Cyclamen Pink Top

 

Another turtleneck this time in a cyclamen pink double knit from the remnant basket.

I'm not quite sure how well this colour suits me so I'll make sure I add a tag in case I need to donate it later.

I do seem to be having a Pink phase recently

Pink stripe top

 

Another turtleneck from OOP New Look 6008. I've altered the sleeve for a full bicep and the back piece for a high round back.

Pale Pink Top

I used the long sleeved collared top from OOP New Look 6008. I've altered the sleeve for a full bicep and the back piece for a high round back.

I have made lots of tops from tis pattern now, but not all of the colours looked great up by my face, so some have gone on to other homes. 

Woodrose Pink Trousers

 

Trousers to match the jacket, using a pattern from Burda March 2011.

Here are the trousers with the jacket.

There's a waistcoat in progress too

Woodrose Pink Jacket

 

This is my wood rose (dusty pink) jacket in faux silk dupioni fabric (possibly intended for home dec) made from Butterick B4610 View B. I added a little bit of extra width in the sleeves 

For a pattern rated as 'Easy' I didn't find that it was really, though a lot of my issues were to do with the very stiff and fraying fabric I used. I love the colour and slubbed texture so persevered.

I found a suitable button in my button drawers. Hopefully this will work over the purple skirt and top.

Here's the pink jacket over the purple two piece.

I'm planning on making some other Woodrose pieces as I have lots of the fabric. Next up some wide leg trousers, then maybe a waistcoat and skirt or dress.....

A Pink Pipa Pouch

 

Here's my latest Pipa Pouch in the larger size.

Free PDF Bag Sewing Pattern, Pouch PDF Sewing Pattern, Bag Sewing Pattern, DIY Purse Sewing Pattern — Sewing Patterns by Masin

I cut this one out in December but didn't manage to sew it up then.

I lined it with a bright poly cotton print which I also used for the tabs. The outer is hot pink baby cord.

Used an old (rather battered) pink metal dress zip and added a bit of ribbon to make the pull easier.

I hand wound at the point I was sewing over the metal teeth and had no issues :-)

Burgundy 3/4 sleeve top

As I already had the machines threaded up in burgundy I cut into a remnant in a similar colour, though I did change the needle of the sewing machine to a stretch needle.

As the fabric was a weighty 100% cotton knit with no stretch I chose a simple boxy pattern - The Closet Core Tee - which is a free pattern.

I made the 3/4 sleeve version, in a length somewhere between the cropped and the longer length. Due to fabric limitations my 3/4 sleeves were not quite long enough so I drafted up some shaped cuffs to extend the sleeves.

Before I constructed the tee I embroidered a heart in contrast pink thread to add a bit of interest.

Using precious fabric (Irish Linen)

I put all the buttons and buttonholes on even though I'll probably always wear it with the top two open.

There's a challenge doing the rounds at the moment to use your precious fabric. After a bit of thinking I decided to pick this linen and make one of my TNT shirts.

This was a gift in 2008. It's Irish Linen, and was originally its natural colour, a warm beigey brown which did not flatter my skin tone.

In 2013 I included it in a dyeing session using Dylon Flamingo Pink machine dye after which it came out this lovely dusty pink colour.

I still hesitated because I wanted to make a shirt and wasn't sure my skills were up to it. I made a test of a pattern I wanted to use and it was not a good outcome. I parked that idea.

Time has passed now and I've made quite a few shirts from a Prima shirtdress pattern so I feel happy my skills with that pattern are OK.

My alterations to the pattern are:-

cut the dress down to shirt length

add a continuous bound placket to the sleeve.

replace the gathers at the cuff with two pleats

make the cuff deeper

add patch pockets with buttoned flaps.

Travel Capsule Wardrobe for South Africa Garden Route

Do you remember me sewing things for my Start With A Scarf Wardrobe? I used those clothes along with a few RTW pieces as a travel capsule wardrobe for a trip to South Africa's garden route. I even took the scarf with me though I didn't actually wear it!

I also took footwear - walking shoes, walking sandals and silver flat sandals as well as sunglasses, underwear, PJs, socks and toiletries. Everything packed up into the packing cubes nicely. DH and I both had some clothing in each other's checked luggage and spare undies and top in our hand luggage (rucksacks), though we didn't have any issues with our checked luggage.

I did wear everything, and as we were away 3.5 weeks, we visited a laundrette half way through and had a service wash done of some items (underwear, socks, tops and dirtier bottoms/layers).

All my bottoms and layers were plain colours, as were some of my tops, and I stuck to a colour palette of black, sage green, burgundy and pink, this let me mix and match whatever was clean and suitable for the weather that day. We had rain, sunshine, heat and cold, so lots of different combos were in operation!

Coat

I took a Craghoppers lined waterproof jacket with hood and pockets. In the pockets I had gloves, beany hat, tube scarf/buff and a lightweight peaked cap. These fold up small, but were great for protection from the sun (peaked cap) 

Bottoms

I took seven bottoms, perhaps it could've been slightly fewer. They were

Black stretch woven trousers, worn on all flights and over the joggers on cold morning and evening safari drives.

Dark grey slim leg joggers, worn for relaxing in the room/cabin, one night as PJ trousers when it was cold and as thermals under the black trousers.

Black stretch jeans, worn for evening meals and some around the town days.

Stretch woven tan shorts, worn a lot on the hot days. The internal zipped pocket was great, though banged a bit on my leg when I put too much in it.

Black culottes skirt, an alternative to the shorts on hot days.

Olive green Craghoppers trousers. Worn for hiking with a belt but not good for a boat trip - the fit isn't  right when sitting.

Sage green stretch woven trousers. Worn for wine tasting, some evening meals and etc. Fit not right on these either.

Layers

2 lightweight fleece jackets from Craghoppers (one burgundy, one pink), and a self sewn cardigan in sage green. I wore all of these but could've probably managed with only 1 of the fleeces + the cardigan.

Shirts

I took 4 shirts, 2 self sewn (sage green and floral) and two purchased Craghoppers in Pink and Regatta in Burgundy check. More shirts would've been good and the ones with pockets were more useful. The floral shirt was worn the most and washed twice (once by hand, once at launderette).

3/4 sleeve tops

Wore all of these and washed them too.

Short sleeved tops

Useful as layers under the shirts, as well as self sewn I took quite a few RTW t-shirts, mostly from Decathlon.

Summary

Overall things worked well. Secure pockets were definitely useful. My self sewn items worked out quite well. My RTW pieces have been bought over the years and were not expensive. I have pieces from Regatta, Craghoppers and Decathlon. The better my sewing gets, the less RTW I wear :-)

Cotton floral shirt

For this version I used the pocket pieces I'd used on the olive green shirt, only twice this time. These are large enough to be useful without being too large (as per the previous floral blouse).

I used a 100% cotton fabric which I bought from Economy Fabrics in June this year.

The buttons are shell buttons from the button drawers. Fortunately I managed to find a dozen all the same size.

The pattern is Prima March 2020 cut off to blouse length. I've also added a continuous placket for the opening rather than using the sleeve seam.

Pink "Core" T-shirt

This is the Core T-shirt Pattern, which is a FREE pattern from Closet Core Patterns.

I used leftover pink single jersey fabric which had little stretch so as I was between sizes I decided to size up, I also added 1cm to the neckband.

I'm really pleased with the outcome and will be using this pattern again.

Here's how the wardrobe is looking

Pink Print Pair

Here's a pair of tees cut from the same fabric.

First of all I cut my favourite drop shoulder top with curved hem.

There was lots of fabric left over, but it was a bit of a funny shape. Using my TNT New Look 6735 I was able though to cut a front with the upper area missing and add the missing section to the back pieces.

The finished tops look remarkably similar despite one having a curved hem and dropped shoulders where the other has the forward shoulder seam, set in sleeves and a straight hem. Probably because I have almost the same print placement on the front.

T-shirt refashion

Some years ago I bought some 3XL men's t-shirts in nice colours hoping to refashion them.

My initial though was to use the Free Core T-shirt pattern as per Tomkat Stitchery's You Tube Video

However once I'd worked out my size, printed it out, stuck it together and cut out the pattern pieces it was apparent that it wasn't going to work. In fact none of my set in sleeve tee shirt patterns would fit.

I then tried my drop shoulder tee pattern, and that didn't fit either, so I drafted a variation with a slightly less dropped sleeve but a wider bat wing style dolman sleeve. I then used this to recut the tee.

I have full upper arms which look better covered so wanted the sleeves to be elbow length. So I unpicked the original sleeve hem and pressed it flat, then added a band (cut from the spare length in the body).

Here it is with the scarf, I'll wear it and see how I like the shape before I cut into the other two oversized tees!

Here's how the whole wardrobe is looking now

I'm really pleased with how this is coming along!

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Wearing the pink tee today and finding the dolman sleeve with cuff isn't that comfortable, so further refashioning may be required!

Previously made items used in the Start With A Scarf SWAP

I'm not sewing everything from scratch in this wardrobe, and have decided to use some previously sewn items, all done within the last 18 months.

Charcoal Mountain View trousers

Grey Green trousers

Denim Utility Gilet

McCall's 6844 cardigan

Charcoal joggers - Monsal Lounge Pants

Khaki trousers

Dark olive stripe trousers: Simplicity 1467 with back crotch alteration and added zipped pocket

Burgundy Pink long line cardigan: The Kinder Cardigan, From the book by Wendy Ward "A Beginner’s Guide To Sewing With Knitted Fabrics"

With these pieces added in my wardrobe now looks like this.