Hey, it's ME on my own blog!

Just for a change I managed to sew for MEMEME this week! Keely conveniently ordered some Jalies from Patternreview and kindly let (lazy) me piggyback on her order. I got 2919, the pleated cardigan, and 2908, the much-raved-over stretch jeans. I had fabric ready for the cardy before the pattern even arrived, and made it over the last couple of days. Being restricted to nap times can make sewing slow going, but getting the pattern on Wednesday and having it made up by Friday isn't bad!

Biggest problem was getting a reluctant 8 year old to take a good picture of me. Eventually I figured that this one is the best I was going to get. Please ignore the odd angle, dodgy focus and smirk. Not sure WHY I was smirking, but trust me, the other photos were much worse!
At least it shows the pleats quite well. As does this one, which I took on my dummy in an effort to improve the focus. (Please also ignore the rain outside - the weather has actually been mostly really nice for the last week or two, honest!)

I'm really pleased with this and looking forward to wearing it, but next time (oh yes, there WILL be a next time. Or three) I would like a drapier fabric. This is "cairo" from Spotlight. Very comfortable, but a bit more stable than I think would be ideal. Good stretch and recovery (90% polyester, 10% spandex), but I think a bit less "beef" would be good. I may fiddle with the sleeves too. The reviews on Patternreview note very skinny sleeves. I have slender arms, and I like slim fitting sleeves (BECAUSE I have slender arms - show off your best bits!) so I'm quite happy with this as is, but I do like a high, skinny sleeve cap too (because that shows off my shapely shoulders to best advantage. I put in a lot of work at the gym to get those, and damn it, I want to focus on them instead of my cankles!), so I may try a different sleeve. (You can see a couple of wrinkles in my right sleeve which suggest that a higher sleeve cap might sit better.) Then again, I may not be bothered enough to make the effort.

Since this is that contradiction-in-terms a wearable muslin I made it straight from the pattern. Measuring put me at a size S and confirmed that my arms would fit down the sleeves so I just went for it. I added 5mm to the seams because I don't like working with 6mm seam allowances. I also had to shorten the sleeves by a couple of centimetres - unheard of for me, since I have quite long arms. Another reason to love Jalie!


After a bit of umming and ahhing over marking the pleats I decided to thread mark them. I like thread marking because it's very accurate, you can see it from both sides (not necessary for this, but sometimes it is), you can't lose it between marking and sewing, and when you pull it out it leaves no trace. It doesn't even take that long to do.


I've also drafted a couple of new designs to make, so it's back to Oxshott stuff till I find the perfect fabric for my jeans. Or maybe not. I could get used to sewing for me. Perhaps I should aspire to be more like the fabulous Selfish Seamstress......