FINISHED! Alexandria pants - the daisy and upside down bird edit

The pants I'm about to show you were made out of the cheapest fabric I have ever bought and it all started from this outfit from Blugirl Autumn Winter 2015/16 collection. The fantastic fabric is currently stocked by Allamoda Fabric. Oh but let's face it, I'm on a home renovation budget at the moment so I had to let this fabric pass me by... again. So, with my home renovation budget in mind I stumbled across this fabric in Spotlight on a little shopping trip with Myra.  The combination of birds and daisies reminded me of the blugirl fabric - I'm not sure why as that fabric is birds and fruit - and this is clearly not anywhere near as nice quality, but it did.

I decided at the time and bravely stated to the CBR sewing crew, that these were going to either be the best pants ever or destined for immediate donation. A big call given that even with a wash, the feel of these 'cotton' pants is 'cheap'.  

The pattern is the Alexandria peg trousers again, which in spite of or because of it's elastic waist, has become of bit of a favourite of mine.

I got the fabric home only to realise that the pattern is actually a mirror image repeat so there are birds flying upside down.  I briefly contemplated the future of this fabric but stuck with the original idea of pants. The upside birds don't bother me and in fact make me giggle quietly to myself when I wear the pants.

Despite the feel of the fabric, I like these pants. I wore them to work on the Monday after I'd made them. I loved them all day until around 3 and I looked down and had a moment of 'what am I wearing?'... but then just pretended that wearing upside down birds and daisy pants was normal. 

Will I wear them again? Oh yes probably! My flamingo pants are on the highest rotation possible for something that I don't wear to work. These won't get close to those but there is another wear or two in them.  As for the Alexandria pants, I think I have a lot more of them in my future.. but after this fabric, I really need a palette cleanser in some Liberty fabric. I'm waiting impatiently for the new Republique du Chiffon and Jolies Bobines collaboration, la robe Lola, so in the meantime might make up another Marthe.

FINISHED! A named duo

This outfit started out because my best work trousers had a zip that kept falling down (and if I was honest with myself, their best days were gone). Having an aversion to plain black pants, I struggled to find anything that remotely addressed the gaping hole in the wardrobe. The hole still exists... Naturally I still haven't gone anywhere near plain fabric but I decided to try out two new patterns. The Named Alexandria Peg pants and the Sew Over It Ultimate trousers in an attempt to make some pants for the wardrobe. 

I still haven't made up the Sew Over It Utlimate trousers but the pattern is printed and I have some test fabric.  My flamingo pants have been in high rotation now that the weather is warmer so thought I'd start with the Named peg pants.  The allure of the elastic waist band .... and I've had great success with Named patterns in the past. 

The fabric for these pants is a cheapy 'linen' from spotlight that I picked up for the sole purpose of testing these peg pants. The linen wears a bit during the day so by the end of a work day of sitting around, the bottom gets a bit baggy, but it doesn't worry me so much. 

 I can see why these pants have a popular following. The pleats, pocket detail and easy elastic waistband make them a straightforward make with a nice cut. I omitted the drawstring. These pants are comfy and I feel almost guilty wearing them to work as they really are like secret pj's.

To 'match' the pants, I made up a Named Kanerva in another Spotlight purchase of barely stretchy stripey jersey. Oh how I love the Kanerva. It is my favourite top to make up. Without a doubt. This was my first one in a knit so I removed the back buttons. I had also forgotten that I had played around with the peplum for a dress and forgot that I had shortened the bodice so it is sitting a bit high up under my bust - I'll fix this next time.

All in all this is very comfy work attire (is it too comfy ?) and feels a little bit more me than my previous make. Perhaps it's the pattern on pattern that I like. Next up will by another pair of Alexandria peg pants based on this inspirational image that I finished yesterday at CBR sewing crew.

FINISHED! Bird of Paradise raglan dress

A number of months ago now, I was offered Stylish Party Dresses from Tuttle Publishing to review and I have finally got around to blogging about my make. Despite loving a lot of the clothes, I settled on V, the raglan dress as my first make from this book.

I initially started making it out of some fabric from Tessuti but I messed up the tracing and cutting of the facing, so that version is still sitting in my unfinished pile.  It's an easy fix but I just haven't got back to it.  I then made it out of this gorgeous linen/cotton blend from Spotlight (Sarah has made some shorts out of so watch out for them!) as a wearable muslin as I had the intention of splurging and buying this gucci silk. Of course I rang today and it's all sold out. Booo :(

So, my gucci dress isn't to be, so let's just talk about this one. Up front it's not a woohoo make.. and that's not just because it's not in the gucci fabric!  I like the fabric, I like the style, but something just doesn't click for me. Maybe it's the length, or the sleeves or something. I like how it's a bit trapeze- y which is probably due in part to the heavy fabric. But, well, I just think I've looked better. And there is a bit of white leaf on the neck which bugs me!

The dress is super easy to put together (once you get the facing traced correctly) and I love a facing - so much easier than binding. It is really long which i was surprised about so hacked a lot off the bottom (maybe too much?).  It doesn't have any pockets so I stuck a patch pocket in between the right and middle of the dress. It's an odd placement but I like it.  You can't see it in these pictures due to my fantastic pattern matching ! :)

In the dress's defense, I wore it to work yesterday and got a heap of compliments and wore it most of the day with my white sneakers on as I had walked from the car park and never bothered to change my shoes and actually really liked it that way. I will definitely wear it to work on really hot days as there is nothing more comfy than a loose shift and the massive patch pocket makes it feel like a bit of a house dress.

I'm loving all the foliage prints out at the moment and finding it hard to resist buying them all. I have a pair of foliage culottes which I'll blog soon. We'll be home be home before Christmas and I have a big backlog of makes to blog so I'd better get on with it!