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A red velvet tee and black trousers

During my pre-Paris sewing frenzy, I also made a more practical set of top and trousers to both work down my fabric stash and potentially pack… You already saw my Gemma dress, but there’s one last garment in addition to these trousers and top!

Black Trousers

I’ll start wit the trousers, since I fear such a solid workhorse may get overlooked otherwise.

I’ve had 2.5m of black acetate twill from New Craft House in my stash ever since I used their plum acetate twill for my Claudia trousers back in 2023 (I eagerly await the day I can fit into them again because I love them so much) and went back to buy more. My notes say I paid a bargainous £4.5/m for this, especially good value considering it’s Japanese, from Hironen Mill. It’s long sold out but they’ve got similar acetate twills currently in the clearance section.

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A rose ponte Gemma dress

We’re now back home after an utterly brilliant week in Paris, which was precisely the holiday we sorely needed, and haven’t had since we were infected with Covid in 2023. But ahead of the holiday, I went on an absolute sewing frenzy, both to make some room in my sewing stash before I hit up Atelier Brunette and the Montmartre coupon fabric stores, but also because I enjoy sewing things I might take on holiday!

I ended up packing only one of the four garments I sewed in the frenzy (this one didn’t make the cut purely because it didn’t “go” with any of my waterproof boots, and the forecast was WET), but I still made some garments I love…

…the first of which is this Named Gemma dress! This pattern has two pretty distinct views, and only really share the geometric pieces in the front. I made the sweatshirt version a few years ago in a waffle jersey that I still wear frequently (though I removed the sleeve cuff elastic and I wear it a lot more since then!), but this is my first time sewing the dress version.

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A blush pink Lara sweatshirt

I jumped all over the extremely cheap clearance blush Loopback jersey (French terry) and interlock jersey from New Craft House when I saw it marked down – £4.80/m and £3.60/m respectively! These are a beautiful pale peachy pink colour and are perfectly matching, so I knew they’d be perfect for sewing another comfy sweatshirt.

I opted for the FibreMood Lara sweatshirt pattern again, same as the black Lestat one I made last fall. This time I went down a size to L instead, tracing off another size from my pattern magazine. The design is meant to be oversized, and I love my black version, but for this I wanted it to be comfy without being overly baggy.

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Three pyjamas and a top

As we approach the end of the year, I realise that there were a few things I made this year that I neglected to blog about – not because I didn’t like them or wear them loads, but because I either was too sick to sit up and write, or because I didn’t have much to say about them.

So before I start compiling my end of year post for the first of the new year, I wanted to clear the decks a bit and share some of the garments you’ve not seen yet…

Tartan pyjama bottoms

The Fiske pyjma set was the January 2025 Cashmerette Club members pattern, which I actually cut out in January 2025 while very sick with Long Covid.

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A Skeleton Tuuli dress

I made a Tuuli dress made out of jersey with tiny bats right after I got sick in 2023 and I loved that dress SO MUCH but I hardly got to wear it at all before I gained too much weight from being long covid bedbound.

That bat fabric was the Art Gallery Fabrics 2023 Halloween print so there’s no way I could get more, but I was able to get their 2025 Halloween print – the same super soft cotton elastane jersey but with little skeletons all over! It’s called “Mister No Body” and I bought mine from Goldstitch for £35.00 total for the 2.5m (now out of stock, but do some googling as other retailers seem to have it).

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Three more vampire tops

Believe it or not, I didn’t actually set out to post this on the same day that shooting finally (finally!!) begins on season 3 of Interview with the Vampire, but it just turned out to be a happy accident!

I sewed these at around the same time as the Dead Inside tank, but I separated that one out since I had a bit more to say. These three are all repeats of patterns I’ve happily sewn before though, so I’m grouping them together!

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A white ribbed Dead Inside tank (& bonus Axis tank)

As I mentioned in my last post, I really needed a lot more sleeveless tops, as I only had one or two that still fit. I really loved the shape of the FibreMood Elza ever since I saw it in their magazine last spring, but I hadn’t quite gotten around to sewing it. I’d traced in size L then, though, so I had to re-trace it again in XL now – not a huge deal since it’s only four pattern pieces.

I had 1m of Ivory Ribbed Jersey in my stash that I apparently bought from Textile Express for £5 this time last year (it’s £3/m now?!). It’s soft and drapey with decent recovery and I like the uneven rib. But it was just sold as “multiple fibres” (polyester & viscose I’d guess?), it picks up lint like a magnet, and is definitely translucent. So it was a good fabric to test this pattern, especially as I’m not sure I’d like the narrow front tank style.

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The Kiss tank

After I sewed The Kiss dress, I had a fair bit of fabric leftover, but it was in odd shapes due to the asymmetric cutting layout. It looked like I should be able to fit a teeshirt or a vest top (tank top) out of the remnants… and since I’ve got a lot of teeshirts that fit, but hardly anything sleeveless, I opted for the latter.

Jalie 3245 (View C) is an “oldie but a goodie”! I first made this pattern back in 2018 as part of my “Serging Activewear” Craftsy course (still going strong!). I’m still wearing those bamboo OGs, but they’re getting a little tight and they always felt a tad too long.

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A blue waffle pullover

I actually made this jumper back in January, just after I sewed The Kiss dress! Despite wearing it several times each week through the colder weather, I just could not muster the enthusiasm to do a photoshoot. Rather than not post about it at all, I’ve taken photos on my dressform Susan instead.

I made this because I really needed more long sleeve jumpers that fit, and I wear my grey LB Pullover a lot over teeshirts through the colder months. That one was size 16, and since it still fits nicely, I’ve just done the same here rather than bother to print it off again.

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A black broderie anglaise Irving dress

I’m posting a bit out of order here, but I wanted to make sure I posted about this Cashmerette Irving Dress because it’s the May 2025 Cashmerette Club members pattern, and I want to give you all a chance to grab it before May is over. This one is a breezy, casual dress for knits, and as soon as I got the email about it, I knew I wanted to make it!

I’m still very much sick with Long Covid, and I didn’t want to waste precious “standing energy” piecing the skirt pattern pdf pages since it’s mostly just a gathered rectangle. So instead I only printed the bodice and pocket pattern pieces, and chalked the skirt pieces onto my fabric itself (shortening the skirt from 75cm to 65cm so it’s just below my knee).

I had only just ordered 2m of this black Broderie Anglaise Jersey from Veratex Fabrics (95% poly 5% elastane) for £6/m during a big sale when the pattern launched, so it was clearly Meant To Be. (As an aside, I’m not sure I’ll be ordering from them again as they took 10 days to give my order to the courier, and gave zero response when I enquired about the shipping to their official customer service email address…)