Jalie 3672 Strappy Leo!!

How much fun is this unitard?? My girls do quite a bit of gymnastics and they are always cold. When they saw this, they both wanted me to make them one with the full length legs. I did point out that the top was a tank and that their arms might get cold. They didn’t care. Did. Not. Care. I made the size O which is the size 11. They are long (about the size N or 10), but thin but this is designed with negative ease so it’s fine.

 

This is my favorite part of the pattern. I love these straps!!! The straps here are a little loose.

 

I ended up tightening the straps on these two places.

 

Someone couldn’t wait to do some stunts. The fabric is a polyester/Lycra knit. The white digital print is at both edges. I cut this on the cross grain but there is lots of stretch in both directions. I like how it goes from the white to black and back to white. The waistband section turned out to be perfectly white-goes-to-black for the look I wanted.

 

I think she’s a bit fan too. You can see she’s got the swayback going on. Between the twins, she has the more pronounced swayback. See the gap right under the black tab? She gets that on all her leotards and swimsuits.

 

Ouch.

 

It doesn’t look awesome without a body.

 

I tacked down the too-long straps to the seam allowance and I’m hoping as she grows, I can add to the length of the straps.

 

I always, always, always serge AND zigzag the pant/crotch/armpit seams of any child leggings, leotards, swimsuit, etc. They are so bad about just sticking their heel in and pulling! I can’t count the number of center-back butt seams I have had to repair!!!

More later! I just got the newest kid Ottobres and there are a bunch of things in there I want to make!! Stay tuned!

Jalie 3676 – Secret, Ninja Pajamas!

I had to make these pants next because they look so SPRING to me. I’m really into spring right now because we are in the midst of it and there is nothing more exciting to a light-deprived Alaskan than SPRING! I made my Vanessa pants a little different than the original pattern. I wanted mine to look more like slacks.

 

Mine are not cuffed and I cut two inches off and made a one inch hem. These are just a bit cropped which is what I was looking for. My legs are a bit on the short side for a person with a 5’5” frame. I have extra length in my torso which means I have less in my legs. (Dammit.) When I make them with the cuffs, which I will, I’ll probably fold out an inch below the knee so I keep the tapered leg. I think the leg is a little wide here and that would have been avoided if I had folded out an inch or two at the knee.

 

I used a very light weight, stretchy, “denim”. I am not sure that is the right word to even describe this fabric. They are so stretchy and lightweight. Because of the stretchiness and my unfamiliarness with my machine, I stretched the darts out a bit. I always do darts by shortened the stitch until I reach the point of the dart. Well, I was trying to do it on my new machine and ended up with .5 length stitches and that, combined with my super stretchy fabric, made the points of the darts stretched out. You can barely see the issue here.

 

It’s funny, but I couldn’t find a picture with my hands out of my pockets.

 

With tucked in t-shirt (a Jalie t-shirt from a long time ago!).

 

Here you can see th dart problem more. The fit in the butt would be about perfect except for the pesky darts that are sticking out! Also, I always seem to have extra fabric behind my thighs. I’m sure there is some fish-eye-octopus-hairy-dog dart I can use to alter it to make it fit better. I have this issue across all pattern companies and pants types. People before have said it’s because the front of my legs are muscular. Someday I will figure it out. 

 

This looks gray, but these are definitely dark blue.

 

I changed my waistband slightly too. Instead of putting the drawstring all the way around the waistband, I just put it from grommet hole to grommet hole. I didn’t have much twill tape that was the same color and I really wanted to use it. Also, the elastic in the waistband keeps them snug around the waist.

 

I did a little photoshop magic and I think they would have looked more like this if I had folded the length out at the knee. I will be making these again using a rayon challis and the leg cuffs! They are so comfortable! This will be like wearing secret pajamas to work!

Mission Completed

So, remember my plan? I love the planning stage of things and then I *cough don’t follow through just because I made a plan and want to be a rebel. I often fall into that weird cycle. Well, this time I kicked the cycle’s ass. This was my inspiration:

 

And this is what I ended up doing!! Go, ME! This is literally me looking at the inspiration photo and trying to copy the pose.

 

So, first off, I made the bomber jacket and I freaking love it. I already wrote a whole post on just the jacket so I’m not going to gush any more in this post. The two other pieces I made are also Jalie patterns. This first one is a modified Jalie 3245. I have made the tank in both lengths before so I already knew the fit was nice. All I did was take the shorter length at the CF and blend it with the side seams of the longer version. Voila! Super easy and I really like the hi-low hem on this.

 

Next up, the new Jalie pattern 3674 Isabelle tights/leggings. I added a nylon/lycra swim fabric to the contrast panel. I wanted something fun on these pants but I didn’t want it to be too distracting if my purple hi-low hem popped up. I know you can’t see much in black, so I really lightened it up. You still can’t see much.

 

Overall, I’m rally happy with the finished product. I could have done a white t-shirt but I know I just wouldn’t wear it as much. I just don’t wear white. Like, ever.

 

I’m not sure what’s in the wroks for me yet. I enjoyed getting the inspiration photo and copying it. I really, really, really love each of the items as separates too. Overall, WIN!

Jalie 3675–Bomber Jacket

DO YOU LOVE IT??!?!?! This is the bit of spring I need right now. I’m in love with this jacket. I used a scuba fabric for the main body. For the life of me, I can not remember where I bought this even though it was only a month or two ago. It is a place I’ve heard of and seen online a billion times and I finally bit the bullet and bought. Please, someone tell me, where did I buy this??? The sleeves are a knit wool that is cozy, cozy, cozy. The striped fabric is a ponte knit with quite a bit of stretch. It worked perfect for the stretchy bands.

 

I used a light pink metal zipper. I pulled the teeth off with dikes. That is what my husband says they are called. They aren’t needle-nose pliers, they are more cutters than pullers. They have a short stubby snout instead of a pointy one. 

 

The pockets are made out of the same fabulous wool.

 

Yes, I’m wearing a metallic leopard t-shirt under my floral bomber. Hahahahahaha.

 

I love that the zipper matches the pink in the flowers.

 

 

If you aren’t a member of the Jalie Facebook page, you missed out on my plan I posted a couple of weeks ago. I’m thinking of making this and this bomber jacket is the first part of the plan. I’m working on the Isabelle leggings next.

Ottobre 02-2017 #17–Knit Top with Ruching

Simple knit top with front (boob) ruching. This is pretty easy top so there is not much to tell you. Let’s see, the raglan sleeves have darts in the shoulders that you can barely see in the line drawing. There is a slight curve to the hem. The only change I made was to add an inch above the bust without changing the armholes. This has a pretty, wide neck.

 

Here I’m wearing it with this Burda skirt.

 

This fabric has a lot of stretch and this is comfortable but very form fitting.

 

The only thing I will change next time is the sleeve length. This is a weird length. I think they are supposed to be full length? But they aren’t? These are just slightly shorter than my wrist so they just look . . .  wrong. It’s easy enough to fix though, I will just push them up so it looks like they are supposed to be that length. Next time I make it, I’ll extend it an inch or two.

 

Next? I may have a bomber jacket to take pictures of!!!!!!!!!!!! And, spoiler alert, I freaking LOVE IT.