Roberts Wood Flower Patchwork dress, a Frocktails adventure

 I have been wildly in love with this pattern since it came out. 

But in love like unrequited love.

There was the first big hump: what fabric could cope with so many unfinished edges?  I spent a year mulling this over.  I reckoned it had to be silk, maybe organza.  Something with body, so the flower petals would stick out.  The pattern consists of 3 separate sets of flowers, so you can use 3 different fabrics and you won't end up with the same fabric next to itself - or of course you can just use one fabric, or two. 

I got too curious and bought the pattern and had to recover from that for another year.  Both the financial hit, and the 5 tightly rolled up A0 pages with nothing on them but...flowers.  Hundreds of flowers.  The size is built into the pattern- and I was confident with the smallest size as it coincides neatly with my measurements.  The dress is a bit oversized, but I wouldn't have wanted it smaller, the neck hole fits just right.  It feels quite substantial around me I think that's because of the three-dimensional-ness of it. 

I bought three colours of silk organza and stuck it at the bottom of my stash.  I moved house a few times (always a good reason to procrastinate.)  I changed jobs and didn't get to sew enough...

And then moved to Auckland, a city with a Frocktails!  I put this dress on my Make 12 list for the year, deadline: Frocktails in early September.  I also reorganised my stash and thought actually the cranberry red dupioni silk, previously purchased for something else, might be a perfect fit for this.  The organza idea just didn't feel right.  Months passed and trips came and went and suddenly I actually only had two weeks until Frocktails.  

I spent two days cutting out paper flowers while my partner watched.  This improved when I realised I had an audiobook to attend to.  I thought I would stick the flowers onto the silk, cut roughly around them and then cut more precisely one by one.  To make this possible I bought the sharpest little embroidery scissors in Spotlight, a new micro-olfa cutter, and a small pink cutting mat, plus three spools of matching thread, and I hijacked the kitchen table.  

This phase took another 2 days.  And catastrophe then struck: a pile of flowers were neglected on the sewing room table...a RANDOM cross section of flowers from the three different colour ways.  And I had run out of fabric.  An emergency trip to The Fabric Store - a very lucky grab at a bolt of red dupioni silk - the last of the dupioni in stock - and an early morning trip to the laundromat later whew, all the flowers are accounted for, and hopefully the different shade of red will add texture.  Four days to go. 

I quickly realised it was better to pin the flowers to the silk for the rough cutting phase.  I just needed to get them into a pile of flowers, it didn't matter if they were a bit askew on their individual fabric pieces.  An unexpected participant joined the fun: Paivi LOVED all the excitement happening in her personal playground and joined the sweatshop with enthusiasm.  She particularly liked all the sharp objects, and unpinned bits of paper...

Cutting the flowers out on my new surgical desk: 2 days. 

I now had 2 days to sew the dress, plus the day of Frocktails which was after night shift so I could do some sewing, but nothing too strenuous.  It ended up being the bindings, done on the day from that original organza.  Organza is a terrible thing to cut and also to sew on the bias and was a horrible choice to use for bindings, so if you look closely, they are a bit messy.  

The insides! There are many micro holes at the corners where my sewing lines weren't perfect, but you can't see any of this in the dress when worn.

 

I showed up at frocktails slightly glassy eyed post night shift, and with a few faint chalk marks here and there on my dress - but DONE!  and it was a perfect way to celebrate a project that ran my life for about two weeks, while also being a kind of sanity-saver and distraction from some simultaneous health drama.  To give you some scale: I consumed 4 audiobooks during the simple parts of cutting these flowers out. 

And you know, I would do it again.  I would actually use fabric scraps and just not worry about the fraying edges and make a wildly ridiculous patchwork version of this dress.  Also, it has heaps of room and needs pockets.  I was absolutely not going there this time around but I see no reason to skip it on a future attempt.   

Open Studio Shop pants pattern review

I've been planning to make these pants for a very long time. 

I was debating between the Shop pants, the Worker Trousers by Modern Sewing Co and the Adams pants. 

I understand that each of the three has some very different features but overall they fit a similar kind of mold to me.  So I picked these because I liked the slightly tighter fit, the front pocket angles and the cool back leg feature.  Comparing the three now, I'm still glad I chose these, and I don't think I would make the others.  Eventually, tired of a queue of pants, I changed all my fabric plans for these and pulled out some iced dyed cotton canvas that I dyed years ago thinking of making a Sienna maker jacket (which I really should still make...)

There are a lot of blogs about the size chart for these.  There are blogs! How exciting!  However it did make sizing feel like a minefield.  I presumed that I'm now working off the new size chart as there were issues which have since been rectified, but I also saw that very precise sewists are still not entirely happy with the final measurements of the pants chart.  So I both committed to the chart, and worried they wouldn't really fit.  I made a size 2 going up to size 4 at the waist, which was kind of a pain as crossing the size lines also affected multiple bits like pockets and darts.  In my previous notes I had put down size 2 as a better fit, and I think, if I reread all the blogs, a size 2 would have gotten me a more fitted final result.  This is what happens when you take too long to actually make something.

Sewing these took a long time because I went on holiday, didn't manage to finish them prior to the holiday and then just didn't think they would work out for me which undermined my post-vacation sewjo.  I thought the ice dye might make them look like clown pants.  Eventually I got irritated with my delays and here they are.  I thought the fly instructions were terrible and I had a lot of nitpicky opinions about abbreviations used in the pattern instructions.  My real complaint is the waist.  I actually took in the pants at the waist, they were so big, and because of that, with heaps of easing HARD, I got the pants into the waistband.  The 4 part waistband was confusing, it was impossible to tell which way was up, luckily the instructions have drawings that help with that, but I possibly mixed up right and left.  I did NOT cut the waistband short so my advice is to cut it extra long!  

Finally done, and they do fit, but they are very loose at the waist. No need to size up to 6 at the waist after all.  I'm a 27 waist and 37 hips.  I think this fits the vibe of the pants as being laid back, chill and relaxed fit.  For some reason I am not very enthused about them.  

 

I wonder if I would fit into them as desired if I sized down completely by one size. The bum is just so baggy and they are roomy everywhere.  The front crotch of the pants is super roomy - good for people who have a tummy as it hides it nicely, so these are great if you want to expand during the day from a good meal.  

 I do think the ice dyeing works on these and doesn't make them look like clown pants, but I'm not sure it's exactly my style (though I adore how the dye came out!)  They just feel sort of silly on me.   

Road Trip Pattern Co. Cascadia joggers

 I was thinking about patterns for doing outdoor activities, and specifically the Topo pants.  I'm hesitant about the Topos, because though Leila is a prolific and sponsored Instagrammer with loyal followers, she has no background in drafting.  This often leads, online, to a huge following of people with nothing negative or realistic to say about a pattern. 

Around that time the Road Trip Pattern Co made its way onto my Insta feed, as things do.  I was initially taken by the Granite pants, which seem similar to the Topos, but I got overwhelmed by the number of cool trouser patterns I haven't made before, and eventually had to make a choice and chose to make the Cascades as they are kind of unique.  I made size 4, which fits my hips but is a bit big at the waist. 

I went into the process with a very muslin sort of approach.  I wanted to kind of test this new pattern company.  I used a scrap of stretch wool which is obviously not on the list of suggested materials - probably a bit less stretchy than a stretch softshell type fabric.  I used a very very stretchy rib for the cuffs and waistband, since it matched the pants so nicely.  I did not pay very good attention to all of the waistband instructions, for instance to use power mesh, so it's not surprising the waist feels loose, especially since I had sized up a bit at the waist. 

The pants came together ok.  I was displeased with the pocket situation 

You do a certain amount of folding of pocket bits to create the overlap, and I did not find that this was precise or had precise markings I could follow.  The result is that it's easy to have the pockets not line up with the design lines on the back pant. (Or with each other, but that probably is less visible.) 

My waistband was completely ridiculous, it's way too loose.  This is often what happens when I go into a pattern thinking it's a practice version - I don't try hard enough, and it becomes a Real practice version, ie destined straight for the op shop.  It makes me rate the pattern rather low, when I think a lot of the issues were on my side, not the pattern's side.  

 

Waistband loose and pants thus falling off my bum, unsurprising having used a rib for the waistband and not following the instructions.  However, the waistband also starts really low on the bum - it would be reassuring if it started higher and there were overall more bum space. 

The articulated knees are baggy and definitely give these pants a casual, just off the trail look.  I would not wear them for hanging out in a city. 

I also notice really distinct drag lines below the knees, and think I would benefit from a valgus adjustment at the knee, which I generally don't do.  I wonder if these were a bit bigger that would matter less - and whether I should thus have sized up from the thigh down.   

Overall I do not think this is a particularly refined pattern.  You need to match your stretch fabric for the waistband/cuffs to the pants fabric, which often leads to really homemade looking results.  The articulated knees also make me feel really dumb since they are constantly poked out.

I would have to make some changes if I made these again. I would probably size up from the knee down and figure out that adjustment.  Obviously I would choose more appropriate fabrics and I would add 1"  to the centre back tapering out to the side seams for slightly better bum coverage.  I don't feel an urge to make these any time soon, but generally all it takes is the right fabric for me to reassess a pattern with a new enthusiasm.