Plaid – Hopefully Creative

Plaid Pants

Some nice, warm, plaid pants.

As a follow up to the previous post about the cape cover, these are the pants worn for graduation in January. I’d been leafing through pattern magazines and found a pants style I really liked in Burda Style 12/2022 model 1. It’s a wide legged pant with a diagonal overlap waistband. The legs have vertical pressed creases. I chose to do a Burda Style pant because it seems like those crotches work much better for me than Simplicity or Knipmode crotches.

As I was using a nice thick black and white plaid fabric for the pants, getting it cut out involved some real head scratching. I wanted to make sure that the plaid lines matched along the side seams and inseam, but also pockets and closure flaps. Since the bit of fabric that I had wasn’t overly large, I ended up cutting on the cross grain. The pattern didn’t come with back pockets, but I substituted some in anyway. Once I had all the pieces cut, I set to sewing. This went fairly smoothly until the instructions for the closure flap. I still don’t know what they actually wanted me to do, but I’ve done something and it closes, so I’m calling it good. It also doesn’t entirely match plaid there, but I’ve done a good enough job so I don’t think it’s super noticeable.

The front pockets are pretty regular. I followed all the normal steps and made sure to match my plaid there for maximum style points. For the back pockets, I followed a tutorial by Sewing Divas for non-sagging pockets. This involves making an extra fold in the side of the pocket closest to the wearer. So far, it seems to work. There are single welt pockets, and they are going over a dart. This means that you’ll see some slight discrepancy in the width of the plaid above and below the welt. This was unavoidable and I tried my best. I still think they came out pretty well.

All the insides are finished with the serger, so no fraying expected. The pockets are nice and deep. The fabric is lovely and soft. The plaid matches where I want it and overall I’m very happy with these pants. Did I figure out after the fact that they look quite similar to my other black/white plaid pants? Yes, I did. Do I care? Also not. They did require a bit of alteration after I’d worn it to graduation because I’d hemmed it a little short. That’s been fixed now, so they go out and about with me quite regularly.

Deerstalker Witch Hat

Finally a hat for all the winter witching

We had a sort of vague commitment to doing some sort of Halloween in the office since it was on a workday for the first time in a while. So I decided that I was going to bring the project, which I’d been eyeing up for years, to life. You see, in 2018, Bernadette Banner posted a video about a Winter Witch Hat and then another one about a similar hat in 2020. I’ve been thinking about recreating that for literal years, but never actually got around to it. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to make myself a new hat, suitable for winter.

Since the videos above weren’t full tutorials, I scoured the internet and found some other examples of people taking on this project (ash_rock and Fresh Frippery). This last one is an actual tutorial so I took those instructions and ran with them. Since I wanted the hat to sit more ‘over’ my head than ‘on’ my head, I increased all the measurements. The original plan was to make it out of black wool, but since that fabric is quite precious, I decided to make a test version out of left-over fabric from these pants.

Two brims, one crown and two ear flaps were cut from the plaid. The brims and crown were interfaced for some stiffness and the earflaps were lined with some nice warm fleece. I put the hat together and then decided to line the inside of the crown too. I found some of the interlining from my red coat that matched well in colour and sewed it in. The ugliness is hidden with some bias tape. If I’d been fully awake throughout the project, it probably would’ve gone a lot quicker. However, I did finish it in a day and I’ve been very happy with it. I think it’s cute and I love the little fold-over point. If I make it again, I’m going to make the hole for my head a little bit bigger, but it’s not too annoying this way.

Graduation Combo

There is no clothing as fun as pants masquerading as a skirt!

A couple of weeks ago on Friday, the first in-person graduation at work took place. The first thing I made was a bit.. too much.. so with three or so days to spare, I set out on a new plan. On the original trip to the Rotterdam market, I’d purchased some plaid on white stretch something. I liked the colours and decided that would be the fabric for this outfit. The other decision I’d already made was that I wanted some sort of fake-pants. I’d made an attempt at the Petit Main Sauvage Culottes in 2018 and decided to give that a go again.

I followed the instructions for a knee length version and promptly went to cutting it out. While trying to get my pattern placement symmetrical, I determined that the fabric had the plaid printed, but that it was printed quite crookedly on one side of the fabric. That lead to some challenges with grain lines etc, but really, what did I expect from fabric that was probably 1-2 euro per meter. The culottes were cut from the ‘straighter’ side of the fabric while I waited for inspiration to strike about the top of the outfit I was trying to make.

In the end, I settled on a tried and mostly true pattern for the top. The Garden Party dress. I grabbed the tulip sleeve pieces that I used for the combo dress and got to work. A nice, somewhat scooped neckline, but not too low because of the 30℃ weather prediction, and no closures (I love stretch). The culottes had some added pockets because running a big event without pockets is not a good idea. The one thing I was left with was the waistband/s. I hadn’t made a plan for that yet. You see, I needed the culottes to be one piece as they needed to come off downwards and I wanted to be able to wear them by themselves. However, the total outfit needed to look like a dress, if possible.

I decided to draft a waistband with a point at the front for the culottes. After sewing it on, it gaped like no tomorrow. I hoped that the application of some laundry would help relax the stitches so I chucked it in the wash (it was Wednesday by now, 2 days to go). Thursday came, the outfit was dried and it hadn’t helped at all. So I unpicked the waistband from the skirt, turned it around and applied it to the top. That looked a lot better! I still had some black mesh laying around from the cover up attempt and made a thin waistband from that for the skirt with some added elastic to hopefully keep the skirt up.

All in all, for such an improvised project, I was very happy with how it turned out. I like the colours, I like plaid, I like how I managed to plaid match along the side seams of the culottes. The thing I should have done was applying snaps so that the top and the skirt could stay together, but I never got round to that, so on the day, I just tugged the culottes up and the top down whenever it felt like the gap was too large. I have no doubts that I will wear those culottes when the weather is good. They are comfortable, prevent chafing but allow a breeze. I’m definitely on team Secret Pants!

Plaid Earflaps

Using more leftovers to make a new hat that also keeps my ears warm!

Recently, I got the urge to make a new hat. In my head was the idea to make a witch’s hat like this one from Bernadette Banner. But then I remembered that a) I wear my hair up nearly always without any pins and it needs to be somewhere, b) I want to wear a hat to keep my head (and ears) warm because winter and c) I wear hats to keep the rain out of my eyes. So on to plan b, make a ‘baker boy cap’ type thing, but add ear flaps! I grabbed the one cap that I’d made before and popped it on my head to see where the ear flaps needed to go. Turns out that they would have to be directly beside the brim, so that was a lucky coincidence.

I grabbed some scraps from the green plaid pants that I have kept all these years. Eked out all the pattern pieces exactly and got to work. The ear flaps were lined with a black fleece for additional warmth and I put in a braid of the ‘yarn’ I’ve been using for stuffed animal eyes, to tie under my chin. I sewed most of it together and then had to make a lining. I chose to just put my pattern pieces down, make a circle-ish shape out of it and add the darts back in. It seems to work fine so far. For the button on top, I found a self-cover-button-kit. I’ve been attempting to use that kit for a while now and never managed to make a button. However, I finally had an epiphany: I just needed to be stronger! In comes a glue clamp thing that I’d never used before. So I popped the pieces in, and clamped the clamp over them and tightened, something I couldn’t manage with just my hands. The bottom of the button suddenly stayed in; miraculous. I made two other buttons but ended up not using them.

The hat’s been on a few test rides now, and I think it’s wonderful. I may look like a bit daft but I’ve never let that stop me before! My ears and head stay nice and warm, and it’s got a lot more of a brim than the knitted ear flap hat I was wearing all through last winter.

Seattle Plaid Sweater

After two years, there will finally be more plaid clashing in my wardrobe!

My Ravelry notes say that I started this project on July 16, 2018 *gulp*. Whoops, that was quite a while ago. There were lots of delays along the way. Some had to do with my arm injury that was preventing me from knitting as much as I liked. Others were because of pure laziness, to be honest. On to the story..

So I used another free pattern from Ravelry: Seattle by Leah Swindon. From reading my Ravelry notes, I didn’t completely follow the pattern. I don’t remember much because the knitting was completed a good long while ago. I do remember that I made a significant colour change and that was too also add the yellow horizontal stripe along the body and not just the sleeves. I apparently stopped knitting some time between 2018 and May 2019 when I noted something about restarting the sleeves. Then the project remained in a bin for about another year. You see, with adding in those yellow stripes, it meant that I had so many ends to bind off. I don’t like binding off ends, so I procrastinated for a very long while.

When my mom came to visit, I showed her this knitting project and a few others that are also still languishing in bags, boxes or bins. She said that she would be willing to bind off the ends if I put the sweater together. So I took that challenge and sewed the thing together, since all the pieces had been completed ages ago already. She then set to binding it all off and I got my finished sweater on August 29, 2020, over two years since starting the project. Not going to lie, I’m very happy that it now gets to take up space in my closet and no longer in my unfinished projects pile.

I don’t own that many plaid that can fill the sweater role. So I’m very happy to add this to my wardrobe and see if I can plaid clash some more in my life. I like the spiral on the front and that was fun to knit. Trying to figure out how to get the yellow across the spiral wasn’t the easiest, but I think it worked out. This sweater is also remarkably warm, so it’s probably going to be in use this fall/winter. I’m looking forward to it!

Plaid Skort

Sometimes you see something that just inspires you to recreate it for yourself. This is the result.

I’ve been pining over a few pins I found on Pinterest of miniskorts (this is my board). Short shorts with a flap over the front to look like a skirt. So last weekend, I figured I’d finally get started. Got out my regular pants pattern, added some flare to the side seam and set to work. The plan was to have mine based on this pin, with a pocket on one side in a sort of welt type situation. After a bit of fiddling, it turns out that I added too much flare, so I took some out again. I had to take out the waistband and try again because it was too big, but apart from that it was mostly plain sailing.

In the end, I’m still deciding whether I want to add any buttons. Right now I’m ok without them, but I haven’t cycled yet so I don’t know. Perhaps the flap flies up when going at speed and then I might want to get some buttons. It did turn out a little longer than my inspiration pictures, but I guess that’s ok. I’m probably not really one for short shorts anyway.

New linings

I had two hats, whose linings had come loose and were pulling apart. While forgetting to take a before picture, I did set out to fix these two hats. It only took me.. 5 months or so to get it done…

Once I’d seam ripped the linings apart, I could see that it was some black stuff reinforced with some thicker batting. I’d copied the pattern onto some paper and cut it out of the same lining fabric I used for the three-piece-suit. It was a disaster. Warped, horrible, couldn’t get it to fit. I just gave up and put the hats in the corner of shame for almost half a year. Then, about a week ago, I finally got myself in gear and got to finishing these things. I chucked the butterfly lining pieces away and grabbed a plaid shirt that I’d bought to refashion at some point. The lining pieces were cut from the fronts and sleeves of the shirt and I set to sewing. All in all, it probably took me about 2-3 hours to get both hats finished, with some hand sewing time included.

Now, I have two more hats that I can comfortably wear again when the weather starts to turn. I like that I was able to fix these so they didn’t need to be thrown out. I also really like the contrast with the red plaid and the black/brown hats. I’m calling this a win for now.

More Baby Stuff

Next to the spit scarf from last post, I also made some more baby stuff. A colleague is possibly interested in sending something to a recent born, so I got myself to work to increase my already sizeable baby-junk-pile. I started with making another Poppy, similar to the other plaid poppy. The main difference is that this one is slightly smaller and has a smaller head in comparison. It’s still cute though.

I followed it up with a simplified poppy. This was just two squares sewn together with a stuffing filled pantyhose for a head. Since this head was already in a point, it didn’t even need a hat. He is still really quite cute, if I say so myself.

All in all, I’m still surprised to have so many things for babies when I’m not the greatest fan of them. Who knows, perhaps someone will like these things.

Plaid Poppy

When I went to the fabric market in Utrecht the last time, I also bought some really, really soft white/red plaid flannel fabric. I cut out a rectangle and smaller rectangle, brought a bit of pantyhose and tons of stuffing and set off on the train for a friend’s birthday party. During the trip, I set off to sew a new poppy. Not that I needed one, but the fabric was soo soft that I couldn’t resist.

The hat was embroidered on using red thread and I think it looks quite cute. This probably will not be the last one I make from this fabric, although I may decide to dye it first for the next go. Not sure though, I guess we’ll see.

Poppers on Plaid

At some point a while ago, I impulsively went to the fabric market in Utrecht. I’d woken up really early and got myself on a train by 7:25. The fabric market in Rotterdam was not up and running yet at 9 when I got there, so I decided to trek on for another hour and go to Utrecht. Met my parents there and had a good time with them. I also got a number of fabrics to play around with. Two of those were destined to be together, one blue plaid with brown stripes and a brown fabric.

I started with the blue plaid and made a shirt out of it. The pattern was the same as for Red Birds and Foxes, Simplicity Naaimode 9, model 59 (aka Simplicity 2255). I downsized the pattern to a size 34-36(ish) and changed the back darts. Once it was sewed up, it was decidedly too long, so I cut off about 5 cm. It closes using snaps (or poppers). Since I bought myself a snap-setting-tool, I’ve been trying to put snaps onto everything. There is little more satisfying then undoing poppers like the hulk when undressing.

For the next iteration (and there will be a next iteration), I’ll make sure to make the armholes smaller. For this version they are a little too big, in a sense restricting a little movement. The side seams on the pattern are not equal, and I might fix that on the pattern for next time. I do still enjoy wearing it, so all’s well.

Tag: Plaid