Making my Trousers: 1940's inspired

This is a very long overdue blog that I was actually meant to have written at the end of last year, but I'm finally getting round to it now.  I've wanted a pair of 1940's style women's trousers for a very long time, but could never find a pair that was in the style and fabric I wanted that also fitted my body shape and was in my price range.  That never happened so, in the end, I decided to just make them and found an updated vintage pattern, Simplicity 8447.

I decided that as this pattern also makes overalls I would make the top of the overalls as well, but have it so that it was detachable from the trousers giving me two garments in one.  I'm not going to lie, as this was my first time properly using a sewing pattern I was quite nervous about starting this and kept putting it off.  This wasn't helped by the fact that I knew I was going to have to make some changes to the pattern to get it to fit my body shape and that I'd already read through the pattern and confused myself a little bit. 

As I was intending on wearing these trousers quite a lot (they're basically the only everyday trousers I own) I wanted to get quite a hard-wearing, but relatively thin fabric so I went for a wool suiting fabric in a lovely navy colour.  The amount I planned, and actually do, wear this item meant that I also decided to bind the seems, even though you don't normally have to do much with wool fabrics as they don't tend to fray easily, using bias binding.  This did add quite a bit more work and a little bit more of a cost to my project, but I am glad I did it.  

Of course, I couldn't be all serious about the decisions I was making and the buttons I'm using for this project have smiley faces on them.

Once I had gotten used to the language in the pattern it actually went quite smoothly, though it did still take me a few days to get it completed.  This was mainly because it took me a while to accurately get the modifications to the waistline right.  I had had to start the pattern off with a much larger size so that it fitted around my hips, and then work on the side seams and darts to get it reduced enough to fits my waist comfortably.  Thankfully I didn't have to also add length to the waist of the trousers like I did with the shorts.  I've left the extra material in the darts in case I need to increase the waist size in the future, but for now, it fits perfectly and there's something really nice about having a pair of trousers I don't have to wear a belt with.

Once I had finally worked out how much of a reduction I had to make for the waist it was a lot easier to work on the top section as, again, I had to use a larger pattern to fit the chest and then bring it into the waist.  This time I did make the waistband a little bit larger so that it could fit comfortably over the trouser waistband when the two are joined together.  If I'm being completely honest I still haven't quite gotten round to adding the attachments which would then allow me to wear the two pieces together, but I'll get round to that soon.  With the weather being the way it is at the moment it would probably be a good idea to get that done very soon.

I really like these trousers and I've worn them a lot.  In fact, I've worn them practically every day that I've been off.  Apart from some spot cleans, I've also not had to wash them very often either.  Which is a joy seeing as laundry is a never-ending task I'm very happy to reduce.  The only thing I might possibly change about these is the turn-ups at the bottom of the legs.  They are a little bit thick and I'm not sure how I feel about the size.  I might reduce them a little bit or even get rid of them altogether, but that's still up for debate at the moment and I'll wear these a little longer before I make any final decision.  I've also cut another strip for the waistband but at a larger size, just in case I need to expand these.

Now that this project is complete I'm glad that I pushed through being nervous about starting and just got on with it.  I really like the outcome and it's given me a little bit more confidence to try out other patterns for items of clothing that I want in my wardrobe.   Which is just as well as I do have quite a lot of sewing planned for 2022.

Crafting to Come

 

If there's one good thing that has come out of this long lockdown and self-isolation for me is to remind me that I actually quite enjoy crafting.  Due to that, I've decided to add some more little crafting projects to my to do list, including one that I've been thinking about doing for years.  Of course, the main problem is that once you start thinking about one project you want to do many more come forward, but here are the few I'm starting with.

1860's Sontag

So, I'm a big period drama watcher and I've been wanting to make one of these for a while now, but it doesn't look like just a standard shawl and I was struggling to find a pattern for this until I stubbled across this website, Ragged Soldier Sutlery and Vintage Volumes, which not only had the original pattern, but a modern translation of the pattern.  

At the moment I'm knitting this with a yarn I got from a charity shop and which is 100% acrylic.  It's not the nicest wool to knit with, but it should be quite hard-wearing and the plan is to make this Sontag with this wool as a trial of the pattern and how much wear I get out of it.  Then I'll make it again with some more natural and more comfortable wools. I'm also making this as part of Voolenvine's History Make-Along, #HistoryMAL, which is about making projects  either from or in an ode to pre-1950s clothing, styles, and fabrics.  I have a few more projects in the line for this one as well.

Culottes

Almost 20 years ago I got this beautiful fabric as a gift from a friend in Africa to make into some clothing, but I haven't really known what to make and, if I'm honest, I was a bit nervous about using it.  But I've decided that it's time to just use it and there's enough fabric that it doesn't matter too much if this time it doesn't quite work out.  With that in mind I've decided to make some culottes using the information made available on this video by Global Fashion Workshop.

I know that I should probably make a pattern first and then a test piece, but I've decided to do what I normally do with this sort of thing and sort of wing it a little.  That being said, I'll probably write a post about it if it works out in case anyone else wants to wing their culottes. 😂

1930s Cardigan

A couple of years ago I brought this book called Knit Vintage (by Madeline Weston and Rita Taylor) with patterns based on original vintage knitwear from the 30s, 40s, and 50s.  I've been wanting to make one of these patterns but never really had a reason to.  However, I actually need a new cardigan at the moment and realised that the cost of buying the wool would basically be the same as buying a new cardigan (though obviously not pre-loved one) and this way I'd be able to get the specific style I wanted.  

I wasn't able to get the wool that was suggested in the pattern, but I did get some beautiful blue Viking by Norway Nordlys wool (in colour 927) which is meant to be inspired by the Northern Lights.  I got this from the Love Crafts website, which I have to admit has now become somewhere I spent a ridiculously large amount of time.

Christmas Cards

For the last few years I've been sewing most of my Christmas cards, if not all, and this year I decided to do the same.  I've actually already finished sewing all the cross stitch parts of the cards (joys of lockdown) and was thinking that this year, instead of mounting them on a card, I'd sew them onto fabric so that they can be hung up instead - maybe even used as a Christmas tree decoration.  I've already got the fabric for it so all I need to do is sew them onto it and then back them.  Should be pretty quick and easy, hopefully.

I do have one other, larger Christmas card to sew for my partner, but I can give it a month or so before I start that.

A Shawl

I still haven't quite decided on the pattern or wool for this project yet, but I have an event happening next year and wanted to knit myself a shawl for it to add a personal touch.  There's not much more to say about this one right now, but I'll probably be adding updates about it (as with everything else) on my Instagram, @greeninggeorgie.

Lord of the Rings Cross-stitch

This one is for way, way into the future, but, when doing the dangerous browse of Etsy, I found some cross-stitch patterns with a Lord of the Rings theme from Country Magic Stitch.  I couldn't resist and did something I shouldn't have, which is buy them even though I knew I won't get round to them for a while yet.  So there they are sitting in a folder, ready to be made once I've finished absolutely everything else on my list.

And that's it, those are my crafting plans for now.  I'm sure more will come along and I definitely want to make more clothes for myself in the future, including getting pre-loved items and altering them to fit me, so be prepared to hear more about this in the future.