Happy Handmade Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!  I'm pretty pleased with myself and my handmade Halloween-y outfit.

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Pants

Vogue 1517 pants in stretch faux suede

More crazy lighting.  It looks like I took these photos on the surface of the sun or something, not a shady spot in the backyard!  Anyway, the pants are black (not navy) and the sweater is lavender (not white).  The cowl is detailed here.

These pants are Vogue 1517 from last fall.  I have finished the jacket, also, which I started waaaay before these pants.  I think I finished it not long before the move, so you know how that goes... Pics of that coming soon.

I cannot for the life of me remember where I got this fabulous fabric.  I thought it was GorgeousFabrics.com but I can't find it in my order history.  I don't think it was Pennie Fabrics in Florida.  Maybe it was from SawyerBrook.com.  I'm not sure.  Anyway, it is a great stretchy faux suede.  It has just enough stretch for these pull-on pants.  I think the fit of mine turned out pretty spot-on to the fit on the model.

I usually lengthen my pants by a few inches, but I forgot on these.  When they were finished, I decided they were a smidge shorter than I wanted so I added a little cuff on the bottom.  This turned out really well.  The fabric holds a fold beautifully, so I can leave them unrolled, cuff them up, or roll them halfway, so they go with any shoes I might want to wear.  In these photos, they are half-cuffed - rolled up just enough to cover the seam.

The fit on these is quite good.  I always have good luck with Vogue pants.  They are a little wrinkly, but I don't think you can avoid that with a close-fitting pant.

I am very happy with the fit from the side view - no bagging under the butt or in the crotch region.

My only dislike about these is the narrow waistband.  I find myself hiking them up quite a bit, and I think that could be improved with a wider elastic waistband.  Of course, this is something that I could fix in 30 minutes, and who knows, maybe I will, but they are fine for now.

I tried to get a nice view of the vertical seaming and top-stitching.  This is the best I got.

These pants fit right in my wardrobe.  I am still a big fan of skinny pant and long tops.  I am trying to come around to the "new" silhouette of roomier pants, but you know me - I'll always be a few years behind.

Handmade Batty Top for Halloween

I am waaaaay too excited about this little top!  :-)  I was at JoAnn Fabrics to get who-knows-what, and I saw a display of Halloween fabrics.  The cool thing was that these were not quilting cotton fabrics but knits!!  Now, the designers may have envisioned some cute pjs for little ones, but that's not what I saw.  This bat-printed interlock spoke - no - screamed at me to become a top for moi.

  

To make this basic raglan-sleeved top, I used a pattern so old that it doesn't even show up on Vogue's out-of-print archives.  It is Vogue 8670, and I used it once before, 3.5 years ago, back in the final days of the old blog.  One thing I didn't like about that original top was that the sleeves are 2-pieces, with a seam running right down the outside of the arm.  This time, I did some creative taping and eyeballing to eliminate that seam.  It worked out great!

I sewed this top mostly on my serger, but I did use my regular machine to sew the neckband and the hems since I would be covering them up with non-stretchy trim anyway.

Please excuse the dog hair right in the middle of my hip here, but here is a closeup of two fun trims that I used to jazz up this top.  First, I machine stitched the top edge of this narrow velvet ribbon right on top of the hem stitching.  Next, I lined up some lace underneath to be caught in the second row of stitching at the bottom of the velvet ribbon.  I also bought the black lace at JoAnn, but unfortunately, I can't find it online.

So there it is!  My fun new Halloween top.  When I want to be a little less conspicuous about it, I wear a black cardigan on top so it's more subtle, but I love that it doesn't scream orange Halloween.  It's like classy Halloween.  

Cable and Seed Knee Socks from Interweave Knits Holiday 2017 magazine in HiKoo Simplicity

My big plan here was to use my fireplace for a backdrop, to elevate the awkward sock selfie.  I'm not sure it worked, but oh well.  Here are my cozy new socks:

This pattern is from the Interweave Knits Holiday 2017 magazine.  I am a long-time subscriber to Interweave Knits, but these holiday magazines are not included, so I picked this up at my local JoAnns.  

Here is the photo from the magazine.  They are called the Cable and Seed Knee Socks, but they only go a bit past mid-calf on the model.  I don't have much use for knee socks, except for maybe under knee-high boots, but these aren't long enough to peek out at the top and be all cozy, so I modified them to be a more standard shape, using the construction and pretty cable and seed pattern.

I gave them a nice, deep ribbed cuff, which I like to turn down and wear them around the house like slippers.  The yarn is HiKoo Simplicity, a superwash merino, acrylic, and nylon blend.  Great for cozy socks!  I didn't mention that these socks call for worsted weight yarn.  Mine is more dk weight, so I went down a needle size.  I like the snugger fit.  I don't care for floppy socks!

I hope you are having a great weekend!  I did some knitting while watching tv last night, and I am thinking some sewing is in order later on today.

BurdaStyle 08/2017 Faux Suede Jacket

Buckle up!  Lots of photos today.

This is the "Faux Suede Jacket" from the August 2017 issue of BurdaStyle Magazine.  You can download it from the website now, though.  I saw this jacket on a blog's review of the magazine and I got a wee bit obsessed... so much so that I ordered the magazine from England (very reasonable price and shipping) and then traced and graded down 3 sizes since this is a "plus" pattern.  So worth it.

The fabric is a faux suede from Sawyer Brook.  The color is a dark olive drab that occasionally reads a little brown.It was a dream to sew and shows the top-stitching beautifully.  Lining, zippers, snaps, and shoulder pads are all from JoAnn Fabrics.

Even the back has nice seaming details.

Here are some details shots.

I am so pleased with how this turned out.  I have nothing like it in my wardrobe.  It's the perfect fall jacket.

Helene Cardigan by Jalie

Hello!  This is the Helene Shawl Collar Cardigan by Jalie.  This is actually my first Jalie pattern, and I really like it!  I also bought this pants/shorts pattern, but I haven't tried it out yet.

The fabric for this cardigan is from Pennie Fabrics in Sarasota.  It is a navy boucle textured knit with very little stretch, and it has brick red flecks in it.  Very unique and cool.  

The neatest feature of this pattern is the pockets.  The design makes them super easy to sew.  This went together super quickly with just my serger and coverstitch machines.

I need to dig out the camera remote.  I don't know what I did with the timer that made me look yellow.  I'm a little blurry,, too, which I blame on the camera focusing on the trees behind me.  Someday, I'll get this taking pictures of myself thing all figured out.

I like that the line of the pockets continues around to the back.  I like details like that.  Plus, the seamed pieces give the back great shape.

I will definitely be making this again, both for me and for the nieces.  It's a great basic.  Here's a little detail shot of a pocket: