Knit dresses

I have really struggled with getting dresses to fit.
Two sorts seem to work
1 - empire line fitted through shoulders and bust and then gently flaring out after that
2 - fitted body, waist seam and slightly flared skirt.

I just twigged that no2 means I could make a knit dress by taking any well fitting knit top pattern (and I have a ton of them) cutting at the waistline to create a waist seam and adding a slightly flared skirt to it. I'd need a lot of skirt to cover the nether regions though so will have to make sure I purchase enough fabric when I see a great print.
Knot front knit dress anyone, cowl neck, the options are endless, I am feeling a little bit delirious.

Turquoise print knot front top

Since there was still white threads on all the machines, I sewed this up tonight.
My cover stitching is getting better all the time!
A bold print but very me, and I've avoided getting the giant flowers in any unfortunate places :P
Though that was purely accidental, though fortuitous :D

The fabric is from the Remnant House in Harrogate and is still available at £3.75 a metre. Its on page 6 of the Jersey fabrics.
Link to Remnant House
It has come out well. I wore it to work today (Thursday) with a cami, a boring brown pant suit and a bold funky strand necklace.

The pattern is Kwik Sew 3549 with sleeves added from the Simplicity cardi wrap pattern.

Knit dress

I wore a purchased knit dress to work today and liked it so this evening I traced the skirt off and modified the Jalie wrap top pattern to be the bodice and added the traced skirt.
My machines are all threaded with white thread and although this has a white background I want to add black bands so need to sew up in black really.
Swatch of fabric I am using shown below. The coin is a UK 50p coin which is quite a large coin, just over an inch in diameter so you can see that its a large print. let's hope its OK when sewn up :-)

What to sew next

Pattern review have a wardrobe contest running at the moment, and I love a wardrobe contest. I have the fabrics chosen and have cut out a knit top today but not sewn it up.
On the other hand I could probably do with certain fill in the gaps type items in my wardrobe, some of them boring (black trousers with flat front and pockets) and some of them experimental (aubergine border print maxi dress).
I'd also like to sew a knit dress based on the Jalie cross over top, and would like to have ready some dress and jacket TNTs (though have not put the work into these yet).

Mayeb I can rotate round between things over the next 3 months.
a) fill in the gaps sewing basics
b) interesting projects which suddenly appeal
c) muslins and test garments
d) wardrobe contest

I wonder how best to get the balance between creativity and planning in my sewing.

Kwik Sew 3549 with sleeves

Here's Kwik Sew 3549 with added Simplicity sleeves.

I am very pleased with it :-)

Trying new knit top patterns

I love wearing and sewing knit tops. But it must be said that I have really used the same few over and over again now and its getting a bit boring. So I thought I would branch out and try some new knit top patterns. There is always a bit of risk in new patterns (which is why I love TNTs so much) so I bought 5m of horrible pink striped poly knit @50p per metre to use as 'muslin' for knit top patterns.
I know all knits are not created equal but since I have started to pay a bit more for my nice print knits I'd like to know the patterns would work. Particularly in terms of how the front neck and bustline fit as I have sometimes come unstuck on this.
So the two I want to try next are a Kwik Sew knot front top, where the front is all one piece with a centre front seam, this is very simple but I have not had success on the fit with Kwik Sew woven tops so am being cautious.
The second is from Prima magazine so not available anymore but this is an all in one shrug + cami style top which I have seen a lot in shops here but not in a pattern elsewhere. The ones in the shops were either too low at the front or the shrug part exposed bra straps but I am sure if I sew my own I can sort those issues out.

Here's the test shrug top. DH not wowed, but perhaps he can't see past the yucky fabric. Thoughts?
I have made short sleeves in the test garment but would have 3/4 or long ones in reality.
One thought is to gather the centre front with elastic to give a more sweetheart neckline.

 

And here is the Kwik Sew knot front top with little sleeves added. I sewed a medium but need a bit more room around the lower tummy and hip area. Not good in a stripe IMHO, but again I am just testing the pattern to see if it works out. A bit of fiddling with the knot is required to stop the wrong side showing but it comes out OK after that.

I like the Kwik Sew enough to make it up in nice fabric. Not sure about the Prima though, its obviously not wide enough through the shoulders (I cut a 14)

Purchased jacket

Today I saw a fun jacket which really appealed so I bought it.
This picture is from the EWM website and the print is more broken up on the jacket I purchased, but it gives a good idea of the style.
The buttonholes are red which is a nice touch.
It should work well with other red, black or white pieces already in my wardrobe and will be great for work - very me.

Cowl neck print top

Having not managed any sewing all week (largely due to work) I have managed to get a chunk of time in this evening to finish up this HotPatterns cowl neck top in white with black, red and coral floral print.
This is part of the Newspaper Collection - red, black and white wardrobe, and may well be the final item in this collection for a while as I have a hankering after my new plan - Turquoise Trends.

Jacket fitting

I am going to have another go at fitting a jacket. After 2 muslins I am going to try in fabric I like but wasn't expensivve, but make the jacket up all the way to see how it works out.
After much debate I am going to use a sage green twill and cream/green poly print for a lining with some age green buttons.
I'll then quickly sew up a matching skirt and then with existing tops I should have an outfit straight away.
I'll wear it a bit to check the jacket works before cutting into more expensive fabric.

After that I'll probably need the mental break and do some TNT tops and trousers but then I would like to muslin for a knit dress and a woven dress and see if I can bottom out the issue I have had with dresses.

One idea for a knit dress is to take the modified Jalie wrap top, cut it off at waist length and add a skirt.
The nicest knit dresses I have seen use a dark background print as their basis which I find interesting. However nice print knits are very rare beats in these parts so I probably won't get to try that out.

Tired now so off to bed. Happy sewing!

Vogue 2046 Adri pattern from 1997

Adri Pattern Vogue 2046 from 1997 turns out to be in my stash but I think the pieces would need some alterations to be modern and flattering to my figure.
This must be a Winter time pattern as it has long sleeves and wool jacket etc

I notice a few common denominators among the various wardrobe patterns in my stash, (I also have some Vogue Career Wardrobe patterns from 1994, 1995 and 1996) which are
- neutral colour palette (grey/black, taupe/white, charcoal/black, check/black/white, cream)
- simple uncluttered pieces (round neck, V neck, classic notched collar) with no frills or excessive detail.
- shown with simple accessories - classy earrings, watch, scarf, bangle, handbag etc
- body skimming silhouettes
- The pieces generally included are jacket , dress, top, skirt and pants although one slightly daringly has long shorts instead of a skirt. The dress is generally just the top elongated or with a skirt portion added.
- The top/dress neckline is either a simple round neck or echoes the neckline of the jacket.
- Underlayers have slim sleeves to fit under the jacket.

Armed with this information I think it would prove fairly simple to construct your own wardrobe pattern by pulling pieces from your various TNTs and as long as the colour palette was consistent, the necklines and sleeves work together and the various lengths harmonise nicely it could really work.

Vogue Wardrobe Patterns - both Adri

I like the skirt and trousers in this one, but the jacket could have a bit more shape to it, and I like sleeves in my tops.

This has a less good skirt shape but does have a basic dress as well as a top. The jacket is short and more fitted.

I like these but Vogues are expensive so I have not actually bought either of them.

Fabric Cupboard

Here's my tidied fabric cupboard.
Top section bulky things like fleece and wool for jackets and a few other things which would not fir anywhere else. Half of this is hidden above the door frame which continues up to the ceiling
Next section blouse weight fabrics. You can hardly see the shelf here as its narrow.
Now down to the wooden shelving unit. Sitting on the top are the pieces not chosen for teal, lime or brown/orange collections.
The next shelf down is trouser weight fabrics in black, brown, navy and charcoal. Boring but very useful.
Below that is my knits shelf .
And the bottom section has linings and satins plus some more bottom weight fabrics.
There is a lot of inspiration in here.

Black and white wrap top

Part of the newspaper collection this Black and white knit top is based on the Jalie wrap top.
I've made that design multiple times, but this is the first where I have used a contrast band.
I had plenty of fabric and could have easily had a print band, but I liked the idea of the contrast black band.

I didn't have anything suitable in black in the right weight so bought a small remnant of black to cut bands and so on for tops like this.

I've used the cover stitch to hem the top and sleeves, and am getting more confident using it now which is good. (as ever click to view it 'big')

I have now done 6 pieces in the Newspaper collection, so at the end of May I shall stop (I may do a few more knit tops) and move onto the Turquoise Trends wardrobe instead.

Fabric cupboard sort out

Having brought back my new fabrics from Saturday's shopping trip and also decided on the colourscheme for my next collection, I pulled everything out of my fabric cupboard sorted it, added the new stuff, added the leftover stuff from the Amber Glow and Newspaper collection back in and put to one side anything I thought 'might' work with Turquoise Trends. I also started a box for hideous fabric which can be used for muslins.

I then put everything except Turquoise Trends away tidily, then did a first purge on the TT pile and put back anything which had the wrong colour combos, etc.
I now need to do a second purge on the TT pile to get my core fabrics for the collecton and then when time permits next week I'll be able to start sewing.
I printed off my various storyboards on stuck them on the cupboard door when sorting to help me with my decisions, as my colour memory is not that great. I'll then have to also compare the fabrics to each other as although I see in colour, the differentiation is not great - ie 3 things will appear to me to match a printed swatch and then they won't match each other afterwards.

I do quite like the process of going through the cupboard discovering beautiful fabrics that I forgot I had. I found a cool tweedy type fabric which has all the colours in it for Turquoise Trends so I'll drape that around each possible top and then audition the bottoms fabrics to check it all works.

I also promised DH I'd mow the lawn and make us both something to eat but I'm sure he can survive just a little longer...

Turquoise trends: Inspiration from East

Here I have mixed and matched from the various East collections (click to view larger) to show the type of garments I might sew. Obviously I have my own prints which are different to theirs, but I am currently planning
4 bottoms
- dirty denim jeans
- 'Dried herb' twill pants - this is the darker Khaki colour
- 'Eucalyptus' Pants - this is the lighter Khaki colour
- striped pants - of the various neutral colours

4 tops
- 2 print knit tops (turquoise + other colours from the palette below)
- 2 plain knit tops (Turquoise + Chartreuse)

1 topper
- Teal cardiwrap

1 extra
- who knows, maybe another topper, or a dress, or another knit top