I have been meaning to post this for a few months now – and while technically I do have more making time now that I am working a part week, I am getting distracted by more projects than ever and my latest will be umbrellas (so I have now become the person who takes broken umbrellas out of bins as of 2 weeks ago).

I am still picking up linen trousers on the reduced rail in charity shops. Crazy to see such beautiful fabric trousers reduced to a euro, and these wide leg pants are relatively easy to re-purpose, so I now have a ‘stash’ of these.

This summer I resewed a few pairs of linen pants. One pair was simple enough as I just recut them to remake a pair of cropped pants, and the other sews were to make some summer tops.

I also used Simplicity 1364 to remake in 2 linen tops, one blue and one white for work. The pattern is so useful, and the sew is fast, especially as I sew the sleeves in flat and then sew the side and sleeve seam last.

 

These are such useful ‘basics’. Last year I made one similar but I cut the sleeve on the cross grain, and then made a large cuff, which I still wear but found the layers of linen in the double cuff a bit chunky.

This year I decided to do a sleeve with a seam down the middle and this way I got a longer sleeve and could include a flare. The only other thing to remember is to add the seam allowance to the centre sleeve. I finish the neckline with bias binding and have a one button close at the back.

 

 

I also tried a linen tee-shirt with a split sleeve and overlapping boat neck and used a bodice block with basic bust dart as the base. Its only semi-successful and it will probably be remodelled again later. I adapted a vintage simplicity 2120. The main down-side is it looks like a dentists tunic as it is in white.

 

If I was remaking this style again, I would do tulip sleeves so they blend with the overlapping boatneck and would make the bodice shorter and flare either the bodice or sleeves (or possibly flare both).

Other than that I also took part in Galway’s first ‘repair cafe’ – yay! It was very interesting as I generally sew on my own, in my own space, so sewing in a public space with random repairs was so interesting and great fun, and not without challenges (which my singer was well able for). I even fixed roller blades.

Myself and another maker will be running a workshop soon on upcycling old umbrellas and other bits, so plenty to be busy with, especially as I hope to have additional patterns for bags and rain gear for uploading then.

I don’t know if anyone has seen the recent episode of BBC Click? They did a great show on futures for the fashion industry (youtube clip here on bacterial dying). And they also did add that the best way still to mitigate the effects of fashion on the environment is still ‘buy less’.

Happy Sewing……