What I made in 2025

 So... I made four skirts all to the same design - two lengths of fabric cut straight and seamed, with the top folded over and elastic threaded through, and of course pockets.  Two are gingham, one is Liberty Tana Lawn and one is quilting cotton - all fabrics from stash.

I also made three dresses - all Tessuti Felicias in linen in chartreuse, orange and a check one which is much more blue than it appears in the photo.  The orange linen I bought in Paris, the chartreuse linen I bought on Etsy a while ago and the check is Faro linen from Merchant & Mills.

I finished one cardigan which I'd started knitting in December 2023 from a pattern I'd bought in April 2018.  I bought it because I loved the design on the sleeves, but they turned out to be a real faff to knit in the round on 9" circs, and nigh impossible to unpick any mistakes and correct them easily, so I gave up and just knitted stocking stitch sleeves instead.  Yarn is 100% lace wool from Wollmeise.

The photo is lying, the sleeves are the same length as each other 😉. 

I don't think I'll be knitting any more round necked cardigans, I think v-necks are more useful.

In the works, a cardigan based on this pattern which I made a few years ago, with the wool from this jumper which I unravelled, steamed and reskeined because I just didn't wear it.  However, this version is in stocking stitch only - theoretically for quickness but it's actually taking me ages to knit because I haven't been prioritising it.

Purple skirt

Having reviewed my autumn wardrobe I felt I could do with another skirt, and that's how this came about.  I bought the fabric years ago in Fabricland intending to make a dress from it, but never got around to it so decided it was time to use it for a skirt instead.

The pattern I used was a vintage New Look / Maudella one, from the 80s I'm guessing, by the hairstyles of the models on the cover!

I made the four-gore option and there's not really anything to say about the construction - it was straightforward.

I've already worn it a few times, and it will be just as useful in summer with bare legs as it is now with tights and boots.

Mustard denim skirt

This is another version of Simplicity 1246, a vintage pattern from 1955 which I first made here.

I wanted to replace a mustard corduroy rtw one which can partially be seen here and which is wearing out.  But could I find either an rtw replacement or any mustard cord to make one?  No I could not, so I decided denim would be the next best thing.

This is heavier weight denim than the first version I made so it hangs very slightly differently, but is none the worse for that.  Like its blue forerunner, I've already worn it a fair bit and it's been a really useful addition to my cool weather wardrobe.

Denim skirt

I'd been wanting a denim skirt for ages and tbh if I'd been able to find one in a shop that ticked all the right boxes (not stretch denim, longer length - I was flexible about style - and that actually fitted) I'd have bought one.  I find now that I don't enjoy clothes shopping in shops if I have a particular purchase in mind.  If I look at my few shop bought purchases over the last few years (other than things like tights) they have tended to be things I've either seen online that other people have bought, or that I've walked past in a shop and thought WOW (coats mainly...)

So, anyway, back to this skirt.  Since I already had the fabric to hand (I had won 2m of denim in the SewBrum raffle three years ago) I decided to make one using a vintage pattern which had a skirt option

and actually cut the fabric out in May last year.  I don't remember now why I didn't get it finished at that point - possibly because it's quite heavy denim and I thought I probably wouldn't wear it during warm weather.

However, with denim-skirt-wearing weather approaching this year I decided it was high time to sew it up.  It came together easily, I've worn it a lot and since made another one.

Right, that's quite enough blogging for one weekend!  I've caught up all my projects up until the end of August, so three months done, three more to go...

Unselfish sewing

No posts for weeks and then two come along at once!

This is a skirt which I made for my mother in November last year.

Abstract print wool skirt

The fabric is lovely, it's wool which she bought in Marche St Pierre in Paris a few years ago, so I had to be careful with it as there was no chance of getting any more!  Sewing with wool is definitely outside my comfort zone, I'm happy making cotton dresses, but this was not as easy to sew with and frayed easily.  However, I love the colours and fortunately there was no need to worry about pattern matching the print, other than making sure I cut all the pieces out the same way up.

I used Simplicity 3688 for the first time, I will be sewing a skirt for myself from this and also possibly the trousers at some point.  I didn't really follow the instructions because I used an invisible zip, and also, because time was short, I just put poppers on the waistband as a temporary measure until I have the time to work out how to use the buttonhole feature on my sewing machine.

I initially made a toile out of navy lawn (white lawn dyed in the machine with dylon) to check the fit, which fortunately was fine.  I unpicked the waistband from this and used the skirt pieces as a lining.

My mother really likes this, and I must get round to finishing it off properly with a button and buttonhole on the waistband.