One part pink sweater, two parts black wool.

Greetings chickens! I don’t care if the city says we aren’t allowed and the neighbors are complaining. We’re totally keeping you.

So! For tonight’s post, I’m unveiling not one, not even two, but THREE new garments! This post promises to be low on the exposition and high on the visual interest. Just like Pulp Fiction. I’ll be Uma, you guys can all be whoever you’d like, except for the girl-half of the restaurant robbery team. She was so annoying.

Speaking of John Travolta, let’s get down to the first garment, another version of Hot Pattern’’s Weekender Cabana T-Shirt. I’ve made this before, each time adjusting the details a bit. Here’s the newest – the Frenchie sweater.

And out of left field… elastic. Hot Patterns Marrakesh Drawstring Pants

Happy Monday fellow flamingos! Here in Minneapolis we’ve gotten another foot and a half of snow, pretty much ensuring that Minnesota, at least, is entering a new ice age. Luckily, my manic focus on making trousers will serve me well in these new, colder times. Also, my dog-eared copy of the Mammoth Hunters will enable me to catch my food after the inevitable breakdown of our industrialized society. Does anyone remember how exciting it was when Ayla invented the sewing needle?

Hunting and gathering aside, I’ve actually got a real, non-muslin pair of pants to show you today! And there’s elastic involved!! I’ll give you a moment to recover from the shock… OK. Welcome back. Here’s the thing – I mentioned at the end of my last post that I was going to try the Hot Patterns Marrakesh Drawstring pants. What I didn’t realize was that these pants not only have a drawstring, they have a clever drawstring that involves elastic. Who knew? Anyway, after all of the fitting and butt-shots of the recent past, I just wanted to get a nice pair of pants for wearing around the house. While I would gladly wear dresses every day in the summer, I really don’t have an actual need for trousers (you know, pricey fabric, lined, matching suit jacket also in closet)– I just really want to make some that fit! Pants, though, I’ll wear those. I thought the Marrekesh drawstring pants looked just the thing. And, it turns out, I really like them and think the pattern may work well for some NON-elasticized versions! In keeping with my recent theme – here’s a butt shot…

Patty’s long sleeved shirt factory.

In a burst of sewing focus, today’s projects included redrafting the ginormous Kwik Sew turtleneck pattern from yesterday, as well as cutting and sewing three more shirts. It was a good day. Here’s the the rundown of my three almost-finished shirts (all need hemming) and after the jump detailed photos of how I redrafted the Kwik Sew turtleneck to fit better.
 

Better late than never… a Mondo tribute outfit.

So folkses. I’ve actually had this sweater in my possession (unhemmed, of course) since a few days after the terrible event that I still can’t talk about without tearing up. Freaking amazon hipster stealing the win from Mondo, he of the kneesocks and tapdancing… It took me forever to finish the skirt (and hem the sweater.) So here’s a quick little unveling of my Mondo tribute outfit… First, me winning a staring contest with Lucy the hound.

Weekender Cabana ‘t-shirt’. Served three ways.

I have been on the hunt. For a shirt. The perfect sweater. Also, I hate sewing knits. Also, I was looking for raglan sleeves. But above all, I’m looking for the perfect pattern for a recent acquisition. Nice, heavy cotton jersey with crisp navy and white stripes. Mmmmmm… So any reader would understand how I was sucked in by the envelope drawing for Hotpatterns 1035. A scoop-necked, set in sleeve, relaxed fit (ewwwwwww…)tshirt pattern with options for 3/4 and short sleeves. And a completely ridiculous center seam. Which I chose to not do. Here it is…

SSS day 27. Almost done. And a new shirt!

Befuddled by my Lady Grey muslin and a never-ending stream of cherry tank tops, I took a little time last night and this morning to make a nice new shirt! I was quite surprised to find that I've worn my first version of the Hot Patterns Bo Ho De-Luxe Peasant shirt a few times since finishing it - even though I think of it as a cheater shirt, what with it's tent-like construction and drawstring waist! Here's my golden yellow, polka dot version!


[mustard yellow. and dots.]



Bo-Ho-De-Luxe Peasant Shirt. Servedthreeways.

Self-stitched September struck again, forcing me to try out a new pattern to save me from the drudgery of wearing yet another tank-top-and-barely-qualifying-RTW-jeans-with-darts or slightly-creepy-overdressy-for-being-at-home dress. I decided to try out Hotpatterns 1043, the Bo-Ho-De-Luxe Peasant Top. Behold, in all it's difficult to photograph glory!

 

Self-Stitched September - Day 8. Pears, A-lines and pencil skirts

I spent day eight of SSS working on the muslin for Vogue 8648 a cute little dress with a pencil skirt that I'm working on to wear to a wedding this weekend. I also did some errands, and took the most wonderful lunchtime walk with my basset hound, stopping by my neighborhood sewing store, Sewtropolis (yay south Minneapolis small businesses!), getting a scoop of vanilla custard at Liberty Custard (yay South Minneapolis small businesses!), walking through Tangletown Gardens (yay South Minneapolis small businesses!) and ambling home along Minnehaha creek (yay South Minneapolis... oh, wait...).

my sewing and dog walking outfit - Hot Patterns 1063

Self Stitched September Day 1 - the wheels are coming off the bus

Well! Self-stitched September started off with a bang! I actually spent a majority of my day in what could be loosely termed as 'refashioned' clothes - alas, no pictures, but I was in the garden wearing (1) a pair of cut off jeans that I cleverly made cargo and ipod pockets for using the 'cut off' part (2) a five-dollar Old Navy tank top that was ratty two years ago when I hacked off the lace that was looking very sad spiderweb and (3) my gardening galoshes (hot pink, white polka dots) that sprung a leak last spring. I, in a MacGyver-styled move, fixed yesterday using super-shiny duct tape from my husbands secret stash. If that's not a refashioned outfit, I'm not sure what is!

I really, really don't want to do this... making my first pair of pants...

OK. This is the part of the fall wardrobe I've been dreading. Pants. I've tried making pants and shorts a few times and haven't come up with anything usable. What I've done the few times I've tried before is to make WAY too many adjustments right off the bat - lengthening the crotch depth, scooping out in the back, widening the legs - it goes on and on. This time I decided to just take it slow, one muslin at a time.

To start out with, I decided to go with Butterick 5221. I like the way the drawing shows nice, wide legs. I'm also waiting for Hotpatterns 1053 to arrive, but the more I look at it, the more I'm not sure I want a waistband with a facing. I want a real, honest-to-god waistband.

 

The yellow skirt of dubious trim (Hot Patterns 1063)

OK, so project #1 of the fall wardrobe project was NOT simplicity 2501 as predicted. (And with my never-ending indecision as to whether I want a contrasting waistband on that one or not, who knows if I'll ever get it done!) Instead I decided to go straight to Hotpatterns 1063, a cute little A-line skirt with a huge potential for serious, bad, hind-end attention grabbing. I was sucked in by the unrealistic drawing on the pattern envelope and the black boots. (also on the pattern envelope drawing...)

The skirt, wonderfully, beautifully, gets a B. It would get an A except for the wierd puckering on the side by the zipper, more on that later. Suffice to say it's likely the pattern actually is an A++ and it's my sewing skills that are in the C+/D- range.

Here's a picture of me rocking what I like to call the secretary look. You can see the hind-end detail, but I like it!

The details of the skirt were all around the oddly shaped pieces that make up the yoke and waistband area of the skirt. I found it difficult to get them to all line up and had to resew a few times. They're pointy and triangle-y and fit together perfectly when they are lying flat, but don't make as much sense when trying to get them to fit together to sew! The other thing that I was worried about was how to get the ends of the trim to look nice and the directions were very clever, directing me to sew the trim on in an order that meant that the ends got sewed into seam allowances. Here is my difficult seam-matching work...

The picture on the left is the NON-zipper side! The trim looks pretty good - the seams actually didn't line up, but I was able to fix with the trim (TIP!! If you're a bad sewer like me, try lining up from the bottom of the skirt. The wonkiness of the triangle pieces makes it hard to line up from the top). The picture on the RIGHT, however, is a right mess. It was the zipper. The pattern called for an invisible zipper, and even though I pretty much hate invisible zippers, I decided to be a good girl and follow the directions which was a very bad idea. FIRST! The fabric is upholstery fabric. Thick. That plus the trim made for a bad situation with the zipper. SECOND! The whole hip curve thing. Good lord. what I do NOT need is anything drawing attention to that part of my hip! The muslin looked fine, but when I made the muslin I was lazy and just put in a regular centered zipper. The first run of the yellow skirt (and invisible zipper)  was HORRIBLE! It looked like I had some sort of third head growing out of the side of my body. I did it again, cutting the zipper MUCH shorter, really just enough to get the skirt up over my hips - here's a picture showing how short the zipper is (and my ax-murderer job of applying a hook and eye)....

You can see, the zipper really only goes about an inch and a half past the facing. It's maybe 5 inches long in total.

Once I shortened the zipper, I steamed the heck out of it and hand stitched the side seam to meet up with the original side seam. It's rumply and not great, but it's bearable. My second choice was to sew up the side seam and fashion some sort of decorative zipper cover from the yellow fabric to cover for the lack of a seam allowance to put in a zipper in the center back. I decided I could live with it. The next skirt (and yes, I think there will be a next one) will have a center back zipper from the beginning.

Other details. The lining, the hem. The facings. The fabric. The trim.

I used yellow heavyweight poly/cotton upholstery for the skirt. I was a little worried about the stiffness of the fabric, but I like it. It works. Since I wanted the skirt to have a nice drape, I wanted a nice flowy lining fabric. I looked around and finally decided to use a white printed poly charmeuse that I had in my stash. I also wanted to work in some gold brocade that I used to line a jacket that I mean to wear with this skirt. I decided to use the brocade as a hem facing. The pattern has pieces to make a bias cut facing for the hem, but I wasn't paying attention, and didn't cut the pieces on the bias on the first try. I didn't have enough fabric to recut on the bias and didn't want to deal with gathering up the facing to get it to lie smoothly, so I cut the bottom 4 inches off the skirt pattern pieces and used that to cut facings that followed the curve of the skirt correctly. If that makes sense. For the final details, I used a bit of lace hem facing (ready made) to hem the lining which I left hanging free. The trim was purchased from Joanne's, some crocheted stuff that I got to match the trim of the matching jacket. Here's a couple of pictures of the lining, the hem facing, and the lace edging on the lining...

So for the rest of the pictures, here's a more detailed look of the front and back, with no fussy sweaters or jackets to impede the view. I always just want to see the details

 

And, in keeping with my new wardrobe goals (sew and buy things that work with a variety of other things!) Here's a few more looks...

Left to right... The skirt with the jacket that I'd already made, the naughty secretary look and what we'll call the weekend look until we think of something better!

If you're dying to find out more of what I think about this pattern, head on over to the review at patternreview.com!  Next up... I'm thinking of trying out New Look 6808 (view C).