Waffle Dropje shearling vest

I know, all I do is complain about what's wrong with patterns and then I go and make four of them. (here, here and here.)
Wellll you'd think by now I would have perfected this one.

This concept came to me fully polished while I strolled through Upper Mustang in Nepal.  Yep, it was hot and I was sweaty and hiking up hills of dirt, and I was thinking about making a vest out of animal skins.  I never said I was logical.  I did however drive straight to The Fabric Store from the airport to pick out my skins, and the vest was put together the following day.  However they were one skin short so I had to hold my impatience together while waiting to put on the hood.

I had some trouble figuring out the size.  My last post was oddly vague and all my pieces appeared to be size 36.  I thought I had sized down.  I decided that on a shearling vest, oversized was totally ok.  I went with about 1 inch longer than the pattern piece length, but no waist binding.

For the stretchy side panels I used two layers of merino which I sewed together along the top and bottom to enclose them.  Then I just sewed them to the front and back as normal since those seams won't unravel. (Note: I topstitched them down *to the merino side* not to the shearling side, a fact I just recently thought may have caused later problems...)

I then relocated to Greymouth but luckily my new office manager had a sewing machine so there was no problem! I managed to just barely tease the hood pieces out of that finicky little Singer.

I didn't have leather needles, and my usual sharp needles were not very good - I did most of this using the needles that come with sewing machines that are always in the little hidden storage area.  It was heavier duty and generally didn't skip stitches.  The borrowed Singer was not as good as my Pfaff, and I was really nervous about putting on the pockets.  They aren't perfect, but they are definitely fine and are so so cozy!  I just used a piece of paper to measure about how I wanted them, and then traced two.

This project stalled after that because I was moving and didn't manage to keep all my little bits in one place, but also because I noticed something right away - little rips occurring forwards and back of the merino stretch panels.  I could see that is a spot which has increased wear from pulling it on and off, and the leather can't give the same way the merino can.  I had no idea what to do to fix this.  I thought anything I put on it to bind it will be hard to get on and might make things worse.  I don't have access to an industrial sewing machine that might be able to manage lots of layers.  I asked a lot of friends, and my mother, and didn't get any useful ideas.

Luckily despite my impasse, I planned the rest of the steps for this vest!  I bought the bone buttons in Kathmandu specifically for this project, and then got thick waxed leather thread to apply them.

I planned to use strips of the original shearling for the button holders, and I saved the edges of the skins where there was no furry back.  I strengthened them by stitching down the middle of each piece. All the bits were together, waiting for success.  I even realised I could use grommets in the front for the buttons to strengthen them.

Friends told me that if I used grommets around the armhole it would redistribute stress.  I was finally reunited with this project, all those bits, and my grommet kit, however when I was making shoes recently the grommets were a huge catastrophe and all came out bent, so I worried I wasn't on the road to grommety success.

Fast forward to Isolation 2020!  Haha in between binging on whatever project enters my head in a wheeling free for all of sewing, I decided it was my duty to do my old, scary UFOs.  (Also two bras sitting on my desk collecting dust ughhhhh).  I got out the grommet kit and -ahem- read the instructions.  And realised I was using the wrong bits to put grommets in.

I tried to sort through these pictures but I couldn't choose which strange expressions were less strange than the rest so I kept them all.  Go figure I decided I needed an exotic photo shoot right when gale force winds started blowing!

So that's it, in one morning I: installed grommets all over the place.
Put in the buttons.
Sewed down my button holders, just as I had imagined MANY TIMES in the past two years, thank god I'd already marked placement and everything!
I glued the little rips with shoe glue
And for extra support I did a few sets of stitching down the seamlines of each of those suspicious seams.  I'm hoping between the grommets, the glue, and the stitching I will have redistributed stress enough that it won't rip any more, but I'm also more prepared to glue the entire armholes, or even add little strips of leather for support if I have to.
And then I was so excited I went and took those pictures.

This project really stretched my sense of what I could do.  I started out with inspiration and my inspiration was totally, perfectly fulfilled.  Did I mention that I even reshaped the front of the hood to cup my head without a hood drawstring?  So many perfect plans went into this, but it actually took me all of those two years to get the skills, equipment (shoe glue, miracle worker!!) and sheer determination to deal with the unexpected issues that cropped up.  Sometimes things do need to sit in time out for awhile.

Making magazine no. 6: Side handle gusset tote

This pineapple fabric sits around in my stash, ever smaller, but always there.
At some point I thought I'd make this tote.  The pile of fabrics sat on my floor for awhile and finally I got annoyed with the mess.

It took about 3 hours to make.
I interfaced the lining.
For some reason I had decided to underline the outer layer with silk organza, to get used to doing so, and because I had a bunch of organza lying around.  Naturally it made things a lot more fiddly...who knows if there is a benefit!

Overall this is a really easy project. Mine doesn't have a side pocket because it's the original version from the magazine and I didn't see a side pocket option.  Despite all the interfacing it's a droopy final object, but it's kind of growing on me.

I would:
-use a fabric like canvas in the future
-not interface at all
-because it was a total pain around the corners since you couldn't ease anything

Otherwise, all good! 

Frankenpants: Papercut Anima & The Great Jersey crop

Y'all...usually when I want something I just buy it.  I don't have the patience to try to draft things and I don't have the faith that I'll like my result.

These pants are an exception.  Here's a link to see them live.  I came really close to buying them...and then I thought seriously, this is So Simple.  There are tutorials online for drafting harem pants.  It also requires basically no skill, doesn't matter if it's not perfect, and I have many colours of jersey sitting around waiting to be used. Maybe not buttery smooth The Great jersey, but you know, whatever. I can always buy them later. Plus I'm not even going to wear them outside the house!  (That's a total lie, since this is New Zealand where anything goes.)

Not to mention that the website has all the measurements on it.
In case you care: rise is 16 5/8", leg opening is 8 3/4" and the inseam is 20 1/4" on the size 1 which is probably a size bigger than I would choose. I have a pair of Anima pants that I made awhile ago to give me an idea of what I'm starting with. The pockets are harvested from the Metamorphic dress pattern, because it was close at hand.

It has to go well, right?
Here's the post that inspired me, though there are others.

I wasn't sure how much to keep the initial crotch curve, versus creating the U shape of a lot of harem pants (these included.) I erred more on the side of keeping my original pattern.  The result looks a bit less like the Jersey Crops. Also, I think the measurement for the ankle opening is a diameter. I widened the ankles on mine and then stopped when I saw that the width of the back piece was already about 6 inches, which means my final result was 12" and the pattern should have been 17".  It's obvious that mine are tighter at the ankles.  The drop is less obvious.  And the fabric is linen, which doesn't have quite the body of the Jersey Crops. 

I can't say they are the Least Bit flattering, but they are magical in 2 ways:
1. I no longer feel like I need to buy the Jersey Crops - it's clear to me they would also not be that flattering, so why waste the money?
2. They are really comfortable and I can even do yoga in them!

I realised at some point they were going to be a bit see through, which they are, if you are looking closely, which you're NOT, right?

Anyway here's for one isolation success (in which I totally rock the delicious combo of bright purple pants and a bright pink cashmere sweater, a recent epic $15 secondhand shop score.)

Simplicity 5683, circa 1973: ruffled sundress

In early February I suddenly needed to prolong summer by making a backless ruffled sundress...and conveniently I had just the pattern!  This wonder was printed in NZ and says it is misses size 12, with a bust of 34".

I haven't sewn any big 4 patterns in ages!  I just kind of hoped this size would fit...forgetting that you are meant to size down from the envelope not size up.  My bust is in the 32-33 range.

I made this dress in the short version, with a ruffle.  There was no ruffle length for the short version so I basically made it as long as I had fabric for.  I also made the ruffle less high because I thought it would overwhelm the short dress at the current length - I did about 2/3 of that length.  I guess this all means I'm over my hatred of gathering. I also learned just how much you need to gather a thing to make it look good - in my opinion the ruffle would be better if I could have made it longer and gather it more.

The bodice was self lined after you apply the ruffle, and then there are more gathers under the bust!  The waistband is two layers, and the skirt is a true wrap skirt, with the right side going under the left.  It felt like it took forever but that's just because I had a bunch of couchsurfers so I wasn't sewing all the time.

My fabric is a loom woven raw silk from Nepal that I brought back.  It has a lot of texture because of the handmade nature of the fabric, but overall I took that into account and didn't have trouble gathering it, though it became very dense in the gathers.  It is generally well behaved and pressed well.  I hand washed it for prewashing, which is what I do with all fragile silk.  I tend to machine wash other silks like charmeuse that I think can handle it, as it makes an easier to care for final garment - I generally hand wash those garments but I like the security of knowing they can tolerate a machine wash.

The bodice looked pretty small to start with so I couldn't judge by that - but the final product is just way too big.  There's no one spot - the bodice has too much fabric, and in my pictures I have the waistband wrapped really tightly to keep everything in place.  I just feel overwhelmed by this dress.  Luckily I have a friend who is taller than me and just a bit bigger everywhere and who doesn't feel a need to wear a bra, so she has won a new dress, yay!!

Sew house seven slacks, 2 variations

Version one was a success, I've worn them all summer. See here.

I wanted to make some changes to the pattern to turn it into my perfect lounge-linen pants pattern.

-Shortened the waistband by an inch total
-shortened the rise by a total of 2 inches in two separate locations

When I did this on the wide leg version, I had to do it on the short leg version too because I was too lazy to unpick my tape.

The wide version is out of a relatively loose weave silk from Nepal.  I'm pretty sure it's silk.  Once I put them on I was surprised by the heavy, clingy feel, which is what I'd expect from silk.  Also the only other fabric that I would have bought in Nepal is hemp and it doesn't have that texture.

But the loose weave - I thought it might be transparent so I added all the pockets and their excuse of a double layer.

The sewing up was straightforward, it's annoying that I can't write notes into PDF files!  So I had to read through my emails to find the seam allowances for the places in the pattern where they were missing. (I think I missed a chance to download an updated file.)  Otherwise, I have done this before so it was straightforward.

The elastic that fit in my casing was 1".
The changes are good. I suspect I need to be careful not to overfit this pattern - it's meant to be loose and drapey, after all.  Possibly because I am a lazy cutter-outer, the hems were totally mismatched, literally no two pieces were the same length.  So I cut each leg to be even, then matched the two legs and cut them even, and hoped that was right.  I didn't actually measure anything.

The clingy silk makes these into a kind of luxury wear, actually!

On to the narrow leg: well, why not some plaid, so they will be fancy winter sweatpants?  I have a new ruler and it makes shortening patterns amazingly easy!  No more hunting for straight edges and measuring things in 10 places, seriously, why didn't I have a ruler before?

These came together easily as now I'm a pro at this pattern.

I think honestly the linen is the best match for this type of fit.  In linen, it hangs down and the drape really advances the style.  In clingy lightweight flannel I don't think this is my most flattering effort.  Never fear, it'll be worn, it makes me instantly feel scruffy and cool, which is my favourite look.

I don't really like the shape of the narrower leg compared to the wide leg pattern - I think the wide leg pattern is basically perfect.  I did feel like I'd kind of overfit this one - also I might have been better off sizing down to the 4 instead of up to the 6, and it is possible that in a more drapey, heavy fabric, or in something with stretch, these pants would be totally fine.  Anyway now I have all the loose pants!  I will probably revisit this pattern for more linen pants in the future, but now I'm turning my attention back to jeans and work pants.  (And now I realise these would be perfect work pants, if only I had bought some black softshell fabric instead of all the greens...oops.)