Sew all the Lindens!

4.3.15

Well, I saw La Folie´s sweater and knew I had to post this. The post was ready a few days ago but I needed to take pictures and was lacking time and spirit to do it.
Today I´m starting my series of Tried ´n True patterns, women sized. These are patterns you have made at least 2 or 3 times, according to your body, modified or not, and that fit like a glove. You know that when you pick one of these, you just have to sew it, dress it and hear the angels sing.

I don't have a lot of patterns for myself that I really use, but I think what's important, as everything in life, is quality over quantity. I now look at patterns as I look at finished clothes in a store: would I wear it?
With the thirties comes a sense of security in our style. Belt size mini skirts, crop tops, cleavages to our vagina sexual organs, all is left behind and thank god. I think it has little to do with maternity (though I can´t rock those cleavages like I used to, thank you breastfeeding), but more with embracing and accepting ourselves as we are, which only comes as time goes by, and we now want to show that confidence to the world: we are less Myley Cyrus wannabes and more Charlotte Gainsbourg groupies.

So, what´s essential in a wardrobe? Good fit pants, good fit blouses and shirts, good fit skirts, good fit everything. The essential is good fit. Being teenage petite sized, finding patterns that have a 56cm waist (stop right there: don´t curse me) is not easy, but I have found a few.
The first one I´m talking about today is the pattern which will allow you to have sweatshirts in your wardrobe ´till infinity and beyond. Take a bow before the THE LINDEN:

Linden sweatshirt

This may look like a normal sweatshirt. Well, that´s because it is. But how many of us have tried to draft one from others we have bought and ended up with something that should be burned and buried so there´s no evidence it ever existed? This pattern allows you to easily, quickly, breezily sew the most perfect normal sweatshirt. And shame on you if you think that that is nothing less than a-ma-zing.
I´ve made 4 so far, and nothing´s gonna stop me now. I feel like Lacroix while I´m sewing it and like Adriana Lima when I wear it.





It´s not easy to find sweatshirt suitable knits in Portugal. I´ve been hoarding the few I find in FDT, a local shop, and they are quite good quality. This fabric shop, as I´ve been noticing, has some fabric remains from big named stores (mostly Inditex group), and you can find some real bargains there (I work across the street, so I almost live there).
I´ve used french terry for three of these and a scuba knit for the other. Construction wise, I´ve sewed everything together with my serger and it was easy peasy. The neckline can be tricky sometimes because fabrics have different amounts of stretch, so I definitely recommend pinning around it first, while stretching the band as much as you can, and then sew. The more you stretch it, the more perfect and flat it will lay.
I´m trying to downsize it to make mini Lindens, but I have to read a little bit more about pattern making to get it just right.
And did you notice the Adriana Lima look at all pictures (major FAIL there, I know, I´ll practise some more to improve my poses, these are so 90´s).

8 comentários

  1. Ah ah ah, escreves bem ;-) até perdi a vontade de falar mal dessa tua figura elegante ;-) são todas giras e por tua culpa ando a pensar seriamente em comprar este molde!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amei este post! Ainda bem que fizeste um blog. E estou cada vez mais tentada em fazer coisas para mim... adoro as tuas sweaters! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ando a olhar para este molde há algum tempo e até comprei tecido a pensar nisso, mas ainda não me tinha decidido... (Eu também não sou grande, por isso tenho sempre receio e nunca compro moldes para mim!!) Mas as tuas estão óptimas!! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bom, sobre o molde: COMPREM e não pensem mais nisso vão adorar! E agora sobre os vossos comentários: um obrigada mesmo sentido, adoro o grupo zig e a dinâmica como partilhamos o que fazemos, adoro ver o que fazem e tirar imensas ideias (acho que puxamos imenso pela criatividade umadas outras), obrigada por lerem e por gostarem, isto é tão bom astral que só nos faz sentir bem, alivia tanto das chatices do dia a dia! Vocês são fantásticas e acho mesmo que temos de combinar um meeting! Beijos a todas

    ReplyDelete
  5. You look awesome in all of them!! Great job!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love them all. I have to buy this pattern obviously! Great job! E obrigada pelo link para o blog. ;) xxx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Inês, you need to get it! :*

    ReplyDelete