Mostly rectangles

For years, I've been happy not to follow the low-rise skinny jeans trend. My earliest self-drafted trousers (as in pre-dating the blog early) all had either a boot-cut or even a mild 70's style flare. Although I changed the shape of each new pair, including a venture into even roomier styles, nothing major happened  until I tried tapered belt pleated trousers back in December 2009. I still have and wear that particular pair and I have come to like it so much I keep telling myself to make another one. That was the first time I tried a radically different silhouette. 
Then, in January last year I made my first pair of high waisted, fitted trousers. Like the belt pleated ones, those were hemmed at ankle length. I know a lot of people hate that trend but I find it lends a touch of lightness to the whole look. 

By now, I think I have just about any trouser shape imaginable in my wardrobe (leg-wise that is, there is nowhere near as much variation in rise. And I still exclude RTW's best-seller, the true 'skinny' which relies on huge amounts of lycra for its close fit. Oh, and I don't count leggings or anything derived from them as trousers). I like the variety and I've found that each style has its strengths and weaknesses when it comes to making outfits. For example, I've found that I prefer to wear my jackets with narrow trousers (hemmed at ankle length). In that combination, they don't look quite so serious or over-dressed. 
This winter, I was reaching for the belt pleated and narrow styles way more than for the boot-cut ones. Even though I only have a rather limited number of tops which work with them.

Time to change that. Narrow bottoms tend to require a bit more room on top but I don't want my upper body to be swamped either. 
This is the first new thing I've made especially to go with my narrow legged trouser styles. It is still a bit of a winter-y, but I plan on making a couple of roomier t-shirt type things as well.  

I started out with the basic shape (a rectangle with the corners folded in) as the one I used for this cardigan. I've always liked that one, but the fabric is a bit too synthetic for my taste. And I wanted something a bit longer this time. Its tutorial is here.
For this version, I cut away a curved section at the bottom and made a double, 20 cm long band to attach to it, creating the waist-to-hip section. These pieces were cut in a woven boiled wool (which is thin for boiled wool). I made the front edge/collar and the cuffs from a rather stable black silk. 

When worn, this cardigan is all roomy shapes and angles but flat on the table it shows it's true 'mostly rectangles' spirit.
I'm happy with it, even though it now looks like spring is finally here so I may not get to wear it for a while (although Dutch spring always has cold days as well) 

As promised: the cardigan how-to

See, I still try to live up to my promises!

As I've said before, this cardigan or shrug (I guess it's technically more of a shrug because it doesn't close at the front) is very easy to make. It is a pattern for knits and it works best with light and drapey variaties. I've made mine on my serger, but lacking one, you could of course use the appropriate stitches on your sewing machine (just check which one to use first. A lot of sewing machines

don't like thin knits).

In this tutorial, I'm giving you the dimensions I used. Although this is not a fitted garment, different people would need different sleeve lengths and on larger sizes, this cardigan would end up sitting higher on the body, so size can matter. You can of course size it up a bit and/or change the dimensions. This would require cutting the body piece on the crossgrain and having two seams instead of one in the front-and-neckline band. In a fourway stretch fabric, that's fine.

These are your pattern pieces:

Just a bunch of rectangles (in case it's hard to read the print on the picture, both big ones are 140 cm wide, the top one is 62 cm high, and the bottom one 24 cm. The small pieces are the same: both 16 cm high and 18 cm wide).

Cut one of each with the straight grain as shown by the arrows in the drawing. Make sure to mark the middle of the big pieces and the top of the biggest one, make additional notches at 9 cm to either side of the center mark.

To make the cardigan, fold the biggest piece as shown and sew down along the top. Repeat this with the other side.

Fold the resulting object in half along the center line. Now, cut along the red lines: scoop out a back neckline of about 2 cm deep and cut off the points where they are at about 9 cm (better to do that for each separately, for accuracy).

Now, it's time to turn your attention to the smaller pieces. Sew them together along their vertical edges, fold the resulting tubes in half right side out and pin the big one to the neckline and front edge (with the seam at the back neckline and matching the center notches at the bottom) and the small ones to the arm. Each of these bands should be stretched a little to fit.

I hope this is clear. If there are any questions, please let me know through the comments.

As ever, everyone is of course free to use this tutorial for personal sewing (but not commercially). An if you make anything using this tutorial, I'd love to see it!

It's an outfit-post!

Really, it is. I know it's been a long time since I've bothered to record any of the outfits I actually wear. But this one is interesting: not only is it all 'me-made' (most of my daily outfits are) it also uses a little-worn old creation as an eye-catching piece. And now, I am happy with it.

(Also, I've been extremely busy these past few weeks, so there hasn't been any personal sewing...)

This is the outfit I wore yesterday:

You may recognize my jacket, made with leather from my boyfriend's old coat, and if you are a very dilligent reader of this blog, you may even remember the red top. The item I was talking about, however, are the trousers. I'm pretty sure I made these after I started this blog... but I'm also pretty sure I didn't post about them before. Even though I considered it.

The point was: I never quite knew how to wear these...

I made this pair of trousers after seeing these from the Dior A/W 2010 show:

This was sort of a Poiret-inspired collection and I just loved the effortless chic of those wide, loose, interestingly shaped trousers. So, I drafted something experimental and tried it out. However, it was hard to find affordable fabric which had the amount of drape needed for a garment like this, and wasn't pure polyesther. This one is viscose/rayon and was only sold in dark blue.

Which made it very difficult to fit into my black-heavy wardrobe. So far, it hasn't seen a lot of wear.

Yesterday, it occured to me to try again. Viscose is nice to wear in warmer weather and I've made a lot of different tops recently. To me, the red completely saves it. I believe it even allows me to wear it with the black jacket. And indoors with my black version of the tiny shrug.

In this picture, you can see the shape of the trousers a bit better. By the way, they have in-seam-pockets. If anyone is interested, I could post a semi-tutorial about them because it would be very simple to make a pattern for these from just about any pattern for elastic-waisted trousers. Just let me know.

Quicky projects

After two jackets, with work getting crazy and more than one labour intensive project-for-someone-else in the pipeline, I really felt I needed some quick, selfish bits of sewing just to keep my spirits up.

I also had this black knit which I bought on sale at the market for 0.50 euro a meter. And in my mind, nearly free fabric equals licence to experiment. These two quicky projects may not be my most exiting experiments by a long shot, but they were quick, they kind of fill a gap I had in my wardrobe and I would have hesitated to waste good, expensive fabric on them.

Oh, I know I'm using black again, but this stuff was cheap... And there will be plenty of colour this summer, I promise.

First, about a week ago, I made this top using the basic shape I created for the colour block top. This one has a normal shoulder seam and a wide, straight neckline at both front and back. Because I really didn't like the look of that, I made three horizontal pleats just below the neckline at center front. I like the resulting look a lot better. It's a nice top when it's worn tucked into a high waistband. I don't care for it worn over anything.

Secondly, I made an open-fronted shrug of about waistlength. In my wardrobe, that's a nice layering piece for 'in between' kind of weather. I used my slopers to make the pattern but if you wanted something similar, you could download Tanit-Isis's shrug pattern and cut away some of the front in a curved line from the neckline's shoulder point to the front waistline.

I made 'ribbing' at the sleeves and around the opening by simply cutting strips of the same fabric, folding them in half with wrong sides facing and serging them to the edges of the shrug (lengths: measurement in pattern minus 10% for the opening, wrist measurement plus 2 cm for the cuffs. widths: I cut 8 cm for the opening and 20 cm for the cuff)

From pattern to garment - the tiny shrug

In a comment to my last post, Isaspacey asked for more information on how the pieces go together. Well, this post is for you (and for anyone else thinking the same, but not asking. Which, by the way, you should. In sewing there are no stupid questions and I just love getting comments)

1. Fabric placement: put the two new pieces on the fold, choose you sleeve length.

2. Cutting. These are your pieces.

3. Start sewing. Set in the sleeves. Setting them in flat (before sewing the side seam and sleeve seams) tends to be a bit easier. When pinning the sleeves, the notches for the shoulder on the body and sleeve are really useful, but they don't in this fabric.

4. Sew side seams.

5. Sew short end of edging.

6. Fold in half right side out.

7. Pin to body. Put the seam at the center back of the neckline and stretch the edging evenly to fit the body. Sew.

8. Voila! Your shrug is finished! (Ok, the sleeves still need hemming, but I trust no one needs me to tell them how that is done...)

Any knit or jersey can be used for this pattern, however the amount of stretch and/or drape can vary enormously with each fabric, which is something you should always keep in mind when considering the combination pattern and fabric. For this project, it's Ok if the fabric is a bit bulky, but it shouldn't be too drapy.

Also, I used a serger here but of course you could also make it on a sewing machine, using a stitch appropriate for stretch (if you don't have 'official' stretch stitches, use a small zigzag). Jersey won't ravel but more open knits, like this one, will.

Once again, good luck sewing!

Belofte maakt schuld (as the Dutch would say)

If there's an English expression saying the same thing, I'm not familiar with it. Literally translated this Dutch expression means 'Promise creates debt', so, in effect, it cautions us to live up to our promises.

Which is exactly what I plan on doing, despite being a bit late. Early in January, I promised to try and do more tutorials. And to do a tutorial of one of the Giveaway-patterns. I knew I wouldn't have time for it that month, but by now, we're half-way through February.

So, here it is. This is how you make your very own 'tiny shrug' pattern.

1. Start out with a pattern for a basic fitted t-shirt. This is Burdastyle's Lydia, but any other one will do as well (if it has bust darts, don't pay attention to them, this pattern doesn't reach down that low). Because I'm using a Burdastyle pattern here, I explain the whole thing for a pattern which includes 1,5 cm seam allowance. Just skip all the parts about compensating for that if you use a pattern without seam allowance.

2. Trace the back body piece onto a sheet of paper.

3. Mark a point at the side seam 3 cm below the armhole (to compensate for the included seam allowance).

4. Draw a help line at a 90 degree angle from center back to the point you marked at the side. Then, go down 1 cm more at center back and create a gently curved bottom to your back piece.

5. Mark a line 3 cm below the shoulder line, to compensate for seam allowances.

6. Trace the front pattern piece with its shoulder line along the line you just made. For you final pattern, make sure to mark where the shoulder seam would have been (this is the top of the shoulder, knowing where that is makes setting the sleeves easier).

7. Mark a point 3 cm below the armhole (seam allowence).

8. Draw a gentle curve from the neckline to the point you've just marked. Take care never to get closer than 3 cm to any of the original pattern's lines.

9. This is your finished body piece. Now, mark the actual stitching lines along bottom and neckline and measure these.

10. At a 90 degree angle from the papers edge, draw a straight line. The length should be the measurement made above minus about 20 percent (in my case, the measurement was 55,7 and I went with a 44 cm line, plus 1,5 cm seam allowance, makes 45,5 cm in total)

11. At the paper's edge, this pattern piece is 15 cm wide, at the other end just 6 cm (this is including seam allowance, substract 1,5 cm for without). Draw a gentle curve from one end to the other, making sure to start and finish at a 90 degree angle.

12. Fold the paper in half along the straight line of your new pattern piece, tack it in place and cut. Now, you have these two pattern pieces. Both have a single straight line which is the center back and should be cut on the fold.

Cutting and sewing:

As mentioned above, cut the pieces you made on the fold and use the normal sleeve pattern piece, at any length you like.

Set the sleeves into the body piece.

Sew sleeve seam and (tiny) side seam.

Sew short ends of the new pattern piece together.

Fold it in half, right side out.

Pin it to the rest of the shrug. The seam should be at the center back of the neck, the center back should be at the body piece's center back bottom.

Stitch it in place stretching the new piece to fit as you go.

Good luck, and if you make the tiny shrug, I'd love to see the result!