Blackcurrent Cardigan Jacket

Here's the last piece of the Autumn Berries Collection (at least the last piece currently cut out).

The fabric is a wool mix stretch woven, with a wooly blackcurrant coloured front and a matte dark brown back. I've sewn it up with the cardigan jacket from my favourite pattern - New Look 6735.

I've cut it slightly shorter and omitted the belt. I have interfaced the lower sections of the front band with very lightweight interfacing and am planning on adding buttons and button holes to the front.
The fit is good (though tweaked somewhat from the original).

I might switch to green now I've made 11 pieces, or perhaps I will make some Berry Trousers!

Wearing the Cranberry cowl neck and Burgundy skirt

Indoor shots now since it is dark outside. Something odd has happened to the colours.

 As they seem closer to these colours than the shot of me wearing it.

Berry Collection: Cranberry cowl neck top

Dark red or maybe slightly pinkish burgundy, I'm not quite sure what the best description would be, so I'm going for Cranberry which seems to describe it well.

It picks out the Cranberry parts of the animal print sweater knit skirt I made at the start of the month.

So should make a great outfit with brown tall boots.

My Autumn Berries collection now has 10 pieces in it. I have a dark burgundy cardigan jacket still to come. Maybe I can get that 11th piece in before the end of October?

Trousers plans

I've been looking at the Burda magazine and I think the plus version would be better, only I see it is for

Recommended Materials

Trouser fabrics. Fabrics with elastane are ideal.
Note: The finished trousers should stretch widthwise. Therefore, fabrics with lengthwise stretch should be cut widthwise, see marked grain line. Cut fabrics with crosswise stretch lengthwise, as usual.

 I have various non stretch trousers fabrics I want to use. If I go up a size do you think that would work? It seems a fairly classic trouser pattern (I do better without a front fly but do like pockets.)

UK PDF link
US PDF link
I have the original magazine so will be tracing that. On the measurement chart I seem to be closest to the size 46 for my bottom half. I am willing to have a go with some non stretch woven fabrics as muslins and see how I get on.

I am open to advice on this one please as would like lots of nice wearable trousers.

Upcoming plans

I have two more items planned in my berry set - a brighter burgundy cowl neck which matches the bright burgundy in the animal print skirt, and a darker brown/burgundy cardigan jacket.

Then I have leggings, tee and skirt in dark green to give options with a dark green drape cardigan I bought becuase it made my eyes looks really green (but doesn't seem to work with much in my wardrobe).

After that I think I am going to sew some new trousers and have been looking at various Burda patterns I have made in the past. It may be that I need to retrace an old favourite or add the Burda crotch curves to something from the Big 4

Burda 02-2010 #102 Pants

These were a particular favourite in the past though I'm only currently still wearing one pair of these. I think they need a stretch woven and I had used a non stretch for some of the pairs. Also I think the waistband is below the waist so if I measure my waist they are too tight. I like the overall style a lot though so I am going to have a bit of an experiement with these again I think.

Variegated cardigan

The same alterations as the purple cardigan, this one is cut from a variegated knit which is difficult to cut and pin due to the open nature of the knit.

Here's the fabric (a bit more of a closeup) you can see dark brown, medium brown, ivory, purple and burgundy.

Here's the collection to date (not everything can be worn with everything but there are lots of options).

I've worn a few of these already.

Purple Tee

A little purple tee cut from the same fabric as the leggings and cardigan.

A good layering piece and still in the same rich berry shades I am enjoying so much this Autumn.

Here's the collection to date, I think its coming along well and also mixes in with the brown pieces I did in September.

I have more to come as I did a crazy load of cutting out the other weekend.

SWAP 2016 thoughts

The thread discussing the possible rules is open on Stitchers Guild.
I was in full autumn cardigan/leggings mode and could not possibly imagine what I might want to have sewn ready for Spring 2016.
So I looked up the Pantone colours for Spring 2016.

Then went off to look at my fabric stash, and using a bit of license I have....
Coral pink (a bit like their Peach Echo), duck egg blue (a bit like their Limpet Shell) and various beige/taupe/dark taupe colours (a bit like their Iced Coffee) and I think that could work quite well.
Less print and strong colour than I usually go for, but why not be a little softer sometimes?

So I now have an outline plan

SWAP 2016
Colour palette – coral pink, duck egg blue, taupe
Styles – suit with trousers and skirt, jeans, lots of tops, other trousers, cardigan

Dark Taupe – jacket
Dark Taupe - trousers
Dark Taupe - skirt
Light Taupe – trousers 2
Beige – cardigan
Dirty denim – jeans
Knit top – coral pink
Knit top – pink/mint print
Knit top – small duck egg print
Knit top – large duck egg print
Knit top – Ivory and light taupe stripe

5 tops, 4 bottoms, 2 layers and would get me through a whole week at work I should think

L- R
Coral pink jersey, mint/pink print jersey, large duck egg print jersey, small duck egg print jersey, beige jersey

L-R
Beige jersey again, ivory and light taupe stripe, light taupe woven, medium taupe woven, dark taupe woven.
I don't have the dirty denim yet, maybe I'll just make 3 pairs of light, medium and dark taupe trousers!

Purple cardigan

This simple drape cardigan is based on the pattern from Prima Magazine November 2010.

I lengthened it by 4.5" and reduced the flare a bit.

 This is the same purple fabric as I used for the leggings.

I have a little tee cut from the scraps so I can do an inner or outer purple column!
Here's the Autumn Berries collection so far.

Burgundy cotton rollneck and variegated rollneck

Instead of the disastrous ribbed version I decided to make up some cotton knit fabric into a burgundy roll neck top.
This fabric is smooth and seems to have 2 right sides, it was relatively hard to pin into and looks like it will be very hardwearing. I don't know what the fabric would be called.

I've been wearing this today with the purple leggings (and a big purchased cardigan) and its warm and comfortable.

Using exactly the same pattern pieces I also made the same top in a variegated lightweight knit. This shed all over me and needed a lot of cleaning up with a lint roller, hopefully since all the edges are overlocked or coverhemmed it'll be ok in wear.

It is a bit hard to see but the top is variegated ivory, brown and various shades of berry.

Burgundy ponte straight skirt.

In May on holiday I bought a few small remnants of fabric.

I already made up the print sweater knit (top right) into a skirt.

Now I've made the burgundy ponte into a skirt as well. This is the most gorgeous ponte I've ever worked with and was lovely to sew up. Its very beefy and stretchy and has a horizontal slub effect.

I'm now using some ancient stash knit to make a matching turtleneck top.

Tunic and leggings

Back in September 2010 I made this knit dress.

I wore it but only a bit. The funky print is casual, but the dress tyle fairly classic; the long sleeves and colour say winter but the deep scoop neck was cold. It went in a box, several moves happened.
Recently when I switched the sewing room to the slightly larger back bedroom I found it and decided to recut it as a tunic with an angled hem and a mock turtle neck cut from the bits cut off the skirt.

I also made some purple leggings to wear with it.
Hopefully a wearable casual outfit, and good fun for Autumn.

Burgundy rib knit rollneck disaster

I had this great burgundy rib knit in a tube. I decided to sew it up into top with a scoop neck and deep rollneck collar, a lot like ones I have made previously.
When I cut it out the rib was quite close but during construction it stretched out and the result is a wadder as it stands.

It is sadly a hideous wadder, though I could cut the seams off, try and stretch the pieces out a bit, recut and restitch. I do love the colour.
Do you think its worth doing?

Thoughts and project in progress

I have a burgundy ribbed cowl neck top in progress. The rib is badly bahaved and needs elastic in the seams. It may be a while before you get to see it.

I have been doing some personal style exercises and came up with this as what I am aiming for.

Simple clothing which fits well.  Moderate blended colours in clothing, tastefully assembled in a thoughtful manner which is interesting but not overwhelming. A little spark in each outfit which makes it fun or different without being too out there. Individual in a calmly assertive way.

be interesting to see how that goes.

I think I'm going to add - QUIRKY -  to my style words as well and perhaps also FUN?

Animal print skirt

Straight skirt from a remnant (90cm) of a print sweater knit I bought in Portugal.

Some sort of animal type print containing dark brown, tan, ivory and cranberry, should work well for Autumn.