Swaying around the world

Hello hello! Long time, no see! (Again. Whoops!)

You know what? I think this is officially the longest I’ve ever been without posting here in the past few years. Yep. So there’s a fair bit to catch up on…! 😉

But first up – let’s talk sewing.

And a bit of travelling.

So anyway, I made another dress! (Surprise!)

This time it’s the Sway dress by Papercut Patterns.

Papercut Patterns – Sway dress

Now I liked this dress from the moment I saw it when it was released. But at the same time, it’s not my usual style. (I am a ‘fit and flare’ kinda girl, after all. Hah.) I originally got it because I was still nursing my youngest one, and thought that the tent style and centre front seam would work really well (easy to wear with post-pregnancy body changes, plus easy to add a centre front invisible zip for ‘easy access’ when required by a little one).

But then of course, I didn’t get around to making it before the littlest one decided to stop nursing. And it seemed like it would be yet another sewing plan consigned to the ‘things that could have been made’ pile. 😦

Clearly though, the pattern escaped that fate! Thanks to getting my hands on some lovely drapey viscose with a big floral print. I fell for the fabric, then had to figure out what to make with it. Something with drape… Something that didn’t require too much fabric so I could fit it on what I had… Something that didn’t have too much detailing because of the size of the floral print…. Eureka! The Sway dress!

Plus, it seemed a perfect style for travelling. 😉

(And it was. This dress got it’s first wear in Hong Kong. And then on a long distance flight to Zurich, a shorter flight to Heathrow, a trip to Goldhawk Road in London (!!), a day in Singapore, a flight from Budapest to Frankfurt and on to Singapore, and also a day wandering around Cegled in Hungary. Which is where these photos were taken, courtesy of my extremely wonderful friend Agi. 🙂

Agi and I have a long history. We met when we were 18 – I lived with her family for a year as an exchange student, and they became my “second family”. I try to go back to Hungary every few years to visit them – and since I really wanted to introduce my youngest child to them before he got very old, this year the trip was made! (But more about that in another post.)

Anyway, one of the days I was staying with Agi, we went to Cegled, the nearby town, for a wander around. Perfect excuse for blog photos, no? 😉 These were mainly taken in the park at the town centre.

But let’s talk about the dress for now, shall we?

The Sway dress is a lovely pattern. Simple but with a great cut – very 70’s in style with it’s A-line tent dress style. There’s a centre front seam and a centre back seam, and inseam pockets. It comes in two lengths – short (the length I made) and shorter (the length I shall never make). (And yes, I know it’s meant to be longer than this but hey, I’m tall. This is how short above-knee-length styles end up on me.)

The neckline is a deep, wide vee on one side, and a scoop on the other – you can wear the dress either way ’round, so you can pick and choose which neckline you want at the front on any given day.

There are no fastenings – it’s a pull-on style, with a narrow tie belt that you can wear to cinch it in at the waist. (Top tip – this also makes it super comfy for wearing for long distance flights! I suspect this is going to be a go-to travel pattern for me.)

So far, sounds pretty simple, right? Well, then we get to the facings and that all changes! The necklines (both of them) are faced, as is the armholes. The facing is an all-in-one style, and the pattern gets you to use the ‘burrito’ method to attach it. (I.e. roll it up really tightly to stitch one side, then roll tightly the other way to stitch the other side.) The result being a lovely, clean finish around both necklines and armholes. Beautiful!

And because I could, I finished off all the inside edges with Hug Snug seam binding. (Although I must admit wishing I hadn’t gone for such a contrast colour, as it shows through the yellow a bit around the edge of the facing. Whoops!)

As for changes I’d make next time? Only a couple of things, really. I prefer the vee neckline at the front, but it stretched out pretty quick (or else it was always pretty low) on this dress, so next time I’d stabilise it before stitching it, and possibly raise it up a little bit. (Main issue – when I lean forward you can see right down the dress. Oops!) I’d also topstitch the facing down around both necklines – the pattern calls for understitching, but with the width of the neckline and this pattern working best in a drapy fabric, I found it wasn’t quite enough to stop the facing from rolling to the outside. Oh, and the other change I’d make? Add some length. Hah!

Despite this not being my usual style, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I love wearing this dress! It’s perfect for warm weather, and for travelling. (Plus, it makes a great hiding spot for toddlers.)

And now, let’s finish off with some scenic shots. Just because we can. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day when we were out taking photos – warm in the sun, a little cooler in the shade, and the leaves not quite starting to change colour. (Back in mid-September, by the way. Like I said – I’ve got a bit to catch up on!)

The youngest child loved it there in the small park – he spent lots of time running off (necessitating us running after him as he ducked around hedges and snuck under trees and deliberately put small stones in his mouth while laughing at us).

Typically, he also found one hole in the lawn and stood in it for a while. Because – child.

After the park we went wandering a little bit to find a gift store, and a supermarket so I could buy some Hungarian chocolate to take home and some amazing cake for us all to eat after dinner. (Yum!) Youngest one being a child, he decided part-way down a side street that he didn’t want to be carried. Nor did he want to walk. Stand-off ensued. *sigh*

Agi pointed out this building tucked behind some of the others – it was the old fire station tower. Made of wood, and tall so they could keep watch for fires.

Rounded off the trip into town with a lavender lemonade gelato. Which was as amazing as it sounds. Yum!! Wish we had that type of ice cream here…. ❤

The Hummingbirds and Clover dress

Now here’s a pattern I’ve been meaning to make ever since it was released – the Clover dress by Papercut!

With its loose fit and pull-over style (you wear it cinched in with a belt) it seemed like a perfect dress to make for those months after pregnancy, while one’s body is still going back to it’s “usual” size. Plus, a centre front seam makes it ideal for wearing while nursing – simply add one invisible zip and you’re good to go!

When I joined the Minerva Crafts Bloggers Network (yay!) and got to choose my first three projects (double yay! and a super fun way to lose a few hours), it seemed like a good time to make up the Clover dress.

I found this gorgeous feathers print rayon, and once I’d decided between the red and the pink colourways, spent some time debating what to use for the contrast v-inset on the bodice. Since the base of the feathers rayon is black, and it’s quite a busy print, I thought I’d match it with a black lace with a larger scale design. And I found this one – a crochet look rayon lace. Perfect!

(Speaking of the print of the rayon, check this out – teeny tiny Hummingbirds, hovering amoungst the feathers! So cute!! And also so hard to spot – can you see them? I didn’t spot them until a friend pointed them out, thanks Mel!)

Crazy though it may sound, even though I’ve been sewing “properly” for over 17 years (I’m not counting those making-scrunchies-as-a-child or home-ec-classes-at-school years), I’ve never sewn with rayon. Most of my sewing is cotton or wool, or knits that ideally have a large portion of one or the other of those fibres. Time to branch out, don’t you think?!

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed working with rayon. It’s lovely and soft to handle, doesn’t shift around too much (or this one didn’t, anyway – I’ve heard some rayons do?), and presses like a dream. I’m now a rayon convert!

The Clover pattern was nice and fun to sew, and the contrast inset gives lots of opportunity for fun ways to use scraps or pretty bits of fabric. The only thing I’d watch for is what you use for the contrast inset – it sits on the upper curve of my bust, so I’m going to have to be careful about what bra I wear with it as the top half an inch or so shows through the lace.

I did, of course, make a couple of changes to it though. (Because that’s how I roll, oh yeah.) First up, the length. I’m tall, the pattern is short. So I added 12cm to get it hitting just above my knees. Higher than my usual hem length, but I discovered that with the raglan sleeves and the higher scoop neckline it starts to look a bit frumpy when hitting below the knee (I originally added 20cm in length). So, above the knee it is for this pattern on me!

I also added pockets, because, well, pockets. They may look pretty low, but they’re the perfect height for me to still be able to get my hands into when carrying the Smallest Guy around in the front pack. For the pockets, I just drew a basic pocket shape around my hand (to make sure it was big enough!) and sewed them into the side seams. Easy!

And that aforementioned nursing-friendly pattern hack – the addition of an invisible zip in the centre front seam at the neckline. Along with a hook and eye to close the binding above it.

I applied some vintage iron-on hem binding to the seam first along where the zipper was going to go, to stabilise it on the drapy rayon, which worked really well.

(After wearing this dress around all day for yum cha and gelato with some of the Wellington Sewing Blogger girls, I can attest that both pockets and zip do their jobs nicely. Also, rayon is fun to wear! It feels flippy and floaty and feminine and fun. Yeah!)

Now, this actually took me blinkin’ ages to make. I decided that this would be the perfect time to try out a new-to-me technique, and also get in some hand-sewing practice. (Much as I hate hand sewing, I’m determined to get better/faster at it this year!) After reading about it on Lilacs and Lace, curiousity got the better of me and I bought some Hug Snug seam binding. And oh my gosh this stuff is awesome! I think this is the start of a long-term love affair with this seam finish. Check it out – bound seams!

If you haven’t used Hug Snug before, it’s great – made of rayon (I spot a theme with this garment…) it’s very lightweight so it doesn’t add bulk to your seams. It presses well, and is nice and smooth to wear. Plus, it comes in all sorts of fun colours. I may need to add some more to my collection so I can have pretty colourful insides on all my garments from now on….

The other great thing about it – it finished the edges of the lace insets really nicely. Since the lace has quite a large design, if I’d overlocked/serged it instead a lot of the thread would have had trouble catching onto anything in those gaps between the design. But the Hug Snug? A nice, neat finish.

The only seam I didn’t bind was the centre front seam. Since part of it goes over the front lace inset, I didn’t want the yellow of the Hug Snug showing through to the front, so I just did a basic overlocked/serged finish on that seam in black to make it less conspicuous.

I finished the hem of both sleeves and the skirt with the Hug Snug, then hand stitched them up. Luckily, it was Great British Sewing Bee day, so that kept me entertained for about half the length of the skirt. 😉 I’m glad I took the time to do the hand sewing though, as it’s more-or-less invisible from the front and it makes me happy to look at it. 🙂

And of course, the finishing touch:

Overall? Pattern – win. Using rayon for the first time – win. Pattern hacks – win. And bound seams – win. Yep, I think this one is gonna be getting a lot of wear!

A Rigel with snails (and a hidden rrrowwrr!)

Here’s a pattern I’ve been meaning to make since I first saw it – the Rigel bomber jacket from Papercut.

Of course, it’s not really jacket weather here at the moment, since we’re at the height of summer. But hey, the last project-for-myself that I shared with you here was a long-sleeved heavy wool cardigan, so I guess a bomber jacket is a step closer to more seasonally appropriate? (And hey, I made a swim suit in winter, so summer sewing does happen. Just not necessarily in summer. Hmmm.)

Anyways, back in November last year, there was a bit of a conversation happening on Instagram with Ginger around how a bunch of us have the Rigel pattern, really want to make it, and haven’t gotten around to it yet. Clearly, we needed a bit of encouragement. And so, Rigel Bomber Jacket January was born! A time to pull out those Rigel patterns that have been languishing in our stashes, and actually use them.

I’m pretty happy that this happened – because hey, now I have a bomber jacket with snails on it! Oh yeah!!

The fabric came from Tomato in the Tokyo fabric district – part of my fabric haul when we were there just over a year ago. It’s a cotton/linen blend lightweight canvas, similar to Echino canvas but with a slightly looser weave. Nice to work with – it holds pressing well, loves being sewn, and doesn’t fray too badly either. And, you know – snails! 😀

Since I plan on wearing this a lot during spring and autumn (I currently have another bomber jacket I wear during those months – when you need an extra layer, but a full winter coat is a bit too much, but the zip on one pocket is broken, and things fall out as a result, which annoys me lots so I’ve been wanting to replace it. Plus, being RTW, the sleeves are too short on me) I wanted this one to be a bit warmer than just one layer of lightweight canvas. So, I added a lining. And I underlined it with flanelette. And just for fun (inspired by Ginger’s post with her quilted lining) I quilted the lining and underlining together.

It took for-evah! And used one heck of a lot of thread. But I’m so glad I did this – it gives a nice texture inside, and adds a touch of luxury to the jacket. Plus it makes me smile when I look at it, which means the hours spent doing the quilting were well worth it. (Disclaimer: I actually have no idea how long it took to do the quilting. Like the jacket itself, all sewing was done in short bursts with a baby who usually only cat-naps during the day. One line of stitching here, another one two hours later, that kind of thing.)

Wanna see the flannelette I used as underlining? ‘Course you do! Check it out – happy pea-pods!

Yep, I have a jacket covered in snails, with hidden secret under-the-lining happy pea pods. Some days, it makes me crazy happy that I can sew my own clothes – where else would I find combinations like this?!?

Anyways. I originally wanted to find a chocolate brown ribbing, but couldn’t track any down anywhere – this teal blue was the best I could find. A happy accident, since I really like how it looks with the blue shells of the snails. The zip is a not-very-exciting-but-perfectly-functional chocolate brown zip. (Both ribbing and zip are from Spotlight. That place we all love to hate around these parts, but often also the only place to get some things. *sigh*)

I partially chose the fabric for this because it’s currently Jungle January. Woo hoo! I do love Jungle January – that crafty leopard of a host is hilarious and it’s so much fun to read the posts. 🙂 I figure that any self-respecting jungle has at least one species of snail in it, so snails are my ode to the jungle this January. (Hence why I’m standing around in random foliage – gotta blend in with the snails territory, after all.)

Snails are also clearly masters of disguise, as they do remarkably well as urban camoflage….

Speaking of Jungle January, there is a hidden rrrooawrrr! in this bomber, too. Check it out – secret stealth leopard print pocket linings! Woah yeah!!

Rawrrrr!!! I am a leopard in disguise, oh yes I am.

(Disclaimer: not really. Although I always thought being a black panther would be pretty awesome, they’re so pretty.)

Anyways, onto the pattern.

It’s a nice and easy pattern to make up – good instructions, raglan sleeves so no pesky setting in sleeves business, and crazy-easy welt pockets. Gotta love that!

Aside from drafting a lining (you can read how I did that over here), the only other change I made was to the sleeves. I’m tall, with crazy-long-gorilla-arms, so I added three inches to the sleeve length. (I kinda mis-measured to begin with and only added one inch, so I’m very glad I stitched up the lining first and tried it on to discover that mistake! Hence why there’s a band of snails around the wrists of the lining of the jacket – it’s a patch-up job, disguised as a “design feature”.) Even with that extra three inches, I feel these sleeves are only just long enough – next time, I’ll add four inches instead.

One change I will make next time – I’m not really happy with how the ribbing is sitting at the neckline. It’s a bit too loose and sticks out from my neck a bit. I tried folding it over on itself, which kinda looks a bit better at the front, but kinda doesn’t at the back….

Worn as normal:

Folded down:

Anyway, it may well be because the ribbing I used wasn’t the best (see previous comment about Spotlight – the place we love to hate) and potentially too lightweight for this, but either way I think that next time I make the Rigel I’ll make the neck ribbing a bit narrower so it doesn’t sit up as high.

I’m also going to widen the shoulders a bit, since I have broad shoulders. But that’s not an uncommon adjustment for me to have to make, either. Coz, you know – tall and stuff.

Aside from that, I’m totally loving my new jacket! Quilting the lining really did make me happy, and it’s encouraging me to take more time to add those sorts of little details to my creations this year to make them extra special (even if no one else sees the bits that make them special – it’s all about adding things that make me smile, after all!).

Just ‘coz I’m so happy with this, I finally got around to making up some labels as well, and stitched one in. (Thanks to The Curious Kiwi for the inspiration of sewing a label onto a scrap of fabric first – I love the way that looks and plan to copy her idea for all future sewing-in-of-labels.)

(Have you made up a Rigel bomber jacket this January? Why not add it to the Flickr pool? Ginger, Mel and I will be picking three people from there to each win a Papercut pattern of their choice at the start of February.)

Tutorial: how to line the Papercut Rigel bomber jacket

My current project (well, my just-completed-but-no-photos-yet project, really) is the Rigel bomber jacket by Papercut Patterns. I made one key change to the pattern while sewing it up – I added a lining. Which, from looking around the blog-o-sphere, is something that quite a few people have done, or want to do. So, in case it’s useful for anyone else, here’s how I lined my Rigel bomber jacket….

Rigel bomber from Papercut Patterns

Now, usually linings in jackets have more ease than the jacket itself – if you look at any tailored, lined RTW jacket you’ll usually see it has a small pleat at the centre back just below the neckline facing, and the lining is also longer at the hem and sleeve cuffs and bags out slightly. Since the Rigel bomber is a loose-fitting style (and since I wanted to do a quilted lining for my jacket) I haven’t added any of that extra ease – instead, the lining pieces I made were directly from the main jacket pieces. (It’s pretty easy to add the extra ease if you want it though – simply make your lining pieces longer, and add a small extension at the top of the centre back seam of the lining.) So with that in mind, let’s get started!

Cutting the lining

Three new pattern pieces need to be made for the lining – front, back and sleeves. Start by tracing the original front, back, and sleeve pieces. (Note: use variation 1 sleeve as a base for the lining, no matter which variation you’re making.) Remember to mark on all three pieces that they’re for the lining!

Trace the front, back and sleeve pattern pieces

Front lining

Trace the facing pattern piece onto your front lining piece, lining up the edg of the facing with the edg of th front lining, and making sure . (It’ll be the same width as the front extension.)

Place facing on front lining pattern piece

Facing traced onto lining pattern piece

Add 2cm seam allowance from the line you just traced, towards the centre front seam. (Why 2cm? Because the original facing piece doesn’t have seam allowance on the open edge. Since we’re now going to be attaching another piece to it, we need to allow for seam allowance for both sides of that new seam. It’s easier to add it to the new lining piece rather than mucking around with two pattern pieces.)

Draw a line 2cm towards centre front seam

Cut along your new line – the larger piece is now your front lining. Yay! (You won’t need any lining on the front extension of the jacket as the facing will take care of that part, so just cut straight across from the bottom of the lining piece to the new line you made.)

Cut along line

Back lining

Trace the facing pattern piece onto your back lining, with the neck edges aligned. The curved end of the facing is the one that lines up along the back, as this will follow the curve of your neck. The facing has a centre back seam and the back lining won’t, so we’ll need to adjust for this – simply let the facing piece overhang at the centre back by 1cm.

(Note: if you’re wanting to incorporate an ease pleat in your lining (that little pleat you see in the lining of most fitting jackets near the back neckline) this is when to do it. Once you’ve got your back lining traced out, simply extend the back neckline of the lining by 1cm at the centre back and connect the new point to the bottom of the centre back with a straight line. Remember to mark where the ease is, so when you sew it up you can create a small pleat there.)

Place facing on back lining pattern piece, overhanging by 1cm at centre back

Facing traced onto lining pattern piece

Add 2cm seam allowance towards the outside edge.

Draw a line 2cm towards neck edge

Cut along your new line.

Cut along line

Sleeve lining

Rather than messing around with figuring out which part of the facing to trace onto the sleeve, we’re simply going to measure it. The facing is 8.5cm wide. So, to allow for the 2cm seam allowance that needs to be added, measure down 6.5cm from the upper edge of the sleeve, and draw a line that follows the curve of the sleeve.

Draw line 6.5cm below edge

Cut along your new line.

Cut along line

Sewing the lining

Cut out and stitch the lining pieces together the same as you would for the jacket shell – attach the sleeves to the front lining pieces, and also to the back lining piece.

Attaching the facing to the lining

Pin the centre back seam of the facing to the centre back of the back lining, right sides together. The facing will be curving downwards.

Pin facing to lining, aligning facing centre back seam with centre back neckline

Pin the rest of the facing to the lining. Make sure the distance from the end of the lining to the end of the facing is the same as the front extension, i.e. 7cm. You’ll need to ease the facing onto the lining, due to the difference in curvature at the edges.

Facing extends by 7cm at the bottom

Press the seam towards the facing.

Your lining is now finished, and ready to be sewn into your jacket shell.

(Note: the fabric at the end of the sleeves of my lining is the same as my facing, because of a late pattern adjustment to lengthen the sleeves. Just in case you’re wondering why the lining fabric doesn’t extend right to the end of the sleeves in these and the following photos. I has long gorilla arms. :-p )

Lining with facing attached

Lining with facing attached

Sewing the jacket shell

Stitch up the jacket shell as per the instructions, with the following changes:

• when attaching the bottom ribbing, stitch the short end onto the front extension with a 1cm seam allowance, rather than folding the front extension under and topstitching to attach the ribbing
• don’t topstitch around the bottom ribbing (or you’ll have trouble attaching the lining!). Instead, press the seams of the ribbing towards the jacket body
• when you get to the instructions for attaching the facing, skip over these and go and attach the sleeve cuffs instead

Sewing in the lining

Attaching the lining to the jacket body

Pin the lining onto he jacket as per the instructions for attaching the facing, and continue pinning all the way along the bottom of the jacket as well. Make sure the bottom ribbing is folded inside, just like the neck ribbing is, so it doesn’t get caught in the stitching).

Sew the lining to the jacket, leaving a 10cm gap for turning the jacket back around the right way (I left my turning gap at the bottom of the jacket). Tip: When stitching, have the shell fabric on the top, so that you can follow the stitching lines for the zip and ribbing to get the lining perfectly aligned on the inside with no stitching showing.

The tricky bit will be the corners of the ribbing along the bottom of the jacket – follow the line of stitching that you made when attaching the ribbing to the jacket shell, and pivot at the corners. Clip the lining to the stitching at the corner (just as you did with the jacket shell at the same point) so it sits flat.

Turn your jacket the right way around, through the gap you left when attaching the lining. Poke out the corners at the bottom of the front extension so they’re nice and sharp, and give them a good press.

Attaching the lining to the sleeves

First, try your jacket on to make sure your lining isn’t twisted inside the sleeves. The lining should be sitting nicely inside the sleeves, with the seams of both lining and shell aligned.

Fold a small section of the seam allowance of the lining under and pin it to the shell, mimicing how it will look when it’s sewn. (Note: this pin is to make sure the lining and the shell don’t get twisted while we’re stitching the sleeve lining on, so you only need to pin a small section. One pin will be enough.) It’s a good idea to pin at or next to the seams, to make sure the lining doesn’t get twisted in the next steps. They

Pin lining to sleeve at seam

Reach inside the jacket through the gap you left when attaching the lining to the shell, and pull the sleeve out through the gap. The sleeve and the sleeve lining will now be next to each other, attached by the small section you just pinned.

Sleeve and lining next to each other, attached by small pinned section

Pinch the pinned section together so it doesn’t move, take out the pin, and repin it with right sides together and raw edges aligned so you can stitch them together.

Tuck the cuff down inside the seam so it doesn’t get caught in the stitching, and pin the sleeve and the sleeve lining together all the way around with the raw edges aligned and right sides together.

Pin lining to sleeve, with the cuff tucked inside

Stitch together. (Tip: stitch with the shell on top, so you can follow the line of stitching you made when you attached the cuff.)

Sew lining to sleeve, following the stitching line

Pull the sleeve back through to the right side of the jacket – it’ll now be all nicely lined! 🙂

Repeat the process with the second sleeve.

Finishing

Slipstitch the gap in the lining closed, give it all a good press, and you’re done! Yay! 🙂

Rigel Bomber Jacket January is here!

So, back in November, the lovely Ginger put up an Instagram pic of some of her patterns. Sitting at the top of the pile was the Rigel Bomber Jacket pattern
from Papercut. Which kicked off a whole Instagram conversation amoungst a bunch of people, where it transpired that a lot of us have that pattern, it’s been near the top of our things-to-sew queues for ages, and we still haven’t gotten around to making it up even though we really want to. Clearly, something needed to be done to give some of us that final push into making it up. And so, Rigel Bomber Jacket January was born!

The plan: make up those Rigel patterns we have! (Or will have, for those of you out there who are keen to join in but don’t have the pattern yet.)

Ginger Makes, The Curious Kiwi and I teamed up to spur each other on, to encourage anyone else who wants to join us, and to make up our Rigels this January! Oh yeah, Rigel Bomber Jacket January!

We even have a badge for it, designed by the awesome Mel:

We’re going to be putting up inspiration posts, occasional tutorials (such as how to line the Rigel jacket), and sharing our progress and we go along the Rigel journey.

And if you need a little bit extra incentive to join us, there’s even a competition happening! Make up the Rigel pattern this January, and post it to the Flickr group by the end of the month, and you could win a Papercut pattern of your choice. There will be three winners, who each win a pattern courtesy of the lovely Katie (the designer behind Papercut).

In convenient timing, there was even a PDF version of the Rigel pattern released in December, so if you don’t have it yet and want to get started straight away, that impulse can be met. 😉

I pulled together the supplies I need for my Rigel today:

The jacket is going to be in the brown cotton/linen blend with snails on it, that I purchased in Tokyo just over a year ago. The ribbing is teal blue, and the zip is chocolate brown. I’m going to line it, using the dark green lining, and to add a bit of extra warmth I’m going to do a quilted lining, using the peapod-print flannelette on the inside. (One thing missing from this picture – pocket lining fabric. Still need to decide what I’m using for that, but I can assure you it will be some sort of random pattern that will make me smile whenever I see it.)

(I chose the snails fabric for this one, as I figure it works for Jungle January as well. Snails! Yeah!!)

My partner is back at work on Monday and the Little Man is back in daycare from then as well, so fingers crossed the Smallest One sleeps a bit and lets me sew next week, as I’ve been seriously missing those dates with my sewing machines!!! 😛

So, how about you? Have you got the Rigel pattern in your stash, too? Will you be joining us in making it up this January? We’ll be showing progress photos on Twitter and Instagram, using the tag #rigelbomberjanuary – join the conversation! 🙂

Pinky Bar tee

So, I actually finished this a couple of weeks ago, but the first lot of photos turned out rubbish so I had to wait for another weekend to get some more. In the meantime, this top has been getting worn quite a bit!

It’s the SJ Tee pattern from Papercut – described as a slouchy fit tee with raglan sleeves and a wide cuff.

Papercut Patterns SJ Tee line drawings

This is the second version of the SJ Tee pattern – Katie from Papercut re-released it when she released the super-cute Tri collection, and made some changes. First up, there are more options – it can be made long or cropped, and with either long or short cuffed sleeves. And secondly, the neckline was altered to bring it in closer (the first SJ tee was designed to fall off one shoulder). I don’t have the first pattern, so can’t really compare the two, but what I do know is, I rather like the cut of this one. 🙂 Plus, the sleeves are wonderfully long – just the right length of me, without needing to add more, which is rather unusual and makes me happy.

The neckline is probably a bit wider than I’d like for a tshirt still, simply because of the gaping-while-leaning-forward-to-pick-up-a-child aspect, but maybe that’ll just serve as a good reminder for me to “bend your knees, not your back”. (Yes, yes, terrible habit, I know. *sigh*) Since I made this one with the intention of wearing it over other things, that doesn’t bother me anyway, and as long as I’m not leaning forward lots, I like where it sits.

The pattern came together nice and quickly, with the aid of my trusty overlocker. (My gosh I love that thing!) I’ve been experimenting with using a twin needle instead of the coverstitch function on my overlocker recently, just to test it out, so I twin-needled up the hem, which all went fine. The rest of the edges are finished with cuffs or a neckband, which gives them all a nice, clean finish.

My only real issue with making this one up was attaching the neck band. Now, I didn’t have any issues with the pattern itself, or the instructions. My issue is simply that I can never get neck bands done in this way to be as good as they could/should be. (But then, I am not exactly known for being a perfectionist in my sewing anyway, which would be a big contributor to this, whoops!) The band is attached like double-fold bias binding, which gives a nice, clean finish with no exposed edges on either the inside or the outside. I am just kinda useless at catching the underneath layer nicely with this sort of finish. Next time I think I’ll just use the classic fold-band-in-half, attach, top-stitch-seam-allowance-down method and save myself from a bit of self-beratement at my not-as-good-as-it-should-be finishing.

Since the SJ tee is a loose fit, it fits rather well over The Bump at the moment. Yay! (Bump is now 34 weeks. And growing, growing, growing. I may only get a couple more weeks wear out of this top before I put it aside for fear of it being horribly stretched out of shape…. Seriously, look at the size of this thing!)

I made it up in a merino/nylon blend that’s been lurking in my stash for a while. I love this colour – bright pink makes me happy! (So does chocolate. Hence this is the Pinky Bar top. Mmm….. Pinky bars…..)

(Wanna know something funny? The next project I intend to show you on here is pretty much the same colour. Oh yeah, I do love me a bit of bright pink!)

Since I had just enough fabric to make the long-sleeved version, I thought I’d give that a go, and push myself out of my normal short-sleeved comfort zone. Glad I did – this is going to be great all year ‘round, I think. Light enough to throw on over a singlet in summer when it’s heading towards evening, and warm enough to use as a layering piece in winter. Win!

Final verdict on this pattern? Yeah, I’ll be making it again. Short sleeved version next, for summer, I think.

Here’s a new thing – maternity-trackpant-jeans!

Yep, you read that right.

I’ve been in need of some new maternity trousers for a while (I have one pair. They get a lot of use. And a lot of washing, due to the Little Guy being around – he’s rather good at careful placements of messy hands on clean clothes.). Ever since I made my pair of Papercut Anima pants, I’ve been toying with the idea of making a second pair as maternity pants. Where the waistband on them sits on me seemed like the perfect location for a maternity band to start instead, and I figured it would be super easy to switch out the elastic waistband for a wide maternity band instead.

And then the Papercut Anima Pants contest came about. It was like fate was telling me to get a move on, stop thinking about it, and finally get around to making those maternity pants!

So, I did.

But since I don’t tend to wear knit fabric trousers for anything aside from exercising I decided to make ’em up as jeans instead, using a lightweight dark blue denim I had floating around in my stash (a.k.a. ‘fabric library’).

Yep, I took a pattern that was designed for knit fabrics, and used it to make a pair of jeans.

And you know what? It was super easy! And they fit quite well, I reckon (although I also think the photos don’t do them justice, but oh well. Photos – tricky beasts they can be, no?).

I also needed to do very little to them in the way of alterations. I made up the same size as I did last time, after trying on my other pair and deciding that there was enough room in the seat and thighs to get away with being made up in a woven. Sure enough – a good fit in all those areas.

Aside from the maternity hack, the only changes I made were to the legs. My other maternity jeans are skinny leg ones, so I thought I’d go for something a bit wider with this pair. I widened the legs a bit heading towards (but not quite at) a straight leg style. I also lengthened them a bit (since I have crazy long legs and I wasn’t going to put the wide cuff on at the bottom) and drafted a narrower, straight cuff for at the bottom.

The maternity hack was super easy. I took the waistband pattern piece and used it to cut a wide strip of knit fabric. I then wrapped that around the widest point of the baby bump, made sure it was firm (but not tight – there’s still a fair bit of growing going to happen in that space!), and trimmed it down to the right width. Then I stitched it so it was a double-thickness circle, and attached it on to the top of the pants, stretching gently to fit as I went. Easy, and comfy! (Although I am considering going back and adding some elastic to the top of it, as they do ride down when I sit down without having that little extra bit of support….)

All up, I’m pretty happy with these, and I think they’re gonna get a lot of wear. (The Little Guy must have liked them too, since he managed to get something on one of the front thighs just as we were about to get photos. Gah.)

Check out the size of that bump – 27 weeks and counting! I continue to be slightly terrified by how large it’s going to get this time around….

Circling around and around

Check it out – I broke out of my usual colour comfort zone and….

made something black!!

Eep!!!

(Yes, this is rare for me. Sure, my Simone dress had a black background, but I countered it with purple, and even then it’s far more neutral than pretty much everything else I own.)

But hey, it’s mono-sewn month over at The Monthly Stitch, and the challenge is to sew in black and/or white.

And white? Yeah, it’s not my friend. Looks dreadful on me, and looks even worse after I’ve been wearing it a little while as something about wearing white makes me far more likely to spill things on myself. Or use a pen that leaks. Or get splashed by a passing car going through a muddy puddle. Like I said – white isn’t my friend, and I’m not really it’s friend, either.

So black it clearly had to be!

I dug out this mid-heavy weight wool blend (? I think?) knit from my stash. Had no idea it was there, and I still have no idea of where it came from or how long it’s been floating around in my stash for. (Signs my stash is too large. Oops.)

And I grabbed my newest Papercut pattern – the Circle Top.

Papercut Circle Top

(Yep, another Papercut make. But hey, I did warn you all – after all, they’ve got the biggest collection of patterns that I can sew up and still wear while pregnant, so this is kinda inevitable!)

Seriously though, have you seen the Circle Top pattern? It’s just like it says on the box – a giant circle. With sleeves. Worn as a top. Crazy!

And also surprisingly comfortable and cozy. Coz the circular nature of it means you can do things like wear it up over your head like a hood, or pull the edges up and in so it snuggles around your neck kinda like a scarf.

(Plus it’s kinda fun to wrap all around yourself when it’s cold outside.)

I must admit that at first, I didn’t really see myself wearing this style. But then Sandra kept putting up pics of herself in one of her two Circle Tops during Me Made May, and every single time I saw it, I wanted one. And now, I have one of my very own! Yippie!

At first, I thought this would be a super-fast make. After all, it’s just a circle, two sleeves, two sleeve cuffs, and edge binding. Simple, right? And sure enough, the sleeves and sleeve cuffs and circle all joined together crazy fast, probably in about 20 minutes.

And then I got to the binding.

Which just went on. And on. And ooooonnnn. Turns out there’s a fair distance around that there circle!

Worth it though, as the binding gives a nice clean finish (especially important with this style, since you see both sides as it hangs open) and also gives it a bit more weight for draping in the front.

(Please don’t look too closely at the binding in the above image though. Shameful though it may be to admit it, I finished this around 11pm on Friday night and we caught a plane early the next morning, so I didn’t get a chance to press the binding. It’s all pressed now though, and sitting much flatter than in that photo!)

The only issue I really had is that the sleeves are just a bit too short on me. Not surprising, since I have crazy long gorilla arms, and I didn’t lengthen the sleeves on this, so they’re made up at their ‘real’ length. Which would be a pretty good, long length on most other people. For myself, next time I’m gonna add probably 6cm to them.

My long-suffering made-to-photograph-my-creations partner and I went down to Nelson last weekend for a long weekend. (Without the Little Guy! First time we’ve been away from him, together, for more than a couple of hours! Very strange not to have him there.) Since I seem to have a ‘thing’ about wanting to take something new with me whenever I go away somewhere (gotta get different-location-photos, after all! Hah!), I rushed to get this finished late on Friday night as we were flying down early Saturday morning. And then I proceeded to wear it for the whole three days we were away, being all happy and snuggly and cozy, yes indeed. 🙂

These photos were taken walking alongside the river that runs through Nelson, and also up in the gardens around the Nelson cathedral.

(Except for this one, which was taken in the Chinese Garden section of Queens Gardens. Blossoms! In the middle of winter! Made me happy. 🙂 )

Oh, and guess what else? I met Katie from Papercut when I was in Nelson! And she is super lovely and I got to visit the Papercut workroom and everything. (And my gosh, I want her workroom! So organised and filled with inspiring fabrics and things and with a super huge massive printer where she prints the patterns out directly.) I even convinced her to help me package up a few patterns so who knows? Maybe some of you will get a Papercut pattern that I helped put together in it’s box! Mwahahahaha!

So yeah, the Circle Top. I likes it! And I am thinking about making one with contrasting band, coz wouldn’t that look rather fabulous, don’t you think?

And since it’s growing and all, here’s a ‘bump’ photo. For whatever week I’m up to now. 24 weeks, maybe? (Lost track. Oops!)

So tell me folks, do you have a ‘need’ to make something new when you go on holiday, or is it just me?

I may be going to Christchurch for three days for work in a couple of weeks. Hmmm.. what to make, what to make….? Papercut’s Ooh La Leggings, Victory’s Anouk dress, or a vintage 1970’s dress? Which should it be??

Do you have a plan, sis?

Coz I do.

I do indeed.

(Or should that be, I did?)

It was Franken-Indie week over on The Monthly Stitch’s Indie Pattern Month, and, well, since I seem to be addicted to sewing challenges (especially ones with short time frames) I kinda had to come up with something.

(Side note: it’s much, much harder to come up with a mash-up of two or more indie patterns when you’ve got a baby bump to contend with.)

I thought, and I thought. And I thought some more.

And then it hit me.

Combine the Deer & Doe Plantain tee with the Papercut Ensis.

Deer&Doe Plantain

Papercut Ensis tee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flare at the waist (i.e. bump-accommodating-space), well-placed colour blocking, and elbow patches!!!

Plantain + Ensis = Plansis! 😀

(Yeah, it kinda works, right?)

Anyway, it was pretty easy hack to do. I cut the Plaintain tee in a size 40 (one size bigger than usual, due to pregnancy-rib-cage-expansion), and while cutting I laid the top section of the Ensis tee pattern over the top, so I could see where the colour blocking would start. I cut up to that overlap plus an extra 1cm for seam allowance, on the front, back and sleeve panels. (Note to self: next time, take a photo of this, coz these things are a lot easier to explain in pictures than words….)

(And in the process I found myself rather interested in how much the arm scye on the Plaintain and the Ensis differed. Far more than I was expecting, considering they’re both tee patterns. Kinda tempting to pull out a few more tee patterns to compare them all….)

Then, I did much the same process to cut out the purple top section – again, using the Plaintain tee for the shape of the top (so the top and bottom matched nicely) and the Ensis top pattern sections to figure out how far down to cut (again, cutting down to the end of the Ensis top pattern piece and adding 1cm seam allowance to get that nice, clean match-up of pieces when stitching up).

And since I was rockin’ the purple colour blockin’, I did the elbow patches in purple, too.

(Seriously folks – elbow patches!!! Man, I just love that there is a tshirt pattern out there with elbow patches on it.)

Because I am tall and have crazy long gorilla arms (a rock-climbing friend of mine once informed me I have a good ‘ape factor’. True story. In theory this means I should be good at rock climbing. If I wasn’t terrified of heights, that is. Ugh.) I did my usual and lengthened the sleeves by 6cm.

And then when I stitched it all up and tried those sleeves on, they were still too short, so I added cuffs to them and now they nicely cover my wrists and the lower part of my hands and are perfect for winter. 🙂 (It came to a total addition of 11cm length to the arms, by the way. See? Long gorilla arms.)

However, since I was only expecting to have to add my usual 6cm in length, I didn’t think to check the placement of the elbow patches until after I’d stitched it all up and realised the arms were still too long. Yeah, they kinda sit above my elbows. Ah well, they’re still ovals of purple so I like them enough. And I have plans for more of these Plantain-Ensis-cross tops, so I’ll adjust the placement next time. 🙂

I’m also going to lengthen it next time. It’d be ok if I wasn’t preggers, but as it is, this top is a little bit too short. Especially when goofing around and raising ones arms in the air, like so:

I was naughty and didn’t hem the bottom – this fabric isn’t going to fray, and it means I can take it in at the sides post-baby if I feel like it. Flexibility = good.

Also, the bump is getting kinda crazy big. And I still have four months to go….. (*slightly terrified that I may not be able to get into cars/fit through doorways/etc*)

Speaking of the fabric (if you’re interested) – the stripe is a mid-heavy weight cotton-blend tshirting I got at Levana factory outlet, oh about 12 years ago now. (Eep!) the purple is a mid-weight cotton-blend tshirting. Not sure where I got it from, chances are it was also from Levana. Either way, it’s been in my stash for ages and is slowly getting used up – would you believe I had about 10m of it!?! (My sister made an awesome Lady Skater dress from it the other week. I’ve already used it for a muslin of Ooh La Leggings, a Hummingbird tee and a Tiramisu dress, none of which are in my wardrobe any more, so clearly I need to make another dress or something out of this stuff coz really, purple is awesome.)

Hmmm. I’ve been up too long – the rambling has set in. Time for bed, I think….

Oh yeah, and it was windy today. Because I live in Wellington, and that’s how things are here. I submit my hair as evidence of this:

G’night, all. Zzzzz……

For me, winter means purple

I’m not sure why, but it’s my go-to colour in winter. Purple, that is. Purple coat, purple scarf and gloves, purple jerseys, purple tights, purple shoes. (Don’t worry, not all together. Or not most of the time, anyway. 😉 )

So when the days were getting colder, and I felt the need to make a new cardigan (since for some reason almost all of mine are RTW ones), purple ended up being the colour that was pulled out of my stash.

(To be fair, I did pull out a burgundy merino as well, but the purple won out in the end.)

Since I’m on a bit of an indie-patterns-I-can-still-wear-while-pregnant kick, I pulled out my trusty Papercut Coppelia cardi pattern (yet again – sorry! I promise I’m two thirds of the way through making up a non-Papercut pattern at the moment, so you’ll get to see that next).

Would you believe this is the first and only time I’ve made it by actually following all the instructions? That’s right, no modifications at all. The sleeves are the length the pattern calls for them to be (nice and long, by the way! Having suffered through my teenage years with sleeves always ending before my wrist bone, I am rather appreciative of sleeves-that-are-slightly-too-long. Over-correcting? Maybe. But they’re also super snuggly when it gets cold.).

The cardi is the length the pattern told it to be (rather than dress length or hip length). Yep, I actually followed it all!

And I’m rather happy with the result.

In fact, I kinda made this back near the start of May, since I needed some me-made cardis to wear during Me-Made-May (plus it was Sew Stretchy month over at The Monthly Stitch, so it tied in nicely to both challenges), but I’ve been wearing it so much since it ended up in the wash every weekend and as a result I never quite managed to get photos of it.

But the weekend just gone, the lovely Nikki and I caught up for tea and cake and ventured up to Truby King gardens for a little photo shoot. (Wait till you see the dress she had finished making – I want it!!)

Check out that bump – it just keeps on growin’! Luckily since this is a wrap style, it’ll do good for quite a while. And a waist-length style, so I can always wear it pulled up a bit in the front to go over/around ‘the bump’.

Now, if you think this cardi is looking a little too big, I must admit, you’d be right. I’m not sure what happened there. I made it the same size as my Strawberry Shortcake Coppelia, and that fits perfectly. I can only assume it was the fabric – quite a thick wool blend, it just seems to want to be bigger than it’s meant to be. But hey, I’ll be bigger soon as well, so we’ll be perfectly matched. (And heck knows, it hasn’t stopped me wearing it a few times each week!)

Oh, and can I just point out the blue-ness of my hair? I’m rather happy with the colour at the moment – it’s my new favourite. Midnight Blue from Directions. I’ve been playing around with a couple of different shades of blue lately, and I’m definitely leaning towards the darker shades on me. For the moment, anyway. 😉