Tag: Plaid

Even More

I went skiing in February, fell after about an hour and hurt my shoulder. The vacation still was nice, skied for two and a half more days and enjoyed the sun and the snow. However, this meant that I needed to ban myself from knitting until my shoulder didn’t hurt any more. I had no intention of getting another over-worked arm and dealing with that for two years. So no yarn-stuff for me. I have been working on things though, almost finished a pant suit that I will wear for graduation in June. It only needs hemming and elastic shortening, so I hope to finish it way before June. I also started an enormous cover top, which even in size 32/34 did not fit me at all, so that’s going to my mother.

Green scarf

This post, however, is about even more infinity scarves. I got to work for an hour and a half and made two this morning. One was dotted green with white stripes on the other side, the other black with sunflowers and red plaid on the reverse. As usual, I failed the first time and sewed the first one up such that it didn’t turn out to be a scarf. Three seams, and I manage to mess up 33%…

Sunflower scarf

Still, one ripped seam and an hour later, I finished up my two scarves, just in time for summer. Although it’s still extremely cold in the mornings and decently warm in the afternoons. That’s why I continue to wear scarves every morning and at work. These should see some action in the future.

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.

Plaid Sparkle Trousers

The plan was to create a pair of pants with some gentleman’s old style details. While most of the details are there, they aren’t visible due to the choice of fabric. I will probably be attempting this again in the future with a fabric that is somewhat solid in colour. The details I wanted to include were triangular pocket tabs (here), double closure tabs (here) which did not end up in the final product and fish tail back (here and here) of which a minimized version was included.

The basis was again the Swordfish Pants pattern, which at one point started as Helena Culottes. It has since been heavily modified for all kinds of pants. For this iteration, I increased the back height to get a fish tail back. While I was aware that I needed to have darts, I did not expect to need to take in as much as I did, so the fish tail is much less pronounced than I wanted. I also made the pocket tab change on the pattern which did work, although you cannot see it very well. The double closure tabs did not work at all, because the pants are not mirrored on the same center line, so the tabs I cut on did not match. Another solution to close the thing was chosen and implemented.

The fabric is again a plaid fabric with silver threads through it. There’s horizontal matching along the side seams, front and back and it’s mirrored. I’m quite proud of all the matching that is going on. This means that the details are invisible, but it gives me a sense of accomplishment that I can actually plan stuff.

It’s been worn for the first time yesterday and it was quite enjoyable all around. No terrible scratching yet, so that’s terrific!

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…

Plaid Pants – Blue

So somewhere in 2017, I bought a length of black-blue-red plaid to make another set of plaid pants. I reworked my original pattern a little bit – slimming and straightening the legs a little and copying all the pattern pieces onto tracing paper since the original is still the boob-height pattern of the Helena Culottes. Now I have all pattern pieces that fit together well. Apart from one thing, but we’ll get to that.

Cutting out the pieces taking care to pattern match, where possible and sewing it together all went pretty well. I used the blue origami cats for pockets/waistband/zipper guard (I thought it was funny to have more cats behind the zip). The only problem was the waistband. I clearly did not use a well-fitting waistband so I had to make numerous adaptations. This is the one major aspect that I need to improve for the next version (there will probably be a next version).

I had worn it with hooks & eyes and the too wide waistband, but that was not a true success. So I shortened it a little, and replaced the hooks & eyes with a jeans type button – lesson 2: shorter shank next time. I also took more chunks out of the waistband to get it to fit better. Now it works really quite well, I finished it right before Christmas and I enjoy wearing it.

These new plaid pants also allow me to wear my red sweaters with them. My other plaid pants are green, and I don’t want to look like Christmas in July, so that was not an option. This was a large part of the reason for picking up the fabric. Also just because it is plain and I seem to have a fond liking for plaid. I still have a length of red plaid in the stash, but I was planning on making a jacket out of that.. We’ll see whether that ever happens.

Round Up

So.. It’s been a while, but I’ve actually been doing some small things. I felt too lazy to post them before, but now I feel I should, so here goes.

May! I participated in me-made-may and wore at least one piece of self-made clothing every day in May. I also took pictures for the first half.

Fish! I saw a fish pattern on the internets here and decided to make one. So now there is a fish living in my house.

Scarf! I made a another circle scarf, now without any blue to be able to wear it with my other clothes. This one is grey-white and black-white polkadots.

Hood! So part of May was the annual LARP event that I frequent. On the Friday it was due to start, my central heater thing gave an error, so I spent the afternoon calling and waiting for a plumber-type guy to fix it. While waiting, I decided to make a hood based on this pin. I fudged the measurements a bit because I had a pieces of fabric left over from the graduation dress/blue coat that I decided should fit, even if they weren’t exactly correct. I made the thing in about.. 2 hours? I wore it for the weekend and it was nice.

Others! I’ve been working quite hard on two large projects, a graduation dress and a big plushie that have taken up a lot of time. However, they aren’t finished yet (just hems on the graduation dress though), so I won’t post them yet…

 

 

Graduation – Again

Friday it was time for the last lot of students to graduate again. This clearly called for a new dress! I’d started quite early by asking a friend of mine what fabric (see the options below) and what pattern to use in November. The pattern that was picked was honigdesign Garden Dress. As for fabrics, unfortunately, I was a fool and added a fabric that I didn’t want to use. Of course that was the one he picked. I overruled and decided to choose the green on the left.

january-1-fabrics

So I started on the dress, taking really good care to match the stripes within the fabric. Both vertical and horizontal stripe matching can be found in places. I also chose to use it in a different direction as I wanted as little emphasis on the pink stripes as possible. The fabric was originally a gift from a co-worker, and part of the same lot was some mustard coloured fabric. The mustard coordinated beautifully with the mustard stripes in the fabric, score!

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After cutting out the bodice, I wasn’t left with a whole lot of fabric. The project was cornered until I could figure out a solution. I plaid around with some fabric from an old table cloth to see what I could do. In the end I settled on making a high low dress top with an attached skirt underneath. The plan was to make it look sort of like a riding jacket. For the skirt, I used fabric from my old winter coat – winter graduation and all. I also added the short sleeves because I was afraid of fabric shortage.

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There were only a few changes to the bodice pattern. I added an additional cm of length at the waist and rotated the shoulder seam so that it was almost horizontal across. I only did that after finishing the front slit in the bodice, so that was raised by a lot too in the process. This did (in my opinion) improve the fit tremendously. The skirts were completely self drafted and I added some invisible pockets to store my phone and other stuff.

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The hems of the green dress, the blue skirt and the sleeves were hand sewn with yellow topstitching thread. I like that element as it brings it all together and gives a nod to the lining. The dress is quite tight fitting at the top, but it feels really nice when it is on. I managed to survive graduation and the dress did too! Mission accomplished.

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And below some details of the hand stitched hem and the (dare I say so) quite decent plaid matching!

matching hems

Green Plaid Pants

More everyday pants have definitely been on the list for a while now. Currently, I tend to wear pants on a daily basis, but I only have a few pairs that I’ve made myself. I seem to gravitate to the three pairs of bought (old) jeans that I own. I want to change that by giving myself more options. Important aspects for pants to me are belt loops for my keys, back pockets for the access card to work and that they stay up and don’t sag too much.

This plan started one day, when, after about the 5th time I saw some plaid fabrics, I decided that I just needed to have a cut in green and in red. The green was destined to become these pants, while I’m hoping I’ll be able to make a nice jacket with the red stuff (which may or may not have green plaid elbow patches in the future). The cuts are probably less than 2 meters long, so I knew I didn’t have much wiggle room.

I also knew that in the pants I wanted to have the plaids matched horizontally for sure, and vertically as much as possible. The plaid is not balanced in that one of the white stripes is lighter than the other. I knew symmetry was not going to be possible. The pattern I chose was the Helena Culottes pattern by Ralph Pink which I made before here. I did decrease the height at the top, such that it is more at my natural waist now. The waistband pattern from another pair of pants was fetched and added to the top, which worked out better than expected.

Front Back

The pants have front pockets, a front zipper opening and double welt back pockets. I wore it to work today and it stayed up for the entire day. I think this is the first pair of pants that, while not being too tight, fit at the top and stay in the correct place. This may also be because there is no stretch in this fabric.

Inside front Inside back

Left the front and right the back of the pants on the inside. I matched plaids all along the legs too and they turned out really well. The fabric is fairly thick, with one side that is fuzzy and one size that is not. I chose to have the fuzzy side on the inside because I thought it would feel better on the skin. I also thought that because it is so thick, it would be better if I would use a different fabric for parts of the pocket lining and waistband. Some man’s button down shirt in a green/blue/yellow plaid seemed thin enough to work. I cut the hidden bits of the pockets from them. The backs of the pockets needed to be the original fabric (mostly) because I wanted to match the plaids where possible. It worked, also in the welt pockets.

Front pants Back pants

I like them, I wore them the entire day and I felt really comfortable, and warm! Now to see if they will survive my living and laundry schedule!

On to the next pair…