Love Notions Arlington Sweater

The Love Notions Arlington sweater is one of those things that came across my Instagram feed a few weeks back. If you aren’t aware, Love Notions pattern company does what they call “$5 Friday”. That means that whatever pattern is the feature for that week, you can purchase the PDF for $5. This is one of those that I wanted and bought.

As you can see from the drawing above, the Love Notions Arlington sweater is very versatile. I love having patterns that have many options available without me having to alter or “hack”. I do love a good hackable pattern too (here’s one of my favorites).

For this one, I made the cowl neck with the elbow length sleeves. The fabric I used is a textured stretch knit I was gifted from Minerva Fabrics. You can take a look at it here and read the corresponding post on their site as well. The fabric is warm and weighty (it’s considered a medium-weight knit). It sews easy and washes and dries very well.

The pattern is definitely beginner friendly. I didn’t have to make any adjustments to it for fit. And with the PDF, you can get it and print it up. Because the pattern has layers, you can just print the size you want. And best of all, you only need to assemble the pages you want to use. This helped me a lot because I didn’t want to put the entire pattern together to make this top.

Love Notions Arlington sweater side view

As cooler weather approaches here, I’m happy to have some Fall tops that I can wear to stay warm and comfortable without overheating. I can wear this under a jacket (or shacket) and it’s quite comfortable.

Seamwork Ani Pants

When I thinking of what I need most for my Fall/Winter wardrobe, pants (specifically dress pants) come to mind. So when I got the August issue of Seamwork Magazine (you can check out my referral link here) I decided to give the Seamwork Ani Pants a try.

The pants have pleats in the front, tapered legs, zipper fly, and welt pockets in the back. This is a bit different style for me, but I wanted to see how I would like the fit. Front-pleated pants are not something I usually go for, so this was also a style discovery experiment for me as well.

The process

As I usually do when making a new pattern (especially a pants pattern), I made a muslin to check the fit and sizing. These are PDF patterns, by the way. This one was actually very straightforward to put together and didn’t take long at all.

I do like this part of the process because I can decide if I really want to continue or let it go. Generally, I continue. And I can work out all (or at least most) of my fit issues during the process of making a mockup.

Tip:

When doing the muslin or mockup of your pattern, try to use a fabric similar to the weight to the fashion fabric you’re going to use. It’ll make getting a good fit a bit easier in the long run.

The Pants

For my Seamwork Ani pants, I used a fabric I had in my stash. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but it’s some kind of polyester blend suiting (I’m pretty sure). I had a piece of this fabric in one of my favorite colors for Fall – burgundy/wine.

The Results

I am happy I made them. Honestly, this is not my favorite style of pant for me (I prefer a flat-front). But, I’m generally happy with how these turned out. If I made them again, I would shorten the front crotch seam some more (I shortened it about 2″ already). But, wonky welts and all, they turned out pretty good.

As a side note, the fabric I used for this top is the same fabric I used for the pocket lining (save those large pieces). I think the whole look of these pants looks better on me with the longer top.

But if there’s ever something you want to know how it’s going to work on you, either shop for that item (you can just try it on and not buy) or go ahead and make it!

Since I need to work on my welt pocket making and fitting skills, I was happy to give this pattern a try. It’s quite easy to make. I would say the skill level would be for an advanced beginner to intermediate sewer.

That’s it for this review. The pattern is a good one if this style is to your liking.

Until next time…

Pants fitting books:

Pants For Real People

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Changing Up RTW and Wardrobe Planning

Lately I’ve been planning on (or at least thinking about) what I want for the upcoming Fall/Autumn season. summer sewing is now complete. Not all the things I wanted to make got done, but I’m ok with that. Several tops did get made this season. So this post is about how I’m changing up some RTW and how I’m wardrobe planning.

Plans

Now I want to focus on making some pants. One pattern that I’m about to start is this one from Seamwork (you can sign up for the online magazine using my link, if you like).

These are a tapered pant which is a little different style for me. But I’ve already gotten the PDF put together, so now it’s time to make the mock-up and take it from there.

I’ll decide on some other types/styles of pants as time goes on. And I really want to make a classic black dress.

Changing up RTW pjs

As for changing up some ready-to-wear (RTW), I made some changes to some short pjs I bought from the Nordstrom anniversary sale.

Here is the original I bought:

Because they were so short , but so comfortable, I wanted to keep them. I needed to make them a bit longer for my own comfort level. So, I added about a 4″ insert into the shorts. Here’s what I did:

I cut the bottom hem/band off of each leg with a bit of seam allowance (1/2″)
I cut 4-4″ strips of the fabric I wanted insert
Using a narrow seam allowance, I attached those to each leg
I had to “remake” the crotch because the shorts were so short, there wasn’t much room
Then I reattached the bottom hem

The original shorts are knit fabric. The insert is a woven fabric.

Here is the result:

Now I have a truly unique pair of pajamas! And they fit the way I want. Sometimes we have to use our sewing powers to make RTW fit the way we want! 😂 ✂️

You can keep this process in mind to change up something you might have in your own closets.

Until next time…

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