The Agnes

Regular readers of my blog will recognise this as my third Agnes by Tilly Waynes of Great British Sewing Bee fame.

The pattern is definitely one I’ll be keeping at the top of my pattern pile.

Remembering all I’d picked up from Tilly’s online course, like stabilising the shoulder seams with a narrow strip of ribbon, I had hoped to whizz through this one.

I had been so impressed with my first and second.

I was ready to cut into some decent quality fabric. I’d spotted this fine striped jersey on the Minerva website a few months before and when it arrived I knew it was perfect.

It was fine enough but with a really lovely weight. Whilst I took time to ensure my stripes were all horizontal, it cut like a dream with no curling edges.

Then. BIG PROBLEM. My machine started skipping stitches. This had happened a little while back but I thought I’d solved it by changing to some better quality thread and playing with my tension.

The problem got worse and worse. I tried everything, I googled everything. I changed needles from ballpoint to stretch, back to woven again. I found tension dials on my machine that I’d never twiddled before. I tried sewing with a layer of paper beneath. My machine still worked perfectly on woven but hated the stretch. Was it the fabric?

Why, after no previous problems, was this happening now?

With a sense of impending doom I had to take up the last piece of advice Google had come up with. Time for a service.

With the machine delivered  to the man that can, I hauled my stand-in machine from the loft, plugged it in and Voila! Perfect stitches.

I’m hoping the neckline might settle down a little more once it’s been through the wash as my others have done.

I love the front gather. It’s another skill I’ve picked up.

The jersey is so soft and comfortable and surprisingly warm!

I really feel I’ve nailed this one.

My daughter asked, ‘Did you make that?’

Love, Lucie xx