motivational sewing: skinny M7726 and a cropped sweater

Hey! Not wanting jinx anything, but getting that damn jacket done and off my sewing pile does seem to have loosened the blockage in my sewjo and I'm actually getting things done again! Bookending it with a couple of cool and/or simple motivational projects worked really well, and I have two of them to show you today. I've worn the shit out of my wide-leg McCalls 7726 trousers and I really wanted to make another pair. Given that it's November it's bound to start being wet and unpleasant soon, and wide leg trousers aren't the most practical for that, I went for the slim leg version. I haven't worn slim leg trousers in years so this was a bit of an experiment for me.

I'm still not 100% sure about how flattering these are, but they're so easy and comfortable that I straight up do not care. I've been gravitating to trousers way more than tights recently (though this may just be because I'm lacking in cold weather dresses) and I've been quite happily wearing these multiple times a week since I made them. The fabric is a crepe I bought from my favourite stall in Walthamstow Market, and it's got a really nice balance between weighty and drapey. It's also a great autumn/winter colour.

When I decided to make a different view of the same trouser pattern, I assumed that the only change would be using the slimmer leg pattern piece and the construction would remain fundamentally the same. For some reason, that is not the case. There's a whole separate sheet of instructions for the slim leg version, and they create the same effect quite differently. For the wide leg trousers, you make the pleats very early on in the construction process, then fold down the waist facing and slipstitch it down at the end. For the slim leg, you don't make the pleats until the trousers are basically completely finished, and you incorporate the facing into the pleats. I'm not sure why this is so different, nor do I know which version I prefer. On the one hand, sewing the facing into the pleats means no time-consuming slipstitching, but on the other, it's much easier to tweak the fit when you can flip the facing up and it's actually kind of confusing sewing the pleats last. When do you ever sew the pleats last?

I also discovered that the problem I had with the pockets on my last version was my own fault - I hadn't basted the pocket to the side seam in the right place, meaning that the opening was much longer than it should have been. My phone sits quite happily concealed in these pockets. These trousers just close with a zip and no fastening at the top, because I wasn't feeling well and completely spaced out on what I was meant to be doing, so there's nothing holding the fly closed at the top. That's not great, but again the sash covers a multitude.

After I finished these I didn't think I'd want a third pair. It's such a specific style and silhouette that I thought three pairs might be overkill, but since then I've worn these so often that I'm starting to think another slim leg pair might be a good idea. I quite like that I can't just whack on any old top with these - putting effort into my outfits is part of what helps me stay on top of my depression. I actually went back to Walthamstow this past weekend with the intention of buying this same fabric in a different colour, but the only other colour they had was bright-ass emerald green which is not the most versatile for trousers. Though obviously I bought a bunch of it anyway. You know me and bright-ass emerald green.

 I also made another one of the items of my sewjo-boost list:

This is another cropped sweater from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. This is basically the only pattern I use from that book, but at the same time I've never found a better pattern for casual sweater knit tops. The combination of length, shape and neckline just works for me. Tops with multiple neutral colours have always been my go-to, but I haven't made any for a while because I've been so focused on making one-piece outfits (also I put myself off making jersey tops because I kept trying to combine multiple patterns and not doing it right). I'm definitely having a trousers moment, though, so this will be incredibly useful.

 I made a few changes from the original pattern. I added a bit of shaping into the bust as a very lazy FBA, I extended the sleeves freehand, and I added some wide cuffs (a detail I always like). I did keep the original hand-sewn neckline and I think I always will - I know it's not the strongest finish but I like that it's free of visible stitching, especially in a fabric like this where you'd be able to see the colour of the thread every other stripe. I've tried putting a neckband into this pattern more than once, and it always changes the shape of the neckline which always results in me hating it.

(I also made another of these, but since it's exactly the same except plain black with short sleeves, I figured we don't really need photos of that as well. Also it's cold and I don't want to go outside with my arms out.)

Two things in one post and I'm still ahead of myself! Yay! Next up will probably be my Simplicity 1613 twist top, which is finished but also has two surprise holes in it, so I'll either have to fix them or buy an ostentatious brooch before I photograph it...

SSSHH review

I forgot to do this at the start of the month, so we're doing it now. May and June, several months later. I'm not including my grandmother's jacket because a) I don't have a photo and b) reviewing something I haven't seen since August is a bit pointless. She claims she still likes it, that's good enough.

Wedding guest dress (both versions)

[Anna/Butterick 4443] One of my favourite things I've ever made. I want to keep it as an occasion dress, but I wear it whenever there is an occasion. 

[Anna] This will definitely get less wear than the other dress because the material is so thin, but I still really like it. I might actually try and wear it to a christening this month.

Doris

This has gone already. I still like the idea of the dress, but I need to sort out the fit on the bodice and make it out of something less... annoying. Maybe if they release a sleeve add-on I'll try making one for winter. 

Shit-ton of stashbusting

[tulip skirt and cropped sweater] I still like and wear both of these, the skirt particularly. 

[cropped sweater] This has gone. The fabric was too much of a pain in the arse and it didn't go with anything. 

[tulip skirt] One of my current favourite things to wear. 

[cropped sweater, Jesus I was a one-trick pony this spring] Gone, because it's clearly a trainwreck. I had about two weeks of being obsessed with florals and I hated almost all of it when I came back to my senses. 

[bodice block adaptation] I still like this top, though I do wish it wasn't quite so short. 

Best: Anna/Butterick mash-up

Worst: Doris

Remake? Probably everything, if I can get some sleeves for a winter Doris

Biggest problem: Fabric choice

Project Stashbust, volume whatever

Update on the whole moving thing: we have found and put down a deposit on a one-bedroom flat which seems disturbingly perfect (it's exactly where we want to be, there's loads of space, and there's a TROPICAL GARDEN). The only issue is that we can't move in til the end of August, so I and all my stuff will need to decamp to Patrick's place for a few weeks. He doesn't have a lot of room and it's not going to be very easy for me to sew anything there, so I'm not yet sure about my two post-move projects. Life might interfere and they might not get done.

In the meantime, however, I still have more than a dozen pieces of fabric that need to be used or tossed before moving (this is now extra important as I will have to lug everything up several flights of stairs to Patrick's place). Not everything is going to get used, and I've accepted that. However, I have the following tentative plans:

A midi length Anna dress - I have a piece of beautifully soft champagne-coloured fabric (I'm not entirely sure what it is) from my friend Micky that I think will work well as an Anna. My main concern with this one is that I have no clue whatsoever how to accessorise a beige dress. What goes with beige? I have literally never had to consider this before in my life.

A pair of Chataigne shorts - my first pair turned out well so I'm going to try a second pair from the remnant I had left over from my Christmas Elisalex dress. I'm slowly building up a collection of patterns that take a metre or less of fabric, and one day awkwardly-sized remnants sitting at the back of the cupboard will be a distant memory.

A 1920s top - if I have enough of the green stuff I used to make the original bodice block T-shirt, I want to try the Sew Over It Vintage tie top. It'll either work really well or not at all, but I am all about the 1920s at the moment despite my completely inappropriate body shape. Experiment time!

A modified Kenedy dress - this is one of the Seamwork patterns I bought in a rush and I'd like to see if I can make it work as a no-fuss, hot day, pull-over-head-and-look-presentable dress. I will, however, be downsizing the shit out of it since it has 14 inches of ease at the waist and I've got no use for that whatsoever. I'm actually considering making the smallest size they have and just adding to the bust a bit. I have a remnant of navy poly I'm going to use for this.

A Selene skirt - this is the one I'm least sure about. I have some petrol blue suiting (again from Micky) that is crying out to be a work skirt and I really don't want it to be yet another tulip, but I worry that this one just doesn't have quite enough shape. I like the pockets, though.

Speaking of tulip skirts, here's the first bit of stashbusting I did:

It's a cropped sweater and a tulip skirt. Surprise.

The top fabric was left over from my Wren dress. I'm glad I managed to get a top out of it because I love this jersey so much, but it was a real squish and as a result one of the sleeves is ever so slightly too small and pulls the neckline out a bit. It's annoying but not debilitating. The skirt was a remnant from my Butterlex. Construction was the same as usual, except I actually managed to overlock all the seams on the skirt this time. I FINALLY worked out how to thread the thing! Points to me! Next step: work out why the blade isn't behaving itself.

And contrast pockets, forever more. 

SSSHH part two point one: Stashbusting

Here's some more!

I'd had a metre of this Liberty stuff sitting in my cupboard waiting for me to make a top out of it, and I thought I'd make something similar to the black and white in the last stashbust, except with a slightly narrower neckline and longer sleeves. That is not what that is, and I'm not entirely sure why. I think I misremembered what I did for the last one. When I cut it out I cropped it at what I thought was the same point I cropped it last time, only to end up with something that barely covered my boobs. I put an extra-wide hem band on to compensate, then decided to finish the neck and sleeves with bands as well since I was already doing that. I also made the hem band a bit too big, so I'll be taking that in a bit during my next alterations blitz.

The problem with this top is that it goes with precisely nothing. I'd had a couple of skirts in mind, and nope, neither of them work. I really do want to wear this top but I'm a bit stumped as to what colours it might go with. If anyone has any recommendations, please pass them on; I'd like to work it into my next fabric purchase.


I debated back and forth whether or not to give this next one its own post. It's not stashbusting because I bought the fabric the same day I made it, and since it's a material I'd never worked with before I would ordinarily default to "stand-alone post." But I can't really justify that, because there's absolutely nothing to it.

This is a T-shirt. It's more or less the same as my bodice block top from April, except I've changed the neckline, lengthened the sleeves a bit, taken it in at the sides and introduced a bit of shaping at the waist. Not enough to make much visible difference, because this thing is still pretty large. I was a bit limited in terms of length, so this only really works tucked into something high-waisted, but I can and have got plenty of wear out of it that way. The fabric is a remnant of felton silk I bought on impulse at Sew Over It, and it was a nice low-pressure way of working with silk for the first time. I don't have too much to say on that front either; it was really nice to work with and didn't misbehave nearly as much as I thought it would, but it frays like gangbusters. It didn't occur to me to French seam it, but that's what I'll be doing to any and all future light silk garments.

I've got a fair amount of wear out of this already. Yay silk T-shirts!

...yeah, sorry.

This is my first mini tulip skirt, and I really like it. The fabric is a moss crepe, another piece from my friend Micky. There was only about half a metre of it, so I could only get a miniskirt out of it and there wasn't enough for a matching waistband, but I LOVE this colour and I actually really like this length (though for subsequent minis I'll probably cut it slightly longer so I can have a wider hem). The one thing I don't like about this skirt is that the waistband is somehow too big at the top. Can you put darts in a waistband? Is that weird?

(Also, having learned about neutral patterned tops + bright bottoms from Me Made May, I have enthusiastically adopted that as a thing.)

My stash is still much bigger than I'd like one month before moving day. so I'm planning another round of quick makes in the next few weeks. I'm going to end up getting rid of more stuff than I'd like, I suspect, but I don't want to encourage this stash-full-of-bits attitude in myself. Hanging onto tons of fabric isn't the right thing for me, and in future I'd like to have no more than a shelf of stuff at any one time (apart from anything else, I'm going to be sharing space now and I don't want to upset my boyfriend with massive fabric stashes slowly encroaching on the rest of the flat and multiplying like Tribbles). So I'll be doing that as well as my July/August projects, which I'll post about on Monday. Hooray for more things! 

SSSHH part two: May Stashbusting

I made two tops and a skirt from my metre-or-less pieces of fabric in May. I'm going to do a separate post for June to encourage me to get through some more of it.

First up we have yet another cropped sweater:

This fabric was given to me by my wonderful and generous friend Micky, who let me raid his stash just before he moved house. I picked up about a dozen things (possibly ill-advised given current drive to get volumes down), and this is the first one I've used. It's a sheeny baby-rib jersey and it is a pain in the mothereffing arse to work with. This incredibly basic top took me over a week to finish because it was so frustrating, and even then I still have a weird-ass neckline to show for it. It's annoying, but it won't stop me wearing it, I don't think. 

And here are the other two pieces:

Yes, it's another tulip skirt. These aren't going to have their own posts anymore because I'm still making them at a rate of one a month, so I'll just chuck them into posts like this when the opportunity arises. This one is made out of crepe, and was without a doubt the easiest one to make. It's also maybe my favourite; it looks good, it's really easy to pull into various vintage-y but still quite different outfits, and because it's crepe it doesn't wrinkle. More crepe!

Pockets! Fancy Liberty pockets, at that - I bought this fabric to make a make-up bag for my mother and didn't want the scraps to go to waste. 

LOOK AT HOW MUCH YOU CAN'T SEE THE POCKETS. I always struggle with sticky-out pockets so I'm really pleased that I managed to do it well this time. I also haven't pressed my machined blind hem yet because eh. I will do it before I wear it outside. 

The top is a mash-up of a couple of patterns. I wanted to make the boat neck top from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual, but since this is Liberty jersey (oh yeah, I'm all Liberty all the time in these photos) I used up another scrap of my stash to make a toile, and I'm glad I did. The boatneck was far too boaty and basically fell off both my shoulders at once. So this one is a mash-up of the boat neck and the cropped sweater.

I was trying to still keep a bit of the boatiness, but that wasn't a great idea because Gertie patterns seem to be drafted for people with a LOT more shoulder than me. So there's an annoying bra strap thing I could do without. I have another piece of Liberty jersey with which I plan to make a similar top, and I'll bring the neckline in a bit on that one. 

Poser. 

Me Made May week two

Week two collage:

(Left to right and top to bottom I am wearing: By Hand London Anna dress; Gertie Sews Vintage Casual cropped sweater and Sew Over It kimono jacket; Colette Moneta dress; Sew Over It Doris dress; Sew Over It tulip skirt; Sew Over It 1940s tea dress; Gertie Sews Vintage Casual cropped sweater with extended sleeves and Sew Over It tulip skirt)

I feel like "collage" isn't the right word. I need some kind of portmanteau or pun which indicates that this is both a collage AND complete crap.

Yesterday I repeated a garment for the first time. I basically made myself wear that skirt again so that I didn't get it into my head that I couldn't do that, though I'm still determined not to repeat an entire look this month. I had a couple of days when I couldn't decide what to wear because a) I wanted to wear an outfit I'd already worn or b) I was worried about "using up" a particular dress too soon, and I'm not sure whether this means I don't have enough stuff or I'm just being a bit silly.

Observations Week Two:

1. This week gives a better overall impression of my style than last week.
2. I don't see the unexpected level of traditional femininity here this time.
3. Holy crap, I have a LOT of Sew Over It stuff.
4. Leaving my camera set up on the tripod pointing at a clean corner of my room made the picture taking way easier.
5. More than once I REALLY wished I had some loungewear - a handmade pair of PJs or a dressing gown.
6. I am close to a point where I could wear different combinations of cropped sweaters and tulip skirts for a whole month and never wear the same outfit twice.
7. At the halfway point I have still not exhausted all my "better made" things, which is encouraging.

So far so good. Still enjoying it, still Instagramming, still excited for all the tedious analysis at the end.

Me Made May week one

Here is an extremely cobbled-together collage of what I wore on days 1-8 of Me Made May:

(For reference, reading left to right and top to bottom I am wearing: Cake Patterns Tiramisu dress; Gertie Sews Vintage Casual cropped sweater and Sew Over It tulip skirt; Cashmerette Appleton dress; Sew Over It 1940s tea dress (blog post on this coming on Thursday); Sew Over It circle skirt; Sew Over It tulip skirt; Butterick #4443 dress; Sew Over It cowl neck top)

I got a bunch of different assumptions and restrictions into my head this first week, such as:

- I should try not to wear anything shop-bought at all
- I should never repeat a full outfit
- I should never wear the same thing twice in any context
- I should not wear a shop-bought piece that becomes the focal point of the outfit

Trying not to repeat a full outfit is probably a good additional restriction. I have a few default combinations but it would be nice to come up with some more, and this seems to be as good a time as any to experiment. The others are all active hindrances to what I'm trying to achieve with this and I need to get rid of them.

Week One observations:

1. London weather was oddly sunny and pleasant and this confused me.
2. I don't really own any spring clothes. All my clothes are either "summer" or "Britain", and when it came to choosing things to wear for sunny but not especially hot days I was a bit stumped.
3. Having to pose for a selfie every day is actually really annoying, but also useful as it counteracts my tendency towards scrattiness.
4. I definitely prioritised the things that were better made, which I don't normally do.
5. I wore a LOT more prints and traditionally feminine stuff than I ordinarily would, but I'm not sure how much of that is related to point 4.
6. I am going to struggle to get to the end of the month without a pair of self-made trousers, but also I really don't want to make trousers right now.
7. I would really like to be dressing like the bottom left picture more than I do.

So far this has been a pretty good experiment, and I look forward to seeing what I've learned at the end of the month. I can guarantee you that I'll be entirely sick of the daily selfies by then, though.

Creative Sewing: cropped sweater

Hello and welcome to my first weak-ass attempt at a pattern hack!

I knew I wanted more cropped jumpers. Almost everything I make ends up being high-waisted, and most of the tops I own were bought to go with jeans, so I have a wardrobe mismatch. I spent a little while looking at long-sleeved cropped jumper patterns before I realised that I already made the cropped sweater from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual before and it fitted reasonably well, so all I'd have to do is draft some new sleeves. It couldn't be that hard, right?

...holy crap, this skirt is wrinkled. I swear it never looks like this in real life. Apparently I have a special wrinkle-enhancing camera.

This is the leftover fabric from my spotty Tiramisu. I say leftover, I specifically bought more fabric than I thought I'd need so that I could have both a dress and a jumper made from this stuff. It is so soft and lovely and comforting, and I wish more jersey fabric was like this. Most of the stuff I see is either really lightweight or heavier ponte, and I crave that bit in between that I can never find.

To draft a new sleeve, I more or less Frankensteined together the sleeve head of the current piece and the long sleeve from the Sew Over It cowl neck top. It was not at all scientific and I didn't actually draft a new pattern piece, I just laid one over the other and cut it out. Now that this particular experiment has been a success I probably will go back and draft one - I'm much more likely to make and wear versions of this top with the long sleeve than the shorter one and doing the weird Frankensteining every time is going to get tedious.

This is my "please don't start raining yet" face. 

The book uses ribbed bands to finish both the sleeves and the waist, but I only had black ribbing lying around and I didn't want that look for this jumper, so I just hemmed the sleeves with my twin needle in the usual way and used the main fabric to make a band for the waist and it seems to be fine. It's probably what I'll do for future versions unless I really want the contrast look.

This is a definite success and I wear it all the time, particularly with my various tulip skirts (as you will see on Monday). As soon as I find more of the right kind of jersey, I will be making more of these. The longer sleeve was really easy to do and I now feel quite comfortable altering the length of any given sleeve. Drafting a sleeve for something that's sleeveless would definitely take more work, but one step at a time. I'm slowly building up to more impressive things, I promise.

And to finish off, please enjoy this picture of me being absolutely terrifying.

Creative! (I don't know why he puts up with me)

hold me closer, tiny jumper

(...sorry).

This is my first attempt at making something from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. I knew this was going to be the first thing I attempted because "cropped jumper" was near the top of my list of actual useful things I could make, and had I not bought the book I was planning to buy a stand-alone pattern for one.

This fabric is a £2.99 remnant I got during one of my bargain bin sprees. It's pretty, but it's also pretty thin. Given that this pattern is intended to be really tight and stretchy, it gets a bit indecent around the boob area. So I consider this to be my sort-of-wearable toile.

All the patterns in Gertie's book are printed and stored in an envelope at the back. The patterns are double-sided and sometimes have smaller pieces printed inside larger ones, so it requires tracing. Which I think is fine, given that most of the book is dedicated to ways to take one pattern and vary it in different ways so that you can get several looks from one pattern. Somehow she turns a wrap dress pattern into a one-shoulder playsuit, and I still don't understand how but I think I'm going to have to try it, and then invent an occasion to wear a one-shoulder playsuit.

This one is a three-piece pattern with bands at the armholes and hemline. I've never done the banding thing before and these ones are functional if not particularly well inserted (I did not like working with this fabric and so was a bit sloppy about it). For future attempts at this I'll probably crop it a little bit further to fit better with the things I plan to wear it with. And also make it out of something less see-through. Ahem.

My flatmates left me in the studio alone with a camera and access to Youtube, so you'll be noticing a "dancing round like an idiot" theme in upcoming posts. Like this:

...except worse.