Sewing for my mothers - Butterick 6457 for my mom and Lekala 4177+5155 for my mother in law

My mother in law is one one my of bigger supporter when it comes to sewing. I love her for that. She also has a really hard time finding clothes that fit her. She is tall with really long legs and broad shoulders. It is one of my personal goals to try and make an outfit for her each year for her birthday that is in early June. I started this around that time but I only finished it last night. I thought that if I use the custom fit Lekala it will be a walk in the park... I picked up 4177 that I already made it successful for myself a few times:

 And a new one 5155 pants that were supposed to be quite fitted and high waist....

After cutting the pieces and started to put them together I really didn't thought I can save anything from it. The pants are absolutely huge I have no idea what happens I never got so far off with Lekala before.. and the to seemed to short. I didn't even what to mention the project for a while to my mother in law. Then about 2 weeks ago when I had a bit more free time I thought that maybe I can save something out of it and got them with me when we met and had her try it on.
   Luckily the top was not that short and after using the smallest possible seam allowance at the shoulder and waist I got  a decent top out of it.
   The pants on the other hand were really off. They were so large that she could easily fit in them without any zipper. were way to long on either side so I took  quite a few centimeters out of the waist and then put and elastic waistband there. Then shortened a few times down to finally get them to a point where my mother in law felt comfortable walking in them without tripping.
    This was supposed to be a test drive for the pattern with an option to make a new set if all went well. I think I saved it quite nicely in a jumpsuit look. But the pants pattern is long gone; trashed right away. The top might worth a 2nd version but I am not really all that impressed with this one.

 And since I worked on my mother in law outfit and my mom was helping me get away to sew it I thought it would be a nice time to make something for her as well.

She really liked my last cold shoulder tunic and I thought it might be a good fit for her too. I had to show her half my stash before she picked her fabric. None of my recent purchases worked for her and in the end she choose one quite difficult fabric I had my my stash for more then 3 years and was going nowhere with me. So I was quite happy to have it gone. I was a border print chiffon fabric and I think it looks quite nice on her. I had cut my Butterick 6457 directly on size 6 for me so I had to add some extra width for her by myself. I am not sure if I done it right.  My size 6 was fitting her decently but the arms were to tight so I had to do the changes.

I added quite some extra length in my mom's top as well. I think this one definitely benefits from it and I adjusted the gathers to cover more on the back then intended.
I think they both were happy with their new garments or if they weren't they didn't dare say it :).

Every day - black and white T-shirt and capris

Last week I got to wear my own very comfortable cloths : knit T-shit and cotton pants. And it felt good.

The shirt was done a month ago or so and I got to wear it quite a lot already. I just love the print. It was a very easy construction just starting for an old one:

I just love it that is longer and I don't have to worry about showing something I wouldn't want to ... I used bias for the neck line and sleeve. I added some elastic and gathering to the sides:

The pants are the same as poppy pants except the length and the fabric. Th fabric is very nice woven cotton with some stretch.  The quality is lovely. I got it as a remnant for almost nothing.

A special gift for a very special lady ( Simplicity 1808 Misses' Sportswear top + pants)

Very soon will be the birthday of my mother in law and I really want to surprise her with something nice. She is very tall so is not easy for her to find the right garments. I knew that if I had to sew for her I should alter the patterns and I didn't know if I would find the strength to do that courage to do that. Also I could not measure her properly or do some fitting at some point because I wanted all to be a surprise. I was still trying to decide what do brainstorming for ideas that had some odds  to success like some easy skirt maybe but I knew she wanted pants more... but those are not easy to get right without proper fitting ... when I fond  Simplicity 1808 Misses' Sportswear pattern in my stash. I had it for a while but I never payed attention to it. I was hardy aware I even hat it since I didn't actually buy it ; it was a gift coming along with other purchases I made. The pants had enough ease and the elastic waistband made it look like it could be possible to get some decent fit in my situation and the top was not bad at all either.

I was on a very tight deadline so I worked like a maniac for a day and a half with breaks just to eat drink or read some review of the pattern once more and 4 hours of sleep.

I traced size 16 just to be sure it will fit. now I know that for pants  14 might have been better. I knew The top should have more length at both waist and sleeve/shoulder areas. The waist was kind of obvious line since it was marked but what should I do to have more room for the shoulders and sleeve? I decided to add some extra just below the collar line so I will only have to change the front and back patterns for the top not the collar pieces too. here is a picture with this changes: (+ 2cm under the neck line and +3cm at the waist line)

As you can also note I used a knit with stripes and I cut the pattern on the bias . Although I am a big fan of making my own rules I had enough failures to know that sometimes is better to take into account the pattern recommendations. They suggested a double stretch knit and mine was only one way stretch. I was afraid it will not be comfortable to wear it so I thought the bias will give it more ease and also I just love the cool V effect of stripes on bias. That's why I cut the front piece in 2 as well resulting in one extra seam in the middle. For the top collar I didn't want to go with the same fabric that was very thin and unraveling. I used the stretch cotton fabric I was intending for the pants and added some lace embroidery tape decoration. The result was not bad at all. I really like my top better then the pattern envelop:

For the pants I added 13.5 cm in length and also slightly widened  them under the knee line with 2-3cm. The reviews I read on the elastic waistband were not very promising, my head was spinning for the instructions in only French and German ( my German in zero and my French was very good in high-school that there is quite some time since then without speaking or reading so ... )... I decided to draft my own waistband : straight in the back and sides , slight curved in front. I kept the 2 elastic band idea. They look pack then a single one. Also I used the same lace decoration from the top neck to the side pockets, hem and frontal part of the waistband skipping the bow that would have only added to volume to an already big waist.Here are some details at the waist and pockets:

The result was just so much better that I anticipated. I really did not dare to dream so far. The fit was almost perfect. I only had to take 1 cm from the side on the pockets level and we were all set.

I could have not been happier seeing her glow  and enjoying the new outfit.

 I really enjoyed the pattern and I feel tempted to try something for myself as well.  I highly

recommend you this pattern so far.

White summer pants...

Here are the pictures of the pants ready. You can also check the sewing journey for this pair of pants here.

I don't like that much how they would look with a short top. But just for the record:

What I do love is the lace on the hem:

White summer pants ( sewing ) ...

I liked so much how the poppy print pants turned out that I just went all pants crazy and cut out 3 more pairs. I had to do it all again while everything was still fresh in my mind. This time around I took a lot of pictures while sewing and I can walk you through my process.This is how I learned most of what I know - watching what and how others sew so I want to give back by sharing my process.

Here is the link to the next post when I am wearing it.

Luckily I already have an amazing fitting pattern for myself but I think you can construct a pattern yourself  if you already have an old RTW pair of pants that fits you just right and you have the heart to cut the seam and trace their pattern. I just love high waistbands. After heaving a child I think my belly will never really by the same again ( sports and workouts are not for me ) . But with high waistbands I can keep it in place. I have drafted myself a pattern for this kind of waistband for a circular skirt and it worked really well for me and it was very easy. Here is how I did it:

Draw 2 parallel lines at the distance that you want with waistband height to be. Then another 2 at the same distance between them a little higher. Try a few curvy lines between the 1st blue and red lines and measure it's length ( if it is 1/4 of your waist length then you are good to go ). Do the lower curvy line as well trying to keep the distance between them even. Now you got your pattern. But this doesn't include seam allowances, so just add ones like the light green example. For the back pieces you just have to cut 2 of this on the fold. For the front part there will be some overlapping so you have to add some extra fabric for that. Cut 4 NOT on the fold. I never know in advance witch part goes where and what are the ones that goes under and should be longer so I just leave more fabric to all 4 pieces and I see in then end witch one I should trim.

Now that we I got the pattern all cut let's go sew it. This time I started working with the waistband. Since my fabric was pretty thin I decided to use interface on all the waistband pieces . Pin them and sew.

For the part that will be on the inside I did a satin bias tape finishing. It was not perfect attachment but it looked a lot better then regular serge.

I also worked for the belt support at this time. I remember that most instructions I read were saying to do this in the  end but I thought that this way the seams will be more discrete. I took some scraps and sew them into nice tapes, pin and then did a stitch close to the edge to keep them in place without pins.

I left the waistband for now. I start working on the legs doing the darts in the back :

This time I wanted to do a slit on the side so when joining the front and back part of the leg I started with the exterior seam so I have plenty of room to work on the details of my slit rather then doing the inner seam 1st.
 I used adhesive tape paper with heat transfer to keep it in place while sewing:

When I start working on this pants I wanted to do side pockets but the fabric is thin and  I didn't liked how those pockets will look under it so I settled for 2 fake laps on the back:

 

After this i closed the leg and joined them together. I am really pleased with how neat the join is :

Next the zipper. When I got to it I realized that I had every single color except white. I just didn't want to stop working on my pants because I know myself and it knew it will take me while to finish them if I stopped. So I just used a very light pink one instead . I hopped I didn't ruined the pants with it ( in reality is lighter pink that it shows in the pictures). There are so many steps in attaching the zipper that I think it is better to just watch a movie with it. What I did different was to leave some extra fabric where the zipper should be and save me the pain of attaching one of the extra pieces. I hope that pictures can clear this up:

One of the things I love most about sewing is that I can add some personal touch to each item that will make it quite unique and mine. My pants were almost done and no such detail yet so I found some really really nice lace tape that matched the fabric perfectly and used it to decorate the lower hem. I just love the hem like this.

 I also had some unexpected problems here in the end. The pants were to long for the king of gathered closing I going for and I had to shorten them and lose from the slit charm that I was going for :(. I also didn't had enough fabric left to do the overlapping hem that I initially wanted so I had to get creative and did some hidden rubber band closing. I really liked it in the end and it seem to keep the hem in place and like not having to do buttons when pulling the pants on.

I hopped I didn't bored you to much and feel free to give me feedback so I can improve it.

Here is the link to the post when I am wearing it.