My next knock-off is the Kuhl Destroyer Pant. I think I was crazy to try to make these pants, but life is boring without a bit of a challenge? Drafting the pattern turned out to be the ‘easy’ bit. The biggest headache was working out how to sew the sides as they have a normal side seam from the waistband to below the hip, then it changes to a side panel starting with a zippered pocket with flap. Which seam to sewn first?
Continue reading “Designer Knock-off: Kuhl Destroyer pant”
My first real pants drafted from the sloper I made is based on the Marmot Ginny hiking pant. I love the back pocket. The shape of the pant is very similar to the pant sloper. The main thing I needed to draft was the patch pockets on the front and back.
Remember my New Year’s resolution to do something with the classes that I’ve purchased on Craftsy? During August I decided that I wanted to get a better pant sloper. The pant base that I’ve been using was based on a Patrones pattern and my jeans pattern was based on a Knipmode pattern. Both have been great patterns, but I have been using the original pattern as a working pattern and over time the shape has been trimmed or tweaked. I’m also finding that since getting orthotics to help relieve the nerve pain in my ankle, my posture has changed. So it’s a good time to revisit my patterns and what better way than to draft the pattern from scratch and put the class Patternmaking + Design: The Pants Sloper to the test.
Continue reading “Craftsy Class Review: Pattern Making + Design – The Pant Sloper”
Drum-roll please? The rug is off the loom, ends woven in and hemstitched. Yay! And this is what it looks like…
Here is the last instalment of my pattern stash busting – Three tops and a polar fleece vest. Plus a sneak peak at the rug I’ve been weaving. Continue reading “Pattern Stash: The last dash”
Here is the next instalment of my pattern stash busting. I was working through some raglan sleeve top patterns. Starting with a Lekala one and moving up to a more complicated design. As I found out, raglan sleeves come in many different disguises – two part, darted shoulder, single piece, single piece with raised neckline. Plus there is no one way to sew them in – ie side seams first or last. Continue reading “Pattern Stash: The raglan tops”
At the start of winter I created a couple of inspiration boards for things I would like to sew. As part of the pattern stash contest, I was trying to match these up with some of my unused patterns. I’ve trialled 5 patterns, including two Lisette patterns. Here is my progress so far. Continue reading “Pattern Stash: The pants”
High on my sewing list this winter has been to knock-off a couple of North Face jackets. I’ve been planning to sew the Denali jacket using Kwik Sew 3813 ever since the pattern came out. When searching for detailed pictures of the inside of the jacket, I came across photos of the Pseudio Moto jacket. Oh! Wow! I had to make my own Continue reading “The North Face Pseudio Biker and Denali Jacket Knock-offs”
I love watching the live stages of the Tour de France each year. You get to see so much more of the tactics and scenery than with the daily highlights, plus there is no spoiler on the morning news to tell you who won and my how much. The snag is that the stages generally run from 9pm to 2am in the morning. It’s hard to stay awake, but this year I started sewing as I watched the race.
For 21 stages of the race, I’ve sewn 23 patterns from my stash! 2 jackets, 1 vest, 9 tops, 5 pants, 3 gloves, a bar and a pair of slippers Continue reading “Tour de France with the Pattern Stash”
About 12 years ago I bought a fantastic yet very complicated pattern for shell gloves. And I’ve finally made them!!! It’s a mixture of relief, rapture, disbelief, adrenalin rush and blind panic all rolled into one. Don’t believe me – just check out the photo of the pattern pieces!!
The gloves are designed to be used as a weatherproof shell for your gloves. I have a pair of the mitten styles which I bought when I first started cross-country skiing. Plus, I reverse engineered a pair for DH). They are great, but I find the mittens cumbersome. The glove style of this pattern sounded perfect. Especially this part of the description – “Unlike ‘2 dimensional’ overmitts that are flat and awkward, these are sculpted to fit the hand comfortably in a slightly curved finger position”. See all those curvy pattern pieces on the left of the photo? They are the finger gussets. The three shapes in the centre of the photo form the thumb, complete with a bend. Scary, no? Continue reading “Controlled Exposure 75 – Goretex Shell Gloves (photo heavy)”
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