I’ve finally emerged from the craptacular flu (which then turned into bronchitis) that I’ve been under since Dec 28 – thank you for all your well wishes! For me, it really feels like the new year, 16 days late!
The Ruby Slip was my first garment of 2012, but my second and third aren’t far away…
Grey flannel trousers
Just before Christmas, I met up with Claire for lunch and she gifted me a massive length of wonderful dark grey flannel. It’s so soft and lovely that initially I thought a dress, but then realised I’m likely to get much more wear out of a really chic, comfortable pair of dress trousers. So on Friday night I traced and cut Burda Jan 12 #122, mostly because the issue was handy, but also because they looked to be a great basic. These have the illustrated instructions for this issue, but I could sew trousers blindfolded by this point, so the instructions didn’t make much difference to me.
I sewed this on and off over the weekend and nearly completed these despite hardly being at home. As a nice tie-in to my previous garment, the pockets, fly underlap, and waistband lining are all done in the pale green silk leftover from my Ruby Slip.
These are finished apart from the hem – I added 11+ cm onto these to be full length rather than “my god my ankles are cold” like the original pattern…
Manequim sweater
Mentally, I’m already on my next garment – the collared sweater from the June 2011 Manequim magazine:
The pattern is only offered in size “Small” (whatever that is, I doubt it’s me!), so I’m going to trace the collar piece and the neckline shape, and morph these onto a standard long sleeved teeshirt pattern (either my KnipMode one or BurdaStyle’s Lydia, whichever traced pattern I find first).
Happily, last year there was a discussion thread about this pattern on PR, during which there was a lot of discussion about its construction. User aonori made this super useful diagram, which really gives me an “Ah-ha!” moment for how the collar goes together:
I’ve got some awesome ex-Versace sweater knit from Ditto in Brighton that I’ve been wanting to sew since I bought it last winter, but it’s really narrow so everything else I’ve tried hasn’t fit on my 2m piece. I did a preliminary, pre-tracing layout and it looks good for this, though.
(No, I’m not sick of grey yet, thankyouverymuch!)
February Burda dress
And finally, like a ton of other sewing ladies, I am head over heels in love with this dress from the February 2012 Burda magazine. My issue arrived this weekend and I want it even more now. LOVE. Because I’m trying not to buy more fabric, I’ll be making it (probably) in some royal blue viscose jersey from my stash (also from Ditto), though temptation to buy some nice ponti roma from Tia Knight is strong!
PS: A big hello to my granddad, who’s learning to use the internet for the first time and apparently checks FehrTrade every day. Hi Pop!