Top

I made myself another top last week. This one is from the translated Japanese sewing book Simple Modern Sewing. I think it is a good book so far, I want to make a bunch more of the things in there but I think they will wait for post pregnancy.

I bought the material for this top new. I was looking for something solid but instead found this navy and white check which is still pretty plain I think. And it is a nice loose weave so drapes nicely.

I do really like this top even though it is not very flattering and makes me look humongous. It looked much nicer on the very thin and small busted Japanese woman in the pattern book. I will definitely wear it while I'm pregnant at least as it's long and comfy. Here's my 25 week belly. This pregnancy is coming along nicely and my back is no longer bothering me now that I am being more careful about carrying Henry too much.

And in Henry news, here he is out at a restaurant in Elora for breakfast yesterday. I thought this would be a really fun treat since Henry loves pancakes so much these days. And he was excited about pancakes as soon as he heard us order it from the waitress but he lost interest after a few bites and went to play on the floor of the restaurant with his toys. Oh well it was still a nice outing.

Another Shirt

I made myself another shirt. I'm not pretending that I need more shirts but I had an idea of something that I wanted to sew and I like to think that's more important than fitting all my clothes into my half of our small closet. This is made from a pair of pure wool pants that I had that were too small for me in several dimensions so I didn't hesitate to cut them up and use the beautiful fabric. I had actually planned to make a different, more complicated shirt but soon discovered that I had grossly overestimated the amount of fabric that comes from one pair of pants, even one with lots of pleats. So instead I made this simple shirt. Each sleeve had to be made from 3 scrap pieces and I think the shirt is just screaming for patch pockets but I don't have a scrap left to make them from.

For a base pattern, I used a couple patterns from the Japanese sewing book Happy Homemade Vol. 1. I am really liking this shortsleeved top over a long sleeved top since I saw it in my Japanese pattern books. No, it's not super practical but it looks cool. Actually when I wore this outfit yesterday I was the perfect temperature and I think the tightly woven wool T-shirt helped keep out the wind to keep me just a smidge warmer.

And what's Henry been up to? He really likes this toy broom that I bought him on the weekend (from our local broom maker of course). Here he is helping me clean up some rice that he spilled at dinner. It's nice because I have been teaching him to help clean up when he makes a mess but often that means I see him picking up many many teeny tiny pieces of puffed wheat off the floor and putting them back in the bowl. Now he can "help" with the broom (he's still a little too uncoordinated to help without quotation marks).

Bottoms

image from Pomadour 24 on ebay

After making myself so many tops a few weeks ago, it was time to make a few more bottoms. These are both from the pattern 'T' seen above in Happy Homemade Volume 1, a Japanese pattern book that I love. I had actually made a variation of this pattern a few weeks ago and found that the fit was just so perfect - just enough room to be comfy but not look too sloppy. And I am enjoying the comfort of an elasticated waist.

These shorts are made with no variation to the pattern. Except for adding the pockets and making them flat front (elastic only in the back) but the length is from pattern. They are made from a navy blue twill that I bought new because I really wanted some plain shorts.And these pants are the same pattern but lengthened. New fabric is very expensive and I had lots of stuff I wanted to sew so when I found that Ikea had unbleached cotton at $2/metre and it actually felt quite nice I snapped up 10 m thinking I could spend a bit of money on dye and make it different colours for various projects. And this fabric resulted from my trying to dye 3 m grey for a dress I wanted to make. I obviously grossly underestimated the amount of liquid needed to evenly dye 3 m and ended up with this blotchy mess. Well I decided the mess was quite cool actually, but I didn't want to use it for a dress so I made these pants. I think I love them but I haven't worn them yet so we'll see how comfortable I am in them in public. I am loving sewing right now but of course I don't want to sew anything that is the same as what I could just buy in the store... so my clothes are naturally going to get more and more unconventional.And speaking of unconventional, here is Henry's 'screw you' to convention. Holding his spoon in one hand while using his other hand to shovel apple sauce into his mouth, what a sweetie.

Clothes for Amy

Ever since I got my Japanese pattern books in the mail I can't stop sewing. All of these clothes are from thrift store materials. Most of the patterns are from Happy Homemade Volume 1. This book is full of very simple clothes with small details like gathers and pleats that make them interesting. And the clothes are just my style - loose tops made of woven materials. Not flattering or fashionable but still make me feel cool. I still have more things that I want to sew from these books and a few winter versions in mind.

This is 'D' from Happy Homemade. I have worn it a couple times already. It also looks nice over a long sleeved T so this is the winter version as well.

This one is a bit of a mix of several of the patterns. They all have the same base size/shape so you know the sleeves of one will fit onto the body of another. So I just made a simple T-shirt because that was all the material that I had. I love this striped gauzey material that I found at the thrift store. This one really fits in with my casual wardrobe too. It is a bit restricting in the back so I added about an inch to the width of the back in subsequent tops.
These shorts are from the other book that I think I remember was called in English 'One Day Dresses and Tunics' but I can't seem to find it online right now. This is all I've made from this book so far but there is more on my list to make. These are made from a table cloth. It was fun to decide where to place the pattern on the shorts. And I added seam pockets.
These shorts are T from Happy Homemade, I just made them a bit longer, added the pockets, and made them flat fronted instead of having the elastic all the way around.

This is E from Happy Homemade, the yellow one here. I am learning more and more about fabric choice. This was a really nice fabric so it made a really nice top - lovely and drapey. I wasn't sure about the sleeve ruffles but I am glad I did them. I am finding it difficult to do a nice even hem on these wide tops - must work on that.