Megan Nielsen Flint Lydia Trousers

These are my second pair of Megan Nielsen Flint trousers and whilst the first pair are wearable I am much happier with the fit of this second pair.

The outfit of the day

Here I am wearing my Untouched World Lofty Merino cardigan, Andrea Moore Sweet Line Knit top and United Nude Fold-Lo shoes in neon lime. These trousers fit right into my travel wardrobe.

Outfit two
Still wearing the Andrea Moore Sweet Line Knit top and United Nude shoes, this time they are the Issey Miyake Rock Sandal in lime, with the Issey Miyake Individualist V2056 jacket I made earlier this year. The jacket and trouser fabric were bought together and I always thought they would make a good outfit but now I am not so sure.  Funny how you change your mind when you see a photograph.

The comparison

This version of my Flint trousers includes a number of pattern alterations which improved them to TNT state. Next time I make them will be quick and easy.

We took the same shots with me wearing version 1 so that you could compare the two versions. Not an exact science comparison because I had been wearing version 2 all day whilst version 1 was freshly laundered and I find even though it is a non-stretch woven the fabric relaxes with wear.

Version 2 worn all day but still fits well at the waist

Version 1 gapping at the waistband and fabric wrinkles at the crotch

Version 2 not noticeably different from version 1

Version 1

Version 2 still some diagonal lines but I am happy with the fit

Version 1 looks fine when I really expected them to look much saggier in the bottom 

It is possible that whilst not perfect, Version 1 will end up getting more wear just because I prefer the fabric design. So much for using the less precious fabric for the first time make, at least they are an acceptable wearable muslin.  Ironically it is this first version that has come to England with me, fitting right into the travel wardrobe colour scheme.

 Here they are worn with the Untouched World Lofty merino cardi, and
Left: with the Untouched World merino knit singlet and Eos Metro white shoes;
Right: with the Andrea Moore Sweet Line knit top and United Nude X-sandals in silver and mint.

The fabric

As with my first pair of Megan Nielsen Flint trousers I used a Liberty Rossmore cord, this time in the pattern Lydia.

The pattern

The pattern is described as wide leg cropped pants or shorts with unique side crossover closure.  Pattern sits on the natural waist and features hidden closure at the left pocket, release tucks at the front, darts at the back, slash pockets, two waistband options and two lengths.

Version 1 is a pair of cropped pants with button closures.  Version 2 is a pair of cropped pants with tie closure. Version 3 is a pair of shorts with button closures. Version 4 is a pair of shorts with tie closures.

The pattern alterations

This version of the Flint trousers is once again based on View 1 size medium.

Version 1 did have a post make alteration because the crotch was so low.  I undid the inseam and removed 5/8" from the back inseam then sewed them back together. This did make a difference to wearability but wouldn't get any points as a text book pattern alteration.

The only fit alteration made to version 2 was to remove 1.25 inches from the back crotch length. I just made a dart in the pattern piece tapering to nothing at the side seam. Then the crotch seam was trued up with a 3/8" seam allowance.

The other alterations made were to change the seam allowances to 3/8" and eliminate the waistband by adding 1.5" to the top of the pattern pieces. The darts were extended to continue the shaping. In my post for version 1 I talked about only adding 1/2" to the top of the trousers for a faced waist. However once the excess was removed from the back crotch length it became apparent that more height was needed to get the waist to sit in the right place hence the addition of 1.5".

Waistband height was added to the top of the pocket pieces too.

Making the waistband facing took some thought because of the left hand pocket being the trouser opening. The trouser pieces were overlapped at the seam allowances, including adding the pocket to the left back and right front pieces. The darts were also pinned out. The waistband facing could then be traced off to a depth of 2 7/8". The front left hand pocket width (minus seam allowances) has to be removed from the waistband facing as it is effectively part of the facing. I did forget to account for having a seam with the facing on the curved edge of the back left hand pocket piece and you can see this in the sewing photos with the edge of the pocket folded over.

Both the waistband facing and the top of the left hand pocket bags (where they form part of the waistband facing) are interfaced with a medium weight woven interfacing.

The sewing

The sewing was pretty straightforward with the seams sewn on the overlocker. I had to make changes to the sewing order because of the faced waist and how I added the facing to the pocket bag on the left side.

First thing was to add bias binding to the waist facing. Next darts were sewn.

Then the pocket bags were sewn to their respective trouser leg piece, crotch seams sewn, then the inner leg seam and right side seam including around the pocket bag.

Next the facing was sewn (with the overlocker) to the left side pocket bags front and back, continuing around the pocket bag to neaten the edges to the pocket opening notch. The side seam was then overlocked including around the bottom of the pocket to the notch.

Lastly the facing was sewn to the trousers.

The waist facing is not stitched all the way around to the trousers at the long bias bound edge. I didn't want a visible stitch line so I stitched in the ditch at the front crotch seam, right side seam and the darts (front and back). This is more than adequate to hold the facing in place

I chose a small square gold coloured button with a shank that had to be hand sewn on. A couple of test buttonholes were made to get the size right for the square button.

And the neatly finished waistband in all its glory!

The final step was a hand sewn trouser hem.

The garden

A gratuitous garden shot from the bored photographer.  His model hasn't got the hang of the art of the quick change yet.  Neither for photographs nor real life!

Oki Style Madrid Isle of Wight Blouse

I have discovered a small problem with blogging and the rest of life. I can either sew or I can blog. I doubt this is a mind blowing discovery for anyone and I am sure many have experienced this before me. Normally I try and balance the two activities. With the frenzied sewing associated with a trip and the need for a whole new wardrobe blogging fell by the wayside.

That in itself is another interesting aspect of the human psyche. I have a perfectly adequate wardrobe that would have easily served me over my five weeks away yet I MUST have new clothes. It didn't help that our trip ended up being earlier than planned so the sewing list in the time available became ambitious especially from a naturally slow sewer.

This blouse was the first item sewn for my 6 in 6 Pattern Review Travel Wardrobe back at the beginning of February. Not that I finished six garments within the deadline. Photos were eventually taken of the garment being worn in mid April.

The finished garment

The photos don't show this top off to advantage or maybe it does fit that badly. It doesn't feel ill fitting when worn and I normally fuss with garments that pool in the small of my back like this one appears to do.

It does crease badly when washed and  isn't suitable for travel as you can't guarantee an iron will be available. But it looks alright on the hanger!

The fabric

For some reason I have always wanted some of the Liberty of London print called Isle of Wight (this is colourway A) and luckily for me The Fabric Store had some in the colour that fitted into my travel wardrobe so I snapped it up during their Summer sale.

I have never even been to the Isle of Wight although my aunt goes there every year in December with friends (and then coincidentally has a cold for Christmas).

The sewing pattern

I discovered the indie pattern designer Okistyle thanks to another blogger and I would give them credit if only I could remember who they were.  Since discovering this pattern company I have bought six of their PDF patterns and have another four on my wish list.

One of the Okistyle jacket patterns is cut out in a lovely two faced leather which didn't quite get sewn in time for the tavel wardrobe.

It is a great compliment to the designer Oki that I have purchased so many of her patterns as I hate (and hate is not nearly a strong enough word) taping PDF patterns together. I have found however that the bench or floor in my hotel room is good for taping PDF patterns together and it whiles away a good few evening hours.

The Madrid Blouse is described as "a sleeveless top with nice peplum, Back darts are visible on the right side. Visible long zipper on back, french darts on front."

Oki is from west of Mongolia, now living in Germany. She has been interested in textiles and clothing since her childhood, learning dressmaking from her mother.  Oki is a one woman company who in her own words "design, construct patterns, fabric dyeing, sew, model and do everything myself.  I love unusual precious materials and unusual shapes for dressmaking. To sew Okistyle dresses should be fun and it should be even more fun when you wear them :-)"

The pattern alterations

I can't actually tell you what pattern alterations I would have made to this pattern because when I printed it out (the whole pattern not just the first page with the 10cm square) I didn't print it actual size. My 10cm square was about 9cm ish but I only discovered this after taping all of the pages together and whilst I may have been willing to sacrifice a few pages of paper and print it again I wasn't willing to do the taping again.

Something else to note is that the pattern pieces don't contain seam allowances but I didn't read that important piece of information until later.  So with such amazing attention to detail it is a miracle that this blouse fits.  Not a miracle really because I used a TNT blouse to give me an idea of which size to use. I changed the armholes to be the same as my TNT pattern so I could use its' sleeves as a sleeveless blouse would get limited wear.

Two other changes I made were: a forward shoulder adjustment; and lowered neckline. This neckline in its original form is high enough to make me feel like I'm being strangled.

The sewing

This was sewn using my 1953 Singer Featherweight with French seams. The hems and neckband were machine sewn too. Nothing difficult or unusual about the sewing.

I did omit the facing. Instead the neck was stay-stitched at 3/8" then folded to the stay-stitch line and folded again to give a narrow hem.

The other thing I missed out was the zip down the back. I thought the tana lawn was a bit too light for a zip and I didn't need it to get the top on and off with its lowered neckline. This meant the back pattern piece could be cut on the fold.

I really enjoyed making this top on the little table in our motel room and it is great to wear, even if it does need ironing. (Something else to do in my Wellington hotel room to while away a few minutes.)

In memoriam - Andrea Moore Boutique

Clothing boutiques here in New Zealand seem to be suffering the same fate as quilting shops did a few years ago.  People don't seem to realise that if they don't support their local brands they sadly disappear.

Andrea Moore has been my go to fashion source since 2013 and alas they are no more.

And yes I have this cashmere jumper in my wardrobe

If I suffered a packing disaster or had to stay in Wellington longer than expected I knew I could run down to the Andrea Moore Boutique and find the perfect thing to wear.  No need to wander around the shops wasting time in a fruitless search for something I liked and that fit.

Despite what my colleagues think I am not a great shopper.  I like to shop in places where I am guaranteed success.  I can't stand going from shop to shop trying things on for no reward.

I had a brief foray into Kate Sylvester (a possible replacement for Andrea) but I was not that thrilled by the clothes on offer and the two tops I tried on were less than stellar.  The v-neck top was extremely low cut and the shop assistant's answer was to wear a cami underneath. Not a solution.  The garment should fit. The stripe top was a heavy knit that was already coming apart at the shoulder seam. I might be accidentally giving up RTW.

The loss of Andrea has hit hard so to help my grieving process I am documenting some (not all) of her wonderful clothes that reside in my wardrobe.

A great way to use the pocket bags in the AM Boyfriend jeans

AM Key to my Heart Earrings

Andrea Moore and me mades

Clockwise from left: Butterick 6232 Morse Dot Sun Top with Kaleidoscope trousers; Orange silk/linen Style Arc Maris Top with a great Japanese cotton trouser; Waffle Patterns Vanilla Libertyesque Top worn with Scottie trousers and an AM linen cardigan.

Clockwise from left: Vogue 1454 DKNY Gorgeous Butterflies Top; TSW Odette Zebra Top; TSW Odette Tundra Top; Ready to Sew Janis Feather Top all worn with versions of the True Love Pant.

Clockwise from left: Milly Maris top with AM Foxy trousers; Scottie Bag (made by a friend) with AM Kiss Me trousers and Moochi top; Butterick 6172 London Border Print Tunic once again with the AM Foxy trousers.

Don't really think the photos are glamorous but I love the photo collage frame.

Andrea Moore tops

The clothes I generally make are tops so my Andrea Moore tops have not had much of an outing on the blog but there are many of them. I picked them out for a special wardrobe shot (I did say there were a lot).

Or how about a couple of silk t-shirts from SS15 in fabulous prints.

Or just plain ol' cotton t-shirts

Pure Andrea Moore outfits

One for Winter: Cashmere jumper with Ilris jeans and UN Fold-lo in neon/lime

AM Diamond top with Surreal trousers (the zigzag print incorporates a giraffe head) with UN Edge black white mix booties

Whilst the pictures below came from Andrea's FB page or website I do own many of these items.  Clockwise from top left - Crystal Moon trench (I also have the dress underneath); Extravagance trouser with Fan top; AM kaleidoscope trousers (I sadly don't own the coat); Scottie trousers (don't own the jackets or shirts always felt that was a bit too much matching but do have both colours of the trousers).

And the socks with AM Boyfriend jeans

The Great Outdoors

On the left is the origami cat trench, a wardrobe staple for longer than I care to remember, and I always get compliments when I wear it.  I love the fur bomber jacket, on the right, so much that I have two this one in black and a blue one.

Another fantastic trench, this time the AM Inverted trench for summer, made from 100% linen and just look at those fantastic flower buttons.

And sadly this isn't true...

A parting shot: the AW17 window display with the wonderful ginkgo print.

The End

Vogue 2056 Issey Miyake Poppy's Patchwork Jacket

My progress has not been stellar in making the pieces for the Pattern Review wardrobe contest in fact the deadline has been and gone with only three garments made. I had such high hopes of making six garments in six weeks. Oh well there is clearly more in my life than just sewing.

I finished a top the first week of the contest whilst away for the weekend in Westport. Must dig it out of the wardrobe, iron it and take a picture - maybe even produce a blog post as it was a new to me pattern company. Then the last weekend of February I made another pair of Megan Nielsen Flint trousers (also not blogged - maybe next week). Then my Issey Miyake jacket took me two weekends to finish (and as long to produce a blog post).  That left two blouses and a pair of trousers to make in a week. This was never going to happen as on average I can make a garment per week and the trousers needed to be made in a less precious trial fabric before I made the "good pair".

As the pieces of the six in six wardrobe came from my 2018 travel wardrobe plans (apart from this jacket and the Megan Nielsen Flint trousers) I will finish the garments and maybe even do a post in the spirit of the wardrobe contest. I am normally quite motivated by a deadline but neither the wardrobe contest nor the match your shoes contest provided enough deadline incentive for me to finish on time to enter.

I was slightly distracted last weekend by new fabric purchases. As well as finishing the buttons and buttonholes on my IM jacket I also made two tops but with the newly purchased fabric not part of the travel wardrobe. Oops - so much for sewing with a plan.  Although tenuous I could possibly incorporate one or both of these tops into my travel wardrobe!

The finished garment

I did think that this would be a good Summer garment but as we are starting to head into Autumn I paired it with more trans-seasonal clothing.

Preparing to fly away

Ok when unbuttoned

Not sure about the extra fabric folds when buttoned

The back with the little sticky out bit at the bottom of the centre back seam

How fortuitous the jacket goes with a dress from my travel wardrobe.

The fabric

This is a Liberty Murray loopback sweatshirting in design Poppy's Patchwork colourway B from The Fabric Store.

The fabric was bought last year and I really loved the colours but now it is made into a garment I am a bit ho hum about it.  Will let the jacket have a rest in the wardrobe and see if the love comes back.

The sewing pattern

Vogue 2056 is a single sized (14) old Issey Miyake pattern copyrighted 1988. The pattern is for a skirt, shorts and top. I felt, in 2018, the top had more of an outerwear look to it than something I would put under a jacket. The top is described as very loose fitting with front, back, long sleeves and collar cut-in-one and stitched hems.

The Sewing Workshop also produced a version of this top as the Origami Blouse which I also have in my pattern stash. This pattern has the added advantage of being multi-sized but I wanted to make the original Miyake version so persevered with a few alterations.

The pattern alterations

There is plenty of room in the body of this jacket (54" at the bust) so the changes I made were for style.

First off I traced the single pattern piece which is the back, front and sleeve onto a light non woven sew-in interfacing, with the seam allowance also marked.  Then I pinned the pattern together to make it easier to visualise the garment to make the changes I wanted.

Dorothy modelling the pinned pattern piece

I did the pattern tracing and pinning many months before the alterations were made but I had written myself an aide memoire which was pinned to Dorothy for safe keeping.

How to alter the pattern to remove the 1980's shoulders and get more room at the hip

The altered pattern

I have annotated the altered pattern piece with the changes made and these can be more easily read if the photo is enlarged.

First off the shoulders - unsurprising for a 1980's pattern the shoulder dart stuck out way past my actual shoulders.  As a soft jacket I didn't want to wear shoulder pads and a dart sagging over the top of my arm is not a good look.  Also whilst the extreme shoulder trend seems to be starting to make a comeback it really isn't my style. To combat the excess I removed 2" of width from the shoulders, using a dart down the back and a tuck in the upper half of the jacket front (photo left side).  These are changes (1) and (2) on the pattern piece.

The lower half of the jacket front needs the same 2" inches removed as the top half otherwise the seam lines won't match.  However extra width at the garment hem is of benefit rather than loosing the 2". So at roughly bust level the 2" was removed with a dart and at garment hem (hip level) the dart opened up to add width. This was achieved by cutting down from the seam line and up from the hem creating a pivot point just above waist level. So closing up the dart at the top automatically opened up the dart at the bottom. This is change (3) on the photo of the pattern piece.

The sleeves were narrowed by removing 1" at the hem, from each side, blended back to nothing at the notch (about where the lengthen/shorten line is).

Once I finished the garment and took it for an outing it became obvious that the sleeves were too short.  It is less apparent when your arms are by your side but when moving about the sleeves slide to three quarter length up my arms. I think this is related to the way the top of the jacket front is stitched to the front facing to create the tuck/pleat of fabric out of the sleeve as well. To combat this I added a 2" cuff and lengthened the pattern piece for the future by adding at the hem rather than the lengthen/shorten line. This is change (5) on the pattern piece.

When I added length to the sleeves I also reduced the width at the hem by continuing the angle of the seam to the new hem length. The photos of the finished garment make it look as though the sleeves are too long now but I am not conscious of this when wearing the jacket.

All of the seam lines had to be trued up once the pattern alterations had been made.

The seam allowance was changed from 5/8" to 3/8".  This is my preferred seam allowance and was fortunate because with the removal of 2" in the shoulder dart the back neck band (sticking out rectangular shape in the middle of the photo on the left hand side) interferes with the back neck edge.

So what would I do differently?  The only thing I can't change in the finished garment and doesn't work unless you wear the jacket buttoned all the time is the centre back seam. As can be seen from the pattern piece the centre back seam has a significant change of direction at the waist. When the top is buttoned this angle is pulled out as the garment sits close to the body but when unbuttoned it sticks out in a strange and unattractive way. I haven't worked out what the solution is to this problem and will need to leave myself a note on the pattern piece in case I make the garment again.

I have also added 1.5" at the hem at centre back tapering to nothing towards centre front as I think the back length is a bit short.  Change (4) on the pattern piece. This new length is for the benefit of any future makes and not something I did for this jacket.

If I ever wore this as a blouse I would need to do something to raise the neckline. Unless I wanted to display my bra to the world and I feel quite strongly that no matter how attractive a bra is they are called under garments for a reason.

The sewing

All seams were sewn first with a 3/8" seam allowance, then overlocked for a neat inside and then top stitched.  For once I actually followed the pattern instructions, in fact you can see them close at hand as I am pinning the garment pieces together in the photo below.

The actual mechanics of the sewing is pretty straight forward. It is the origami folding that requires some mental gymnastics. The sleeve seam is also the seam across the bodice front to join the top and bottom of the front together.  You need to concentrate and make sure you match up the appropriate tailors tacks. Don't skimp on the transference of the patterns markings to the fabric or you will be lost. Even with careful marking I am not sure I stitched the front to the facing as intended to make the folds as my version does not fall as attractively as the pattern envelope suggests.

Origami folding the jacket to match the sleeve and front bodice seam

A closer view of the sleeve pinned together

The front bodice pinned and the mind bending clip to turn the angle into a straight line

I started off using my Bernina 830 but it decided to have one too many mental breakdowns so I put it in the naughty corner and then trecked it into town to the Bernina dealer.  There is enough wrong with it that they shipped it back to head office in Wellington who are apparently downloading its log and sending it back to Switzerland for analysis. So out came the trusty 1953 Singer Featherweight, which has never had a mental breakdown, it just sews along through thick fabric and thin.

My trusty Featherweight has the buttonhole attachment which everyone raves about but I had never used. With the absence of my 830 and the need to finish the garment I got it out of hiding and pressed it into service.  A few practice buttonholes were needed to get the hang of how the buttonholer worked but once again it worked perfectly.  Every buttonhole the same.  No tantrums because some bits of the jacket are thicker than others. It was easy to go around each buttonhole twice (or as many times as I wanted). The nerves were more present at the point of cutting the buttonholes open (I was good and used my buttonhole cutter rather than the quick unpick).

Three perfect buttonholes

Given the colours in the jacket I choose to use three different (in size and colour) buttons.  This seemed like a really good idea at the time but now I am not so sure. Why does it look so different when the buttons are sewn on? They looked great when I was playing with options.

The only interfacing used is a 3" strip applied to the front facings to support the buttons and button holes.

I enjoyed a meditative bit of hand stitching to finish the hems and hold the front facing to the garment front.  The pattern instructions have you machine stitch these but I didn't want the line around the garment.

The outfit of the day

Not an outfit of the day but I did think I should take a picture of my Issey Miyake jacket with my Issey Miyake Rock Sandals. When thinking about which outfit I should pair this jacket with I immediately thought of the AGF Bloom Montage knit dress used in the original Rock sandal post. From the distance of memory the colours in this dress seemed ideal.  When put together the colours of the dress are just that little bit off so they really clash. Even my beloved thought this was a less than stellar outfit and his colour choices can be decidedly iffy. Here is the photographic evidence of my never to be worn together again outfit.