Green Snake Skin accessories

 Who doesn't want fake green snakeskin accessories?

This fabric ( a synthetic vinyl) was another of those "I have to have some of that" purchases.  I was originally thinking of making a jacket out of it, but then I realised I don't like wearing jackets out of  vinyl fabric, they're just not that comfortable.  So instead the fabric just sat at the bottom of the stash for a couple of years.  

But then I was looking for some fabric to make a new pair of shoes out of - and well what better than this fake snake skin in lime green. And I have to say I love these shoes.  They are not the best shaped shoes that I've made, but they are close.  

One day I will have this shoe patterns down perfectly,  hopefully next time. But in the mean time I'm going to enjoy wearing these shoes everwhere.

Once my shoes were done I knew that I had to continue - that last wallet I made didn't turn out that great - my cards keep falling out of it, so I decided it was time to make a new wallet too.  It took me two attempts to get the inside cards slots to work correctly, but I got there in the end and I am in love with this wallet.  It's perfect in every way.

Last but not least was a small shoulder bag.  I made two major mistakes when making this.  The first was sewing the strap inside out and then trying to turn it. I was able to do it eventually, but it wasn't easy.  The second was the flap over the front, I was making up the pattern on the fly and I forgot to account for the width to cover the top of the bag, before tapering to the point.  so the flap doesn't entirely cover the bag opening.  Oh well it'll still work ok. I put a zipper pocket inside the bag to keep any valuables in at least.

Kineton Top

 Well this post is well over due - I'm finding it hard to take photos of my makes now that the remote doesn't work on my good camera...plus in this case, there is that pesky problem of I couldn't post photos till after the pattern was launched.

This is the top version of the Cashmerette Kineton dress. To make this I lengthened the top pieces of the pattern  by 2" , left off the skirt and just finished the bottom of the skirt by turning the lower edge up twice at 1/2" each and threaded 1/2" elastic through the resulting channel.

The fabric for this top is my favourite part.  Its a beautiful peacock chiffon fabric.  I didn't know what I was going to make out of it when I bought it, I just knew I needed it.  Then when this pattern rolled around I knew it'd match the pattern beautifully, but also that I'd never wear it as a dress, so I decided to make it shirt length instead.

Unfortunately it didn't quite turn out as planned.  I have no issue with the cropped length as shown, but when I wear it, the bottom band creeps upwards to settle at my smallest part, right under my boobs, and that is not a good look.  So I really only wear it if I'm willing to continue tugging it down the entire time - which is never.  I'm actually contemplating add the skirt to it as at this point I think the dress would get more wear than the top does.  Such as shame as I love the neckline and sleeves of this pattern and I love the fabric....

Kimball Bomber Jackets

 I'm finally able to share my favourite makes so far this year, not one, but two really cool Kimball Bomber Jackets by Cashmerette.

 

The first one I actually made quite some time ago - November 2021 to be precise, right after we finished creating the pattern.  It's made from all the scraps of fabric left over from the Upton photoshoot sample.  From them moment I saw this fabric I was in love. I mean what's not to love.  Teal, neon pink, waratah looking flower pattern.  I was very careful when cutting out that Upton dress to keep all the scraps as I knew I wanted to try and use them....and when we designed this pattern I knew it was a match.  I was originally going to just use the scraps pieced together as the quilted sleeves, but when I looked at my left overs I had enough to do the entire jacket, which was good as I was struggling to find a coordinating fabric to go with it.   In the end the front pieces were able to be cut as is.  the back needed to be cut in 4 pieces with a seam down the center back and then angled seams down each side and the sleeves used up all the little pieces of scraps.

I cut my sleeve out of the batting fabric and then just starting quilting the pieces directing onto the batting.  I was able to make a basic pinwheel design in the center of each sleeve, but you really can't see it which is a bit of a shame.

Since the jacquard  fabric was quite thin, and I knew that a non warm jacket was not going to get a lot of use in my wardrobe, I decided to underline the front and back pieces in the cotton batting as well.  This also helped when piecing my back pieces together to keep the shape as well as giving the jacket more structure as well as more warmth.  The one downside was that it meant that I couldn't leave the inside bare so I ended up fully lining the jacket. I cut the front back and sleeve pieces from a black poly satin fabric I had in stash and sewed them together, attached the lining to the main body, right sides together, along the neckline and bottom band and sleeve cuffs, but left the center front un stitched so that I could easily turn everything inside right.  I then added the zipper and zipper facing to the jacket as per the instructions so the facing is not attached to the lining but sits over the top of it.  I quite like this constructions.

The ribbing is a fairly light weight, shiny black ribbing as I couldn't find anything else that matched, but I was able to find zippers that matched the teal in my fabric perfectly so was able to use them at center front and the zipper pockets.

I love this jacket.  Though I do find that it send to choke me a bit when worn done up.  Despite my measurements putting my all over the place I made a straight size 12 from the plus size range.  The only change was the sleeves.  I found that the normal sleeve was too tight, but the full bicep sleeve was too loose, so I used the full bicep sleeve and just just a small small bicep adjustments to it.

My second Kimball is a new one, just finished today.  This one came into being as I was rummaging through my fabric scraps the other day and came across the left over fabric from this coat I made for my best friend.

This is the most beautiful fabric, a boiled Melton wool in a beautiful royal blue.  I knew that it would look stunning as the quilted sleeves for a Kimball.  And I also knew just want fabric to use for the body.  A quilting cotton that has been in my stash for years just waiting for the right project.  It's a blkack background with blue geometrical circles all over and then big bright medallions in shades of prinks, greens, red, yellows, all colours really.

The Kimball however is not designed to be made out of quilting cottons - it needs something with more body - so I decided that I would underline the cotton with more of the wool, that way it's nice and warm and the right weight as well.  Apart from this one change, for once I made the pattern exactly as written - what a strange notion.  

For the pattern I used the same as above - a straight size 12 with full bicep adjusted down, but this time I used my moulage pattern to re-cut the neckline - basically adding a high round back adjustment to get it to sit better around my shoulders and neckline.

Construction wise - The sleeves are quilted with one layer of the wool, one layer of cotton batting and an inner layer of a eggplant coloured poly satin.  I used a denim coloured thread twisted with silver to quilt the sleeves.

I used a pretty purple double fold bias tape to bind all my seams inside.  
 

 Ribbing and zippers are all black.

I probably should have done some better pattern matching on the front of the jacket, but I didn't even think about it until it was pretty much done and I tried it on, so oh well it is what it is.

Apart from that one minor detail I really do love this jacket!

Ames Jeans

After making a couple of pairs of jeans for our last photoshoot I was inspired to try and make a pair of jeans for myself that are actual jeans - all the bells and whistles - I wanted to use the rivet press whilst I still had access to it and make a pair of jeans that looks store bought....and I think I almost managed it.....

I say almost as I decided at the last minute that I couldn't leave the back pockets blank - that's just not me, so I sat down an sketched out a number of different designs, mainly based around different animals. In the end I decided to go for the stylised elephant.

I'm so happy with how he turned out, it took a lot of very slow sewing to get those curves smooth - in places it was one stitch at a time - sew one stitch, then pick up the presser foot and adjust the fabric, sew another stitch ...and repeat.

The pattern - I decided to try out the Ames Jeans from Cashmerette since I'd just sewn them twice.  Based on my measurements I sit between a size 12 and 14 through the hips and legs but then I'm a size 20 or so at the waist.  So that I what I started with.  I cut a size 14 from the ankles up to the hips, then graded out to a 20  using the apple pelvis, keeping the extra height from the size 20 as well.  

I had the original muslin I'd used for one of the photoshoot pairs of jeans - they were a size 20-22 so it was actually quite easy to unpick them and recut my pattern out of the existing pieces.

Then came the fun part of trying to get them to fit - because they certainly did not fit straight out of the packet.  The first thing was there was a lot of extra length at the sides.  At the center front and center back the height was pretty good but I had to take about 1.5" length out of the side seams between waist and hips.

The next issues was the back under the bum.  They fit fine through the hips but there was a lot of extra fabric at the back of my thighs.  I pinned out a fish eye dart from the middle of my butt down the back of my thigh to my hips.  I took out about 3"in total.

I needed a knock knee adjustment to get the bottom of my legs to sit straight, then finally I flared the bottom of the legs from the knee down, cutting it up the middle and adding about 4" extra width at the bottom on both back and front.  

I made all these adjustments to my pattern pieces, then recut my muslin yet again and this time I was quite happy with the fit.  A few minor tweaks taking out of bit of width here and a bit there and I was good to go.

It turns out that I could have take a bit more fabric out of the front pelvis, but other than that I'm really happy with the way these are fitting.  

So now I could go ahead and make them up.  I used a standard copper topstitching thread on these, made the pocket bags out of some left over plaid cotton.

Even added in the belt loops - which I'm very happy about since I actually find that I need to wear a belt with them.  I think I underestimated the amount of stretch in my fabric since, even with my standard elastic waist they still slip off my hips.

The only change I made to the construction of these pants is to add some elastic into the waistband.  As my waist and hips are basically the same dimensions I find that even with a beautifully contoured and fitted waistband my pants still slide off my hips.  so by added some negative ease into the waistband with a piece of elastic I can usually keep them up.  It makes them look not so nice when they are not on the body, but once they are on you can't tell.  Can you tell there is elastic in that waistband?

Overall I really love these pants and am so glad I made them.  One or two more tweaks to the pattern and I think these will be staple in my wardrobe.

Polka Dot Pants

Playing catch up here - I thought I should go back and document some of the other things I've made during the second half of this year when the blogging fell by the wayside.

The next on the list of un-blogged garments is a pair of flared pants in a polka dot denim.

I've needed a new pair of jeans for a while - the zipper is broken on my peacock jeans and the other two pairs of jeans that I've made the fabric is getting all stretched out (plus another zipper broken etc).

A contest over on pattern review was the incentive I needed to get around to making a new pair.

Fabric - The fabric is one that I picked up at a fabric swap some time ago and never got around to using.  It's a dark denim with spots of black flocked velvet all over.  I love this fabric!

Pattern - This is another iteration of my standard pants pattern - every time I take the latest pattern, tweak it slightly and still I've yet to get the fit right - this time was no exception  - there are a number of issues with these pants.

1.  The flare - I added a flared leg to these pants as it's my favourite silhouette - I like my pants to be fitted through the thigh to about the knee, but I hate anything tight around my calf, plus I feel like the flare at the bottom balances out the weight at the mid section a bit otherwise I just feel like I look like an apple with arms and legs sticking out of it.  However I was just guessing about how much flare to add to each piece and I got it wrong - the legs seem to twist a bit from the knee down, plus the knee is all crinkly....back to the drawing board on that one!

2. The bum - If I'm standing still the butt looks fine - though I made them a bit big so there is a bit of bagginess there -  The problem is that the moment I move the back slides down and I get a saggy bum - not a good look.  I have no idea what I need to do to stop this.....

3.  The buttons - Normally I avoid buttons simply because I find them a pain to do up and undo.  I decided to actually add buttons this time as it was a contest and I had chosen to enter the advanced level and thought I should do buttons - Whilst I love the look of the buttons, the really are a pain to do up and undo.

4.  The waistband - I can't decide if this is a good or a band point - I really love the extra wide waistband, but it does have a tendency to fold down at the front when I sit - I think this is just a result of the high waist and without lowering the waist there is nothing I can do about it - so I think I would do this waistband again - just with snaps next time and maybe some elastic around the top.

5.  The zipper - I did a full fly front zip on these - but of course, on the very first wear the stupid zipper broke - yes I could fix it, but I don't want to - so I went back and added snaps down the length of the zipper.  

There are also a number of features on these jeans that I really love - they were made for an Advanced technique contest so I went all out in the finishing of them.

First was the pockets -  The front slash pockets were finished using a cotton velvet fabric on the edges.  I love the way this looks with this fabric - Now if only I'd gotten the shape right so the pockets didn't gape!

The pocket bags were finished using French seams for a nice clean finish.

The back pockets are welt pockets with the welts made from the same velvet.

The pocket bags are all beautifully finished with a backing of the main fabric where the pocket opens.

The edges of the pockets are bound with the same pocket bag material (an old sheet that had a hole in it).  The top of the pocket bag is incorporated into the waistband seam to finish it.

I used this project to learn how to do a proper flat fell seam.  Usually I just use the faux flat fell seams where you sew the seam right sides together, the trim down one seam allowance, fold the other over and top stitch the seam allowance in place.  This time I did it properly.

Press the seam allowances in the opposite directions.  Here you can see the center back piece has the seam allowance pressed to the wrong side and the side back piece has the seam allowance pressed to the right side.

The two seam allowances are tucked inside each other.

Opening the seam out I basted the seam allowance on top of each other.

Then folded again on the creases.

I then did two rows of top stitching from the right side of the fabric, one along each of the edges.

I used this technique for the back seam shown here, the center back seam and the inseam.

The waistband was handstitched down before topstitching. With the rest of the pants top stitched the waistband looked a little weird without any, so after hand sewing the waistband I went back and did two rows of top stitching on the top and bottom of that as well.  Both layers of the waistband are interfaced with a heavy weight interfacing to provide as much structure as possible.

Overall these pants look beautiful in my closet, but not that great when on my body.  They are by no means terrible and they certainly get worn, but they have a number of annoying issues so I'd really like to try again!