The heat wave continues, although I don’t think you can really call it a wave. It’s just continually HOT. And I think this heat will be around for most of February as well. At times like this I wish we had air-conditioning. Good weather to stay inside and sew

On the bright side:

• 39C feels cool compared to 45C
• you can wash blankets and they are dry within an hour
• perfect weather for sun-dried tomatoes. This batch only needed two days to dry
• excellent birdwatching – even the shy birds are enticed to the pond for a drink and splash-about
• getting lots of wear out of togs (swimmers), shorts and linens
• getting a new computer after my old one had a melt-down
• discovering ‘slow cookers’ can be left outside so we can still have a cooked meal without heating up the kitchen. (Although, I reckon I could slow cook a meal by leaving it in the car in the sun all day too)
• and of course… lots of sewing.

On to the sewing…

I’ve been fairly productive but haven’t been able to take many photos. The best time is in the morning, but I’m usually doing my outside jobs before the heat really kicks in. The new computer has taken a bit to set up and I’ve finally got the digitizing tablet working.

This pair of jeans is from my favourite boyfriend jeans pattern. I’ve been on the hunt for a grey/green denim for quite a while and was lucky to pick this up just before Christmas. I have enough fabric left over to make a pair of shorts.

The top in the photos is from Knipmode #9/10 May 2013 (write up)

Style Arc patterns – Lola and Courtney

Rayon pants would have to be a favourite of mine in the hot weather. Cool enough to wear while still getting sun protection. I love the colours in the print. It gives a lot of options for adding tops to wear with it. I cut each of the leg pieces individually to offset the pattern repeat. I think it looks better having the motifs offset on each leg rather than being the same, or worse, off-balance.

This pattern is Style Arc’s Lola – a woven pull-on pant pattern with in-seam pockets on a slanted seam. I had to make a couple of adjustments to the pattern because I’d chosen the wrong size. This is one of the reasons I’ve tended to avoid SA patterns but it’s good to see that some of their newer patterns are available multi-sized, albeit at a premium.

My main adjustment was to increase the crotch extensions as the are quite short, much shorter than other pant patterns I’ve used. I had added in the elastic at the ankles took them out as they tended to make me look shorter and clownish. OK, more than I already am anyway 🙂

Next up was the SA Courtney top from a rayon knit. I made this before in an grey-green and wore it to death, so this was to be a replacement for that top. From my previous notes, I needed to grade down a size, reduce the neckline width, change the neckline binding and change the back gathers to a box pleat.

The fabric was in my stash and I assumed it was the same as the first top. But after making it up, I think not. This fabric is thinner ( much more stretchy) and has a sheen to it. The end result wasn’t too flattering. Not suitable for wearing in public, but will live out it’s days as a nightshirt.

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Sewing Project Score card

I’ve had a bit of a re-design of my project report card. I’m trying to be consistent and honest with how I rate my projects. On a scale of 1-5: a 1 would be bad, 3 would be normal and 5 is exceptional.

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