Monday, February 26, 2007

And that is three....





















I forgot to post these. I was struck by flu last week and this top was made just before. I somehow thought I posted...anyhooo... As you can see, it's my favorite pattern again! This is the original neckline from the pattern, round with a slit. The pictures aren't that great but I guess you get the idea by now. Knit fabric, popular pattern top, rinse, repeat.

Popular pattern

Again, a little knit shirt from the pattern I used before. I mean, why change a good thing? I used a remnant of knit fabric I have lying round my stash. The pattern is really easy, just three parts. I cut out the parts, I do the necklines front and back, hemline if need be and then the sleeve hem. After that I just serge the sucker together! These knit fabrics have a nice edge that does not need hemming. So to make my life easier, I used it as a hemline on the body parts. I need to learn a thing or two about V-necks though. I keep fiddling with the point and I have to make a little dart at the point to keep it nice. I have seen many shirts in the shop use the same method, so I am not *that* worried about it. The pattern also has a rounded bottom edge. I do not care for this, so I straightened it out (just followed the fabric edge).
More to come from this pattern.....

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Something for summer

I have had my eye on this fabric for a while... I liked it as it reminded me to the typical "Missoni" look. Of course, Missoni is not something I can afford :-)
This top is lovely and light and the pattern was just too easy: front, back and sleeves. Only works for stretchy knits, but I have a lot of those lying around. I also added my own label, just for fun.
I will be making more copies of this pattern in different materials!

Oh, just to be clear, the fabric came from my stash! (Bought for 4 euro per meter- so I guess that makes this top worth 4 euro)

Friday, February 2, 2007

Same idea, new material - decision made.

Thanks everyone who posted a comment to vote on the sleeves! Most of you voted for the patterned insert. However, one of you answered the following:

" [...] in a weird kind of way I thought of "vest" as "veste" in French which means jacket......and somehow I twisted the meaning in my mind so I thought you meant a sleeveless jacket.
I also thought that it looked great and I couldn't understand the problem since it looked finished... [...]
In my mind you have 3 solutions:
1. make it a sleeveless jacket; it already looks great
2. make 3/4 length sleeves (or whatever you can cover with your too short sleeves)
3. insert a really contrasting patch (colour/texture/pattern)to elongate the sleeve so it looks like it's done on purpose."

I really tried all options. The original patch-idea looked funny, the 3/4 sleeve only looks ok when wearing a long sleeve t-shirt but wasn't really doing anything for me. Inserting a completely new sleeve of a different material seemed to be the only option left. But then I figured: "why confine the vest to one sleeve option?" If I make it sleeveless I can wear it over any color I like! And Christina was right, it looked great already!
Thank you Christina, for your thoughts...

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Same idea, new material

Today I was window-shopping and spotted this lovely knitted vest with a zipper in the front. You know, just your ordinary cable-knitted sweater, only more fitted and in the form of a vest. I have seen this before a few times and I really like the way it looks.
So what did I do? I found myself a huge sweater! This big white thing has been lying in my wardrobe for years and years. I get cold very easily and I guess this is the reason I have never thrown it out...too many memories of me sitting on the couch covered competely in this sweater :-)



I figured the same method as for the fleece sweater would work, so I measured it and put an item that that fits me nicely on top.
I did not want to take it out at the sides as those have the nice cablework. Instead, I decided to take out the center part as it wasn't as interesting as the rest of the pattern. The center part was just about the amount I would need to remove to make it fit. How lucky can you be! :-)



I cut off the neck part and saved it to re-attach it later on. I cut the bottom rim off to the correct length. (I figured I'd better save this too as I might re-attach it later on)
I then cut off the sleeve, corrected the sides and made the armhole a bit smaller. I roughly cut the sleeves to match the armhole again.

Time to put it back together!
Sewn the sides and center back. Pressed a new hemline and pinned in the zip, checked the length. Sewn the neck/collar back on and sewn the zip in. Sewn the hemline. Checked if everything was ok and it looked pretty good already!




Now the problem part: The sleeves.

The original sleeves were set very off-the-shoulder and because I fiddled with the placement of the armholes they are now too short. I have 2 strips of fabric I got from the center back and center front that I can use to lengthen them, and I decided to use the 'old' hemline to create a nice hemline for the sleeve - wrist piece? (or whatever you call that?!?!)

The only bummer is that these pieces don't match with the cable pattern on the sleeve. AND HERE IS WHERE YOU COME IN!
YES, your opinion matters to me as I cannot choose for myself :-)

Please, look at the pictures below and tell me which option you prefer, the insert with or without pattern? You can leave a comment on the wardrobe refashion post or at my own blog . I would really appreciate it!