summer sewing: an ambivalent review of the Amy jumpsuit

I'm back! We had a really great holiday (Biarritz is WAY too expensive to stay in but the food is fantastic, and San Sebastian is just beautiful and lovely and chilled and everyone should go if they have the opportunity) and I have eaten so. much. fish. I love going on holidays to seafood places. We also had two horribly expensive meals, courtesy of Patrick's father who has been saving for this for about twenty years, one of which was the biggest wankers' paradise I have ever been to in my life. They started off by giving us a dictionary of culinary witticisms, and at one point served me a very small piece of green pepper with three (THREE) glasses of wine. I felt quite sick by the time we left. 

With that out of the way, here's what happened to my bronze viscose:

This is the Closet Case Patterns Amy jumpsuit, and I've been putting off writing up my review because I genuinely can't decide what I think of it. Please bear with me as I attempt to work through my various thought processes.

First of all, I will say that my worries about this colour and print being overwhelming were completely unfounded. Somehow on the body the print is much less in your face and the colour seems to lean much more in the bronze/mustard direction than HI LOOK AT ME I AM EXTREMELY YELLOW AND ALSO EXTREMELY PRINTED. I really like it. 

The Amy pattern is intended to give the impression of a simple summer dress while actually being a super-wide leg jumpsuit, and that was a good part of the reason I decided to make it. I wear jumpsuits all the time in the summer because they protect against chafing while allowing me to keep relatively cool, and I liked the idea of a faux dress that didn't require an extra layer of shorts. It's incredibly comfortable and non-restrictive, and I think if we were having a summer like last year's I'd be wearing this a whole lot more. 

I think I have two main qualms with this pattern, the first being simply that I'm not sure the style is right for me. I think I'd like it better if I'd had enough fabric to fully lengthen it. Midi length skirts and cropped trousers are things I almost always steer clear of, and though I will ignore my personal fashion rules occasionally if the overall idea appeals to me, I think this looks a bit odd. Also it means I have to take into account how hairy my ankles are, and I will never like any garment enough to commit to a strict depilatory routine. 

The overall shape is another thing I'm not quite sure about. I thought the belt would be enough to do the shaping work, but even with that I don't think it's quite right. Possibly the faux dress/culottes thing works against it here, as belting a dress isn't going to disrupt any crotch seams. As you can see, I'm not a fan at all of the jumpsuit without a belt and I would never wear it that way. Some people can pull off the tent look, I am not one of them. 

In regards to the actual pattern, there were a couple of things I really didn't like. The first, and more minor, point is that this pattern comes with a belt but not belt loops. This is a very specific pet peeve of mine - I am a naturally very scruffy and easily dishevelled person, and sashes become very quietly unknotted on me all the time. If it's not attached to the garment by other means, I WILL lose it on the Tube and not notice until three hours later. This has happened to me more than once. It may be that this doesn't really bother other people, but it really annoys me. I can deal with it on something like the Esther trousers, where belt loops would really change the look of the garment and the sash fabric isn't slippery at all and won't snake itself loose at the least opportunity, but not here. Belt loops, please. 

Point two is the side zip and pocket. Now, I don't like side zips at the best of times. I understand that they're sometimes necessary and I don't tend to fault pattern makers for including them, it just always takes the wind out of my sails when I read the envelope of a pattern I really like and it says "side zip". This pattern requires a 7" invisible zip, which I found really hard to track down. I certainly couldn't find one in anything resembling a matching colour. At first I thought I could just use one of my 9" zips, but any longer than 7" and it gets in the way of sewing the side seam pocket. As it was I still found it quite annoying to get both the zip and the pocket sewn well in such close proximity. It has left me with a bit of weirdness on that side, which I think really impacts my feelings about the whole garment. If you have proportionally smaller hips than me, you can just leave the zip out and skip all this nonsense, but I wouldn't be able to get into the jumpsuit without a zip. 

(My machine has historically HATED shortening zips, so I don't even try anymore. I don't know what it is that makes it so upset, but it judders and glowers and swears at me by putting words in the stitch number display. We've agreed to just avoid it altogether.)

On the other hand, it is incredibly comfortable and I do like the look and the vibe. As I mentioned at the start, this is the wrong kind of summer for this kind of garment, and if things were less grey and muggy I'd probably feel a whole lot better about wearing this. I'm looking over these photos now and enjoying the way it looks, and I'm not sure if I was feeling self-critical and frustrated the last few times I put it on or if this is just one of those items that photographs a lot better than it looks in the mirror. If I'm feeling up to it I might try re-sewing the zip and clearing up the weirdness a bit, and that too might make me feel better about the whole thing.

On hotter days I often do hang out in the house wearing this. I think I've mentioned before that our living room is basically a greenhouse, so it's often a lot warmer outside than it is inside. This jumpsuit is the perfect thing for existing in my living room and not turning into a horrible roasting sweatbeast. I'm actually wearing it right now for exactly that reason, and having put it back on I do think that the weirdness around the pocket and the fact that I have to care what state my ankles are in are the main barriers to me wearing this jumpsuit. The first I can probably fix, the second I probably can't.

My final verdict is inconclusive. I'm pretty sure I won't be making this again - the shape just isn't what I want and I'm not really interested in working out how I can change that. I do hope that I can make my peace with this version and get some wear out of it, though; I really like the fabric and I do think this was the right kind of garment to use it for. If I could be inspired enough to fix the mistakes I think that would go a long way to changing my feelings. 

What's up next depends on what I can get photographed. The things I've made are anti-chafe shorts and an improvised bikini (my attempt went extremely wrong and I ended up making a pair of bottoms to match a sports bra toile I made and forgot to post earlier this year), neither of which really lend themselves to being photographed outside. We'll see what can be done! 

Closet Case Patterns Amy jumpsuit

Fabric: Printed viscose from Walthamstow

Cost: £9

Pattern details: Super wide leg, cropped jumpsuit with bust darts, lined bodice, side zip, and optional pockets and sash

Size: 16

Alterations: 2 inches of length added to the legs, belt loops added

Would make again/would recommend: Probably not/Unsure

summer sewing: Zadie jumpsuit

Hi! I've spent the last two weeks being completely owned by a gastric bug! YAY! That's okay, it's fine, it's not like I'm going on holiday on Friday and am now massively behind on sewing and organisation or anything. But I'm finally human enough to take photos, so here we go!

Last June we went to New York to visit some friends, and I insisted on fitting in a trip to Mood Fabrics. After many years of watching Project Runway it had acquired semi-legendary status in my mind, and almost all the American sewing people I follow talk about Mood pretty regularly. I was super excited to go, and super overwhelmed when I got there. It was about half the size I'd expected, but with about three times as much stuff. I'm really not sure how they managed to film in there. I spent about two hours in there, vacillating between "I must buy EVERYTHING and bankrupt myself" and "Can't do it, I'm just going to leave without anything" and stressing myself out. Patrick convinced me that I would regret leaving with nothing (I normally don't take him to fabric shops and when I do I'm pretty decisive, so he was not having fun at all, poor guy) and I decided to pick one thing that I had a plan for and would definitely be able to use.

This was not that plan.

I had bought this really beautiful soft raspberry linen with the intention of making a swing dress, and I put it on my summer plan last year. I made a toile... and hated it. I made a toile of a different swing dress and hated it so much that I never photographed it. Eventually I decided that I just wasn't going to be able to get the look I wanted from a swing dress, and gave up. I've had my eye open for other ideas since then, but nothing that might fit onto 2.5 yards of fabric presented itself.

When I saw that the Zadie jumpsuit only used 2.5 yards of fabric, I got very excited and could picture the resulting jumpsuit immediately, but after making my toile I was worried. The layout is incredibly fabric-efficient, leaving only a few scraps, and the actual pattern is for a cropped jumpsuit (I think cropped trousers look weird on me, so that length was never an option). I'd managed to squeeze a bit more length out of my toile, but that was 2.5 metres of fabric rather than yards. I put the jumpsuit off for a couple of months while I worried about what to do.

You will note that this is a full-length jumpsuit. What I only realised as I was halfway through laying it out was that this linen is SUPER wide. Wider than any fabric I'd ever used before, in fact. I cut out two Zadie jumpsuits in the same session and it was easier to get all the pieces out of this fabric than it was for the 3m cut I had of the other one. I'd cut bias binding from a different fabric just in case and it turned out I didn't need it at all. I could have made cuffs for the arms and legs with the scraps if I'd wanted to.

As last time, construction was super simple. I French-seamed the whole thing even though the thickness of this fabric makes it borderline awkward because I still don't have a functioning overlocker and historically I've found my zig-zag finished seams don't really like heat and sweat and rubbing very much. It was only the waist seam that gave me any trouble, so I think it was the right decision. I'd cut everything out a couple of weeks beforehand, and I got most of the actual sewing done in one afternoon.

I cut a straight 16 this time, and I'm very glad I sized down, because I think if it were too oversized I would look a bit like a supermarket warehouse worker (which I have been, though not in red, and I'm not too jazzed about revisiting it), but as it is I think it looks great. I really enjoy the casual vibe rendered in a glamorous colour, and as always when I make something red, I remember that I really need to find a way to work more red into my wardrobe. Red looks really good on me but head-to-toe red doesn't often fit my day-to-day general vibe and I've never been able to work out how to pair it with other colours in a way that I actually like. There are lots of shoe or accessory colours that I like with red, but in terms of finding a top or bottom to pair with a red item, nothing looks right on me. Black - nope. Navy - nope. Grey - only very specific tones. White - looks okay, but I'm not about to start making white clothes. Maybe I need to put some more effort into this.

I really like this jumpsuit and I think I'll wear it a lot this summer. My toile version is really nice but a bit... beach pyjamas-ish to wear in London unless it's super sunny, and we really aren't having that kind of summer. Because this one is linen it's nice and cool on muggy days, but it doesn't look instantly inappropriate when a cloud drifts in front of the sun. It's coming on holiday with me and I plan to eat a lot of oysters in it.

This is probably the last time I'll make this pattern until at least next summer. It's really great but I don't think I have room for more than three (the third is one I'm making for a blog post on Minerva). I know there's a long-sleeved version but I don't think that's for me.

I'll be on holiday next week and probably won't have caught up with my sewing enough to schedule a post in advance. Depending on how productive I am, the next post might be a bikini, a different jumpsuit, a bunch of anti-chafe shorts, or something else entirely. We shall see! 

Paper Theory Zadie jumpsuit

Fabric: Red linen from Mood Fabrics
Cost: I think about $40?
Pattern details: Wrap-front jumpsuit with cropped legs, big pockets and bias bound neckline made from self fabric
Size: 16
Alterations: Bodice shortened by 1 inch, 4 inches added to the legs
Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes

FULL GALAXY NIGHTMARE: Jalie Clara leggings

Behold the glory that is me in head to toe galaxy print:

I made my first ever pair of leggings in February, after many months of putting it off, and frankly the experience didn't encourage me. After a bunch of alterations I got them to photograph OK, but the videos I got from both the dance class and weightlifting session I wore them to told a very different story. Wrinkles. So many wrinkles. I've never worn oversized leggings before and I had no idea they looked that bad.

I knew that if my second attempt also failed I probably wouldn't be motivated to try a third time, so I went for the safest bet I could think of, which was Jalie. Well-regarded, specialists in activewear patterns, I've used and liked them before. I saw a few people of similar thigh girth to me recommend the Clara leggings, so that's what I went for. I made my test pair in the same grey fabric as my Simplicity leggings, but I wanted to start off with the ridiculous galaxy extravaganza, so the grey ones are further down the post.

I bought this fabric from Girl Charlee a couple of months ago as a way to try and motivate myself to make more leggings. I did not, at the time, have any intention of making a matching crop top - that was a bolt of what I'll charitably call inspiration when looking at the half-metre of fabric I had left over. It looked quite see-through when I got it but on the body it's fine. I think I would have preferred the print to have more of the dark colours and less of the confusing peach, though.

The leggings are cut as one piece, with no front or outer leg seam, with a wide waistband and a gusset for better fit. There's also a second view with no waistband and a lower rise. My first pair was slightly too low for me at the back, so I cut these an extra inch higher and they sit perfectly. I wish I'd lengthened the legs very slightly - on proper activewear fabric I think this length would be fine, but this stuff isn't as dense and so it springs up a bit higher on my ankles. It's not that big a deal, but it does look extremely dorky with my black ankle socks and weightlifting shoes. Which is why I'm wearing sandals with my workout gear in these photos like a weirdo.

The top is the Kommatia Patterns Coco tank top, which I got for $2 in a sale on Makerist. It's a fairly standard tank top pattern with nothing particularly noteworthy about it, but I didn't have a tank top pattern and you can't really argue with $2. It has both a regular view and a cropped view, and this is a slightly lengthened version of the latter. I also put in a cut-some-bumps-on-the-side FBA. It's a really nice fit and I'll definitely use it again. It's super-basic so I'm not going to recommend anyone rush out and pay full price for it, but I did also buy several more substantial patterns from them in the same sale and I'm excited to review those properly. 

Will I ever wear these out of the house together? I really don't know. True story: our back garden is at the exact same level as our neighbours' balcony doors, and those doors remained resolutely closed and curtained while I took photos of normal clothes. When I came back out dressed like this, the doors were flung wide open and three people were milling around, occasionally glancing at me in mild horror. Which is both quite funny and also not at all encouraging. I'm definitely not ready to go lifting in a crop top yet - fat does funny things when you're jumping and squatting. Both pieces will get worn at dance classes for sure, and maybe the full galaxy nightmare will emerge in public one day.

While we're here, this is the first pair of Claras I made:

(Please excuse the sudden hair change - this picture is a few weeks old.)

This is the remainder of the fabric I used for my Simplicity leggings. I was a bit short on length so I cut the waistband pieces wherever I could fit them instead of on the fold. I added two inches to the legs and as you can see, it was unnecessary in this fabric. When I first tried this pair on I found that the back rise was too low for me, so I unpicked the seam and put a small yoke in the back. I couldn't manage to take a photo where it was visible - these leggings are awesome but they photograph like shit. 

I tested them out by wearing them to a personal training session and they held up WAY better than the Simplicity ones in the same fabric. They fit like leggings are supposed to fit, which means it's much, much easier to do everything. Here's me doing a snatch (snatch, jerk, power snatch, muscle snatch, rack jerk, I love weightlifting):

I will be making a bunch more of these. I have another two pairs of full leggings cut out already, and also the shorts version for anti-chafe purposes. Leggings live and die by the fabric choice so much that it'll probably be a while before I completely replace my RTW workout gear (probably as long as it takes me to find decent black activewear fabric, honestly), but the pattern is completely solid and I can't imagine ever needing another one. You'll be seeing this again.  

Next up: jumpsuit! Power stance! 

Jalie Clara leggings

Fabric: Galaxy spandex from Girl Charlee UK

Cost: £26

Pattern details: Leggings in full, capri and short lengths with no centre front or outer leg seams, gusset for fit, and either high rise with wide waistband or mid-rise with no waistband

Size: AA in the waist blended out to CC in the thighs

Alterations: Back rise increased by an inch

Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes

summer sewing: emerald green Esther trousers

I made a pair of Esther trousers in April last year, and I thought I probably wouldn't make the pattern again. The shape is too distinctive to merit too many pairs, trying to get the pleats to lie flat was a huge faff, and try as I might I could not find a top to wear them with beyond the one in the blog photos. I tried a bunch of different lengths and shapes and colours and every time I looked like the doorbell had rung unexpectedly when I was chilling on the sofa in my underwear and had to scramble to put the closest things on. Pyjama realness. However, as spring progressed and I found myself severely lacking in trousers, I began to reconsider.

When I decided to make a second pair, I knew I wanted something slightly heavier in weight than last time and also a solid colour, to hopefully minimise the pyjama vibes I kept getting from my first pair. I had every intention of buying a neutral-ish colour for versatility, but it shouldn't have been any surprise to me that I came away with bright emerald green. Once again my camera refuses to accurately record any shade of green but it's much brighter than this in real life. The fabric is some form of crepe and has a little raised cross-hatch texture all over it. It's really nice.

Making these trousers in a heavier fabric was an entirely different experience. I will say that this crepe is probably too heavy; you'd be fine with a lighter crepe but this was definitely a tad too thick. Last time I said I wouldn't use a heavier fabric because of the bulk and volume of fabric around the thighs; I take that back. The reason not to use a heavier fabric is that sewing on the waistband is giant bulky pain in the arse. There are certain points on the waistline where you have the seam for the two front pieces, two large overlapping pleats, the pocket bag, and both sides of the waistband meeting in one place, and when you're trying to secure the waistband you're sewing through almost a dozen layers of fabric. I had every intention of French seaming it, too, which would have made everything worse.

On the plus side, I didn't have any of the same issues with the pleats here. I now think the fabric I used last time was too light, and it actually does need a bit of weight in order to naturally drape and fall nicely. You can see that this fabric is doing exactly what it's supposed to and there's nothing remotely prolapsed about it. Which is good, because it wasn't the easiest to press and it'll take a few more rounds with the iron before the seams lie exactly the way they should. I probably won't go back in for the pleats, though, I think they look fine.

Another thing to note that I don't think I mentioned last time is that the pockets are ENORMOUS. Almost my entire forearm can fit in there. I don't tend to carry a ton of stuff in my pockets but I really appreciate that they're there. Though I did once freak out on the Tube last week because I thought I'd lost my phone, having only reached in as far as I assumed a pocket would go instead of to the actual bottom of the pocket. Your stuff will be safe, is what I'm saying, and I don't think I really felt the benefit of them in the last pair because the fabric was so light and not really able to support the weight of much stuff.

The pattern comes with an optional sash, which I decided I did want to make this time. I prefer the look of these with the sash but want the option to wear them without, which leads to a small drawback: the sash doesn't attach to the trousers in any way, and the style of both really doesn't lend itself to belt loops. It's not a huge deal, and wearing the sash loosely double-knotted like this seems to keep it from falling off, but it does add a layer of minor annoyance to going to the loo. Especially in public. I have now found myself awkwardly wearing the sash around my neck in pub toilets multiple times.

Please excuse my face here, it turns out I only took one solitary no-sash picture. I'm not sure why that was. 

Despite the bright green, these will definitely be much more versatile and wearable than my first pair. I've tried them on with a few different things and they do not look like pyjamas with any of them. It does have to be said that the emerald green limits my colour pairings somewhat, so I'm thinking of making a couple of tops to go with them and also be useful elsewhere; depending on availability of appropriate fabric I'm planning for grey, blush and possibly some shade of blue or yellow if I can find the right one. I LOVE yellow and green but I'm not sure I love yellow tops with green trousers, so we'll see.

 (The weather is ridiculous and all over the place and unsummer-like at the moment, so the white balance of these photos is all over the place and I was occasionally forced to turn into a cat when the sun came out. I decided not to include all the grumpy windswept ones.)

Overall I'm much more positive about this pattern than I was last time, and I think I probably would make another pair if I could find the right weight and colour of fabric. I've got a much better understanding of what works and what I'd be looking for now, so finding the colour would probably be a much bigger pain than finding the weight. I don't want bright and I don't want true neutral, which basically takes it right out of my wheelhouse. What colour would you make these trousers in?

Next up: leggings! It's head-to-toe galaxy time!

Victory Patterns Esther trousers

Fabric: Emerald green textured crepe from Walthamstow

Cost: £9

Pattern details: Pleat-front trousers in two lengths, with waistband, back zip and button, and optional sash

Size: 16

Alterations: None to the pattern itself; substituted back button for press stud

Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes

summer sewing: a jade green maxi dress

I got it done on time!

I haven't made a BHL Anna dress since late 2017, when I made several of them in quick succession the decided that I'd reached saturation point and really needed to find a new go-to woven bodice. What happened instead, as you may have noticed, is that I've barely made a woven dress since. It just feels like too much work. I've made a few attempts in the past to fit a princess seam bodice properly and it's REALLY annoying. Trying to get the neckline to lie properly, the waist to hit where the waist is supposed to hit, and most awkward of all the fabric to sit in properly under the bust instead of creating a weird slope from the apex to the waist was super frustrating and I just gave up. Maybe I'll try again soon.

With the Anna, however, you just make a couple of pleats and you're good to go.

When I bought this fabric - viscose crepe, beautiful texture, swishy rather than floaty if you want to get technical - I'd intended on trying a new strappy maxi dress pattern with it. I saw a pattern in Sew Today that looked like just the thing, but they didn't provide a photo of the back and when I went to buy it, I discovered it wasn't remotely bra-friendly. I had a look for something else I liked, came up short. Everything was either not suitable for wearing with a bra or was button-front, which I just don't like. I was going to hold on to the fabric to see what else would be released in the summer before I realised I had to attend a wedding on the 7th and didn't have anything to wear. I'd known about the wedding for a while but hadn't got clarity on the dress code (i.e. whether visible lower leg was acceptable for the temple or not), and by the time I realised the bride was going to be way too rushed off her feet and stressed to answer my nitpicky questions I barely had a week left to make the dress.

I played it safe and made the full-length version, and I'm glad I did. I'm still not exactly sure what the temple rules are; there was a woman there in a shorter dress and they didn't kick her out or anything, but everybody else was covered to the ankles, so I felt much more comfortable in a maxi (even though it was raining all day and I had to be on full puddle avoidance alert). I omitted the front slit for obvious reasons. At first I thought I might unpick it later to put the slit in after the wedding, but after wearing it for both days of the wedding I think I'll keep it like this. It's slightly less fancy-glam with no slit, and while I'm a big fan of fancy-glam it's not always the most versatile thing.

This is a size bigger than I usually make because stress-eating has consequences. I'm trying to work on that now (in conjunction with my therapist, no diets, slow progress, all the good stuff) but in the meantime I do need a little bit more room. The fabric also has a very slight stretch to it, meaning that the dress is super mega comfortable and I would be quite happy to wear it for eating giant meals. In fact, that's likely to be its main use over the summer. Other than that it's my standard altered Anna with a 2.5in FBA and no neckline facing. I have never used the included facing on any of my Annas after hating it so much on my original trial bodice, but I use a different alternative finishing method almost every time. For this one I used bias binding and topstitched it down to the inside.

Here's a photo we took outside the wedding venue. I wore a pashmina to cover my upper arms (I didn't make it, I bought it in Spain at least fifteen years ago) and I borrowed a pink and green headscarf when we got inside. The two-scarves thing was a bit unwieldy and I would have been better off with a shrug or jacket or similar, but I don't have anything that a) is formal enough, b) can be reasonably worn indoors, and c) doesn't look like ass with a full-length dress. I definitely didn't have enough time to conceive, buy supplies for and make such a garment, so unwieldy double-scarf action it was. For the reception the following evening I just stuck one of my Lupin jackets over the top to get me to the venue then wore it as is. Much curry was eaten. Many open bar cocktails were had. Much dancing was done to Uptown Funk, which seems to have finally dethroned Billie Jean as the opening wedding disco song of choice, and joyous techno-bhangra. Despite the dress being full length and me being drunk, I had zero issue dancing in it. Bonus!

I'm very pleased with this and I think it'll work just as well for standard summer days as for fancier occasions. I really like it with my denim Lupin. I'm particularly looking forward to wearing it during our holiday to San Sebastian next month, where we will just be eating constantly, as far as I can tell (it's my father-in-law's birthday and he's been planning this trip for at least a decade) and it's always good to look fancy as you fill your face with seafood. I won't make another Anna for a while but it's really nice to revisit an old favourite every now and then. 

Next up: either leggings or summer robe, depending on how photography goes this week!

 By Hand London Anna dress

Fabric: Viscose crepe from Walthamstow
Cost: £9
Pattern details: (as if you need these) Kimono sleeve dress with boat or V neck variations, underbust pleats, seven-panel skirt with maxi or knee-length variations
Size: UK 18
Alterations: 2.5 inch FBA, facing swapped out for bias facing
Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes

sewing plans: summer 2019

My spring plan was much less successful than I might have hoped. Part of that was the dip in my mental health that stopped me sewing for more than a month, but also most of the things I made just didn't work. I only really liked the denim skirt and the Nettie; everything else was on a sliding scale of fail from "I suppose I don't hate it but it's not really what I want" to "get this demon thing away from me immediately" (let's just say you will not be seeing any Sara trousers on this blog any time soon). I didn't get to everything; I still intend to make the bag set once I find all the hardware, and the shirt is all cut out and interfaced but I'm too chicken to start sewing it. I will do it. I will. Who's determined to do the scary thing?

Generally I find my summer plans much easier because summer clothes are what I'm most comfortable in. For the most part I've figured out what works for me and if I wasn't allowed to sew anything all summer I'd mostly be completely fine. There are a couple of actual wardrobe gaps, which I will fill, but mostly my plan is focused around two things: the practical sewing that I keep putting off because it seems hard/scary/annoying; and using up fabric from my stash. I've changed my approach to fabric this year, making a point of tracking my purchases and keeping a record of how much I have vs how much I've used, and it's made me realise how freaked out I get when I have too much stuff in. I know this isn't a common problem, but I don't have much space to hoard fabric, and when it starts to build up it generally means I'm panic buying because I'm not inspired to sew. I've now set myself a maximum number of metres I can keep at any one time, and I'd like to take it a fair bit below that this summer so that I'm not playing fabric chicken when I'm stressed. While I will need to buy a few things for this plan, I want to keep my shopping quite restrained for the next few months and work through some of the pieces I already have.

With that in mind, here's what I'm thinking:

Wardrobe gaps

Multiple pairs of summer trousers

The one thing I really noticed during this year's Me Made May is that I only have one pair of trousers I can wear this time of year (I broke out winter trousers twice and I really didn't like it). Over the past year or so I've become much more inclined to wear trousers again, having abandoned them almost entirely when I started sewing, but I've struggled to get them right. What I think I want is two pairs of slightly more structured trousers to get me through the days when we don't have any weather at all, and one super-light pair for when it's actually hot, though I might bump that up to two if we have a really hot summer again. I definitely want to have a second go at the Victory Patterns Esther trousers; I ended up really liking my first pair apart from the bit where they looked like pyjamas with every single top I own besides the one I wore in the photos. Gah. I went out to get fabric, spent some time deliberating between light navy and neutral stone, came away with bright emerald green because I'm an idiot.

For the super-light trousers I'm thinking of trying the Rae pants from Breaking the Pattern. I wasn't sure about these at first because of the leg slits, but now I think they might be fun and I can either put more effort into remembering to de-hair my legs or I can not.

A pair of shorts

During the summer I tend to be most comfortable in maxi dresses or full-length jumpsuits; I do have a couple of shorter dresses but they don't get that much wear. I'm not sure how much of this is due to chafing issues and how much is due to my aforementioned lack of interest in dealing with leg hair, so I'd like to experiment and try out a pair of shorts. It'll probably be either the Thurlows or M7726 (or both), probably lengthened a bit because my thighs can and will still rub below the hemlines of most short shorts.

Activewear and underthings

Some anti-chafing shorts

This is the thing I need the most and also the thing I least want to make. I have been trying for years to not make anti-chafing shorts, but sadly I think the time has come. Many years ago I found my ideal pair in Sainsbury's - I think they're meant to be shapewear but the compression is very light, meaning that it's not especially restrictive but also they don't ride up my legs (or down my torso). I have worn these to death and soon I won't be able to lie to myself about how much they're falling apart anymore. I have looked for something similar every single time I've gone anywhere near an underwear section and I haven't found them. I've bought several different pairs of actual anti-chafing shorts and they just don't work. Either they're too short (apparently my bit-that-chafes covers a lot more area than most) or they ride up within minutes and sit unhelpfully in my crotch. I'm going to start off trying a shorts version of the Jalie Clara leggings,which I really like (review incoming soon), but I do not know where I'm going to find the right fabric. Basically all my hopes are resting on my trip to Abakhan in a few weeks.

Some leggings

I also want to use the Jalie Clara for more actual leggings this summer. I absolutely need at least one black pair and again I'm worried about finding a fabric that will work (fingers crossed for the Abakhan activewear bin), but one thing I can definitely get on with is cutting into the absolutely ridiculous galaxy print spandex I bought for precisely this occasion. I'm hoping to have enough left over for a matching crop top so that I can achieve maximum ridiculousness.

A bikini

I tried making a bikini once before, and honestly both the pattern and the fabric were terrible. I had to throw it away when I got back from holiday. I've been wanting to try another one ever since but it's been completely impossible to find a pattern I like. I don't know if this is just me (it may well be), but I get really excited every time a company announces a new swimwear release and every time I'm disappointed at how ugly it is. Why so many monoboob crop tops? Why so many GIANT bikini bottoms? I say this as someone who will never be persuaded into low rise anything and likes to feel nicely enclosed: bikini bottoms that pull up over the belly button are really tough to balance proportionally and nobody is doing it right. Finally I came across the Jalie Gigi bikini, where the bottoms sit nicely just below the belly button like I wanted. I have some grey and pink fabric that I really like, but I'll probably need to work out how to put a bit more support into the top.


What's in the stash

A red linen jumpsuit

I bought this piece of raspberry linen on my trip to New York a year ago. I don't want to hold onto it any longer because I don't want it to become too precious to cut, and also I'd quite like to actually wear it. I think it's going to be a Paper Theory Zadie jumpsuit, but I still haven't worked out what to do about the length. I might dig out some toile fabric and see if I like the way it looks as a playsuit, or see if I can eke out more length by making the binding/inside pocket etc out of a different fabric.

A floral wrap skirt

This twill viscose I talked about in my Walthamstow post is going to become a wrap skirt this summer. I'm thinking of trying M7813 (haven't decided which view yet) or possibly the Vanessa Pouzet Boheme if I can be bothered to grade up the hips. I also want to make a short-sleeved navy bodysuit to go with it.

Some ridiculous bronze thing

It's utterly stupid that I'm still sitting terrified on this £9 piece of viscose, and I'm definitely going to use it in the next couple of months. When I talked about it in my Walthamstow post I said I was worried it would be overwhelming head to toe, and frankly I'm starting to think that my best option is just to lean into it. The idea of a matching two-piece has popped into my head, but whether that becomes a reality mostly depends on whether I can find a summer top pattern for wovens that isn't a) super loose or b) button back. Button back tops look lovely on other people, but they're too much faff for me to put on and I can't be arsed. There's also the possibility that it'll become a maxi dress, or the aforementioned Rae trousers.

A palm print maxi dress

I couldn't take a proper photo of this fabric as I've cut it out already - I'm going to a wedding this Friday and I need something to wear. I do have a couple of standby "one of Patrick's friends is getting married" dresses, but this one is in a Sikh temple and I'm not quite sure what the rules are about knees, so I'm just going to make a full-length Anna dress with no slit and side-step that whole thing entirely. I think the dress is going to be great and I'm very excited about it.

This needs to be something

I'd love some suggestions on what to do with this. It's two layers of cotton sandwiched together, is completely reversible, and is also apparently Karen Millen fabric (though I've not been able to find any photos of it in use). I don't use a lot of cotton and because it's double layered it's thicker and more structured than I'm used to, so I'm not really sure what its best use would be. I really want to take advantage of using both sides of the fabric; possibly a mostly black jumpsuit with one white crossover piece or waistband? Two piece where the top is one colour and the bottom is another? Panelled dress?  I have about three and a half metres (I asked for three but he definitely gave me extra) and I feel like I ought to be able to get a really awesome statement outfit out of it. Please let me know what you think!

For the most part, I think this is a fairly easy plan. It doesn't require me to buy too much fabric (or many patterns or notions, for that matter) and should be convenient enough for me to just get on with. Fingers crossed for my motivation and a successful trip to Abakhan!