Finished

Blue trousers

A while ago I made royal blue satin jogging bottoms on a whim, and then last year I was inspired by the all-blue outfit in the photo below to make a royal blue jumper to go with them. The combination of satin joggers and jumper didn’t get a lot of wear because the satin joggers aren’t a very practical garment. But the idea of wearing royal blue head to toe wouldn’t go away.

A model wearing an all royal blue outfit walks down a catwalk. Her top is crew necked, close fitting, and has long sleeves. There are metal fasteners no on the shoulders. She has matching cropped trousers and belt. She also wears blue pointed toe shoes, sunglasses, and chunky bracelets.
Look 51 from the Saint Laurent Spring 2022 collection, vogue.com

This is my second try. I knew I probably wouldn’t get much wear out of delicate cropped trousers like the Saint Laurent ones above so I went for a full length straight legged style in a sturdy cotton canvas fabric. It’s a great colour but the fabric creases like nothing on earth; I ironed them before going out for photos but it looks like I might as well not have bothered.

A woman wearing an all royal blue outfit walks in a garden in front of a tree which is trained to grow up a wall. She wears a cropped boxy jumper with a high wrapped neckline. Her trousers are floor length and straight legged. She has yellow trainers on her feet. Her hair is short.

The pattern is a tried and tested one: Burda 112 03/2012, a pattern for very simple canvas culottes or straight legged trousers with slanted hip pockets. On the original design the front is completely flat and there are a couple of darts and patch pockets in the back. I added front pleats and changed the back patch pockets to welt pockets to match the Saint Laurent trousers, but somehow missed that the originals had turn-ups. The waistband’s a bit narrow compared to the inspiration as well. I really needn’t have bothered coping the pleats and pockets as the basic shape of the pattern is so different that there’s very little resemblance to the inspiration garment.

Incidentally there’s an odd thing about the pattern. I’ve made it three times and on every pair the waistband side and centre back seams have come unstitched after a bit of wear and required fixing up with hand sewing. I haven’t had this problem with any other trouser patterns, and I’ve made lots of different ones over the years. The waist on the pattern isn’t unduly tight and I use interfacing. Is it something to do with the lack of width in the waistband? Do I trim the waistband seams too aggressively? But then why doesn’t it happen on every trouser pattern? I like the pattern enough that I have diligently fixed each pair as it failed despite my hatred of mending, but I wish it didn’t happen at all. I’m writing this here mainly so that next time I make these I remember to stitch the waistband seams with the triple stitch.

Line art for a pair of straight legged culottes with slash hip pockets and angled back patch pockets.
Burda 112 03/2012 line art, burdastyle.com

The back welt pockets on my version are effectively just decoration because I made them too narrow. It’s a pleasure to make welt pockets in cotton canvas though. No wobbly welts here.

A woman wearing an all royal blue outfit walks away from the viewer towards a well trimmed hedge.

This was a very simple sew. The worst bit was the cutting because my fabric had a big fade mark that I had to work around. Oddly it wasn’t down the centre crease but slightly to one side of it. I had enough length to get all the pieces cut while avoiding the faded bit, but I’d be wary of buying this particular fabric again which is why I’m not linking to the source.

Closeup of a woman wearing an asymmetric royal blue jumper with a wrapped neckline. A long diagonal dart is visible across the front. She also wears trousers in a matching colour and a grey metal bangle. Her hands are in her pockets. Her face is not seen.

Despite all that I think they’ve come out wearable. I wasn’t aiming for an identical copy of the Saint Laurent outfit in the first place, but I think the fabrics I used give the same vibrant effect while the style of the garments is more practical. No cold ankles for me.

Thanks to my husband for taking the pictures.

A woman wearing a royal blue asymmetrical jumper and trousers stands by an ornamental pond with her hands in her pockets. She also wears yellow trainers.

Long blue hooded dress

A woman wearing a long clingy navy blue dress with a draped hood stands in front of a pale blue wall. She has short greying hair.

This dress is the second item in a set of projects inspired by recent Saint Laurent designs. This particular project was inspired by the jersey maxi dresses from the RTW Spring 2023 show. There were several variations shown, but the common features were that they were floor length and clingy with a very narrow skirt, high neckline, and often had a drapey hood. Quite a few had open backs or were sleeveless, and most were made in slightly sheer fabric. They remind me of the sort of thing Grace Jones wore in A View To A Kill but even slinkier.

A model wearing a long clingy sleeveless dress in damson colour with a draped hood walks down a catwalk. She also wears big sunglasses, gold earrings, and chunky gold cuff bracelets.
Saint Laurent Ready To Wear Spring 2023 look 8, vogue.com

I don’t lead the life of a Bond villainess so some compromises had to be made. The basic silhouette could be copied, but my dress had to have sleeves and a back, and be in a somewhat sturdier fabrication than the original. I thought a viscose ponte with plenty of elastane would probably provide the right combination of drape, elasticity, and coverage. Mine’s Croft Mill’s luxury ponte in navy. I wanted the sapphire colourway but they didn’t have enough in stock, and now I’m glad I went with the navy as it’s much more subtle.

The pattern I used as a base is an old favourite: the dress fromVogue 8866, a now out of print wardrobe pattern from 2012. I made it floor length and straightened out the side seam so it falls vertically from the hip rather than tapering into the hem. I made my usual additions to the bodice and sleeve length for Vogue, and as always made one size smaller than the size chart recommended.

Vogue 8866 line art
Line art from out of print Vogue 8866, sew-direct.com

The original design has a slit in the top of the centre back seam with a hook and eye fastening at the collar, but I used an invisible zip in the centre back instead. I considered trying to do without a centre back opening at all, but even in a stretchier knit I think I’d struggle to get this over my head without one. I kind of wish I’d made the zip longer so I could step into the dress; it’s not the easiest thing to put on.

The seamlines on the Vogue pattern don’t bear much resemblance to the inspiration dresses. The Vogue has raglan sleeves and a centre front seam whereas the originals have regular set in sleeves and the front is generally cut in one piece. Normally this sort of difference would annoy me, but I think my version benefits from the extra seamlines. It doesn’t have the sheer fabric or skin showing that the originals do so a bit of extra design interest helps.

A closeup of the shoulder of a woman wearing a blue knit dress. The picture shows a raglan shoulder seam and a centre front seam, both with top stitching

The hood is a separate piece: it comes from a vintage 80s Vogue pattern: 1439 by Alke Boker from 1984. Keeping it separate not only has the advantage of simplicity, it theoretically makes the dress more versatile.

A photograph of a paper sewing pattern envelope. The pattern is Vogue 1439. The envelope has a picture of a woman in a black boat neck batwing dress with a gathered skirt, and a sketch of a woman in the same dress in yellow but with the addition of a hood. The designer name on the pattern is Alke Bokers

Will I wear it without the hood? Unlikely. It needs some accessories in this mode.

A woman wearing a clingy blue long sleeved maxi dress stands against a light blue wall. She has short greying hair and wears yellow Adidas trainers.

The original pattern has the hood cut on the bias but that makes it an incredible fabric hog. The hood doesn’t need to stretch in order to fit, so the only reason I can think of for doing it that way is to make a woven fabric drape better. I cut mine on the straight: I’m using a knit and a drapey one at that, and it saved at least half a metre.

I knew this dress needed to have pockets. I don’t carry a bag any more so clothes without pockets don’t get worn. But pockets on a knit dress usually sag and spoil the line. I’m usually prepared to live with that for the sake of having somewhere to put my keys and phone. but for this style the sleek shape is everything. I put invisible zips in the side seams and attached pockets underneath by sewing the pocket pieces to the seam allowances after the zips were in. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. I’ve got my usual stuff in the pockets in all the photos and it doesn’t show unless you’re far too close. Definitely going to do this on future projects too.

A photograph of the side seam of a knitted dress with an inseam pocket closed with an invisible zip.

The runway photos show how narrow the original dresses are. There’s no walking slit. so only tiny ladylike steps are possible. I almost added a side slit to my dress but at the last minute decided it would be too much of a departure from the shape I wanted. I can’t run in this without hitching it up (so elegant) but it’s more wearable than I expected; it works perfectly well for a day working at my desk.

A woman wearing a clingy blue longs sleeved max dress walks away from the viewer towards a fore escape on the side of a pale blue building. The dress has a hood which hides her head. She also wears yellow Adidas trainers.

When worn down the hood doesn’t behave well. It tends to rotate around my neck and end up back to front. I suppose I could come up with some way to attach it to the dress – little snaps or a button and loop – but it doesn’t seem worth the effort to go back and retrofit it now.

A woman wearing a clingy blue long sleeved maxi dress stands side on against a pale blue wall, looking over her shoulder. The dress has a hood worn down. She has short greying hair and wears yellow Adidas trainers.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised that I’ve worn this a few times already. And I think it has some of the vibe of the inspiration dresses. Silicon Valley had better watch out.

Thanks to my husband for the photos.

A woman wearing a clingy blue long sleeved maxi dress stands by a fire escape on the side of a pale blue building. The dress has a hood which she wears over the back of her head leaving some hair visible. She wears yellow Adidas trainers.

Purple minidress

It’s been a while because this dress took an age to make. It’s the first one of a set of garments inspired by recent Saint Laurent collections, in this case the orange minidress from Spring 2022.

A woman walks down a catwalk. She wears an orange minidress with a v neck, 3/4 length sleeves pushed up, very strong shoulders and a brown underlayer at the hem. Her accessories are large sunglasses, platform sandals, a short chunky necklace and large earrings
Saint Laurent Spring 2022 look 44, vogue.com

I’ve been drawn to this particular dress since I first saw it, in an advert in Vogue. It’s currently selling for an eyewatering £1795 at Matches, so the only way I could ever scratch the itch was to make my own version.

Orange does not love me, hence the switch to purple fabric. The fabric also had to be relatively inexpensive because realistically this is a stunt dress. I don’t have the Saint Laurent lifestyle. And yes, I should be only be adding things to my wardrobe that are going to get at least 30 wears, and this one seems rather unlikely to meet that target. I’ll have to count the entertainment value of making it and taking silly photos as something instead.

So my fabric is Croft Mill’s BB viscose ponte roma, rather than the luxurious wool woven the original was made in. I went for a knit for comfort and a bit of help with getting a good fit. This particular ponte turned out to be excellent value. I’ve had far pricier ones that weren’t as nice. Sadly the purple is now sold out but Croft Mill have it in other colours.

Having found the fabric I then needed a pattern. After studying every picture of the original I could find online I started with a Burda pattern for a knit jumpsuit which had the same strong shoulder line, and turned that into the basic dress shape with centre front and back seams and a v neck. That centre front seam isn’t just for decoration but turns out to be essential to getting the dress shaping right; it curves in just below the waist. There’s similar shaping in the centre back seam plus two dart tucks at the back. My original pattern turned out much too baggy and there was a lot of adjusting needed after I’d sewed it together. I’d added side seam pockets which made that more difficult. Pockets do bad things to the line, but any outfit that doesn’t have them generally gets worn only once. I ended up taking in the centre front and centre back seams and fiddling with the tucks. Taking in the centre back seam was sad because I’d done a brilliant invisible zip insertion. I couldn’t face ripping the whole zip out and redoing it so it’s a bodge job: I ripped out the lower half of the zip and shortened the zip to end just below where I’d unpicked it to, and then took in the seam below the new end of the zip.

The sleeve on the Burda pattern was one piece, and the Saint Laurent dress has a two piece sleeve with buttoned cuffs. I found a Threads tutorial for turning a one piece sleeve into a two piece but a lot of trial and error was involved. My first attempt was pretty sad: it didn’t have enough volume and the cuffs were too loose and too short. Luckily I had enough fabric to recut the sleeves after updating the pattern. After much agonising I used tortoisehell effect plastic buttons on the cuffs. I was very torn between those and some rather fine metal shank buttons in a dull shade of silver. But on the day I was doing the cuffs I was convinced the whole thing was going to be a disaster and fancy buttons would be a waste, so it got the plastic ones.

And here it is in all its glory.

The cuffs are still a bit too loose and the finishing and fabric don’t remotely compare to the designer dress, but I think it’s come out as something at least adjacent to it. But will I wear it? I did wear it to the pub straight after we took the photos, with my enormous purple Issey Miyake coat over the top which tones the look down considerably. I’m glad to have tried it out but I doubt this will be a wardrobe staple.

Thanks to my husband for the photos.

Black and blue: vintage Vogue 1101

A woman with short hair stands with her back to the viewer. She wears a royal blue and black dress and a grey bangle.

Let’s start off with a back view for a change. In all honesty there is very little difference between the front and back of this dress as seen in in photos. It’s a beautifully simple design. The pattern is vintage Vogue 1101 by Christian Dior, all the way from 1982. Not the actual Christian Dior: the date puts it in the Marc Bohan era of Dior.

Here’s the pattern envelope. The red and black version is very striking but red and I don’t get on. This was an eBay find and it’s a Canadian version of the pattern: it’s entirely metric.

Photograph of a Vogue pattern envelope. It has a photo of a model wearing a red and black short dress and an illustration of a woman wearing a longer white and grey version of the same style.

Amazingly I found a contemporary runway photograph of the design. The red looks more orangey here. It’s clear the original fabric is slightly shiny and very drapey. The pattern envelope says it’s medium weight tissue faille, which is not a fabric I am familiar with. Also is it just me or is the skirt a lot shorter on the runway photo?

Photograph of a model with dark hair on a runway showing a red and black short dress. She has her hands in her pockets and the image is tilted so her body is on a diagonal.
Anna Bayle modelling the original of Vogue 1101, lofficielph.com

My version is made of much less exotic polyester crepe. Specifically it’s John Kaldor Prestige crepe in royal blue and black. I got it from Sew Essential. Handily they had the raglan shoulder pads too: being an 80s style of course it has padded shoulders. I love the look, but positioning and sewing the wretched things in is one of my least favourite tasks.

A full length view of woman with short hair wearing a blue and black short dress, black tights, and ankle boots. The dress has dolman sleeves and a high neck.

I can’t complain too much though. When I measured the pattern I discovered I didn’t need to make a single adjustment to make it fit me. I normally have to add a lot of length to the body and sleeves, so I always trace the pattern and make adjustments on the tracing. The pattern pieces didn’t even need cutting out on this one because the original owner had done that. Good thing, because actually cutting the fabric was a trial because of the large and awkwardly shaped pieces.

Annoyingly I don’t seem to have a photo that demonstrates the pockets. There are pockets. Boring side seam pockets, but entirely functional. I managed to hack a hole in one while running the edges though the overlocker, so the insides have an ugly repair – as always my finishing isn’t going to win any sewing prizes. I liked this dress enough to hand hem it but again it would probably be best not to look at the underside of the hems. They’re ok from the outside and that will have to do.

A woman with short heair wearing a blure and black dress with do,amn sleeves and a high neck

I like the closure on this: buttons at the shoulder rather than a zip, which might spoil the lines on the back. The belt is a bit odd. It’s a little short for wrapping around twice but far too long just to wrap around once. Twice seems the best option but if I made this again I’d add a little length.

A woman seen from the waist up. She has short hair and wears a black and blue dress with a high neckline. The dress has buttons at the shoulder.

I am not sure I will ever need another one of these – it’s very memorable – but I think it would work well in a lighter weight ponte as well as the crepe.

Thanks to my husband for the photos.

Yellow Blanca

A woman standing in a wood. She has short hair and is wearing a yellow jumpsuit over a black crew neck top.

Not that I like jumpsuits a lot, but this is the fourth one I’ve made in the last 12 months. It’s another Closet Core Blanca. As always I made view A because it has long arms and sleeves and I am permanently cold. This time I used the patch pockets from view B on the chest instead of the zip pockets, but it’s not much of a variation. All the difference is in the colour and the topstitching. But if anyone wants to compare: black version, grey version, blue version.

Line art of Closet Core Blnca jumpsuit showing two views. Both have a zip front, straight legs, hip patch pockets, and a waistband. A has long legs and sleeves, zipped patch pockets on the chest, and a belt with a buckle. B has short sleeves, cropped legs, patch pockets without zips, and a tie belt.
Closet Core Blanca line art, closetcorepatterns.com

This was a project inspired by the fabric: dark ochre stretch denim from Empress Mills. It’s bolder than I’d normally go for and I added contrast topstitching too. I didn’t have any black topstitching thread handy so it is all done in Gutermann Extra Strong, which is a weight between their Sew All and their Topstitch ranges. It makes a good bold line and comes in much bigger spools than the specialist topstitch thread; highly recommended. I used regular Sew All in yellow for the rest. I kept the yellow thread in the bobbin for topstitching to save time swapping out thread, but I do wish I’d switched to black in the bobbin when I sewed the zip in, as the yellow bobbin thread shows up on the black zip tape. It’s one of those things that doesn’t show from the front, but if I look down I can see the yellow stitching on the back of the tape and it bugs me. But not enough to rip out that zip and do it again. The stretch denim is a nightmare to put a zip into.

I used contrast hardware: a black zip with black plastic teeth, black buttons for the leg tabs, and a black belt buckle. The belt buckle isn’t a very satisfactory choice. The design means it needs to be under a bit of tension to stay closed, so my belt had to be made tighter than I’d like. The buckle is probably intended for elastic belts.

A woman with short hair standing on a footbridge. She is wearing a yellow jumpsuit over a black crew neck top, and black platform boots.

I shaved a tiny bit of height off the top of the trousers at centre back, and a little width off the back waistband, because I always seem to get a bit of bagginess there on this style. It’s helped somewhat. That big wrinkle in the picture is just the bottom of my t shirt. I couldn’t reduce the length much further, I’d never get in and out of it.

A woman with short hair walks away from the viewer towards a footbridge. She is wearing a yellow jumpsuit over a black crew neck top, and black platform boots.

Despite yellow fabric and contrast stitching and hardware this has come out more muted than I expected. Hopefully that bodes well for getting lots of wear out of it. And I had a small fear it might come out like Kill Bill cosplay, which it hasn’t, so that’s a bonus.

A side view of a woman with short hair standing on a footbridge. She is wearing a yellow jumpsuit over a black crew neck top, and black platform boots.

I added the patch before I realised why the design seemed familiar; it’s the Versace logo. Oops. I ironed it on very thoroughly before stitching it down so I can’t easily remove it now. No one has commented in real life yet; I’m hoping the fact you need to be really quite close to notice the detail means this will continue. Same goes for my dreadful bar tacks on the pockets…everyone who said no one other than a very critical sewist would notice was right. I hardly see them myself now.

A woman with short hair seen from the waist up. She is wearing a yellow jumpsuit over a black crew neck top. The jumpsuit has a black and gold patch on one chest pocket.

This jumpsuit means I’ve finally scratched my Blanca itch – four versions should keep me clothed for work for quite a while and I’m now keen to move onto more frivolous projects.

Thanks to my husband for taking the photos.

Vogue 1853 Men’s coat

Winter coats are one of the best things to sew: a big crunchy project with lots of details in well-behaved wool. I’m currently well supplied in the coat department with several in the wardrobe, so had no space for another. However I’d been eyeing up Vogue 1853 for my husband ever since it was released – it’s exactly his style – and this year the navy surplus coat he’s been wearing for years reached the end of its life, so I had an perfectly good excuse to make yet another coat.

Here’s the pattern photo. We went for view B, the long coat.

There is a half belt which is designed to pull the back in a little, which is why it’s not lying flat in the back view below. The fabric is a dark navy wool/polyester coating from Minerva Crafts. I was very impressed by Minerva’s vast range of coating fabric. I often find their fabrics are more expensive than other companies, but they had a sale the week we were buying fabric so this one ended up being a bargain.

I made a toile but it turned out we didn’t need many changes to the pattern. The collar is seriously tall so I folded 1.5cm over at the top edge. And to give a little extra room I didn’t sew the front waist darts. I probably should have shortened the sleeves too, but we weren’t sure and I personally hate sleeves to be even slightly too short so we left them.

The lining fabric is grey polyester satin from The Lining Company. The lining was in my stash, left over from another coat project that didn’t work out, so I’m glad to have finally used it. It’s lovely quality, really heavy, and the colour contrasts with the navy without being garish. If I’d been buying lining I’d probably have felt obliged to go with navy in order to match the shell. I do like a contrast lining.

Before cutting out I made a separate lining pattern and some adjustments to the facings following the advice from the Ready To Wear coat sew-along by Sheryll of Pattern Scissors Cloth. I can’t recommend this sew-along enough; it makes inserting the lining and hemming quick, easy, and entirely doable by machine; at least it does if you follow Sheryll’s advice to check everything carefully before you cut. Which I failed to do. At first it all went well: Sheryll’s method for sewing the lining/facing/hem junction entirely by machine is brilliant: quick and easy and gives a good finish.

The sew-along coat doesn’t have a back vent, so how to draft a lining to fit around a vent wasn’t covered. I used the lining vent lines from the original pattern for the lining pattern and assumed it would all work out. Wrong. When I came to sew it I couldn’t get the lining to sit nicely around the vent when I attached it from the inside by machine. I ended up hand-sewing the lining to the shell around the vent edges and made a little pleat to make it fit. It looks OK now but there was an evening of much seam ripping and frustration along the way. Next time I’ll take the time to check the pattern first.

One thing I did plan carefully was the addition of an inside pocket, carefully sized to fit my husband’s phone, and it’s come out well. I was dubious about sewing welts in lining fabric across the bulk of the facing/lining seam, but with the addition of interfacing to the welts it turned out to be pretty painless. In fact there’s lots of extra interfacing in this coat: the entire front, the facings, and the hems are all interfaced with Vilene G405. That was a lot of tedious fusing.

And speaking of pockets here are the external ones. The pocket bags are all navy blue cotton poplin from my stash.

In theory you can wear the collar on this coat either up or down. Normally I’d press the edge seam on a collar slightly to the underside so it doesn’t show, but you can’t have it pressed both ways. I decided to err on the side of pressing it for wearing the collar up. I also added extra interfacing to the collar to help it stand up. Probably as a consequence it doesn’t sit very well when turned down, but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem in practice.

There is no back neck facing which surprised me. I added a chain for hanging.

The design needs matching shank buttons in two different sizes. The recommended size for the larger ones is 3cm which cuts down the available options. We wanted metal ones and a fairly plain design. After a lot of looking we found these ones from Number Sixty on eBay and I’m very pleased with them. Hard to see in the photos but they have a grey patina that’s been scratched off in the centre to give a bit of interest.

And here it is being worn. Normally my husband takes the photos for this blog but as he’s the model this time all we have are my phone pics.

I’m really pleased with how it’s come out. And given how difficult it is to find coats my husband likes I’m definitely hanging onto the pattern. Maybe a grey one next?

Blue Blanca

A woman wearing a bright blue denim jumpsuit stands in front of some bushes. The jumpsuit has a zip front, rolled up hems, chest and hip pockets, and a buckled belt just below the natural waist.

I’m still reaching for a jumpsuit when getting dressed more often than not. I’ve currently got two Closet Core Blancas on the go, one in black denim and one in grey denim, and a drapey Burda one in grey tencel . There’s no denying the Blanca is the more practical of the two designs and it’s the one I wear the most so it was time to make a third version. This time I went for a bright blue stretch denim from Fabric Godmother.

Here’s the line art. I made view A but skipped the leg tabs and lengthened the legs considerably, intending to make turnups. Then when I got to the end I couldn’t be bothered and just hemmed the legs and rolled them up. This turned out to be a good decision because I find it needs different hem lengths depending on whether I’m wearing it with boots or trainers and I can just adjust how much I roll the legs. Laziness for the win.

Closet Core Blanca Flight Suit line art, closetcorepatterns.com

I made the size the pattern recommended for my measurements. It’s a close fitting design and for nonstretch denim I would definitely size up. I added length for fit to the bodice, legs and sleeves as is usual for me on almost any pattern, plus the extra to the legs for the turnups that didn’t materialise.

The bodice back is meant to be blousy, but I always also get a big wrinkle just below the back waistband with this pattern, and the waistband is a little loose. The design doesn’t have back darts or a yoke on the trousers to take up the excess fabric. I added elastic to the waistband on my grey version which pulls it in nicely but changes the wrinkles to gathers which I’m not fond of either. Maybe next time I’ll try adding a yoke?

I was surprised how difficult this fabric was to sew with. It’s 98% cotton 2% elastane so I was expecting something fairly stable but in fact it’s very stretchy indeed. I sewed the centre front zip in three times and ripped it out again because the fabric stretched and my zip went all wobbly. Eventually I resorting to adding extra interfacing along the front opening. The pattern says to add a strip wide enough to cover the seam allowances but I needed to double that so that the interfacing extended over the top stitching lines on the bodice front. Anyway it did the trick. And the stretch is nice to wear. No danger of ripping a seam when you reach for something.

I’m glad I picked top stitching thread close to the fabric colour; there are lots of places where I had to unpick and redo bits. This one is the Gutermann Extra Strong thread: not quite as heavy as normal top stitching thread but still makes a nice line.

I couldn’t get zips to match the blue. These are navy. They also had to have silver teeth to match the buckle which reduced the choice even further. I ended up with very chunky ones which were a bit much for the breast pocket pattern pieces. There’s some extra hand sewing holding those pockets together.

This has become a firm favourite already. Thanks to my husband for the photos.

Finishing my 80s wardrobe: black polo neck top

My 80s wardrobe plan has been on hold for a few months because all the pieces are unbearably hot to wear in summer, and we had a lot of summer this year. But now the weather has cooled down slightly so here is the second to last piece: a plain black polo neck top for wearing with both pairs of trousers. I used Burda 120 12/2020 but missed out the gathering. The arms ended up a reasonable length for me – I normally add 5cm to those. The body is a bit on the long side but good for tucking in. I normally add 5cm there too. The collar is very high indeed. I’m wearing it folded over in the photos.

Burda 120 12/2020 line art, burdastyle.com

I’m wearing it with the trousers from vintage Vogue 1476 here. It’s come out less boxy than I intended, so I’ve ended up with quite a contrast in proportion between the slim fitting top and the voluminous trousers. Still trying to decide if I like the effect or not. It’s certainly a Look. I probably should have gone up a size to get a more 80s effect.

The fabric is ‘posh ponte’ from Stone Fabrics. It’s mostly viscose with a bit of polyester and elastane; quite heavy and very elastic. It feels a bit like a scuba knit but without the shiny finish. They’ve sold out of the black by now, but there are some other colours available.

While this was intended to go with the trousers shown here it ought to work in plenty of other contexts too. But it’s not the baggy 80s polo neck I was looking for. Back to the pattern collection I think.

Thanks to my husband as always for the photos.

The jumpsuit of great aggravation

My last post was about a grey jumpsuit. So obviously the next thing I made was another grey jumpsuit. This one is Burda 130 09/2011, a drapey style with a crossover front. Burda’s version below looks quite fancy but mine turned out to be surprisingly practical. I wore it a lot just after having a baby, and it shrugged off all the food stains and was comfortable for sitting on the floor and provided deep pockets to stash all the things I didn’t have enough hands to hold, while still managing to look presentable.

Burda 130-09-2011 magazine photo
Burda 130 09/2011 model photo, burdastyle.com

My original version fell to bits some years ago, tencel twill not being the most hardwearing fabric. And having recently realised that the thing I wear the most these days is my black Closet Core Blanca jumpsuit, I decided to remake this pattern and compare. I had a length of suitable fabric in my stash from an abandoned project (Merchant and Mills‘ tencel twill in the colour ‘pluto’, sadly no longer available) and I’d kept the pattern tracing, so it was meant to be. I dived straight in and cut out the pattern I’d traced in 2014. I didn’t recall anything particularly difficult about sewing the first version, or any fit problems with the result.

Well this was the most annoying thing I’ve sewn in a while. The fabric was very unstable and I obviously wasn’t careful enough to true it when cutting out the bodice fronts, because the pleats have ended up in slightly the wrong place. They are meant to line up with the topstitching line holding the yoke facing in place, and they don’t. I’ve also got a bit of gapping just under the front yoke seam because the interfacing I added to the self facings was too heavy. The side zip went in perfectly…and then I realised I’d lined it up with the wrong notch and had to rip it out. The second insertion was not nearly as good. The shoulder pleats collide with the shoulder seam allowance in an annoying way. I struggled to turn under the edge of the back neck facing neatly so it’s all jaggy on the inside instead of being a smooth curve.

But this is not all; the fit’s not great either. This wasn’t supposed to be a Tall pattern, but I wonder if it was labelled incorrectly. The bodice is much too long – look at that pleat forming on the back in the photo below – and the crossover won’t stay put. I resorted to adding a small snap. But that’s nothing to the arms and legs. I carefully made the prescribed turnups on the legs, and then had to roll the legs up about 10cm to wear the thing, so I really needn’t have bothered. The arms are a similarly excessive length and so those are turned up up in the photos too. I noticed those in time and hemmed them with the hem allowance turned to the outside so it’s hidden when the sleeves are turned up. I notice I rolled up the arms and legs in my previous version…and the bodice on that just gaped wide open. I always wore a t shirt under it.

Interestingly now I look carefully at Burda’s model in the photo above she is showing a suspicious amount of forearm, so I think her sleeves are rolled up too. There’s a second version of the pattern shown in the magazine and there the sleeves are clearly extra long even though the model has lifted her shoulders.

Burda 130 09/2011 model photo, burdastyle.com

It’s not the end of the world. I’ll certainly wear this, although always with a tank top underneath. And it does have good pockets. If I ever make this again I’d shorten arms, legs and bodice, and forget about turning the facing edges under. Overlocking’s good enough as an edge finish. I’d probably skip interfacing the self-facings, not that the pattern called for it in the first place. I’d keep the interfacing I added to the zip and pocket openings though.

So after all that, how does it compare to the Blanca? It’s fussier to wear, but the pockets are roomier and it’s a lot more comfortable on a hot day. With my usual brilliant timing I completed it just as the summer is ending, so I’ve got maybe three more weeks before I have to start layering something warm underneath it. I’ll report back.

Thanks to my husband for the photos.

Grey Blanca flight suit

A woman with short hair wearing a grey jumpsuit and yellow trainers reclines on concrete steps

Quite a lot has happened here since I last posted. I had Covid, fortunately a mild dose, I’ve been on holiday, and the normally cool and wet UK is having a record-breaking heatwave. While it’s been a couple of weeks since the peak it’s still very hot indeed where I live.

I finished my 80s wardrobe but wearing any of the pieces is unbearable, even just for photos. So they’re sitting in the wardrobe and I moved on to making a (checks notes) denim jumpsuit. Maybe not the ideal choice. But I’ve been doing a bit of wardrobe tracking and the garment I wear the most in normal times is my Closet Core Blanca flight suit. It’s comfortable, practical, and I think it reads as quite put together, at least when I put on lipstick. And it was great for wearing on holiday in Ireland and Northern Ireland, where it was a lot cooler than England.

Here’s the line drawing. As before I made view A, with the long sleeves and legs and the zip pockets. This time I went up a size from the recommended one as I used a less stretchy fabric than before and wanted a more casual fit. I always have to lengthen bodice, arms, and legs on patterns by 5cm, and for this version I added an extra 2cm to the legs and 1cm to the bodice on top of that.

Line art for front and back views of two jumpsuits. View A has long sleeves, view B has short sleeves and cropped legs. Both have zip fronts and patch pockets on hips, back, and chest.
Line art for Closet Core Blanca flightsuit, closetcorepatterns.com

The Blanca has some thoughtful features that help in getting the desired fit without necessarily making a toile or doing a lot of unpicking. I found the back was a bit baggy at the waist this time around, but the hips felt too tight due to the lack of stretch in my fabric. The side seams are sewn last and the back waistband is constructed in such a way that it’s easy to run elastic through it to pull it in. I unpicked the side seams, added the waistband elastic, and resewed taking a smaller seam allowance below the waist.

A woman with short hair wearing a grey jumpsuit stands on a rocky beach with her back to the viewer

I added a patch on the arm. Why a TV test card? I like the colours with the grey denim, and the technical vibe of the design.

A woman with short hair wearing a grey jumpsuit stands side on with her face turned away. There is a colourful patch on the arm of the jumpsuit.

The extra 1cm in the bodice turned out not to be needed and isn’t easy to remove once the garment is in a state to be tried on, so I left it, but I’m glad I added to the legs.

A woman with short hair wearing a grey jumpsuit and yellow trainers walks across gently sloping basalt columns

The fabric is a denim from Fabric Godmother. I originally wanted a stretchy denim and sent off for a few samples from that category, of which this fabric was one. Compared to the other samples I got it barely stretches at all, and I notice it’s described as a cotton and spandex mix but no percentage for the spandex is given. I liked the colour and weight so much I bought it anyway. I also happened to have regular, overlocker, and top-stitching thread to match the grey, which was handy.

For comparison here’s my black version of this pattern, in much stretchier fabric and one size smaller.

Now I’m impatiently waiting for the temperature to go down so I can wear both of them some more. I’m not done with the pattern yet either…I have some more stretch denim lined up for it. Thanks to my husband for the photos.

A woman with short hair wearing a grey jumpsuit and yellow trainers stands on a beach