Teal Velvet Cowl Neck

This is the HotPatterns cowl neck top (with a few modifications), done in a teal stretch velvet I bought last year from Fabrix in Lancaster.

The idea of this piece is something dressy that is also warm. Imagine it with black tailored trousers and some sparkly earrings for a Christmas meal with colleagues from the office.

The original Hotpattern's top is morphed with a TNT knit pattern of mine to give more shaping through the body. I have included a centre back seam with forward head and sway back alterations (shaping of the back seam), which also gives a handy place to hand sew the facing down.

This came out pretty much as I expected and was a nice quick project.

My next project in the run of teal things is a teal and white print top in the Jalie cross over top pattern. This will be more of a normal daytime look you might be glad to hear. Its already cut out and uses leftovers from a previous project, which is a simple scoop neck tee with 3/4 sleeves. I wanted something different for the second one hence the crossover front. I had to be quite creative with the layout to get it out of the fabric and still have the print the right way up, but I think it is OK.

Abakhan Preston and Hotpatterns

Today I went up to Preston to the Abakhan fabrics shop there. I met up with Jenni (YorkshireLass) and her mum, and having fellow sewers there really enhanced the experience as well.

For those who have never been to Abakhan's as well as having fabric on the roll they also have fabric remnants sold by weight, split up into categories e.g. suiting, shirting, knits, fleece, etc.
Jenni is particularly good at finding things in these wire shelves where the pieces are 20+ deep and all sizes and shapes.

I have come back with 3 suiting weight pieces for trousers, 5 knits for tops (or maybe one as a dress), cotton fabric to make PJs for hubby and a few notions.

Wovens (top picture) L to R
Navy wool and cashmere for trousers
Interesting trouser fabric which has navy threads one way and brown the other making it a RICH grey.
Brown stretch trouser fabric - from the 70% off section :-)

Knits (lower picture) L to R
Soft cotton knit in coral
Greens and black knit
Black and white poly knit (large pattern)
Also bought a remnant piece which had a scrap of olive viscose knit sewn to another of teal blue (not pictured)

When I got home I also found that HP1089, the Classix Nouveaux 3 Graces T-Shirts pattern from HotPatterns has arrived today as well which is very exciting.