Anna Crop Top

I was looking through Ravelry again, as I sometimes do, and found a crop top sweater that looked really cool. It was the Anna Crop Top from Wiam’s Crafts and I decided that I needed one. So I grabbed some of my Ultra Aran and put it in the chafing dish. The sprinkle effect was created by putting 5 dye colours and citric acid in a little salt shaker and just shaking it all over the yarn. The colours were Jacquard Acid Dyes Spruce, Kelly Green, Chartreuse, Teal, and Emerald. In total, I dyed 4 skeins for the project.

When I started knitting this thing, I was extremely afraid that I’d run out of yarn. So I cast on two sleeves at the same time and hoped that it would work out. I did make a fair amount of changes to the pattern that led to both extra yarn used and less yarn used. In the sleeves, I started them with fewer stitches and decided to do gradual increases. But in the body, I added extra stitches to the bottom because it was very short.

When I knit the right amount of sleeve on both sides, I cast on the total number of stitches that I wanted to end with (a few more than per the pattern). Then some short rows to get the shaping effect. I tried doing the pattern instructions first, but it just turned into a lumpy mess so I gave up. One skein was enough for the full sleeve plus the start of the body. Then I attached another skein to one of the sleeve-body things and continued knitting the rest of the body, front and back. I didn’t want to join it in the middle but on one side, and used Russian Grafting to put it all together.

The join is nearly invisible on the knit side, but there is a little interest on the purl side, which is the side that is showing. Still, you don’t see if from any distance. I’ve not really worn it out yet. I tried it with a pair of dungarees that I recently made and am in the process of writing up, but it was still a little too short and I was worried about the cold. It might be more of a spring/summer thing than a winter thing.

Statement Sleeves

So when planning the graduation outfit, I actually started with the top. Why did I not tell that story first? Because I didn’t end up wearing it at all. I chose a simpler white blouse to go with in the end. The statement sleeves on this one were just too much with the cape. This top was originally a dress pattern, I just didn’t draw the bottom half of it. The pattern was from Simplicity Naaimode 35 – dress models 11-14. This sleeve is from model 12. The set is also known as Simplicity 8511.

For fabric, I chose some thick, white, almost quilted looking fabric that I got in Utrecht some time ago, for I think 1 or 2 euro per meter. I wasn’t sure what I would do with it, but the price was too good so I left with a lot of it. I absolutely cannot be trusted around cheap fabric, I want to hoard it all. Anyway, I traced and cut the pattern pieces and then started putting the top together. This fabric frayed in a very interesting way, so I pulled out the serger to neaten up the insides. Then I had to fit it. The tops of the sleeves were too high, so it was pulled in along the sleeve seams to a more pleasing fit. When trying to apply what I thought was the neckline facing, it took some tries to discover that it was supposed to be a band, not a facing. Before that realization, I’d already retraced the new neckline and made an actual facing. I like this better anyway.

For the sleeves, the instructions said to add buttonholes and such. I didn’t trust the fabric enough, so I put in some thin round elastic that would fit my buttons. The buttons are fabric buttons made with a button press. It took some tries, but I’ve got some lovely buttons now. They were attached to the sleeve cuffs and the elastic can loop over them nicely. I’ve not actually worn the top out yet. I’m waiting for spring to actually arrive so that my arms don’t freeze. I’m also not entirely sure I’m brave enough for it. I guess time will tell.

Froggy Batwing

I bought this froggy fabric somewhere, some time ago. I don’t really remember, but I always thought they were very cute and that my mom would also find them quite funny. They are colourful and different and would be perfect for a top. When I made the Cheshire Cats batwing top, it was basically meant as a wearable mock up for this fabric. I brought it to my mom and when she tried it on, it fit fine but could probably do with a tiny bit more width. So I printed out a new copy of the  Amy Bat Wing Top, now in a size M. There were two adjustments made, one to add a bottom band and one to add a neckline band.

Everything was sewn on the serger apart from a line of stitching around the neckline to keep it in place. This is definitely the benefit of adding bands instead of hemming tops. I really like the frogs and the colours and the shape of the top. My mom also seemed to like it and I still have enough leftover to make a shirt for myself. Now I just need to get around to actually doing it…

Cheshire Tops

While stalking the local market recently, I discovered a jersey with Cheshire Cat faces on it. It was love at first sight and the length went home with me. It then languished in the hoard for a fair few weeks before I got up the energy to make a thing. One of my tried and true t-shirt drafts got picked first because I just wanted to have a cat eye shirt in rotation. My serger was being good and actually worked for the entirety of this project, so that made it a very quick sew. Not much more to say, I’ve got a fair few of these types of shirt in the cupboard and they all get a lot of wear.

After finishing that first top however, I had so much fabric left over that I started considering what to do with it. My penchant of keeping random short bits of fabric in the hoard means that I never seem to fully use up a fabric and I wanted to try and change that. I’d been thinking about bat wing tops for a while at that point as I’m planning on making one for my mother (have not completed that yet). So I looked for a pattern and settled on the Amy Bat Wing Top. Printed out the size small and tried to fit it on the fabric. That didn’t go exactly to plan so I cut the back in a top and bottom and reduced the length of the sleeves a little. Instead of hemming, I added a band along the bottom, similar to the arm bands. The neckline is also banded instead of made with facings.

When I first put it on, I couldn’t figure out if I liked it or not. The sleeves are approximately elbow length, which is not something I generally enjoy. The shape is also completely different to anything I normally wear. However, after living in it for a few days I decided that it was quite nice. I’m just not entirely sure if this will see much wear. There is a lot of fabric but short-ish sleeves so it won’t fit under a sweater but will it suit hot(ter) weather or not? Future will tell if it will escape the cupboard regularly.

Graduation Combo

A couple of weeks ago on Friday, the first in-person graduation at work took place. The first thing I made was a bit.. too much.. so with three or so days to spare, I set out on a new plan. On the original trip to the Rotterdam market, I’d purchased some plaid on white stretch something. I liked the colours and decided that would be the fabric for this outfit. The other decision I’d already made was that I wanted some sort of fake-pants. I’d made an attempt at the Petit Main Sauvage Culottes in 2018 and decided to give that a go again.

I followed the instructions for a knee length version and promptly went to cutting it out. While trying to get my pattern placement symmetrical, I determined that the fabric had the plaid printed, but that it was printed quite crookedly on one side of the fabric. That lead to some challenges with grain lines etc, but really, what did I expect from fabric that was probably 1-2 euro per meter. The culottes were cut from the ‘straighter’ side of the fabric while I waited for inspiration to strike about the top of the outfit I was trying to make.

In the end, I settled on a tried and mostly true pattern for the top. The Garden Party dress. I grabbed the tulip sleeve pieces that I used for the combo dress and got to work. A nice, somewhat scooped neckline, but not too low because of the 30℃ weather prediction, and no closures (I love stretch). The culottes had some added pockets because running a big event without pockets is not a good idea. The one thing I was left with was the waistband/s. I hadn’t made a plan for that yet. You see, I needed the culottes to be one piece as they needed to come off downwards and I wanted to be able to wear them by themselves. However, the total outfit needed to look like a dress, if possible.

I decided to draft a waistband with a point at the front for the culottes. After sewing it on, it gaped like no tomorrow. I hoped that the application of some laundry would help relax the stitches so I chucked it in the wash (it was Wednesday by now, 2 days to go). Thursday came, the outfit was dried and it hadn’t helped at all. So I unpicked the waistband from the skirt, turned it around and applied it to the top. That looked a lot better! I still had some black mesh laying around from the cover up attempt and made a thin waistband from that for the skirt with some added elastic to hopefully keep the skirt up.

All in all, for such an improvised project, I was very happy with how it turned out. I like the colours, I like plaid, I like how I managed to plaid match along the side seams of the culottes. The thing I should have done was applying snaps so that the top and the skirt could stay together, but I never got round to that, so on the day, I just tugged the culottes up and the top down whenever it felt like the gap was too large. I have no doubts that I will wear those culottes when the weather is good. They are comfortable, prevent chafing but allow a breeze. I’m definitely on team Secret Pants!

Flamingoes!

I’ve developed this strange interest in flamingos recently. While I abhor pink, I have a weird fascination with the feathered creatures. What doesn’t help is that they look so funny in cartoon form and that their legs bend the wrong way. So when I saw a fabric at the market that was light blue with gray flamingos on it, I could not resist.

The fabric was a sweatshirt type fabric with a weirdly brushed inside. I decided to make a top. The end result is a pattern hack of Lekala 4742 (made before here Ochre Obsession) and Papavero pattern 0712. I did want the pockets from the Lekala, but the hood was overly large and I liked the big funnel type collar on the Papavero one. The Lekala pattern was shortened between the bust and the pocket opening by 9 cm or so since I also wanted to add a contrast band. I also increased the sleeve width and side width as I had to insert a sleeve gusset in the previous version. This fabric turned out to be a lot stretchier so all those increases were taken out during sewing again. The new collar fit without changing anything, although I did decide to use a single layer and just double fold the edge instead of doing a double layer collar.

Sewing went pretty quickly and I like the look of this thing. I will have to see if the pockets hold up and whether stitching with a straight stitch turns out to be smart in the end. If I get a lot of thread breakage, I know it wasn’t. For now, the weather turned quite warm, but perhaps it will cool down and I can wear it soon.

Warm Birdies

A while ago, I found a bit of fabric that was black and green with birds, reversed on both sides. The black side was somewhat more fluffy and felted, the green side looked more like threads. At some point, again, a while ago, I was cold and wanted to make something warm. This fabric seemed to fit the bill. I chose a pattern from Simplicity Naaimode 31 – patterns 1-4 (also known as New Look 6474). I chose the smallest size, shortened it by a lot to make sure it fit on my limited piece of fabric and started sewing.

Once the basic shape was finished, I put it on and it looked horrible on me. I can’t even describe my feelings about it. Still, I liked the fabric and wasn’t sure what to do at that point. Then I thought of something, perhaps it would fit my mother better. She’s also generally cold and likes colourful things. So wearing something green with birds on, shouldn’t be an issue.

I brought the thing to my parents and asked her if she liked it. She did, so I decided to finish the seams. All seams were folded inwards and sewn down, so it now looks quite nice on the inside. This means that it can be worn with the black side out.

The outside edge and sleeve edges have been finished with bias tape, this also looks neat on the side. I made a little loop at the outside neckline edge, so which ever way it is turned, it can still be put on a hanger. There are also pockets on the green side, which can be used when worn.

I hope she’ll get some joy out of it, and if not, someone else might. I’m just happy it did not end up in my corner of shame…

Edged in Gray

Remember the weird black stuff that was very warm and that has been used as a cover up and key-hole opening top? Well, I pulled out the fabric again the other day and created a thing! The pattern is from Simplicity Naaimode 27, pattern model 5-8, and it is effectively New Look 6417.

I’ve always been interested in this pattern since I bought the magazine, but was never interested enough to actually draw the enormous pattern pieces it required. So one day I sat down and actually got to work. Eventually laying them out on the fabric and cutting it all out. I put it together and as usual with this fabric, the sleeve heads look really wonky. Ah well, they also do that on the key-hole top, so I guess that is the nature of the fabric. Then I went looking through the hoard to find something to edge this thing with. I stumbled on something gray that I think was used before for either a dress or something larp. So I cut that up into bias strips, using a continuous bias tape tutorial. I put it on the vest (?) and chucked the whole thing in the laundry, hoping the shoulder seams would shrink a little.

An hour later and my washing machine revealed a horrible truth. Apparently, I hadn’t caught all of the edges enough when sewing on the gray. This meant that about half of it was.. sticking back out? I didn’t take a picture, it was a horror-sight. So back I went with mr. seam ripper, taking out the stitching on one side. I ironed the edging flat again and folded it over further, now making sure to catch that fold completely such that it wouldn’t ‘unfold’ in the wash again. This worked!

I’ve worn it a few times and it is quite comfortable. In contrast to the original, I put two snaps on the back for the pointy bits. The only annoying thing is that it does not cover too much of my back, so those areas are still quite cold. I’m going to continue to wear it as a cover up, because it does feel mostly good while on.

Larp Shirt for Real Life

The larp shirt was finished and wearing it was quite agreeable, so I decided to make another version to wear in other situations. I used the bird fabric that I’d also used for multiple circle scarves. Since that fabric is extremely shifty, I used quite a lot of spray starch to get the pieces to cooperate. In contrast to the larp version, I did French seams throughout, which was a lot easier since this fabric was much thinner and did not fray as badly. I did not put elastic in the sleeves as of yet. I may decide that it needs it, but I first put it in the wash before trying to wear it out.

The ‘string’ used for the neckline is stitched down at the front, such that it can never undo accidentally. Apart from that, no modifications were made. I am debating that it might have been nice to add some more shaping and/or bust darts in potential future versions. I will have to see how this one wears before deciding.

Short Sleeves for Larp

The weather forecast predicted degrees hovering just below 30 Celsius with no let up in sight. So on Wednesday evening, I went through the pattern magazines stash and found Simplicity 16 – Model 49-52, a blouse with a drawstring top. Traced the pieces, cut out the fabric (leftovers from the long sleeve top) and sewed the thing together.

I used French seams throughout most of it. The fabric frays so badly that this is needed. However, at some points doing that would have made seams so thick that it would not have been comfortable. The sleeve hems are not sown double and the facing is some black bias tape. All in all, the shirt worked quite well which is why there is now a second iteration.. Come back later to check that out.