double denim - decades of style 3s a charm jacket and megan nielsen brumby skirt

i've got a thing at the moment for denim and chambray so it was only a matter of time before i went for the double denim'ish look.

the jacket is the recently released three's a charm jacket from decades of style.  when it was released i was immediately drawn to its clean lines and fitted shaped.  i have been wanting to make a jacket for a long time, but have been waiting for the right pattern.  when i saw this pattern i bought it straight away as i thought it looked like a fairly straightforward make and a good starting point for jackets!

the sizing of the pattern is based on bust size and i decided to go with a size 34, being the size that most closely matches my bust measurement.  i didn't make any alternations and am very happy with the fit of the jacket. i am going to add a button at the front so i can wear the jacket open or closed.  wearing it closed eliminates the wrinkles you can see at the upper front area in the photo above.

the fabric is a stretch denim i picked up at spotlight durring a sale.  i got a metre of the 150cm wide fabric and was able to just squeeze this jacket out of the metre by piecing the bottom of each sleeve - you can see the seam in the photo below of the jacket inside out.  the metre of fabric cost $6.00, making this one cheap jacket!

the jacket went together beautifully and the instructions are very clear, although i only gave them a quick glance. one of the times i did look at them was before stitching on the facing - i love the instructions for turning the points by folding the seam allowance back over.  mine turned out quite sharp, even given the weight of the denim.  the only thing i would have liked to see is the wide point of the fisheye darts marked on the pattern like the big 4 do, but this is easy enough to work out for yourself.

 

oh yes i really like this jacket and can see me making several more - definitely a black one, but i am also thinking about bright colours too.

 

while the jacket is pretty clean on the inside unlined, i would also like to have a go at underlining and hong kong bound seams too on another version.

the skirt is the megan nielsen brumby skirt. i made version 1 in chambray that i picked up in fabric town on our recent tokyo trip. i made a medium as my waist measurement is spot on the medium waist measurement.  one of my sewing friends lee has made up this skirt and said she had got a perfect fit matching her waist measurement - thanks lee!

the skirt fits beautifully, although for the back seam i made the seam allowance the width of the zip - eg marginally smaller than the 1.5cm specified to give me just a smidgen more breathing room given my waist measurement was exactly the same as for the medium size. i am very happy with the fit.  the skirt went together beautifully.  i really love megan's drafting and the quality of her instructions - not that i really needed them really for this skirt - but they are so lovely looking you just want to have a look at them!

the  tee is the free maria denmark kimono tee - i have made this so many times i have lost count, you can check out a few of them here.  its such an easy tee to whip up consisting of only 2 pieces and bindings.  the fabric is a lovely soft japanese knit from the cloth shop.
 

 
 yep this jacket and outfit are both winners!

 til next time,

emma

named patterns alexandria peg legs - two ways (+ giveaway winner call out)

when named patterns released their ticket collection for SS15 i was drawn to most of the patterns, but particularly the alexandria peg leg trousers and the inari tee dress.  i've made two inari tee dresses and both have been duds, but i'm determined to try and make it work.  luckily the peg leg trousers were a winner pretty much straight up.

for my first pair i made a size 40 which is the size that most closely matches my measurements.  the result was more lounge pants than peg leg.  so for this version made from a cotton from the fabric store i sized down to size 38.  i made no alterations other than to increase the width of the waist band to accommodate 3cm wide elastic instead of the 2.5cm that the pattern calls for as my local fabric store only had 3cm wide elastic. i also omitted the drawstring.

the pattern instructions are easy to follow and the pants came together easily.  here's a close up of the fabric as it is hard to photograph from a distance.

i made another simplicity 1366 to wear with the pants.  i have been wanting a black one for ages and made this up in a bargain ponte from fabric.com that actually has a sparkly silver leopard print on the right side, which is on the inside of this top.

   

these pants are so comfy (more work gear that are really secret pjs - side cheers) i decided i needed multiple pairs so i also made them up in a light weight dark chambray from joys fabric warehouse in geelong. these ones are really comfy and perfect for casual or more dressy wear.

i also got two set on this pair and made a maria denmark kimono tee from a spotlight knit, my previous kimono tees can be seen here.  simplicity 1366 and the kimono tee are definitely my go to summer tops. they make up very quickly and i like the lines of both designs.

i've been making shorts lately - hopefully i will blog them soon, but really do want to get back onto that inari...

finally, a shout out to deadlycraft who won my giveaway - apologies i should have included 'giveaway winner in my last post title.  i've been keeping an eye on my junk mail but haven't seen a message from you.  please resend or email me and let me know in the comments so i know to check my junk mail.


emma

darn cheap fabrics seasonal challenge - summer 2014/15

welcome to instalment no.2 of the darn cheap fabrics seasonal challenge - summer 2014/15.  for background info on the concept see my post on the first challenge.

my family had christmas in melbourne which gave me a chance to visit dcf with lara (and a bunch of other great melbourne bloggers) to choose our challenge fabric. it was really fun shopping trip!  lara and i settled on a summery linen printed with pineapples, toucans and zebras.  we could have actually settled on a few fabrics as we purchased 3 of the same fabrics and a fourth that we both bought in a different colour.

i went for another megan nielsen kelly skirt lengthened to be a midi.  i made one in pineapple linen from darn cheap fabrics recently and really like it so i decided to make another - actually it's my third as i have made another from the african wax print i bought in johanesberg shown at the bottom of this post, yet to be blogged.

there is not much to say about the construction of this skirt that i haven't said in previous kelly posts.  i am just really rapt with how it looks.  one thing i didn't mention in my pineapple kelly post is that the black tee is a maria denmark kirsten kimono tee (a free pattern!) that i made to wear with the pineapple skirt.  the fabric is a soft dkny jersey from the fabric store.

as with my other kellys i bound the pocket seam, in purple bias this time and did french side seams. 

this is my second last kelly midi for the moment. i've got another in black that i am nearly finished, i just need to sew the buttons on.  but my midi love affair is not ending as i am eyeing off the sewaholic crescent skirt which i want to lengthen to midi.  i also want to start making a few shorter a-line skirts for winter too. skirts skirts skirts!

i saw a sneak peak of lara's make on IG but am very keen to see the full dress and make up the pattern myself!

i'm already looking forward to the next challenge - autumn 2015.

emma

kirsten kimono on safari

happy new year!

having made my kirsten kimono dress, i always knew i wanted to make several of the tees.  when girl charlee had a sale in november i snapped up a bunch of yard cuts with a plan to make several kimono tees for summer.

i cut out 4 tees in early december and worked on them when i could in among christmas parties and festivities.  i finished them late on 27 dec in preparation for a trip the following day.  mr flagg does a lot of travel for work and sometimes i am lucky enough to go with him.  i hadn't been on a trip for several years though and 28 dec saw us flying to south africa - kimono tees would be perfect!

cotton jersery $3.85 yard

slub cotton jersey blend $4.20 yard

cotton jersey $3.84 yard

cotton jersey slub $3.50 yard

before i started sewing the tees i glanced over the instructions again and noticed that while the pattern has you add your own seam allowance you are not supposed to do this for the neckline - no wonder my neckline for my dress version didn't look like the photo on the front page of the instructions!

i rectified this issue for these versions, constructed them on my sewing machine and used a twin needle for the neck binding, arms (which I again added a binding to) and hem.  i also used a knit stay tape on the hems.

this is me in our accommodation on a game reserve just before going on an afternoon safari.  i also made the shorts.  i made them around oct/nov last year, i had great plans of trying a new shorts pattern like here, here or here, but in the end to get a quick outcome i used now OOP lisette 2245 which i used the year before to make up a pair of shorts, using the pants pattern.  next summer's sewing will definitely involve trying a new shorts pattern!

the fabric is a red sateen from spotlight. i didn't consider it when i purchased it, but it has no stretch - i do prefer to have a bit of stretch when making shorts/pants.  but these shorts are comfortable enough and i like the colour.  the construction is pretty straightforward - darts at the back, waistband and side zip.  i used a black conventional zip from my stash. i bought 80cm of the sateen on sale, i think it was about $8.00, but i did need to cut the back pieces on the cross grain. 

here's kirsten on safari checking out some rhinos - wow safari is amazing.  we saw heaps of animals including giraffes, zebras and hippos as well as this elephant below who wasn't too happy about letting us past.

this is me at lunch on the second day in the game park.  its another kirsten i made prior to the colourful ones and prior to sorting out the neckline issue.  cheesy i know but i wanted to take this version on safari, the fabric came from rathdowne fabrics from a trip to melbourne in the middle of last year.  again a cheap but cheerful make at something like $8.95 - i can't quite remember.

at the entry gate to the game reserve there were some craft markets, i picked up some fabric for $15 AUD which is probably outrageous, but i wanted something to remind me of the trip.  am not sure what i will make from it, perhaps an a-line dress or boxy top as it is quite stiff.  i really like the colours and pattern.

one more pic kind of related to sewing and fabric - a lasting impression of driving through the country side to the game reserve was the colourful clothes lines, they were everywhere - this was snapped out the car window.

emma

The $3.85 (or so) Kirsten Kimono Tee Dress

I finished this dress this afternoon, though I have not hemmed the bottom as I am still deciding if I will leave it as is.

This make started like many of the things I make - with me admiring a RTW dress that one of my friends was wearing at a fabulously fun BBQ arvo last weekend.  The RTW dress is this one from Country Road.  As I was admiring it I commented out loud that I could make something like that, but didn't really think I would get on to it quickly.

Following the BBQ I was doing some catchup blog reading and saw this post from Makizy Sews on the MariaDenmark Kirsten Kimono Tee.  I have seen this tee several times on blogs before but for some strange reason had not added it to my to make list.  When I saw Makizy's it occurred to me that I could easily add a drop waist skirt and viola.

Next to find some fabric.  I do like the idea of a plain back dress (maybe next time), but found a great sweater knit from Girl Charlee Fabrics in my stash.  It was on sale at the time I purchased it and not knowing exactly what sweater knit would be I purchased 1 yard for $3.85.  I was expecting something heavy'ish and although when I got it it was lightweight I liked it a lot anyway.

On to the dress.  I cut a BM which pretty much aligns to my measurements.  Made up it is a pretty snug fit, but I am happy with it.  I was interested to see when doing some research before sewing that Sarah from Sew Squirrel said she forgot to add the seam allowances and got a great fit too.  That's what I call versatile!

Although I cut the BM size generally, for the length I just went with the biggest size.  Then when I had constructed the top I tried it on and decided which of the stripes I wanted to have as the seam line for the skirt and cut off an inch and a quarter (note to reader: I tend to use both metric and imperial measurements at different times throughout my sewing).  Using the wrists of the Country Road model as a guide I thought I could potentially cut a bit more off the bottom of the tee but I didn't want to go too far and then regret it.  Next time I will shorten the tee part perhaps an inch or two more.

For the skirt I just cut 2 rectangles as big as I could with the material I had left over (I also may or may not have measured twice, but cut wrong and therefore the rectangles ended up slightly smaller than they could have been (grrRRR cutting at 10pm...).  They ended up about 82cm X 9 and a half inches.  Given the bottom of the front and back of the tee was about 50cm wide I just decided to go with gathering and stitching them on.  I had been thinking of going for around one and a half times the width of the bottom of the tee for the gathered skirt - close enough I thought.  I think the gathering of the skirt worked out fine, but next time I will probably stick to the ratio of about 1 and a half to the width of the bottom as the gather was pretty full and I had to be careful when sewing it on not to catch the gathers.

The skirt turned out a bit short, which I knew it would as I only had a yard of fabric.  So I hit The Remnant Warehouse yesterday hoping to find a plain blue knit that matched to add some extra length.  I didn't really think I would be successful, but found a sports knit that looked ok.  It reminds me of the fabric sports clothes are made from for primary school kids.  It is heavier than the sweater knit but works ok.  I can't remember the cost, but it wasn't much - I got 30cm and used half.  So I consider this dress to be the $3.85 or so dress - yahoo, oops did I mention the Kimono Tee is a free download when you sign up for the MariaDenmark newsletter.  Thank you Maria!

I am not so happy with the neck as another cutting mistake issue meant I didn't have enough fabric to do a continuous binding along a stipe.  So I made the binding with a seam in the middle and lined the seam up with one of the shoulder seams and left the other shoulder unsewn.  I then attached the binding without measuring, but it looks like I have pulled the biding a bit tight and I didn't end up with a boat neck kind of look (interestingly though it kind of looks like the neckline of the CR dress).  I hope to improve this next time.  Sorry no close up pic of the neck on me, forgot to get one and unfortunately the top pic does not show it very well.

Neck binding join in shoulder seam

Some other things I did that were not in the instructions was to reinforce the shoulder seams with knit stay tape given I was adding a skirt.  I also added binding to the sleeves instead of turning them under and hemming.  I used my twin needle for neck and arm bindings.

All in all am very happy with this make and will definitely be making another dress, as well as several tees.  The nice thing too is that if/when I don't want the drop waist dress anymore I can refashion it back to the tee.

My photographer is away at the moment and I couldn't find the tripod, so thought I would post a pic of my 'make do' tripod construction skills.

Til next time.

emma