Sewing for my man
Hi my darlings, guess what happened? After all those years of selfish sewing I have finally made something for my man. It had been on my to-sew list pretty much every year, and last year I even went as far as making a muslin for a men’s shirt. The Mr doesn’t really wear shirts, so as you can imagine this project didn’t go very far. (I have to say though, I finished a shirt for my dad in December – not blogged – so I could tick “men’s shirt” of last year’s resolutions list).
A friend of mine made her boyfriend this pretty awesome hooded cardi and I promised the Mr to make him one as well.
The pattern is self-drafted by my friend who is a seamstress by trade. She traced it off for me and the Mr even carried it in his suitcase all the way from Germany to London – that’s dedication! Obviously, I couldn’t postpone it much longer and finally ordered some fabric and a zip, the latter being ridiculously expensive!
The Pattern: Is self-drafted, EUR size 48. It has raglan sleeves and an extra side panel just underneath the armhole which makes the cardi just a tad more fitted, which I think looks great, especially men’s patterns this size can sometime just look huge. I lengthened all bodice and the sleeve pattern pieces by 5cm (the Mr always has troubles with sleeves being way too short). I did not bother cutting any facings and now am really glad that I didn’t. My sewing machine struggled quite a bit with 3-4 layers of this heavy sweatshirt fabric, any more would’ve killed my little machine, I guess.
The fabric:
The sweatshirt fabric I ordered online (I think it was Minerva Crafts) and I used less than 2m for this cardi. I also bought the zip (75cm) online, which was really expensive. But it’s a metal one and works really great. I’m glad that I got it in the end, it adds a great feature to the jacket.
The sleeve cuffs and the “waistband” are made of the same fabric as the rest of the cardi. I had trouble finding matching ribbing fabric, and the one I ordered did not work at all. I just used the same fabric in the end, cutting the strips much shorter than the actual hem width and it worked really well! I sewed them in with the overlocker, stretching the fabric evenly while sewing and they went in without any puckering and cinch in the hems quite beautifully.
Another great detail of the pattern is the hood. It had really interesting seaming details – the hood consists of three different pattern pieces. All the seams on the bodice match up exactly with the seams on the hood giving it a really great shape and sporty look. I lined the hood, under-stitched the lining and top-stitched it with my 4mm stretch twin needle (approx. 2cm from the edge). I used the same technique on the pockets.
The Mr loves his music, so I had to add tiny buttonholes to the back of the pockets where the audio jack can go through when the phone is in the pocket to avoid the cable dangling on the outside of the cardigan.
The only thing where I messed up a bit it the seam matching on the pockets. They are almost off by 5mm which is quite annoying. That happened when I sewed the zip in. All other seams match up perfectly, only the most visible ones don’t. Meh. At least you can’t see it, when the zip is open :)
The Mr is super duper happy with his new cardigan and wears it pretty much every day. I am planning to make a hooded sweater from the same pattern and already have super soft dark brown fabric waiting in my stash. Unfortunately I broke my stretch twin needle, so it will have to wait a bit. (And we don’t want the Mr to get used to all this selfless sewing, right?)
Have you ever made anything for your other half? It’s quite rewarding, me thinks. And finally, I wasn’t the one in front of the camera – much more comfortable, ha!
Happy sewing!
♥
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Hello lovelies! Guess what? I’ve got a new favourite outfit (again).
THE CARDIGAN
I hemmed the sleeve by simply overlocking the raw edge, turning it in and top-stitching it in place with a narrow zig-zag stitch. All the other edges – bottom hem, neckline and front – are one continuous line I wanted to bias bind initially. Mid-way through the project I remembered that I had bought lots of stringed sequins a while ago. So instead of bias binding, I finished the edge with my overlocker, not turning it in. I sewed the sequins in place along the stitching of the overlocker.
The Pattern: The cardi pattern is completely self-drafted – with a cardigan in mind that my sister bought when she last visited me in London (I think she got it from Primark). I took some rough measurements in order to recreate it at some point. I found the sketch a little while ago and thought of it when I was looking for a quick and easy project last week. The drafting didn’t take too long. With the very loose fit I was going for the measurements didn’t have to be exact. The fabric was cut out quickly and the actual sewing did not take much longer. Applying the sequins probably took as long as the whole drafting and sewing process together. I didn’t mind – given that I have the time for it, I find hand-sewing so relaxing!
THE DRESS
The Pattern: It’s a proper Franken-Dress – the pattern is part Lady Skater (Kitschy Coo), part Ultimate Pencil Skirt (Sew Over It) and part self-drafted.
The skirt pattern is based on my beloved 
All raw edges were finished using my overlocker. When using Jersey I sometimes sew all seams with the overlocker straight away because it is so much faster than my old little sewing machine. Because the dress’ fit is quite snug I thought some extra strong seams were quite a good idea and sewed all seams using a narrow zig-zag stitch before running the raw edges through the overlocker. Also, I needed to do quite a bit of matching with the sleeves and also with the pleats, which is so much easier on my regular machine.
The facing is also cut out from the recycled cardi and interfaced with black iron-on interfacing.The facing is quite wide and attached to neckline and armhole seams, so the bodice is almost half-lined. It makes the facing lie really flat so that it’s practically invisible.
Heeelloo lovelies! 
Sooo anyway, the sewing machine is sitting on our living room table again, there are threads and fabric scraps scattered all across the floor and sewing magazines are taking over the couch. Everything is back to normal!
The Fabric:
The Fit:
I have a new favourite pattern! No, seriously – I love it to pieces!
The Pattern:
The Fit:
Happy New Year, folks! Hope you all had awesome holidays! It’s a bit late but I wanted to share one of my holiday makes with you: A cropped embellished sweater! It’s super cosy and the perfect thing to wear with all my sleeveless fit-and-flared dresses.
The Pattern:
