sewing plan: spring 2023

Hello! Life got away from me! You could probably have predicted! You probably couldn't have predicted that I would end up enjoying the improv course so much that I signed up for another one, but that is what's happened. It turns out I really like being able to say random shit in a scenario where everyone else just has to go with it. 

Anyway. Spring. If you've been here a while you're probably sick of me saying that spring is the hardest season for me sewing-wise, but it's still true. Spring is essentially meaningless here in terms of type of garment - winter coats and tights are equally as likely as sleeveless dresses - so historically where I've got tripped up is thinking that I ought to have a 'spring palette' in terms of colour and print. Even though I dislike the way spring colours and prints look on me. 

What I'm going to try this time is a small plan, using fabric and patterns I already own as far as possible. As you will see, it's surprisingly purple. I'm not sure why this is. 

Practical things

A maxi skirt

I currently own three maxi skirts, all of which are the same pattern (the Deer&Doe Fumeterre, one actual version and two of my modified versions), and I'd quite like to try something else. I have the Sew Over It Haxby pattern from when I signed up to their Stitch School for a month and harvested all the patterns, and some extremely busy purple viscose, and we're going to see how it goes.

A pair of trousers

I have been sitting on 2m of lavender wool crepe forever, knowing it needs to be a pair of trousers but never finding the right pattern. I have two patterns I want to try out: the Sew Over It cigarette pants and Vogue 9181 Custom Fit bootcut trousers. I'm going to make trial versions of both before I risk cutting into the lavender. The trial fabric for the cigarette pants is also purple. 

Shorts to wear over tights

I mentioned in this post that I was planning on making some Chataigne shorts for colder weather, and I'm considering two different fabrics. My mother-in-law sent me 3m of bright mustard suede for my birthday and I am thinking about using half of it for the shorts and half for an as yet unidentified skirt (see below). I also have 3m of this black check 100% wool that I got from Walthamstow; I bought it to make trousers but it was the end of the bolt so I have more than I need, and I have to decide if I'm making one wider leg pair of trousers or narrower leg trousers and a pair of these shorts. 

A shorter skirt

This is the one item on the list I don't have a pattern in mind for, but it is something I've recently found a need for. Partly because I now have a knee-length winter coat and the maxi skirts look silly under it, but also because I've really been feeling the need to switch things up. I've been scratching the itch with one of my old mini-length tulip skirts, but I'd like something a bit more tailored to my current preferences. I'm after something reasonably fitted that doesn't look like office wear, preferably with some kind of interesting design detail, and if I've not found such a thing by next month I'll go with my backup option of a Cashmerette Ellis skirt. 

Impractical things

A hooded velvet dress

The January pattern on Gertie's Patreon was this insane velvet witch dress and I love it. I'm not going full witch for my first attempt (though you know I will eventually if I like the result), but it is still very silly to make a wine-coloured velvet dress with a hood for spring and that will not stop me. I'm going to make the knee-length version, probably with short sleeves, so I can get a sense of how the bodice and the hood will look. 

A slip dress

This isn't necessarily impractical, but it's not quite practical either, so I'm putting it here. About a month ago I made a trial run of a silk cami top, the now-unavailable free Pauline Alice Bailen, and while I don't like it very much because I think it sits weirdly on me, it did get me to a place of feeling a bit more confident with the bias cut silk. I started looking for a simple bias-cut slip dress pattern with cup sizes and found almost nothing (apparently pattern companies would rather just all offer the exact same things and not try to fill gaps in the market?), but when I asked for suggestions on my Instagram stories someone told me that the ubiquitous M6696 shirtdress pattern also includes a slip with cup sizes. So I have bought a shirtdress pattern, much to my amazement, and I will be trying out the slip. Not the shirtdress. Never the shirtdress. 

A velvet bodysuit

When I decided to make the Murder Dress, I convinced myself it was okay to make something spectacular and very impractical because I would still have half the fabric left and I could make something a tiny bit more wearable with it. I am not doing that. Instead I am making Vogue 1923, which is another fancy off-the-shoulder garment. I'm now working on convincing myself that it totally is practical because I can wear it with trousers and that will somehow dress it down several notches. Because we're nearly halfway through March I'm already almost done with this one (of course I started with one of the impractical projects) and I'm really pleased with how it's looking. 

This is as much as I'm going to plan this time. I have several other things in my head, but either they don't have a fabric/pattern match or they're quite involved, and I don't want to commit to things like that when I've been struggling for time and motivation. It's a seven-item list, and with the need to make trial versions and a potential second pair of shorts it's almost a regular length of plan for me. I've also decided that I don't have enough to say about the rest of my unposted projects to give them their own posts, so expect a random assortment of stuff in one scattergun post within the next couple of weeks! 

the fabric found its pattern: a circee maxi skirt

So, we have entered Busy Times. It's usually Busy Times at this time of year anyway - it's my birthday this week, and and once we get through the various things we have planned we start doing things for Patrick's birthday - but now I'm currently on two evening classes per week plus my singing lessons, we've booked a couple of city breaks, and also a bunch of one-off events happened to get scheduled between now and the end of March. And I really need to find time to sew because it turns out you can't safely do improv classes in skirts, which I hadn't anticipated so all the things I made this winter were absolutely not geared to my current needs.

Case in point: 

This is the Deer&Doe Circee, maxi skirt version. My original intention was to make the dress version as well before posting about it, but I ran into a slight mishap where I cut out my trial version and then promptly lost half the pieces. I don't seem to be able to get that fabric again, either. I will still have a go at it at some point, but it's going to take me a bit longer. In the meantime: extremely dramatic maxi skirt. 

I've had this fabric for a while (you may remember it) and could never work out what to do with it. It's a super-large border print, each panel is two feet long, and there's barely a sliver of a gap between each one. I really didn't want to chop up the print too much, and my original thought was a wrap dress where the bodice is made of the plain black section and the skirt has the border print. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't - I would only have had enough fabric to make a knee-length dress and the print is so large-scale that I would have had to cut it down to get a length I was happy to wear. A maxi length wrap skirt with no back seam is the perfect thing. 

Construction was very simple and I didn't run into anything awkward or confusing. The skirt is designed to close with two visible buttons at the waistband, but I switched them out for press studs because I am weird and dislike buttons on my clothing. Immediately after making this version Patrick gave me a proper hardware press for Christmas, which I'm delighted with and I hope this is the last thing I ever make with sew-on press studs. It does mean I'll have to fit things properly before I sew down any waistbands, but I haaaaate hand-sewing fastenings onto my projects and I think slightly less convenient fitting is a very small price to pay to dispense with that for good. 

It also has enormous slash pockets, which is much appreciated. 

I am pretty pleased with this and would make it again. What I will say is that I used a very stiff fabric here that isn't super inclined to blow about in the wind, so I can't say for certain what level of wardrobe malfunction might result from, say, a more lightweight viscose. Chances are I will give it a try at some point, and when I do I'll report back. This version is obviously not for everyday wear and I'd quite like one that's a little more versatile, but this was absolutely the correct thing to do with this fabric. I'm delighted it's finally in my wardrobe and I will more than likely be wearing it for my birthday dinner on Friday. 

I have two more winter projects photographed to post about, both of which use patterns I've already tried. I've made but not yet photographed the Murder Dress - I wanted to do a proper photoshoot for it, but there's a decent chance that I will just never get around to that, so I'm going to try to at least take placeholder photos sometime soon. I don't know how much I have to say about any of them, but they will be posted over the course of the next few weeks, by which time I will hopefully have got my head around my spring plan. Too many ideas, not enough time!

Deer&Doe Circee (review of skirt only)

Fabric: Heavyweight satin viscose from Walthamstow

Cost: £30

Pattern details: Wrap skirt in two lengths with large slash pockets and button closure at waistband (also a wrap dress with dramatic split sleeves)

Size: 44

Alterations: Buttons swapped out for press studs, two inches of length added to hem

Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes

orage and chataigne

Guess who forgot to schedule this post for yesterday? January has somehow lasted a million years and I'm really not on top of the little stuff right now. It's not all bad, though -  for Christmas my in-laws got us a voucher for a really nice Andalusian restaurant so we had a lovely dinner last week, improv week two was way less nightmarish than improv week one and I actually quite enjoyed myself, and my singing teacher made the rash decision to let me pick a Skunk Anansie song to learn. So I'm having a lot of fun when life isn't being a dreadful slog. 

Anyway, I'd like to introduce you to my new favourite top:

This is the Deer & Doe Orage. I bought both of their most recent releases, and you'll be seeing the other one next week (or on Instagram a couple of weeks ago). I wasn't sure about the Orage as a dress - the skirt is midi length and dips lower at the front and back, which seems like the worst possible style and shape for me - but I thought the top part looked cool and if it didn't work for me, there were two other top variations that almost certainly would. So I tried all three of the tops, of which you will be seeing two because I used the wrong fabric for the third and it looked like ass. 

I got this fabric in the Abakhan remnant bins in September. It's a lightweight textured jersey with a lot of stretch, and I bought it entirely for the colour with zero idea what I was going to do with it. It didn't feel at all like a sacrifice to use it as a toile, even though I was pretty convinced it wasn't going to work. I was absolutely delighted to be wrong. I love this. I don't normally like high necks, but somehow this one really suits me and doesn't itch. The boob window sits nice and flat in exactly the right place and doesn't gape when I bend forward. I'm thrilled with the way the colour looks on me. I'm constantly searching for comfortable jersey tops for daywear with some level of interest to them, and this one ticks every single box for me.

Within the pattern this view is only intended to be the bodice for a dress, so it's quite cropped. I like crop lengths as I'm quite short-waisted and tend to prefer high-waisted trousers, but this was still a tiny bit short so I put a wide hem band on. I will mostly likely do this for future versions too, because I like the symmetry with the wide neck band. I also put cuffs on it, after trying to hem the sleeves and discovering that the fabric really did not want to do that. Again, this is something I will probably repeat in future. 

The trousers are the Victory Patterns Esther Pants, which I think I showed in passing in a post about something else. I made them about three years ago and they didn't fit me then, but I had spent so long getting every single thing right and sewing them as well as I could that I refused to get rid of them. They even survived the house-moving cull, despite me being no closer to fitting into them at the time. I'm now delighted I stubbornly held onto them, as they've been my best-fitting pair of trousers for the past eight months and I wear the shit out of them. This outfit is my current favourite and I wear it constantly. 

In standard fashion, I immediately wanted to make another version of this top and bought some quite pricey bamboo jersey to do so. This turned out to be a mistake. 

Other than the obvious Much Smaller Boob Window, which I don't fully understand and don't like (I think the lower part of the bodice is cut too high), version two looks basically okay in these photos. Let me assure you that it is not. The mock neck is not fitted enough to be made in this kind of jersey, and it looks like shit. Also if I move around too much it gets all distorted and weird-looking around the shoulders. I have thrown this version out, and am on the lookout for a jersey that's less... floppy? I'm not sure what the correct fabric word is here. But I will be making another, as soon as humanly possible.

Before I get on to the shorts, I will quickly mention the scoop neck view, which doesn't really merit much analysis. It's a nice top, it fits me well because Deer & Doe's knit block always fits me well, I will make it again, I have very little to say about it. Here it is:

(Fabric is a remnant from a sweater knit Kielo I made back in the autumn and never got around to posting because I absolutely cannot justify any more standalone posts about the Kielo. There's probably an incoming post of "stuff I have literally nothing more to say about" that's almost entirely pictures, or another story post broken up with pictures of random shit I made.)

The shorts are the Deer & Doe Chataigne. I bought the pattern in 2016, made it once, immediately sized out of the extremely limited range. But I kept the pattern because I liked it, and now I'm within that size range again I thought I'd have another go and see how it was fitting me these days. 

You may recognise the fabric as a leftover from this dress. You also may remember that the fabric is stretchy, so I didn't bother putting a zip in either the dress or these shorts. For the actual pair I eventually make (in a nice wool, to wear over tights) I will put the zip in, but this was only intended as a quick toile. I'm surprised by how much I like them, actually. Under normal circumstances bright blue shorts would never have occurred to me. I made size 46, which is what was already cut out and in retrospect absolutely did not fit me at all at the time. For my current size it works pretty well, though I will probably go down a size in the waist for my real pair. 

I'm also thinking about making another version, in a low-stretch black ponte, to be my new pair of shorts for burlesque classes. The pattern has a second view with a high waist and scalloped hem, which seems like exactly what I want, but I will definitely want to practice the scalloped hem a few times first. 

I'm making the most of a couple of fairly quiet weeks. Once we hit mid-February my schedule is nuts for about two months straight, and I'm both excited about it and dreading it. On the one hand, Things are good. On the other, Things are exhausting. But I'm hoping to still carve out time to sew, and ideally make a proper plan for spring. Not promising anything, of course. But I hope so. 

Up next: a DRAMA SKIRT

Deer&Doe Orage (review of top versions only)

Fabric: Green textured jersey from Abakhan // black bamboo jersey from Fabrics Galore // black and white sweater knit from Fabric Land

Cost: can only meaningfully cost the bamboo jersey, which was £24

Pattern details: tops, dress and skirt. Tops are: long sleeves, mock neck, cutout bodice; squared scoop neck and 3/4 sleeves; short sleeved crop top. Skirt is midi length with curved hem

Size: 44

Alterations:  Cropped the cutout bodice version, added cuffs and hem band

Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes

very complicated random sewing: style arc ormond designer coat

Over the past month or two, I've been doing quite a lot of sewing. I've not been especially good at sticking to my plans, but I have made a bunch of things from fabric I already had in my stash, and the majority of them turned out surprisingly well. Then they all sat around in my wardrobe because I couldn't be bothered to photograph them. Last week, on the day I finished the project you're about to see, I was suddenly hit with a bolt of motivation and photographed half a dozen things. It was below freezing outside at the time, which was fine for this specific garment but not so much for everything else. But the upshot is, I now have several posts scheduled and will be a slightly more reliable blogging presence for at least the next couple of months. 

With that said, here's a surprisingly complicated project to have made at random:

I made a coat! Which, also unusually for random sewing, is a thing I actually needed. My Rumana coat is now five years old and not holding up as well as I'd like, and though it still functions as a coat it's beginning to feel a bit shapeless and sloppy. In the December round of sub-zero temperatures I became deeply irritated with the fact that I had to hold my winter coat closed and was spurred on to finally make a new one. 

The fabric is a cashmere-effect wool mix that I bought from Fabric Godmother at the end of 2021. I've always wanted a green coat and snapped up the last 3m they had, and then spent months trying to find a pattern. I knew that it had to be at least knee-length (hip-length coats don't suit me and a jacket made in fabric this thick would be functionally useless), and for ages the only pattern I could find that would give me that much length out of 3m or less was the aforementioned Rumana, which I'm pretty sure I'm done with. Eventually I found and bought the Style Arc Ormond Designer Coat, which seemed to tick all the boxes.

I'd never used Style Arc before, and my first impressions were not the strongest. It's mostly silly stuff - the pattern is fine - but there were several things I wasn't a fan of. The layout of the PDF, for a start. The instructions were part of the pattern sheet, meaning that they had to be printed with the A0 file, and also that they come up on the screen sideways. One of the pattern pieces is split into two on the layout and has to be taped together. I don't know enough about things to know if this was unavoidable, but it just irritates me when I pay to have an A0 pattern printed and am then forced to tape shit anyway. The instructions seemed to have not been proofread, which bothers me more than it should. They were fairly minimal, which is not a problem for me personally, but the bits I found most confusing were the bits where they attempted to explain a step in more detail, and that absolutely is a problem for me personally. But as I say, the pattern itself is fine, so overall I would neither gravitate towards nor specifically reject another Style Arc pattern in future. 

(Here's the lining fabric, which is a silky viscose from Walthamstow. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put a plain lining in a coat, unless the outer fabric is crazy.)

The coat is a raglan, and has a front panel, a side panel, and a back made up of three pieces including a waist insert. The ties are sandwiched in between the waist insert and the side panel, which I strongly prefer to a loose belt, but it does mean that the waist is in a very definite place, and on me that place is the wrong place. I have a very high waist and am much wider immediately below it, so in order to get the coat to stay comfortably closed I have to hitch the whole thing up. Were I to make this again I would take an inch off the upper back bodice and add an inch to the lower back, keeping the length but moving the waist to the right place for my body. It also has in-seam pockets. The pockets are between the front and side panels rather than attached to the back panel, so they are in a practical place for a coat, but having worn this coat for a week I still don't like them and would have been better off switching them out for welts. Honestly I still like the Rumana pockets the best and since this coat has a side panel, it might have been worth making a mock-up out of an old duvet cover to see if I could get a similar thing going here. But this was random sewing, and if I'd tried to do something like that I don't believe I would have made anything at all. 

The upper back has a pleated detail into the waist, which I like in theory, but in practice (and certainly with this very thick fabric) it creates a lot of bulk that I'm not here for. The side silhouette especially is quite Notre-Dame. Were I to make this again, which is unlikely, I would definitely want to take some of that volume out. While I'm quibbling, the coat is hand-hemmed (though the sleeves are done by machine, thankfully) and I object to that on principle. Having only made a couple of coats I wasn't sure how to alter things for a machine hem, so I have hemmed it by hand, but a coat is a hard-wearing item and I don't think you should have to do large amounts of hand sewing. I'm also surprised at how little topstitching there was on this pattern - it's basically only the back of the collar, which you don't see. On a hypothetical second coat I would do a lot more, if only because I feel that a pattern specifically called "designer coat" should have a bit more in the way of details. 

In terms of construction, my biggest issue was the sheer amount of bulk my machine had to sew through. Sewing the facing to the coat at the collar area - especially where I'd put in a hanging loop because I don't understand why sewing patterns don't have those - was a proper chore and my machine did not like it at all. Obviously this was exacerbated by my fabric choice, but if your machine isn't a workhorse it's probably going to be a bit of a struggle with any kind of wool. 

My second biggest issue was the lining. Once I'd sewn the lining to the facing I realised there was too much lining, and when trying to cut it down I made a major miscalculation and ended up with not enough lining. So I had to sew about two thirds of the piece I cut off back on again, and as a result there's a horizontal seam line running all the way across the lining. Which is not a big deal, but it is a thing. 

The third issue was that whatever percentage of not-wool there is in this fabric made pressing much more difficult than I'd anticipated. I'm aware that it looks a little off in places and would like to assure everyone that I am regularly going back in with the iron and trying to make it behave itself. 

On the whole, I'm pleased with this coat. I started sewing it just after the first cold snap and mocked myself for my poor timing, but it ended up being ready just in time for the second cold snap, and it is WARM. Once the temperatures go back up at the end of this week I suspect I won't actually be able to wear it closed without overheating (but I can tie the ties behind me and it'll be fine). Is it my favourite thing I've ever done? No. Will I use this pattern next time I want to make a coat? No. Will I wear my new green coat constantly? Absolutely. 

In terms of whether I'd recommend this pattern, I would say that if you're in the situation I was in - need a knee-length coat, only have 3m of fabric and can't get any more of it - this is a decent shout. If you're in a position to be pickier, you can probably do better. There is nothing wrong with this pattern, and it's entirely possible that I was expecting a little too much of it because it's specifically named "designer", but my final impression is definitely "it worked for my specific circumstances" and not "you must all get yourselves one of these". But if it's already in your plans, I certainly wouldn't discourage you. 

As a brief life update, things are still pretty up and down and there doesn't seem to be any logic as to what's making me better or worse. Sewing is happening but not consistently, writing is happening but not consistently. Last week I started an improv course, which is basically my worst nightmare and I signed up for it precisely because it was my worst nightmare, and then went all shocked Pikachu face when I took the first class and found myself in my worst nightmare. I'm determined to continue, though. It will not defeat me. 

Up next: my new favourite top, and a bonus toile or two! 

Style Arc Ormond Designer Coat

Fabric: Cashmere effect wool mix coating from Fabric Godmother // silky viscose from Walthamstow

Cost: £60 for everything

Pattern details: Raglan sleeve lined coat in two lengths, with one-piece front and side panels and waist insert in the back, four pleats in the upper back and inverted pleat in the skirt. In-seam pockets and sewn-in ties

Size: 14

Alterations: Added a hanging loop

Would make again/would recommend: No/Maybe

unnecessary versions of necessary things: Audrey cigarette pants

So once again, my health has not been great, and I need to stop coming here and making pronouncements that I'm totally fine now, guys. I am not totally fine, I still don't know exactly what's wrong, and I can't really commit to regular posting at the moment. But I did take some photos the other week, so I'm going to jump on the okay day I'm having to share something.

I've said on my last couple of planning posts that I need more trousers, and that becomes truer with every passing day. My waist is now eight inches smaller than it was this time last year and there comes a point where you can't feasibly take a pair of trousers in any more and have them still look okay. The trousers in this post are none of the things I suggested I might make and I'm honestly not sure how much wear they'll get, but they are trousers nevertheless, so let's review. 

(Also I dyed my hair black, which so far almost nobody has noticed. I'm thinking I might keep it for a while, though.)

This is another pattern I got from Gertie's Patreon, the Audrey cigarette pants. I hadn't had any immediate plans to make these, but then I was in a fabric shop after having a really shitty day, saw some fuchsia ponte, message Patrick asking if I wanted a pair of stretchy fuchsia trousers. And if the answer you want to that question is "no" then Patrick is not your man to go to for advice. So I bought it. 

This was a quick enough sew that I managed it on a day of 32 degree heat (with a break in the middle to stand by a fan). Elastic waistband, pockets, pocket stay made of power mesh. I like all these details, though I will say that anything put into these pockets is extremely and immediately visible so I would probably only use them for holding my phone as I wander round the house. This particular waistband is one of those where the elastic is the same length as the fabric so there's no gathering, and I strongly prefer that. 

(Also, check me out having visible muscles! This photo is the first time I've really seen it.)

The main problem I have with these trousers is the fit. I have the problem I always have with more fitted trouser legs, which is that they look too big and wrinkly when I make them in my usual size, but taking any fabric out makes them too skintight for me to want to wear in public. I also clearly need some sort of alteration in the front crotch but I'm not exactly sure what. Any advice on what I might need to do there would be very welcome! 

I'm interested to see whether I'll feel able to wear these. So far I've only found this one way to style them that I like, and given that this is just a literal bra there aren't going to be many occasions for dressing like this. Which is a shame, really, because this is some amazing 80s trash right here. I can't really tuck things into them because you can see the lines, though I might get away with a bodysuit, and I just can't see myself becoming a tunics person. I'm definitely down to try things out (as long as they're not tunics, or really anything where the goal is to cover up most of the trousers). 

I am planning to have another go at this pattern. In September I got to go back to Abakhan for the first time in ages (I used to go with my mother-in-law when we visited Patrick's family, but they've moved several hours further away so it's very rarely an option anymore) and I picked up some green ponte which is much thicker, and thus maybe more forgiving, than this pink stuff. I really like the idea of the silhouette and would like to find a way to make a pair that feel a little more wearable for everyday. It's definitely the fit not the colour that's giving me pause, obviously - I never met an obnoxious trouser I didn't like. 

I do have another couple of sets of pictures taken, so hopefully I can get my head round another write-up or two this week. If not, I'll be back when I can. Sewing is still happening on and off, though not quite to the degree I might have liked, and I have made some stuff I'm genuinely pleased with. Fingers crossed I'll post again very soon! 

Charm Patterns Audrey cigarette pants

Fabric: Fuchsia ponte from Fabrics Galore

Cost: £24

Pattern details: Cigarette pants in two lengths with slash pockets, mesh pocket stay and wide elastic waistband. Capri length comes with optional grommets and lacing

Size: 10 waist, 12 hips

Alterations: None

Would make again/would recommend: Maybe/Maybe

sewing plan: autumn 2022

Hi! It's been kind of a rough month. We've been incredibly busy, my health crashed again because of course it did, and I also got the worst haircut of my entire life so I really didn't want to take any photos. (It's been fixed now.) We're off on holiday in two days so I won't have the time to try and back into the groove until October. I'd wanted to have this plan properly thought out, all fabrics acquired and photographed, but I haven't got round to it and if I don't post it now I will probably end up not doing it at all, so here, have some half-formed ideas! 

This is another super-short plan, and it's actually even shorter than it looks since I'm only planning to do one of my two challenges, but hopefully that will enable me to get everything done in the time I have. In addition to this stuff I want to make a couple of basic tops - we went back to North Wales for a bit earlier this month and I was able to raid the Abakhan remnant bins again - but I don't think it's worth making them an item on the plan when I won't have a single useful word to say about them beyond "they exist now". 

Here's the abridged project list: 

Challenges

I had decided originally to set myself two challenges for autumn, but given how September has gone so far I think it's not too likely I'll manage both. I'm going to put them both here anyway, with the expectation that I'll do one out of two. If both happen, that's a nice bonus. 

A corset

I started this literally a year ago and it stalled, first because of my mental health and then because I was changing size too rapidly, but things seem to be sufficiently stable now that I could get on with it. I have a semi-completed mock-up that I'm going to continue with, though I'm expecting to need to do a second one given size changes. 

A pair of jeans

I mentioned this as a possibility in my summer plan, and I do think I'd like to try it. I'm still thinking of the Charm Patterns Marilyn jeans - I'm just not a jeans-and-a-T-shirt kind of woman and if I'm going to have jeans they need to be a bit more... something. So vintage style jeans might be the way to go. Mostly this will be a skill and confidence building exercise rather than a means to an end of owning a pair of jeans. I'm quite certain I can make a pair of jeans but because it's something I've never done it's been filed under "Scary Thing" in my brain. I'm sure it doesn't belong there, so I'm going to make some jeans. 

Easy wardrobe fillers

The rest of the plan is intentionally fairly straightforward. I don't want to have to think too hard about these projects, I don't want to have to learn any other new skills, and I want to be able to use these projects as palate cleansers for the more difficult stuff, or as a way to get my motivation back if (when?) the more complicated things prove too frustrating. Two of them are things I need, and the other is joyful nonsense that I'm very much looking forward to. 

A trans-seasonal jumpsuit

I love wearing jumpsuits, and I have more than half a dozen I love, but they're all either strictly for summer or evening wear. I would love to have one or two that would work for cooler weather. Honestly I'm still chasing the high of the blue M7626 in this post - I loved it so much but I never got it to fit me properly. I also ran into problems with the more wearable olive version, ie. the layers of corduroy made everything super bulky and there wasn't really enough room in the crotch area for me to sit down comfortably in it. Nevertheless, option one is still to just try that exact same thing again. Option two is a Deer&Doe Sirocco in something a little more casual than black velvet. I may do both. 

A pair of trousers

I'm at the point now where very few of my old faithful pairs of trousers fit, and as we go into autumn (and I get more interested in trying to pair separates together) I'm going to need to start replacing them. Having already given myself one difficult trouser project, I don't want to reinvent the wheel here. I want something pretty simple, wide leg but not too wide leg, hits my natural waist, has decent pockets. What I do not have right now is a go-to pattern for this, so this is probably my most complicated "easy" project because it will involve me trying some stuff out. I'm going to see if I can size down my block before I go buying any new patterns or anything. 

The Murder Dress

I'm going to do it. Raspberry leopard print velvet off-the-shoulder wiggle dress. I am not going to make it floor length (though I'm not promising I won't make a floor length one the next time I see some exciting-looking velvet), I may or may not make the skirt a little more fitted, and in order to actually wear it I will probably have to find some sort of performance opportunity. It is going to be one of the least wearable things I've ever made, but I have concluded that anything else would be kind of a disappointment next to the vision of the Murder Dress. 

That's as much as I'm prepared to commit to for now. We're away for a week so I won't be posting next Monday, but I hope to be in a better place for photography when we come back so that I can get on with posting the rest of my summer projects! 

a deeply unseasonal sweater knit dress (and bonus top)

 In surprising New Silhouette news, I'm considering becoming a shoulders person. 

I've been in and out of Gertie's Patreon a few times now. I don't love all the patterns she puts out there - I'm not particularly into vintage cosplay these days and I was never into the cutesy stuff - but they usually have interesting details, and a good chunk of it is stuff that I can make up in a not-so-vintage style. This one is the Joan wiggle dress, and this version is a trial I made to see if I a) liked the style in general and b) wanted to use my raspberry leopard print velvet on this pattern. (answers: a) yes and b) jury's still out.) I always loved the idea of this kind of dress but shied away because of potential stomach clinginess. And, as you may be getting bored of hearing me say, my concern about that sort of shit has been rapidly on the decrease. It was time. 

The fabric is a purple and black marl sweater knit from Fabric Land, which I bought three metres of initially and then found myself with more than half of it left after deciding to make another version of my Named Ruska hoodie hack with it. I never bothered posting it, I don't think, but I made it in January and it gets a decent amount of wear when it's colder. I'd assumed that the leftover fabric would have to be a top or jumper of some kind and was originally only going to make the top version of the Joan rather than the dress, but this is not a fabric-hungry pattern and I thought, fuck it, sexy sweater dress in the middle of summer, why not. 

Construction-wise this is pretty straightforward; the biggest problem I had was that the fabric kept breaking my overlocker (inexplicably, it instantly unthreaded one of the loopers every time I tried to put this fabric under it) so I had to sew it all on the regular machine. I used a scrap of black viscose jersey to line the bodice and sleeves and get a nice finish. It's meant to be longer than this, but I didn't quite have enough fabric for the full thing. And, if we're honest, I would have ended up cutting it above the knee anyway. 

Visually, I'm super into this. I think it looks great. Both the silhouette and the neckline are pretty new to me, so it's cool to see myself in something so different. Obviously it's extremely off-the-shoulder and there's no way to cheat wearing a regular bra with it (I mean, in these photos I am wearing a regular bra with the straps pulled down, but I wouldn't want to spend an entire evening like that). So the amount of wear this gets depends on whether I can find a longline strapless bra that comes in a G cup, which I honestly didn't think would be that difficult. I was wrong. I am actively on the hunt as we speak. I think it says a lot about how much I like this exposed-shoulders thing that I'm willing to entirely throw out my longstanding rule about clothes you have to wear special bras for.

I also don't really have shoes that go with this. I picked these because I'm six foot one in them and I feel like this is a dress that one takes up more space in, but for real life I probably need something else. 

(I took all these photos while listening to burlesque music. This may or may not be apparent.)

I also had about 50% of the tiger print fabric left over from my Nettie (which is done and photographed and I will post at some point, but I have zero things to say about it so I'm waiting until I have a post I can tack it on the end of), so I decided to use it to make a top:

Which I'm also kind of into. Is it a bit much for everyday? Sure. Do I often enjoy being a bit much? I mean... you've all seen the stuff I make. It's going to have to be a really comfortable strapless bra, though. For the dress version I lined the bodice, but I decided that was an extra layer I didn't need in a top, so I just cut an extra strip of jersey to use as a facing and topstitched it down. It could probably do with some elastic in the neckline, so I will probably go back and put that in before it stretches out much more. 

(The trousers are Victory Patterns Esther. I made them in 2020, they didn't fit me at all until a few months ago. I'm glad I was pleased enough with the construction to stubbornly hold onto them because they're currently my best-fitting pair of trousers.)

I would absolutely make this again, after I have acquired this mythical strapless bra. I've rarely done exposed shoulders at any point in my life and I'm extremely here for the way it looks on me. I'm still undecided about the raspberry velvet, though. I really wanted to make something that I might be able to wear semi-regularly, which this absolutely wouldn't be, but maybe there's something to be said for making a very occasional dress to just straight up murder people with. Technically this pattern would only use about half the amount of velvet I have, so I would have the option to also make something a little less... specific, shall we say, with the rest of it. But I don't know what that something would be, and the temptation to just make this dress but floor length might be too great to resist. I'm really not sure. 

Up next: either a pair of trousers, or several things I can't stretch out to their own individual posts, depending on which one I finish writing first! 

Charm Patterns Joan wiggle dress (Patreon)

Fabric: sweater knit from Fabric Land
Cost: approx. £7.50
Pattern details: Close-fitting knit dress (and top) with either a high slash neck or off-the-shoulder sweetheart neckline
Size: 10 H cup
Alterations: Skirt shortened by several inches
Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes