Life hasn't allowed for a ton of sewing lately. Guests, meetings, travel have all mashed together to keep me away from the bunkhouse. But I'm back at it!
I struck a pattern from a tunic my friend, Janet, was wearing last week. I won't name the brand but it's one we all wear a lot. I loved the assym lines and little drawstring at the hem. I also love the funnel neck. I cut it really wide so it wouldn't choke my drapy, wrinkled, very delicate neck…I used to wear tight turtle necks but ever since you-know-what I can't stand anything tight around my neck. I know I'm not alone in this particular dilemma.
I used a fairly heavy knit I got from Marcy Tilton. I've been asking myself why I bought it. Seemed every time I went to use it the irregular stripes didn't work on the pattern. But this time they were JUST what it needed to make the various aspects of the garment stand out.
Drafting top patterns has gotten so easy since I realized I could use the top part of a TNT tunic pattern for all of my new garments. I don't bother to copy the new garment's upper part. I just lay my TNT pattern on new pattern paper, trace the neck, shoulders, armholes and sleeves from the TNT pattern. Then I lay the garment down on the paper, align it with the top and trace that part. This time is was the lower body and the funnel neck. Good 'ol masking tape comes in handy to tape all the elements together.
This worked in one try. I'm going to make this again and again, it's super comfy and I got lots of compliments the day I wore it. Neve mind that I wore it BACKWARDS for the first two hours. I finally caught sight of my reflection in a window and realized the little drawstring was hanging down in BACK! OY. No wonder the neck was feeling a bit tight, it was the back neck!
I'm sorry this is so dark. I took the pics at the wrong time of the day. Darn, because some of the details don't show up. There is a lot of piecing of small pattern pieces you can't really see. Maybe I'll take more and post those another time.
This vest was made with two grey tshirts I got at a trade show recently. They are heavy men's shirts, just beautiful. I've been wanting to copy an All Saint's vest I own for two years now. This is the first go. Most of the seams are on the outside, it has a big, drapy cowl neck and deep pockets that go down to the hem at the side.
I laid the All Saints vest over one of the tshirts and started cutting. Then I draped the rest of the vest on my dress form, trying to follow the lines of the original.
This isn't truly a copy, it's very different from the original but I like it very much. And I'm going to make more!
I'm working on cashmere hats and sweaters from recycled cashmeres right now. I sell them at Many Hands Gallery next to the bakery. Check out their website here. I'll post them before I send them off into retail outer space.
