Rash guard

 

 

Summer is hopefully on its way. I swim both in the sea and in a pool ( which is often not warm!) so I decided its time to finally get round to replacing my old rash guard which I made years ago. When I made the first one it was on a whim because I bought a new book on how to make active wear but I never actually expected to wear that one out. As it turns out its now all stretched and pilly from wear. Well on the good side I  have actually made use of it. It was not time and fabric wasted. Its been worn weekly for yonks.

So I made a new one anyway out of scuba. The first one is made from swimwear fabric so is quite thin. I decided to go all out and see how this pattern works with scuba. Its now been worn twice for swimming and works wonderfully as well as being warmer than my old one.Because I had only 1m of this fabric I had to piece one sleeve but it does not seem to matter. It looks fine and works. No one seems to notice the arm seam and its a "design feature" I quite like. I did worry I had stretched the seam too much. I never actually stretched it but the machine stretched the fabric as I top stitched it with a twin needle. It seems to wear ok and is now flatter than on these photos having been worn in water the last 2 weeks.

The pattern is the one I made from the Make Your Own Activewear book by Melissa Feyr. I used my original pattern tracing but made a smaller seam allowance on the front and it fits better than the first one did. The fabric has been in my stash years and I have no idea where I bought it from. 

 

Have a great week and thanks for visiting. 

See you soon,

Bracken

Magic mushroom dress

 

 

 

Well I say "magic mushrooms" but really they are Fly Agarics I think. Or cartoons of anyway. The classic faery mushrooms. I just could not resist the fabric. So I chose a pointy hoodied pixie dress which has turned out lovely and I enjoyed wearing twice so far.

 

I have a small amount left after this so will make childrens trousers or shorts I think from that. Its a french terry fabric ( oekotex) and I just love it, but having bought the fabric I decided I would need a TNT pattern to make something from it so I do not wreck the fabric but also so that I feel happy wearing this print.

Its the perfect fabric for spring and will work when it warms up a bit with ankle socks and trainers as well. Right now its strictly winter weight leggings I am wearing it with under a coat but its April now so it should start to warm up. May is usually hot in the UK. Or the end of May is hot anyway. Mayday is usually cold ad rainy, so hopefully I can store my leggings away soon and go bare legged. We will see.

I toyed with having raw hems on this one but in the end played it safe and hemmed this dress as the previous ones.  

And at last I feel like I am actually making things and not just thinking of making things.  If I could make what I think about, well I would make so much more than I really manage to do.

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you again soon.

Have a great week,

Bracken

Glittery Lekala Sports Trousers - 2 pairs.

 
 I decided to replace my old grey glittery sweatshirts and trousers. 

 

I have two tracksuits sets of hoody tops and trousers each in glittery grey sweatshirting.  I made them years ago and they are pretty much worn out now, so when I saw a bolt of 12m of grey glittery sweatshirting for sale I bought one and so far I have made two pairs of the Lekala sports trousers to replace my old ones. I intend to also make the hoodies again, then recycle the old worn ones. 

12m is far more than I had previously so I am not yet sure what I will do with the rest but I intend to use at least 6m this summer. Its just too big a piece of fabric to keep in storage for much longer than I need to so best I wear it and get it out of my stash.

These trousers are not at all an original make ( and I made a camo pair the other week)  and this is a pattern I have used so many times now I have lost count of the number of pairs of these I have made, but they are soft warm and snuggly, and I am very much enjoying them despite the weather warming up a bit now. They will still be needed for summer in the UK I am sure, and will be still warm and cosy for next autumn.

They are basic straight legged sports trousers with an elastic waist and two front inset pockets.

 

There is not really much I can say about these. They are a darker grey than my previous ones. Not sure if thats good or bad just yet - it just IS. 

The trousers,because I have more fabric than my previous two pairs, have sweatshirting pockets rather than contrasting fabric lnings. I have yet to decide if this is better than the others or not. Its thicker but thats not necessarily good. I will wear for a few wearings and then make a decision as to weather I did right or not using the same fabric throughout. I do like my contrasting lining on my older pairs and its thinner so not so bulky but so far I have not found it annoying having thicker pockets anyway. My final choice of course makes no difference to these two pairs but will influence my next pair because its inevitable I will make more of this pattern because I still love it and its so easy and comfy to wear.

 
I left the hems unfinished and just sewed around the bottom to stop the side seams coming undone. Its exactly what I did with the last two pairs so I just copied them exactly really, because why change what you really loved?

And now some time over the next few days I hope to cut out my sweatshirt tops. I may do a new type of top for one pair but I need to check out my patterns first to decide which top to make. I definitely want one the same as my previous versions though.

Thanks for popping by to see my blog and see you again next week if you have the time,

Take care

Bracken

Unicorn Dress

 

 

When I came accross this fur backed sweatshirting with Unicorns on it, well, I could not resist. And its a very adult type of pattern despite the unicorns. It was expensive. But I bought 2m not knowing what I would make with it. I went through various patterns but decided it should be a TNT pattern because I really cannot afford to make a big mistake when something costs me lots of money. I also wanted a BIG top or dress or something I can throw over my other clothes if needed but also something nice enough to wear alone. So really thats quite a tall order. Oh and I wanted a hood!

 

This is the pattern I used for the red skulls top. Its my partners pattern really - or the one I use most for his tops anyway. But I knew it could possibly make me a nice dress to wear in spring, autumn winter and maybe even the colder days of summer but also I can wear this over my tracksuit trousers.Its a 2XL size which is huge on me but does mean I get a nice oversized baggy top. I "batwinged" the sleeves. Or tapered them severely to th extent I actually thought I had mess this up until I sewed them up. They are narrow on the wrists but really wide at the top. Still an inset sleeve but being a much larger size than I am work to look like batwings.

I have never before made a dress from this particular top pattern but its worked out well and would be wearable I think on a cold windy beach in August when its raining despite supposedly being summer just as well as it will work with tights por leggigs for winter so I am very happyhow this has turned out. And especially I am happy to have made it without it going wrong because whe I do spend on fabric thats expensive obviously its a real worry and thats likely to be when things go wrong. Partly its why I chose a TNT pattern thats really very easy and basic to make. Also I do want to wear this and not just leave it in my wardrobe so anything like a fitted dress or trousers had to be out of the question. This I think is very, very wearable.

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for popping by to visit my blog.

Bracken