Monday 26 February 2018

By Hand London Zeena dress in upcycled Marimekko flowers

I planned to make this dress when I was in Ukraine, but somehow I lost the traced skirt piece and that put it on the back burner.  There are always many fun dress patterns to try out...

Finally I decided it was time.  I used a Marimekko sheet that I found at the Goodwill in Seattle. 
This dress is not lined, uses a facing, and has pleats to create the structure.  I didn't shorten it because it's meant to be very short for BHL - I just used about a 2 inch hem to shorten it somewhat.  I used size 6/10 which is my general size in BHL. 

I found nothing difficult in the tracing, cutting process.  I knew ahead of time that I would hate the facing, but I also hate making bias tape.  Unfortunately I should know better.  I really hate facings. 




I didn't do a lot of careful details with this because it was pretty primarily a muslin to see what I thought, although I did pay attention to the flowers not to have them in inappropriate places, or repeating oddly.  My Mum thinks it's cute but I don't like it at all.  The waist bothers me.  I really need to do an adjustment to the back to remove the extra fabric.  The pleats don't please me.  The fit is acceptable even without a swayback adjustment, but the style feels too cute.

As for the bad photos, my Mum needed cataract surgery and couldn't focus so I reckon they were still impressively good : )  (She's had it now and is doing great.)

Luckily I have enough left in this sheet to make something else, like a nice Willow tank! 

Wednesday 7 February 2018

Muse Jenna Cardi in merino sweater knit

When this first came out I was interested.  Cardigans are a big part of my wardrobe and I wasn't sure if I would ever achieve knitting one myself, or be dependent on Anthropologie forever for cool quirky knitted items.  So a pattern for sewing a cardigan, I immediately thought of sewing up some sweater knits, and also right away had a lot of modifications in mind.

Which was why I thought over this pattern for a very long time.  It seemed like a slippery slope of a pattern: make one, assess, then make 4 more with various modifications.  This is indeed exactly what is going to happen, but I managed to make that first one right before moving to Nepal, so the mods will have to wait a bit.

The fabric is heavy merino wool sweater knit from The Fabric Store, which I also used for one in my endless supply of undercover hoods (see here).  This would also have benefited from a double layer of fabric, both to give it more body and to make it thicker and cozier.

I very sadly don't know what size I chose.  But it was consistent with the size chart so I would say don't expect to be surprised if you follow the size chart.  The surprise is the sleeves, they were very very long and I lopped off a decent bit and they are still longish and a bit loose.  I would consider tapering them more in the future.






It took me a million years to get the button holes done, which was a terrible terrible experience.  I recommend topstitching that seam allowance down on the far side of the button placket, so that it's out of the way of buttonholes.  I could also have interfaced the placket, but didn't.  On loose fabrics, consider that!

This first cardi is as I expected.  There are many things I plan to tweak for my Magical Perfect Cardi to be.  I'll make another version in something stable, to update these pattern changes like the sleeves.  I will eventually raise the front neck by a solid 3" because I like my cardigans to have full front coverage.  I would lengthen it above the wide hem band by 2" and then add pockets!  And eventually I plan to also add a hood.  And try the other version with the cool little shoulder gathers...

Overall I do like this first version and I am pretty pleased I found a use for these glass buttons.  I am looking forward to that slippery slope of pattern modifications which I also expect to be a fantastic opportunity for some upcycling.  My op-shop-addicted self starts literally drooling at the idea of all the different bits that I could mix and match to make more of these...