Ottobre Woman 02/07 #12 Skirt

The second skirt of the week is #12 from Ottobre Woman Spring/Summer 2007. This pattern comes in several variations, I've made it before with a bias cut flounce panel (red skirt on this page) and this time I've made the straight version with front pockets. I much prefer the cut of this pattern on me than an A-line shape, I think it suits me much better. The front pockets are great, they do draw a little attention to that area but they're also the perfect size for my phone, small wallet and my car keys which means I don't have to carry a bag or coat on hot days so I can live with it ;) The purple linen is leftover from an Elodie dress I made in the spring and I left out the lining.



The buttons came from the stash I inherited from my sister's mother-in-law and they are probably older than me!



A poor shot of the invisible zip in the side seam, sorry! I actually sewed the hook and eye onto the inside of the waistband this time, I'm still not quite sure why though. I very rarely do that step because I've never seen a real need for it as my zips close within a few millimetres of the top of the garment and I've never had a problem with them coming open while being worn. I must have been in an extreme 'follow the pattern' kind of mood.



Here's a shot of the inside waistband, it's finished with petersham ribbon and you can see there's no lining. After stitching in the ditch across the side seam to hold the petersham in place I found it still flipped up at the front and back so I also stitched in the ditch along the darts and it now behaves itself.



I will definitely use this pattern again, it goes together very quickly and fits nicely.

New Look 6511

Carrying on with my S.W.A.P sewing for myself, a red linen skirt using New Look 6511. I made view B which is a *lot* shorter than I thought it would be. It hits just above my knee and I'm very glad I forgot to shorten the pattern before sewing as I usually do (short legs you see) as I'm definitely past wearing mid thigh skirts! The red linen and buttons came from stash and I used an invisible zip in the side seam instead of messing around with a lapped zipper.



I love the shaped front yoke, that's the detail that originally sold me on this pattern.



The back has two more tabs for the self fabric belt and a straight yoke. The front could really do with three belt carriers, it rides up at the sides. I will no doubt forget I said that when I make it again.

Ottobre Woman 02/07 #16 Capri Trousers

Well, I tackled the zipper. It took a little fiddling and I stuck pins in my fingers more than once but it's in, it works and it's pink so it's good :)



There they are, officially my first pair of "proper" trousers for myself. The pink striped linen is years old, I'm pretty sure I used it to make a pair of maternity trousers when I was pregnant with Princess and she's seven next month. It's a nice summery fabric, the colours match with the tops I've already sewn pretty well and it's cool for hot days. I found the buttons in my stash, I think Princess persuaded me to pick them up a while ago hoping for a pinafore dress but they have found a new purpose.



The zipper is also from stash, it was several inches to long but they're easy to shorten and the colour matched nicely. I even remembered to turn up the hem on the inner waistband before topstitching it down so the inside has a neater finish than my norm.



On the whole, I am pleased with these. They're a bit tight round the bum but a few more weeks of aerobics will take care of that! The pockets are great, nice and roomy with a smallish opening so things stay in them properly. I was worried about how wide the legs looked in the magazine but they're actually OK on me, I don't feel like a stiff breeze will carry me away. I think I may well make another pair.

Father's Day 2011

We had a home made Father's Day this year. The kids made their own cards, baked and decorated cookies, wrote out coupons for Daddy to redeem (e.g. play quietly for ten minutes, read a story to my sister, fetch your slippers...you get the idea :) and helped me make him a new t-shirt. They traced and painted their hand prints, I cut and sewed together.



The pattern is, as always, Jalie 2918. The fabric paint isn't quite as red in reality as it appears in the photo and the brown jersey was from stash. Snazzy red top stitching and hems to match the paint.



He was very pleased to come home from work and find his gifts :)

Summer S.W.A.P for me

Sewing With A Plan, not swapping things with someone else this time :) I'm joining in with a mini-SWAP sew along on Sewing Mamas where we're filling in our summer wardrobe blanks to ideally end up with a versatile, mix and match collection of clothes. I have an absolute dearth of summer clothing that I actually like wearing so my wish list is a little long.

• three vests (tank tops)
• two t-shirts
• three skirts
• one dress
• one shorts
• one workout shorts
• one or two capri's

I have made a start though, I might even get halfway through before autumn is here :D The workout shorts were an urgent need, I've been doing aerobics in my Ottobre yoga pants and the velour is a really, really bad fabric for working out in summer. There was plenty of orange interlock leftover from the kids pj's though so I stuck with the Ottobre pattern and lopped off most of the length to get a perfect pair of summer workout shorts.


I went to work on the vests too, these use the Ottobre Woman Creative Workshop 303 package and the knits are from stash.


One t-shirt is completed using the Jalie Sweetheart pattern and an embroidery from Emblibrary. The fabric is one of my favourites, a gorgeous bamboo lycra from The Fabric Fairy.



I'm working on the first pair of capri's now, they have a fly front zip which I haven't made before and I'm psyching myself up for the zipper insertion. Maybe tomorrow!

Summer sleepwear

All of the kids needed summer sleepwear this year, nothing from last year fit or was in a state to be handed down so after a quick stash dive I found around five yards of melon/orange interlock which I swear I didn't buy, maybe my stash is breeding?? It's not a colour any of us usually wear but for a quick batch of pj's it was just perfect.

Boy first and a chance to try out two new patterns that have been on my list for a while. The tank tops are from Ottobre summer 2005, #35 and the boxers are Jalie 2327. I made a slight change to the Jalie pattern and cut the front crotch piece on the fold instead of putting a seam down the middle of the crotch which sounded very uncomfortable. That gave me a little excess fabric on the centre front which I gathered to fit the back crotch piece, I could have sewn a dart in but again it sounded uncomfortable. The gathering has worked well and Boy reports they are a good fit and he would like some more please. The tank tops are a good fit too, it's not a style he usually wears but he is liking them for pj's and with how hot he gets at night I think I will make this my GoTo pj top pattern for him. The velvet iron-ons are from stash too, he picked them out.




Princess and monkey both have a modified version of my old favourite, Ottobre Summer 2007 #15. I changed the pattern to be A-line instead of having a separate gathered skirt and the edges are bound with green FOE. The girls picked out their iron-ons and the modelled versions have their initials embroidered on the chest.




Toddler has three new sets too, her shorts are Ottobre Summer 2007 #10 and the t-shirt is Summer 2010 #14. The shorts are an old favourite of mine, very quick and easy to make. This is my first time trying the t-shirt pattern and I like the fit which is a little slimmer than most of the others I've tried. It's also one of the few t-shirt patterns that uses a band on the neck and sleeve edges rather than binding which I think makes construction faster and easier. Two orange pairs and another one squeezed out from the grey flower print.




All done for another year :)