Hello! I’ve made a new hoodie for myself, and think it’s rather beautiful if I say so myself. Many years ago, when I started this blog, I would sometimes berate myself for being scared of wearing colourful clothing. I tried to break away from making too many white things. I think I’ve succeeded in training myself to wear more colourful clothing, but actually my love for plain white things, or really, ivory things, hasn’t gone away. I still have quite a lot of cream, white or ivory fabrics in the stash! When the new Fibremood Dyron hoodie pattern landed in my inbox I got out some of my hoodie-weight fabrics and found I had enough of this lovely winter-white corduroy to cut out the hoodie. I’ve been hoarding this corduroy for a looooooooooong time so it feels really good to enjoy it, at last!
I made a size small, haha. Yes, it’s huge.
To be fair, the blurb does state that it’s deliberately styled as oversized, but still… I really love this design actually. I had an ivory zip in my stash already, fortunately, so I didn’t need to buy anything new to make the hoodie. As well as a zip, you needed velcro tape, which is the closure for both pockets, and is also on the sleeve tabs and hip/waist tabs. I only had black velcro, which worried me a little for a while. But it shouldn’t have. In the end I decided the black looked absolutely fine.
Speaking of those hip/waist tabs, to be completely honest they really are completely unnecessary, and are just a nuisance. In the end I unpicked the velcro tape and just stitched them permanently down.
This shows the front pocket with once of its side velcro closures. Inexplicably, this pocket also has a top opening with velcro closure too. This is kind of inaccessibly tucked right up underneath the “flap” so I don’t even really understand why it’s there.
The hood is lined with a matching cream coloured lightweight cotton, when I realised a double layer of corduroy was going to make the hood too heavy and stiff.
This is a rather clever sleeve pocket in the left sleeve. It’s inserted in one of the sleeve seams, and also has a velcro closure. I’m not sure what you’d use it for but it is big enough for a phone. So I guess that could come in handy.
Wearing it here with my really old, but favourite, Closet Core patterns Sasha trousers. I’ve been saying for ages I need to replace these, and the good news is that I have finally taken steps to make this happen. Stay tuned!
I’ve made a few new things!
I’ve had a tendency in the past to do welt pockets my own way… or a way that is a conglomeration of various big 4 patterns I’ve used over the years… the welt pockets on the Arare were a little different and took a little getting my head around. And they turned out absolutely perfect! I’m thrilled with how well they turned out.
Although it hasn’t shown up too well in any of my photos because it’s in a toning caramel colour; there is masses of topstitching in this outfit. I used up almost an entire roll of upholstery thread!
I shall sign off with a few pocket details…
To make them: I kept only the fly front and the button closure intact; unpicked most of the waistband and sliced off basically every single other seam! taking it in at both side seams, the centre back seam, and altering the crotch curve super drastically to fit. Approximately 7″ is taken out of the waistband overall tapering out to almost no width from the legs so they are nicely flared, just the way I like them. This also means that the hip pockets have a pretty tiny opening now! but I figured that’s a small price to pay for free new shorts and funnily enough I don’t really find occasion to put my hands in my pockets while kayaking 😉
OH! I forgot to blog about this before, in fact I just checked and I made this back in February! bad blogger! but I also made another little work dress for Cassie, another Named patterns Inari tee dress. This is my fifth Inari made, my third for Cassie, she loves the style just as much as I do! Also it’s like a perfect little design for work, plus being easy and comfortable to wear, and quick to run one up. I incorporated the same 
Hello! just a few quick items for today… I’ve actually been sewing a few things for other people! Scary stuff, huh. I mean, it’s one thing that I can see all my own flaws in things I make for myself, and on a daily basis! but that’s kinda the rough with the smooth, you accept that because it’s all your own doing, all your own fault and you can tell yourself you’re “learning” and going to do better next time haha…. but to subject another person to those flaws … well that’s really exposing yourself. ok, you know what I mean…
Sure, they’re all near identical, but still. What’s not to love about that.
This is the first time I’ve put an exposed zip in a skirt with lining, and wasn’t totally sure how to do it; I put the zip in similarly to how you’d do a welt pocket, and then hand-stitched the lining to the zip tape on the inside. I cut the bottom edge of the pleather clean and straight with my rotary cutter and left it unhemmed; and hemmed the paisley portions in a deep 4cm hem by hand. The skirt is fully lined with raspberry polyacetate, itself a leftover from 
Item number two; a hoodie for my son’s girlfriend. I had made 
