An Outfit for 'The' Shoes

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This is the vest/sleeveless jacket I made to wear with the wonderful Fergie shoes. It's the FSG #1960 Cardigan pattern, without the sleeves, and with the shawl collar modification in Nancy Erickson's newsletter. I think it is much more a sleeveless jacket look than a vest, and that's what I'm calling it. The color is probably truest in the first photo.
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It's a nice, beefy knit with surface interest from the black raised threads. Since it was so beefy and almost thick, and because I used no interfacing in it, it has a very soft look and feel.
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You can see that I stitched down the edges of the uppermost seam allowance after grading the allowances that lie beneath. The collar/band unit was sewn on as one, with the allowances all laying the same way, so this made a nice finish which allowed everything to fall as it should.

As noted above, I used the shawl collar pattern piece provided in the Nancy Erickson newsletter, and I think it's fine. I think I might make a less pronounced curve out to the collar from the band if I make another like this. I can't decide if it would make it too bulky where it closes, or if it would be better, but I can always try it and then change back if I don't like it.
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I had thought I'd do patch pockets on this, but I was afraid it would make the front so much heavier than the back that it would hang funny, especially if I actually put anything in the pockets. So, I left them off, and for the look of it, I'm glad I did. I like pockets though, and I wonder if in-seam pockets might work next time. I really don't need the bulk though, so we'll see. I know I could have used weight in the back hem to make it hang straight, but this isn't a structured enough or 'important' enough piece to do that, in my opinion.

The top with this is from a set I made from this same pattern (there's a charcoal cardigan jacket as well) and the skirt is part of it as well, although not from the FSG pattern. I shortened the skirt from calf-length. I think it looks good, and I love a simple 4-seam straight skirt in a knit fabric. It's so much more slimming than without the CF and CB seams. It's an elastic waist, and honestly, you don't need a pattern to make one like it.

It's really, really cold here lately, and we have a bunch of snow on the ground, but at least more isn't coming down right now. I hope the bad storms and big problems are missing all of you, too.

Narrow Pants – Marfy 0913 & Jalie 2682

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This is what I wore on Thursday of the Textile Symposium.

This pattern (Marfy #0913) turned out to be 'the one' for the narrow pants I was looking for, as far as I'm concerned. It's one of the free patterns included with the 2009 catalog, and is for woven pants, with a zipper, back darts, and a faced waistband. I used knit fabric, a blue mystery knit for the first pair, and a brown ponte knit for the second.

I added 4" in length for the blue pair, 2" above the knee, and 2" below. For the brown pair, I added another 2" below the knee, and did a straight hem instead of the curved vent. I think I might like the curved vent with a little more length, so I may try it. For the brown pair, I actually added another inch for a hem allowance, and so they're really great with heels, but I wore them with flats for the Symposium, so I just turned up the hem, with looked much like a cuff since I'd topstitched the hem both at the hem edge, and at the lower edge.

On both pairs I did a Hollywood waistband without a zipper, but still using the back darts. I didn't have to cut the waist straight from the hip since the knit has plenty of stretch, and in fact I ended up taking about 3" out of the CF at the waist, tapering to the crotch.

I used Ann Rowley's Flat Seat Adjustment, and re-did it for a little more flatness on the second pair.

I added side-seam pockets on the second pair, which will be automatic in future, I think. I should have put them in the blue pair too, but I've been wearing them with my fleece vest, which has lots of pockets anyway.

The knit top with the blue pants is Jalie #2682, lengthened. I really like how it turned out, especially with the fleece vest which was the perfect color all around. I had thought of making a brown vest from the ponte knit, and making it cropped, but I'm not sure how that would look. What do you all think? I remember a very cropped jacket a few years ago (Vogue pattern?) that stopped just below the armscye, and definitely above the bust point. I like the idea of that, but I'm afraid it would look really strange. It wouldn't take much fabric to try it I guess....

Here are the brown pants again with an older Jalie 2005 Tee. It was the right color for the Collar and Cuff set.
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This is what I wore on Saturday of the Textile Symposium.
Friday I wore my Burda WOF ruched 'twirly' skirt and blouse. It was definitely the right venue to wear interesting things, as everyone else was wearing interesting things too, and we were all interested.

It's Cold Outside!

So naturally, I decided I wanted something warmer to wear. Seems like every winter I suddenly get the urge to 'sew warm'. Forget style, etc., just find something to bundle up in. Well, maybe not forget style, but it's not at the top of the list. I found a very cute RTW fleece vest that had a very droopy back on me, since it hadn't had my swayback alteration. (Strange that they didn't do that, isn't it?) I knew I had fleece, and I copied the vest.


Link to First Photo. You may click through them all from here.

Since the back was the problem, I pinned the RTW vest at the waist, taking out about 2 inches in length, and then copied the pattern that way, tapering to the side seam. I used a needlepoint wheel to copy the seamlines, etc. onto pattern paper, marked the pocket placement, then trued my seamlines and that was about it. The original vest had no princess seam, it was simply a row of coverstitching at the pocket placement. I did an actual seam there since it made the pocket easier (I just did an inseam pocket) and because I don't have a coverstitch machine, and I liked the line. My fleece is textured while the original was smooth, so I think an actual seam was necessary to even show up. I also added a CB seam to get the shaping I had put in.





The details are simple.
+ The separating zipper is very basic, with no facing on the inside, as per the original.
+ Hems and armhole edges are simply turned under and stitched.
+ All seams are topstitched. This doesn't show as much on my fleece as the original, but it makes for a nice finish anyway.
+ The collar is interfaced. I didn't want to use a fusible on fleece, so I used a fused suedecloth that I had and didn't use for a previous project. It was nice and sturdy without being stiff, and worked perfectly for this.
+ Each of the pockets forms an interior pocket also, because of the way it's sewn at the sides and bottom but left open at the top. I'm not sure I'm crazy about this, but it might come in handy. I can always go back and sew across the top.



I will say that everything for this project came from my inventory. I even had the perfect 23" separating zipper used in the original. Warm and frugal, that's me!

This is as close a photo as I can find to the original, which was one color, and did not have zipper pockets.

Gedifra Vest

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Here's the finished Gedifra Vest I've been knitting in my spare time. It's a very quick project since it's done with a gauge of 1.75 stitches per inch. That kind of gauge lends itself to basic shaping, and this had interestingly shaped pieces to make up the vest, but I think it could be improved. I'd like it a little longer in the back and sides instead of angling toward the front points quite so precipitously. I didn't use the recommended yarn, Gedifra Highland Alpaca. Instead I substituted Rowan R2 Fuzzi Felt. I got the gauge perfectly, and I'm not sure if this has less body than the original yarn, but I doubt it's a lot different, since the original is 50/50 alpaca/wool, and alpaca is very, very soft. The Rowan I used is 58/16/20/6 Nylon/Wool/Acrylic/Alpaca. I would assume that wouldn't be softer than the Gedifra. I folded the collar double, under itself and tacked it down to give it a little more body, and to control it a little. It was pretty floppy, and awfully wide. You'll notice in the pattern photo below that the model is artfully holding the collar up. Now if it would stand like that by itself, that would be great, but at this gauge, I don't think that's likely to happen. Anyway, I'm generally pleased with this. It's a fun piece, and nice and cozy.



I want to thank everyone who commented on my lace skirt. Especial thanks for all the ideas and opinions. I wore the skirt to a music club meeting this afternoon, and didn't wear anything I had a photo of. I wore the olive Jalie Tee, and a longer slip that I made this morning accompanied by great trials and tribulations.

As always, it's a mistake to think that anything you do at the last minute is going to go smoothly. I don't know what was with my new machine, but I suspect pilot error. I was trying to attach the elastic, and all I got was major jamming in the bobbincase. I re-inserted the bobbin again and again, I re-threaded, I read the instructions. Finally it snapped out of it and ran like a dream. I took about 3 smooth stitches, and it stopped because the low bobbin thread light came on. So, I wound a new bobbin and found out I didn't know how to make it stop winding a bobbin in the middle when I saw it was taking all the thread left on the spool! So, I found a pretty good match of thread to finish. After that, it went quickly, probably because there was nothing else to go wrong. The slip turned out to be just the right length, and now I think I like the slightly shorter one better, although I didn't think I would. The shorter one pushes it just that much further away from that Mother of the Bride look that I really want to avoid. I think my look has a general tendency to lean toward formal/dressed-up rather than casual anyway, so I try to pay attention to it. I was glad I wore the thin top this afternoon however, as it was really warm in the room, and any jacket would have been too much.

When I got home, 3 nice things had come in the mail. The October Burda WOF magazine, my order from Pam at Sew Exciting Sewing Supplies, and a new knitting bag like my old favorite from the Nature Conservancy. It's not on their website but it's one of their "Join us" gifts. The Holiday Vogue Knitting came at the end of last week too, and there are some very nice things there.