Category Archives: Pattern hack

Vest and pants: a self-draft & Vikisews Britney

If the words ‘vest and pants’ don’t send you into a nostalgic school horror spiral then I’m afraid you didn’t grow in up in the UK in the 90s. ANYWAY, here’s an entirely handmade outfit that in the US parlance we’ll also call a vest and some pants…

Trousers first, these are the Vikisews Britney pattern, which it seems like is still only available in Russian although they are working through English translated versions at a clip. But I am impatient and also enjoy a challenge, so muddling through with Russian it was. It’s actually my second Vikisews pattern in a row after a rousing success with the Ingrid coat (which is now available in English).

Gotta say I’m joining the VS fan club, I have really enjoyed the drafting, fit and construction of both the patterns I’ve made now. The Britneys are a high waisted barrel-leg trouser with pleats, hem darts and facings and jeans-style yoke and fly. I made size 38 which is pretty much my measurements other than bringing in the waist. The VS site has detailed size charts and also ease charts which are very useful to select the right size for your fit preferences. The instructions are also really nicely photographed which helps with the language barrier.

The only main modification I made was to draft and add these front patch panel thingys which have been doing the Instagram rounds. No real practical purpose but I like the additional interest and I think the topstitching looks really nice on this creamy fabric. I used tonal cotton thread and a triple-stitch, and adjusted the back pocket size and shape to ‘match’.

Talking of the fabric, it is a natural undyed cotton and hemp blend denim that The Hemp Shop kindly sent me to try out – specifically their Mid Denim Twill though they have many other weights and blends as well. If you are a linen lover I suspect you will like hemp too – it has the same characteristic coolness, lustre and rumple and this twill has a pleasing soft-slubby finish to the texture. This twill sewed up like a medium-heavy weight denim, although with enough drape for the pleats too, so was a great match for this project. I think it’d make a particularly luxurious boiler suit or dungarees too, and it has excellent green credentials as a fibre.

I did have to be careful stitching over areas with a lot of layers – I didn’t want to go too thick with needle size as I didn’t want to snag it, so ended up hand-cranking some of the fiddly parts with a size 90 needle. I ordered some navy dye too as undyed hemp fibres take well to dye, but actually decided I loved the natural colour as is – however I used cotton thread so I can overdye in future if I feel like it (or they get grubby).

I was oscillating between will they/won’t they work for the duration of sewing these – right up until the waistband and button were in I was worried the pleats and pockets were pulling awkwardly over my hips (pear-shape problems). But in the end they fit and hang pretty nicely and they’re really comfy. Another VS success!

Back to the vest! This is just a fun little number where the fabrics did the heavy lifting of a very simple silhouette and sew: soft-stitch jacquard and brushed check flannel both from Merchant & Mills.

I hacked the pattern from this vintage one inspired by this picture of RTW; I needed to size it down then just added the wavy front by eye. Then outer and shell were just sandwiched together, the raw edges bound with knit bias tape, and a little velvet ribbon closure tacked on.

And yay, it’s reversible! Although I do fancy adding a pocket which will take some thought. I have plenty of fabric left, this taking pretty much only half a metre of each, and it’s already been a staple both at home and out (the sweater under here is an old Toaster). Fast and slow, old and new, in one nice autumnal outfit.

Four Mindy hacks

Here’s an overdue dump of four variations on basically the same pattern mashup, which I like to call three parts of the Fibremood Mindy and one part Tessuti Claudia. I made them over the course of the last year, so I’ve got the benefit of having worn them a great deal over the months since I’ve made them, so I can review which get the most wear and how they work in my wardrobe.

This was the first one I made last spring in the scorchio weather of lockdown 1, from lovely painterly Japanese seersucker gingham from Merchant and Mills. Unusually for me I went short in length and that means this one has seen the least wear – it’s a true roasty summer day or on-holiday sort of dress. However I love that eternal style inspiration Charlie made a fraternal twin version of this over in Brooklyn – maybe one day when holidays are a thing again we can rendezvous in them in person.

Made soon after and attempting to redress the wearability factor – a simple black viscose-linen one (I think this stuff) in straight midi length, short sleeves finished with a little elastic ruffle. This is great for working from home as it’s so easy to wear and also good to cycle in. Wear it loads.

Third from earlier this year, with photos taken in the Airbnb in Margate we just had a little break in – excuse the packing wrinkles – M&M tencel gingham with elbow length sleeves and a hem ruffle. I wear this one a ton; the slightly heavier fabric and coverage make it perfect for cooler days so it’s seen a lot of lockdown 2-3 outdoor drinks with pals.

Finally, I’d say perhaps my favourite purely for the fabric – a midi / no ruffle / elbow sleeve combo in deadstock viscose from Fabric Godmother. I don’t know which brand or designer FG gets these magical prints from (I heard Stine Goya mentioned but I’ve yet to find any matches in her RTW collections) but I find them so wearable despite the loudness and weirdness of the designs. I always watch each drop for ones that speak to me and is in my colours, and this Hong Kong one in particular makes me nostalgic for travels past. Fun fact I also spilled a very mustardy hot dog down myself that day and the print handily completely camouflaged the stain.

All of these variants use a base pattern which is the Fibremood Mindy from the bust up and the Tessuti Claudia dress from the empire line down (basically a gently flared out side seam). In terms of other adjustments, I slashed and overlapped a bit of volume out of the Mindy sleeves and probably (can’t quite remember) pivoted a bit of excess out of the front neckline to account for my narrow upper chest. And I simply removed the side vents and deep hem facing from the Claudia.

The Mindy’s construction where the sleeve meets the over-shoulder ‘strap’ and bodice top is a little difficult to get your head around first time but I think it’s actually quite neat – you basically ‘bind’ the gathered sleeve-head using the strap then sew it at a right angle along the bottom to wedge the strap into the bodice facing. (Yes, my marker dots apparently didn’t wash out; luckily the print hides those too…)

Part of me thinks this might be enough of this hack (Minaudia? Claundy?) – especially as I don’t think they’ll work so well in the cooler months, I don’t really like wearing tights with midis – but I’m also tempted to try another one with the original high waistline and gathered skirt as a further variation… or a top…!

Lockdown birthday dress a.k.a midcentury nightgown

After the success of my frosting-sew Christmas dress I decided to do the same for my 36th birthday this week. Obviously my new frock and I are not leaving the house to celebrate properly, but I wore it for some Zoom karaoke with pals and took these photos the next day as it’s extremely comfortable.

It’s another Friday Pattern Co pattern too, a dress hack of their popular Sagebrush Top. I was impressed by the fit and overall experience of making the Wilder which made me gravitate to this pattern of theirs too, though the puffiness and ruffliness of the blouse as designed is a little out of my normal style zone. Easily solved by a bit of hacking!

The first thing I knew I wanted was a square neckline as a few other sewers have done, then it was just a case of extending the top to dress length and doing a bit of de-poofing in key areas. Here’s what my altered pieces look like; I followed some useful reference photos from sew_nessa on Instagram here as she did a similar hack.

Front and back yokes, neckline squared off and widened a little, 1/2″ extra length added
Front and back, slashed & spread and 12″ of length added
Sleeves, slashed and overlapped by 1/2″ in 4 places to reduce some of the volume

I cut two each of the front and back yokes and did a clean finish for the yoke seams, which ended up looking rather pretty and giving some nice stability to the neckline. Finally I cut a ruffle 1.5x the width of the hem and 6″ wide to give a final finish. Yep, a lot of gathering in this project but luckily I don’t actually mind gathering unlike many sewists!

The fit is very loose but it fits well across the shoulders and this floaty fabric drapes and moves beautifully. It is Midcentury Modern Day viscose from Sister Mintaka, currently sold out again as it does every time she restocks – I was fast on the buy button this time rather than my usual dithering! Keep an eye on her Insta for restock news. It’s a little thicker than some of those flimsier viscoses you can find with a bit of a twill weave, enough structure to hold the frills and a delight to sew with.

It’s too cold to wear this outside at the moment anyway but I expect it will become a Spring staple.

Fluffy floral coat

This was a real fell-in-love with the fabric and had a vision project, and luckily it just about turned out how I imagined! It’s yet another spin on the Lysimaque Nenuphar pattern, taken the way of Shrimps with a bit of hacking and that statement fabric…

I bought this fabric as soon as I saw it on Simply Fabrics’ Instagram feed (it’s still available and agh check out this ex-Gucci cornflower blue faux fur too??!!) and knew I’d be making a fun coat from it ASAP. It’s apparently ex Paloma Wool, which happens to be my favourite RTW brand, although I can’t find the matching garment in question in their archive.

I still love last winter’s Nenuphar but it’s quite plain and who doesn’t need a bit more enjoyment in their clothes right now – not to mention warmth, this thing is wool-rich, heavy and c-o-s-y. I was a bit intimidated when the fabric arrived: it’s got such mighty, puffy loft that I could barely fold it into my fabric storage cubbies, which was at least good motivation to sew it up quickly rather than get sewing stage fright and put it off.

I added length to the Nenuphar pieces to get the below-butt fit I was after and similarly to before cut self-drafted facings. I also increased the depth and spread of the collar to account for the bouncy fabric’s turn of cloth, and finally added a jaunty side-angle to the pocket tops for more ergonomic hand-stuffing.

The fabric really dictated the sewing process and I had to play it slightly on edge at times to tame it: it’s an alarming-to-sewists blend of thick, loopy-textured and very ravel-prone. I overlocked all the raw edges prior to sewing and even that was shedding off in places by the time I picked up the pieces again!

That said, I used most of the normal tricks for such a combo – walking foot, sturdy needle, elongated stitch length, judiciously applied interfacing, reinforcing stress points with twill tape, not trimming seams too closely, using a lighter weight fabric for the undercollar and pocket lining, pressing and clapping the life out of it – and other than getting a bit of a workout manhandling it around my sewing room by the end it wasn’t too dramatic.

I gave it the full bagged lining treatment, both to add more stability and because the inside of the textile was quite rough. I used Stoff & Stil’s woven viscose, a favourite for being silky and fluid but still relatively stable to work with, and was pleased that the dark grey was a decent match for my flowers. It’s been a while since I bagged a coat so I referred to the method and pattern cutting from the Named Yona coat to jog my memory.

It closes with concealed sewn-on chunky snaps also from S&S, because buttonholes in this fabric hahahah are you kidding me.

Enjoyed a couple of weekend walks where it kept me admirably cosy, in and around the frankly horrible news of the new Covid strain to hit the south of the UK and resulting new tier 4 restrictions. So it’ll be walks around the park only in this guy’s near future.

GroOoOovy Landers with dip-dye bleach hems

Please consider these proof that I still know how to sew! I made this outfit in my office-come-sewing-room over the course of a week or so and found them the ideal project with little easy-to-break-down jobs to do in and around Zoom calls and finding reasons to leave the house for lockdown walks.

The jeans are True Bias Lander pants with the patch pocket ‘hack’ that Kelli posted on the TB blog. I still wear my first pair of Landers regularly – over the years they’ve had the buttons replaced and fit adjusted yet the ink-black selvedge denim still looks so fresh and handsome – but I wanted a full length indigo blue pair for a different take on the silhouette too.

Since my measurements have changed in the intervening years, I printed out the PDF afresh, cutting a size 6 and tailoring in the waistline in a bit as I sewed them using the nice wide 1″ seam allowances. I’m delighted with the fit: the crotch, rise, leg width and so on are all perfect, it’s really nice to not have to fiddle and refine much sometimes.

The fabric was a Merchant & Mills treat, I picked this 11.2oz Japanese Organic Tumbled Denim as I wanted a fairly warm and sturdy yet soft feeling, which is exactly what this gave me. It’s got a slightly fluffed-up and distressed surface finish, which is lovely to wear but does make it a little more delicate when it comes to seams and unpicking – I accidentally made a tiny hole on the front when I had to unpick and move one of the belt loops.

The finishing touch was this hem effect, which I made by folding and pressing up the hem about 3 inches then roughly accordion-pleating and wrapping in an elastic band. Then I balanced the folded edge standing-up in a shallow plastic tub of 4:1 water:bleach solution for about 45 minutes. I was going for that sort of let-down-hem look like these jeans and I’m pretty happy with the little extra detail it gives the hem. I wanted to try distressing the seams and pockets with sandpaper too but given the denim’s soft finish I was a bit worried I’d weaken it too much, but hopefully they develop a lived-in look over time.

Neat guts! I love this fly, so easy to construct. I bought this rainbow overlocker thread recently from eBay and love the cheerful finish it gives the insides. This is the heaviest-duty workout I’ve given my Pfaff 630 yet and it generally coped well although it did ‘Nope’ out a bit when sewing on the belt loops through several layers, and I still don’t love making buttonholes.

Not a lot to say about the top in contrast: I made it in under an hour, it’s a Papercut Rise in a pretty mad checkerboard viscose jersey from Rainbow Fabrics (now out of stock) – the most time-consuming part was fussy-cutting in a single layer to get a nice symmetrical pattern layout (and match the neckband!). Feels nice to make and wear non-loungewear clothes from time to time.

Nenuphar 3, winter coat edition

So to start with some tragic news for this first new year post: I lost my latest Lysimaque Nenuphar jacket at my work’s Christmas party. After less than a month of enjoying it, it got swallowed by a karaoke room and I had no luck with the establishment’s lost property the next day. I’m really quite sad, I loved that jacket. Although at least on the plus side, the fabric was not expensive and it didn’t take too long to make so I’m pretty sure I will whip up a duplicate come spring.

And on another plus side, it gave me a kick to make a coat that’s a bit more appropriate to the current weather… using the very same pattern yet again.

To make the Nenuphar pattern cosy-coat-appropriate, I simply added even more length at the hem (the side seams are completely straight so it really doesn’t matter where the length is added). The total from armsyce to hem is 27″ for this one which is a nice knee length on me.

I adore the huge pockets on this pattern, and like my previous version I placed the baby pockets asymmetrically for some visual interest. The little one perfectly holds my iPhone and the big one holds my iPad – not that I walk around laden with Apple swag, but I’ve definitely loaded them up with assorted groceries when I’ve forgotten a reusable shopper bag.

I used a gorgeous charcoal wool from Woolcrest Textiles, a bargain as ever at £10/m. It’s kinda like a smooth, thick felted texture; the edges don’t unravel at all so I left the seam allowances raw and didn’t turn back the edges on the facings, which saved on bulkiness.

Neckline/placket facing, topstitched down

I decided to rework the collar area by drafting a neckline and button placket facing rather than the tricky way the pattern has you finish the collar by tucking the seam allowances under and aligning the edges perfectly with the top of the button placket – I felt I had no chance getting that neat and tidy in a bulkier fabric. My facing idea worked beautifully and was much easier to sew – it’s topstiched in place all around the neckline and down the fronts to the hem.

The nice marbled buttons are from Liberty: I confess I started wearing the coat before I’d added them (and took the picture above) but that meant I could wear the coat to go and pick the buttons out so I knew they’d match, hah.

Here’s a nice relevant picture of it in front of a tailor’s shop window in Marylebone at the weekend to finish. And I might just add a ‘return to’ address label to the inside so there’s more chance of getting it back if there’s karaoke shenanigans in its future.