Dreaming of Dresses: Juniper Cardi Pattern Review

On this icy cold and snowy "spring" day, I bring you what I think will become a wardrobe workhorse once the weather gets a bit milder. Let me introduce: the Juniper Cardi by Jennifer Lauren Handmade.

My summer and winter wardrobes are far from identical. In the summer period, I wear 50's style summer dresses whenever I can, with the occasional tunics and leggings for more practical wear. In the autumn, winter and most of the spring, however, I almost exclusively wear skirts in 40's, 60's and 70's styles with different sweaters and blouses.

By this point, I am sick of all my skirt options. Pants are non-negotiable. I LOOOONG to wear my pretty, pretty dresses, and that means cardis. Lots and lots of cardis. In the spring and autumn, they provide warmth and in the height of summer, they provide protection from the sun.

The Juniper Cardi is a classic cardi but with a fun saddle back shoulder detail. It comes in both a cropped and a longline version and with several sleeve options.

For my first go, I made the cropped version with 3/4 length sleeves, as this is my favourite length to wear with my dresses. I am between a size 10 and 12 in the size chart, but went down to a straight size 10, and could perhaps have gone even further down or sewn the side seams with a slightly bigger seam allowance for a more fitted look.

I sewed the cardigan in a beautiful "Ritual" jersey from John Kaldor via Minerva Crafts. It is a poly/spandex blend and has a good drape. Almost too good, actually, as it is a bit thin and flimsy to work with. This stuff is not for beginners!

The construction is very simple, but still interesting due to the saddle shoulder. With a bit of careful pinning, going slow on the overlocker and some clever nothes on the pattern it, went together beautifully ;)

I did have problems with my buttonholes, so I took it as a sign to try out some press studs instead. These are from Stof&Stil.

All in all, this will be a great little layering cardi. I would change the fabric type for next time to beef it up a bit, but in this weight it will be perfect for summer here in Denmark.However, the length is perfect for my full dresses and skirts and I love all the little details. I might sew up an entire rainbow of these :)
I have also seen some cute colorblocked cardis with a similar sleeve in Hogwarts House colors that would be fun to recreate! Should I go with Rawenclaw or Gryffindoor?

Disclaimer: I did receive this pattern for free in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Pretty Potholders [Archive Post]

This is the first of a new blog series that I'd like to call "Archive Posts". I have a few things and pieces that never got blogged due to my long blogging hiatus, and this is my way of finally getting them here.

Today, I'll show you these lovely potholders & matching kitchen accessories I made for my boyfriend's mom 3 years ago as a Christmas gift. I am currently in the process of making her a new Christmas-themed set, as these potholders got badly burned on her stove after just 3 weeks in service. She still has the tea towel and tea pot cozy, though.

All materials and patterns came from Stof&Stil. The pattern is 90197, a kitchen essentials set including 2 styles of potholders, a bread basket and a tea pot cozy. I changed the pattern a bit by eliminating all the patch-work and by changing the shape of the potholders to have a round top, as I wanted a more traditional look with a fabric strap instead of the curtain rings. I did not make the long potholder (yet!) or the bread basket.

The main fabric of the set is a heavy weight linen-look cotton fabric with a traditional fluted design printed in dark grey. A coordinating heavy dark grey yarn-dyed cotton, some darker grey bias binding and a few scraps of natural colored linen completed the fabric palette.

Thermal isolation interlining is recommended for the potholders and I went a step up and added 2 layers of interlining on the hand palm side (the big layer) and 1 layer on the back hand side (the partial layer) of each potholder.

The interlining was quilted to the fabric, but the 2 layers of interlining made it too thick to quilt in one go, so for the hand palm side, the inner and outer fabric layer was quilted separately to 1 layer of interlining. This also made it possible to have separate quilt designs for each print/color, so that the plain grey is quilted in a diamond pattern and the print fabric is quilted along the grey lines in the fabric.
For the partial back hand part, a fabric-interlining-fabric quilt sandwich was quilted to the outer fabric design.

The partial layer was bound in grey or linen bias tape and all outer edges was bound in the grey bias binding, first by machine and then with hand sewn top stitching in linen thread and grey yarn over the machine stitching as an extra hand-made touch.

The tea pot cozy was sewn in the grey cotton quilted with 1 layer of thermal isolation interlining in a diamond pattern, lined in a thin layer of soft linen and bound in the dark grey bias tape. It was decorated with a band of print fabric bordered by more bias tape and hand-sewn linen top stitching. 

The tea towel is just a 45*60 cm rectangle of the print fabric with narrow double turned hems and a bias binding loop for hanging. I mitered the corners for a nice finish.

All in all, it was a lovely gift for my boyfriend's mom. The print was very much to her style and the dark grey color is very understated and trendy. The most time-consuming step was the quilting, and such small pieces didn't actually take very long time to quilt.

I hope I have inspired you to make a pair of kitchen accessories for yourself or someone you love.

Do you sew Christmas gifts?

/Angelica

Trick or Treat

Halloween is a relatively new holiday here in Denmark, and only few adults celebrate it. Last year, I hosted a small tea party on the 31st of October, using the holiday as an excuse to bake some themed cakes and see my friends on a weeknight.

While I was planning the cake menu for another Halloween Tea Party this year, I suddenly felt inspired to make an outfit for the occasion. The final outfit is slightly goth-inspired (lolita Wednesday Adams, anyone?), but each piece also works great on its own.

In the end, however, I wore my Alice cosplay for the tea party, as I ran out of time to finish the skirt.

The blouse is my second Rita blouse by Charm Patterns. I lengthened the sleeves to 3/4 length and sewed it up in a black Duchesse satin from Stoff&Stil. I used only little more than 1 meter of fabric.

The satin is not really ideal for this kind of top, as it is kind of heavy and doesn't drape or iron very well. Also, I need to replace the elastic, as it has stretched out while being pulled into the channel and will not spring back when steam is applied.

The skirt is a gathered dirndl skirt with a straight waistband, a short hem ruffle and 2 lines of black cotton piping. The fabric is 1,5 meters of a mid-to-heavy weight cotton with black skeleton parts printed on white from Stoff&Stil, and I used every last bit of it. Again, the fabric was a little too heavy for the project, but the print was too good to pass up. It closes at the side with an invisible zipper.

I love how the feminine shapes in both the blouse and skirt are contrasted by the monochrome color palette and the somewhat macabre print.

Next up in the sewing queue: Christmas!