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A Trio of Paxson Tops

James has lost a lot of weight in the last six months, from a combination of cycle commuting, cutting back his drinking to three nights a week, and both of us eating low carb. He’s managed to shift his beer belly (“food baby!”) in a matter of months, but it also means that most of his clothes are too big for him. So with a December birthday and Christmas, I managed to sew him three different versions of the Seamwork Paxson top pattern to try and fill in his wardrobe a bit.

The grey wool/viscose Paxson

This first Paxson was made for his birthday using a charcoal grey wool/viscose jersey from Fabric Godmother. It’s not the cheapest jersey out there but it feels so warm and you can just tell from the feel alone that it’s a high quality fabric. It washes nicely and has great stretch and recovery, and I totally recommend it.

This first version fit him fairly well straight off the pattern – it’s nice and slim fitting through the waist and hips, and the sleeves were plenty long enough, too. The only issues were really around the neck area, so I made a mental note to adjust the pattern…

The claret wool/viscose Paxson

This next version is almost identical to the first – the fabric is the exact same wool/viscose jersey from Fabric Godmonther, only in the claret colourway. Why change when he was so happy with the first version, right?

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Black Kimono Sweat and Floral Aires Leggings

It’s back to work for most of us today, but I hope you’ve had a relaxing and/or productive holiday break! We had a brilliantly low-key Christmas, followed by quite a few days just spent at home, some of them in the sewing cave (or in Fallout 4, in James’s case), some spent painting the boat in the unseasonably warm weather, and even a quick trip down to Poole thrown in for good measure!

I was able to sew up a few things over the holidays (never as much as I intend, but I’ve made great progress in this regard!), including a few pieces of activewear. Try not to look so surprised, eh??

Kimono Sweat top

I love wearing my green sweatshirt View A version of my Kimono Sweat sewing pattern so much that I just knew I had to make another to throw on over my sweaty workout gear or just throw on with jeans. I had some black cotton sweatshirting leftover from the hoodie I made my nephew for his Christmas present, originally bought from Josery (which is milled and manufactured in the UK!).

No modifications for the pattern here – I sewed this up in size Small and I resisted the urge to use a contrast thread colour for the neckline, hem, and sleeve topstitching, going with all black instead. I used my coverstitch machine from the wrong side of the garment to get a faux-flatlock sort of stitch on the right side, similar to my grey version, though it’s hard to see in the photos.

If you fancy sewing up your own, good news – you can buy the sewing pattern right over here!

Aires capris

I’m not shy when it comes to how much I enjoy Seamwork magazine and their patterns – I’ve written quite a few articles for them over the past year, and I’ve been a subscriber since day one. But up until now, I’ve been just as in the dark over what that month’s patterns will be until the 1st of the month. But for the new January 2016 “Body Issue”, when they got in touch asking if I’d like to write an article describing pattern and movement considerations for different exercises (which you can read here!), and I was also offered the chance to sew up the new Aires capris pattern a week early!

You may have noticed that mine are not capris, however – I personally don’t like to wear capri length anything (though I know many of you do!), so I lengthened mine to be full-length leggings. I used a gorgeous floral photo printed lycra from Funkifabrics as the main fabric, and some fluorescent yellow mesh from Tia Knight (that had been in my stash for sports bras) for the contrast leg panel as well as the pocket lining.

Inspiration

Happy 2016! (My year in review)

Each year I like to take the first of January to look back on what I’ve sewn in the previous year. So while this post is a celebration of the new year, it also helps me to put into perspective the year that has just gone. Somehow I always think the year has been a bit low on finished makes until I put everything together for the year’s collage!


Click the image to see it better, or right-click here to see it in a new tab to get a better look!

Tip: If you’d like to skim back through the posts for the above projects, you can click Gallery in the top menu, which will only show you finished projects, without all the magazine reviews and in-progress reports getting in the way! (Though a few of the makes in the bottom row I haven’t blogged about yet!)

The Year in Stats

In terms of pattern companies used this year, I made:

  • 25 FehrTrade patterns (I put my money where my mouth is I guess!?),

  • 9 Seamwork magazine,

  • 6 Self-drafted (including traced from RTW),

  • 4 Jalie (well, the same sports bra pattern four times!),

  • 3 from the Great British Sewing Bee: Fashion in Fabric book,

  • 2 Burda Style magazine,

  • 2 Style Arc,

  • 2 Orange Lingerie,

  • and 1 each from La Maison Victor magazine, Named, Paprika Patterns, Imagine Gnats, Simple Sew, and Kwik Sew.

By my count, I made: 21 tops, 19 trousers (including leggings & shorts), 2 jumpsuits,
2 dresses, 10 pieces of lingerie (bras, panties, slips, etc), 1 bikini, 2 jackets/coats/cardigans and zero skirts (!). I made presents for my mom, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew, and James also received four tops and a pair of lounging bottoms this year, the lucky guy!

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Santa Hat leggings around town

It’s a bit of a long story how I came to have a meter of Funkifabrics’ santa hat lycra (short version: a friend wanted leggings made, then went AWOL), but I figured I needed to sew it up in December or face it taking up room in my stash for another year. So around the beginning of the month I pulled out my modified KwikSew 3636 leggings pattern and sewed myself a festive pair in about a half hour flat. This time around though, I actually remembered to add in the back pocket from my Steeplechase Leggings pattern, so I can stash my phone in there without needing to wear an armband.

I managed to get a few festive runs in them before the end of the month, and on the last pre-work run before Christmas, I paired them with my teal merino Surf to Summit top and an all-supplex Santa hat (complete with ponytail hole and hidden elastic to keep it on my head!) that I made last Christmas and ran round my usual river route taking idiotic photos just for fun!

First up were some timer shots with Tower Bridge…

…then a selfie with St Paul’s cathedral, where I managed to contort myself in order to get both hat and leggings in the same shot…
Inspiration, Magazine

La Maison Victor magazine Nov/Dec 2015

My bestie Pip recently travelled to Belgium for a pre-Christmas trip round the markets and spotted this for me on her way back through Eurotunnel Calais (the WH Smiths on the Calais side regularly stocks La Maison Victor, which is handy if you’ve got friends or family who regularly travel through there). This is their holiday issue but there are a surprising amount of casual patterns included, too.

First up, this is my absolute favourite pattern in this issue – check out the back on this dress!! It’s actually a really simple effect to sew, too, with two deep pleats in back and a simple hook and eye at the neckline. The front is very plain (wisely leaving the interest to the back) and the dress has an overall shape which is very trendy right now. Plus it’s offered up to size 56, and the silhouette would lend itself to disguising a few extra holiday mince pies, too.

LMV always include as many boys patterns as they do for girls, though this sweet little hoodie could easily work for either gender, depending on your fabric choice. (The men’s pattern this month is just a boring waistcoat).
Inspiration, Magazine

Burda magazine January 2016

It’s the first of the 2016 Burda magazines! Burda have been really hit and miss for me in 2015, but let’s take a peek inside and see what the future may hold…

On the left, we’ve got a slightly odd “dress that looks like separates” with a nice cowl back. Only thing is that there’s an extra layer underneath the cowl, which just kinda makes it look frumpy. On the right we see a casual sweatshirt cape that a lot of sewists have been going nuts over, but to me it just looks like it would be cold with that massive open bottom. Something more close fitting and longer like Paprika Patterns’ Zircon sweatshirt dress would be much warmer IMHO.

Burda are really getting into this separates-as-a-dress thing, as we see the top and skirt seen in this dress later in the issue as separates, too. Though in my opinion, they actually work better together as a dress. And on the right we’ve got another oversize sweatshirt, this time with an asymmetric bit of gathering at the hem.
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Pale orange Kimono Sweat tank (View B)

I’ve been holding back this version of my Kimono Sweat pattern for quite a few months because it’s a perfect summer workout top, so I wanted to save it for the Southern hemisphere summer. So Aussies, Kiwis, Saffas, and South Americans, this post is for you!

It’s been a while, so to refresh your memory: View B is a sleeveless tank/vest top with a banded, scooped neckline and straight hem. Deep armholes, and loose, draped sides make this a perfect warm weather workout top for those who prefer a looser fit (and showing off a fancy sports bra!).

You saw my athlete model Lorna modelling a red bamboo version earlier this year but I made this one using a pale fluorescent orange marled “cotton touch” tech jersey I got from my Sweaty Betty insider friend (sorry!). You can use pretty much any lightweight and drapey jersey for this view, but if you’re using it for exercise, be sure to stay away from cotton jerseys which will absorb sweat (ewww!).

I designed this view after seeing so many ladies in my running crew cutting up their race tops to have deep armholes, ready for showing off a fancy sports bra. But regardless of your bra, this is by far the coolest and airiest top I’ve ever run in – you get a great cooling breeze as you run but without revealing too much skin, or having clingy fabric around your waist.

I paired this top with my latest Duathlon Shorts in the booty length that I sewed up before the British Transplant Games at the start of August, made in the suitable jazzy summertime “Aztec Stripe” print in the green colourway (it also comes in purple or yellow), with a bit of leftover scrap fluorescent red wicking lycra for the side panels and some grippy elastic on the hems. Together, these are just about the perfect summer running combo!!

Inspiration

The perfect day off – fabric shopping!

I hope you’re all enjoying the holiday season, whether you’re sewing gifts for family and friends, or taking time out for yourself, or as I’ve been doing – a bit of both! I had some excess holiday days to use up at my office job before the end of the year, so I just took some random days off here and there, earmarking the last one for a “stash replenishment” trip down to Ditto Fabrics in Brighton.



I know I’ve talked about Ditto quite a bit here but they probably are my favourite physical fabric shop on earth (with Kantje Boord coming in second!) – the owner, Gill, has an uncanny eye for fashion trends, picking up great bargains from the Italian design houses and it’s just one of those places where you know absolutely everything is high quality, but the prices are really reasonable, too.

I also really like the way the store is organised, too – rather than grouping the same fibre types together, or all the same colours together, or something like that, the fabrics are placed to encourage discovery and browsing, with complimentary colours and printed placed next to each other, which I love. This shelf featured muted, pale turquoises and yellows, and I, err, bought two fabrics off this one alone!

Since I knew which day I was going down, it happened that Claire was able to join me, too, which makes shopping SO much more fun!

It was a really leisurely shop, with a tea break in the middle, then deciding on our purchases, with some of my highlights being a wool Fair Isle-esque sweater knit, a muted turquoise french terry with bows & arrows, a watercolour print silk noile that is just heaven to touch, a matte sequin remnant, some of the robot print jersey I’ve been eyeing up online, and a muted turquoise lace that I’m sure will become a dress by springtime. And two lengths of denim, because Ditto do the best denim and I’m too spoiled by it to try anywhere else now!

Inspiration

French and Dutch Translations plus Facebook and Pinterest, too!

Boy is this a whopper of an update post today! Truth be told, I intended to split it up into two posts as both things are big news but life got in the way of writing this week and I didn’t want to make you all wait any longer…

FehrTrade Patterns – in French and Dutch!

I’ve been wanting to offer translations of my pattern instructions pretty much from the day we launched, but I needed to get a bunch of the admin side of things in order to make it a reality. I started putting feelers out this summer to find out which of my patterns had the biggest demand, and for which languages (since at this point in time I can’t afford to offer translations for all my patterns in every language!).

It turned out that there was a lot of demand for my XYT Workout Top to be translated, since a lot of the advice on power mesh and stretch didn’t really come across visually. So I’m pleased to report that instructions for the XYT Workout Top are now available in both French and Dutch in addition to English! These translations were both done by native speakers who also sew, so they should make sewing your own activewear a lot easier if your English is a little rusty.

Furthermore, I was able to translate a further two more patterns into French, so les couturières francophones can also enjoy instructions for the Duathlon Shorts and Steeplechase Leggings, too!

Inspiration

Fehr Trade Patterns 2nd Birthday Sale!

Can you believe it’s been two years since I launched the first FehrTrade activewear patterns back in December 2013?? In those two years I’ve managed to release 10 different activewear patterns (with more on the way!), and I thought it was high time we all celebrate!

I’ve got a bunch of great stuff planned for the entire month of December, but I wanted to kick things off by announcing a special 2nd birthday sale to send a big THANK YOU to all my loyal readers! So for the entire month of December you can save 20% off all purchases at shop.fehrtrade.com by using the code “2NDBIRTHDAY” (Paypal users note that you’ll go quite far through the process before the coupon box is shown).

I also wanted to take this opportunity to flag up that I quietly released an update to the PB Jam Leggings pattern recently! I’m going back through my earliest patterns and upgrading the illustrations to be more in line with the most recent ones. My illustration skills have come so far in the past two years and I wanted to give people who purchase my earlier patterns the same experience as those who grab my latest ones.