New Winter Shorts

Since I have been regularly sewing for almost six years now, I have managed to replace most of my previous RTW wardrobe by me-made stuff. This is also a reason why the Me-Made-May movement no longer makes much sense for me.

One of the last remnants in my wardrobe was a pair of brown winter shorts from Uniqlo. I bought XS, the smallest size available in Europe, but Uniqlo's sizes are just huge. The shorts were always too big for me, so I wore them more on the hips rather than on the waist. I am not sure it really did me justice, but they were extremely comfy and warm so I kept wearing them.

However, I knew that sooner or later I would sew a replacement pair for them, with better fit.

I wanted a similar thing, but with some better shaping around the waist. Then one day, when browsing sewing blogs, I found the Deer&Doe Chataigne shorts and I knew this was what I wanted. Their shorts are nicely fitted and look great pretty much on anybody I have seen on the net.
So far so good for the inspiration. I must say I did not buy the Chataigne pattern because I am not a great fan of indie patterns in general.

I grew up with Burda - they do simple, as well as rather sophisticated designs, the technical part is always perfect and as for the instructions ... well, I am just used to that and most of the time I do not read them anyhow. Btw - the instructions are pretty good on their individual patterns!
I discovered (and still like) the Big4 for the uniqueness, but they are way too expensive in Europe, so I only buy them rarely.
So Indies.... I fully understand that many people like buying the nice envelope, read perfectly written instructions and pay 15-25 eur for a pattern, while I prefer tracing my Burda or pdf, add seam allowances and just sew it. It is just not worth anymore once you are not a beginner.
Also, since I always need to make fitting adjustments, I prefer staying with sizes I know and can do without sewing always a proper muslin. Anytime I try a different brand, I have to readjust to their models.

So in the end, I just looked at the Chataigne shorts and figured I could hack some Burda pattern - Burda 106-04/2016 looked rather close, I just narrowed the legs part and only did two folds (and when looking at the pictures, I could have done even less).

Sewing is was just a walk in the rose garden. I had a remnant of grey striped wool, so I pai a lot of attention to stripe matching which worked like magic., interfaced the waist properly and did a perfect invisible zip. The wool is little bit scratchy, so I lined the shorts with some silver poly/silk.

The result is just as expected so kuddos for:
- using up remnants from the stash
- hacking Burda
- stripe matching

Turtleneck Dress

I love turtlenecks, in any form. Honestly, it keeps me warm and is class. I just realized I do not owna any single turtleneck dress, so this had to be corrected.

I played with two patterns for jersey dresses, crossed together and created my perfect turtleneck dress pattern. The sewing was quick and simple afterwards.

The first version is from black ponte. I left the dress little bit larger than my other ponte dresses and it is just such a great secret pyjama. It is basic, so goes with EVERYTHING.

Inspired by the first success, I ordered grey wool interlock (I had already bought the same fabric in green) to create a winter grey version.

No idea what happened here, but using the same pattern, the dress came out much more hip-hugging than the black one. It still works on me and the fabric is half wool, so it is really cozy to wear.
I also extended the turtleneck little bit, because more is always better :)

So here it is, I do not know what to say more about this dress because there is really not something very special about it. But it makes for such a great basics and I love wearing both of them.

Little Lady Clothes - Post-X-mas II.

And to round up the whole batch of kid's clothes I sewed between end of December and January, here is the last batch.

This time, I went back to the TNT Burda 9330 which I have already sewn in trousers, as well as dress versions, just in smaller sizes. I used a remnant of a dark blue linen which makes the dress look like jeans, but hopefully will be more comfy for the little lady. For lining, I found a remnant blue/white cotton.

The dress is very simple to sew but the result is just awesome. The lining enables for a great finish, you have a large pocket and no exceptional fitting is required.
I even found two buttons in my stash, just of a perfect colour and size. Yay for button stash busting (I received my grandma and my mum button stash last year, so even though it does not take up much space, I now have A LOT OF BUTTONS.

I really like sewing for kids in terms of outfits - as I do not always know what the wardrobe of the kids looks like, I prefer sewing matching pieces. And so I did this time, as well.

I had a little remnant of this blue/brown/gold viscose. While it is a viscose, it looks like sweater, so I made it a little cardigan to go with the blue dress. I even found just the perfect brass press buttons (bought together with some jeans rivets last year).

And to top it up, I saw an extremely cute pattern for a kids handbag in a form of a little bear. So, there we go, some appliqués, some embroidery later, we have a bear lined handbag.

Little Lady Clothes - Post-X-mas I.

So it seems that on the little dress I sewed for x-mas, the waist opening was not large enough. The little lady could wriggle in, but try to convince a 2-year old to wriggle in a dress, hehehe. It was fine and large enough when closed, so I took it and redid the opening so that it is easier for the parents to dress her. On the other side, the little sweater had quite some success. Both parents said that it was rather practical and much easier to close a zip than a serie of buttons.

So while I was somehow between projects between December and January, I did not want to go forwards with my jacket and did not want to start a big new project while waiting for my serger to arrive. So I procrastinated on some kids sewing.

First, I sewed another sweater, this time in grey interlock. I actually had the same fabric in two colours, anthracite and olive green, but on the reverse side, they both were just the same shade of light green. Perfect for using up both of them. This time, I omitted the frills because the interlock was too thick for that and I hemmed the hood and the sleeves with some blue jersey. Hopefully, this sweater will work as much as the bordeaux one.

In addition to that there is a little jersey dress. I actually bought a little piece of this yellow raie fabric for sewing of a pair of trunks for Monsieur. But when the fabric arrived, it was way too much yellow that I thought and therefore, I decided to change plans and sew a dress for the little lady (who is a blondie, btw).

I wanted a simple dress, but could not find a suitable pattern (incredible knowing how many Burda/LMV patterns I own, but it was either not the right fit or not the right size.
In the end, I mixed LMV Daisy dress and a t-shirt from Ottobre.
I really like the keyhole opening in the back and that little rushing in the front. Also, it is strange how in the kids sizes you just jump from 2 years to 3 years immediately. So there is definitely a significant difference between the two, but it really seems like there is nothing in between. (which btw seems to be the same case in RTW).
Since the little lady just turned 2, I somehow traced out a 2,5 years size :) Oh, the joy of sewing and deciding.