Getting back on the Horse

The next pictures I should be showing are meant to be of a fantastic pair of black capri pants. You should be looking at detailed shots of cute patch pockets on the front, neatly executed mock-pocket flaps on the back and well fitted side zip. Maybe I'd throw in a shot of the three super-cute, if surreal, contrast buttons featuring the faces of different breeds of dog, two on the pocket flaps and one on the waistband. That would be fun wouldn't it?! But, no. That is not what you are looking at because that project proved a disaster and had to be aborted. The details of which are presently too raw to go into, maybe one day we can talk about it, but instead I will offer you this:


My personal method for lifting myself out of a failed-project-induced funk, is to whip up a tried and tested garment from a pattern that I KNOW is going to work out well, and holds no nasty surprises. It always amazes me how using different fabrics can make garments from the same pattern look like utterly different items. That's how many clothing ranges bash out so many apparantly new styles season after season, so I'm applying a little of the same shizzle to my sewing escapades.

The pattern for this top's first in carnation was Built By Wendy #3835. I have made four previous manifestations of that pattern preceeding this creation, each time making pattern alterations, which lead me to this, my most successful to date. For this one, I used the full sleeve variation I had previously devised, but perfected it by making the sleeve hit just right, avoiding the awkward and uncomfortable 'sleeve sitting in the crook of elbow' phenomena of manifestation number #4. I added (to my mind) delicately proportioned bias-cut sleeve bands to finish them off.

Aside from the well fitting pattern, I think the majority of props must go to the lovely fabric. It's more from the ex-Springfield stash I wrote about here. This is a light cotton in a fairly subdued (for me) mid grey with metallic threads running through. Now I'll be the first to admit that The Smock is not the sexiest of garment shapes, but I think the slight sheer quality of this fabric, combined with the back keyhole detail I added, injects enough raunch to steer me clear of Frumpsville. Similarly, I think the metallic fibres exude enough sparkle to make it special enough for bar wear (midweek, say), but not too much to make it inappropriately 'disco' for daytime biz.

The second time I wore this was in in Birmingham, UK. I was medicating a particularly viscious post-wedding hangover with a satisfyingly greasy pasty, and got a massive grease stain down the front of it! So it goes.