Fall Capsule Wardrobe - Done!

About a week ago I posted some sketched plans for a fall wardrobe…

…mostly black, white and coral…

…with some possibilities in other colours!

Well, was the last week of vacation, and I sewed up a storm. I’m done, baby! 

I spent yesterday hanging out with my sister, who was kind enough to take pics for me. I got a little giddy taking pictures in someone else’s back yard for once - as you’ll see! 

First up: 

White Renfrew Tank: Leftovers from my first-ever knit project!

Floral Long-Sleeved Renfrew: I can’t wait to wear this in cooler weather! (Yesterday was HOT!) The fabric was a gift from Sally at the Quirky Peach. Thank you, Sally! I love it!

Coral Stretchy Jeans: Hmmm. I love the colour, but I’m not sold on the fit! I added an inch of width to the pattern I always use, since they usually come out pretty skin tight… but now they look and feel a big baggy to me! I’m considering taking them in from the knee down.Also, you can tell in the pocket picture that this thin denim doesn’t hide ANYTHING! I can’t find any denim locally that is as heavy as the stretch denim in my RTW pants. 

Next up: 

Grey Stretchy Jeans: I had FUN on these! I’ve always avoided contrast stitching, but I went for it on these. Had to make them fun and colourful somehow! I used regular thread and a triple stitch in both red and turquoise. Again, they feel a bit baggy. The fabric is a lovely stretch denim from Gorgeous Fabrics, bought with a gift certificate from my sister for my birthday. (Speaking of which, look how she just happened to match my wardrobe! She’s even wearing a me-made Palova knit circle skirt!) 

Black Mission Maxi Tank: I’ve used this pattern for 3 dresses and about 5 tanks this summer - it’s a winner! I made this one from a metre of amazing black bamboo knit that Anne gave my years ago to wear as a scarf/shawl sort of thing. I wish our local shop still sold fabric this nice! 

Stretch Pencil Skirt: I”m wearing this right now, and it’s SO COMFY! It’s a heavy, seriously stretchy twill that I bought from the remnant bins last year. The pattern is based on the Cake Hummingbird skirt, including my adjustment for a big booty. I didn’t want to have panels cutting up the print on the front, so I traced a version with darts instead. As you can see below, I just sewed a piece of wide black elastic on was the waistband. No zip needed! 

Pink Leggings: I wear skirts with leggings a lot, since I sit/crawl/dance/etc in my work day. I had just enough pink spandex cotton blend to make some short leggings. I use the Style Arc Laura Leggings pattern, and it works great! Just a single seam on each leg and some lazily applied elastic at the waist. 

Sharpie Skirt: My favourite! I got the black and white polka dot heavy cotton at Ikea, and used the same Hummingbird hack pattern as above. This one isn’t stretch though, so I may have over compensated with ease! It sits lower than I usually prefer, and is quite loose around the hips. On the other hand, I can sit comfortably and there’s definitely room for heavy fleece tights underneath! 

As planned, I made the plain skirt first then coloured in random circles with Sharpie. I still haven’t washed it, but I’m hopeful that it won’t fade TOO badly! If it does, I’ll just colour it in again! I’m looking forward to wearing it with bright cardigans in the winter. 

And that’s that! 2 skirts, 2 tanks, a tee, and 2 pairs of jeans. I like the combination of basics and graphic prints, and the slight twist on my usual colours. Everything will fit into my wardrobe easily and get worn often.

Even better, the sewing process was totally relaxing and zen, since it was all TNT patterns. That’s my kind of sewing! 

Now that I’ve depleted my stash of stretch denim, can anyone suggest a good place to buy some online? I’m looking for medium-to-heavy stretch denim or twill, preferably in bright colours? Thanks!

p.s. Some people have let me know they they are having trouble leaving comments recently… If that happens, could you contact Discus? They say everything is ok on my end, but clearly something is going on… Thanks!

Pants. Flower pants!

Pants! More pants! 

Stretchy, stretchy flower pants! The fabric is a really thin polyester faux-denim, which is definitely not hefty enough to be real denim. Super comfy though - especially because I slashed and spread the whole pants pattern 1” wider in front and back than my previous pants! (Not that you’d know it to look at these - they still don’t leave much to the imagination!)

I only bought 1.5m, thinking that was plenty for capris… You know where this is going, right? I cut out the waistband first, so I wouldn’t run short and be waistbandless… then I cut out the back, with enough height to cover my aformentionedly big behind… and then wouldn’t you know, didn’t have enough for the front piece!?!?

And thus, this is born: 

I cut up the floral waistband and attached it as the bottom few inches of the front legs! And cut out a waistband from some leftovers denim. Luckily I don’t this the patched part is too obvious - Jamie didn’t notice the seam until I asked him to photograph it up close. Hurray for the power of prints!!!!! They disguise anything!

In other pants-related news, when I went down to Buffalo (which I will blog about eventually!) there was a fitting expert/teacher at the Sewing Meetup I attended. I asked about the wrinkles I always get under my butt, and she assured me that I need that extra room to sit, and that if I fitted out all that ease they’d be really uncomfortable. I’ve decided to embrace that idea, and not stress about refining the pattern any more. Whether is true or not, it makes me feel better! 

If you’d told me 3 years ago that I’d be loving floral pants, I’d have laughed at you. (The Japanese were doing it already though - I should have known it would come here, like bright jeans and sock buns!) Do you wear any styles now that you would have scoffed at until recently?

Pants!

Pants! I made pants! It took me months of muslins, and the fit is still far from perfect… but they are totally wearable, and therefore good enough for now! 

The pattern I’m using is the Style Arc Elle pant. It’s a pull-on, elastic waist pant made for stretch wovens, which is pretty close to my favourite RTW pants. It’s also super basic - no fly, no pockets! 

The first time I sewed it up, I was really thrilled! It fit just like my RTW pants! Sweet! But then I start obsessing about the fit problems that my RTW pants share… namely, wrinkles under the butt! I did my research, got help from awesome sewcialists in Pants Club, and made 5 more muslins… and I really thought I’d made some progress! But looking at the pictures you’re about to see, the problems are still there! 

Damn you, wrinkles!

Making pants has really helped me understand the, uh, unique features of my legs. Wide hips, broad thighs, full butt, full belly, knock knees, and more! That’s a lot of separate adjustments to do, all of which end up impacting the fit in other areas. It’s a complex geometry problem which I don’t fully understand!

On the plus side, these are currently my most comfortable jeans! I’d worn them a few times since washing when I took these photos, but the denim holds up well. The waistband is so ridiculously high that it never shifts around or sags lower! (The waistband is a great construction detail, btw: It’s a self-fabric rectangle, with inch-wide elastic zigzagged in place. It’s the same circumference as the waist, so it holds snug without pulling tight.) 

Even better, the pattern is so simple that I’ve been able to whip up a few pairs already. These capris actually came before the jeans above…

I’ve been adding simple patch pockets to each pair, but it’s surprisingly difficult to figure out just where to put them! These ones are a bit too high, others too wide…

Oh look! Wrinkles!

Here’s what they look like in motion… If this is what they look like most of the time, then I’m happy enough! I don’t think they scream “Homemade!”, and they feel good on. 

Somehow I got cocky with these red ones though… I think I overdid a back crotch adjustment, and suddenly nothing lined up! A hot mess all around. Somehow these seem tighter than my other pairs, too, even though they are a very stretchy denim… Next time I’m going to slash and spread to add some ease! 

Look! Less wrinkles when I dance! 

All in all, I’m really thrilled to have made some functional pants. I’ve got a whole pile of fabric to make more, but I need to figure out some fit things first. Have you made pants? How did it go? If you’ve got any concrete fitting advice to give me, I’d be very happy to hear it!