What to wear on top of the world

Apologies for the blog silence but I have had an eventful few months lately. I spent most of November having a solo holiday in Nepal, most of October preparing for my adventure and the last few weeks since I've returned dealing with the normal busyness of this time of year!

The highlight of my trip to Nepal was spending 20 days hiking in the Himalayas, trekking to Everest Base Camp via the spectacular glacial Gokyo Lakes. It was incredibly hard work as the terrain is either steeply up or steeply down, the trail is rocky and uneven and of course it's all done at high altitude and in extreme cold. But the scenery of the Himalayas is amazingly beautiful and I had a huge sense of personal achievement, especially on some of the harder parts like ascending Gokyo Ri which is a lesser mountain (5373m peak) and crossing the Cho La Pass which involved climbing up a very steep rocky path to a height of 5545m and then descending on the snowy and icy side.

Gokyo Lakes, Nepal

Coming from Australia it was really difficult to prepare. We don't have any high mountains in Australia - our highest peak Mt Kosciusko is only 2228m which is barely considered a hill in Nepal! So I focused my training on increasing my physical fitness as much as possible. Nor do we get particularly cold weather in Sydney, but I knew it was going to be cold so I made a stack of merino wool tops to wear while I was travelling.

I bought the merino wool from The Fabric Store who have a great range in various weights and colours. I made two tops in a fleece back merino wool to wear as outer layers, and three tops in a lightweight wool to wear as inner layers and wearing these in various combinations depending on how cold it was kept me very warm. Plus despite wearing these for a month without washing they didn't smell or even look dirty at all.

I used McCalls 7261 which is a top with princess seams, raglan sleeves and collar variations that is actually meant for activewear fabrics but the wool had a slight amount of stretch so I figured it would be ok.

I found this pattern to run rather large - I used the correct size for my first version in black wool but it's rather sloppy and has excess fabric under the armpits in particular. I do like how the back dips down because it covers my lower back nicely when sitting down - no cold drafts there!

I also like the lapped neckline even though it's quite bulky and there are numerous layers at the front where the two ends of the collar overlap. It did keep me warm though when popped up which is the main thing!

mountain views, Himalayas Nepal

suspension bridge, Himalayas Nepal

For the next version I used the same fleeceback wool but in grey, and used a size smaller so it would be more fitted and it looks much better while still being big enough to wear over other clothes. For this version I also used my coverstitch machine to stitch along the seam lines, with the bobbin thread on the outer side so it has a real active wear look to it.

Durbar Square Kathmandu

I also made three tops in thinner merino wool using my go to t-shirt pattern Burda 2/2011 #106 to use as lightweight layers. These were fantastic - in Kathmandu I wore them on their own, and up in the mountains I just layered two or three depending on the time of the day and the coldness and they were just perfect.

image via Burdastyle.com 

One top is in a vibrant green, one in a black and white fine stripe and one in a grey marle which I didn't get a photo of but trust me looks just like the others!

Narrow shopping street in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu

So as you can see from the few photos above, Nepal is a remarkably beautiful country. The city of Kathmandu is still recovering from the earthquake 2 years ago, and the lowlands are still recovering from the damage caused by the monsoon floods and landslides from earlier this year but it is still an amazing place and the people are so friendly. I travelled by myself leaving my husband home looking after the kids for the month - it was my 40th birthday present to myself. I joined an organised group for the trekking part but met lots of locals and other tourists during the times I was on my own - I never felt lonely or unsafe at all. I can highly recommend a trip there if you need some excitement in your life!

Burda 7286: from UFO to wearable white jacket

Ahhh, UFOs. As hard as I have tried in the last few years not to create any new ones, the sad reality is that sometimes I get frustrated by a project and then distracted by a new project. I started this jacket about two years ago, got a bit frustrated with some fit issues and put it down for a while. And then it got lost in the mess that was my sewing room, only to be rediscovered recently during a clean up. But now it's done, I'm relieved to have finished it but I'm a bit meh about it sadly.....

The pattern is Burda 7286, which I bought two years ago and is already out of print. I think it's a lovely pattern, but there are no reviews on Pattern Review and I could only find one other finished jacket from this pattern so I guess it wasn't too popular.

Since it was a Burda pattern and I've sewn so many of them I felt pretty confident that it would work without the need for a muslin. I assume the envelope patterns are drafted the same as the magazine patterns because they are from the same company, but this jacket was very big around the shoulders and bust which was a bit annoying.

Looking at the pattern is looks like it is drafted with very square shoulders for shoulder pads which I despise, so I narrowed and re-sewed the shoulder seams to match my sloping shoulders. I put in a sleeve header and interfaced the sleeve head and shoulder area, but it still seems to collapse terribly and cause those awful wrinkles on the sleeves:

I quite like the front though - it has an inset collar which is probably my favourite style and I do like the curved fronts. I left off the patch pockets because and made faux welt pockets instead because I think that looks a bit more formal. However, those pockets are just the welts because I thought the pocket bag might show through too much - the fabric is a stretch cotton sateen that I have block interfaced with whisper weft interfacing but it still shows the seam lines through a little bit.

It is a very shaped jacket though, and looks far better done up than worn open:

The back is princess seam which gives a lot of opportunity for fitting. I thought it looked ok in the mirror, but I guess taking photos is more accurate than twisting your head around to look in the mirror! I can see from this photo that I have a bit of excess fabric at the waist:

Funnily enough it's a very similar style to another white jacket I made earlier this year from a vintage Vogue pattern, even down to the same button (it was a packet of two!).  Since that version is made from a wool blend it's more a winter jacket so I think they can both stay in my wardrobe - I highly doubt anyone pays that much attention in real life to what I wear anyway!

So it probably seems I'm being a bit negative about this pattern but I like the jacket enough to wear it.  The pattern came together very easily because these style of collars are far easier than a traditional notched collar style and as usual Burda's drafting is spot on - all the pieces and notches matched up exactly as they should. And being one of their envelope patterns there were actually some diagrams to help decipher their vague instructions which is a bonus!

So will I make it again? Yes probably, especially in a winter weight fabric because wool is so much easier to steam and mould into a well fitting jacket. Plus I found this gorgeous version on the Tessuti blog which has totally inspired me to do a better version next time.

Burda 9505: birthday shirt

So as I said last post, it was Toby's second birthday last Saturday. It sort of snuck up on me with all that's been going on lately, but I did manage to make his birthday shirt last Friday night. Luckily I've made this pattern before so it took less than 3 hours which isn't too bad for the fiddliness that little people clothing involves!

I used view B of Burda 9505, which was gifted to me by Steph and I used View A for Toby's first birthday shirt too (here). This will probably be the last time I use it too since it only goes up to 18 months in size and this shirt is rather a slim fit on him. It's actually quite a good pattern, drafting wise, because I have found that kids patterns are usually way too big but this one is spot on. Unfortunately it's now out of print, but if you have this in your stash I can highly recommend you use it if you have a little one in your life.

I chose to use an elephant print cotton poplin that I bought from Spotlight a while ago mainly because I figure he has the rest of his life to wear stripes or plaid or solid colours and when you're two you should wear a really fun print! Plus I wanted to use up the rest of this fabric in case there wasn't another occasion for it in the future and it stayed in the stash forever.

The pattern is pretty straightforward - it's just a normal shirt sewn on a smaller scale. I noticed that the instructions for view B aren't as detailed as the instructions for view A - there aren't any instructions to finish the sleeve or the tab other than doing a narrow hem to the edge. It wasn't difficult to figure out, but it just seemed odd to leave it out given that the other steps are spelled out. I also French seamed the sleeve edge because the seam edge would be visible when the sleeve is rolled up, which the pattern also didn't suggest but looks much better than having a serged edge showing.

I used snaps instead of buttons because they not only took less time than buttons but they also make it easier to get Toby into and out of this shirt because he can be very squirmy sometimes. I left off the back yoke and instead cut the back as one single piece so that I didn't have to match those elephants at the back - pure laziness but it's not really a noticeable feature in this fabric anyway:

And how good is my pattern matching at the front edge! The birthday boy seems pretty happy with his shirt and his birthday presents - he's a bit obsessed with Peppa Pig, dinosaurs and soccer balls at the moment so he was quite easy to satisfy. If only they stayed so innocent and little for longer!

And this is last year's shirt when he turned one - I can't believe how much he's changed!

Third time (un)lucky: Burda 11/2012 #112

I wanted to title this post 'third time is a charm' but I've just had one of those weeks, sewing wise where nothing goes right!  I am just so exhausted from Toby still sleeping quite badly at night combined with being cooped up in an office for three long days each week that I've barely had any energy or desire to sew which is so unlike me.

I decided to make a third version of my current favourite A-line skirt pattern, Burda 11/2012 #112 from a rich red velveteen that I pulled from the stash recently when I was cleaning up the red shelf.  I'm hoping that we will start enjoying some cooler weather around these parts - the hot summer weather has been lingering far too long for my liking.  After making a green cotton drill version and a dark denim version with no dramas I thought I'd be able to sew this quickly - but no, what a painful journey it was to get this done!

Firstly I stitched up the side seams and centre front seams before doing the welt pockets.  Little mistake number one.  No big deal, it's still doable it just means there's more fabric to wrangle with.  And because I've made this skirt twice before I didn't bother doing a practice run of the welt pocket. How arrogant of me! Mistake number two.  After sewing on the welt strips properly I then went ahead and ruined it by sloppily snipping the welt pocket open - I cut the 'y' end past the stitching line so that when I pulled the strips through there was raw fabric and no saving it.

Time to walk away from the sewing room for a while!

The following night I tried again, unpicked the skirt, cut out a new front piece and sewed a perfect welt pocket.  Yippee, things are moving again. I powered through sewing the rest of the skirt and a lining and all was going well until I pressed the lining after sewing it to the invisible zip and this happened:

Big mistake! I forgot to turn down the iron after pressing the thick velveteen and immediately burnt the lining fabric.  Huge sigh...... This time I walked away from my sewing for a few days to regroup.

But happily I managed to finish sewing the remainder of the skirt with no major dramas, and I even remembered to sew the skirt with the nap of the fabric going downwards on all the skirt panels so at least that's something!

Maybe it's the universe telling me to try a different skirt pattern - three times is possibly enough.  I do love this skirt though, it's so comfortable, functional with its pockets and a flattering shape to boot.  I've worn this skirt with the black and white striped Burda top that I made for the green cotton drill version - funnily enough it turns out that the colours that go well with green go well with red too!

Now I really want to sew a long sleeved shirt in some beautiful Liberty cotton I picked up at the first Sydney sewists meet up last year but I'm too scared I'll stuff it up so maybe I'll do something a little easy first.

Speaking of a sewists meetup, have you all seen the photos of the gorgeous dresses and marvellous time the Melbourne ladies had at their SewcieTea, organised by Melanie of seamstress:poppykettle fame? Especially the gorgeous Liberty dress that Rachel at My Messings made and wore with a crinoline. Sydney ladies - I think we all need a special occasion to frock up as well!  

First birthday shirt: Burda 9505

I can scarcely believe it myself, but Toby turned one last week.  He celebrated by taking his first steps which he soon followed up with some speed walking and I can't help but bust out an old cliché - where has my little baby gone?!

I've decided to start a birthday tradition for Toby and make him a shirt each birthday, much like I make a new dress for Anna each birthday.  If there's one thing I've learnt so far as a mother of two is that you need to be as equal as possible, mainly to stop the whinging and complaining! So here is Toby's first birthday shirt, worn with a pair of hand me down jeans I had previously made for Anna:

I used Burda 9505, which the lovely Steph in New Zealand posted to me last August - thanks again Steph it certainly came in handy.  I would like to say that I whipped this out in a few hours, because it's only a little bitty shirt but it took me the best part of Saturday to cut it out and sew.  I'll never again complain about children's clothes costing nearly as much as adult clothes, sure there's less fabric but it takes just as long to sew and maybe even longer given how fiddly it can get on a small scale.

This shirt is a replica of an adult shirt, complete with sleeve placket and cuffs, collar stand and yoke  but it was worth it because it's just so stinkin' cute as a miniature business shirt.

From the stash I found a rather bright red and white plaid cotton, which had been in there a long time but is just right for a little boy.  I managed to match the plaid at the front and side seams, but I cut the yoke and patch pocket on the bias to avoid having to match those stripes up.

I haven't sewn a Burda envelope pattern for a long time, and I don't think I've sewn one of their kid's patterns but I have to say the sizing was spot on and the instructions weren't nearly as confusing as the magazine.  I suppose it's just a straightforward shirt so not even Burda couldn't complicate the instructions too much.  The only change I would make to the pattern is to make the cuff wider because it's a little tight around Toby's pudgy wrist and maybe shorten the placket as it seems to be open almost to his elbow.  Although that does help with folding the shirt sleeves up so that he can get down to work: