My Little Sewing Bee

I am handing my blog over to my daughter this week, and she is going to tell you how to design and sew a really fashionable top. I have never seen our local fabric shop so packed, and I think sewing my have taken over the country since The Great British Sewing Bee has been on television.

First design your top. I used these templates from the computer.

Don't let your fabric get the better of you. This fabric only cost £3.99 and is jersey cotton.

Mum said I should press the fabric first. Only do this if you are old enough to use an iron.

We used one of my favourite old tops to make a pattern.

I pinned it onto fabric, and we realised we had bought far too much. I will have enough left to make something else.

I cut out really carefully.

I was going to used my own sewing machine ...

...  but we did some test stitching on a scrap of fabric, and it was really bad.

Mum said it was because we needed to use a jersey ballpoint needle. So she let me use her sewing machine.

I pinned the shoulders, and checked with the ruler.

I sewed really carefully.

Then I had to press the seam open.

And topstitich on either side. I made the stitch longer for this.

Then I pinned right round the hem.

And sewed twice around it.

We then had to pin where the sides of the body would be, and measured carefully to make sure that it was the same on both sides.

Mum has some black binding for the neck, and I had to be really careful sewing this on.

Finally, we made the straps from and old T-Shirt. The trickiest bit was turning them the right way out.

With the straps on I was ready to model my new top.

I am really, really pleased with it.

Back to me now. We had a really fun afternoon. I realised that although she does a lot of hand sewing, we had never made a garment. I recommend you only let your children loose with irons and sewing machines, if you know they are very sensible. Even then keep a very close eye on what they are doing.

What was really great was to manage to work from her own design, to get a wearable garment that she is really happy with. I think she learned a lot. Particularly about pressing and topstitching, and being careful with every stage. Although my own mother would have probably have had me tacking seams. Perhaps we will have another go. Maybe to learn how to do gathers would be fun.