Knitting For Victory

Well, Hello there, and a Happy New Year to you!!

Me and my Mum celebrated New Years with a little too much Babycham, sipped from our fancy new glasses.

I hope we all had marvelous Christmases if celebrated or a good few days off if not, and you have all now recovered from your New Year celebrations and that you are all enjoying 2014!

My Mums Christmas Tree

Christmas for me was spent with my parents up in Liverpool we had a lovely time, we went to the cinema to see the Hobbit (which was fabulous) shared lots of lovely presents, ate a ton and a half of food, and attempted to walk off the said ton and a half of food in the beautiful local woods. All of which was very relaxing and though it did seem to fly by much quicker this year. We also conspired to do lots of things together again this year so hopefully there should be lots of exciting things to look forward to in the months ahead!

View from Woolton Woods towards the Welsh hills

On Christmas Day whilst in a food induced stupor and whilst attempting to figure out what the heck was going on in Dr. Who (love the show but I was baffled) I finally got started on my Knit for Victory project. I know a lot of you lovelies have finished numerous things already, so I am, as always, one step behind the rest, so I decided it was about time I got my act together and started on knitting something, thankfully the this knit along was very generous with its deadline,  let's face it knitting is not an instant gratification project so this makes it ideal, especially for slowcoaches like me!

One reason it took me so long to start, was because I was knitting my brothers Christmas Jumper, more on that in the next post. Another was I genuinely could not decide what project to pick, I had thought I would do something quick like Lucy's Turban (I really want a red one!), but it was only after the lovely Tasha, host of said knit along, asked me to do a little Top Ten Post that I set my mind on Your Victory Jumper especially as I knew I had all the yarn I would need in my overflowing stash!

I have been wanting to knit this pattern for a long while there as are so many lovely versions on Ravelry and I have been pleasantly surprised at just how quick it is to knit, obviously having time off  over Christmas has helped with its progress, but as I type this I am a stones throw away from the shoulder shaping on my first sleeve and the second sleeve to start so I am feeling hopeful that with only a week or so let that this could well be my first knitting victory of 2014! Fingers crossed!

Wendy x 

Dec 29th 1940 - London's Longest Night

I stumbled on this documentary a while ago and thought I would share it all with you all. It's not very festive I know but I thought as it's 73 years to the day from the longest night of the Blitz I thought it would be interesting to experience.

It holds a little more importance than just interesting history for me as my dad was born in London in early 1940, so he would have been about 8 months old when the blitz began. Though he may not remember it clearly, I think of my poor Nan, who had just had her first child during such a turbulent time, I can only imagine her daily anxiety and fear for their safety as they sheltered under their Morrison 73 years ago tonight.

Wendy x

Sew Desirable

As always seems to happen, the moment I have to be super frugal and think about others, with Christmas around the corner, all I can think about is spending money and my own selfish desires. I have not been helped by the fact pattern companies large and small have been releasing the most fabulous patterns, with a wonderful vintage style lately. So my remedy is to share them here, to hopefully cool my ardour and in turn save my pocket.

First up is Burda Style there have been some lovely patterns recently and the fact that you can download them in an instant is wonderful, but oh so very tempting!

Burda Style 2013 - Aviator Collection

Wide Leg Trousers & Leather Jacket with Detachable Fur Collar

These high-waisted wide leg pants have a lovely vintage look. This is a slimming cut that gives you an hourglass silhouette with a tucked in shirt. Vertical pleats give swingy wool crêpe a little structure. The blouson jacket is a classic style that looks gorgeous in leather. This functional jacket has effortless luxury thanks to soft nappa leather. Try the shape in faux leather if you like!

Just look at this flying jacket and amazing wide leg trousers, from part of their new Aviator Collection. For me this is an outfit that dreams are made of to look like a cross between Indiana Jones and Amelia Earheart, I mean what's not to love! Fear of flying be dammed!

Blouse With Pleated Pockets & Buttoned A-Lined Skirt

Update a classic silky blouse with pleated breast pockets. This is a great silhouette for fabrics with some drape. Tuck it into a 1940s inspired skirt for a modern touch. A well-fitting A-line skirt is just as feminine as a tight pencil silhouette. This style has a nipped in waist that you can belt to show off your waist. Get a sharp look with a crisp white blouse, heeled Oxfords, and a military canvas belt.

 And just think how much more awesome this outfit would be if this crisp white blouse was under that jacket!

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Burda Style - Fall Essentials

Luxe Trenchcoat

Crêpe de chine turns a classic trenchcoat design into a special evening layer. This piece makes an elegant finish to fall outfits. Slip a silk scarf in a coordinating print around your neck for an elegant touch.

Now I made great claims last year about making a winter coat, so far I have made the Gertie coat but it's in need of some serious alterations before it's fit for public viewing, but that doesn't stop me dreaming about making a stunning 1940s style trench coat, now does it!!

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Burda Style 2013 - Town & Country

Button Tab Trousers

Get a retro 1940s feeling in these high waisted wide leg pants. This menswear style looks pretty paired with a feminine, fitted top. Go with a high-heeled loafer or spectator to amp up the vintage charm.

If I had spotted this pattern before starting my Fall for Victory Lightfileds Slacks then I would have saved myself a fair bit re-drafting, as being wide legged, high waisted, pleated at the front aaaand having side pockets, it is exactly what I was after!

Gather & Tuck Dress

Attend a garden party or high tea in this beautiful vintage-inspired dress. Plenty of tucks, gathers, and ruffles give ladylike charm to this lovely design. Pair it with lace-up boots for a Gibson Girl vibe, or make it modern with pumps and a cardigan

This dress is so 30s, I just love it, I think it would look even better in a block colour so that you can fully appreciate those pleated panels.

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Burda Style 2013 - Twenties Sophistication

Bow Shirt & Pleated Button Skirt

This feminine shirt has sewn-on bands and a charming bow. It will pair perfectly with a nice pair of pants or a skirt! The full skirt is ideal for a day out! It has side pleats, a deep centre inverted pleat, and a unique waistband.

This is so classic an outfit it's just perfect. It has the style of Ulyana Sergeenko to it, with the long full high waisted skirt, coupled with a simple crepe top, it's delicious!

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My next lot of pattern lust goes to By Hand London a fabulous little independent pattern company, I love the attention to detail they include in the pattern descriptions.

Anna Dress

An effortless dress featuring double pleats at the bust, kimono sleeves and a panelled a-line skirt. Variations include both slash and v-neck options, plus midi and maxi skirt possibilities and a dramatic thigh high split. Super quick and simple to make, cut it short for the perfect festival dress, or make it worthy of the red carpet with a maxi skirt and thigh high split.

I have seen so many beautiful versions of this dress all over the blog-o-sphere that I can't wait to make my own, it's so simple and so elegant with a wonderful 40s style, perhaps without such a high slit!

Georgia Dress

The Georgia Dress is a super sexy knockout dress with fitted cups and a panelled skirt that hugs the waist and skims the hips. Variations include a choice of slinky shoulder straps or a wider, nautical style faux collar. Keep it demure with a knee length skirt, or show off those pins with the mini!

I love this simple because it's the perfect little black dress, and could be so easily worn for work or for a party, and we could all do with a dress like that!

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Next, we have a pattern from another indie designer, this time, Blue Ginger Doll, an Australian based pattern company, with a small but utterly pretty range of classic patterns.

Mae Blouse.

Mae is a romantic 1940s inspired blouse. Featuring a flattering scalloped front neckline design, kimono sleeves and fitted front and back waist darts for a flattering feminine figure. 

Mae has to be my favourite of the bunch, it's got them most gorgeous scalloped neckline and flattering Kimono sleeves, which would easily make it a wardrobe favourite.

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And last but not least, there is the new 1950s style Gertie Pattern for Butterick!

New Look Jacket and Skirt

There is nothing to say about this other than, I love it!!

Wendy x

Fall For Cotton - Lightfields Blouse and Slacks

Last Sunday, the weather was reasonable and I had a willing photographer to hand, so it meant I was finally able to get some good pictures of my Fall for Cotton Lightfields ensemble! 

About blooming time!

So you might remember, though it was a while back now so you would be forgiven if not, that I had fallen head over heels in love with some outfits in ITV's recent ghostly drama Lightfields worn by Eve Traverse one of the main characters.

I had become besotted with a little black and yellow striped blouse and a pair of bottle green wide legged high waisted slacks, so I set about recreating them for my fall for cotton projects. The patterns I picked to recreate these garments all needed some alterations to make them more like the originals above, and I think I have pulled it off! I was yet again quite surprised  how very simple it was to achieve, I have often put off making things for fear that I didn't know how to do it properly, and end up creating a huge unwearable mess, but making these garments has proved to me yet again that it's all about looking at things logically (ooh now I sound like Spock), as long as you think it through and take your time in the pattern stage, it's deceptively simple to create what you're after!

 Right, first up let's have a closer look at the blouse...

For the blouse, I used a cheap black cotton for the collar and cuffs which accentuate the beautiful pink striped fabric for the main body perfectly. The main fabric came from the lovely Blue Zinnia Vintage on Etsy, this fabric is just gorgeous to look at and even more gorgeous to work with, it is lovely and soft but still very much holds its shape, a real gem of a 30s fabric, and perfect for copying Eve's blouse. The pattern, Economy Design No.154, was not quite so perfect, it needed a few tweaks to get it as near as possible to the Lightfields version.

The yokes on the front of the blouse were much higher than Eve's blouse so I lowered them enough to make them in line with the back yoke. I found this actually quite easy, even though the bottom front sections are much wider than the yoke pieces (they gather up into the yoke for a bit of bust room) I just lengthened the yoke pattern to match the rear yoke, added a seam allowance and then dropped the front panel down by the same amount and it all worked out OK.



The other alteration was to the sleeves. Firstly I took out some of the height to the sleeve head to reduce the puffiness a touch. Also, the sleeves on the pattern are designed to taper in towards the cuff, now I have particularly chunky biceps (it's all biscuits, not land girl style muscles!) so, on making this pattern in the past I have always found this super uncomfortable and hideously restrictive. Thankfully Eve's blouse actually has some gathers at the cuff band, so I was able to taper the pattern out at the cuff and give myself a bit of room. I also followed a great tutorial from Sure Fit Designs to add a bit more space around my upper part of my arm, it all worked out really, really well, I can lift my arms into any odd unattractive position I desire and my blouse doesn't try and stop me!

I am rather impress that I managed to get most of the stripes to line up throughout the blouse the only place I am disappointed with is the front button band if you look closely you will see I just missed it lining up, but you know what, I love this blouse too much to worry about that, this is already a firm wardrobe favourite!

So on to the slacks!

I used a really nice weight bottle green corduroy from a seller on eBay, and I chose three patterns from my stash which together I hoped would create the look I was after. The main body of the slacks was taken from Simplicity 3688, I re-drafted the front pattern piece firstly to add in the front pleat which I copied from Simplicity 4044 which meant adding an extra inch to the width (which other than fancy scalloped waistband is the only real difference between the two patterns).

Next, I needed to create the side pockets, for this, I used Gertie's Capri Pants pattern as a guide to the shape and depth of the pocket, I soon realised that adding side pockets is remarkably easy. To be honest, it's something you don't really need to rely on a pattern piece for as long as you know how deep you want it and what shape you want the outer curve, it's really quite easy to draft a couple of extra pieces from the existing pocket-less pattern! I can do a tutorial if you like, it's certainly something worth knowing!

I was a little concerned about the fact that these slacks have a lapped side zip which runs through the pocket area I had just created, I have always struggled with theses blighter and so after a few attempts resorted to just a simple set in zip, I think it looks OK, though looking at these images I've noticed I really need to add a hook and eye at the top of the zip, and if I am not mistaken those Lightfileds slacks have got the same construction!

Only changes I would make for my next version would be to make the pockets a little deeper, can only fit your dainty hankie in them, very ladylike, but not very me! And perhaps to taper a little width out of the leg as they are just a tad too wide for my liking, other than that I am as pleased as punch with them, and delighted that I have finally gotten around to showing them off!

Wendy x

Knit It - Turban Tuesday

Just a quick post today about a quick make. I was inspired by Jo who blogs at Objects of my Affection's challenge to join in the Turban Tuesday fun!

I made one of these turbans from the free pattern by Elisa McLaughlin a few years ago, in a lovely royal blue to match my thick winter coat see it here. Both my coat and headband have now seen better days so I thought it was about time that I updated at least one of them, I went for the cheapest option and knitted myself up another turban, it was very easy and very quick, it took about three hours!

 This time I chose some DK mustard wool which as before I doubled up (knitted with 2 strands) to make it nice and thick and warm on the ears. I also added 5 stitches to the cast on this time, to make it a little wider and so that it stays in place a little better than my last one did.

I do love a Pixlr filter for making my skin look uncharacteristically blemish free!

 It is certainly much more striking version than the dark blue one but I love it just as much, OK maybe a little more! 

Happy Turban Tuesday!

Wendy x