Menswear Outfit Four: December

I'm so glad I managed to get Darron's December outfit finished and photographed before the end of January.  Only just made it!  The outfit itself has been done for a week but between Darron's work roster, organising Coen for the new school year, and doing my own school enrolment this week, today was the first opportunity to get a couple of pictures! 

Once again I used Threa Theory's Strathcona pattern for the tee.  This one is a stretchy orange jersey with no buttons on the placket.

We may decide to put buttons on it down the track.  He's wearing it now to see if he's happy with how it sits open.

The shorts are modified Thread Theory Jeds.  Darron requested that this pair be a little less tapered in the leg, and plain hemmed instead of cuffed.  The pattern was easy to adjust for a little extra width in the legs.

It's starting to look like I've taken this project on to capture as many photographs of my husband's butt as possible!  Really though, the pattern fits him so well in the rear, and the back pockets are so neat it would be a shame to not show you!

Darron wanted printed shorts for this outfit.  Luckily Spotlight had no shortage of printed drills to choose from.  I was thrilled when he chose this postage stamp print!  It's so fun!

I must say, I'm getting my moneys worth from these Thread Theory patterns.  I still have the Newcastle cardigan for when the weather cools down and they have just released the fantastic Goldstream Peacoat that I'm itching to make for winter as well.  So far, these outfits have been getting plenty of wear too, which is very satisfying!

Outfit Eleven: December

Wow!  I can't believe I only have one outfit left to make and I will have finished 12 outfits in 12 months!

This outfit was a bit of a trouble maker!  I had decided on a particular skirt in a particular fabric right at the very beginning of this adventure, only to have it turn out unwearable because the stripes strobe and give me a blaring headache.  As luck would have it, the search for a replacement skirt that would also fit into my summer capsule wardrobe brought me to a pattern I had traced last year and forgotten about.  So here it is:

The skirt is stretch drill I bought several years ago.  I had about a million metres of it and recently used some for a little 'off plan' sewing so it was sitting out and I noticed that it was the right colour for my summer wardrobe.  It was that fabric decision that brought me to the pattern, Burda 05/2012 118.  

I didn't make the skirt quite as short as the pattern, and I left off the back welt pockets.

I love the a-line shape from the back and pleated fullness at the front.  Since making Darron's trousers  I've become far more comfortable sewing a zip fly.  It's lovely to be able to ignore the exceptionally vague Burda instructions and just do it.  The pattern has buttons on the inside of the wide waistband, but I prefer the buttons on the outside, so I used a pair of jeans buttons instead.

The plain white tee is the Elise Tee from Fine Motor Skills.  A great freebie pattern with relaxed versatile style.

With a wide scoop neckline and capped shoulders it sits just right for me, it shows enough skin without having to be hauled back onto my shoulders every five minutes.

I like how it works tucked or untucked.  The scooped he line is a great finishing touch and one of my favourite design features for tops at the moment.  I think I'll make a few more of these in different colours.  I'd love one in a stretchy sequinned fabric too, because sparkles!

So that's my December!  The skirt has become my Green December project too.  I had planned to make a green swimsuit but my injury set all my December projects back a couple of weeks so there will be a couple of swimmers coming up in January!

Menswear Outfit Three: November

It's the first of December!  The first day of summer, and a very important day at our house!  With Bing, Dean and Frank crooning Christmas songs in the background, our tree goes up and gets sparkly.    We thought we'd use the opportunity to grab some pics of Darron's third outfit.

This sailboat shirt is from the same Style pattern as last month's shirt, 3789.  This one just has a single pocket.  I love the little sailboat print so much.  So much that I very carefully cut this shirt so there would be enough left for another for me!

The sleeves are full length, so he has the option to dress it up or down.  Darron prefers a rolled up cuff to short sleeves as a general rule.  A shirt has to be a very particular style for him to like short sleeves.  I am trying to find the right style and fabric to meet with his approval for a short sleeved shirt.

Once again I used the Thread Theory Jedediah pants pattern.  This time it's shorts in a mango coloured canvas I picked up from Ikea a couple of years ago.  

The pockets are light grey poly-cotton and the seam allowances are bound with grey bias binding.  After three pairs of Jeds, I'm getting a bit more proficient at their construction.  It's still one of my very favourite patterns.

We went with the cuffed hems for a casual style.  I like the way it shows off the neatly bound seam allowances.  It's fantastic to be able to give Darron shorts that sit at the exact length he likes.  It can be a struggle to get the length right in RTW shorts when you're a tall dude.

The shirt is a lovely lightweight fabric, so to protect his modesty, as well as for casual open-shirt wearing I made a plain white tee.  This one is the plain tee option from the Tread Theory Strathcona pattern, in plain white cotton jersey.  Every man's wardrobe needs a plain white tee or two!

A man of many skills and talents, Darron is can juggle all kinds of things, including hand knitted Christmas characters!

I think this is my favourite of Darron's outfits so far.  It's bright and fun, and suits him perfectly.

Thanks for joining us while we put up our tree!  

Summer Colours and a Capsule Wardrobe

Because I clearly don't think I'm sewing enough!  Following Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow as she created an autumn capsule wardrobe using her wonderful colour palette method made me look a little differently at my summer wardrobe sewing plans.  So when I found my coloured pencils while spring cleaning the studio I spent an afternoon assessing what I want and need, what I actually want to make and what colours I'm loving for summer to bring it all together.

I started with my November and December outfits, navy blue and some bright floral fabric I really want to use for summer.  Then I gathered all the patterns I had been setting aside for summer.  Finding a balance between what I want to make and what I want to and am likely to wear was tricky.  I want to make them all!  That's why I collect all these patterns, every single one of them.  I took the floral fabric as a starting point for colours.  All the colours go well with navy, so that's a base colour confirmed.  Then there is red, pink/coral, yellow, teal and turquoise.   At this point I decided that the floral print gets to be a Wiksten tank dress.

Using the Fashionary printable technical templates, I got to planning.  I love my big fashionary journal and I have a little neon light in my bag at all times, I think I'll get the tech template sticky memo pads too, they're wonderful.  And here's what I've come up with: 

Shorts: Navy, and stretch geometric patterned denim, both from Burdastyle Magazine.  The denim shorts are the bottom of December's outfit.

Dresses: Floral Wiksten Tank dress with elastic casing at the waist, 1980s Vogue wrap dress - I'm hunting for another bright patterned fabric for this one.

Shirts: Chambray sleeveless shirt - this one came from the shirt originally planned for September's outfit and already cut, white sailboat sleeveless shirt from Burdastyle mag 06/2012 - there will be enough left over from Darron's November shirt (aw yeah matching his and hers).

Tops, tees, and tanks:  A Wiksten tank - this one in red voile, a white jersey Elise tee (November's top).  

Scoop neck bodysuit in coral jersey, navy jersey scoop necked button front tank (December's top).

Skirts: Yellow (possibly eyelet lace, maybe a print, it looks like I may have to dye to get the golden yellow I'm after) wrap skirt from a late 1970s Simplicity pattern.

Blue and white seersucker Button front skirt, this one is November's bottom.

Swim suit: Turquoise 1970s halter neck.

So in theory all these colours work together and any top and bottom from the collection should look good.  It seems like a lot to tackle, but most of the garments are quite simple.  The chambray shirt is already done and awaiting buttons and the Wiksten tank is cut and ready to sew.  So by knocking over a garment every now and then between other projects I should have a well stocked wardrobe in time for summer! 

Menswear Outfit One: September

Here is the first of Darron's twelve outfits!  As you can see from that smile, he likes it!  I love a satisfied customer.  September's outfit is brought to you by Thread Theory.  I bought the Parkland Wardrobe Builder Package, because building a wardrobe is what we're doing here.  Plus these are by far the best menswear patterns I've found.  The patterns are so adaptable, the style and fit suits Darron perfectly, and the patterns themselves are fantastic.

The first garment is a Strathcona Henley in navy jersey.  This fabric is fairly firm, with minimal stretch.  I'm going to use the henley neckline on a tee for me, the pattern for it is so easy to use.  The best part of this one?  The sleeves.  With the cuffs, these sleeves are the perfect length for Darron!  No modifications necessary!  We have plans for some more henleys with various sleeve lengths, pockets and features in a couple of different fabrics too.  The plain tee version will be very hand as well.

Above you can see the waistband hem on the top.  I love the way it looks.  It takes it above plain tee to  be a nice smart top.  

Check out those top stitched back pockets and flat felled seams!  The Jedediah pants pattern is amazing!  I am so pleased with the result.  The pattern itself is excellent, the instructions are clear and helpful and the sew along on the Thread Theory blog was super!  The flat felled seams, bound seams, zip fly and waistband attachment, all clearly stepped through with pictures and even video instructions.  I will be using their trouser construction method for all future casual pants.

The next pair of Jeds I make for him will probably go down a size as the size I cut is borderline between fitting perfectly and being a smidge on the large side.  The next pair we'll go down a size and see how we go with a slimmer fit.

All up, as a smart casual outfit, this is exactly right for Darron.  A bit of colour with versatile garments.  Darron is now on the hunt for the perfect shoes to go with this style of pants.  Desert boots, boat shoes, oxfords, tennis shoes, leather, canvas, the options go on and on!

Outfit Six: July

It's July!  I know it's actually August, but it's the July end of August, so I'm calling it.  Here is July's outfit!  July has a couple of big, complicated garments.  At least I thought they would be complicated until I started working on them and found, as is usually the case, that they weren't nearly as difficult as I had imagined.

Beatnik.  I love this jumper so very much.  I have loved the pattern since it first appeared in Knitty in 2010.  While it looks quite complicated, the pattern is actually quite straightforward.  Once it is established it is quite easy to read the cables to see where you're up to.  The colour coded chart makes wrapping your brain around it so much easier!

I knitted it in Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 10ply the colour is Autumn Glow.  I bought the yarn a few years ago.  It was always going to be a jumper of cardigan and I think the colour is perfect for this one.  I extended the length of the body by a couple of centimetres to accommodate my longish torso and it fits just how I wanted it to so I'm very pleased!

I needed a fairly close fitting tee with three quarter sleeves to wear under the Beatnik so in keeping with the sixties vibe I chose a basic boatneck tee.  The anchor fabric was originally destined for a different month's outfit, but was freed up in the re-shuffle and slotted in here very nicely.

The pattern is from Burda Style Magazine 2/2009 108B.  As always, I lengthened the body.  I find that most Burda Style tees are just too short for me, even with some extra length in the waist, this one only just hits where I like tops to sit on my hips.  I predict that this one will be a very versatile top, its first outing was dressed up with jeans, boots and a navy blazer, and it works just as well dressed down with cuffed jeans and chucks.

Speaking of jeans, I made some!  I really wanted to make my own jeans, but had built them up in my mind as an incredibly complicated, fiddly, and difficult garment.  Really jeans are just trousers like any others, the detailing is what makes them.

For my first (I'm already planning a couple more pairs) jeans I used some denim with a bit of stretch that I picked up from the op shop for four dollars.  The pattern was from another Burda Mag, this time 8/2009, 127.  I will definitely use a different pattern next, this one required a bit of work to fit, they swam around the seat and thighs, so took a bit of fitting.  Also, no back pockets!  I drafted my own using a couple of my RTW jeans as a guide.  And finally Burda Style's notoriously vague instructions were not particularly helpful for a first time jeans maker.  All up they're a serviceable pair of trousers, a good starting point I think.

In hindsight I should have set up my vintage machine for the top stitching.  It's sturdy enough to do the job and then I could just skip from the overlocker to straight seams to top stitching at each stage without having to re-thread my machine every step of the way.

Even though the sleeves are short, this outfit is cosy and warm.  Casual and comfortable, just like I planned.  

So that's July, the halfway mark (because I started in February of course) six outfits done. Coming up there are some changes in the 12 outfits line up.  When I started planning my outfits the second half of the year was a vague outline with a few key pieces.  That has been reviewed, and shuffled and fleshed out.  I'll have the plan for the next six months up soon!