Sweatpants in disguise

As I wrote in an earlier post I purchased some patterns from Stoff och stil. Among those was a pattern for skinny trousers.

I had some black sweatshirt fabric that I found at a sale this summer and I thought why not use it for a pair of trousers?! So I did. I could even cut out a dress from the same piece of fabric (1.6*2 metres!).

I am very inspired by the clothes from House of Lola and they're all so soft and comfortable and that's where I got the idea to use sweatshirt fabric for the trousers, because all their clothes are loungewear in disguise! I love when clothes are fashionable and beautiful but also comfortable.

It was so easy to sew up the trousers. I mostly used my overlocker and the sewing machine for the topstitching. I didn't cut the waistband out of the sweatshirt fabric, because it would have been too bulky, so instead I cut it from some ribbed jersey fabric. Speaking of the waistband, that's where I have my only problem with these trousers. I don't have a big rear, but somehow I always find trousers that are too low in the back waist, same with these. They fit OK as long as I don't move, but as soon as I do, they creep downwards in the back and I keep having to hoist them up. Quite annoying! Maube I'll make a yoke piece to put between the trouser and the waistband in the back. Any thoughts out there?

See? Lower in the back then the front. Very uncomfortable...

Detail of the topstitiching on the leg.

Anyway, the trousers will be warm and cosy for autumn and winter and they will go as trousers with sweaters and as leggings under dresses. Win-win, right?!

Bye for now,

Johanna

Ideas for autumn/winter sewing

Autumn is closing in, even though the weather isn't making me feel it. We still have warm and sunny weather though the mornings are a bit on the chilly side. One thing to make me feel the autumn coming is all the catalogues with autumn clothing, like H&M or the fabric store Stoff och stil ("Tissue and style").

I got inspired by both of those catalogues and I even ordered some sewing patterns from Stoff och stil:

Source, all images above: stoffochstil.se

Other inspiration for my autumn/winter sewing plans comes from the latest issues of Burdastyle magazine, no. 8/2013 and 9/2013.

Source, all images above: burdastyle.com

I do want to use fabric from my stash as much as possible, because I can't afford to buy a lot of new fabric and I have to learn to use what I have and also decrease my stash (I'm starting to have difficulties in where to put new fabric, I don't want to be one of those sewists who has boxes or bags of fabric everywhere).

I have loads of dark blue/navy blue jersey fabric of different qualities (fine jersey, double knit etc.) and that should be something I could use for autumn/winter sewing. But something I would like more of is viscose (rayon?) fabric, I like the drape of viscose for blouses and dresses.

I would also like to be able to make those nice moodboards I see on other people's blogs, like Clotilde. Does anyone have a tip or advice for me on how to do that?

Do you have sewing plans or do you make sewing plans at all? Or are you more of the spontaneous kind?

Hopefully back soon with some FOs,

Johanna

Unselfish sewing part 2 - onepiece for my daughter

Since I like to be fair, I also promised to make a onepiece for my daughter. (If you missed my last post, a onepice is a kind of overall/jumpsuit used as loungewear. Acceptable on kids, not on adults.)

She got to choose the fabric herself and of course she chose pink... She's in a very pink period at the moment, the Hello Kitty period has lasted very long. I swear it's true, the third thing she could say, besides "mum" and "dad", was "Hello Kitty".

Anyway, this time the sewing took exactly two hours, started at 6 o'clock and was finished right before 8 o'clock. Everything was already cut out, so I could start sewing right away. The only problem was that i almost forgot the pockets, but I remembered just in time and only had to rip up the seam about 10 cm.

Can you see the cute fabric I used as lining? Yep, those are Dala-horses in different patterns. I'm planning to make a dress for my girl out of that fabric.

She looooves her some pockets...

Little sister and big brother.

Yeah, let's dance with the cat when mum's taking photos!

The fabric I used for both onepieces is velour and printed jersey for the hoodlining, both very easy to sew with. The two things I changed on the pattern were: 1) I added lining to the hood and 2) I added ribbed jersey cuffs to the sleeves and legs, instead of turning over, sewing and putting in elastic.

I'm happy with the result, and definately the kids, but right now I'm not thinking of making more onepieces... :) Nope, onto other plans! Do you have any sewing plans for spring?

Later,

Johanna

Unselfish sewing - onepice for my son

Two weekends ago I was in town with the kids and my son wanted to go to H&M to see if there were any onepieces for him, he's been wanting one since Christmas. If you don't know what a onepiece is, well it's a kind of overall/jumpsuit that you wear as loungewear. They are very popular in Sweden at the moment and they are both for kids as well as adults. On kids they look alright, but on adults.... NO THANK YOU! I'm all for loungewear, but I draw the line at onepieces for adults. They make you look like a big baby.

See what I mean about looking like a big baby...

Source: onepiece.se via Johanna on Pinterest

Anyway, my son wanted one and I thought that was OK, so we went to H&M, but the only decent one we could find was too expensive (I thought). So I suggested we'd go downstairs to the fabric store and he could pick a fabric and I would sew a onepiece for him instead. He thought that was OK so I let both Big Red and Little Red pick fabrics.

I looked for patterns in my sewing magazines, but couldn't find anything useful. But when googling onepiece sewing patterns I found someone who used the pattern from Stoff och stil and thought they were good because they were pre-cut! Oooh, I liked the sound of that so I ordered two patterns, size 104 and 128, along with some loooooong zippers.

Source: stoffochstil.se via Johanna on Pinterest

It was easy enough to cut and sew and I think the whole process took about 3-4 hours. The pre-cut pattern was awesome to work with, it was made of some kind of non-woven stuff, not paper.I didn't even have to use pattern weights because the pattern pieces stuck to the velour I was working with.

I mostly used my overlocker to sew it together, but off course I used my sewing machine for the zipper and topstitching. I added lining to the hood, I already had the perfect fabric for it!

Yep those are helicopters on the lining fabric. Cute fabric right?!

Cute kid too right?! :)

My son was SO happy with his onepiece and asked if he could wear it to school today. That's a satisfied customer for you!

If ever in need of inspiration for new blog photo poses, look at my son... He's got it down....

And yes, the zipper is supposed to go that far, don't know why though...

This was not stash-busting, but at least it was sewing for someone else as was the challenge this month in the Stash-busting sewing challenge.

How about you, do you sew mostly for yourself or for others often?

Bye for now,

Johanna