Black and grey – Hopefully Creative

Plaid Pants Again

When you make pants and then wait weeks to actually complete them.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine celebrated her birthday in Rotterdam. Rotterdam has a large market on Saturday which also has a few fabric stalls, so I convinced another friend to come with me to the market to look at some fabrics. I fell in love with a sneaky sweatpants fabric with a black, white and grey plaid on it. The fabric feels very similar to the striped one I used for these pants, so it had to come home with me.

Determined not to let the fabric languish in the hoard for too long, I set out to make my new pants pretty swiftly. Since the plaid is unbalanced, it would never be possible to make symmetrical pants, but I did decide to do my best to plaid match the horizontal where possible. I settled on a pattern that had arrived recently in the Simplicity Naaimode magazine (nr. 45), model 30 also known as Simplicity S8956, which was fairly wide legged, with a pleat and pockets in the front and a shaped waistband. All the pieces were cut out and sewn together. The only changes I made were to add an extra belt loop for my keys and to cuff them as they were seriously long.

So that meant that this thing was finished right? Nope, wrong. The front pockets that come with the pattern are really not very big, and while I was debating the entire time whether to add back pockets, I decided not to put them in at the time I worked on it. So when I’d finished the pants as per the project on the 27th of September, they then lay in my ‘to work on’ pile until last Sunday, waiting for back pockets. I chose to do single welt pockets for the first time and used a different kind of fabric for the pocket back to hopefully alleviate some of the denseness that welt pockets can create. I probably should have made them a little bit wider, but they did turn out well and function as pockets! Will even fit my phone, so job’s finally done.

Leafy Bra

Using some very interesting fabric to create another bra.

I’m not sure why, but one night last week, I decided that I needed another bra. So I got my box of bra making supplies, chose the fabric, grabbed the foam and got to cutting and sewing the cup and band from fabric and foam. After procrastinating until 3 o’clock the next day, I finally got started on it again and managed to finish it later that night, but not before a ton of mistakes along the way. I’ve yet again discovered that it does help to read the instructions and not just skim them, even if you’ve already made a pattern twice before. Especially with bras, order of construction is very important.

This fabric was called Lingerie Satin Black – non-stretch, they were not lying about the non-stretch. It wasn’t the most pleasurable to sew with but it got the job done. For the back, I used the same black stretch stuff as I’ve done for the others. I did follow the strap instructions this time, mainly because I didn’t have enough black strap elastic to do anything else really. This also means that it’s currently on the largest option in the straps but I think it works?

I really like the look of this one, the tiny leaves and colour make me very happy. I’m exited to start wearing it out. I hope it will be as comfortable as the other two!

Secret Sweatpants

First of all, happy new year!

Clearly I didn’t make the deadline of posting all the stuff I’ve still been making in 2019, so that’s what’s coming up now.

These secret sweatpants started with some stretch fabric that I found on the market in Goes. It’s got black & white pinstripes on the one side and grey on the other side. It felt very nice, so I decided to make some easy pants out of it. I used my regular pants pattern but decided to add a triangular yoke at the front. The pockets are the reverse of the fabric and there is a bit of elastic along the top edge to keep them on. So while it looks quite fancy, it feels like I’m wearing sweatpants – double win.

It’s proven to be impossible to take nice pictures because late night when I finished them and currently too lazy to get them out again. So there you go.

Next up – Buttons, Knitting, Sewing and hopefully a finished coat soon.

Caps

I wanted more stuff to put on some people’s heads, so I made some!

It started with a knitted hat for a friend of mine. I used the same pattern as I did for the Watermelon Hat, because it’s very easy and very quick. The yarn I used was the few bits that were left over from the Grey Scale Sweater. All knit in one day, which I really shouldn’t do anymore, because my arm does not like that!

The next was made from the left overs of the Plaid Jumpsuit. I wanted to make another cap. I remembered that I had some sort of stiff plastic stuff that was supposed to be used for the bottom of bags. I figured it would also work as a cap. After searching around pinterest for a free pattern, I came across one from Blue Marguerite. I added a little bit of seam allowance, and it since it turned out too small, I needed to incorporate a band to make sure the thing stays on my head. I quite like this one. The lining is of cats, which I also enjoy.

The last one was a beret pattern that I found while browsing for the second hat. I found some black stuff in my stash, sewed up the size 56 hat in little to no time. Unfortunately it’s a little too big, so I need to add some more elastic to the rim to keep it on my head. I still think it’s cute though.

I’ve been busy with finishing some other knitting and sewing, so you may see that soon.

Edged in Grey

Remember the weird black stuff that was very warm and that has been used as a cover up and key-hole opening top? Well, I pulled out the fabric again the other day and created a thing! The pattern is from Simplicity Naaimode 27, pattern model 5-8, and it is effectively New Look 6417.

I’ve always been interested in this pattern since I bought the magazine, but was never interested enough to actually draw the enormous pattern pieces it required. So one day I sat down and actually got to work. Eventually laying them out on the fabric and cutting it all out. I put it together and as usual with this fabric, the sleeve heads look really wonky. Ah well, they also do that on the key-hole top, so I guess that is the nature of the fabric. Then I went looking through the hoard to find something to edge this thing with. I stumbled on something grey that I think was used before for either a dress or something larp. So I cut that up into bias strips, using a continuous bias tape tutorial. I put it on the vest (?) and chucked the whole thing in the laundry, hoping the shoulder seams would shrink a little.

An hour later and my washing machine revealed a horrible truth. Apparently, I hadn’t caught all of the edges enough when sewing on the grey. This meant that about half of it was.. sticking back out? I didn’t take a picture, it was a horror-sight. So back I went with mr. seam ripper, taking out the stitching on one side. I ironed the edging flat again and folded it over further, now making sure to catch that fold completely such that it wouldn’t ‘unfold’ in the wash again. This worked!

I’ve worn it a few times and it is quite comfortable. In contrast to the original, I put two snaps on the back for the pointy bits. The only annoying thing is that it does not cover too much of my back, so those areas are still quite cold. I’m going to continue to wear it as a cover up, because it does feel mostly good while on.

Plaid Jumpsuit

So, in preparation for the Plaid Jacket, I browsed the internet to try and figure out if the sleeves came in full length in the pattern (they did not). During the search, I stumbled on this page from YoSaMi and I fell head over heels. Specifically with the tartan jumpsuit that she made from the top of the dress of Simplicity 1325 and the pants that come with the original pattern. Now, I did not have the pants pattern, but I did have the pattern for the dress. For the pants I used the pieces of the Swordfish Pants that were elongated to waist height.

The fabric was some plaid stuff with silver threads. The pattern was nicely small scale which meant matching it was not too difficult. I lined it with some white stuff with small flower things. This was probably not the best choice as it does show in some areas. However, I really like the way it turned out. I started with sewing the pants, including pockets but ignored the darts in the back as those needed to line up with the top. After sewing the top and attaching them together most of the way, I sewed in the darts in the back of the pants and added the zipper. As an afterthought, I added the loops to the back pockets and buttons to match the pull I attached to the zipper to get it off easier.

I wore it yesterday to a birthday and I really like it. I feel it is actually quite flattering (don’t tell me if it isn’t) and it’s quite comfortable. The only issue is that I’m still trying to figure out how to wear it. Decisions on what shirt to wear underneath and stuff like that. However, I don’t think that will stop me from choosing it as I really like it. We’ll see how it holds up to a full day of going to the toilet and getting it on and off in confined spaces…

Blazer

I had a plan, ages ago, to make a suit from some grey fabric. Part of the plan got completed, in the form of Fancy Grey Pants. I have now finally completed the other part of the project, the Blazer part. I’ve been wanting a new blazer for ages now, but always was a little to scared to actually start it or was unable to find a nice pattern.

Eventually I found a nice pattern in a rather odd place. As you may know, Male Pattern Boldness is the blog of a guy who sews and he regularly writes about things he doesn’t get. One of the things was ‘Annie, too’ patterns. Somewhere halfway down the page, I found this fantastic pattern and I wanted to have it. I found a size 8 copy, but when I got it in the mail it looked like it would never ever fit. So I also bought a size 12 copy, which is pretty accurate and what I based this Blazer on.
Pattern

I made some changes, I changed out the sleeves for a two piece sleeve, reduced quite a lot in the bust area and in the back, added two non-functional buttons to the sleeves, worked two buttonholes by hand in the front, instead of one, added some piping to the neckline (below) and added a lining. The general shape still is similar to what it was supposed to be.

Lining Piping

It took time, a lot of time, especially to get the sleeves in right, about 2 days before those were fixed. When I came to the almost end, I couldn’t really decide on the buttonholes I would choose, bound would be nice, but the buttons I wanted to use are not so large, so that would be mega fiddly. Eventually I found I really nice tutorial on Williams Clothiers.com for hand worked button holes, so I tried it out, on the left my practices and on the right the final buttonholes. I’m quite happy with them.

Button hole practice Button holes

This is the final project!

Front Back

For the sleeves, I also added a little bit of piping and two non-functional buttons to the bottom. Getting the sleeves in was terrible. I chose the two piece sleeves from another pattern and it was fairly annoying to get those in. It took me over a day of constant fiddling, but right now, I’m really happy with the limited amount of pulling that I managed to achieve.

Side Sleeve detail

The pattern came with a front pocket which I made happen with a contrast welt in black. This way the blazer also sort of matches the pockets on the original pants. I don’t know if the pants and the blazer go together, and at this point I’m not interested enough to try it out. When putting on the front buttons and buttonholes, I figured it would be handy to also be able to close the front pocket, so I put a button on it too and this one is functional!

Buttons Front pocket

Last but not least, I added the lining because getting a thing on is easier when it’s slippery on the inside. The loop is for hanging it up which may be very handy in the future too.

Lusje Lining

I’m going to have to start wearing it to see if it works satisfactorily. Who knows, there may be a MMM update in the future.

Fish!

I made a fish today!

I had a friend over for a chat and I was trying to re-familiarise her with knitting again. So we both cast on some stitches, some with more difficulty than others and started stitching. I think my needles were to small, because it’s really tight. I started with some rows of stockinette and then decreased on both sides of the row for a couple of rows. I then started increasing again, now only on the knit rows on both sides. Then I did 1 or 2 were I increased every 3rd row. Some rows no in or decreases and then started decreasing again in about the same order. The last 3 stitches were cast of, and I had myself a fish!

It curls up like crazy, I guess I have to do some of the blocking business with it, but my no experience is preventing me from doing that, also I’m too lazy for such a simple fish. Maybe I’ll do it at some time.

Fishy!!!

Tag: Black and grey