Can you tell the stripes aren’t straight? I hope so because slightly askew they are and that is one of the reasons I bought the fabric. Oh, and the colours are pretty. Yes.
It is the same front and back – wonderful slouch-wear at its simplest if you ask me – so dead quick to make and ever so easy to wear.
It is also pink. Which I like.
One day I’ll manage something more complicated. But not today.
It is still fairly chilly here and over the last month I’ve been slowly making a small stack of merino jumpers. My kids scored a bunch as they are rapidly growing out of last year’s.
The merino, bought from one of my favourite local stores, is wonderfully light weight, super soft and perfect for layering. The stripey one is a cool thicker reversible double knit with spots on one side and stripes on the other.
I finished them last week and they are worn daily – this morning was no exception. Though gloriously sunny we all donned our jumpers for a trip to the beach.
As I type, Spring’s October winds are blasting the garden making the house creak and the startling the kids. It is blowing cobwebs away. Finally.
For many reasons, autumn and winter required my focus elsewhere so very little stitching was done. The few items I did manage for friends and family over the months were, sadly, sent away without pictures. But now the seasonal winds are working wonders in my corner room and I hope you will forgive my absence.
One important late summer job I completed before getting hopelessly side-tracked was the rearrangement of my fabric and odds ‘n ends. All of which are (mostly) out of their corners, boxes and cupboards and piled lovingly onto a shiny new shelf.
Oh the wonder of visibility and accessibility! I pull out pieces to feel and drape, check lengths and get inspired. Plus I found stuff I didn’t know I had. Better and better.
This lovely and very full shelf unit was supposed to house my fabric, sewing magazines and books plus the bulk of my cook book and food magazine collection ……
Indeed! Oops.
BurdaStyle 11/2013 #111
I like this one. Its not complicated or difficult and goes with everything, even a cardi. Perfect for autumn.
Next time I’ll make a smaller size and use a softer slightly weightier fabric. I cut a 38 and swam in it so ever-so-lazily lopped a bit off at each side seam.
The fabric is an almost sheer 50c piece of merino/nylon from the Levana bargain bin. I love bargain bins.
BurdaStyle 10/2012 #119 – sorry about the sour face!
I like this one too and have worn it a few times already. I learned my lesson from #111 and cut a 36 this time plus removed the back darts by taking width out at the back side seams.
I don’t know why Burda included darts, to be frank. The top needs a fairly drapey stretchy knit to work and that sort of fabric shouldn’t need darts, right? I am straight up and down though, so perhaps the darts would be needed to cater for more curves. I don’t know. What do you think?
Before throwing myself into the next Big Trouser Thing, I thought a top or two would be in order.
I fancy a knit and am currently drawn to draped / wrapped designs for some reason, so it’ll probably be one of these.
They are all BurdaStyle : clockwise from top left – 10/2012/119, 12/2013/119, 03/2013#121B and 11/2013/111.
I have promised a friend the top left #119 so what the hey, I’ll make one for myself too. Just need to decide which others to do as well. As I type, I’m washing some merino and modal fabrics so I’ll be pattern tracing tonight and hopefully decisively sewing shortly thereafter.
I was also thinking about the linen trousers I’ve made recently and how my pattern looks with most of the alterations and fiddles noted en route to a wearable garment. I think my brain is made up of series of small and not so small edits, if this is anything to go by.
Oh, and look what I stumbled upon in one of the local op shops last week.
The clocks ‘fall’ back early tomorrow morning so these are autumnal trousers.
The fabric is twice the weight of the linen I used in the last pair of pants, but I needed to make the same adjustments again to cater for fabric expansion in the back.
(Next time I’ll allow more length to wear with heels too …..)
In terms of fit, I had already steam ironed out some of the excess from the back crotch point (pic here) but again that wasn’t enough. So I also removed more at the upper side seams, centre back and upper back inseam and back crotch point.
Do you know I’ve never owned a pair of white trousers. I love them.
I have been slowly trouser-ing it up in the sewing room and finished this pair of slouchy, light weight linen pants last night. The fit is good enough and I took these pictures this afternoon after wearing them most of the day.
Yes there are drag lines but there isn’t significant stretched bagginess in the butt and frankly that was the aim. I’ll spend time on the next iteration sorting out the back legs but for now I am very happy.
What did I do? First have a look at the last pair of linen pants I made:
Saggy baggy butt of doom from 2012 – click on the picture to go to the original post.
When I went back to this picture, I noticed the pants stretched from just below the waist band down to a little below the crotch point. Essentially everywhere in the back. So, I needed to work on the side seams, centre back seam and upper back inseam too.
And that’s precisely what I did this time around, a little bit at a time. I took some width/length off then tested each step by wearing them for an evening or so. It took a while but it was worth it I think.
I did start by steam ironing and stretching the back crotch point, removing an inch in both length and width on each side of the point. I wouldn’t do this next time, to tell you the truth. I’ll simply do a test square and see how much I can iron stretch it then will remove that amount from the pattern piece.
Time will tell whether my new trousers will need to be washed after each wear….
BTW I used New Look 6382 from waist to hips cos I was lazy and then widened the legs. I fiddled about with crotch fit first before snugging it up. The waist I finished with 1″ wide petersham rather than a facing, which I think is neater and simpler.
