Pinstripe – Hopefully Creative

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.

Three-Piece Suit (part 1 – Vest)

In the quest for a three-piece suit, I also needed a vest. I’ve found a liking for Simplicity Naaimode patterns since the seam allowance is already included in them. I’d remembered that there was a pattern for a vest in one of my magazines, so I quickly looked it up. It was in Simplicity Naaimode 18. There I discovered that I really liked the back of one of the patterns (model 59, bottom right) and the front of one of the others (model 58, top right). So I copied all the relevant pattern pieces and merged two together to create the perfect vest.

Since I wanted a little bit of interest, the vest is sewn on the ‘wrong’ side of the fabric. This side has dots instead of dashed lines. The main difference is that the vest appears a little darker. I made no alterations to the pattern and just sewed it together with the same lining I used for the jacket version 1. For the closure, I used some black & white ribbon and attached super small silver-y buttons on the edge. I want it to peep out above the jacket, but not below the jacket – hence the new jacket fronts.

I really love the twisted strap detail in the back, and I love the shape of the neckline. It feels quite flattering. I managed to understitch parts of it, which helps it to lie flat. All in all, I’m very happy with this part of my three-piece suit. On to the pants!

Striped Shorts

After sewing the Tantalus scarf, I started leafing through my pattern magazines and I spotted some shorts I thought looked cool. Burda 6/2009, shorts 120. I liked the idea of the vaguely paper bag looking waist and the ties on the side. So I copied the pattern onto pattern paper, made an adjustment in the width of the crotch (need to remember for next time to add even more width), since that tends to be a regularly required adjustment and gave up for the day.

I hadn’t figured out which fabric I wanted to use, but the next day it came to me. Why not use some striped black stuff I’d previously used for something – cannot remember what – and make them look vaguely formal. So off to work I went, cutting out all the bits and pieces. Then I tried to follow the (dreaded) Burda instructions… Well, until the zipper. The instructions were half a page full of text, no pictures whatsoever. I did not understand what in the world they meant. So after pondering for a little bit, I decided to ditch the instructions and use me some google to get the job done. This led me to a page of someone who also had had problems with the instructions and gave me the new name for all my boxes of fabric: the hoard. This is the quote from ‘Sewing for Life’:

“my hoard (I stopped calling it stash…it’s really a hoard of fabric I have. A stash is something to work from, constantly being used and renewed. A hoard is just a stockpile that keeps getting added on to and therefore keeps getting bigger and bigger!” (here)

I managed to get a good zipper in, when I figured out that the pattern also had a button. I was not interested enough in undoing all my hard work and just left the button off. The next day I finished hemming the end of the first and the second leg, and project was done!

There are in seam pockets, and those two little ties and I think it looks good. I’m hoping it will actually be nice weather again soon, because I cannot wait to try them out for real.

Wearable Tester Pants, take 2!

So… I just found out that I’d lost my Wearable Tester Pants blog post from February 22 2015 completely. I wanted to put the finished project up on my Finished Projects page, but the link was broken. I managed to find the text hiding in a revision of my Laundry Bag Post, so I copied that here now, since I still want to link back to this awesome finished object! Now on to the original post..

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I’ve had this piece of pinstriped navy linen-type fabric in my stash for a while now. I’ve always wanted to make semi-formal pants from them. But I’ve never really found a pattern that I had enough faith in to cut into my nice fabric. At some point (2 weeks ago) I decided it had to be done. I had found a pattern that I liked, that also came in a ‘shorts’ version. Since the crotch is usually the biggest problem area for me, I decided to try it out in the shorts version first, I have enough fabric to make a long version later.

I decided to cut it out single layer, in order to do some attempt at stripe matching. What I did not know at first was that this fabric is mighty shifty.. Those stripes have to be manipulated to be straight. This is a problem when attempting line up things. Second, the distance between the stripes seems to differ along the fabric.. So in the middle they may be closer together than at the sides. This makes pattern matching even more challenging. You can also hardly see the first cut piece, see example below.

In the end I did manage to cut all the pieces I needed. So I sewed it up, I did decide to put in a side zipper and not a center front zipper, mainly because I thought it would be easier. Tried it on and I was actually happy with the fit. The fabric flows so that might help too. After I’d sewn it up, I decided that I wouldn’t just dump it, but make it wearable so I serged the insides, as far as possible. And since the stripes are white I decided not to bother with changing the serger thread.

I now wear these once a week during my new activity. I’ve started the fresh meat course of roller derby at the local group. It currently still involves learning how (and how not) to fall over, go forwards and backwards and stop. If, after 12 weeks I manage to pass the exam, I might have to start doing scarier stuff, but lets not think about that. Roller skating is really very active, and having long pants is not nice when wearing knee pads, that’s why I’m using these shorts over my leggings for some coverage. It works and I like it.

I did stripe matching along the front seam and it worked! Sadly the side with the zipper rides up more than the other side, but as I’m only wearing them once a week, I do not really care. They also have belt loops and pockets!

So these were finished last Sunday, a minute before setting of for the first derby practice. They have since been in the wash and on the laundry rack, that’s why I forgot about them. Tomorrow you can enjoy my new laundry pin bag, made from Peruvian fabric!

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Ps. I managed to pass my derby exam yesterday! I’m now a Lamb Chop and not Fresh Meat anymore!

Tag: Pinstripe