On mega cut out day I wanted to reduce the stash a little and added to the pile some little projects I had been thinking of for a while and they were all knit…

First was a bright striped t-shirt from a piece of knit fabric I got…from I don’t know where…but most likely on sale with the intention of making t-shirts.  I used the Amvic ladies raglan top pattern that I used for my Thor dress (not yet blogged about) and with the alteration of a v-neck instead of a high round neck.

However I have not got this one through the machine yet, but after the success of my second tee I cut out I will get it higher up the queue.

More stripes were on the menu with the blue batwing top that I drafted using a book from the library a few years ago. At the time I made a light cotton top using the pattern which I don’t really wear anymore due to poor fabric choice, but I haved wanted to re-visit the pattern.  As one of my first times sewing knit fabric it seemed to come together easily although the thin stripes hurt my head at times like a bad test pattern – and these stripes also do not photograph well, maybe they give the camera a headache too.

After trying it on I took a few cms out of the bottom width and lowered the neckline. I bound the neck with a thin strip of fabric then I double topstitched it down to stop it from rolling. The waist is another wider strip cut so the stripes go vertical as a contrast to the rest of the top.

And because it is a batwing top I had to do my best bat impression and spread my wings

I will be back to this pattern again with a soft silk I have in the stash.

The final piece of fabric was supposed to be another batwing top with the patterned knit in the centre and a plain on the sides and sleeves however when I went to cut it out I discovered it was about 10cm short in width for this mashup so I created plan b instead which is a basic wiggle skirt.  The fabric is a heavy weight jacquard in purple/navy.  Thinking it was not exactly rocket science I sewed a seam, hemmed it and made an elastic waist. Except I decided to use my new blind hemmer foot, so I have to re-do the hem so it was wearable and take a pic. Lesson from this practise on waste fabric before going onto the actual garment.

The other day my friend asked me to make her a drindl skirt for an upcoming German themed party. I said ‘if course, that’s easy’. Then she said she would actually prefer lederhosen.   Of course I can do that… I have only made one pair or pants before and they were trackpants…

We googled a bunch of costumes. Most looked like this:

And others looked like this:

Neither was really the look we wanted but gave me enough to go on so I went home and dug through my burda magazines looking for a sailor style pant with buttons on the front. I have always wanted to make a pair of these pants so I knew I had a pattern somewhere. I dug it up in a 2005 Burda.

I had some brown fabric of dubious origin that I used to muslin a pair of work pants several years ago that I dug from the stash. So all I purchased for this creation was the couple of metres of ribbon for the braces and the buttons.

Since I normally only sew for myself I just asked her what size pants she wore. That was my first mistake. I know that you should sew off your measurements as all patterns are different but somehow that slipped my mind. I traced out the pattern in a size 10 with a small seam allowance and guesstimated the length to make shorts that would stop just above the knee.

For a Burda pattern the instructions mostly made sense even with the complex front button flap. I read ahead and then figured the best order to do all the actions in. This meant I put the zipper in three steps earlier but it all turned out ok. It was a good practise for my new buttonhole skills as I had to do six of the suckers.

My earlier mistake came to light when my friend tried them on and they were too snug in the hips. I got creative and unpicked the side seams and inserted a panel of the fabric with a ribbon embellishment that matched the braces on each side. I didn’t measure it, and was apprehensive when it came to the second fitting as I had no other tricks up my sleeve if tne still didn’t fit. Thank goodness it didn’t come to that as the fit was fine.

Here is a bad floor photo of the lederhosen as I wasn’t at the same party to get a pic and I couldn’t model them as they are several sizes too small for me.

I’m doing it…Winnie from Scruffy Badger fame is hosting the Polka Dot Frock Fest in February using New Look 6000.

When she announced it I popped down to Arthur Toye in my lunch break and they had the pattern in stock.  They also had some polka dot fabric that I had been coveting but could not justify. Thankfully they had a half price sale on all patterns and fabric so I got a bargain of the pattern and 2 metres of cotton sateen for under $35.

The fabic has navy and peach spots on a white background in a haphazard pattern.  I have cut out view A without the fabric flower.  Hopefully I can fit in a few hours of sewing in my busy weekend to whip this one up.