Here comes another Trapeze!

I’ve had this fabric for a couple of years now, when I bought it I made the mistake of thinking it was horizontal stripes (its a mistake I often make for some reason), so it threw me when I realised it was vertical stripes. So it languished in my stash box for the last 2 years. And on top of the stripe mistake I also went off this type of fabric (I think its a cotton poplin) and started making with knit fabrics more often than not.

Since I discovered the Trapeze dress pattern works well as a maxi length dress, I looked at this fabric again. Pondered on it for a week or two and decided to go for it.  I bought 3 metres which is just as well as its only 107cm wide and the trapeze uses a lot of fabric at the bottom, and even more in the maxi version! I was just able to squeeze it out of the fabric, but it was really really tight!

I decided to not to do a facing which I usually leave off doing when using knit fabrics, haven’t done it with a woven fabric before though. I made sure I had enough fabric left if I ended up needing to do a facing. I only left it off as I was feeling lazy!

So without further ado here she is. Husband says its quite striking…

I like the way it looks like the stripes go in different directions due to the way it drapes.

Stripes almost match at the sides.

I have to look twice when trying it on as the centre back seam blends in so well I can barely see it. I managed to put it on Gertie (my mannequin) the wrong way round once and wondered why it didn’t look right!

Works well with Converse and one of my bags

And also with sandals.

Side view looks better in the flesh.

Another successful Trapeze and happy to have finally used this fabric.

That is the question? I decided to shorten this stripy top the other week, as I just felt it needed it. I felt something was not quite right with it as it was. Below is the before pic.

And now the after

I think I prefer it. Goes with two different styles of jeans now. I don’t know though there’s still something I’m not quite sure about with this top.

I pondered yesterday on whether to shorten the sleeves, so took this pic. Below is the pic with the sleeves turned up.

I immediately thought I loved it, but sensibly took some photos before doing anything about it. And having compared them I think I’ll leave the sleeves longer, for now anyway.

Have you ever made anything that you keep revising? Have you regretted any revisions? I know I have.

I’ve gone back to my old tried and tested rectangle top. I have learnt so much since making my first top, that although this is a very basic shape and very easy to make, there has been a lot of thought that has gone into the making of this top.

The fabric is a viscose/crepe type, and its thicker than I imagine it is every time. I always think of it as being quite flimsy and delicate, and its really not. Handles really nicely. I bought this one a year ago but have been too scared to use it. I tried about 8 months ago but when I pinned the pattern to the fabric the fabric just moved all over the place. So I gave up and put it back in my fabric pile.

I wasn’t too sure how to use this fabric for a couple of reasons, one being that it was going to be tricky to pin a pattern to and cut it out, and the other being that the stripes didn’t run horizontally from selvedge to selvedge, but ran vertically. I did not want a stripe top with vertical stripes. So the fabric has sat there for best part of a year.

Now that I’ve started my little love affair with stripes I was ready to tackle this fabric again. I really can’t remember how much I bought but I do know it was 150cm wide, I think I only bought a metre but it might have been a metre and a half, and it wasn’t at all expensive. £4 a metre to be exact. I decided to fold it with the raw edge running down ,if that makes sense? So that the stripes would run horizontally. As the fabric has no stretch in it whatsoever this has worked out quite well.

It was much easier to cut out not having an actual pattern to cut round.

It took me a little while to remember exactly how I made these rectangle tops but I got there in the end. I decided to make this one a little wider than the ones I’ve made in the past, as I felt the fabric would probably drape quite nicely.

I aslo incorporated the selvedge into being part of the top and have used as a bit of design feature, I’m really happy with how it looks and think it works very well. And I have once again left the bottom edge un-hemmed and just zigzagged it.

I had to be really careful with stripe matching at the sides. As this is such a large stripe I think it would have looked so bad if they had been mismatched. It took some time and effort but it paid off.

So lovely not having a centre back seam to worry about.

I love how it drapes.

See what I mean about the selvedge. I particularly love that it ends with the navy colour. What do you think?

This might not be everyones cup of tea, but I’m so happy with it and I love it. In my opinion its a very stylish tunic that will be perfect for evenings out or nice lunches with friends.

So comfortable  and easy to wear, whats not to love?

I also love that I can make this style of top in just a few hours.

Stripes, yep, stripes are definitely my new favourite thing. And look at this gorgeous fabric. I bought it about 9 months ago, along with the stripy fabric from the last top I made. Both came from fabric godmother.co.uk.

Its the same Trapeze top pattern, and once again it was a fairly quick make as no seams to finish. This is why I love jersey. I thought it might be more of a problem than the last one as the fabric is a finer jersey and I thought it might misbehave a bit, but it didn’t. So I’m very happy about that.

Can’t complain too much about the stripe matching. Always more luck than judgement.

This side not quite as good.

Back gone a little off half way up! Don’t know quite what is up with that.

Quite like how the sleeve stripes line up with the body stripes.

Lovely.

I’m sorry the modelling pics are so dark, but it was dark when I took them.

I again just zig zagged the hem to finish.

Another lovely comfortable stripy to wear, me happy :0) This one is a very dark navy and a sort of off white/cream.