The Year of the Tiger (Butt)

I bought a really cool patch a while ago, and thought it would be perfect for the back pocket of a pair of black jeans.

'Better make some jeans then!'

So I did.

These are the Morgan Boyfriend jeans by Closet Case Patterns, made in a black/dark grey non-stretch denim I bought ages ago. I also really like them!

These have a more relaxed fit than what I'm used to (the very few pairs of jeans I own or made are stretchy and fitted) and I'm not sure if they are actually flattering on me, but they are ridiculously comfortable and I feel good in them. Isn't that the most important thing? I made a straight size 10 after looking at the size chart and sizing recommendations, but I might size down a bit the next time. Maybe it's this specific denim but it seems to relax a lot during wear, so the jeans go from 'slightly slouchy' to 'quite baggy, actually' after a while. Again, it doesn't really bother me, but I'll keep it in mind for the next time!

Sewing these was surprisingly fast. I cut these out on a Monday evening and then finished them in two afternoons or so. I went with a triple stitch for topstitching, just like I did on my previous jeans adventure. The stitching itself is a bit slower, but it saves so much time not having to change threads all the time! I also think the slowness might help a bit with accuracy. These jeans close with a button fly, and even though I was a bit worried about it looking bulky I decided to try it (couldn't be arsed to think about zippers for a while). It looks fine but took some getting used to!

I like the overall fit. There is some excess fabric in the crotch so I might make a small adjustment if I make this pattern again, but chances are I'll forget all about it anyway. I'm wearing this with a t-shirt I made that says 'I have nothing to do with this'. My boss just sighed and said 'you do what you want'when I wore it to work.

Butt view! With a look at the patch that started it all! It's made by Kim Bollaert and if you want one for yourself (or one of the other patches she's made) you can find it here! I have no problems with the fit in the back. It's roomy enough to sit down in but not so baggy it makes me look shapeless.

My brother took pictures for this blog post and we tried a jumping picture. I fell flat on my face. This is about 0.01 seconds before impact, but of course he stopped taking pictures as soon as I hit the ground, so no evidence of that, sadly enough! You can see I'm getting an idea of what's about to happen at this point in the jump.

And finally, here's a clearer picture of the patch (excuse the wrinkles). I like how he looks very 'meh' about... Everything.

My Sister's Tiny Hands

Here's yet another song illustration! I promise I do draw other things from time to time. And this time it's not one drawing, but seven!

I had been listening to the Handsome Family a lot lately, and found the imagery in the song 'My Sister's Tiny Hands' very inspiring. The lyrics tell a very clear story, so I decided to tell that in a series of illustrations!

We came in this world together
Legs wrapped around each other
My cheek against my sister's
We were born like tangled vine

We lived along the river
Where the black clouds never lingered
The sunlight spread like honey
Through my sister's tiny hands

But while picking sour apples
In the wild waving grasses
Sister stumbled in the briar
And was bitten by a snake

Every creature casts a shadow
Under the sun's golden fingers
But when the sun sinks past the waving grass
Some shadows are dragged along

Alone, I took to drinking
Bottles of cheap whiskey
And staggering through the back woods
Killing snakes with a sharpened stick

But still I heard her laughing
In those wild waving grasses
Still her tiny hands went splashing
At the river's sparkling shore

So I took my rusty gas can
And an old iron shovel
I set the woods to burning
And choked the river up with stones

This is something I've been working on from time to time since our trip to Mexico (!!). I spent ages sketching, made four drawings in one day, waited for a few weeks, made two more and finally finished the last one last night. These are a bit more complex than the other song illustrations I posted. Every piece is still hand cut, but the different layers of colour were glued to separate pages and put together in Photoshop. This gives the effect of layers of colour instead of pieces of paper glued on top of each other! I also desaturated some of the colours to get a more muted effect.


I'm going to see this band live tomorrow night and I'm really excited about that! Here's the song if you want to give it a listen:

No I shan't! It's Christmas!

... Yeah, I know it's not. But I made this dress for a Christmas party with my family and only got around to taking pictures this weekend. So can we just pretend it's December again for a very short while?

The pattern is the Leotie midi dress by Named, with a few modifications. I had made this dress once before (unblogged) without making a muslin first and remembered being a bit confused about the darts and ease in the waist. The line drawings show darts in the front and a plain back, but the pattern instructions say to stitch the darts in the front and the back. There were no back darts on the pattern pieces so I didn't put any in, but my first version ended up so roomy around the waist it made me wonder! I e-mailed the ladies at Named to ask about this and they told me it was a mistake on their part- the pattern had back darts at some point in its development and they forgot to take that step out of the instructions. They also told me that the dress is supposed to be semi-fitted at the waist.

I prefer my 'fitted bodice, flared skirt' dresses to be fitted though (otherwise I feel it makes me look super boxy) so I took some room out of the side seams. I also remembered to shave down the shoulders by a few cm, as they are very square on the original pattern. I'm talking linebacker here!

I also added a circle skirt instead of the gathered skirt included in the pattern. The main fabric is an amazing green wool-viscose mix with gold sparkles that is being treated very unfairly by the camera, it's gorgeous in person! I got it on my trip to Mood with Ginger Makes and Oonaballoona the last time I was in New York, and it took me over a year to muster up the courage to cut into it. The fabric is pretty roughly woven, a bit like a finy bouclé, so gathers would get super bulky. Thanks to the contrast yoke and sleeves I managed to squeeze this dress out of 1,5 yards! Also: twirly!

My very favourite feature is the back. I like the lines of the yoke in the front, but I love how they flow on the back, with that deep v that is just high enough to not show any bra stuff. I'm also pretty proud of how well the zipper matches!

Sewing this was a breeze. I have made two other Named patterns before and in my experience they're really well drafted and executed. I was told the mistake would be removed from the pattern instructions, so that should definitely be solved!