DP Studio: le 001 Hoodie review

 In the middle of winter I decided to make this hoody.

I went with the smallest size, 36.  I actually planned really hard on this, to get a mix of fabrics that I envisioned in my head.  However that turned it into a challenging project because the different weights of the media caused some drama.  And in fact, I started to move house, and this went into a corner for six months.  Here we are midsummer and it's done!!

The fabrics are from The Fabric Store.  They are a heavyweight liberty sweatshirting, some lightweight black rayon knit and some black sweatshirt knit which is so cuddly.  In retrospect?  I should have done the whole thing in the cozy sweatshirt stuff.  Lesson learned.  I actually Really Do Not Like the Liberty.  It has a weird cardboardy feel, doesn't stretch much, and the design actually bothers me.  Obviously things can seem great in the shop and just not so great at home, c'est la vie.  

There are various tricks with this - in the beginning the pieces aren't obvious because of their strange shape.  You have to pay attention to which side of the sleeve is what, but once a few pieces are together it isn't too complicated.  I had trouble at the three way intersection of the body, the sort of hidden pocket, which is under the body, and the side piece.  That's partly because the weight of my fabrics was so different.  There were little holes I had to go and overlock shut after the fact.  I recommend using a stable sweatshirting fabric for this to make it easy to sew.  I also double layered the hood because I was using a really lightweight fabric.  I used self fabric bindings and they were insanely floppy.  I think I understand now that the instructions provide you a really long binding piece for you to put elastic into.  I bought some actual rib, and I think my piece was 2/3 of the length of the pattern piece to get enough actual pull in of the sweatshirt.  

 

The instructions are good enough, but they are not excessive.  It's not a difficult project overall but I do recommend working through it slowly due to the unique construction.  I don't recommend very loose or floppy fabrics since it's already a very loose and floppy thing.  

In the end I'm happy it's done, and I actually really like the concept.  I think to make this work I would need to use a single colour and keep it simple.  I will probably source some cuddly, easy to work with sweatshirting to do it for next winter.

Elbe Textiles Staley top, variations & review

I bought this pattern awhile ago and had an idea that it was a heavy sweatshirt pattern, which it is not.  I liked it ok but didn't feel much imperative to sew it.  I even printed it out and set it on my pile of to-do-soon but it didn't make the cut for my tshirt binge a few months ago.  (Too many pages, ugh, pdf patterns.) 

Like many patterns now, with so many sizes nested you will invariably have a lot of paper wastage if you cut a small size.  I don't see a great way to fix this, as everyone benefits from a few nested sizes in order to have flexibility - so clumping sizes in units of a few sizes (like Style Arc does) would solve the problem a bit, but would make people sad who are on the limit of one nest unit.

I cut a B.  I initially made view A with no changes, and view B with 3" shortening.  I shortened 1" at the upper lines, and 2" at the lower lines.  I am 5'4".

View A is in a stretchy and ridiculous gold lame stuff from Emma one Sock (still available!) It was fabric meant for a dress, but the dress pattern was from an op shop and it didn't contain all the pieces.  Also very sadly my life doesn't really have a need for gold dresses.  The fabric has a great drape and was easy to work with.  I did actually read the instructions before I made this, and the interesting prep for the side slits is fun and novel.  When I got to application of the hems, I was suspicious.  You do a lot of things that seem like they belong to woven fabrics.  Worth the effort?? Sewing in the ditch? Gahhhhh.  I mostly did what it said for the front to test out the clean finish, but I didn't sew in the ditch.  On the back hem I ditched the effort and, after sewing the sides of my binding and flipping it right side out, I just overlocked it to the hem.  The disadvantage: overlocker ears on the edges.  The advantage: fast and easy.  It's in the back, so I don't notice it, and thought that seems totally worth it compared to the drama of trying to sew knits in the ditch.  

 

View B: hm very short oops.  In a linen knit which is a bit sticky to work with but has a good drape.

  

I loved these immediately and wore them immediately and so I set forth to make a second set. 

View A: flowers from Guthrie & Ghani that I loved enough to pay the postage. It is a tencel rayon sort of knit, very drapey.  It has since sold out. And in fact I bought it planning to make this very top.  This time 1" shortening.  I shortened the sleeves 1" as well, they are very very long otherwise.  I used the quick and dirty hem method and now I am a bit contrite.  You know, that clean finish?  Maybe worth it.  Overlocker ears?  A bit annoying.  Ok you choose.  

 

View B: stripey stuff from Miss Maude.  This time only shortened 1", at the upper line.  I think this is a good compromise length on both of them. Maybe I'll shorten the tee one more inch, but I think on view A I'm happy. The side slits make view A more flexible too so even the long version doesn't seem long. 

 I also read the instructions for view B this time and did my hem coverstitching before I sewed the sides together.  I am still not really comfortable with the coverstitch machine, and doing all the pieces on the flat definitely is easier than stitching in the round.  I guess reading the instructions can be good that way...

Taking photos at 6 am = very good light.  Also in evidence, my dubious new/secondhand jeans from R13.  I have strange strange obsessions and R13 is one of them, but this particular pair seem to be too big.  Lesson learned...I'm about to copy an R13 jacket and one of their silk dress designs. 

I am really happy with this pattern, and it's nice to discover a new tshirt pattern I'm so enthusiastic about.  It has some of the nice features of the Briar, a good fit, two interesting options...I will probably finally commit and use this pattern for some designer fabric I've been hoarding.  Probably.