A jazzy paisley patterned shirt and some black wool trousers

Yep, it's another one of those hi-lo hem shirts I made before and have washed and worn. Time to make another! The fabric is typically 'me'...loud with lots of colours and...look!..it's paisley pattern which I absolutely adore.

I bought this fabric from John Lewis in Oxford Street when we had out little holiday in London last November.I haven't seen it in the Edinburgh John Lewis so I'm glad I bought it when I saw it. I think there's a lot of viscose in it because although it's lovely and silky to the touch it crushes as soon as your head's turned. I can't even remember the cost per metre but I know I bought my default 2 metres. It takes that much to make a shirt for tall, long-armed me and I also wanted room for manoeuvre with pattern placement. This fabric was a fray-er to work with, though!

I used New Look 6374 and cut view A. I didn't change add any length to the body and I think I may just have added 1" to the sleeve length, I can't remember as I cut and sewed this up during the Christmas and New Year break. Yes, it's taken this long to get round to taking photos! Mind you, I've also had a stonker of a cold and bad cough which everyone seems to have had, so I haven't sewn a thing for 2 whole weeks. I must have been seriously ill!

The sleeves are supposed to roll up and button with a tab. I managed to sew one tab on the inside of the sleeve and the other tab on the outside of the sleeve. Numpty! The lurid pattern must have dazzled my eyes...that's my excuse! Anyway, I unpicked the 'wrong' one and haven't got round to unpicking the other one as I've now decided I won't be rolling these sleeves up. Lazy!

The other mistake I made was to use a woven fusible interfacing on the collar stand. That thing just isn't going anywhere! I used the same interfacing on the plackets but it doesn't seem too bad. Live and learn, people! It hasn't stopped me wearing the shirt though so that's fine. 

Right, I'm going to tag on a pair of black trousers I made recently to this post because...they're black and almost impossible to make them look interesting in photographs. The fabric was a lovely black stretch wool, probably crepe, that I bought in Mandors in Glasgow when we were there for a wee overnight stay in September. The pattern is rapidly becoming my favourite and has superseded my Ultimate trousers pattern. I love the wide yolk and can see I'll have to add some pockets to them in the future.

There's quite a lot of lycra in this fabric, so much so that I decided not to line them at all and pray the lycra would prevent bagging at the seat and knees. So far so good! 

See? How do you make black trousers interesting? I used the New Look 6035 pattern that I got free with Sew magazine last year and have used once before. I took ages to finish the hems. Isn't that always the way? They were hanging about on the dining room table for weeks on end until I had a tidy-up. Glad I did as I've washed and worn them a few times. Yes, I'm happy to wash wool and I prewashed this fabric before cutting. I always use the Wool cycle on the washing machine, a wool liquid soap and hang them up to dry, nope I don't dry them flat. It's survival of the fittest in my wardrobe! 

Grey sort of stripey trousers

Well, I guess the title sort of says it all really! I've been spending some quality time with my sewing machine and overlocker recently and I'm loving it. Time to start blogging what I've made.

I bought the fabric for these trousers in the summer sale in John Lewis. It's a 100% wool and it lovely to work with, plus it was only £8 a metre (I bought 2 metres). I decided to add a half lining to make them less scratchy for all-day wearing. I found the 100% cupro lining somewhere in my stash. I've had to tidy up my sewing space (the dining table in the living room) as...well...we needed the dining table!

I sewed up as much as I could using the overlocker. Otherwise I used the sewing machine and then the overlocker to finish the seam edges. I made the inner yoke from the lining fabric to avoid scratchiness. I don't think I've used a heavy enough interfacing though, it doesn't look or feel sturdy enough but I'm fine with that. I added 1" in height to the rise but I think I could have got away without this change. I added 3" to the leg length and ended up cutting off 1" when hemming but that's the way I like to work. I'd rather add too much that later need to cut off. I hate trousers that are too short, even by a tiny amount!

The pattern is New Look 6035 that I got free with Sew magazine earlier this year. The line drawings are good and it looks like there are some really good basics to be made from it. This was the first time using this pattern and I just wanted to see how it would sew up. I like it and will be using it again!

It looks a simple trouser pattern but the devil's in the fitting. There's a side zip and a yoke. The zip is inserted up through this yoke. The seams of the yoke need to match too. A bit of a brain teaser to get the fit and all the seams matching but it's worked out fine.I finished the hems with black satin bias binding from my stash and hand stitched them.

I'm learning that the more time spent measuring the pattern pieces and adjusting before cutting out, and trying on to adjust the fit before final seam-sewing, are steps to take your time over. Time spent doing these steps really pays off. I'm getting better at slowing down!