So that’s how the trousers happened.

I still have a little bit left from the trousers (I carefully plan my cutting to save as much fabric as possible), so be warned that there might be a third garment coming 😂

One important thing I learned from making this, is how fabric choice affects fit, especially in more tailored garments. I had made this pattern before and it fit well, but I made it in a fabric that had a looser weave. These fabrics I used for this all had a very tight weave, because they were waxed and water resistant. This most definitely affected the fit, because they have less give. I ended up letting the seams out a little bit in places (thank goodness was for large seam allowances). It’s still a little more on the tight side, but perfect for spring and early autumn. Wearable for winter…

Fabric details: a mix of waxed cotton, gabardine and poplin. All from Atelier Brunette.

Buttons from eBay

Lining is vintage and was a gift