Wednesday, June 11, 2014

One pattern three looks





When work requires corporate wear, weekends in casual gear take on special significance.  Up until recently I've  focused on work wear at the expense of leisurewear.   

At the Stanwell Tops weekend, my fellow Aussie blogger Ann of Cherrypix lent me her Ensis teeshirt pattern from Papercut patterns.

This pattern is highly recommended.  The shape and fit is great.  But its key strength is as a scrap buster.  The version I'm wearing includes left over ponte from a skirt I made a few years ago.  Ponte works really well on this pattern, giving good structure to the neckline.

The two versions on the dummy (of the plastic variety!) are refashioned from scraps and old garments. The orange and blue striped fabric was leftovers from a toddlers outfit that I made for my now 22 year old daughter! The navy merino is from an old store bought wrap dress that was worn so little the moths attacked it.  I managed to recycle the bottom half of the sleeves and unpicked sections from the skirt to make the body.  Not quite enough to finish the bottom,  not to worry, a scrap left over from my orange merino debacle did the trick.  The black and white version began life a decade ago as a singlet dress and as I've aged has become quite  unflattering.  I still love the fabric so with some deft unpicking and the addition of lightwear knit sleeves cut from the body of a very old cardigan both garments live again.  For this garment I used only the top section of the pattern to shape the neckline and arm hole, and cut joined the separate sleeve pieces into a single pattern piece. 

Now I'm looking swish, I'll take my dog for a walk around the block.

Happy sewing!



16 comments:

  1. Oh! Love all three versions! Thank you! I didn´t know about this pattern, Looks really good!

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  2. Three lovely casual tops and such thrifty sewing. I must have a search through my wardrobe to see if there is anything I can refashion.

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  3. How great that you can re use the fabrics you love.

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  4. It's time to go through the scraps and sort out those that can be used as parts of other garments or finally through them out! These are great tops.

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  5. Great tops. And how lovely to think they were once something else!

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  6. Great tops. Good use of fabric.

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  7. Wow, you've aced this pattern! Love the combinations...esp the stripy one!

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  8. Love this trio of tops. The one you're modeling looks great on you, and the others are such clever reuse of fabric. Kudos for recycling!

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  9. Fantastic casual tops, you have certainly managed to get some amazing combinations.

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  10. Great use of scraps Gail - you've demonstrated that there is good reason to hang on to bits of fabric for 20+ years! You look very fab in your dog walking casual clothes, right at home with those fancy homes in the background of your first photo!

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  11. I love Papercut patterns! It's great when you can use a pattern in many different ways, it really helps justify the cost of it. I think my fab is your orange and blue one, but honestly they all look fab.

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  12. Stunning idea Gail. I have boxes full of valuable scrap lengths. :)

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  13. What better way to get some great looking casual tops than to rummage through the scrap basket and then to refashion no longer used items as well; talk about make do and mend - fantastic!

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  14. Clever use of scrap fabrics!

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  15. Great winter project. And looks like a fantastic stash buster. I love the story of all your old fabric bits :-)

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