Me made May 16 days 1-8

Two posts in one week!  It must be May!  I'm going to start this week's round up with a refashion, partly to save those of you who follow me on Instagram from total boredom and partly because I love it. 

I started with this jumper; a men's Asos  lambswool jumper.  It had a couple of moth (or something) holes and was too big. 

I started by pinning to bring the arm holes up to what might approximate my shoulders and pinning in the sides. I also put in bust darts which for future reference is a mistake in a fabric like this. 

I wanted a copped jumper so removed the ribbing, took a chunk off the length and then reattached the ribbing.  I found that serging the ribbing back on resulted in a very wavy join so I then topstitched the seam.  It's not really visible as the fabric absorbs the stitches but makes the whole jumper sit more pleasingly.

 I also wanted to try out the hi-low thing which is everywhere and I've never been a big fan of but thought might work well for this jumper.

The next step was to darn and embellish. I knew I wanted a bit of excitement on my jumper. One of my friends has a great jumper with similar gems on the front and I shamelessly ripped it off. The gems were from simply sequins and at £10.95 for a bag, they added considerably to the cost of my refashion. However I still have loads left for other projects.

You can just about see the darning in the above photo.  I feel like it's seriously overshadowed by the bling and this was exactly what I wanted.

You're not getting to see this jumper on as obviously the second I finished adjusting a lambswool sweater, the weather upped its game and I didn't fancy wearing it in the 20+ degree weather we've been experiencing.  I'm totally not complaining, even if I do have to wait a while to wear my new jumper. 

So on to the daily round up:

Day 1: lady skater dress. I've not made one of these for a while and I think it may be time for another! 

Day 2: feather plantain t-shirt (unblogged)

Day 3: Ultimate trousers and thrifted top

Day 4: refashioned jumper skirt, Angelica top

Day 5: Sleeveless maxi lady skater (unblogged) This is the point at which I started to fail at the photos.  Seriously it took 5 days!  I'm sure this will pop up again this month though as wearing it made me remember how much I love maxi dresses.

Day 6: My Jade skirt and a Dolores top, complete with photo bombers who are apparently better at posing for photos than I am.

Day 7: Carolyn pyjamas
I was super hungover this day so did not fancy getting a photo but I enjoyed having my lovely pyjamas to feel sorry for myself in!

Day 8: ultimate shorts (unblogged) and vintage tie top

Right, thats my week-see you all again next week.  I'm loving seeing everyones round ups.

Opal cardigan review

I was really excited when I got selected as a reviewer for Paprika Paterrns latest pattern; the Opal cardigan.  Having recently made the Jade skirt I was impressed with their PDFs and instructions and excited to try the latest offering.  I made a couple of design alterations to my cardigan. These were partly due to the fabric I chose to use and partly because I wanted a bit of waist definition.

Actually despite having just mentioned making a change to create waist definition I like this photo without the belt-as the pattern intended-maybe that will teach me to meddle!

The fabric I used was this one from girlcharleeuk. I had originally ordered it for a different project but when it arrived I felt it was a bit fine and drapey for that purpose but as it was lovely and soft I did want to wrap myself up in it so it became my Opal cardigan. However as it is so fine, it was a nightmare to sew! I constructed most of the cardigan using my overlocker which slightly felt like I was using a sledge hammer to crack a nut, this fabric feels like it should be sewn up by fairies with tiny delicate stitches. The overlocker did the job though. My sewing machine could not cope with this fabric at all. It just looked like a mess when I tried to do almost anything, although the hem was done on the sewing machine and I managed not to mangle the fabric. One of the pitfalls of having such a basic machine is that it really struggles to cope with any complicated fabrics or stitches. For this reason I decided to ditch the pockets too. Actually with hindsight this was probably a good thing as the fabric is so drapey that I don't think they would have stood up as pockets very well.

So now let's chat about the pattern.  Having now made two of the Paprika patterns I am happy to sign up as a fan.  They're just so well drafted and I find the instructions great and full of specific and helpful details.  With the Jade skirt I appreciated the interfacing pieces and with this one it was a few lines on sewing up areas that will get strain such as the top of the pockets and shoulders.  Lisa suggests using clear elastic or a piece of jersey cut on the grain.  I had never seen this second method recommended before and decided to give it a go and it was great.  I think it particularly helped with my super fine fabric.

I decided that since my fabric was going to be draping over every lump and bump anyway, I would add some belt loops and a belt to allow me to close the cardigan (I prefer to do this when I'm cold) and also to create some waist definition.  I was super easy to do this.  I just created 2 little tubes for the loops and a bigger, longer tube for the belt.  Before I sewed the side seams I just draped the cardigan over my mannequin and marked the waist point and pinned the loops to it and then just sewed up the side seams as instructed.  One thing I would say about this pattern is that the arm come up very long.  This is fine if like me you have super long monkey arms and like having your sleeves come down over your hands but something to bear in mind if you're not.  The dopey photo below was the only one where you could see the length of the sleeves with my fingers peeping out.

While the fabric I picked really wasn't that appropriate, I still see myself getting some wear out of this version.  I'm also seriously drooling over a couple of the versions I've seen so far, like Lisa's long version and Charlotte's woven version.  A coatigan like one of these may pop up in my future.  How about you, are you tempted by this pattern?

For any of my US readers, as part of the Opal launch, Gorgeous Fabrics are offering 20% off all their full price sweater knits with the code PAPRIKA20 until the 15th March. 

I am on serious count down to my Friday night glass of wine.  Happy weekend all!  Hope you all have fun wine or non-wine related weekends planned.

Where I manage to make my life more complicated

So today I'm going to tell a story of how I took a well explained, relatively simple pattern and manage to make a series of ridiculous errors! However, fortunately it has a happy ending. 

I had been coveting the Paprika patterns Jade skirt pretty much since its release. I'm not sure why it kept getting pushed down my 'to buy' list, especially as I had the fabric I wanted to make it up in in my stash-a ponte that I bought from minervacrafts a couple of years ago. 

I love the way the stripes go crazy directions with the pleats!

To make allowances for a lack of stretch in my fabric I cut a 5 on the waist grading to a 6 at the hips. This was an error on multiple fronts, as my measurements meant that I should have made a 4 at the waist, grading to a 5/6 at the hips. Firstly, I really should have checked the fabric recommendations in relation to stretch, the stretch needed for the skirt is not that great!   Secondly I really need to get my head around the idea that there is a significant difference between my waist and hips, and cut out accordingly.

This was my first time making a paprika patterns pattern and I found the instructions really clear and I loved some of the user friendly details of the pattern such as the tiny pattern pieces for interfacing-not strictly necessary but super user friendly.  With this pattern there is also the added bonus of technique tutorials and videos on the paprika patterns website. So far so good, however then I started making errors.  I followed the video to create the pleats which made it really straight forward but somehow I kept managing to drop them out as soon as I started stitching.  I must have repeated this step about 5 times, I cannot tell you how frustrated I was!  I got there in the end though thankfully.

I love the exposed zipper detail and I don't why it looks like there is a pucker at the bottom but I can assure you that there isn't.  Having spent some time working on my exposed zippers for my last pair of Ultimate trousers I decided not to look at the paprika patterns tutorial which was a shame because   their tutorial ensures that the exposed zipper looks as good on the inside as its enveloped between the lining and outer shell.  My freestyle method left an unclean finish on the inside which is sad as the rest of the construction leaves a lovely neat finish on the inside.

Despite all my self criticism, I now have a new skirt that I love.  The pleats are a very cute detail and the skirt is a really wearable addition to my wardrobe.  I'm also really glad that I've found a new pattern and pattern company that I got good results with.