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.

Megan Nielsen Amber dress, though maybe it's hard to tell...

 Paulina requesting breastfeeding dresses and we settled on this, with the caveat that the cross front should be underneath, and a tshirt panel over top.  (As designed I'm self-censoring my opinions on how sickly this dress is...) But THEN she texted and said sleeveless please!!  

So, I cut my size - XS (though my hips are slightly larger) since it said go by pre-pregnancy size, and other people said it was very oversized.  I had 1 meter of the birds, which are DIRECTIONAL fml, and you know "very oversized..." so I cut 2x the back skirt instead of a front skirt.  Used the Deer and Doe Givre, which was handy, to recut a tank top armhole and some bindings, as well as the front overlay panel, I think I just overlapped the two patterns to get a tshirt front piece.  I made the tshirt overlay as long as the front waist panel, then added a binding of the same length so it wouldn't really be snugger. 

Got the top bit put together on one side and though I had best try this baby on...and hm, it really doesn't fit below the waist, oops.  I luckily just had the one side sewn together and I had ONE triangle of leftover fabric, so I stuck in that entire triangle from the waist down to the hem and sewed it in.  Whew, dress goes onto ME now and looks a bit like designer post-partum wear.  I hope Paulina can get it on!  

Sent it over and the verdict - PERFECT! It's really snug on her, as you'd expect just having a baby, but she doesn't need a bra with it, and luckily the front is roomy enough for the post baby tum.  She has requested another so now I'm stuck trying to recreate my skirt-saving fix again...(might just add a few cm to the waistband and skirt...) 

I would say this is TRUE to SIZE though I can't comment on the exact front as designed since I hacked it quite a bit. I do think it's reasonable to size up if you aren't in the market for a snug designer look breastfeeding dress, and of course use the skirt as designed with pleats if you want it to be a pregnancy item as well as functional post-partum.

some new knickers: Orange lingerie Montgomery briefs

 These are very pretty. 

The question was, of course, whether they would adequately translate from a pattern made out of plastic (that's YOU stretch lace and power mesh) into a pattern made from my cotton fabric scraps (the goal).  

I started by following the instructions (is it funny that this is rare, unusual, and requires comment?)  I made size S. I used some navy power mesh from my stash, matching lace, and some pink picot elastic.  The instructions are fine. The problems are technical.  Four layers coming together on the back of the crotch.  A weird edge where that all meets up.  Other than that, the fit was fine.  

I cut out two pairs of mixed rayon and silk jersey.  In retrospect I should have gone for the beefier interlock I had sitting around, at least for the front.  One pair got entirely scuppered as I decided to change things up a bit and sewed the edges of the crotch pieces together with right sides facing, then flipped the crotch out to avoid putting elastic along the crotch piece. However, the result was that the front and the front crotch didn't match up.  It was not a salvageable mistake.  

Take 2 I did the same thing but I *also* did that to the front, which I doubled.  So I avoided any picot elastic, which for me is a good thing as all the stuff does is shred all over everything in the wash and then fall apart.  I did a clever thing where I put the crotch into the front and sewed them together inside out, so I got a nice finish there too.  Of course I was still stuck with four layers at the back.  This pair of underwear is wearable, but very loose.  I won't avoid panty lines - because the back won't really fit under tight pants!  Haha I will wear them to bed anyway.  I'll try out the plastic ones too and see what I think.  I have a lot of power mesh and it would be nice to have a way to get rid of it.  I don't really have much lace, because I dislike sewing it and I dislike wearing it...

This was a fun experiment but it seemed to conclude in: 

Acacia panties are best. 

Watsons are just a bit narrower so they cut my butt cheeks in half.

Between these two patterns I can happily upcycle tshirts into underwear for me and all of my friends basically forever...except when we don't want pantylines. 

Barry briefs are for when I figure out the coverstitch binding attachment. 

And Esme panties by Evie La Luve are the epic wonder for avoiding pantylines and looking fancy.  I think it just won't get any better than those.  (Which just led me down a wormhole of panty patterns so expect me to be trying out two more in the next few weeks....oooopssss.)

Papercut Soma swimsuit review plus a guest visit from the Cottesloe

I had always planned to make another Soma Swimsuit (available here).  My first run through was in 2017 and it appears, shockingly, that I forgot to blog about it.  Gosh so much potential whinging, wasted!!  Also it seems lately that Papercut are taking many of their older patterns out of print as they no longer have this on their website.  It seems to be available by some stockists.

I made a size XS, and the fit was good. 

The idea on a remake: I wanted to make another suit and from that, measure the gaps and redraft pieces to basically replace all the fold over elastic and bra strapping (I'm not sure why I had to make another one to do this, but that was the idea.)  I bought this fabric something like 2 years ago with this pattern in mind, but couldn't quite settle on a background colour.  I wear my other version of this suit quite a bit because it has a back clasp and I need to take my suits off in a carpark with cold fingers, and so I finally gathered the bits and committed. 

While it does come together relatively quickly, this is not a fun sew.  The bottom chest FOE struggles to reach over the layers (I managed to use extra wide stuff on my first suit, but on this one I had to really stretch it to cover.)  There are spots on the sides where you have five relatively shifty layers that you have to sew, and my machine behaved accordingly (thread nests and broken needles.)  I made it worse by sewing the pants outer layer together inside out and I had to give up and just cut a new one, I couldn't break the overlocking and salvage the pieces.  (Luckily I have a huge piece of this star fabric!)  I didn't follow the instructions for the bottoms this time around - you are meant to use swimsuit elastic and fold over twice.  I overlocked everything together cleanly then added a waistband instead. 

This suit also uses a bunch of bra strapping.  I never have much bra strapping, and definitely not all in one practical colour, so in both of these suits, half of my bra strapping is, er, bra channelling, of which I have a strange, massive stash. 

I recall feeling the same way about my first version: if you don't look too carefully at the insides, it's totally serviceable!  Since I know it will go into high rotation in my surfing wardrobe, I'm happy.  But the idea of spending more time with this pattern, even to redraft away the annoying bits, is becoming less interesting as I have discovered the Cottesloe swimsuit pattern, which takes an hour to make including cutting, is totally adorable, and honestly I would prefer to just make a simple suit these days than faff around creating something crazy.  I have made 2 Cottesloes and I plan to retrofit them with swimsuit clasps.  I will also probably make 2 more because I have way too much swimsuit fabric. 

After seeing that there are nearly no reviews of this swimsuit in rotation, I sighed a great sigh of sadness as I really didn't plan in life to be a swimsuit model, and committed to some IRL photos.  I'm going to swallow up all the defensive things here and just say you can tell which suit I feel the best in:

 

The first (black) version was thrifted from some polyester top, with heavyweight black swimsuit lining.  It's held up pretty well in the 4 years since I made it, but really it's only gotten into heavy wardrobe rotation in the past year.  

The bra strapping can occasionally be annoying on the sides as it comes around to the back clasp, and on the front side where it reaches into my armpit a bit.  The crossover front is a feature I quite like despite the narrow FOE holding it together.  It also hides ok under clothes which is good as sometimes I spend a lot of time checking for surf and then give up and go grocery shopping instead. 

The dart on the front does create a pointy boob shape, and as you can see, my white bottoms with the added on waistband are tighter than using elastic. 

 

Since the Cottesloe has snuck in here:  I cut a size 4 in the Cottesloe, and I only used my overlocker - cut a lining exactly the same and sewed them together, flipped right side out then added the bands - for both top and bottom (learn from me and DON'T forget to burrito the top!!)  I care not at all that my lining slips out just a tiny bit - I used actual lining fabric on the jungle print because I had it handy, and I think using swimsuit material makes it a bit firmer and probably wouldn't do that. 

 

Go forth and make your own swimwear, and strut that stuff unapologetically!

Spring tshirt binge sew

I'll just jump right in. 

 Ebony by Closet Core Patterns, raglan tee, size 2, which is what I've used before and liked the most.

-in pink interlock knit: I like this! 

Then I made a dress for a friend by lengthening the raglan pattern as much as I could to fit my fabric.  It was fine but I thought there's way too much fabric in the back, so I decreased the amount of hi-lo in the hem and took out a wedge from the back - not at the centre back but slightly to the side of that, starting at the bottom of the armscye which is where it starts to hang freely on me.  And that was fine but then I lost interest.  I gave version two to my friend as well (she's pregnant) - if I make this again, it needs pockets.

Finn Tee by Petite Stitchery size XS. I found it suspicious that the front and the back are the same!  But it does work.  The sleeve somehow seems to have extra fabric in it but I think in rayon or a more drapey fabric it would be fine. I was debating changing the armscye and sleeve to the Sasha Secondo Piano InstincTee though, still not sure if I need more shirts and want to spend the time frankenpatterning a perfect tshirt...yet.  Though last time I was pawing through my patterns I did kind of pause and think it would be a great combination.

 

 

Briar tee in 3 sizes and 3 lengths -
I made the briar in S (white) and XS (purple) of the old sizes, and then in 4, going to 6 at the waist of the new pattern. This is the same as XS according to the size charts.  I had never made the tunic length top before and surprise!!  I don't love it!  I hacked off a large chunk of the back hem.  My new cover stitch machine gobbled up this top after behaving fine on everything else, go figure.  I do like the longer length post trimming.  Then I caved in and made the size 2 (new pattern) with 4" added to the cropped length - out of some silk jersey. This is great and I like the tighter fit a lot -  but the jersey unfortunately gapes a tiny bit at the front neck, enough to irritate me.  I think once I'm wearing it a lot I will not care.

 

 

 

 

Made for Mermaids Avery - size is called purple - I did not end up liking the back feature. It does indeed flip out.  Overall the construction was straightforward, but this type of very long top are seldom my style and I didn't go on to make the dress. I am not sure what I think of this pattern company so far.

Patterns 4 Pirates Tulip front (or back) tee - in green merino, and I love it!  This was one of my favourites of the binge, as I kind of expected.  I have a top similar to this.  This type of top has a lot of caveats - it gathers funny at the front because the sleeves are attached.  The back swings open in unreliable ways.  I love all of it.  I will eventually make the tulip front version.  Not soon.

Pixie tee (or dress) - made in organic cotton from Alabama Chanin - very firm stuff.  I thought this was stupendously boring until I saw the pictures and noticed it has a subtle flare to it.  Hm.  Maybe in a drapey knit?  Also really needs pockets.  I cut my size according to the chart - it's meant to be a pretty breezy top with a lot of ease, and I think that's true.  It fits me well, other than being too long.

tilly and the buttons Agnes - decided to make a short sleeved tee and this time use a better length binding! Well, that was fine and good but it's so tight I can barely breathe.  Oops.  

Hemlock in black - with various modifications that I had applied last year - a bit of curve to the hem, a dropped sleeve...this silk jersey just isn't good for me here.  It makes it into a heavy, oversized top and the pattern would be cute on a dress but does not work.  Silk jersey is funny - sometimes it is amazing but because of the weight and drape it can behave very differently to other jerseys.

 

 

Made for Mermaids LOGAN

Ooh, this is an absolute winner. Surprise winner!  I made a tshirt version to check fit (note to self: add a hem band, even in my photos I wanted to hug my belly out of view...) and then I made one in interlock jersey, and I adore it.  Except for the colours.  I will definitely make this for myself.  Do note: the front pieces are not mirrored.  Don't be like me and accidentally cut some of them wrong side out.  That's what led to the blue in the tshirt, as I didn't have enough greens to re-cut.

 

Luckily I have some new colleagues imported from the US with a teenage daughter keen on cropped items so a lot of these went to her.  This binge was during hard life times when I needed the simplicity to keep me going, but it was good food for thought on why I sew, and also on what results I want.  It's inspired me to stop binge cutting (I have a tendency to cut a bunch of projects which then sit around) - but rather to work on a single project at a time beginning to end. I have a bunch of things I really want to make that I never start because they will be a bit more work, so hopefully this will move me to do those instead of easy things.