True Bias Lander pant

Hi hi!

I just made a thing and had to blog it immediately because I'm so excited. The Lander pants pattern from True Bias came out over the weekend and I had some sewing time so the timing couldn't have been more perfect! The style is sooooo me and I have been checking out this cut in the shops for so long now. I am totally into the 70's/nautical vibe whatever the year and whatever else is "trending", so these are a worthy investment.

Because I knew I wanted to make this pattern work I was willing to put the hours in to making the appropriate adjustments. This fitted around the top type of trouser is never going to fit me straight out the envelope and certainly doesn't look great when I try RTW pairs on, but I made a toile to see how the original fit was working and straight away added more length into the rise. Once I had toiled with the added length, things were looking a lot better. 3 inches took the top of the trousers to my natural waist (minus the waistband), but my final adjustments were actually 3cm longer than the original pattern.

I wish I'd taken pictures of the toiles along the way, but you know how it goes and I was caught up in how I was going to make it work, but basically I needed a full tummy and thigh adjustment on the front trouser leg which meant adding some width in the front and extending the front crotch curve. The back was fun to do (I'm being serious) and I made a full calf adjustment because the trousers were getting caught on that area and took some length out of the back centre leg length because I had extra fabric under my bottom. Basically scooping out the back crotch sorted this with loads of shifting and pivoting of seam allowances. The below diagram shows the original pattern in pink and my new pattern pieces in black. Basically the crotch curve has an extreme slope from the front to back in order to fit my body. I really enjoyed this process of analysis and because I was on my own I just did one tiny tweak at a time.

The back calf adjustment looked like this...

Here are some scary pictures of me in leggings to show all my bumpy bits. Really sorry you can just see my pants through the fabric, but if you have a similar body to mine then maybe it will help you relate!

Probably some further tweaks could happen for future versions, but I'm pretty stoked! Certainly the waist needs some tweaks, because it is definitely too roomy, but I resolved that with some epaulette things in keeping with the overall look. Also a smidge more length out the centre of the back leg length and top of trouser wouldn't hurt. I don't know, maybe they are good enough. I shall wear these a lot as they are a brilliant match with my overall style.

I forgot to mention that I made these with a wool suiting fabric. I wanted a winter version that would fall nicely and this fabric was already in my stash. So pleased with the wool/pattern combo. Here are some close ups of the details to give you a better feel for the fabric. Can I just say, that I was so nervous about the button front fly. I thought I would feel self conscious drawing attention to my tummy, but it is definitely a new favourite finish. In love with this detail and it's so easy!

I lined the back pockets with some shirting from my husbands old shirt because I was working with wool. I really makes a nice finish and means the pockets won't stretch out.

Beautiful brass anchor buttons from Loop.

A hook and eye inside the waistband to help with any gaping.

The fly shield is faced with the shirting for comfort. I considered facing the waistband too, but I guess I got lazy. I also wish I had bound the seams, but the next wool pair I make will be all bells and whistles.

So that's been a whirlwind sewing romance and I really think this is a great pattern. I probably always say that about a pattern I try, but I mean it! I always expect to have to do adjustments on a trouser pattern, but I'm not always willing to put the time in if I don't feel the love right away. These were worth it for me. I shall wear these a load and see if anything particularly screams out to me as a tweak for future iterations. Love, love, love!!!

Floral maxi skirt

Hey hey, it's me again just one week since my last post!!!

This time I have made a skirt and it is self drafted, but dead easy.

I found this fabulous floral print cotton on ebay a few weeks ago and had to cut into it straight away. I bought 3 metres and used pretty much all of it in this skirt.

Ok, so it's self drafted so you can't have the pattern, but you can make one if you have a little experience with drafting or altering patterns! Just pop on over to the BHL website and use their awesome circle skirt app to get some waistband measurements and you're off!

I split mine into 7 panels (divide half circle into 8 panels and join 2 of these together for centre back panel) as per below.

Here it is all joined and laid out on the floor.

I created some pockets that get sewn in with the front side panels (which are a little too low unfortunately, oops!)...

and also a centre front button placket. How awesome are these buttons by the way? I have been ordering buttons from Textile Garden for some time now as Maggie has the most beautiful selection. I always seem to find the perfect match in her shop!

The skirt is so swishy and comfortable and I made the back waistband elasticated for some leeway when it comes to comfort and fit.

Not much else to say really. I French seamed everything for a quality finish and I am loving having a colourful floral print in my wardrobe.

Wendy Ward - Culottes

Hi everyone, it is my turn on the blog tour for Wendy's wonderful new book 'A beginners guide to skirts'!

First of all I have been following along with Wendy's progress on this book from the beginning via the magic of Instagram so I was really looking forward to seeing the end product. You can tell as soon as you open the cover that a lot of attention to detail has been paid even down to aaaall the hand drawn illustrations so I was really happy once the book was released and I was offered the chance to review it!

The projects run through the book in order of difficulty, starting with a simple jersey tube skirt and ending with a gathered skirt with button front and pockets, but all look like they could be tackled by an advanced beginner from the offset. What I like about the projects is that they start with a fairly simple template, so my immediate instinct is to imagine what bold fabrics I could use or what pattern adaptions I could make. There is a lot of scope to make your own mark on these styles and as they stand they are really great wardrobe staples. My favourite being the Roehampton culottes I did make and the Rusholme midi A-line with pockets that I have yet to make.

The instructions themselves mainly reside in the back of the book where you are instructed to flick back to for things like inserting zips or making up pockets etc... There is a lot of detail here that could easily be used for projects outside of this book.

I made the knee length culottes in this linen look suiting supplied by Fabworks mill shop. I was trying not to get too excited about the prospect of free fabric and choose something that would slot into my wardrobe nicely and this has a really good heavy drape to it! I even managed to squeeze these out of 1.5 metres of fabric, but this was a risky strategy that I wouldn't advise...

The fit is spot on and the only change I made was to insert a centre back zip instead of in the side seam. I really, really love them! Ok, so that bubble at the top of the zip is annoying and also the waistband overlaps on top instead of underneath. The poppers hopefully make it look intentional, but all I can say is I was deeply distracted by the finale of 'The Fall' (creepy BBC series) whilst making up this area, which if you were watching it too you will understand why I was unable to fully concentrate!

Here we are demonstrating how wide they are!

I personally feel that this style works best in a soft drapey fabric, as they are lovely and swishy, but the book sample does show them in a heavier fabric for comparison.

Because of the plain fabric I had great fun finishing everything nicely with press studs and bias binding on the waistband. I also used a bias binding extension on the centre back seam where it forms the lap over the zip as the seam allowance needs to be wider to account for this (which it is as per the pattern on the side seam). This was only because of my deviation from the pattern, so you probably won't need to worry about that!

 So to sum up this is a great book in my opinion and a great basis for loads of different skirt/wide leg trouser options beyond those in the book!

The only thing that I was not such a fan of was the way the patterns are laid out on the sheets in the back. The leg of the trousers for example are split into a couple of pieces that you need to bring together in the tracing and the lines are all different colours which I found tricky as I was tracing a pale blue line which was difficult to see through my paper. If the publishers offered a link to download the pattern sheets to print at home I would definitely have gone for that and just cut them straight out (note to publishers). Anyway, just a small thing really to improve the user experience when locating the patterns.

Honestly though I really value having this in my collection and just picking it out of the shelf to write this post has filled me with joy and confidence in it's contents!

I hope you enjoyed reading my review and that it has provide you with a rounded view, but if you have any questions then just ask! xxx

2 leather genoa totes

Hello, I have something very fun to share with you today. Not one but two leather bags!

I was contacted by Anna a couple of months back with a link to her new Genoa Tote pattern, which is what I'm showing you. I must admit that I don't love getting freebies because I can feel my creativity dropping when I feel obliged to use something, but I did not feel like that with Anna at all because it was a fairly casual exchange where I felt she wasn't expecting me to use her pattern. I was thinking of making a bag anyway and found it useful having a template!

On the note of freebies I am reviewing something next week, which is unusual for me, but again I really wanted to make the project for me so it was a joy not a chore ;-)

As mentioned above I used the pattern as a template, but I constructed it how I wanted to because I was using very different materials.

This bag was the first one I made in leather and was a gift for a friend. All the leather was bought on eBay and is reclaimed as it's offcuts that were being sold second hand. The strap leather was reclaimed of sorts as it was an offcut thrown in with something else I bought new! It's thick metallic olive green and is perfect for straps. The kind of thickness used for stachels.

The main front has a reverse applique design from some screen prints I have designed and used many times in the past. I sewed everything on my Pfaff Passport 2.0 with a leather needle in and walking foot engaged and it sewed very easily.

I backed the main back front and back with horse hair canvas for a bit more stability and I really like the structure it has provided. I also made the inside zip pocket a lot longer than the pattern.

I preferred to stitch my straps in place rather than use rivets. I punched the holes in a design to echo the cut outs and stitched them on with a thick waxed linen thread. I do have screw in rivets that I could have used, but I prefer this look! I also left the top edges of the bag cut raw rather than folded over as it looked neater than trying to grapple with the leather to fold over nicely.

The leather facing on the top of the lining only has one join (I didn't use the pattern piece for this) and it is joined flat with a piece of horsehair layered underneath to keep it together and reduce bulk. My leather needle snagged the lining on this one a bit which is a shame, but hopefully it doesn't show quite as much in real life!

Oh look, also my pockets are constructed differently! I don't mean to change everything, it just kind of happens as I try to use things from my stash. My red zip is an open ended one, so I had to cover the bottom of it. Rather than make a pocket with the seams on the inside I bound the edges with bias binding which does the double duty of covering the raw edges of the fabric as well as the opening bottom of the zip!

Next up is more of the same with more reclaimed leather. The orange is actually from my old handbag I am replacing as is the key chain thingy. The yellow strap leather was bought new (the metallic olive leather for the above straps was thrown in with this order).

Oh how I love this bag!

The only thing missing was a matching purse right? Sorted and with co-ordinating cut outs!

I made a very simple little bag which I just marked out straight onto the leather and sewed up. The lining is hand stitched to the inside of the zip.

A little flat gusseted bottom for a bit more room in there.

This was so much fun and sewing leather on my machine was way easier than I thought it would be. I would be interested to see if my old Toyota would handle leather with the correct needle, although the feed has always been a bit uneven on that one and there is no walking foot so I probably wont bother.

A review of sorts, but not really as I'm notoriously bad at following other peoples instructions. The pattern in general is very well put together and the instructions look very detailed, so although the pattern is simple you get a lot of guidance on how to make a really nicely finished bag. Hopefully this will provide you with some inspiration for what you can do to personalise your own bag or if you were thinking of working with leather then maybe this gives you some ideas of how you can make it more individual! No blank canvas is safe!!!

Pattern fantastique Falda jacket

Hello!

This is a jacket I made quite some months ago for the refashioners project hosted by Portia. My original post was published here, but I wanted to do a quick post on my blog too because I really love this pattern!

The pattern is the Falda jacket by Pattern  Fantastique and I basically jumped on it as soon as it was released. I really liked all the versions I had seen, but when it came to this project I made some modifications which just happened rather organically during the making up. You can see straight away that I have not gone for long sleeves, although these were all cut out and ready to go. The sleeve is in two parts with this short sleeve section and another piece which forms the bottom sleeve. I got this far, basted the side seams and decided I really liked this length after all!

The other thing is the length. The picture below shows where the facing ends as per the pattern. I decided to just leave the outer body of the jacket at the cut length and tidy up the insides with loads of bias tape (just don't look too closely at my wobbly stitching).

Working with denim is such a joy because you can be pretty flexible in terms of how you finish it! I obviously veered far from the pattern instructions, but they are all there for an unlined or a fully lined version of the jacket.

 Once the main body was constructed I then just had fun with the finishing details with a nod to the original garments that I refashioned into this jacket scattered here and there.

I really love how versatile this garment is. It's like a thick denim shirt or a different take on a kimono jacket with the short sleeves. I really fancy making a longer coat version, but seeing's as I don't currently need a new coat this is but a pipe dream.

I shall leave you with this picture of todays outfit, which was my prompt for writing this post really. Boho bag lady!

Oh and thanks to Portia for organising the refashioner's challenge! The deadline has now closed for competition entries, but I really don't think this jacket would exist in my wardrobe if it wasn't for the challenge she set!