Parasol trousers

First garment sewn from my MakeNine list for 2019 was these Parasol trousers from Ensemble patterns. The pattern also contains a jump suit pattern, but that's not something I can see myself wearing. I really like the style of the trousers though with the wide legs, the side pockets and the high waist without a waistband. The trousers have no side seams they are instead constructed with a seam at the center of the leg, both in the back and in the front.

I used an old black twill with some stretch, probably bought from Stoff & Stil some years ago. I have realized, however, that the fabric is not the best, especially not in black since it attracts all lint and dust in the surroundings - lets just say that I'm glad I don't have any hairy pets :)

I sewed up a size 6 and graded down one size in the waist. Initially had some serious problems with a lot of extra fabric in the back leg giving strange drag lines from the front hip back to the knee. Got rid of some of it by doing a fish eye dart adjustment in the back, so the fit now is ok I think. The fit in the waist and the hips are is better than expected. I also adjusted the crotch length a bit by lowering the crotch seam about 1 cm and took in the front inner seam about 1.5 cm.

I struggled a lot with the fit and also had some problems with the instructions, but I learned a lot and they turned out ok int the end. 

Jeans and sweaters!

Now when the new year has started and plans for it are in the making, it might be a good idea to first sum up the makings during the autumn.

The jeans making continued, with a pair out of the same pattern as the black ones I made earlier this year. The fabric for these are a stretch twill from Stoff & Stil (if I remember correctly, it has been in my stash for a few years or so). The colour is a bit lighter in real life than in the photos. The jeans turned out ok, but I need to tweak the fit some more, or maybe try another jeans pattern the next time. They still fit a hundred times better than any store bought jeans though, just the fact that there's no gaping at the waist mean I can wear them without a belt :)

I've also made two sweaters, the first one is a wearable muslin. The pattern is more or less self drafted, I started off with an ordinary t-shirt pattern. Modified it as follows:
- Widened the bodice 2,5 cm at each side, giving a total of 10 cm all around
- Lowered the shoulder point 2 cm and redrew the armscye by lowering it a total of 4 cm
- Modified the sleeve to fit the armscye, by widening it 3 cm and modifying the shoulder seam.
- Shortened the bodice length 7 cm.
The fabric used is some strange jersey knit that I've had in my stash forever, donated to me from my grandma.
The sleeves and bodice were just folded up and hemmed. For the neckline I used a grey stretch cotton for the inside since the main fabric is a bit itchy.

Last make was a chunky knit sweater in the same pattern as the grey one. This fabric has also been lingering in my stash for 10 years, I bought it during a work trip to Kuwait. It's probably some kind of polyester, but it's warm and cosy and the colours fit perfectly with the jeans above :)
Sewing with this kind of chunky knit was new to me and it was difficult to get a nice finish of the seams. I used a zig-zag stitch for the seams and a tre-step zig-zag for the hems. I first tried to just fold up the hem and stitch it, but that made the hem way to wide and wavy. Unpicked it and used a rib knit at the inside of the hem to hold it in place and that turned out much better.