An autumnal sew

I've been busy sewing and not blogging about my makes so here's the start of a flurry of posts. Hopefully! I've also realised that this first garment is probably the most difficult to photograph as, yes, it's black, but never one to run from a challenge, I've done it anyway!

The first autumnal garment is a black fleece. I've never sewn anything in fleece fabric before and this is a very practical make- our flat has storage heaters. Nuff said! A sturdy fleece is essential kit when the nights start to get darker and the leaves turn golden. So, I had a good read of other blogs about sewing with fleece and came to the conclusion I should just get on with it.

Yep, doesn't show much at all! It didn't help that it was a grey day outside so light levels inside were low all day. I would also like to pint out that I have the usual five fingers on each hand, just in case you were peering at the photo and wondering.

The fabric is just normal black fleece bought from Edinburgh Fabrics. The style has a funnel neck, two pockets (you've got to have somewhere to stuff your hands!) and it also has a full length open ended zip in the front.

It's fairly easy to cut out and sew, as long as you remind it you're in charge by keeping a firm grip when sewing more than two layers together. I also used a ballpoint needle. The one thing I noticed was that my pins have gone blunt and I've had to throw quite a few away as they're now useless for other projects. This was something others have mentioned about sewing with fleece.

I found it easier to sew than I'd imagined it would be. It also seemed to steam iron very well too, but always from the wrong side otherwise you'll have flat, shiny iron'shaped areas all over your lovely fleece!

It also takes top-stitching well to. I used a shallow zig zag stitch throughout, even for the top stitching and you can't tell it's zig zag stitch and not straight stitch.


OK, now it's confession time. I could have just not told you, but I couldn't mislead you all. I've made a huge gaff making this garment. Here's the photographic evidence plus lots of white space allowing you time to think-



Not spotted it yet? Ok, I'll tell you. The zip is beautifully sewn in and top-stitched. But it doesn't come to the top of the funnel neck. There, I've said it! I was so careful about getting the zip to line up with the bottom hem as I've added 2" on to the body length as usual, that I just didn't even notice the gap even as I was sewing it!!! I reckon I'm probably never wearing it out of the flat anyway so what does it matter anyway, and I can't be bothered to undo all that stitching! What disasters have you made?