and just a wee bit more

Another couple of caps - for Amy and Wil. A great pattern this one, everyone likes it, it suits everyone and it's really fast to make.

About 90% of Wil's winter jacket (can't finish until I get a zip, oh how I hate incompletion!!). A lovely remnant of fine suiting wool and every last scrap of the super sweet car fabric I bought from Etsy.

I had to use a different fabric to line the sleeves (half a metre can only be stretched so far), but don't worry it's also car themed. I think this will do great service when it's all finished up. As usual I used an Ottobre pattern (so predictable), it's the canvass jacket from 4/2006 size 92/98 cm.

I used the last of the scraps from Amy's leggings and a few more scraps from something I made years ago and made up the Harava sweatshirt from 1/2009 for Wil (size 92/98cm). It looks better on than off and I'm very pleased with the pintuck detail on the front and the fact that I managed to squeeze yet one more garment from the scrap pile. Never say never!

Out of the stash I pulled this ancient velvet/velour/stretch I don't know what and eeked out a pair of pants for me (jazz pants from ottobre made a billion times before). Badly in need of a press!

And then I walked away from the sewing table. And that may be it for a few days at least. So over the last 5 days there is been new jeans (amy), new lined wool coat (amy), new party skirt (amy), new leggings (amy), new wrap top (amy), new cap (amy), refashioned jeans (wil), new not quite finished lined wool jacket (wil), new top (wil), new cap (wil), refashioned skirt (me), refashioned top (me), new vest (me), new cap (me), new pants (me), new cap (ava). And I'm cool with that.

The ottobres have been getting a real work out this Easter. I only bought 4 mags with me, so I had to choose from the relatively small selection for this whole sewing adventure and this is what I really like about this magazine - with a small amount of customisation, you can throw together a lot of clothes from a few editions. I've recently discussed some of the shortfalls of the ottobre mag with another sewer, so I can see there are some issues there. I think perhaps I'm just used to how they work - and quite prepared where something isn't clear or straightforward to depart from the pattern and do what seems right to me. Perhaps that means they are less suitable to beginners, or maybe beginners should stick to the more simple patterns within the wide range of offerings in each mag. I don't know how happy a beginner would have been making the lined wool coat for example, but I don't think this is a garment a beginner would find easy regardless of where the pattern came from.

It's also been great to have sewn almost completely from the stash, including a lot of remnants and scraps left over from previous projects. Nice to be using stuff up, using itty bits, clearing out stuff I've had for years and years and so on. Also very nice to have discharged a range of relatively urgent needs and feel the children won't die of cold and neglect etc. All round, very satisfactory. And feeling quite spent will open up a couple of undistracted days for other stuff when we get home before school goes back, like a movie and some visiting and so on. Nice.