PatsyPoo Makes

In an effort to be more diligent about recording everything I make this year, there's a different face around here today! It's my friend Ludmila who was staying with us last week - along with her lovely husband. I've known Lud since we were 19, all the way back in 1998! 🤯🤯🤯 She still lives in Brasil but we've remained as close as ever as the years went by. When she fixed her wedding date to be the week before I moved to the UK so I could be there, I knew we were forever. 😆💗 So when we were in Leeds last week and she found some  Rowan Big Wool  in a gorgeous shade of yellow, I didn't hesitate to offer to make her a hat with it. It might have been a risky proposition as this was Monday lunchtime, they were going home on Thursday and we were spending Tuesday and Wednesday in Dublin with no space to bring any knitting with me - only a backpack allowed. 🤦‍♀️ But hey, Big Wool knits up so fast and she offered to take care of dinner that night so I could knit in peac...

Now that the whirlwind of hosting visitors has ended, I can share my newest jumper: the Whitmoor sweater by Ami Lowden.  Holy moly did I get obsessed with this jumper! It started in early January when I logged in to Ravelry to update The Weekender jumper I had finally finished and I found the Whitmoor in my cart. I had no recollection of ever adding it or even seeing it before, but there are a couple of people in my Instagram feed who have made it or talked about it at some point, so I guess that's where it stemmed from. Once I had a proper look at it, it was love at first sight. I think the bishop sleeves did it for me and the lace yoke just sealed the deal. I immediately bought the pattern and ordered some yarn to knit it. I couldn't wait to get started. It's not a secret I'm a huge fan of  King Cole Merino blend 4-ply . I've used all weights in their merino blend collection: they're great quality, there's a good range of colours and they're super aff...

Long time no see, happy new year, etc etc etc... I had a bit of a tricky year in 2022, which affected my motivation to sew and knit quite dramatically. I'm hoping this new beginning is the incentive I need to kick-start my creativity again. So far, 2023 has proved fairly productive and I hope that'll continue. 🤞 So on with what we're here for: let's look at some knitting! Soon after I finished my Wool and Honey jumper  ***IN 2020!!!*** 🙈 I made a start on another Andrea Mowry pattern: The Weekender . It's a very simple, loose-fitting jumper with some lovely details to it.  It's knitted inside out for a start, which I love because that means you constantly knit rather than purl. It also has a cool faux seam down the centre front and centre back and I really like the slash neckline. Another small detail I love is the little split hem on the sides. It's such a nice, clever touch. The jumper is knitted from the bottom up though so it can be tricky to judge si...

As soon as the Fairmount pattern was released last year, I bought it. I know there have been a few similar overshirts around for a while but the Fairmount was the one that stood out for me. Plus, Hey June Handmade patterns are some of my favourites and they're so well drafted that there was no question this was the overshirt for me. It took me a while to settle on the fabric. I have a terracotta jumbo cord I bought to make this as well but I wasn't totally convinced. I ordered this Robert Kaufman Mammoth Flannel over Christmas and it was the perfect fabric for it. It's so cosy and snuggly. The pattern is expertly drafted for substantial fabrics as well. The way the collar and front placket are finished is great for combating bulky seam intersections. No lumpy bits to turn over when trying to hem it. 🙌 See what I mean? Look at how smooth it is where the placket meets the collar! 😍 I only ordered 2.5m of the fabric and, although I managed some fairly decent pattern placeme...

I made my second Sew Over It Roxy jumper this week and, seeing as I made some adjustments to it, I thought I'd write a blog post detailing what I did in case I want to check back in the future. I really like the pattern. My first one was a buddy sew with Mel from a year ago, almost to the day. Although I love my original version, it is a little bit more cropped than I'm used to and I wanted to try the basic version, without the big sleeves. The fabric I used is a French terry I bought from  Like Sew Amazing  a few months ago and it's ridiculously soft. However, it didn't have the required amount of stretch and I had to recut a slightly longer neckband to fit around my head. I remember having problems attaching the original one as well so I wonder if it is a little bit too tight. Even having to unpick that overclocked seam, I still finished sewing this up in about 3 hours as it's a really quick and easy project. I made a size 10, grading out to a 12 at the hips, jus...

Eeeeeesh! Have I got a pretty dress to show you today! It's the  Megan Nielsen Matilda  and it is gorgeous! I had a big chunk of time to sew a couple of weekends ago and this is what I chose to work on. I bought the pattern and fabric about 3 years ago and had the PDF printed for 2 whole years, so it was about time this got made.  The dress has a utilitarian look which I really like. It features drop shoulders, sizeable patch pockets and pretty little pleated breast pockets with a flap. So many great details and the perfect pattern to have fun with topstitching. I think the buttons complement the utility look and I'm really happy with the whole thing. I graded mine from XS at the bust to M from the waist down and the fit is spot on. As it happens, the pattern has only just been updated to include more sizes - it goes from 0 to 20 now. I think my version is equivalent to a 4 up top to a 10 at the waist. The instructions were great: comprehensive but easy and clear to follo...

This one fills me with joy! First, there's the fabric... It's a Liberty Tana Lawn that Ginner gave me as an anniversary present about 8 years ago when I'd first started sewing. I've been saving it for so long and nothing ever seemed to be good enough for it but I finally found the perfect match. Then, there's the fact that this was a buddy sew with my best bitch, Mel ! After MONTHS of several cancelled plans to visit each other and do stuff together, we were at last allowed to actually meet up and have a metric crap tonne of fun last week! It was so wonderful to spend time with her and I can't wait to do it again. So let's get into the sewing. This is the Davenport dress by Friday Pattern Co. It's a very recent release and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make one. Mel felt the same way so it was clear early on that this would be our buddy sew project for when she came to stay with us. To me, it gives strong peasant dress vibes but Mel thinks it...

 Today I'm sharing one of my recent favourites: the Opal trousers by Megan Nielsen. I really love this pattern! I'm very happy with the end result. The trousers are loose-fitting and feature an elastic waist so they're extremely comfortable. There are also options for 2 short lengths as well as trousers, patch or side seam pockets and a regular elastic waistband as well as the paper bag one I made.  I made a straight size 10 but I cut the tall leg length as I've been burned with Megan Nielsen's regular inseams in the past. I ended up taking some back off again but I can't remember if it was 1 or 2 inches. For the record, I'm not tall, I'm 5'6" but for some reason, MN's trousers have ended up too short for me in the past. Construction was really simple and quick and the instructions were great. One thing to note is that they call for 32mm or 25mm elastic. I only had 25mm so that's what I went with but that was *very* snug in the channel....

Coming at you today with an underrated little gem: the  Kelly skirt  from Megan Nielsen.  I've had the pattern printed and ready to go for a really long time but for some reason, I hadn't got around to making it yet. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I ordered this cotton linen from Sew Me Sunshine for a shirt. When it arrived, however, I decided it'd be too heavy for a shirt  - serves me right for not paying attention to the description - so I had to put on my thinking cap on. Don't get me wrong, it's really lovely fabric. I've used it before in fact, for a Southport dress , but I only had 1.5m this time so I had my work cut out for me. When I happened to have it laying side by side with this viscose from the shirt I'm wearing here, a lightbulb went off in my head. I needed an outfit that would put both of these together! That's when I landed on the Kelly and the 1.5m of fabric I had was enough for the size I was making - a Medium. It was easy and quick to ...

Happy new year! I haven't done a lot of sewing in 2021 yet but I do have something to share today. I don't usually blog about repeat garments but I made some changes to this one and I wanted to leave a written, searchable record of them for my own convenience really. I made the True Bias Roscoe again. In another dreamy Atelier Brunette fabric but this time it was this stunning double gauze. I got mine from Fabricate  but unfortunately they don't have anymore of it in stock in this colourway. They do have the deep green , which is almost as nice. 😁 I really love this red, I must say. It's a bugger to capture in photos but it's a gorgeous, rich, deep red. It would actually be an excellent Christmas dress as it happens. Anyway, the sizing is exactly as before - check the blog post here for the rundown. Now on to what I changed: first, the neck opening. On my original one, the opening is a bit too low for me to wear it undone. For this version I shortened it by an in...

The  Kitty Dress  from Maven Patterns has been on my list to sew for a long time but I couldn't settle on a fabric for it. When we travelled to Scotland over the summer, though, I found some medium-weight denim that would be perfect for it. This was always going to be a buddy sew with  Mel  and we finally found the time to do it a few weeks ago. The dress has a strong 60s vibe. It features a Peter Pan collar and a horizontal dart across the 2 front, which I absolutely love. It's slightly fitted at the top but flares out over the hips. There are also 2 shoulder darts at the back. The patterns offers 2 sleeve lengths and I really wanted to sew the longer one because it has an elbow dart, but I thought the short sleeve would work better with the denim for a casual dress.  I absolutely love my Kitty. I made a size 10 up top and graded it to a 12 from the waist down but I probably would've been ok with a straight size 10. I'm not sure the dart is sitting at the right...