A lucky break

As I said last time, I wanted to finish the trousers on Wednesday and I did I just haven't had time to post the picture.  So here they are.  I wore them on Friday with the ruffle scarf that I made.  Daughter bought me the ball of ruffle yarn for Christmas and I whizzed it up into a scarf one evening between Christmas and New Year.

You may have noticed that the trousers have buttons and not a zip.  I put a zip in (a brand new zip) and then went to try them on so I could alter the waist to fit before completing the waistband.  I made the alterations required and went to fit them again to check they did fit and the zip had broken.  I couldn't believe it.  But it was lucky it broke then rather than when I was wearing the trousers at work!  Although I did have another zip, it was exactly the same as the one that broke and I decided not to use it.  I had sort of gone off the idea of having a zip.  I removed the broken zip and found some jeans buttons in my stash and used those instead.  It was quick and simple to add a line of buttons and button holes and I feel safer with these than the zip. 

Fitting it all in.

 So far so good.  Everything has just about fitted into this weekend.  The denim was cut for the trousers,

 and they were sewn.  Unfortunately the zip, back pockets, waistband and hems will have to wait until later in the week to be finished.  Probably Wednesday.

The wool was wound and all the chores were done, including doing the weekly food shop, which I usually do on Monday evenings but can't if I am going to running club.  Eventually the shop will move to Wednesday evening so that I have more time at the weekends.

I have realised that running more in the evenings will leave me more lunchtimes to do knitting and crochet, so I'm feeling pretty happy about that.

New Year, New Suit

First Happy New Year to you all. 

 During December I spent most of my spare time on the birthday cake or getting ready for Christmas and sewing took a back seat.  Then one day last week I woke up knowing that I had been dreaming of sewing and that's what I needed to do! 

My latest Burda magazine arrived just before Christmas.  There's not that many patterns in it that I want to sew as a lot of it is fancy dress costumes (may be useful in the future).  But there was this gorgeous ruffle collar jacket, and I had just the fabric to make it in my stash.  A thin woollen fabric in grey/blue that I bought many years ago to make a trouser suit that never got made.  I looked back at past issues of Burda to find a trouser pattern.

This close fitted bootleg pattern fitted the bill, both in terms of style and suitability for the fabric.  Bootleg isn't my usual style, but I thought that they would work very well with the style of the jacket.

I laid out the pattern pieces.  They had to be cut in two goes as I didn't have anywhere with enough space to lay out the whole length of fabric in one go.

The frills on the jacket had to be slightly frayed, so I did this one morning, whilst waiting for my mum to visit.

Yesterday, I set aside for the sewing.  Here is the jacket, complete with the belt that fastens it (I found the buckle in my stash0.

A close up of the ruffles, I do seem to have gone a bit 'ruffle' mad at the moment.  I'm not sure that I have ever sewn anything with ruffles before and the last two items that I have sewn have involved them!!

Here are the trousers, I couldn't get the full length into the picture.  They are very flattering when worn.  Very fitted round the top and then flaring out below the knee. 

Here's a close up of the pocket which is a feature that I particularly like but which is unfortunately hidden when the trousers are worn with the jacket.  I like these trousers so much that I might well make another pair.

So there it is the 'New Year, New Suit', all ready to go to work on Tuesday.  Hopefully the first of many sewing (and other projects) that will be completed this year.

Glamorous ???

 I love these three quarter lenth peg or harem style trousers, they are so comfy to wear but I never seem to get the look quite right.

 These beige harem trousers were my first attempt at making them about this time last year.  They are much higher waisted than the pictures I have found this year.  I wore them a bit last year but couldn't really decide on a top.  Working on the black and beige theme shown in the first picture above, mine is in reverse, I teamed them with a black chiffon blouse that I made a couple of years ago and wear a lot.  It does look better on me than on 'Millie'.       

My second attempt used an original eighties trouser pattern and some black jersey fabric left over from a top I made this Christmas.  I had to make some alterations to the pattern as it wasn't made for jersey fabric and came out much too long.  Overall, I'm quite happy with this look (again it looks better on me than on 'Millie').  The shirt was made from chiffon a few years ago as a tunic, but it got caught on something and ripped at the bottom.  Worm with these trousers it can be tucked in and is them long enough to pull out to balloon over the waist.  The juries still out on weather this look will work well for me, it's very differnt to what I'm used too.
I wore these too work on Friday with a black velvet jacket that was a present many years age.  At lunchtime I went for a mooch round the shops as I had forgotten to take my crochet to work, and I was so pleased whena shop assistant in Next stopped me and told me how glamorous I looked.  Perhaps these are more of a success than I thought!!