As I cut out the fabric for my recent raglan sweatshirt, I also used the leftovers to cut out two bonus makes! The October 2023 edition of Burda magazine had some surprisingly nice winter accessories – #132 (balaclava) and #133 (mittens) as well as a muff (tube to put your hands into). Even better is that these are all FREE downloads on the English BurdaStyle site!
Black flap mittens and a balaclava
A black raglan sweatshirt with a designer touch
Once I could finally sit up for a few minutes after the initial Covid infection had passed, I wanted an easy project to get back into sewing. Something that wouldn’t have too many pieces to cut out, and I could sew on my overlocker, and be something I could sew without having to concentrate too much.
The October Burda magazine was a pretty good issue overall, and I really liked the look of Burda 10/23 #112. It ticked all my boxes for this, plus I had everything I needed in my stash!
A fun knit bat dress
I’ve done a bit of impulse fabric shopping while I’ve been stuck in bed (no jury would convict), but the one that’s had the shortest stay in my stash has been this bat print jersey. I saw it on a few Instagram accounts but then ended up buying some when it was nearly sold out everywhere! It’s Art Gallery Fabrics “Winging It” (95% cotton 5% elastane), and I bought my 1.9m remnant from Sew Sew Sew for £27 total (now sold out pretty much everywhere!).
The fabric is super soft with great stretch and recovery, but has some white show-through when stretched. It’s also a dark grey rather than a black so it looks a bit washed out even brand new…
I decided to pair it with the Named Tuuli (bodysuit and dress) pattern which I bought a few years ago, possibly in one of their great advent calendar sales(?) but never quite got around to sewing. IMHO this is a criminally overlooked pattern and such a wonderfully flattering winter knit dress!
An asymmetric swimsuit
It’s been a while since I’ve had to write a negative pattern review but hoo boy, this one’s a doozy. The thing is, I ended up with a finished swimsuit that I really like and feel great in, but that’s in spite of this pattern, not because of it. I significantly redrafted all the pieces and relied heavily on another blogger’s instructions in order to get to the finished result.
I’m not even sure how the Edgewater Avenue “Marley One Piece” pattern came on my radar, tbh. I’ve never heard of the brand before, but they seem to specialise in swimwear sewing patterns and this particular one was on sale for $5 for a limited time, so I bought it.
About the pause…
I’m mostly posting these because I have a bit of a backlog of posts building up and I didn’t want to make them even longer than they already are – also one is a swimsuit from July and it’s November now! And because I felt I owed my long-term readers an explanation as to why I haven’t posted in nearly two months…
It’s been over seven weeks since I first tested positive for Covid. In total, I tested positive for 25 days (including a PCR at hospital on Day 24). During this time I had a wide array of symptoms but the worst was a crushing fatigue, at something like 10-20% of normal energy levels, leaving me stuck in bed for 23hrs a day.
Two monochrome Rest Vests
I made two MadeIt Patterns “Rest Vests” back in 2000, one in the original fit, and a second […]
Business casual jean shorts
I never really used to wear shorts very much before a) the pandemic and working from home, and b) the Closet Core Patterns Pietra Shorts changed my entire view on wearing shorts. But I’ve made SO many of them now (5? 6?) that I felt like I should do something different.
So when the Closet Core Patterns “Poppy Camp Shorts” were announced recently, I felt like these could be another great contender for me! This was the July pattern for Closet Core’s monthly pattern club, Crew Patterns. Tbh, I loved the look of these shorts so much that I signed up for a month just to get this pattern! Though now that the month has gone you’ll need to sign up to their Unlimited Membership to get these shorts and other past months’ patterns.
A crazy cat swimsuit
We’ve got a holiday coming up in September, and despite the destination being decidedly un-beachy (Berlin! By train!), we’ll actually be spending four days entirely in swimsuits while we celebrate four wedding anniversaries at Tropical Islands.
I’ve still got two me-made swimsuits I’m really happy with – this Aztec-print Seamwork one from 2015(!) and the pastel bikini set I made last summer for lounging in our hot tub. But it’s always fun to make something new for a holiday, and since I’ll literally be walking around in my suit for the entire day, I didn’t feel like it was too extravagant to sew some more.
A Sports/Casual Versatili-Tank
I was pretty restrained with US-based fabric buying when my mom visited from the States in May, but I did splurge and buy two fabrics from Sew Dynamic for her to bring over in her suitcase. You already saw the botanic/animal print athletic lycra which became one of my favourite Triumph Suit samples, but I also bought a yard of their Drirelease base fabric in the “Prism Peaks” print.
This particular print may be sold out already but I am absolutely sold ON this Drirelease base fabric! Like all their fabrics, it’s made with recycled poylester (82%), and despite being an activewear fabric, it feels like a soft teeshirt material. It’s really, really wonderful and as soon as it arrived, I kicked myself that I didn’t buy more (and at $25/yd that’s saying something)!
A Cheery Bamboo Versatili-Tee
I’ve been sewing quite a lot of “blanks” recently – basic tanks or tees. Some of these I’ve used as vessels for heat set vinyl (like the green and black IWTV ones), but others I’m keeping plain.
I’ve not got too much to say about this particular teeshirt, but I think it’s nice to share wardrobe workhorses as well as fancier makes, because often these are the sort of garments that get worn most of all.