OWOP - Butterick 5044

A couple of years ago we spent a week in Vanuatu. While in Port Vila, I found a few poly and rayon prints so I supported the local economy and I decided to trial these pants for Singapore.

Last time I made these pants in navy ripstop for my previous size. Now I used small and the pants need to be lengthened (6cm). So I added quilt binding from my stash to get the hem right and used the edging foot to get the stitching line in the right place. I do like the binding finish. Is that a good thing?

I've used 32mm/1 1/4 " wide elastic in the waistband and coverstitched the waist band casing. Again, I need to add more to the casing (6cm) so that easily folds over. Printed pants like these are strictly weekend wear.

After working with Angie Zimmerman, I adjusted this pattern and added 1.5cm to the total width of the pants pattern. The front and back leg are in the one pattern. The back crotch curve is 2cm deeper and the front crotch curve is also 1cm deeper.

The additional room is added right down the middle of this pattern piece.

Then I made two more versions for the 'one week, one pattern' challenge before we had our break.

Grey linen shorts

Blue cotton pants

The grey shorts became shorts because I didn't have enough fabric for pants. I'll get some more of this fabric from the Remnant Warehouse next month. It's a lovely linen that is already crushed so how's that for weekend linen pants. The blue embroidered fabric is pure cotton so it's bound to crush but they're for the weekend. Yay.

Here are the first two days of my OPOW attempt in Singapore with the grey shorts.

On the Singapore Flyer





Just off the bus ready to explore Chinatown.

We're now back home so I've worn the blue embroidered pair for hanging out near the kitchen while DH cooks after work. He made a lovely ravioli and napolitana sauce after our afternoon ride.

Today I was feeling more normal so I put on the green printed pants and chilled out on the stairs before putting some dinner together. Bootcamp class this morning was a killer so DH marinated chicken in tandoori so I only needed to get some vegies organised. No dahl this time.

More later.

Singapore fab shopping

Thank you all for your lovely comments about my skort. It is now a 'must pack' when we travel.Speaking of which, here's another travel write up that fed my fabric exploring appetite. DH and I took spent a week in Singapore.
a) I learnt how to make Roti (a pastry to eat with curries) and
b) discovered Arab st fabric shops. I love Singapore.

Fliping a roti before frying it.

I had a great time finding fabric with the gentlemen at VK Abdul Samad & Co (66 Arab St). They influenced my fabric choices with some lovely embroidered linens.
Sensasi Fabrics (75 Arab St) had a smaller range of printed cottons in my price range.
At 68 Arab St was a large range of Batiks at $7/m.
Bian Swee Hin & Co (107 Arab St) had a large range of Batiks that I fell for.

There were heaps of silks that I successfully avoided and 3 stores specifically stocked fabric bling. We did lots of tourist things, ate traditional foods and caught up with a uni friend and her family while we were there.

Jalie skort 2796

I owe you a pic of this skort in action. Well, taking a break on the beach is where it came in very handy.

Henley Beach, Adelaide on Australia Day.

We hired some bikes and cycled from town to the beach on the road and then cycled back along the Torrens river. The return trip was 22kms so it wasn't a hard ride. The bag that I'm holding had my cycling gear in it plus a standard issue hotel towel. It was a 38C day but because Adelaide has dry heat it was bearable and great to get away from our rainy summer.

At West Beach a few days later.

This time we took a Go-Get car to hang out at the beach for the afternoon. This skort is now my favourite beach skirt. I really love Jalie patterns.

Vintage update - Style 4859

Happy St Patricks Day. This was my first run at getting this vintage pattern to work. 1974 doesn't seem that long ago... On paper I added room for my bust and waist. Once I made this test dress, I removed the added width. What will remain is the extra length in the bust area for my own comfort and have included a bust dart for shaping. This dress is 10cm/2" shorter than the short version. I added in the zipper late in construction as the pattern suggested which worked out great for getting the fit right. I will need to do a sway back adjustment because there were some gathers across the back when I wore the dress.

This fabric came from dotsnstripes.co.uk 3 years ago.

This fabric is a kiddie print and I've added green poplin bias trim on the dress and for the dress ties cause I'm still into green and I wanted to tone down the pinks. I used the fast turner tool for the dress ties. The skirt has a bit of twirl room that I will tone down for the next version maybe.
These two have just arrived in the mail. And Love Vintage fair is on in Sydney on 23 -25 March if anyone's interested in everything vintage.

This will need some hacking for size.

This won't need too much grading - I think.

Burda 7746 - workwear

Burda has edgier styles than BMV patterns; I like these pockets on this style; and I need work pants that fit well at the back. This pair will be part of my one pattern, one week challenge. I love the style and I have a couple of fabrics in my stash that will be great for work and on the weekend, so I'm hoping none of these will be wardrobe orphans and one pair may be vintage looking. You never know.

Last year I tested a range of pants to get my skills up and have pants that worked. The back was the usally my challenge so now I want to take my skills up another level - whatever that means. When I did my research on PR I found that Mushywear had done a great looking pair so I must be on the right track. She has such great style.

 

I've used a linen woven and the pocket lining has a similar light weight poly fabric in a similar colour. The initial adjustments were:

- Increasing back leg width by 2 cm and tapered from top to 6 cm
- Increased back crotch by 2cm.

The blue pen shows the back leg width extension. The pencil shows the extended back crotch curve.

On the weekend Angie checked the fit and I resewed the side seams out by 1/2cm.

This adjustment is now on the pattern and I'm really pleased with these so I'll definitely make these again. I love the square long line pocket style. By the way, the front waistband met this time 'round.

A closer look at the long angular pocket style. The pocket line will lie flatter with twill tape or interfacing.

I have some work jackets that need matching pants so I'll use this again. When I do this in winter weight fabric, I'll increase the size so that I can adjustment them for the heavier fabric weight.

Vintage!

Vintage is something that lots of you are great at and I've done nil vintage and I have no vintage knowledge.You may have noticed in PR I'm managing the Vintage Contest this month. I did a bit of research and there's lots of vintage info around and so many wonderful vintage sewers who really know their stuff. Locally I've noticed an increasing vintage trend so I'm looking forward to seeing how sewers develop their vintage outfits to suit their needs.

I'm not a vintage sewer but I found this Style 4859 from 1974 so today I decided to adjust this dress to fit. My entry won't qualify because I'm managing the contest. Vintage patterns up to and including 1978 are in.

These are really crude adjustments. After tracing the pieces off the original pattern, I've split the bust piece and made it 2 cm longer and added 1.5cm to the width. I've also made the waist 4 cm wider.

Next - the muslin.

Adelaide fabric stores

Here are a Adelaide few sewing places you might want to check out if you are in town:

Catwalk Fabrics 72 Colin street Brompton Adelaide:
Lis was very helpful and chatty. She has a history of teaching sewing and drafting and she wants younger sewers to learn as much as they can. Lis stocks designer fabrics that the bigger stores don't stock. She said she bought fabrics via Tessutis. She also had some japanese books on draping etc, so she does have some unique pieces.
DK Fabrics 105 Port st Hindmarsh Adelaide:
This store is huge and it contains lots of fabric, notions and stored items. I bought apple green denim and a cream knit. I was overwhelmed with the selection. They cut fabric straight off the bolt where you stand so I couldn't choose more than two pieces without losing my place in the store.
The staff were helpful and they had stacks of notions in loads of colours. It's 4kms from the city and you can get there via tram to the entertainment centre.
Button Bar Shop 13, Adelaide Arcade, Adelaide CBD between Grenfell st and Rundall Mall:
The amount of buttons and notions in this store is overwhelming. Sylvia Collins is one of the owners and she took my query for rivets. This is a great store for locals and They have every sort of button and closure.
Ferrier Fashion Fabrics 380 Fullarton Road Fullarton, Adelaide:
This is a large store that has good quality fabrics and a great range of notions. I found the jacket zippers I needed for the Minoru jacket and rivets for my jeans. This store is easy to find and is 10 minutes from the CBD. The sales people are know their products and are very helpful when you're trying to resolve a project. There were some lovely luxurious fabrics that I was tempted to buy. Next time.
From the fabrics I bought in Adelaide, I've made up the green jeans and the Minoru jacket.

A dress I forgot about

This morning I remembered that a couple of weeks ago I resewed a new Jalie Sweetheart top into another dress once I fixed the fit on the first version. The Minoru jacket took up most of my head space. Thank you to everyone for all your lovely compliments about the jacket. I really appreciate reading your messages.

 
The first version was really loose and the neckline kept showing more chest than I was comfortable with.

 
So now I've made a few adjustments and lengthened the hem. It's much more fitted. After what I saw at dinner last night it's 'night clubbing' fitted. So I can definitely use both of these on weekends. I think I'll stick to wearing heels with the longer version.