Lazy sewing, loungewear, Jalie 2215 and Burda Style 01-2013-119

Is there any sewing more lazy than sewing knit garments you have already traced out?
I have spent a very lazy sewing weekend sewing lazing about clothing for my teenage fashion panel. They are suitably grateful, and even pretended that these are clothes for yoga. Ha!
Lounging about on the couch reading their Kindles is more likely. Books are so passe!

The tops are variations on Burda Style 01-2013-119. You might remember that I made this previously for daughter-the-first with the Burda extravagance of silk frou-frou at the neckline, that gave me considerable trouble and retrofitting.

Here, I have sewn a rolled edge binding at the neck (thanks, Hen) which is terrifically easy, and looks nicely organic, if I do say so myself.
ETA Shams has pointed out that this technique was actually posted about a year earlier by herself. Hen, in her comprehensive post of several different neckline finishes to which I refer regularly, did attribute this neckline to Shams (tutorial here), and I am sorry to have neglected to pass on the attribution. I greatly admire Sham's work and her frequent posts about interesting and innovative additions to garments.My only excuse is that I saw the neckline in real life on Hen, so I went looking for the instructions on her blog first.

For the hemming, one has a rolled edge (sneaky excuse for non finishing if you ask me) and one is hemmed with a coverstitch.

The ruched sleeves add some much needed oomph to this lounging garment. You could go the the mailbox in these and not look entirely as if you were wearing jammies.

Underneath, we have the Tried and True Jalie 2215 yoga pants. Here we have repeats 5 and 6 of the same pattern this year. Number 4, I must admit, whilst intended for daughter the first, now belong to daughter the second, due to a certain lack of stretch in the polartech 100 wicking fabric for which I had not allowed there are actually 3 new pairs between them, not the two pictured). Nevertheless, this fabric makes very sleek and comfortable yoga pants.
You could even do yoga in them instead of lounging on the couch.

See the waistband? This is my very own addition. On the the left you can see it worn upright, eg: in a yoga class where one might prefer not to display one's belly, and on the right it is worn turned down, eg: whilst going for a run in rather cold weather, and finding half way through that it is warmer than one thought. The waistband is made from cotton-lycra knit (Stretchtex) and is attached so that there are no raw edges for chafing.

Aren't these gorgeous garments on slim teenagers. If only I looked this good in my lounge around clothes, I might actually display them on the blog......

Stashbusting statistics: Approximately 2.4m of polartech 100, oops 2013, not stashbusting at all, but approximately 3m of cotton lycra knit, Stretchtex 2012.

The socks on the left are handknitted. Not by the teenage fashion panel. To answer Carolyn, I have been knitting socks constantly for the past 6 years or so. Socks are addictive, be warned.

Report from the sewing doldrums

Breaking your right thumb is pretty bad for the sewing output. I wasn't able to trace for a few weeks, or cut with scissors, which has been rather annoying. However, I could knit with a broken thumb, phew! See my luxurious new mitred square blanket

 I could also bake - not so good for the waistline......
Here is my broken garment sewing to go with the last dregs of my broken thumb.

Once upon a time, these were last years' most favoured winter pyjamas (cotton flannel, RTW), that had mysteriously shortened in all lengths over the summer . However, due to the peculiarities of growth, they were still exactly the same relative dimension to the wearer in girth.

I added them to a nearly unworn windcheater, suffering from the same relative dimension changes, but fortunately having started out as a rather long-in-the-body style, and have made this year's most favoured winter pyjamas with very little effort, and a side benefit of a glow of thrift!


The original sleeves were slashed to made the new sleeve insert - added to the windcheater at a similar section of the sleeve, and the appliqued motifs on the front.The original pyjama shirt back and fronts turned into double folded cuffs for the pyjama trousers.

There was also some rotary cutter friendly + already traced pattern sewing.
Here are multiple pairs of yoga pants for different members of the household? 

 

Jalie 2215 in wicking polartech 100 ? powderdry with fold over waistbands from wardrobe culled t shirts and/or cotton lycra. I have sewn these so the waistband seam has enclosed edges on both sides to minimize chafing. The district rep. cross country runner in the family was not available for modelling, but she wants another few pairs. Dull, dull, dull, but terribly Useful and Practical.

I know, doldrum sewing - yawn.
Quick, I will show you some more knitting.

Lovely warm socks. I have not been completely craftless.



Very soon, there will be dozens of finished objects bursting from the backlog of projects this hiatus has caused. Naturally, being limited in sewing, I have been buying sewing things instead.

This removed the thrift glow fairly quickly and has completely undone my stashbusting streak, but I have decided that guilt has no place in my sewing life. Wait until I show you my Chanel knit boucle! It will make a lovely contrast to boy's pjs.

Multiple trousers BWOF 04-2009-118 and Jalie 2215 . How even TNTs can be exciting - not in a good way.

I have the best intentions with capsule and wardrobe sewing. Every so often, I decide to make a set number of garments that work together so that I have lots of outfits to wear. Usually I even sew a few of them.
This winter, I joined the Northern Hemisphere centric Summer 6 piece sew along at Stitchers Guild, running May to July. Naturally I ignored the Summer bit. I planned a capsule for work, as I seem to wear out these clothes with depressing frequency. I made a couple of blouses, a pair of dark olive trousers, knitted a cardigan and made a brown skirt that did not look good with the blouses, and I could only wear very occasionally to work anyway. 4 pieces, and a ring in, not too bad. Then my mother stole my cardigan. (It looked better on her) 3 pieces and a ring in. Only one month over the deadline I have I made another pair of trousers, dark brown wool, very thin (so I can wear them as it warms up) lined with cotton batiste, same pattern, same pocket as the dark olive pair made previously.

BWOF 04-2009-118 technical drawing, mine have devolved quite a bit

I might finish this capsule by our Summer. I am pretty sure I ame confusing capsule sewing with uniform sewing, but unfortunately, my work clothes are severely limited by what is practical for the tasks requried.

Worn here with a 2009 Vogue 7093 blouse (2009 SWAP). Rather repetive sewing I am afraid. However, sewing has excitements even when using the same pattern. This trouser pattern was last used for the world's most unflattering trouser jeans. I was quite nervous sewing this pair,in case they had the same strange crotch shortness and elephant leggedness of the denim pair, but they fit very nicely. The relief was considerable.

I have dragged my photographer to the park after work to add a little background variety to the photo shoot. Pity it was raining, and almost dark. Oh well.
Here is some more repetition, Jalie3 2215 yoga pants in Polartech powerdry.

These were quite exciting to sew though, mainly because there was an certain urgency in their construction.
It does not rain here much during winter. The school sports uniform, which in winter includes black tracksuit pants or similar, gets hung outside overnight to dry. This can be a problem. Some teenagers seem to think that wet yoga pants in the morning due to unusual overnight rain can be fixed by their mother sewing them a new pair before work. At least she made me a cup of tea. There is nothing like sewing induced adrenaline for waking you up! I hope you didn't miss my Supermum aura in the previous photograph, or maybe it has worn off by now.



Whilst we were at the park, it was very noisy, as the Rainbow lorikeets roost in the Bunya pines overnight, and were starting to return as the light faded. We can tell Spring is coming, some of those birds are sitting very close to each other.


(This tree is a jacaranda, not a Bunya Pine - the tails show up better without leaves in the tree)

Production sewing Jalie 2215 trousers

I have a weakness for very expensive athletic wear. This is not due to any athleticism on my part, but an unreasonable fondness for technical fabrics in even my sedate exercise programme. Nylon lycra from Spotlight does not quite do the job.
Due to this weakness, I recently recieved a parcel from Mill Direct Textiles (Malden Mills), with some wicking Poly/Nylon outer, velour inner Polartec Power Stretch 9401, that was intended to make me some long running gear.
This minor project resulted in heartfelt pleas from the teenage fashion panel concerning their cold legs, and an upcoming cycling tour - inland, and at ungodly hours of the morning. (Did I mention that we share the house with a cycling fanatic?)



My pair, from the deservedly popular Jalie "yoga pants" pattern 2215, has added front pockets with exposed zips.

This was such a fiddly thing to add to the pattern that my daughters' pairs have internal, hold-your-change-and-a-key only waistband pockets instead, zipless.

I swapped the sewing for a photo subject. 16 year old girls look better in these legging type trousers than their mothers - at least in this family.

The fabric is very nice indeed. The outside is firm but stretchy, without shininess, and also thick and smoothing to the middle aged figure. The inner surface of the fabric is a luscious velour. It was worth every penny of the considerable total.

I did not waste any of the fabric.

Here is a kindle cover for my husband (that zipper tag was stolen from my trousers once I realised I wouldn't be on the cycling trip this weekend, and that the kindle would)

To use up the very last scraps I made a size G pair, which allegedly fit a 3 year old girl.

I did not really fancy the plain black for such a small person, so added a flower to one leg. The flower is appliqued polar fleece, and there is machine embroidery in 3 colours to embellish the applique and make a stem. I like it better in real life. The recipient has bright red hair, and I plan to make her a purple polar fleece jacket to co-ordinate with the flower because I like matchy-matchy.


I made a few small changes to the pattern, the top of the trousers is raised closer to the waist, and the 3 smaller pairs are faced at the waistband with a contrast cotton-lycra knit.

Despite the value in production sewing, I am ready to do something a bit more challenging. Unfortunately, not only am I a bit unwell, but our tax year has just finished, making my work load quite unreasonable. Maybe I will have the energy to sew a pillowcase or something of similar difficulty..... I hope to improve the interest level of my sewing before too long, wish me luck!

Jalie 2215 activewear pants

In the spirit of Barbara Eumondi of Australian Stitches fame re restoring one's mojo, this weekend, I started by giving myself only easy projects, involving no fitting. First I made some cushion covers, although I usually dislike and avoid home dec sewing, as I was pretty sure these would turn out.
Having some success here was good for my sewing motivation, so next I made 2 pairs of new dance pants for my daughters, who have grown considerably since I bought them new pants around 4 months ago. As both daughters are young adolescents blessed with slim figures inherited from their father and improved by 4-5 hours of dance classes per week, they are really easy to fit. I used the trousers from Jalie 2215. On the left is size 0, on the right size Q. I did not even need to alter the length. The fabric used is a cotton lycra knit from Fashionista Fabrics. It is described as a bottom weight knit, but is not particularly heavy. It has a 50% width way stretch, rather than the 70% called for in the pattern, but close fitting pants are a requirement for class, so this was not a problem. I did make the size Q first, thinking that if this turned out too tight for my older daughter, they could be worn by the younger, and I could make a larger pair for the next girl up, but the fit for both was very good.

 

 

This was enought success to encourage some more sewing for me - but nothing too hard. Now I do not tend to wear tight pants, or tracky daks, but although I do not look like a runner, I do run for fitness. I also do some yoga and a weights class. I decided to try these Jalie pants for these activities, as knowing full well that they look pretty bad does not remove the need for me to have something to cover myself for activewear!

 

I made several alterations. My first change was to use 2 layers of the same fabric for the pants. This makes them less revealing and more supportive, although they may be a bit too warm for running - I will have to try them to make sure. I cut a size S at the waist, U at the hips, as the pants have negative ease and the fabric is a little understretchy for the pattern, but also added 2 cm to the back center crotch seam length, and 1 cm to both the inner leg seams. I am pretty happy with the fit, but probably added too much to the leg seams. If the pants prove to shift and chafe during use, I will take them in a bit.

 

Next I can see that I need something to replace my daggy running event t shirts, or maybe I should look at the work pants and some jeans again.