Last minute jumpsuit - Grasser 1040

Late last year I made a whole capsule wardrobe for my brother of things that I had in the stash (pattern and fabric), things that he needed, and that he couldn't easily buy due to him having very long limbs (herein referred to as the Long Limbed Sibling Freak (LLSF)).

None of that has made it to the blog yet, but just this last fortnight I've been sewing him a jumpsuit...

It came about because he was in the country and was attending an award ceremony. It should be noted I was not his +1, but I was concerned/curious enough to ask what he was going to wear. I suggested I  might make him a pair of black trousers, but then I decided a jumpsuit would be much more fun. Turns out a jumpsuit, with appropriately long legs and sleeves is something he has always coveted.

 

 

I was excited to try the Grasser 1040 pattern. I'd been impressed with the pattern for P's pants in the last post and am wearing a pair of Grasser pants of my own (as yet undocumented) as I type. 

He was concerned that the pattern model's version looked too big (they kindly give the model's measurements and the size worn, and I think he's wearing about two sizes bigger than he should as well). His only other requests were that the fabric should be soft and plain and the sleeves long enough. Beyond that it was my choice. 

For a jumpsuit to look a bit more awards-ceremony-red-carpet and less mechanic-on-a-lunch-break it needed all those zippers and maybe some silver metallic topstitching.

 

 

I bought the pattern online on Wednesday morning and Creffield Digital Print had the printed roll ready for me to collect before lunchtime. I traced it off that afternoon and then realised I didn't have enough black cotton drill in the stash. Thursday was a long work day, Friday the Anzac Day public holiday and Saturday full of chores and activities. No time to shop for fabric. Thankfully Fibresmith had a warehouse sale on the Friday and I picked up 5m of a lovely cotton drill in a light bluish grey. Spotlight opened in the afternoon and I bought some fabric dye and so then by Saturday I had my black cotton drill, even if it's a weirdly off black shade of black.

 

Sourcing the zippers was the other challenge. I needed 12 zippers in total in no less than 9 different lengths and the lengths would need to be adjusted as I sewed. I'd anticipated this as soon as I bought the pattern so I'd zoomed over to LZF zips in Brunswick where the super friendly staff cut me zipper tape to make 12 zips, put the bottom stops on leaving enough length for each of the zips, supplied all the pullers and plenty of the little top stops for me to apply once the length was correct. And so cheaply too. Five stars for LZF

To make it just a little bit "extra" I used some black and silver flocked iron on transfer material and my Silhouette Cameo to cut a letter G (the LLSF's initial) for one of the pockets

 

 

I couldn't quite follow the pattern's instructions for the pockets as it has you use the zipper tape exposed on one side to make the pocket edge and that only works if you have plenty of tape at both ends of the zip. It would be a curious finish, but impossible if you're only shortening your zippers at one end. 

Most of the rest of the instructions were easy to follow, with the caveat that they're translated (fairly poorly) from Russian and there's a lot of "processing the detail" type phrasing. There are photos although they don't always match the written instruction so you need to have a bit of sewing experience to tackle this one. The drafting is spot on, so once you work out what you're meant to do it all comes together perfectly. Which is good cause I only had two days and a few evenings after dinner to assemble it all.

 The sleeve cuffs, leg hems and waist all have little tabs with snaps so they can be narrowed in a bit. But if you like your legs flared, or need to get your jumpsuit off over your boots there are gusset zippers in the inner leg. Probably completely unnecessary but why not sew on two more zips!

It was finished Sunday night and washed to get the pencil marks out and then ready to wear for Monday night's event. He was delighted!

 So, who got to be his +1 for the awards ceremony? Our mum!

 

 

 

And it turned out that I dressed her as well, as she's wearing a  Vogue 1817 jacket that I made for her two years ago.

 

Details: LLSF: Grasser 1040, size 48, height 188-194, 1.5cm sleeve length added otherwise no alterations. Cotton drill.

Mummy: Vogue V1817, mix of dobby spot linen, plain black linen and a poly/metallic blend spot fabric

More baggy jeans - Grasser 950

When I was searching for baggy jeans/cargo pants for P, in addition to the Mascultory jeans I also came across Grasser 950

 

 

With their elastic waist, lots of big pockets and baggy leg shape, he was super keen and I couldn't resist buying him two patterns.

The patterns are sold as single size and I went with their size 46 based on his measurements, and then you choose from 4 different height ranges. This is the size 46, height 188-194cm with no alterations. He adores them.

The fabric is some of the excellent Japanese stretch cotton drill that I'd bought from Draper's fabrics and used previously. The use of camouflage fabric for this pattern irked me a bit as a lot of the online versions of the pants are balding middle aged Russian guys in camouflage cargopants. I definitely want to make another pair similar to the sand/tan coloured ones in the pattern product images.

 

 

The pattern instructions would have had all these snaps on the pocket flaps hidden inside the flap, but then the topstitching gets a bit dangerous trying to stitch adjacent to an already inserted snap, so I just put them on afterwards and made them visible. 

 At the hem there are these little straps with adjustable snaps, which is kind of neat when you bicycle everywhere and need to keep your baggy pants out of your chain. The Mascultory jeans need to be tucked into a sock on the drivetrain side!

 

These side cargo pockets are almost too big, as if you put what fits into them (his laptop no less!) then the weight of the filled pocket overcomes the elastic waistband and you end up dacking yourself with your own cargo!!

Maybe the next ones will have a modified smaller pocket... Meanwhile I bought myself a Grasser pattern to try as well.

Frocktails 2024

Melbourne Frocktails is always such a blast and the display of garment making talent and taste is extraordinary. Everyone has their own take on "cocktail" and as an organiser the last thing I want is for anyone to feel it's a competition, or that they're under, or over, dressed. Just come as you!

And as an organiser the last thing I've got time to do is make anything over complicated for myself. Enter some easy to sew cotton and a straight outta the packet Vogue pattern:

Bonus it has pockets!

I better start with that fabric cause then I can (maybe) explain what's on my head!

Ages ago I bought some cotton sateen from SuperCheap Fabrics and made this dress for A. I didn't have much expectation of the fabric but when it arrived I really kind of wished I was keeping it for myself. It was a lovely tight, crisp weave with a slight sheen... Anyway, when the same print with a white background recently reappeared on their website, and of course it was on sale (are they never not?!) I snapped some up. From memory it was about $8/m

A moment of calm just before the start of Frocktails 2024

I wanted a fairly straightforward pattern for the print, enter Vogue 1898 a Badgley Mischka pattern that I must have picked up some time ago and stuck on the shelf. 

All I needed was an invisible zip and some lining - the perfect rayon, high quality lining (at all of $12/m) came from Textile Merchants (which happens to be right near Darebin Indoors Sports Centre where the kids were enjoying some track cycling fun over the school holidays. Winning!)

I had a back up plan if this dress didn't work out, which would to make another Vena Cava knit dress in some stashed knit fabric. So with nothing to lose I just cut a straight size 16 as per measurements and sewed it up. No adjustments. Super easy, super cheap. But what to wear underneath it?!

I couldn't find a sewing pattern for a "plunge" bra that would go anywhere near low enough so I hit the shops and found a Spanx branded bodysuit that had a crazy low front, but held everything in nicely (cost about 3x the dress!). Going to the toilet would have been a challenge, but there were so many people wearing jumpsuits (what's the collective noun for Zadies?) I wouldn't have been the only one struggling.

So what's on my head you're asking?

I figured it would be fun to add a bit more bird action to the whole ensemble, so I created this little fellow then made a little fascinator thingy for him to perch on. And you know me, of course I had to over commit to my crafting and complicate things

The crochet bird pattern comes from the Vanessa Mooncie Crocheted birds book which I've dived into a few times already. One of the birds on my dress fabric is a little red breasted robin. There is a robin in the crocheted birds book but I preferred the shape of the wren, so I just adjusted the colours to give him a red chest.

Oh, and I went way down on crochet hook size and used Scheepjes Sweet treats fine crochet cotton so he'd come out suitably tiny.

The bit where you make the wire legs before inserting them in the body always cracks me up

Then I bought as fascinator sinamay base that had a comb on the underside as well as some flowers and foliage from feather.com.au and set about creating something to perch on my head. I was fully expecting it to look ridiculous, but I didn't care. I take my Frocktails job of looking daft enough to put other people at ease very seriously!

I stitched all the flowers and foliage in place then sewed the little birds feet to the branch. Sorry bud! 

I was quite surprised that it almost looked elegant. :) Most importantly it was quite light and pretty secure.

Frocktails was a blast. Like a garage sale, they turn up early and start queuing....

But unlike any garage sale they're an amazingly well dressed bunch! We had just over 400 attendees this year and it was a whirlwind. Lisa always knocks it out of the park with her outfits!

 We made life easier for ourselves by staying in the hotel next to the venue, and had our uber-helpful door blokes on hand again

And so there was a different backdrop for the annual post frocktails bedtime bathroom mirror selfie

Until next year!

Photos are either by me, or the good ones are from Penny Stephens (@bypennystephens)

You said how baggy?

P has been loving his oversized Jalie trackpants which I've made him 4 pairs of now (and a pair of shorts) and made zero notes or blog posts about how oversized or how much extra leg length. He also has a pair of black denim Thread Theory cargo pants that were upsized to a 34 waist (then elasticated) and extra leg length added, also undocumented.

Anyway, he ever so kindly asked me for some massively oversized jeans...

I toyed with the idea of just up sizing a pattern I already had and then cinching in the waist with elastic, but I'd already done that with the Thread Theory and he wanted even bigger. Anyway, pattern shopping sounded much more appealing. I typed something like "ridiculously baggy men's jeans sewing pattern" into a search engine and found a few new to me sewing pattern companies specialising in men's patterns.

I landed on the Mascultory Baggy Jeans_02 an even daggier-crotched baggy version of their Baggy Jeans pattern.

They're single size patterns and he has a good two size discrepancy between waist and hips (as does his dad). While the pattern suggested choosing by hip size for pants I went with waist size as otherwise I was worried they'd just fall straight off him. His waist put him at upper end of size 28 and his hips at the upper end of 32. I went with a size 30.

Instant download and emailed straight to Creffield digital print and I had the pattern in my hands the next day.

The instructions were all on a Youtube tutorial which is not my favourite way to work, but it was clearly presented and nicely done. The buttonfly was the first one I've done and it came together very neatly. All the pattern markings were clear and the whole pattern experience was very good.

 The pattern helpfully give an outer leg length measurement (waist to hem) but I'd only measured the kid's inner leg and I had no idea how low that crotch would be. I added 20cm length when I cut the fabric to be safe but ended up removing all but 7cm of it. Still, if they're going to be ludicrously oversized they can not be too short!

I gave the back pockets a bit of mountain bike embroidery but I was restricted by the black only instructions. I did sneak some reflective silver tape under the pocket edges and threw some labels on.

The fabric was some stashed cotton drill from SuperCheap Fabrics if I remember correctly, so all up, with pattern purchase, printing and fabric it was probably less than $40 total.

And he loves them like they're worth tent times that. Happy days (just don't forget to tuck them into your socks before you get on your bike kiddo)

Shawls (that necessitated white shirts)

Wow, happy new year I guess, and it's April...

I've been making the same ludicrous amount of stuff but I just can't seem to get around to documenting anything. And of course that means I have no idea if that means I added 4" leg length to P's trackpants, or 8" to his sleeve length. And since that's meant to be the whole point of the blog, I get stuck and don't start.

Here's some pictures of shawls I knitted in 2023 that then required me to sew black ponte leggings and white shirts. Which did get recorded on the blog.

This shawl is the Girl's Best Friend Shawl by Isabel Kramer

It came about after I'd attended the She's So Crafty stall/fair with Rootaberger and bought three skeins of gorgeously squishy yarn with no particular plan in mind.

All three are merino/silk/yak light fingering weight. Two from Fluff and Nonsense, and one from The Purl Box (Maven yarn)

Then I just had to find a pattern that would use no more than what I'd bought, all three colours, and be interesting to knit. 

The pattern was very well written and definitely engaging. It also helped that I'd just rolled my ankle at that mountain bike race, round about this time last year, so I was very happy to sit and knit. And knit. And knit. 

I hadn't really thought I was a pom pom person, but they're perfect on the shawl.

I'm sure I then went on to sew, crochet or knit other things. I might have even tidied up, or done my tax return. But since I photographed this next shawl on the same day, it can be documented here, all out of order, as well.

This time I knew exactly what I wanted to make, and then I set out to find the yarn to suit the pattern. The pattern is the Scout Mini Shawl by Florence Spurling

I had so much fun knitting the big Scout Shawl. This one has all same interest generated by little panels of colourwork joined with intarsia, but with a smaller yarn and time outlay. Winner!

The yarns came from Fibresmith and are their hand-dyed merino mini skeins. At that stage Leslie was only selling them in bundles and at 70m/20g I would need two of each colour, plus a third skein of one of them. thankfully, with a little begging email I managed to get a single skein of almost the exact same shade as the two lightest skeins.

Then I just had to work out which ones to use where... It's very low contrast colourwork no matter how I arranged them, but I'm good with that.

This yarn comes in at about 400m/100g and the difference in the final knitted fabric between this, and my original scout shawl is quiet noticeable. this is a really, dense, almost felted feeling fabric. I suspect I may not have swatched and just used the pattern's recommended needle size, whereas I'd gone up two sizes for my Scout Shawl

I could definitely make this pattern over again as well. I guess I'm on my way to having enough little bits of yarn leftovers that a "free" one might come about one day...

NAiMA Pullover

It's been such a constantly rainy day here that it seems appropriate to finally upload some details of a jumper I knitted in winter of last year.

It's the NAiMA Pullover by Ankestrick knitted in cascade Heathers yarn (100g/200m Colour 2431)

I think it was as I was making white shirts I suddenly decided I needed a chocolate brown, chunky knit sweater to wear over them, But then I went and fell in love with a sweater pattern that had a high neck such that it wouldn't work well over a collar with a shirt after all.

I got gauge, or at least very close to, using bigger needles than the pattern recommended: 4.5mm for body and 3.75mm for the ribbing. My gauge was 17 stitches and 22 rows per 10x10cm instead of 16/22 and I guess over a full garment that one stitch per 10cm makes a difference.

I made size 4 which would give me 5" positive ease around the chest but it probably came out a bit smaller, and more fitted, than the pattern model's version. But I really like the fit as it is. Initially I was wishing I'd gone slightly longer in the body, but after wearing it quite a bit last winter I've come around to the top of the hip length. I knitted the straight body version (there balloon shape and  A line shape options) and did, for some reason, stop about 5cm shorter than the pattern suggestion.

The pattern was very well written and was a delight to knit. There is this lovely eyelet pattern that continues from the raglan sleeve down the front and back sides. It's not the softest wool in the world (there's a knitted cardigan in the world's softest wool yet to be blogged about) but over a merino tee it's a very useful winter sweater.

Of course I did then go on to find the perfect V neck pattern (and more yarn :) ) to knit for wearing over my white shirts. That one will have to wait until next winter. It might be raining here but it's not cold enough to be knitting heavy wool