I’ve made a few new things!
I was sent a length of lovely snuggly corduroy from Minerva; it is soft, quite lightweight, fluid and drapey and a little fluffy, and of course the most gorgeous and delicious shade of burnt orange/terracotta imaginable! this very stuff, in fact…
Soooo happy with my pocket-elicious new ensemble! hmmm, why the new (non)word, you might ask? Well, because there are SO many pockets on my newest outfit that it’s borderline ridiculous… AND I LOVE IT!!!!!
Patterns; I really love the practicality, utilitarian urban vibe of Waffle Patterns and have bought quite a few… now I can shift a few more off my list of “want to makes” and into the list of “yay finally made!” namely the Arare hoodie and the Anzu skirt.
Both these patterns come with a lot of variations; the Arare hoodie can be a hoodie or just have a high collar, and you can do either front welt pockets or a big kangaroo pocket with flap. I opted for the hoodie and the welt pockets, and there’s also a little sleeve pocket. That’s where I stuck my circa 2022 label 
I didn’t really have enough fabric to line the hood, well not if I wanted to make the skirt too, which I most definitely did! so I used some nice, autumnal floral viscose from Mum’s stash … given to me when she cleared it out a few months ago. I really love how this looks peeping out inside the hoodie I also used this same fabric to line the pockets. I didn’t add a cord to the hood mostly because I didn’t have the perfect coloured cord; I did put in the eyelets though, just in case that perfectly matching cord ever does show up!
I’ve had a tendency in the past to do welt pockets my own way… or a way that is a conglomeration of various big 4 patterns I’ve used over the years… the welt pockets on the Arare were a little different and took a little getting my head around. And they turned out absolutely perfect! I’m thrilled with how well they turned out.
For the skirt… I opted for the knee length, zip-fronted option, with inner slanted hip pockets. The other pocket options I went for were; the zip pocket, the “flap” pocket which comprises a bellows pocket with a partitioned off “non-flapped” section, three layered patch back pockets, and a double tool pocket. So, I just had to pause to add this up… this make for a 13 pocketed ensemble. I know right?! It’s crazy! And amazing!
Now, while I really wanted to make the skirt in this corduroy it was actually a little on the lightweight side to make a good cargo skirt. I applied lightweight fusible interfacing to every piece and this gave the perfect amount of stability to make this structured design work well. This had the slightly unfortunate side effect of make the wrong side of the fabric a jarring shade of white, obviously… now I know you don’t really see inside a skirt to notice something like this but it still bothered me. So I lined it with a dark brown lining fabric…. kinda overkill but it’s nicer like this.
One thing I should mention; I had to substantially alter the top of the back skirt piece. I’m not sure if I did something wrong at some earlier point, or whether it’s something to do with my slight sway back; but the back bulged in a very weird way before I scooped out a considerable crescent from the skirt back, before adding the yoke. And here’s a handy tip; when making any skirt at all I’ve always found it a good idea to try on for fit BEFORE you’re about to embark on any substantial seam finish and/or topstitching/flat-felling and/or overlocking raw seam allowances together. It’s SO much easier to make adjustments without having to unpick any of this! Ask me how I know! spoiler alert, I learnt the hard way…
Although it hasn’t shown up too well in any of my photos because it’s in a toning caramel colour; there is masses of topstitching in this outfit. I used up almost an entire roll of upholstery thread!
I’m rather thrilled at how very 70’s this outfit turned out! really that’s my only excuse for some of these poses…. honestly I don’t really go out of my way to make stuff that’s very obviously costume-y but am always quite chuffed when something does have an unexpectedly unusual and possibly even unfashionable flavour to it!
I shall sign off with a few pocket details…
the “flap pocket”
the “zip pocket”
and lastly but most importantly of all, my darling little grandson wanting to join in posing with me…
other me-made items worn in this post:
- my raspberry Paprika patterns Jade mini skirt
- my forest green merino, long sleeved t-shirt
- self-drafted tights
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