Love Sewing Magazine, Kimono

I've made this pattern a few times now, there's not an awful lot more I can say about it!

I wanted a slinky cover-up for all this lovely summer weather we've been having and have had this fabric in my stash for about 2 years!! The blue tones in this silky fabric cool me off just by lookin!

I cut a size small and used spray starch in attempt to stop my fabric slipping around. It helped a little but overall it did just do whatever it wanted. This wasn't too dramatic thanks to the shape of the kimono being all pretty oblong.

I took extra care on my hems. They are pretty wide so took care to measure accurately for once! I then pinned pressed and even tacked to make sure they didn't go awry!

Instead of following the instructions for the neck band and hand stitching it, I decided to overlock. Sure it was a bit of a cop out but I did do it super neat (I swear!).

This fun quick make has been jazzing up my summer weekend outfits :)

x

Location: Agden Reservoir, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Here Comes The Sun, The Beatles

Simple Sew, Shannon Shorts

I'm always over-buying fabric. This month I found myself with a surplus of black drill from John Lewis that was too full of potential to stuff in a bag and worry about later. It's shorts weather and I've been wearing my Denim Simple Sew Shannon Shorts every weekend. The sturdy structure of my drill fabric lends itself to another pair, the only question being- how can I jazz these up?

To follow on from my #SewingLeftovers post, I decided to use some scraps for the pocket panels on the shorts. I had a good think about what was left over that I could use and it was a toss up between this pleather from my self-drafted skirt last year, or some scraps of suede from my Rosalie Dress. This was swiftly decided when it turned out I did not have enough suede to make one pocket let alone two!

I had a few more idea for jazzing the shorts up a bit. I bought these little black and silver press in gems from Prym ages ago with a project in mind that never happened. They've been kicking about since without a real home and thought they would be just when I need for a bit of extra zing in these shorts.


I was also tempted to make some back pockets with fancy embroidery, but when I tried the shorts on I was totally in love with the back darts that I really didn't want to cover them up! Sounds like a cop-out sure but it's true!

Making the shorts was easy. I am so in love with that waistband pattern that I've hacked it to use on skirts too. The only alteration I made to it was to take in about 1.5cm from the sideseams at the top then grade back out. I guess this means I took out about 6cm from the top! Sounds a lot but they fit pretty nicely now.



I decided to top stitch my crotch seam as well as the side seams and pocket seams. This adds a more professional finish to the seams. I added a little bit of interfacing into the pocket opening so that it would not lose its shape.

The shorts are the length as the pattern but turned up three times then secured with a few stitches. There is an invisible zip hidden in the sideseam.

Love that I took the time to make these shorts a bit more personalised. The fabric really is perfect for the job and those pleather panels make things a bit more exciting. It's sunny again today so gonna get lots of wear out of them.

❤ Summer

x

Location: Stockport Town Centre
Currently Listening to: Nadal vs Djokovic, Wimbledon Semi-Final