2018 Hits and Misses

Each year, Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow starts a #sewingtop5 series.  Every year I go through and mentally assign my top 5 hits and misses but this year I wanted to actually put it down in paper.

So here goes.

What have I made

Total 40 items for myself
12 items for others

The breakdown of Items is shown below (doesn't show all the Christmas gifts I sewed for family and friends)

I made quite a variety of items, but dresses were the clear winner.  I've found that I'm getting a lot more comfortable wearing dresses these days and it's showing in my sewing room.

So out of my 40 items what were hits and what were misses.

Top 5 Hits

Jasper jumpers - These get worn all the time and are a definite hit
Jasper dress - This dress has been getting a surprising amount of wear this winter  I like having something easy wearing that isn't pants.
Lined jeans -If I do want to wear pants these are definitely my first choice.  The combination of flannel lining and elastic waist is a definite winner.
Pink bra -  Well I finally managed to get a comfortable easy wearing bra.  I just need to make a couple more of these now!
Grey ankle shoes -  I made quite a few pairs of shoes this summer but these were the definite winners I love the comfort and style combined.

Top 5 misses

Refashioner boots - These really didn't work at all.  I wore them once but never again.  They have since been put aside to be redone.

Purple Velvet skirt and top - Whilst I really like this outfit unfortunately it never actually get's worn.  Which is a shame since I love this fabric.  Maybe I just need to make a concentrated effort to actually wear it - or at least parts of it

Red black plaid dress -Not yet blogged- Whilst there are bits of this that I like it ended up looking too much like a bathrobe to be actually wearable, plus I stuffed up and put one placket on the front of the sleeve rather than the back- it feels really weird.  I'm still trying to figure out how I can modify this so that it is wearable.

Red velvet - I think I've finally figured out what is wrong with this.  I think the neck band is just a bit too short and it makes the whole thing seem like it's strangling me.  Maybe I'll try and remake this next year so it actually get's worn cause I love this fabric.

Blue Plaid button up shirt - Also never blogged mainly because I've only worn it the once.  It fits fine but just never gets worn, maybe when it warms up a little it'll come back out of the closet!

There are a number of other pieces that don't get worn too much that could have gone in here, but I chose these ones as I had the highest hopes for them, thus they've fallen the farthest.

Reversible Jasper Dress

So take two on the snuggly dress quest.

Ever since I got the Paprika Patterns Jasper pattern I've been wanting to try the dress version I've even had the fabric set aside for it of a year now.  Well I finally got around to making it.  But I couldn't just make it plain - oh no I had to go and make it reversible.  The blue fleece fabric that I had earmarked for this dress I felt would make a really plain dress - it's one of the reasons I put off making this for so long - I wanted to do something to jazz it up a bit but could never figure out what.  Then one day when I was going through my fabric stash I looked over and saw a piece of flannel plaid that worked quite nicely with the blue and thought about using it as a contrast on the cuffs and bottom band, but then I had the brilliant idea of making a second dress out of the plaid flannel and making a reversible dress, tying the two together at cuffs, bottom band and cowl with a contrasting black fleece. Yes!

 I originally wanted to make the hooded version, but I wasn't sure how the hood would work reversible with the opposite side showing through so in the end I decided on the cowl neck instead.

The fabrics are all Sewfisticated Fabric finds.  The blue and the black fabrics ares knit on one side and fleecy on the other and have little to no stretch.  I have no idea what the fabric content is on these.  The plaid is a 100% cotton flannel.

I used the pattern that I modified when I originally made my Jasper sweaters.  It's basically a size 7 width but the lengths of front and back are cut down to account for my short torso and the sleeve adjusted accordingly.  I then added the dress length back on

I was a bit worried that by putting pockets in both dresses it would end up a bit bulky through the middle section but it's turned out surprisingly nicely.  I really love the way the pockets in the dress/sweater work - and have stolen them a couple of times for other projects too!

The two dresses were made separately and then put together to add the black cuffs, band and cowl.  For the cuffs and cowl I sewed the two layers of the dress together and sewed one side of the band to the blue side of the dress, I then turned under the other seam allowance, folded over the cuff/cowl and topstitched the cuff/cowl in place.

The epaulet for the cowl I made one side blue and one side plaid and then just twisted it at the neckline so he corresponding side is shown.  A button was sewed on each side to complete the look.

The bottom band I had to think about for a while.  I didn't want to attach it in the same way as the cuffs and collar as I was worried that one fabric might bag more than the other and end up baggy/saggy around the bottom so instead I sewed the lower band entirely to the blue dress, keeping the plaid dress separate, then with much contorting and twisting and turning sewed the plaid onto the other side of the front band - that just left a stretch of band at the back that had to be hand sewn onto the plaid to finish the dress off.

I am totally happy with this dress and can see it becoming a winter staple I've already found myself reaching for it regularly - and I can even wear it two days in a row - one on each side.    I love that due to the two different layers its super snuggly - now to make that pair of fleecy leggings to wear with it for even more warmth.

Drafting Leggings

Sometimes it feels like everyone else in the world, except me, loves leggings.  I don't know why but I just don't like wearing leggings.  I find them totally uncomfortable.  For me there are a couple of problems - first they are not warm enough - I am always cold - a thin pair of leggings just does not cut it in the warmth department.  Then there's something about the way the fabric feels tight around my calf - though that one could just be cause I'm not used to wearing them.  But then they never stay up around the waist and I feel like I'm constantly adjusting them and hitching them up.

However I do love the look of a winter dress with leggings and boots and I would love to be able to wear something like that so I started thinking about why I don't like my leggings. Is it just that the ones I have don't fit me properly?  I only have store bought leggings most of which seem to be too small for me - even the 3XL pair I bought last time seem too small.   So maybe its time I drafted a pair of leggings that would fit my body!

To begin to process I grabbed a number of plastic bags and a roll of duct tape.  I then covered my body from my waist all the way down one leg in plastic and started wrapping the duct tape around and around.   Since I only had limited duct tape I figured I only needed to do one leg - I'm generally pretty symmetrical - at least for these purposes.  I just tried to make sure that I had good coverage around the crotch area so I could get that fitting properly.

Once I was all wrapped up I attempted to draw straight lines down the outside and inside of my leg as well as the back and front of the leg, and horizontal lines around my calf, knee, thigh, crotch and waist.  This was not easy by myself but I think I managed pretty well (It might have been easier if I could find a pen that would write nicely on the duct tape).

To get my duct tape double off I ran a pair of scissors down the outside of my leg (as I knew I wanted my leggings to be seamed down the outside of the leg rather than the inside).

With my duct tape now free of my body it was time to try and make a pattern out of it.

As I played about with different seam placements I ended up cutting the pattern down each of the vertical lines which I'm a bit sad that I did now as in the end I decided to go for just the outside seam and I think my pattern would have been a bit more accurate if I hadn't had to patch it back together.

The pattern certainly looks weird!

Once I had a pattern it was time to try it out.  I used a piece of burgundy lycra material with minimal stretch so I started with the pattern pieces as is - I didn't add any seam allowance just had the material taken out in the seam as negative ease.  Unfortunately the piece of fabric wasn't wide enough to fit my entire pattern on so I ended up cutting the pattern diagonally from crotch to the outside of the knee on the front of the pattern (the red line in the picture below).  I tried to add in a gusset too but that failed miserably.

I sewed up the resulting fabric pieces and found out it was still a bit too big so I had to go back and take out about 1" off both side seams.

So how does it fit - it seems to be pretty good, maybe a smidge tight around the calf, good around the thighs, but it does still have terrible wrinkles around the bum - I was really hoping to avoid them with this pattern but it looks like no.

 So I decided to try again.   This time with a piece of rayon stretch terry.  This time I cut the pattern diagonally from the crotch to the outside of the knee on the back of the pattern and no gusset in the crotch.

I added a bit of width to the calf and due to the seam now being at the back through the problem area those wrinkles diminished a bit - I think one more teak on that area and we should be all good. 

Having said that no one is ever (apart from these photos) going to see the bum of these leggings - they will always have some form of dress/skirt over them so I may just call it as it is.

 Now for the big question - comfort.  Well these are definitely more comfortable than the store bought ones.... They stay around my waist better with only a little bit of hitching up required (I've still never found a pair of pants store bought or home made that don't need to be hitched up every time I stand up) but I still don't like how they feel around my calf - and even the second black pair is still not warm - warmer yes but not warm.  during my last trip to the fabric store I found some sweatshirt material with lycra and I'm thinking that my next pair will be made out of this.  We shall see how that works out.

Two new pairs of pants

I've made two new pairs of pants to get me through the cold seasons.  I made both of these using the same pattern that I use for all my pants.  It started life as McCalls 9517 and has been modified again and again as I tweak it for fit and style.

The first pair is made from a navy cord material with a metallic silver floral design printed on it.

The fit of these pants is fairly loose as the fabric has little to no stretch and I was looking for comfort more than style.  I have made two pairs of pants out of similar cord material over the years, both a bit more fitted around the hips and both have ripped in the bum region so I'm hoping that by making this pair a bit looser they will last longer.

For this pair of pants I eliminated the front seam down the leg, but kept the back seam for better fitting.

I added slash pockets that extend right across to the center front seam for a bit of extra tummy control.  The legs have been slimmed down through the thighs and some of the flare taken out.

 I added back patch pockets to the back of this pair which was probably a bit of a waste of time since they're barely noticable in this pattern but at least they are useful.

The front pockets are cut quite low which makes them super comfortable for standing around with your hands in your pockets.

  I also added a small waistband through which I threaded 1" wide elastic.

I really like these pants, they're comfortable, they're pretty but they are quite hard to pair up with shirts in my wardrobe. I have to find the odd plain shirt as they are so busy themselves.

The second pair of pants I made is from a mystery material I picked up at the local discount fabric store.  It was listed as a wool fabric but feels very much like a flannel.  Either way it's a beautiful warm fabric that feels great (not at all scratchy).

I started with the exact same pattern for this pair of pants with just a few minor variations.  I was working with a very limited amount of fabric - I think there was just over 1 yard.  This means no waistband and no back patch pockets.  In fact I even had to piece one of the back leg pieces on each side and the pocket bags just have a small amount of the actual material  in the open area of the pocket.

To finish these pants I just zig zag stitched the elastic onto the top and turned it over once and restitched.

There was certainly not enough material to do any pattern match ing. As such there is one panel at the back that is totally out of line with the rest of the pants - but hey - its a design feature!

I wore these pants and then washed them a couple of times and I found a few issues.
This fabric does tend to bag out over the course of the day, plus it seems to have shrunk length wise when I've washed it. I did pre-wash it but it seems that wasn't enough.

Since between the bagginess and the shortened length the pants ended up looking a bit...well daggy. I decided to modify them a bit.  I figured they would probably work better now as a striaght leg pair of pants rather than flared.

I tried just running the side seams and in seams in, but no matter how I did it it they never seemed to fit right.  So I took out the waistband elastic and then cut down all the side seams, inseams and the back seam - I figured since they were too big the removed fabric wouldn't be an issue and I really didn't feel like doing all that unpicking.

I then recut all the pieces so that the legs are straight from about the knee down, and the front piece is slightly tapered in - I used the leggings pattern that I've been working on to figure out how much each of the pieces should be cut down by.

I then sewed it all back together.  It only just fits through the hips now - I had to let all seams out to 1/4" through the hips, but otherwise the pants fit much better now and I like this style in this length much better.

So hopefully I have salvaged these slightly daggy pants - but it's been an interesting exercise in how fabric choice can affect the look of a garment.  Two pants made from the same pattern in different fabrics - two very different results.