I have been testing this pattern, the Acacia Underpants (which on top of its perfection, it is FREE!), for some time now... I think this is the fourth trial, and I can finally say they are perfect now.
The trial and error has to do with sizing. Following the size chart resulted in some small knickers at the beginning, with some big elastic bands! Then I went two sizes up and it was too big. Finally, a medium size, for this fabric, is perfect.
With such close to the skin, tight piece, one has to be accurate and precise. Not all the fabrics have the same stretch, and it happens the same with elastic bands.
I have used a gorgeous black organic cotton from Ray Stitch. Since it is a small rib knit, it has some give in it without any plastic, which is great. They have it also in white.
Now I am waiting for somebody to make some organic elastic band 5mm wide. Please!
I love them. I can't stop wearing even the smaller and bigger samples, so with these perfectly sized ones, my skin and mucosae are going to be very happy.
I have been planning for a second long bias skirt since I made the 1st one in a wool polyester blend (some time ago, I was not so picky with fabrics, to my regret now).
In my last trip to fabric (and music concerts going) shopping in London, I found this gorgeous Lady McElroy wool chenille in The Village Haberdashery at about 14 Euros the metre. Pure wool in black and white, with a speck of pink. It cannot be more gorgeous. I was doing some calculation in the shop and finally I got 2 metres, which became the right amount for a long bias skirt like this.
The pattern is mine, I drafted it using Aldrich's book, and I have used it for shorter versions quite a number of times. The waist darts of the fabric are eliminated and substituted by flare from top to bottom. The fact that it is bias cut, adds movement, drape and hang to the fabric.
I lined it with a good rayon, put an invisible zipper on one side and a waist band to be worn in my high waist.
The idea of the outfit, with the white blouse, came watching Divorce. S.J. Parker is often an inspiration, (notwithstanding the impossible high heels she wears all the time) and she is wearing a similar skirt with a white blouse that I found perfect.
Not to brag, but my blouse (a perfect Burda pattern wit a bow in front, princess seams and 3/4 sleeves) is even better.
It is a dream of a skirt. It looks gorgeous with white, and also with a black top. With a wool channel jacket or with a black leather biker. With chunky high heels, like in this pictures, but also with combat boots.
Wearing it, I feel like a queen, with the skirt moving from side to side when I walk. Plus, it is very comfortable and warm.
A jewel in my wardrobe.
These two pieces go well together, so they've become a tandem.
First, I used this wonderful Japanese cotton to make Sew Ove it's Pussy Bow Blouse, and its become the perfect blouse pattern in the perfect fabric. It is soft, with the perfect drape, comfortable and gorgeous. Also expensive, considering it's only 1 m wide.
The Pussy Bow Blouse is a fantastic pattern. It does not have any bust or waist darts, so it is a rectangle with bust circumference. Being rather big breasted, these kind of patterns hanging from my big boobs tend to render me fat, but in this case, I love it! The key element in the deep V-neck cut, surrounded with a bow that can be done or hang loose. That detail makes it the sassy librarian blouse style, adorable.
Sleeves are also beautifully cut, their caps are perfect and their cuffs too. And it is simply gorgeous in this fabric. My students told me it seemed Chinese, and they were close enough, so the Japanese style of the print, with small white and silver painted over a shady blue making it seem hand painted.
Regarding the skirt, it is totally my creation. I had this corduroy that resulted too thin for a pair of trousers, and finally I came with this idea of a long skirt with a ruffle at the bottom. It's comfortable, warm, and looks nice with combat boots. Maybe it is strange for people, someone told me I seemed out of a fairy tale... and I don't know if that is good or bad. But I like it, so the rest, I do not care!
I've been making this for nine months, I should be wearing this 24/7 and I am not. I've worn it twice in two weeks... I don't know if it's worth it at all, but I had a nice time knitting it, so, what the heck!
I bought this baby alpaca wool in Wool and the Gang, in one of their great 50% windows, with free shipping on top. So the price was more than fair for this quality yarn.
I followed Ann Budd's Top-Down Sweaters book to make it, in a pattern I came up with: knit 5, purl 1. This gives some vertical lines that are only visible on the wrong side, or if the right side is stretched. I made it with cabled needles, so it does not have sewn seams anywhere, and that is so nice.
I made a 1x1 rib strip for the front opening, with buttonholes and big beautiful buttons I bought in the Barcelona Knitting festival past November 17th, where I also bought the yarn for my next project, which I have already begun.
Unfortunately, I made a miscalculation, the gauge turned up to be 6 instead of the 7 stitches the 1/4" that I had set my calculation for after the first test sample. So the jacket ended up being too big, and I realized that after steam blocking it!
I do not understand why I did not try it on properly before steaming it, or maybe I did and I don't remember, who knows... the fact is that I decided, after reading some advice regarding alpaca only, not to immerse it in water to block it. I read in several places that alpaca is very unstable when wet, prone to get bigger... I had just a had a nasty experience washing a superwash merino pullover and spending one week trying to reduce it back again to its knitted size. I managed to do it with much patience and patting, but I did not want to relive that... so I found this great video and others, saying that pin your piece down and steam your hot iron over it without touching, was the best way to block alpaca. When it dried off and I tried it on I realized it was more than a size too big. I then checked the gauge, and it was 6 rather than the intended 7. So I pinned the cardigan down, wrinkling it to be 10 cm smaller in circumference. I steamed and steamed, patting it down to shrink it, and I could do it! I also sewed a ribbon from shoulder ridge to shoulder ridge passing all the way through tha back of the neck, to contain the cardigan from stretching because of the weight. Alpaca is weighty, specially this big a cardigan.
Another drawback was the fact the the cardigan left tons of little hairs on the clothes under it. I had to clean and clean them every time I wore it, plus cleaning itself too, hanging it in the wind, etc. It still leaves hairs, but I expect they will eventually stop.
All in all, a discreet success. Only time will say if it is a really useful piece of clothing. Cardigans have the advantage of being able to be worn open or close, depending on the temperature you are in, but they have the inconvenience of having to match not only the bottom, but the top under it as well...
As I said before, I am now into the following knitting project, a tight merino/moire/silk pullover, which I am greatly enjoying. Also following Ann Budd's bible.
See it in Ravelry
I bought this viscose jersey in Porto last summer, in Feira
Do Tecidos
. I bought 3 metres thinking about the Sirocco jumpsuit I'd seen around, but finally I changed my mind and opted for a long dress. Jumpsuits can be an annoyance to go to the toilet and are tricky in terms of figure... I have an inverted waist, so I chickened out. And I am glad I did, because this has resulted a wonderful long dress.
I used an old patten from BurdaStyle magazine (best fitting patterns EVER) I had used in two previous occasions for shorter dresses... I've looked back in my blog, and they are not here, so they must be previous to my blogging.
I planned to use the wrap bodice for the Sirocco jumpsuit and then some jersey darted pants, so I stuck to the bodice and sleeves from Burda, and used its skirt too, but making it long to my feet and A shaped, as much as the fabric permitted.
I also added some ease at the top of the skirt, and the gathered it a little bit. The pattern had fitting darts in the back, so I gathered that extra fabric too.
I added some belt, knotted at the back, put some elastic thread along the neck opening to prevent it from gathering.
The result is a stunning dress, comfortable, wearable, classy, cool... I love it. I wore it to work in my school and also for Sunday activities, like the Barcelona Knit Festival, where I bought some gorgeous wool your hear soon enough about.
Big thanks to French Navy for the Orla
Dress free PDF
pattern!
I've been looking for this kind of casual, comfortable and yet shaped dress, and after some failure, I have finally found the one.
Similar to the Hinterland dress, but more fitted to the waist, the Orla dress has the perfect amount of gathering at the waist, the perfect waist height and skirt length, at least of my body type and taste.
I made one small modification: giving a little more ease in the bodice sides, maybe a couple of centimetres in total, and a big one: cutting it at the centre front, and adding a button stand for buttons and buttonholes, to imitate the boho air of the before mentioned Hinterland dress.
The only thing I don't like about this pattern, and it is not a minor one, is the sleeves. They have too much ease at the cap, and it was impossible to smooth all that into the seam, specially in this thick linen, so I had no other option but pinching it. The angle of the sleeves, how they hang, is totally off. Luckily, linen is so wrinkly. that both pinching and of angles are covered.
These pictures were made in bad conditions, my tripod missed the piece holding my phone, and they all suffer the barrel effect, I look slightly wider than in real life. Also, I took them after working all day at my school with it, but that is natural! Anyways, the feeling I have wearing the dress (I can't see the back of my sleeves, haha...) is far better than these pictures.
I totally love it, specially in this wonderful green linen I bought in Coimbra this past summer.
I finally got to take pictures of this wonderful summer make. I made it in less than a week for our trip to Portugal in July, as I listened to the wonderful Where the Crawdads Sing.
This is the third rendition of a rubbed off pattern I made two summers ago and again last summer. Now I realize I am kind of in love with it.
I could not say which of the three I prefer, since the three of them are made with lustrous cottons, they are fresh, comfortable, becoming to my figure... perfect.
This one travelled for 18 days all pressed up in a bag in a cross country trip. I wore it in two or three occasions, folded again and put it back in the bag. When I got home, I took it out, gave it a little shake, wore it again, and it was perfect!
That is how nice this Japanese cotton is! I bought it, only 1 m is enough for this pattern, in Goldhawk road, in London. There was a small shop with several Japanese cotton at good prices. They are worth the last penny.
