Wool Pants

I feel not so much stuck in a blogging rut...more like bogged and the wheels are just spinning deeper and deeper.  

I want to blog this project in the appropriate season.  No point blogging winter pants in summer.  I'd like to get them blogged before I move onto to later projects.  Only I haven't managed to get photos that show the pants very well.  And I combined a dubious pattern with dubious fabric, which I often do, because that way I am not throwing good money after bad.  Just throwing all my shopping mistakes in together.  So here they are, Stylearc Teddy Designer Pant  in green wool twill.

The pattern has wide pleats down the front.  Previous reviewers said that the pleats just flapped open.  I tried top-stitching the pleats to see if this would help, but it didn't, so then I went and stitched the pleats down at intervals, as you can see in the top lightened photo.  

I also have trouble styling the dark green twill so that they don't look masculine / fuddy-duddy.  I have been wearing them because they are warm, but not out of the house so much.

Bobbely Watson bra and bikini set

In my parcel from Pitt Trading last week, I had a length of bobbely white lycra.  It is listed on their website as winter white textured spot lycra, and was described as suitable for swimwear and activewear.  At first I was dissapointed, as it was lighter and more sheer than I expected.  You would need a good lining to use this for swimwear!!  It does have a lovely feel though, so it only took me a day or so to adjust my plans and decide that it was perfect for lingerie.

I bought a metre, so I have enough fabric to make several sets.  First time around, I went with the Watson bra and bikini pattern by Cloth Habit.

For the bra, I used a lightweight mesh for the lining.  I also put in underwire casing at the underbust seam.  I have done this on other bralette patterns, but not on the Watson before.  I was a little worried about bulk at the centre V.  I sewed both the casing cups in one continuous length, then snipped the centre V and top-stitched from the right side.

This actually turned out neater than I expected.

I only had just enough strapping elastic.  I probably should have left off the bra sliders, as they have been slid to maximum strap length.

This is my fourth Watson bra.  My past 3 have been worn, but they have never been my favourites.  In the past, I always thought my fabric choices were too stretchy.  This fabric is not too stretchy, so I think it is actually a fitting thing.  I think I need to alter the bra cup seam shape a little.  I have plenty of this fabric, so I might try this in the same fabric again.

Swimsuits with sleeves

When the local pools shut here, I started swimming in the ocean.  My first problem was the stingers.  They are not lethal like the ones up north, but they do really sting.  For my next swim, I wore a long sleeved swimsuit that I made a few years ago and never blogged.  It was a mash up of Jalie 3668 and Jalie 3672.  It protected me from the stingers, but I ended up with chafe.  I decided to make a new sleeved swim suit.

I first chose Jalie 3464.  It is not as protective around the neck as my other suit, but it had the benefit of not needing a zip.  I chose this fun plaid lycra that I bought from Pitt Trading.  I went to a lot of effort to optimise the tensions of my overlocker, so that the seams were as neat as possible and least likely to cause chafing.  I combined the side strip and underarm strip pieces to be cut as a single piece, to minimise chafing under the arm.  

I blended two sizes, V in the upper body to a W in the lower body.  That strip down the sides shows I should have blended from a U to an X, as when worn, the strip is much wider to the bottom than the top.  

I have worn this catching waves at the beach, but I have not actually tested it out ocean swimming yet.  My regular swim suits are pretty tight and this does not feel as secure as those.  I am thinking I might prefer to wear a crop top underneath this than to wear it on its own.

The second suit I made was much more involved.  The fabric for this suit also came from Pitt Trading.

After my first chafing, I wore a RTW swim shirt that worked really well.  Actually, I probably could just wear it over my swimmers, but I was quite taken with the idea of a one piece with sleeves at this point so continued with my sewing.

This is the RTW swim shirt.  It has a really wide panel under the arms, 12 cm / 5" wide, so there are no seams in area that is prone to chafing.

My first step was to make a pattern off this shirt.  

I then modified this pattern to allow extra room for my square shoulders and improve the fit.  I took a few photos of how I modify raglan sleeves for square shoulders when the sleeve is a single piece with no darts.  I curve out each of the shoulder seams by 0.5 cm, front and back.  This adds a total of 2 cm extra width across the shoulder.

I then needed to merge this pattern with my one piece swim block.  I haven't got the length of my block quite right, so after I cut my pieces out I basted them together to check the fit.  I had to shorten both front and back by about an inch.

I had a little bit of trepidation at the idea of putting a zip in lycra.  In the past, I have always ended up with a bumpy zip when I have used these chunky style zippers.  I interfaced the zip area and followed this tutorial by Specialty Outdoors.  It worked out pretty well..

My local Spotlight had only a very limited selection of closed-end plastic zips, both colour and length-wise.  Originally I was planning a zip about 10 cm longer than this, but the end result has worked out okay and I can get into the suit easily.  

I wanted to line the front section but also wanted to minimise bulk in the zipper area.  In the end I cut an opening in the lining equal to the width of the zip.  I then hand-stitched the lining in place after the zip was attached and before the zipper tape was top-stitched.  The lining was then caught and secured when the zip was top-stitched.

I'm very happy with how the swimsuit looks.  Disappointingly though, I still ended up with chafe, albeit in a different spot, along the seam between the front and side panels on my left side.  I swam 2 km, which is less than I usually swim in the pool.  I might have to try using some sort of lubricant.

Though my next problem is that the water is getting too cold for me.  This week the weather got warm, but last week the water was cold and I couldn't swim as long.  I have noticed the other swimmers wear wet suits now.  I have a short spring wetsuit, but it doesn't fit very well because of my pear shape and I don't know how comfortable it would be for ocean swimming.  I've started getting the sniffles on the days I swim, so probably I am going to have to give up on swimming and try some other sort of exercise until the pools open again.

Lansdowne + Julia

This set has a bit of a decoupage-y vibe with all the different elements going on.  The mesh, lace, lining and fold-over elastic came in a kit from Pitt Trading.  The pretty strap elastic was also from Pitt Trading.  I decided that the fold-over elastic was too strong for the knickers, so I dyed some stash elastic to match.  I love the ric-rac elastic on the waist.  The lingerie lycra for the back of the knickers and the underwire casing were from stash.

The bra pattern was the Lansdowne bra from Orange Lingerie.  I changed the pattern a little so that I could use the wide strap elastic and no sliders or rings.  I also modified the seam alowances of the pattern so that I could use fold-over elastic for the armhole edges and unfolded-fold-over elastic for the bottom edges.

The knickers are the Jalie Julia. 

RTW Rub-off Running Top

I copied one of my Lululemon tops.

The design has lots of interesting panels; upper back yoke, lower back, underarm mesh panels, curved side panel and a front panel.  In the original top, the upper back yoke was also made of mesh.  Initially, I cut a mesh yoke, but my mesh must be softer than the original design, and combined with making armhole bindings on my coverstitch machine, the whole top stretched vertically out of shape.  I took off the bindings, replaced the mesh yoke with a solid yoke, and made new bindings using a sew-in-the-round method of attaching the bindings, which resulted in a top pretty close to the original.  

I thought about modifying the side panels for a bit of extra hip room, but decided I would first make the top as the rub-off pattern, to test it out, and then I can mess about with fitting improvements in later renditions.

The front is fairly plain, with a higher neckline than most of my running tanks.

The main fabric is a beautifully soft bamboo lycra blend from Pitt Trading and the mesh was from my lingerie stash.  From memory, I originally dyed the mesh to match a pale blue stretch lace.  

More swimmers, 2019

It took me a while to find my groove sewing swimmers for me this year.

First I made this gorgeous one-piece.  My training suit was perishing and I was in quick need of a new one.  I woke early one morning, about 4:30 am, and thought, "If I don't waste time, I'll be able to quickly sew up a swimsuit before I go to the pool this morning".  I was efficient.  I would have got this make in under an hour, only when I went to put it on to determine the strap length, I couldn't get it up over my hips.  In my hurry, I had pulled out my daughter's pattern and not mine.  To make matters worse, she has grown so much since I last sewed her a swimsuit, that it doesn't even fit her.  I am hoping this fits one of my nieces.  The fabric is from Funkifabrics.

Next I tried the Megan Nielsen Cotteslow pattern.  I chose a size based on my bust, but as I later discovered when I sewed a Jalie top, I need to sew for my upper chest size, not my bust.  I know other sewers have said that they swim laps in their Cottesloe, but it does not work for me.  It is too high under the arms.  I started to chafe just driving to the pool, and was glad I took a back-up swimsuit with me.  I have since passed this onto a friend.  The fabric is from Tessuti.

Then I was thinking more of a beach bikini, and I made the SwimStyle Celeste Bikini.  I first made a size M, based on my bust size, but it was so big that I couldn't wear it.  After comparing the patterns to some others I have used, I decided to have another go using size S and shortening the straps.  This fit okay, but the style does not really suit me.  The fabric is a new ribbed lycra at Funkifabrics.  I haven't made bottoms to match this one, because I am not sure what to do with it.

I was getting a bit frustrated by this point, so I decided to return to an old pattern.  I don't think I have ever blogged this one.   It was a mash-up of a Jalie, my self-drafted, with some style lines from Lily Sage's Coco racer, which at the time had only been published in girl sizes.    This fabric is from Funkifabrics and left over from jammers I made my son, but it turns out I really like wearing sharks!

 

I have since purchased the Lily Sage Spring Racer, but I don't think it has as much bum coverage as my mash-up, so I decided to stick with my mash up.  Here is my new swimsuit.  It is very comfortable and fits perfectly.  Once again, the fabric is from Funkifabrics, this time leftover from sewing for my daughter.

 Then I decided to make another version with a tie back, because my daughter tells me she finds it really convenient being able to adjust the tie.  To work out how to do the tie-back, I looked at an Amanzi suit that she was given that is too big for her.  I tried it on and was surprised how well it fit, so I did a rub-off and now I have another pattern that fits.  The legs are a little higher than my other pattern, and the back cut a little lower, but the bum coverage is good.  This fabric is from Pitt Trading.

I was getting good mileage from my lycra remnants and scraps and found that I could just squeeze a training bikini from these Funkifabric scraps.  The top is Jalie 3886 Julia, following the Jalie tutorial to remove the bust darts and making the straps with rubber elastic and nylon lycra.  The bottoms were cutout suing the one-piece above as a guide, with some shaping added to a CB seam because I did not have enough fabric to cut the back in one piece.  

I bought a Blu-print subscription for the year and watched Beverley Johnson's class on sewing swimwear.  I followed some of the steps in her class to modify the Megan Nielsen Cottesloe pattern to have a keyhole back with a clasp closure and sewed a swimsuit for my Mum as her Christmas present.  (I am hoping that she doesn't read my blog whilst she is away from home so this won't spoil the Christmas surprise.  I have put it way down in the blog post).  I also sewed in a shelf bra in addition to the lining and added pre-formed cups.  This is a bit tricky to do when you don't have the person to try on the swimsuit, but I guess if they are in the wrong place, she can cut the shelf bra out and have a regular swimsuit.

So at the end of all that I have 3 new swimsuits for training, 3 suits to give away and an orphan bikini top.

Another Jalie Nikita

Posting about my first Jalie Nikita inspired me to sew my next version, this time two sizes up.

Here you can see that this is a much better size for me and the back hangs much more nicely.  This soft bamboo fabric from Pitt Trading drapes beautifully. 

Here is the interesting side seaming and you can also see a thread hanging from my new Jalie 3351 shorts, made up in a super soft nylon spandex, also from Pitt Trading.  

Here is the front, already dirty because I had been for a run, then to the markets, then made smoothies before these photos were taken.  That mango seed was a slippery sucker.

Simplicity 8634

I went a bit crazy when I saw all the beautiful printed lycras online at Pitt Trading.  Now I have to sew all the swimwear and leggings!

I recently purchased Simplicity 8634 for $6 in a Spotlight sale.  It seems a terribly good bargain, with leggings, sports bra with cup sizes and t-shirt included. 

My measurements were between M and L, and I sewed up the M.  I had to take in all the vertical seams.  My lycra is very stretchy, but even so, I would recommend sizing down in this pattern.

The leggings pattern includes large side pockets, which I love.  The pattern uses wide elastic for the waistband.  I cut a strip of lycra and encased elastic for my waistband.

I love a bit of matchy-matchy, so I made the sports bra out of the same fabric.

I normally wear a 34B bra, and after reading other reviews of this pattern, I decided to cut out a 32B, and I'm pretty happy with that choice.  I made a few modifications to the pattern.  I eliminated the V piece in the front.  I didn't use the binding on the armholes, instead I changed the order of construction and sewed the lining and outer together with a seam.  For this reason, my straps are narrower by a seam allowance than the original pattern.  I made the bra using 3 layers of fabric; the outer lycra, and inner soft nylon lycra lining and power mesh between the two.

Another happy fabric project :)