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Kathy's Purple & Polka Dot Workout Tops

The version of my patterns I want to share with you today is special because Kathy is the only one of my pattern testers whom I’ve met in real life! Not only did we meet when I was over in Baltimore last year, but we actually went for a run together in activewear we’d sewn ourselves, too!

Kathy’s no stranger to sewing activewear (and she’s got almost as big a lycra stash as I do!), and I love that she chose to make the T-back version for herself, because I really think it’s the most versatile version! She’s used some black athletic mesh for the vertical portion, but you can pretty much use any fancy trim you have on hand – lace, sequins, fishnet, or just contrast fabric like she’s done.

This wasn’t enough though, as she’s gone and selflessly made a polka dot version for her niece, too! I totally freaking adore the polka dot fabric, and I love that she’s paired it with black mesh for the Y back, and then finished the edges tee-shirt style for a bit of contrast.

Read more about her versions on her site, Kathy Sews!

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A Drape Drape winter tunic

I found myself on New Year’s Day wanting to sew something fun and just for “me” rather than my blossoming business. So I looked through my patterns (helpfully online so I did this part while still under a duvet!), selected a pattern then proceeded to trace, cut, and sew this up in an afternoon. Definitely fun, definitely me!

I appear to be the first person online to make this tunic, from the third Drape Drape book, number 9. Sizes were S/M or L/XL and since it’s Japanese sizing and I’m like a 2XL, I made the larger size and crossed my fingers it’d be ok in a jersey. It was!

Inspiration, Magazine

Burda magazine January 2014

I’m quite behind on my magazine posts – I’ve received this Burda and two Manequims while I was deep in the frenzy of launching my sewing patterns, so they got pushed to one side with all the activity. But for those of who who decide whether to buy the issues based on my reviews, here are my picks from the last Burda of (now last) year!

The most noticeable garment here is a truly horrible one-sleeved caftan dress, but hark! Is that a men’s tuxedo jacket I spy?!

Here the ladies get patterns for a bustier and an interesting draped skirt. Nothing groundbreaking, a definitely more of Burda’s “young fashion” when paired together, but definitely wearable and fitting with the New Year’s Eve party theme. But what do the blokes get? Yet another button-down shirt, identical to the ten others Burda have published in the last few years! It’s so lazy of them to just reprint the exact same shirt over and over… No wonder more men don’t sew.

Here we get a better look at the fantastic cover teeshirt/tunic with gathered side seams, paired with a great pair of narrow-legged leather trousers. The cover shirt also has the colour, illustrated instructions for this issue, too. This is definitely my Most Likely To Make for this issue, and the few versions that have popped up on the sewing internet already have looked great.

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My Cold Gear PB Jam Leggings

Thanks so much to everyone for your support with my new patterns! I have actually been doing a bit of non-exercise sewing over New Year’s (which I’ll show you later this week), but first I wanted to show off one of the pairs of PB Jam Leggings I made during the development of the pattern.

This pair was made from two different green colours of Under Armor Cold Gear fabric that were gifted to me by Cidell a while back. Last winter I made a pair of Ooh La Leggings in the forest green Cold Gear and they were seriously the warmest leggings I’ve ever worn, even keeping me warmer than heavy coats on my upper body! I knew I’d need at least one more pair to get me through this winter, so I alternated leftovers of the forest green for the swirl and back knee pieces with the sage green Cold Gear for the main body pieces.

Here you can see that hidden back pocket in action – it can easily store an iPhone 5 or bigger, plus a gel (shown here with Gu Peanut Butter, but their Salted Caramel is also splendid!) or keys, The waistband keeps it all contained and from bouncing around while you move, too. For this pair, since the Cold Gear is quite thick, I actually used a thinner lycra for the pocket piece, and this worked really well!

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Ms McCall's blue, black, and ikat print running gear

I’m so excited to show you this next set of exercise gear from my amazing pattern testers because I know a lot of you out there who are more endowed than I have been wondering if the built-in bra could possibly work for you… Well, Ms McCall is proof positive that it can work – the built-in bra on both her X and Y versions is enough to keep her DDs from shifting while running! She’s got some great tips about selecting power mesh, altering the lining if you need a bit more room, and even a great new contrast edge finish, too. Read more about her tops here.

She also made the PB Jam leggings and came up with a clever way to keep the hidden back pockets 100% hidden with no exterior topstitching, plus shows how to layout the swirl pieces if you want your contrast fabric print to be 100% continuous along the side seams, too. You can see her tips on the leggings here.

Inspiration

Happy 2014! (My Sewing Year in review)

As I do every year, I like to spend the first of a new year to take the opportunity to look back on what I’ve sewn in the previous year. So without further ado, here’s a visual reminder of 2013!


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 upper left menu, which will only show you finished projects, without all the magazine reviews and in-progress reports getting in the way!

The Year in Stats

In terms of pattern companies used this year, I made: 15 Self-drafted (including Pattern Magic), 11 Burda Magazine (aka Burda Style), 8 FehrTrade, 4 Style Arc, 4 Cake Patterns, 3 Christine Jonson, 3 MyImage, 2 Pattern-Scissors-Cloth, 2 Jalie, and 1 each from Elan, KnipMode, Papercut Patterns, Drape Drape, Lolita Patterns, Kwik Sew and Simplicity.

So that’s precisely one garment made from any of the Big Four, but a whopping 23 items I either drafted myself or drafted and then released as a pattern! It’s no surprise Burda is otherwise up in the 2nd place position, and I’m pleased to see Style Arc and Cake ranking highly this year, since I discovered both companies this year. It is a bit disappointing that I failed to make a single Manequim pattern this year, despite reviewing my monthly copies! I must try harder next year to justify the subscription cost.

By my count, I made: 22 tops, 13 trousers (including leggings), 9 dresses, 9 pieces of lingerie (bras, panties, slips, etc), 3 skirts, 3 jackets or cardigans, and 3 bags.

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Little bits of sewing

I’ve come to that point near the end of the year where I want to gather together a bunch of little projects I’ve made recently, but yet didn’t quite seem big enough for their own post… You’ll see my traditional, year-end roundup tomorrow (I hope! I haven’t actually started it yet, eep!), but before then, let’s finish off the last little bits of the year…

Twin clutches

The most exciting of these are undoubtably the Cake Patterns Red Velvet Mini Clutches I made for James’s twin, teenaged nieces. They’ve pretty much only wanted cash or gift cards for a few years now, but this year I fancied giving them a little something extra to hold their gift.

The Cake Red Velvet Mini Clutch is a smaller version of the full pattern without the illustrated instructions, but on the plus side it’s free, super cute, and easy to whip up in a few hours with scraps. Here I used satin scraps leftover from my Matthew Williamson birthday dress and my swirl sheath dress and a bit of floral lining leftover from the former, too.

These are big enough to hold your average mobile phone, keys, lippy, and credit card, but not much else, but most of the times I want a little bag to match a dress this is all I really need to carry anyway. These were certainly one of those gifts I’d have liked to have kept for myself, especially since they match my dresses!

Bolster pillow covers

I’m totally less excited by home dec sewing, but we really wanted some bolster pillows for lounging in our big, new bedroom on the boat – now that I’m working from home, I especially need one under my knees while I work on my laptop! When we bought our bedding from IKEA, the duvet cover sets came with four pillowcases, and since we only use one regular pillow each, the others were just sat on a shelf.

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Navy blue Pattern Magic "Jutting Edge" dress

I drafted a few patterns over the summer on the Morley College course based on the Pattern Magic: Stretch Fabrics book, this design included. To be perfectly honest, the photos in the book do absolutely nothing for me, so I flipped right past it when reading it on my own:

But the instructor, Moni, saw its potential, and thought that it might be nice in a softer jersey. She was totally right! The sample that was made on the course in similar, lightweight jersey had a chic cowl effect, but without a low neck like you normally get to achieve a cowl.

So I’d been meaning to make this all year, but finally unearthed my pattern pieces on Christmas Eve day, when I fancied sewing something quick that wasn’t workout gear for a change!

The pattern here is essentially just a long teeshirt dress, but with an added very wide (180 degrees!) dart that runs from shoulder to abdomen. It means that it’s a bit of a pain to draft, but extremely quick and easy to sew. On the course, I’d thought ahead and brought my own knit sloper so not only did I draft this to my body (at the time, anyway), but I also kept the armscye unchanged here so I could easily add sleeves!

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Purple & print long sleeved running top

You can understand why I need a bit of a breather now after sewing so much workout gear, right? I sewed a lot of samples for the development and testing of my two patterns, and then once I finished those, the only real hole in my wardrobe was for long sleeved running tops, so I found myself back in the lycra pile anyway!

Just like the mocha running top you saw a few weeks ago, this one is again the Christine Jonson “Travel Trio Three” Raglan top pattern with a half-height collar and some hand mitts of my own devising.

I only had a bit of the printed lycra from Minerva leftover after already making leggings and a workout top from the 2m I bought, so I cut the front and back body and the collar in the printed lycra, then used some purple “silk touch” lycra from Tissu that I found in my stash for the sleeves and hand mitts.

Forgive me for not doing a proper photoshoot on this – I was a bit photoshooted out at this point so you just get some action shots and selfies instead!


Yes, I usually am this annoyingly happy when I run!

Inspiration

Velosewer's Silver, Check, and Purple Swirls workout gear

In case you think that maybe my patterns that only work for my body, I’m going to be sharing some of the versions that my amazing team of pattern testers have made over the past few months. When selecting testers, I wanted sewists who had made their own workout gear before, partially so I knew they’d be familiar with both sewing stretch fabrics and also what works for them when workout out, but also so they could help compare my designs to previous workout gear they’d made.

First up is Maria, aka Velosewer, who made no less than three versions of my XYT Workout Top and a pair of PB Jam Leggings, too in the short amount of time since I sent the patterns! Apparently the ladies at her gym were so enthusiastic about the tops that they were disappointed they couldn’t just buy them at a store!

Maria is particularly fond of the built-in bra in the XYT Workout Top, so much so that she’s started franken-patterning it into other dresses to get built-in bras everywhere! I love this, as it’s something I never even imagined!

Read more about her versions over on her site, How Good Is That?