Revisiting patterns

I really like the dress I am wearing on the cover of my latest book. It is so comfortable and the cotton blend ponte is so wearable. I also made my mom a top from this fabric because I like it so much. I got both the fabric for the dress and for the cardigan from my local Fabricville.

There is a story behind this dress.

I used Jalie's Nicole I had made this dress when it first came out and reviewed it here.

Despite really loving the fabric and the style of the pattern I haven't really worn that dress much at all. It sticks to my rear end and stomach too much.

However like I said I really like the style so I decided to take a different tack and try it again. This time I selected not the size my measurements would give me, but the size that the actual garment measurements would give me to what I know to be comfortable around the middle of my body.

This meant going up two full sizes from the armholes down - essentially changing this pattern from close to the body ease to an additional 1.5" of ease.

Here is the result:

So so much better and now one of my favourite patterns. (You can see I did this in the fall - in major catch up blog post mode here).

I think this is a strategy I am going to work on with other patterns. Because Jalie comes in so many sizes and those sizes go up in fine increments it is possible to tweek the ease a bit without a lot of distortion of the pattern lines.

I think I am going to try the same approach with the Lisette skirt pattern, which has beautiful lines but on me made me look like an egg cup. You will notice that when I did that review I focused on the construction techniques and not my body fit.

Once I had this success I decided to go back and look at other patterns.

One of these was the Charlotte cardigan. I had some nice red sweater knit but wanted something really practical and warm. As a result I just lengthened this pattern to something more jacket like to wear with the dress.

The sweater knit was fairly soft though so I didn't make buttons and buttonholes. Instead I used those big snaps that I consider one of the best inventions of this century:

I think there is a theme here. 

One of my take aways from this strange time of the pandemic is about doing more with whatever you have on hand. My house, I have rediscovered, has deep sewing supply resources that I have had no choice but to mine this year.

I used to think, with irony, that I collected patterns, notions and fabric like squirrel. Like I was waiting for the big storm and I couldn't get out.  

Well what do you know. 

That storm came and I was ready.

Review of Tessuti's Tokyo Jacket

Good morning folks.

I have been sewing my brains off recently but haven't been able to share it. Mostly this is because I have been working on seven of the new Jalie patterns and I can't share those until the patterns are released.  That should happen very shortly so get ready for that.

I also sneaked in some sewing for myself of a pattern, and a pattern line, I have wanted to try for myself. Melbourne's Tessuti patterns, and the Tokyo jacket in particular.

I usually find that I need to make one pattern in a new line to see if it is my kind of sewing - it's almost like seeing if you speak the same language, or if their idea of how clothes relate to body shape fit yours.

I have hesitated a bit because on first glance Tessuti uses a lot of loose shapes and those, I regret to say because they are such easy sews, often just swamp my tall and narrow (belly excepted) body. For exact this reason I have bought fewer Stylearc's recently as their boxy silhouettes lately are just too big in the shoulders for me, even with careful sizing. Their pants are still great, but the upper body garments right now not so much.

So all of this is a lead into why I have been stalking and wondering about Tessutis so long.

That said I recently bought some double gauze fabric, a fabulous red at Stonemountain and daughter in Berkeley, and some white at my local Fabricville, and decided I wanted to make jackets out of it.

I wear a lot of jackets and cardigans. 

When I am home in Nova Scotia that's because I am home in Nova Scotia and the words North Atlantic pretty much explains why. When I am off visiting my boys in Texas and California I need jackets of a different type and weight, for some sun protection and for light cover up but not warmth.

I need both gale force wind and light hint of a breeze jackets.

It's this last type of jacket, for summer here and for my upcoming babysitting week of the marvellous Miss Anika in Nashville (the kids are doing a Memorial Day weekend with friends not too far away and Miss Anika and I are going to be staying in an Airbnb), is the one I decided to make out of the double gauze. (Gee I write long, is this OK with you?)

Enter the Tokyo jacket.

I have made a few kimono type jackets in the past, love Jalie's kimono pattern for that, but let's face it those are pretty wide sleeves and not entirely practical for all situations. The Tokyo jacket has cut-on sleeves and looked somewhat neater than the traditional kimono so I figured why not?

A note first on the fabric.

Double gauze for garments is a kind of fabric that if you had looked at it two years ago you would have said "Really?" but this year seems sensible. It is exactly the same fabric that is in the receiving blankets my daughter-in-law Maddie used to most expertly swaddle baby Anika, like a carefully wound pea in a pod. It also resembles the bird's eye cotton I used for diapers for the boys because anything that was not very breathable gave them terrible diaper rash.

So basically we are talking about wearing diaper fabric jackets.

I anticipated that this would mean somewhat wavy hems and no crisp edges but I figured that would be OK, but I also figured that the pre-crinkle would mean that these jackets would be very packable and crushable which suits my life.

I made my size according to my measurements and although this meant a wide body but the sleeves were quite narrow, about right, so I would use this size again.

I really, really enjoyed this pattern.

I always look for evidence of a designer's mind and experience in patterns and was quite pleased with what I saw here.

The method for the pockets, although complicated in the read through - I was quite convinced that the wrong sides were being sewn together until I saw it turn out - is brilliant. Patch pockets with semi-closed openings and zero top-stitching which was a definite plus given my fabric texture and mobility.

Smart thinking went into these pockets.

I was also interested in the instructions to use tear-away stabilizer around the neck and front openings as a stabilizer during construction. Stabilizing edges is a theme in my first couple of newsletters (they are free and you can sign up through the contact form above) and often not included in instructions these days. I did sew these two jackets at a sewing retreat however and didn't have the full force of my resources with me, so I used interfacing, that I carefully removed in the white jacket, and stay- stitching on the red jacket as substitutes. I think I would just stay stitch next time.

So here are the pictures. Because I am tall I lengthened the red jacket by 2" and the pockets by 1" to maintain proportions in the red jacket:

In the white jacket, because I figured I might throw it on over a bathing suit while I chase kids this summer (my one rule as a grandmother is to return the same number of children to their parents as have been delivered to me) I lengthened this one by 4" and the pockets by 2":

I had fun making this pattern and now want to see how it would look in a more structured fabric. I am definitely going to be exploring more Tessuti patterns.Definitely.

In the meantime I now have two jackets that I know I will be wearing all summer done - both sewn at a leisurely speed in one day.

Hard to beat that.