rhetorical question, don’t mind me. I actually love stripes, even though when I do sew with them I feel inextricably compelled to pin each and every stripe. It’s ok. A small amount of suffering is acceptable when it leads to nice things.
Anyway, I made a new outfit for myself, in anticipation of the slightly cooler weather that heralds the onset of autumn, hurrah. The fabric is a really nice, crisp, slightly crinkly, and reassuringly sturdy ticking striped cotton, ivory with steel blue stripes, and a silver thread running through. I bought it years ago from Fabulous Fabrics, and it’s been one of those lengths of fabric that I’ve “saved” for really a nice project, one far off day. It’s always a lovely thing when that far off day finally dawns.
For the top, I used the new Fibremood Kristy pattern, a smart top with big patch pockets with arrowhead flaps, and a nice shaped collar, with the most rudimentary of collar stands.
I lengthened the sleeves by several inches so I could turn up a cuff, and I love how this looks. There’s double topstitching just about everywhere although it doesn’t stand out since I used matching ivory thread, but you do pick it up subconsciously.
My skirt is, of course, our own Meelup skirt pattern. I do feel a bit bad about my possible overuse of this pattern and have decided I really need to branch out a bit with regard to skirt patterns, well, ALL patterns really, but it really does tick all my boxes so well. Maybe I’ll limit myself to just one of a pattern per year? worth a thought!
I lined the skirt with ivory poly acetate lining fabric, also from stash. This adds a bit of necessary body to the skirt too, making it nicer to wear. In fact, the whole outfit is very comfy, and happily has a certain subtle chic afforded by the details on the Kristy top; I really love it a lot.
I also ran up an adorable little pair of shorts for my littlest grandchild G, using the very last of the leftover “public pool” cotton drill fabric designed by his mother, which I bought from her Spoonflower shop, here.
The pattern I used is Butterick 5510, size M. This is the biggest size in the envelope, so I’ve realised I need to use it a few more times, and quickly too, before G grows out of it! I’d almost forgotten how much fun children’s clothes are to make, so quick and easy compared to adult clothes. I traced out the pattern and finished the shorts in about an hour, tops!
I finally decided on a little skirt and naturally chose 
The hem of the skirt is the original hem of the jeans shorts, and I unpicked a little to sew the side seams, before resewing the original hem in place. The original topstitching on the jeans shorts was a mixture of navy blue and a kind of dull, mustard-y orange, but all my new topstitching is quite a brighter orange.
It’s a bit daggy, let’s be real, but I guess I’m an 80’s girl at heart really so daggy is set in stone into my DNA. I’ll happily wear it as a knockabout skirt on the weekend and when I just feel like slouching around. It’s fun, very comfy, and I often kinda like that scruffy vibe anyway, hehe.
The skirt is our very own Meelup pattern, which is currently my number one top favourite. It has all my desired features; deep pockets, no zip, and a streamlined, yet comfortable and roomy silhouette. I carefully lined up the pockets to match the pattern in the skirt front; Pattern Matching 101. The skirt is lined in deep green lining fabric, not a perfect match colour-wise but t’was already in the stash thus making it the perfect candidate.
I also used a khaki cotton for the pocket lining and red buttons for the same reason… I know I know; the purist in me shrieks “NO!” however the thrifty-miss in me reassures myself that it’s not like you can ever see either of these wrongly coloured things when you’re wearing the skirt! I used the same khaki cotton to make bias binding to finish the raw edge of the hem inside…
The little tee-top is kinda based on another old favourite, the epaulette top from “she has a mannish style” by Yuki Takada. I had enough tartan for the sleeves and two big patch pockets, and the body is cut from an ivory wool felt that has been such a very long-term stash resident that I cannot remember its provenance. I did not include the eponymous epaulettes, … also I lined the body fully with an ivory silk habotai (also long-term stash) because the ivory wool is really itchy.
I stabilised the neckline with a biascut strip of cream cotton, then attached the lining to this, before stitching them all down to the top around the neckline.. yes, quite complicated but gives a nice finish, imo. The armscye of the lining is also stitched to that of the outer, and the remainder of the body and side seams float freely from each other. Having a silk lining makes it quite beautiful to wear!
I finished the lower raw edge with cotton bias, just like with the skirt… You can see here how I used dark green thread in the bobbin to stitch on those patch pockets… and no that is not a mistake! I discovered that a cream coloured thread to match the wool showed up just very slightly on the outside of the pockets, not terribly but enough to bother me…so I unpicked that and re-did it with the green thread. Now the topstitching on the pockets is nicely invisible… 🙂
I’ve also run up two new ivory merino T-shirts in the past week… this is another of our patterns, the Pinjarra twinset. These two items are of course the tee part of the pattern, and both have the scoop neckline. I basically made these to use up the last of a length of ivory merino that I’d bought a few years ago but only made one tee so far. Now it has happily realised the purpose it was bought for, at last!
A few little moth holes had sprung up during its confinement to the stash, so while I could cut mostly around them, I darned the few unavoidable ones up before making my tops… The merino is so fine, I used regular stitching thread for darning… and even then it looks thicker than I’d like.
Honestly, though, it really is near invisible, unless you get up really close! and I know these two items are going to work hard in my wardrobe next winter… btw, can you see how I used a white thread and and ivory thread in that double top-stitching? No?!
Hello! I’m back with a few new things…
