Unexpected Awesomeness

This turned up in the mailbox today. It was sent as a congratulations on your PhD by Stefpulls (who did recently ran a Sewing in the Media post on one of my favourite British shows, The IT crowd).

Quite possibly the first sewing magazine ever to reach me in the month it was issued!*

Thank you so much! I love this issue, there are so many elegant garments I really want to make, topping the list are this dress and the jacket next to it with concealed fastenings.

I love garments lacking visible closures because they conform to my minimalist aesthetic. I would probably make the dress neckline with pleats/ tucks rather than gathers (because gathered necklines always seem chaotic to me (not to mention it’s a style better suited to very young kids and Oktoberfest barmaids).

My favourite thing in the whole issue by far, though, are the pants above. I love the pants. And they’re included in my size. So no grading necessary. Bonus love. I have the perfect black stretch denim washed and ready to go for these. Woot! The top’s pretty sweet as well and the skirt on the right is another elegant, contemporary style I’d love to make.

The dress on the right is made from a woven upper on a stretch fabric base. Perfect for using up remnants and smaller pieces of fabric. The top on the left I’ve only included for the people that buy anything (and everything) with a Peter Pan collar (read: too lazy to draft one and use it on all the patterns they already own hahaha. Seriously though, the ‘collar’ doesn’t even extend round the back of the shirt XD Minimal effort design feature ’nuff said). I was pretty disappointed that it was made for wovens and not jersey/ knits. La Mia Boutique used to do a lot of Knit and Jersey styles (which is why I was ready to subscribe to it even at the hideous Australian subscription rate) but they don’t do very many stretch knit patterns nowadays.. There are other elegant silhouettes in this issue, I’m just not a big fan of the fabrics they’re displayed in so check out the line diagrams here (thanks Paunnet).

Re the jacket on the cover: while I am not a fan of visible zippers and would make it up without the peplum I can appreciate the positioning of the double sided separating zipper used. It’s very visible and still elegant in its lack of visible zipper tape).

I need a collared T-shirt/ pullover. Guess I’ll just have to make do with this Knipmode pattern. Far out, my scanner is really misbehaving. Having just got smacked with a massive servicing bill for my scooter (after it broke down and had to get towed), I’m really over it.