The magazine goes to …

Anne

I’m a day later than I said I would post this. Just didn’t have time yesterday. There were 14 ladies interested and the majority for the Knip mode magazine.

Anne, if you send me an email with the address to send the Knip mode to, I’ll post it to you this week. Hope you enjoy it.

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As much as I hoped to finish the pants yesterday, that didn’t work out either. We got a lot of work done in the allotment garden. Such fun to eat lettuce we’ve sown and grown ourselves (in the greenhouse).

 

And it looks like we’re going to have tomatoes. They survived the cold spell we had (the greenhouse is not heated).

My next post will be sewing related, I promise.

Cuff on pants

Thank you for all your nice comments and congratulations on my 10 years of blogging. It’s so nice to know that you appreciate my posts and even are inspired to try something by it.

Today I’ll do a post of the kind I like very much, a tutorial (or my way of doing things). This is about a cuff on pants. It’s been a while since I made a tutorial and I can’t even remember the last time I made cuffs on a pair of pants.

The pattern I’m using is the StyleArc Christia pant. Their description is: A trendy crop pant with all the new style features you have been waiting for. Wide waist band, side pockets, pleats and cuffs that sit just above the ankle gives this casual pant loads of style!

To be very hones I’m in doubt of this style on me, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I made a pair of trousers last year which were very narrow at ankle height and I confess to not wearing them. These are a little wider and I just wanted to try them.

Instructions are sparse and there’s even a pattern piece that’s never mentioned in the instructions. More on that when I’ve completely finished it. So this is my take on doing it, not StyleArcs’ instructions.

For the cuffs I marked the fold lines completely and basted them. On the pattern there’s only a mark at the edge but it’s so much easier to work with the whole line marked on both sides of the fabric. Belief me, it’s worth the extra 10 minutes of doing this.

Then I clipped on the fold lines to the stitch line of the seams (of course not through the stitching). The seam is folded on top of each other and if your fabric is a bit substantial, this will cause a lot of bulk. By clipping and alternating folding to each side of the seam this is more evenly distributed.

The cuff is folded (right sides together) on the top line (furthest from the hem), pressed and then stitched. This stitchline won’t be visible and helps in keeping shape.

Tip: fold your cuff first without pressing so that you know how it’s supposed to go together.

The next step is folding over the lowest foldline to the inside and press! Then fold the middle foldline (which is the top of the cuff) over. This is how the inside looks.

My “trick” to keep the cuff in shape and easer to press after laundering is stitch again behind the cuff. The cuff is folded down and then I stitch through all layers. The last step is a stitch in the ditch in the seams to tack it.

The resulting cuff:

The pants are not finished yet. I’ve made a waistband from muslin. The waistband is wide, 7.5 cm (3 inch). The pattern provides a rectangle pattern piece. This is not working on me when the waistband is a normal height, let alone on a waistband twice as high.

Making the waistband from muslin first gives me the opportunity to pin it to my shape. In this picture you can see there’s quite a bit of shaping involved.

Also I cut the back waist with a very generous seam allowance as I know that’s where I often need to change. I needed an extra 1.5-2 cm. My next step is to make a pattern piece of the waistband.

It’s King’s day today in The Netherlands, which means it’s a national holiday and lots of flags with an orange banner in the streets. Orange being the name and colour of our royal family.

10 years of blogging

This week is my 10th blogversary. I can’t believe it, 10 years! And yet, on April 27, 2007 I posted my first blog post and this skirt was the first project I blogged about:

Now I would say that these are not  my colours, but I loved that skirt and have worn it often.

So many things happen in 10 years, both in sewing and in personal life. I never said much about my personal life on my blog, but as in any life there were ups and downs. Moving house last year certainly feels like a positive change and both DH and I are happy with the place we live now. Our children grew up and from teenagers became young adults that study, work, travel and see more of the world than I did at their age. I’m a proud mother .

I thought it would be nice to make a selection of garments I made in those 10 years but that’s not working. Quite a few photos on the blog have been lost, probably because of Picasa stopped being available. What’s left really is a trip down memory lane for me (garments I didn’t like that much after all, garments that I loved and wore till they fell apart, garments that have special memories), but hey, why should I bother you with that. If you want to, you can still see the old posts, I’ve not removed anything.

If you’ve followed me that long (and I know some of you do, thank you!!) you’ll know I wrote a lot about lingerie sewing in the beginning. That was new, no one was writing about it then. My sewing evolved and I took on more difficult projects, started to draft some of my garments and wrote about that process too.

Apart from the writing itself, starting this blog about sewing 10 years ago and posting reviews on Pattern Review opened a new world for me. Till then sewing was a solitary hobby for me. None of my friends sewed. Through blogging I found new friends who sew and don’t find it strange if I send them a picture of fabric and/or pattern with the question whether it matches, or asking for advice on something sewing related. Some I meet in real life, with others I discuss sewing through e-mails. Some friends I now see regularly and with quite a few we have the annual sewing get-together in Canterbury. Can’t imagine my life without those real-life or distant friends any more. I’m very grateful to have met you all.

The blogging world has changed over the years. I won’t go into that much, others have done that more eloquently than I can. My blogging and sewing has changed too, not with more frequent, sponsored posts, but less posts in more infrequent intervals. Sometimes I can write 3 posts in a week, then disappear again for a few weeks. It’s what it is, there are only 24 hours in a day and so much I want to do. There certainly is also a lot sewing related that I want to do and I will continue writing my irregular posts about it.

Thank you for reading my blog, cheering me by your comments. It’s lovely to be part of the international sewing community. As it’s been a long time I’ve done this, I do a give-away to celebrate my blogversary. I’ll give away a copy of the May issue of Knip mode or BurdaStyle (Dutch editions). Leave a comment on this post, indicating whether you’d like the Knip mode or BurdaStyle. I’ll do a draw next Saturday, April 29). I’ll send it anywhere in the world (it’s just one magazine, but you may choose which one you want).

Knip mode line drawings

BurdaStyle overview

To conclude: StyleArc Evie top, almost finished. It has a high hem in front, lower in the back. Great style for working in my allotment garden. Certainly a nice style for wearing in general too.

Sewing, not blogging

It’s been a few weeks again. I’ve been sewing, but have not taken the time to write blog posts. Apart from time, it has also to do with a feeling that there’s nothing new to tell. I’m sewing basic things, some I’ve sewn often before. Like this blouse:

The pattern is from Ottobre, with a few changes for fit (mainly hip area). Over the years I’ve sewn several variations, from plain white (always useful) to very colourful ones, like this new one. I bought the fabric recently and it’s a lovely quality cotton. A lot like Liberty cotton, but Liberty prints aren’t my style. I liked this fabric because of the irregular print and the many colours. A lot of combinations are possible. A teal skirt in exact the right shade is on my to do list. A summer top that’s a nice variation from my default black/white theme.

Which brings me to the next top, made from a viscose (rayon) fabric that’s been in my closet for a while.

This is the Knip Mode pattern (April 2017 issue) that I showed in my previous post. Nice result though the neckline is a bit wide on my narrow shoulders. I’m pleased with the look of the darts in the neckline. I will probably wear this top quite a bit during summer but will not use it for the silk fabric that I considered using with this pattern. It’s a quick make with no surprises. The neckline has a wide facing, which is easier to sew than a strip of bias binding.

There are a few other garments “in production”. More on those later.