I made a new outfit for myself! well actually I thought I was, although as it turns out I had only made half a new outfit for myself. But as halves go, I’m pretty happy! Also, I know it seems like I’ve only just finished wedding sewing, but how does one choose to wind down after a bout of incredibly, stressfully intense, VIS??? btw, that’s Very Important Sewing in case it wasn’t obvious. Well, one dives head-first into a fresh new sewing project, of course!! Ha! and it felt awesome too… because by comparison this is VUS, or Very Unimportant Sewing, and man it sure felt good! I loved every minute of making these new things #youknowyoureobsessedwhen
First things first; I made some new trousers… I’ve been wanting to make this particular love-child of these two different Closet-Case patterns for aaaages now! I’ve always really liked the mid-riding style of the Sashas; how it sits feels very comfortable, and how it fits is quite flattering for me. I also love the magnificently flared wide-legs of the Jennys, and thought how cool it would be if they could be jammed together into one, gloriously slouchy, flare-y package. Well, ta da!!!
please excuse horrible but apparently obligatory butt-picture…
I just needed some nice fabric, which popped up suddenly in Spotlight of all places… Spotlight has fabric highs, where they’re stuffed with a tonne of really very nice and affordable options and you’re completely spoilt for choice; and also sad and lengthy lows, where there’s nothing but absolute crap… You just have get in there and stock up during the good times and then endure the bad times until the good times roll around again. Anyway, currently they’re having a rather awesome high, which is pretty nice for us sewing-obsessed peeps. I mean, I’m not supposed to be buying any fabric right now… but you know. When you see something good, it’s not going to be there forever! I pounced upon this stretchy, narrow-whale cotton corduroy in this gorgeously yummy shade of caramel pretty much instantly… not only is the colour so very me, but the stretchiness is just exactly right for that required for the Sasha’s too. Right nearby was some really lovely, very soft honey-coloured knit; very cashmere-like in its feel though it’s actually just acrylic, but that’s fine. Fabric snob, I am not, well, most of the time anyway. I planned a honey/caramelly sort of an outfit for myself. A Mars Bar, sort of an outfit. #nowiwantamarsbar #damn
What is the other half of the wannabe outfit?? well, I’d downloaded the free, tessuti patterns Monroe turtleneck pattern ages ago, printed it out and had it lying around; and I decided it would be a good one for the honey-coloured knit. In my head my snuggly new sweater was going to look absolute perfect with my new, wide-legged slouchy trousers. I could hardly wait to wear them together! So did things work out just exactly as planned? don’t be silly!
I absolute adore my caramel trousers, they turned out to be everything I could have hoped for; however… the turtleneck… Well right from the word go it did not want to be my turtleneck. It really really just wanted to be Cassie’s. I was barely halfway through when I realised it had her name written all over it. The sleeves and collar of the Monroe turtleneck are tight-fitting, with a dropped shoulder and a very boxy, oversized body; a combination which looks pretty terrible on me, I’m coming to terms with that sad fact (sob) but I know is quite gorgeous on Cassie. It’s a style she has worn before, and worn well too. When she came over in the evening I gave it to her, and her reception was most satisfyingly enthusiastic! I might even whip some more for her… it’s a very quick and easy pattern to make and you only need about 1.2m or so. And I do have several other tops already that I can wear with my trousers. I’m ok with passing things on that don’t want to look good on me, especially when they look so good on another, and are so warmly received! 🙂
Some technical sewing deets:
The turtleneck; nothing much to say, just made straight up; sleeve hems done using a twin needle, hemline done by hand because the fabric was stretching out some. Super easy.
R2D2 says hi….
The trousers; I cut out the tops as Sashas, and from the hip down they are almost Jenny’s. Not exactly Jenny’s because the patterns are actually completely different from each other and can’t really be “melded” that easily. For one thing, the Sasha’s are drafted for a stretch while the Jenny’s are not. Another thing I pondered quite a bit, was the alignment of the back leg piece; because the grainlines of the back legs in the two patterns are very different to each other. I’ve made up two pairs of Sasha trousers previously, exactly to the pattern, and for this new pair I decided to alter the alignment of the back leg piece, pivoting the ankle a little outward, so it’s got a similar grain line to the Jenny’s.
The waistband lining and pockets are cut from some ikat cotton, that Mum gave to me a few years ago, from when she cleaned out her stash. You can see I attempted to finish the pocket edges with French seams as indicated in the pattern, but it was just too bulky around the heavily-interfaced pocket opening area, so I overlocked the edges for that little bit. Probably would have looked better to overlock the whole thing, but the pockets were all basically finished, done and dusted by this point so I was just, ehhh *shrug* I used the little Closet Case label Heather sent out along with the pattern. Cute, huh?
I’ve found that around the waistband hook and eye closure at the front, no matter how heavily you interface the waistband and facing, the hook and eye will pull the facing out a little, just because the two layers aren’t joined together at this point…. for these ones I kind of stab-stitched the two layers together all around the hook, keeping the stitches tiny and almost invisible on the right side of the waistband. You can see the stitches if you know they’re there, but I think you can barely tell, and it does help to keep the waistband nice and flat-looking, and no hint of pulling out of shape while you’re wearing them.
I am SO PROUD of my welt pockets!! You know how sometimes one welt pocket might look a little better than the other and so you just take picture of that one for your sewing blog and quietly leave out the other?? oh wait, what? no I never!! oooo I would never something so devious, oh no…. Well anyway, both my pockets turned out to be things of perfectly-matching beauty, if I say so myself…
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Details:
Trousers; Sasha trousers by Closet Case patterns, with wide legs from the Jenny trouser pattern
Honey coloured turtleneck; the free Monroe turtleneck by Tessuti Patterns
my pink top; the twist top from the Japanese pattern book “Pattern Magic” by Tomoko Nakamachi
this picture adds nothing to the story apart from Zoe looking kinda funny … oo I’m so mean. Would I ever post a picture of myself looking kinda funny?? NO
me and my big fluffy girl on our holiday down south together, just the two of us… was so nice 🙂
…wearing them here with my mustard Nettie tee and my self-designed mustard cowl also self-knitted socks
I’ve made two new pairs of pants for Cassie! Sarah of 
Details:
First thing to get made was a shirt for Tim… He has a job now where he has to look smart, so I decided to make a business shirt… I bought the really lovely deep maroon, mini-scale gingham cotton shirting from Tessuti’s in Melbourne, and used Burda 6874, my kinda go-to shirt pattern since I semi-retired Burda 7767. d’you know 
For Kelly’s top, I’d chosen the asymmetrical cowl top from Pattern Magic 2; the shape of the cowl is dictated by the shape of the facing. It’s always a bit of a challenge to draft your own patterns, but well I love a challenge! and I knew the shape of this top would be super flattering for Kelly and suit her beautifully… I cut the pieces on the bias and inserted a maroon invisible zip in the left side seam, so it zips down undone… however Kelly says she can squeeze into it without having to undo the zip which is cool. I think the bias-cut is what gives it that little bit of stretch.
Next up! a pullover/sweatshirt for Craig! truth now… I was running out of time, and steam! and this fair near killed me!
With the bias binding facing up, and following the previous stitching as a stitching guide, topstitch the pressed edge of the bias binding down. Since you’re using the previous stitching as a guide, the width of your double-topstitching will be nice and even from the outside.
And, last but not least! I also made a few more little hardback notebooks… just fun little things, however I do know that the recipients do actually use notebooks regularly so I know they will be useful too! I used mostly a mixture of leftover and old papers; from old scrapbooks, some with the children’s scribbles still on them! I’m sentimental that way 😉 , various papers, musical paper, some pale coloured wrapping paper, writing stationery; just lots of different stuff.
Pattern; the Sudley by Megan Nielsen patterns, I gathered up the sleeve hems with skinny elastic, like I had done for 
Then I vaguely thought maybe a navy blue skirt would make it a nicely complete set, and she desperately needs skirts for work too … and lo and behold what should be lounging languidly about in the very next aisle but this teal blue suedette, which is a PERFECT colour match for the rooves. BAM! DECISION MADE. Lugged them both to the counter without a second thought, brought them home, tossed into the washing machine.
The suedette “looks” nice and perfectly suede-y, but it frays like billy-o. I finished all the raw edges on the overlocker, and the lower hem with a bias cut binding cut from a scrap of purple/blue micro fibre. 
The Tshirt is made up just like the pattern, except for the neckline… I’m lazy with my Inari necklines and have pretty much finished them all off like this! Just overlocked the raw edge, turned it under and topstitched from the right side. Since it’s quite a wide neckline and doesn’t stretch out when you put the Tshirt on and take it off, the stitches won’t snap and this kind of finish works perfectly well.
The lower hem is finished with my twin needle. Lisa asked about channelling with a twin needle.. all I can say is that I’ve never had channelling and what’s more I have no idea how I’ve avoided it so far either!! Only thing I can think of: I always finish the raw edge on my overlocker, then topstitch with the twin needle, and that’s it! Maybe the overlocked edge stabilises the fabric and that’s what stops a channel forming? That’s the only reason I can think of anyway. 🙂
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Funny story; I made this nearly two months ago… and risked 
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