Sewjo... Free Spirit Skirt & Harlene Dungarees

Kylie: From Kylie and the Machine. And I'm Gemma from Sewing Gem. And this is the Sewing Club Podcast. And this is our sojo episode. Woo! Sojo! Free Rain! Yeah. Yeah, I actually struggle with these free reign ones. I've got to like rein myself in. Yeah, I know. It's like, what do I do? Yeah. Yeah. What have you done? ⁓ well, I've I've I sewed a skirt actually. This skirt? This skirt. It's beautiful. Yeah. This I've got a bit of a story behind the fabric, ⁓ and everything that I chose. So Yeah, I'll I'll tell you more later, Kylie. How about you? What did you do? Yeah, I f I like I said last episode, I had some works in progress and I've completed one of them. Yay. A big one. It's a big, big so. What is it? It's a pair of overalls. That is a big sew. And they are looking amazing from here. And are they the same pattern that you're wearing now? Yes. I'm wearing the Harleen overalls, which is from Merchant and Mills. And I have actually made this pattern. I think this is the fifth one I've made. Wow. So I've made a few. And then quite time consuming. Very time consuming. Every time I cut one out, I'm like, yeah, it's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. And then I'm in and I'm like, this is a big sew. But then I'm so happy at the end. And it I imagine quite a good sew in terms of being able to chunk things up quite well. Like, you know, you do the bib and you do you know, like it's yes tonight I'm gonna achieve X. So I achieved the bib in twenty twenty five. Wow. In fact, it has a label that says, This was made in twenty twenty five. It's like telling a story. I made the bib, like obviously cut the whole thing out in twenty twenty five. I made the bib in twenty twenty five and then that got put away until the sojo pushed. Yeah. And then I was like It's cold and I want to wear those cuddly corduroy overalls that I've got cut out. Yeah. You ⁓ you needed the push though. You need that you need that deadline. And to be fair, so did I this time. So this skirt came out of me like literally opening the drawer and going, right, well, I need to make something now because I'm on a bit of a deadline. Yep. what fabric do I have? And the only fabric that I had was this, which I bought quite a few years ago now. It's quite a statement fabric. I brought it quite a few years ago when I was in New York and I got the chance to go to Mood Fabrics. Ooh. and I don't know, I just fell in love with it. It I think it comes back to what we've said in the past about, you know, fabrics that we love on the on the roll, on the bolts, versus actually wearing them. And it kind of sat in my drawer because I was like, I really just don't know what to make out of this fabric. And I didn't have enough to do a dress realistically. How much did you have? I had about two meters. Right. and I wanted to make something that would really, I guess, showcase the fabric. But I do think as well my tastes have changed a little bit since I brought it. So sort of over the years I've gone, am I actually gonna wear this, you know, look at that fabric and it's so you. It's beautiful. It is and I do love an eyelet fabric. ⁓ but it is quite out there. So I'm a little bit like when am I gonna wear it? And I'm really glad that I made this skirt with it. But I do wish I had slightly more because and I'll talk a bit more about what I did with the pattern because it's got a trim at the bottom of it. You can see that there's like a an edging. Yeah. ⁓ I wanna describe that fabric. It's like a would you sort of call that embroidery on Yeah, I would I would call it that. But it's not your typical. It's obviously a very fine white cotton and then the embroidery part is very ornate and it's like baby pink, baby blue, and navy. Yes. In this kind of like paisley. Yes. Kind of pattern almost. Yeah. And then it has like beautiful scalped edges. And I wanted to make that that's what I wanted to showcase, I guess, was the the s the edging on it. And I felt like a skirt was a really good way to do that. But I didn't have quite enough fabric to pattern match everything. So it's fine if I move quickly. ⁓ but some of the shapes you can see here, like they don't line up completely perfectly, 'cause there's kind of like rows of the navy things. Yeah. And all of the things, I guess. But ⁓ the navy appropriate. Still better than ready to wear. We'll go with that. Absolutely. It's unique. No one else has got one. Yeah. It's not picking out the fruits. But the pattern that I chose was one that we do in ⁓ the second stitches class, because I've been making a lot of those because I think it's good to show people, you know, what they can make, what what you know what what's what's doable, what it looks like. People often say, Can I try it on? So it's actually quite useful for that. And yeah, I l I like the pattern. ⁓ I had to change it up a little bit because of the fabric, but I'll talk more about that later. But no, really happy with it. I love it. I can't take my eyes off of it. It's so it's it's dopamine my head. I need somewhere to wear it. I need to like, I think, dress it up a little bit, you know, put some hills on with it and I don't know, wear it outside. Hey, that's the top from the last episode. This is my top that I made, the rectangle top. This is just out of a linen, but it's i this top goes with everything. But I just wanted something You know, low key to go with the the statement skirt. And I didn't notice it that it had a deeper hem. Yes. It's perfect. I love it. I do like a deeper hem because I think it gives it a bit more weight in the bottom, particularly in like a linen or something like this, so that it hangs nicely. That is gonna be a really nice noosa outfit. Yes. I need to plan a holiday. You go on a lot of holidays already that we have to work around the schedule. So I don't know. Just make sure it's like close to Noosa's fine. Yeah, noosa's only a drive away. But noosa, I need to plan Noosa, clearly. Yeah, no, honestly, that's gorgeous. Thank you. I mean, I know what you talk about, you know, when you buy something, especially if it's sort of like a prized thing and then you kinda put it away, then you bring it out and you put it away and you bring it out and you know, you ⁓ and are about it, and then you finally make it and you're just like, Was this the right choice for this? Yeah. I think you nailed it. Thank you. There was a moment of, you know, nerves when you're cutting it out and you want it all to match up and it didn't quite match up and da da da. I was like, ⁓ have I done the right thing? But I th I couldn't actually imagine this really being with two meters of it at least being anything else for me anyway. So I'm I'm happy. Yeah. Did you ⁓ you lined it as well, obviously because I lined two. Because there are many holes and I was quite big holes. They're big holes. And I was concerned that it would be And just a voiless. A bit too much. Yeah, it's a if you see, I mean you can imagine. ⁓ it's it is gathered at the waistband, but I just thought it could still be a little bit see through. So yeah, it's just a really lightweight voil. ⁓ there's nothing to it. It must feel nice. It is nice, yeah. Although And also that fabric could be a little scratchy on the skin as well. So you need to line it in. It's nicer, yeah. I was a bit worried that the voil might ⁓ be make the waistband too thick, you know, with the the stitching from the broidery and then the voil. But it actually turned out okay. So I'm getting in talking at the pat about the pattern now, but the pattern it's a pattern emporium free spirit skirt, which we actually, as I say, teach in the in the second stitches as well. ⁓ but the ⁓ they actually give in the pattern like four different options for the waistband. So you can kind of pick the best option. All their patterns seem to be really good like that. They give you lots of different options. You can kind of go on a bit of a journey depending on if you want pockets or if you want drawstrings or if you want high or low or a high low hem or what is the other one? I was split at the front, which I've actually done before a split at the front. Yeah. ⁓ I've actually got it here with me today, so I will grab it in a second to show you. ⁓ so they're really good like that. Yeah. Well, is it got Okay, can you stand up just so I can see it properly? Because I can see that there's like lots of different ⁓ Where are the seams? They're all over the place, are they? ⁓ I see. Yes. So there's like lots of panels to make like a nice A line finish. Yeah, it's it's sorry to make you stand out. No, that's all right I'll just get myself sorted. No. ⁓ there's there's lots of panels. So when you actually if you just make the the skirt as is when it comes, you have a front which is cut on the fold and a back which is cut on the fold, and then two side panels. Right. ⁓ but what I did because if you imagine the bottom of a skirt, it kinda goes up when you cut it when it's on the fold. Yeah. It kind of the curve at the bottom hem will go up. ⁓ yeah. So all I did was I halved the ⁓ the front and back panel and added a seam allowance so that there was a more of a gradual curve all the way around and it actually worked. And did you use most of your fabric? All of it. Yeah. Apart from the bits that apart from the bits I need to put in my ⁓ yoga bolster, which I have to go back to doing it. But Yeah, I d I did. I used I used used it all up, so it was good. And what do your family think of it? I'm sure that the girls love that, right? Yeah, they do. Yeah. My husband really likes it. He's he's a fan of a skirt. So that normally ⁓ yeah, is is like, ⁓ whenever we're going out and I say, What should I wear? He always says, Put a skirt on. That's his that's his line. So there we go. Here it is. Yeah, it you know, i it is a bit like that. You just you know, it's s sometimes more comfortable to just wear jeans or shorts, but you know, I guess If you want to be, you know, a little bit more dressed up, a little bit more like feminine, typical feminine, then you know, a skirt or a dress really does. I much prefer being in jeans, to be honest. ⁓ particularly now it's got a bit of colder hair. I'm with you on that, or shorts, but occasionally I will make more of an effort and ⁓ you know, put get the skirt out. Yeah. Yeah. Well it's nice to have those things in the closet, ready to go for when someone says, put on a skirt, darling. There's a little bit of me that's like, well now I'm not gonna wear a skirt, but I think that maybe comes from being married for too many years. But a little bit demand avoidance. Yeah. Right. Anyway, yeah. So no, it's it's a re it's a really excellent pattern. They're really well written and yeah, there's lot they're very versatile. So You've made a lot of the pattern emporium patterns, haven't you? Yeah, I like them. I think they're good for beginners, but they've also got lots of content in the actual pattern descriptions. They're particularly good if you've got them electronically because you can literally click around the patterns. So you can say, I want to do this waste bad, and it says go to page, whatever, and you can click on the link and it will then take you to that page. So We print a lot of those patterns. Do you? They've got heaps of sizes. That's what I know. And they're and they have layered patterns because ⁓ and they also they have so many line like if you print it the A zero as it is, there's just like a bazillion lines on there. Okay, yeah. And I find that most people when they put their patterns into printing, they say, I just want sizes this, this and that. And so the size that I'm probably gonna be, and then like one size up and one size down. And then that eliminates like a lot of the lines and it's so much easier to see because they're very inclusive. Yeah. ⁓ but it can be a bit like daunting when you see like that page full of all the lines. So you can actually do that for people, can you take away the the sizes on that pattern paper that you Yeah, okay, that's really good to know. Yeah, and it saves us on ink too. So it's good for And it's good for you. And it doesn't save on paper, but it saves on ink. ⁓ and it doesn't like save you any money, but it does gives you less of a headache when you're cutting out. Yeah, yeah. but yeah, and coming back to her patterns, I mean I really like the options on the waistband. The one that I've done here is the top stitched one. So it's got rows of top stitching going all the way through it, which I think given the amount of bulk in the fabric. worked really well because it kinda clamped it down a little bit. ⁓ because I was a little bit like, ⁓ is an elasticated waist gonna work here? ⁓ but it did. So yeah. Cool. I mean if you if you know if you wanted to, you could have you know, made a elasticated waistband out of a different fabric that sort of matched like a satin or something nice. ⁓ nice on the skin too. I was just worried about there was already quite a lot going on in the skirt. And I think unless I had that perfect match, which I didn't and it was A little bit of a like, this has to be made now. Yeah. The Sojo episode is coming. ⁓ you know, let's cut into the good stuff, let's do this. Yep. ⁓ I always had this idea, I think, when I sewed something with this fabric that I'd be making it for a a dress or a skirt for an event. And I didn't have that event in my mind. I was like, no, we're just gonna make it. So there we go. Well, did you find it pleasurable to make though? I did. Because it was your fancy fabric that you'd collected? It was special. It like it has memories attached to it. ⁓ and it's actually something, you know, we you you mentioned before that we I do go on a few holidays. So I'm like, a new thing of mine is that when we go away, I want to start buying more fabric when I go there. Because I think there's something really lovely about having that memory from being in that place. So that's that's on my sort of like, you know, to do list in the future. So yeah. Do you find that when you Have a special bit of fabric though. It's like harder to like make the leap. ⁓ absolutely. I felt really nervous cutting into this. I th I'd built it up to be, you know, I'd had it in the drawer. I'm trying to think how long ago it was. We were in New York, but it was probably four or five years ago. Right. ⁓ and I'd built it up to like I didn't know what it was gonna be, but it was gonna be something special. And I think sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and just do it. Yep. And I'm glad I did. But if it hadn't have worked out, then I guess it would have been a different story. Yeah. And when you're on holiday and you go and you just happen to be in a fabrics shop, you're not really thinking about what am I sewing next? What am I doing this? You just see the fabric and you're like, ⁓ I must have it. And then so you end up buying some random amount and then it might not be the right like I say, I would have loved half a meter more. I could have probably matched everything up perfectly and I would have been really happy. But I think it's okay. I think it's passable. I'm matched enough of it. And also you have gotta worry a little bit about luggage allowance as well when you're on a land. Fabric is not light, so you do have to sort of buy strategically. Yes. ⁓ so yeah, there was that uplay. I was like, ⁓ just get two meters and yeah. Mood Fabrics is one of those like bucket list places that I would love to go to one time. ⁓ and I know that they're kind of known for being a little bit luxurious. Was it expensive that fabric? No, it wasn't at all. And I didn't feel like the fabrics in there at the time were expensive. I just felt overwhelmed because there were floors and floors of fabrics, you know. I think in Australia we're we're not we don't have an abundance of fabric stores. So we're really lucky to be able to go and visit an actual bricks and mortar fabric store. So I felt quite overwhelmed. I've actually got a trip coming up in London, going home to see family soon. And I'm just like, I've got to go fabric shopping. I've got you know, to make the most of having those actual bricks and mortar fabric stores that we just really don't have lots of here in Brisbane. ⁓ so yeah, on the to do list. That's so exciting. Will you have a plan or will you have like a list or ⁓ no, I'm never that organized. I'll just go in and see what I see and ⁓ Well maybe buy three meters or something if you plan to make a dress. Do you reckon three meters is a good amount for most things? Well, I i see, I don't usually buy three meters of anything because I'm pretty small and ⁓ I don't usually make dresses too often. But because I can usually get the kind of dresses that I wanna wear out of two meters. Yeah. But I often do buy t enough to buy to make a top or something. I'll buy like one point five meters or ⁓ you know, two meters and then it'll yeah, it'll be an awkward amount. But if I bought three meters, I would be too scared to cut a top out of it. Because then I'd be What am I gonna do with the other bit? With the other bed. And then it's like, ⁓ so I feel like I I generally when I buy fabric, I don't just buy it because I see it and I like it. I usually have the thing that I want to make first and then I go and buy the fabric to match that. But of course, then when you're doing that, it's like you have an idea of what you really want and then you can't find that exact thing. So yeah. I I think I need to be a little bit more planned though is what you're saying, Carly. And I think you're right. I think I I will have some ideas in my head of what I might be looking to make. I'll have my daughters with me, so they normally have some ideas in their head about what they would like me to make them. So that will definitely and that's smaller amounts, so at least I can do that. Keep them away from the silks. Yeah. Well they seem to like silk a lot. No, it's like no, that's too hard to sew, darling. It feels so nice on my skin, yes, but I don't want to sew that. Like chamouse. And I want to pay for it. Yeah, yeah, ⁓ yeah, yeah. Are you gonna go to Liberty? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That's like the mother Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Well, I'm gonna try. If I if everyone lets me, then I will. I'll just have to disappear on my own, I think. And ⁓ yeah, just have a Don't bring too much over there so you can have some suitcase. Get like one of those expanding suitcases and only fill it a little bit with it unexpanded. And then you've got the whole expansion section for fabric. And fabric does get pretty bloody heavy. It does, it really does. Yeah. Especially thicker fabrics. Yeah. And you can fit a quite a lot of fabric. You know, if you had a whole suitcase full of fabric, it would probably be overweight. ⁓ absolutely. Absolutely. And I and I probably wouldn't be allowed to do that. So be told off. But it's for the pot you know. Work related. And you know, shove some in your husband's suitcase. Yeah, exactly. He doesn't need much stuff. Anyway, tell me about your pattern, Carly. Well, before I talk about the pattern, I just want to mention seeing as we've got video now, that we have socks. We have had them for a while. We ⁓ haven't mentioned them for a while. And ⁓ can can ⁓ hold this up with my foot. No. Yes. Gemma will hold up the socks. If you love our podcast and you wanna support us, you can buy some socks. Maybe we'll get some more merch. But for now we just have a socks. I think now we're ⁓ we're actually being videoed. We need mugs. Yeah, we definitely need sewing club mugs. Would that be something that you'd want to buy in merch wise? You could take it to work and then everyone at work would know that you're in the sewing club. Yeah. And everyone's welcome. Yeah. And then maybe like only I don't know, the rest of your family might not use that mug or something because it's yours. Special mug. Yeah, represent. Yeah, that's what we're thinking. Because we we feel like, you know, we need the mugs on the camera just for us. But then we may as well order a bunch. And then if you want to support us that way, then then go for it. That'd be great. That would be great. ⁓ yeah, so the Harleen, like I said, it's a well, it's a very big sew. And, you know, in the midst of it, I'm always like, ⁓ this is so much work. But at the at the end, I'm always very triumphant. And I'm, you know. You know how sometimes you go into a shop and you see like a t shirt and you're like, ⁓ it's ⁓ thirty, forty dollar t shirt. I could make that, but it's like forty dollars, I should just buy it, right? that's not the same for for overalls. Like overalls is like they would be like two hundred and fifty dollars at the shop. Yeah. And the fabric is not expensive. It's just the time that it takes to make ⁓ Yeah. so I feel like your like cost benefit is like really, really high because you know, you you're just spending time and then you get this thing that would cost you a lot at the shop. So you can't really like just go out and buy it for the same amount of money that it would cost to make it. So I think in that way, overalls are a really good thing to make. But of course it's a little bit more advanced. It's but I think if you, you know, have good instructions like this one has, then you know, you could follow along and you'd end up with something ⁓ you know, great. And what I like about these Harleen ⁓ overalls, ⁓ and we probably wouldn't review Merchant of Mills patterns on here because they don't have a very good size range. In fact, they don't even have they don't even go small enough for me. Like they have a very narrow range that and and not very, yeah, like there's s ⁓ one, two, three. There's only seven sizes and they're quite like in the general range, not like you know, small or large. So ⁓ that's not great. In fact, this one I'm wearing now, the black one, I made these a few years ago. These are the smallest size. Right. And these are too big for me. Yeah. So I actually graded this one down. Yeah. and I made this new one in ⁓ like a cotton corduroy, and it's like a tan, like teddy bear kind of colour. Can you hold them up for us? Yeah. So I'm not wearing them today because I haven't put the hardware on ⁓ because I ⁓ I feel like it's a lot of sewing to do and I w want to film a a tutorial on how to put the hardware on from sort of start to finish on a pair of overalls. ⁓ because of course we sell the hardware. And ⁓ I also haven't quite decided on which colour I was going to use. And in terms of the hardware that you offer, Kylie, you obviously need the dungaree. Buckles. Yes. And what other hardware do you need? I brought the two prospective colours. Now they do come in five colours. Wow. But these are the two colours that I think well, I'm I'm leaning towards the silver, which is one of the newer that's our newest colour. Yeah. And it is ⁓ like a stainless steel. ⁓ lovely. It's made from stainless steel. So it's like just a ps a like a standard silver colour. And I think I want that because it's a nice sort of modern take, I think. Nice. Whereas this is the aged brass. Which when you put that up to the corduroy, it it's kind of like gives that nice warm browny colour. But I don't know if that's what I want. I think I want this like coolness so that it'll go with more different things. ⁓ and and when I showed both the colours to my boys, they all chose this one. So I mean I I'm I'm basically using, you know, my teenage son to tell me what's cool now. Yeah. I understand completely. ⁓ but yeah, so ⁓ yeah, the the buckles You get two buckles, which are like this part that clips onto the buttons. You get two sliders, which are this part, so you can adjust the strap. And then you get six buttons. ⁓ so you get, you know, two for each side and one for here. Lovely for each. most dungarees or overalls use six buttons, but if your pattern needs more, ⁓ we also have the ⁓ Jacket hard denim jacket hardware and you get the sa there it's like a whole ⁓ pack of just the buttons. Right. And you've got heaps of buttons in there to do a denim jacket, but if you needed like one or two extra, they're the same they're interchangeable. Great. Whereas the jeans hardware have slightly different buttons. Okay. So the jeans ones are really just for jeans, shorts, and skirts. Yeah. And then the dungarees and the jacket have the same buttons. Same. Okay. Yeah. So Yeah, I had to do buttonholes on corduroy. How did that go? Wouldn't recommend it. I mean, it's not fun. Which machine did you use? Look, I use my Bernina. but I didn't even try and use like the actual buttonhole thing. I just like ⁓ sewed a rectangle and then just zigzagged over the rectangle. Because I just knew I was gonna have way less. So when you do that, you just do you change your zigzag width at the ends of the buttonhole and then make it smaller as you come down the long sides. How do you do that? No, I d I just like pivoted and just did zigzag. You did all the way around like a little box. Yeah. But I sewed but I sewed like a guide stitches. So I know it's like I feel like you could just sew the guide stitches and then be done with it. Really like it'd probably be okay. But it's good to have the reinforcement, particularly on a fabric like that. I use two different machines. So I use my industrial. ⁓ for, you know, most of the construction and then I had my Bernina set up opposite and that was for all the top stitching because I use like different thread and stuff like that. So ⁓ industrial machines wouldn't be able to do a buttonhole, for example. They're just set for like really good, accurate straight stitching. Yeah. And like so good. I used to have it at the office and it was at the office for many, many years. I think I got it in twenty twenty. And this year I decided I wanna move it back to my ho I wanna well, I mean to move it to my house. And I don't really have a lot of space. I know you you're blessed and you have a ⁓ a third bedroom where you've got your sewing room set up and it's gorgeous. And it's in a really good position for like being close to the kids' rooms and everything like that, how you were saying earlier. but ⁓ yeah, so I had literally nowhere to put it. So I've actually just plonked it right in the middle of the dining area. So it's like I put it I just looked at where's the light. There's a light above and I just put it right there. But I had to get like proper people, like the proper like people to come and pick it up from my office, get it down the stairs, put it on the truck, bring it to my house, set it up exactly as I won wanted it. So it's not moving for a while. It's it kind of like does give me like little death stares every now and again because I'm not using it all that much. You know, like I'm walking past it hundreds of times and it's like Hello Yep, use me. ⁓ And then yeah. It's nice because I'm in the kids will be watching T V or you know, doing their homework or, you know, and I'm in the main area and I can kind of watch TV or listen to things at the same time. So that's nice. I think that's really nice. I think sometimes I feel a bit shut away. Obviously I'm very lucky to have that space, but I do feel a bit shut away. And I think I sew less because I I have to like physically go upstairs and go into my room, whereas often I think you're just at home, you know, in the area with the kids, like you say, and you can't just disappear off. ⁓ so I think in in many ways it's almost a better setup. Yeah, it's it's better for when you're actually using it, but then you know, it would be nice if you could kinda like pack it away sometimes, but it's just this big heavy thing that cannot be moved. So it's there. I like that suggestion though. I do this myself. I've got two machines, not an industrial, two ⁓ domestic machines. And if I'm sewing something that has a different thread, like a top stitch, I'll always set them both up so you don't have to keep changing thread if you're lucky enough to be in that position. Because you have to change the needle too sometimes. So it's like changing the thread, changing the bobbin, changing this, it's a really And it just makes the whole process it's already a long process. Yeah. And then it just and then you end up ⁓ you've got to s change the stitch length. Yeah. And then you end up forgetting the stitch length. You do everything and then you start sewing and ⁓ no. So top stitching. Yeah. Did you do that on your industrial? Did you sew it? No, I did it the other way around. So I did all the regular stitching on the industrial and then I did the top stitching on the banana. Because the banana's like you know, you can fiddle with the speed a lot. Yeah. So you can ⁓ bit more ⁓ you know, exact about how you want to do things. And then the industrial's just like Yeah. In the in the seams. I'm so envious of your industrial. It's on my list, but I don't think I can justify another sewing machine. So yeah. Well one day. Yeah. And like you gotta get it up the Up until you have to plonk it in your living room. Yeah, I'm thinking ⁓ when we have a space at work that would if if I ever one day have a bigger space, ⁓ which, you know, might be part of the plan eventually, then ⁓ having an industrial machine in there would be really good. So I don't know, we'll see. But the fact that this was made in corduroy had its own set of challenges. And I thought of ⁓ I'm gonna put a I wrote a bunch of notes on like tips for sewing corner. Corduroy that I encountered when I was ⁓ doing this because yeah. ⁓ where did you get your fabric from out of interest? I got it from the big books shop that will not be named publicly. We all know what you're talking about, and I actually saw some of that because I obviously wasn't really in it. It's very nice. But I was in there. It's very nice, and it washed up so nicely and it's so cozy. It's actually quite thick. Like it was more challenging than I. 'Cause like I ⁓ this was not my first rodeo with overalls, but I the couderoi just upped the level of difficulty a lot. ⁓ yeah. And I've sewn a lot of like I've sewn a lot of binnies out of corduroy and even like upholstery weight corduroy and stuff like that. But there's just so many seams and there's a lot of like folding and top stitching and all this stuff and yeah. But yeah. I'm gonna just quickly run through my tips. Please do. Here we go. Don't worry about contrasting top stitching. You'll lose it anyway. Because you'll never see it. ⁓ and you're better off being able to hide any mistakes with having the matching. So, you know, if you're doing a denim version, it would be nice to have a contrasting top stitching with these, but don't even bother with ⁓ just try and find the matching one. Yeah. ⁓ but I still did use top stitching thread because I still want it to be like a little bit thicker. Yeah. You can still see the line. And it kind of reinforces it. Yeah, does, yeah. ⁓ glue is your best friend. Pins take longer and they don't go in it's too thick, like and they bint a bend and all that sort of stuff. Makes a lot of sense. I used my glue a lot. Yeah, that's good. There's fuzz all over my glue stick right now. ⁓ and you only wanna iron it only when really necessary. because it kind of flattens out. And does it kind of have a bit of a nap? Yeah, like with a v Sorry. That was my next tip. Go for it. That's okay. You you you're always the the teacher. You're always thinking of the thing and I l I love that about you. 'Cause if I had forgotten I would want you to mention that, so thank you. when cutting, take note of the nap because ⁓ Yeah, so what is a nap, Gemma? So with some fabrics, w we refer to nap when we're talking about often like print direction or something like that. But it can also mean with a corduroy or a velvet that if you brush the fabric one way, that all the kind of fibers go in one direction. And so you need to make sure you're getting all the pieces lined up with those fibers going. It's like a natural direction. Natural direction. Yeah, exactly. So you want to make sure that well, generally you want it to go down ways. But I mean I guess it's up to you, but you want it to go the same way. But like I would want it to go down. Cause if you you wouldn't want to brush your hands like that and be going like against the grain. It'd be like stubble on some you know, you stubbly pants. Look at it. Nobody wants stubbly pants. No, you just want it like one way just feels a little bit better than the other way, right? One's like against the grain, one's with the grain. How's it stroke? Yeah, you want your fabric. Stroke the fabric and you wanna cut it all out in one go and make sure that you really pay attention to that because So you know I would even mark what's top. Yes. When you're cutting. That's a good idea. You know, which salvage or, you know, whatever you which edge of the fabric is the top. If you know and do it in one go. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. It was really it was really fluffy. But yeah, it's the same with a directional print. What was the fluff like as it was it like the stuff everywhere? No, it actually wasn't too fraying on the edges. No, it wasn't so no, it wasn't like that. ⁓ there's not a lot of fluff around my house actually. No. It just it was more that because I was using the glue to kind of like stick a lot of things down. Which I pretty much like do that for everything now because it's just so much easier. because you can just get it to lay exactly how you want it and then you just sew it. Yeah. yeah. I think it makes a lot of sense. I agree. With pockets especially. and yeah, there's a lot of like there's a waistband, there's like lining and there's like all this all these things in there. There's there's a lot going on in these things. There's I used it recently on a waistband and it's a really good way to hold everything. Because pins when it when you're putting pins through too many layers or you've got a thicker fabric It kind of creates like a wave in the fabric a little bit. Uhhuh. And you don't want that. You want it to be flat and laying flat. So everything's gonna go smoothly. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I've done a a couple of like shoemaking course things and it's like they always glue the leather. So what and then it gets sewn. Yeah. So it's like, why can't we do that with fabric? Exactly. All these like sewing purists be like, That's cheating. That's not how It's done. Well, who cares? Yeah. And you get a better result often. If it's, you know, you use the tool for the job. And I think when you've got something thick like that, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, definitely. But yeah, my glue is like fluff. It's got like it's like a it looks like a little teddy bear. Chop the top off, it'll be fine. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm going what you do is you just get a piece of paper and you just go and it flattens out nicely, and then all that fluff sticks to the glue that you've just done down. And then you a brand new glue sticker. Problem solved. Yeah, or could like cut it off. Yeah. And start and start fresh, I suppose. And I think I got one more tip. yeah, ⁓ it is thicker than other fabric, so take care with that. Well, I don't know what I meant by that, but just take care. Yeah, that like there was like a lot of seams ⁓ you know, to go over and they were they were thicker than even denim because you've got the thickness of the sort of the base fabric of corduroy, but then you've got that the pile and then you got like multiple bits, so you really gotta kind of press them down with the hammer or something. Yeah you've got the lines running through it. So it's gonna be Did you give it a whack with a hammer? No. I there was a part that I had trouble getting through, but I ended up sewing a line of because the lines of stitches kind of disappear. I sewed it first with the industrial because that just went, no problem. And then I top stitched over it. Nice. And that made it really easy. It was mainly just the hem on the pant. You know when you do like the inner seams where the seams all match. Yeah or come. You can't really do too much about that bulk. Because it's been topstitched and everything. Yeah. and then the other thing was you might find that the fabric shrinks when you wash it, but it might shrink again. So maybe Wash it more than once? Maybe wash it more than once, or maybe just ex expect that there's maybe going to be some shrinkage. So I didn't shorten them them at all. I'm just gonna roll them up. Yeah. And I I would rather them be like too long and roll them up than be too short. Because you might find that they're gonna become the right length anyway. Cause you can imagine what it'd look like if I'm walking around like a little kid that's grown out of their overalls and they're still wearing ⁓ and mum's like, They're too small for you. They're like, No, I like ⁓ I actually really like the rolled up look though. I think it adds a bit of a I think it adds a bit of a casualness to them that I really like. You know? Yeah. I just want to say what I really love about this pattern and why I've made it so many times is because and I've made other dungaree patterns and it's not to say that there's anything wrong with them, but I think everyone makes their own version of Dungaree's pattern, which makes them a little bit different. But I like that these are just like really standard. Like I mean, they're basically like a pair of Levi's. Yeah. So if that's what you want Yeah. Then this is a good one. Can you stand up and give us a twelve? Yes, I can. Let's do it. Yeah, they're they're just a really good classic pair of overalls. I love the details. If you just turn around again for me, Kylie. So in the back there, there's like what's that a a hexagon shape? Like in the back. That looks so cool. I love them. And I love they do You've actually put a red label in so they look a bit like Levi's in the back. Yeah. So what's that label? That's an old label that we don't have anymore. It says not for sale. Not for sale. I put lots of labels on this one. I think you need to bring that back. I love that on the jeans. Because you look quickly and it does look like a Levi's face. That's not an accident. No, I'm sure. I hope nobody from Levi's listening to this podcast. Don't tell anyone. But yeah, I mean that part of the pattern, that diamond shaped thing. I love that. Is so cool. And as you're putting it together, it's a bit like, what? Why is that like that? And I'm Is it complex, the pattern? It is complex, but it literally guides you through every little step. It sh it tells you where to trim little little bits of the seam allowance so that when you go to fold it later on, it's not gonna be bulky. Like it's so detailed. That's what I love about this pattern. So I cannot sew it without looking at the pattern. No, I've never made a merchants and ⁓ and mills pattern. ⁓ but what you're telling me is that they're really well written and they're really clear. Very clear. Okay. I mean, a lot of their patterns are You know, more simple, like they might have like like linen tops and and things like that on button up shirts and and jackets and things like that. And I've made a couple of other ones, but yeah, this one is just it just fits good. Like I like the shapes of everything. The only thing I've changed in ⁓ subsequent ones since the first one is I made the pockets longer to fit my phone and stuff. ⁓ but yeah. I and then you get to pla and you get to play around with the inside lining fabric. So ⁓ yeah, so it's a bit I guess boring on the outside. ⁓ and then I get to play around with the Just it up on the inside. You get like this lining fabric for the waistband and the little faux fly. But yeah. I haven't cut my buttonholes yet and when I do cut them I will use my chisel and What about putting in the hardware? I mean, you're gonna do a video for people. So is that quite nerve-wracking? Can it go wrong? Yeah, but not really. Like we have gone through a very many iterations of our hardware, and this is the most perfect, easy, foolproof one. Yeah. Because the ⁓ I don't know, have you ever used like cheap buttons that you bang in? Yes. Sometimes they're easy, sometimes they bend, sometimes like all this happens. Ours have like a nylon core inside the button shank. And then the nail has like jagged edges. Yep. So when you ⁓ hammer it in, it always goes straight in because it's got this like guide of the nylon tube that's in there. Right. And then that the little spikes catch on the nylon tube. So they are in. Yeah. In fact, you can't pull them out. If you If you, for example, put it on somewhere and you decided you didn't want it there anymore, you have to get ⁓ like n snips to like sni like get them out. Yeah. I've had to do that. Fantastic. Okay. Because I put the wrong on the wrong. If you do that, if you do make that mistake, it you can get them out. You can get them out, but you can't like pry them out. Yeah. They're on. Yeah. I've n I've had these ones I've had for years and I've had another pair for even longer and the there's no the buttons are I wear them all the time. Yeah. I put them in the washer. If you are gonna put them in the washing machine and the I wouldn't put them in the dryer, but it's best to actually do the buckles back up again. I just tend to open one. Yeah. To get in and out of it. And then if I was to put that in the washing machine, it's chances that I've done it before where it's gotten caught in the washing machine. Sure. So yeah, just buckle them up before you put ⁓ in the washing machine. And then just yeah. Hang hang to dry is better than the tumble dryer. But you can wash them, no worries. Of all the people I know, you definitely are like you just rock dungarees and overalls, sorry, whatever you want to call them. Yeah. Overalls. They just suit you so well. ⁓ thank you. And I'm looking at you know and I'm always thinking, ⁓ I should make a pair, but I know I'm not gonna rock them anywhere near as well as you. So I'm just like you just keep making those overalls. It's maximum comfortability because you got nothing touch there's no like waist, there's nothing touching you. It's like you can feast as much as you like and you will be comfortable. ⁓ the only thing is, you know, you gotta go to the toilet, you gotta sort of like take it all off to go to the toilet. You know, I've looked at lots of jumpsuits and things in ready to wear. And the amount of jumpsuits that you can buy in the shops that only have a fastening at the back. Yeah, what but what is that all about? At least with dumbbells there's no access point. How you need someone to literally help you go to the toilet. It's just ridiculous. So, you know, yes, okay, you have to take but ⁓ you've got access to a buckle. It's very straightforward and easy. You're gonna be fine. Yeah. I I find that I only have to undo one buckle and then I can slip it off. Yeah. I don't know, maybe with these ones, because I've graded them down a little bit, I might have to undo the buttons at the side as well, but it's still just one sided to get out. Yeah. And yeah, I think if you have made, you know, anything before that's got like buttonholes and you know You've made some pants before. You can make overalls. Yep. And these I haven't had to adjust the bib. Usually I have to like make things shorter for my torso, but because the the straps are, you know, adjustable, the straps actually way longer than I I end up cutting off like a whole bunch of strap. ⁓ yeah. So I didn't have to like a alter any of that part. And any other alterations that you had to make? Only thing I did was well I yeah, grading the whole thing down. Yeah. ⁓ but just making the pocket bigger. Making it. And then yeah, that's it. Cool. And then just, you know, wearing them all the time. Like I I wear them all the time. I can s I can just see why, you know. They're just very useful. And there's heaps of places to put labels. Yes. So so tell me where all the labels are then. We've got one on the back pocket. Yeah. ⁓ and then well, this one I've got one well, this twenty twenty-five. This is a lie. Wasn't made in twenty twenty-five. It was started in twenty twenty five, but it's like, you know, more than halfway through to twenty twenty six now. Twenty twenty six. And then that's a Claire Ritchie beautiful one. It's called Fruit Bowl. It's got all it looks it's like an abstract fruit bowl. I just love the colours. The colours go so well. It really picks up the the cordroy as well. And then at the back I've got like a little face because I don't know, if you're looking at my butt, that's the face I'd be giving you. ⁓ and then also there's one that says fuck off. So someone is getting really close enough to read that. That's what they're getting. Yeah, fair enough. So I will be honest, when I come to put a label in, I sometimes look at those labels like the the The big ones. The big ones and I go, What am I gonna do with it? I don't know how to use this. So tell me what what do you do with I I can see what you've done with it there, but do you have like a s and you've got one as well on the black pair, I can see. Yep. Tell me how do you use these? Because I worry about the edges. Yes. Okay. That's a great question. And I am so inspired by the people that have our labels and they're sewing them and I'm seeing what they're doing. ⁓ but people are loving using them on the outside. I have seen so many amazing like fleece jumpers that people fleece like sweaters with the zip like little you know fleeces and they've got, you know, a label right there on their chest pocket or on their chest just, you know, saying something or being a cute picture. And that's really cool. And of course that's not gonna be touching your skin. But I also sew them inside dresses, but what I do is I do a zigzag stitch around the outside. Okay. So you just zigzag around it. Okay. And then it's just like nothing. Yeah. I don't feel anything at all. Yeah, nice. Okay. That's answered my question. I'm gonna go for it now. Yeah. I've got like a line like if it's got a lining, like a dress with a lining that's got like a tighter bodice. Yeah. Yeah, I just sew it on the lining first. Do the zigzag stitches around. You can do like narrow zigzag stitches or you can even do like thicker ones, like it ends up looking a bit like an embroidered patch type of thing. And either way, that's not going to be any itchy or anything like that. I remember you did the little window version as well. And that's what 'cause I think that's what stops me 'cause I go, ⁓ I need to make a window for these ones. I don't think I can do it. But you're saying you can just zigzag I don't know why didn't think of that, but like now I've been given permission to zigzag around from the ⁓ creator herself. I'm like, I'm just gonna go for it. Yeah, a special label for special something on the inside, zigzag. Yeah, it's good for any kind of ⁓ enfold label as well. If you know you're sewing for a kid that's especially like sensory or you know, or if it's gonna be tight on the skin and kind of like rubbing, then yeah, you could use a zigzag stitch at either end of an enfold. Yeah, good idea. Yeah. But, you know, a lot of people are sewing them on the outside as well. I love that. That's so cool. And they're so pretty, you know, you wanna see them. Yeah. And if you've got like a label that you love, but you're just probably never gonna use it. on like clothes or something, like maybe you've got in the advent calendar or it's like a you know bigger label than you used to. I decided that I'm gonna sew a bunch 'cause I'm never gonna sew enough clothes to sew all the labels that I've made. And I made like a sewing machine cover. Mm-hmm. And I'm like adding all these labels to it as kind of like a you know, when people have like denim jackets and they have all those patches on them. So it's like a collection of labels. ⁓ and I get to see them all the time. That's such a great idea. There was actually a lady in one of my first stitches classes where they make the simple tote bag and she had collected from all her travels all these like different ⁓ like iron on patches. ⁓ yeah. So she made a really plain grey bag and then ⁓ so ironed on and sewed around all these different patches from all around. And it looks so cool and it's such a lovely like memory of all those different places. You could do exactly the same thing with so many things with labels. And sewing tote bags as well. That's a good one. And y you know, any kind of like pencil cases and like little little zipper of things and you know, it's good for gifts. Yeah. It adds like that little personality. It does. Yeah. ⁓ right Tell me about can you tell me about your sewing classes? You got anything coming up? Well, we are you know, we're doing our first stitches. We have, you know, got into full swing now with our second stitches where people are making their own patterns and it's really lovely seeing, you know, people become sewists. ⁓ it sounds I actually feel really proud, you know, and seeing people like I guess catch the sewing bug, like that's quite addictive, like seeing other people experience the same kind of joys as, you know, as I do when it comes to sewing. So that's been been really good. We've been working, yeah, working on adding more classes. They are coming. It just I guess takes time. So I eventually want to do an alterations class and how to use your overlocker and so they're coming. So watch this space. ⁓ my I actually wanted to talk today, if it was good with you, Carly, a little bit about something my husband's actually been working on. So he ⁓ he finished his ⁓ corporate job. Yeah. ⁓ at the beginning of the year. And he's not the kind of person that's very good at sitting around and twiddling his thumbs. ⁓ so he kind of identified that I had this need for a a booking platform to organise all of my classes. So over the course of a long weekend, he pretty much ⁓ came up with this new booking platform for me to be able to use at Sewing Gem where I could manage all the bookings and ⁓ you know people could purchase classes or book onto classes and have a calendar and all of those kind of things and it was it's been really great. So there wasn't anything like that that was No, I was actually using my actual platform that I usually use for sewing gem, but it was it was a bit it was a bit tricky because they're kind of the not the same kind of products and, you know, people were booking onto courses. So I needed to actually see what courses they were going to be on and who was coming when and who was doing what pattern. So it's all in the in the back end of that. ⁓ programme that he wrote for me. And I actually had a couple of people who were doing similar things to me and running classes reach out and ask, you know, what are you what system are you using? And I sort of had to say, well, one that my husband's written for me. ⁓ and it kind of got us thinking and it got him thinking, you know, with a bit of extra time on his hands, that perhaps there were other companies out there that might also benefit from this, ⁓ from this system. So he's come up with a company called Core Spot, which is offering basically a booking system, but it it is also pretty clever. It uses a lot of AI. It can take, you know, your if you've got a Facebook page or something like that, ⁓ it can take that information and create a website for you. ⁓ great. So this is suitable really for any company that is offering classes. It could be, you know, pottery, language, whate whatever. Sewing, anything, but anybody that needs to kind of man manage who's coming to a class, when are they coming, you know, what are they specifically looking to do. And if you know you're at the very beginning, you might actually need help with getting your website set up and it can actually take your like themes, your branding, or help you with that to help you actually set up that landing page as well for people when they come to your website. Sounds awesome. So yeah, it's been really interesting. I've been working with him a lot on, you know, he'll get a lot of This bit doesn't work. Can you fix this bit? And you know, so we've been working through a lot of the ⁓ you know, the little f things that are in it, the little bugs that need but we've been working really hard and we're kind of at that point now where we're ready to say, you know, hey, is anyone in interested? ⁓ we need to get the word out there that it it's around. So I thought that it would be worth mentioning here on the podcast because I'm sure there's other people that might be listening that are offering classes. Sounds like you don't need to be like very techy to be able to use it. Not at all. It's really user friendly. Yeah. ⁓ and a l a lot of the feedback that I know Brett, my husband got initially was that people don't want like a monthly fee because you know, often you might not be using it for a month. So the way it actually works is that it's done on a percentage basis of your of a booking. ⁓ okay. So it's usually two point five percent of a booking. ⁓ but Brett would like to offer to sewing club podcast listeners a discount on that. ⁓ so he's offering 1.9%. Great. ⁓ so if you're, you know, interested in that or you want to find out more, you can head to course spot.app forward slash sew club, and that will actually automatically apply apply that discount for you. and look long term, what we would love to do, Is build a bit of a community of of small ⁓ you know, companies that are offering classes. Yeah. ⁓ we're we're not quite at that point yet. We need to get a few more people on board. It's very beginnings of things, but yeah, something that we'd really like to do in the future. That sounds great. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah, it sounds like that would save people a lot of time. It it's definitely saved me a lot of time and it's a lot less confusing of for me with trying to have the two systems running, but it's a really simple system to use. It has all the information there. I have a little app on my phone actually. I can just go in, I can see which classes is coming up next, who's coming, what they're doing, ⁓ you know, and if I need to do separate payment links or anything like that. So it's it's really user friendly. That's cool. That's really cool. Well, so it's core spot. Core spot. And you'll put that in the show notes. Yes, I will. That's awesome. Yeah. Cool. Should we bring out our top tools for our sojo? We should. Well, we won't go on about it too much. No, my top tool this week, I'm just gonna get it out, is ⁓ a sewing machine foot. And this particular foot is the, well, I'll tell you it's the number, it's a banana machine that I've got. 97D, which is it's a quarter-inch patchwork foot. ⁓ And I think I want to make a more general point about tools, and that is that it's really important to have a foot on your machine that if you're doing something like really accurate top stitching or you're sewing around a label or something like that, you need to have a foot where you can really accurately see and have a line to follow. But what I particularly like about this ⁓ this foot is it's actually got effectively a quarter inch or a six millimeter. ⁓ marking on it that's really clear. And this particular one is open at the front so I can really see where my stitches are going. I love it if I'm putting on binding, you know, when you're just putting on the little tiny side of the binding. I just find that if I'm trying to do top stitching as well, it's really accurate. It's it's got all the right markings and lines on it. So I'm not saying you necessarily need this particular foot, but I think my top tip is make sure you've got a really good foot on your machine. That when you're doing top stitching or edge stitching, you know, you've got all those different markings and you know where you need to line things up with for different distances depending on what you're doing. That's a great tip. Yeah. Having the right foot. Having the right foot. Do you have a do you have a top foot that you like to use kind of? Well it's different for everything, but ⁓ yeah, I on my vintage Bernina machine, I've got this foot. It's the it's called a straight stitch foot, but it's got really teeny tiny feet. It's almost like an industrial foot. Yeah. Where they're like just teeny tiny like and it's just really nice. You can see and it's really nice for small ⁓ French seams and just anything where you're just working with like nice silk and things, it just holds the fabric nicely and it's just a joy to sew with. But they don't make it for the modern machines. Ugh. ⁓ Yeah. So that's something I get out every now and again. And for me, I I am I feel bad because I keep like plugging my own product, but I But so I brought two and I'll just say the glue is one of them because I use that so much. I agree with you. Glue is amazing. Yeah. I brought it. That's the label glue. It's called label glue, but you can use it for everything. And I could I used it recently and it's amazing. So yeah. What do you think of the triangle shape? I like the triangle shape. Yeah. Because you can get like a line. Yeah, you can. Or you can do like a big smoosh or you can do like a little the corner. Lots of options. Yeah. So, ⁓ and you get heaps of glue. Like a lot of sewing glues, like those tiny little pens, you get two grams of glue in those things. And they don't last very long. This has twelve grams. Wow. So a lot more glue. A lot more. Yeah, and it's very ⁓ purple, so you can see where it's going. And then it gl and it dries clear and it ⁓ is repositionable. ⁓ one more thing. It does say on here, but I don't know if anyone reads instructions. If you've got something that's like a bit weird, like corduroy. you might need to put glue on both surfaces. ⁓ And then it sticks really well. Okay. Just a little swipe on both. And you know how, you know, ⁓ contact adhesive type of glue you put it on both surfaces. It works like with the glue stick as well. Nice. Okay, cool. And then the other thing I want to mention is the clover. ⁓ what is this? What's the actual name of this? It's a Chaco liner pen. Yeah. And this I tried all the different lining tool options on the corduroy. For the buttonholes and this one was the best. Yeah. So you've got a ⁓ it has like a little wield, it puts a little chalk line. And ⁓ I put a little arrow on mine because it always works better one way than the other, and I know which way to use it every time. And yeah, everything else just disappeared into the corduroy was this sort of sat on top. But you do need to like put the mark on and do the sewing straight away because it sort of like it's it's chalk, so it disappears. Yeah. And I think, you know, coming to marking pens, just a quick little point to make. Is it people say, which marking pen do I need to get? And I think you make a really excellent point that it often does depend on the fabric. So you're gonna need a few different ones, not loads, but just a few different options depending on what you're sewing with. Yeah, some like ink ones, some chalky ones, some pencil type. Some really fine because you're marking something like a little placket or something like that, and others that are less you know, fine points. And then some disappear really easily, like the disappearing ink. One. Yeah, be be mindful of that. And then this one is also like not very permanent either. Like it's really just like a I like this one for darts, actually. Yes, yes, it is. Nice straight. And it washes out. Yeah. And then it comes in lots of different colours. But I think the yellow is probably the best colour if you're only gonna get one because unless you sew a lot of yellow Yeah, unlikely. Which I don't. And I don't think I don't know, some people might, but yeah. For me, yellow is the best colour. I've never seen you wear yellow. It's not a great colour on me. I got like too much yellow to the skin. Yeah, I'm not good for me either. So I'm yeah. Cool. All right. Thanks. Well that's it. That's it. Yeah. Now we'll hear from Sally and what we're doing next month. Over to Sal. Thanks, Kylie and Jim. The next episode you guys are reviewing is the kite pants from Machie Machie Sewing Club, which will be very exciting. And I will also want a pair. So to get a really fun discount from Amy and Teresa, ⁓ jump onto their website and pop in the usual Sewing Club Podcast discount code, and they've given 25% off this pattern. This code is valid until the 1st of September 2026. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you soon. Yeah.