The Stretch Dawn Jeans

I had spent quite a bit of time perfecting the Dawn pattern, and it seemed a shame not to capitalise on that. The pattern as is doesn't fit me well in the upper thighs and butt, but I did only give my first pair of Dawn jeans (here!) away to a friend recently, so they have stayed around.  My second pair in yellow was too tight, my third pair in green is amazing but nonstretch denim is just...not always my first choice.  So how about doing them with stretch?  

I used the longer leg pattern pieces and added the crotch and upper thigh adjustments from the Persephone pants that I had used on my yellow and green versions.  Sewing was uneventful and the result was...hm...actually surprisingly roomy.  

Ends up that I do like these, but the ankle length sort of scoots up, catching on my calves as I walk around and they are rather oversized around the butt and thighs, and a bit sloppy looking.  I guess the lesson here is that you need to size down when using a non-stretch pattern to make stretch jeans.  I had long since forgotten that I added room in the calves in the original pair of these, too.  The loose fit hasn't stopped me from wearing these jeans since at the moment they are my only simple me-made ones, but I don't feel like a fashion maven in them, so clearly I need to keep making more jeans until I find the fit that suits me right now.

I don't know where my flat lay photos went!  

These have already gone on to a friend (it's been a busy time for jeans in the past few months) so you will have to do without.

Named Alpi Chinos - pattern experiments.

Digging through my big dropbox of patterns, I found this. I recalled that back in 2015 I was really keen to make these trousers! So excited! And somehow, time ran out and they didn't get made.  So I became again very curious how the Alpi chinos are doing and wanted to see for myself. 

I have this very pretty light corduroy fabric from The Fabric Store.  A bit wild.  Hm, if I got more, I would make a wee jacket, in fact...but I decided it would be good for these pants.  I made size 38 according to the size chart.  Seems like when you buy a Named pattern, you only get a few sizes?  Or did I print layers?  It doesn't matter - seems that this pattern has gone off their website, so it's no longer available.  I did impeccable pattern matching on both the front pockets and the back.  And I do love the tui and kowhai inside the pockets -it's really my favourite of the New Zealand quilting cottons.  Overall the parts of this project please me so much.

Simple pants, I don't recall my opinions on doing the fly - since everyone seems to reinvent how to do a fly zip, but I got them done and put them on and realised...2015 was a long time ago.  And that low waisted trouser style from 2015 was hard to fit then and it is both hard to fit and kind of unstylish now.  By which I mean the upper hips were way too big.  So I added in some big back darts and took in the back waist before adding the waistband, and I got them to the point where they wouldn't fall off.  It made me lose my interest in these a bit.  I already have the Cali Faye Hampshire pants - I don't believe Cali Faye exists anymore, but the trousers are a great fit on me if I want that kind of style.  Basically, I don't need any Alpi Chinos in my life.  And higher waisted things look way better on me. 

 

 

 

Went to a friend who has gotten a bit hippier than I am. Yay friends!  Thank you so much for loving what I make!

another Greenstyle repeat: the Lumia hoodie, take two.

The Lumia hoodie, version 1 (see it here), was an ok fit but still very long on me. 

It also seemed like it could handle pretty heavyweight sweatshirting. 

I hated my mixed fabrics (a friend loved it, so it went to her!)

So I got this nice heavy sweatshirting from The Fabric Box and matching rib as well. I remembered to shorten my rib!

Still size C. This time I shortened it further in the front by just cutting the bottom upwards a bit, and lengthened the back hem, since it seemed to sit relatively high on me compared to the front. So that was functionally a hi-low hem alteration. I didn't shorten it further through the middle, since I didn't want to shorten the design feature too much.  I think I could shorten it above the pockets if I still wanted it shorter next time.

It was an easy sew. I still didn't use twill tape on the back of the zip, but I'm happy with this hoody. It's heavier than current Lululemon ones since the hood is lined and my fabric is quite heavy (and of course because the current Lululemon quality has become super shit!)