Grey Organic Jersey Midi Dress

This is a project that did not meet its expectations. All cannot be success and glory, I am afraid!

It is wearable (at home, but that had always been its destiny), but more for comfort than beauty. My partner has said "well, I will get used to it" in a brave, proud of himself manner. 

The inspiration came from Sew Over It recent Nomi dress and similar designs at Saint & Sofia. I will never know if the fault is at the design, the fabric or my body type. 

I bought this fabric from Ribes i Casals online shop and had the idea of making a midi jersey dress to wear around at home, where I like to be comfortable in style. 

I used my Universal T-shirt pattern, and some gathered skirt from a Burda Style pattern, adding the bottom flounce, a rectangle. 

After finishing it and wearing it around, I removed the skirt, took a total of 32 cm off the waist, gathered it again and reattached it to the bodice for a not-so-full version, which I can tolerate.

The dress is perfectly fine if I do not look in a mirror. 

Camouflage Jersey Top

This is one of these projects where you make some pants to go with everything and then you have to make something to go with them, if you know what I mean. 

I love these pants, they are comfortable, becoming and have big pockets. I can wear them with bands T-shirts to go to concerts, but I needed something to wear to school. 

So I got this camouflage jersey from tiendatelas and after some moths in my SMALL stash, it was its turn.

I decided to use my Universal T-Shirt pattern, classic style.. that is to say, raglan sleaves, small roundish/v-shapedish neck and very small ease all around. 

That pattern and this fabric were obviously calling for some colour blocking, so I used some small black elastic jersey remnant. 

I have made this one hundred times. It is still the best t-shirt pattern ever. I have even upped my neck banding skills after the previous project!

And it looks great with my pants.

100% awesome, f+ck modesty! 

I am going to my 3rd concert after the end of the pandemic and I am utterly happy here. 

Mint Agnes Top & Black Interlock Pants

Two successful makes in a row: happy happy happpy!

The mint green jersey is organic cotton with 5% elastane, bought in Ribes i Casals online shop. The organic thick interlock is the same I used from my previous black dress, and it is gorgeous for pants!

For the top I used Tilly and the Buttons' Agnes Top and this time I decided to give it a full go and make the ruched sleeve heads as well and the front. It is a lovely pattern, I love it, specially with these sleeves. 

I did not modify anything, it is perfect on me as it is. 

The process of creation of the pants was more complicated. I got inspired by Saint & Sofia trousers. They use a lot of thick cotton interlock for their pants, and they seem comfortable, wearable and becoming. I had the perfect fabric, I only needed the perfect pattern. 

I looked through Burda's pants patterns and I found the perfect one. I found the magazine they were published and asked for it to my library-bus, which brought it to me. There, free pattern. Great. 

I went down a size, and they were still very big on my first fitting, so I took two more sizes off, ending up in a 36!! I do not understand BurdaStyle sizing with pants, really. I am not a size 36. My measures are size 42 in Burda's own charts. 

Whatever, It was easy to size down. I had cut really big seam allowances, as I always do with new patterns. 

I kept the pockets, adding a plastic tape sewn to the inside of the upper rim, but I made the lining in a thinner single jersey.

I skipped the zip, though. The fabric has a lot of give, and did not want all the bulk for nothing. I only left 1 cm in the centre front seam and closed the waist piece with buttons. I have to be careful putting them up and down not to break the sewing of the waist piece, but I still prefer that to a zipper in bulky jersey fabric. 

I also added 10 cm to the bottom. 

The pants are perfect. One of those pieces I cannot imagine living without until now. A pillar in my wardrobe. Very happy with them. 

Knit and Sewn Outfit

 

Well, we have a goody today!

A project I am really proud I made and I know it is going to have a lot of wear. Let me explain the creative process.

The main inspiration for the top is Kim Hargreaves book, Heartfelt: The Dark House Collection. I bought the book online for a project a friend found for me, and this is the 2nd project I made (see the 1st one) from it, and it is not going to be the last. Designs are gorgeous and totally my cup of tea, and patterns are perfect and really fun to make. 

The yarn recommended is some outstocked bamboo, but I decided to adapt it to this beautiful organic cotton by Katia. I had made another project with it, and it had the perfect feel, thickness and colour. This shade of beige can be tricky, and I wanted it to be natural and antique... it's perfect. 

It took quite a while for me to knit it, I started in June and finished at the end of the year, when it was too cold to wear it (typical). 

After some trials with different needles, I adjusted the pattern to my gauge and started knitting. When I got 20 cm from the bottom up, I realized it was too narrow, and I had to undo it and start over, but it was completely worth it, as it always is, because now it is just perfect. See the project at Raverly. 

I had this skirt in mind for quite a long time now. The inspiration is the Gabriola pattern. I love to be able to copy commercial patterns by adapting my own. In this case, I used the long A skirt pattern. I took the upper part and draw some lines with a ruler in the pattern paper, creating these three top pieces (front and back), and the remaining long bottom piece. The final result is quite good, but I had to make lots of undoing and redoing because there were some weird wrinkles over my bottom, which I finally took rid of. They were probably caused by imprecision, aka, I had not marked the fabric, as I always do, with tailor tucks. Seam allowances were so sparse, no sense in doing so.  Another problem was fabric scarcity. I cut the pieces too tight and that gave me no room to manoeuvrer, so I ended up with a tight skirt. Anyway, it does not flatter my protrudent tummy area, so I am wearing it covered. But now I have the doubt of how it would be if it were looser. I will experiment more with those Gabriola pieces, cutting them a couple of cms wider at the sides. 

Well, the final outfit is gorgeous, don't you think?

Organic Thick Interlock Dress

Wonderful new interlock I've found at Ecological Textiles. 

Touch, hang, low wrinkling, shade of black, the matte finish, stability, everything is perfect with this fabric. 

I plan several pieces in it, so great!

I though this BurdaStyle magazine pattern (January/21) would be nice in it, and I am really glad about the result. This is a dress I will wear and wear. Comfortable, classy and sporty at the same time, warm and breathable... well, it has all the right ticks.

 

The construction had some thrill in the neck area. The instructions of the pattern (we all know Burda for their meagerness) suggest that I left row seam allowances around it. I wanted to encase it all in itself and after some jig jawing, I managed a neat result I am very proud of. 

As always, sleeves are almost perfect with Burda patterns. I had only to sew them 2 cm inwards the upper armscye seam. 

I am also proud of by wooden buttons. I bought them in a big box, two sizes, and they are awesome, I use them all the time. And they read MADE WITH LOVE, engraved in the wood, which is lovely. 

It is a pitty how bad black fabric gets on camera, the details of the neck are perfect. A perfect pattern for a perfect fabric. 

Dark Blue Organic Jersey Top

This is a failed attempt to combine with my previous linen-wool pants.

The pattern is from Burda, and it was OK, but I had to take off a total of 8 cm of ease, and it is not thight enough to wear inside my wide pants. 

I changed the neck binding though, and used the same pattern I had used in my last jacket. 

The top in itself looks good on me, though, and I will wear it with jeans. 

Linen - Wool Trouser Suit

 There is a web in the Netherlands that sells ecological textiles, and I love it. I had to buy some interlock and as I reviewed all the new textiles they have (to make the best profit of the shipping costs, my good conscience said) I saw this beautiful pied de popule in a linen and wool blend. I have been looking for a blue "Channel" jacket wool fabric for some time now, because I own one that is OK, but the fabric is polyester, and it does not feel right. (I am mad, it seems). So I thought this was the perfect option. 

And then the parcel arrived.

The pied de popule was 10 times smaller than I imagined and the fabric 4 times thinner. Boomer. 

After swearing to myself I would never buy  fabric online again (hahaha), I started to think what to do with this beautiful fabric. I had bought 2 metres because they do not sell halves, so I decided to go for a trouser suit. 

I saw the pattern of the jacket in a BurdaStyle magazine in my local library (which is on wheels and fantastic, by the way). It was perfect for this thin wool-linen mix, had three-quarter sleeves, which meant fabric savvy. The pattern is really beautiful, and it has proved so in sewing and wearing it. Burda never disappoints, their patterns are great, specially sleeve caps. 

The pattern for the trousers came also in BurdaStyle magazine. It was wide trousers, but I took 8 cm off in the first fitting, goodness, they were enormous!!! 

So, this pattern for the trousers did not please me very much... I have yet to find the perfect pattern for wide trousers, and I am starting to suspect it might not even exist... because of my body type. But I have not desisted yet! I am planing on some wool crepe wide pants, we will see...