Sep 2021 – My Stash Reduction Quest

Here in the UK, we’ve been clinging on to the remnants of summer. It’s been lovely and given me a chance to wear my summer clothes for a bit longer before wrapping myself in layers upon layers of wool, fleece and thermals.

I have two final summer makes to talk about today, both are long-admired patterns that I finally got around to making this year. In writing this post, I also realised that both of these garments have “button cheats” as features, which ties them together quite neatly.

The patterns

The Tilly and the Buttons Mathilde blouse is one of their older patterns which, I believe, made an appearance on the first series of Great British Sewing Bee. I love the billowy sleeves and loose fit, along with the other details that I’ll talk about later.

The bottom half of this outfit is Sew Liberated’s Estuary skirt. The pockets originally caught my eye but I had a similar gathered skirt pattern so thought it wasn’t worth duplication in my pattern stash. Then I found out that the back waistband is elasticated and the button placket can be made “false”…therefore no buttonhole drama. Game changer!!

It’s all in the detail

I have used a lot of TATB patterns and so have a good idea of how their block fits me. As this blouse is intended to be loose, I didn’t worry about grading between sizes as I would with a more fitted top. I cut a size 5 all over, then shortened the bodice and sleeve pieces each by 2″.

I made a wearable toile from a cotton maxi dress that I haven’t worn in years, but loved the fabric so much I put it in my stash. The cotton holds the pin tucks really well and helps the sleeves show off their shape.

My toile fit well and I wore it a few times before cutting into my main fabric to be sure it didn’t need any modifications.

For my final version, I used some vibrant pink viscose from Lamazi Fabrics. It’s brighter than I would usually wear but I actually love it! Whilst the topic of this blog post is summer outfits, I will definitely wear both tops in the autumn thanks to the 3/4 sleeve length.

Pin tucks, billowy sleeves and surprise buttons on the back. The Mathilde has got all of these gorgeous features. I had never sewn pin tucks before but TATB’s trademark excellent instructions walked me through it with ease.

The button band at the back actually only has one buttonhole at the top. I pinned the back to see if I could get it over my head easily with just one button and I could. The pattern instructions tell you how to sew the placket together, boxing it in, so it’s “Tilly approved”. However, for my pink top, the viscose kept shifting so I ended up just sewing through all layers of the fabric when attaching the buttons.

As the button band is on the back, I chose flat buttons so that they don’t dig in when I’m leaning against something. My love affair with Swagman’s Daughter continues with these beauties.

The Mathilde is proving to be a great top to wear during work and play time. If I was to make again (likely), I would like to add a line of piping between the yoke and main bodice. I think that will help highlight the pin tucks as they are lost in a busy pattern and take the longest to do.

Lilac and clumsy can be dangerous

When I spotted this lilac viscose linen on Rainbow Fabrics, I confess that I wasn’t sure. I’m a “spiller” and, right in cute, the first time I wore this skirt, I slopped pizza sauce down it (Vanish to the rescue!). That said, I do love the colour and glad I took the ‘risk’.

As with the Mathilde, the Estuary skirt can be made with a false button band at the front, largely made possible by the elasticated back waistband. I love this construction because a flat fronted waistband means that there isn’t the added bulk that comes with a full gathered skirt but there’s some “give” in the skirt for those days when I’m feeling a little more bloated. Not forgetting the absence of needing to sew 9 buttonholes!

Buttons from Swagman’s Daughter
(sensing a theme)

There was a lovely detail that I missed in constructing this skirt. As somebody who has been sewing for a while now, I merrily put the skirt together paying little attention to the pattern until I got to the waistband. The pattern gives instructions for flat-felled seams which would have looked lovely on this plain fabric but there was no way I was unpicking it. A good lesson in reading the pattern through before starting.

In terms of fitting, I cut 2″ off the length (I’m 5’2″ for reference) but otherwise made a straight 12. The beauty of elastic is that (within reason) there’s wriggle room in fitting up to quite late in the sewing process.

The pockets that I lusted over for so many years do not disappoint with their unusual shape. They’re the perfect size for a ball of wool for al fresco knitting!

Thanks for reading :o) If anybody needs me, I’ll be unpacking my thermals in anticipation of the coming months.

It’s officially Autumn and already my hands are feeling the chill. Fortunately I recently finished another pair of fingerless mitts to help get me through long work days at home when we don’t want to have the heating on all the time!

After the success of my Kew Mitts, I thought I would ‘shop my remnants’ for these Tessellate Mitts by Lucinda Makes. The picture of the pair on the front of the pattern was so vibrant that I really wanted to try the pattern.

I had a lot of green/blue sock yarn left over from my (even if I say so myself) amazing Find Your Fade shawl so a coordinating pair of mitts made sense. In hindsight, I wish I had ordered them in a more contrasting way. The middle three yarns in particular are speckled and the pattern is a bit lost. Still, live and learn!

Sizing and process

I chose to knit the size Small as I have quite tiny hands. I was also mindful that my Kew Mitts cover a bit too much of my fingers than I would like, and the thumbs are quite long.

The Tessellate Mitts are knitted wrist down, rather than fingers up, which helped with sizing as I went along. I prefer this method of construction because it meant I could keep trying the mitt on after the thumb hole to check the length along my fingers and adjust the pattern if necessary. As it turned out, I didn’t need to take any length off so my mitts are true to the pattern.

Similarly for the thumb, I learnt from my first pair of mitts and kept trying on as I went along. Again, I knitted to the pattern measurements but it felt good to be aware of this and know I could alter if necessary.

Inside out knitting

I do love the inside/back of colourwork knitting, which I mentioned in my Baable hat post. Admiring the insides made me realise that I haven’t talked about knitting inside out. I learnt to knit on DPNs/circular needles using YouTube and I think my years of mirroring dance teachers meant that I mirrored the YouTube instructor. Most people do circular knitting with the pattern on the outside, but I have it on the inside. It has the same result but a few people have commented that it’s quite unusual.

I finished the body of both mitts before tackling the thumbs. I sometimes do part of both socks to avoid “second sock syndrome” and enjoy this approach, but it’s only possible with two sets of the same size needles!

Extra stitches

As I’ve talked about in my Find Your Fade post, I use life-lines a lot in knitting. They came in useful again when it was time to tackle the thumbs, staying in place until I had completed each.

I treat thumbs like sock gussets by picking up an extra stitch either side of the “pick up” section. Then on the following row, I k2tog/ssk to get back to the intended number of stitches. I find this reduces the risk of a hole. There are plenty of tutorials online but I found this one that starts at about 7min 26sec. However the beginning of the video shows a neat way to do heels that I’m definitely going to try that too!

Thanks for reading. If you need me, I’ll be writing blog posts whilst wearing my new mitts :o)

Month: Sep 2021

False button plackets