An outfit for not quite right now…

When the announcement for Indie Pattern Month 2017 came out, I saw that as the perfect excuse to but and immediately cut out the new Papercut Kobe dress as a top using his amazing blue, black, red silk stretch that I bought in Germany over Christmas. I have been trying to find the right pattern for it for ages and this was just it. I wanted something that didn’t have too many seams to that the fabric could shine. The other half mentioned this is one of his favourite makes f mine 🙂 A win already 😉

That’s what started the quest of getting my garments together for the Indie Royalty part of the month. Despite putting myself on a fabric/pattern buying freeze (due to new house being build in the new year), I couldn’t resist the new Papercut collection, there’s just something about it. So in addition to the Kobe dress (which I did a quick test dress version before cutting into my beautiful silk – that’s also beautiful), I also bought the Sapporo Coat. That became my number two for the contest. I had this camel coloured wool in my stash for a while. I think it was meant for a winter dress, but then I thought that would be too thick. It’s very nich quality wool with nap from the Fabric Warehouse, not very thick though, so better for a change of season early or late summer coat. I didn’t have enough for the sleeves so I cut those out of a similar weight grey wool that I got from my mum a few years back. It was just about 80-90cm, just enough for skirt or the sleeves of the Sapporo coat. To make this into something truely special I used a bit of Liberty cotton for the lining to bring together the colours of the coat. And I must say, I like it.

My initial plan was to make some Ginger jeans to complete this outfit, using the jeans fabric I ordered from Closet Case that finally, after more than 4 months. But unfortunately that didn’t quite work out the way I intended it. I was all excited, cut them out, just to notice on the last piece of cutting that I had cut out the Morgan jeans, not the Gingers, using the stretch jeans intended for Ginger. Oh well, I thought and started sewing. I had even done a knock knee adjustment. Something is not quite right with them unfortunately. There’s too much fabric at the crotch, and I just don’t have enough time to find out how to fix them and make adjustments before the month comes to an end.

Hence, I decided to leave them be for now until I have enough time to do them justice and used the rest of the fabric to make a Named Pulmu Skirt to finish my ensemble. I’ve had this pattern for a while, just never managed to make it. It came togehter really quickly with the rest of the Ginger fabric and some stretch lining from my stash. I really like the triangular side panels and decided to subtly emphasise them by using the fabric in reverse for the inserts. I’m still really keen on doing a white and black or white a blue version, like Morna from Style of Constructing did. I love that skirt.

And then to round it all off I decided to make the Ida Clutch using a piece of leather I had in my stash (from the Fabric Store). It wasn’t quite enough for the original patter, but 1cm less all around still makes for a beautiful bag.

I was all ambitious and wanted to make some underwear as well, but only got to the undies and not the bra. Well, I made a muslin for a bra, but it didn’t fit and time was a bot tight, so I hope this is enough.

Kobe top details:

Fabric and notions: a dark blue silk stretch I bought in Germany during my Christmas holiday. It’s got black panthers with red collars on it and white dots and it beautiful to wear – I can’t wait for warmer weather, but will wear this with a black underlayer too… I used a lovely coral coloured button from my stash, just the same colour of the red dots on the fabric.

Size: S, according to the table and measuring the pattern, just in case, and it’s the right size for me.

Changes: I did not make any changes to the patterns at all, it was just lovely as it is.

Construction: I just followed the instructions, not a problem, made no changes to them at all.

Sapporo coat details:

Fabric: This is made with a camel coloured wool from my stash, originally from The Fabric Store with some grey colour blocking on the sleeves because I didn’t have enough fabric for the whole coat. The grey is a slightly lighter wool fabric inherited from my mum. I have to admit one of the inside pieces of the sleeves is cut on the bias because I didn’t have enough fabric either, but it doesn’t make a different. The lining is a liberty tana lawn from the Fabric Store. I also had that in my stash, originally intended for a dress, but I hadn’t gotten around to it and it just drew together all these colours so nicely that I thought yes, lets use it, it’lol make you happy anytime you open the coat. It soooo nice to cut and sew and luckily I have enough left for a little blouse.

Size: S, I think…

Changes: No changes were made at all.

Construction: The only thing I changed a bit was not to iron up the seam allowances of the coat before attaching the lining, I didn’t quite trust the length of the lining/my sewing accuracy, wondering if it would be long enough to not make any bubbles in the jacket. In the end I probably could have ironed it up, everything fit just perfectly without any problem. you never quite know though 😉 In the photos it still looks like that there are some wrinkling, but I think that’s just due to my not very good ironing. It actually hangs freely with some extra give in the lining. The wool does not iron very well.

I love the lines of that coat! I’ll definitely make another one, a summer version. Maybe using an eyelet cotton?

Pulmu Skirt details:

Fabric: The left over from the Ginger Jean kit I bought from Closet Case Patterns. It’s stretchy cotton, dark dark blue and shiny (lightly coated I think and going by the smell when ironing) on one side and a lighter blue (matte) on the other side. The lining is a scrap of stretch lining I had at home in a lovely blush colour. I so need to get more of that, it’s very nice to wear.

Size: 38, my usual from Named, fits me every time.

Changes: I initially cut everything as intended, but as soon as I had the main body of the skirt together and tried it on, I decided that high waisted just wasn’t for me. So I cut the top of the skirt off, about as much as the facing and then attached the lining to the skirt without any facing. I just top stitched at the top of the skirt.

I also didn’t’t quite want it to end below the knee, as I know that can make my legs look bigger than they actually are. So I shortened the pattern at hip height and just above the slit for about 5cm in total, so that it just hits about knee height.

Construction: Apart from my changes to the top of the skirt, I followed the instructions and found them to be pretty simple and straight forward. It took about two read-throughs to figure out how to do the hem, but after that, no probs, all easy, and so clever.

 

Ida clutch details:

Fabric: a lovely camel coloured leather, slightly textured and a blue quilting cotton, both from my stash. The leather is from the Fabric Store and the cotton… I have no idea.

Size: It’s one size, though I didn’t quite have enough, so mine is about 1cm smaller all around.

Changes: I didn’t make any changes apart from adding in two little loops on both sides wherein the clutch bends over, so that I can attach a strap if I want to. I also added a little strap with a hook on the inside for keys. It’s something I saw in some of my mum’s ready made bags and I love it. I told myself I would add that to all of my bags, sooo useful. I also didn’t have a magnet or button in the right colour, so I just decided to leave that out.

Construction: With the photos online, it was super easy. It came together in no time. I used a zipper from an old bag, I carefully unpicked it and moved the end pieces. I really like this zipper, fits perfectly. The black strap is also from that old bag. It was a nice leather bag that I spend good money on, strangely enough the company didn’t understand that leather is stretchy, hence the lining should be stretchy as well… well, it didn’t last very long, so now I am reusing bits and pieces.

All in all, I am super happy with my little outfit. I had initially read the instructions for the contest wrong and now am not totally sure if I even qualify, as I think I only ever managed to post something for the Holly Accessorties challenge. If that counts, then I’m good to go, if not, I don’t mind, I have four gorgeous pieces, a pair of undies and a test version of a bra that I will perfect when I finally have a bit more time.

Couple more close-ups 🙂 Here the contrast as much as possible with photos taken in the evening of dark fabric…

I made the yoke in the grey colour as well, and isn’t that lining pretty…? I love the look 🙂

Apologies for the somewhat crappy photos, there hasn’t been very many nice days lately, so it had to be indoor evening kitchen photos…

It’s been a wonderful month, thanks Mel and Kat again for the great time! And everyone else for your amazing entries and inspiration.

Till next time.