Category Archives: New Look

Cocoa cord NL6660 with flapped pockets

Pattern: New Look 6660 (my second pair – here’s the first)

Fabric: Darkest cocoa brown fine cord from Simply Fabrics

Pattern & fit notes: Not a lot different from my first pair! Which I’ve been wearing a lot despite the rather garish floral print, so decided a more neutral pair was needed. Just two main differences:

I added self-drafted button-down flaps onto the pockets, inspired by this sort of thing. (Front pockets always look so unevenly placed when you throw fly topstitching into the mix, huh?). Buttons are my forever-favourite copper ones from Textile Garden.

I did not mess up the inside fly bit and sewed it properly this time.

Flower Power cord NL6660 trousers

Pattern: New Look 6660, I think scooped up in a recent Jaycott’s sale.

Fabric: Lightweight cotton needlecord from Minerva. I bought this with New Craft House’s 70s-themed summer party in mind, but the evening ended up being really warm so I wore a skirt instead.

Pattern notes: Aren’t these just cyoooot? Perfect slim-straight leg, perfect darted ‘n faced waistband, sweet little front pockets, unexpected interesting fly situation!

Essentially the zip goes right to the top and a concealed inside button helps them stay zipped up. I messed up the construction of the buttonhole extension a bit so it’s a bit mucky inside, but this was a result of trying to be smarter than the pattern and not follow the directions – which for once for a big 4 are thorough and clever. I should’ve used a better-matching zip too but was stash-reliant and it really doesn’t gape or show at all when worn.

Fit notes: No significant mods from memory other than probably bringing in the waist a bit. I made my usual big 4 size, 14.

Thoughts: Dig em! So comfy, cool construction, and a great fit out of the pack. Will definitely make again.

New Look 6601

(Heyooo. Just an intro to say: I’ve given my blog a bit of a refresh and reduced the hosting costs, so let’s see if that motivates me more to keep going with it…! I’m also going to keep my post copy a bit shorter and to the point going forward, but I still like the idea of having a non-Meta-owned space to share and write a bit more than IG allows…)

Pattern: New Look 6601, picked up in the recent half-price sale along with a handful of other nice interesting basic patterns which I think will get exercised this spring.

Fabric: Yard-dyed grid-woven crisp midweight cotton-linen blend from Simply Fabrics. Left over from a recent dress to try this pattern out as wearable toile. Possibly a bit too thick for this project but I got a good sense of fit (and yay, it’s very wearable).

Pattern notes: I like both variants of this sweet faux-wrap top (faux because the underlap attaches with a snap inside rather than reaching all the way around the body): buttoned or tied. It’s got useful sleeve length variations too. I went for View D – asymmetric tie-front and tucked sleeve hems. Decent and sensible instructions for a Big 4. I only deviated to finish the bias/hem corner edges in a slightly more elegant way. Also handsewed the inner binding down and machine blind-hemmed the sleeve hems (I was feeling meditative and didn’t have perfectly matching thread…)

Fit notes: I made Size 12, which is slightly under my body measurements but went by finished bust measurement and the stated 4″ ease (always find Big 4s too ease-happy). No adjustments. It’s a little bit baggy in the upper chest & back and only just fits through the waist and high hip. Other makers have pointed out the sleeves are slim-cut too. I won’t make any adjustments next time as I think these minor issues will resolve in a lighter-weight fabric.

Thoughts: I like it! I’ve been wearing more woven tops lately and have been looking for wraps that are a but less fiddly to wear than the Tudor blouse. It was fun to sew; I like an occasional ‘classic’ sort of project with darts and tucks and bias-facings and it came together in an evening. I’m going to make another one now with a stunning ex-D&G printed linen gauze I picked up from Stitch Fabrics at the Stitch Festival last week.

A wedding New Look

I made this a little while ago, wore it to a wedding, and completely neglected to get photos – but I dug it back out to photograph with no occasion whatsoever, as I think it turned out so nice it needs sharing!

I used New Look 6499 with a few of my usual little tweaks. I think it’s one of those dresses that looks rather fancy but was actually delightfully simple and fun to make, however I did put a bit of effort into preparing the pattern before cutting my fabric. I pre-empted some neckline gaping by rotating out a dart, which I converted into making the whole dress more flared/full than the gentle A-line as patterned. Here’s a quick video that I made of this process which I posted on my Instagram stories:


(Click through if you’re reading in a reader and can’t see the video above.)


I also added some side slits, and made a simple waist tie to draw in the fullness. All the tweaking was worthwhile as the fit turned out great and it was super comfortable.

I did find the instructions given to add the little sleeve flounces disappointing. Firstly you are instructed to hem the highly curved edges using a 3/8″ hem allowance: LOL NO, not going to happen. I overlocked the edge and used that as a guide to turn in once and make a baby hem which only just worked out ok with a judicious use of steam. For a nicer finish I think it’d be a good idea to self-line the flounces, especially if the fabric has an obvious wrong side like this one does. Also the flounces are just tacked on by hand at the end of the sewing process; I think it’d be neater if the corners were extended a little and they were caught in the seam that joins the strap to the bodice. I’ll do that next time. However this does mean I could unpick the flounces if I get bored of them!

The fabric is my buy of the year so far: it was from a random little shack-shop (with a kitty!) on Ridley Road market in Dalston and was a ridiculous £2 a metre. I bought six metres in excitement and passed some on to Amy. It’s a heavy polyester crepe and I’m in love with the swishiness and print (which is not dissimilar to my Atelier Brunette Cassiopee!). Wedding season seems to be over for us now, but I’ll definitely dig this back out for future occasions.

Tropical NL 6493

Summer wedding season has opened, and this is a New Look 6493 jumpsuit I made for the first occasion. I really like this final garment, but I did have some difficulties getting there with the pattern!

I didn’t toile or make any prior adjustments because I thought the pattern’s princess seams would give a chance to fine-tune fit as I went. I cut a smaller size in the bodice than the trousers after checking out the finished garment measurements, but the bodice still turned out way too large and flashed an alarming amount of skin! Upon re-checking the line art on the back of the pattern envelope you can see the back is intentionally drafted very low, but it was also baggy under the arms and on the wrap front too. The ease and wrap is necessary to let you pull on the jumpsuit without fastenings, but personally I think it would have been very difficult to wear as drafted, so it seems a poor design decision. (Also what’s with the random knit crop-top pattern included? Are you supposed to wear that underneath?!)

I ended up fixing it by overlapping both the front and back a couple of inches more than patterned, hiking up the straps a considerable amount and taking in the side seams, then lightly gathering the trouser waistband in the newly-smaller bodice so they still lined up. I put a little safety pin through the front neckline to keep it in place and could also do the same in the back, however for the wedding I just left it loose and cowl-like (and went braless!).

At least the fabric was well-behaved, a lovely lightweight poly crepe from Minerva, and the print hides where I had to fudge around with the fit on the bodice, hah.

This was really nice to wear to a warm evening wedding: the elastic waist meant it was super comfortable and even braless I felt very secure in the top after all the tweaks. I’m not sure I’ll make this pattern up again as I don’t think the bodice design is worth tinkering with to fix and the very low back means it’d be difficult to wear in the daytime (I might try layering a tee under it though). However I do really like the fit in the trousers – especially the single-piece pockets which were deep enough to hold my phone and cards so no bag required, hurrah – so I might splice on a simpler cami bodice for more summery jumpsuit fun.