Nita Trousers Tester Version

In another lifetime at the beginning of the year I agreed to be a pattern tester for Amy Nicole's Nita Trousers pattern. I made these up and gave feedback to Amy but it's taken me a couple more months to write it up here. Initially, I hadn't posted these trousers because I had planned to make a pair to wear to work. I had a nice wool blend ready to go, but made this wearable toile first to make sure I got the fit right. Now with COVID-19, there's no real need for new work clothes, so that turned into laziness and I haven't made the work pair yet. Still, it was about time to put this version up.

I made the pattern as close to how the original was meant to look. I'm long waisted so I added 3cm to the rise to get the high waisted fit. I made size 0 but graded to a 2 between the hips and waist as part of the lenthening. I wanted to ensure my make was as close to how the pattern is meant to be to give the most accurate and useful review. The rise sits at the correct spot for the pattern, but I have to admit I personally prefer a slightly lower rise. I find with pants - especially fitted pants - that a high waist is a bit less comfortable and free to move than a slightly lower waist. I tend to fidget a lot so ease for comfort in movement is important. But this isn't a problem with the pattern itself, just a personal preference. Given I had to make an adjustment in order for the pants to fit "correctly", I'm pretty confident that removing the extra rise will be easy and suit my personal preference.

I wasn't paying attention when doing the fly and forgot to topstitch the right fly allowance and didn't stitch the zip down properly on the left fly allowance. Unfortunately I didn't notice my mistake until I was trying on my almost finished pants, so I had to do what I could to fix them but it still pulls slightly open at the top. But I've since made a different pair of pants and used Amy Nicole's instructions - followed properly! - and it's probably the best fly I've ever sewn.

The pattern also has a back welt pocket. There was an option to add a button, but I chose not to. I hadn't done a welt pocket before and thought it would be tricky, but Amy's instructions are very easy to follow. I did however use pins to make sure each layer was aligned correctly. Most of the time I did follow Amy's no pins method, but for a few of the trickier steps I found pins essential for keeping things in place.

One thing I particularly like about Amy Nicole's patterns is she gives the instructions twice - a cheat sheet of written instructions and then illustrated instructions. This makes them accessible for both those who know all the techniques and just need the order of the steps and those who are new to it all and want to see every detail. Amy's instructions are well labelled, so this is a good choice of pattern for someone who's making their first attempt at a pants pattern.

A couple of extra thoughts about the pattern. First, the pockets are excellent and deep. Too many women's patterns either have no pockets or shallow ones, but these are genuinely useful. The pattern is designed for a non-stretch but mine is a stretch woven. The stretch is fairly minimal, but is enough that the cuffs don't quite hold their shape properly without extra tacking stitches to hold them in place. I think if you're nervous about sewing pants it's probably best to stick to a light or midweight woven like the pattern recommends, but if you are more confident you can make it work with some stretch.

Overall I like how these turned out. I found the cut had no fit issues, it is easy to make basic adjustments, and the instructions are very clear. And, once there's a reason to make work clothes again, I will be making these again.

Rainbow Brite Inari Dress

My second make for 2019 is the Inari Tee Dress by Named Patterns. I'm a few years late on making the Inari compared to much of the sewing community, but bought the pattern when Named had a pattern sale mid last year. It was winter here when I bought it, but now that it's summer I decided it was time to make it.

The fabric, from The Fabric Store, is a beautiful velvety plush jersey. It's a Marc Jacobs fabric, rainbow stripes on a warm grey background. There's also a very fine silver stripe on either side of the grey stripe, but it doesn't show up as clearly in pictures. The fabric reminded me of 80s kids character Rainbow Brite, hence the name of the dress.

The fabric is wonderfully soft and sewed up quite easily, apart from the huge amounts of fluff. Especially when overlocking the seams. There aren't all that many seams to this dress but I still needed to clean my overlocker twice to get rid of all the fluff around the knives and needles. Even with the fluff, the fabric did not catch or slip on either my normal machine or my overlocker.

I did my best to pattern match at the side seams, but jerseys never quite cut out perfectly evenly so the stripes are a tiny bit off under the arms. The good thing with a knit fabric is that it's easy to slightly stretch one side so that it gets back in line with the other, so I made sure the bottom of each side seam matched and adjusted up the the underarm seam, so the more visible parts of the side seam have pretty much matched stripes and the parts that aren't seen unless I raise my arms are maybe a few millimetres off.

The Inari has a bit of an unusual shape - it's quite quite fitted at the neckline, sleeves and bust, almost tent-like through the waist and more fitted again at the hips and legs. The split side seams and shorter front hemline accentuate the more fitted bottom of the dress. This gives it a feel of being casual but not lazy, effortless rather than couldn't be bothered. I wasn't completely sure of the sleeves when I first finished the dress because the underarm is longer than the outer cap, but I'm starting to like it more now.

Because the jersey is effectively a velvet it is relatively warm. Even with the loose fit of the Inari, this summer of record-breaking temperatures has often been too hot for the dress. But on days where the temperature is in the mid-20s rather than the high-30s this dress is great.

Messy Artist and Geographer Skirts

Two new skirts for today's post, one work and one casual, so this post is a bit longer than normal but that makes up for the recent infrequent posting.
Both of these were made without a pattern, and both fabrics are from Spotlight.

While I didn't use a pattern for the Messy Artist skirt, I did do a quick google about how to draft a knit skirt. I found a useful how-to on Maria Denmark's website with instructions on how to measure. It's quite straightforward: you use your waist and hip measurements minus four centimetres, then divided by four, and the distance between the two.

The skirt is just two identical pieces, one front, one back. On the fold, you use the waist minus four then divided by four measurement, then measure down the distance to work out where to widen for the hips. I used my french curve to angle out from the waist to the hip. This is a bit trickier, because the curve of each person's side is different, But with a bit of attention and awareness of your shape it's relatively straightforward to measure. After that it's just measuring the desired length for the skirt.

I had been going to put elastic into the waistband, but given the fabric is a scuba knit a separate waistband wasn't necessary. I'd planned to use a wide elastic, so had added 10cm to fit it in. When I'd sewn up the sides I tried the skirt on it fit well enough that I decided not to add elastic. I also liked that the extra fabric allowed me to make the skirt either a normal waisted or high waisted skirt, so decided not to cut it back.

The entire skirt was about 20 minutes of work. It took longer to decide on the right placement of the print for the front and the back, working out which bit of paint and which colour I wanted where. It's all sewn with a zigzag stitch for stretch. I made the skirt slightly A-lined, so it's a snug fit to the hip but then hangs down a bit looser to just above the knee.

The fabric for the second skirt is one I've had for a couple of years. When I saw this fabric I loved it immediately. I am a geographer, so I felt like I had to buy it. It was always going to be a skirt, but it took a while for me to get around to it. I bought two panels of the fabric because I wasn't sure what would work best. The width of the panel was wide enough to fit around my waist, but adding darts would have meant losing some of the map. With the two panels I could have one front and one back, with the option to gather or pleat the waist.

In the end I decided to make the skirt pleated. The fabric is a cotton duck, so it has quite a bit of body and I felt it would be too full if I gathered it, and the waistband would be too bulky. I also put pockets in the side seams, although I initially sewed them inside out.

Even though I used two panel pieces for this skirt, for some reason I decided to put the zipper in the centre back instead of the side seam. This meant inserting it into the middle of the back panel, Given cotton duck tends to fray quite a bit this was a daunting - and honestly stupid - challenge. I folded the skirt to find and mark the centre back and used fusible interfacing to try and stabilise the fabric. I then marked the length of the zipper and stitched around the sides and bottom of the line. Next I cut along my marked line, with diagonal cuts at the bottom to the corners of my stitch line, folded the fabric back to the stitching, and pinned my zipper in.

Unfortunately when I stitched it in it didn't quite work. I hadn't folded enough fabric over, so my machine didn't catch it to stitch down properly. And at the bottom it didn't catch the triangular piece of fabric at all. So I pulled the zipout, did a new wider line of stitching, and tried again. Fortunately, this time it was successful.

After putting in the zip, I needed to work out the pleats. I pinned the side seams to my mannequin and started arranging the pleats. I didn't do any measuring, I just eyeballed where to fold. I tried to make the folds opposite on the back to the front so that in theory all of the world is visible around the skirt. I pleated and pinned until the skirt fit the dummy, then stitched the pleats down.

The skirt is finished off with a bias binding waist and a narrow hem. The hem is just double folded narrowly to not lose any of the print. I used 12mm bias binding for the waist. I stitched the binding on the inside of the skirt, folded it over to the front, and stitched it down.

 I'm really happy with how both skirts turned out, and have already worn each of them. They also both received a lot of compliments when I wore them, and questions about where I bought them - especially the geographer skirt. It was great to be able to tell people that these are made by me.

A Trio of Travelling Trousers

I had planned to post these three two months ago. I made them all to take on a trip to Western Australia and was going to take pictures of me wearing them on beaches and bushwalks, but didn't end up getting usable action shots. So instead they went into the wardrobe until I pulled them out today.

First is a pair of very bright summer shorts. The fabric is from Spotlight, and I'm really not sure what it is or what it's meant to be for. It's fairly loosely woven and frays like crazy. Because of that I decided my normal thing of doing French seams wouldn't be enough. So instead I covered over each seam with bias binding, stitched in at the seamline, then folded over and stitched down at the edge of the seam allowance. I still don't think they'll last very long, though, because the fabric doesn't really stand up to much.

Both these shorts and the next ones were made using Burda young 7050. The pattern seems to now be out of print, but it's a pants pattern that's fitted to just below the knees and then flares out. Obviously I altered the pattern for the shorts. For these bright yellow ones I traced the top of the pattern to mid-thigh on newspaper, then slashed and spread to make them looser. These shorts were for lazing on the beach in Broome, although it ended up raining despite it being the dry season, so no beach photos for these shorts.

The second pair of shorts are just practical, dark khaki/green bushwalking shorts. On my holiday I did a tour from Broome to Perth, with lots of time spent in national parks, particularly Karijini in the Pilbara. It's a beautiful area, but hot even when it's technically only just spring. So shorts are best for walking there, especially when you get to gorges where you need to wade through knee-deep water!

I again used the Burda young 7050 pattern, and also widened it slightly from the original so they'd be more practical to wear. As you can see these are also longer, again for practicality's sake. They aren't the most exciting thing I've ever made, but they fit the bill for what I needed.

Thirdly, I made these slim fitting cargo pants. The pattern is Simplicity 2261, which is also out of print. I made the in a solid cotton drill in a stone colour. I picked this fabric up in Cabramatta when some of the Sydney Spoolettes had a shopping day. The pants are still relatively slim fitting, but are loose enough to climb on rocks and along steep tracks, so they are fit for purpose.

 This pattern is relatively straightforward, as far as pants go. I needed to read the instructions of how to insert a fly about three times before I knew what to do, but I got there in the end. I'm mostly happy with how they turned out, apart from the press studs for the pockets. I thought they'd be a more practical choice of closure for pants to wear while bushwalking, but one of them pulled off the fabric when I tried to unsnap it. I think I'll practice on some scrap fabric before I use press studs again!

 Lastly, although this is a sewing blog I had to include just a couple of photos to start and end this post with some of the amazing scenery in WA. The top photo is Joffre Gorge in Karijini National Park. That's at the top of a track that goes almost vertically down those cliffs, not a walk for the faint hearted (or the sore jointed!). Below is sunset at Pardoo Station. Both places are a long way from civilisation, and both are simply breathtaking. If you ever get the opportunity to see that part of the world, take it!

Rainbow Weave Rigel Bomber

This is the Rigel Bomber from Papercut Patterns.
It's a loose fitting bomber jacket with raglan sleeves.

The fabric is a fairly heavy weight woven bought at Spotlight and made in Mexico. I loved the colours and immediately thought it would be perfect for the Rigel Bomber. It sort of was. At least, it was the perfect look and weight.

As much as I love the look of the fabric and think it makes a great bomber jacket, it was one of the worst fabrics I've ever sewn with. You can see from the insides that the fabric is woven with multi-stranded embroidery thread. Which means it frays like crazy and also gets caught in the sewing machine with far too much ease.

Because of how much the fabric frays I immediately had to make a couple of changes compared to the pattern. There was no way I was going to be able to put welt pockets into this fabric, nor side seam pockets for that matter, so I left those off. I also realised it was going to be essential to cover every single seam in bias binding to at least try and reduce the amount of fraying the jacket will do. But because of how awkward the fabric is, my bias binding isn't even sewn in particularly neatly. I'd also run out of black thread of all things, so my bad stitching is pretty visible on the inside.

For the facing I used some leftover grey cotton drill from a pair of pants I'd made. This meant I didn't need to add interfacing. Given the problems I'd had with the main fabric I wanted to limit any possible issues I could have with the rest of the garment. In the end the drill was just the right weight, and the grey is nice and calm compared to the brightness of the main fabric. It did take quite a few hours in front of the TV to sew it down, though, as it all had to be done by hand. But that's not difficult, just time consuming.

 The one last change I made was to raise the neckline. I did this for two reasons. First, I'd read in other reviews that the neck does sit lower than normal for a bomber jacket, and honestly it could still be lifted another 1-1.5cm easily. The other reason was so that I could use this zipper. I really liked the star pull zipper when I found it at Pitt Trading and so decided to buy it, but it was almost 10cm longer than the pattern called for. A little of that can be hidden or trimmed, but I raised the top of the neck 5cm by sharpening the front curve into the middle at a higher spot. Those changes made it the right length for the star zipper.

Overall I am happy with the finished product, even if I didn't enjoy all of the making. It got put in the corner a few times over the course of making it because I got frustrated, but I'm glad I did persist. As with all other Papercut Patterns I've used the instructions are pretty easy to follow, so this isn't a hard pattern to make. It's just better to choose a more practical fabric!

Casual Cotton Summer Pants

Although I love skirts and dresses for hot weather, sometimes pants are good for practicality reasons. Shorts are obviously a great option, but hot weather pants can be a bit trickier - they need to be breathable in both their shape and fabric choice. And I also don't want something that looks too slobby, for want of a better word. Also, I'm not really a fan of elasticated waists, which limits my options a bit.

This pattern is one I've had in my collection for a while, Simplicity 4290, a 1960s pattern for shorts and slim-fitting pants. The fabric I bought at a local op shop for the grand total of $1.50. When I saw it earlier this year I thought it would be a good choice for some casual pants. It's a lightweight black cotton with a pattern of gold foil printed stripes/zig zags. You can feel the foil printing on top of the fabric, but it's not at all stiff, so the fabric still has a soft flow.

The original pattern was moderately high waisted - it was from the early 1960s - but I wanted these to be relatively casual, so I lowered the waist by about two inches. I also widened the legs from the hips to mid-calf, as the original pattern was slim fitting, but tapered back in at the ankles. I didn't want the pants to be too fitted, because they're for summer and need to allow good airflow, but also didn't want them too wide or they'd end up looking a bit clown pant-y. I think I managed to find the middle ground!

The one thing I didn't think about when shortening the waist was the waistband. I'd already decided that, seeing as I had the stripes running vertical for the pant legs, I'd have the wide triple stripe going horizontal for the waistband. The pattern piece was a straight rectangle, so this seemed fine when I cut it out and sewed it in. But where a completely straight waistband works fine when resting at the natural waist, when you move it down lower there's all this extra curve as your body widens down to the hip. The back in particular had a bit of a gape. It obviously needed a fix.

I of course didn't want to lose that nice horizontal line of the waistband that the gold stripes gave it. So I decided to add two small darts either side of the centre back, taking care to not mess up the line of the stripes. You can see in the photo above where I've put the two darts, but I think I managed to avoid making it look like a mistake, and hopefully made it look like it's just a normal part of the pattern.

The pants have a side zip on the left, rather than a fly or elasticated waist. I used an invisible zip to make sure there wouldn't be any bulk or anything showing at the seam. I had initially been thinking about adding pockets, because pockets are such a useful thing, but didn't want to add any bulk. Also, I think it might have been a bit tricky having the side seam and a side pocket, and didn't have enough fabric in case I stuffed it up, so decided not to try and include any. I might be game to attempt it in the future if I make these again, but we'll see.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with these. They fit the bill of what I was wanting just right - they're soft, they're breathable, they're casual but not slobby, and they were very easy to make. The pattern being vintage means I'm also making my way through my vintage pledge aim for the year.

The Circle of Top

So in one of Papercut Patterns' sales a few months back I bought a few patterns. I had planned to get some of their most recent collection, but ended up going with older patterns instead. This is the first one I've sewn, the Circle Top.

I love cardigans and jumpers. Honestly, it's a good thing I can't knit because I'd be wanting to make so many cardis. Overflowing piles of fabric and patterns are enough to deal with without adding a yarn stash in. So I'm going to make what I can with sewing instead. I haven't yet made much in the way of cardigans because I haven't found patterns I like, but this one is really good.

What appealed to me about the Circle Top is how cosy it looked. I do like fit and some level of structure in my other clothes, but I'm a big fan of cardigans and jumpers that can be pulled around oneself, sleeves that I can pull down over my hands, and generally having cardis that are as blanket-like as possible. This pattern being a giant circle with long sleeves basically is a wearable round blanket, so it's great. It can be worn with the top half of the circle up like a hood or down like a cape collar, so it's nice and versatile.

The fabric is just a basic dove grey ponte from Spotlight which I bought for this pattern. I wasn't entirely sure on how the size of this pattern would affect the drape, and I also wanted something that was still solid enough to definitely be durable. I thought a ponte would fit the bill well. And it didn't hurt that it was on sale. I chose a plain fabric because I wasn't sure how a print would turn out with this top, and the dove grey because it's nice and neutral but not drab. Although it does look a little like the killer in I Know What You Did Last Summer when viewed from behind with the hood up.

The pattern is rated rookie, and it really is. It'd be a great choice of pattern for a newbie sewist looking to learn how to use knits. Honestly, it took longer to cut out the pattern than it did to sew it. And half of the sewing time is attaching the binding to the enormous circular hem. Even setting in the sleeves, often really frustrating to do, was very simple. The stretch of the ponte definitely helped with that. but the sizing and shape of the sleeve piece was just right.

This was also my first time sewing with a ponte, and it was a good experience. I had previously sewn lycra and double knit, so it wasn't entirely new. And just like those fabrics, it flowed through my machine with pretty much no problems. The only slight issue was on the hem binding, which is made of three pieces then sewn onto the top. That means that at the seams there are quite a few payers of fabric. My Janome handles those sorts of things, but it does let me know they aren't it's favourite thing to do. But, as long as I slow down and pay attention, it works fine.

I really enjoyed this. It's a quick make, comfortable and easy to throw on with anything.I most likely will make this again, and probably experiment with something other than a ponte. I also might move the sleeves up an inch so that when I put it up on my head as a hood it doesn't fall all the way in front of my eyes. If I make a summery lightweight version I'll also move the sleeves in a teeny bit so that the seams sit on my shoulders, rather than just off as they do on this one.