Aime Comme Marie Must Have, woven to knit

I made this very early on in my sewing adventures, see here.
I had to print and cut the pattern again as I hadn't saved the pdf pieces.  So I was pretty shocked to discover that it has no seam allowances. WTF?  As a beginning sewist I guess I had no preconceived idea about adding seam allowances and thought it was quite a lark...

Anyway my thoughts were in the direction of making a knit raglan tee without buying a new pattern.
First up I made it in a woven, size S per the size chart.  I added length to the sleeves (about an inch) and about 2 inches or so to the centre back seam. It's not very exciting but it's going to a friend of mine who lives in the desert, and it fits really well.

For the knit version I probably should have taken out some fabric, but I stuck to the pattern.  I folded out the dart and added a neckband. This knit has some linen in it and is quite drapey. 

 

Unsurprisingly, by this point I had kind of lost interest in any further modifications (my attention span is too short!) I remembered that I don't need any more tshirts.  I was not particularly enthused with this one, since it's rather oversized and I already have a bunch of oversized hemlocks, and it just sat around until my photos, at which point I realise I did judge it rather harshly. It is comfortable and simple.  I think I could just take some volume out from the centre front and back seams to get a more fitted top and I would be happier with that.

aimecommemarie - Marche a suivre pants

I'm on a roll, even though it's a tracing-pattern roll, and I hate that nearly as much as I hate facings.
Which reminds me that since I didn't trace *one piece* of my Anna, I might have to buy another copy.  Also annoying.

So, I'm on an aimecommemarie roll!  And now that it's finally getting warmer, I totally needed some bee-print lounge pants.  Even though it meant I had to learn how to buttonhole.  And then I didn't need the buttonholes.  But it was fun to make them and now I'm less scared of the Papercut Sylphide that I have lounging on my list. 

This pattern was straightforward until it got to the waistband.  I cut a size M based on the measurements, and the only additional thing I did was sew the pockets down.  They were going to flop all over the place otherwise.  But when I got to the waistband piece, it's about half as wide as necessary.  (I also didn't read to cut it on the fold so I had two, but that didn't cause any problems.)  You are advised to have a 1 cm piece of elastic but after folding the waistband in half and sewing it down, the waist is only 1 cm wide.  In theory there should be a strip of elastic in there along with a grosgrain ribbon.  Another comment is that the ribbon length that aimecommemarie suggests is not at alllll long enough, I couldn't have tied it in a bow once it was installed.  I tried just having the drawstring but I couldn't get the pants over my hips, so I went with just the elastic (which I had to shorten an additional 8 cm, and I used a 1/4" elastic instead of 1 cm).  No need for my pretty buttonholes!

Sorry my pictures kind of suck.  Getting used to the self timer is a bitch.  And there is no good place near the house to set the camera...

Anyway these are to be summer lounge pants and they will do for that.  They are not really flattering on me.  But if I made this pattern again I would definitely double the width of the waistband so it comes up higher and fits a bigger piece of elastic and the ribbon.  With some kind of rayon these might turn out quite exotic, actually.

I love the way aimecommemarie presents her patterns - they are on a sheet of solid paper, and look hand drawn.  (Although pieces overlap and you have to trace them.)  The instructions have great diagrams.  Sometimes, however, they are short on little details that beginning sewists need.  And of course it would be nice if they were available in English instead of just French.  I wrote a list of keywords and didn't have any trouble with the French, but if the patterns were more complex it would be a pain. 

aimecommemarie - must have, plus fabric shopping in LA

Hurrah!  Vacation has ended!  Since I spent the first day of it fabric shopping at the garment district in LA, I spent a lot of the rest of the time hanging off cliffs dreaming about what I would sew when I got home.  The result was a fabric mess all over the living room, dining room, etc...and it was hard to pick something and just get started.  So I went for something simple!  Then I got totally hung up on how to finish the neckline and this has dragged on for days, until I got sick of looking at it.  I'm definitely no good at keeping UFOs around.

This is my first finished product by aimecommemarie.  When I first saw the patterns I knew I was in love.  They are hand drawn and overlap (boo to necessary tracing) but the instructions are also hand written and drawn with illustrations.  They are inconveniently in French, but luckily French is pretty easy to figure out.  This shirt comes as a pdf and is only three pieces.  I traced a M to start, recognising both that I need to start sizing up if I want things to fit (re: my poor Anna), and remembering that euro sizing is much more fitted in general. 

Fabric: leftover from Anna.  I didn't have enough to fold the back piece, so I sewed two halves together.  Possibly made the back a bit wider by doing that, oh well.

The pattern gives you a few options for finishing the hem and neck, but no definitive instructions.  This might annoy some people.  It left me in limbo for about a week.  I finally used black bias tape and sort of tried something new by folding it to the inside.  I like the look but it makes the neck droopy.  So I just zig zagged the sleeves because I didn't want to change their look at all.  What do you do to avoid that droopy neck??  It seems like all non-knits are prone to this problem any time you use bias tape.

Ok...so regarding Los Angeles.  Well, I had a backup plan, which was a beautiful selection from Mood fabrics that I ordered ten minutes after that 20% off sale ended.  Stupid time difference.  I shipped it to my nice friends in Salt Lake City so it was waiting for me when I got there.  In LA I wanted to find linings - Bemberg, to try it out, and some silk..  Linings have been the hardest thing to buy online, I've found.  Oh and I wanted some leather to make my Victoria Blazer because I'm totally copying Kim.  As many before me have noted, the garment district is not a great place to go when you have a flight to catch in 3 hours.  I'm also a newbie and still not great at differentiating fabrics.  Things like the Michael Levine loft were wasted on me, because too much of the fabric just felt plasticky or yuck, and without knowing what it was, I wasn't interested.  I did have some success with silk at a random shop, picking out a few colors for about $12/yard.  Compared to New Zealand prices that was total success and now I wish I'd gotten more...Michael Levine stole the rest of my time and money.  I may end up making a short-sleeve Victoria though because I'm not sure I can magic two sleeves plus the body out of the three lambskins I found on sale.  But either way - leather jacket for $50!  I'm excited...and I really hope I can manage to get that to fit!

My new return crazy enthusiasm hasn't quite worn off and I have about ten pieces of fabric in the wash and patterns have taken over the living room.  I'm trying for a few simple projects to see if that helps me get focused!