Tag Archives: Tessuti Patterns

sasha-jenny trousers, and a honey-coloured turtleneck

21/06/2019 3:35 pm \ 9 Comments \ Carolyn

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…

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

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, Closet Case files, daily outfit, jeans, jenny, jenny jeans, monroe turtleneck, sasha trousers, tessuti patterns, trousers

Sydney jacket

20/08/2017 11:52 pm \ 57 Comments \ Carolyn

have you guys seen COLOSSAL… ?

Bet you can’t guess where I am here… Yeah, I know, it’s a tough one. Some locations are just so obscure and far off the beaten track, but I do like to seek out these especially quiet and sleepy, tucked-away little spots to highlight here on ye olde blog… GO me.

Yeah, so I’ve made a Sydney jacket… I bought the pattern from Tessuti’s in Melbourne back during my March trip away there with Mum, Cassie and my niece Tiffany; and have finally got around to giving it a whirl… I think I first saw this design on Sue, at one of our meet ups and was instantly interested. It’s a pretty nice design with a true shawl collar and not just your usual body with two set in sleeves. This is like my wearable muslin, if you like.

I used a very blankety-like wool-mix from Spotlight, which I think is definitely a lot more “mix” than “wool”, haha! but that’s fine by me! I tossed it in the machine when I got home and it washed up beautifully, absolutely zero shrinkage and just a bit of light “fluffing”, which was equally ok with me; in fact any and all fluffing is totally welcome in all my winter clothing, thanks.

I agonised for ages over which side to use; one side was more vibrant but “flatter” with a more pronounced twill to its appearance; the other side is fluffier, and with more muted colours. I loved both sides equally! and couldn’t decide… finally I asked Craig and Cassie to choose for me. They both voted vibrant OUT, fluffy IN. Hurdle number one; cleared!

It’s a lovely fabric really, warm and cosy and with that richly colourful blocky weave, the perfect drape; and I loved the idea it for this particular jacket pattern… however! the Sydney instructions have a big bolded announcement on the first page… IMPORTANT: Not suitable for woven fabrics that fray when cut What is my chosen fabric? only like the most fray-able of fraying fabrics ever invented by mankind. Typical of me, so stubborn. I’m like… Oh, I’m not supposed to use a fray able fabric? JUST WATCH ME THEN mwahahahaha.

Solution; I edged the visible raw edges with bias binding… oh I’d bought a mid blue poplin for my bias binding, but it was a bit bright.. so I sludged * it up nicely with a bit of iDye in Brown, to make a nice deeper dirty blue; a much better colour for my fabric. I think it turned out a rather nice match!

Hurdles two and three; cleared!

new colour, with scrap of the original colour on top…

*”sludged” as a verb. along with the associated adjective “sludgy”, are technical terms used a lot around here… where Brown dye is employed liberally and frequently to tone down the overly bright colours beloved by commercial fabric designers and that form about 99.99% of commercially available fabric, so they better suit those of us who look hideous in said brights.

What else is there to say? I lengthened the sleeves to bracelet length… I really like them at this length, and even though I wasn’t very serious about it at first I absolutely love my jacket now it’s finished. It’s rather Lagenlook, yes? I’ve worn it two days in a row since I finished it… and that’s just about unheard of for me! who pretty much has to mix it up some every day… There’s just something about this rather simple yet inherently dramatic style that prompts the adoption of random flamboyant poses. My enthusiasm for photoshop going only so far, you’ll just have to imagine the appropriate backdrop in each case…

exhibit A, supersleuthy spy… the scene: nighttime; the main gallery of the Louvre in Paris, a dim light glistening off the polished parquet floorboards, while painted masterpieces look on silently

exhibit B: busy woman-about-town hailing a taxi on the streets of some mega-metropolis no, not in her garage, oh no not at all) the scene; outside the New York stock exchange, close of business, important business-y types milling about on peak- hour sidewalks

exhibit C: Victoria’s Secret model strutting down the runway.. except she forgot her wings and is instead clad in rather unsexy but warm, warm winter woollies in lieu of the cute little bejewelled bikini. Or alternatively; Rio de Janeiro’s Jesus… or a tightrope walker…

Because the wrong side/underneath of the fabric shows around the neckline I applied the bias binding on the inside of this centre back seam here instead… it’s not super visible, under my hair and all, but you know… I made a little hanging loop too…

So that’s it!… oh wait, one last thing to add; and that’s my method for dealing with a frayable fabric in a pattern that calls for un-frayable fabric. In this pattern the seaming is the simplest method possible; seams are formed by overlapping the raw edges and simply topstitching in place… and using my method you first bind the upper raw edges with bias tape, so you end up with all the seams thus highlighted throughout.

First step; overlock the raw edges of the underneath edge… the bias binding will be applied to the upper edge only.

Cut bias binding strips 2.6mm (1″) wide… this allows for a seam overlap of 1cm (3/8″) For patterns calling for a wider overlap, the same method applies, just cut the bias binding strips correspondingly wider i.e., for a 1.5cm (5/8″) overlap, cut bias binding strips to be 3mm (1 1/4″) wide.. etc.

Stitch bias binding to the upper side raw edge in a 6mm (1/4″) wide seam.

Press over and around to enclose the raw edge.

Position the upper side edge over the underside raw edge, with the overlocked edge even with the bias binding edge. This corresponds to a 1cm (3/8″) overlap, as required by the pattern.

Topstitch the two pieces together by stitching in the ditch, or if preferred, just inside the bias edge.

Topstitch a second time, with a second pass of stitching a scant 3mm (1/8″) just inside the folded bias edge of the upperside.

For the opening edges, lower edge and sleeve edges; I simply applied the same bias binding and slip-stitched it down inside just like a regular bias-bound edge…

Voila! Jacket made the same way you’re supposed to, and using the forbidden fabric to boot! Ha!