The Wedding Guest Outfit, Part I: Fabric and jacket muslin

It's March, and I have PLANS for the month, mostly to do with the outfit I am wearing to attend a wedding in April. I have been trying to decide what to make for a while now, with only partial success.

I feel like I should point out that this is a wedding where literally nobody cares what I look like. I'm a member of the bride's extended family but she's a lot younger than me (9 years) and our families aren't close. I'm not in the bridal party, I'll only know a handful of people, and just. Nobody cares. If I'm honest, the only reason I am focussing so hard on this stupid outfit is because, you know, the world is on fire (metaphorically) and I need the distraction. Also the first two months of the year have been appalling, weather-wise, and just the thought that it might one day be spring wedding season was something to cling on to through all the rain and (thankfully not directly affecting me) flooding.

What I'm trying to say is: my life does not actually depend in any way on making a successful wedding guest outfit, but you'd be forgiven for not realizing this based on the amount of mental effort I've put in so far.

At any rate, I have three well-defined priorities for the outfit:

1. It has to be suitable for the actual event: a spring wedding (late April) in the far north-east of England. There's always a chance that the weather might be nice, but it's statistically more likely it will be relatively cool and possibly wet. The wedding venue is indoors, however, so I don't need a full on coat. The wedding dress code is "dress to impress" which is.... not enormously helpful, but definitely made me pull out everything I own in the way of fancier fabrics -- lace, brocade, etc -- to consider. I naturally gravitate to darker colours, but I think a spring wedding calls for something at the lighter end of the range of colours I normally wear.

2. I'd like to be able to re-wear the components of the outfit at a later stage. I really don't go to a lot of weddings, or a lot of formal occasions in general, so ideally I don't want to make garments that I only wear once.

3. I want to be at least mostly comfortable, and to feel like I dressed appropriately. This is harder to pin down, but you know, when you look for images of spring wedding guest outfits you get basically pretty little floaty chiffon outfits as worn by 25 year olds and, at the other end of the spectrum, mother-of-the-bride outfits, and I am in neither camp!

In the end, after running through Plans A to Z and then back again, I have settled on a combination of two turquoise fabrics for my outfit:

Wedding guest outfit fabrics

The details of these fabrics do not photograph at all well in winter light!

The fabric on the left is a glazed linen. You can sort of see that it has an almost silvery sheen on top of the turquoise when the light catches it from the glazed effect. The fabric on the right is a brocade embroidered to look like darker turquoise and silver/pewter sequins. I actually bought these fabrics something like 3.5 years apart and with no intention of putting them together in an outfit, but they look great put together. I have 2m of the brocade and just over 3m of the glazed linen. However, I stored the linen badly and as a result I have a narrow section of sun damage running in a horizontal line about 1m into the fabric -- so I have 1m on one side of the line and 2m+ a bit on the other.

I waffled even more over patterns than fabrics, and I am not done with that part of this drama AT ALL. However, I have made one definite choice, which is to pair the sequin fabric with McCall's 7513.

The pattern I plan to use

 More specifically, I decided to use the cover model, view A, the shorter length with the pleated back peplum.

Muslin v 3 with shoulder princess seams on me and on Flossie

I have not used too many McCall's patterns, so I knew I definitely needed a muslin. In fact I needed three muslins to get to a fit level I like, and I made a whole laundry list of adjustments. The first muslin was a disaster (started from too large a size, then wondered why it fit at the bust and waist but the shoulder points were literally 6cm past my shoulder. Duh.). Version 2 was improvement (started 3 sizes smaller at the shoulder plus an additional narrow shoulder adjustment, with width adjustments for my bust and waist). The third muslin has a single but very significant change compared to muslin 2: I just don't like the combination of waist darts and my large, low bust, so I tried converting the darts to shoulder princess seams to match the way the back is constructed. I am really pleased with the final muslin, although I have one fit problem outstanding that I want to try to fix before I cut out the final version: my sleeves tend to twist towards the front.

My to do list for this week therefore looks like this: try to fix the sleeve issue; cut/trace/adjust the pieces of the pattern I didn't address in the muslin (lining, collar, facings); then cut out and interface where necessary. My goal is to set myself up to spend next weekend actually doing jacket construction. (Which I will doubtless document on Instagram, if you're interested!)

The elephant in the room is that I still don't know what to wear WITH the jacket. I thought I had setttled on a plan of a plain-ish darker teal silk blouse and a circle skirt with the glazed linen, but I keep being drawn to other options, including possibly making a dress, even though I am least likely to wear a dress again in the future. I think I will end up experimenting with some muslin options to see what I like best once the jacket is done.

Actually, this last point relates to the best news I have, which is that my long dormant -- or at least frequently napping -- sew-jo has roared back in full force, and now I want to Make All The Things and experiment with all kinds of stuff. I'm really looking forward to refreshing my wardrobe for spring and summer this year once the Wedding Guest Outfit is done.

Some of that will have to wait a bit though as my last update for today is that I managed to break my overlocker making a gift for my mum. :(

A "twin set" of cardigan and t-shirt, both using Ottobre patterns (tee & cardigan on left; t-shirt only on right)

My parents are off on a trip and as they will be away during UK Mother's Day (22 March -- don't panic, North Americans, we celebrate Mother's Day on a different day than you!) I decided to make my mum a gift before she left that she could take with her. I therefore made this t-shirt and cardigan set using a black polyester knit that has a floral design picked out in small silver plastic spots on the surface. The fabric is totally uncrushable and doesn't wrinkle, so it's perfect to stuff in a suitcase, and the pieces are really simple but the colour/fabric make them perfect to wear to dinner. I used two easy patterns from Ottobre, specifically 02-2012-09, a short-sleeved waterfall cardigan -- I made elbow length plain sleeves rather than the split sleeves in the pattern; and 02-2019-13, a simple square neckline tee -- I opened up the neckline a little by turning the binding to the inside, so it would fit in a way that showed off a necklace.

I'm going to be honest: they look really pretty in the photos, and in theory I like them a lot. In practice, that surface detail of little dots crunched a needle in my overlocker in the first 10 minutes of sewing and the broken needle killed my machine (temporarily I hope, I am waiting for a part) and it all went downhill from there. I made mistake after mistake, struggled with the fabric, managed to leave a (small, hard to see) scorch mark on the fabric and the silver smeared off one of the dots along one of the side seams of the t-shirt. I had to do two thirds of the construction on my regular machine so the inside of this garment looks utterly amateur, and I was overall embarrassed to give them to my mum as a gift! :( I am banking on maternal affection and the fact that it actually does look good from a few meters away to make it a worthwhile gift. /o\

Autumn/Winter wardrobe additions

This year, I decided I needed that I needed 9 new items to round out my everyday/casual wardrobe for the rest of 2019.

My 9 items were:

1 cardigan

2 pairs of mid-weight trousers
2 pairs of leggings

2 longer-length woven tops
2 knit tunic/short dresses

I ended up buying the leggings rather than making them. I have a favourite, inexpensive RTW brand of leggings though that I find fit me the way I prefer and I don't think there's any benefit to making them vs. buying them in terms of fabric, cost, or fit.

That left seven items to sew, and these are the patterns I picked:

My autumn/winter sewing patterns

Trousers

I made the Burda and Jalie trousers from the same large piece of slightly brushed navy cotton stretch twill. I am going to be honest: I tried to take photos but it's a really dark navy and all you can see is like vague blobs, even with the exposure cranked up, so I will keep the photos to a minimum!

Let's start with something positive: I literally cannot express how much I love the Jalie Eleonore trousers. The fact that this is a great pattern is not news to anyone who was around when it came out, because the whole world and their sister made it and (mostly) liked it. I made the full length version, in plain navy, with the pocket add-on. I made very few fitting changes: mainly I straightened out the shaping along the inner thigh and did a knock knee adjustment.

They are not a perfect fit, but they fit probably the best closer fitting/stretch fabric trousers I've made so far, and the places they don't fit well (below the butt; above my calf muscles at the back in particular) are the same place every single pair of closer fitting trousers ever has wrinkled on me. I could probably have fewer wrinkles if I increased the width of the back leg from above the knee, but the wider leg changes the whole shape of the trousers so I haven't done so.

My one complaint about the Jalie Eleonore is actually about the pocket add-on. It's true, the add-on pattern piece does create a pocket. Alas, it makes one of those sad, vestigial, fingertip-deep pockets that are almost more annoying than no pocket at all. I will definitely adjust this when I make the pattern again.

The other trousers turned out MUCH less well and in some ways I am kicking myself for not just making a second pair of Eleonore trousers! The pattern I used, Burda 01-2007-108 is a simple straight leg pattern with a top entry pocket. I made this pattern before with only moderate success, but I hoped that using the trouser block pattern I drafted for myself earlier this year would help refine the fit. Alas, no.

Having traced out the pattern, I slapped on the trouser block and adjusted the pattern to match to the best of my ability. It turns out my best ability was not very good. I made some changes to the last version of my block on the crotch curve shape and got it wrong, and in the process of fixing that problem by sewing a new curve in the part-finished trousers I was making, I lengthened the crotch curve again. Since the main problem I have with Burda trouser patterns is that the crotch length is far too long for me, I actually resolved nothing. The trousers are also overall too big at the waist and leg, and slightly too short because I made a mistake with my hem calculation. It's a litany of disappointment, in short.

So far I've worn these trousers about a half a dozen times, but I can already feel myself defaulting to almost anything else that's clean in preference to wearing them. I'll see if I get a bit more wear out of them, but if not, eh, failed experiment, move on. 

Fly  of Burda 01-2007-108 trousers. Please forgive how wrinkly these look, I dragged them out of the ironing basket for a photo!

 All that said, I did do a few things really well: this is the "sewing course" pattern in this issue of Burda and, as unlikely as this sounds, the fly instructions are fantastic and the fly and waistband overall turned out really well. I must remember to photocopy the fly instructions for all future trouser-making activities.

Cardigan

Ottobre 05-2019-10 cardigan in blue ponte

This is a really quick and easy pattern from the latest Ottobre magazine. I had a problem with the front band, which was far too short when I cut it out. I didn't have enough fabric left to recut the whole thing, so I pieced in an extra section. Luckily, the uneven stripe and texture of this  fabric totally hides this "fix". At first I thought there was a problem with the pattern that caused this not to work. However, I have since seen at another review of the pattern and they didn't mention a problem so probably it was my fault somehow!

I like this cardigan (and strangely my mum really loves it) but I find it a bit shapeless and square, and I don't particularly like the way the collar sits at the  back neck. For sure I don't like it as much as my favourite cardigan pattern I've used a dozen times, the StyleArc Estelle.

Woven Tops

These are both tunic length tops, falling to about mid-thigh.

Butterick 5203 in navy patterned viscose

I have made up Butterick 5203 before, so making this version was simple. The pattern calls for a keyhole opening at the back and therefore a centre back seam. However, the neckline sans keyhole is more than large enough to slip over my head AND I have an irrational dislike of keyhole necklines (not even so much making them: I hate wearing them!) AND I hate chopping up large prints unnecessarily, so I just cut the back on the fold and omitted the keyhole. I love this top -- ultra simple to make, and it's just really pretty. I made it in  a lightweight viscose woven, which is an ideal fabric for this drapey, flowing top pattern.

Simplicity 2246 (view B) in navy and white gingham

The very first garment pattern I ever acquired was Simplicity 2246, a Lisette shirtdress pattern. I think everyone and their mother made it the year it came out (2012). My copy came on the front of a magazine, and I've hung on to it ever since as something I'd like to make. I'm not entirely happy with my version, but it's all right.

On the plus side: This shirt/tunic has a separate (rather than foldover) button band, and I am very pleased with my decision to put the bands on my version on the bias. I also bias cut the collar. My reasoning was about 80% practicality and 20% aesthetics. Mainly, I did NOT want to pattern match the gingham across all those pieces! However, the other problem was that the width of the finished button band was really awkward when compared to the width of the gingham squares, and I didn't like any of the alternatives I came up with for how to cut it (along a white stripe, along a navy stripe, half-and-half). Cutting it on the bias got rid of that problem entirely and also I think it's aesthetically pleasing to have the obvious vertical feature running down the front of the top.

Close-up of gingham shirt.

Minus side: The fit. As much as I like this shirt, it just doesn't fit as well as I would like. I needed a touch more ease over the waist and hip. It's not that it doesn't fit, exactly -- everything buttons up fine, nothing pulls -- but it's just a little bit closer fitting than I wanted for the outfits I had in my head. Still, it's fine, and since I am currently at the top of my normal weight range, there's a strong possibility it will fit more like I prefer as I fluctuate downwards again.

Knit tunics/short dresses

I like to wear leggings & longer tops on days when I am planning to spend all day at home. I therefore like to make soft, cosy knit tunics or short dresses to wear with them, to make outfits that are basically just a half-a-step removed from pyjamas but that are, at the same time, perfectly respectable if I have to answer the door or run to the post box. I tend to change up my patterns a lot -- I don't think I've ever made the same pattern twice in this category of garment.

This time I made a Butterick See-and-Sew pattern with a cowl neck and a slightly curved hem (Butterick 5870) and a very simple A-line skirted t-shirt dress from a recent Ottobre (Ottobre 05-2017-18).

Butterick 5870 in navy polka dot viscose/lycra knit. The cowl looks super awkward on Flossie and much nicer on a person

I like both of these a LOT but I actually have nothing at all to say about the construction, really. The Butterick dress turned out a little smarter looking than I entirely intended -- I can definitely imagine someone more into dresses than me wearing this just with tights out and about --  but it's really cute and I like it a lot. I'm really tempted to make the other view (which is the same dress in every respect other than the neckline, with is a V with a small scarf feature) next time I make a knit top like this. It was super easy to put together, and it's a great pattern.

Ottobre 05-2017-18, A-line skirted t-shirt dress in blue cotton-lycra knit

The Ottobre pattern was even easier as it's literally just a t-shirt dress and has no distinguishing features. I swapped out the long sleeves in the pattern for 3/4 sleeves, and I actually redrew the whole shoulder and armhole and used my own established tshirt pattern sleeve rather than the pattern, because why bother reinventing the wheel. I also lowered the neckline to a slightly deeper scoop as, as designed, this was rather high. I have to be honest: my version bears more than a passing resemblance to a nightgown. I think this might be improved by making this pattern up in a print rather than a plain pattern, but I don't think any t-shirt dress is ever going to be the most sophisticated of looks.

Overall, even though there are little problems with some of the things I made and I am not equally enthusiastic about  all of them, I am quite pleased with my wardrobe additions for the season. Some I've already worn a LOT, some of them have been waiting until the weather cooled down in October and I've only just started wearing. The definite star of the show though is the Jalie Eleonore trousers, which I love to pieces.

Next up: a wool suit! This is my BIG project for the autumn, and I probably won't have time to work on anything else at all for a while. I'm going to post more about it maybe tomorrow or Monday, so more details on this soon. :D

Autumn Sewing #1: Easy & Repeats

As usual I am sewing a little ahead of the season so that I have clothes ready in my wardrobe when the weather turns. Also as usual, I've started off with some of the easiest items on seasonal sewing queue.

First, a couple of easy three-quarter length sleeved knit tops. For a while now I've been using a knit top pattern that I adjusted from a very basic New Look pattern back in 2014. It's worked reasonably well but when I was thinking about sewing some new tops I knew I wanted to incorporate the extra shoulder and rounded back adjustments I've started to make this year. I was also slightly concerned that there were some peculiarities in my pattern arising from the many adjustments I've made to it over the past few years. I therefore decided to start afresh with a new basic pattern. I picked out the knit top variations in Ottobre 02-2007 as a starting point.

Ottobre 02-2007 knit top variations. I made pattern 2, except not the split cuffs.

The good news was that there wasn't an enormous difference between my previous top pattern and the Ottobre pattern. The sleeve I was using had gone a bit wonky, and at some point I ended up with a strangely long and pointy curve at the lower edge of the back bodice armhole. These anomalies aside, it wasn't a million miles away. Also, happily for me, it turned out that there was a really close match between the Ottobre pattern and my very favourite RTW t-shirt. I was glad I had compared the old, new and RTW, however, because whereas normally I find a 44 is a good size choice for me in Ottobre, my preferred size/ease is much closer to the 46 in this particular pattern, which, after my fit adjustments (square shoulder, rounded back, overall bodice length) I duly cut.

Versions 1 & 2 of Ottobre 02-2007-02, in white and stripes.

I made two versions, each of these from a single metre of fabric. In the case of the plain white version, I didn't even quite have a metre, more like 90cm and mis-shapen to boot, which is why it ended up with contrast binding and cuffs on the sleeves, and also with a centre back seam. The striped fabric was extra wide (180cm rather than the usual 150cm) so the pattern fit on with no problem even after I stripe matched the sleeves.

Burda 04-2010-114 in turquoise gingham

Next, I repeated a shirt pattern I used earlier in the year, Burda 04-2010-114. This may be surprising because I didn't have the best time making that first version of the shirt and it isn't anywhere near my list of favourite garments for the year so far. In addition to my everything-that-could-go-wrong-went-wrong sewing experience, it's worn much less well than I would like, mainly due to interfacing problems. I used too much of the wrong sort of interfacing and this made the collar and cuffs too stiff. Then the interfacing bubbled in the laundry after about the third wash. That said, all the problems I have with that shirt are really down to sewing error: the actual fit of the shirt is the best I've achieved in a woven top so far. The pattern really only needed one minor adjustment (shortening the bust dart) before I made it up again.

Some details: finished collar (much better this time!) and the bias yoke

I made the same minor construction change as before and did a doubled yoke because I love the clean finish that gives you on the inside. I cut the exterior yoke, as seen above, as well as the cuffs on the bias for a little visual interest (and to save me from having to pattern match at the yoke seam!). The sewing went so much better this time, and I absolutely LOVE my finished shirt. At some point I will have to buy some more plain navy fabric and redo the first shirt.

Latest of many StyleArc Estelles, and a close-up of the fabric (right side = navy/grey stripe, wrong side = plain navy)

Finally, I swore I was going to retire my StyleArc Estelle pattern but when I bought this navy striped ponte I couldn't imagine making anything else with it. I loved my previous Estelles literally to death: two of them finally went into the recycling just last week when I had to admit that they looked absolutely worn out.

My next project: dark navy raincoat fabric, green crepe de chine lining & Burda 6772 view B

I've still got a couple of easy-to-sew wardrobe holes to fill before autumn arrives but next up is a more complicated autumnal garment: a raincoat. I'll be using Burda 6772. If you follow me on Instagram, be prepared for the deluge of posts about it! :D

A review of May

Ahem. *blows dust off blog*

Since I last posted, in mid-April, I have variously:

1. Gone away on holiday for a week. This was, in fact, the first time I've really spent any time away from home since I first got sick in the summer of 2013. It was not what one might call the most perfectly successful holiday, insofar as I was away 7 days, the weather was beyond awful for 2 days and I was extremely unwell for 1.5 days (though luckily (?) the 0.5 day of feeling ill coincided with a terrible weather day). However, I was still somewhere that wasn't here (although still in the UK) and I had a pretty good time, so I am going to call it an overall win.

2. Struggled through several more weeks of total sewing apathy.

3. Overcome the apathy and made five things. :D

More specifically, I made:

a. Two kimono jackets using Butterick 6176

Butterick 6176 Kimono jackets (views F and E from left to right)

This was a semi impulsive project. I love the look of these jackets when I see them in shops and on other people but somehow, although the trend has been around a while, I have never got around to buying or making one for myself. I therefore picked up Butterick 6176 very cheaply on eBay. Most of the views in this pattern are completely rectangular and not really very interesting. However, views E (short version) and F (long version) have a shaped hem that I thought looked nice. I made a size Medium of each of these views.

Originally I was just going to make one, the longer view F, in a blue and tile print (see centre, above). It turned out so well, however, and I enjoyed wearing it so much that I immediately wanted another. I ended up making a short version with the remains of a piece of polyester georgette that had been lurking, thoroughly unloved, in my stash ever since I made a top from the rest of it in 2012. I actually loved how this second jacket turned out too right up until I tried to hem it. The fabric would NOT hold a crease for a hem, and once I'd finally struggled all my way around the (ENORMOUS) hem I discovered that the weight of the doubled over fabric makes the front edges flip out and exposes the wrong side. As a result, though I still like it, I'm also mildly irritated by it.

b. A cardigan in a fine open-weave knit

McCall's 6844 View B in navy lace knit

This is everyone's favourite cardigan pattern of the last couple of years, McCall's 6844.

I've made this pattern before, but in a very different fabric (purple ponte) and a different view (C, with a peplum). I learned from that previous version and added about 2.5cm width to the bicep of the sleeve and 1cm of squareness to the shoulders when I made this one. I chose this pattern because my fabric is VERY nice and also VERY expensive, and I definitely wanted to use a pattern I knew worked and that (with my minor changes) would fit.

Construction wise, it was extremely straightforward. You can only just see in the image above that the fabric has a faint lurex silver horizontal stripe woven into it, which was a bit of a pain to match but lined up nicely in the end. Other than that though, it's a very fine and light fabric, and yet also handled really well through the overlocker despite all the holes. I love how this turned out, and it's a perfect summer top layer.

c. Two items for my 2018 Magazine Challenge.

I bet you thought I'd given up on this! But no, although I didn't make anything in April, I made up for it this month by making two different things from the May issue of Burda.

Burda 05:2018-113 Top, images from burdastyle.de

Burda 05-2018-113A is a short sleeved knit top intended for heavier/sweatshirt knits, and it has a collar that is intended to stand up a little, and eyelet and ribbon trim. (Version B is similar but doesn't have the eyelets -- it has a tassel trim all along the diagonal seam.)

I wanted one of these the instant I saw the previews of this issue and then I wanted to make it even more when I found a perfect striped knit to recreate their version. Then I dithered, because the fabric was CRAZY expensive. I kept going and looking at the fabric listing, and putting it in my shopping basket, and then taking it out because it was ££££, lather, rinse, repeat. In the end I decided to get it because I couldn't find anything I liked even half as much, and hoped it was worth it.

My version (sorry about the terrible, super dark mirror selfie)

TOTALLY worth it. This fabric is gorgeous and I love how the pattern turned out.

I made my usual size 44 with few alterations. I was a bit stymied for how to alter for a smaller and squarer neck/shoulder line and in the end went with a straight size to fit my bust, which is kind of a step back, fitting wise. As a result, it doesn't have the "perfect" neck and shoulder fit I'm striving for this year but eh, it's an over-sized t-shirt. It's fine.

I left off the hem band (because I hate them) added some length but then, uh, took some of it away again when it came time to hem (so I have no idea, really, where I ended up in terms of additional length), and in the end I also left off the eyelets and ribbon. I bought the eyelets and everything, but when I tried them out on a piece of scrap fabric, I didn't like how it looked at all. Honestly, I don't think my version needed it -- there's SO MUCH going on with the painted stripe style fabric and the multi-directional stripes.

Worth noting: despite the magazine version being exactly like mine, the pattern as printed doesn't have the grainlines marked to make this with stripes running in a contrast pattern, nor does the fabric layout diagram show an appropriate configuration. I had to spend a little while squinting at my pattern before I got the correct grainlines drawn in

My second item from this issue of Burda was a skirt, 05-2018-105 (#104 is the exact same skirt, but midi-length).

Burda 05-2018-105 Skirt (images from Burdastyle.de)

I am not really sure why I was grabbed by this skirt pattern, but I really liked the look of it, and when I looked more thoroughly at it, I was pleased that it is bias cut, which I always think drapes more nicely. The pattern as written also has a back feature -- a self-belt on the back only that laces up through eyelets (again with the eyelets!). I'm sure it's very pretty, but (a) what a giant faff having to do that up behind your back would be; and (b) I never wear my tops tucked in, so nobody was ever going to see it. So I left it off. Other than that, I made a straight size 42 with no alterations except to add a little length. Actually I added too much length and ended up having to sew in a very deep hem. That's my own fault for mis-reading my own "preferred length" scribbles in my sewing notebook. Other than that minor misadventure, this was extremely easy to put together.

My version, and a close up of the (fake) pocket flap, turtle fabric and turtle buttons(!)

This was another expensive fabric, mainly because I bought it direct from Japan. I'm not normally one for novelty/cute prints at all, but I absolutely fell in love with these little multi-coloured turtles swimming around on a navy cotton fabric. From a distance it looks like a small floral, so it's also not too obviously "I'm wearing a novelty print!" either. I bought 2 yards (1.8m) about three years ago and I'm afraid it became one of those fabrics that I put in the ridiculous category of "too good to use". I am glad once I worked up the courage to cut into it that it turned out well. I even found little turtle buttons to go on the (decorative) pocket flaps! :D

June plans: Burda 06-2018-112 blouse and Burda 05-2017-113 skirt (if I can figure out how to lengthen the latter!)

Next up: making my Magazine challenge for June, which will be Burda 06-2018-112, a short-sleeved woven top with a pleated detail. I'm also trying to work out the pattern adjustments for a skirt from Burda 05-2017 that I meant to make last year but didn't manage for some reason (illness at a guess). I am a bit stuck because the skirt is very short (centre back length = 43cm/17") as written and I don't wear my skirts shorter than 52.5cm (21"). I'm not sure how I will go about make the skirt 10cm longer without messing up the angles on the front pieces.

And moving swiftly on...

My last post was full of ambitious plans for spring/March and here we are on the 19th April and, as the recent radio silence might suggest, I have to tell you that I accomplished pretty much none of them. The last six or seven weeks have gone something like this:

- Minor illness (just a cold, but ugh, it seemed to go on forever)
- Apathy about sewing anything for warmer weather because it was so. damn. cold. and wintery for most of March, which turned into:
- Apathy about sewing anything at all for any reason, or really doing anything other than sitting around in a miserable heap. (I don't know why, I just had a serious case of the Idon'twannas for a couple of weeks about literally everything that wasn't essential to survival.)
- The Return Of The Major Withdrawal Symptoms, and all the fun times that go with them, which I am just now bouncing back from.

In the midst of all that, I feel like I've pretty much missed the window for sewing for Spring! Over the last couple of weeks, I have managed a few easy, essential projects for my wardrobe:

PJs in pink gingham

I made a couple of pairs of PJs (one capri length pair for spring/autumn, one pair of shorts for summer) in pink gingham using my trusty PJ TNTs (capris: Burda 8721, shorts: Ottobre 05-2011-02).

Navy cardigan and curved hem jumper

I also made two quick and easy repeats from a 3m piece of textured navy knit, using Simplicity 1733 to make a cardigan and Ottobre 02-2016-05 to make a lightweight sweater with a curved/hi-lo hem. I've made exactly this combination of patterns from a single piece of fabric before, and it worked out so well and I've worn those garments so often that I barely even thought about it before I slapped the patterns down on my fabric. The more I sew, the more I love having a library of reliable, repeatable patterns as well as having the constant novelty from my pattern magazines etc.

Although it barely merits a mention on the creativity scale, in the midst of all my misery I did also manage to work through a basketful of tiny, annoying sewing jobs: hemming trousers that I bought unhemmed, fixing seams and hems in garments that had come apart in the wash (and, I must tell you, of the half a dozen things that needed repair, only one of them was hand-made -- it's the RTW stuff that falls apart!) and cutting down/hemming a pair of RTW trousers into shorts.


Even though I didn't get around to the larger, more ambitious projects on my sewing plan, wardrobe-wise I do have almost everything I need for Spring. Everything else -- and in particular my plans for a raincoat -- will just have to wait until I start thinking about cooler weather sewing again after the summer.

For now though, I'm starting to think ahead to summer sewing. I've only two absolute essential garments that I absolutely must make this year: a lightweight cardigan, which should be straightforward and quick, and a pair of shorts, which requires me to re-open the whole question of making trousers that fit and is therefore not straightforward at all. D:

My list of wants (rather than needs), is much longer and potentially more interesting, and covers a little bit of everything from outerwear (I have a slightly odd cotton fabric to turn into a lightweight blazer), to summer skirts and dresses, to woven tops. First up, though, I still need to choose and make a project for my April magazine challenge, and most likely that is what I'll be back with next. :D

Finishing up December

I had plans for three things in December, and I ended up crossing one thing off the list, changing the pattern for the second, and made the last one exactly as planned. Pretty typical for me and my advance plans! At least the thing I took off the list was for a happy reason. I thought I needed another knit tunic because I somehow misplaced one of my existing ones. I put it in my sewing room in order to do a small repair to it and then, poof, it vanished! I turned the room upside down looking for it to no avail and convinced myself I must have accidentally put it in my fabric recycling bag and lost it forever. However, it eventually turned up again (in a very obvious place, idk how I missed it when I was searching) and has now been repaired and put back in my wardrobe. So the knit tunic has been struck from the list for now as I have enough.

That left me with a cardigan and a tunic length woven top to make.

1. Cardigan: McCall's 6844 view C, in purple ponte knit

McCall's 6844 pattern envelope and the version I made, view C

I've owned this pattern since it came out in 2013, but I've been mired in indecision about making it ever since it arrived in the post. McCall's patterns are often divided up at exactly the wrong place for me and they don't always overlap the sizes the way some other brands do. This pattern was divided up between XS-M and L-XXL, and I, of course, would very much like to choose or blend between M and L. When I originally bought this, for some reason I decided that the Medium was the better starting point. Ever since then I've second guessed myself and thought I should have bought the envelope with Large in it, and this sapped any enthusiasm I had for actually making it.

My version, in purple ponte

This month, having made and discarded multiple different cardigan plans, I finally bit the bullet and cut out a straight size medium in the hopes I might get at least a wearable muslin out of it. I made no changes to the pattern except to omit the interfacing from the collar. My ponte knit was already quite firm and when I tested it I didn't like how the fabric felt with the interfacing attached.

Irrespective of my particular outcome, it was very evident from making this that it is a great, easy, and well-designed pattern. I mean, no kidding, right? That's why everyone and her mother has made it repeatedly since 2013 and there are eleventy billion positive reviews of it on PR. Still, it's worth saying again, I suppose: it went together really smoothly, I love the overall shape and the way the shawl collar looks. I normally don't wear the whole peplum/butt ruffle thing but I kind of love it on this cardigan.

However, this particular version, more or less straight off the pattern sheet, is not a great fit on me. Funnily enough, the thing I worried about (enough fabric at the bust) isn't an issue at all, even though a Medium is notionally far too small for me. Instead, the biggest problem is that the sleeves are quite narrow, so I don't have much room around my biceps. Since my ponte knit doesn't have a great deal of stretch it only just fits. A second fairly major problem is that the waist is too high -- at least 2cm above my actual waist. I'll fix these and also some smaller fit problems if I make the pattern again. I am not sure I need a second peplum version, but I like the idea of view A/B without a waist seam.

2. Woven tunic 1: New Look 6527 view A (mostly), in dotty black viscose

I made this top specifically to wear over the holiday period for dinner with family.

New Look 6527 views and technical drawings

I was actually, strangely, tempted to make view C or D, with the full bell sleeves, because the one other review of this pattern that is online used that sleeve and it looks great. Then I decided that the bell sleeve was too trendy and I wasn't going to wear it often enough before that went out of style. Also, I thought that I would probably only like the full sleeves right up until the moment I tried to fit the extra fabric down a cardigan sleeve or dipped the entire thing in gravy by mistake. So I went back to my original plan, which was view A, except without the front/back overlay because I didn't have enough fabric.

According to the New Look measurement chart, I am closest to a size 18 bust, size 16 hip. Based on recent experiences, I ended up cutting the neck and shoulder at size 14 and then the armscye, sleeve and rest of the bodice is an 18. I did some other typical adjustments as well for square shoulder and high round back. I wondered, when I first looked at the pattern, where that seam on the front bodice was supposed to fall. On me at least, it curves up well above the bust, and actually produces quite a nice shape. Not that you can see the seam, or any other detail, on a black top with a random dot print!

New Look 6527 in block dotty viscose. As you can see I used the hi-lo hem variant

Astonishingly, given that the size adjustment I made is more or less fudged rather than a classic FBA, this actually fits remarkably well. Most encouragingly, this is probably the best shoulder fit I've ever got from an envelope pattern. It's not quite perfect, and I might have been better off either cutting a 12 at the neckline or doing a small narrow shoulder adjustment as well. However this is a HUGE improvement on the inches of excess length falling down my bicep that I have ended up with in the past

As modelled by me

Other than that, I really REALLY love this pattern. The shape through the waist and hip is the perfect amount of flare for me, and this drapey, floaty viscose moves beautifully. I can definitely see myself making this pattern again. The only problem is finding a fabric that has a nice "wrong side" as it is very visible with the hi-lo hem at the back. The wrong side of this particular fabric is only very slightly different from the right side (don't ask me about the time I spent unpicking the front bodice....) so it was a very good choice for the top.

Details: terrible cuffs, but decent work on the neckline

The only negatives are problems with the sleeves, and they were all entirely created by me. First, I accidentally cut the sleeve pattern to a size 14 (like the neckline) instead of an 18. When I adjusted the sleeve so that it would actually fit my arm, I didn't do it the way I normally do, and as a result I lost the shape of the sleeve in the pattern (which is rather nice) and ended up with something much more rectangular and also, weirdly, a bit shorter than the original sleeve.

Then, when I was actually working on the sewing, I kept pushing to finish this top even though I was tired and starting to make mistakes. As a result, the cuffs are just awful. Awful, awful, awful. The gathering into the cuffs didn't stay even while I was sewing it, the actual cuffs themselves aren't at all well finished or well shaped, and overall they look crappy and hand-made in the bad way. Unfortunately, by the time all the little problems had started to mount up into a big mess, it was too late to fix anything because I'd trimmed off the seam allowances and understitched a lot of construction seams. Trying to make it better would probably have made it worse, once all the unpicking was done, and I didn't have enough fabric to recut even the cuffs let alone the sleeves.  So frustrating, because I actually do know better and there was absolutely no need to rush to finish!

I wore it as seen in the photos for a day, but the sleeves/cuffs are annoying -- the bad sewing doesn't bother me too much in wear but the shortened length of the sleeve is very irritating. I might cut them off to the short sleeve length as per view B in order to make the top less annoying to wear.

Nope! I could get this pattern on the fabric, but I couldn't match the print

My last plan was a always more of a maybe. I did try to make another woven top, using a vintage Vogue pattern. I did all my pattern alterations and everything, but in the end I was stymied by the fabric I'd picked for it. I could just about squeeze the pattern on the fabric but I couldn't match the print no matter how much pattern tetris I played. The most important was obviously the centre front seam match, which needed to match both horizontally and vertically, but if I got that to work then either the side seam or the sleeve/bodice match was going to be miles out. I think I may have to come back to this pattern with a plain or more randomly patterned fabric.

We're not quite at the end of December, but I think that I'm more or less done for this year. I'm going to use any remaining sewing time left over these last few days of 2017 to make a gift for a January birthday and also trace a pattern and make a muslin of the coat I'll be sewing early in the New Year. :D

Some progress, at least

October has been, on the whole, very dull. The weather has been mostly grey and wet, I have recovered disappointingly slowly from last month's major health setback, and in general very little worthy of note occurred. I didn't sew at all the first two weeks of the month as I really didn't feel well enough to do anything that wasn't lurk miserably under a blanket most of the day. However, the second half of the month was MUCH better and I was much more able to do things.

I decided that in order to get back into a sewing routine I would pick out all the least taxing projects from my autumn/winter queue, in terms of physical and mental effort required. While this approach was very successful from getting-back-into-sewing point of view, I have to admit that it makes for very dull blogging. Honestly, most of my 2017 sewing output so far has been deathly boring even to me -- I'm hoping the end of the year improves a bit!

Top row: StyleArc Estelle cardigan in green ponte, Butterick 5704 PJs in checked shirting. Bottom row: Burda 01-2017-124 PJs (simplified) in hideous red fabric and my t-shirt sloper in green.

Briefly, then: the four things I made this month were:

1. Another StyleArc Estelle cardigan, in dark green;
2. A green three-quarter sleeve t-shirt using my basic t-shirt sloper;
3. A pair of my TNT long PJ trousers, Butterick 5704, in a blue checked shirting fabric,
4. A simplified version of the wide-legged PJ trousers I made at the start of the year (Burda 01-2017-124), without the piping or separate cuff pieces. I described these on Instagram as hideously ugly and seriously UGLY! Yet, I love this pattern and the fabric is silky and delightful to wear, so I don't really even care that the colour is a revolting tomato-y red, weirdly tie-dyed and overall fug. :D

I think I am going to retire the StyleArc Estelle pattern for now as I've made it six times. I've loved the ones I've made and they've all been in constant rotation. One of them, in plain black, I wore out in under a year and it has already gone in the recycling. Two of the others are likely to follow shortly as the fabric is starting to look shabby. As much as I like my remaining Estelles and the pattern in general, though, I think I'd like to make a different pattern now.

The only other thing I have to say about making these four things is that I briefly came to loathe my recently purchased overlocker while sewing the knits. I was having SO MANY problems with it. It kept missing stitches and the thread kept breaking, so I was having to rethread the loopers every few minutes. You know how it is when you're ill and tired and not at your best overall; little annoyances seem a thousand times more dramatic and difficult than they really are. Well, I was so much in that state of mind that I was literally crying over the stupid overlocker because it just wouldn't WORK. I felt like I had tried EVERYTHING -- different thread, different tension settings, completely rethreading the machine a million times, checking all the settings, etc etc etc. Then, paging through the instruction manual "Troubleshooting" section, I realized I hadn't tried one of the most obvious things of all: changing the needles. Two minutes of effort to do that, and hey presto, everything worked perfectly again. I felt like such an idiot! /o\ The only positive is that I got a LOT of threading practice and could now probably thread that machine in my sleep!

Overlocker-related dramatics aside, now that I am back on track a bit I have been making plans for November. First up, I want to make some more knit tunics to go with leggings for lounging around the house. I've got four new-to-me patterns all picked out and ready to start tracing, fabric and notions lined up and ready, and I'm keen to get on with those garments. I also picked up both my cross-stiching and knitting. And, over the course of several of the recent lurking-feebly-on-my-sofa days, I did a little more fine-tuning of my wardrobe plans and spreadsheets, which I will probably write about a bit more soon. One of these days I might even post my years-in-draft post about my colour choices!

The perils of an ill-timed sneeze and other stories

A few things to share from this month so far:

First, a Wishlist Challenge entry! Back in April 2013, I made a top with a printed viscose fabric that I loved. It was a simple New Look woven tee pattern with a dolman sleeve and a scooped neckline. I decided to french seam it but, as this was right back near the start of my garment sewing adventures, did so sufficiently ineptly that sections of the seams shredded after about the third wash.

The original top that I made in 2013

This would not have been a total disaster, except past!me decided that the thing to do would be to disassemble the top by violently unpicking the side seams so that they ended up badly shredded but then cutting through the bias binding at the neckline, etc. rather than unpicking it. Er. What? Why?! At any rate, I squirreled the remnants away in the hope that I would find a way to make use of it at some point in the future, and put "find a way to use that pink floral viscose!" on my Wishlist.

Plan A: something like this Burda pattern (06-2017-123A)

I was inspired to get on with this item on the list by one of the Plus patterns in the 06/2017 issue of Burda. I couldn't actually cut the pattern out of the fabric that I had, but I decided I could definitely make something similar with the pieces I had plus some plain ivory viscose. This had the advantage also of allowing me to cut off the raggedy remains of the previous seams. So, that was Plan A, with a mental note to possibly come back to this pattern and make it up properly in the future.

Alas, Plan A was not successful, for the most ridiculous of reasons. I was nearly finished, and it actually looked great, but then disaster struck. As I was overlocking a shoulder seam, I suddenly sneezed violently and I guess in the process pressed hard on the foot pedal of my overlocker. The whole overlocking situation suddenly got out of hand and I ended up cutting a MASSIVE hole in the fabric near the shoulder. Let this be a lesson to all of us: if about to sneeze, remove your foot from the foot pedal!

Plan B: Burda 05-2015-124

After sneezing some more and then nearly committing violence because after all that work I couldn't believe I'd done something so comically stupid (because no, seriously, who creates wadders by SNEEZING?) I moved fairly swiftly on to Plan B. Plan B involved a pattern I'd previously earmarked as a possibility for this project, Burda 05-2015-124. This is a regular sized pattern, and I made my usual size 44.

This is one of those patterns that it would be really easily to just completely ignore in Burda. The styling of the modelled version is really not to my taste, and the line drawing kind of looks like nothing -- a box with sleeves. But, as is often the case with Burda, it has some great little details. The seamline at the bust creates a nicely shaped dart. The hemline shape is also really pretty. In a drapey viscose fabric, it doesn't look nearly as boxy on as the line drawing.

Burda 05-2015-124 made with remnants of the pink top + contrast ivory

Sorry the photo is so dark! As you can probably JUST ABOUT see, I had to retain the stripe in the lower body section down the side seam from the Plan A version of this top, which is not part of this pattern. I don't think it's too intrusive, but I really had no choice. I also managed to squeeze out enough bias tape to do a contrast binding at the neckline. The only thing I don't really like about the finished top is the neckline. I just omitted the keyhole neckline because I dislike them, but I thought the width of the neckline would fit easily over my head anyway. However, I forgot that I find Burda necklines are often too wide and/or too low, and this neckline is just a LITTLE too wide. If I cut this again, I will have to alter that.

Despite sneezing fits, this was eventually a success, and I am really pleased to have this fabric somehow back in my wardrobe!

Burda 06-2017-126 (images from Burdastyle)

Next, I was idly flipping through my copy of Burda 06/2017 I'd left out from when I was formulating Plan A, and decided to move right on to a Magazine Challenge and make up 06-2017-126. I know, it's yet another wacky top from Burda, but look how adorable the model looks in her top! And I rather like the weird little back drape! 

My sad attempt at Burda 06-2017-126

 However, did mine turn out that cute? No. No it did not. I had every possible problem with it. The fabric fought me every step of the way and point blank refused to go through my overlocker (why, I don't know, I tried for a solid HOUR to get it to work, but the thread snapped after 2-3 stitches no matter what settings I tried). I moved to my regular sewing machine and a stretch stitch, which was better, but then I discovered, 75% of the way through construction, that I had attached the upper and lower back pieces incorrectly, and much unpicking, recutting and redoing followed. Then I screwed up the neckband had to unpick it. I was just thinking about how to rescue the neckband when little seeds of doubt about that back drape feature and the knit fabric I had used made me decide to try the top on, neckband problems and all and... no. A WORLD OF NO, in fact. It didn't drape nicely as in the image, it just sort of sat there and looked like a misplaced lump of fabric in my centre back. Ugh. Sad to say, this went straight in the recycling bin.

To be fair to Burda, most of these were problems of my own making, but if you happened to want to make this top, I STRONGLY recommend a VERY slinky, drapey knit. Mine seemed drapey enough when I picked it out for this pattern, but it really wasn't. Also, this is again what I would call a typical Burda neckline, which is to say: very deep and very wide. If I had finished it, I would have had to wear something under it.

Summer PJs

In desperate need of a unicorn chaser, the next time I went into my sewing room I decided to make something VERY EASY. Thus: summer PJs. The bottoms are my TNT Ottobre sleep shorts (Ottobre 05-2011-02), and the top is a men's tee pattern, Knipmode 07-2017-22. I like my sleep tees large and baggy, and women's patterns are always too fitted for me to be comfortable in to sleep. I tried a simple pattern off the internet previously without much success, but since I had this Knipmode pattern available I decided to use it. I really like it and will use it again, although I need to bring the neckline in a little (again!) It's a very dull entry in my Magazine Challenge for this month, but hey, it's a pattern from this year's magazines! Good enough for me!


The last piece of July's news is that, after a couple of little windfalls, I decided to go mad and replace my overlocker. My old one was second-hand from eBay. I bought it in 2012 for £50, and I've used it a LOT, so it didn't really owe me anything. Recently, I've been getting a bit frustrated with it for various reasons. I was idly looking to see what there was in my price range on my preferred vendor site for sewing machines, spotted a discounted ex-display model and, well, you can guess the rest of the story!

New overlocker!! And my first project with it, a StyleArc Estelle cardigan in a reversible black/grey knit

Once I learned how to thread the machine and practiced a bit to get a feel for it, I wanted to actually make something. I have next to nothing left in my summer sewing queue and no knits at all, so I dragged this unseasonal project forward from my autumn sewing queue: yet another StyleArc Estelle cardigan, this time in a two-sided knit, dark grey on one side and black on the other. Having made four of these previously, I could really focus on getting to know the overlocker while I sewed. It came out really well, and was definitely a good pattern to pick to practice with the new machine, because it has a bit of everything -- long straight seams, curves, a couple of little fiddly bits. I probably won't wear it until autumn, but it won't come to any harm hanging in my wardrobe for few weeks extra.

Overall, I am SO PLEASED that I upgraded my overlocker. The stitch quality is MUCH better, it's a LOT quieter and it's easier to use than my old machine. It isn't particularly easier or faster to thread, but there's nothing particularly complicated in the threading either. It's a little different than my old one, but not so much that it wasn't fairly obvious what I had to do. I did have a couple of false starts with the threading, but honestly, if you can thread a new-to-you overlocker right the first time then I am just going to start shouting WITCHCRAFT! WITCHCRAFT! at you anyway.

And.. that brings me up to date! :D This week I am working on bags, and cutting out a pattern for my August Wishlist item because I want to put some serious thought into pattern placement on my fabric. That wishlist entry and finishing up a jacket are all I have left in my summer queue, which is timely since I plan to start sewing for autumn in mid-August. More about all of that in due course!

Back in the saddle

Thank you to everyone who left comments on my last post. I usually try to respond to comments straight away but my success rate in doing so the last few months has not been good. If I don't get around to replying straight away it always seems weird to come back to responding to them a fortnight later. So, yes, sorry for not responding, but your thoughts are honestly much appreciated!

Leaving aside the state of the world (which is frankly awful) on a personal level my news is almost all good (again!). I suddenly started to feel better about a week after my last post and over the last 10 days have started to feel as well as I have all year. Things are definitely looking up! :D As a result of feeling so much better, I resurrected quite a few of my summer sewing plans and got stuck in.

As I often do, I eased myself back into sewing by working on some easy knits with familiar patterns, starting with two t-shirts:

Two easy tees. Pink is Cosy Little World Jasmin; Red and white is Ottobre 02-2013-02

I actually cut the pink tee out a month and a half ago on a rare good day but then never felt up to doing anything with it. The pattern is the Cosy Little World Jasmin Tee, which was a pattern I used for the first time last year and made three times. I still love the two blue tees I made with this pattern and wear them often (the third one I made using a cheap white knit and, even though I pre-washed the fabric, it shrank and distorted horribly the first time I washed the finished tee, boo).

The red and white tee is made using a pattern I was obsessed by in 2013/2014 but haven't made since January 2015, Ottobre 02-2013-02. It's a really nice little kimono sleeved top that is intended to catch and puddle at the hip. I added a little rolled over cuff to the sleeves.

Neither of these came out perfectly -- the pink has a little mistake in the neckband, and I managed to just catch the tiniest snippet of the fabric of the red and white one in my overlocker blade and had to do a little repair. I would have preferred if they had come out perfectly, of course, but I'm not going to worry about invisible-from-a-metre-away mistakes on inexpensive t-shirts.

StyleArc Estelle cardigan in a slightly weird hole-y knit

My last easy knit for the summer was made using a slightly weird olive green knit. I dithered about what pattern to use but to be honest it should have been a no-brainer. I absolutely love the StyleArc Estelle pattern, and have worn the three I've already made to death. This version probably doesn't have quite the same all season usefulness that the previous three versions have had, seeing as how it's full of holes, but I still think I'll get a lot of use from it this summer. The hole-y fabric was actually the cause of my only problem making this garment, insofar as it took a very long time and three complete re-threads of my overlocker to find the right tension settings at which it would actually, you know, sew the damn thing together and not snap the threads/stop stitching/snarl up. I got there in the end, but not before I earnestly considered what would happen if I flung either the overlocker or the pieces of my cardigan out the window of my sewing room.

My new cross-stitch kit is underway

Next up: Garment-wise, the next thing I want to make is a couple of fairly straightforward woven tops. I need to spend some time tracing patterns though before I can get started with anything properly interesting (and I promised someone I would trace a pattern for them as well, so I must get on that ASAP). I've also started my new cross-stitch kit, the very first little bit of which you can see above. More generally, though, I am just sort of picking up the threads of the rest of my life that I let fall in March-May, so I feel busy busy busy all day at the moment after months of barely getting out of bed. Time passes so much more quickly when you have stuff to do, so I'm really enjoying it :D