Category Archives: adults

A little delay and so not right for the season

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I still owe you pictures of my coat Zsazsa by susalabim. I made it back in May I think when it was really not the weather for a coat. And it is still not. Never mind. I do not own anything to wear it with anyway. But it looks amazing on my dress form.

Susalabim is a fantastic designer for lillestoff. Obviously I had already bought at least one of her fabrics without knowing it and it is actually through the pattern for this coat that I discovered not only Susalabim as a designer but also lillestoff as supplier for organic fabrics.

The coat can be made out of one fabric but Susalabim uses it to show off her designs as a patchwork coat – ideal to use up left overs. So ideal for me one would think. Except that I was really intrigued by the fabrics she had used in her video – jaquard, something I haven’t used so far. So I actually had to order small portions of different fabrics to fake a pile of left over jaquards. They were all so beautiful. I spent ages in arranging them and sending pictures to my dear colour and style expert back in London. Apart from her totally wrong and unjustified advice that orange elephants would be too childish she helped me a lot. As usual.  But enough talking.

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Initially I had in mind to only use a 2 or 3 fabrics for the sleeves and to have larger blocks. But as those fabrics were so nice, I didn’t want to waste any of it and used the small bits too. But I underestimated how much they would shrink in the washing. So actually I couldn’t cut the sleeves properly and had to do real patchwork in two places:

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I love having the seams on the outside. It is so venturous and makes it cool and trend-setting.

However my banned from chocolate for life and boring 7 year old finds it wrong and embarrassing.

So what do you think? Are you boring or setting venturous trends? 🙂

I’ll take this coat to RUMS for now and wait for more appropriate weather to be a cool trend-setter.

 

 

Cosy Clown Coat

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Remember, last post was about family members who are pleased with my creative work. But this is not always the case. In fact, just the same day, my husband looked at my work in progress, a cosy hoodie jacket,  and said: “You always have to do things three times because you are doing them before thinking.”  Obviously this is totally unjustified, fake news,  and just because at some point during the creative process the jacket  had looked like this:

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Honestly, just a minor mistake, and nothing that a pair of scissors and an additional seam couldn’t solve. And anyway, I only had to do it twice, not three times.

I am glad that he hadn’t seen that I had accidentally cut the hood halves not as pair (like gloves) but twice the same.

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I bet he would have interpreted this as yet another proof of his strange theory.

But back to the purpose of this post, said jacket.

I have bought the Janice pattern by pattydoo ages ago, clearly hoodies are a staple garment and every woman should have one or two.

Let me give you just a piece of advice here, from a fashionista and colour expert: When it comes to staple clothes, one should have them in neutral colours, I would suggest monochrome,  no pattern as one want to be able to combine them with all of these other crazy things in my  one’s wardrobe. So the fabric you have already seen, is clearly just perfect for it. Luckily I bought lots of it as I meant to make another Carol dress  out of it but continuous breastfeeding seems to make dresses a bit pointless these days.

But enough talking, let’s have a look at the result:

 

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a little bit of contrasting hood lining peeking out, just to add a splash of colour

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I am rather pleased with the result and know it will get worn a lot. Luckily we still get chilly mornings. Annoyingly during day time it is already rather warm and sunny around here.

I think it is a bit too long though. The pattern is designed for the use of normal shop bought zips so the lengths of the different sizes go in 5cm steps. If I wanted to use a normal zip, I would have to shorten it 5cm otherwise I have to adjust the zip. Which I have done before for the children’s jackets but it is always a bit messy.

So when I make the next one, I will have to see, how long I really want or need it. Obviously with those low-cut trousers these days, it is also nice to have a long jacket to get my middle-aged and always freezing back and bottom well covered up.

If you are by now thinking that I seem to have too much sewing time lately, you might be right. I do get a lot done and I am making a lot for myself.

I am trying to get ready for Me Made May and I will see what challenge I will set for myself this year.

In the meantime, I will jump over to RUMS and see if other ladies are getting ready too.

Terrific top trilogy

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Since my last post about tops and T-shirts, I have managed to make a few more. I haven’t managed to adapt the pattern the way I wanted though. I meant to change the raglan line but failed. Very confidently I did cut the good fabric though. Then I had a little crisis. Then I tried to at least safe it and could actually still use the pieces and cut again following the original pieces even though it meant that I had to shorten the front and back.

Once finished, I found the sleeves too short and added cuffs.

My daughter thinks, I look like a child. How silly. I think it looks like a perfectly mature woman in her pyjamas. And what is wrong with that?

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As you can see with these contrasting fabrics, the raglan line is not ideal. It would be much better a bit more sleeve and less body.

Anyway, I also made two more short sleeved ones. Here one out of a lovely fabric that is apparently unsuitable for grown ups, too. She’s just jealous I guess.

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And since this pattern is supposed to be my new staple T-shirt, I made a first monochrome, too. Well almost monochrome. I tried really hard. Honestly.

I have used a viscose jersey for this one which feels nice and thin so far.

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The slightly messed up neck line reminded me that I meant to make one with a little gathered bit in the centre of the neckline. I think this would fall nicely. Next time. But for now, I need to work on other things. Just saying sliiiiiiiightly delayed birthday present.  So watch this space while I go over to RUMS to watch other ladies’ projects.

Spring: Time for new life in my wardrobe

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I promised I will be back soon, so “Hello everybody”

Lately, I keep wearing the same 5 tops over and over again, they all have an elasticated hem. I just find this style comfortable but also hiding my wobbly tummy without making me look pregnant when I am actually not flattering.

All of those shirts have now holes and it has become rather embarrassing to still wear them so it was time to get new ones. Only problem is that this particular style does not seem to be in fashion anymore as I really couldn’t find them anywhere. During those 10 min of online research.

So I decided to make my own pattern using one of these almost fallen apart T-shirts and dismantled it by carefully cutting along the seams.

Next, I folded the back and front piece in half in order to copy them. But look:

Note how I cleverly placed a news paper and some lego in the picture to illustrate how I do this creative stuff in between some smart reading and some mum’s work.

Those parts are nowhere near symmetric! I could as well just freestyle a pattern without using any measurements!

I was a little bit annoyed and decided to make a Usedom by Schnittreif first.

I have made two in the past here and here, both with cuffs, this time I made a more summery version with 3/4 length sleeves. I have used a fabric which I have bought years ago thinking it would be a beautiful wrap style dress. I have finally given up on that idea and found the perfect use for it.

Rather satisfied by the result I went back to my challenge to make a pattern for a normal everyday elasticated hem T-Shirt.

In the end I chose the Amy pattern by pattydoo as a starting point and adapted it slightly for my purpose. It is a pattern for a loose  and long Raglan shirt for stretchy but slightly heavier material like sweat or heavier jersey.

My first trial was too big for the thin material I intended to use so I went down a size, still using a fabric that I had once bought cheaply at the beginning of my jersey adventure. I am not keen on the pattern anymore, maybe for a dress but it is not ideal for a top.

I kept the top of the initial pattern to make sure I would have matching armhole and sleeve but I made short sleeves, initially just with a turned hem but then I put an elastic in as well. I also shortened the top and added the elastic. I am pretty pleased with the result, although I do not like the pattern of the fabric anymore. Plus, I do not really like the neck line finishing. I think it is a bit too wide and maybe it would look better with a bias binding type of edge.

At this point, I had still two nice fabrics left to be used for shirts, although both slightly heavier jerseys than the one you have just seen. I was tempted to make contrasting sleeves as I always do for the kids but I do think it might look odd with this particular style. I had slight doubts if I should use heavier fabric for this size and style but gave it a go.

I think the neckline looks much better but as you can see, the heavier fabric doesn’t fall that nicely so it is not great with the elasticated hem. I should have tried a size bigger maybe. And I have noticed that even with the raglan sleeves, I still have the narrow shoulder problem. The seam between front and sleeve should be more inwards to be more balanced. It doesn’t matter with a patterned fabric. I guess you didn’t even notice but look here again:

See? The seam is too near the shoulders, the front should be narrower and it would certainly make a difference with different fabrics for sleeves and body.

In any case I am saving the last fabric for a normal Amy, maybe with long sleeves in contrasting colour 🙂 and definitely by adjusting the sleeve – front/back line.

So, now that I have three holefree shirts for my wardrobe it is time to really throw away anything unsuitable. And maybe make another two or three, maybe in slightly more neutral colours. Oh well, who am I kidding, maybe something in plain colours.

Off to RUMS for now to share with other busy bees what I have been up to.