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Wednesday 20 December 2017

Style Arc Halle Stretch Pencil Skirt

Firstly thank you for commenting on the knit waistcoat on my previous post - it turns out that the pattern is designed for "wools or blends, boucle" which says woven to me and may explain why I had so many issues making it in a very stretchy knit!  Onwards, and paying better attention to suggested fabrics....

I picked up this pattern in the recent Thanksgiving sale, to be honest it probably would be quite easy to draft it from a knit pencil skirt pattern, but I do really like Style Arc's designs and I am 100% sure they are better at drafting patterns than I am!

Halle pdf pattern / paper pattern

I made this 3 times in a week so it turned out to be quite good value and clearly a fast and easy pattern.  It's designed for ponte & stable knit fabrics.  The crossover is quite generous so even when you sit down there is still decent leg coverage.

There's not a lot to say about the construction, the front skirt pieces are shaped so that the mitred corners are really easy to do, you just need to pay attention to the seam allowances which are marked on the pattern.  I added a bit extra at the side seams so I could fit on the way and I figured I might need more than the 3/8ths/8mm allowance to play with - I did this on each version as I find all fabrics behave a bit differently.

Here are my 3 skirts :

Version 1 Navy/Black
This is from a heavy black ponte with a navy, slightly sparkly, almost snakeskin print on it.  Really hard to photograph, but I love this fabric.





Version 2 Colourblocked
A contrast blocked version from remnants which is always very satisfying.  The left front and whole back are plain black.








Version 3 Panel Print
I thought the print would look odd with the asymmetric front so I just used the plain back pattern piece for both front and back.  I found it to be a bit clingy from static so I lined it with a stretch mesh lining before attaching the waistband elastic.





This simple skirt is so quick and easy to make that I can see it becoming a bit of a staple in my wardrobe and the plain version will probably be my TNT stretch skirt pattern now.  My versions are all for cool weather and quite formal, I'd definitely like to try it in a more casual look like the illustration too.

Tuesday 12 December 2017

BurdaStyle 09/2016 - 118 Long Waistcoat & 110 Stretch Trousers

Two pieces from the 9/2016 Burda worn together!



I first made this long knit waistcoat as a gift for my sister and planned to make one for myself. (previously blogged here).  It only took me a year to get around to it!

09/2016 - 118 Long Waistcoat

I actually made the trousers at the beginning of the year, but they proved so impossible to photograph that they didn't justify their own blog post.  I do want to highlight the pattern though because it is a good one.  Designed for stretch fabrics and with front and back seams, a back yoke and a centre back seam in the waistband, you can really easily tweak these and get a great fit.

Mine are in a black ponte and I left off the ankle zips.



Back to the waistcoat....the version I originally made for my sister was in a knit boucle, a much better fabric choice than this one in a very soft sweater knit which stretched like crazy!  I had put the pockets in, but they ended up somewhere near my knees and were quite bulky so I removed them.  I also had to trim the collar down considerably and you can see that the hem is wavy also.  I might fold it up again and see if that helps.

This really should have been a quick and easy project, but ended up being incredibly frustrating to make.  It is great for our current in between weather though so I am trying to forget all the annoyances!