Tag Archives: Simplicity

Cotton Lawn Robe

Since the weather is now getting cold, I’ve made a robe out of some beautiful light-weight cotton lawn from Sew Me Sunshine (she only has a remnant left of it alas). #sewingappropriategarmentsfortheweather

I used the Simplicity K1108 pattern which came free with Sew Magazine, which I only buy when there is a pattern I want to make. I can’t remember when it came out, but I knew I wanted to make it and I waited for the perfect fabric. I actually found this cotton lawn on a couple of websites last year when I was looking for fabric for the culottes I made for the New Craft House Summer Party (though I realise now it wouldn’t have worked) but it was sold out everywhere, so when I saw that Harriet had it in stock I bought it IMMEDIATELY!

I made the size medium and cut it at a length in between view D and C – they’re the versions without the more bat-wingy sleeves as they’re not so much my style.

Here is a close up of the gorgeous fabric! It fits perfectly into my colour palette.

The pattern is really simple to make – definitely a good make for a beginner. The only tricky bit was the bias binding around the whole neckline – and that was only tricky because I made my own bias binding using this brilliant tutorial from Helen from Stitch My Style and didn’t do the most accurate of measuring, so my binding was a bit too narrow in places so it was impossible to enclose all of the raw edges in places. I cut a couple of wider bits from the leftovers and just put them over the top of the narrow bits, it’s a bit shoddy but it worked. Sometimes you just have to bodge it!

I did manage to wear this once before the weather got a bit chilly! And I was promised that September would be warm, but so far it’s not really warm enough to wear a thin robe as opposed to a proper cardigan. Boo.

I know that for various reasons some people really didn’t enjoy the heatwave/proper Summer we had in the UK this year, but I am lucky to live in a flat that is cool (because it’s old – the pay-off is that it is also freezing in the Winter) and I work in a place with air con so I am a bit sad that we’re heading back into Autumn and Winter again already.Also I barely got to wear my Birkenstocks! Although I like snuggling up when it’s cold, last year Winter seemed to go on forever and I get a bit sick of sitting at my sewing machine usually in 3 layers, with a hot water bottle and a blanket! Maybe I need to move to warmer climes…..

Anyway, season rant over.

Have you ever actually made a free pattern from a magazine? I think this is the first I’ve made and I deliberately don’t subscribe to any sewing magazines because I don’t want to increase my pattern stash exponentially with things I know I won’t make.

I made trousers!

23 Replies

These are my Simplicity 1696 trousers in navy twill, which I’ve been saying I would make since October!!!! I finally finished them! OMG! It turns out it’s almost as difficult to photograph navy blue as it is black!

I did have to make a few changes to the pattern to get it to this level of fit, which is still not perfect. Any tips on tweaks I can make will be gratefully received! I took about 4cm off each outside leg seam and 2cm from the inside leg seams. I also had to shave a little of fullness of the bum curve and angle in the waistband, but I didn’t note down by much, which is stupid because I’ll have to work it out again if I make these again!

I think the tweaking of the outside seams means that the pockets now stick out a little from the line of the trousers, but I’m not too bothered about it to be honest. The pockets are nice and deep, which I like! Also I wore these to work (exactly like this, with my melilot shirt) and no-one said anything, so clearly they weren’t thinking ‘wow, those trousers look weird.’

I think the fit is a little bit less good across the back. The pattern gives you room to tweak the fitting as you go, but I maybe will count these as a wearable toile and make some more adjustments if I make them again. There are some drag lines across the back of my thighs, so I’ll need to work out how to fix that!

This side view photo is possibly one of the least flattering photos I’ve taken of me wearing something I’ve made. My natural posture (if I’m not thinking about standing up straight) is with a pretty curved back and with my stomach sticking out (and with hunched shoulders too!), which is particularly unfortunately if I’m a bit bloated, as I was when I took these photos! I’m not pregnant, I promise!

I feel like these trousers may not be the most flattering shape on me – they do make my bottom half look quite heavy, but I don’t really mind as they are comfortable. I was conscious not to over-fit the waistband so they’d still be comfortable to sit down in.

Speaking of sitting down, here’s a close up of my arse! The fake welt pockets are definitely not my finest work, but hey ho. I’d almost rather have done real ones to be honest, or left them off as they were a kind of irritating fiddley step, but without the payoff of actual pockets!

And here’s a close-up of the front. I’m pretty happy with how the fly turned out as it did not look like this when I first sewed it, so there was some unpicking and some fiddling to get it looking okay. I also got a bit confused by the pockets, but luckily I had made the moss skirt for my sister, which has a similar pocket/fly arrangement, so I managed to figure it out. I think part of the problem is that it’s so long since I made a big 4 pattern, I was unfamiliar with their instructions – I’m too spoiled by the extra help and sewalongs that indie patterns give you. The button was just one from my stash.

I can’t think of much else to say about these trousers, except I MADE MOTHERF*CKING TROUSERS!!!! I’m pretty please with myself, if you can’t tell!

I’ll leave you with these outtakes from my photoshoot. The boyfriend suggested we take an action shot of me walking in the trousers and this is what happened……

This is me trying to think of other interesting ways to photography navy blue trousers, but it looks like I’m talking to our penguin (which doesn’t have a name, any suggestions?)

Then I gave up trying to think of photos so just posed with the penguin!

Have you tackled trousers yet? Have you been scared like me?

Save

January Makes and February Plans

December makes and January Plans

4 Replies

I know I already wrote a post about my plans for the year, but I thought it would have ended up even longer if I included my regular recap of what I made last month and plan of what to make this month, so here is another planning post in the same week!

My main aim for December was to make 4 skirts for my sister for Christmas, but I did manage to squeeze in a sneaky dress for myself!

This is the Jersey Dress by In The Folds with Peppermint Magazine. It’s free to download and has in seam pockets! I’ve worn it quite a few times so far, including to the Christmas Sew Brizzle meet up and on Christmas Day! It’s quite long on me but it’s like a secret blanket!

I managed to finish 3 of the 4 skirts for my sister – I stupidly thought they would be really quick, which was true to a certain extent, except I made stupid mistakes with the Mabel skirt which put my timings back a bit. I finished a red corduroy Delphine, a navy blue drill Delphine and a grey quilted fabric Mabel. I’ll post in more detail about them later this month hopefully.

I’m pretty pleased with the pattern matching of the quilted lines on the Mabel, if I do say so myself! And Phoebe liked the skirts and they fitted pretty well and were the right length, which is cool. She’s not sure about the colour of the navy drill one as she ordered the fabric online and it is quite a pale shade of navy, but hopefully when the weather gets warmer she’ll have other things to wear it with so it will grow on her. And if not, it’s not the end of the world 🙂

So my first make for January has to be the skirt I didn’t make in time for Christmas – a denim Moss Skirt. I’ve got the pattern assembled, traced and altered – she wants the long length but without the hem band, so I’ve lengthened the mini version pattern pieces. I have a zip and thread too, so I’m all ready to go!

There was quite a bit of fabric left from each of the skirts I made, so I also might see if I can make a Moss Skirt out of what I’ve got left from the red corduroy. Selfishly I might use the rest of the grey quilted fabric (probably for a matching Mabel!) and the navy drill, but I don’t wear red so I figure if I can make something else for Phoebe, then it doesn’t go to waste.

As I mentioned in my 2017 planning post, I’ve signed up for #ProjectSewMyStyle and I’m going to try to make the pattern for January which is the Sew House Seven Toaster Sweater 2. This might get bumped to February as I don’t have any fabric I’d like to use for it currently in my stash. And there was talk of a Sew Brizzle trip to Birmingham to go fabric shopping at the end of the month, so I’ll look for something then hopefully. I’m also in Aberdeen for a second Christmas with my uni friends so I might see if we can take a detour to a sewing shop at some point, then this might get made this month. I could do with some warmer clothes to be honest, as our flat is rather cold!

I don’t know how many more times I can add this make to my plans……

It’s getting embarrassing now! I now pledge to have the pattern and fabric cut out by the end of the month, then hopefully I can make them in February. I’m hoping once I’ve popped by trouser cherry, then my jean-making plans for the year won’t feel quite so scary!

Given that I’m away this weekend I doubt I’ll get all of this done this month, but I’ll do my best!

Save

My sewing plans for October

10 Replies

I’m going to try to get back to blogging regularly – and sewing again after everything that has happened in my family in the last month/ 6 weeks. I actually got my sewing machine out for the first time in 2 months last weekend! If you follow me on Instagram then you may have seen this photo:

I didn’t actually do any sewing that day but it was nice to set up my new little space. I’ll do a full tour of my sewing space – I have dedicated storage for the first time ever, which is pretty exciting if I’m honest! Our flat is definitely coming together and we’re on the final push to get things sorted so I might share a full tour if anyone would find that interesting? I have a couple of home-related sewing projects planned, so they will no doubt make it to the blog at some point 🙂

Since I’ve moved house twice in the last 6 months I have become aware of just how many clothes I have. I had clear outs on 2 separate occasions before we left London – I sometimes need some time to come to terms with getting rid of things. Anyone else? Just me? Anyway, the crux of the matter is I have a crazy amount of clothes, but probably like most women, I wear a fairly small proportion of them – though this percentage has undoubtedly gone up. With this in mind I thought it would be a good idea to be more mindful about what I make and the fabric I buy. I made quite a few things during the couple of months before I found a full time job so I have used quite a bit of my stash, which is good, and I want to try to buy as good quality fabric as I can afford and for specific projects if possible from now on.

I pretty much think I’m all set for patterns at the moment too – which is hard because new, great patterns are released all the time by all the amazing indie designers out there at the moment – and I want to support them by buying their stuff. But until I’ve worked through some of my plans for both work-wear and casual-wear, I’m going to try to use patterns I already have. I’m sure I’m not alone in having quite a few I’ve not made yet. Please say I’m not alone! I think in the past I tended to buy patterns when I didn’t have time to sew, so my collection is definitely quite big.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I want to try to be more careful in planning what I’m making to add to my wardrobe. I’m going to do a monthly post about my plans – and reviewing the success (or not) of that planning for the previous month – to try to keep myself accountable to……myself.

So onto my October plans…….

The first thing I want to finish is a Deer and Doe Melilot Shirt I cut out and started before we moved out of The Boyfriend’s parents’ house. The fabric is something really slippery and probably really synthetic, but I think it will look nice as a Melilot.

Here’s a close-up of the fabric (in an obviously carefully arrange pile!):

The Melilot is (kinda obviously) a work garment, and I could also do with some more smart trousers – I haven’t worked anywhere where I couldn’t wear jeans and trainers for ages so my office-wear wardrobe is a little lacking. So I want to have a got at my very first pair of trousers! Exciting and scary in equal measure! I bought this Simplicity pattern (1696) with a voucher I had, after doing some searching for cigarette-type trousers. The fabric is some navy blue suiting I got at the fabric swap at the Sew Brizzle meet-up I went to a couple of months ago. I’m going to try not to over-fit them as I don’t want them to end up looking like skinny jeans. Watch this space!

Another part of my new planning mindset is to manage my expectations of how quickly I can sew and finish things. So my 3rd and (probably) last make for October will be a Tilly and the Buttons Delphine skirt (from her book, Love At First Stitch). The fabric is another one I picked up as Sew Brizzle – you can’t really tell in the photo but the lighter flecks are silver so it looks really nice in real life. I think this could be a good skirt for Winter as the fabric is relatively thick and could be good with thick tights and boots!

My optional 4th project for October is to join in with Rosie Martin‘s #SewDots initiative. If you haven’t come across this yet, it’s a month where you sew something with dotty fabric to raise money for the RNIB because of how important Braille is to the blind and visually impaired community. I have 2 lengths of spotty fabric already but they’re both quite thin so I’m not sure how suitable they are for Autumn/ Winter sewing!

The pink on the left is woven and the grey on the left is jersey. They’re both quite drapey. I was thinking of a Colette Aster for the pink or a GBSB drapey knit dress or slouchy cardigan/ kimono for the grey. To be perfectly honest I’m not sure I’ll get time to make something for #SewDots, but I’ll still donate to the fundraising page Rosie has set up.