Sew Blue February

My sew blue February contribution is the Yasmin Yoke skirt by Maria Denmark. I think I love Maria Denmarks patterns, they fit me pretty good without much messing around, the style is good for me and she has started making her patterns available in a C cup as well as the standard B cup – (good for us lazy c cup seamstresses).

I’ve made the Edith dress twice, Laura Lounge pants twice, Brigitte T shirt , Kirsten Kimono tee and Day to night drape top all numerous times and the Yasmin skirt twice now. (I also have her three newest patterns downloaded and waiting for spring (ie. time) to make).

The Yasmin skirt is a slightly A lined shape with a Yoked waistband, comes in two lengths and has pockets! I started with size 42 at the waist grading to 44 at the hips and made it the longer length. I took it in a further 1/4″ or 1 cm at the waist when I had the shell ready for fitting on.

 

I trimmed 1 ” from the bottom of the skirt and turned up a 11/2″ hem.

The fabric is a Royal Blue 8 whale from Calico Laine. I added a lining – just some regular stuff I had in the stash and lined the yoke with some nice butterfly cotton I bought a few metres of last year on my fabric splurge trip to Utrecht.

Need more practise matching seams!

I attached the lining to the Yoke facing and then attached it to the main skirt  and sewed on down along the invisible zip to have a nice clean finish. First time I managed that, I usually end up slip stitching the lining to the zip tape but so glad this worked.

This skirt took around 3 days of 1 hour increments to make, its great to have TNT patterns like this for instant gratification.

 I love wearing these kind of skirts – they are ‘me’! I just wish I had the confidence to wear more often without justifying it – I’ve said before on twitter  that I don’t fit into the working from home/stay at home mother uniform – I like making and wearing skirts & dresses and most are very comfortable & practical but I get comments & looks which make me feel uneasy – stated as compliments but I know its like a sneer or they are not comfortable with my dress sense (why am I not wearing Jeans/ track bottoms all the time).

Maybe I should get over it and not be so sensitive!

Right, thanks for reading, I have photos taken for my next post – its the Fehrtrade PB Jam Leggings and XYT Top. Watch out for it………

The Three Lolas

I stumbled upon Lola on a blog  (cant remember where) and thought she looked snuggly and easy to wear. So I did a bit of research on pattern review, asked Twitter and got some feedback. Heather had muslined it and found it had a lot of ease (I noted that), Ginger had made hers in ponte. So off I went and downloaded the pattern pdf, traced and muslined the bodice with some jersey scraps.

Navy Lola

I cut out size 8-10-12 (bust – waist- hips -you will find this is my usual grading for all patterns as I am a juicy pear!). When I had muslined I decided to add 2cm ( 3/4″ ) to the bodice length and 12cm (5″) to the skirt length. So I went ahead and cut the dress out of some navy morgan crepe jersey I got from Minerva last Autumn. I decided to forgo the side pockets as I thought they would draw too much attention to my thighs and to leave off the bottom cuff initially at least to see how I liked it without. When I was ready to attach the bodice to the skirt I basted it first and realised I needed to take it in along the vertical seams at the waist, so took 1cm (1/4″) out of the seams here on bodice and skirt and then stitched it up on my overlocker. Added the neckband and cuffs as normal then turned up 2 cm (3/4″) hem and stitched on my machine.  After wearing this dress I decided I needed more. I was also curious about Ponte, I had only used this fabric once before for a Burda sweater type thing that just was all wrong. But I’d seen so many lovely garments on blogs made in ponte I had  to try again.

I ordered 2m of Turquoise double knit from Calico Laine and cut out another Lola. It was a few weeks since I made the first one and I forgot to add on the extra length to the skirt, it ended up waaayy too short to wear even with leggings (for me) so I had just enough fabric left to add a 7 cm (3″) to the length. It turned out just fine, and I wore it loads.

I’ve gotten loads of compliments for this dress. I was out for a pre Xmas lunch with some of the girls from the school run – one who works in a top end boutique said she had just sold a similar dress to a customer for almost €300!!! Now, she said it was more fitted with more seams but mine didn’t even cost me €30. The RTW dress must have had jewels sewn into the hem!

So after wearing the first two dresses to death, last week I decided I needed another Lola. I had a look through my meagre stash and decided on some purple double knit also from Calico Laine. The only changes I made to this version were I remembered to add the 12 cm to the hemline and I extended the sleeves to full length.

On all three Lolas I omitted the triangle on the neckline, I thought it would be a bit fiddly.

For other cool Lolas check out Gillians dresses, I love her Jungle January Lola. A few others have popped up recently on blogland including Lauren, Rachel made hers back in June 2013. And if you google it theres loads more out there.

Time to move onto my next TNT pattern, Oh I wonder what that will be?? Could it be the Fehr Trade PB Jam Leggings?? I’ve just purchased some lycra and I am half way through construction so hope to have my first version finished possibly over the weekend!!

Stay Tuned, have a lovely weekend!

Maeve