Charcoal and white stripe waistcoat

Charcoal and white stripe waistcoat in progress.

Still needs buttons and buttonholes and the side seams of the lining hand stitching closed.
However I am very pleased with it.

There will also be matching trousers with pockets and back zip, which are cut out but not sewn up yet.

The fabric is interesting becuase as well as the black grey and white in the weave of the fabric, there is also a copper thread which just add a bit of a glint.

Changes this time include. Tuck out of front neckline, slight addition at hip at bottom of the sides and little lined patch pockets just large enough for a blackberry.

Black tops with a bit of sparkle #3

In the same fabric as the square neck top, but single layer as its an overlayer, here's the Simplicity cardiwrap again. It seems to work much better in this lighter knit, and it is draping beautifully. This knit does not have a lot of stretch and I had to snip the armhole to ease the sleeve in again. However I think it will be OK to wear as its got lots of volume.

I lengthened the sleeves quite a bit, and may turn them up slightly if they are too long when being worn. I left the hem edges unfinished becuase this knit does not ravel :-)

Black tops with a bit of sparkle #2

This knit fabric is black and charcoal marl with little gold threads through it. I bought it in Harrogate when I was there for the weekend a few weeks ago. Its very pretty but Jenni pointed out its not really opaque. So on that basis I decided to double layer the front and back, but have single layer sleeves. This also gave me the opportunity to use a square neckline off a Marfy pattern which required a facing. Here I have just self lined to give the facing. I did have a bit of a struggle getting the sleeves in as I has machine basted the side seams and the armholes to keep the two layers together, and the resulting armhole was not very stretchy at all, so I had to clip it to get the sleeve to ease in.

The picture is lightened slightly so you can see the square neckline.

Black tops with a bit of sparkle #1

 BEFORE

This top is a recycling project. The top with the short sleeves and cowl neck looks very pretty on the hanger (perhaps you think nicer than when I have remade it?). I bought it with my mother in a shop selling catalogue returns that had no changing room. When I got back home and tried it on I could not find a way to wear it. The scoop neck at the back coupled with the deep cowl at the front meant that it continually slipped off my shoulders and had to be worn with another top underneath for modesty. I liked the fact that the black viscose knit with applied copper print was not at all scratchy to wear against my skin so I decided to save it thinking I could recut it at a later date.
It went into the box of things which could be altered/upcycled and stayed there for several years.

When I started the Christmas Collection this year I pulled it out again.
I decided that the nice deep scoop neck would be nicer at the front, and that the back should come higher up and have a facing which gave a clean finish. I recut the pieces accordingly. The little short sleeves had never flattered my chunky biceps and were originally slightly dropped shoulder anyway. I used them to cut cuffs which I then used on plain black sleeves cut from plain black viscose knit of a very similar weight to the original top.

AFTER

The end result is still a little crumpled from several years in 'the box' but will come out nice with a little pressing on the wrong side. More importantly this is now a fun top I would wear with black jeans whereas before it just skulked in 'the box'. I don't think it is as pretty on the hanger as the original, but since that was unwearable, it has to be an improvement don't you think?