StyleArc Logan shacket review & a peek at the Blomma tank

I was trawling the webs for shacket patterns about November.  I had some specific features in mind but the fabrics I wanted were from the States so I had to rein in my excitement. My absolute favourite fabric also only had a small yardage available.  I ended up buying two different plaid flannels (both are Robert Kaufman mammoth) and the benefit of this pattern is the low required yardage.  Naturally once I finally got around to sewing my plans changed and this is the larger piece - I have a new scheme in mind for the smaller one. 

The other pattern I want to try is the Trish Newbery Carter Shirt Jacket (a new to me company!) but I've decided not to use flannel for it, rather to use a double faced coating I've had sitting around so it will be really more on the jackety side of shacket.  It has features I think are more shacket appropriate, like pocket flaps, button cuffs and a nice shaped hem and I am hoping it will work out nicely in my heavier fabric.

I used a size 8 in this pattern and am happy with how the size fit.  Generally I find Style Arc true to size even if I don't think every pattern is a winner.  This is the first thing I've made by them that I have loved and that fit me just as I wanted. 

I would call this the lazy shacket pattern.  The yoke is not doubled.  There are no sleeve plackets. The hem is a small hem and you can't make it larger because it won't go around the curves (I tried).  If you want to sew the side seam pockets down to the front so they don't flap (just a personal preference for me) beware because they overlap the front chest pockets.  

As always Style Arc provide only the most skimpy of instructions.  They were totally sufficient for this project.  I used french seams wherever I felt like (shoulders, sleeves) but not on the side seams as I still haven't conquered french seaming in side seam pockets.  I first heard of this being done by Carolyn but there is a tutorial here.

The tank is a Blomma tank, free pattern by Paradise patterns.  I experimented with various methods of sewing the bands using my coverstitch machine, not entirely successfully.  I love the grey one and then made another in rib which feels quite heavy: 

The Blomma is an excellent addition to one's stable of free tank top patterns, I suspect when summer comes around I will do more experiments. 

While I was sewing this shacket it seemed too flimsy because of all that single layering.  I didn't think too highly of it.  I made a feeble attempt to pattern match, as usual lining up something irrelevant and therefore missing the big show of the side seams matching up, but it's close enough and I'm not too bothered.  I was therefore pretty surprised in the end when I put it on and discovered it's a substantial feeling overlayer that meets all of my desires to wear old-man chic.  In the end I'm really happy with this shacket though I'm keen to make a heavier one too.  It's not a pattern I would make hundreds of times, but I'm happy. 

Merchant and Mills Eve trousers, an experimental foray

 I've been really slow at starting to sew again after moving.  My sewing room feels cramped and my best friend has just taken up knitting, inspiring me to binge knit to finish projects as fast as she now does.  It's been frustrating as my sewing queue literally is full of projects I thought up a year ago and every time I look in shops I see things that I want to sew and have been planning to sew and could already be wearing if I had sewn them.  Ah, time.  

Because of that when I started these it took something like 1-2 weeks to sew them as I kept stepping away from the sewing room and not going back in.  I was really scared of the flap zipper for some reason.  

 The fabric is a hemp-wool blend from one of my binge purchases online.  It is possibly from Ansje Handmade, but I can't be sure.  I've had it around for awhile but I only got a small piece so it wasn't going to be a big jacket, the plan was always some kind of pants.  The fabric is a relatively loose weave but totally opaque, and has a rather scratchy feel and not much drape.  As winter has crept up the idea of these pants landed in my head.  I made a size 10 I think.  

No problems overall.  I find the instructions of Merchant and Mills to sometimes be a bit funny, while also clear.  Like you can't look ahead too much or you get confused, but when you are there all is good.  I expected the zip to be very hidden so I absolutely forged ahead with a bright yellow invisible zip and...it peeks out.  The flap behind the zip is a nice idea and overall I do like the closure.  I opted for a sewn on hook and eye instead of a button.  The waistband is a bit narrower than I anticipated, and it lands at my high waist and is snug there, but not actually too tight.

As you can see the footwear struggle is real.

Overall these are sort of shapeless baggy pants with a comfortable fit.  The waist is at my real waist, there is room, they aren't tight, and the crotch is a bit dropped but not so badly that I can't ride my bike.  The pants themselves are a touch cropped, making it hard to know what footwear to wear with them in winter - and as scratchy wool pants they are definitely winter wear!  I think it's really stupid that patterns give you a back pocket but no front, however I decided to wear these for some reason before putting on the front pockets, always a bad idea, so the front pockets are indeed Not On Yet.  And I miss them!  

They are going on soon - wanted to do them on the cross grain but it ends up I only have a tiny piece of fabric left so they will be on grain.

Partner overalls, by Ready to Sew, a review

So there are patterns that take a project which feels really complex and they baby sit you through every stage of it so you have these warm fuzzy feelings of security.  Nothing could go wrong!  

This pattern isn't like that.  It provides you enough info to make the overalls but the real nugget of truth is that overalls are easy.  They just look hard.  There is missing information (by missing information what I mean is that the Dawn Jeans instructions had it, and they are the Gold Standard for best instructions ever) about how you need to tie topstitching thread by hand on the back of your work rather than trying to backstitch to secure it.  Small details like that which just raise the quality of your result.

There are so many size choices that it's overwhelming to choose.  I think I could have gone bigger to get a baggier look, as it is they are in between baggy and fitted, kind of an uncomfortable lukewarm option.  I went with size 38. My hips are 37".  My fabric is a kind of windowpane poplin and I lined the bib with some liberty that I wanted to use up - same thing inside the pockets.  Ok so really you should use self fabric on the pockets because otherwise it peeks around the edges.  And I have no idea why the instructions have you do a partial bib lining instead of a full one - but I guess that's if you use self fabric and it is heavy...still I avoid partial facings whenever possible and it was simple enough to do a full one here.  I did the same thing lining my pocket then turning it right side out to topstitch it down.  

There were some kind of weird instructions about the pockets too.  A lot of the topstitching literally defines the space so it's kind of scary to start because you pick a spot and go!  I was using Mara 70 topstitching thread which is lighter than usual topstitching thread, allowing me to treat it as normal thread.  My metal bits are a KATM kit from Miss Maude NZ.  (These kits are excellent quality.  Do not hesitate!) 

I spontaneously shortened these by removing an inch off the waist.  The bodice is a bit short actually as a result, but I can fix this somewhat by lengthening the straps.  I would advise against shortening them because it's better for overalls to be baggy and have some extra lengthwise room.  That might be part of why I feel confined in them when I wear them.  I have a really short torso and I would say this pattern fit me pretty precisely.  Because of that if you are in doubt, size up on the very ridiculously precise size chart.  If you are long waisted consider lengthening the bodice.  The result of this though, is that now I have the sense that Ready to Sew is a block that fits me really well which might entice me to actually sew up other patterns of theirs I have loitering around somewhere.

 

I did these in a day because it was my last sewing day with my friend Tessa before moving far away and I was Going To Finish.  And I did!  Aided by how, as I have mentioned, overalls are actually easy.  There are no buttons, no buttonholes, no zips, no flies!  In this case also nearly no distractions, though poor Tessa didn't finish her project because she was under great stress to Entertain Children and their Friends, Fetch Stray Husbands, Buy Emergency Bias Tape etc while I just binge sewed (though in my defense I did supervise the children decorating cupcakes in her absence and I took the requisite number of photographs of the event).  And yes that means this was already six months ago, sorry, moving took all my attention!  It is now cold here and I am not going outside barefoot.

In the end I find these to be really kind of ok.  I feel weird in them like they are a trouser straitjacket.  I have been peer pressured to keep them and try harder to like them and they do look quite nice over my knitted cropped sweaters so I suppose they will have a place in my closet. 

Pattern Fantastique Glacial skivvy x 3, ready for winter!

 I bought the set of three tees by Pattern Fantastique.  I like the two I have made so far - the Equinox and now the Glacial.  However it's so hard for me to remember which is which!  This (I've checked) is the Glacial.  It's a fitted top with a curved hem and different hem and sleeve length options.  The sleeve is dropped slightly.  On me this is a perfect fit baselayer top.  I made the long sleeve length and it's delightful.

I made a straight size 8. 

This pattern is cut flat rather than on the fold.  It is really annoying, but truthfully it uses a lot less fabric that way - I had a scant metre of the merino and would have struggled to get it cut on the fold.  The other annoying thing is the neckband is cut as the same length as the top so you MUST cut it shorter.  I really hate doing that as my estimates of neckband tightness are variably successful.  I generally was cutting off about 4". The other fun feature is that the hem bit is separate to the body in my pattern pieces and there was a mistake on the pattern with both the front and the back called front.  My little hem piece was incorrectly labelled.  I cut the longer hem on the first flowered version but I accidentally put the back hem on the front and vice versa.  Once I realised, I tailored a random new hem that is somewhere in between, lengthwise. When you buy these three patterns together you get them at a low price with no instructions - though there are instructions online.  This all suits me just fine.  One less thing to find fault with...

The flowered fabric is from Ansje Handmade, it's an Art Gallery oeko tex cotton spandex blend, perfectly spongey and amazing. Not there anymore.

The rainbows are from my order with blended thread awhile ago and were the precious fabric that actually tipped me over the edge to make the order, this is their bamboo or modal blend.  I still would not order from them again; the shipping etc were just too much and too many of the fabric bases are not really to my liking. 

I went with a shorter hem on the rainbows which feels surprisingly cropped, I must be getting used to having longer tops.  Thus I stuck with the correct version of the longer hem for my white merino. 

 

In terms of the white merino: I had a sudden vision of this top awhile ago.  Dunedin is blustery a lot of the time and merino makes sense.  I'm still wearing clothes at work (the scrub threat hasn't materialised) and I realised I absolutely needed a white baselayer top.  I actually went to the fabric store and picked out my perfect fabric to make this.  THIS is the advantage of having shops local.  I would never have made a white top otherwise!  It's really satisfying to realise I don't need to rush to buy fabric, since it's there just down the street.  I used pale aqua overlocker thread and it's fascinating how totally you can see through the top despite the cool honeycomb pattern of the merino.